Talks with Ramana...

Talk 406.
Mr. Cohen, a resident disciple, has been for some days past thinking
about a book called Nirvana written by a prominent Theosophist,
wherein the author claims to reach nirvana every night after going to
sleep.

He claims to see his own Master and other Masters of the
Theosophical Society as bright lights within the ocean of light which
is nirvana. He asked Sri Bhagavan how it could be possible,
considering the Advaitic teaching that the nirvanic experience is the
same as that of the pure consciousness of Being.

M.: Nirvana is Perfection. In the Perfect State there is neither subject
nor object; there is nothing to see, nothing to feel, nothing to know.
Seeing and knowing are the functions of the mind. In nirvana there
is nothing but the blissful pure consciousness “I am.”....


D.: But after how long? and why should a man who is ready for the
Absolute knowledge stick to the knowledge of the Relative?

M.: Everything happens in its own time. The one who is ready for the
absolute knowledge will be made somehow to hear of it and follow
it up. He will realise that Atmavidya (self-realization) is the highest of all virtues and
also the end of the journey.

Then, asked about the difference between external and internal
nirvikalpa samadhis, referring to article 391 above, the Master said:

External samadhi is holding on to the Reality while witnessing the
world, without reacting to it from within. There is the stillness of a
waveless ocean. The internal samadhi involves loss of bodyconsciousness.