A Tribute from France

Meditation And Action

By Henri Hartung
Just as the members of a family or citizens of a nation draw together in face of a threat or misfortune, so should those who,
in our times, are still guided by spiritual motives draw together to face the ever growing materialistic tendencies of the
majority of their contemporaries. This need, however, cannot be met by societies or institutions or any formal or official
action. What is needed is for those who remain true to the basic reality to see first their own achievement and then mae
contact with others who are trying to follow the same path.
To safeguard one!s own achievement is, in the beautiful words of Julius "vola, to maintain #an inward direction of $eing%&
it is to manifest, both in one!s 'uest and one!s activity, that transcendent (eality which e)ists in each one of us and remains
#beyond life in the very heart of life%.
*
This alone permits of the construction of a being open to higher influences& its
negation leaves one cut off from his source and a prey to the uncertainty of his mind and the turmoil of his feelings.
What is needed, therefore, is to recognise other seeers of this transcendent Truth and forge lins with them more powerful
than those between members of any secular group, however rich or powerful it may appear. +t is thus that we have to
understand certain ,messages! that appear today amid the general degradation, not necessarily from a traditional
organisation but even more often from some person who has succeeded in maintaining his transcendent state by living in
accordance with his true $eing. The recognition of such a message is lie a significant loo e)changed between two persons
who share the same inner peace beyond social institutions and perhaps even religious creeds.
+ recall such an occasion. A feeling of being suddenly outside time. A strange landscape of reddish earth with patches of
vivid green rice fields, the plain dotted with hummocs and dominated by a serene mountain towering upwards in a single
bloc. -n the dusty road bulloc.carts slowly lumber along as though to some distant or unnown goal. -utlined on the
horizon at the foot of the mountain are the imposing towers of a vast /indu temple. + am in Tiruvannamalai at the foot of
the sacred mountain of Arunachala, a fragment of the traditional +ndia, hallowed once more today by the presence of the
great 0age, 0ri (amana, who by his motionless silence and his mere loo penetrates all beings and draws them to him.
That was some fifteen years ago. A young Westerner who had just come through the turmoil of war, + was seeing just such
a message of meditation and serenity. Amid the violence and hatred of war and the pettiness and small jealousies of peace +
was seeing wisdom incarnate. That was what drew me to +ndia. +n $ombay in *123 + met a /indu disciple of the 0age. A
long railway journey across +ndia, a ricety horse.cart from the station, and at last + found myself in his presence.
The 'uestions + had laboriously prepared no longer seemed important. There was no need for speech, much less discussion4
simply to breathe, to live, to be.
+n the presence of the 0age it is as though an inner mechanism has been set going which brings about a subtle
transformation, as though a spiritual emanation overwhelms you. 5ay after day + formulate some 'uestion, only to find by
evening that it has been answered unspoen. + understand as never before that Truth is no accumulation of nowledge but an
inner (eality not to be thought but lived.
Will the simplicity of this statement appear suspect to a rational Westerner6 7irst of all let us not forget that it is a rational
Westerner who is writing. 7urthermore, let us not forget that the only criterion is the reality of our happiness. +f the mere
presence of the Maharshi is thus illuminating, if it speas in silence, the tas of writing about his message still remains and
will necessarily be badly done, for how can one e)press the +ne)pressible6
+t is in the nature of man to see an inner serenity sheltered from the turmoil of life. Why then see happiness outside
oneself6 At the very moment when a man sees happiness he seems to get farther away from it. 7or most of the time he does
not now who he is even while seeing such advantages as he thins will mae him happy. +n seeing fictitious good he gets
ever farther from what he lies and draws nearer to what he dislies& he binds himself hand and foot to the endless, infernal
round of supply and demand& he chases everlastingly new ,necessities! while neglecting the one thing needful.
#+ shall achieve this, + am against that, + am for the other, + want so and so% . $ut who is this ,+!6
This is the fundamental 'uestion, the ey 'uestion, that the Maharshi puts. This is his message.
Who am +6 +n order to realize lasting happiness it is essential to now oneself. The function of certain sages is to remind
men of this, to call them bac from their efforts to master the world to an effort to master themselves.
0ri (amana teaches that by a process of re.absorption of the outer into the very centre of being the spiritual man perceives
that he is neither a physical body nor an organ of perception 8the five senses9 or of action 8hands, feet, etc.9 or of vital forces
8breathing, digestion9 or even mental forces subject to the ebb and flow of an unstable physical being. There remains only
that pure :onsciousness which is the 0elf residing in the heart and the sole source not only of the world and its phenomena
but also of the mental and physical forces. + am That. What one must do is to detach oneself from the world and realize the
0elf.
$y constantly dwelling on the 'uestion ,Who am +6! the seeer becomes aware that he cannot be the body or any part of it
or even thought, reason, memory, feelings, psyche, in other words that he is something other than a constantly changing
creation of the egoistic and limited ,me!.
"veryone builds his own prison out of his doubts and an)ieties by projecting his own idea of the world and his relationship
to it. To ill this ego and become absorbed in the 0elf is the supreme Truth, the supreme $liss.
$ut in order to do this do we have to abandon everything and renounce our world, relying only on contact with a guide6 +t is
indeed of such a contact that + am speaing, but ultimately the real contact is with oneself. This point is particularly
interesting to the Westerner who lives in a world in which action plays a large part. +t should therefore be emphasised here
that spiritual life does not necessarily re'uire renunciation of the world. -n the contrary, involvement in life can be both the
support and the conse'uence of an essential plenitude. :arry on with your occupations and do not renounce your
responsibilities, said 0ri (amana.
+t is not a matter of acting before or even after establishing certain principles but of pursuing the spiritual 'uest and worldly
activity simultaneously. Meditation awaens a spiritual current in you which pervades your wor. What leads to incarnate
wisdom in a man is indeed this achievement of an interrelated inner reality and outer activity between spiritual and worldly
life, the former illuminating the latter, the latter supporting the former. $y his immobility and silence a true man thus
showed me that + can wor and spea providing + remain true, providing the wor is not mere agitation nor the words a vain
monologue. + felt not only a subtle peace but a force which drove me not to reject my Western, ;<th :entury way of life.
/ow far this is from the egoism which some people impute to men of meditation who are in fact striving for the elimination
of their ego=
There is no antagonism between meditating or praying on the one hand and facing the hard and unrewarding tass of daily
life on the other. +n fact one cannot go without the other. They unite in building up oneself from moment to moment. Action
then taes on a strange resonance as it leads to a strange humility. +t ceases to be an end in itself and becomes natural
through the very transcendence of its finality.
While the hands do their wor the head soars to infinite solitude& and it is on account of this very enlightenment that the
action becomes true, not because we wished it so out of personal vanity. "verything has to be accomplished. "ach in his
own way has to achieve the wor demanded by his 'ualities of character and the circumstances in which he is placed4 but
without attachment to its fruits.
,Who am +6! To now oneself, to now within oneself that transcendent serenity, is to act definitely according to that in
oneself which is more than oneself. 0piritualisation of one!s conduct is not on some abstract plane. +t presupposes a clear
awareness of the difficulties which worldly life with its daily re'uirements entails.
Thining of the Maharshi and his teaching + remember his eyes. Are they so piercing because of the Truth he embodies or on
account of a great out.pouring6 $oth together4 transcendent and loving at the same time, as in fact he was towards all who
came to him, whether dignitaries or beggars, merchants or thieves, Westerners or +ndians, :hristians or Muslims, believers
or unbelievers. There was compassion for all beings, for in all e)ists, though often hidden, that 5ivine 0elf which is the
luminous source that has to be freed from the thorns of envy, laziness and pride.
+ have spoen of my meeting with him as an event, but who can deny that an inner meeting is possible today also, beyond
the dullness of earthly understanding. To as oneself, ,Who am +6 Who is it that is bound6! is the true way to 0elf.
nowledge, to >iberation.
$ut what grace that someone in our times should bring such a message= /e is an incarnation of what is incorruptible in
/indu teaching, a revelation of transcendent Truth, of a lived (eality. /e is also a justification of that outer activity which is
so burdensome when an outcome of our ambitions yet so lucid when turned towards our 'uest for Truth. $y his very
e)istence he validated the 'uest of all those who aim at something more than worldly success, whether in the silence of a
monastery or the bustle of human activity.
8$y courtesy, ,Syntheses!9
* . Chevaucher le Tigre by Julius "vola.