BHAKTI AND JNANA
D: Sri Bhagavata outlines a way to find Krishna in
the heart by prostrating to all and looking on all
as the Lord Himself. Is this the right path leading
to Self-realization? Is it not easier thus to adore
Bhagavan in whatever meets the ‘mind’, than to
seek the supramental through the mental enquiry,
Who am I?
M: Yes, when you see God in all, do you think of God
or do you not? You must certainly think of God for
seeing God all round you. Keeping God in your
mind becomes dhyana and dhyana is the stage before
Realization. Realization can only be in and of the
Self. It can never be apart from the Self: and dhyana
must precede it. Whether you make dhyana on God
or on the Self, it is immaterial; for the goal is the
same. You cannot, by any means, escape the Self.
You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all
is God, are you not included in that all? Being God
yourself, is it a wonder that all is God? This is the
method advised in Sri Bhagavata, and elsewhere by
others. But even for this practice there must be the
seer or thinker. Who is he?
D: How to see God who is all-pervasive?
M: To see God is to be God. There is no ‘all’ apart from
God for Him to pervade. He alone is.
From Maharshi’s Gospel
D: Sri Bhagavata outlines a way to find Krishna in
the heart by prostrating to all and looking on all
as the Lord Himself. Is this the right path leading
to Self-realization? Is it not easier thus to adore
Bhagavan in whatever meets the ‘mind’, than to
seek the supramental through the mental enquiry,
Who am I?
M: Yes, when you see God in all, do you think of God
or do you not? You must certainly think of God for
seeing God all round you. Keeping God in your
mind becomes dhyana and dhyana is the stage before
Realization. Realization can only be in and of the
Self. It can never be apart from the Self: and dhyana
must precede it. Whether you make dhyana on God
or on the Self, it is immaterial; for the goal is the
same. You cannot, by any means, escape the Self.
You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all
is God, are you not included in that all? Being God
yourself, is it a wonder that all is God? This is the
method advised in Sri Bhagavata, and elsewhere by
others. But even for this practice there must be the
seer or thinker. Who is he?
D: How to see God who is all-pervasive?
M: To see God is to be God. There is no ‘all’ apart from
God for Him to pervade. He alone is.
From Maharshi’s Gospel
You hurt someone, you hurt yourself.
You love someone, you love yourself.
You love someone, you love yourself.
ON MEDITATION...ITS PURPOSE......
Questioner: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?
Maharaj: We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness.
Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.
Q: What is the use of a quiet mind?
M: When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps....
Questioner: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?
Maharaj: We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness.
Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.
Q: What is the use of a quiet mind?
M: When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps....
If you make human company too important
you will not discover your true Self.
Relationships not based in truth
are never entirely reliable and are rarely enduring.
Taking time to discover yourself is the best use of time.
Prioritise this.
One should not excessively seek partners or friends,
one should seek to know and be oneself.
As you begin to awaken to the Truth,
you start noticing how well life flows by itself
and how well you are cared for.
Life supports the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of the one who is open to self-discovery.
Trust opens your eyes to the recognition of this.
Surrender allows you to merge in your own eternal being.
you will not discover your true Self.
Relationships not based in truth
are never entirely reliable and are rarely enduring.
Taking time to discover yourself is the best use of time.
Prioritise this.
One should not excessively seek partners or friends,
one should seek to know and be oneself.
As you begin to awaken to the Truth,
you start noticing how well life flows by itself
and how well you are cared for.
Life supports the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of the one who is open to self-discovery.
Trust opens your eyes to the recognition of this.
Surrender allows you to merge in your own eternal being.
When the ‘I’ thought does not arise, and I unite [as pure being] with Him, He remains merged with me shining out as my very own fullness. However, the very moment
I raise my head [thinking ‘I’], to perceive his ancient [form] he sees my oddness, scorns me, and conceals himself from me.
Ramana Puranam, vs. 217-220
I raise my head [thinking ‘I’], to perceive his ancient [form] he sees my oddness, scorns me, and conceals himself from me.
Ramana Puranam, vs. 217-220
Perfection is shy to show her beauty.
She reveals it only inside a mind made serene through parting company with the ego.
She reveals it only inside a mind made serene through parting company with the ego.
The wave said to the sea: "Could I be like you?"
The sea replied: "It's easy... just settle down."
The sea replied: "It's easy... just settle down."
I have learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even a pure Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely,
It has turned to ash
And freed me
Of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even a pure Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely,
It has turned to ash
And freed me
Of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.
The only way you will ever awaken is through silence, not through analyzation of facts. Not by sorting out good and bad, but through simple silence, letting go. Letting go of all thoughts, all the hurts, all the dogmas and concepts. Letting go of these things daily.
Do not pray for easy life, pray for strength to endure a difficult one.
To be here, all you have to do is let go of who you think you are.
That's all!
And then you realize: "I'm here".
Here is where thoughts aren't believed.
Every time you come here, you are nothing.
Radiantly nothing.
Absolutely and eternally zero.
Emptiness that is awake.
Emptiness that is full.
Emptiness that is everything.
That's all!
And then you realize: "I'm here".
Here is where thoughts aren't believed.
Every time you come here, you are nothing.
Radiantly nothing.
Absolutely and eternally zero.
Emptiness that is awake.
Emptiness that is full.
Emptiness that is everything.
I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.
Be aware of the 'I' so intensely that no other thought can arise.
Don't think you must run away from conditionings or you must run away from your job or you must leave your family or you must do anything like this.
Never concern yourself with the body. Mentally learn to let go, to think less. Cut down on your thinking and your thoughts. Some of you still believe that if you do not think about something, it will never happen. This is not true. As a matter of fact, it is reverse.
If you do not think, then the true nature of yourself will be revealed, and the true nature of the universe will be revealed.
Never concern yourself with the body. Mentally learn to let go, to think less. Cut down on your thinking and your thoughts. Some of you still believe that if you do not think about something, it will never happen. This is not true. As a matter of fact, it is reverse.
If you do not think, then the true nature of yourself will be revealed, and the true nature of the universe will be revealed.
Just turn away from all that occupies the mind; do whatever work you have to complete, but avoid new obligations; keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited. In the end you reach a state of non-grasping of joyful non-attachment, of inner ease and freedom indescribable, yet wonderfully real.
Do you really want to erase all your deluded beliefs, memories, stories, tendencies and identities one by one, or would you prefer to find the factory where they are produced, and blow the whole thing up? I say this because right now, I don’t have time for all this tiny pruning.
You hold on to your little nail clipper, but I am giving you a great chainsaw to bring down this old tree of suffering.
This chainsaw is self-inquiry.
This is your good fortune.
You hold on to your little nail clipper, but I am giving you a great chainsaw to bring down this old tree of suffering.
This chainsaw is self-inquiry.
This is your good fortune.
8 The Mind
The mind desires this,
And grieves for that.
It embraces one thing,
And spurns another.
Now it feels anger,
Now happiness.
In this way you are bound.
But when the mind desires nothing
And grieves for nothing,
When it is without joy or anger
And, grasping nothing,
Turns nothing away. . .
Then you are free.
When the mind is attracted
To anything it senses,
You are bound.
When there is no attraction,
You are free.
Where there is no I,
You are free.
Where there is I,
You are bound.
Consider this.
It is easy.
Embrace nothing,
Turn nothing away.
The mind desires this,
And grieves for that.
It embraces one thing,
And spurns another.
Now it feels anger,
Now happiness.
In this way you are bound.
But when the mind desires nothing
And grieves for nothing,
When it is without joy or anger
And, grasping nothing,
Turns nothing away. . .
Then you are free.
When the mind is attracted
To anything it senses,
You are bound.
When there is no attraction,
You are free.
Where there is no I,
You are free.
Where there is I,
You are bound.
Consider this.
It is easy.
Embrace nothing,
Turn nothing away.
Pure of heart,
He desires nothing,
Even in despair.
He is content
In the knowledge of the Self.
With whom may I compare him?
With clear and steady insight
He knows that whatever he sees
Is by its very nature nothing.
How can he prefer one thing to another?
He is beyond all duality.
Free from desire,
He has driven from his mind
All longing for the world.
Come what may,
Joy or sorrow,
Nothing moves him.
He desires nothing,
Even in despair.
He is content
In the knowledge of the Self.
With whom may I compare him?
With clear and steady insight
He knows that whatever he sees
Is by its very nature nothing.
How can he prefer one thing to another?
He is beyond all duality.
Free from desire,
He has driven from his mind
All longing for the world.
Come what may,
Joy or sorrow,
Nothing moves him.
I am awareness itself,
Bound only by my thirst for life.
I am the infinite ocean.
When thoughts spring up,
The wind freshens, and like waves
A thousand worlds arise.
But when the wind falls,
The trader sinks with his ship.
On the boundless ocean of my being
He founders,
And all the worlds with him.
But O how wonderful!
I am the unbounded deep
In whom all living things
Naturally arise,
Rush against each other playfully,
And then subside.
Bound only by my thirst for life.
I am the infinite ocean.
When thoughts spring up,
The wind freshens, and like waves
A thousand worlds arise.
But when the wind falls,
The trader sinks with his ship.
On the boundless ocean of my being
He founders,
And all the worlds with him.
But O how wonderful!
I am the unbounded deep
In whom all living things
Naturally arise,
Rush against each other playfully,
And then subside.
It is the intimacy of our own being that imparts reality to all seeming things.
The problem is not with the mind, it is the personal identification with thoughts that creates suffering.
The highest path of Jnana is no thinker left to think at all.
Nobody is home.
There is a total blank.
There is no one around to do any thinking or preparing anything or trying to solve a problem or trying to do anything.
At that stage you're totally free.
When you devote yourself to the Self, when you become a devotee of the Self, this means that you surrender all of your fears, your frustrations, your goals, your needs, your lacks, your limitations, everything is totally surrendered to the Self.
This is devotion.
143 Jnana-Marga, Bhakti-Marga and Karma-Marga - April 5, 1992
Nobody is home.
There is a total blank.
There is no one around to do any thinking or preparing anything or trying to solve a problem or trying to do anything.
At that stage you're totally free.
When you devote yourself to the Self, when you become a devotee of the Self, this means that you surrender all of your fears, your frustrations, your goals, your needs, your lacks, your limitations, everything is totally surrendered to the Self.
This is devotion.
143 Jnana-Marga, Bhakti-Marga and Karma-Marga - April 5, 1992
When I left him physically in 1947 he told me, ‘I am with you wherever you are’. Thatwas his promise and that is my experience. There is no one called Poonja left anymore.There is only an emptiness where he used to be. And in that emptiness there shines the ‘I’, the ‘I’ that is my reality, the ‘I’ that is my Master, the ‘I’ that he promised would bewith me wherever I am. Whenever I speak, it is not someone called Poonja who isspeaking, it is the ‘I’ that is the Maharshi who speaks, the ‘I’ which is the Self in theHeart of all beings
Abiding in your own being is holy company.
Give your real being a chance to shape your life.