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The 'I' has no location. Everything is the Self.
Know well that the experience of Bliss exists only in Self and never in this life of delusion, and hence achieve Self-Knowledge, which is the Space of Grace and the final state of Supreme Silence.
"Who am I"
Question No 21: Is it necessary for one who longs for release to inquire into the nature of categories (tattvas)?
Bhagawan: Just as one who wants to throw away garbage has no need to analyse it and see what it is, so one who wants to know the Self has no need to count the number of categories or inquire into their characteristics; what he has to do is to reject altogether the categories that hide the Self. The world should be considered like a dream.
Question No 21: Is it necessary for one who longs for release to inquire into the nature of categories (tattvas)?
Bhagawan: Just as one who wants to throw away garbage has no need to analyse it and see what it is, so one who wants to know the Self has no need to count the number of categories or inquire into their characteristics; what he has to do is to reject altogether the categories that hide the Self. The world should be considered like a dream.
What one fails to know by conversation extending to several years can be known in a trice in Silence, or in front of Silence - e.g., Dakshinamurti, and his four disciples.
-from Talk 246
-from Talk 246
Question No 19: What is non-attachment?
Bhagawan: As thoughts arise, destroying them utterly without any residue in the very place of their origin is non-attachment. Just as the pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, sinks to the bottom of the sea and there takes the pearls, so each one of us should be endowed with non-attachment, dive within oneself and obtain the Self-Pearl.
Bhagawan: As thoughts arise, destroying them utterly without any residue in the very place of their origin is non-attachment. Just as the pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, sinks to the bottom of the sea and there takes the pearls, so each one of us should be endowed with non-attachment, dive within oneself and obtain the Self-Pearl.
SAGEHOOD AS AN IDEAL
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
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
What does stillness mean? It means ‘Destroy yourself’; because every name and form is the cause of trouble. ‘I-I’ is the Self. ‘I am this’ is the ego. When the ‘I’ is kept up as the ‘I’ only, it is the Self. When it flies off at a tangent and says, ‘I am this or that. I am such and such’, it is the ego.
What is it that exists now and troubles you? It is 'I'. Get rid of it and be happy.
... not even uttering the word “I”, one should enquire keenly thus: “Now, what is it that rises as ‘I’”. Then, there would shine in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of the form ‘I’ ‘I’. That is, there would shine of its own accord the pure consciousness which is unlimited and one, the limited and the many thoughts having disappeared. If one remains quiescent without abandoning that (experience), the egoity, the individual sense, of the form ‘I am the body’ will be totally destroyed, and at the end the final thought, viz. the ‘I’- form also will be quenched like the fire that burns camphor. The great sages and scriptures declare that this alone is release.
From 'Self-Enquiry'
From 'Self-Enquiry'
A person begins with dissatisfaction. Not content with the world he seeks satisfaction of desires by prayers to God; his mind is purified; he longs to know God more than to satisfy his carnal desires. Then God’s Grace begins to manifest. God takes the form of a Guru and appears to the devotee; teaches him the Truth; purifies the mind by his teachings and contact; the mind gains strength, is able to turn inward; with meditation it is purified yet further, and eventually remains still without the least ripple. That stillness is the Self.
The Guru is both exterior and interior. From the exterior he gives a push to the mind to turn inward; from the interior he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps the mind to achieve quietness. That is Grace.
Hence there is no difference between God, Guru and Self.
The Guru is both exterior and interior. From the exterior he gives a push to the mind to turn inward; from the interior he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps the mind to achieve quietness. That is Grace.
Hence there is no difference between God, Guru and Self.
The experience of Vedanta is possible only for those who have completely given up all desires. For the desirous it is far away, and they should therefore try to rid themselves of all other desires by the desire for God, who is free from desires.
For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment.
Abhyasa [spiritual practice] consists in withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the Self.
Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen.
There are only two ways in which to conquer destiny or be independent of it. One is to enquire who undergoes this destiny and discover that only the ego is bound by it and not the Self, and that the ego is non-existent. The other way is to kill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realising one’s helplessness and saying all the time: ‘Not I, but Thou, Oh, my Lord’, and giving up all sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and leaving it to the Lord to do what he likes with you. Surrender can never be regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or that from the Lord. True surrender is love of God for the sake of love and for nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self enquiry or through bhakti-marga.
WESTERNERS
Question: Is it harder for Westerners to withdraw inwards?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes, they are Rajasic (mentally overactive) and their energy goes outwards. We must be inwardly quiet, not forgetting the Self, and then externally we can go on with activity. Does a man who is acting on the stage in a female part forget that he is a man? Similarly, we too must play our parts on the stage of life, but we must not identify ourselves with those parts.
In the West it will be only those disgusted with material life who will earnestly turn to the path.
Conscious Immortality
Question: Is it harder for Westerners to withdraw inwards?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes, they are Rajasic (mentally overactive) and their energy goes outwards. We must be inwardly quiet, not forgetting the Self, and then externally we can go on with activity. Does a man who is acting on the stage in a female part forget that he is a man? Similarly, we too must play our parts on the stage of life, but we must not identify ourselves with those parts.
In the West it will be only those disgusted with material life who will earnestly turn to the path.
Conscious Immortality
Silence is the most potent form of work.
The guru is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is more vast and more emphatic than the scriptures put together. In fact the guru is always within you.
The guru's silence is the loudest teaching.
It is also grace in its highest form.
Silence is the true teaching.
It is the perfect teaching.
It is suited only for the most advanced seeker.
The others are unable to draw full inspiration from it. Therefore they require words to explain the truth. But truth is beyond words. It does not admit of explanations. All that is possible to do is to indicate it.
The guru is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is more vast and more emphatic than the scriptures put together. In fact the guru is always within you.
The guru's silence is the loudest teaching.
It is also grace in its highest form.
Silence is the true teaching.
It is the perfect teaching.
It is suited only for the most advanced seeker.
The others are unable to draw full inspiration from it. Therefore they require words to explain the truth. But truth is beyond words. It does not admit of explanations. All that is possible to do is to indicate it.
SILENCE
'In the ecstasy of devotion one may sing and one may dance, but it is mouna (silence) that bestows liberation.'
'Open your eyes! Know the light that shines through your eyes; shine in the Heart as the greatest of all lights, which transcends all thought.'
-Padamalai, pp. 195; 63
'In the ecstasy of devotion one may sing and one may dance, but it is mouna (silence) that bestows liberation.'
'Open your eyes! Know the light that shines through your eyes; shine in the Heart as the greatest of all lights, which transcends all thought.'
-Padamalai, pp. 195; 63
SILENCE is the loudest form of prayer.
You can feel yourself one with the One that exists.
The whole body becomes a mere power, a force-current.
Your life becomes a needle drawn to a huge mass of magnet and as you go deeper and deeper, you become a mere centre and then not even that, for you become a mere Consciousness;
there are no thoughts or cares any longer -- they were shattered at the threshold -- it is an inundation.
You, a mere straw, are swallowed alive,but it is very delightful,for you become the very thing that swallows you.
This is the union of jiva with Brahman, the loss of ego in the real Self, the destruction of falsehood, the attainment of Truth.
From: SAT-DARSHANA BHASHYA & TALKS WITH MAHARSHI
The whole body becomes a mere power, a force-current.
Your life becomes a needle drawn to a huge mass of magnet and as you go deeper and deeper, you become a mere centre and then not even that, for you become a mere Consciousness;
there are no thoughts or cares any longer -- they were shattered at the threshold -- it is an inundation.
You, a mere straw, are swallowed alive,but it is very delightful,for you become the very thing that swallows you.
This is the union of jiva with Brahman, the loss of ego in the real Self, the destruction of falsehood, the attainment of Truth.
From: SAT-DARSHANA BHASHYA & TALKS WITH MAHARSHI
Let any amount of burden be laid on Him, He will bear it all. It is, in fact, the indefinable power of the Lord that ordains, sustains and controls everything that happens. Why then, should we worry, tormented by vexatious thoughts, saying: ‘Shall we act this way? No, that way,’ instead of meekly but happily submitting to that Power?
EVERYTHING IS PERFECT
Everything that happens inside and out is preordained by Ishwara, an agent of Brahman, for our spiritual development and must therefore be willed by us as well.
If we had three wishes they would be that things are only as they are, as they are, as they are.
If we are so willing then we are in harmony with the divine will,
for 'In His Will is our peace',
Welcoming the Lord to do whatever he wants with us.
As complete effacement of the egotistic will is necessary to conquer destiny.
So be it.
Everything that happens inside and out is preordained by Ishwara, an agent of Brahman, for our spiritual development and must therefore be willed by us as well.
If we had three wishes they would be that things are only as they are, as they are, as they are.
If we are so willing then we are in harmony with the divine will,
for 'In His Will is our peace',
Welcoming the Lord to do whatever he wants with us.
As complete effacement of the egotistic will is necessary to conquer destiny.
So be it.
27. Fear not on seeing this empty world, which appears as a dream in the sleep of Self-forgetfulness. This imaginary and bondage-causing world-picture, [pro- jected on the background] of the dark, dense mind, will not stand in the light of Supreme Knowledge, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
28. O aspirants who hide yourselves away fearing this world, nothing such as a world exists! Fearing this false world which appears to exist, is like fearing the false snake which appears in a rope.
28. O aspirants who hide yourselves away fearing this world, nothing such as a world exists! Fearing this false world which appears to exist, is like fearing the false snake which appears in a rope.
THE FLIGHT OF THE GARUDA
Then, all you lovers, think of the beautiful man or woman in your heart. You gluttons, consider the food you crave--meat, cake, or fruit. You strutting peacocks, recall and dwell on the clothes you like to wear. You avaricious traders, think about the form of wealth you desire--horses, jewelry, or cash. Carefully considering these matters, allow desire to arise, and when it arises look directly at its essence, at the greedy and lustful self. Then discover firstly where it comes from, secondly where it is now, and finally where it goes to. Look carefully for its color and shape, and any other characteristics.
This vision of your desire is ultimately empty and ungraspable. Do not reject it! It is discriminating awareness.
FROM SONG 13
Then, all you lovers, think of the beautiful man or woman in your heart. You gluttons, consider the food you crave--meat, cake, or fruit. You strutting peacocks, recall and dwell on the clothes you like to wear. You avaricious traders, think about the form of wealth you desire--horses, jewelry, or cash. Carefully considering these matters, allow desire to arise, and when it arises look directly at its essence, at the greedy and lustful self. Then discover firstly where it comes from, secondly where it is now, and finally where it goes to. Look carefully for its color and shape, and any other characteristics.
This vision of your desire is ultimately empty and ungraspable. Do not reject it! It is discriminating awareness.
FROM SONG 13
Abide as the Self and remain uncontaminated by what goes on around.
A European Countess was leaving for Europe and she requested Bhagavan to bless her and her family.
Bhagavan said, "You do not go anywhere away from the Presence as you imagine. The Presence is everywhere."
Bhagavan said, "You do not go anywhere away from the Presence as you imagine. The Presence is everywhere."
Beings
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