You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To me dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while my state is my own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable.
I’m not asking you to change
I am pointing to the unchanging within you.
I am pointing to the unchanging within you.
You are now and forever free, luminous, transparent and still. The practice of meditation keeps one in bondage.
Chapter 1, Verse 15
Chapter 1, Verse 15
What is greater:
that there is no more desire
or that there is no more desirer?
Contemplate this.
that there is no more desire
or that there is no more desirer?
Contemplate this.
Lakshman Brahmachari from Sri Ramakrishna Mission asked:
Enquiry of ‘Who am I?’ or of the ‘I-thought’
being itself a thought,
how can it be destroyed in the process?
Sri Ramana Maharshi .:
When Sita was asked
who was her husband among the rishis
(Rama himself being present there as a rishi)
in the forest by the wives of the rishis,
she denied each one as he was pointed out to her,
but simply hung down her head
when Rama was pointed out.
Her silence was eloquent.
Similarly,
the Vedas also are eloquent in
‘neti’ - ‘neti’ (not this - not this) and then remain silent.
Their silence is the Real State.
This is the meaning of exposition by silence.
When the source of the ‘I thought’ is reached it vanishes and
what remains over is the Self.
~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi,130
Enquiry of ‘Who am I?’ or of the ‘I-thought’
being itself a thought,
how can it be destroyed in the process?
Sri Ramana Maharshi .:
When Sita was asked
who was her husband among the rishis
(Rama himself being present there as a rishi)
in the forest by the wives of the rishis,
she denied each one as he was pointed out to her,
but simply hung down her head
when Rama was pointed out.
Her silence was eloquent.
Similarly,
the Vedas also are eloquent in
‘neti’ - ‘neti’ (not this - not this) and then remain silent.
Their silence is the Real State.
This is the meaning of exposition by silence.
When the source of the ‘I thought’ is reached it vanishes and
what remains over is the Self.
~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi,130
The world is full of Buddhas, but they’re sleeping.
The greatest healing would be to wake up from what we are not.
If I could give you only one advice, I would say: Don’t identify with anything. Be completely empty. Be no-body and see if you lose anything but delusion.
I am not telling you, you are good enough. I am telling you, you are complete and perfect before even the birth of time.
Never think of yourself as sick. It’s the wrong diagnosis. Body may be sick, mind can be sick, but you, the Self, can never be sick. You can never be harmed or injured. You will come to know it, not just believe it. And body can be healed; mind can come back to its natural state. But you can never be sick. You are the formless and ever-perfect Self.
The greatest healing would be to wake up from what we are not.
If I could give you only one advice, I would say: Don’t identify with anything. Be completely empty. Be no-body and see if you lose anything but delusion.
I am not telling you, you are good enough. I am telling you, you are complete and perfect before even the birth of time.
Never think of yourself as sick. It’s the wrong diagnosis. Body may be sick, mind can be sick, but you, the Self, can never be sick. You can never be harmed or injured. You will come to know it, not just believe it. And body can be healed; mind can come back to its natural state. But you can never be sick. You are the formless and ever-perfect Self.
WILL POWER MEANS EQUANIMITY
D.: I try to gain will-power. After these years I find myself only where I began. There is no progress.
M.: (No answer)
D.: What are the means for gaining will-power?
M.: Your idea of will-power is success ensured. Will-power should be understood to be the strength of mind which makes it capable of meeting success or failure with equanimity. It is not synonymous with certain success. Why should one’s attempts be always attended with success? Success develops arrogance and the man’s spiritual progress is thus arrested. Failure, on the other hand, is beneficial, inasmuch as it opens the eyes of the man to his limitations and prepares him to surrender himself.
Self-surrender is synonymous with eternal happiness. Therefore, one should try to gain the equipoise of mind under all circumstances. That is will-power. Again, success and failure are the results of prarabdha and not of will-power. A man may be doing only good and noble actions and yet prove a failure. Another may do otherwise and yet be uniformly successful. This does not mean that the will-power is present in the one and not in the other. …
M.: Personality is the root-cause of external activities. It must sink for gaining the highest good.
- Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi no 423
D.: I try to gain will-power. After these years I find myself only where I began. There is no progress.
M.: (No answer)
D.: What are the means for gaining will-power?
M.: Your idea of will-power is success ensured. Will-power should be understood to be the strength of mind which makes it capable of meeting success or failure with equanimity. It is not synonymous with certain success. Why should one’s attempts be always attended with success? Success develops arrogance and the man’s spiritual progress is thus arrested. Failure, on the other hand, is beneficial, inasmuch as it opens the eyes of the man to his limitations and prepares him to surrender himself.
Self-surrender is synonymous with eternal happiness. Therefore, one should try to gain the equipoise of mind under all circumstances. That is will-power. Again, success and failure are the results of prarabdha and not of will-power. A man may be doing only good and noble actions and yet prove a failure. Another may do otherwise and yet be uniformly successful. This does not mean that the will-power is present in the one and not in the other. …
M.: Personality is the root-cause of external activities. It must sink for gaining the highest good.
- Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi no 423
Atma Sakshatkara
(All-Comprehensive Knowledge)
(Benedictory verse of Sri Bhagavan)
This is the Direct Awareness of the Self,
Graciously expounded to Guha by Ishvara Himself, The foremost and first Lord, now teaching this in Tamil Seated as the Self in my Heart.
That Siva further says:
1. Guha! I shall tell you about a different way
To reach that Reality which pervades partless in all, Too subtle, though, to be grasped (by the mind).
2. By which the knowledge of Awareness is well-attained, Knowing which is to become Siva Himself,
What has not been told to any by me,
Today, from me, that wisdom, hear!
3. Handed down by the lineage of gurus,
And beyond the ken of logicians,
This is for liberation from the bondage of the
birth-death cycle.
Its supreme vision shines at all places.
1 The chapter on Self-Realisation (Atma Sakshatkara) in an upa-agama text known as Sarvajnanottara, ‘The Pinnacle of all Knowledge’, translated from the Sanskrit original into Tamil by Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
4. He who is the One pervading all things,
He who has manifested as All,
He who has faces in all directions, who is beyond
thought,
Who remains Himself as all the verities and transcends
them too, is the Self.
5. He transcends all verities,
He is beyond the reach of speech, mind and name. ‘I am That (Siva-Self)’: thus you should meditate With perfectly undifferentiated mind, on Siva.
6. Firmly established as the eternal entity,
Imperishable and undifferentiated,
The all-pervasive, partless Knowledge that cannot be
fathomed by the mind,
It shines, with nothing prior to compare.
7. Without stain, indestructible, the totally serene, The knowledge transcending all objects,
Beyond the pale of thought, conception and doubt, That (Supreme) I am — no doubt about this.
8. That Supreme divinity, Siva, indeed am I, Of the nature of all the mantras,
And transcending all the mantras,
Devoid of dissolution and creation.
9. What is visible, what is invisible, the moving and the stationary — all these are pervaded by me.
I am the Lord of this universe. All shine because of me.
10. Filled with a variety of forms, one different from the other,
Filled with a galaxy of worlds,
All this universe, from Siva down to the earth,
Are all established in me.
11. Whatever is seen in this world,
Whatever is heard in this world,
Whatever shines, conceptualised as inside and
outside,
All these are pervaded by me, the all-pervading One.
Realise this.
12. Though considering himself the Self,
He desires to attain that Siva, the Supreme Self, as one apart.
Whoever contemplates on Siva thus in delusion,
Will not attain Sivahood by such contemplation —
know this.
13. ‘Siva is other than I; I am other than Siva’ — Uproot this attitude of differentiation.
‘I indeed am that Siva’ —
This conviction that is non-dual, ever practise.
14. Full of this non-dual conviction,
He who, everywhere, abides ever in the Self, Shall see, in all things, in all bodies,
Only that Siva-self — of this, there is no doubt.
15. Whoever has this conviction always, of the one Self, Shall rid himself of delusion, and dual perception. That yogi will attain to omniscience —
So it is said in the Vedas. This you should know.
16. He who is praised in all scriptures
As the unborn, the Ishwara,
That formless and attributeless Self,
He indeed am I — there is no doubt about this.
17. Only he who does not know his true nature
Is the jiva that is subject to the dharmas (characteristics)
of birth, death, and so on.
He who knows his true Self is one who is eternal, He is the pure, He is Siva. Without doubt, know this.
18. Hence, what men of discrimination should enquire carefully
And directly realise is the Self;
That itself shines twofold,
As the transcendental and the inferior divisions, the
gross and the subtle.
19. The Supreme nirvana is the higher,
The inferior is manifest as the creation,
Mantras are spoken of as its gross form,
What abides in changeless awareness is the subtle.
20. Shanmukha! Without realising It (Atma),
What avails explanations thereof in endless ways?
Tell me!
All these are only a wonderful display of words, The cause for the delusion of the mind.
21. All the dharmas (qualities) abide in the Self. Whichever of them the jiva imagines,
Whereby he concentrates his thoughts again and again
on it,
He will attain that object — there is no doubt of this.
22. Thus has been told by me as the knowledge of the Self What has been gathered succinctly in a condensed
form.
All, by any means, is of the nature of the Self. Realising this, may you ever be strengthened in the
thoughts of the Self.
23. The deities, the Vedas, the fire sacrifices,
The various gifts to priests in the course of their
performance —
None of this exists there (in the nature of the Self). Be tuned to the blemishless, omni-faceted, steadfast
knowledge of the Self.
24. To the jiva drowning in the vast ocean of the birth-death cycle,
And seeking a refuge,
What affords refuge is only that knowledge of the Self, Not anything else — know this.
25. He who becomes of the nature of the Supreme And realises it as it really is,
Shall, though experiencing all changing states, Attain liberation without effort — be aware of this.
26. There is no greater blessing anywhere,
Apart from the gaining of the Self.
Meditate ever on the Self. He, who is the Self,
He indeed is the one all-pervasive Supreme Self —
be aware of this.
27. It is not the prana (the vital air that circulates) nor the apana (the air that travels down) even,
Nor the instruments superior even to these, the senses, mind and such.
Reach ever for the thought of the Self. That is the omniscient and the perfect.
28. It is neither inside nor outside,
Not afar, nor nearby, nor does it fit in any place.
That Supreme is formless, all pervasive and effulgent, Direct your thoughts ever to it.
29. It is across, above, and below,
Inside and outside, which are divisions, ever estab-
lished firmly everywhere —
The void, the self-luminous Self. Ever meditate on that more and more.
30. Not a void, not a non-void,
It is also the non-void, and the void,
Pervasive everywhere, but without predilections — Ever think of this Self.
31. Afflictionless, and without any support for itself, Bereft of caste, name, and form —
That taintless, attributeless Self
You should unceasingly meditate upon.
32. With no refuge, with nothing to support it,
Beyond the range of comprehension, without parallel, Faultless by nature, the eternal — the
Self that is so, meditate upon it joyfully, forever.
33. Embracing dispassion and thus desisting from all karmic activity,
Shying away from society,
One should, thereafter, ever meditate upon
The Self within oneself, in oneself, by oneself —
be aware of this.
34. Country and lineage, the traditional castes and style of life,
Effacing various thoughts arising in the wake of these, The wise man should meditate daily,
Upon his (real) nature.
35. ‘This is the mantra’, ‘this is the deity’, ‘This is indeed what is called meditation’, ‘This indeed is tapas’—
Casting afar all such thoughts,
Concentrate on the nature of your own Self.
36. The Self is without thought.
Make it impossible for the thought-oriented (mind) to
think at all.
Make the mind that thinks, to get settled on the Self. Let not the mind think of anything else.
37. The Self is not something that can be thought of nor is it something that cannot be thought of.
It is not thought itself,
It is indeed itself thought —
What does not lean towards any of the above,
The Supreme that is the Self, ever meditate upon it.
38. Meditate ever on that
Which is beyond the reach of the mind, Allowing no refuge for the mind.
The joy that is attained in abundance in that Self, That is beyond all verities and complete.
39. Without any differences, and beyond the reach of thinking,
Without any precedent, without anything similar, That which is the utmost frontier and extolled as the
supreme bliss, Be immersed in it.
40. Discarding all desire for objects, Destroying the modes of the mind,
The non-dual state of being the One, When the mind ceases to be,
Is the one called supreme bliss.
41. All directions, all places, all times
Are conducive for the yoga of the Self, so say the
scriptures.
Differences of castes and orders of life and such, Cannot cause any differences in the least to the nature
of knowledge.
42. The colour of milk is one, the colours of the cows many, So is the nature of knowledge, observe the wise ones. Beings of various marks and attributes,
Are like the cows, their realisation is the same;
This is an example we should know.
43. Brahman intimately pervades all,
It shines with faces in all directions. Established in it without a pause,
Think not of differences such as regions and directions.
44. In this world itself, there is no mark, lifestyle, or tradition,
For the one who becomes of the nature of the Self. He has nothing to gain by any action of his; no action
need he perform,
Nor any injunctions prescribing actions apply to him
— know this.
45. Moving or standing or sleeping,
Waking or taking food or water,
In the face of the wind, the cold and the sun, Unaffected will he be, in any state, at any time.
46. Fear, indigence, sickness, burning fever, indigestion —
Even when all these affect,
One established in the Self,
Peaceful and shining full,
He is never at his wit’s end on any count; he will
savour the satisfaction of the Self.
47. Whether going forward or returning, I am not the one that moves
Forward or back. When enquired into there is no going or coming.
In the ever changing dharma of Prakrti, the cause of illusive creation,
I never was immersed, nor am I now.
48. All activities prescribed are the work of Prakrti, the illusion.
Prakrti, so spoken of, is the source of all action. ‘I am the immaculate’, ‘I am the actionless’, thus indeed will reflect
The wise man, the knower of truth.
49. For him there is no bondage of Prakrti, the delusion. He has earned the name of the liberated one.
He shall never be touched by the defects
Spoken of as the action of Prakrti.
50. The manner in which a lamp shines,
Destroying darkness with its light — in like manner, By destroying the enveloping darkness, arising from
inexplicable ignorance,
The Self, of the nature of the pure light of knowledge,
shines.
51. Even as the lamp, with the fuel of ghee spent, attains nirvana (peace),
The yogi, continuously contemplating on the Truth of the Self,
Will be at peace in the Self.
Nothing greater is there to be attained than the Self —
this is the truth.
52. When the pot is carried, the space within the pot, Though conceived of as carried,
Is it not the pot only that is carried?
The Self too, like Space, remains motionless.
53. When the pot breaks, the space in the pot
Merges one with the great Space.
When the inert body passes away, the Self, seemingly
in the body,
Becomes immediately one with the Supreme Self.
54. Thus, the Lord who is omniscient
Spoke with authority then:
‘One who is liberated, severed from all bondage, Becomes all pervasive, endless,
With absolute Awareness’.
55. Discarding totally all the agamas,
Attaining the pure samadhi of Atma yoga,
Realising, by due enquiry, there is nothing else greater
than this,
Destroy all wrong ideas, in the mind, of differences.
56. Meditating continuously on the great Knowledge thus, That yogi who attains ever the bodiless nature,
That pure jnani whose dharma is the dharma of That
(bodiless nature) alone,
Is the liberated one, shining inside and out, reaching
across to every place.
57. Omniscience and bliss, and mature wisdom, Remaining independent, limitless strength — Attaining all these, he shines ever, the Self without
afflictions.
With an immaculate body, he, as the Self, merges in
Siva.
58. Japa of the name, worship, bathing in holy waters, ritual sacrifices,
None of these or others are needed. The fruits of dharma and adharma, Water oblations to forefathers, None of these are for him.
59. No injunctions for observance, no fasts,
Nothing required by way of getting into or out of
(any action),
No vows of celibacy for him, know this.
60. Not having any recourse to falling into the fire or water, Or falling from the mountain top,
Enjoy the feast of the Knowledge of Siva, eternal and
pure.
Rid of the rules applying to all creation, move about as you please.
61. I tell you this is the Truth, the Truth, the Truth, thrice over.
There is nothing greater than this, Nothing greater is there to be known, Nothing at all, nowhere ever.
62. Rid of any blemish, rid of ignorance, with pure intellect, being the pure Self,
By the pure conviction that all that is seen is pure, Meditating on the immaculate nature,
He shall attain Awareness.
(All-Comprehensive Knowledge)
(Benedictory verse of Sri Bhagavan)
This is the Direct Awareness of the Self,
Graciously expounded to Guha by Ishvara Himself, The foremost and first Lord, now teaching this in Tamil Seated as the Self in my Heart.
That Siva further says:
1. Guha! I shall tell you about a different way
To reach that Reality which pervades partless in all, Too subtle, though, to be grasped (by the mind).
2. By which the knowledge of Awareness is well-attained, Knowing which is to become Siva Himself,
What has not been told to any by me,
Today, from me, that wisdom, hear!
3. Handed down by the lineage of gurus,
And beyond the ken of logicians,
This is for liberation from the bondage of the
birth-death cycle.
Its supreme vision shines at all places.
1 The chapter on Self-Realisation (Atma Sakshatkara) in an upa-agama text known as Sarvajnanottara, ‘The Pinnacle of all Knowledge’, translated from the Sanskrit original into Tamil by Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
4. He who is the One pervading all things,
He who has manifested as All,
He who has faces in all directions, who is beyond
thought,
Who remains Himself as all the verities and transcends
them too, is the Self.
5. He transcends all verities,
He is beyond the reach of speech, mind and name. ‘I am That (Siva-Self)’: thus you should meditate With perfectly undifferentiated mind, on Siva.
6. Firmly established as the eternal entity,
Imperishable and undifferentiated,
The all-pervasive, partless Knowledge that cannot be
fathomed by the mind,
It shines, with nothing prior to compare.
7. Without stain, indestructible, the totally serene, The knowledge transcending all objects,
Beyond the pale of thought, conception and doubt, That (Supreme) I am — no doubt about this.
8. That Supreme divinity, Siva, indeed am I, Of the nature of all the mantras,
And transcending all the mantras,
Devoid of dissolution and creation.
9. What is visible, what is invisible, the moving and the stationary — all these are pervaded by me.
I am the Lord of this universe. All shine because of me.
10. Filled with a variety of forms, one different from the other,
Filled with a galaxy of worlds,
All this universe, from Siva down to the earth,
Are all established in me.
11. Whatever is seen in this world,
Whatever is heard in this world,
Whatever shines, conceptualised as inside and
outside,
All these are pervaded by me, the all-pervading One.
Realise this.
12. Though considering himself the Self,
He desires to attain that Siva, the Supreme Self, as one apart.
Whoever contemplates on Siva thus in delusion,
Will not attain Sivahood by such contemplation —
know this.
13. ‘Siva is other than I; I am other than Siva’ — Uproot this attitude of differentiation.
‘I indeed am that Siva’ —
This conviction that is non-dual, ever practise.
14. Full of this non-dual conviction,
He who, everywhere, abides ever in the Self, Shall see, in all things, in all bodies,
Only that Siva-self — of this, there is no doubt.
15. Whoever has this conviction always, of the one Self, Shall rid himself of delusion, and dual perception. That yogi will attain to omniscience —
So it is said in the Vedas. This you should know.
16. He who is praised in all scriptures
As the unborn, the Ishwara,
That formless and attributeless Self,
He indeed am I — there is no doubt about this.
17. Only he who does not know his true nature
Is the jiva that is subject to the dharmas (characteristics)
of birth, death, and so on.
He who knows his true Self is one who is eternal, He is the pure, He is Siva. Without doubt, know this.
18. Hence, what men of discrimination should enquire carefully
And directly realise is the Self;
That itself shines twofold,
As the transcendental and the inferior divisions, the
gross and the subtle.
19. The Supreme nirvana is the higher,
The inferior is manifest as the creation,
Mantras are spoken of as its gross form,
What abides in changeless awareness is the subtle.
20. Shanmukha! Without realising It (Atma),
What avails explanations thereof in endless ways?
Tell me!
All these are only a wonderful display of words, The cause for the delusion of the mind.
21. All the dharmas (qualities) abide in the Self. Whichever of them the jiva imagines,
Whereby he concentrates his thoughts again and again
on it,
He will attain that object — there is no doubt of this.
22. Thus has been told by me as the knowledge of the Self What has been gathered succinctly in a condensed
form.
All, by any means, is of the nature of the Self. Realising this, may you ever be strengthened in the
thoughts of the Self.
23. The deities, the Vedas, the fire sacrifices,
The various gifts to priests in the course of their
performance —
None of this exists there (in the nature of the Self). Be tuned to the blemishless, omni-faceted, steadfast
knowledge of the Self.
24. To the jiva drowning in the vast ocean of the birth-death cycle,
And seeking a refuge,
What affords refuge is only that knowledge of the Self, Not anything else — know this.
25. He who becomes of the nature of the Supreme And realises it as it really is,
Shall, though experiencing all changing states, Attain liberation without effort — be aware of this.
26. There is no greater blessing anywhere,
Apart from the gaining of the Self.
Meditate ever on the Self. He, who is the Self,
He indeed is the one all-pervasive Supreme Self —
be aware of this.
27. It is not the prana (the vital air that circulates) nor the apana (the air that travels down) even,
Nor the instruments superior even to these, the senses, mind and such.
Reach ever for the thought of the Self. That is the omniscient and the perfect.
28. It is neither inside nor outside,
Not afar, nor nearby, nor does it fit in any place.
That Supreme is formless, all pervasive and effulgent, Direct your thoughts ever to it.
29. It is across, above, and below,
Inside and outside, which are divisions, ever estab-
lished firmly everywhere —
The void, the self-luminous Self. Ever meditate on that more and more.
30. Not a void, not a non-void,
It is also the non-void, and the void,
Pervasive everywhere, but without predilections — Ever think of this Self.
31. Afflictionless, and without any support for itself, Bereft of caste, name, and form —
That taintless, attributeless Self
You should unceasingly meditate upon.
32. With no refuge, with nothing to support it,
Beyond the range of comprehension, without parallel, Faultless by nature, the eternal — the
Self that is so, meditate upon it joyfully, forever.
33. Embracing dispassion and thus desisting from all karmic activity,
Shying away from society,
One should, thereafter, ever meditate upon
The Self within oneself, in oneself, by oneself —
be aware of this.
34. Country and lineage, the traditional castes and style of life,
Effacing various thoughts arising in the wake of these, The wise man should meditate daily,
Upon his (real) nature.
35. ‘This is the mantra’, ‘this is the deity’, ‘This is indeed what is called meditation’, ‘This indeed is tapas’—
Casting afar all such thoughts,
Concentrate on the nature of your own Self.
36. The Self is without thought.
Make it impossible for the thought-oriented (mind) to
think at all.
Make the mind that thinks, to get settled on the Self. Let not the mind think of anything else.
37. The Self is not something that can be thought of nor is it something that cannot be thought of.
It is not thought itself,
It is indeed itself thought —
What does not lean towards any of the above,
The Supreme that is the Self, ever meditate upon it.
38. Meditate ever on that
Which is beyond the reach of the mind, Allowing no refuge for the mind.
The joy that is attained in abundance in that Self, That is beyond all verities and complete.
39. Without any differences, and beyond the reach of thinking,
Without any precedent, without anything similar, That which is the utmost frontier and extolled as the
supreme bliss, Be immersed in it.
40. Discarding all desire for objects, Destroying the modes of the mind,
The non-dual state of being the One, When the mind ceases to be,
Is the one called supreme bliss.
41. All directions, all places, all times
Are conducive for the yoga of the Self, so say the
scriptures.
Differences of castes and orders of life and such, Cannot cause any differences in the least to the nature
of knowledge.
42. The colour of milk is one, the colours of the cows many, So is the nature of knowledge, observe the wise ones. Beings of various marks and attributes,
Are like the cows, their realisation is the same;
This is an example we should know.
43. Brahman intimately pervades all,
It shines with faces in all directions. Established in it without a pause,
Think not of differences such as regions and directions.
44. In this world itself, there is no mark, lifestyle, or tradition,
For the one who becomes of the nature of the Self. He has nothing to gain by any action of his; no action
need he perform,
Nor any injunctions prescribing actions apply to him
— know this.
45. Moving or standing or sleeping,
Waking or taking food or water,
In the face of the wind, the cold and the sun, Unaffected will he be, in any state, at any time.
46. Fear, indigence, sickness, burning fever, indigestion —
Even when all these affect,
One established in the Self,
Peaceful and shining full,
He is never at his wit’s end on any count; he will
savour the satisfaction of the Self.
47. Whether going forward or returning, I am not the one that moves
Forward or back. When enquired into there is no going or coming.
In the ever changing dharma of Prakrti, the cause of illusive creation,
I never was immersed, nor am I now.
48. All activities prescribed are the work of Prakrti, the illusion.
Prakrti, so spoken of, is the source of all action. ‘I am the immaculate’, ‘I am the actionless’, thus indeed will reflect
The wise man, the knower of truth.
49. For him there is no bondage of Prakrti, the delusion. He has earned the name of the liberated one.
He shall never be touched by the defects
Spoken of as the action of Prakrti.
50. The manner in which a lamp shines,
Destroying darkness with its light — in like manner, By destroying the enveloping darkness, arising from
inexplicable ignorance,
The Self, of the nature of the pure light of knowledge,
shines.
51. Even as the lamp, with the fuel of ghee spent, attains nirvana (peace),
The yogi, continuously contemplating on the Truth of the Self,
Will be at peace in the Self.
Nothing greater is there to be attained than the Self —
this is the truth.
52. When the pot is carried, the space within the pot, Though conceived of as carried,
Is it not the pot only that is carried?
The Self too, like Space, remains motionless.
53. When the pot breaks, the space in the pot
Merges one with the great Space.
When the inert body passes away, the Self, seemingly
in the body,
Becomes immediately one with the Supreme Self.
54. Thus, the Lord who is omniscient
Spoke with authority then:
‘One who is liberated, severed from all bondage, Becomes all pervasive, endless,
With absolute Awareness’.
55. Discarding totally all the agamas,
Attaining the pure samadhi of Atma yoga,
Realising, by due enquiry, there is nothing else greater
than this,
Destroy all wrong ideas, in the mind, of differences.
56. Meditating continuously on the great Knowledge thus, That yogi who attains ever the bodiless nature,
That pure jnani whose dharma is the dharma of That
(bodiless nature) alone,
Is the liberated one, shining inside and out, reaching
across to every place.
57. Omniscience and bliss, and mature wisdom, Remaining independent, limitless strength — Attaining all these, he shines ever, the Self without
afflictions.
With an immaculate body, he, as the Self, merges in
Siva.
58. Japa of the name, worship, bathing in holy waters, ritual sacrifices,
None of these or others are needed. The fruits of dharma and adharma, Water oblations to forefathers, None of these are for him.
59. No injunctions for observance, no fasts,
Nothing required by way of getting into or out of
(any action),
No vows of celibacy for him, know this.
60. Not having any recourse to falling into the fire or water, Or falling from the mountain top,
Enjoy the feast of the Knowledge of Siva, eternal and
pure.
Rid of the rules applying to all creation, move about as you please.
61. I tell you this is the Truth, the Truth, the Truth, thrice over.
There is nothing greater than this, Nothing greater is there to be known, Nothing at all, nowhere ever.
62. Rid of any blemish, rid of ignorance, with pure intellect, being the pure Self,
By the pure conviction that all that is seen is pure, Meditating on the immaculate nature,
He shall attain Awareness.
*Sri Ramana gives Rama Darsan *
In May 1933, on my 36th birthday,
after the usual bath and prayers,
I sat in Sri Bhagavan’s presence in a pensive mood.
I addressed a prayer in the Tamil Viruttam style to Sri Bhagavan, complaining:
“O Bhagavan, I have completed three and half decades,
and yet have not had the experience of the real You.
Pray let me have this day the touch of Your Grace.’’
Handing over this slip of paper I prostrated to Him.
Bhagavan bade me sit down and gazed steadily at me;
I was still in a pensive and meditative mood.
All of a sudden I lost body-consciousness,
and was absorbed in Sri Maharshi.
I was turned inward,
and the voice of Sri Bhagavan bade me see whatever I desired.
I felt that if I could have the darshan
of Sri Rama my life would have been fruitful,
as I was very much devoted to Sri Rama.
I had then immediately a darshan of Sri Rama, with Sita,
Lakshmana, Bharata, Satrugna and Hanuman.
The ecstasy of the vision defied description;
I simply sat on, with Maharshi perhaps gazing on me without my being aware of His gaze.
Two hours may thus have passed in pin-drop silence, lost in the vision, until it vanished.
I prostrated at the feet of Sri Maharshi,
with tears of ecstasy in my eyes and my hairs standing on end.
To Bhagavan’s enquiry I replied that I of course had seen my dear Rama.
~ Leaves from the Diary of T. K. Sundaresa Iyer
In May 1933, on my 36th birthday,
after the usual bath and prayers,
I sat in Sri Bhagavan’s presence in a pensive mood.
I addressed a prayer in the Tamil Viruttam style to Sri Bhagavan, complaining:
“O Bhagavan, I have completed three and half decades,
and yet have not had the experience of the real You.
Pray let me have this day the touch of Your Grace.’’
Handing over this slip of paper I prostrated to Him.
Bhagavan bade me sit down and gazed steadily at me;
I was still in a pensive and meditative mood.
All of a sudden I lost body-consciousness,
and was absorbed in Sri Maharshi.
I was turned inward,
and the voice of Sri Bhagavan bade me see whatever I desired.
I felt that if I could have the darshan
of Sri Rama my life would have been fruitful,
as I was very much devoted to Sri Rama.
I had then immediately a darshan of Sri Rama, with Sita,
Lakshmana, Bharata, Satrugna and Hanuman.
The ecstasy of the vision defied description;
I simply sat on, with Maharshi perhaps gazing on me without my being aware of His gaze.
Two hours may thus have passed in pin-drop silence, lost in the vision, until it vanished.
I prostrated at the feet of Sri Maharshi,
with tears of ecstasy in my eyes and my hairs standing on end.
To Bhagavan’s enquiry I replied that I of course had seen my dear Rama.
~ Leaves from the Diary of T. K. Sundaresa Iyer
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
My method has
No method.
You need only to stop.
Stop clinging,
Stop scheming,
Stop praying,
Stop seeking,
Stop analyzing,
Stop all your strategies and lastly,
Stop giving your thoughts
The authority to define
Who you are.
Simply allow what remains to
Reveal Itself.
No method.
You need only to stop.
Stop clinging,
Stop scheming,
Stop praying,
Stop seeking,
Stop analyzing,
Stop all your strategies and lastly,
Stop giving your thoughts
The authority to define
Who you are.
Simply allow what remains to
Reveal Itself.
The Self is only one.
If limited it is the ego.
If unlimited it is Infinite and is the Reality.
If limited it is the ego.
If unlimited it is Infinite and is the Reality.
Readers would have guessed by now that Bhagavan had occult powers just like siddha purushas. Bhagavan himself once said that he moved in different lokas simultaneously and that he lived in different forms in the different lokas.
Once Bhagavan revealed that Arunagiri had a vast interior in which even an army battalion could stay and that several yogis performed tapas there. This was something no ordinary mortal could say.
Bhagavan's act of grace in appearing to Ganapati Muni at Tiruvottiyur has already been described. Here is one more instance of the same type.
Amritanatha, one of the questioners in Ramana Gita, had been to Haridwar once. He and his friend, Sankarananda, were performing tapas at the Turiya ashram. During a conversation Sankarananda remarked that after Vidyaranya there were no more siddhas and jnanis in the country.
Amritanatha disagreed with this and cited the instance of Bhagavan as a complete siddha and jnani. But Sankarananda did not accept it. Thereupon Amritanatha said,
"You are a devotee of Kartikeya, and we think that Bhagavan is an avatar of Kartikeya. Here is a picture of Bhagavan. You may sit in front of it and perform Kartikeya japa for some time. If you do not experience Bhagavan's grace by then, I am prepared to agree with you."
Taking up the challenge Sankarananda performed Kartikeya japa for half an hour each day. Four days passed. On the fifth day at dusk when Sankarananda was at his japa a great light entered Bhagavan's picture and said to him,
"You are not performing the japa in the proper way."
"What is the proper way?" Sankarananda asked.
"You have to perform pooja and dhyana of the image in Kadhirkamam of Ceylon:" said Ramana in the picture.
Sankarananda said, "I have never been to Kadhirkamam, what does that image look like?"
"Here it is," said the picture and placed the image in front of Sankarananda.
He then began watching the image with one eye and Ramana's picture with the other. Suddenly a lizard fell on his lap and he was distracted. When he turned to look at the image and Ramana neither of them was there. He ran out and made enquiries of some labourers who were working outside the cottage.
They said that nobody had either entered the cottage or left it all the while. By then Amritanatha arrived. Sankarananda asked him,
"Is there any difference between your Swami and the picture?"
The reply was "There is grey hair to mark out the forehead and the rest is dark."
Sankarananda immediately set out for Arunachala and after an eventful journey of some months reached Arunachala and met Bhagavan at Skandasramam. Immediately on seeing him Bhagavan asked him in Malayalam,
"Aren't you coming from Haridwar?" Sankarananda was stunned.
The person he saw at Haridwar was Ramana. But everyone said ? "Ramana never left this place."
Sankarananda authored the Ramanashtakam, stayed at Parrot cave for two months and served Bhagavan. He also wrote Sri Ramanaashtotharasata Namavali and the method of performing Ramana japa and submitted them to Bhagavan along with five slokas. As the climate of Arunachala did not suit him he went back to Uttara Kasi.
The miracles which would take place in the presence of Bhagavan were legion. Here are a few examples.
On a Jayanti day a golden-hued mongoose went up the hill like the rest of the devotees, everyone was watching its movements in amazement. The mongoose first went to Virupaksha cave, saw Palaniswami there and moved about like a long-time friend, inspected the cave and not finding Bhagavan there walked up to Skandasramam. The mongoose passed by the people and went close to Bhagavan. After he caressed it, the mongoose sat on his lap for some time and went inside the ashram and came out. During meal time the mongoose walked up and down gravely as if inspecting everything. It did not partake of any food but after a while moved out in the southern direction of the hill but not down the hill.
On one occasion when Bhagavan was coming down the hill to go on a giri-pradakshina, suddenly he experienced that the sky was waist-high and that the stars were revolving round him. On another occasion, while on a giri pradakshina at Gautama Ashrama Bhagavan experienced six stars going round the hill one after another. Similarly on another occasion of giri-pradakshina a brilliant light enveloped Bhagavan's party of about fifteen persons and stayed that way for a few minutes and disappeared. This was seen by everyone.
While Bhagavan and his party were resting at the Adi Annamalai temple on one occasion somebody reciting the Sama Veda was heard. But nobody, not even Bhagavan, saw the singer.
Some devotees of Bhagavan said to him: "Bhagavan, you often say that the Heart is on the right side of the chest but we do not experience it." Bhagavan invited them to touch his Heart on the right side of the chest. Each one felt three palpitations and an interval thereafter. They also felt a new energy surging in them.
Ashramites had innumerable experiences of Bhagavan's miracles, even in relatively minor matters. But Bhagavan would be totally unconcerned about them all.
~ Sri Ramana Leela,
Chapter : 48
Once Bhagavan revealed that Arunagiri had a vast interior in which even an army battalion could stay and that several yogis performed tapas there. This was something no ordinary mortal could say.
Bhagavan's act of grace in appearing to Ganapati Muni at Tiruvottiyur has already been described. Here is one more instance of the same type.
Amritanatha, one of the questioners in Ramana Gita, had been to Haridwar once. He and his friend, Sankarananda, were performing tapas at the Turiya ashram. During a conversation Sankarananda remarked that after Vidyaranya there were no more siddhas and jnanis in the country.
Amritanatha disagreed with this and cited the instance of Bhagavan as a complete siddha and jnani. But Sankarananda did not accept it. Thereupon Amritanatha said,
"You are a devotee of Kartikeya, and we think that Bhagavan is an avatar of Kartikeya. Here is a picture of Bhagavan. You may sit in front of it and perform Kartikeya japa for some time. If you do not experience Bhagavan's grace by then, I am prepared to agree with you."
Taking up the challenge Sankarananda performed Kartikeya japa for half an hour each day. Four days passed. On the fifth day at dusk when Sankarananda was at his japa a great light entered Bhagavan's picture and said to him,
"You are not performing the japa in the proper way."
"What is the proper way?" Sankarananda asked.
"You have to perform pooja and dhyana of the image in Kadhirkamam of Ceylon:" said Ramana in the picture.
Sankarananda said, "I have never been to Kadhirkamam, what does that image look like?"
"Here it is," said the picture and placed the image in front of Sankarananda.
He then began watching the image with one eye and Ramana's picture with the other. Suddenly a lizard fell on his lap and he was distracted. When he turned to look at the image and Ramana neither of them was there. He ran out and made enquiries of some labourers who were working outside the cottage.
They said that nobody had either entered the cottage or left it all the while. By then Amritanatha arrived. Sankarananda asked him,
"Is there any difference between your Swami and the picture?"
The reply was "There is grey hair to mark out the forehead and the rest is dark."
Sankarananda immediately set out for Arunachala and after an eventful journey of some months reached Arunachala and met Bhagavan at Skandasramam. Immediately on seeing him Bhagavan asked him in Malayalam,
"Aren't you coming from Haridwar?" Sankarananda was stunned.
The person he saw at Haridwar was Ramana. But everyone said ? "Ramana never left this place."
Sankarananda authored the Ramanashtakam, stayed at Parrot cave for two months and served Bhagavan. He also wrote Sri Ramanaashtotharasata Namavali and the method of performing Ramana japa and submitted them to Bhagavan along with five slokas. As the climate of Arunachala did not suit him he went back to Uttara Kasi.
The miracles which would take place in the presence of Bhagavan were legion. Here are a few examples.
On a Jayanti day a golden-hued mongoose went up the hill like the rest of the devotees, everyone was watching its movements in amazement. The mongoose first went to Virupaksha cave, saw Palaniswami there and moved about like a long-time friend, inspected the cave and not finding Bhagavan there walked up to Skandasramam. The mongoose passed by the people and went close to Bhagavan. After he caressed it, the mongoose sat on his lap for some time and went inside the ashram and came out. During meal time the mongoose walked up and down gravely as if inspecting everything. It did not partake of any food but after a while moved out in the southern direction of the hill but not down the hill.
On one occasion when Bhagavan was coming down the hill to go on a giri-pradakshina, suddenly he experienced that the sky was waist-high and that the stars were revolving round him. On another occasion, while on a giri pradakshina at Gautama Ashrama Bhagavan experienced six stars going round the hill one after another. Similarly on another occasion of giri-pradakshina a brilliant light enveloped Bhagavan's party of about fifteen persons and stayed that way for a few minutes and disappeared. This was seen by everyone.
While Bhagavan and his party were resting at the Adi Annamalai temple on one occasion somebody reciting the Sama Veda was heard. But nobody, not even Bhagavan, saw the singer.
Some devotees of Bhagavan said to him: "Bhagavan, you often say that the Heart is on the right side of the chest but we do not experience it." Bhagavan invited them to touch his Heart on the right side of the chest. Each one felt three palpitations and an interval thereafter. They also felt a new energy surging in them.
Ashramites had innumerable experiences of Bhagavan's miracles, even in relatively minor matters. But Bhagavan would be totally unconcerned about them all.
~ Sri Ramana Leela,
Chapter : 48
When not being your Self becomes unbearable,
Self-discovery becomes vital.
It seems we can live in exile from our own
true nature for a while. Actually, we cannot do it.
We are only dreaming it, or believing it into existence
and so suffering our own projections.
Such exile is like saying that space has forgotten
itself and imagines itself to be the wind.
The mind is like the wind.
The Self is like space.
It is the nature of wind to blow about,
but space, being infinite, cannot move about.
Space exists whether there is wind or no wind.
But if there was no space, there could be no wind.
Judge which is the greater
and be one with that.
Self-discovery becomes vital.
It seems we can live in exile from our own
true nature for a while. Actually, we cannot do it.
We are only dreaming it, or believing it into existence
and so suffering our own projections.
Such exile is like saying that space has forgotten
itself and imagines itself to be the wind.
The mind is like the wind.
The Self is like space.
It is the nature of wind to blow about,
but space, being infinite, cannot move about.
Space exists whether there is wind or no wind.
But if there was no space, there could be no wind.
Judge which is the greater
and be one with that.
Selflessness has to flourish instead of selfishness. People should stop bargaining with one another in the name of relationships. Love shouldn't be a chain of bondage, it should be the very breath of life.
It is not important to be original.
It is important only to be True.
It is important only to be True.
There can be progress in the preparation (sadhana).
Realization is sudden.
The fruit ripens slowly,
but falls suddenly and without return.
Realization is sudden.
The fruit ripens slowly,
but falls suddenly and without return.
Jnana does not come gradually, little by little, day by day.
It blazes forth all at once in all its fullness,
when the practice has matured to perfection.
— Sri Ramana Git, Ch. 17, v3.
It blazes forth all at once in all its fullness,
when the practice has matured to perfection.
— Sri Ramana Git, Ch. 17, v3.
You have a body,
but you are not the body.
You are the nature of infinite power. The entire universe is within you.
but you are not the body.
You are the nature of infinite power. The entire universe is within you.
While speaking of the brain and the Heart, Sri Bhagavan recalled an incident of old days as follows:
Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni once argued that the brain was the most important centre and Sri Bhagavan maintained that the Heart was even more so. There were others watching the discourse. A few days after Sri Bhagavan received a letter containing a short poem in English on that discourse from a young boy, N.S. Arunachalam, who had not yet matriculated.
That poem is remarkable for its poetic imagination. Sri Bhagavan, Kavyakantha, and the assemblage of other persons are represented as the Heart, the brain and the body respectively; and again as the sun, the moon and the earth also.
The light from the sun is reflected on the moon and the earth is illumined. Similarly the brain acts by consciousness derived from the Heart and the body is thus projected.
This teaching of Sri Bhagavan is found in Ramana Gita also. The Heart is the most important centre from which vitality and light radiate to the brain, thus enabling it to function.
The vasanas are enclosed in the Heart in their subtlest form, later flowing to the brain which reflects them highly magnified, corresponding to a cinema-show at every stage. That is how the world is said to be nothing more than a cinema-show.
Sri Bhagavan also added: Were the vasanas in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e. within Itself in the Heart, just as a miser keeps his most valued possessions (treasure) with himself and never out of contact.
Hence the place where the vasanas are, is the Self, i.e., the Heart, and not the brain (which is only the theatre for the play of the vasanas from the greenhouse of the Heart.)
~ Talk 402
Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni once argued that the brain was the most important centre and Sri Bhagavan maintained that the Heart was even more so. There were others watching the discourse. A few days after Sri Bhagavan received a letter containing a short poem in English on that discourse from a young boy, N.S. Arunachalam, who had not yet matriculated.
That poem is remarkable for its poetic imagination. Sri Bhagavan, Kavyakantha, and the assemblage of other persons are represented as the Heart, the brain and the body respectively; and again as the sun, the moon and the earth also.
The light from the sun is reflected on the moon and the earth is illumined. Similarly the brain acts by consciousness derived from the Heart and the body is thus projected.
This teaching of Sri Bhagavan is found in Ramana Gita also. The Heart is the most important centre from which vitality and light radiate to the brain, thus enabling it to function.
The vasanas are enclosed in the Heart in their subtlest form, later flowing to the brain which reflects them highly magnified, corresponding to a cinema-show at every stage. That is how the world is said to be nothing more than a cinema-show.
Sri Bhagavan also added: Were the vasanas in the brain instead of in the Heart they must be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations will be at an end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e. within Itself in the Heart, just as a miser keeps his most valued possessions (treasure) with himself and never out of contact.
Hence the place where the vasanas are, is the Self, i.e., the Heart, and not the brain (which is only the theatre for the play of the vasanas from the greenhouse of the Heart.)
~ Talk 402
The world is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is not. It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I cease caring, it dissolves. It has no cause and serves no purpose. It just happens when we are absent-minded.
Rather fail with honour than succeed by fraud.
I do not know anything. I do not know anyone.
There is just this unfading joy dancing inside my heart
whenever I am blessed to see a human being
free from the delusion of ego and expressing gratitude
to the Almighty.
There is just this unfading joy dancing inside my heart
whenever I am blessed to see a human being
free from the delusion of ego and expressing gratitude
to the Almighty.
The only one who is
Free in the world is
The one who is
Free of the world...
Free in the world is
The one who is
Free of the world...
A true friend is not merely someone you like or who is like you - they could be quite unlike you in most respects - but one whose allegiance is firstly to Truth, not to you.. such a friend is rare indeed.
Beings
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