Question : Is nirvikalpa samadhi absolutely necessary before the attainment of sahaja?
Ramana Maharshi : Abiding permanently in any of these samadhis, either savikalpa or nirvikatpa, is sahaja [the natural state]. What is body-consciousness? It is the insentient body plus consciousness. Both of these must lie in another consciousness which is absolute and unaffected and which remains as it always is, with or without the body-consciousness. What does it then matter whether the body-consciousness is lost or retained, provided one is holding on to that pure consciousness? Total absence of body-consciousness has the advantage of making the samadhi more intense, although it makes no difference to the knowledge of the supreme.
Ramana Maharshi : Abiding permanently in any of these samadhis, either savikalpa or nirvikatpa, is sahaja [the natural state]. What is body-consciousness? It is the insentient body plus consciousness. Both of these must lie in another consciousness which is absolute and unaffected and which remains as it always is, with or without the body-consciousness. What does it then matter whether the body-consciousness is lost or retained, provided one is holding on to that pure consciousness? Total absence of body-consciousness has the advantage of making the samadhi more intense, although it makes no difference to the knowledge of the supreme.
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Never mind what you read.
There are all kinds of stories about all kinds of things.
Keep your mind on yourself.
Abide in the 'I'.
You are unique in your own individual way.
Do not compare with anyone, be yourself.
You can read ten different books and they will give you ten different ways of doing things.
Dive within yourself, go deeper and deeper everyday and I can assure you something will give and you will eventually become free.
70 Jnana, Siddhis and Spiritual Healings - June 16, 1991
There are all kinds of stories about all kinds of things.
Keep your mind on yourself.
Abide in the 'I'.
You are unique in your own individual way.
Do not compare with anyone, be yourself.
You can read ten different books and they will give you ten different ways of doing things.
Dive within yourself, go deeper and deeper everyday and I can assure you something will give and you will eventually become free.
70 Jnana, Siddhis and Spiritual Healings - June 16, 1991
Just drop all that is bothering you. If you are not free today, you can never be free anytime. Don't expect freedom to come to you. "Today, I am free! Everything is going to happen the way it is going to happen."
Don’t be so quick to believe in the mind’s projections. You are not the mind. Don’t come under its spell. The mind is a great magician. It has hypnotised 7 billion human beings. In the realm of personhood, it is full of tricks and has the power to make a lot of mischief, confusion, distortion and delusion. But yours is a greater power. It is the power of the pure Self. The power to observe with detachment, to recognise that all phenomena are transient appearances and that oneself is the formless witness—timeless and ever-perfect.
If you are examining deeply the real nature of your being behind the idea of "I am", your spiritual progress is central and inevitable. On this path of realization of the absolute state of being, it is ignorant to become emotionally disturbed about your rate of progress or whether the great realization will happen
quickly or slowly, in the present body or some future body.
The seed of spiritual life grows in secret silence and darkness until its appointed hour of activation on the divine plane of existence beyond consciousness, mind and body. It is enough for
consciousness to be ever looking into its own center of "I am" with increasing detachment and right order of external life without adding to the troubles and problems that come with useless desires and fears.
To be ever fretfully exercising mental imagination and physical
exertions toward the ultimate state of being is a misunderstanding in consciousness of going away from central awareness of being to try to get the result of it from outside in the mind and body. You are not your mind or body, so why do you look so hard to your mind or body to give you the self-realization you need? Conscious
attention must look within the very core of itself and go through the ultimate gateway of "I am"...
quickly or slowly, in the present body or some future body.
The seed of spiritual life grows in secret silence and darkness until its appointed hour of activation on the divine plane of existence beyond consciousness, mind and body. It is enough for
consciousness to be ever looking into its own center of "I am" with increasing detachment and right order of external life without adding to the troubles and problems that come with useless desires and fears.
To be ever fretfully exercising mental imagination and physical
exertions toward the ultimate state of being is a misunderstanding in consciousness of going away from central awareness of being to try to get the result of it from outside in the mind and body. You are not your mind or body, so why do you look so hard to your mind or body to give you the self-realization you need? Conscious
attention must look within the very core of itself and go through the ultimate gateway of "I am"...
Do nothing, just be. In being all happens naturally.
God..... give me that state of mind in which I shall not want anything from anybody and not even from You.
Be quiet, don’t think, don’t make effort.
To be bound takes effort, to be Free takes no effort.
Peace is beyond thought and effort.
Do not think and do not make effort because
This only obscures That, and will never reveal That.
This is why keeping Quiet is the key
To the storehouse of love and peace.
This Quietness is no-mind, this no-thought is Freedom.
Identify yourself as this Nothingness, as this Quietness,
And be careful not to make it an experience
Because this is mind tricking you out of it
With the trap of duality; the trap of witness and witnessed.
Being is Being, there is no witness and no witnessed.
Experiencing it is to say “I am Free,”
Which is exactly the same trap as saying “I am bound.”
After letting go of object
Do not hold onto the subject either.
Let go, Be Quiet.
To be bound takes effort, to be Free takes no effort.
Peace is beyond thought and effort.
Do not think and do not make effort because
This only obscures That, and will never reveal That.
This is why keeping Quiet is the key
To the storehouse of love and peace.
This Quietness is no-mind, this no-thought is Freedom.
Identify yourself as this Nothingness, as this Quietness,
And be careful not to make it an experience
Because this is mind tricking you out of it
With the trap of duality; the trap of witness and witnessed.
Being is Being, there is no witness and no witnessed.
Experiencing it is to say “I am Free,”
Which is exactly the same trap as saying “I am bound.”
After letting go of object
Do not hold onto the subject either.
Let go, Be Quiet.
By its very nature it [the world] is painful and transient. See it as it is and divest yourself of all desire and fear. When the world does not hold and bind you, it becomes an abode of joy and beauty. You can be happy in the world only when you are free of it.
If you ask, “What is the benefit of sacrificing the innumerable sensual pleasures and retaining mere Consciousness?”, [we reply that] the fruit of Jnana is the
eternal and unbroken experience of the Bliss of Self.
eternal and unbroken experience of the Bliss of Self.
Through spiritual practices, one must make oneself fit to receive God's grace. All else He does out of His own mercy. Through constant thought of Him and meditation on Him, the mind and heart become purified; and to that pure mind a divine revelation occurs spontaneously and God's grace is realized.
The jnana-path-finder has offered his Jivatma (individual soul) as a camphor in the Fire of the Absolute.
Total loss of pride in individuality is my nirvana.
This world of maya is yours to play with as you wish.
You can take control of it or it can take control of you.
It's your choice.
If you do not wish this maya world to take control of you, then you have to get out of it as fast as you can.
Again you get out of it by not reacting to conditions to people to places to things and inquiring,
"To whom do these things come?
Who is feeling this?
Who is...to whom does this come?
To me.
Who is me?
Who is 'I'?
Where did 'I' come from?"
You keep doing this without looking to time and space and anything else.
Just keep doing it.
Try and make yourself happy everyday, laugh at yourself.
226 Whatever You See Is The Self - February 25, 1993
You can take control of it or it can take control of you.
It's your choice.
If you do not wish this maya world to take control of you, then you have to get out of it as fast as you can.
Again you get out of it by not reacting to conditions to people to places to things and inquiring,
"To whom do these things come?
Who is feeling this?
Who is...to whom does this come?
To me.
Who is me?
Who is 'I'?
Where did 'I' come from?"
You keep doing this without looking to time and space and anything else.
Just keep doing it.
Try and make yourself happy everyday, laugh at yourself.
226 Whatever You See Is The Self - February 25, 1993
When you acquire self-knowledge, then you feel that your birth and your actions are both Divine. This understanding comes to you. Not a single bad word comes out from your mouth. There is no hate or ill feelings in your heart towards anyone. It just cannot happen because everyone feels part of you; like your very own. This is the pinnacle of Love.
Give up worldly matters completely. Talk of nothing else but God. When you come across worldly people, leave quietly. You have lived a worldly life for so long. You have seen that it is all hollow within, that the Lord is the only substance. Everything else is non-substance. The Lord is the only Reality, all else is ephemeral.
Let us love in such a way that the person we love feels free.
In the kitchen he was the Master Cook, aiming at perfection in taste and appearance. One would think that he liked good food and enjoyed a hearty meal. Not at all. At dinner time he would mix up the little food he would allow to be put on his leaf - the sweet, the sour and the savory, everything together- and gulp it down carelessly as if he had no taste in his mouth. When we would tell him that it was not right to mix such nicely made up dishes, he would say:
"Enough of multiplicity. Let us have some unity."
"Enough of multiplicity. Let us have some unity."
To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
I want you to wake up NOW!
This is the direct path.
I am pointing you the pathless path,
to what is already so, but so often missed.
I am pulling the curtains open for you to see from the place
where there is nothing else behind you.
Be here in the place without coordinates.
In your real place, your home and your Self.
Every day, every time, every moment, I push you back.
When you come back up, you are pushed back into the armchair of your own Being.
A time will come when you will not rise up as ego any more.
This is the direct path.
I am pointing you the pathless path,
to what is already so, but so often missed.
I am pulling the curtains open for you to see from the place
where there is nothing else behind you.
Be here in the place without coordinates.
In your real place, your home and your Self.
Every day, every time, every moment, I push you back.
When you come back up, you are pushed back into the armchair of your own Being.
A time will come when you will not rise up as ego any more.
Duality is pain. So long as man does not wake up to his identity with the One, the cycle of birth and death continues for him.
Children, ego arises out of desire and selfishness; it does not occur naturally but is created.
Nobody is excluded from the realisation of the Self.
The Self is the fact of who we are, but first we must overcome the fiction of who we are—the personal self.
And remember: there is a deep loyalty to our identity, self-image, self-portrait, to the idea we have of who we are.
This has to be seen, acknowledged and transcended.
However, something very powerful is here working on your behalf. Grace and the ability to inquire into the real nature of Self brings the recognition of Truth alive inside the Heart.
It is due to this that all the previously distracting influences of the psychological mind are subdued or bypassed, allowing the attention and mind to be brought again into synchronicity with your Heart.
And it is all very simple, actually.
It is simpler than simple, because the true Self is timelessly present and already perfect in itself.
That which I am pointing to needs no human help to be what it is. Satsang and specifically, self-inquiry, is the means to find and confirm this for yourself.
The Self is the fact of who we are, but first we must overcome the fiction of who we are—the personal self.
And remember: there is a deep loyalty to our identity, self-image, self-portrait, to the idea we have of who we are.
This has to be seen, acknowledged and transcended.
However, something very powerful is here working on your behalf. Grace and the ability to inquire into the real nature of Self brings the recognition of Truth alive inside the Heart.
It is due to this that all the previously distracting influences of the psychological mind are subdued or bypassed, allowing the attention and mind to be brought again into synchronicity with your Heart.
And it is all very simple, actually.
It is simpler than simple, because the true Self is timelessly present and already perfect in itself.
That which I am pointing to needs no human help to be what it is. Satsang and specifically, self-inquiry, is the means to find and confirm this for yourself.
You can be here or there or anywhere.
Fixed in silence, established in the inner I, you can be as you are.
The world will never perturb you if you are well founded upon the tranquility within.
Fixed in silence, established in the inner I, you can be as you are.
The world will never perturb you if you are well founded upon the tranquility within.
You want to possess knowledge, to collect knowledge. Such knowledge is plentiful and available in the world, but a rare person will understand that such knowledge is a bundle of ignorance.