Self-enquiry

Self-inquiry will not make of you anything that you are not already, but it will, over time, destroy the false belief that you are this body, this mind, this story, this life.

That false belief is the root cause of all human suffering whatsoever.

— John Sherman

Self-enquiry

Maharshi: The intellect is useful thus far, it helps you to analyse yourself, and no further. It must then be merged into the ego, and the source of the ego must be sought. If that be done the ego disappears. Remain as that source and then the ego does not arise

Devotee: There is no happiness in that state.
M.: 'There is no happiness' is only a thought. The Self is bliss, pure and simple. You are the Self. So you cannot but be bliss, being so, you cannot say here is no happiness. That which says so cannot be the Self, it is the non-Self and must be got rid of in order to realise the bliss of the Self.

D.: How is that to be done?

Maharshi: See wherefrom the thought arises. It is the mind. See for whom the mind or intellect functions.

For the ego. Merge the intellect in the ego and seek the source of the ego. The ego disappears. 'I know' and 'I do not know' imply a subject and an object. They are due to duality. The Self is pure and absolute, One and alone. There are no two selves so that one may know the other.

What is duality then? It cannot be the Self which is One and alone. It must be non-Self. Duality is the characteristic of the ego. When thoughts arise duality is present, know it to be the ego, and seek its source. The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-Realisation. But Self-Realisation itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realisation.

The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realised. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their Source, where they do not arise.

D.: Doubts are always arising. Hence my question.
Maharshi: A doubt arises and is cleared, another arises and that is cleared , making way for another, and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Talk 618, Feb 1, 1939

Ramana Maharshi - Quotes

Arunachala Siva namah Sivaya

Om Namah Shivaya Chant

"Arunachala-Siva namah Sivaya"

Heart Sutra

Go, Go, Go beyond,
Go thoroughly beyond,
and establish yourself in enlightenment.

-- from The Heart Sutra

Wishing all readers a Happy Mahashivaratri.

Remain Still and peaceful

Having gained the experience that there is no creator, no maya, no duality, and no objects at all, and that pure Awareness-Self along exists, one should ever remain still and peaceful in that state of Self-hood.
Om Namah Shivaya.

The witness

Q: When you say, I am in the state beyond the witness, what is the experience that makes you say so? In what way does it differ from the stage of being a witness only?
Maharaj It is like washing printed cloth. First the design fades, then the background, and in the end the cloth is plain white. The personality gives place to the witness, then the witness goes and pure awareness remains. The cloth was white in the beginning and is white in the end; the patterns and colours just happened -- for a time.

Chapter 79, I am that, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

A dreamer dreams a dream

A dreamer dreams a dream.

He sees the dream world with pleasures, pains. etc. But he wakes up and then loses all interest in the dream world.

So it is with the waking world also. Just as the dream-world, being only a part of yourself and not different from you, ceases to interest you, so also the present world would cease to interest you if you awake from this waking dream (samsara) and realise that it is a part of your Self, and not an objective reality.

Because you think that you are apart from the objects around you, you desire a thing. But if you understand that the thing was only a thought-form, you would no longer desire it.

All things are like bubbles on water. You are the water and the objects are the bubbles. They cannot exist apart from the water, but they are not quite the same as the water.

Refer Talk 625, 7th Feb 1939

Happy Mahashivaratri (March 6th 2008)

Enjoy.

Om Namah Shivaya Chant

Witness and supreme

Q: Can there be awareness without an object of awareness?
Maharaj: Awareness with an object we called witnessing. When there is also self-identification with the object, caused by desire or fear, such a state is called a person.

In reality there is only one state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a person, when coloured with the sense of being, it is the witness; when colourless and limitless, it is called the Supreme.

Chapter 79, I am that.

Just be aware

Just be aware that you are, and remain aware.

Seek your identity

Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method, whereas all other methods are done only by retaining the ego.

In those paths there arise so many doubts and the eternal question: "Who am I ?" remains to be tackled finally. But in this method, the final question is the only one and it is raised from the beginning.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

The pure 'I'

The common man is aware of himself only when modifications arise in the intellect (vijnanamaya kosa); these modifications are transient they arise and set. Hence the vijnanamaya (intellect) is called a kosa or sheath. When pure awareness is left over it is itself the Chit (Self) or the Supreme. To be in one's natural state on the subsidence of thoughts is bliss; if that bliss be transient - arising and setting - then it is only the sheath of bliss (Anandamaya kosa), not the pure Self.

What is needed is to fix the attention on the pure 'I' after the subsidence of all thoughts and not to lose hold of it. This has to be described as an extremely subtle thought, else it cannot be spoken of at all, since it is no other than the Real Self.

Who is to speak of it, to whom and how?

-- Talk 624, 4th February 1939.

There is another choice

Note: Hear the message, don't judge the messenger.

All you want is to know yourself

Attention to one's own self

Attention to one's own Self, which is ever shining as "I", the one undivided and pure reality, is the only raft with which the individual, who is deluded by thinking "I am the body", can cross the ocean of unending births.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

Meditation and distraction

Visitor: What is the difference between meditation and distraction?
Maharshi: No difference. When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation. However, meditation is only practice (as distinguished from the real state of Peace.)
She: How to practice meditation?
Maharshi: Keep off thoughts.
She: How to reconcile work with meditation?

Maharshi: Who is the worker? Let him who works ask the question. You are always the Self. You are not the mind. It is the mind which raises these questions. Work proceeds, always in the presence of the Self only. Work is no hindrance to realisation.

It is the mistaken identity of the worker that troubles one. Get rid of the false identity.

From Talk 68

Spiritual Traps

"I" shines through between all thoughts

Let us examine our own casual statements regarding our daily experiences. For example, we say: ‘ He comes’, ‘ He sits’, ‘ He goes’, and so on. In these statements, ‘coming’, "sitting" and "going" are somehow extraneous to ‘ Him’. As such, they do not at all go into the make of ‘ Him’.

‘ He ’ alone stands unqualified through all time, continuing without a break. So it is this pure ‘ he ’ or "I" (or Consciousness) which shines through and in between all thoughts, feelings, perceptions and states. During this interval (between mentations), one has no thought of the state in which one happens to be. So here, one is Peace itself; and that is the "I" , in its pure state.

Suppose you see a beautiful picture, painted on white paper. On closely examining the picture, you will be able to discover some parts of it where the original colour of the paper appears, unaffected by the shades of the picture. This proves to you the existence of the paper behind the picture, as its background. On further examination, you will see that the picture is nothing but the paper.

So also, if you succeed in discovering yourself between two mentations, you easily come to the conclusion that you are in the mentations as well.

-- Sri Atmananda

John Sherman on Sri Ramana

Who are you in this instant?

Atma-Vichara

Vichara is the process and the goal also. "I am" is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is vichara. When spontaneous and natural it is realization.

If one leaves aside vichara, the most efficacious sadhana, there are no other adequate means whatsoever to make the mind subside. If made to subside by other means, it will remain as if subsided but will rise again. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realize the unconditioned, absolute being that you really are.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

The Self and the world

Devotee: Why did the Self manifest as this miserable world?

Maharshi: In order that you might seek it. Your eyes cannot see themselves. Place a mirror before them and they see themselves. Similarly with the creation.

"See yourself first, and then see the whole world as the Self."

D.: So it amounts to this - that I should always look within.
Maharshi: Yes.

D.: Should I not see the world at all?
Maharshi: You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. You are only to "see yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self". If you consider yourself as the body, the world appears to be external. If you are the Self, the world appears as Brahman.

See Talk 272

Most important question

I think the above video is continued in this one.

Some interesting videos

The Freedom Trap

Silent Awareness
Keep Quiet

Time is a succession of moments

Q: It takes time to know oneself.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: How can time help you? Time is a succession of moments; each moment appears out of nothing and disappears into nothing, never to reappear. How can you build on something so fleeting?
Q: What is permanent?
NM: Look to yourself for the permanent. Dive deep within and find what is real in you.
Q: How to look for myself?
NM: Whatever happens, it happens to you. What you do, the doer is in you. Find the subject of all that you are as a person.
Q: What else can I be?
NM: Find out. Even if I tell you that you are the witness, the silent watcher, it will mean nothing to you, unless you find the way to your own being.
Q: My question is: How to find the way to one's own being?
NM:

Give up all questions except one: "Who am I"?

After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The "I am" is certain. The " I am this" is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.

I-Thought

Maintain awareness of the I-thought until it dissolves in the source from which it came.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

Who makes the enquiries

Devotee: What are the obstacles which hinder realisation of the Self?
Sri Ramana: They are habits of mind (vasanas).

D.: How to overcome the mental habits (vasanas)?
Sri Ramana: By realising the Self.

D.: That is a vicious circle.
Sri Ramana: It is the ego which raises such difficulties, creating obstacles and then suffers from the perplexity of apparent paradoxes. Find out who makes the enquiries and the Self will be found.


D.: Yes, I still understand only theoretically.
Sri Ramana: Even the thought, "I do not realise" is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is.

-- Talk 13, 6th January 1935

Self-enquiry

Here’s the promise: if you will, whenever you can, whenever it occurs to you to do so, stop for just one moment and direct your conscious attention toward the naked, unmediated experience of being that is all there is to you, suffering will immediately begin to diminish and the thick, hot smoke of falseness, confusion, doubt and fear that fills the mind will begin to clear. And, in Sri Ramana’s words, all will come out right in the end.

In truth, this investigation, this self-inquiry, is not a path or a method to Realization, it IS Realization, and every moment spent with your attention resting in the experience of being is spent in full, conscious realization of Reality.

And, if you will continue with this practice and make it a part of your life, all falseness will finally vanish and what has always been here — peace and ease and love without condition — will stand fully, permanently revealed, once and for all.

John Sherman on Self-enquiry

Bondage can only be removed by oneself

Gazing on the Guru who says this, the disciple asks: "Oh Master, what is bondage? How did it come, how does it survive, and how is it to be destroyed? What is the non-Self? And what, indeed, is the Self? And what is discrimination between Self and non-Self? Graciously bless me with answers to these questions, so that by hearing your replies I may be blessed."

To this request of the disciple, the Master answers: "Dear soul! If you have felt the desire to be the Self, free from the bondage caused by ignorance, you are indeed blessed. You have achieved life's purpose. You have sanctified thereby your whole line. Just as sons and other relations pay off the debts of a father, so there are others who will free one from bearing a burden on one's head. But the distress caused by hunger can be cured only by eating for oneself, not by others eating for one.

And, if you are sick you must take medicine and keep a proper diet yourself; no one else can do it for you. Similarly, bondage comes to you through your own ignorance, and can only be removed by yourself. However learned a man may be, he cannot rid himself of the ignorance born of desire and fate, except by realizing Brahman with his own infinite knowledge. How does it help you if others see the moon? You must open your eyes and see it for yourself. Liberation cannot be obtained through sankhya, yoga, ritual, or learning but only through knowledge of the oneness of Brahman and Atman."

-- from Vivekachudamani (from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

Causality and time

Causality depends upon precedence and succession, for its very existence. In other words, time is the parent of causality. But on closer examination, we find that time depends upon thought for its existence and thought depends upon time for its existence. Therefore they cancel out each other, and
so time is not. Therefore causality is also not.

-- Sri Atmananda

God is perfect, world imperfect ... why ?

Devotee: God is perfect. Why did He create the world imperfect? The work shares the nature of the author. But here it is not so.

Maharshi: Who is it that raises the question?
D.: I - the individual.
Maharshi:

Are you apart from God that you ask this question?

So long as you consider yourself the body you see the world as external. The imperfections appear to you. God is perfection. His work also is perfection. But you see it as imperfection because of your wrong identification.

See Talk 272

Devotion is the best

Of all the means leading to liberation, bhakti or devotion is the best; and this bhakti means seeking the truth of one's own Self - so say the sages.

-- from Vivekachudamani (from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

Distractions

A question was asked by a monk (sannyasi) about how to prevent the mind from being distracted.

Sri Ramana.: You see the objects on forgetting your own Self. If you keep hold of your Self, you will not see the objective world.

-- Talk 6, 15th May, 1935

Hold the Self

The Self is only one. Do you feel hurt if you blame yourself or scorn yourself for your errors? If you hold the Self there is no second person to scorn you.

When you see the world you have lost hold of the Self. On the contrary, hold the Self and the world will not appear.

From Talks 151, Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Also, see Arunachala Ramana.

Be aware of being aware

What you need is to be aware of being aware.

Be aware deliberately and consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious.

Stay as your being

If you stay as the "I", your being alone, without thought, the I-thought will disappear, and the delusion will vanish for ever.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

Listen to the Guru

The best and the easiest method to attain that glorious goal of establishment in the Truth is to listen to the Guru over and over again.

But if such frequent personal contact with the Guru is not possible, the next best alternative is to take, as often as possible, a deep thought of the Truth as first visualized in the presence of the Guru. This brings you into the climate of the Truth everytime, and you experience it afresh.

-- Sri Atmananda

Dream state nearer to truth

The waking subject holds that sense perception is the highest test of Truth. From this position, it denounces dream objects as unreal, as they are not perceptible to the waking physical senses.

In the waking state – dominated as it is by the triad or triputi – the perceiver, perception and the percept are so clearly distinct and separate that it is very difficult to find anything common between them.

But as far as the dream state is concerned, there is a great difference. As soon as the dream is past, one can see clearly that the subject and the object series – appearing in that state – are both creations of the same mind, and therefore one in essence. So there is this much of non-duality in dream. To that extent, the dream is nearer the Truth. Therefore, the clear diversity of the waking state is first examined from the lesser diversity of the dream state, and the waking state is found to be nothing other than an idea.

Knowledge of the truth

Knowledge of the truth of the Self is obtained only by Self-enquiry, and not by any number of actions. One who mistakes a rope for a serpent is cast into fear, thereby and his fear and distress can be removed only by the knowledge that it is a rope.

A friend who knows this, tells him so and he investigates and finds that it is so. There is no other way.

-- Vivekachudamani (from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

Be aware

What you need is to be aware of being aware.

Being-awareness is the true guru

The Self, the Being-Awareness, shining
As all things and in all things
Is the true guru.

-- The Garland of Guru's Sayings

Examine the person

There is no point in fighting desires and fears which may be perfectly natural and justified; it is the person who is swayed by them, that is the cause of mistakes, past and future. This person should be carefully examined and its falseness seen; then its power over you will end. After all, it subsides each time you go to sleep.

All your preoccupations with yourself are only during waking hours and
partly in your dreams; in sleep all is put aside and forgotten. It shows
how little important is your waking life, even to yourself, that merely
lying down and closing the eyes can end it.

Each time you go to sleep, you do so without the least certainty of waking up and yet you accept
the risk.

-- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Stop imagining yourself to be mind or body

To know that you are neither body nor mind, watch yourself steadily and live unaffected by your body and mind, completely aloof, as if you were dead. It means you have no vested interests, either in the body or in the mind.

Just remain unaffected. This complete aloofness, unconcern with mind and body is the best proof that at the core of your being you are neither mind nor body.

What happens to the body and the mind may not be within your power to change, but you can always, put an end to your imagining yourself to be body and mind. Whatever happens, remind yourself that only your body and mind are affected, not yourself.

Keep trying

Try to be, only to be.

The all-important word is "try". Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly and trying, just trying, to go beyond the personality with its addictions and obsessions.

Don't ask how, it cannot be explained. You just keep on trying until you succeed. If you persevere, there can be no failure. What matters supremely is sincerity, earnestness; you must really have had surfeit of being the person you are; now see the urgent need of being free of this unnecessary self-identification with a bundle of memories and habits. This steady resistance against the unnecessary is the secret of success.

You must be aware continuously

Discover all you are not. Body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, time, space, being and not-being, this or that - nothing concrete or abstract you can point out to is you.

A mere verbal statement will not do - you may repeat a formula endlessly without any result whatsoever. You must watch yourself continuously - particularly your mind - moment by moment, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of the self from the not-self.

You shall never be a person

You are not what you think yourself to be, I assure you. The image you have of yourself is made up from memories and is purely accidental.

You have never been, nor shall ever be, a person.

Refuse to consider yourself as one. But as long as you do not even doubt yourself to be Mr So-and-so, there is little hope.

Not you that suffers

It is the person you imagine yourself to be that suffers, not you. Dissolve it in awareness. It is merely a bundle of memories and habits.

To be a person

To be a person, is to be asleep.

Thought is suffering

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

First of all I was averse to physical activity, then to lengthy
speech, and finally to thought itself, which is why I am now established.

-- from the Ashtavakra Gita (Song of Ashtavakra)

You are not the person

The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity.

A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of "I", and the person acquires an apparently independent existence. In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the "I" and the "mine".

Give up the sense of "I"

Give up the sense of "I", in the gross body, and all attachment
due to the mind, attachments to name and form, tribe and
family, caste and social order. Give up also the attachment to
the subtle body, and its nature and sense of being the doer.

Find the feeling of "I" in the Self, which is Truth, knowledge,
and eternity.

from Vivekachudamani (Collected works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

All that is separate from me, is myself

All that appears as form apart from the sea, that is the bubble and the wave, is the sea.

All that is seen in a dream, is seen in him who sees the dream.

Similarly, in me as in the ocean or the man who dreams, all that seems separate from me, is myself.

--Vivekachudamani, Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

I am not this person

I am not this person, this body-mind or anything.

The person is never the subject. You can see a person, but you are not the person.

Give up all thought

Remain indifferent to the body and senses, and outer things that follow
you like a shadow. Be one who discriminates, free from the stain of samsara,
and from tendencies and sense objects. Retain consciousness without
thought. Retain form, though formless.

Have no likes and dislikes in what is experienced at the moment, and no thought
of what may happen in the future. Give up all thought of inner and outer, and
concentrate permanently on the blissful experience of Brumm-hun. Through the
power of knowledge, maintain perfect equanimity in the face of all opposites
such as vice and virtue, likes and dislikes, or praise and blame, whether by
sadhus, or by the wicked.

--Vivekachudamani, Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Give no more thought to the body

Just as the cow does not care about the garland round its neck, so too
he (the yogi) does not care whether the body, bound by the strings of
past karma, lives or dies. So you too reject this inert, impure
body, and realize the pure and eternal Self of wisdom.

Give no more thought to the body.

--Vivekachudamani, Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

I am not the body

The perfection of knowledge is when the "I-sense" no longer
pertains to the body.

Do not harm any living thing

69. Listen to me, Lady! Know that only the wise man
who never does anything which leads to the destruction of
any form of life, such as insects, worms, birds or plants, is a
person who is seeking true knowledge.

70. He (the true aspirant) should not pull out tender roots
(of fragrant plants, which is often done for worship); he
should not even pluck the leaves; he should not harm any
living thing out of anger; he should not heartlessly pluck
even flowers.

From Devikalottara - Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Just be aware that you are

Just be aware that you are, and remain aware.

What is it that makes me conscious

Give all your attention to the question: "What is it that makes me conscious?", until your mind becomes the question itself and cannot think of anything else.

Your most important objective

Your most important objective must be realizing the Self. If you have not done this, you will spend your time in ignorance and illusion.
You, your mind, this world - they are all maya. Don't become a slave of this maya. Instead, realize the Self, and let maya become your servant.
-- Final Talks, p.71.

Let go of the "I"

This is the teaching of Bhagavan Ramana, my Guru. I am passing it on to you.

You must understand who you are and what you are, and then you must remain as that. If you can manage this, this itself will suffice. Right now, you are under the impression that you are your body and your mind, but the truth is, you are the Self. Let go of the "I" that you imagine yourself to be, and catch hold of the real "I", the Self.
-- Final Talks, p.70.

Silent being-awareness

Abandon all thoughts, not only of the world, but of yourself also. Stay beyond all thoughts, in silent being-awareness.

Absorption of Swami Ramanananda

Swami Ramananda, nephew of Sri Bhagavan, was absorbed into Bhagavan just after Bhagavan's 128th Jayanthi.

See more on Arunachala Ramana and official website.

A story on him was published on Jan 30th. Visitors to the Sri Ramanasramam will remember him as the person sitting in orange robes on the left side of the Samadhi Hall on a chair, next to the door leading to the Mother's shrine (during Veda Parayana). May he remain blissful in Bhagavan Ramana.

Verses on the Celebration of Bhagavan's Birthday

Composed by Bhagavan Ramana in 1912.

1. You who wish to celebrate a birthday, enquire first who was born. One's true birthday is when one enters into the Eternal Being which shines forever without birth or death.

2. Of all days, on one's birthday, one should mourn one's fall (into samsara). To celebrate it as a festival is like adorning and glorifying a corpse. To seek one's Self and merge in it, is wisdom.

See The birth of our Beloved Lord.

Bhagavan Ramana's 128th Jayanthi

Better than viewing Him as Other,
Indeed the noblest attitude of all,
Is to hold Him as the 'I' within,
The very 'I'.

Abidance in pure being
Transcending thought through love intense
Is the very essence
Of supreme devotion.

-- From "The Essence of Instruction" (Upadesha Saram)
(Taken from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

We would like to wish our readers a Happy Bhagavan Jayanthi on this glorious day, when our beloved Father Ramana Bhagavan was "born" 128 years ago.

Arunachala Ramana

Arunachala is Ramana in the form of a hill, and Ramana is Arunachala in human form.


Though Bhagavan Ramana has left his human form, he will always remain shining here in the form of Arunachala, giving guidance and solace to his devotees. Therefore, the power of Arunachala is the power of Ramana - the power of the Sadguru's grace.

See Arunachala Ramana.

Bhagavan on Self-enquiry

This site Arunachala Ramana has an excellent post on Self-enquiry. An excerpt:

[Self-enquiry] is nothing to do with being aware of the contents of the mind. It's a very specific method that aims to find out where the individual sense of "I" arises. Self-enquiry is an active investigation, not a passive witnessing.

...

In that latter place you begin to experience the peace and stillness of the Self, and that gives you the incentive to continue.

Full article

Karthigai Deepam

This year, 2007, the Karthigai festival commences on Nov 15th and Deepam is on November 24th.

There is no mind

Q: How to give up the false idea that the mind is real?

Annamalai Swamy: If this does not happen spontaneously when you hear the truth from the teacher, keep telling yourself, 'I am not the mind, I am not the mind. There is no mind; there is no mind. Consciousness alone exists.'

If you have a firm conviction that this is the truth, one day this firm conviction will mature to the point where it becomes your direct experience.

Having love for all creatures

Bhagavan Ramana's sense of equality was legendary. When visitors came to see him - it made no difference whether they were VIPs, peasants or animals - they would all be treated with equal respect and consideration. His egalitarian concern even extended to the local trees; he discouraged his followers from picking flowers or leaves off them and he tried to ensure that whenever fruit was taken from the ashram trees it was
always done in such a way that the tree only suffered a minimum amount of pain.

Taken from "Be As You Are", Introduction, edited by David Godman.

Rejoice abundantly

1. My devotees have the qualifications to rejoice abundantly,
like children of an emperor.

-- Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
See Arunachala Ramana.

I will protect you

2. Abandon the drama of the world and seek the Self within.
Remaining within, I will protect you, ensuring that no harm befalls you.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi
See Arunachala Ramana.

If you enquire and know me

3. If you enquire and know me, the indweller, in that state there will be no reason for you to worry about the world.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Entrust your burdens on me

4. For the cruel disease of burning samsara to end, the correct regimen is to entrust all your burdens on me.
-- Sri Ramana Maharshi
See Arunachala Ramana.

Place all your burdens on me

5. In order that your needless anxieties cease,
make sure that all your burdens are placed on me
through the brave act of depending totally on grace.

Surrender all to me

6. If you completely surrender all your responsibilities to me,
I will accept them as mine and manage them.

See Arunachala Ramana.

why do you have any worries

7. When bearing the entire burden remains my responsibility,
why do you have any worries?

See Arunachala Ramana.

Long ago you offered ...

8. Long ago you offered your body, possessions and soul to me, making them mine,
so why do you still regard these things as 'I' and 'mine' and associate yourself with them?

See Arunachala Ramana.

I will show you the Light

9. Seek my grace within the Heart. I will drive away your darkness and show you the light.
This is my responsibility.

Arunachala Ramana

True Practice of Sri Ramana's teachings

The true practice of Sri Ramana's teachings is remaining quiet, remaining in a state of inner mental quiescence that allows the power of Sri Ramana to seep into your heart and transform you. This can be summarized in one of Sri Ramana's classic comments: 'Just keep quiet. Bhagavan will do the rest.'

If you use the phrase 'practicing the teachings,' the following sequence is assumed: that Sri Ramana speaks of some goal that has to be attained, that he gives you some route, some practice, to reach that goal, and that you then use your mind to vigorously move towards that goal. The mind wants to be in charge of this operation. It wants to listen to the Guru, understand what is required, and then use itself to move in the prescribed direction. All this is wrong. Mind is not the vehicle one uses to carry out the teachings; it is, instead, the obstacle that prevents one from directly experiencing them. The only useful, productive thing the mind can do is disappear.

-- From Living the inspiration of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Boundless love towards all beings

Just as a mother would risk her life
to protect her only child;
Similarly, one should cultivate
boundless love towards all beings.

-- Sutta Nipata 149 (Metta-suta)

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

Hurting the Lord within us or within others

The following verses from the Bhagavad Gita confirm that hurting other living beings amounts to hurting none other than the Lord.

They who practice severe austerities without following the prescription of the scriptures, who are full of hypocrisy and egotism, who are impelled by the force of desire and attachment, who senselessly torture the elements in their body and also Me who dwells within the body, know these ignorant persons to be of demonic nature.
-- Bhagavad Gita (17.05-06)

See also: non-violence and Their suffering is mine.

Seeing the Lord in all beings

He who sees the Supreme Lord, residing equally in
all beings -- the Imperishable One among the perishables -- sees (truly).
-- Bhagavad Gita xiii:27

See also: The Song Celestial v. 15

The Lord is in all

I am the Self, O Gudakesa*,
dwelling in the Hearts of all beings.
I am the beginning and the middle and the end of all beings.

-- Bhagavad Gita, X: 20

[* - Arjuna]

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna,
and is directing the wanderings of all living entities,
who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy*

-- Bhagavad Gita, XVIII: 61

[* Maya or illusion]

Please see The Song Celestial.

All is Self

O people who are longing and grieving so much, not knowing in the least the means to destroy the mind so that it will function no more, the means is to experience clearly that the seen (the world appearance) and the seer (the jiva) are nothing but oneself (the Self).

Like ornaments (seen) in gold, like water in a mirage, and like a dream city with battlements, everything that is seen is nothing but Self alone. To take them as being other than Self is wrong.

-- Guru Vachaka Kovai 922, 923

Wishing all readers joy on the anniversary of Bhagavan's enlightenment. Please see this and this..

The nature of the mind - II

D.: So one need not seek to control the mind?

Maharshi: There is no mind to control if you realise the Self. The mind vanishing, the Self shines forth. In the realised man the mind may be active or inactive, the Self alone remains for him. For the mind, the body and the world are not separate from the Self. They rise from and sink into the Self. They do not remain apart from the Self. Can they be different from the Self? Only be aware of the Self. Why worry about these shadows? How do they affect the Self?

--Talk 97

Is knowledge of any use?

Is it any use reading books for those who long for release?

Bhagavan: All the texts say that in order to gain release one should render the mind quiescent therefore their conclusive teaching is that the mind should be rendered quiescent once this has been understood there is no need for endless reading. In order to quieten the mind one has only to inquire within oneself what one's Self is how could this search be done in books? One should know one's Self with one's own eye of wisdom. The Self is within the five sheaths but books are outside them.

Since the Self has to be inquired into by discarding the five sheaths, it is futile to search for it in books. There will come a time when one will have to forget all that one has learned.
--Collected Works - Who Am I?

The nature of the mind - I

D.: Mind always wanders. I cannot control it.

Maharshi: It is the nature of the mind to wander. You are not the mind. The mind springs up and sinks down. It is impermanent, transitory, whereas you are eternal. There is nothing but the Self. To inhere in the Self is the thing. Never mind the mind. If its source is sought, it will vanish leaving the Self unaffected.
--Talk 97

The nature of the mind

What is called `mind' is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind. Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also.

Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself. When the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears. Therefore, when the world appears (to be real), the Self does not appear and when the Self appears (shines) the world does not appear. When one persistently inquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will end leaving the Self (as the residue). What is referred to as the Self is the Atman.
--Collected Works - Who Am I?

Prophet Muhammad - compassion, love, non-violence

Today, we present some inspiring snippets from the life of Prophet Muhammad.

The Islamic Prophet led a life of simplicity and poverty. His house, built of mud walls and thatched with date-palm leaves, often remained dark for want of oil for the lamp. At times he did not even have the flour with which to prepare bread.

When he grew up he earned a great reputation for his honesty and integrity. He always fulfilled his promises. Because he was extremely trustworthy, he became known as Al-Amin.

While Mohammed was serving a sick slave, the latter asked, "Has my master sent you to look after me ?"
"Yes," said Mohammed, "the master of masters has sent me to serve you."

One day, a dying dog approached a follower of Mohammed. The man had no means with which to procure water for the dog, for wells in the desert dry up quickly. He noticed a small pool of muddy water in the vicinity. He tore his shirt, soaked it in the water, placed the dog in his lap and moistened its mouth with the wet cloth. Another Arab who saw this went to the Prophet and said, "One of your followers has touched a filthy animal, a dog, and should therefore not be allowed back here again."

Mohammed questioned, "What was he doing to the dog ?"

"I do not know, but I saw him moistening its mouth with a torn piece of cloth dipped in muddy water," replied the man.

"He is a better Muslim than you are, because he is kind to animals," said the Prophet.

When Mohammed was in Mecca once, a poor shepherd from the hills came to worship in the mosque. He worshipped in his own simple way, performing the necessary ablution, kissing the stone and bowing before the sacred spot. Tears flowed from his eyes as he prayed:

 "O adorable Lord of love, show me Thy face. Let me be thy servant. Let me mend Thy shoes, apply oil to Thy hair, wash Thy soiled clothes and bring Thee daily the milk of my goat. Let me kiss Thy hand and shampoo Thy sacred Feet. Let me sweep Thy room."

Such simple words of the honest and straightforward shepherd offended the priests who stood near him. They said to him, "What blasphemy is this ? There is no need of such gifts for the omnipotent Lord."

They were ready to drive him out of the temple, when the Prophet called them to him and asked, "When you are in distant lands, in which direction do you turn your faces ?"

"We turn our faces to Mecca," they answered in reply.

He further asked, "When you are within this sacred walls, in which direction do you turn your faces ?"

"All is holy here," they replied. "It does not matter which way we turn."

The Prophet then said, "Your answer is beautiful indeed. Within the mosque it does not matter how you pray, as long as you have love and reverence. This poor shepherd's simple prayer entered directly into the ears of Allah more clearly than yours, as it was uttered from his heart with intense love, faith, sincerity and reverence. Make room for God's poor lover near me. Let no one be ashamed to have his company. He is humble, pure and an exalted soul."

Mohammed had great compassion and love. He served the widows and orphans, the poor, sick, aged and homeless. Once, he met an old, impoverished widow. Mohammed said to his wife, "My beloved, give food to this old woman first and then you may eat."

When the Prophet saw a blind woman stumbling in the street in Mecca, he led her gently home and thereafter took meals to her daily.

One day, he saw a woman with a heavy load on her head. At once he relieved her of her burden and carried it on his own head to her house.

Mohammed was humble and simple. Although he was a Prophet with a large following he worked along with others like an ordinary labourer during the construction of the first mosque at Medina. He mended his own shoes, milked the cows, swept the house, purchased provisions, tethered and fed the camels. He never laughed loudly but simply smiled. He had an attractive face and a charming smile. He respected the poor and restored freedom to many slaves.

The holy Koran, divided into more than one hundred chapters, opens and ends with the subject of the unity of God. The religion of Islam is essentially a religion of peace, for Mohammed was a lover of peace and non-violence. (Complete article)

Worshipping the form of God

Let those who have become a prey to the delusion of action, being unable to follow the original path of the light of Self, existence-consciousness, worship the form of their beloved God. Then they will gradually lose their delusion (towards names and form and action) and finally attain the Supreme Self.
--Guru Vachaka Kovai, Sri Muruganar.