Bhagavan Ramana: The Self is ever-present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined.

The best definition is `I am that I am'. The srutis [scriptures] speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.

Q: When a man realizes the Self, what will he see?

Bhagavan Ramana: There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realization, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realization of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up
this practice on our part. Then we shall realize the Self as the Self; in other words, `Be the Self'. At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is so self-evident. So, what can we say to this question? That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, The Nature of the Self chapter from Be As You Are, edited by David Godman

the desire for enlightenment is necesary

Q: The outside world is a miserable, confusing place. There is not much going on there that helps us to remember who we really are.

Annamalai Swami: Yes, we can say that this state of affairs is also Bhagavan's grace, Bhagavan's compassion. You could say that he keeps the world like this as an incentive to go inwards. This state of affairs sets up a real choice: if we go outwards there are problems; if we go inwards there is peace.

Q: I want to ask about some other aspect of this that troubles me. The desire to become absorbed in the Self seems to be some kind of vasana. It is still a desire, and to indulge in it implies that I must look for something that I don't already have. With this attitude I then feel that I am setting up enlightenment as some kind of future goal, and not as something that is here and now. There is something very dualistic in this attitude, and I sometimes get the feeling that I am not accepting Bhagavan's will for the present moment if I am looking for something that is not here and now.

Annamalai Swami: This desire is not counterproductive. The desire for enlightenment is necessary because without it you will never take the necessary steps to realise the Self. A desire to walk to a particular place is necessary before you take any steps. If that desire is not present, you will never take the first step. When you realise the Self, the desire will go away.

~ Annamalai Swami, Final Talks, edited by David Godman

Glory! Glory to your holy Bhagavan feet!

Since Bhagavan was so frequently extolling the greatness of satsang and grace, I once asked him, 'It is said that moksha is attained easily only with the grace of the Guru. How is that so?'

Bhagavan replied, 'The house of moksha is not anywhere outside. It is within everyone. Whoever has a strong desire to attain moksha is being pulled by the Guru who is within. The Guru who is on the outside raises his hand and pushes him inwards. This is how the Guru's grace operates.'

Bhagavan then quoted two of his favorite verses from Kaivalya Navanitam in which the disciple thanks the Guru for giving him the grace which enabled him to realise the Self.

1.86 'Lord, you are the reality remaining as my inmost Self, ruling me during all my countless incarnations! Glory to you who have put on an external form in order to instruct me! I do not see how I can repay your grace for having liberated me. Glory! Glory to your holy feet!"

1.87 The Master beamed on him as he spoke , drew him near and said very lovingly: 'To stay fixed in the Self, without the three kinds of obstacles [ignorance, doubt and knowledge derived from false premises] obstructing your experience, is the highest return you can render me.'

~ from Living by the Words of Bhagavan (the voice is Annamalai Swami's, the author David Godman)

How does one get rid of the hindrances to Self-realization?

The first western lady devotee to come to Sri Ramanasramam was M.A. Pigot, an English lady, who had read A Search in Secret India and had come to India to see the Maharshi.

Often she would be desperate because there would always be a crowd and Ramana was never alone. His hall was open to one and all at all times. But early one morning when she came into the hall she found him unattended, "emanating a wonderful stillness and peace." With his permission she put some questions and got his clarifications.

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

R: Memory chiefly, habits of thought, accumulated tendencies.

P: How does one get rid of these hindrances?

R: 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 exists only when the attention of the subject or the individual is there. If this is forgotten and the fact that the Self is one, whole, is forgotten, no meditation can result in sustained, inherent, peace of mind."

At the time of the farewell his talk was most touching. He was so gentle and humane. He discussed the difficulties of everyday life and mundane problems. Ramana's parting message was, "Do what is right at a given moment and leave it behind."

~ from Timeless in Time by A.R. Natarajan

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.

How to avoid misery?

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

This was the first spiritual question I had 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 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 him 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 traval 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?"

Samsara is the seemingly endless cycle of birth and death through different incarnations. It can also be taken to mean worldly illusion or entanglement in wordly affairs.

"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 the 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 toward Self-realisation."

~ from Living by the Words of Bhagavan by David Godman

Realise with a still mind your own true nature

Hemalekha is addressing her husband Hemachuda in Tripura Rahasya:


92. "Therefore, Prince, realise with a still mind your own true nature which is the one pure, undivided Consciousness underlying the restless mind which is composed of the whole universe in all its diversity.

93. "If one is fixed in that fundamental basis of the universe (ie., the Self), one becomes the All-doer. I shall tell you how to inhere thus. I assure you - you will be That.

94. "Realise with a still mind the state between sleep and wakefulness, the interval between the recognition of one object after another or gap between two perceptions.

99. "Be also free from the thought 'I see'; remain still like a blind man seeing. What transcends sight and no sight that you are. Be quick."

100. Hemachuda did accordingly, and having gained that state referred to by his wife, he remained peaceful a long time, unaware of anything beside the Self.

To read the whole story, see http://sss.vn.ua/tripura1.htm