You must believe you are important, know who you are. You are of great importance in the universe. You cannot be happy without this thought in mind. You are important to yourselves, others and Great Spirit. You are good and are not evil. You need to pray to do better for yourself, others and Great Spirit. Let no one say you are not good. You are all good, not evil. I know nothing of evil. I am not evil. You are not evil and will never be evil. Be not afraid of evil. It will never touch your life unless you believe in evil. You will live with Light when you live with Hope and Love. You are not evil, my friends. Do not ever think this is so, for you are all good people. No who is good can be evil. You are good forever. You must try to be better, even when you do not feel well or when things do not go well or when you are in the depths of despair. You are not alone. Pray for your own good as well as the good of others, your friends and your enemies. Help them to be good. This is Love, Life, Hope, Truth, and all you are living for.
Everything an Indian
does is in a circle, and
that is because the Power
of the World is in circles,
and everything tries to
be round … the sky is
round and I have heard
that the earth is round
like a ball and so are all
the stars. The wind, in its
power, whirls. Birds make
their nests in circles, for
theirs is the same religion
as ours. The sun
comes forth and goes
down again in a circle.
The moon does the same,
and both are round. Even
the seasons form a great
circle in their changing,
and always come back
again to where they
were. The life of man is
a circle from childhood
to childhood, and so it
is in everything where
power moves.
does is in a circle, and
that is because the Power
of the World is in circles,
and everything tries to
be round … the sky is
round and I have heard
that the earth is round
like a ball and so are all
the stars. The wind, in its
power, whirls. Birds make
their nests in circles, for
theirs is the same religion
as ours. The sun
comes forth and goes
down again in a circle.
The moon does the same,
and both are round. Even
the seasons form a great
circle in their changing,
and always come back
again to where they
were. The life of man is
a circle from childhood
to childhood, and so it
is in everything where
power moves.
At the center of the Universe Dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.
When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the west, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greenier and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.
It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost
You have noticed that the truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing face is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better for them to see.
And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
All of the great Sages since the beginning of time have taught basically three direct methods for self-realization.
These three methods I'm going to share the highest teachings on earth.
If you only practice these things you would need nothing else and
we will awaken and become free which we already are anyway but
you don't believe it. It behooves us to practice these three methods.
The "first" principle is being in the acquaintance of Sages in satsang.
This is the highest teaching you can get.
The "second" direct method is self-inquiry.
Self-inquiry is very important also.
But Bhagvan Sri Ramana Maharshi and other great Sages, Shankara, many Sages, manySaints, have emphasized the importance of
self-inquiry, atma-vichara. It's very easy to do.
You should practice all day and all night.
Especially if you've found a Sage
The "third" direct method is self surrender.
You can do all three of these things simultaneously you know.
You can be with a Sage, practice self-inquiry and also surrender.
This is what a true devotee does. They do all three.
Without even knowing that they're doing them.
Talk 212: Three Direct Methods - 27th December, 1992
These three methods I'm going to share the highest teachings on earth.
If you only practice these things you would need nothing else and
we will awaken and become free which we already are anyway but
you don't believe it. It behooves us to practice these three methods.
The "first" principle is being in the acquaintance of Sages in satsang.
This is the highest teaching you can get.
The "second" direct method is self-inquiry.
Self-inquiry is very important also.
But Bhagvan Sri Ramana Maharshi and other great Sages, Shankara, many Sages, manySaints, have emphasized the importance of
self-inquiry, atma-vichara. It's very easy to do.
You should practice all day and all night.
Especially if you've found a Sage
The "third" direct method is self surrender.
You can do all three of these things simultaneously you know.
You can be with a Sage, practice self-inquiry and also surrender.
This is what a true devotee does. They do all three.
Without even knowing that they're doing them.
Talk 212: Three Direct Methods - 27th December, 1992
~~~ From: Conscious Immortality, Ch.6.
Q.: Why is it sometimes I find concentration on the Self so easy,
and at other times hopelessly difficult?
M.: Because of vasanas.
But really it is easy, since we are the Self.
All we have to do is to remember that.
We keep on forgetting it,
and thus think we are this body, or this ego.
If the will and desire to remember Self are strong enough,
they will eventually overcome vasanas.
There must be a great battle going on inwardly all the time
until Self is realised.
This battle is symbolically spoken of in scriptural writings
as the fight between God and Satan.
In our sruti [revealed scripture] it is a Mahabharata war,
where the asuras represent our bad thoughts
and the devas our elevating ones.
Q.: How can one quicken this coming of realisation?
M.: As one strives to know the true ‘I’ the attachment to objects,
the bad and degrading thoughts gradually drop off.
The more one does not forget the Self,
the more do elevating qualities become ours.
Realisation will come eventually.
Q.: Why does an Upanishad say,
“He whom the Atman chooses,
to him alone does It reveal Itself, not to others”.
Does not this seem arbitrary?
M.: No. It is correct.
It chooses those only who devote themselves to It,
who become Its devotees.
Such It draws them inwards to Itself.
One must turn inward to find the Atman.
He who thinks of It, It will draw to Itself.
All such thoughts as ‘Attainment is hard’
or ‘Self realisation is far from me’,
or ‘I have got many difficulties to overcome to know the Reality’,
should be given up, as they are obstacles;
they are created by this false self, ego.
They are untrue.
Do not doubt that you are the Reality;
live in that understanding.
Never question it by referring your realisation of it to some future time.
It is because people are victimized and hypnotised
by such false thoughts that the Gita says
that few out of millions realise the Self.
The order of asramas [four stages of life]
was established as a general principle,
i.e. to regulate the gradual development of the ordinary run of humanity.
But in the case of one highly mature and fully ripe for Atma vichara
there is no graduated development.
In this case jnana vichara,
i.e. the Self enquiry and the blooming of jnana,
are immediate and quick.
Q.: Why is it sometimes I find concentration on the Self so easy,
and at other times hopelessly difficult?
M.: Because of vasanas.
But really it is easy, since we are the Self.
All we have to do is to remember that.
We keep on forgetting it,
and thus think we are this body, or this ego.
If the will and desire to remember Self are strong enough,
they will eventually overcome vasanas.
There must be a great battle going on inwardly all the time
until Self is realised.
This battle is symbolically spoken of in scriptural writings
as the fight between God and Satan.
In our sruti [revealed scripture] it is a Mahabharata war,
where the asuras represent our bad thoughts
and the devas our elevating ones.
Q.: How can one quicken this coming of realisation?
M.: As one strives to know the true ‘I’ the attachment to objects,
the bad and degrading thoughts gradually drop off.
The more one does not forget the Self,
the more do elevating qualities become ours.
Realisation will come eventually.
Q.: Why does an Upanishad say,
“He whom the Atman chooses,
to him alone does It reveal Itself, not to others”.
Does not this seem arbitrary?
M.: No. It is correct.
It chooses those only who devote themselves to It,
who become Its devotees.
Such It draws them inwards to Itself.
One must turn inward to find the Atman.
He who thinks of It, It will draw to Itself.
All such thoughts as ‘Attainment is hard’
or ‘Self realisation is far from me’,
or ‘I have got many difficulties to overcome to know the Reality’,
should be given up, as they are obstacles;
they are created by this false self, ego.
They are untrue.
Do not doubt that you are the Reality;
live in that understanding.
Never question it by referring your realisation of it to some future time.
It is because people are victimized and hypnotised
by such false thoughts that the Gita says
that few out of millions realise the Self.
The order of asramas [four stages of life]
was established as a general principle,
i.e. to regulate the gradual development of the ordinary run of humanity.
But in the case of one highly mature and fully ripe for Atma vichara
there is no graduated development.
In this case jnana vichara,
i.e. the Self enquiry and the blooming of jnana,
are immediate and quick.
Every form reflects It,
Yet It cannot be seen by the eyes.
In silence,
A subtler inner eye opens
That sees the Real underlying all appearances.
Yet It cannot be seen by the eyes.
In silence,
A subtler inner eye opens
That sees the Real underlying all appearances.
All presence that is--you, me, it--occurs against a background of Total Absence.
Q.: How can I get peace?
I do not seem to obtain it through vicara (self-enquiry).
M.: Peace is your natural state.
It is the mind that obstructs the natural state.
If you do not experience peace it means that your vichara
has been made only in the mind.
Investigate what the mind is, and it will disappear.
There is no such thing as mind apart from thought.
Nevertheless, because of the emergence of thought,
you surmise something from which it starts and term that the mind.
When you probe to see what it is,
you find there is really no such thing as mind.
When the mind has thus vanished,
you realize eternal peace.
I do not seem to obtain it through vicara (self-enquiry).
M.: Peace is your natural state.
It is the mind that obstructs the natural state.
If you do not experience peace it means that your vichara
has been made only in the mind.
Investigate what the mind is, and it will disappear.
There is no such thing as mind apart from thought.
Nevertheless, because of the emergence of thought,
you surmise something from which it starts and term that the mind.
When you probe to see what it is,
you find there is really no such thing as mind.
When the mind has thus vanished,
you realize eternal peace.
You are not your cart, nor are you the horse pulling it. You are the knower of both and the identity of neither.
You are already the Self. Therefore realization is common to everyone. Realization knows no difference in the aspirants. This very doubt, "Can I realize?" or the feeling, "I have not realized" are the obstacles. Be free from these also.
Q: Is it desirable to want to see God?
Annamalai Swami: Manikkavachagar said in one of his songs: 'God is not a person, nor is He any particular thing. Yet without God there is nothing because He alone is everything.'
To see one's Self and to see this same Self as all that is, that is seeing God.
Q: So is it better to want only the formless Self?
AS: I once heard Bhagavan say to Paul Brunton: 'If you do upasana [meditation] on the all-pervading Self, you will get infinite energy.' All beings, all things, all people in the world are your own Self. They are all indivisibly part of you. If you can see all as your Self, how can you do harm to anyone else? When you have that clear vision, whatever you do to others, you know that it is done to your Self only.
To like one thing instead of another is samsara: to like and love all things is wisdom. If one sees from this realisation that all are one's own Self, one enjoys the same peace that one enjoys in the deep-sleep state. The difference is, one enjoys it here and now while one is awake.
Annamalai Swami: Manikkavachagar said in one of his songs: 'God is not a person, nor is He any particular thing. Yet without God there is nothing because He alone is everything.'
To see one's Self and to see this same Self as all that is, that is seeing God.
Q: So is it better to want only the formless Self?
AS: I once heard Bhagavan say to Paul Brunton: 'If you do upasana [meditation] on the all-pervading Self, you will get infinite energy.' All beings, all things, all people in the world are your own Self. They are all indivisibly part of you. If you can see all as your Self, how can you do harm to anyone else? When you have that clear vision, whatever you do to others, you know that it is done to your Self only.
To like one thing instead of another is samsara: to like and love all things is wisdom. If one sees from this realisation that all are one's own Self, one enjoys the same peace that one enjoys in the deep-sleep state. The difference is, one enjoys it here and now while one is awake.
Do not be obsessed by egotism, imagining that you are the cause of action: everything is due to God.
Life is in charge.
We can fight it and be miserable or surrender to it and laugh at our own arrogance and ideas of what should be.
We can fight it and be miserable or surrender to it and laugh at our own arrogance and ideas of what should be.
At the moment, we are all caught in the state of delusion, and so we should acknowledge all the negative actions we have perpetrated throughout our many lives until the present time. And from now on, we should turn away from all such actions big or small, just as we would avoid getting thorns in our eyes. We should constantly be checking what we do: any negative action should be confessed immediately, and all positive actions dedicated to others. To the best of our ability, we should abandon wrongdoing and try to accumulate goodness.
No one was ever really taught by another; each of us has to teach himself. The external teacher offers only the suggestion which rouses the internal teacher to work to understand things.
Even faith in God is only a stage on the way. Ultimately, you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.
Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.
Be still and stay relaxed in genuine ease, be quiet and let sound reverberate as an echo, keep your mind silent and watch the ending of all worlds.
No thought has any power. You have power. And when you identify and believe in the thought you give power to the thought.
The sum total is, whatever experiences you have, whether for a day or for years, it is all an illusion.