grazing stealthily on others' estates

Mr. B. C. Das asked why the mind cannot be turned inward in spite of repeated attempts.

Sri Ramana: It is done by practice and dispassion and that succeeds only gradually. The mind, having been so long a cow accustomed to graze stealthily on others' estates, is not easily confined to her stall. However much her keeper tempts her with luscious grass and fine fodder, she refuses the first time; then she takes a bit; but her innate tendency to stray away asserts itself; and she slips away; on being repeatedly tempted by the owner, she accustoms herself to the stall; finally even if let loose she would not stray away. Similarly with the mind. If once it finds its inner happiness it will not wander outward.

~ Talk 213, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Your firm conviction brought you here ...

The extraordinary, more than mother-like compassion of Ramana is there. Why doubt it? As long as the source of the "I" is not discovered the mind does not give up so easily and keeps doubting. One may refer to the conversation which Cohen had with Ramana. Cohen had resigned his job in Bombay and built himself a cottage next to the ashram. However, on the day of the housewarming he prayed to Ramana that he should ensure his reaching the goal. Ramana gazed silently on the calm waters of the pond nearby and replied, "Your firm conviction brought you here, where is the room for doubt?" What an assurance to him and to all disciples and devotees!

~ A. R. Natarajan, Timeless in Time

if you remain as the Self

If you remain as the Self, no vasanas and no karma will touch or affect you. If you remain in the mind, thoughts of one sort or another will bother you all the time.

~ Annamalai Swami, Final Talks

What is your worth?

What is your worth? You are the consciousness through which the world is expressed. Abide in that worthiness. Don't step down into mind and the body. Again, you must have the firm conviction that you are unaffected by birth and death. You are like space, not only like space, you are prior to space.

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Prior to Consciousness

the direct path

16. It is true wisdom For the mind to turn away From outer objects and behold Its own effulgent form.

17. When unceasingly the mind Scans its own form, There is nothing of the kind. For everyone This path direct is open.

18. Thoughts alone make up the mind; And of all thoughts the `I' thought is the root. What is called mind is but the notion `I'.

19. When one turns within and searches Whence this `I' thought arises, The shamed `I' vanishes And wisdom's quest begins.

20. Where this `I' notion fades, Now there as I, as I, arises The One, the very Self, The Infinite.

~ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, from The Essence of Instruction
for full text, please see http://ramana-collected-works.blogspot.com/2007/06/essence-of-instruction.html

Why does the mind always go outwards instead of inwards

Q: Why does the mind always go outwards instead of inwards?

Annamalai Swami: Because we don't ask the question, 'Why does the mind go outwards instead of inwards.'

This question arises because the nature of happiness is not properly understood. People are always looking for it in the wrong places and by doing the wrong activities. You begin with the impression, which is really a misunderstanding, that happiness is something that can be found outside you, and furthermore, that you have to do something or go somewhere to reach it. This is your illusion, and it is your belief in this illusion that makes the mind search for happiness in the outside world.

Even when you are told, 'Happiness is within you as your own Self. Look inwards and find it,' still you think that you have to do something or go somewhere to discover it. This is the power of Maya of illusion. This is like one fish in the sea asking another fish for directions to the ocean.

When you are not aware that your glasses are resting on your nose, you may look for them all day, thinking that they are an object to be found. Eventually, you realise that you were wearing them all the time.

While the search was on, that which was being sought was, in reality, that through which the seeing was taking place. You were looking for an object that finally turned out to be the subject that was doing the seeking. So it is with your mind and the Self. Mind sets up the notion that the Self needs to be found, and then proceeds to hunt for it as if it were some object that could be located in some interior place. This is as foolish as a man with a goat wrapped around his shoulders spending his time wandering around, looking for his goat, and asking everyone he meets where it might be.

~ from Final Talks, edited by David Godman

Bhagavan's Promises about the mind

Give me your mind

'You should offer up to me the bright ruby of your mind. That is the gift that will bring me delight.'

'The sweet love I have for such a mind I do not have for anything else.' Padam desires this.

Padam receives the minds of loving devotees as an offering, swallowing them through a ruby-red light.

Padam accepts only the mind as a fitting offering, rejecting everything else as being incompatible.

~ Padamalai, Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi recorded by Muruganar, edited and annotated by David Godman

~~~

The true Guru wishes only to liberate us. Everything He does and says points to this and this alone. Everything He does, He does for our sake, and no convoluted explanations are necessary to see His actions as God's Grace.

I am eternally grateful that Sri Bhagavan lived every moment of His "embodied" life in perfect alignment with His Father, Arunachala-Siva. Every interaction He ever had with any"one", from human to wasp to leaf, was an expression of His Divinity. Every story, every word, is a doorway we can enter to know Him better.

Glory to our Father and His most beautiful Feet! May He rest Them on our heads so we are rendered powerless to withhold our minds from Him. May we become capable of giving Him the gift He asks for.

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

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)

the often misunderstood self-enquiry

That everything is in the mind and that the mind itself is only a passing phenomenon was continually stressed by Bhagavan.

"Who is the one behind the mind?" he would ask repeatedly. "Find that one and the mind itself will automatically disappear."

To do this one must repeatedly seek out the source of the "I" by the enquiry "Who am I?".

This process has often been misunderstood, though actually Bhagavan's teaching is quite clear. In this search one is not to seek for some transcendental "I-Absolute", but the ego itself and the point where it arises. Find this, [and] the ego automatically drops away and one then knows there is nothing but the Self.

It is like following a stream to its source through the hills, and when one has reached that point whence it arises the stream itself will no longer exist.

~ Sadhu Arunachala, A Sadhu's Reminiscences

this thing called mind

'When the mind appears every morning don't jump to the usual conclusion, 'This is me; these thoughts are mine'. Instead, watch these thoughts come and go without identifying with them in any way. If you can resist the impulse to claim each and every thought as your own, you will come to a startling conclusion: you will discover that you are the consciousness in which the thoughts appear and disappear. You will discover that this thing called mind only exists when thoughts are allowed to run free. Like the snake which appears in the rope, you will discover that the mind is only an illusion which appears through ignorance or misperception.

You want some experience which will convince you that what I am saying is true. You can have that experience if you give up your life-long habit of inventing an 'I' which claims all thoughts as 'mine'. Be conscious of yourself as consciousness alone, watch the thoughts come and go. Come to the conclusion, by direct experience, that you are really consciousness itself, not its ephemeral contents.'

~ Annamalai Swami, Living by the Words of Bhagavan