Letters from Sri Ramanasramam: Letter 43

(43) THAT WHICH IS, IS ONLY ONE
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23rd April, 1946
This afternoon a Muslim youth came here with two or three friends. From the way he sat down, I felt that he wanted to ask some questions. After a while he began asking the questions in Tamil. “How can one know Allah? How can one see HIM?” That was the purport of his questions. As usual Bhagavan said, “If you first find out who it is that is questioning, you can then know Allah.” The young man said again, “If I meditate on this stick, thinking it is Allah, can I see Allah? How am I to see Allah?” “That real thing which is never destructible, is known as Allah. If you first find out the truth about yourself, the truth about Allah will present itself,” said Bhagavan. That was enough to dispose of him. He went away with his friends.

Soon after they left, Bhagavan remarked to those by his side, “See, he wants to see Allah! Is it possible to see with these eyes? How could these eyes perceive?” Yesterday a Hindu asked Bhagavan, “Is Omkara a name of Ishwara?” Bhagavan said, “Omkara is Ishwara, Ishwara is Omkara. That means Omkara itself is the swarupam (the real Self). Some say that the swarupam itself is Omkara. Some say that it is Sakti, some say it is Ishwara, some say it is Jesus, some say it is Allah. Whatever name is given, the thing that is there, is only one.” Four or five days back, recalling a reply given to somebody’s question, a devotee, residing in the Ashram, asked Bhagavan thus: “You said that ananda also gets dissolved; if so, what is the meaning of dhyanam, samadhi and samadhanam?” Bhagavan said, “What is meant by laya? It should not stop with ananda. There must be someone to experience that.

Should you not know that someone? If you do not know that someone, how could it be dhyanam? If the one that experiences is known, that one is the Self. When one becomes oneself that becomes dhyanam. Dhyanam means one’s own Self. That is samadhi. That is also samadhanam (perfect absorption of thought into the one object of meditation, i.e., the Supreme Spirit).”