My Lord Supreme

Into my bosom, on my eyes, over my head
He gently planted His loving Feet
Ramana, my Lord Supreme;
He laid me the Path,
He showed me the Truth,
He settled the course of my Destiny
Truly, truly, all that I can not describe.

Make me your slave forever

You, Supreme Lord!
Seeking You, I lost all sense of fear;
Now I wander not,
And seek not another's company;
Shatter, Lord, my Karmas
Uproot them from my very thoughts
And kick them off;
Grant me Your Grace.
Own me,
And make me Your slave forever.

Arunachala calls

I am forwarding the site at benegal.org here, due to some technical crisis over at the ISP.

I am off to Arunachala and will return back about April mid.

In the meanwhile the fires of bhakti will continue to blaze at our friend sites such as:
Arunachala Ramana.

Lately a Daily Talk and Daily Letter site has come up, good idea to subscribe to that site from your News Reader and have a daily dose of wisdom.

Our other site containing stories and words of Bhagavan is: Words of Bhagavan Ramana

When you seek a Guru
Seek you one, holy and pure;
And then give him your all--
Your body, life and wealth;
And in constancy learn clear,
Not a moment distracting,
You shall sure reach Siva's State.

The Highest Path

The many different paths that are taught are really only preparations for Bhagavan's path. Ultimately, one must learn to abide in the Self by meditation on the Self, or by self-enquiry, or by complete surrender.

Unfortunately there are very few people who are spiritually mature enough to follow Bhagavan's highest teachings. Most people have to follow other paths until they are ready for the final path.

Guru-disciple relationship

Your original question was: Is the Guru-disciple relationship real?

From the standpoint of the Self one would have to say that it is all maya, but one could add that it is the best kind of maya. One can use a thorn to remove another thorn. Similarly, one can use the maya-like Guru-disciple relationship to root out maya in all its manifestations.

Maya is so firmly established in us that only the illusory Guru-lion in our dream can give us a big enough shock to wake us.

From Tripura Rahasya

"If the Lord of the world be pleased, will anything be withheld from the devotee? Tell me. He is the only Solace of the devotees whereas the chiefs are many in the world and not necessarily kind may be they are cruel and ungrateful also. Their patronage is also wavering and short-lived.

The Supreme Lord has infinite mercy for His devotees, is most grateful and has unlimited powers. Otherwise, would people continue to worship Him from untold ages? Kingdoms not well ordered are known to disintegrate. (But this universe continues as ever). Therefore this Lord of mercy is well established and also rightly famed.

"Surrender yourself directly and unhesitatingly to him. He will ordain the best for you and you need not ask for it."

God's grace

"Leave God's job to God.
You are to do what is in your hands. When the time is ripe, God's grace which is always operating, would be felt by you also.
Grace would work automatically."
Bhagavan advised that three things should be kept in mind --
i) individual effort,
ii) the appropriate time,
iii) God's grace

He graciously observed:
"Keep at your practice. There is no need to remind God about his business, which is to keep an eye always on our welfare. The mistake one is prone to make is to abandon effort under the mistaken impression that God's grace is absent. But one should not slacken, for God's grace is bound to operate at the ripe time."

-- Sishtla Subba Rao on Bhagavan. UY p121.

All your thoughts

Let all your thoughts be thoughts of Siva,
And the Lord by His Grace shall reveal all;
If your thoughts be Siva-saturated
In you shall He then close abide.

--Tirumantiram

QOTD (AG)

5. Realising that suffering arises from nothing other than thought,
dropping all desires one rids oneself of it, and is happy and at peace
everywhere.

QOTD (AG)

2. At peace, having shed all desires within,
and realising that nothing exists here but the Lord, the Creator of all things,
one is no longer attached to anything.

QOTD (AG)

4. Realising that pleasure and pain, birth and death are from destiny, and that one's desires cannot be achieved,
one remains inactive, and even when acting does not get attached.

Subbalakshmi's dream

(Photo of Mother's Nirvana Room taken by author, free to copy/use)

I could not get a darshan on the 'Nirvana day' because of the long queue. Bhagavan however graciously appeared in a dream and said:
Amma, how long should I bear the body? Death is natural to it.
It is like a leaf on which the food has been eaten. It has to be thrown away.
-- Subbalakshmi Krishnamurthi in UY, p125

Seek the source

It does not matter by what form or name you worship the Supreme. It would help you to transcend name and form. All have their source in that Reality, your true Self.
Seek out the source of the mind, then the unwanted things would disappear and the Self alone would remain.

-- Bhagavan to N Nataraja Iyer, 21 October 1942, 2:40 pm

QOTD (AG)

4. The essential nature of bondage is nothing other than desire, and its elimination is known as liberation.

It is simply by not being attached to changing things that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached.

QOTD

6. Kingdoms, children, wives, bodies, pleasures -- these have all been lost to you life after life, attached to them though you were.

7. Enough of wealth, sensuality, and good deeds.
In the forest of samsara the mind has never found satisfaction in these.

8. How many births have you not done hard and painful labour with body, mind, and speech.
Now at last, STOP!
-- Ashtavakra Gita

QOTD

Wherever a desire occurs, see samsara in it.
Establishing yourself in firm dispassion, be free of passion ... and happy.
-- Ashtavakra Gita

~~~
4. Was it for Thy pleasure or for my sake Thou didst win me? If now Thou turn me away, the world will blame Thee, O Arunachala!

From the life of Swami Ramdas

Papa (Swami Ramdas, a devotee of Ramana Maharshi) always stressed the necessity of absolute honesty and sincerity as essential in the great Quest. Better an honest, dualistic bhakti than a hypocritical advaita. Whereas bhakti, however dualistic, will lead ultimately to jnana as jnana mata, the mother of jnana, advaita practised only with the head leads merely to confusion and hypocrisy.

An excerpt mailed by a reader:

Bliss ineffable flowed over and saturated him, rising like an artesian spring from the heart's core when Papa realised the entire universe of name and form as the vibhuti or manifestation of the Self.

In the state of pure Bliss-consciousness he carried on his spiritual ministry till his last day on earth. Through his talks and actions he gave those who sought him a taste of the love and bliss divine. The purest pearls of wisdom that fell from his tips spread sweetness and light all round, dispelling gloom, fear and anxiety that held the people in a tight grip. Earnest seekers were lifted up to higher levels of consciousness, getting a glimpse of the true life of the Spirit, with the result that a deep yearning for that life was kindled in them. Papa's talks were often punctuated with jokes and laughter. The total impression left on the mind of the listener was never to be forgotten.

Once, to illustrate the futility of empty, theoretical advaitic knowledge, Papa narrated the following story. He was staying in a small mandir in Jhansi when a man approached him and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Ramdas," he replied simply.

"No, you speak a lie there," returned his visitor. "You are Ram Himself. When you declare you are Ramdas, you do not know what you say. God is everything and in everything. He is in you and so you are He. Confess it right away.

"True, dear friend," Ramdas replied, "God is everything. But at the same time, it must be noted God is one, and when He is in you and everywhere around you, may I humbly ask to whom you are putting this question?"

After a little reflection, the man could only answer, "Well, I have put the question to myself ".

Papa always stressed the necessity of absolute honesty and sincerity as essential in the great Quest. Better an honest, dualistic bhakti than a hypocritical advaita. Whereas bhakti, however dualistic, will lead ultimately to jnana as jnana mata, the mother of jnana, advaita practised only with the head leads merely to confusion and hypocrisy.

Another incident illustrates this point well. When Papa was staying at Mount Abu he was taken to meet a "great saint", Swami Kaivalyananda, a young sannyasin living in a cave, his body completely shaved, but surrounded by a number of books.

Papa approached him and prostrated.

With a look of surprise, the sannyasin asked, "To whom are you offering this salutation?"

"To Ram," Papa replied.

"Who are you?"

"Ramdas. "

"Ramdas. Ramdas, funny, isn't it? There is only one Truth. Why do you assume this false duality?"

"It is Ram Himself, being One, who has chosen to be many. "

"Wrong," retorted the advaitin. "He is always One; many is false, illusion."

"Truth has become God and His devotee for the sake of lila, the divine play," Papa responded.

"Why play?"

"For love and bliss; so when Ramdas prostrates before you, it is yourself who do it in the form of Ramdas," Papa went on.

"Bosh!" cut in the sannyasin. "There is only one, never two." "Then to whom are you talking, dear Swamiji," asked Papa, pulling out his brahmastra.

The sannyasin reflected a while and had to reply, "To myself".

"Exactly. You assume there are two although in the light of absolute Truth there is only one."

"No, no--no realised person believes in duality," maintained the advaitin, getting jumpy. "Here, take this book and read it. You will understand things more clearly, I assure you. It is written by me." He pressed Papa to accept it. Noticing the author's name on the cover, Papa noted that he referred to himself as "Swami Kaivalyananda, M.A."

QOTD

One's desires are samsara. Knowing this, abandon them. The renunciation of them is the renunciation of it. Now you can remain as you are.
-- Ashtavakra Gita
~~~
3. Entering (my) home and luring me (to Yours) why did You keep me prisoner in Your Heart's cavern, O Arunachala?

QOTD

Abide in the Self free from thoughts, instead of enquiring into the nature of the Self.
-- Ramana Maharshi

~~~
2. May You and I be one and inseparable like Alagu and Sundara, O Arunachala!

QOTD

To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God.
-- Ramana Maharshi

~~~
1. (a) You root out the ego of those who meditate on You in the Heart, O Arunachala!

You are the unmoving one

One day Bhagavan said,
'Your mind seems to be yearning for meditation'.
'What use is it?' I said, 'Here it is only kitchen work'.
He advised,

'Let the hands and legs do the job. You are not the hands or the legs. You are the unmoving one.
Problems will be endless as long as one is not aware of this. If you identify yourself with the body, you are bound to dualities. Work would appear difficult. Even if we free ourselves will the mind cease to wander? It does not let us even sleep in peace. It keeps wandering as in dreams.'

-- Subbalakshmi Amma
Subbalakshmiamma, a kitchen worker, had her first darshan of Bhagavan when He was in Virupaksha Cave. She spent many years near the ashram after Bhagavan's Mahanirvana, and passed away in June 1974 (UY, p85).

QOTD

If you are seeking liberation, my son, avoid the objects of the senses like poison.

Cultivate tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment, and truthfulness as the antidote.
-- Ashtavakra Gita, Chapter I.

QOTD

If only you will remain resting in consciousness, seeing yourself
as distinct from the body, then even now you will become happy, peaceful
and free from bonds.
-- Ashtavakra Gita, I-4

Do not idle

I saw Bhagavan for the first time in my 7th year, and again after my marriage when I was about 20 years old. I became a widow when I was 34 years of age and I returned to my parental home in Salem. Since then I would visit Bhagavan every month.

He once advised: Do japa, or dhyana, or Self-enquiry. Do not idle away your time.

... Eight years before Bhagavan's Mahasamadhi, I settled down in Ramana Nagar. Those were the best years of my life. Time passed most happily and I witnessed many such miracles before my very eyes.

From the memories of Gowri Ammal, p15, Unforgettable Years (A.R.Natarajan, RMCL).
(Note: Gowri Ammal was the daughter of Narayana Iyer, a staunch devotee of Bhagavan from 1922. Ammal had a deep love and reverence for Bhagavan since childhood. During the last years of Bhagavan's physical illness she settled down near the ashram in order to be near him. This long standing devotee passed away in May 1971.)