The world and the senses

If we want to go beyond the mind and body, we have to understand and fully accept that all the information the senses provide is not real. Like the mirage that produces an illusory oasis in the desert, the sense create the impression that there a real world in front of us that is being perceived by the mind. The apparent reality of the world is an illusion. It is merely a misperception. We see the superimposition, the unreal names and forms we have created and we forget about the substratum, the reality that underlies them. -- A.S

"I am the body" causes maya

There are so many thoughts in the mind. Thought after thought after thought... But there is one thought that is continuous, "I am the body". This is the string on which all other thoughts are threaded. Once we identify ourselves with the body by thinking this thought, maya follows. If we cease to identify ourselves with the body, maya will not affect us anymore. -- A.S.

Stay beyond thoughts

Stay beyond all thoughts,

in silent being-awareness.

Advent Day 2011

Once again the time comes when Sri Ramana left his home for the Holy Arunachala hill. Bhagavan started the journey on August 29 and reached Arunachala on September 1 (Advent Day).

This is an auspicious time to step up one's enquiry. Know and always hold onto the Self.

Sri Muruganar Day 2011

Only by abiding in the heart as pure awareness

which lights up and shines within the mind,

can one enjoy the thrill, the throb, the bliss supreme

of being the Self.

Killing, is it necessary

I came across this accidentally. Thought I'd share.
Is killing necessary ?

Bhagavan Aradhana 2011 - Who Am I

By the inquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'who am I?' will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization.


When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: 'To whom do they arise?' It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, "To whom has this thought arisen?". The answer that would emerge would be "To me". Thereupon if one inquires "Who am I?", the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source. When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense-organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear. 

Source

Stand aware but detached

You are the Self, here and now. Leave the mind alone, stand aware and unconcerned, and you will realize that to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go, is an aspect of your real nature.


(I am That, p 18)

A quiet mind

When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: "I am this, I am that", continues, but only as a part of the objective world. It's identification with the witness snaps.

(from I am That, p 10)

Take refuge in Me

Set aside all meritorious deeds and religious rituals, and just surrender completely to My will with firm faith and loving devotion. I shall liberate you from all sins, the bonds of Karma. Do not grieve. (18.66)


सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥१८- ६६॥

Path of Surrender

Hear once again My most secret, supreme word. You are very dear to Me, therefore, I shall tell this for your benefit. (18.64)


सर्वगुह्यतमं भूयः शृणु मे परमं वचः ।
इष्टोऽसि मे दृढमिति ततो वक्ष्यामि ते हितम् ॥१८- ६४॥


Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, offer service to Me, bow down to Me, and you shall certainly reach Me. I promise you because you are very dear to me. (18.65)


मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु ।
मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजाने प्रियोऽसि मे ॥१८- ६५॥


(see also)

Seek refuge in the Self

Seek refuge in the Supreme Lord alone with loving devotion, O Arjuna. By His grace you shall attain supreme peace and the Eternal Abode. (18.62)


तमेव शरणं गच्छ सर्वभावेन भारत ।
तत्प्रसादात्परां शान्तिं स्थानं प्राप्स्यसि शाश्वतम् ॥१८- ६२॥

as near to God as we are ...

Pope John Paul II declared in a public audience
in 1990 that "also the animals possess a soul and
men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren".


He said, too, that they are the "fruit of the creative
action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect," and are
as near to God as men are."


The Pope went on to say that, "animals have the breath of life and were given it by God. In this respect, man created by the hand of God is identical with all living creatures. ... The existence therefore of all living creatures depends on the living spirit/breath of God that not only creates but also sustains and renews the face of the earth."

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

Lao Tzu

Do not grieve, Arjuna

The self does not kill, nor is it killed. For the self is never born and never dies, nor may it ever become non-existent. This unborn, everlasting, abiding self is not slain when the body is slain. Knowing the self to be unborn, imperishable, everlasting, changeless, Arjuna, how can a man slay anyone or be slain?

As a man gets rid of worn out clothes and puts on new ones, so the self puts away worn-out bodies and puts on others that are new. Weapons do not cut up the self, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, the wind does not dry it. Not capable of being cut, burned, wet, or dried, the self is everlasting, present in all things, unchangeable, unmoveable, for ever the same.

Knowing that the soul is immaterial and unalterable, you should not grieve, Arjuna.

Changeless Being

I have always existed, you too have always existed, and those princes have always existed. The time shall never come when we shall all cease to exist.


What is not there cannot exist; what is there cannot be anything but existent. The distinction between these states has been recognized by those who study truth. That which pervades this universe is imperishable; no one can destroy that changeless being. It is these bodies that house the everlasting, imperishable, incomprehensible self that have an end

Eyes cannot see him

Eye cannot see him, nor words reveal him;
by the senses, austerity, or works he is not known. When the mind is cleansed by the grace of wisdom, he is seen by contemplation--the One without parts. 
Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.8




He is the one God, hidden in all beings, all-pervading, the Self within all beings, watching over all works, dwelling in all beings, the witness, the perceiver, the only one, free from qualities. 
Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.11

"I am" is you

"When we examine the mind of the average person, we find that he usually identifies himself with mind or body.

He either thinks that he is body or that he is mind, and therefore he can control

neither mind nor body.

The "I Am" in his nature is submerged

in a bundle of ideas, some of which are true and some of which are not, and his thought is usually controlled by those ideas without receiving any direction whatever from that principle within him

that alone was intended to give direction.

Such a man lives in the lower storey of human existence, but as we can control life only when we give directions from the upper storey, we discover just why the average person neither understands his forces nor has the power to use them.

He must first elevate himself to the upper storey of the human structure, and the first and most important step to be taken in this direction is to recognize the "I Am" as the ruling principle, and that the "I Am" is you."

- Christian D. Larson

from the book A Course In Materialization

Thought is not the Self

Thought is something foreign, alien, to the true Self.

Thought pretends to be the Self.

Thought is not the Self.

Thought is an imposter.
Thought believes that it is a real entity, and that it is a real self.

Humans, are slaves to an imposter “self”.

Thinking that thinking, or thought, is your self, is a delusion, a dream-like illusion.

Stay only as the awareness

Stay only as the awareness, within which the mind is playing, but hold the attention on awareness only.

Bhagavan Ramana's Enlightenment Day - July 17th.