To Beloved Bhagavan
the Lord of Love


Oh Lord of Love, Who dwells within my heart!
May I sing Thy Praise through all Eternity,
Thou, the Adorable One, the All-compassionate,
Whose Loving smile illumines all the world,
Who art tender as a mother and strong as a father,
Thou, whose sublime life is an inspiring sermon
Fill me with Thy Presence, Beloved Master,
with the Nectar of Thy Grace;
May Thy great Love and Light fill my heart to the full.
Resting secure in Thy Presence
And knowing whence cometh Peace, Guidance and Strength,
May I always listen; for, in the Silence
I hear Thy Voice, -
The Voice of God.

~ Eleanor Pauline Noye, Golden Jubilee Souvenir 1896-1946, p. 236

The interior mouna, steady, firm,
Which praises Siva in silence bright,
The speech divine beyond all words,
This stillness is true, natural worship.

~ Guru Vachaka Kovai, translated by Prof. K. Swaminathan

Do not vainly argue through the reasoning power of the intellect, which ignores the Self and clings to the non-Self, that ‘reality exists’; ‘it doesn’t exist’; ‘it is form’; ‘it is formless’; ‘it is dual’; ‘it is non-dual’. Only the mauna that shines forever as the unfailing experience of being-consciousness-bliss is true religion.

~ from a forthcoming new translation of Guru Vachaka Kovai by Dr T. V. Venakatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman

Question: Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the truth to the people at large?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: How do you know I am not doing it? Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and haranguing the people around? Preaching is simple communication of knowledge; it can really be done in silence only. What do you think of a man who listens to a sermon for an hour and goes away without having been impressed by it so as to change his life? Compare him with another, who sits in a holy presence and goes away after some time with his outlook on life totally changed. Which is the better, to preach loudly without effect or to sit silently sending out inner force?

Again, how does speech arise? First there is abstract knowledge. Out of this arises the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken word. So the word is the great grandson of the original source. If the word can produce an effect, judge for yourself how much more powerful must be the preaching through silence.

~ from Silence and sat-sanga chapter, Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, edited by David Godman

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

Let us pay total attention to that pure life principle, and remain there.

You have to face yourself. Many people find this very difficult. Everyone is prepared to do -- bhajans, japa, puja, build temples, raise funds in the name of God. But to remain without doing, to refrain from doing is more difficult, and few are prepared or capable of it. Ultimately we have to face ourselves and be ourselves in stillness and silence.

It is so difficult not to do. Not doing means remaining in that Reality. Maharshi wants us to be still, to be that Reality. That Reality is Maharshi himself. We identify Maharshi with that picture, with that name: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. But, behind that picture, behind the name, the reality that is throbbing within every one of us -- that is Maharshi. And Maharshi want[s] us to wake up to that Reality within us, the same Reality that is Ramana Maharshi.

... Let us pay homage to Ramana Maharshi by turning within and becoming fully aware of that knowledge which defies death, that life principle which is the screen on which this body comes and goes. Let us pay total attention to that pure life principle, and remain there.

It is easy.

It is direct and simple.

~ V. Ganesan (Bhagavan's grand-nephew)

To dwell in the infinite sky of holy silence at his feet is to remain within the heart, in one's authentic state, where there is neither soul not body, neither mind nor consciousness, neither 'I' nor 'mine', enjoying the fruits of a clear realization which is sweeter than nectar.

~ Sri Muruganar, Non-Dual Consciousness, The Flood Tide of Bliss

I see the face

I see the face
that was my home.

My loving says, I will let go
of everything for that.

My soul begins to keep rhythm
as if music is playing.

My reason says, What do you call
this cypress-energy that straightens
what was bent double?

All things change in this presence.
Armenians and Turks no longer know
which is which.

Soul keeps unfolding inward.
The body leaves the body.

A wealth you cannot imagine
flows through you.

Do not consider what strangers say.
Be secluded in your secret heart-house,
that bowl of silence.

Talking, no matter how humble-seeming,
is really a kind of bragging.

Let silence be the art you practice.

~ Rumi, from Rumi: Bridge to the Soul, by Coleman Barks

From the introduction to this book:

Rumi devotes a lot of attention to silence, especially at the end of poems, where he gives the words back into the silence they came from (khamush in Persian). It is truly one of the mysteries that flow through him. No other poet pays so much homage to silence. He was once asked, "Isn't it strange that you talk so much about silence?" He answered, "The radiant one inside me has never said a word."

"I am not the body,
Nor is the body mine.
I am awareness itself"

When you know this,
You have no thought
For what you have done
Or left undone.

You become one,
Perfect and indivisible.

~ Ashtavakra Gita (translation by Thomas Byrom)

fed with the joy of silence

What is being attempted is 'looking at the mind by the mind". Attention of the mind which has so far not been on the individual, the thinker, the doer, but on his thoughts, is shifted back to the person. The individual is taken for granted and has not been given any attention. As a result, the mind's power has not been utilised for self-knowledge, knowledge about oneself. At this point, it is worth remembering that the mind is a dynamic force because of its essential content, namely consciousness, intelligence. The mind identifies itself with whatever object its attention is fixed on. The purpose of the effort and practice now suggested is to transfer the focus of the mind's attention to itself, to its centre. Consequently, the entire energy of the mind becomes available for revealing the nature of the mind - "by gathering itself from variety to thought-free unity of itself, it enjoys freedom from distraction ... the gaze turned on itself leads to the discovery of its nature".

Since the individual's "I"-thought rises simultaneously with the countless other thoughts and also because of the habitual attention of the mind being on the other thoughts, no care has been bestowed on the "I"-thought. In the Ramana way, the whole situation is met by replacing "thought attention by self-attention". If attention is fixed on the subject even as conceptualisation takes place, as the movement of thoughts gathers momentum or soon thereafter, one would be tackling the problem at its very inception.

Vigilance is needed not to be carried away by the swift thought current. Repeatedly attention is brought back to the individual. How? For self-attention Ramana gives two invincible tools, the first of which is in the form of the question "Who am I?

One begins by questioning for whom these thoughts occur. Since the thoughts are for the person, attention reverts to him. Thought formation is muzzled, nipped in the bud by this device for self-attention in the garb of a question. This switching back of attention to the "I" serves the important purpose of cutting it off from the company of other thoughts. In other words, the identification of the mind with the rest of the thoughts is scissored. The "I"-thought is isolated, actively observed and attacked by the intense enquiry "Who am I?"

The isolation of the central thought thus achieved is, however, not an end in itself. It is a step, no doubt an important one, in the intelligent journey back to the source. Here we have to press into service the complementary weapon, provided by Ramana, again in the form of a question, "Whence am I?", "Wherefrom does this "I"-thought arise?" The whole idea being one of merging the mind in its source. The disease is the identification of the pure mind with the impurities of the past as a result of the idea of separate existence. For eradicating this false notion the potent medicine is awakening of source consciousness through this method. The mind is constantly reminded of its true strength, its home and unity with the totality of life. "This practice of self-attention is a gentle technique which merely invokes awareness of the source from which the mind springs". Success depends on the extent to which one is saturated with the keen edge of enquiry. For there is no fixed time for its practice. Even while engaged in work, there can be, without any prejudice to the work itself, the under-current of attention on the "I" and its real nature as a powerful and silent vehicle of consciousness.

Recapitulating, the practice of self-enquiry separates the "I" from its association with other thoughts and the mind turns within. This happens more readily with growing awareness of its inner strength. Fed simultaneously with the invigorating tonic of source-awareness, the mind itself becomes the bridge back to its abode. When the mind is fed with the joy of silence the old habit of seeking links with the other thoughts gradually wanes till at last the mind stays submerged in the vast all-pervading silence of its source.

~ A.R. Natarajan, The Silent Mind

Silent Worship

Enthroning in the heart the Lord supreme,
His true, unceasing natural worship
By the mind steady, self-absorbed
Proceeds in perfect silence.

The pure desire for Grace, free from
Other attachment, practicing
The state of silence sans an object,
Such merging in and being That
Amounts to mental worship true.

~ Sri Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai

Richly endowed with the divine wealth of his
grace, imparted through holy silence, those
beautious feet bring us to the safe shore of true
learning, clearing away every obstacle. What
power of word or speech might suffice to
describe them?

~ Sri Muruganar, Non-dual Consciousness ; The Flood Tide of Bliss (Sri Ramana Anubuti), translated by Robert Butler

O Self of self!

That the mere thought or remembrance of you suffices to still the mind
and harmonize the heart, I hereby testify.
That your invisible presence, spreading a spell of Silence, resolves all doubts,
dissolves all distractions, charms away all unhappiness and radiates peace and bliss,
I hearby testify.
That your angelic countenance and radiant look breathes compassion on all,
I hearby testify.
That you who were incarnate in a mortal mould are in truth the embodiment of Truth itself,
the supreme God walking on this earth,
moving and suffering with us all to sanctify and save all souls,
I hearby testify.
That you are the quintessence of all greatness and goodness,
of all knowledge and wisdom, of all merit and worthiness,
I hearby testify.
That you are all Gods, all Prophets, all Sages, indeed all beings and all worlds,
rolled into ONE,
I hearby testify.
O Self of self!

~ G. V. Subbaramayya, Ramana Pictorial Souvenir, 1967

not believing the rising thoughts

Every night during sleep you let go of your attachment to both the body and the mind, and the result is silence, peace, and an absence of duality. You can have this silence, this peace, and this absence of duality in the waking state by not believing the rising thoughts that create duality for you. Resist limiting thoughts. Replace them with thoughts such as "All is myself. Everybody is myself. All animals, all things are myself."

~ Annamalai Swami, Final Talks, edited by David Godman

the holy feet of our noble Master

In Sri Ramana Anubhuti, Sri Muruganar describes his experience of realising the Self in Sri Bhagavan's presence:


75. He saved me, his humble devotee, from destruction, bringing
me to salvation through his own ambrosial being, even as I
languished in the dark night of my mind’s deadly delusion. Then
indeed did the holy feet of my noble Master, bestowing his grace
in holy silence, become immovably established within my heart,
illuminating my inner being with the golden light of true spiritual
practice.

77. Showing me the light of his true teaching, his holy feet drove
out the ruinous ignorance that, like a dark cloud, defiled my
soul with corruption. Revealing to me in all its clarity the truth
whose nature is liberation, he joyfully filled my heart with the
bliss of profound peace.

83. As I waited nervously, weeping and distraught, on the
threshold of his grace-bestowing divine presence, my Master
cut away the worldly desires which so tormented me, and there,
beneath his bounteous foot, I received a noble gift, the realisation
of the true knowledge of Lord Siva.

84. The Lord graciously manifested as my Guru, eradicating the
bondage of my deluded cravings. Revealing to me the glory of
his feet, driving out all my desires, he ruled over me, so that in
my soul only he remained. The joy of reflecting upon my deep
affection for him never leaves my heart.

85. Seeking sanctuary I took shelter at his feet, and he, through
his silent presence, bade me henceforth fear no more. From
that day on, through that authentic union in which he became
ineradicably established within my heart, my life has been filled
with a child-like happiness and profound joy.

for much more of this, see http://bhagavan-ramana.org/sriramanaanubhuti.html