The Financial Secretary of Mysore asked: “Is Paul Brunton’s Secret Path useful for Indians as well?”
MAHARSHI: Yes – for all.
DEVOTEE: The body, the senses, etc. are not ‘I’. This is common amongst us. But how to practise it?
MAHARSHI: By the threefold method mentioned therein.
DEVOTEE: Is breath-control necessary for enquiry?
MAHARSHI: Not quite.
DEVOTEE: “There is a blankness intervening,” it is said in the book.
MAHARSHI: Yes. Do not stop there. See for whom the blankness appears.
DEVOTEE: For devotees there is no blankness, it is said.
MAHARSHI: Even there, there is the latent state, laya; the mind wakes up after some time.
DEVOTEE: What is the experience of samadhi?
MAHARSHI: It is as it is. For onlookers it may seem to be a swoon. Even to the practiser it may appear so in the early experiences. After a few repeated experiences it will be all right.
DEVOTEE: Do they soothe nadis or do they excite them by such experiences?
MAHARSHI: They are excited at first. By continued experience it becomes common and the man is no longer excited.
DEVOTEE: Proceeding on safe lines there should be no unpleasantness. Excitement is uncongenial to smooth being and working.
MAHARSHI: A wandering mind is on the wrong way; only a devotional mind is on the right way.
-Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Talk 138.
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