An Andhra gentleman, retired from Government service, asked: “I have been doing Omkāra Upāsanā for long. In the left ear I am always hearing a sound. It is like the piping of a Nādasvaram (pipe). Even now I hear it. Some luminous visions are also seen. I do not know what I should do.”
M.: There must be one to hear sounds or see visions. That one is the ‘I’. If you seek it, asking “Who am I?” the subject and objects would coalesce. After that there is no quest. Till then thoughts will arise, things will appear and disappear; you ask yourself what has happened, and what will happen. If the subject be known then the objects will merge in the subject. If without that knowledge, one applies the mind to objects, because these objects appear and disappear, and one does not know that one’s true nature is that which remains over as the Self. On the vanishing of objects, fear arises. That is, the mind being bound to objects there is suffering when the objects are absent. But they are transient and the Self is eternal. If the eternal Self be known subject and object merge into one, and the One without a second will shine.
D.: Is there the merger of the ?
M.: Om is the eternal truth. That which remains over after the disappearance of objects is Om. It does not merge in anything. It is the State of which it is said: “Where one sees none other, hears none other, knows none other, that is Perfection” (Yatra nānyat pasyati, nānyat srunoti, nānyat vijānāti tat bhūmā). All the are ways to winning it. One must not get stuck in the upāsanās, but must query “Who am I?” and find the Self.
D.: I have no pleasure in the house. There remains nothing for me to do in the family. I have finished doing what I had to do. Now there are grandsons and granddaughters. May I remain in the house, or should I leave it and go away?
M.: You should stay just where you are now. But where are you now? Are you in the house, or is the house in you? Is there any house apart from you? If you get fixed in your own place, you will see all things have merged into you, and there will be no cause for such questions as these.
D.: Yes. Then it seems as if I may remain at home.
M.: You must remain in your real state.