more about the Promises

Arun was right ... the "promises book" is Padamalai, Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi recorded by Muruganar.

Here is the start of the section called Bhagavan's Promises and Declarations:

Knowing and experiencing me

1. Padam [Bhagavan] tells and reveals: 'Instead of knowing with certainty by enquiry that I myself am present as your "I", why do you despair?

2. To become established as the Self within the Heart is to experience my real nature, which is pure bliss.

3. Know me as the true essence of jnana that shines uninterruptedly in your Heart. Destroy the objectifying awareness of the ego-mind that arrogantly cavorts as 'I'.

4. When I am shining in your Heart as 'I-I', your own real nature, your attempt to 'attain' me is indeed a great marvel!

5. To meditate on my swarupa [true nature], which possesses the light that is the source of life, all that is needed is your one-pointedness of mind.

6. Whether you retire to the forest or remain in the midst of everyday life, attain swarupa in the home that is the Heart.

7. Your search to attain me is like searching all over the world, ceaselessly straining to find the necklace around your own neck.

8. Just as you know that the necklace is there by feeling your neck, seek the treasure of the Self, your real nature, within the Heart, and know it.

9. Those who have come to my feet with love, and without delaying, are those whose birth has been graced by God. [Theirs is] an eminent and true life.

10. Through the thought of the feet of the Guru who has reigned over devotees, the intense darkness of ignorance [present in the] hearts of devotees will perish and ultimate liberation will be attained here and now.

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more soon. and many, many thanks to David Godman and Sri Muruganar (and also translators Dr Venkatasubramanian and Robert Butler), whose extreme talents have been/are being used in such a way as to draw us deeper and deeper into our Lord.

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note: the word Padam literally means 'the foot', and is used as a synonym for the Self. Sri Muruganar uses the word Padam to mean Sri Bhagavan himself.