Question:
Namaste Ektaji,
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! On this occasion, I wanted to share an anecdote of Ramana Maharshi related to this festival. It’s from the book Guru Vachaka Kovai recorded by Muruganar. It’s a pun on the word ‘purnam’, the filling in modak.

My interpretation of this anecdote: Whether there is a lot of purnam ( Fullness), or no Purnam (Emptiness), the nature of the Self is the same, ie Perfection.

Answer:

That is a beautiful story. Let’s share it with everyone and urge them that it needs to be experienced not just understood in words merely.

Recognize that nothing really affects the witness [the Sakshi].

The witness never feels a lack when there is some tragedy. The witness was always untouched irrespective of all the unpleasant things that happened to the ‘person’ or jiva or body-mind.

In every prosperity, it was the ‘person’ that was excited and overjoyed; it was the person that felt complete; but look carefully at the witness, it never feels a lack, so how can it feel complete?

So when we use the word ‘complete’ for the Witness, we mean something beyond the comprehension of the petty mind. The witness is always intact. It is always untouched. It is always there as the Sun is ever-present, ever-intact. In reality, the sun never sets and never rises. It is always eternally-full, eternally-present, eternally-complete.

Similarly, one can experience the witness as eternally-full! Eternally complete! Purnam!

May we all recognize this Truth about our ‘Purnam’ experientially during this Ganesh festival!