The quest itself is the result of Grace.

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

Be true to yourself.

Bhagavan Ramana asks us to ask ourselves, "Who am I?" and to ask now, instead of dillydallying. He says, "Take the plunge into the depths of being." The delay in taking the plunge is due to our thinking that there is something hiding our reality and that it must be destroyed before reality is gained. "It is a great game of pretending," says Bhagavan. Pretension ends when we let the dead bury the dead, cease to take thought for the morrow and live in the present. "There is only the present," says Sri Ramana.

Are we sincerely prepared to take the plunge? Most of us would rather postpone it for some reason or other. If we seriously wish to know the truth, if we truly desire to find out what we are, what life is, what is truly sacred, we have only to look, without any further delay, within.

That is the plunge. To look, to act. There is no technique or stored-up knowledge necessary to help us look within, to be what we really are.

We have kept a jewel in the safe. To take possession of it, all we have to do is open the safe. The jewel of reality, the kingdom of heaven is within. So look within. Then the life principle reveals itself. It is there as the "I" in which there is no "me", "you" or "he".

A few days before Sri Bhagavan dropped the body, Sri Sivananda Swami, one of his attendants, asked him with tears in his eyes, "Bhagavan! I am not learned. I do not know anything. Please bless me with a few words of upadesa so that I too may be redeemed."

Smiling graciously, Bhagavan said, "Be true to yourself."



When the Swami recounted this to me years later, I was thrilled. I sensed how deeply that simple sentence had impressed the artless attendant. It was Sri Bhagavan's testament of truth and freedom, not only for Sivananda Swami, but for all his devotees.

Are we true to ourselves? Begin with an honest answer. That's the beginning of the ending.

Bhagavan said, "It is grace which makes you ask Who am I?". And, "There is no answer to Who am I? The asking is the answer."

Lord Krishna says in the Gita (X:20), "I am the Self, O Gudakesa, seated in the hearts of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings." That "I" is you!

When you look, what happens? You become silent. Watch. Follow. This silence is life, our true nature. Remain in that silence -- that's all. Thinking is not our real nature. Put a stop to it. Just be. Dive within and be that silence. That silence is the real "you". That's the reality. This is Bhagavan Ramana's assurance. Be courageous, a dheera. Accept this and act. We may say, "It's all right for a Ramana Maharshi. It was possible for him. But not for me. I am nowhere near it at all."

Bhagavan anticipated this. "In this quest," he said, "the first thing to give up is the notion that it is difficult. Such a thought is the sure way of handicapping oneself."

Have faith in the grace of Sri Maharshi. Take the plunge. Faith is essential. Grace flows.

~ V. Ganesan, The Mountain Path, December, 1991

The necessity of grace

It is impossible for anyone to get established in the experience of reality, being-consciousness, except through the power of grace, the Mother [chit-para-sakti].

Other than through grace, the Mother, no one can attain reality, the experience of Sivam, which is truth.

Except through that exalted light, which is the grace of consciousness, the supreme power, it is impossible to transcend the conceptualizing power of the mind.

The ego can only be destroyed by the power of grace, not by the dark, perverted knowledge [suttarivu].

~ Padamalai, Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Recorded by Muruganar

God and the Guru

God and the Guru are not really different: they are identical. He that has earned the Grace of the Guru shall undoubtedly be saved and never forsaken, just as the prey that has fallen into the tiger's jaws will never be allowed to escape. But the disciple, for his part, should unswervingly follow the path shown by the Master.

~ Nan Yar?

only through his grace

Delighting my gaze, he showed me his feet which graciously bestow true knowledge. No one can reach and know them through the contentious ego with its endless convolutions, but only through his grace, when the mind is delivered up to be subdued by the power of those holy feet.

~ Sri Muruganar, Sri Ramana Anubuti

Grace

If toward the Lord you take
One single step, then with much more
Than a mother's love He takes
Nine steps towards you to accept you.
Such is the Guru's Grace.

~ The Garland of Guru's Sayings

Grace

Grace is the sustaining principle by which all things have the bubbling awareness of life, by which each ripens to its full potential, Grace is the basis of existence, of consciousness, of bliss. Grace is the Self and Grace is the way we get back to our Self, breaking away from the limited identity of the 'I'-thought. Bhagavan repeatedly emphasized that Grace is now, always, ever present. He explained that it is Grace which puts us on the path of self-enquiry, Grace that protects us from within and without along the way and Grace that is the final experience of Self-abidance.

Yet, though Grace is ever-present, we feel it more powerfully only in those moments when we perceive the harmony of life, when we experience joy and relief, and when we tap the silent spring of peace within. Though the sun's rays are everywhere, when focussed through a lens they become more intense in light and heat.

It is when we are aware of Arunachala ever throbbing within as the Heart, the Self, that we are permeated with Grace and know it to be every moment. Bhagavan simply, most beautifully, shows us the way to this experience, to an understanding of the Truth in his description of Arunachala. He brings out the principle of existence, when he calls Arunachala the "Self Supreme'. The element of awareness, of consciousness is vivified in the phrase 'O mount of light'. And what happens when limited identity is abandoned and a merger in this awareness, the Self occurs? One is swallowed in the blissful ocean of an all enveloping brilliance.

~ Dr. Sarada Natarajan, Surging Joy (Self Discovery)

Thy wonderful grace

Bearing and tending me in the world in the shape of my father and mother
Thou didst enter my heart
and before I fell into the deep sea called Mahamaya and was drowned,
Thou didst draw me to Thee and keep me at They Feet.
How shall I describe Thy wonderful Grace, O Arunachala who art Consciousness Itself?

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Arunachala Navamanimalai

for the whole Arunachala Navamanimalai, see http://bhagavan-ramana.org/necklet.html

Bhagavan Padam

Primal Lord!
Lord who is the beautiful radiance that shines
as 'I-I' within the Heart of devotees!
Lord who is the Self, beyond the reach
of the mind's objective knowledge!
Lord who possesses justice rooted in grace!
Lord who stands, his feet firmly planted
in the Self-abidance of his followers!
Lord who remains as that which is [after all else is discarded]!
Noble Ramana whose play is to hold me in his loving embrace!

~ Sri Ramana Anubhuti

like a Mother, Our Beloved

The residents of Palakothu used to return to Palakothu from the Ashram every day around 11 am. Sri Bhagavan used to come to Palakothu around 11:30 am, after finishing his lunch. We used to wait for his darshan there. He would come and ask about our welfare like a Mother. We used to be overjoyed at his kind words.

Every day I used to participate in the Tamil parayana done in his presence. There was hardly a day when I didn't talk to him. When the Ashram expanded and visitors increased, there were occasions when I could not speak to Sri Bhagavan. On those days I would deliberately leave out a line while chanting in his presence. Sri Bhagavan would immediately complete it for me. I used to feel happy that he would talk to me.

If I copied something in my notebook, I would deliberately leave out a line. I knew Sri Bhagavan would make the correction in his own hand. I wanted Sri Bhagavan's handwriting to be in my notebook. I have done this several times. I treasure that notebook.

I wanted to paste a picture of Arunachala hill in the notebook. I could not get it. Sri Bhagavan came to know of this and drew a picture of Arunachala. I consider it as an act of Grace. It is this picture that appears in the Mountain Path.

~ Kunjuswami, Living with the Master, Reminiscences by Kunjuswami

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

the echo you hear from your heart

A few days after my return to the Ashram, I told Sri Bhagavan of what had happened at Periayur. I said, "People from our Ashram are asked a number of questions on Vedanta when they visit mutts. It will be a reflection on the Ashram if we can't answer such questions. So I asked Krishnananda of Tirukoilur to teach me Vedanta. He said he would teach me as fast as possible in the traditional way if I went to Tirukoilur. I am planning to go to Tirukoilur".

Sri Bhagavan laughed and said, "Now you want to study Vedanta; later Siddhanta, Sanskrit, Disputations, etc., etc. If you learn how to be in your Self, that amounts to learning everything. What Vedanta did I study? If you are in the Self, the echo you hear from your heart will be in tune with everything. That is what is called the 'Divine Voice'."

Immediately I lost all interest in studying Vedanta. I have been able to answer questions by listening to the Voice within. This is due to Sri Bhagavan's Grace.

Sri Bhagavan has said in Atma Vidya:

When you haven't understood yourself,
What's the point of understanding other things?
When you have understood yourself,
What else is there to understand?

~ from Living with the Master, Reminiscences by Kunjuswami

bright unfading worship

Rare indeed is the non-dual jnana.
Yet fixing firmly one's true love
On Siva's Feet will easily lead
One to the Grace divine, the light
Which destroys illusion dark
And reveals the Real.

Through love firm fixing the Lord's Feet
Ever in the heart, one can destroy
All false desires. And then the heart,
Now blossoming wide, beholds the true
Light of supreme awareness.

If the jiva's head but merges
In Siva's Feet, the jiva shines
As Shiva Himself. The ego-ripple dies
And gains the stillness of true Being.

Snapping sharp the heavy fetters
Of false desires, speed your thoughts
Towards His golden lotus Feet.
Wasting not a moment practice
Meditation on those Feet for ever.

Only in the heart firm fixt
In meditation deep the Lord abides.
Train then the heart until it stops
Roaming and home-coming like a stray bull
And learns to cling to Him alone.

Give up those attachments false
That drag one to the world of sense.
If the still mind adores the crystal
Linga, pure awareness, bliss,
Bliss infinite results.

Auspicious is each day; benevolent
In aspect each planet; lucky
Is each conjunction. Every hour
Is fit, fine, and fresh for the bright
Unfading worship of the Lord.

~ Sri Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai

Merge the mind in the heart

Kunjuswami came to Bhagavan in January of 1920, and remained until Bhagavan's mahasamadhi in 1950. Because the plague had come to Tiruvannamalai, no one was supposed to get off the train there, but through Bhagavan's grace, Kunjuswami was able to find his way to Skandashram.

Soon Kunjuswami was left alone with Bhagavan. Here he recounts part of their conversation:

"When I asked him how to realise the Self, he said I should first know who I am. When asked how I could find out who I am, he said, "Find out where thoughts start from." When asked how I should do it, he said, "Turn inward and merge the mind in the heart." After saying this, he fell into his natural silence. Thinking I should also be like him, I sat in silence. Sri Bhagavan's gracious looks were on me. My mental agitation vanished that very moment and I attained a peace and joy that I had not experienced earlier." (quotation from Living with the Master, Reminiscences by Kunjuswami)

surrender all into the hands of the Beloved

Q: [Annamalai] Swami, I sometimes feel tremendous grace and have a great sense of well-being. This feeling is steady for a few days and then it goes away. Why is this?

AS: If the awareness of grace does not last it means that your surrender is only partial. Don't be attached to your problems and don't worry about them. Let all your problems go and put them in the hands of Bhagavan. Cultivate the feeling 'This is God's problem, not mine'.

When you surrender to Bhagavan you should not worry about any of your problems and needs. You should have faith that Bhagavan is going to take care of everything. If you still find yourself worrying about anything, you have not fully surrendered.

Tayumanuvar once asked Shiva to give him a boon:

You who carry all the troubles of the world, please take all my troubles too. Take from me all sense that I am the doer. You alone act; You do everything through me.

Surrender completely and accept that everything that happens to you and the world is God's will.

~ Living by the Words of Bhagavan

In the brightness of your Grace

‘As in the ocean salt Dissolves and disappears, so in the body lost I lay. But now I long to be absorbed In the brightness of your Grace. Eat me as food, O Lord, Digest both Me and Mine. Convert my being wholly Into your true body, Light.’

~ Sri Muruganar, Ramana Mandiram

the necessity of serious sadhana

In order that your mind should become firm, observe with full attention you duty, which is the practice of sadhana.

Instead of practicing sadhana superficially, follow it intensively in such a way that your mind is totally immersed in it.

Only the aspiration towards the fair firmament of supreme consciousness, which has no final goal other than mauna, is most worthy endeavour.

Grace will not combine with a bat-like mentality. Stick with intensity to one [path].

~ Padamalai

the real surrender

"It is mere delusion to think of arpana (offering), so lightly. Arpana means that the mind gets merged in the self and becomes one with it. It means that it should become devoid of all vasanas. And that will not come about unless there is self-effort and God’s Grace. God’s force cannot get hold of you and drag you into itself unless you surrender completely.

But where is the question of our surrendering? The self itself is to be surrendered. Until one can accomplish that, one should go on struggling unceasingly. It is only after trying again and again that one may, finally, succeed in the effort.

Once you succeed, there is no going back. That is the proper course. What is the use of merely repeating the word arpana, arpana? How can there be arpana unless there is a thing called ‘I’? Complete surrender cannot come about unless one knows who one is.

If you come to know that, you will realise that what remains is only one thing. The mind which is the ‘I’ submits of its own accord. And that is the real arpana (surrender),” said Bhagavan.

~ from Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma

Arunachala: pure awareness in the form of a Hill

Dr. T. N. Krishnaswamy gives an account of his experiences as the `official photographer' of the Ashram. As confirmed by Sri Bhagavan, the Divine assumes a visible, physical form out of Grace to give solace and guidance to devotees. The importance of Sri Bhagavan's pictures is therefore obvious.


OWING TO MY busy life in Madras I could usually spend only a day or a part of a day at Tiruvannamalai when I went there. I always took my camera with me and I used to spend the whole time with the Maharshi and take as many photos of him as I could. I was afraid he would get annoyed at my persistence, but he never did. I have photographed him walking, sitting, eating, wiping his feet. I have caught him smiling and laughing, speaking and silent, and also in samadhi. Once he was going up the Hill when it started to rain and he was offered a home-made palm-leaf umbrella and I snapped him using it. I took another picture of him using an ordinary umbrella and smiling broadly as he did so.

Sometimes I used to wonder if it was not ridiculous of me to pay so much attention to photography when his teaching was that "I am not the body". Was I not chasing the shadow and even trying to perpetuate it? At the time I paid very little attention to his teaching. I was attracted only by the beauty and grace of his person. It gave me immense pleasure to take pictures of him. He was more important than, his teaching.

Later, when he was no longer bodily with us, I turned to his teaching; and then I found that the Grace of his Presence had prepared me for it. I had been attracted to him as a child is to its mother, without knowing why I had derived sustenance from him as a child does from its mother. I was glad afterwards that I had enjoyed his presence when he was bodily with us. The following little incident shows how he himself approved of people worshipping the physical form assumed by the Divine.

One day I was walking on Arunachala with the Maharshi when he picked up one small stone from the path and held it out to me saying, "Someone has written from abroad asking for a stone from the holiest part of the Hill. He does not know that the whole Hill is sacred. It is Siva himself. Just as we identify ourselves with a body, so Siva has chosen to identify with the Hill. Arunachala is pure Awareness in the form of a Hill. It is out of compassion to those who seek him that he has chosen to reveal himself in the form of a Hill visible to the eye. The seeker will obtain guidance and solace by staying near this Hill."

~ from Surpassing Love and Grace

(Permission to post this photo of Sri Bhagavan and Dr. T. N. Krishnaswamy was kindly given by Dr. T. N. Krishnaswamy's family.)

Sri Bhagavan: Glowing Centre of Divine Radiance

the following is recounted by Visvanatha Swami in The Silent Power

All those who approached Bhagavan with spiritual
earnestness have had this experience of direct contact with the
Divine at the very first sight of Bhagavan. Ganapati Muni, the
great poet and tapaswin, saw an adept (a Siddha Purusha, a
Perfect Being) in Bhagavan, the moment he first beheld him by
chance on the Hill in the Ashram of Jataiswami. The scholar
became a disciple. Venkataramanier of Satyamangalam saw
Bhagavan as a clear manifestation of the all-pervading Supreme
Self and sang his five superb Hymns in Praise of Ramana.

Humphreys saw Bhagavan as a glowing centre of Divine
Radiance. Achyuta Dasa, Narayana Guru and so many others
seeing Bhagavan recognised his unique spiritual greatness.

Pascaline Mallet, a French lady, who stayed with Bhagavan for a
few months sang in a poem in praise of Bhagavan: "One Light,
One Life, One Love, shining through Thee, we see." And Grant
Duff (Douglas Ainslee), the cultured scholar and poet, says in
his preface to Bhagavan's Five Hymns to Arunachala: "I was in
direct contact with one who had passed beyond the boundaries
of the senses and was merged in the Absolute Self. I do not
need any proof of the divinity of Ramana Maharshi, just as I do
not need any to prove the existence of the Sun."

What is the secret behind the common experience of
Divine Glory which so many intelligent devotees have had in
the presence of Bhagavan? Here is the answer given by Ganapati
Muni in his remarkable hymn of Forty Verses in Praise of
Bhagavan:

"Bow down to the holy Guru Ramana who reaching
the hidden source of the ego within has effaced all differentiation
and shines forth as the One Self of all beings with various mental
propensities and who is resplendent as the One Reality
transcending the body and the entire world-manifestation."

"I bow to Sri Ramana, the Great Teacher, the remover of all sorrow,
who established in the Eternal Abode of Pure Awareness dispels
the ignorance of earnest seekers, who though seeing and moving
within the world stands as the Supreme Being transcending it."


From a relative standpoint, the proximity of such a Sage,
normally established in the Self under all circumstances of life,
serves as an eye-opener for those in the clutches of delusion and
as an invaluable aid supporting them in their spiritual quest.


The operation of the Spiritual Force of such enlightened Ones
is not limited to the lifetime of their physical body. It continues
for ever and those who think of them, surrender themselves to
them, study their life and teachings and try to follow them do
get into the ambit of their Grace, non-different from Supreme
Divine Grace. This is the experience of so many spiritual
aspirants who had not met Bhagavan during his lifetime but
devoted themselves to him on hearing of him or coming to
know of him somehow or other. The enlightened Ones who
are themselves timeless belong to all time and by their very
nature shed light on the path of seekers and help them in ever
so many ways.

Ultimately one sees that one has no existence apart from
Pure Awareness, that there is no world apart from it and that
there is no other God than Pure Awareness. Blissful Awareness
is the sole Reality. Manifestation as the Many is nothing but its
Lila. Every one, in manifestation, has to play his part knowing
at heart that it is all nothing but Lila, the only Reality being
Absolute Blissful Awareness.

to read the full chapter (Awareness Absolute) go to http://benegal.org/ramana_maharshi/books/sp/sp052.html