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Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content. You face it most cheerfully when you go to sleep! Find out for yourself the state of wakeful sleep and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature. Words can only give you the idea, and the idea is not the experience. All I can say is that true happiness has no cause, and what has no cause is immovable. Which does not mean it is perceivable, as pleasure. What is perceivable is pain and pleasure; the state of freedom from sorrow can be described only negatively.
If you realize the reason why you came you'll be interested in one thing, awakening. And that will dominate your life. Nothing else will. You will not be concerned with what somebody else is doing, and you will be at peace with yourself and everybody else. Everything is preordained anyway. Everything is karmic. So what's going to happen will happen, whether you like it or not. So why get insulted. Why get your feelings hurt. Be at peace.
If without wasting time, one starts and keeps up steady self-inquiry, one's life becomes at once ennobled, one is no more this wretched body, and there wells up within one's heart, a sea of supreme bliss.
Learn to live without self concern. For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless, ever victorious. Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.
As a solid rock cannot be moved by the wind, the wise are not shaken by praise or blame. When they listen to the words of the dharma, their minds become calm and clear like the waters of a still lake.”
The universe is full of action, but there is no actor. There are numberless persons small and big and very big, who, through identification, imagine themselves as acting, but it does not change the fact that the world of action (mahadakash) is one single whole in which all depends on, and affects all. The stars affect us deeply and we affect the stars. Step back from action to consciousness, leave action to the body and the mind; it is their domain. Remain as pure witness, till even witnessing dissolves in the Supreme.
Like two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree, intimate friends, the ego and the Self dwell in the same body. The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life while the latter looks on in detachment.
Karma is only a store of unspent energies, of unfulfilled desires, and fears not understood. The store is being constantly replenished by new desires and fears. It need not be so forever. Understand the root cause of your fears - estrangement from yourself; and of desires - the longing for the self, and your karma will dissolve like a dream.
SAMADHI
This morning, a European who was sitting in front of Bhagavan said through an interpreter:
“It is stated in the Mandukyopanishad that, unless samadhi, i.e., the 8th and last stage of yoga, is also experienced, there can be no liberation (moksha) however much meditation (dhyana) or austerities (tapas) are performed. Is that so?”
Bhagavan: “Rightly understood, they are the same. It makes no difference whether you call it meditation or austerities or absorption, or anything else. That which is steady, continuous like the flow of oil, is austerity, meditation and absorption. To be one’s own Self is samadhi.”
Questioner: “But it is said in the Mandukyopanishad that samadhi must necessarily be experienced before attaining liberation.”
Bhagavan: “And who says that it is not so? It is stated not only in the Mandukyopanishad but in all the ancient books. But it is true samadhi only if you know your Self. What is the use of sitting still for some time like a lifeless object?
Suppose you get a boil on your hand and have it operated under chloroform; you don’t feel any pain at the time, but does that mean that you were in samadhi? It is the same with this too. One has to know what samadhi is. And how can you know it without knowing your Self? If the Self is known, samadhi will be known automatically.”
Meanwhile, a Tamil devotee opened the Tiruvachakam and began singing the “Songs on Pursuit”. Towards the end comes the passage,
“Oh, Ishwara (personal God), You are trying to flee, but I am holding You fast. So where can You go and how can You escape from me?”
Bhagavan commented with a smile: “So it seems that He is trying to flee and they are holding Him fast! Where could He flee to? Where is He not present? Who is He? All this is nothing but a pageant. There is another sequence of ten songs in the same book, one which goes,
‘O my Lord! You have made my mind Your abode. You have given Yourself upto me and in return have taken me into You. Lord, which of us is the cleverer? If You have given Yourself up to me, I enjoy endless bliss, but of what use am I to You, even though You have made of my body Your Temple out of Your boundless mercy to me? What is it I could do for you in return? I have nothing now that I could call my own.’
This means that there is no such thing as ‘I’. See the beauty of it! Where there is no such thing as ‘I’, who is the doer and what is it that is done, whether it be devotion or Self-enquiry or samadhi?”
8th September, 1947
Letters from Sri Ramanasramam
This morning, a European who was sitting in front of Bhagavan said through an interpreter:
“It is stated in the Mandukyopanishad that, unless samadhi, i.e., the 8th and last stage of yoga, is also experienced, there can be no liberation (moksha) however much meditation (dhyana) or austerities (tapas) are performed. Is that so?”
Bhagavan: “Rightly understood, they are the same. It makes no difference whether you call it meditation or austerities or absorption, or anything else. That which is steady, continuous like the flow of oil, is austerity, meditation and absorption. To be one’s own Self is samadhi.”
Questioner: “But it is said in the Mandukyopanishad that samadhi must necessarily be experienced before attaining liberation.”
Bhagavan: “And who says that it is not so? It is stated not only in the Mandukyopanishad but in all the ancient books. But it is true samadhi only if you know your Self. What is the use of sitting still for some time like a lifeless object?
Suppose you get a boil on your hand and have it operated under chloroform; you don’t feel any pain at the time, but does that mean that you were in samadhi? It is the same with this too. One has to know what samadhi is. And how can you know it without knowing your Self? If the Self is known, samadhi will be known automatically.”
Meanwhile, a Tamil devotee opened the Tiruvachakam and began singing the “Songs on Pursuit”. Towards the end comes the passage,
“Oh, Ishwara (personal God), You are trying to flee, but I am holding You fast. So where can You go and how can You escape from me?”
Bhagavan commented with a smile: “So it seems that He is trying to flee and they are holding Him fast! Where could He flee to? Where is He not present? Who is He? All this is nothing but a pageant. There is another sequence of ten songs in the same book, one which goes,
‘O my Lord! You have made my mind Your abode. You have given Yourself upto me and in return have taken me into You. Lord, which of us is the cleverer? If You have given Yourself up to me, I enjoy endless bliss, but of what use am I to You, even though You have made of my body Your Temple out of Your boundless mercy to me? What is it I could do for you in return? I have nothing now that I could call my own.’
This means that there is no such thing as ‘I’. See the beauty of it! Where there is no such thing as ‘I’, who is the doer and what is it that is done, whether it be devotion or Self-enquiry or samadhi?”
8th September, 1947
Letters from Sri Ramanasramam
By its very nature, the mind is outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the things themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is, in a way, the beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of consciousness; in consciousness there is the 'I', who is conscious, while awareness is undivided; awareness is aware of itself. The 'I am' is a thought, while awareness is not a thought; there is no 'I am aware' in awareness. Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all - being as well as not-being.
Remaining free from clinging to everything that arises in the mind, represents the highest path, leaving nothing higher to aspire to. When the mind does not cling to every emerging appearance, the stream of this mind becomes free from any stain of deluded discrimination.
Abiding in your own being is holy company. If you have no problem of suffering and release from suffering, you will not find the energy and persistence needed for self-enquiry. You cannot manufacture a crisis. It must be genuine.
To recognize one's own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.
It is desire that causes sorrow; but the will to realize God is itself felicity. Be certain that He will cleanse and comfort you and take you into His arms. Sorrow comes in order to lead you to happiness. At all times hold Him in remembrance.
We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment.
To change the world, we need to combine Ancient Wisdom with new technologies.
When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha.
As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.
Whatever the ego seeks and gets attached to are substitutes for the being that it cannot feel.
All of this is so incredibly simple. We learnt that whatever happens in our mind somehow is blocking you from going somewhere. I am saying that Awareness, the goal of all enquiry, cannot be on the other side of working through any process, because Awareness is that within which even the attempt to work through to get to something arises and is perceived.
Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience. Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore, the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognized as the original, basic experience, which is life itself, and also love and joy.
The very fact of observation alters the observer and the observed. After all, what prevents the insight into one’s true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus on the gross only. When you follow my advice and try to keep your mind on the notion of ‘I am’ only, you become fully aware of your mind and its vagaries. Awareness, being lucid harmony (sattva) in action, dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind and gently, but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular; it may be hardly noticeable, yet it is a deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence to awareness.
'Heart' is merely another name for the 'Supreme Spirit,' because 'He' is in all hearts. The entire Universe is condensed in the body, and the entire body in the Heart. Thus the 'Heart' is the nucleus of the whole Universe.
There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing to be attained. You are the Self. You exist always. Nothing more can be predicated of the Self than that it exists. Seeing God or the Self is only being the Self, that is yourself. Seeing is Being. You, being the Self, want to know how to attain the Self. It is like a man being at Ramanasramam and asking how many ways there are of going to Ramanasramam and which is the best way for him. All that is required of you is to give up the thought that you are this body and give up all thoughts of external things or the non-Self. As often as the mind goes out towards objects, stop it and fix it in the Self or 'I'. That is all the effort required on your part. Ceaseless practice is essential until one attains without the least effort that natural and primal state of mind which is free from thought, in other words, until the 'I', 'my' and 'mine' are completely eradicated and destroyed.
If you hold on to being a person, you will not be free.
People are doing this all over the world.
They are going to spiritual gatherings and they are asking questions they believe are spiritual questions, but if they retain identity as a person, whatever answers they get, will not propel them beyond personhood into the clarity of being.
This is why I say, I give you only five minutes to evaluate the outcome of ‘your’ version of doing things so far and to jump out of the claustrophobia of personhood into real freedom.
Five, now three minutes, ample time to say ‘yes-take me home’ and thus re-enter your original being.
What holds you back?
People are doing this all over the world.
They are going to spiritual gatherings and they are asking questions they believe are spiritual questions, but if they retain identity as a person, whatever answers they get, will not propel them beyond personhood into the clarity of being.
This is why I say, I give you only five minutes to evaluate the outcome of ‘your’ version of doing things so far and to jump out of the claustrophobia of personhood into real freedom.
Five, now three minutes, ample time to say ‘yes-take me home’ and thus re-enter your original being.
What holds you back?
Beings
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