Q: How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Sri Ramana Maharshi : There is no conflict between work and wisdom.
Q: Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one’s profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Why not ?
But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one’s consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.Q: If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Sri Ramana Maharshi : Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices.
A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not.
While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.Q: Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Sri Ramana Maharshi : The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.
Q: How is that done?
Sri Ramana Maharshi : You have to ask yourself the question `Who am I ?’ This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind.
Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
