Arunachala-Ramana

Mind takes the very form of that which one contemplates

2011-06-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

Mind constantly swings like a pendulum
between the reality and the appearance,
between consciousness and inertness.

When the mind contemplates the inert objects for a considerable time,
it assumes the characteristic of such inertness.

When the same mind is devoted to enquiry and wisdom,
it shakes off all conditioning
and returns to its original nature as pure consciousness.

Mind takes the very form of that which one contemplates,
whether it is natural or cultivated.

Therefore, resolutely but intelligently contemplate
the state beyond sorrow,
free from all doubts.

The mind is capable of restraining itself;
there is indeed no other way.

~ Yoga Vasistha

How can I help others?

2011-06-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

Question : If one remains quiet how is action to go on? Where is the place for karma yoga?

Ramana Maharshi : Let us first understand what karma is, whose karma it is and who is the doer. Analysing them and enquiring into their truth, one is obliged to remain as the Self in peace. Nevertheless even in that state the actions will go on.

Question : How will the actions go on if I do not act?

Ramana Maharshi : Who asks this question? Is it the Self or another? Is the Self concerned with actions?

Question : No, not the Self. It is another, different from the Self.

Ramana Maharshi : So it is plain that the Self is not concerned with actions and so the question does not arise.

Question : I want to do karma yoga. How can I help others?

Ramana Maharshi : Who is there for you to help? Who is the `I' that is going to help others? First clear up that point and then everything will settle itself.

Question : That means `realize the Self.' Does my realization help others?

Ramana Maharshi : Yes, and it is the best help that you can possibly render to others. But really there are no others to be helped. For the realized being sees only the Self, just as the goldsmith sees only the gold while valuing it in various jewels made of gold. When you identify yourself with the body, name and form are there. But when you transcend the body-consciousness, the others also disappear. The realized one does not see the world as different from himself.

2010-08-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Guru's silence is more vast and emphatic
than all the sastras put together.
His silence is the highest expression
of the realised non-duality
which is after all the true content of the Vedas.

Though he instructs his disciples,
he does not pose as a teacher,
in the full conviction that the teacher and disciple
are mere conventions born of illusion.

And so he continues to utter words.

~ Talk 449, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

2009-09-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Q:How is the mind to dive into the heart?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The mind now sees itself diversified into the universe. If the diversity is not manifest, it remains in its own essence. That is the heart. The heart is only truth. Mind is only a transient phase. Because a man identifies himself with the body, he sees the world separate from himself. This wrong identification arises because he has lost his moorings and has swerved from his original state. He is now advised to give up all these false ideas, to trace his source and remain as the Self. In that state, there are no differences, no questions will arise. All the sastras are meant only to make man retrace his steps to the original source. He need not gain anything. He must only give up the false ideas and useless accretions. He, instead of doing it, tries to catch hold of something strange and mysterious because he believes that his happiness lies elsewhere. That is the mistake. If one remains as the Self, there is bliss. Probably he thinks that being quiet does not bring about the state of bliss. That is due to his ignorance. The only practice is to find out "to whom these questions arise."

~Conscious Immortality

2009-06-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

Let sunlight mix with language
and be the world.

~Rumi

2009-06-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

To Beloved Bhagavan
the Lord of Love

Oh Lord of Love, Who dwells within my heart!
May I sing Thy Praise through all Eternity,
Thou, the Adorable One, the All-compassionate,
Whose Loving smile illumines all the world,
Who art tender as a mother and strong as a father,
Thou, whose sublime life is an inspiring sermon
Fill me with Thy Presence, Beloved Master,
with the Nectar of Thy Grace;
May Thy great Love and Light fill my heart to the full.
Resting secure in Thy Presence
And knowing whence cometh Peace, Guidance and Strength,
May I always listen; for, in the Silence
I hear Thy Voice, -
The Voice of God.

~ Eleanor Pauline Noye, Golden Jubilee Souvenir 1896-1946, p. 236

in exchange for myself, he gave me his own Self

2009-05-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

Our refuge

Our true refuge is the Lord of the Self, whose grace illuminates our hearts, preparing us for the realisation of selfhood's supreme and unique reality, where the mind, freed from delusion, suffers no more the deceitful illusion of duality.

Our one salvation is to dwell in the state of righteousness, whose spreading radiance suffuses the ocean of grace at his holy feet, where the bewildered mind -- intoxicated by the ego whose nature is ignorance, and raging like an angry elephant -- is cooled and refreshed.

He revealed to me the true nature of the 'I', so that the bitter error [pramada] which kept me apart from him was removed. Our sole refuge is at his holy feet where, in exchange for myself, he gave me his own Self, which shines in the transcendent state of liberation suffusing my heart.

Once I had bowed my head in reverence to him, my Lord and Master granted me his grace, so that I no longer needed to seek out any other teachers whom I might petition with decorous speech in search of some truth. His holy feet are my only refuge.

Joyfully do we, his devotees, praise on high the holy feet of him who rules us, freeing us from the power and destructive pride that intoxicated us and routing the tumultuous onslaught of the deadly foes spawned by our own deeds.

~ Muruganar, Sri Guru Ramana Prasadam, verses 621 - 625, translated by Robert Butler

2009-05-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

Mind, cultivate the qualities of concentration and mindfulness so that, illuminated by the intense light of devotion to your guru, you root out the confusion of 'I' and 'mine' even as it arises, and experience the clarity which comes from the untroubled peace of jnana. (v 470)

Mind, heed the profound truth of this teaching, for it is the first duty of all seekers: this is meditation, the yoga of union with the supreme, that disciplines the mind so that all sense of doership is abolished. (v 471)

My soul, why do you labour in the senses' barren tracts, when there is such bliss to be had from tending the fertile fields of the heart where grows the rich crop of Sri Ramana's glorious feet? (v 476)

When we mistake that which is impermanent for that which is enduring, it only serves to emphasize the disharmony within our hearts. The true temperament is one that cleaves to the indestructible Self dwelling at the heart of our very existence as the immovable reality. (v 477)

Unless the mind subsides into the heart, whose nature is consciousness, and experiences the deep peace of union with it, the mind, through separation from it, will fall into the trap of the sense organs, be whirled about in the world of the senses, and become scattered. (v 487)

True nobility can be found at the feet of those great ones in whom there is no separation from the all-transcending radiance of their own true Self and who, even in the other states [of waking, dream and sleep], remain in the fully awakened state where realisation's light is always present. (v 488)

~ Muruganar, Sri Guru Ramana Prasadam, translated by Robert Butler

What stands in the way?

2009-05-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Bhagavan: Know yourself before you seek to know the nature of God and the world.

Devotee: Does knowing myself imply knowing God?

B.: Yes, God is within you.

D.: Then, what stands in the way of my knowing myself or God?

B.: Your wandering mind and perverted ways.

~ The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words

without wasting a moment

2009-05-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

If you want to attain liberation and redeem yourself by cutting asunder with the sword of
jnana the false ignorance that has strongly bound you in the form of a jiva, let your mind
spring up immediately with surging love and, without wasting a moment of your life,
meditate constantly upon the golden lotus-like feet of the Lord who, in the form of the
Guru, has taken you into his fold.

By taking the Sadguru as one’s sole refuge, one should know, through his grace, that the
cause of the continuous and distressing confusion that nurtures births is the fragmented
mind which regards itself as different from God, Atma-swarupa. One should also learn
from him the means for ending it [the fragmented mind] and, adopting that means, one
should steadfastly unite with the Self, the ego-free swarupa, and abide in mauna. This
alone bestows eminence.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai

2009-05-09T15:44:00.001-07:00

As one deeply interested in poetry, I have read the poems of Muruganar and said to myself, good heavens, the man who could inspire this kind of poetry is divine. It moved me completely; Muruganar completely converted me. Then, when Grant Duff came to my college, I took him around. After a week with him, he casually asked me, "Have you seen Ramana Maharshi?" I said to myself, here is an Englishman steeped in Indian philosophy telling me about the Maharshi. I felt ashamed, and I was ashamed. All these events convinced the obstinate camel that an oasis he badly needed was near and easy to reach.

When I told Sri Sivaswami about my decision to visit the Ashram, he said, you are a young man with many responsibilities; when you go to Bhagavan you will be swept off your feet and fall into an abyss. Don't go alone, tie yourself in many bonds; take somebody you like, you are attached to, to hold you. So I took my wife and two of my students with me.

The Maharshi deprived me of none of the persons or pleasures that were dear to me. He left them all with me enriched and sanctified. Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth and the Bible meant much more to me when illuminated by the light he shed on all he saw. From the Bible he often cited passages like: Be still and know that I am God; the kingdom of God is within you; my father and I are one.

My first darshan of the Maharshi on September 29, 1940, was the most memorable event of my life. The last darshan occurred a fortnight before his mahanirvana on April 14, 1950. In between, during many weekends and college vacations, repeated visits to the Ashram kept me (as spells of sound sleep keep one) in health, happiness and taut efficiency. The pure happiness I enjoyed was that of a child when it sits securely in its mother's lap.

Bhagavan was a perfect Impersonality, like the sun in the sky or like unnoticed daylight in an inner chamber. This impersonal being would suddenly become a Person full of sattvic power, highly human, charming, mother-like, who could communicate with sharp precision his own Awareness Bliss to other persons according to their needs and moods. The sun now came down and played with us as the light of the moon to illuminate the mind, or as the fire in the home to cook our food.

Bhagavan listened like a child to passages from Shakespeare's plays and Keat's letters and quickly and convincingly revealed the universal truth in each flower unique in its own beauty. On Keat's letter on 'negative capability' his passing comment was: "So there are Upanishads in English as in Sanskrit." After a passage from Shakespeare was read, discussed and duly praised, Bhagavan said, "Shakespeare the Self enjoyed writing this, so that, born again, he might enjoy reading it." No wonder then that Bhagavan not only permitted Muruganar in his copious outpourings but also joined him in playing the grand game of rhyming and chiming in words that double a common joy. Was he not the sole begetter of thousands of marvellous poems by Muruganar and so many others?

~ Prof. K. Swaminathan (excerpt from Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi)

The means of subsiding in the Heart

2009-05-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

The intellect, which is the suttarivu, the individual consciousness, loses it focus and suffers by constantly directing attention towards objects and their attributes. The way to make it [individual consciousness] unite with and subside in one's swarupa [true nature] is to begin taking it, whole heartedly, as the object of attention through the enquiry, 'Who is the "I" who is paying attention to sordid sense objects?'

~ verse 185

Listen [to me as I tell you] the way to merge with the swarupa that remains as the core, as [pure] consciousness within the [objectifying] consciousness, supporting it. To train the consciousness that perceives objects to pay attention to itself is the way for it to turn Selfwards and remain sunk in the Heart.

~ verse 899, Guru Vachaka Kovai by Muruganar, Translated by Dr T. V. Venakatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman

One Pointed Devotion

2009-04-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Those whose hearts are habitually focused devoutly on the feet of God, like a magnetic needle that always aligns itself to point to the north, will not get mentally perplexed and lose their bearings in the world, that sea of desires and attachments.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai by Muruganar, Translated by Dr T. V. Venakatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman

Surrender

2009-04-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

I say that I have surrendered
But what have I given up?
It's easy to talk in this fashion
Though it's nothing but empty words,
Which came from the tongue too glibly
In a sentimental way.

***

It is all just show and pretending,
Prostrating and that sort of thing.
Quoting in texts and of shastras,
Perfect in word not in deed.
I'm sick, sick, sick of this business,
I want to start fresh but I can't.

***

Transmute me until I am blended
With you so that both are One.
When there's no longer the talk of surrender
Then alone has surrender begun.

***

~ Major Chadwick

(17 April is Chadwick Day.)

the one infallible means

2009-04-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Vichara is the process and the goal also. ‘I am’ is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is Vichara. When spontaneous and natural, it is realisation. If one leaves aside Vichara, the most efficacious Sadhana (spiritual practice), there are no other adequate means whatever to make the mind subside. If made to subside by other means, it will remain as if subsided but will rise again. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realise the unconditioned, absolute being that you really are.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

Thou art Thyself the One Being

2009-03-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

Thou art Thyself the One Being,
ever aware as the self-luminous Heart!
In Thee there is a mysterious power (sakti).
From it proceeds the phantom of the mind
emitting its latent subtle dark mists
which, illumined by Thy Light reflected on them,
appear within as though whirling in the vortices of prarabdha,
later developing into the psychic worlds
and are projected without as the material world
and transformed into concrete objects
which are magnified by the outgoing senses
and move about like pictures in a cinema show.
Visible or invisible, O Hill of Grace,
without Thee they are nothing!

~ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, from Eight Stanzas to Sri Arunachala (Sri Arunachala Ashtakam)

2009-03-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

Did he not himself say during those last sad days: "You say I am going to die. Die! I shall be more alive than ever". And so it is.

~ from Ramana Lives by Major Chadwick

2009-02-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

But as Sri Vinobaji says, in the vast multitude of lakhs and crores, there will only be one true sage. Hence, when we find such a sage, we must avail ourselves of his darshan and grace to our fullest capacity.

~ from Chhaganlal V. Yogi's account in The Power of the Presence, Part Two, by David Godman

Know and always hold onto the Self.

2009-01-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

About ten days after my arrival I [Annamalai Swami] asked Bhagavan, 'How to avoid misery?'

This was the first spiritual question I ever asked him.

Bhagavan replied, 'Know and always hold onto the Self. Disregard the body and the mind. To identify with them is misery. Dive deep into the Heart, the source of being and peace, and establish yourself there.'

I then asked him how I could attain Self-realisation and he gave me a similar answer: 'If you give up identifying with the body and meditate on the Self, which you already are, you can attain Self-realisation.'

As I was pondering on these remarks Bhagavan surprised me by saying, 'I was waiting for you. I was wondering when you would come.'

As a newcomer I was still too afraid of him to follow this up by asking how he knew, or how long he had been waiting. However, I was delighted to hear him speak like this because it seemed to indicate that it was my destiny to stay with him.

A few days later I asked another question: 'Scientists have invented and produced aircraft which can travel at great speeds in the sky. Why do you not make and give us a spiritual aircraft in which we can quickly and easily cross over the sea of samsara?'

... 'The path of self-enquiry,' replied Bhagavan, 'is the aircraft you need. It is direct, fast and easy to use. You are already travelling very quickly towards realisation. It is only because of your mind that it seems that there is no movement. In the old days, when people first rode on trains, some of them believed that the trees and countryside were moving and that the train was standing still. It is the same with you now. Your mind is making you believe that you are not moving towards Self-realisation.'

~ Living by the Words of Bhagavan by David Godman

2008-12-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Exactly at six o'clock in the evening, as the sun sets and as the full moon rises, the lights are lit simultaneously on the top of the hill, on the top of the metal lamp in the temple and at Sri Ramanasramam with chants and shouts of Arunachala Siva by the vast multitude of people who gather in this pilgrim city for Deepa Darshana, for having a view of the hill on this day which is considered to be extremely sacred. In Sri Ramanasramam the devotees gather in front of the lamp which is lit there as soon as the light on the top of the hill is sighted. Then they start chanting Ramana's composition 'Five Hymns to Arunachala'.

~ A. R. Natarajan, Arunachala, From Rigveda to Ramana Maharshi

deepening the well

2008-11-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

Interviewer: I wonder -- have you met during your long years in India any other enlightened saints?

Lucia Osborne: No one came up to Bhagavan! He was extraordinary. Just to see him walk, just to watch his actions… they conveyed something. And I want you to really understand about his silence: it was most potent. With others, such silence could be embarrassing … I won’t say any more.

Interviewer: Did you and your husband build this house or is it Ashram property?

Lucia Osborne: I built it with four workmen, without a plan, without an architect. I built it like a sculpture: first two rooms, then the verandas, steps, arches — and the upstairs is rather nice. We just created it as we went along. The people here have such love, such devotion to God. One of the workmen was deepening the well, and I saw him folding his hands to do namaskar. He had found a small picture of Bhagavan in the well — floating — it must have fallen in.

~ Malcolm Tillis, New Lives

2008-10-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Q: All you say sounds beautifully convincing. yet my feeling of being just a person in a world strange and alien, often inimical and dangerous, does not cease. Being a person, limited in space and time, how can I possibly realize myself as the opposite; a de-personalized, universalized awareness of nothing in particular?

Maharaj: You assert yourself to be what you are not and deny yourself to be what you are. You omit the element of pure cognition, of awareness free from all personal distortions. Unless you admit the reality of chit, you will never know yourself.

Q: What am I to do? I do not see myself as you see me. Maybe you are right and I am wrong, but how can I cease to be what I feel I am?

M: A prince who believes himself to be a beggar can be convinced conclusively in one way only: he must behave as a prince and see what happens. Behave as if what I say is true and judge by what actually happens. All I ask is the little faith needed for making the first step. With experience will come confidence and you will not need me any more. I know what you are and I am telling you. Trust me for a while.

Q: To be here and now, I need my body and its senses. To understand, I need a mind.

M: The body and the mind are only symptoms of ignorance, of misapprehension. Behave as if you were pure awareness, bodiless and mindless, spaceless and timeless, beyond 'where' and 'when' and 'how'. Dwell on it, think of it, learn to accept its reality. Don't oppose it and deny it all the time. Keep an open mind at least. Yoga is bending the outer to the inner. Make your mind and body express the real which is all and beyond all. By doing you succeed, not by arguing.

~ I Am That

2008-10-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

O Mind, it is not wise for you to come out. It is best to go within. Hide yourself deep within the Heart and escape from the tricks of maya, which tries to ruin you by drawing you outwards.

[O Mind,] do not waste your life in roaming outside, pursuing wonders and wallowing in enjoyments. To know the Self through grace and to abide in this way firmly in the Heart is alone worthwhile.

Even if the jiva gives up all other attachments, eminence is only [to be found] in the cessation of the attachment to the flawed mind. Only the mind, the great delusion, is the fetter. Nothing else can bind the jiva in the same way [that the mind can].

If the mind is transcended, all else, which does not exist apart from the mind, is transcended also.

~ Padamalai

What are the hindrances to the realization of the true Self?

2008-10-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

I turned to him. "But you had no guru?" A rustle of shocked horror ran through the hall. But the Maharshi was not in the least disturbed by my audacious remark. On the contrary, he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye. Then he threw back his head and gave a joyous, whole-hearted laugh. It endeared him to me as nothing else could. A saint who can turn the laugh against himself is a saint indeed.

... I had been in despair at ever getting the Maharshi alone. It is hard to unburden the soul before a crowd. But early one morning I came into the hall and found him there unattended, emanating a wonderful stillness and peace. I asked quietly if I might talk with him. He nodded, smiling, and sent for someone to translate. On the arrival of a devotee, I put my first question.

"What are the hindrances to the realization of the true Self?"

"Memory chiefly, habits of thought, accumulated tendencies."

"How does one get rid of these hindrances?"

"Seek for the Self through meditation in this manner. Trace every thought back to its origin, which is only the mind. Never allow thought to run on. If you do, it will be unending. Take it back to its starting place -- the mind -- again and again, and it and the mind will both die of inaction. The mind only exists by reason of thought. Stop that and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression arises, ask yourself, 'Who is it that doubts? What is it that is depressed?' Go back constantly to the question, 'Who is the "I"? Where is it?' Tear everything away until there is nothing but the Source of all left. And then -- live always in the present and only in it. There is no past and future, save in the mind."

~ from Mrs. Piggot's account in Arunachala's Ramana: Boundless Ocean of Grace, Volume III

2008-09-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

Q: Do you mean to say that mere wanting is enough? Surely both qualifications and oppotunities are needed.

Sri Nisargadatta: These will come with earnestness. What is supremely important is to be free from contradictions: the goal and the way must not be on different levels; life and light must not quarrel; behavior must not betray belief. Call it honesty, integrity, wholeness; you must not go back, undo, uproot, abandon the conquered ground. Tenacity of purpose and honesty in pursuit will bring you to your goal.

Q: Tenacity and honesty are endowments, surely! Not a trace of them I have.

Sri N: All will come as you go on. Take the first step first. All blessings come from within. Turn within. 'I am' you know. Be with it all the time you can spare, until you revert to it spontaneously. There is no simpler and easier way.

2008-09-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

My Guru became my all-in-all, my home, mother and father, everything. All my senses left their places, and concentrated themselves in my eyes, and my sight was centred on him. Thus my guru was the sole object of my meditation and I was conscious of none else. While meditating on him my mind and intellect were silent and I had thus to keep quiet and bow to him in silence.

~Shirdi Sai Baba

2008-08-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

I am tied to myself by myself through myself,
The knot out of reach, I am in your hands.
There is a Heart and a mind, and a body and soul
Waiting for you. You will come when you choose,
And whatever you like you are welcome to do.

~ Maurice Frydman

2008-07-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Enthroning in the heart the Lord supreme,
His true, unceasing natural worship
By the mind steady, self-absorbed
Proceeds in perfect silence.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai (translation by Prof. K. Swaminathan)

"Just keep quiet and Bhagavan will do the rest."

2008-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Ramana has said:

“The removal of ignorance is the aim of practice and not acquisition of Realisation.” (Talks).

The most fundamental piece of ignorance is that there exists an individual self who is going to do sadhana, and that by doing sadhana, this individual self will disappear or be merged in some super-being.

Until this concept is eliminated on the mental level, it is not an exaggeration to say that one is wasting one’s time in attempts to surrender or to enquire ‘Who am I?’ Correct attitude and correct understanding of this matter are of pre-eminent importance if the application of Ramana’s teaching is to be successful.

Returning now to the practice of surrender, and bearing in mind the necessity of maintaining the right attitude with regard to the nonexistence of the individual self, there remains the problem of how to surrender since the mere desire to surrender invents an illusory person who is going to surrender.

The key to this problem and the key to all problems connected with the practice of Ramana’s teachings, is to bypass the mind and move to the realm of being. One cannot truly surrender without escaping from that vast accumulation of ideas and desires we call the mind, and according to Ramana, one cannot escape or destroy the mind by any kind of mental activity.

Ramana’s solution is to let the mind subside to the point where it disappears, and what remains when the mind has subsided is the simple, pure being that was always there. In a conversation in Talks Ramana gives the following illuminating answer. He says:

“It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being … One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.”
(Talks p.175).

This is an immensely profound statement which not only sweeps away many of the myths that surround the practice of surrender – it also shows an indication that the route to the rediscovery of the Self is the same whether one chooses to label it “surrender” or “self-enquiry”.

If we examine this statement closely it is possible to extract three important conclusions regarding Ramana’s attitude and approach to surrender. Firstly, there is no external deity or manifestation to whom one must surrender; secondly, the source of one’s being is within us; and thirdly, and most importantly, true surrender is to go back to the original cause of one’s being and remain firmly and continually rooted there.

If this is translated into terms of practical advice, then surrender comes down to two words: being and stillness.

In Talks Ramana says:

“Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that, ‘I am that I am’ sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in ‘Be still’.” (Talks, p.333).

The stillness and the being of which Ramana speaks co-exist with each other and reveal themselves in their full radiance whenever interest in one’s thought stream dries up. Thus, for Ramana, the practice of surrender is to find within oneself this feeling of beingness and surrender oneself completely to it. On this level of surrender, practice consists of giving up wrong ideas by refusing to give them attention.

~ from "The Unity of Surrender and Self-Enquiry" by David Godman

Nayana Day

2008-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

O Lord!
You are always dwelling in my heart.
I am always lying at your feet.
You are my Lord who deputes me
and I am your servant who carries out your order.

Entirely yours,
Vasishta

The True Self

2008-07-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Pure Love is simply
emptying the mind of all fears,
tearing off all masks
and revealing the Self as It truly is.

Love is the face
of God.

~ Amma

2008-07-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ramana

2008-07-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Sitting on the veranda fragrant tea at my side,
The bread is buttered. It is eight in the morning;
Looking down unseeing at the dark green paddy fields
Wave upon wave pushing their way between the red and green hills;
When another wave, the ripple of a name hits me
Between the eyes, singes a path to the heart, vibrating
RAMANA

I weep.
The tea and the paddy fields are gone.
My blurred eyes are mine no more.
My thoughts have forgotten me.
My tears remember all.

~ Johannes J. De Reede, The Mountain Path, Vol. vii, No. 2, April, 1970

Surrender

2008-07-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Surrender means 'surrendering or giving oneself up to another in an especially high degree'. In total surrender, the ego is completely lost. There is no expectation of any reward. There is no seeking of any kind whatsoever. True surrender is the love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation, says Sri Bhagavan.

Most of us expect God to do us only good once we have surrendered. We are surprised and pained when, despite our surrender, we are faced with problems. When we expect something in return for our surrender, we have not really surrendered. Sri Bhagavan says: "Surrender is not an easy thing. Killing the ego is not an easy thing. It is only when God himself by his Grace draws the mind inwards that complete surrender can be achieved."

When a person has truly surrendered, he has no cares, no desires, no anxieties. He has no will of his own. When Sri Bhagavan left Madurai, he took just the train fare to Tiruvannamalai. When he reached Tiruvannamalai, he threw away the packet of sweets that had been given to him by Muthukrishna Bhagavatar's sister. He was not anxious for the morrow. He tore off from his dhoti a strip for his kaupina and threw away the rest. He did not take an extra kaupina nor did he think of using the remaining cloth as a towel. This is total surrender. He had come to his Father and he· had implicit faith that his bare needs would be looked after. In the early days, there were occasions when Sri Bhagavan was teased and insulted. But he remained unaffected by them as there was no individual to react. The whole life of Bhagavan is a commentary on Surrender.

No human being can be free from problems. Even after we surrender, we shall have problems. But our attitude to problems will change. Sri Bhagavan says: "If you surrender yourself and recognise your individual self as only a tool of the Higher Power, that power will take over your affairs along with the fruits of actions. You are no longer affected by them, and the work will go on unhampered. Whether you recognise the power or not, the scheme of things does not alter. Only there is a change of outlook."

Real surrender is where 'me' is not. The following Christian hymn tells in simple but moving language what real surrender is:

Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life's alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms,
And strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
Until its master find;
It has no spring of action sure --
It varies with the wind,
It cannot freely move,
Till thou hast wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign.
My power is faint and low
Till I have learned to serve;
It wants the needed fire to glow,
It wants the breeze to nerve;
It cannot drive the world
Until itself be driven;
Its flag can only be unfurled.
When thou shalt breathe from heaven.
My will is not my own
Till thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign;
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife.
When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in thee its life.

~ Uniqueness of Sri Bhagavan, K. Subrahmanian

Unwillingly the natural Truth asserts itself.

2008-07-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Everyone is aware of the eternal Self. He sees so many dying but still believes himself eternal. Because it is the Truth. Unwillingly the natural Truth asserts itself. The man is deluded by the intermingling of the conscious Self with the insentient body. This delusion must end.

D.: How will it end?

M.: That which is born must end. The delusion is only concomitant with the ego. It rises up and sinks. But the Reality never rises nor sinks. It remains Eternal. The master who has realised says so; the disciple hears, thinks over the words and realises the Self. There are two ways of putting it. The ever-present Self needs no efforts to be realised, Realisation is already there. Illusion alone is to be removed. Some say the word from the mouth of the Master removes it instantaneously. Others say that meditation, etc., are necessary for realisation. Both are right; only the standpoints differ.

~ Talk 80

2008-07-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

The import of the teaching "Know
The Self" is only giving up
The illusive knowledge of the non-self.
For bright like the true Sun shines
Being-Awareness as "I am,
I am" in everyone.

Only by the Lord's grace won
Through self-surrender to His Feet,
And not at all by mental effort,
Is revealed the truth of Being.
So subtle, so incomprehensible, is That which Is.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai, verses 645 & 648

2008-07-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

The conscious introspective concentration of Self-Enquiry (Who am I?) kills all thoughts and and destroys the dense darkness of nescience; it effaces all worry; it illuminates the intellect with the radiance of pure awareness; it wipes out all conceptual confusions; it fixes one in the effulgent Siva-Self; it transforms a host of impending disasters into auspicious events; and lastly, it destroys the ego-mind utterly with all its afflictions.

~ Ribhu Gita, Ch. 32, V. 24, translated by Prof. N. R. Krishnamurti Aiyer

2008-07-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

The interior mouna, steady, firm,
Which praises Siva in silence bright,
The speech divine beyond all words,
This stillness is true, natural worship.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai, translated by Prof. K. Swaminathan

2008-07-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

If one obtains and relishes the nectar of the Lord's feet, the charan-amrita, the mind can be conquered. This means that the mind will no longer hold sway over us; its mastery imposed on us from childhood will no longer oppress us. This is called manojaya -- victory over the mind. But this is made possible only with His Grace. Without Grace, we cannot relish the nectar.

However, only a true devotee, a bhakta, a God can obtain the charan-amrita. But who and what is this devotee? It is nothing else but Consciousness, the sense of Being, the knowledge that 'we are', which has appeared unknowingly and spontaneously in us. The Consciousness is the charan-amrita, the nectar of the Lord's feet.

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, The Nectar of the Lord's Feet

A Rose-Petal A Day at Thy Blessed Feet

2008-06-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

Daily I'll scatter rose-petals before
Thy blessed Feet;
Each petal just a thought. I have no more
To render Thee in homage. It is mete
That it should be like this, for all's already Thine,
There's nothing more is mine.

And as these petals one by one do drop,
Whose perfume-sweetness lasts but for a day,
I will not stop
Asking myself repeatedly this way:
"Who thinks that he now acts?" and "Who am I?"
And so like this I'll try
To plumb the depths of Being, diving deep
Beyond the realms of thought to waking-sleep,
Where naught is and yet All.
For this the lesson, sitting in Thy Hall,
That I have learnt. And yet above
This seeming dry philosophy I find
A deeper lesson in The boundless Love
That spreads beyond all measured realms of mind.

My giving is a gain,
It will not be in vain.
For every thought I one by one discard
Will grow another feather in the wings
That carry me to Freedom. Tho' 'tis hard
What I would not accomplish, 'tis of things
That must be done, it seems, in spite of me;
My will I have surrendered unto Thee.

All that is left to me is just to pray
That many years will be added to the term
That Thou wilt spend below.
For Thou in truth art my sole staff and stay,
Holding to which my purpose is more firm,
And when Thou goest I would also go.
Bound ever to Thy Feet how can I fail?
O Ramana, my Guru, hail, all hail!

~ Sadhu Arunachala (Major A. W. Chadwick)

I will always be with you.

2008-06-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

I have been a devotee of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi for over 55 years. I was in my early twenties when I first had His darshan. The event is still fresh in my memory not because I was at that age so mature, which I was not, but because of a very remarkable incident I saw on that occasion.

I went to the Ramana Ashrama in the early forties when the Second World War was at its peak and our own independence movement was also at its maximum intensity. I am not certain about the date or the month of my visit; it may have been December or January. I remember the season was quite cool. The summit of the holy mountain Arunachala was shrouded in dense mist and clouds. The morning air was crisp and pleasant.

It was in the original small hall, that is remembered by the early devotees with justifiable fondness, that I first saw Sri Bhagavan seated on a raised platform. A cast-iron charcoal brazier was radiating a comfortable warmth, and a pleasing aroma of the incense thrown into it at regular intervals was pervading the entire hall. About thirty people, comprised of men, women and a few young boys were seated on the floor facing Sri Bhagavan. None spoke or even whispered between themselves. What struck me was, no one showed even an inclination to talk. Some were meditating with closed eyes. The silence was definitely not an imposed one.

Sri Bhagavan, his body luminous like burnished gold, was sparsely clad in his usual kaupinam and a small towel across his chest. He appeared to be occasionally dozing off and had to steady his head often. He frequently stretched his palms over the fire and massaged his long fingers. In spite of his apparent dozing, his eyes did not look drowsy. On the contrary, they were extraordinarily bright and alert. He was not looking at anybody in particular, nor were his eyes roaming about the hall in idle curiosity. Although my first impression was not a very uplifting one, I felt I was in the presence of an extremely affable person with a lot of natural grace, at perfect ease and without any pretension whatsoever. I was, however, aware of an effortless peace in the hall.

I saw a white-skinned boy, a foreigner, of about ten years sitting a couple of feet to my left. Next to him was a white man, presumably his father. Further to my left, beyond the central aisle, was a white woman, whom I thought was the boy's mother. I then saw Sri Bhagavan's eyes alight on the boy for a brief minute. I thought it was just a casual look. The boy was all the time looking at Sri Bhagavan with a sort of fixation, as if on the verge of asking a question. But, no! He broke into tears. A cascade of tears came gushing out of his eyes. They were not tears of pain, for his face was radiant with joy. In temples, I have seen adults shedding tears in ecstasy, and had myself experienced that type of joyous outpouring on hearing a beautiful hymn or a moving melody, but I had never seen a ten-year-old boy from a far-off land exhibiting this type of beautiful expression in an extremely quiet and serene atmosphere. I could see that Sri Bhagavan's glance, though only resting on him for a brief moment, had opened in the boy's heart a veritable reservoir of pure joy.

I did not feel a remorse for my lack of receptivity that I ought to have felt. But I felt most fortunate to see a boy not even half my age showing such an alert sensitivity. The flat feeling I had experienced earlier was washed away by the joyous tears of another; I really felt blessed in an indirect way. Direct or indirect, blessing is blessing. Whenever I recall this incident, it creates a feeling of being very near to something truly Divine. Of course, I have had my own share of Sri Bhagavan's grace in my later years. I have also had some ever-fresh visions which I dare not devalue as creations of a fevered imagination for they have strengthened my faith in Sri Bhagavan. Some of them occurred decades after Sri Bhagavan's Mahanirvana. They have been firm confirmations of his continued Presence and reassurances of his immortal words, "They say I am going! Where can I go? I am always here!"

Now, returning to that first day at the Ashrama, I learned that the boy had come along with his parents, both of them Theosophists. The Theosophical Society's world convention is usually held at their international headquarters at Adyar, Madras in December-January. Some of the people from foreign countries choose to visit Sri Ramanasramam at that time. The boy's parents arranged a trip to Tiruvannamalai, but he stoutly refused to go with them, as he was not in tune with conditions in India which can never be adequate when compared with the posh amenities of his native Australia. However, he changed his mind at the last moment and did make the trip. Within an hour of his face-to-face meeting with Sri Bhagavan, his mental barriers were reduced to nothingness. He shed tears for quite some time and later said to his mother, "I am so happy. I don't want to leave his presence. I want to be always with him!" His mother was most upset. She pleaded with Sri Bhagavan, "Swami, please release my son! He is our only child. We will be miserable without him." Sri Bhagavan smiled at her and said, "Release him? I am not keeping him tied up. He is a mature soul. A mere spark has ignited his spiritual fire." So, that casual look was a spark of tremendous power. Turning to the boy, He said, "Go with your parents. I will always be with you." He spoke in Tamil throughout, but the boy understood him fully. He bowed to Sri Bhagavan and reluctantly left with his parents, immensely rich with the newly-found spiritual treasure.

~ Sri C.R. Rajamani (from a talk given at the April 25, 1998 Aradhana program at Arunachala Ashrama in New York City)

2008-06-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

The way of knowledge and the way of love
Are interwoven close. Don't tear
Asunder those inseparables.
But practise both together holding
In the heart the two as one.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai (Translated from the Tamil by Prof. K. Swaminathan)

2008-06-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Rather than worrying about the fact that we are still not able to experience even a tenuous undercurrent of self-remembrance or self-consciousness at all times, in all states and in the midst of all our activities, we should concentrate just on being clearly self-conscious now, at this very moment. We cannot know our real timeless self either in the past or in the future, or even in the passage of time, but only now, in this precise present moment.

Past and future are both only thoughts that occur in the present, as is the passing of time itself, so any thought about any moment or period of time other than the precise present moment will distract our attention away from our own ever-present self-conscious being, ‘I am’. Therefore ignoring all thought of the past or future, we should concentrate only on being uninterruptedly — unforgettingly or pramada-lessly — self-attentive now, at this present moment. If we diligently take care to be undistractedly self-attentive now, our love to be clearly self-conscious at this present moment will spill over into each coming present moment, and thus due to our perseverant effort to be self-attentive at each present moment, the strength, depth, clarity and persistence of our self-attentiveness will steadily and surely increase.

The experience of absolutely clear self-knowledge will dawn in just a single moment — that is, a single moment of completely uninterrupted self-attentiveness — and that single moment is available to us at each and every moment. Therefore our aim at any moment should not be to be uninterruptedly self-attentive for a certain period of time, or even for all time to come, but should only be to be uninterruptedly self-attentive — wholly and exclusively self-conscious — now, at this very moment.

Now there is no other moment that matters. This present moment is the only moment that is now available for us to experience ourself as we really are. Therefore forgetting every other moment, let us just be wholly and uninterruptedly self-attentive now. That is, let us forget about any pramada that might interrupt our self-attentiveness at some other moment, and instead just be vigilant at this very moment to concentrate our entire attention on our present self-consciousness, thereby preventing it from being interrupted now by even the least momentary pramada or self-negligence.

Only if we thus cultivate the love and habit to be vigilantly self-attentive at each given present moment, thereby excluding any thought of what might happen at some other moment, will our self-attentiveness eventually blossom into the true experience of perpetually uninterrupted — absolutely pramada-free — clear self-consciousness, which is eternally our own real nature, ‘I am’.

~ Michael James

Self-Knowledge (Atma-Vidya)

2008-06-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

A devotee once wrote on a slip of paper that Self-knowledge
is the easiest thing, since one already is the Self, and
handed it to Bhagavan, asking him to write a poem on the
subject. Bhagavan responded with the following poem:

Lo, very easy is Self-Knowledge,
Lo, very easy indeed.

1.
Even for the most infirm
So real is the Self
That compared with it the amlak
In one's hand appears a mere illusion.

2.
True, strong, fresh for ever stands
The Self. From this in truth spring forth
The phantom body and phantom world.
When this delusion is destroyed
And not a speck remains,
The Sun of Self shines bright and real
In the vast Heart-expanse.
Darkness dies, afflictions end,
And bliss wells up.

3.
The thought `I am the body' is the thread
On which are strung together various thoughts.
Questing within, enquiring `Who am I?
And whence this thought?' all other thoughts
Vanish. And as 'I', 'I' within the Heart-cave
The Self shines of its own accord.
Such Self-awareness is the only Heaven,
This stillness, this abode of bliss.

4.
Of what avail is knowing things
Other than the Self? And the Self being known,
What other thing is there to know?
That one light that shines as many selves,
Seeing this Self within
As Awareness' lightning flash;
The play of Grace; the ego's death;
The blossoming of bliss.

5.
For loosening karma's bonds and ending births,
This path is easier than all other paths.
Abide in stillness, without any stir
Of tongue, mind, body. And behold
The effulgence of the Self within;
The experience of Eternity; absence
Of all fear; the ocean vast of Bliss.

6.
Annamalai the Self, the Eye
Behind the eye of mind which sees
The eye and all the other senses
Which know the sky and other elements,
The Being which contains, reveals, perceives
The inner sky that shines within the Heart.
When the mind free of thought turns inward,
Annamalai appears as my own Self.
True, Grace is needed; Love is added.
Bliss wells up.

(Translated by Prof. K. Swaminathan)

~ from Collected Works

Sivam-Sundaram (Bliss and Beauty)

2008-06-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

The wife of the Zamindar of Peddapavani, a frequent visitor to the Ashram, came with her children last month.

She stayed for a month and went away a couple of days ago. One evening, after Veda Parayana, she approached Bhagavan and said, “Sometime back Bhagavan gave me darshan in my dream and gave me upadesa. After that, I realised my Self, but it is not steady. What should I do?”

Bhagavan: (amused) “Where has it gone without being steady? Who is it that is not steady?”

Zamindarini: “That (realisation) is not steady.”

Bhagavan: “Where has it gone without being steady.”

Zamindarini: “That experience which I had does not remain steady because of bodily ailment and family worries.”

Bhagavan: “I see. Say so. Those that come, come. Those that go, go. We remain as we are.”

Zamindarini: “You must bestow on me the strength to remain as I am.”

Bhagavan: “You have realised the Self, have you not? If that is so, all the others disappear of their own accord.”

Zamindarini: “But they have not disappeared.”

Bhagavan (smiling): “I see. They will disappear. Vasanas have for a long time built their nests within. If we realise that they are there, they will disappear gradually.”

Zamindarini: “Bhagavan must bestow on me the strength to make them disappear.”

Bhagavan: “We will see.”

The next day about the same time she stood humbly in the presence of Bhagavan and said, “Bhagavan, it is not possible for a married woman to stay on in the presence of
the Guru for any length of time, can she?”

Bhagavan: “The Guru is where one is.”

Zamindarini: (still unconvinced) “Should one look upon the whole world as Brahman or should one look upon one’s own Self as the most important?”

Bhagavan: “We exist. And the world is Brahman itself. What then is there to look upon as Brahman?”

She was taken aback and stood still. Whereupon Bhagavan looked at her compassionately and explained further: “As you know we undoubtedly exist. The world also exists as Brahman. That being so, what is there that one could see as Brahman? We should make our vision as the all-pervading Brahman. Ancients say, ‘Drishtim jnanamayim kritva pasyeth brahmamayam jagat’. The world is as we see it. If we see it as material, it is material. If we see it as Brahman, it is Brahman. That is why we must change our outlook. Can you see the picture in a film without the screen? If we remain as we are, everything adjusts itself to that attitude.”

Overjoyed at this and fully satisfied, she came out and sat on the step on the verandah which is opposite to Bhagavan’s couch. Bhagavan was sitting on the couch in his characteristic pose, silent as usual and with a smile on his face. Looking at the radiant face of Bhagavan, she said involuntarily, “Ah! How beautiful Bhagavan is!”

A devotee who heard the exclamation approached Bhagavan and said, “She is saying how beautiful Bhagavan is.”

With a slight nod of his head Bhagavan said, “Sivam Sundaram”. See how pregnant with meaning that expression is?

~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam (20th September, 1949)

2008-06-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Devotee: God is perfect. Why did He create the world imperfect? The work shares the nature of the author. But here it is not so.

Sri Bhagavan: Who is it that raises the question?

D.: I - the individual.

M.: Are you apart from God that you ask this question?
So long as you consider yourself the body you see the world as external. The imperfections appear to you. God is perfection. His work also is perfection. But you see it as imperfection because of your wrong identification.

D.: Why did the Self manifest as this miserable world?

M.: In order that you might seek it. Your eyes cannot see themselves. Place a mirror before them and they see themselves. Similarly with the creation. "See yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self."

D.: So it amounts to this - that I should always look within.

M.: Yes.

D.: Should I not see the world at all?

M.: You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. You are only to "see yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self". If you consider yourself as the body the world appears to be external. If you are the Self the world appears as Brahman.

~ Talk 272, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

The quest itself is the result of Grace.

2008-06-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

Once the delusion that we are the body is gone, there will only be joy, says Sri Bhagavan. We are not able to experience Grace all the time because of our desires and expectations. It can be experienced only when our desires cease. Grace is always there but it becomes manifest when the mind merges in the Self, either through surrender or through meditation.

God's very nature, says Sri Bhagavan, is Grace and this can be experienced at all times only when a person surrenders. A person who surrenders accepts everything as His will. He does not consider anything as good or bad, success or failure. After surrender, there is no individual will. In this state, which is the result of Grace, one feels Grace all the time.

"Grace manifests itself when the quest for the Self begins. The quest itself is the result of Grace. There is not a single moment when Grace is not operating in us. Grace is beyond time and space. Grace is always there. It is the beginning, middle and end. Grace is the Self," says Sri Bhagavan.

~ K. Subrahmanian, The Uniqueness of Sri Bhagavan

such was his concern

2008-06-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here we shall mention an incident that took place when Venkataraman's only sister Alamelu was a little girl. Being the only female child, she was pampered by the family. It is said that she used to cry to see her grandfather living in Pasalai, a village a few kilometres from Tiruchuzhi. Once she was taken there she at once would want to go back to her mother. Sometimes Venkataraman would accompany her. While returning seeing his sister's tender feet getting blisters walking on the rough path, Venkataraman would cut off the wild vines growing on the way side and tie round her little feet which will serve as slippers. Such was his concern for his sister.

~ Arunachala's Ramana, Volume I

"Yes, there is hope, there is hope."

2008-06-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

In the year 1907 I went to Tiruvannamalai to have darshan of Bhagavan. I climbed up to the Virupaksha cave. In order to safeguard Bhagavan from the intruding pilgrims of the Kartikai festival, one Krishnayya kept guard at the gate of the cave. So I had to wait outside till Bhagavan came out. He soon came out and went away without even glancing at me. I followed and overtook him. He stopped and looked at me. Words poured out of my mouth, "I am suffering, beset with many diseases. Have mercy on me". He replied, "I am neither a physician nor a magician. What can I do or tell you". Anguish welled up from the depths of my heart, and I said, "I came because I heard of your greatness. Will not my good luck be as great"? He looked at me for a long moment and said, "Go home, have courage. No harm will come to you". And he waved his hand in a peculiar way. Somehow it gave me hope.

Soon I settled at Tiruvannamalai and thus began my daily visits to Bhagavan, sometimes staying for the night with him. One day Bhagavan was sitting all alone in front of Virupaksha cave. A strange emotion got hold of me and I asked him in English, "My Lord, Jesus and other great souls have come down to earth to save sinners like me. Is there hope for me"? Bhagavan seemed moved by my cry of distress. He came closer and said in a quiet voice, "Yes, there is hope, there is hope."

When I returned home a song welled up in my mind and I wrote it down. Since then I wrote songs by Bhagavan's grace. When I brought my first song to Bhagavan and recited it before him, he gave me some instructions in prosody and illustrated them with examples from great Telugu poets. Since them I wrote songs and poems without much thought or effort all the years until Bhagavan's samadhi. Then the spring dried up, for it was not a gift I brought with me. It was all His grace.

~ M. V. Ramaswami Iyer, Ramana Smriti

2008-06-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

He who dedicates his mind to Thee, and seeing Thee, always beholds the universe as Thy figure, he who at all times glorifies Thee and loves Thee as none other than the Self, he is the master without rival, being one with Thee, O Arunachala! And Lost in Thy Bliss.

~ Arunachala Pancharatna, verse 5

never alone

2008-06-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

Just as the stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit of a tree will continue sprouting so long as its root survives, so our vasanas, desires and thoughts will continue rising and distracting us away from our self-attentiveness so long as their root, our mind, survives. Therefore Sri Ramana begins the eleventh paragraph of Nan Yar? by saying:

As long as vishaya-vasanas exist in [our] mind, so long nanar ennum vicharanai [the investigation ‘who am I?’] is necessary. As and when thoughts arise, then and there it is necessary [for us] to annihilate them all by vicharanai [investigation, that is, self-investigation or keen and vigilant self-attentiveness] in the very place from which they arise. ...

Until we achieve by our persistent practice of atma-vicharanai — self-investigation, self-scrutiny or self-attentiveness — sufficient maturity to be willing and able to surrender our mind entirely in the absolute clarity of pure self-consciousness, we will continue to be distracted by our thoughts, which we form in our mind due to the driving force of our own vishaya-vasanas, our desires to think of and experience things that appear to be other than ourself. Therefore the struggle between our svatma-bhakti — our love just to be and to know only our own real self — and our vasanas or outward-going desires will continue in us until our mind is completely destroyed by the clear light of true self-knowledge.

Therefore, though we should always aim to maintain an unbroken continuity of self-attentiveness or self-remembrance, and thereby to sink deep into our own self-conscious being, ‘I am’, in practice our attempts to do so will often fail, and we will therefore repeatedly succumb to the powerful attraction of our desires and consequent thoughts. However, we should not be disheartened by our repeated failure to be constantly self-attentive, but should just calmly persevere in our efforts to restore our self-attentiveness whenever we find that we have lost our hold on it.

This constant struggle between self-attentiveness and pramada — self-negligence or self-forgetfulness — is the nature of true sadhana or spiritual practice, so calm, patient and steady perseverance is required to win this battle. However many times and however frequently we may fall from our natural state of serene self-conscious being, we should rise again and try our best to stand firm in it.

In this long inner warfare we are never alone, because the grace of our sadguru, Sri Ramana, is always shining peacefully in our heart as ‘I am’, giving us all the subtle help and support that we need in our earnest efforts to return to his real presence by sinking into the innermost depth of our own clearly self-conscious being, which is his own true form. As we strive to turn wholly selfwards, the powerful attraction of his grace is always drawing us inwards, waiting to consume us entirely whenever we are ready to yield ourself completely to him.

~ Michael James, happinessofbeing.blogspot.com

Ramana Lives

2008-06-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Nearly 20 years ago some questions were raised about the continuous presence of Sri Bhagavan in the Ashram. The tangible and convincing answer has been the steadily increasing stream of devotees who have found what they longed for in the Ashram during all these years. Nevertheless, since Sadhu Arunachala's logic only reinforces the experience of many others, we have pleasure in re-producing the following article from the Call Divine of January 1953. -- Editor

Undoubtedly the same peace is to be had at Tiruvannamalai as in the old days when Bhagavan's physical body was still with us. Some people declare that they find it is even stronger now than formerly, they had been distracted by his form, and now that that distraction is no longer there they enjoy, undisturbed, the bliss of his amazing aura. Did he not himself say during those last sad days: "You say I am going to die. Die! I shall be more alive than ever". And so it is.

But there are still a number who declare that he is dead, that there is no use coming to the Ashram and sitting besides an empty tomb. "No doubt there are psychic vibrations", they admit reluctantly, "but those you can find in any holy place. No, it is no use remaining there, the initial impetus having been given you, you must go off in search of a living guru. Living guru, indeed! Is he not now and ever most living?

But let us examine their argument. It is something like this. Bhagavan having left his body has become absorbed in the Infinite. (You don't mean to pretend that he is still bound to a corpse, do you?) So, except for certain sentimental attachments there is no use remaining in the Ashram or even visiting it. If you do go you may feel certain vibrations, the back-wash, so to speak, of the past, but these are useless for Sadhana, or useful only as a preliminary step which will lead you on to a "living guru". But for anybody with any pretense to advancement, it is useless. There's an end of it.

But like so many plausible arguments it is entirely false, for even these people have admitted Bhagavan to be a Jivan-Mukta, one who is already and finally released from ego. And how often did he not say: "You think I am the body, this corpse that I have to bear about. That is where you are wrong. I am universal" You see, he was "universal", even before he apparently left the body.

The whole mistake simply lies, in the interpretation they put on the word Jivan-Mukta; or in what they think a Jnani really is and how he functions. When it is found that a Jivan-Mukta is already absorbed in the Infinite and that, for him, the apparent change he undergoes is no change at all, there should be no more misapprehension. There is no further step for a Jnani to take, he lost all sense of doership or association with a particular body when he finally knew himself to be a Jnani. The physical death is only just a happening in the myriad strange happenings in Maya. He was in no way limited to a body while it was functioning. It was there, one might almost say, for us. We needed something that we could see, somebody who could speak to us. Now we must get along without the comfort of the physical presence, but it does not mean that Bhagavan has gone anywhere. Indeed, as he said himself: "Where could I go? I am always here".

While he was in the body his body acted as a visible centre for concentration, as a point to focus at, something tangible, which drew the disciples to it. Yet he never was the body even then, he was and knew he was the eternal Atman alone. So now what is more appropriate than that the place in which he lived so long and which is so permeated with his presence should now serve as this centre for concentration? But to think for one moment that Bhagavan Ramana has dispersed, just blown away in thin air, is stupidity. How could anybody who knew him talk like this? "He has become absorbed in the Infinite, become in fact the Infinite," would reply, "for now he is everywhere, not just at a point, in Madras". But as I said this is no argument. He was always the and denied his being in the body. The situation is exactly the same, except that now we longer have his embodied form before us. But there is still his Ashram and the Samadhi where that sacred body is enshrined.

Theoretically, I suppose, there never any need to seek him in Tiruvannamalai, even when he was functioning through a body, except for the well-known rule that a Guru necessary. Yet, we felt the need, and flocking there knew the benefit. Today we can still do the same.

But in the old days he spoke, gave verbal instructions. Now that can happen no more. But to how few did he actually ever speak? How many thousands just came with their minds and sat before him silently and went away without a word? How many came with their minds bursting with questions and in his presence found all the questions self-answered? All this is still possible.

Still, too, can we sit in front of the Samadhi and receive the most potent vibrations, get answers to our unasked questions, comfort and encouragement when needed.

To what after all did all his spoken instructions amount? "There is only one Self. You are that".
Amplifying slightly it becomes: there is nothing to do, nothing to seek. There is only a false identification with limitation to discard that is done by concentration on the Eternal Witness, the One behind all phenomena. Know who you are and there is no more to know. You cannot be the eternally changing body, you witness that; you cannot the senses that observe and contact, you use them; you cannot be the mind which reasons, that is only a tool; you cannot even be the named individual, because that has its changes of childhood, youth and old age, it is born and it dies, it ceases in deep sleep, it takes entirely new forms and names in various births, you are a witness of that too. But we know, each one of us, that there is a permanent "I" behind all these fun functions and changes. If we would only concentrate on that instead of on the apparent world, we should have no more worries or problems.

Any further additions to these teachings were purely given as a sop to the ever inquisitive mind which wants to know, to probe into the future, but is never satisfied, for as soon as one doubt is cleared there is another waiting to pop up and take its place. Moreover, how is it ever possible to clear doubts intellectually? For the moment we may be satisfied, then we forget the arguments, or remember another on our side of the question which we forgot to pose. Bhagavan knowing this spoke little. "Silence is best!" he would say. And here once more are we led back to the Ashram where the same silence can be found, the same presence, the same inspiration, and the same all-absorbing peace.

~ Sadhu Arunachala (Major Chadwick), The Mountain Path, Vol. 19, No. IV, October 1982

We Cannot Decide

2008-06-17T21:53:00.001-07:00

There has never been a beauty like yours.
Your face, your eyes, your presence.

We cannot decide which we love most,
your gracefulness or your generosity.

I came with many knots in my heart,
like the magician's rope.

You undid them all at once.
I see now the splendor of the student
and that of the teacher's art.

Love and this body sit inside your presence,
one demolished, the other drunk.

We smile. We weep, tree limbs
turning sere, then light green.

Any power that comes through us is you.
Any wish. What does a rock know of April?

It is better to ask the flowery grass,
the jasmine, and the redbud branch.

~ Rumi: Bridge to the Soul

Physical Supports of Grace

2008-06-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Whether explained in terms of radiation or not, Grace does emanate from a physical support. Is it imagination? If Bhagavan had been asked he might have agreed that it is but only in the sense that the whole world including one's own body, is imagination. It is as real as the mind that questions its reality.

Some, however, have wondered whether it is legitimate to use physical supports of Grace on such a direct and purely spiritual path as that enjoined by Bhagavan. It was with some such doubt that an English devotee who has never yet been able to come to Tiruvannamalai wrote to me asking for some object, such as a small stone, from near the tomb but felt that his request might be inappropriate. It. was quite appropriate. Although he taught the purely direct and spiritual path of vichara, Bhagavan never discouraged any from observing the rites of their religion or from using any physical supports so long as they were helpful. The path he taught was universal; it included devotion and disinterested activity as well as knowledge. Indeed his devotional hymns to Arunachala are a constant support to the devotees. His very coming there was a recognition of the physical manifestation of Grace, since Arunachala has been through the ages the supreme centre of silent initiation, of Siva manifested as Dakshinamurthy, teaching in silence. No one could be more insistent on its actual sanctity. He said: "Mount Kailas is the abode of Siva but Arunachala is Siva Himself." He saw the sacred hill as the form assumed by pure Spirit for the support and guidance of men. Now that the physical body of Bhagavan -- the most precious of all physical supports of Grace -- has been withdrawn from us, the Hill emits power and Grace for his devotees even more than before.

When I was asked for some token from the hill I was able, fortunately, to quote the approval of Bhagavan in a similar case. Once when he was walking on the hill he said to Dr. T. N. Krishnaswami who was with him: "Some devotee from a far-off land has asked for a stone to be taken from the most holy part of the hill and sent to him. He thinks that some part of the hill alone is holy. he does not know that the whole hill is Arunachala; he does not know that Arunachala Himself is the hill." And picking up a small stone, he added; "I sent him a stone like this."

Bhagavan would sometimes give a devotee some object as a vehicle of Grace, but very seldom, as he had normally nothing to give. In his youthful years he would sometimes cut a stick from the hill, fashion it into a staff for walking and give it to somebody. Sometimes also he would touch an object that was shown to him and give it back. When I left for Madras and showed him the lifesize portrait of him that I was taking with me he held it in his hands before giving it back and said: "He is taking Swami with him!"

It may not be inappropriate to end this article with the strange story of how I received a shoe-horn from him. We were sitting outside the hall. Bhagavan was reclining on his usual couch. There was a sudden clatter and we saw that a metal shoe-horn had fallen to the ground near the couch. How it came to fall there no one could say - there was no breeze and no monkeys or squirrels were playing about. The attendant gave it to Bhagavan who examined it and began demonstrating its use as a spoon. I was sitting in the front row and explained its use as a shoehorn. Bhagavan who did not like anything to be wasted asked me whether I would like it. And so I received a gift from him who had nothing to give; from the Divine Giver who had all to give!

~ Arthur Osborne, The Mountain Path

2008-06-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

"I do nothing."
This is the nectar of faith,
So drink and be happy!

Know you are one,
Pure awareness.

With the fire of this conviction,
Burn down the forest of ignorance.

Free yourself from sorrow,
And be happy.

Be happy!
For you are joy, unbounded joy.

You are awareness itself.

~ The Ashtavakra Gita (translation by Thomas Byrom)

2008-06-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

All these doubts that are troubling you arise simply because you are enmeshed in the 'I am the body' thought and all the confusing consequences that it brings. It is more productive to keep the awareness 'I am the Self' than to be analysing the usefulness of effort. Sadhana, effort and practice, and any ideas you may have about them, are concepts that can only arise when you believe that you are not the Self, and when you believe that you have to do something to reach the Self.

~ Annamalai Swami, Final Talks

2008-06-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Your swarupa is Absolute Reality. You are not the person you identify with. The person who goes to sleep and wakes up, goes through experiences, worries, thinks, frets, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. That is not you. No longer think of yourself as that person. When you get up in the morning, take a deep breath and realize the truth about yourself. First thing upon awakening you can say to yourself, I Am Brahman. I Am the Imperishable Self. Bullets cannot kill me. Fire cannot burn me. Water cannot drown me. I Am That. And rejoice in your True Self. Feel the happiness in your Heart. Feel your Reality, in the stillness, in the quietness, when there is no mind, no thoughts, no words. Who are you then? You just are.

~ Robert Adams, Silence of the Heart

2008-06-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

The true form of the Guru can only be known if one realises, through the grace of the Guru, one's own real form.

Do not imprison the true form of the Guru within a cage but seek inwardly and realise it to be the formless, omnipresent expanse of consciousness.

~ Padamalai, verses 1 & 2 from the chapter The Guru

2008-06-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

I want to let you in on a little secret. There are no problems. There are no problems. There never were any problems, there are no problems today, and there never will be any problems. Problems just mean the world isn't turning the way you want it to. But in truth, there are no problems. Everything is unfolding as it should. Everything is right. You have to forget about yourself and expand your consciousness until you become the whole universe. The Reality in back of the universe is Pure Awareness. It has no problems. And you are That.

~ Robert Adams, Silence of the Heart

2008-06-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

'Bhagavan, I have been coming here for the past several years but still there has been no progress. I am just as bad a sinner as before,' moaned a devotee. Bhagavan advised, "There are no milestones in this path. How can you be sure as to how far you have travelled? Why don't you follow the first class passenger? He informs the guard about his destination, closes the door and sleeps soundly. That is all that he need do. The guard will wake him up at the correct station.'

~ from Krishna Bikshu's account in Unforgettable Years, translated and edited by A. R. Natarajan

Ramana! Ramana! Ramana!

2008-06-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

“I was 21, my son was just six months old, when there developed some painful growth in my neck. The local doctors at Tanjore could not effect a cure for this. I was then taken to Cuddalore, where my father lived. Cuddalore had a bigger hospital, and I was examined there. They diagnosed the growth to be a tumor that had to be immediately operated and removed. However, the tumor was in such a place that the surgery was very risky. The surgeon said that there was every risk of injuring some nerve, which might affect the brain itself… But there was no option and I was admitted to the hospital for surgery. Surprisingly, I wasn’t worried. Although my son was just six months, and my life was a serious question mark, I wasn’t feeling any sense of depression arising out of attachment to my child, nor any other worry. Somehow, I was not perturbed at all. I just submitted myself to whatever was asked of me.

On the day of the surgery, I was lying down on the operating table, when the doctor came to administer anesthesia… He asked me to count one-two-three etc to calm the mind as it slipped into unconsciousness. But instead of doing that, I started saying ‘Ramana! Ramana! Ramana!’ Quite involuntarily. It is not that I wanted to pray to him. It just happened that I spoke his name … And then I had a ’special’ experience… I was walking, my hands cupped in front of me, seeking Ramana, taking his name, walking towards him… And I slipped into unconsciousness…

The operation was completed. And as I emerged from unconsciousness, to the utter surprise of all people around me, I woke up with a feeling of great joy. This joy lasted for a long while after the surgery….

My mother asked me about it… And I told her the reason.

Sometime during the surgery, I had a vivid experience. In that experience, I was a small baby. And Bhagavan was holding me. Head to toe, I fitted within the cup of his two hands. And he was looking at me with great love…It was exhilarating… It was that joy that I woke up with…”

~ Pankajamma, describing her experiences with Bhagavan Ramana to gkamesh. Please see this or this.

2008-06-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

This body is a temple, and God is seated inside you. But you are not going to see him because you are always going outside. Because you are not aware of God inside, you run after other, outside things. This human body, this temple that has been given to you, is a very rare birth. If you reject it and the opportunities it gives to you, it will be a tremendous loss. You don't know when these circumstances will be given to you again. Nobody knows. You don't know if this desire for liberation will ever come to you again.

~ Papaji, The Fire of Freedom, Edited by David Godman

The Fire of Devotion

2008-06-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

With reference to a devotee’s account of the miraculous appearance of sugar candy and almonds, which dropped into the hands of some ladies in a trance, Bhagavan replied, “We hear of so many things. There are certain sects which work for such things. But who sees or gets them? You must see that. In the Periyapuranam a similar occurrence is mentioned.”

Karaikal Ammaiyar was a great devotee of Lord Siva and a poetess, many of whose verses are still preserved. She was the wife of a rich merchant of Karaikal, whose name was Paramadattan (meaning ‘one endowed with heavenly gifts’). Her own name was Punithavathiyar (meaning ‘the pure one’). She was very devout, and especially eager to entertain all devotees of Lord Siva that came to her door. One day her husband received from some persons who had come to him on business a present of two mangoes of a very superior variety which he sent home to his wife. Soon afterwards, a holy devotee came to her house as a mendicant. Since she had no cooked food ready to offer him except some boiled rice, she gave him one of the aforesaid mangoes along with the rice.

At noon her husband returned and after having his meal ate the remaining mango. It pleased him so much that he said to his wife, “There were two, bring me the other.” She went away in dismay, but remembering that the Lord to whose servant she had given the fruit, never deserts those who serve Him, she offered a mental prayer, and straightaway found a mango in her hand, which she took to her husband. Being a divine gift, it was of incomparable sweetness, so he asked her, “Where did you obtain this?”

She hesitated at first to reveal the wonder that had taken place on her behalf, but thinking that she ought to hide nothing from her husband, she told him everything. He gave no credence to her words, but roughly replied, “If that is so, get me another like it.” She went away and said in her heart to God, “If You do not give me one more fruit, my word will have no weight!” Immediately she found another fruit in her hand. She brought this fruit to her husband but as soon as he took it, it disappeared. Wondering at this strange happening, he concluded that his wife must be a divine being and therefore decided that he should no longer live with her. However, he revealed this decision to no one.

One day he quietly hired a ship on which he placed a great deal of his wealth, and then on an auspicious day, worshipped the god of the sea. With sailors and a skilful captain, he set sail for another country where, by trading his merchandise he accumulated a fortune. After some time he returned and came to another city in the Pandiyan kingdom, where he married a merchant’s daughter and lived in great luxury. A daughter was born to him, whom he named Punithavathi after his first wife, with whom he had feared to remain but for whom he retained great reverence.

After a while, his return and prosperity became known to his friends in Karaikal, who resolved to compel him to receive again his first wife, their kinswoman, whom he had deserted. They accordingly proceeded to his new residence, carrying with them in a litter his saintly spouse, Karaikal Ammaiyar. When he heard that she had arrived and was halting in a grove outside the town, he was seized with great awe. He proceeded with his second wife and daughter to where, she was camping – surrounded by her relatives. He prostrated before her with profoundest reverence, saying, “Your slave is happy here and prosperous through your blessings. To my daughter I have given your sacred name, and I constantly adore you as my tutelary goddess!” Poor Punithavathiyar was utterly confounded by this salutation and worship, and so took refuge among her relatives, who all asked with wonder, “Why is this madman worshipping his own wife?” To this Paramadattan replied, “I myself saw her work a miracle, so I know that she is no daughter of the human race, but a divine being. Therefore I have separated myself from her, and I worship her as my tutelary deity and have dedicated my daughter to her”. Hearing this, Punithavathiyar pondered over it and prayed within herself to Siva, the Supreme Lord, saying, “O Lord, this is my husband’s belief. So take away from me the beauty that I have till now cherished only for his sake. Remove from me this burden of flesh, and give to me the form and features of those who always attend on Thee, and praise Thee.”

Immediately, by the grace of God, her flesh dried up and she became a skeleton, becoming one of Siva’s hosts whom the earth and the heaven hold in reverence. Then the gods sent down a rain of flowers, heavenly minstrels resounded, and her relatives paid obeisance to her and departed in awe. Having thus assumed the form of a skeleton, she lived in the wild jungle of Alankadu, and through the inspiration of God she sang several sacred poems, which are sung even to this day. After some time there came upon her an irresistible desire to see the sacred Mount Kailas, so with great speed she travelled northwards till she arrived at the foot of the Mountain. Considering that it was not right to tread on the Holy Mountain by foot, she began to climb it with her feet in the air and with only her head touching the ground.

The goddess Uma, Siva’s consort, saw her ascending in this manner and said to Her Lord, “Who is this that approaches in this strange fashion, a gaunt skeleton sustained only by the power of love?” Lord Siva replied, “She is Karaikal Ammaiyar, and she has obtained this form by her prayers.” When She drew near, He addressed her with words of love, calling her ‘Amma’ (Mother), a name which she bears ever since. As soon as she heard the word she fell at His feet and exclaimed, “Father!” Siva then said to her, “What boon do you wish to ask from me?” She replied, “O Lord, grant undying love and infinite blessedness to me, Your slave. I would be glad never to be born on earth again, but If I must be so born, grant me at least that I may never, in any form or at any time forget You, my Lord; and when You perform Your sacred mystic dance, may I stand in rapture at Your feet and sing Your praise”.

The Lord replied, “In Alankadu you shall see my dance, and with rapture you shall sing.” Then the holy Karaikal Ammaiyar returned to Alankadu, still covering the distance on her head, and there she beheld the Lord’s sacred dance, and sang her renowned lyrics in His praise.

Karaikal Ammaiyar’s devotional hymns form sixth part of Thirumurai.

~ Spiritual Stories As Told by Sri Ramana Maharshi

2008-06-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

You should be capable of making use of even the dust, while at the same you should should also be ready to reject the entire cosmos as mere dust.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi (Arunachala's Ramana - Boundless Ocean of Grace, Volume 1)

Arunachala Padigam

2008-05-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

Verse 1

You it was who by your grace claimed me as your own. What would be my fate if now, you would not reveal yourself to me and I, still yearning for you, should perish in anguish in the darkness of this world? Can the lotus blossom unless it sees the sun? And you are the sun of suns. Your grace abounding swells and as a river overflows, O Love whose form is mighty Aruna Hill.

Verse 3

Lord, I had no idea of thinking of you at all. And yet you drew me with your cord of grace and stood as if resolved to kill me. Then what fault did I, poor I, commit that you should stop midway, your task unfinished? What more is needed? Why do you thus torture me, leaving me half-dead? O Arunachala, fulfill your plan and live for ever, You alone.

Tiger's prey

2008-05-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

It is a different story for those Ramana charms totally, who are taken body and soul, in a no holds barred union. Such ones have no eyes except for that indescribable wonder, the Master's eyes. They cannot escape the bewitchment of His smile. Nothing matters to them, save to be His and let His Presence seep through every pore their body. The joy of self-forgetfulness, of oneness, fills their Being.

This mood, however, is not for keeps, nor even 'till death do us part'. Imperceptibly, bodily hunger, the demands of flesh, stage a virulent come back to the point of negating the joy of being Ramana's. It is certain that Ramana will not leave anyone by the roadside and that His succour would be there to strengthen and sustain. But in the intermediate stage when one is not steadfast in love for Ramana, many ego-traps of attachments seem to be there ready to lure one away. For, when the Sad-guru's tiger-like fangs begin to chew one's ego, the job is never done at one stroke. It is often left incomplete to be finished at a time which He alone knows to be the best. In this half-way house when one is tossed between the sensate and the spiritual, when one neither His nor the world's, one is inclined to pray sometimes 'Please stop being a magnet. Do not take me at all or take all.' It appears as if Ramana is aloof, withdrawn, unconcerned. Not that He is really, but the dryness, the slipping away makes one forlorn.

Sometimes then one cries out in 'where have you gone my God, forsaking me? One yearns and prays 'put out this fire, cool ocean of boundless grace, put out the fire of separation'. One finds 'Arunachala Padigam' replete with pleading to the Sad-guru not to 'stop mid-way and leave the task unfinished.

~ A. R. Natarajan, The Tiger's Prey, The Mountain Path

Vichara

2008-05-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Bhikshu: We have travelled far and wide in search of Enlightenment. How can we get it?

Ramana Maharshi: Through deep enquiry and confident meditation.

Hurst [Paul Brunton]: Many people do meditate in the West but show no signs of progress.

Maharshi: How do you know that they don't make progress? Spiritual progress is not easily discernible.

Hurst: A few years ago I got some glimpses of the Bliss but in the years that followed I lost it again. Then last year I again got it. Why is that?

Maharshi: You lost it because your meditation had not become natural (sahaja). When you become habitually inturned the enjoyment of spiritual beatitude becomes a normal experience.

Hurst: Might it be due to the lack of a Guru?

Maharshi: Yes, but the Guru is within; that Guru who is within is identical with your Self.

Hurst: What is the way to God-realization?

Maharshi: Vichara, asking yourself the 'Who am I?' enquiry into the nature of your Self.

~ The Mountain Path

absorbed in the Heart

2008-05-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

The final chapter in their relationship began in 1916 when mother decided to place herself fully in the hands of her ascetic son. She came to Virupaksha cave and refused to budge. She just had to be in his physical proximity. Ramana too knew that the time had come for him to take over. Hence his consent for her staying with him over-ruling the ignorant protests of the inmates. In 1896, she had come to claim him as her son. Whereas now, she had come to surrender herself to him as her guru and entrust herself physically and spiritually to his custody. From then on, it was no longer a relationship between mother and son. It was that of a Sadguru and his disciple. The love showered by Ramana on all women made it clear to her that in his state, all women were his mothers and that there could be no special exception to this. Her orthodoxy got eroded, thanks to the daily lessons of Ramana's compassion which knew no distinctions. Azhagammal gradually evolved from being Ramana's mother into being the mother of the Ramana family to begin with. Later she blossomed as the universal mother. The master's devotees and the visitors were her children to be fed and cared for. Every needy person was her ward. When requested by her daughter Alamelu to come to her home for a house-warming function, she firmly said that her place was at Ramana's feet and that she did not care if Ramana threw her dead body into the bushes. She also told Ramana that she wanted to die in his arms. From these remarks it is clear that her faith in him was unqualified and complete. She was ready and could therefore profit fully from Ramana's spiritual ministration.

On the historic day, May 19, 1922, when she lay dying, facing death, Ramana took over the solemn assignment of liberating her from the travail of births. With his left hand placed on her head and the right hand on her heart, he sat for full twelve hours when mother was battling with her tendencies. Literally there was a fast forward of the experiences of her future life which she would have had to go through. The whole gamut was condensed into a few hours. She fought bravely, working out her karma. Ramana had in him the power to destroy the balance of karma. But he let mother battle it out for effort is necessary and inescapable till the last breath till one learns to hand over the baton to the Sadguru. This would serve as an example for all seekers who cannot afford to take it easy till effort is no longer possible. Thanks to the omnipotent power and grace of Ramana her life-force was absorbed in the Heart. She became a jivanmukta. Ramana had repaid his debt, and in what a way! He had rendered a service to the mother which is unparalleled in spiritual history!

~ A. R. Natarajan, The Mountain Path, Vol. 27, Nos. 1 & 2, May - June 1990

Immediately he asked Him the question 'Who am I?'

2008-05-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

In 1902 [Sivaprakasam Pillai] happened to visit Tiruvannamalai for the first time on some official duty, and there he heard of the saintly and ascetic life lived by a young boy on the Hill, whom all people referred to with great respect as Brahmana Swami. Sri Pillai at once climbed up the Hill to Guhainamasivayar temple, where the Brahmana Swami was then staying, and on seeing the divine lustre which shone in the face of the silent young ascetic, he felt strongly attracted to Him as a piece of iron to a magnet. Immediately he asked Him the question 'Who am I?' which had been haunting his mind for so many years. Little could he have known at that time, however, that the young Sage he saw seated quietly before him was born in this world with a divine mission to reveal the direct path of Self-enquiry, through which alone the true answer to the question 'Who am I?' could be experienced within the heart. Such is the working of divine Grace that the fit and worthy disciple had thus been automatically drawn to the proper Guru.

~ Michael James, The Mountain Path, Vol. 25, No. 1, January 1988

2008-05-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Bhagavan continued to speak about mukti and said, "Mukti is not anything to be attained. It is our real nature. We are always That. It is only so long as one feels that he is in bondage that he has to try to get released from bondage. When a man feels that he is in bondage he tries to find out for whom is the bondage and by that enquiry discovers that there is no bondage for him but only for the mind, and that the mind itself disappears or proves non-existent when turned inwards instead of outwards towards sense-objects; it merges into its source, the Self, and ceases to exist as a separate entity. In that state there is no feeling either of bondage or liberation. So long as one speaks of mukti he is not free from the sense of bondage.

~ Day by Day with Bhagavan

Know first that 'I' and then you will know everything.

2008-05-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Also of importance is the fact that from the beginning Humphreys felt he was a disciple of Ramana. To quote him, "In a few sentences of broken English and in Telugu, he conveyed worlds of meaning and taught me direct, and made me his chela." In the spiritual field where attitude is so important for leaming, the reverential and fresh approach of Humphreys has given us much material of great value. Humphreys was barely twenty-one at the time he came to Ramana. So we notice an uninhibited spontaneity in his interviews with Ramana, and a special charm in the way Ramana clarified his doubts.

Some points stand out, such as Ramana's remarks:

"Help yourself, you will help the world";

"No master ever cared a rap for occult powers for he has no need for them in his daily life";

"From now onwards let your whole thought in meditation be not on the act of seeing nor on what you see, but immovably on That which sees";

"The Master cannot help being perpetually in the state of Being. He can use the mind, body and intellect without falling back into the delusion of separate consciousness";

"God is everything and everything is God";

"How can you best worship God? Why, by not trying to worship Him but by giving up your whole self to Him";

"You say 'I', 'I want to know'. Tell me who is that 'I'. Know first that 'I' and then you will know everything".

The teaching is always clear and precise, for Humphreys was ripe and ready to receive it.

We also owe to Humphreys some very beautiful descriptions of Ramana in such choice expressions: "For half an hour I looked him in the eyes, which never changed their expression of deep contemplation ... I could only feel that his body was not the man. He was merely a sitting, motionless corpse from which God was radiating terrifically ... You can imagine nothing more beautiful than his smile."

~ A. R. Natarajan, "F. H. Humphreys -- The First Western Seeker," The Mountain Path, Volume 29, Nos 3 & 4, December 1992

2008-05-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

If a pearl-diver remains on the shore of the ocean waiting for the roaring waves to subside, will he ever succeed in gathering pearls? If he plunges through the waves on the surface and dives deep into the ocean with a heavy stone tied to his waist, what waves will he find there in the depths? (Similarly, if we steadfastly dive beneath the waves of thoughts into the depths of our heart by keenly attending to the consciousness 'I', we will find that there are no thoughts there to disturb us).

58. Since a life of great peace exists deep within the ocean of our heart we should be completely indifferent towards the many tendencies (vasanas) which are tossing like heavy waves on the surface of that ocean, and with intense desirelessness (vairagya) we should dive deep into Self, the primal consciousness of our existence.

~ Sri Sadhu Om's Sadhanai Saram, translated by Sadhu Om and Michael James

Desirelessness and Devotion

2008-05-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

To the extent to which the conviction grows stronger in us that all the extroverted activity of the mind is only misery, to that extent the desire and love to turn within will also increase. And to the extent to which the strength to attend to Self increases in us, to that extent the conviction will grow that attending to anything other than Self is useless. Thus each one of these two (namely vairagya or desirelessness towards external objects and bhakti or the love to attend to Self) is an aid to increase the other.

~ Sri Sadhu Om, Sadhanai Saram, verse 56

2008-05-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

An old woman bent double with age used to go round
and round Sri Bhagavan's hall and finally go near Bhagavan's
seat and loudly sing songs composed extempore by her. Her
spontaneous compositions used to pour forth effortlessly from
her extremely devoted heart. She was not a learned lady, there
night be some grammatical mistakes and errors in rhyme,
rhythm, etc. She used to thus sing her prayers daily for obtaining
the grace of Bhagavan.

One day Sri Bhagavan smilingly remarked that her songs
seemed to be much better than those of her son. Her son was a
scholar and from an ordinary point of view, the scholar's
compositions ought to be superior but for Bhagavan those arising
from the bottom of the heart with great devotion and emotion
are more pleasing. Are not the standards of judgement different?

~ The Silent Power

Mother and Father

2008-05-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Mother He is and father too,
Apt for every kind of kinship.
Yes, apt and more than apt.
He is the womb from which are born
All moving things and things unmoving.
Dear child He is and cherished wealth,
Rich learning,wisdom ripe;
Blessed by the mouths that daily chant
Vedic hymns to mighty Rudra,
He dwells in the mind's eye
And the bright unbroken sky,
The light of lights that shines within
The deep heart's core;
Venkata,
All in One and One in all,
True seer in whom all Truth is seen,
Merciful, liberal giver of grace
Miraculously strong to save.
Yes, He is Mother and Father too.

~ Muruganar

The greatest worship is worshipping the Guru's feet that are within oneself

2008-05-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

A devotee once approached Bhagavan and asked him if he could prostrate to him and touch his feet.

Bhagavan replied: 'The real feet of Bhagavan exist only in the heart of the devotee. To hold onto these feet incessantly is true happiness. You will be disappointed if you hold onto my physical feet because one day this physical body will disappear. The greatest worship is worshipping the Guru's feet that are within oneself.

~ Living By The Words of Bhagavan, edited by David Godman

Ramana Maharshi's advice about his disciples taking on the role of guru

2008-05-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

Bhagavan would always advise his disciples never to take on the onerous duty of being a guru. It would only lead to trouble. The disciples would expect all sorts of impossible things from their guru, and to satisfy them he would inevitably resort to trickery. Then, even if he could perform miracles they were things to be avoided as being impermanent and would only deflect him from the true path.

~ Arunachala's Ramana -- Boundless Ocean of Grace, Volume IV, p 120

no need to think of anything else

2008-05-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Before becoming an attendant of Bhagavan I had talked to Him only once, soon after my arrival. One day I approached Bhagavan on the Hill side when He was alone, placed some fruits at His feet, prostrated myself before Him and asked Him: "How is the mind to be subdued?" Bhagavan graciously replied, "Look within where the mind is."

After that there was no need for me to think of anything else. Bhagavan was God for me.

Everything I did was done with care and dedication. For instance, I used to devote considerable time to wash the only two pieces of cloth Bhagavan had (loin cloth and a small towel), rinsing them many times in water, changing the water every time. I wanted the clothes to be spotlessly clean.

~ account by Vaikuntavasar in Arunachala's Ramana -- Boundless Ocean of Grace

2008-05-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

With madness for Thee hast Thou freed me of madness (for the world);
grant me now the cure of all madness, Oh Arunachala!

~ Aksharamanamalai, verse 66

2008-05-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

Everything is only a concoction of time, space and
energy. All else is the trite talk of people who dislike the effort
of sadhana which takes them to the Self. This talk is based on
their dense ignorance of the Self. Only by persistent practice
and experience of sadhana, can one arrive at the truth that all
concepts of souls, world, and the cause thereof are just evanescent
shadows on the screen of Siva-Self-Brahman. (Ch.24, v.31)

~ The Essence of Ribhu Gita, translated by Prof. N. R. Krishnmoorthi Aiyer

2008-05-15T23:43:00.000-07:00

Beautiful photos of Arunachala and Sri Ramanasramam!

2008-05-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

Just as a steady boat, O Rama, is obtained from a boatman, so also the method of crossing the ocean of samsara is learnt by associating with great souls.

The great remedy for the long-lasting disease of samsara is the enquiry, 'Who am I?, to whom does this samsara belong?,' which entirely cures it.

Not a day should be spent in a place which does not possess the tree of a wise knower of Truth with its good fruit and cool shade.

~ Yoga Vasistha Sara, Verses 4, 5, 6

Have you brought a big vessel to take the upadesa with you?

2008-05-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

Ammani Ammal, a lovely person of ripe old age with bent back, in white saree, lives at Ramana Nagar. She was serving the Ashram by lighting lamps in the temple, etc, but due to old age preferred to live all by herself -- such is her astute vairagya! (She has not agreed to receive food from the Ashram.) I succeeded in making her talk about her first conversation with Bhagavan. This is what she said:

"In the thirties I had darshan of Bhagavan, when I visited Him along with my mother. After that I could not stay at home any longer. Without informing my parents I ran away and arrived at the Ashram. I was very young then. I prostrated to Bhagavan and asked:

'Bhagavan! Give me upadesam!' Bhagavan gave a beautiful smile and said: 'Have you brought a big vessel to take the upadesam with you?' He stretched both His hands wide open to symbolise a big vessel! I was standing still. Then for a full fifteen minutes Bhagavan looked at me with intense compassion and grace. I experienced wave after wave of bliss; I was thrilled! This experience I never had in my life, either before or after. Summoning all my courage, I again asked Him: 'Swami! May I stay here, for good?' Bhagavan replied, 'I do not ask anyone to come here, neither stay here nor go out. Thiangs happen according to one's praptam (destiny).' I did not understand then what it all meant; now I know that it was that look of Grace which made me stick to Him and stay at His lotus feet till today.

Bhagavan is God. He is Compassion Suprme. His reply would appear as if He did not take up the responsibility of my stay here. But see, without His Grace could I have stayed here for the rest of my life till today, all alone?"

When I asked her: "If Bhagavan did not recommend your stay at the Ashram, what did you do?" She replied, "What do you mean? Bhagavan's one look was enough. The Grace started working. Immediately, Echamma took me to her house and I began living there. Then I moved to a cottage in front of the Ashram. To stay near Bhagavan, to look at His bliss-filled face and to listen to His exquisitely sweet voice was all I wanted and that I got in abundance!" I saw in her eyes the light of life's fulfillment.

~ V. Ganesan, The Mountain Path, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 1985

What is Guru's Grace?

2008-05-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

D.: What is Guru's Grace? How does it work?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Guru is the Self.

D.: How does it lead to realisation?

M.: Isvaro gururatmeti … (God is the same as Guru and Self …). A person begins with dissatisfaction. Not content with the world he seeks satisfaction of desires by prayers to God; his mind is purified; he longs to know God more than to satisfy his carnal desires. Then God's Grace begins to manifest. God takes the form of a Guru and appears to the devotee; teaches him the Truth; purifies the mind by his teachings and contact; the mind gains strength, is able to turn inward; with meditation it is purified yet further, and eventually remains still without the least ripple. That stillness is the Self. The Guru is both exterior and interior. From the exterior he gives a push to the mind to turn inward; from the interior he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps the mind to achieve quietness. That is Grace. Hence there is no difference between God, Guru and Self.

~ Talk 198

2008-05-11T23:21:00.000-07:00

He who turns inward with untroubled mind to search where the consciousness of ‘I’ arises, realizes the Self, and dissolves in Thee O Arunachala! Like a river when it joins the ocean.

~ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Five Stanzas to Sri Arunachala, verse 3

2008-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Question: We have to live in the world and deal with people, many of whom will try to take advantage of us. Being quiet and detached is one thing, but should we be so quiet and uninterested that we allow other people to take advantage of our passivity?

Annamalai Swami: You can be quiet within and be tough on the outside, if that is the role you have to play in the world.

There is a story about a snake that lived under a bush by the side of the street. Whenever people passed by the bush, the snake made a lot of noise and tried to bite them. It gave lots of trouble to anyone who came near.

One day a wandering sadhu passed the bush and the snake, as usual, put on an aggressive show of behavior.

The sadhu, who could communicate with animals, said, 'Keep quiet and don't bite people. You don't have to trouble the people who walk past.'

The snake heeded the advice and from that day on its behavior completely changed. It sat quietly under its bush and never troubled any of the people who walked past.

Within a few days the local people realised that the snake was no longer a threat to them, but instead of being relieved, they would throw stones at the snake, or try to chase it away. People have this instinctive response to snakes. Whenever they see one, they feel compelled to commit some act of violence against it. The snake ignored the provocation for a while but it soon realised that this new state of affairs was not an improvement on the previous one.

A few days later the sadhu came by and asked how the snake's new lifestyle was going.

'Not so good,' responded the snake. 'I am suffering a lot on account of your advice. I am being very calm and I am not giving any trouble to anyone, but because of my calmness and sadhu-like behavior, people are taking advantage of me by throwing stones at me and harassing me. They would never do this before because they knew I might retaliate and bite them.

The sadhu thought about this for some time and then spoke.

'I advised you to be calm and not trouble anyone, but that doesn't mean that you have to sit here passively while people come along and hurt you. When people come to cause you trouble in the future, just pretend that you are going to bite them. You can be angry on the outside, but on the inside you can still be calm.'

From then on the snake adopted the new tactic of hissing at everyone who came past his bush, just to let them know that he was still a potential threat. This was enough to make people give him a wide berth.

We can all be like this if circumstances demand it. There are occasions when a show of anger is needed. We can play the role of being angry, but at the same time we can know that we are just acting out a role that is needed at a particular moment. Internally we can be peaceful while all this is going on.

~ Annamalai Swami, Final Talks, Edited by David Godman

is samsara within or without?

2008-05-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

During the early days of my arrival here, on one day at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a middle-aged Andhra, who had come recently, asked Bhagavan, "Swami, as I repeat Rama Namam (the name of Rama) regularly every morning and every evening for an hour, other thoughts come in, one by one, increase from time to time and ultimately find that I have forgotten my japam. What shall I do?"

"At that time catch hold of that name (Rama Namam)," said Bhagavan.

We all laughed. Poor man! He felt grieved and said, "The reasons for these interruption is the samsara (family), is not it? I am therefore thinking of abandoning the samsara."

Bhagavan said, "Oh! Is that so? What really is meant by samsara? Is it within or without? Wife, children and others," he said. "Is that all the samsara? What have they done? Please find out first what really is meant by samsara. Afterwards we shall consider the question of abandoning them," said Bhagavan.

He could not reply and so kept quiet.

Bhagavan's heart was full of compassion. With a look full of tender kindness he said, "Supposing you leave your wife and children. If you are here this will become another kind of samsara. Supposing you take to sannyasa. Another kind of samsara comes into existence in the shape of a karra (walking stick), kamandalu (water bowl) and the like. Why all that? Samsara means samsara of the mind. If you leave that samsara, it will be the same thing wherever you are. Nothing troubles you."

Poor man! He mustered up some courage and said, "Yes, that is it, Swami. How to give up that samsara of the mind?"

Bhagavan said, "That is just it; you said you were doing the japam of Rama Namam. During the train of thoughts, you said you were sometimes reminded of the fact that you had forgotten the japam of Rama Namam. Try to remind yourself of that fact as often as possible and catch hold of the name of Rama frequently. Other thoughts will then slowly decrease."

~ Suri Nagamma, Letters from Sri Ramanasramam,1 December, 1945

2008-05-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

WE approach the Guru in the restlessness of our
mind and find no satisfaction in anything done
or achieved. He gives us His benign look of Grace; in
that one look is the real touch of Grace. His proximity is
the harbour of Peace, in Him you find your haven of
safety. He is the healer of all sores in you. You seem to be
melted and lost in Him. You are now still. The Guru says,
"Be still, and Know that I am God." This knowing is the
understanding of the absolute and relative values of Life.

Understanding what? It is the distinctive knowledge
(the vijnana) of the eternal unchanging Truth of your self.
In the background of this eternal and unchanging Truth,
the changeful and varying states of your doership move
about and cloud your understanding of the Real Truth of
your Being.

To put this more clearly, in the words of Sri Bhagavan,
"You are the Self (atman)." Now no one will deny he is
the Self, the eternal changeless basis of himself. This Self
is Pure Being, conscious of Itself. It is Pure Bliss, in the
sense that in Itself it is not touched or affected by the
pleasures and pains of your varying states. Know to fix
yourself as this Self, and to abide as such, unmoved by the
fluctuating feelings of pain and pleasure, which pass and
re-pass before you, the unaffected Self.

~ At The Feet of Bhagavan

right action

2008-05-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

All that is done in an Ashram, all that that is done for the Master, must be done with love, no matter what it is. He who does some task, such as sweeping the floor, watering the plants, or helping in a ritual, must execute it remaining free from anxieties, with a pure heart and full devotion. Only in this way will the action be right without interference of the profane ego, and there will be no attachments to the fruits of actions.

~ Maha Krishna Swami, Years in the Presence of Ramana My Master, edited by A. R. Natarajan

think of me and you will be alright

2008-05-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

I had also at this time a more serious trouble. I had been practising breath control (pranayama) as taught by Swami Ramtirtha in his works. There came a stage when I felt a terrible sensation as though my head would crack and break into pieces. Then I stopped doing it, but every day the sensation was recurring at the time of practice and the fear was growing that disaster was imminent. So, at dead of night, when Bhagavan was alone, I approached him with my tale. He said laughing, "What! Again you are seized with fear! These are the usual experiences of people who do yogic exercises without the immediate guidance of a Guru, but having come to me, why should you fear?"

Then Sri Bhagavan added in an undertone: "Next time you get that sensation, you think of me and you will be all right." From that moment to this I have never felt it again.

~ G. V. Subbaramayya, Sri Ramana Reminiscences (As I Saw Him, from The Maharshi)

2008-05-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

Those who have a stony heart,

who are great sinners,

who every day in this world

commit uncountable sins,

if they would only once utter the name ‘Annamalai’,

the name of birth itself,

which comes like a flood,

will depart.

~ Guhai Namasivaya

To read an interesting account of how this (and other verses) came to light please see this.

2008-05-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

Bhagavan:
The way to reform the world is to reform oneself in such a way that reality shines in the Heart.
Before attempting to enquire into and know the way to reform the world, subjugate and destroy your insurgent mind.

Without first filling your own heart [with Self-knowledge], what aid can you give, and to whom?

Those who do not have the power to redeem themselves cannot render genuine service to the beings of the world.

~ from Padamalai

2008-05-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

To look for God ignoring Thee who art Being and Consciousness is like going with a lamp to look for darkness. Only to make Thyself known as Being and Consciousness, Thou dwellest in different religions under different (names and) forms. If (yet) they do not come to know Thee, they are indeed the blind who do not know the sun. O Arunachala the great! Thou peerless Gem, abide and shine Thou as my Self, One without a second!

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, verse 4, Sri Arunachala Ashtakam

The gaze of the Lord

2008-05-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

Subduing me and bringing me under his control, he drew my consciousness to himself with the irresistible magnet of his grace. From the profound depths of his mauna, his gracious glance cleaved the knot of my ego’s ruinous cravings in an instant. How great is the power of his piercing gaze!

Lost in the fruitless round of birth and death, I surrendered before my Master and my heart became clear and serene through his gracious gaze. Then, through the luminous spiritual practice in which I embraced his holy feet as the true path, I merged with the nature of the Real, so that the disastrous error [of forgetting my true nature] was no more.

Through the forgetfulness [pramada] that arose through the error of failing to enquire what was truly real, I revelled in the illusory existence of the physical body. But the Lord, through his glance of grace, united with my consciousness, and brought me into harmony with true existence, the fullness of the open sky [of the Self].

~ Sri Muruganar, from the forthcoming Sri Ramana Guru Prasadadam, translated by Robert Butler and Dr T. V. Venkatasubramanian

Please see David Godman's new blog to read more of this work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Delve down into That which only is

2008-04-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Duraiswami, who knew [Bhagavan] for years as one of his inmates, told me this: once he was expressing his admiration for the sage's power of concentrating day and night on his sadhana, when the other cut in smiling, "Sadhana? Who did sadhana? What did I know of sadhana? I simply came and sat down in the temple or elsewhere in Arunachala and then lost all count of time."

To me he said the same thing in a slightly different way with his characteristic irony. "People call Him by different names, but He came to me with no name or introduction so I know not how to define Him. What happened was that my desires and ego left me, how and why I cannot tell, and that I lived thenceforward in the vastness of timeless peace. Sometimes," he added with a smile, "I stayed with closed eyes and then, when I opened them, people said that I had come out of my blessed meditation. But I never knew the difference between no-meditation and meditation, blessed or otherwise. I simply lived a tranquil witness to whatever happened around me, but was never called upon to interfere. I could never feel any urge to do anything except to be, just be. I see that all is done by him and him alone, though we, poor puppets of maya, feel ourselves important as the doers, authors and reformers of everything! It is the ineradicable ego, the I-ness in each of us, which is responsible for the perpetuation of this maya with all its attendant sufferings and disenchantments."

"What then is the remedy?" I asked.

"Just be" he answered. "Delve down into That which only is, for when you achieve this you find: 'That am I'; there is and can be nothing but That. When you see this, all the trappings of maya and make-believe fall off, even as the worn-out slough of the snake. So all that you have to do is get to this I, the real I behind your seeming I, for then you are rid forever of the illusive I-ness and all is attained, since you stay thenceforward at one with That which is you; that's all."

~ Forever is in the Now, edited and complied by A. R. Natarajan (account by Dilip Kumar Roy)

Bhagavan Ramana's Grace

2008-04-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

I do not usually post any personal stories on this blog, but here goes ...

Yesterday, I took my children to a park beside the bay, and a few minutes after we arrived I saw a biggish sturdy boy using his greater size and strength to dominate a smaller tear-streaked boy. Their mothers did not seem to be around, so I felt I needed to help them resolve their struggle over a lightsaber.

To my great surprise, the bigger one suddenly let go of the saber and drove his fist into my mouth, hard. Twice. An almost overpowering urge arose to drop him to the ground very fast and pin him, and as I was struggling to resist this urge, he kicked me 3 or 4 times. At first there was a kind of bodily shock reaction and I had to fight back tears.

A few people witnessed this, and there was lots of consternation, and someone called the police because the child would not admit to having any parent or guardian at the park and though many people were asked, no one knew who he was. It did not seem right to just leave him running amok amidst lots of younger kids.

A polarization began to happen, in which I was cast in the role (in my own mind too) as the nice peaceful person, and the boy was cast in the role as the out of control bad one.

But then Bhagavan, whom I had temporarily lost awareness of, showed me the child's heart. At first it was just a glimmer, but enough of a glimmer that it became obvious that the child was not the ordinary looking, sturdy, red-haired body he was "in", nor the very confused and suffering mind through which our conventional reality was being filtered (he turned out to be autistic, though he had none of the usual traits).

Then Bhagavan turned up the dial and showed me the boy's heart so blazingly that I could no longer feel any difference between the child and Bhagavan himself.

An overwhelming sense of gratitude keeps flooding me, that the boy touched me in the way he did. It took exactly those two punches (and Bhagavan) to wake me up out of the trance I had been in, of imagining the child was just a troublesome individual on the loose and nothing to do with Bhagavan.

Bhagavan showed me so tangibly that what appeared to be the boy was not the boy at all ... and what WAS real about the boy was none other than our Beloved ... I cannot really put this into words, but I have tried.

2008-04-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, I asked David Godman this question:

David, do you think these kinds of very specific heart/mind experiences such as Saradamma described (and the kind Papaji has described) always happen when Self-realisation takes place, and some people just never speak of them? When I first read that account in No Mind I am the Self, it struck me as so very precise and physiological that it almost seemed like if that is the doorway through which one ego makes its final exit, that would need to be the way they all go ... Yet Annamalai Swami, for example, does not mention anything like this (I don’t think), or speak of severed knots, and instead describes a more gradual process. I am thinking specifically of this exchange in Final Talks:

Question: I want to ask Swamiji about his own experience. Was his own experience a single event, an explosion of knowledge? Or did it happen more gradually, in a more subtle way?

Annamalai Swami: It was my experience that through continuous sadhana I gradually relaxed into the Self. It was a gradual process.

Question: So it is not necessarily something that happens with a big bang?

Annamalai Swami: It is not something new that suddenly comes. It is eternally there, but it is covered by so much. It has to be rediscovered.

I’d love to hear anything and everything that comes to you on this topic ... I have wondered a lot about this. Thanks!

David then gave this answer on his new blog http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com/.

No Expectations

2008-04-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

A spirit that lives in this world
and does not wear the shirt of love,
such an existence is a deep disgrace.

Be foolishly in love,
because love is all there is.

There is no way into presence
except through a love exchange.

If someone asks, But what is love?
answer, Dissolving the will.

True freedom comes to those
who have escaped the questions
of freewill and fate.

Love is an emperor.
The two worlds play across him.
He barely notices their tumbling game.

Love and lover live in eternity.
Other desires are substitutes
for that way of being.

How long do you lie embracing a corpse?
Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.

Anything born in spring dies in the fall,
but love is not seasonal.

With wine pressed from grapes,
expect a hangover.

But this love path has no expectations.
You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount. Travel lighter.
Wings will be given.

Be clear like a mirror
reflecting nothing.

Be clean of pictures and the worry
that comes with images.

Gaze into what is not ashamed
or afraid of any truth.

Contain all human faces in your own
without any judgment of them.

Be pure emptiness.
What is inside that? you ask.
Silence is all I can say.

Lovers have some secrets
that they keep.

~ Rumi: Bridge to the Soul, Coleman Barks

"I try to shake off the body."

2008-04-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

Maj. A. W. Chadwick: Of what nature is the realisation of Westerners who relate that they have had flashes of cosmic consciousness?

M.: It came as a flash and disappeared as such. That which has a beginning must also end. Only when the ever-present consciousness is realised will it be permanent. Consciousness is indeed always with us. Everyone knows `I am!' No one can deny his own being. The man in deep slumber is not aware; while awake he seems to be aware. But it is the same person. There is no change in the one who slept and the one who is now awake. In deep sleep he was not aware of his body; there was no body-consciousness. In the wakeful state he is aware of his body; there is body-consciousness. Therefore the difference lies in the emergence of body-consciousness and not in any change in the Real Consciousness. The body and body-consciousness arise together and sink together. All this amounts to saying that there are no limitations in deep sleep, whereas there are limitations in the waking state. These limitations are the bondage; the feeling `The body is I' is the error. This false sense of `I' must go. The real `I' is always there. It is here and now. It never appears anew and disappears again. That which is must also persist for ever. That which appears anew will also be lost. Compare deep sleep and waking. The body appears in one state but not in the other. Therefore the body will be lost. The consciousness was pre-existent and will survive the body. In fact, there is no one who does not say `I am'. The wrong knowledge of `I am the body' is the cause of all the mischief. This wrong knowledge must go. That is Realisation. Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor it is a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage.

Maj. Chadwick: I try to shake off the body.

M.: A man shakes off his clothes and remains alone and free. The Self is unlimited and is not confined to the body. How can the body be shaken off? Where will he leave it? Wherever it is, it is his still.

Maj. Chadwick: (Laughter.)

~ from Talk 96, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

one look

2008-04-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

Bhagavan talked of many things on that walk [to the Samudram Lake] with us, but at this distance of time I remember only two topics that interested me.

At one place He pointed out a palmyra tree which had decayed in the embrace of a parasitic banyan tree. Some bird had dropped a banyan seed into the palmyra, and as it
began to grow the palmyra became cloven and stunted in its own growth. Drawing our attention to this phenomenon, Bhagavan remarked that this is just what the look of Grace from a Jnani does. One look into a soul, and the whole tree of past tendencies and prejudices (vasana), gathered up through long cycles of past births, is burned up and decays away. Then the reality of the Self is experienced. Thus He explained to us the effect of contact with the Great and He said the supreme Jnana obtained with the touch of the Saint can never be won through the study of any number of Scriptures, or by any store of good deeds, or by any other spiritual practices and efforts. Later, on return to the Ashram, I put this in verse form as below:

A bird drops seed upon a tree and causes its decay.
So Guru's grace rays knowledge into the seeking mind.
Replacing ego-shadows with resplendent Jnana's light.

~ T.K. Sundaresa Iyer, At The Feet of Bhagavan