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Your so-called enemy is really your best friend. The person you don't get along with is doing you a favor, for he or she is teaching you not to react.
Remember this.
You are not using self-inquiry to awaken.
If you do you will never awaken.
For you are using a method to become something you already are.
Have no attitude when you practice self-inquiry.
Have no desire, no need.
You are not using self-inquiry to awaken.
If you do you will never awaken.
For you are using a method to become something you already are.
Have no attitude when you practice self-inquiry.
Have no desire, no need.
I told Bhagavan, “I don’t want moksha, I just want that the desire for women should not enter my mind.”
Bhagavan laughed and said, “All the mahatmas are striving only for this.”
Bhagavan laughed and said, “All the mahatmas are striving only for this.”
SERVICE TO THE GURU REMOVES IGNORANCE BY AND BY
While speaking to Mr. G. Shanmugham, a very sincere lawyer devotee, Bhagavan observed:
The sastras say that one must serve a Guru for 12 years for getting Self-Realisation. What does Guru do? Does he hand it over to the disciple? Is not the Self always realised? What does the common belief mean then? The man is always the Self and yet he does not know it. He confounds it with the non-self, viz., the body etc.
Such confusion is due to ignorance. If ignorance be wiped out the confusion will cease to exist and the true knowledge will be unfolded. By remaining in contact with realised sages the man gradually loses the ignorance until its removal is complete. The eternal Self is thus revealed.ra
This is the meaning conveyed by the story of Ashtavakra and Janaka. The anecdotes differ in different books. We are not concerned with the names and the embellishments. The tatva, i.e., the moral, must not be lost sight of.
The disciple surrenders himself to the master. That means there is no vestige of individuality retained by the disciple. If the surrender is complete all sense of individuality is lost and there is thus no cause for misery. The eternal being is only happiness. That is revealed.
Without understanding it aright, people think that the Guru teaches the disciple something like “TATVAMASI” and that the disciple realises “I am Brahman”. In their ignorance they conceive of Brahman as something more huge and powerful than anything else. With a limited ‘I’ the man is so stuck up and wild. What will be the case if the same ‘I’ grows up enormous? He will be enormously ignorant and foolish! This false ‘I’ must perish. Its annihilation is the fruit of Guru seva. Realisation is eternal and it is not newly brought about by the Guru. He helps in the removal of ignorance. That is all.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, No 350
While speaking to Mr. G. Shanmugham, a very sincere lawyer devotee, Bhagavan observed:
The sastras say that one must serve a Guru for 12 years for getting Self-Realisation. What does Guru do? Does he hand it over to the disciple? Is not the Self always realised? What does the common belief mean then? The man is always the Self and yet he does not know it. He confounds it with the non-self, viz., the body etc.
Such confusion is due to ignorance. If ignorance be wiped out the confusion will cease to exist and the true knowledge will be unfolded. By remaining in contact with realised sages the man gradually loses the ignorance until its removal is complete. The eternal Self is thus revealed.ra
This is the meaning conveyed by the story of Ashtavakra and Janaka. The anecdotes differ in different books. We are not concerned with the names and the embellishments. The tatva, i.e., the moral, must not be lost sight of.
The disciple surrenders himself to the master. That means there is no vestige of individuality retained by the disciple. If the surrender is complete all sense of individuality is lost and there is thus no cause for misery. The eternal being is only happiness. That is revealed.
Without understanding it aright, people think that the Guru teaches the disciple something like “TATVAMASI” and that the disciple realises “I am Brahman”. In their ignorance they conceive of Brahman as something more huge and powerful than anything else. With a limited ‘I’ the man is so stuck up and wild. What will be the case if the same ‘I’ grows up enormous? He will be enormously ignorant and foolish! This false ‘I’ must perish. Its annihilation is the fruit of Guru seva. Realisation is eternal and it is not newly brought about by the Guru. He helps in the removal of ignorance. That is all.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, No 350
What prevents you from knowing yourself as all and beyond all, is the mind based on memory. It has power over you as long as you trust it. Don’t struggle with it; just disregard it. Deprived of attention, it will slow down and reveal the mechanism of its working. Once you know its nature and purpose, you will not allow it to create imaginary problems. What problems can there be which the mind did not create? Life and death do not create problems; pains and pleasures come and go, experienced and forgotten. It is memory and anticipation that create problems of attainment or avoidance, coloured by like and dislike.
You must have enough of yourself in order to disappear and become the Being.
Once a devotee asked Bhagawan:
‘How many Upanishads does one have to read to understand the Self?’ Bhagawan, in his usual style answered, ‘How many mirrors do you need to see your face?’
‘How many Upanishads does one have to read to understand the Self?’ Bhagawan, in his usual style answered, ‘How many mirrors do you need to see your face?’
Where are you coming from?
Where are you coming from?
What is going on inside of yourself?
You say,
I want to be enlightened.
I want to be self-realized.
I want to awaken.
I've been with Robert for two days now and I haven't awakened yet.
It's time to find another teacher.
There is no time.
Forget about time.
Have no reason for coming here.
Just be here.
If you have a purpose you will always be disappointed.
If you have no purpose you are already awake.
Where are you coming from?
What is going on inside of yourself?
You say,
I want to be enlightened.
I want to be self-realized.
I want to awaken.
I've been with Robert for two days now and I haven't awakened yet.
It's time to find another teacher.
There is no time.
Forget about time.
Have no reason for coming here.
Just be here.
If you have a purpose you will always be disappointed.
If you have no purpose you are already awake.
Never Judge Yourself
The worst thing you could ever do is to judge yourself.
Never judge yourself.
Don't even look at yourself too much.
Realize your divine nature and do not allow your problems to get to you.
Understand that you are not your problems.
You are not the body.
You're not the thoughts or the mind.
And begin by controlling your thoughts. Do not allow your thoughts to become greater than you.
No matter what your thoughts tell you, don't listen.
Remember your thoughts are not your friend.
Your thoughts try to confound you, confuse you. And they will tell you all kinds of things.
Do not listen to your thoughts, even your good thoughts.
Transcend everything, go beyond your thoughts to your bliss, to your joy and to your happiness.
Your thoughts will take you away from this. It'll make you think all sorts of things.
But if you realize that your mind is a trickster, you will not allow your thoughts to convey any message to you at all.
As soon as the thoughts start to come, you ask yourself the question, "To whom comes these thoughts?" and they'll stop.
"They come to me, well who is this me? Who is me? I am me. Well, who am I?"
And you begin to search for the source of the 'I'.
And as you search, everything in your life begins to improve.
As you search diligently, things improve because you're no longer reacting the same way to situations.
Your reaction has become different, the situations maybe the same.
The worst thing you could ever do is to judge yourself.
Never judge yourself.
Don't even look at yourself too much.
Realize your divine nature and do not allow your problems to get to you.
Understand that you are not your problems.
You are not the body.
You're not the thoughts or the mind.
And begin by controlling your thoughts. Do not allow your thoughts to become greater than you.
No matter what your thoughts tell you, don't listen.
Remember your thoughts are not your friend.
Your thoughts try to confound you, confuse you. And they will tell you all kinds of things.
Do not listen to your thoughts, even your good thoughts.
Transcend everything, go beyond your thoughts to your bliss, to your joy and to your happiness.
Your thoughts will take you away from this. It'll make you think all sorts of things.
But if you realize that your mind is a trickster, you will not allow your thoughts to convey any message to you at all.
As soon as the thoughts start to come, you ask yourself the question, "To whom comes these thoughts?" and they'll stop.
"They come to me, well who is this me? Who is me? I am me. Well, who am I?"
And you begin to search for the source of the 'I'.
And as you search, everything in your life begins to improve.
As you search diligently, things improve because you're no longer reacting the same way to situations.
Your reaction has become different, the situations maybe the same.
As we sat in silence, what thoughts came into mind? Whatever thoughts there were, good or bad, they have got to go. Even if you were thinking, what a wonderful Satsang, that has got to go. All thoughts must go. Your wonderful Satsang will not bring you realization. Emptiness will.
REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE
At a quarter to ten this morning, just as Bhagavan was getting up to go for his usual short mid-morning walk, an Andhra young man approached the couch and said, “Swami, I have come here because I want to perform austerities (tapas) and don’t know which would be the proper place for it. I will go wherever you direct me.”
Bhagavan did not answer. He was bending down, rubbing his legs and knees, as he often does before beginning to walk, on account of his rheumatic trouble, and was smiling
quietly to himself. We, of course, eagerly waited to hear what he would say. A moment later he took the staff that he uses to steady himself while walking, and looking at the young man, said, “How can I tell you where to go for performing tapas? It is best to stay where you are.” And with a smile he went out.
The young man was confused. “What is the meaning of this?” he exclaimed. “Being an elderly person, I thought he would tell me of some holy place where I could stay, but instead of that he tells me to stay where I am. I am now near this couch. Does that mean that I should stay here near the couch? Was it to receive such a reply that I approached him? Is this a matter for jokes?”
One of the devotees took him out of the hall and explained, “Even when Bhagavan says something in a lighter vein there is always some deep meaning in it. Where the feeling ‘I’ arises is one’s Self. Tapas means knowing where the Self is and abiding in it. For knowing that, one has to know who one is; and when one realises one’s Self what does it matter where one stays? This is what he meant.” He thus pacified the young man and sent him away.
Similarly, someone asked yesterday, “Swami, how can we find the Self (Atma)?”
“You are in the Self; so how can there be any difficulty in finding it?” Bhagavan replied.
“You say that I am in the Self, but where exactly is that Self?” the questioner persisted.
“If you abide in the heart and search patiently you will find it,” was the reply.
The questioner still seemed unsatisfied, and made the rather curious observation that there was no room in his heart for him to stay in it.
Bhagavan turned to one of the devotees sitting there and said smiling, “Look how he worries about where the Self
is! What can I tell him?
What Is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.
When I tell him that it is called ‘Heart’ he says there is no room in it for him to stay. What can I do?
To say that there is no room in the heart after filling it with unnecessary vasanas* is like grumbling that there is no room to sit down in a house as big as Sri Lanka.
If all the junk is thrown out, won’t there be room? The body itself is junk. These people are like a man who fills all the rooms of his house chokeful with unnecessary junk and then complains that there is no room for keeping his body in it.
In the same way they fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.
If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out what remains is a feeling of plenty and that is the Self itself. Then there will be no such thing as a separate ‘I’; it will be a state of egolessness.
Where then is the question of a room or an occupant of the room? Instead of seeking the Self people say, ‘no room! no room!’, just like shutting your eyes and saying there is ‘no sun! no sun!’. What can one do under such circumstances?”
10th September, 1947, 'Letters from Sri Ramanasramam'
At a quarter to ten this morning, just as Bhagavan was getting up to go for his usual short mid-morning walk, an Andhra young man approached the couch and said, “Swami, I have come here because I want to perform austerities (tapas) and don’t know which would be the proper place for it. I will go wherever you direct me.”
Bhagavan did not answer. He was bending down, rubbing his legs and knees, as he often does before beginning to walk, on account of his rheumatic trouble, and was smiling
quietly to himself. We, of course, eagerly waited to hear what he would say. A moment later he took the staff that he uses to steady himself while walking, and looking at the young man, said, “How can I tell you where to go for performing tapas? It is best to stay where you are.” And with a smile he went out.
The young man was confused. “What is the meaning of this?” he exclaimed. “Being an elderly person, I thought he would tell me of some holy place where I could stay, but instead of that he tells me to stay where I am. I am now near this couch. Does that mean that I should stay here near the couch? Was it to receive such a reply that I approached him? Is this a matter for jokes?”
One of the devotees took him out of the hall and explained, “Even when Bhagavan says something in a lighter vein there is always some deep meaning in it. Where the feeling ‘I’ arises is one’s Self. Tapas means knowing where the Self is and abiding in it. For knowing that, one has to know who one is; and when one realises one’s Self what does it matter where one stays? This is what he meant.” He thus pacified the young man and sent him away.
Similarly, someone asked yesterday, “Swami, how can we find the Self (Atma)?”
“You are in the Self; so how can there be any difficulty in finding it?” Bhagavan replied.
“You say that I am in the Self, but where exactly is that Self?” the questioner persisted.
“If you abide in the heart and search patiently you will find it,” was the reply.
The questioner still seemed unsatisfied, and made the rather curious observation that there was no room in his heart for him to stay in it.
Bhagavan turned to one of the devotees sitting there and said smiling, “Look how he worries about where the Self
is! What can I tell him?
What Is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.
When I tell him that it is called ‘Heart’ he says there is no room in it for him to stay. What can I do?
To say that there is no room in the heart after filling it with unnecessary vasanas* is like grumbling that there is no room to sit down in a house as big as Sri Lanka.
If all the junk is thrown out, won’t there be room? The body itself is junk. These people are like a man who fills all the rooms of his house chokeful with unnecessary junk and then complains that there is no room for keeping his body in it.
In the same way they fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.
If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out what remains is a feeling of plenty and that is the Self itself. Then there will be no such thing as a separate ‘I’; it will be a state of egolessness.
Where then is the question of a room or an occupant of the room? Instead of seeking the Self people say, ‘no room! no room!’, just like shutting your eyes and saying there is ‘no sun! no sun!’. What can one do under such circumstances?”
10th September, 1947, 'Letters from Sri Ramanasramam'
The one who gets liberated is the consciousness, there is no entity.
The ultimate understanding is that which enables the understanding to take place and itself becomes so subtle, so fine, that it disappears.
The ultimate understanding is that which enables the understanding to take place and itself becomes so subtle, so fine, that it disappears.
There are mean people who see only meanness reflected in you, but they are wrong. You are pure soul, and made of the ground.
Humble living does not diminish. It fills.
Going back to a simpler self gives wisdom.
Going back to a simpler self gives wisdom.
King Janaka once dreamt that he was a beggar. On waking up he asked his guru, Vashishta: “Am I a king dreaming of being a beggar or a beggar dreaming of being a king?”
The guru answered, “You are neither, you are both. You are, and yet you are not what you think yourself to be. You are because you behave accordingly; you are not because it does not last. Can you be a king or a beggar forever? All must change. You are what does not change. What are you?”
Janaka said, “Yes, I am neither king nor beggar; I am the dispassionate witness.”
The guru said, “This is your last illusion: that you are a jnani—that you are different from, and superior to, the common man.”
The guru answered, “You are neither, you are both. You are, and yet you are not what you think yourself to be. You are because you behave accordingly; you are not because it does not last. Can you be a king or a beggar forever? All must change. You are what does not change. What are you?”
Janaka said, “Yes, I am neither king nor beggar; I am the dispassionate witness.”
The guru said, “This is your last illusion: that you are a jnani—that you are different from, and superior to, the common man.”
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.
Beings
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