this Awareness itself as Guru

Those who have not searched and found
The truth by their own natural Being
Will perish by alien forms deluded.
Live as one sole Being-Awareness.
All save this is false appearance,
The realm of maya.

[The delusion consists in thinking that one is the body alone, not the whole world.]

How can any treatise thrust some wisdom
Into that human-seeming heap of clay
Which keenly watches things perceived
And not at all the Self, Awareness?

Is it not because you are yourself
Awareness that you now perceive
This universe? If you observe
Awareness steadily, this awareness
Itself as Guru will reveal
The Truth.

~ Sri Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai

firm-fixed in the heart

He is the Sage, the eternal Sun
Self-luminous, in whose presence this
Phenomenal world so variegated
And wonderful wholly disappears,
Unseen as other than the Self.

The Sage, exulting in the Self
And firm-fixed in the heart, regards
The universe as neither mere
Illusion nor as something other
Than the Self.

The whole world which we are aware of
Is by the Sage seen as Awareness
And nothing but Awareness only.
And knowing that there is no being
Except Awareness, he abides,
Rich in bliss, as Self-awareness.

~ Sri Muruganar, The Garland of Guru's Sayings, translation by Prof. K. Swaminathan

no escape from the Grace of our Beloved

Ramana is the Formless, Timeless
and Spaceless Arunachala
who dances as the "I" in the Heart.
He has graciously taken a form,
that we may be relieved of the bondage of form.
He is not a geographical entity
but the Moveless Brahman of the Upanishads.

Grace is His Essence,
and out of grace
He has become our Guru.
Grace is not simply in Tiruvannamalai,
but resides in our hearts.
The Heart is the true Arunachala.

The might of His Grace is infinite,
It is invincible:
By His look
we were caught
in the net of His Grace,
and it will accomplish Its work.
There is no escape from It.

His Grace is like the unerring light of the Sun.
As it devours the darkness,
so Grace devours Ignorance and Unreality.

We need do nothing at all,
except to give our free consent
that this work of Grace
shall be accomplished.


~ from Revelation by K. Lakshmana Sarma "Who" (I broke the lines differently, to savour the words more fully.)

Self-surrender

Devotee: What is Self-surrender?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: It is the same as self-control; control is effected by removal of samskaras which imply the functioning of the ego. The ego submits only when it recognises the Higher Power. Such recognition is surrender or submission, or self-control. Otherwise the ego remains stuck up like the image carved on a tower, making a pretence by its strained look and posture that it is supporting the tower on its shoulders. The ego cannot exist without the Power but thinks that it acts of its own accord.

D.: How can the rebellious mind be brought under control?

M.: Either seek its source so that it may disappear or surrender that it may be struck down.

D.: But the mind slips away from our control.

M.: Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough. No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one's birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance. A passenger in a train keeps his load on the head by his own folly. Let him put it down: he will find the load reaches the destination all the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding Power.

D.: Swami Vivekananda says that a spiritual Guru can transfer spirituality substantially to the disciple.

M.: Is there a substance to be transferred? Transfer means eradication of the sense of being the disciple. The master does it. Not that the man was something at one time and metamorphosed later into another.

D.: Is not Grace the gift of the Guru?

M.: God, Grace and Guru are all synonymous and also eternal and immanent. Is not the Self already within? Is it for the Guru to bestow It by his look? If a Guru thinks so, he does not deserve the name.

~ from talk 398, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Devoted association with grace is living with the Guru

The mind is always operating through the senses. The vasanas, continually moving towards sense objects, make the mind resemble a lamp flickering in the wind. If it is desireless, the same mind will become motionless, like a lamp in still air. Living with the Guru is the best means for accomplishing this. However, living with the Guru is not, as some people think, the association of one body with another. The Sadguru is God in human form, but if the aspirant regards the Guru as being a form, in the same way that he takes himself to be a body, his own I-am-the-body idea will not cease. So long as this root problem does not cease, the devotee's real nature will not manifest, bondage will not end, and liberation will not be obtained. The aspirant should therefore practice worshipping the Sadguru as the unconditional supreme Brahman. Through this practice he will in due course realise that his real nature is not different from the true nature of the Sadguru. This realisation will remove the I-am-the-body idea and the devotee will attain jivanmukti.

In essence, the aspirant should take consciousness of the Self -- which shines within him just as it shines within the Sadguru -- as his gracious Guru, and abide, through Self-attention, in its presence. This is the true meaning of living with the Guru.

~Sadhu Natanananda, Sri Ramana Darsanam

If 'I' also be an illusion, who then casts off the illusion?

Q: Is it not possible for God and the Guru to effect the release of a soul?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: God and Guru will only show the way to release; they will not by themselves take the soul to the state of release. Each one should by his own effort pursue the path shown by God or Guru and gain release.

Q: What is release?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Inquiring into the nature of one's self that is in bondage, and realizing one's true nature is release.

Q: If 'I' also be an illusion, who then casts off the illusion?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The 'I' casts off the illusion of 'I' and yet remains as 'I'. Such is the paradox of Self-Realization. The realized do not see any contradiction in it. You give up this and that of 'my' possessions. If you give up 'I' and 'Mine' instead, all are given up at a stroke. The very seed of possession is lost. Thus the evil is nipped in the bud or crushed in the germ itself. Dispassion (vairagya) must be very strong to do this. Eagerness to do it must be equal to that of a man kept under water trying to rise to the surface for his life.

Q: Cannot this trouble and difficulty be lessened with the aid of a Master or God chosen for worship? (Ishta Devata) Cannot they give the power to see our Self as it is to change us into themselves and take us to Self-Realization?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Ishta Devata and Guru are very powerful aids on this path. But an aid to be effective requires your effort also.
Your effort is sine qua non (an indispensable or essential condition, element, or factor). It is you who should see the sun. Can spectacles and the sun see for you? You yourself have to see your true nature.

probing the mysterious I-sense

Except the path of Self-inquiry, probing the mysterious I-sense,
no other effort or action, however strenuously pursued,
can take one to the fount of bliss,
the treasure shining in the heart,
forever as the Self-Awareness.

~ Sri Muruganar, Garland of Guru's Sayings