As Bhagavan Ramana devotees know, in 1916 Sri Ramana's mother Alagammal joined Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvannamalai and followed him when he moved to the Skandashram Cave. The next 6 years were not easy for Ramana's mother.
Sri Ramana's mother lived with him in physically difficult conditions and in poverty in the caves of Arunachala. Life was hard for her due to her old age as well.
One day, Sri Ramana's sister came and said to their mother, “Mother, you are not well. Come, I have a comfortable house.” She refused and turning to Sri Ramana told him, “I want to die only in your arms. After my death you may even throw away my body into some thorn bushes, it does not matter.”
Soon after this incident, Bhagavan's Mother fell seriously ill. On the day of her passing away, from early in the morning, Bhagavan sat next to her with his left hand on her head and his right hand on the right side of her chest. He remained like that for nearly eight hours. The devotees who had gathered there knew that her end had come. They observed the beauty and sanctity of a son elevating his mother's soul to the Infinite. Kunju Swami who was present later said that the devotees observing this felt it was a physical demonstration of the soul's journey to the Absolute; it was like heat and light spreading from a flame. When that soul and mind had merged in the Self, Bhagavan took his hands off and then said, “When the soul merges with the Self and is completely annihilated, a soft ring like that of a bell can be felt.”
It was a common practice that after witnessing a death, all those present must bathe. However, Bhagavan said that in this case there was no need as there was no pollution. “She did not die. Instead, she is absorbed in Arunachala,” he stated.
Later, the devotees who were there enquired, “Bhagavan, what did you do by keeping your hands on her head and her chest? What exactly took place?” Bhagavan explained, “Innate tendencies and subtle memories of past experiences that lead to future possibilities became very active when my hands were placed on her. Scene after scene rolled before her in her subtle consciousness. The outer senses had already gone. The soul was passing through a series of experiences, thus avoiding the need for rebirth and making possible the union of the mind with the Self or the Heart. The soul was at last disrobed of all subtleties before it reached its final destination, the supreme peace of liberation from which there is no return to ignorance.”
From Ramana Periyapuranam by V. Ganesan.
Sri Ramana's mother lived with him in physically difficult conditions and in poverty in the caves of Arunachala. Life was hard for her due to her old age as well.
One day, Sri Ramana's sister came and said to their mother, “Mother, you are not well. Come, I have a comfortable house.” She refused and turning to Sri Ramana told him, “I want to die only in your arms. After my death you may even throw away my body into some thorn bushes, it does not matter.”
Soon after this incident, Bhagavan's Mother fell seriously ill. On the day of her passing away, from early in the morning, Bhagavan sat next to her with his left hand on her head and his right hand on the right side of her chest. He remained like that for nearly eight hours. The devotees who had gathered there knew that her end had come. They observed the beauty and sanctity of a son elevating his mother's soul to the Infinite. Kunju Swami who was present later said that the devotees observing this felt it was a physical demonstration of the soul's journey to the Absolute; it was like heat and light spreading from a flame. When that soul and mind had merged in the Self, Bhagavan took his hands off and then said, “When the soul merges with the Self and is completely annihilated, a soft ring like that of a bell can be felt.”
It was a common practice that after witnessing a death, all those present must bathe. However, Bhagavan said that in this case there was no need as there was no pollution. “She did not die. Instead, she is absorbed in Arunachala,” he stated.
Later, the devotees who were there enquired, “Bhagavan, what did you do by keeping your hands on her head and her chest? What exactly took place?” Bhagavan explained, “Innate tendencies and subtle memories of past experiences that lead to future possibilities became very active when my hands were placed on her. Scene after scene rolled before her in her subtle consciousness. The outer senses had already gone. The soul was passing through a series of experiences, thus avoiding the need for rebirth and making possible the union of the mind with the Self or the Heart. The soul was at last disrobed of all subtleties before it reached its final destination, the supreme peace of liberation from which there is no return to ignorance.”
From Ramana Periyapuranam by V. Ganesan.
That electrical energy can be economically transmitted without wires to any terrestrial distance, I have unmistakably established in numerous observations, experiments and measurements, qualitative and quantitative. These have demonstrated that it is practicable to distribute power from a central plant in unlimited amounts, with a loss not exceeding a small fraction of one percent in the transmission, even to the greatest distance, 12,000 miles – to the opposite end of the globe.
EFFORT AND GRACE
The conversation turned upon the question as to whether Iswara Prasad (Divine Grace) is necessary for the attaining of samrajya (universal dominion) or whether a jiva’s honest and strenuous efforts to attain it cannot of themselves lead him to That from whence is no return to life and death.
The Maharshi with an ineffable smile which lit up His Holy Face and which was all-pervasive, shining upon the coterie around him, replied in tones of certainty and with the ring of truth,
“Divine Grace is essential for Realization. It leads one to God-realization. But such Grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogi, who has striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom.”
Talks 29
The conversation turned upon the question as to whether Iswara Prasad (Divine Grace) is necessary for the attaining of samrajya (universal dominion) or whether a jiva’s honest and strenuous efforts to attain it cannot of themselves lead him to That from whence is no return to life and death.
The Maharshi with an ineffable smile which lit up His Holy Face and which was all-pervasive, shining upon the coterie around him, replied in tones of certainty and with the ring of truth,
“Divine Grace is essential for Realization. It leads one to God-realization. But such Grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogi, who has striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom.”
Talks 29
A yogi has no particular path;
He simply renounces imagining things.
His mind then ceases of its own accord,
And the perfect state just naturally occurs.
He simply renounces imagining things.
His mind then ceases of its own accord,
And the perfect state just naturally occurs.
There is really no such thing
as a dead or a living body.
That which does not move we call dead,
and that which has movement we call alive.
In dreams you see any number of bodies,
living and dead,
and they have no existence when you wake up.
In the same way this whole world,
animate and inanimate,
is non-existent.
Death means the dissolution of the ego,
and birth means the rebirth of the ego.
There are births and deaths,
but they are of the ego;
not of you.
You exist whether the sense of ego is there or not.
You are its source, but not the ego-sense.
Deliverance (mukti) means finding the origin
of these births and deaths
and demolishing the ego-sense to its very roots.
That is deliverance.
It means death with full awareness.
If one dies thus,
one is born again simultaneously
and in the same place with Aham sphurana
known as ‘Aham, Aham (I, I)’.
One who is born thus, has no doubts whatsoever.
~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 140
as a dead or a living body.
That which does not move we call dead,
and that which has movement we call alive.
In dreams you see any number of bodies,
living and dead,
and they have no existence when you wake up.
In the same way this whole world,
animate and inanimate,
is non-existent.
Death means the dissolution of the ego,
and birth means the rebirth of the ego.
There are births and deaths,
but they are of the ego;
not of you.
You exist whether the sense of ego is there or not.
You are its source, but not the ego-sense.
Deliverance (mukti) means finding the origin
of these births and deaths
and demolishing the ego-sense to its very roots.
That is deliverance.
It means death with full awareness.
If one dies thus,
one is born again simultaneously
and in the same place with Aham sphurana
known as ‘Aham, Aham (I, I)’.
One who is born thus, has no doubts whatsoever.
~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 140
Bhagavan did not immediately reveal himself to me. I felt far less from his bodily presence than I had from his invisible support in the camp. His photograph had been more real and vivid to me than any person, and yet now that I saw him face to face I felt his presence much less.
I entered the hall before Bhagavan had returned from his daily walk on the hill. I had expected something grander and less intimate. When he entered, there was no great impression; certainly far less than his photographs had made. Just a white-haired, very gracious man, walking a little stiffly from rheumatism with a slight stoop. As soon as he eased himself on the couch he smiled at me and then turned to those around and to my young son and said, “So Adam’s prayers have been answered; his Daddy has come back safely.” I felt his kindness but no more. I appreciated that it was for my sake that he had spoken English since Adam knew Tamil.
The change came a few weeks later at one of the yearly festivals. There were huge crowds for the festival and we were sitting in the courtyard outside the hall. Bhagavan was reclining on his couch and I was sitting in the front row. He sat up, facing me, and his narrowed eyes pierced into me with an intensity I cannot describe. It was as though they said, “You have been told; why have you not realized?” And then I felt quietness, a depth of peace, an indescribable lightness and happiness.
Thereafter, love for Bhagavan began to grow in my heart and I felt his power and beauty. Next morning for the first time, sitting before him in the hall, I tried to follow his teaching by using vichara, ‘Who am I?’ I thought it was I who had decided. I did not realize that it was the initiation by look that had vitalized me and changed my attitude of mind. Indeed, I had only heard vaguely of this initiation and paid little heed to what I had heard. Only later did I learn that other devotees also had such an experience, and that with them also it had marked the beginning of the active sadhana (quest) and Bhagavan’s guidance.
Then, for the first time in my life, I began to understand what the grace and blessings of a guru could mean. My love and devotion to Bhagavan deepened. I went about with a lilt of happiness in my heart, feeling the blessing and mystery of the guru, repeating, like a love song, that he was the Guru, the link between heaven and earth, between God and me, between the Formless Being and my heart. I became aware of the enormous grace of his presence. Even outwardly he was gracious to me, smiling when I entered the hall, signaling to me to sit where he could watch me in meditation.
And then one day a vivid reminder awoke in me: “The link with the Formless Being? But he is the Formless Being.” And I began to understand why devotees address him simply as ‘Bhagavan’. So he began to prove in me what he declared in his teaching that the outer guru seems to awaken the guru in the heart. The constant ‘Who am I?’ vichara began to evoke an awareness of the Self as Bhagavan outwardly, and also simultaneously of the Self within.
~ Arthur Osborne
I entered the hall before Bhagavan had returned from his daily walk on the hill. I had expected something grander and less intimate. When he entered, there was no great impression; certainly far less than his photographs had made. Just a white-haired, very gracious man, walking a little stiffly from rheumatism with a slight stoop. As soon as he eased himself on the couch he smiled at me and then turned to those around and to my young son and said, “So Adam’s prayers have been answered; his Daddy has come back safely.” I felt his kindness but no more. I appreciated that it was for my sake that he had spoken English since Adam knew Tamil.
The change came a few weeks later at one of the yearly festivals. There were huge crowds for the festival and we were sitting in the courtyard outside the hall. Bhagavan was reclining on his couch and I was sitting in the front row. He sat up, facing me, and his narrowed eyes pierced into me with an intensity I cannot describe. It was as though they said, “You have been told; why have you not realized?” And then I felt quietness, a depth of peace, an indescribable lightness and happiness.
Thereafter, love for Bhagavan began to grow in my heart and I felt his power and beauty. Next morning for the first time, sitting before him in the hall, I tried to follow his teaching by using vichara, ‘Who am I?’ I thought it was I who had decided. I did not realize that it was the initiation by look that had vitalized me and changed my attitude of mind. Indeed, I had only heard vaguely of this initiation and paid little heed to what I had heard. Only later did I learn that other devotees also had such an experience, and that with them also it had marked the beginning of the active sadhana (quest) and Bhagavan’s guidance.
Then, for the first time in my life, I began to understand what the grace and blessings of a guru could mean. My love and devotion to Bhagavan deepened. I went about with a lilt of happiness in my heart, feeling the blessing and mystery of the guru, repeating, like a love song, that he was the Guru, the link between heaven and earth, between God and me, between the Formless Being and my heart. I became aware of the enormous grace of his presence. Even outwardly he was gracious to me, smiling when I entered the hall, signaling to me to sit where he could watch me in meditation.
And then one day a vivid reminder awoke in me: “The link with the Formless Being? But he is the Formless Being.” And I began to understand why devotees address him simply as ‘Bhagavan’. So he began to prove in me what he declared in his teaching that the outer guru seems to awaken the guru in the heart. The constant ‘Who am I?’ vichara began to evoke an awareness of the Self as Bhagavan outwardly, and also simultaneously of the Self within.
~ Arthur Osborne
Всему ища вину вовне
Я злился так, что лез из кожи
А что вина всегда во мне
Я догадался много позже.
Я злился так, что лез из кожи
А что вина всегда во мне
Я догадался много позже.
CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY
Q: Why is the world in ignorance?
M: Let the world take care of itself.
If you are the body, then there the gross world appears.
If you are the spirit, everything is just spirit.
Look for the ego, and it vanishes. If you enquire, ignorance will be found to be non-existent. It is the mind which feels misery and darkness.
See the Self.
Q: Why is the world in ignorance?
M: Let the world take care of itself.
If you are the body, then there the gross world appears.
If you are the spirit, everything is just spirit.
Look for the ego, and it vanishes. If you enquire, ignorance will be found to be non-existent. It is the mind which feels misery and darkness.
See the Self.
The 'lazy' state of just being and shining is the state of the Self, and that is the highest state that one can attain. Revere as the most virtuous those who have attained that 'lazy' state which cannot be attained except by very great and rare tapas.
- Guru Vachaka Kovai, v. 774
- Guru Vachaka Kovai, v. 774
Getting Rid of Miseries
If the jiva,
who is ever deluded and
is always suffering
from a feeling of deficiency,
wants to get rid of all his miseries and
to be happy,
he need only know the Supreme One,
his Lord,
to be his own Self. (367)
Not even the least of one’s miseries
will cease unless one knows That,
by forgetting Which one becomes
deluded by the mighty agent
– worldly Maya. (368)
Let him who weeps
over the death of his wife and children, weep first for the death of [his] ego
– ‘I am the body’
– and attend to his own Self,
then all his miseries will die completely. (369)
If you love others
only for their bodies or their souls
[i.e. their egos],
you will suffer from grief
when their bodies die and
their souls depart.
Therefore,
in order to be free from such grief,
have true Love towards Self,
which is the real Life of the soul. (370)
A person’s soul is nothing but his ego, the identification ‘I am the body’.
The true Life is Self, and not the soul or ego.
- The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Guru Vachaka Kovai. Verses 367 - 370.
An Analysis of the Truth. Chapter 66.
Getting Rid of Miseries.
If the jiva,
who is ever deluded and
is always suffering
from a feeling of deficiency,
wants to get rid of all his miseries and
to be happy,
he need only know the Supreme One,
his Lord,
to be his own Self. (367)
Not even the least of one’s miseries
will cease unless one knows That,
by forgetting Which one becomes
deluded by the mighty agent
– worldly Maya. (368)
Let him who weeps
over the death of his wife and children, weep first for the death of [his] ego
– ‘I am the body’
– and attend to his own Self,
then all his miseries will die completely. (369)
If you love others
only for their bodies or their souls
[i.e. their egos],
you will suffer from grief
when their bodies die and
their souls depart.
Therefore,
in order to be free from such grief,
have true Love towards Self,
which is the real Life of the soul. (370)
A person’s soul is nothing but his ego, the identification ‘I am the body’.
The true Life is Self, and not the soul or ego.
- The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Guru Vachaka Kovai. Verses 367 - 370.
An Analysis of the Truth. Chapter 66.
Getting Rid of Miseries.
Brahman or the Eternal cannot be known through the intellect. He cannot be realized by arguing or reasoning. He can be realized only by direct intuitional experience. Keep the mind under control. Purify and steady it. Subjugate the senses. Have a strong yearning to realize Him. Cultivate universal love, dispassion and discrimination. Have firm conviction in the existence of Brahman. Always think of Brahman, talk of Brahman. Withdraw yourself and look within. Meditate on Brahman in your heart. You will soon attain eternal bliss.
Aum Namaha Babaji Maha Varada (I bow to Babaji, the Great Giver of Blessings)
-An Excerpt from ‘The Voice Of Babaji’
Aum Namaha Babaji Maha Varada (I bow to Babaji, the Great Giver of Blessings)
-An Excerpt from ‘The Voice Of Babaji’
Q: How can you say that the heart is on the right when
anatomists find it on the left?
M: It is not denied that the physical organ is on the left, but the Heart of which I speak is on the right. It is my experience.
No authority is required.
But still, you can find confirmation in the Sita Upanishad, where there is a mantra that says so.
The whole cosmos is contained in one pinhole in the Heart. A tiny hole in the heart remains always closed and is opened by vichara. The result is 'I-I' consciousness, the same as samadhi.
Conscious Immortality, 166
At the time of retraction, for the sake of rest, when She rests on the right side of the Lord’s chest, in the shape of Srivatsa, She is the power of Yoga.
- Sita Upanishad, v 35
Srivatsa means "beloved of Sri", the goddess Lakshmi. It is a mark on the chest of Vishnu where his consort Sri Lakshmi, or Sita, resides. It is said that the tenth avatar of Vishnu, Kalki, will bear the Shrivatsa mark on his chest.
anatomists find it on the left?
M: It is not denied that the physical organ is on the left, but the Heart of which I speak is on the right. It is my experience.
No authority is required.
But still, you can find confirmation in the Sita Upanishad, where there is a mantra that says so.
The whole cosmos is contained in one pinhole in the Heart. A tiny hole in the heart remains always closed and is opened by vichara. The result is 'I-I' consciousness, the same as samadhi.
Conscious Immortality, 166
At the time of retraction, for the sake of rest, when She rests on the right side of the Lord’s chest, in the shape of Srivatsa, She is the power of Yoga.
- Sita Upanishad, v 35
Srivatsa means "beloved of Sri", the goddess Lakshmi. It is a mark on the chest of Vishnu where his consort Sri Lakshmi, or Sita, resides. It is said that the tenth avatar of Vishnu, Kalki, will bear the Shrivatsa mark on his chest.
There are times when silence has the loudest voice.
To build a better world, start in your commuinty.
In the late 1980s, Lieserl, the daughter of the famous genius, donated 1,400 letters, written by Einstein, to the Hebrew University, with orders not to publish their contents until two decades after his death. This is one of them, for Lieserl Einstein.
…”When I proposed the theory of relativity, very few understood me, and what I will reveal now to transmit to mankind will also collide with the misunderstanding and prejudice in the world.
I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.
This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force.
Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it.
Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others.
Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals.
For love we live and die.
Love is God and God is Love.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.
To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation.
If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.
After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…
If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.
Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet.
However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released.
When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.
I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it’s too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer! “.
~ Your father Albert Einstein
…”When I proposed the theory of relativity, very few understood me, and what I will reveal now to transmit to mankind will also collide with the misunderstanding and prejudice in the world.
I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.
This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force.
Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it.
Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others.
Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals.
For love we live and die.
Love is God and God is Love.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.
To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation.
If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.
After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…
If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.
Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet.
However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released.
When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.
I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it’s too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer! “.
~ Your father Albert Einstein
Lady Tsogyal asked: “Shouldn't a practitioner of Secret Mantra take all disturbing emotions as the path?”
[Padmasambhava] replied: Of course they should be brought onto the path! But only a peacock can feed on poison. The person who is able to take disturbing emotions as path without abandoning them is rarer than the udumvara flower. While for someone of the highest caliber a disturbing emotion manifests as a helper, for a person of lesser capacity it becomes a poison. For this lesser type of person, it is more profound to abandon disturbing emotions!
“After how much abandoning does one become adept?”, she asked.
When you are not attached to disturbing emotions and sense-pleasures and they are experienced as magical illusions, then you needn't suppress disturbing emotions even when they do arise, as they don't harm. When they don't arise, you have no desire to produce them as you are free from expectations. When that happens, disturbing emotions have been brought onto the path. To try to utilize disturbing emotions as path while not having turned away from clinging to solid reality is like a fly becoming stuck in honey.
Tsogyal, cut through straying in these ways!
~ from 'The Golden Rosary of Nectar' as translated in 'Advice From the Lotus Born'
[Padmasambhava] replied: Of course they should be brought onto the path! But only a peacock can feed on poison. The person who is able to take disturbing emotions as path without abandoning them is rarer than the udumvara flower. While for someone of the highest caliber a disturbing emotion manifests as a helper, for a person of lesser capacity it becomes a poison. For this lesser type of person, it is more profound to abandon disturbing emotions!
“After how much abandoning does one become adept?”, she asked.
When you are not attached to disturbing emotions and sense-pleasures and they are experienced as magical illusions, then you needn't suppress disturbing emotions even when they do arise, as they don't harm. When they don't arise, you have no desire to produce them as you are free from expectations. When that happens, disturbing emotions have been brought onto the path. To try to utilize disturbing emotions as path while not having turned away from clinging to solid reality is like a fly becoming stuck in honey.
Tsogyal, cut through straying in these ways!
~ from 'The Golden Rosary of Nectar' as translated in 'Advice From the Lotus Born'
Silence
Language is only a medium for communication of one' s thoughts, It is used after thoughts have arisen, and they arise only after the I'-thought. The 'I'-thought "is the root of all conversation.
One can understand another when one remains without thinking, by the universal language — silence. Silence is ever-speaking; it is perennial; speech interrupts it. Words obstruct that mute language.
When there is electricity flowing in a wire, and resistance occurs in its passage, it glows as a lamp or turns as a fan. The wire remains full of electric energy.
Similarly, silence is the eternal flow of language obstructed by words. What one fails to know by a conversation that extends to several years, can be known in a flash, in silence or before silence; look at Dakshinamurti's teaching, for example. That is the highest and most effective language.
People insist on asking me questions and so I must reply, but the truth is beyond words.
~ Conscious Immortality
Language is only a medium for communication of one' s thoughts, It is used after thoughts have arisen, and they arise only after the I'-thought. The 'I'-thought "is the root of all conversation.
One can understand another when one remains without thinking, by the universal language — silence. Silence is ever-speaking; it is perennial; speech interrupts it. Words obstruct that mute language.
When there is electricity flowing in a wire, and resistance occurs in its passage, it glows as a lamp or turns as a fan. The wire remains full of electric energy.
Similarly, silence is the eternal flow of language obstructed by words. What one fails to know by a conversation that extends to several years, can be known in a flash, in silence or before silence; look at Dakshinamurti's teaching, for example. That is the highest and most effective language.
People insist on asking me questions and so I must reply, but the truth is beyond words.
~ Conscious Immortality
Q. Do you have thoughts?
Sri Ramana: I usually have no thoughts.
Q. But when you are reading?
A. Then I have thoughts.
Q. And when someone asks you a question?
A. Then, too, I have thoughts when replying, not otherwise.
Q. How can I keep the idea of that real state always
before me?
A. Because you think you are a body you are not able to keep that single idea, you are not firm!
The idea that you must go to Tiruvannamalai and see Maharshi is only a function of the intellect.
Really no help is required. You are already in your original state; how can anyone help you to arrive where you already are? The help given is only to clear out your wrong notions. The great men, the gurus can help only by removing the obstacles in your way.
A child and Jnani are in some ways similar. The child ceases to think of incidents after they have passed off. Thus it shows that they do not leave deep impressions on the child's mind. So too with a Jnani.
~ Conscious Immortality
Sri Ramana: I usually have no thoughts.
Q. But when you are reading?
A. Then I have thoughts.
Q. And when someone asks you a question?
A. Then, too, I have thoughts when replying, not otherwise.
Q. How can I keep the idea of that real state always
before me?
A. Because you think you are a body you are not able to keep that single idea, you are not firm!
The idea that you must go to Tiruvannamalai and see Maharshi is only a function of the intellect.
Really no help is required. You are already in your original state; how can anyone help you to arrive where you already are? The help given is only to clear out your wrong notions. The great men, the gurus can help only by removing the obstacles in your way.
A child and Jnani are in some ways similar. The child ceases to think of incidents after they have passed off. Thus it shows that they do not leave deep impressions on the child's mind. So too with a Jnani.
~ Conscious Immortality
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU DESIRE
Q: All I want is to be able to help the world.
M: Who says you cannot help? You made up your mind about what help means and needs and got yourself into a conflict between what you should and what you can, between necessity and ability.
Q: But why do we do so?
M: Your mind projects a structure and you identify yourself with it. It is in the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfillment. Even a small desire can start a long line of action; what about a strong desire?
Desire can produce a universe; its powers are miraculous. Just as a small matchstick can set a huge forest on fire, so does a desire light the fires of manifestation.
The very purpose of creation is the fulfillment of desire. The desire may be noble, or ignoble, space (akash) is neutral -- one can fill it with what one likes:
You must be very careful as to what you desire.
And as to the people you want to help, they are in their respective worlds for the sake of their desires; there is no way of helping them except through their desires. You can only teach them to have the right desires so that they may rise above them and be free from the urge to create and recreate worlds of desires, abodes of pain and pleasure.
Q: A day must come when the show is wound up; a man must die, a universe come to an end.
M: Just as a sleeping man forgets all and wakes up for another day, or he dies and emerges into another life, so do the worlds of desire and fear dissolve and disappear. But the universal witness, the Supreme Self never sleeps and never dies. Eternally the Great Heart beats and at each beat, a new universe comes into being.
~ I AM THAT ch 24
Q: All I want is to be able to help the world.
M: Who says you cannot help? You made up your mind about what help means and needs and got yourself into a conflict between what you should and what you can, between necessity and ability.
Q: But why do we do so?
M: Your mind projects a structure and you identify yourself with it. It is in the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfillment. Even a small desire can start a long line of action; what about a strong desire?
Desire can produce a universe; its powers are miraculous. Just as a small matchstick can set a huge forest on fire, so does a desire light the fires of manifestation.
The very purpose of creation is the fulfillment of desire. The desire may be noble, or ignoble, space (akash) is neutral -- one can fill it with what one likes:
You must be very careful as to what you desire.
And as to the people you want to help, they are in their respective worlds for the sake of their desires; there is no way of helping them except through their desires. You can only teach them to have the right desires so that they may rise above them and be free from the urge to create and recreate worlds of desires, abodes of pain and pleasure.
Q: A day must come when the show is wound up; a man must die, a universe come to an end.
M: Just as a sleeping man forgets all and wakes up for another day, or he dies and emerges into another life, so do the worlds of desire and fear dissolve and disappear. But the universal witness, the Supreme Self never sleeps and never dies. Eternally the Great Heart beats and at each beat, a new universe comes into being.
~ I AM THAT ch 24
In my world even what you call evil is the servant of the good and therefore necessary. It is like boils and fevers that clear the body of impurities. Disease is painful, even dangerous, but if dealt with rightly, it heals.
A devotee who asked for the Maharshi’s grace was told, 'You have it.'
He experienced a throb in the center of his chest, like a slight pressure, and felt happy and extraordinarily peaceful. He asked the Maharshi about it later.
M: Hold onto that sensation firmly whenever the mind is distracted. Your mantra-saying is no longer necessary. It is called sphurana, and is felt on several occasions, such as fear and excitement. It is really always there, at the Heart center. It is associated with antecedent causes and usually confused with the body. It is alone and pure; it is the Self. If the mind is fixed on it, sensing it continuously and automatically, it is realization. Now, it is a foretaste of realization.
~ Conscious Immortality
He experienced a throb in the center of his chest, like a slight pressure, and felt happy and extraordinarily peaceful. He asked the Maharshi about it later.
M: Hold onto that sensation firmly whenever the mind is distracted. Your mantra-saying is no longer necessary. It is called sphurana, and is felt on several occasions, such as fear and excitement. It is really always there, at the Heart center. It is associated with antecedent causes and usually confused with the body. It is alone and pure; it is the Self. If the mind is fixed on it, sensing it continuously and automatically, it is realization. Now, it is a foretaste of realization.
~ Conscious Immortality
Always practice Advaita in your mind but never practice it in your deeds. To attain redemption one can embrace the three worlds [this one and those above it and below it] with the Advaita [outlook, seeing everything as one] but with the pre-eminent Guru, [this attitude] is totally improper.
~ Guru Vachaka Kovai (801)
Bhagavan: My son, you should experience Advaita within your Heart at all times, but never, even for a moment, should you express it in your outward actions. Advaita is appropriate in all the three worlds, but it is never appropriate in relation to the Guru."
~ Guru Vachaka Kovai (801)
Bhagavan: My son, you should experience Advaita within your Heart at all times, but never, even for a moment, should you express it in your outward actions. Advaita is appropriate in all the three worlds, but it is never appropriate in relation to the Guru."
That which is going to turn into a corpse-you are calling that “me,” “I.” This is the sin that you are committing and the obstacle between you and the knowledge.
Why do you cling to memories so much?
Is it because we have the sense that
the present is incomplete?
Why go to past or future? Or even present!
Is there not something even more alive than time?
As you come to verify this, spontaneously
you will discover that you are the timeless One.
Is it because we have the sense that
the present is incomplete?
Why go to past or future? Or even present!
Is there not something even more alive than time?
As you come to verify this, spontaneously
you will discover that you are the timeless One.
DO NOT GET DELUDED
792. If your desire is fulfilled in the way that you want, do not get deluded and feel proud by imagining that this has been achieved by the power of your tapas. Realizing the truth that this is [only] due to the blessed grace of God that has flowed towards you, you should humble yourself, feel gratitude, and have ever-increasing devotion to his feet.
793. Let whatever happens happen in the way it happens. Do not entertain the slightest thought of going against it. Without embarking on any new enterprise, become one with the seer who sees the eye, he who remains peacefully merged in the Heart.
'The seer who sees the eye' means the Self.
794. When the sadhaka's efforts result in failure, the benefit of this [effort] is to make him understand that Self-realization can only be attained by the Guru's grace, and not by personal exertion, thus preparing the sadhaka to seek the cool grace bestowed by the Guru.
~ Guru Vachaka Kovai
The Lord is impossible to attain by any stratagem. Yet for those who in their minds are clearly convinced that to attain Him is not within their power, who have become wearied by their efforts, and in whom the mischievous antics of the ego have become thoroughly stilled, He will easily fall into their grasp.
~ Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai
792. If your desire is fulfilled in the way that you want, do not get deluded and feel proud by imagining that this has been achieved by the power of your tapas. Realizing the truth that this is [only] due to the blessed grace of God that has flowed towards you, you should humble yourself, feel gratitude, and have ever-increasing devotion to his feet.
793. Let whatever happens happen in the way it happens. Do not entertain the slightest thought of going against it. Without embarking on any new enterprise, become one with the seer who sees the eye, he who remains peacefully merged in the Heart.
'The seer who sees the eye' means the Self.
794. When the sadhaka's efforts result in failure, the benefit of this [effort] is to make him understand that Self-realization can only be attained by the Guru's grace, and not by personal exertion, thus preparing the sadhaka to seek the cool grace bestowed by the Guru.
~ Guru Vachaka Kovai
The Lord is impossible to attain by any stratagem. Yet for those who in their minds are clearly convinced that to attain Him is not within their power, who have become wearied by their efforts, and in whom the mischievous antics of the ego have become thoroughly stilled, He will easily fall into their grasp.
~ Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai
Beings
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