Page 83 of 208 ·
Jump to page #:
Go
· Jump To Random Page 
You are the Fullness of Love in Love
and the Emptiness of Awareness.
You are Existence and the Peace beyond Peace.
You are that screen on which all is projected.
You are the Light of Knowledge,
the One who gave concept of creation to the creator.
Forget what can be forgotten and know yourself
to be that which can never be forgotten.
You are the substratum on which everything moves, let it move.
You are Now, You are Nowness:
what 'I' is there which can be out of this Now?
You are the Truth and only the Truth Is
and the Emptiness of Awareness.
You are Existence and the Peace beyond Peace.
You are that screen on which all is projected.
You are the Light of Knowledge,
the One who gave concept of creation to the creator.
Forget what can be forgotten and know yourself
to be that which can never be forgotten.
You are the substratum on which everything moves, let it move.
You are Now, You are Nowness:
what 'I' is there which can be out of this Now?
You are the Truth and only the Truth Is
When anybody laughs he has no thought, there is no mind, and there is no suffering. It is the mind that suffers. Therefore laugh away your problems.
There is no escape from Love, there is no east or west for Peace and Freedom. No matter where you go it is always within you.
Q: No matter how quiet I get or how still my mind is, I never get to see the world as an indivisible whole. Even when my mind is completely still, if I open my eyes I still see a world of separate objects.
AS: When the one who sees vanishes, the world of multiplicity goes with it.
… You don’t see the unity and indivisibility, you are it. You can never see the Self or Brahman, you can only be it. …
The Guru may tell his disciples a thousand times, ‘You are the Self, you are not what you imagine yourself to be’, but none of them ever believes him. They all keep asking the Guru for methods and routes to reach the place where they already are.
Q: Why don’t we give up our false ideas as soon as we are told that they are false?
AS: We have identified with our false ideas for many previous lifetimes. The habit is very strong. But not so strong that it cannot be dissolved through constant meditation.
Q: The seeker has many ideas: ‘I am a jiva (personality), I am bound and have to do sadhana to attain liberation’. Should we forget all these ideas? …
AS: Yes, forget them all! ‘I am the Self, I am all’. Hold onto this awareness. All other paths are roundabouts.
Q: Bhagavan said that repeating, ‘I am the Self’ or ‘I am not this body’ is an aid to enquiry but does not constitute the enquiry itself.
AS: The meditation, ‘I am not the body or the mind, I am the immanent Self’ is a great aid for as long as one is not able to do self-enquiry properly or constantly.
Bhagavan said, ‘Keeping the mind in the Heart is self-enquiry’. If you cannot do this by asking ‘Who am I?’ or by taking the I-thought back to its source, then meditation on the awareness ‘I am the all-pervasive Self’ is a great aid.
Bhagavan often said that we should read and study the Ribhu Gita regularly.
In the Ribhu Gita it is said: ‘That bhavana (mental attitude) ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am Brahman, I am everything,’ is to be repeated again and again until this becomes the natural state.’
Bhagavan sat with us every day while we chanted extracts from the Ribhu Gita which affirm the reality of the Self. It is true that he said that these repetitions are only an aid to self-enquiry, but they are a very powerful aid.
By practicing this way the mind becomes more and more attuned with the reality. When the mind has become purified by this practice, it is easier to take it back to its source and keep it there. When one is able to abide in the Self directly, one doesn’t need aids like this. But if this is not possible these practices can definitely help one.
- Living by the Words of Bhagavan, pp. 293, 294
AS: When the one who sees vanishes, the world of multiplicity goes with it.
… You don’t see the unity and indivisibility, you are it. You can never see the Self or Brahman, you can only be it. …
The Guru may tell his disciples a thousand times, ‘You are the Self, you are not what you imagine yourself to be’, but none of them ever believes him. They all keep asking the Guru for methods and routes to reach the place where they already are.
Q: Why don’t we give up our false ideas as soon as we are told that they are false?
AS: We have identified with our false ideas for many previous lifetimes. The habit is very strong. But not so strong that it cannot be dissolved through constant meditation.
Q: The seeker has many ideas: ‘I am a jiva (personality), I am bound and have to do sadhana to attain liberation’. Should we forget all these ideas? …
AS: Yes, forget them all! ‘I am the Self, I am all’. Hold onto this awareness. All other paths are roundabouts.
Q: Bhagavan said that repeating, ‘I am the Self’ or ‘I am not this body’ is an aid to enquiry but does not constitute the enquiry itself.
AS: The meditation, ‘I am not the body or the mind, I am the immanent Self’ is a great aid for as long as one is not able to do self-enquiry properly or constantly.
Bhagavan said, ‘Keeping the mind in the Heart is self-enquiry’. If you cannot do this by asking ‘Who am I?’ or by taking the I-thought back to its source, then meditation on the awareness ‘I am the all-pervasive Self’ is a great aid.
Bhagavan often said that we should read and study the Ribhu Gita regularly.
In the Ribhu Gita it is said: ‘That bhavana (mental attitude) ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am Brahman, I am everything,’ is to be repeated again and again until this becomes the natural state.’
Bhagavan sat with us every day while we chanted extracts from the Ribhu Gita which affirm the reality of the Self. It is true that he said that these repetitions are only an aid to self-enquiry, but they are a very powerful aid.
By practicing this way the mind becomes more and more attuned with the reality. When the mind has become purified by this practice, it is easier to take it back to its source and keep it there. When one is able to abide in the Self directly, one doesn’t need aids like this. But if this is not possible these practices can definitely help one.
- Living by the Words of Bhagavan, pp. 293, 294
Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.
My most auspicious advice:
Be empty. Stay as awareness alone.
Accept this advice inside your heart and you will find it sufficient.
Be empty. Stay as awareness alone.
Accept this advice inside your heart and you will find it sufficient.
The pure mind is free from latent tendencies, and therefore it attains self-knowledge. Since the entire universe is within the mind, the notions of bondage and liberation are also within it.
To the extent to which one becomes indifferent to worldly pursuits will one progress towards real Bliss
When the self, self-forgetfully, identifies itself with the objects seen and experienced and is thus impurified, there arises the poison of craving. This craving intensifies delusion.
Gods like Siva, etc., may be able to cope with the fires of cosmic dissolution; but it is impossible for anyone to deal with the consuming fire of craving.
Whatever terrible suffering and calamities there are in the world are all the fruits of craving, O Rama.
Remaining unseen and subtle, this craving is yet able to consume the very flesh, bone and blood of the body. In a moment it seems to subside, the next moment it is in an expanded state.
Afflicted by it, man becomes pitiable, weak, lustreless, mean, deluded, miserable and fallen. When this craving has ceased, one's life-force is pure and all divine qualities and virtues enter one's heart.
The river of craving flows only in the heart of the unwise person.
Even as an animal falls into a trap (a blind well) on account of its craving for food (the bait), a man following the trail of his craving falls into hell.
Even the worst blindness of senility is mild in comparison to the blinding delusion which craving brings about in one's heart in the twinkling of an eye.
Craving makes one cringe and become 'small': even lord Visnu becarne a dwarf when he decided to beg. Hence, this craving which is the source of all sorrows and which destroys the lives of all beings should be renounced from a great distance.
Yet, it is on account of craving that the sun shines on earth, the wind blows, the mountains stand and the earth upholds living beings; all the three worlds exist only on account of craving.
All the beings in the three worlds are bound by the rope of craving.
It is possible to break even the strongest rope in this world, but the rope of craving is hard to break.
Therefore, O Rama, give up craving by giving up thinking or conceptualisation. The mind cannot exist without thinking or conceptualisation.
First, let the images of 'I', 'you' and 'this' not arise in the mind, for it is because of these images that hopes and expectations come into being.
If you can thus refrain from building these images, you will also be counted as a man of wisdom.
Craving is non-different from the ego-sense. Ego-sense is the source of all sins.
Cut at the very root of this ego-sense with the sword of wisdom of the non-ego. Be free from fear.
Gods like Siva, etc., may be able to cope with the fires of cosmic dissolution; but it is impossible for anyone to deal with the consuming fire of craving.
Whatever terrible suffering and calamities there are in the world are all the fruits of craving, O Rama.
Remaining unseen and subtle, this craving is yet able to consume the very flesh, bone and blood of the body. In a moment it seems to subside, the next moment it is in an expanded state.
Afflicted by it, man becomes pitiable, weak, lustreless, mean, deluded, miserable and fallen. When this craving has ceased, one's life-force is pure and all divine qualities and virtues enter one's heart.
The river of craving flows only in the heart of the unwise person.
Even as an animal falls into a trap (a blind well) on account of its craving for food (the bait), a man following the trail of his craving falls into hell.
Even the worst blindness of senility is mild in comparison to the blinding delusion which craving brings about in one's heart in the twinkling of an eye.
Craving makes one cringe and become 'small': even lord Visnu becarne a dwarf when he decided to beg. Hence, this craving which is the source of all sorrows and which destroys the lives of all beings should be renounced from a great distance.
Yet, it is on account of craving that the sun shines on earth, the wind blows, the mountains stand and the earth upholds living beings; all the three worlds exist only on account of craving.
All the beings in the three worlds are bound by the rope of craving.
It is possible to break even the strongest rope in this world, but the rope of craving is hard to break.
Therefore, O Rama, give up craving by giving up thinking or conceptualisation. The mind cannot exist without thinking or conceptualisation.
First, let the images of 'I', 'you' and 'this' not arise in the mind, for it is because of these images that hopes and expectations come into being.
If you can thus refrain from building these images, you will also be counted as a man of wisdom.
Craving is non-different from the ego-sense. Ego-sense is the source of all sins.
Cut at the very root of this ego-sense with the sword of wisdom of the non-ego. Be free from fear.
The tree of meditation casts a cool shade in which all desires and cravings come to an end. Meditation expands the shade of self-control, which promotes steadiness of the mind
To come to know that nothing is good, nothing is bad, is a turning point; it is a conversion. You start looking in; the outside reality loses meaning. The social reality is a fiction, a beautiful drama; you can participate in it, but then you don’t take it seriously. It is just a role to be played; play it as beautifully, as efficiently, as possible. But don’t take it seriously, it has nothing of the ultimate in it.
Though you may not believe all that is said of God, believe at least " there is God ". This seed is very potent in its growth. It has such great might that in due course you will not see anything but God - you will not see even yourself.
Truly, God is all.
Truly, God is all.
Nothingness, What Is, Emptiness, pure Consciousness, Self, natural Mind
- all these terms are synonymous, they point to the one true Self.
Nothingness does not remove anything at all.
It neither attains nor transcends anything.
Nothingness is not affected or intimidated by anything.
It does not depend on anything.
It simply Is.
Being complete, it lacks nothing.
Therefore, nothing is required for Nothing to be.
Discovering oneself to be Nothing, this is Freedom.
- all these terms are synonymous, they point to the one true Self.
Nothingness does not remove anything at all.
It neither attains nor transcends anything.
Nothingness is not affected or intimidated by anything.
It does not depend on anything.
It simply Is.
Being complete, it lacks nothing.
Therefore, nothing is required for Nothing to be.
Discovering oneself to be Nothing, this is Freedom.
Free of intention...
Free of identity...
that is the supreme possibility of the human consciousness.
Once you have tasted this in your Heart
all other states are secondary
because what you will have found
is incomparable.
Free of identity...
that is the supreme possibility of the human consciousness.
Once you have tasted this in your Heart
all other states are secondary
because what you will have found
is incomparable.
You ask: How to stop thinking? I say: Just watch, be alert.
And drop this idea of stopping, otherwise it will stop the natural transformation of the mind. Drop this idea of stopping!
Who are you to stop? At the most, enjoy.
And nothing is wrong - even if immoral thoughts, so-called immoral thoughts, pass through your mind, let them pass; nothing is wrong.
You remain detached. No harm is being done. It is just fiction; you are seeing an inner movie. Allow it its own way and it will lead you, by and by, to the state of no-mind.
Watching ultimately culminates in no-mind.
No-mind is not against mind: no-mind is beyond mind.
No-mind does not come by killing and destroying the mind: no-mind comes when you have understood the mind so totally that thinking is no longer needed -- your understanding has replaced it.
And drop this idea of stopping, otherwise it will stop the natural transformation of the mind. Drop this idea of stopping!
Who are you to stop? At the most, enjoy.
And nothing is wrong - even if immoral thoughts, so-called immoral thoughts, pass through your mind, let them pass; nothing is wrong.
You remain detached. No harm is being done. It is just fiction; you are seeing an inner movie. Allow it its own way and it will lead you, by and by, to the state of no-mind.
Watching ultimately culminates in no-mind.
No-mind is not against mind: no-mind is beyond mind.
No-mind does not come by killing and destroying the mind: no-mind comes when you have understood the mind so totally that thinking is no longer needed -- your understanding has replaced it.
Bhakti is love. It is romance. It can't be just going to the temple for an hour. It is a romance you can never forget for an instant. It's a real romance with your own Self. If you surrender to the divine, your work is done. Surrender or inquire.
RESPONSIBILITY AND ACTIVE ENQUIRY
There is a fine line between being truly open to the guidance of a spiritual teacher and regressing into a childish relationship where you abdicate your adulthood and project all wisdom and divinity onto the teacher. Each person needs to find a mature balance, being truly and deeply open to their spiritual guide without abdicating all of their authority.
The same can be applied to a spiritual teaching. A spiritual teaching is a finger pointing toward Reality; it is not Reality itself. To be in a true and mature relationship with a spiritual teaching requires you to apply it, not simply believe in it. Belief leads to various forms of fundamentalism and shuts down the curiosity and inquiry that are essential to open the way for awakening and what lies beyond awakening. A good spiritual teaching is something that you work with and apply. In doing so, it works on you (often in a hidden way) and helps reveal to you the Truth (and falseness) that lies within you.
There is a fine line between being truly open to the guidance of a spiritual teacher and regressing into a childish relationship where you abdicate your adulthood and project all wisdom and divinity onto the teacher. Each person needs to find a mature balance, being truly and deeply open to their spiritual guide without abdicating all of their authority.
The same can be applied to a spiritual teaching. A spiritual teaching is a finger pointing toward Reality; it is not Reality itself. To be in a true and mature relationship with a spiritual teaching requires you to apply it, not simply believe in it. Belief leads to various forms of fundamentalism and shuts down the curiosity and inquiry that are essential to open the way for awakening and what lies beyond awakening. A good spiritual teaching is something that you work with and apply. In doing so, it works on you (often in a hidden way) and helps reveal to you the Truth (and falseness) that lies within you.
When difficult circumstances arise in life, don't run away in fear. Rather, kindle the love within and try to overcome them.
Life is not in our activity, not in our possessions, and not in what we touch, taste, see, or smell. You are life – the rest are things.
Language is only a medium for communicating one’s thoughts to another. It is called in only after thoughts arise; other thoughts arise after the ‘I-thought’ rises; the ‘I-thought’ is the root of all conversation. When one remains without thinking one understands another by means of the universal language of silence.
Silence is ever-speaking; it is a perennial flow of language; it is interrupted by speaking. These words obstruct that mute language. There is electricity flowing in a wire. With resistance to its passage, it glows as a lamp or revolves as a fan. In the wire it remains as electric energy. Similarly also, silence is the eternal flow of language, obstructed by words.
What one fails to know by conversation extending to several years can be known in a trice in Silence, or in front of Silence - e.g., Dakshinamurti, and his four disciples.
That is the highest and most effective language.
Talk 246
Silence is ever-speaking; it is a perennial flow of language; it is interrupted by speaking. These words obstruct that mute language. There is electricity flowing in a wire. With resistance to its passage, it glows as a lamp or revolves as a fan. In the wire it remains as electric energy. Similarly also, silence is the eternal flow of language, obstructed by words.
What one fails to know by conversation extending to several years can be known in a trice in Silence, or in front of Silence - e.g., Dakshinamurti, and his four disciples.
That is the highest and most effective language.
Talk 246
Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself.
Don’t believe your thoughts.
‘I am the body’ is a thought.
‘I am the mind’ is a thought.
‘I am the doer’ is a thought.
Worry is only a thought.
Fear is only a thought.
Death is only a thought.
Watch your thoughts,
Give attention to your thoughts.
Just by giving attention to your thoughts & letting them go,
they lose the ability to convince you about anything or make you suffer.
What used to feel like a rope earlier is now only a burnt rope. It has no power.
‘I am the body’ is a thought.
‘I am the mind’ is a thought.
‘I am the doer’ is a thought.
Worry is only a thought.
Fear is only a thought.
Death is only a thought.
Watch your thoughts,
Give attention to your thoughts.
Just by giving attention to your thoughts & letting them go,
they lose the ability to convince you about anything or make you suffer.
What used to feel like a rope earlier is now only a burnt rope. It has no power.
The seat of Realization is within and the seeker cannot find it as an object outside him. That seat is bliss and is the core of all beings. Hence it is called the Heart.
THE DESIRE TO DISCUSS SPIRITUALITY MUST ALSO COME TO AN END
Visitor : Sitting in Maharaj’s presence, I had a certain bodily experience. How should I understand this?
Maharaj: In trying to understand the experience, whatever significance your words and concepts give to it will be acceptable to you. But that is not knowledge.
That is why I am not very keen to ask people to stay for any extended period of time, because if you stay long you will not be able to understand. In the course of your initial eight or ten days, whatever is somewhat understood will first have to be properly digested; until then any further talks will not be absorbed. Assuming that a person is knowledgeable, then what happens is this: having left this place , he will not be able to remain alone for long. He craves company to whom he can deliver goods of spirituality. He likes to seek out somebody with whom he can talk and discuss spirituality; otherwise he feels very unhappy. Will you feel happy and satisfied if you don’t encounter other sadhakas?
A question was asked whether it was not necessary for a serious seeker to go through this stage where one likes to dole out whatever knowledge one has, to share it with others? My answer was that this is a part of the process, but that it also must come to an end, this desire to discuss and exchange views on spirituality.
The highest state is the unborn state, in which there is no experience.
Visitor : Sitting in Maharaj’s presence, I had a certain bodily experience. How should I understand this?
Maharaj: In trying to understand the experience, whatever significance your words and concepts give to it will be acceptable to you. But that is not knowledge.
That is why I am not very keen to ask people to stay for any extended period of time, because if you stay long you will not be able to understand. In the course of your initial eight or ten days, whatever is somewhat understood will first have to be properly digested; until then any further talks will not be absorbed. Assuming that a person is knowledgeable, then what happens is this: having left this place , he will not be able to remain alone for long. He craves company to whom he can deliver goods of spirituality. He likes to seek out somebody with whom he can talk and discuss spirituality; otherwise he feels very unhappy. Will you feel happy and satisfied if you don’t encounter other sadhakas?
A question was asked whether it was not necessary for a serious seeker to go through this stage where one likes to dole out whatever knowledge one has, to share it with others? My answer was that this is a part of the process, but that it also must come to an end, this desire to discuss and exchange views on spirituality.
The highest state is the unborn state, in which there is no experience.
You are timelessly free.
You are the Self now, but you must recognise this deep inside your heart.
Don’t listen to the devious mind for he has never really served the Truth.
You have to strike him at his root now.
Put the axe at the root and cut him.
Feel no compassion for him, for he is busy arranging a womb for your next birth.
You are the Self now, but you must recognise this deep inside your heart.
Don’t listen to the devious mind for he has never really served the Truth.
You have to strike him at his root now.
Put the axe at the root and cut him.
Feel no compassion for him, for he is busy arranging a womb for your next birth.
4 minutes ago
Annamalai Swami: You only have one real choice (Final Talks, page 38):Question:Ramana Maharshi once remarked that free will is non-existent, that all our activities are predetermined and that our only real choice is either to identify with the body that is performing the actions or with the underlying Self in which the body appears.Someone once said to him: ‘If I drop this fan, will that be an act that has always been destined to happen in this moment?’And Bhagavan replied, ‘It will be a predestined act’.I assume that these predestined acts are all ordained by God, and that as a consequence, nothing happens that is not God’s will, because we, as individuals, have no power to deviate from God’s ordained script.A question arises out of this.If I remember the Self, is this God’s will?And if I forget to remember at a certain moment, is this also God’s will?Or, taking my own case, if I make an effort to listen to the sound ‘I-I, is this God’s will, or is it individual effort?Annamalai Swami:Forgetfulness of the Self happens because of non-enquiry.So I say, ‘Remove the forgetfulness through enquiry’.Forgetfulness or non-forgetfulness is not a part of your destiny.It is something you can choose from moment to moment.That is what Bhagavan said.He said that you have the freedom either to identify with the body and its activities, and in doing so forget the Self, or you can identify with the Self and have the understanding that the body is performing its predestined activities, animated and sustained by the power of the Self.If you have an oil lamp and you forget to put oil in it, the light goes out.It was your forgetfulness and your lack of vigilance that caused the light to go out. Your thoughts were elsewhere. They were not on tending the lamp.In every moment you only have one real choice:to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind.If you choose the latter course, don’t blame God or God’s will, or predestination. God did not make you forget the Self.You yourself are making that choice every second of your life.
View high resolution
Annamalai Swami: You only have one real choice (Final Talks, page 38):
Question:
Ramana Maharshi once remarked that free will is non-existent, that all our activities are predetermined and that our only real choice is either to identify with the body that is performing the actions or with the underlying Self in which the body appears.
Someone once said to him: ‘If I drop this fan, will that be an act that has always been destined to happen in this moment?’
And Bhagavan replied, ‘It will be a predestined act’.
I assume that these predestined acts are all ordained by God, and that as a consequence, nothing happens that is not God’s will, because we, as individuals, have no power to deviate from God’s ordained script.
A question arises out of this.
If I remember the Self, is this God’s will?
And if I forget to remember at a certain moment, is this also God’s will?
Or, taking my own case, if I make an effort to listen to the sound ‘I-I, is this God’s will, or is it individual effort?
Annamalai Swami:
Forgetfulness of the Self happens because of non-enquiry.
So I say, ‘Remove the forgetfulness through enquiry’.
Forgetfulness or non-forgetfulness is not a part of your destiny.
It is something you can choose from moment to moment.
That is what Bhagavan said.
He said that you have the freedom either to identify with the body and its activities, and in doing so forget the Self, or you can identify with the Self and have the understanding that the body is performing its predestined activities, animated and sustained by the power of the Self.
If you have an oil lamp and you forget to put oil in it, the light goes out.
It was your forgetfulness and your lack of vigilance that caused the light to go out. Your thoughts were elsewhere. They were not on tending the lamp.
In every moment you only have one real choice:
to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind.
If you choose the latter course, don’t blame God or God’s will, or predestination. God did not make you forget the Self.
You yourself are making that choice every second of your life.
Annamalai Swami: You only have one real choice (Final Talks, page 38):Question:Ramana Maharshi once remarked that free will is non-existent, that all our activities are predetermined and that our only real choice is either to identify with the body that is performing the actions or with the underlying Self in which the body appears.Someone once said to him: ‘If I drop this fan, will that be an act that has always been destined to happen in this moment?’And Bhagavan replied, ‘It will be a predestined act’.I assume that these predestined acts are all ordained by God, and that as a consequence, nothing happens that is not God’s will, because we, as individuals, have no power to deviate from God’s ordained script.A question arises out of this.If I remember the Self, is this God’s will?And if I forget to remember at a certain moment, is this also God’s will?Or, taking my own case, if I make an effort to listen to the sound ‘I-I, is this God’s will, or is it individual effort?Annamalai Swami:Forgetfulness of the Self happens because of non-enquiry.So I say, ‘Remove the forgetfulness through enquiry’.Forgetfulness or non-forgetfulness is not a part of your destiny.It is something you can choose from moment to moment.That is what Bhagavan said.He said that you have the freedom either to identify with the body and its activities, and in doing so forget the Self, or you can identify with the Self and have the understanding that the body is performing its predestined activities, animated and sustained by the power of the Self.If you have an oil lamp and you forget to put oil in it, the light goes out.It was your forgetfulness and your lack of vigilance that caused the light to go out. Your thoughts were elsewhere. They were not on tending the lamp.In every moment you only have one real choice:to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind.If you choose the latter course, don’t blame God or God’s will, or predestination. God did not make you forget the Self.You yourself are making that choice every second of your life.
View high resolution
Annamalai Swami: You only have one real choice (Final Talks, page 38):
Question:
Ramana Maharshi once remarked that free will is non-existent, that all our activities are predetermined and that our only real choice is either to identify with the body that is performing the actions or with the underlying Self in which the body appears.
Someone once said to him: ‘If I drop this fan, will that be an act that has always been destined to happen in this moment?’
And Bhagavan replied, ‘It will be a predestined act’.
I assume that these predestined acts are all ordained by God, and that as a consequence, nothing happens that is not God’s will, because we, as individuals, have no power to deviate from God’s ordained script.
A question arises out of this.
If I remember the Self, is this God’s will?
And if I forget to remember at a certain moment, is this also God’s will?
Or, taking my own case, if I make an effort to listen to the sound ‘I-I, is this God’s will, or is it individual effort?
Annamalai Swami:
Forgetfulness of the Self happens because of non-enquiry.
So I say, ‘Remove the forgetfulness through enquiry’.
Forgetfulness or non-forgetfulness is not a part of your destiny.
It is something you can choose from moment to moment.
That is what Bhagavan said.
He said that you have the freedom either to identify with the body and its activities, and in doing so forget the Self, or you can identify with the Self and have the understanding that the body is performing its predestined activities, animated and sustained by the power of the Self.
If you have an oil lamp and you forget to put oil in it, the light goes out.
It was your forgetfulness and your lack of vigilance that caused the light to go out. Your thoughts were elsewhere. They were not on tending the lamp.
In every moment you only have one real choice:
to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind.
If you choose the latter course, don’t blame God or God’s will, or predestination. God did not make you forget the Self.
You yourself are making that choice every second of your life.
Beings
Follow us on Facebook