Bhagavan Ramana and untouchability

When Bhagavan was living in Skandasramam I was once alone with him, sitting on the steps leading up to the Ashram, when a man came to the gate with his family and stopped and called out to me.

When i went there he asked me to ask the Swami whether they could approach him and receive his darshan. I was surprised and said: "Why do you ask permission?" And he said, "We are untouchables."

I started to go back to Bhagavan, but then it occurred to me that even to ask Bhagavan would be an injustice to him, so i told the man that caste had no meaning with Bhagavan and that they would be welcome. The whole party came and prostrated before Bhagavan, and I well remember how for about ten minutes his gracious look dwelt on that untouchable and his family; and how many rich and notable people have I seen fall at his feet without being vouchsafed such grace.

-- K.S.S. Ramanadasa

Sadhu Natanananda's question in 1918

Sadhu Natanananda came to Sri Bhagavan for the first time in 1918. With the fervent wish of an earnest sadhaka, he climbed the hill to Skandasramam and besought thus:

It is my great desire that I should experience your gracious wisdom. Kindly fulfil my desire.

In those days Sri Ramana was not speaking much. Still he spoke kindly as follows:

"Is it the body in front of me which wished to obtain my Grace? Or is it the awareness within it? If it is the awareness, is it not now looking upon itself as the body and making this request?

If so, let the awareness first of all know its real nature. It will then automatically know God and my Grace. The truth of this can be realized even now and here."

Bhagavan Ramana Advent Day

Today is once again August 29th, anniversary of the day in 1896 when our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Ramana left his home for Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai).

He reached Arunachala on September 1st, a day now known as the Advent Day.

The following quotes from the Ashtavakra Gita are dedicated to the Supreme Lord, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Just as a mirror exists everywhere
both within and apart from its reflected images,
so the Supreme Lord (Arunachala Ramana) exists everywhere
within and apart from this body.

Just as one and the same all-pervading space exists
within and without a jar,
so the eternal, everlasting Ramana exists
in the totality of things.

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

Egg production caused unbelievable cruelties

This link is not for the faint of heart. But if you eat eggs, i would be grateful if you would give it a read.

Egg production—including free-range and organic—involves multiple cruelties, such as the killing of 250 million newborn chicks each year in the United States.

Abundant undercover video footage shows bored or frustrated poultry slaughterhouse workers pulling the heads and wings off live birds, slamming them against a wall, and crushing them to death with their boots.

When you go vegan, it's a great feeling knowing you're eating as moral a diet as possible; that you're no longer making excuses or going into denial about unnecessarily contributing to the suffering and killing of animals; that you're no longer paying others to breed animals, manipulate their bodies, and kill them as soon as economically profitable.

Some people mistakenly think that there is no death involved in the egg business, but they are sadly mistaken. To begin with, for every laying hen there is a dead male chick. At some hatcheries, if the males are not thrown away to suffocate to death in trash containers, they are ground up alive, mixed with grain and fed to the females.

Please read this link: noeggs.org.

Update: This link has even more. Had no idea of the amount of killing that happens in egg-production! Please see this.

Much love to all of you.

Self-enquiry for all people ?

The questioner: “Is it possible for all people to hold on to that path of Self-enquiry?”

Bhagavan: “It is true that it is only possible for mature minds, not for immature ones. For the latter, repetition of a prayer or holy name under one’s breath (japa), worship of images, breath-control (pranayama), visualising a pillar of light (Jyotishtoma) and similar yogic and spiritual and religious practices have been prescribed. By those practices, people become mature and will then realize the Self through the path of Self-enquiry. To remove the illusion of immature minds in regard to this world, they have to be told that they are different from the body. It is enough if you say, you are everything, all-pervading.

The Ancients say that those with immature minds should be told that they must know the transcendent Seer through enquiry into the five elements and reject them by the process of repeating, ‘Not this, not this (Neti, neti)’. After saying this, they point out that just as gold ornaments are not different from gold, so the elements are your own Self. Hence it must be said that this world is real.

See Letter 141.

Mindfulness, Awareness

The bhikkhu who delights in mindfulness (awareness),
who sees danger in negligence,
is not likely to fall back.
He is in the presence of nirvana (enlightenment).

- Dhammapada 32