Nirvikalpa Samadhi

Devotee: Does Maharshi enter the nirvikalpa samadhi?

Sri Ramana: If the eyes are closed, it is nirvikalpa; if open, it is (though differentiated, still in absolute repose) savikalpa. The ever-present state is the natural state Sahaja.

Devotee: How long did it take Maharshi to realize the Self?

Sri Ramana: This question is asked because the name and form are perceived. These are the perceptions consequent on the identification of the ego with the gross body. If the ego identifies itself with the subtle mind, as in dreams, the perceptions are subtle also. But in sleep, there are no perceptions. Was there not the ego still? Unless it was, there cannot be the memory of having slept. Who was it that slept? You did not say in your sleep that you slept. You say it now in your wakeful state.

The ego, therefore, is the same in wakefulness, dream, and sleep. Find out the underlying Reality behind these states. That is the Reality underlying these. In that state, there is Being alone. There is no you, nor I, nor he; no present, nor past, nor future. It is beyond time and space, beyond expression. It is ever there. Just as a plantain tree produces shoots at its roots, before yielding fruits and perishing, and these shoots, being transplanted, do the same again, so also the original primeval Master of antiquity (Dakshinamurti, first Guru), who cleared the doubts of his rishi disciples in silence, has left shoots which are ever multiplying. The Guru is a shoot of that Dakshinamurti.

The question does not arise when the Self is realized.

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