The Kingdom of God

God does not reside in any place other than the Heart. It is due to illusion, caused by the ego, the 'I am the body' idea, that the Kingdom of God is conceived to be elsewhere. Be sure that the Heart is the kingdom of God.

Know that you are the perfect, Shining Light which not only makes the existence of God's Kingdom possible, but also allows it to be seen as a wonderful heaven. To know this alone is Jnana. Therefore, the Kingdom of God is within you.

The unlimited Space of Turiyatita which shines suddenly, in all its fullness, within the Heart of a highly mature aspirant during the state of complete absorption of mind, as if a fresh and previously unknown experience, is the rarely attained Shiva-Loka [i.e., Kingdom of God], which shines by the Light of the Self.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai, verses 194-196, by Muruganar (translation by Michael James and Sadhu Om)

self-enquiry

David Godman explaining self-enquiry:

[Self-enquiry] is nothing to do with being aware of the contents of the mind. It's a very specific method that aims to find out where the individual sense of "I" arises. Self-enquiry is an active investigation, not a passive witnessing.

For example, you may be thinking about what you had for breakfast, or you may be looking at a tree in the garden. In self-enquiry, you don't simply maintain an awareness of these thoughts, you put your attention on the thinker who has the thought, the perceiver who has the perception. There is an "I" who thinks, an "I" who perceives, and this "I" is also a thought. Bhagavan's advice was to focus on this inner sense of "I" in order to find out what it really is. In self-enquiry you are trying to find out where this "I" feeling arises, to go back to that place and stay there. It is not simply watching, it's a kind of active scrutiny in which one is trying to find out how the sense of being an individual person comes into being.

You can investigate the nature of this "I" by formally asking yourself, "Who am I?" or "Where does this "I" come from?" Alternatively, you can try to maintain a continuous awareness of this inner feeling of "I". Either approach would count as self-enquiry. You should not suggest answers to the question, such as "I am consciousness" because any answer you give yourself is conceptual rather than experiential. The only correct answer is a direct experience of the Self.

... It needs practice and commitment. You have to keep at it and not give up. The practice slowly changes the habits of the mind. By doing this practice regularly and continuously, you remove your focus from superficial streams of thoughts and relocate it at the place where thought itself begins to manifest. In that latter place you begin to experience the peace and stillness of the Self, and that gives you the incentive to continue.

Bhagavan had a very appropriate analogy for this process. Imagine that you have a bull, and that you keep it in a stable. If you leave the door open, the bull will wander out, looking for food. It may find food, but a lot of the time it will get into trouble by grazing in cultivated fields. The owners of these fields will beat it with sticks and throw stones at it to chase it away, but it will come back again and again, and suffer repeatedly, because it doesn't understand the notion of field boundaries. It is just programmed to look for food and to eat it wherever it finds something edible.

The bull is the mind, the stable is the Heart where it arises and to where it returns, and the grazing in the fields represents the mind's painful addiction to seeking pleasure in outside objects.

Bhagavan said that most mind-control techniques forcibly restrain the bull to stop it moving around, but they don't do anything about the bull's fundamental desire to wander and get itself into trouble.

You can tie up the mind temporarily with japa or breath control, but when these restraints are loosened, the mind just wanders off again, gets involved in more mischief and suffers again. You can tie up a bull, but it won't like it. You will just end up with an angry, cantankerous bull that will probably be looking for a chance to commit some act of violence on you.

Bhagavan likened self-enquiry to holding a bunch of fresh grass under the bull's nose. As the bull approaches it, you move away in the direction of the stable door and the bull follows you. You lead it back into the stable, and it voluntarily follows you because it wants the pleasure of eating the grass that you are holding in front of it. Once it is inside the stable, you allow it to eat the abundant grass that is always stored there. The door of the stable is always left open, and the bull is free to leave and roam about at any time. There is no punishment or restraint. The bull will go out repeatedly, because it is the nature of such animals to wander in search of food. And each time they go out, they will be punished for straying into forbidden areas.

Every time you notice that your bull has wandered out, tempt it back into its stable with the same technique. Don't try to beat it into submission, or you may be attacked yourself, and don't try to solve the problem forcibly by locking it up.

Sooner or later even the dimmest of bulls will understand that, since there is a perpetual supply of tasty food in the stable, there is no point wandering around outside, because that always leads to sufferings and punishments. Even though the stable door is always open, the bull will eventually stay inside and enjoy the food that is always there.

This is self-enquiry. Whenever you find the mind wandering around in external objects and sense perceptions, take it back to its stable, which is the Heart, the source from which it rises and to which it returns. In that place it can enjoy the peace and bliss of the Self. When it wanders around outside, looking for pleasure and happiness, it just gets into trouble, but when it stays at home in the Heart, it enjoys peace and silence. Eventually, even though the stable door is always open, the mind will choose to stay at home and not wander about.

that one text

... if anyone wants a single text of Sri Bhagavan's teachings in which clear expositions of all the various secrets of spiritual wisdom that should be known by the world are gathered together, that one text is Guru Vachaka Kovai ...

~ from an essay by Sri Sadhu Om on Sri Muruganar, in Ramana's Muruganar, compiled & edited by A.R. Natarajan

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

real surrender

... If one enquires as to who one is and what one is, and finds out the truth, one becomes oneself. To resolve all inherent desires into one’s own Self is real surrender. After that, our burden is His.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, quoted in Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma

Bhagavan taught as much by example as instruction. His life was a teaching: he was invariably courteous to others; he never accepted something unless others could share; he wasted nothing that was available; he never asked another to do something he could not do himself. In short, he was as self-sufficient as any human being could be on this terrestrial plane. When people came to see him he did not take, rather he gave: he gave respect, he gave understanding, he gave patience and love. It was as natural to him as breathing.

~ The Mountain Path, January, 2006

The very name fills the heart with delight.

What about his name? The name always goes with the form. It is ordinarily identified with a particular body. Not so Ramana's. He was named Venkataraman by his parents in 1879. Ganapati Muni changed his name to Ramana in an expression of his gratitude as a guru who revealed the truth to him. He re-christened him as Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Bhagavan is an adjective to indicate that the person has in him all the six-fold powers of God. Maharshi means a preeminent one among seers of truth. The name itself was changed from Venkataraman to Ramana. This was in 1907. The new name has different shades of meaning, "dear darling," "one who revels in the Self," "one who is the Self." It has been a magical name for devotees and seekers. Just three syllables "Ra," "Ma," "Na." What power to draw within and fix one in the Self! The very name fills the heart with delight. The power of the name is such that though to begin with it may be integral only to meditation time, gradually the remembrance of the name goes on amidst all activities of life as well. For the beauty of the name grows on one. It becomes not just a name but a name amongst names. "The Name, It will be doing its job of ripening one to be rid of the dross, so that the inner pull of the Self would be felt strongly. Nurturing and protecting, it watches over loving devotees, whose delusion is immolated in the vast fullness of final realization." [last quote from Non-dual Consciousness, "Seventy Verses in Praise of the Guru's Holy Feet" by Muruganar]

~ A. R. Natarajan, Timeless in Time, Sri Ramana Maharshi

Abidance in pure being
Transcending thought through love intense
Is the very essence
Of supreme devotion.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, The Essence of Instruction

without turning inwards

Without turning inwards and merging in the Lord -- it is His light that shines within the mind and lends it all its light -- how can we know the Light of lights with the borrowed light of the mind?

~ Reality in Forty Verses

distraction may be overcome, but the veiling might still remain

"Everyone has to come to Arunachala", said he [our Beloved Bhagavan Ramana].

Whichever path may be followed it ends in `I' and the investigation of the nature of the `I-thought'. Its elimination is the sadhaka's hardest task. But what could be easier than to fall back on the experiencer and to ask oneself who perceives and who sees with each experience?

All methods of sadhana lead to one-pointedness of the mind; thus distraction or the vikshepa of the mind may be overcome, but the veiling or the avarana might still remain. If blankness prevails, unless one persists with the question, "To whom is the blankness? Who am I??" and holds a receptive attitude with absolute surrender for the grace to prevail, the veiling is not removed.

One day the door is opened and the meditator is merged in the ever-present, all-pervading peace. The peace is so profound and all absorbing that the sadhaka cannot give up till it is constant and abiding. A true sadhana begins and his inner monitor will guide him till that state is reached.

"My reward consists in your permanent unbroken bliss. Do not slip away from it", says the guru to a devotee in Kaivalya Navanita.

This is endless Ramana-Consciousness.

~ Ramana Smriti, Chapter 8: Ramana Sat-Chit-Ananda Guru, by Dr. Purnima Sircar

Where is that Gita?

Sri Bhagavan said of this incident in his own words, 'In 1913, Nayana asked some questions and got the answers for them. As the ideas were strongly imprinted in his mind when somebody asked something, he would create a sloka extempore and say it is in Ramana Gita at such and such a place and in such a Chapter. All this was done when he did not even put pen on paper for Ramana Gita. When he started to speak authoritatively, nobody could counter him. He used to be quite emotional. After doing like this for a long time, he wrote this Gita [Ramana Gita] now.'

One devotee expressed a doubt, 'Bhagavan! What would Nayana have done if somebody asked, "Where is that Gita?"'

Bhagavan smiled and said, 'Who would have dared to oppose him or argue with him? Who was there who had such courage? His demeanor was so authoritative that none could counter him. After creating Ramana Gita also he used to quote some slokas extempore as examples and say they were also in Ramana Gita. When somebody pointed out that it is not, he would say it was in Maha Ramana Gita. Perhaps he planned Maha Ramana Gita also. But now it happened otherwise.'

~ Sri A. V. Ramana, Mahatapasvi, Life Story of Sri Kavya Kantha Ganapati Muni

One hundred years ago today ...

All generations of Ramana's disciples and devotees must remain indebted to Muni because it was for his sake and seeing his great spiritual hunger and ripeness that Ramana broke his silence of eleven years and gave the oral upadesa. This happened on the epoch-making day, on November 18, 1907. Since then, the relationship between Ramana and the Muni has been a model. Ramana used to affectionately call him "Nayana," which has several shades of meaning in Telegu. It is a term of endearment, it is a term by which one refers to one's father and to a disciple as well.

~ A. R. Natarajan, Timeless in Time, Sri Ramana Maharshi