OS QUATRO FUNDAMENTOS DA PLENA ATENÇÃO
(SATIPATTHANA SUTTA)
Uma visão da meditaçÃo budista através dos textos
Este é um trabalho de seleção e ordenação de textos de vários autores e mestres budistas .
No Budismo da Tradição Theravada existem dois tipos fundamentais de meditação.
Um deles, samatha, visa ao desenvolvimento da tranqüilidade através de estados de absorções meditativas (jhana) e o outro tipo, vipassana, visa conseguir a visão interna da verdadeira natureza das coisas.
Essas duas formas de meditação de modo algum se excluem mutuamente; no entanto, a Meditação Vipássana (meditação da introspecção, da percepção) sempre foi tradicionalmente considerada como a mais elevada das duas.
A meditação da introspecção resume-se na frase "Seja atento!" Isto é, vigie a sua mente.
Essa definição contém dois decisivos pressupostos: o de que a verdadeira percepção ou plena atenção levará à iluminação ou ao conhecimento das coisas como realmente são e o de que a condição pessoal ou estado de ser depende da mente –
"A mente contém todas as coisas: o mundo do sofrimento e a sua origem, mas também a cessação do sofrimento e o caminho a ela conducente".
Assim a meditação budista oferece a esperança da visão interna não somente no sentido de um novo conhecimento, mas também de um novo ser.
A essência da meditação budista é o desenvolvimento da plena atenção ou da percepção. O programa de treinamento da plena atenção não é arbitrário, mas baseado num dos mais populares textos do Cânone Theravada, O Discurso Sobre os Quatro Fundamentos da Plena Atenção ou em língua páli, Satipatthana Sutta.
O Satipatthana Sutta é essencialmente, um paradigma para alcançar a visão interna da verdadeira natureza das coisas através do veículo da percepção total. Ele oferece um programa sugestivo, ao mesmo tempo natural e lógico, que qualquer pessoa pode seguir com os melhores resultados.
Nada há de esotérico ou de mágico na prática da plena atenção.
Pelo contrário, o Sutta sintetiza o interesse da Escola Theravada pela instrução concreta ou aplicação prática dos princípios em que se baseiam os Ensinamentos do Buda, isto é, O Darma. Seus temas de meditação incluem objetos comuns como a respiração, o corpo físico, as sensações, a consciência e os objetos mentais.
A natureza extremamente simples do Satipatthana Sutta ilustra uma das principais convicções sobre o ideal budista: a de que os sentidos, inclusive a mente, devem ser transformados para que se possa perceber a verdade.
O Discurso Sobre Os Quatro Fundamentos da Plena Atenção, o Satipatthana Sutta, começa pelo pressuposto da condição ilusória do ser humano. Em seu estado de ser habitual, o homem é fundamentalmente levado a alhear-se da natureza das coisas, principalmente da natureza de sua própria existência.
Errônea e incorretamente atribui a sua própria vida e ao mundo que o rodeia uma permanência que, de fato, não existe. Tal crença é o resultado da ignorância (avydia) que, por sua vez é um produto das ilusões sensórias.
A ilusão fundamental do conhecimento sensório é o da permanência. Levados por uma multidão de desejos egocêntricos como a avareza, o ódio, a luxúria e a ambição, os sentidos constroem um mundo artificial e irreal. É um mundo no qual o "ego" e a "auto-satisfação" são da maior importância.
Ameaçados por tudo aquilo que desafia o lugar, o status e a posição, os sentidos perpetuam a ilusão de um mundo no qual os "egos" vivem num meio de "coisas" que têm a capacidade de garantir a felicidade e o bem-estar. Por força dessa ilusão os homens são levados pela ambição a destruir outros homens, as nações a guerrear outras nações, a fim de conquistar uma posição, ou até mesmo uma "paz permanente".
Assim, o discurso admite que todos nós vivemos num mundo ilusório ou irreal; não no sentido de que o mundo físico ou fenomenal não exista realmente, mas que não existe realmente como nós o percebemos. Por isso, o objetivo do Satipatthana consiste em sugerir um meio ou um caminho que permita a compreensão da verdadeira natureza das coisas. Não é fácil uma tarefa dessa ordem. A meditação budista não é um retrospectivo devaneio mental durante a contemplação de um belo ocaso.
Pelo contrário, a meditação consciente é uma disciplina de confrontação com os processos da vida tal como realmente são. Não depende de quaisquer estímulos externos, e menos ainda do uso de drogas.
O Sattipatthana Sutta minimiza ou elimina as distorções sensórias que contradizem a verdade sobre a natureza das coisas. Visa proporcionar uma compreensão objetiva do ego e do mundo através de um método analítico dentro de um ambiente controlado.
Para aquele que persevera, é grande a recompensa da meditação; contudo, ninguém medita para "ganhar" alguma coisa. Medita simplesmente para poder "ver" as coisas realmente como são e, portanto, para "ser"como realmente é.
O Budismo, como parte da mais elevada tradição religiosa hindu, é um herdeiro do importante papel da respiração, sobretudo nas suas relações com as técnicas do Yoga ou da meditação. Alguns discursos do Buda fazem referências à conscientização da respiração (Anapanasati). No Majjhima Nikaya, uma coleção desses discursos pertencente ao Cânone Therevada, contém um discurso totalmente dedicado a respiração.
1º Fundamento: Plena Atenção Sobre o Corpo
O Satipatthana Sutta começa, muito apropriadamente, com a conscientização da respiração. Trata-se de um exercício específico destinado a conseguir a percepção do corpo e de todos os seus processos. É importante observar que a percepção meditativa, no Budismo Theravada, não utiliza o abstrato ou o geral como meios de controlar a conscientização ou produzir a visão interna.
Pelo contrário, o concreto e específico oferecem o ponto focal do treinamento mental. Conseqüentemente, a instrução para a percepção corpórea não começa com a vaga afirmativa de que quem medita deve contemplar a natureza do corpo como um organismo físico.
O Satipatthana Sutta ensina o monge (bikkhu) a procurar um lugar tranqüilo, sentar com as pernas cruzadas sobre as coxas, manter-se perfeitamente ereto e utilizar a respiração como objeto de meditação.
"Atento, ele inspira, e atento expira. Ao pensar: "respiro lentamente", compreende quando está respirando lentamente; ou pensando: "respiro depressa", compreende quando está respirando depressa; ou pensando, "expiro depressa", compreende quando está expirando depressa".
A consciência da respiração através do simples exercício de prestar atenção à inalação e exalação, sejam esats prolongadas ou curtas, produzem duplo resultado: a percepção da natureza de todo o corpo e a tranqüilização das atividades orgânicas.
O inalar e o exalar da respiração, acompanhados pela subida e descida do abdome, ilustram perfeitamente a natureza transitória e flutuante do organismo vivo. As atividades surgem e desaparecem continuamente. De fato, nada existe de inerentemente permanente no corpo físico.
Ele não sofre apenas o processo de envelhecimento, que produz posteriormente à morte; cada momento de vida consciente é um processo de fluxo e refluxo idêntico ao observado no inalar e exalar da respiração.
A percepção da natureza do corpo físico acompanha um estado de tranqüilidade resultante da postura do observador. Vamos pensar por um momento nas conseqüências advindas se cada um dos nossos atos fosse executado com uma atenção consciente de cada movimento, sentimento e pensamento.
Tal conscientização não é uma atitude de investigação e conceituação racionais, mas a simples percepção de tudo que ocorre interna e externamente, uma consciência que observa sem apego todos os acontecimentos mentais e físicos.
Como evidencia o Sutta, ter consciência do mecanismo da respiração é um exercício em si e por si mesmo; mas, também, como indicado aqui e no Satipatthana Sutta, a atenção sobre a respiração destina-se a orientar a meditação para a visão interna. Sob esse aspecto, é encarada como o primeiro passo de um programa regular de treinamento e desenvolvimento.
No entanto, no Anapanasati Sutta, cada um dos aspectos do processo meditativo é acompanhado pela respiração atenta. Assim, a contemplação do corpo, das sensações, da mente ou dos objetos mentais são realizadas como parte da percepção da respiração.
Em suma, o texto afirma que o aperfeiçoamento nos quatro fundamentos da plena atenção, isto é, corpo, sensações, mente ou consciência e objetos mentais ou idéias, é conseguido por meio da respiração consciente. No Sutta estamos investigando, pois a respiração consciente é apenas um aspecto de outras formas de percepção do corpo físico.
Seguem-se-lhe modos até mesmo mais analíticos de observação, nos quais cada tipo de atividade física é cuidadosamente examinado: "Ademais, ó monges, ao andar, um monge percebe: eu estou andando; quando se levanta, percebe: estou de pé; quando se senta, percebe: estou sentado; quando se deita, percebe: estou deitado e percebe todas as posições que seu corpo toma".
O indivíduo que se esforça para alcançar a visão interna precisa constatar com absoluta clareza todos os movimentos e atos, a partir de "abaixar-se e estender as pernas" até "vestir as roupas, o que bebeu, comeu, mastigou e saboreou".
Em suma, nada do que faz deve passar despercebido ou não observado. Atos que para o homem comum são motivados subconscientemente passam a fazer parte da vida consciente. Todas as atividades físicas são "compreendidas" no sentido de estarem sujeitas à "plena percepção pura".
Tal exame não significa que a mente deva empenhar-se indefinidamente em descobrir as razões e os motivos dos atos particulares. Ao contrário, seu esforço visa a eliminar a sujeição dos hábitos irrefletidos pelo desenvolvimento de um estado de percepção total e atenta.
A meditação interna deposita um alto grau de confiança na capacidade da mente humana em arrancar o indivíduo das agonias da ignorância. Ignorância é apego aos objetos sensórios, e uma ausência fundamental de compreensão da natureza da existência sensorial.
Segundo o comentário do Satipatthana Sutta, a verdadeira percepção do corpo físico e de todas as suas atividades leva a uma única conclusão: "Existe o corpo, mas não existe nenhum ego, nenhuma pessoa, nenhuma mulher, nenhum homem, nenhuma alma, nada atinente a uma alma, nenhum ‘eu’, nada que seja meu, ninguém, e nada que pertença a ninguém".
Portanto, a meditação perceptiva realiza uma compreensão total das condições da existência. Com tal compreensão é eliminada a ilusão de um ego. Da conscientização da respiração e da percepção consciente de todas as formas de atividades físicas, a meditação interior conduz ao exame do corpo em termos das suas partes constituintes.
O Sutta adverte a quem medita refletir sobre as partes do corpo, desde as solas dos pés ao alto da cabeça, em termos de cabelos, unhas, dentes, pele, carne, nervos, ossos, medula, rins, coração, fígado, membranas, baço, pulmões, estômago, intestinos; excremento, bile, catarro, pus, sangue, suor, gorduras, lágrimas, saliva, muco, urina, etc. Esta relação pode chocar alguns leitores.
Mas, como é natural, seu objetivo não consiste em pintar um quadro atraente do corpo, mas em reforçar a noção de que ele não passa de um conjunto de partes bastante repulsivas.
Existe no corpo alguma coisa digna de apego e desejo? Não, não existe! A conscientização de um monge funda-se na idéia de que o corpo apenas existe. Por isso, "ele vive independentemente e não se apega a nada deste mundo".
O texto estabelece duas tendências mutuamente interdependentes com relação à conscientização do corpo: a natureza analítica da percepção interior e a redução do apego. A primeira dessas tendências desenvolve-se a partir do mero exame das trintas e duas partes físicas do corpo.
Quem medita é ensinado a considerar o corpo como um todo composto dos quatro elementos materiais primitivos, isto é, terra, água, calor e ar. Esse esforço para reduzir o corpo aos seus elementos componentes é parte integral da psicologia e da filosofia do Budismo Theravada. Outras análises do ser psicofísico incluem Os Cinco Agregados (corpo, sensação, percepção, consciência e formações mentais) e as seis bases sensoriais.
O processo analítico no qual o praticante está envolto enquanto examina o corpo é também um exercício para o controle da mente. As definições, neste caso, são limitadas, não no sentido lógico ou lingüístico, mas como um exercício destinado a focalizar a mente.
Poder-se-ia afirmar que o Satipatthana Sutta estabelece um contexto rigoroso para a mente, ao invés das habituais reações mentais indisciplinadas, descontroladas e desconexas à situação humana.
Entretanto, a redução do indivíduo aos seus elementos fundamentais ou partes constituintes é, sobretudo, destinada a eliminar o apego ao ego. Se não existe nenhum ego, como pode alguém se apegar a ele?
A redução do apego ao corpo é acentuada no Satipatthana Sutta pelo que se menciona como as oito contemplações do cemitério. São quadros que descrevem o corpo nas diversas fases de apodrecimento e dissolução que se seguem à morte - um raciocínio decerto nada agradável. A franqueza dessa passagem no texto dispensa comentários.
Cada uma das descrições varia ligeiramente, mas inclui insistentemente as passagens que se referem à contemplação interna e externa do corpo em termos do ciclo de origem e dissolução. Essa contemplação visa a libertar aquele que medita do apego às coisas do mundo, e a criar um estado de independência.
O termo "independência" é bastante adequado. Num nível mais profundo, a prática da meditação budista visa a trazer à realidade um novo estado de ser caracterizado pela liberdade total. A velha condição de existência, ao contrário, era limitada, ou, segundo a terminologia budista, aferrada e apegada às coisas sensoriais. É sob esse prisma que devem ser encaradas as contemplações no cemitério. São realmente repulsivas e, de fato destinam-se a isso.
Entretanto, devem ser lidas tendo em mente que uma das "Quatro Visões" que levaram Sidarta Gautama a iniciar a sua peregrinação espiritual foi a de um cadáver; e deve-se recordar igualmente que a descrição budista da existência sensória, o Ciclo da Originação Dependente, termina com a velhice e a morte. Assim, é esse conceito da morte que prevalece em muitos níveis do pensamento budista e que não se deve encarar como particularmente surpreendente no contexto do Satipatthana.
O aperfeiçoamento da conscientização do corpo é um modelo para outras formas de meditação com plena atenção. Essas formas incluem a percepção das sensações, da mente ou consciência e dos objetos mentais ou idéias.
Nenhuma delas recebe o tratamento extensivo dado à conscientização do corpo, talvez, porque a forma de investigação mental já tenha sido estabelecida. Os três temas restantes da meditação, tomados em conjunto, constituem os aspectos incorpóreos ou imateriais da existência designados por nama (literalmente, nome).
Por isso, uma das primitivas referências constante dos textos páli sobre a estrutura da individualidade é nama-rupa (literalmente, nome e forma) ou realidade corpórea e realidade incorpórea. Às vezes, o termo chega a ser identificado como os Cinco Agregados usados para descrever os componentes do ser humano.
2º Fundamento: Plena Atenção (Consciência) às Sensações.
A contemplação das sensações (vedana) é descrita no comentário ao Satipatthana Sutta como o mais fácil dos elementos imateriais da plena consciência. No Sutta, é classificada em três tipos: agradável, desagradável (ou dolorosa) e neutra.
Quando surge uma sensação agradável espalhando-se em todo o corpo, o fato leva a pessoa a afirmar: "Que alegria".
Quando surge uma sensação dolorosa, que se espalha por todo o corpo e obriga a pessoa a lastimar-se com as palavras, "Ó, que desgraça". As sensações que não são nem agradáveis nem dolorosas também tornam-se claras para aquele que as percebe.
Na meditação perceptiva tudo deve ser captado na sua absoluta realidade. Conseqüentemente, se a pessoa que medita é apossada por sentimentos agradáveis ou dolorosos, ao invés de tentar rejeitá-los ou desprezá-los, deve tornar-se consciente do que são, do seu aparecimento e do seu desaparecimento.
Essa percepção dos substratos incorpóreos da meditação conduz rapidamente a uma conclusão que constitui uma parte importante da doutrina budista, isto é, à interdependência do corpo e da mente.
A interdependência da mente e do corpo produz conseqüências muito mais amplas do que a possibilidade de afugentar uma dor por ter consciência dela. Revela a preocupação budista pelo homem total.
Para alguns, a meditação budista pode parecer, a seu modo, excessivamente cerebral. Isto é, dá a impressão de ser, sobretudo, um exercício mental. Muito embora tal interpretação não seja inteiramente injustificada, é igualmente óbvio que o praticante bem sucedido é capaz de treinar o corpo a ficar sentado durante muito tempo sem maior desconforto.
Num nível mais elevado, os mestres de meditação budista, antigos ou modernos, insistem em afirmar que somente uma pessoa de grande caráter moral será capaz de focalizar a atenção e exercitar a mente a um grau suficiente para conquistar a verdadeira sabedoria. Além disso, e talvez de modo mais significativo, o praticante que alcançou a verdadeira visão interna torna-se uma pessoa diferente.
Existe uma dimensão moral definida para a prática da meditação interna, embora o estado de iluminação transcenda as categorias morais. A liberdade conquistada por aquele que conseguiu penetrar a verdade da natureza das coisas tem um significado ôntico de implicações profundas com relação às atitudes pessoais e seu modo de agir.
3º Fundamento: Plena Atenção à Mente e aos Estados Mentais
O terceiro tema de meditação abordado no Satipatthana Sutta é citta que significa mente, consciência ou, talvez, pensamento. Eis o texto: "Aqui, ó bikkhus, um bikkhu compreende a consciência com ânsia, como com ânsia; a consciência sem ânsia como sem ânsia; consciência com aversão como com aversão; a consciência sem aversão como sem aversão; a consciência com ignorância como com ignorância; o estado retraído da consciência como estado retraído; o estado desatento de consciência como estado desatento; o estado de consciência que se alarga como estado que se alarga; o estado de consciência que não se alarga como o estado de consciência que não se alarga; o estado de consciência que tem outro estado mental que lhe é superior como o estado que tem algo que lhe é mentalmente superior; o estado de consciência que não tem outro estado mental que lhe é superior como e estado que não tem nada que lhe seja mentalmente superior; o estado tranqüilo da consciência como o estado tranqüilo; o estado intranqüilo da consciência como o estado intranqüilo; o estado livre da consciência como livre; e o estado não-liberto da consciência como não-liberto".
O texto não diz se quem medita e tem consciência da aversão, da ignorância, da pequenez, da inferioridade mental, da agitação ou limitação, deve sentir-se culpado de tais pensamentos, ou se deve fazer um esforço imediato para eliminá-los por meio de um ato de vontade violento.
Realmente, deixar-se enredar pela agonia da culpa por ter deixado de alimentar somente bons pensamentos é uma forma de apegar-se à derrota. O Sutta nada mais faz senão instruir o praticante a ter consciência dessas qualidades negativas, da mesma forma que das positivas.
De acordo com o ponto de vista budista, a única maneira de dominar a ânsia, o ódio e a ignorância consiste na percepção da sua existência. A verdadeira percepção tem a força suficiente para dominá-los. A afirmativa budista sobre o poder da percepção é feita dentro do contexto da disciplina prática do exercício de meditação interna e atenta.
4º Fundamento: Plena Atenção aos Assuntos da Doutrina (Dhamma)
A última parte do Satipatthana Sutta versa sobre Dhamma ou Dharma. A palavra Dhamma pode ser compreendida de diversas formas. Ela é a verdade, a verdadeira natureza das coisas, a realidade, a lei espiritual e moral. Ela também denota cada um dos elementos físicos e mentais individuais que, todos juntos, compreendem o mundo fenomenológico. Dhamma também significa "ensinamento" e no contexto do Budismo significa especificamente Os Ensinamentos do Buda. O que o Sutta discute nessa parte bastante extensa inclui os ensinamentos fundamentais do Budismo Theravada:
1 - As Quatro Nobres Verdades:
A Existência do Sofrimento
A Causa ou origem do Sofrimento
A Extinção do Sofrimento
O Caminho que conduz a Extinção do Sofrimento: O Caminho Óctuplo
2 - Os Cinco Agregados:
Forma Material,
Sensações,
Percepções,
Elementos Volitivos (formações mentais ou Sanskhara) e Consciência.
3 - Os Seis Obstáculos:
Orgulho
Inveja
Apego,
Indolência,
Ganância
Raiva,
4 - Os Sete Fatores da Iluminação:
Plena Atenção, e Concentração
Investigação da Doutrina (Dhamma), Impermanência ,
Interdependência
Energia,
Êxtase,
Tranqüilidade, Equanimidade.
Esses temas oferecem uma sinopse da doutrina budista. Sob determinado sentido, é exatamente a verdade desses ensinamentos que o budista que medita chega a compreender.
Entretanto, de outro ponto de vista, esses ensinamentos assim expostos são meros objetos mentais, idéias das quais é preciso ter consciência, mas às quais não se deve ficar apegado.
Se alguém alcança a verdadeira visão interior, as idéias, tal como são formuladas, não se diferenciam da sua percepção. Portanto, são em última análise, não o Dhamma na acepção de "objetos mentais", mas o Dhamma como a Verdade. "Compreende a Verdade e a Verdade o fará livre". Compreender a verdade no sentido mais amplo é ser a Verdade.
Não é compreender um conjunto de proposição ou decorar algumas fórmulas. A meditação perceptiva visa a nada menos que nos unificar com a Verdade. Não é tarefa fácil, embora algumas pessoas possam ter mais aptidão e mais capacidade que outras ou talvez fosse melhor dizer, mais visão intuitiva.
O Satipatthana Sutta estabelece o meio de conquistar a iluminação. E o faz descrevendo a aplicação de sati ou percepção dos quatro aspectos da vida humana - corpo, sentimentos, consciência e idéias.
A importância deste método particular dificilmente pode ser exagerada, e seu lugar no esquema budista de treinamento da meditação está garantido para sempre. Para quem apenas ler o texto, não há nenhuma garantia pessoal sobre a verdade das suas afirmações.
No entanto, o próprio Buda advertiu a seus adeptos para que não aceitassem nenhum ensinamento, nem mesmo o seu, sem experimentá-lo; e nós também devemos ser igualmente advertidos para experimentar a verdade da asserção do Buda: "Este é o único meio, ó monges, para a purificação dos seres, para dominar a dor e os lamentos, para a destruição do sofrimento e do pesar, para alcançar o verdadeiro caminho, para atingir o Nibbana".
domingo, 24 de abril de 2011
sexta-feira, 26 de novembro de 2010
Review: Be As You Are, The Teachings Of Sri Ramana Maharshi
November 18, 2010 by Akemi
This book has deepened my spirituality so significantly that I want to do a review. Ramana Maharshi is an Indian sage (1879 – 1950). At age sixteen, he ran away from school and home, and went to the sacred mountain of Arunachala, staying there for the rest of his life.
He wrote very little. This book is a compilation of this dialogues, with the editor David Godman’s introduction at the beginning of each chapter.
Nondualism
The main point of his teaching is that the only thing that ever exists is the one Consciousness. Individuality is only an illusion. Identification with the illusionary self is the cause of suffering.
He uses several words to mean this one Consciousness: Self, sat-chit-ananda (Sanskrit for being-consciousness-bliss), Heart (not the physical heart but the center), and God. So we need to be careful when he says “Self”. It’s not the Higher Self — it includes all Higher Selves. In his view, there is no difference between the Source (Brahman) and the Higher Self/soul (Atman).
For Ramana Maharshi, there is no creator and the creatures. This is the purest form of nondualism. Only one Consciousness being aware of itself.
Although on the surface his theory is different from my idea of how the Higher Selves and souls came to be from the Source, I actually agree with him. That story of creation is a layer of illusion, or what I call virtual reality simulation game.
Advaita
Even though Ramana Maharshi is often categorized as an Advaita (Sanskrit of nondualism and indicates a branch of Hindu teaching) teacher, this book explains the difference:
Advaita teaches “I am Brahman” whereas Ramana Maharshi maintains “I am”. The idea of “I am Brahman (or the Source or God)” is nice, it’s only a notion that is thought or believed. It implies there is “I” and “Brahman”. “I am” is a knowing. For Sri Ramana, there is no subject and object, the seer and the seen.
The “I” cannot become aware of the Self — I can only be the Self.
Self-enquiry
Self-enquiry is essentially a process of removing the illusions so you find what you already know. You are already the Self. There is nothing that is not the Self. But we all have so much gunk caused by the five senses and our conventional thinking that the truth may not be obvious.
When you release thoughts and be silent, you realize the truth, he says. And by silent, he doesn’t mean just shutting up your mouth. It’s a complete silence of the mind. It’s the stillness or non-doing.
I guess this is a tough idea for many. We are taught to think. We are taught not-thinking is ignorant and lazy. And here Sri Ramana says ignorance is holding onto the illusions and we are wiser when we release thoughts.
Self-realization
So what good do we achieve when we realize the truth of “I am”?
Well, none. Achievement is an illusion. We just realize all our problems are illusions and therefore be free from them. Ramana Maharshi says self-realization is bliss — the Self is bliss.
Quantum mechanics
Now here is how I interpret his teaching with what I know about modern science. We are all made of atoms. The atom is like 99% space with tiny subatomic particles flying around as possibilities. In our everyday life, we recognize there is a distinct difference between my body and the space around me, and my body and your body. But really, the difference is only relative. My body is relatively denser than the space around me, but no significant difference.
Energy continues beyond what we recognize as individual objects and life forms. Individuality is only supported by our five senses, which only registers energetic information in a gross, inaccurate way.
We are all one. One taking localized forms temporarily.
Accepting a layer of illusion
For those of you who think his teaching is too far off and impractical, Ramana Maharshi also modifies his teaching and says it is okay to assume some individuality.
So it’s okay to pray. When you know there is only one Consciousness — in other words, when you know you are God — there is no point of praying. I agree with him, but at the same time, I find comfort in praying. So at least for now, accepting this layer of illusion that there is God and me works for me.
Needless to say, when we realize our individuality is an illusion, then reincarnation is an illusion as well. So those of you who really grasp his teaching of nonduality (not just understanding it on the intellectual level, but really know it and live in bliss) don’t need my Akashic Record Reading. You are free already and you know it.
Renunciation
Also, I personally find it interesting that he discourages renunciation even though he himself abandoned his worldly life and led a very austere life. It is said his only personal possession was his loincloth. To his visitors, however, he explained self-enquiry alone is sufficient for self-realization.
So I guess I don’t need to move to India
This is the best book on spirituality I know. I don’t think you need to know anything else about spirituality. Read it, be silent, and realize.
Share9
Related posts:
Who Am I? The Self Inquiry Process
Filed Under: Soul, Spiritual Practices & Guidance
Tagged: Advaita, Ramana Maharshi, nondualism, nonduality, self-enquiry, self-realization Do you find this blog inspiring?
Please check About page to learn more about this blog and the author, Akemi Gaines.
Comments
2 Responses to “Review: Be As You Are, The Teachings Of Sri Ramana Maharshi”
Humility Is Seeing Divinity In Everyone | Real Life Spirituality on November 23rd, 2010 8:58 am [...] that, when you are humble, you attract true respect. One thing I really like about teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Adyashanti is their lack of [...]
Who Am I? The Self Inquiry Process | Real Life Spirituality on November 24th, 2010 3:34 pm [...] credit) Since I read Ramana Maharshi, I’ve been meditating more on the question of “Who am I?” in his style. His answer is “The [...]
November 18, 2010 by Akemi
This book has deepened my spirituality so significantly that I want to do a review. Ramana Maharshi is an Indian sage (1879 – 1950). At age sixteen, he ran away from school and home, and went to the sacred mountain of Arunachala, staying there for the rest of his life.
He wrote very little. This book is a compilation of this dialogues, with the editor David Godman’s introduction at the beginning of each chapter.
Nondualism
The main point of his teaching is that the only thing that ever exists is the one Consciousness. Individuality is only an illusion. Identification with the illusionary self is the cause of suffering.
He uses several words to mean this one Consciousness: Self, sat-chit-ananda (Sanskrit for being-consciousness-bliss), Heart (not the physical heart but the center), and God. So we need to be careful when he says “Self”. It’s not the Higher Self — it includes all Higher Selves. In his view, there is no difference between the Source (Brahman) and the Higher Self/soul (Atman).
For Ramana Maharshi, there is no creator and the creatures. This is the purest form of nondualism. Only one Consciousness being aware of itself.
Although on the surface his theory is different from my idea of how the Higher Selves and souls came to be from the Source, I actually agree with him. That story of creation is a layer of illusion, or what I call virtual reality simulation game.
Advaita
Even though Ramana Maharshi is often categorized as an Advaita (Sanskrit of nondualism and indicates a branch of Hindu teaching) teacher, this book explains the difference:
Advaita teaches “I am Brahman” whereas Ramana Maharshi maintains “I am”. The idea of “I am Brahman (or the Source or God)” is nice, it’s only a notion that is thought or believed. It implies there is “I” and “Brahman”. “I am” is a knowing. For Sri Ramana, there is no subject and object, the seer and the seen.
The “I” cannot become aware of the Self — I can only be the Self.
Self-enquiry
Self-enquiry is essentially a process of removing the illusions so you find what you already know. You are already the Self. There is nothing that is not the Self. But we all have so much gunk caused by the five senses and our conventional thinking that the truth may not be obvious.
When you release thoughts and be silent, you realize the truth, he says. And by silent, he doesn’t mean just shutting up your mouth. It’s a complete silence of the mind. It’s the stillness or non-doing.
I guess this is a tough idea for many. We are taught to think. We are taught not-thinking is ignorant and lazy. And here Sri Ramana says ignorance is holding onto the illusions and we are wiser when we release thoughts.
Self-realization
So what good do we achieve when we realize the truth of “I am”?
Well, none. Achievement is an illusion. We just realize all our problems are illusions and therefore be free from them. Ramana Maharshi says self-realization is bliss — the Self is bliss.
Quantum mechanics
Now here is how I interpret his teaching with what I know about modern science. We are all made of atoms. The atom is like 99% space with tiny subatomic particles flying around as possibilities. In our everyday life, we recognize there is a distinct difference between my body and the space around me, and my body and your body. But really, the difference is only relative. My body is relatively denser than the space around me, but no significant difference.
Energy continues beyond what we recognize as individual objects and life forms. Individuality is only supported by our five senses, which only registers energetic information in a gross, inaccurate way.
We are all one. One taking localized forms temporarily.
Accepting a layer of illusion
For those of you who think his teaching is too far off and impractical, Ramana Maharshi also modifies his teaching and says it is okay to assume some individuality.
So it’s okay to pray. When you know there is only one Consciousness — in other words, when you know you are God — there is no point of praying. I agree with him, but at the same time, I find comfort in praying. So at least for now, accepting this layer of illusion that there is God and me works for me.
Needless to say, when we realize our individuality is an illusion, then reincarnation is an illusion as well. So those of you who really grasp his teaching of nonduality (not just understanding it on the intellectual level, but really know it and live in bliss) don’t need my Akashic Record Reading. You are free already and you know it.
Renunciation
Also, I personally find it interesting that he discourages renunciation even though he himself abandoned his worldly life and led a very austere life. It is said his only personal possession was his loincloth. To his visitors, however, he explained self-enquiry alone is sufficient for self-realization.
So I guess I don’t need to move to India
This is the best book on spirituality I know. I don’t think you need to know anything else about spirituality. Read it, be silent, and realize.
Share9
Related posts:
Who Am I? The Self Inquiry Process
Filed Under: Soul, Spiritual Practices & Guidance
Tagged: Advaita, Ramana Maharshi, nondualism, nonduality, self-enquiry, self-realization Do you find this blog inspiring?
Please check About page to learn more about this blog and the author, Akemi Gaines.
Comments
2 Responses to “Review: Be As You Are, The Teachings Of Sri Ramana Maharshi”
Humility Is Seeing Divinity In Everyone | Real Life Spirituality on November 23rd, 2010 8:58 am [...] that, when you are humble, you attract true respect. One thing I really like about teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Adyashanti is their lack of [...]
Who Am I? The Self Inquiry Process | Real Life Spirituality on November 24th, 2010 3:34 pm [...] credit) Since I read Ramana Maharshi, I’ve been meditating more on the question of “Who am I?” in his style. His answer is “The [...]
TAT Profile: Ramana Maharshi
by Damien Markakis
TAT Profiles are a guide to the life and thought of individuals, past and present, who have
contributed to the advancement of human awareness.
Ramana Maharshi and the Yogic Path of Discriminative Wisdom
Why would people from every walk of life, both from the occident and the orient, have traveled
out of their ways at great inconvenience and expense to visit the inhabitant of a cave in
Tiruvannamalai, India? Why would statesmen, writers, and peasants alike all make the
oftentimes long journey into the sweltering climate surrounding the sacred hill known as
Arunacala? Why would such prominent figures as Carl Gustav Jung, Somerset Maugham, Arthur
Osborne and Paul Brunton all venture into the heart of the vast Indian sub-continent with the sole
purpose of meeting a Hindu renunciate by the name of Ramana Maharshi?. . . a man who has
been referred to "as the most saintly of modern Hindu ascetics and mystics." 1 The objective of
this essay is to explore the life and spiritual teachings of this great sage, and in the process to
speak directly to each of these questions.
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
1
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
In a small Indian village south of the sacred city of Madurai, there lived a rural lawyer named
Sundaram Aiyar and his wife Alagamma. A visiting ascetic who had once been mistreated by
this man's ancestors had cast a curse on the family which was to insure that one offspring in each
generation would renounce the world and become an ascetic. This couple's second son was
named Venkataraman (of which "Ramana" is an abbreviation). He was born on December 30,
1879, a day dedicated to the celebration of Lord Siva's victory over the demon Andhaka (a Hindu
myth meant to symbolize the conquest of light over darkness).
Raised in the security of a middleclass, Brahmin family, the boy led a normal, uneventful
childhood in the secluded village of Tirucculi, South India. He demonstrated a keen interest in
outdoor sports, but was indifferent towards his studies in school. While being blessed with an
extraordinarily retentive memory and an alert mind he, curiously enough, was an abnormally
deep sleeper. Stories have been recounted of his friends actually striking him while he was asleep
without being able to awaken him. Another relevant event in his life was the death of his father
when he was twelve. His father's passing apparently caused a noticeable change in the son's
nature by making the latter more reflective in a profound sense. Other than these factors, his
childhood development through the fifteenth year left no clues as to Ramana's impending
spiritual destiny.
During his sixteenth year, a great spiritual awakening was to radically transform his view of life.
The first premonition of this mystical unfoldment came accidentally one day while the boy was
speaking to an elder relative who had just returned from visiting Arunacala, a noted sacred hill
nearby. The mere mention of this spot kindled an intense curiosity in Ramana, who soon
afterwards began reading his first piece of religious literature, the Periyapuranam (a tale of the
lives of the sixty-three Saiva saints). He became fascinated and overwhelmed by these accounts
which pointed the way to realization of the Divine. The spiritual experience that transformed his
life was soon to follow unexpectedly during 1896, when he was seventeen:
It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I
seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a
sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to
account for it, and I did not try to account for it or to find out whether there was any
reason for the fear. I just felt "I am going to die" and began thinking what to do about it.
It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve
the problem myself, there and then.
The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally,
without actually framing the words: "'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it
that is dying? This body dies." And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay
with my limbs stretched out stiff as though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse
so as to give greater reality to the enquiry: I held my breath and kept my lips tightly
closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the word "I" nor any other word
could be uttered. "Well then, " I said to myself, "this body is dead. It will be carried stiff
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
2
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this
body am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my
personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit
transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched
by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit." 2
Ramana claimed that this whole enlightenment experience took barely half an hour, and
produced results which would normally have been achieved only after a lengthy striving towards
liberation. The normal process of working with a physical Guru was completely omitted in his
evolution. That he was able to attain the peak of spirituality without any arduous study or
training was, in his own estimation, the consequence of a highly unusual karmic destiny. Rare
indeed is one who could offer such profound mystical proclamations without having previously
heard of the philosophical notions of Brahman, samsara, and so forth:
. . .that pure Awareness is what I am. This Awareness is by its very nature Sat-Chit-
Ananda (Being-Consciousness-Bliss).3
Ramana emphatically stated that this experience was Absolute (meaning fully conscious Identity
with Self), and that "there was no more sadhana, no more spiritual effort, after this." 4
Having undergone such a radical awakening produced a noticeable change in Venkataraman's
attitude towards the phenomenal world. Unable to find meaning any longer in his high school
studies and the superficialities of worldly existence, he soon left home unexpectedly to travel to
Tiruvannamalai, a spiritual power point to which he had felt magically attracted for some time.
For seventeen years he resided within the confines of the local temple grounds and a nearby cave
at Arunacala practicing an extreme asceticism and samadhic absorption that manifestly
demonstrated that: "he was living in timeless Reality. He did not even feel the bites of ants and
other insects. The blood and pus that oozed out of his back and thighs stained the wall and the
floor. Ramana remained unaffected and unconcerned because what happened to the body could
not touch the Self." 5 This complete absorption in the Self characterized this phase of his
mystical career. During this early era he attracted the devotion of two yogis who would
occasionally put several questions to the now-matured sage concerning philosophy and the
spiritual life. Although still silent, he would answer through writing and gestures. These
questions and answers were recorded and published later in the booklets entitled, "Self-Enquiry"
and "Who Am I?" These works contain the essence of his realization and the suggested methods
for practicing the meditational technique of "self-enquiry" which he so strongly advocated.
Carl Jung had spoken of Sri Ramana as "a true son of the Indian earth. He is genuine and, in
addition to that, something quite phenomenal. In India he is the whitest spot in a white space." 6
Jung spoke highly of this man's Realization as being typically Indian, with its emphasis on the
identification of the Self with God. To understand the yogic path of self-enquiry is important in
studying the Maharshi's teachings because he was a jnana yogi of the highest order. Jnana yoga
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
3
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
has been described as "the path of intellectual discrimination; the way of finding God through
analysis of the real nature of phenomena. . . a difficult path, calling for tremendous powers of
will and clarity of mind." 7
The term "jnani" refers to those sages who have emerged out of that school of Indian philosophy
known as Advaita Vedanta. The importance of developing an appreciation of this classic school
of Hinduism becomes apparent when we discover that "it was the purest Advaita that Sri
Bhagavan taught." 8 The most noteworthy exponent of Advaita (meaning "non-dual") Vedanta
was Shankara, a spiritual giant of Hinduism around the 7th century A.D., whose philosophy is
concisely summarized by these three aspects:
1. "the sole reality of Brahman (the Absolute)
2. the illusoriness of the world
3. the non-difference of the soul from Brahman" 9
A solid background in the Upanishadic scriptures of Indian philosophy would certainly enhance
one's appreciation of Ramana Maharshi's teachings, because they lay the foundations on which all
of Advaita Vedanta is based. The Upanishads are the "concluding portion of the Vedas, the oldest
and most authoritative scriptures of India. Often called Vedanta, these teachings are the basis of
India's many religious sects and are regarded as the highest authority of religious truth." 10
Ramana Maharshi embodied the fullest power of the Hindu tradition of which he was a part. He
did not, at any point, iconoclastically refute his spiritual heritage like a Krishnamurti. He found
all the tools necessary to achieve and convey the nature of spiritual liberation within the esoteric
vehicle of the Advaita Vedantin school. He was noted for his emphasis on a method of self-
analytical meditation called vichara (self-enquiry). The crucial and fundamental question was
always "Who am I?" In the following response is presented an answer to this spiritual riddle
which reflects the essence of the meditative process whereby Ramana systematically and directly
viewed the difference between the illusory and the Real nature of the mind and the universe:
"Who am I? – The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the
five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which
apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five
conative sense organs, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and
procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and
enjoying, I am not; the vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-
breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is
endowed only with the residual impressions of objects and no functionings, I am not. If I am
none of these, then who am I? After negating all of the above-mentioned as 'not this', 'not this',
that Awareness which alone remains – that I am." 11
Bhagavan ("One with God") repeatedly emphasized throughout his discourses that this method
of trying to go directly to the root-source of the mind was the only completely effective method
of "killing the ego" and obtaining an Absolute state of awareness. He viewed religious-
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
4
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
devotional observances, rituals, invocations, mantras and breath control (pranayama) as being
indirect methods of furthering one's spiritual progress. While being important aids to many who
find value in their use, they are inefficient in comparison to the "direct style" of jnana yoga.
Ramana's tolerance for working with people on all levels of understanding is, however, reflected
in his comment that "all the yogas – karma, bhakti, and jnana – are just different paths to suit
different natures with different modes of evolution and to get them out of the long cherished
notion that they are the Self." 12
Paul Brunton, a prolific esoteric writer in his own right, was directly responsible for discovering
and introducing this "sage of Arunacala" to the West. The former's book, A Search In Secret
India, has a couple of chapters devoted exclusively to personal experiences with the Maharshi
while visiting the latter's ashram. If not for Brunton's writings, Bhagavan might have remained
an obscure, local spiritual guide.
Ramana stated emphatically that there was a level of consciousness "behind" the normal human
mind that was both Eternal and Absolute. This principle reflects another classic theme of
Vedanta, which maintains that there are four states of consciousness:
4. turiya (the highest level of spiritual Realization underlying all three of the former mental
states).
Shankara originally formulated an explanation by analogy of the notion that the world, as we
subjectively perceive it, is an illusory projection of the human mind. This traditional example
was frequently referred to by Ramana: A man sees a coiled rope at dusk, and mistakenly
concludes that it is a snake. The next morning at daybreak he returns to see that the supposed
serpent is in reality only a rope. He projected qualities onto the rope which it did not, in reality,
possess. In this analogy "the Reality of Being is the rope, the illusion of the serpent that
frightened him is the objective world." 13 This philosophical idea of the world as illusion (maya)
is meant to reflect the notion that all of phenomenal existence is only the creation of the mind. (A
comparative footnote: this attitude is echoed by the Yogachara and Madhyamika schools of
Mahayana Buddhism – the posing of the spiritual question, Who am I?, and the whole self-
enquiry process are somewhat similar to Zen attempts to solve a koan. Until the final
enlightenment experience, this question remains a mind-boggling riddle).
There is a great paradox between the Maharshi's "preparation" for Awakening and what he
advocated for others. He explained that his transformative experience was spontaneous and
unexpected. Although he did not submit to the process of any arduous training beforehand, he
was quick to note that such an occurrence was due to a highly unusual karmic destiny, not typical
of the average seeker. He repeatedly emphasized the need for determined and persistent effort:
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
5
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
. . .unless the bond of the mind is cut asunder by prolonged and unbroken meditation,
"I am the Self, the Absolute," it is impossible to attain the transcendental State of Bliss,
which is identical with the annihilation of the mind. So long as subtle tendencies continue
to inhere in the mind, it is necessary to carry on the enquiry, "Who am I?" 14
He affirmed that one must be prepared to make a long-term commitment to fight through the
parade of obstacles that will inevitably attempt to stymie one's progress. Regular meditation
discipline was endorsed as a means of creating an ongoing current of awareness which would
enable one to remain relatively detached from the samsara-bound workings of the mind.
Various interpretations of Ramana's vichara (self-enquiry) method have been offered as a means
of making an abstract meditation process more translatable to the reader. In essence, the goal of
the process is to enable one to distinguish between the Real and the unreal through "an intense
activity of the entire mind to keep it poised in pure self-awareness." 15 After the mind rejects
objects, one after another, as transient and unreal, That which survives the elimination is Real.
"By this process of abstraction we get behind the layers of body, mind, and intellect and reach
the Universal Self." 16 By tracing the ego (the "I" sense) back to its source, the yogi strives to
dis-identify from the mental images and projections of the normal waking state. Application of
this meditation process initially leads to one-pointedness of mind. We are still identified with the
stream of thought consciousness, but at least our minds have begun to focus intently on one
thing. With relentless concentrative discipline we begin to observe with dispassion the
distractions by things of the world (including sense objects, desires and tendencies) which have
previously occupied and enslaved our awareness. Their hypnotic spell can and must be broken.
Ramana's teachings revolve around the question of whether the ego or "I-sense" really exist. His
analysis of this dilemma can be summarized in this manner; if the ego and the mind are composed
merely of thoughts and through investigation we conclude that thoughts are transient projections
of the mind onto an underlying and more real mental state of pure, apperceptive awareness, we
cannot help but give serious consideration to the Advaitin notion that ". . . . for one who can hold
to the view that there is only the One Self all outer activity appears a dream or cinema show
enacted on the substratum of the Self, so that he will remain an impassive witness." 17
At first impression one could easily be misled to believe that the Maharshi was strictly an
impersonal and intellectual spiritual guide. However, the bhakti (devotional element) was quite
active in him at times, and he used to sometimes weep spontaneously while reading certain
mystical texts. Ramana vividly described the emotional dimension of his early spiritual life in
these terms:
I used to go and weep before those images and before Nataraja (Shiva) that God should
give me the same grace He gave to those saints. But this was after the "death"
experience. Before that the Bhakti for the sixty-three saints lay dormant, as it were. 18
Unlike many contemporary Hindu teachers, the Maharshi discouraged his disciples from
becoming fascinated with the siddhic (supernatural) powers such as telepathy, levitation, astral
projection, or other "miraculous" yogic practices. He advised against indulging in any of these
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
6
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
psychic "gymnastics." Some yogis might develop such powers of mind through destiny, or
incidentally as part of their mystical unfolding. According to Ramana, these psychic practices
could easily become diversionary sidetracks from the real problem of trying to discover one's
real Self.
In evaluating the realization of a spiritual teacher we are naturally led to investigate his
description of enlightenment. Is this mystical experience a final, once-in-a-lifetime episode, or
can there exist varying degrees of an ever-expanding awakening? The Maharshi spoke of two
levels of immersion in the Self (Brahman):
1. nirvikalpa samadhi – "a complete absorption in the Self with resultant oblivion to the
manifested world; often compared to a bucket of water lowered into a well. . ., in the
bucket is water (mind) which is merged with that in the well (the Self); but the bucket
(ego) still exists to draw it out again.
2. sahaja samadhi – pure uninterrupted Consciousness, transcending the mental and physical
plane and yet with full awareness of the manifested world and full use of the mental and
physical faculties. . . often compared with the waters of a river merged in those of the
ocean." 19
Observations on Direct Enquiry as a Meditation Technique
Arthur Osborne, a long-time student of Ramana, observed that most meditators are intellectually
and experientially quite far from understanding the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, or practicing
the sadhana (spiritual discipline) of self-enquiry. Because of its abstract nature and rigorous
mental demands, its appeal has always been, and will always be limited to a ripe few individuals.
To construct a written account of this yogic system that will inspire both the head and the heart
presents a major problem because it is notoriously hard to expound on. The Maharshi's spiritual
teachings can be difficult to apply on a practical level because of their highly abstract nature.
This problem confronts anyone trying to work with a system having an Advaita Vedantin
foundation.
Controlling the outgoing (extroverted) mind of the senses is fundamental to any yogic system. If
we are an intuitive-intellectual type of personality, the path of jnana yoga might possess a
tremendous appeal. Whereas, if we are emotionally oriented, the highly abstract nature of a jnana
yoga method might strike us as being cold and lifeless.
Sooner or later we have got to learn to directly study and experience the fact that we have no
control over our minds. We cannot control our own thoughts for even a minute without having
our awareness richocheting off on an endless series of tangential diversions. Genuine application
of jnana yoga confirms the fact that we are slaves to sensory input projected onto our minds.
Unless we have diligently studied the mechanics of the mind through meditation we will never
know how fragmented and dissipated our mental focus actually is. The analogy of the mind as
being like an uncontrollable monkey swinging from branch to branch (from sense object to sense
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
7
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
object) is a classic example of Indian philosophy's attempt to convey the fickle and sensory-
grasping nature of all human awareness. The senses are constantly bombarding our
consciousness with an endless array of impressions which immediately impinge upon our
awareness, with predictably negative results.
Ramana Maharshi claimed that ultimately the mind and the ego do not exist (in the sense that we
usually view them). For him, only the Self was Real. Now this position might sound tantalizing
to our ears, but we are confronted by the seemingly insurmountable task of trying to actually
become that realized awareness. The only viable alternative is to begin a rigorous disciplining of
our chaotic minds as a starting point for spiritual practice. We cannot successfully just jump into
a direct-enquiry analysis of consciousness without previous training in mental concentration. The
distinction between indirect versus a direct method of meditation (as previously discussed in this
essay) is very real in fact, but one should realize that the concurrent use of both methods might
be necessary for a period of time until an unshakeable power of mental energy is harnessed
which will enable one to relentlessly pursue an intense self-analysis of one's mind without
surrendering from fatigue at the first sign of resistance from the relative ego(s). Vichara (self-
enquiry) must become a continuous, unbroken mental current "for the ego will try to make a
truce with this current of awareness and if it is once tolerated it will gradually grow to power and
then fight to recover supremacy." 20
Concentrative ability (often called "samadhi power" in the Hindu tradition) is the fundamental
meditation skill whose importance cannot be overemphasized.
Those of us who might be telling ourselves that we know how to regulate our thinking, had better
take another long, hard look at the deeply-engrained, mechanical and uncontrollable nature of
awareness.
Ramana Maharshi died in 1950 at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai. An important consideration is,
did he transmit his Realization to any of his disciples before his mahasamadhi (final absorption
in the Self at the time of death)? If so, are they teaching in the West or elsewhere? These
questions remain unanswered, although there is no doubt that this venerable teacher left his
presence felt on many individuals. In any case, his stature as one of the greatest esoteric teachers
of this century remains an unchallenged fact. The profound qualities of his spirituality will
always stand as a monumental contribution to the Indian mystical heritage.
T.M.P. Mahadevan, Ramana Maharshi – The Sage of Arunacala (London, 1977), p. 3
Arthur Osborne, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge (New York, 1973), p. 18
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Words of Grace (Tiruvannamalai, 1971), p. 2
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
8
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
Ramana Maharshi, The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi (Boulder London, 1972), p. vii
Vedanta Press brochure, (Hollywood, 1978), p. 6
10. Vedanta Press brochure, p. 3
11. Ramana Maharshi, The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, p. 4
12. A. Devaraja Mudaliar, Day By Day With Bhagavan (Tiruvannamalai, 1968), p. 237
14. Ramana Maharshi, Words of Grace (Tiruvannamalai, 1971), p. 14
15. Lex Hixon, "Ramana Maharshi and Buddhist Non-Dualism", The Laughing Man (San
Francisco, 1976), Vol. I, Number 1, p. 78
Mahadevan, T.M.P., Ramana Maharshi – The Sage of Arunacala, London, George George
Allen & Unwin, 1977
Muhaliar, A. Devaraja, Day By Day With Bhagavan, Tiruvannamalai, Sri Ramanasramam,
1968
Ramana Maharshi, Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi, Vol. I-III. Tiruvannamalai, Sri
Ramanasramam, 1972
Ramana Maharshi, The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, Boulder & London,
Shambhala Publications, 1972
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
9
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
Osborne, Arthur, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, New York, Samuel
Weiser, 1973
Osborne, Arthur, ed., The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, New York, Samuel
Weiser, 1959
Cohen, S.S., Reflections On Talks With Ramana Maharshi, Tiruvannamalai: Sri
Ramanasramam, 1971
Sadhu, Mouni, In Days of Great Peace, N. Hollywood, Wilshire Book Co., 1952
Ramana Maharshi, Words of Grace, Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1971
10. Prince, Raymond, M.D., "The Convergence of East and West: A Study of Bhagavan Sri
Ramana Maharshi and Arthur Osborne," Newsletter-Review of the R.M. Bucke Society,
Vol. VI, No. 1 and 2 Spring, 1973, Montreal, p. 38-61
11. Hixon, Lex, "Ramana Maharshi and Buddhist Non-Dualism", The Laughing Man, Vol. I,
No. I, 1976, p. 76-80
A detailed list of virtually every book ever printed about Ramana Maharshi may be obtained by
requesting a publication listing from: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Ctr., Inc. 342 East 6th
Street, New York, N.Y. 10003
Also, his ashram in India publishes a quarterly magazine, "The Mountain Path," which provides
an excellent overview of his philosophical ideas.
Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 606 603, South India
by Damien Markakis
TAT Profiles are a guide to the life and thought of individuals, past and present, who have
contributed to the advancement of human awareness.
Ramana Maharshi and the Yogic Path of Discriminative Wisdom
Why would people from every walk of life, both from the occident and the orient, have traveled
out of their ways at great inconvenience and expense to visit the inhabitant of a cave in
Tiruvannamalai, India? Why would statesmen, writers, and peasants alike all make the
oftentimes long journey into the sweltering climate surrounding the sacred hill known as
Arunacala? Why would such prominent figures as Carl Gustav Jung, Somerset Maugham, Arthur
Osborne and Paul Brunton all venture into the heart of the vast Indian sub-continent with the sole
purpose of meeting a Hindu renunciate by the name of Ramana Maharshi?. . . a man who has
been referred to "as the most saintly of modern Hindu ascetics and mystics." 1 The objective of
this essay is to explore the life and spiritual teachings of this great sage, and in the process to
speak directly to each of these questions.
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
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In a small Indian village south of the sacred city of Madurai, there lived a rural lawyer named
Sundaram Aiyar and his wife Alagamma. A visiting ascetic who had once been mistreated by
this man's ancestors had cast a curse on the family which was to insure that one offspring in each
generation would renounce the world and become an ascetic. This couple's second son was
named Venkataraman (of which "Ramana" is an abbreviation). He was born on December 30,
1879, a day dedicated to the celebration of Lord Siva's victory over the demon Andhaka (a Hindu
myth meant to symbolize the conquest of light over darkness).
Raised in the security of a middleclass, Brahmin family, the boy led a normal, uneventful
childhood in the secluded village of Tirucculi, South India. He demonstrated a keen interest in
outdoor sports, but was indifferent towards his studies in school. While being blessed with an
extraordinarily retentive memory and an alert mind he, curiously enough, was an abnormally
deep sleeper. Stories have been recounted of his friends actually striking him while he was asleep
without being able to awaken him. Another relevant event in his life was the death of his father
when he was twelve. His father's passing apparently caused a noticeable change in the son's
nature by making the latter more reflective in a profound sense. Other than these factors, his
childhood development through the fifteenth year left no clues as to Ramana's impending
spiritual destiny.
During his sixteenth year, a great spiritual awakening was to radically transform his view of life.
The first premonition of this mystical unfoldment came accidentally one day while the boy was
speaking to an elder relative who had just returned from visiting Arunacala, a noted sacred hill
nearby. The mere mention of this spot kindled an intense curiosity in Ramana, who soon
afterwards began reading his first piece of religious literature, the Periyapuranam (a tale of the
lives of the sixty-three Saiva saints). He became fascinated and overwhelmed by these accounts
which pointed the way to realization of the Divine. The spiritual experience that transformed his
life was soon to follow unexpectedly during 1896, when he was seventeen:
It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I
seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a
sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to
account for it, and I did not try to account for it or to find out whether there was any
reason for the fear. I just felt "I am going to die" and began thinking what to do about it.
It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve
the problem myself, there and then.
The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally,
without actually framing the words: "'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it
that is dying? This body dies." And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay
with my limbs stretched out stiff as though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse
so as to give greater reality to the enquiry: I held my breath and kept my lips tightly
closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the word "I" nor any other word
could be uttered. "Well then, " I said to myself, "this body is dead. It will be carried stiff
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
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to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this
body am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my
personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit
transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched
by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit." 2
Ramana claimed that this whole enlightenment experience took barely half an hour, and
produced results which would normally have been achieved only after a lengthy striving towards
liberation. The normal process of working with a physical Guru was completely omitted in his
evolution. That he was able to attain the peak of spirituality without any arduous study or
training was, in his own estimation, the consequence of a highly unusual karmic destiny. Rare
indeed is one who could offer such profound mystical proclamations without having previously
heard of the philosophical notions of Brahman, samsara, and so forth:
. . .that pure Awareness is what I am. This Awareness is by its very nature Sat-Chit-
Ananda (Being-Consciousness-Bliss).3
Ramana emphatically stated that this experience was Absolute (meaning fully conscious Identity
with Self), and that "there was no more sadhana, no more spiritual effort, after this." 4
Having undergone such a radical awakening produced a noticeable change in Venkataraman's
attitude towards the phenomenal world. Unable to find meaning any longer in his high school
studies and the superficialities of worldly existence, he soon left home unexpectedly to travel to
Tiruvannamalai, a spiritual power point to which he had felt magically attracted for some time.
For seventeen years he resided within the confines of the local temple grounds and a nearby cave
at Arunacala practicing an extreme asceticism and samadhic absorption that manifestly
demonstrated that: "he was living in timeless Reality. He did not even feel the bites of ants and
other insects. The blood and pus that oozed out of his back and thighs stained the wall and the
floor. Ramana remained unaffected and unconcerned because what happened to the body could
not touch the Self." 5 This complete absorption in the Self characterized this phase of his
mystical career. During this early era he attracted the devotion of two yogis who would
occasionally put several questions to the now-matured sage concerning philosophy and the
spiritual life. Although still silent, he would answer through writing and gestures. These
questions and answers were recorded and published later in the booklets entitled, "Self-Enquiry"
and "Who Am I?" These works contain the essence of his realization and the suggested methods
for practicing the meditational technique of "self-enquiry" which he so strongly advocated.
Carl Jung had spoken of Sri Ramana as "a true son of the Indian earth. He is genuine and, in
addition to that, something quite phenomenal. In India he is the whitest spot in a white space." 6
Jung spoke highly of this man's Realization as being typically Indian, with its emphasis on the
identification of the Self with God. To understand the yogic path of self-enquiry is important in
studying the Maharshi's teachings because he was a jnana yogi of the highest order. Jnana yoga
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
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has been described as "the path of intellectual discrimination; the way of finding God through
analysis of the real nature of phenomena. . . a difficult path, calling for tremendous powers of
will and clarity of mind." 7
The term "jnani" refers to those sages who have emerged out of that school of Indian philosophy
known as Advaita Vedanta. The importance of developing an appreciation of this classic school
of Hinduism becomes apparent when we discover that "it was the purest Advaita that Sri
Bhagavan taught." 8 The most noteworthy exponent of Advaita (meaning "non-dual") Vedanta
was Shankara, a spiritual giant of Hinduism around the 7th century A.D., whose philosophy is
concisely summarized by these three aspects:
1. "the sole reality of Brahman (the Absolute)
2. the illusoriness of the world
3. the non-difference of the soul from Brahman" 9
A solid background in the Upanishadic scriptures of Indian philosophy would certainly enhance
one's appreciation of Ramana Maharshi's teachings, because they lay the foundations on which all
of Advaita Vedanta is based. The Upanishads are the "concluding portion of the Vedas, the oldest
and most authoritative scriptures of India. Often called Vedanta, these teachings are the basis of
India's many religious sects and are regarded as the highest authority of religious truth." 10
Ramana Maharshi embodied the fullest power of the Hindu tradition of which he was a part. He
did not, at any point, iconoclastically refute his spiritual heritage like a Krishnamurti. He found
all the tools necessary to achieve and convey the nature of spiritual liberation within the esoteric
vehicle of the Advaita Vedantin school. He was noted for his emphasis on a method of self-
analytical meditation called vichara (self-enquiry). The crucial and fundamental question was
always "Who am I?" In the following response is presented an answer to this spiritual riddle
which reflects the essence of the meditative process whereby Ramana systematically and directly
viewed the difference between the illusory and the Real nature of the mind and the universe:
"Who am I? – The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the
five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which
apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five
conative sense organs, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and
procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and
enjoying, I am not; the vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-
breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is
endowed only with the residual impressions of objects and no functionings, I am not. If I am
none of these, then who am I? After negating all of the above-mentioned as 'not this', 'not this',
that Awareness which alone remains – that I am." 11
Bhagavan ("One with God") repeatedly emphasized throughout his discourses that this method
of trying to go directly to the root-source of the mind was the only completely effective method
of "killing the ego" and obtaining an Absolute state of awareness. He viewed religious-
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
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devotional observances, rituals, invocations, mantras and breath control (pranayama) as being
indirect methods of furthering one's spiritual progress. While being important aids to many who
find value in their use, they are inefficient in comparison to the "direct style" of jnana yoga.
Ramana's tolerance for working with people on all levels of understanding is, however, reflected
in his comment that "all the yogas – karma, bhakti, and jnana – are just different paths to suit
different natures with different modes of evolution and to get them out of the long cherished
notion that they are the Self." 12
Paul Brunton, a prolific esoteric writer in his own right, was directly responsible for discovering
and introducing this "sage of Arunacala" to the West. The former's book, A Search In Secret
India, has a couple of chapters devoted exclusively to personal experiences with the Maharshi
while visiting the latter's ashram. If not for Brunton's writings, Bhagavan might have remained
an obscure, local spiritual guide.
Ramana stated emphatically that there was a level of consciousness "behind" the normal human
mind that was both Eternal and Absolute. This principle reflects another classic theme of
Vedanta, which maintains that there are four states of consciousness:
4. turiya (the highest level of spiritual Realization underlying all three of the former mental
states).
Shankara originally formulated an explanation by analogy of the notion that the world, as we
subjectively perceive it, is an illusory projection of the human mind. This traditional example
was frequently referred to by Ramana: A man sees a coiled rope at dusk, and mistakenly
concludes that it is a snake. The next morning at daybreak he returns to see that the supposed
serpent is in reality only a rope. He projected qualities onto the rope which it did not, in reality,
possess. In this analogy "the Reality of Being is the rope, the illusion of the serpent that
frightened him is the objective world." 13 This philosophical idea of the world as illusion (maya)
is meant to reflect the notion that all of phenomenal existence is only the creation of the mind. (A
comparative footnote: this attitude is echoed by the Yogachara and Madhyamika schools of
Mahayana Buddhism – the posing of the spiritual question, Who am I?, and the whole self-
enquiry process are somewhat similar to Zen attempts to solve a koan. Until the final
enlightenment experience, this question remains a mind-boggling riddle).
There is a great paradox between the Maharshi's "preparation" for Awakening and what he
advocated for others. He explained that his transformative experience was spontaneous and
unexpected. Although he did not submit to the process of any arduous training beforehand, he
was quick to note that such an occurrence was due to a highly unusual karmic destiny, not typical
of the average seeker. He repeatedly emphasized the need for determined and persistent effort:
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
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. . .unless the bond of the mind is cut asunder by prolonged and unbroken meditation,
"I am the Self, the Absolute," it is impossible to attain the transcendental State of Bliss,
which is identical with the annihilation of the mind. So long as subtle tendencies continue
to inhere in the mind, it is necessary to carry on the enquiry, "Who am I?" 14
He affirmed that one must be prepared to make a long-term commitment to fight through the
parade of obstacles that will inevitably attempt to stymie one's progress. Regular meditation
discipline was endorsed as a means of creating an ongoing current of awareness which would
enable one to remain relatively detached from the samsara-bound workings of the mind.
Various interpretations of Ramana's vichara (self-enquiry) method have been offered as a means
of making an abstract meditation process more translatable to the reader. In essence, the goal of
the process is to enable one to distinguish between the Real and the unreal through "an intense
activity of the entire mind to keep it poised in pure self-awareness." 15 After the mind rejects
objects, one after another, as transient and unreal, That which survives the elimination is Real.
"By this process of abstraction we get behind the layers of body, mind, and intellect and reach
the Universal Self." 16 By tracing the ego (the "I" sense) back to its source, the yogi strives to
dis-identify from the mental images and projections of the normal waking state. Application of
this meditation process initially leads to one-pointedness of mind. We are still identified with the
stream of thought consciousness, but at least our minds have begun to focus intently on one
thing. With relentless concentrative discipline we begin to observe with dispassion the
distractions by things of the world (including sense objects, desires and tendencies) which have
previously occupied and enslaved our awareness. Their hypnotic spell can and must be broken.
Ramana's teachings revolve around the question of whether the ego or "I-sense" really exist. His
analysis of this dilemma can be summarized in this manner; if the ego and the mind are composed
merely of thoughts and through investigation we conclude that thoughts are transient projections
of the mind onto an underlying and more real mental state of pure, apperceptive awareness, we
cannot help but give serious consideration to the Advaitin notion that ". . . . for one who can hold
to the view that there is only the One Self all outer activity appears a dream or cinema show
enacted on the substratum of the Self, so that he will remain an impassive witness." 17
At first impression one could easily be misled to believe that the Maharshi was strictly an
impersonal and intellectual spiritual guide. However, the bhakti (devotional element) was quite
active in him at times, and he used to sometimes weep spontaneously while reading certain
mystical texts. Ramana vividly described the emotional dimension of his early spiritual life in
these terms:
I used to go and weep before those images and before Nataraja (Shiva) that God should
give me the same grace He gave to those saints. But this was after the "death"
experience. Before that the Bhakti for the sixty-three saints lay dormant, as it were. 18
Unlike many contemporary Hindu teachers, the Maharshi discouraged his disciples from
becoming fascinated with the siddhic (supernatural) powers such as telepathy, levitation, astral
projection, or other "miraculous" yogic practices. He advised against indulging in any of these
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
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psychic "gymnastics." Some yogis might develop such powers of mind through destiny, or
incidentally as part of their mystical unfolding. According to Ramana, these psychic practices
could easily become diversionary sidetracks from the real problem of trying to discover one's
real Self.
In evaluating the realization of a spiritual teacher we are naturally led to investigate his
description of enlightenment. Is this mystical experience a final, once-in-a-lifetime episode, or
can there exist varying degrees of an ever-expanding awakening? The Maharshi spoke of two
levels of immersion in the Self (Brahman):
1. nirvikalpa samadhi – "a complete absorption in the Self with resultant oblivion to the
manifested world; often compared to a bucket of water lowered into a well. . ., in the
bucket is water (mind) which is merged with that in the well (the Self); but the bucket
(ego) still exists to draw it out again.
2. sahaja samadhi – pure uninterrupted Consciousness, transcending the mental and physical
plane and yet with full awareness of the manifested world and full use of the mental and
physical faculties. . . often compared with the waters of a river merged in those of the
ocean." 19
Observations on Direct Enquiry as a Meditation Technique
Arthur Osborne, a long-time student of Ramana, observed that most meditators are intellectually
and experientially quite far from understanding the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, or practicing
the sadhana (spiritual discipline) of self-enquiry. Because of its abstract nature and rigorous
mental demands, its appeal has always been, and will always be limited to a ripe few individuals.
To construct a written account of this yogic system that will inspire both the head and the heart
presents a major problem because it is notoriously hard to expound on. The Maharshi's spiritual
teachings can be difficult to apply on a practical level because of their highly abstract nature.
This problem confronts anyone trying to work with a system having an Advaita Vedantin
foundation.
Controlling the outgoing (extroverted) mind of the senses is fundamental to any yogic system. If
we are an intuitive-intellectual type of personality, the path of jnana yoga might possess a
tremendous appeal. Whereas, if we are emotionally oriented, the highly abstract nature of a jnana
yoga method might strike us as being cold and lifeless.
Sooner or later we have got to learn to directly study and experience the fact that we have no
control over our minds. We cannot control our own thoughts for even a minute without having
our awareness richocheting off on an endless series of tangential diversions. Genuine application
of jnana yoga confirms the fact that we are slaves to sensory input projected onto our minds.
Unless we have diligently studied the mechanics of the mind through meditation we will never
know how fragmented and dissipated our mental focus actually is. The analogy of the mind as
being like an uncontrollable monkey swinging from branch to branch (from sense object to sense
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
7
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
object) is a classic example of Indian philosophy's attempt to convey the fickle and sensory-
grasping nature of all human awareness. The senses are constantly bombarding our
consciousness with an endless array of impressions which immediately impinge upon our
awareness, with predictably negative results.
Ramana Maharshi claimed that ultimately the mind and the ego do not exist (in the sense that we
usually view them). For him, only the Self was Real. Now this position might sound tantalizing
to our ears, but we are confronted by the seemingly insurmountable task of trying to actually
become that realized awareness. The only viable alternative is to begin a rigorous disciplining of
our chaotic minds as a starting point for spiritual practice. We cannot successfully just jump into
a direct-enquiry analysis of consciousness without previous training in mental concentration. The
distinction between indirect versus a direct method of meditation (as previously discussed in this
essay) is very real in fact, but one should realize that the concurrent use of both methods might
be necessary for a period of time until an unshakeable power of mental energy is harnessed
which will enable one to relentlessly pursue an intense self-analysis of one's mind without
surrendering from fatigue at the first sign of resistance from the relative ego(s). Vichara (self-
enquiry) must become a continuous, unbroken mental current "for the ego will try to make a
truce with this current of awareness and if it is once tolerated it will gradually grow to power and
then fight to recover supremacy." 20
Concentrative ability (often called "samadhi power" in the Hindu tradition) is the fundamental
meditation skill whose importance cannot be overemphasized.
Those of us who might be telling ourselves that we know how to regulate our thinking, had better
take another long, hard look at the deeply-engrained, mechanical and uncontrollable nature of
awareness.
Ramana Maharshi died in 1950 at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai. An important consideration is,
did he transmit his Realization to any of his disciples before his mahasamadhi (final absorption
in the Self at the time of death)? If so, are they teaching in the West or elsewhere? These
questions remain unanswered, although there is no doubt that this venerable teacher left his
presence felt on many individuals. In any case, his stature as one of the greatest esoteric teachers
of this century remains an unchallenged fact. The profound qualities of his spirituality will
always stand as a monumental contribution to the Indian mystical heritage.
T.M.P. Mahadevan, Ramana Maharshi – The Sage of Arunacala (London, 1977), p. 3
Arthur Osborne, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge (New York, 1973), p. 18
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Words of Grace (Tiruvannamalai, 1971), p. 2
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
8
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
Ramana Maharshi, The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi (Boulder London, 1972), p. vii
Vedanta Press brochure, (Hollywood, 1978), p. 6
10. Vedanta Press brochure, p. 3
11. Ramana Maharshi, The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, p. 4
12. A. Devaraja Mudaliar, Day By Day With Bhagavan (Tiruvannamalai, 1968), p. 237
14. Ramana Maharshi, Words of Grace (Tiruvannamalai, 1971), p. 14
15. Lex Hixon, "Ramana Maharshi and Buddhist Non-Dualism", The Laughing Man (San
Francisco, 1976), Vol. I, Number 1, p. 78
Mahadevan, T.M.P., Ramana Maharshi – The Sage of Arunacala, London, George George
Allen & Unwin, 1977
Muhaliar, A. Devaraja, Day By Day With Bhagavan, Tiruvannamalai, Sri Ramanasramam,
1968
Ramana Maharshi, Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi, Vol. I-III. Tiruvannamalai, Sri
Ramanasramam, 1972
Ramana Maharshi, The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, Boulder & London,
Shambhala Publications, 1972
© 1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
9
Reprinted with permission. TAT Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
Osborne, Arthur, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, New York, Samuel
Weiser, 1973
Osborne, Arthur, ed., The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, New York, Samuel
Weiser, 1959
Cohen, S.S., Reflections On Talks With Ramana Maharshi, Tiruvannamalai: Sri
Ramanasramam, 1971
Sadhu, Mouni, In Days of Great Peace, N. Hollywood, Wilshire Book Co., 1952
Ramana Maharshi, Words of Grace, Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1971
10. Prince, Raymond, M.D., "The Convergence of East and West: A Study of Bhagavan Sri
Ramana Maharshi and Arthur Osborne," Newsletter-Review of the R.M. Bucke Society,
Vol. VI, No. 1 and 2 Spring, 1973, Montreal, p. 38-61
11. Hixon, Lex, "Ramana Maharshi and Buddhist Non-Dualism", The Laughing Man, Vol. I,
No. I, 1976, p. 76-80
A detailed list of virtually every book ever printed about Ramana Maharshi may be obtained by
requesting a publication listing from: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi Ctr., Inc. 342 East 6th
Street, New York, N.Y. 10003
Also, his ashram in India publishes a quarterly magazine, "The Mountain Path," which provides
an excellent overview of his philosophical ideas.
Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 606 603, South India
Sri Ramana Maharshi – 225 Spiritual Truths
by Reena on August 25, 2010 · 4 comments
A spiritual teacher very close to my heart is Sri Ramana Maharshi. This blog provides a little background about this great Sage, and a list of 225 spiritual truths in Ramana Maharshi’s own words.
Sometimes it is hard to express how certain teachers have helped on the spiritual journey, so this post is in lieu of my inability to express my appreciation.
I particularly like the video (click post title first).
I hope you will be as changed as I have been, through his teaching.
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“Distracted as we are by various thoughts, if we would continually contemplate the Self, which is Itself God, this single thought would in due course replace all distraction and would itself ultimately vanish;. The pure Consciousness that alone finally remains is God. This is Liberation. To be constantly centered on one’s own all-perfect pure Self is the acme of yoga, wisdom, and all other forms of spiritual practice. Even though the mind wanders restlessly, involved in external matters, and so is forgetful of its own Self, one should remain alert and remember: ‘The body is not I.’
‘Who am I?’ Enquire in this way, turning the mind backward to its primal state. The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the only method of putting an end to all misery and ushering in Supreme Beatitude. Whatever may be said and however phrased, this is the whole truth in a nutshell.”
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Ramana Maharshi was known throughout India and further afield in the last century as a great sage and his presence graced the renowned sacred Arunachala hill. His mostly silent and peaceful presence and powerful gaze changed the lives of the many who came into his presence. He encouraged people to look within and decide whether they were actually the body or the changeless eternal self within. Many people were led to experience this inner self as the same self behind all awareness, above the transient mind, emotions, and body.
He was born to an ‘ordinary’ family. This is how his spontaneous self-realization is said to have occurred:
‘In his seventeenth year, in full health and in normal waking state he was suddenly overwhelmed with the fear of death and fully convinced that death was imminent. The inexplicable feeling would not leave so the boy began to ponder on the meaning of death. He was alone in his upper story room at the time so he decided to act out death and inquire into the meaning of it. He laid down with his arms stiffly at his sides as if dead, held his breath and said to himself; “Now death has come but what does it mean? What is it that is dying? The body dies and is carried off to the cremation ground and reduced to ashes. But with the death of the body, am I dead? Am I the body? This body is now silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the ‘I’ within me, apart from the body. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means that I am the deathless Spirit”.
The awareness of this knowledge took full possession of him, not at the level of mere mental awareness but at the deeper level of complete spiritual self-awareness. He suddenly became the Spirit and knew himself as That, no longer identifying himself as merely the body form that had been called Venkataraman. [His birth name] Self realization was instantaneous, complete, and irreversible. His ego was lost in a flood of pure Self awareness.’
(Thanks to: http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Sp/Ramana/Ramana.htm)
Here are 225 truths from his own words.
1. The mind is nothing but the thought “I”
2. Thoughts arise because of the thinker.
3. The thinker is the ego, which if sought will automatically vanish.
4. Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.
5. It is like a screen on which all this is cast as pictures and move as in a cinema show.
6. The Absolute Consciousness alone is our real nature.
7. Grace is within you; Grace is the Self.
8. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence in you.
9. You are never out of its operation.
10. The mind cannot seek the mind.
11. You ignore what is real and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find what it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be controlled.
12. If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this by inquiry.
13. Seek the real, the Self.
14. The Eternal is not born nor does it die.
15. We confound appearance with Reality. Appearance carries its end in itself.
16. What is it that appears anew?
17. If you cannot find it, surrender unreservedly to the substratum of appearances; then Reality will be what remains.
18. Reality is simply loss of the ego.
19. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.
20. Because the ego has no real existence, it will automatically vanish, and Reality will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method.
21. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning.
22. No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest.
23. Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.
24. “I am That I Am” sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in “Be Still.”
25. The state we call Realization is simply being one’s self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.
26. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state, but only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.
27. There is no help in changing your environment.
28. The obstacle is the mind, which must be overcome, whether at home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment?
29. The cause of misery is not in life without; it is within you as the ego.
30. You impose limitations upon yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.
31. Why attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery, which really lies within you? What happiness can you get from anything extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will it last?
32. The body itself is a thought.
33. Be as you really are.
34. There are no stages in Realization or degrees in Liberation.
35. There are no levels of Reality; there are only levels of experience for the individual.
36. If anything can be gained that was not present before, it can also be lost, whereas the Absolute is eternal, here and now.
37. It is not a matter of becoming but of Being.
38. Remain aware of yourself and all else will be known.
39. One comes into existence for a certain purpose.
40. That purpose will be accomplished whether one considers oneself the actor or not.
41. Everything is predetermined.
42. But one is always free not to identify oneself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasure and pain associated with its activities.
43. Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.
44. Find out who is subject to free will or predestination and abide in that state.
45. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions. To whom do such questions present themselves?
46. Discover that and be at peace.
47. Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.
48. The feeling of limitation is the work of the mind.
49. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind.
50. This is the direct path for all.
51. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought “I” first rises, one would discover that it rises in the heart; that is the place of the mind’s origin.
52. Grace is always present.
53. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.
54. You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it…
55. …But in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It.
56. It is like being here and asking people the way to the ashram, then complaining that each one shows a different path and asking which to follow.
57. The realized person weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the playful, sings with those who sing, keeping time to the song.
58. What does he lose?
59. His presence is like a pure, transparent mirror. It reflects our image exactly as we are. It is we who play the several parts in life and reap the fruits of our actions. How is the mirror or the stand on which it is mounted affected? Nothing affects them, as they are mere supports.
60. The Consciousness of “I” is the subject of all of our actions.
61. Inquiring into the true nature of that Consciousness and remaining as oneself is the way to understand one’s true nature.
62. All that is required to realize the Self is to Be Still.
63. What can be easier than that?
64. If one gains the Peace of the Self, it will spread without any effort on the part of the individual.
65. When one is not peaceful, oneself, how can one spread peace in the world?
66. Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.
67. Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent there will be perfect Peace.
68. Reality lies beyond the mind.
69. So long as the mind functions, there is duality. Once it is transcended, Reality shines forth.
70. Self-effulgence is the Self.
71. Satsang means association (sanga) with Being (Sat), which is the Self.
72. For whom is association?
73. The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.
74. It is a great wonder that to teach such a simple truth a number of religions should be necessary, and so many disputes should go on between them as to which is the God-ordained teaching. What a pity!
75. Just be the Self, that is all.
76. Because people want something elaborate and mysterious, so many religions have come into existence. Only those who are mature can understand the matter in its naked simplicity.
77. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present.
78. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it.
79. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond and apart from experience nothing exists.
80. Even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.
81. Because people love mystery and not the truth, religions cater to them, eventually bringing them around to the Self.
82. Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self; so why not abide in the Self here and now?
83. There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.
84. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous.
85. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.
86. If we look upon the Self as the ego, we become the ego, if as the mind we become the mind, if as the body we become the body.
87. It is thought that builds up layers in so many ways.
88. Take no notice of the ego and its activities but see only the light behind it.
89. The ego is the “I”-thought.
90. The true “I” is the Self.
91. The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.
92. It is false to speak of Realization; what is there to realize?
93. The real is ever as it is.
94. All that is required is to cease regarding as real that which is unreal. That is all we need to attain wisdom (jnana).
95. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an external entity.
96. The world phenomena, within or without, are only fleeting and are not independent of our Self.
97. Only the habit of looking at them as real and located outside ourselves is responsible for hiding our pure Being.
98. When the ever-present sole Reality, the Self, is found, all other unreal things will disappear, leaving behind the knowledge that they are not other than the Self.
99. Either surrender because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery.
100. The Divine never forsakes one who has surrendered.
101. To identify oneself with the body and yet seek happiness is like attempting to cross a river on the back of an alligator.
102. In truth, you are Spirit.
103. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit. If the wrong identification ceases, there will be peace and permanent, indescribable bliss.
104. Those who have realized the Self, which is the ground of fate and free will, are free from them.
105. Ramana’s reply to his mother, when she requested that he return home with her:
106. The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their destiny (prarabdha karma). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain.
107. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
108. The real state must be effortless. It is permanent.
109. Efforts are spasmodic and so also are their results.
110. When your real, effortless, joyful nature is realized, it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life.
111. In the interior of the heart-cave, the one Reality shines alone as “I-I” the Self.
112. The Heart is the only Reality.
113. The mind is only a transient phase.
114. To remain as one’s Self is to enter the Heart.
115. Apart from thought, there is no independent entity called “world.”
116. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts and there is no world. In waking and dreaming, there are thoughts, and there is a world, also.
117. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and then withdraws it, likewise, the mind projects the world out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself.
118. The Self is all-pervading.
119. Therefore, no particular place can be allocated for leading a life of solitude.
120. To abide in the tranquil state that is devoid of thought is to lead a life of solitude and seclusion.
121. When your standpoint becomes that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God.
122. The question is one of outlook.
123. The universe exists within the Self.
124. Therefore, it is real, but only because it obtains its reality from the Self. We call it unreal, however, to indicate its changing appearance and transient form, whereas we call the Self real because it is changeless.
125. We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written.
126. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal — an illusion — since it rests upon the paper.
127. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.
128. Our real nature is Liberation, but we imagine that we are bound…
129. …we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free.
130. A person goes to sleep in this hall and dreams he has gone on a world tour, traveling over various continents. After many years of strenuous travel, he returns to this country, enters the ashram, and walks into the hall.
131. Just at that moment, he wakes up and finds that he has not moved at all but has been sleeping. He has not returned after great efforts to this hall, but was here all the time.
132. If it is asked, “Why, being free, we imagine ourselves bound?” I answer, “Why, being in the hall, did you imagine you were on a world tour, crossing desert and sea?”
133. It is all mind.
134. With a smile, Ramana placed his little finger over his eye and said:
135. 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.
136. See how powerful it is!
137. What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.
138. We fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.
139. If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out, what remains is a feeling of fullness, which is the Self. Then there will be no such thing as a separate “I.”
140. Meditation on the Self, which is oneself, is the greatest of all meditations.
141. All other meditations are included in this.
142. True silence is really endless speech.
143. There is no attaining it because it is always present.
144. All you have to do is remove the coverings that conceal it.
145. Surrender is giving oneself up to the origin of one’s Being.
146. In due course, we will know that our glory lies where we cease to exist.
147. The pet squirrel is waiting for an opportunity to run out of its cage.
148. Ramana remarks:
149. All want to rush out. There is no limit to going out. Happiness lies within and not without.
150. All spiritual teachings are only meant to make us retrace our steps to our Original Source.
151. We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions.
152. Instead of doing this, we try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake.
153. Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.
154. What appears will also disappear and is therefore impermanent. The Self never appears and disappears and is therefore permanent.
155. It is the only Reality.
156. Environment, time, and objects all exist in oneself.
157. How can they be independent of me?
158. They may change, but “I” remain unchanging.
159. Make no effort either to work or to give up work; your very effort is the bondage.
160. What is destined to happen will happen. Leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.
161. The feeling “I work” is the hindrance.
162. Ask yourself, “Who works?” Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you; it will proceed automatically.
163. Realization is nothing to be gained anew.
164. You are the Self. You are already and eternally That.
165. There is never a moment when the Self is not; it is ever-present, here and now.
166. If Realization were something to be gained hereafter, there would be an equal chance of its being lost; this cannot be Liberation, which is eternal.
167. Realization consists of getting rid of the false idea that one is not realized.
168. What is called “mind” is a wondrous power residing in the Self.
169. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind.
170. Self-inquiry directly leads to Self-realization by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realized.
171. It reveals the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists and enables one to realize the pure, undifferentiated Being, which is the Self or the Absolute.
172. Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts.
173. Wisdom transcends both, for the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance.
174. Pain or pleasure is the result of past actions and not of the present…they alternate with each other.
175. One must always try to abide in the Self and not be swayed by the pain or pleasure met with occasionally.
176. One who is indifferent to pain or pleasure can alone be happy.
177. Thoughts change but not you.
178. Thoughts form your bondage and are not external to you, so no external remedy be sought for freedom.
179. What does it matter if the mind is active? It is only so on the substratum of the Self.
180. Hold to the Self even during mental activity.
181. The “I” casts off the illusion of “I” and yet remains as “I.”
182. Such is the paradox of Self-realization.
183. You give up various possessions. If, instead, you give up “I” and “mine,” you give them all up in one stroke and lose the very seed of possession.
184. Disinterest in the non-Self must be very strong to do this.
185. One’s eagerness must be equal to that of a person kept under water while trying to rise to the surface to breathe.
186. Be what you are.
187. That which is, is ever present. Even now you are It, and not apart from It.
188. The expectation to see and the desire to get something are all the working of the ego.
189. Be yourself and nothing more.
190. Pleasure or pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness.
191. We forget the Self and imagine the body or the mind to be the Self. It I this wrong identity that gives rise to misery.
192. Happiness is inherent in everyone and is not due to external causes.
193. Because you have lost hold of the Self, thoughts afflict you; you see the world and doubts arise, along with anxiety about the future.
194. There is no use removing doubts.
195. If we clear one doubt, another arises, and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is really nonexistent.
196. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease.
197. Investigate the nature of the mind and it will disappear.
198. Because of the emergence of thought, you surmise that it has an origin and call that the mind.
199. When you inquire to see what it is, you find there is really no such thing as mind.
200. When the mind has thus vanished, you realize eternal Peace.
201. When the mind, turning inward, inquires, “Who am I?” and reaches the heart, that which is “I” (the ego) sinks crestfallen, and the One (Self) appears of its own accord as “I-I.” Though it appears thus, it is not the ego; it is the Whole.
202. It is the real Self.
203. The Self is free from all qualities.
204. Good or bad qualities pertain only to the mind.
205. The numeral one gives rise to other numbers. The truth is neither one nor two.
206. It is as it is.
207. Dvaita and advaita are relative terms. They are based on a sense of duality. There is actually neither dvaita nor advaita.
208. I Am That I Am…
209. Simple Being is the Self.
210. The limited and multifarious thoughts having disappeared, there shines in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of “I-I,” which is pure Consciousness.
211. If one remains quiet without abandoning that understanding, then egoity—the individual sense of the form “I-am-the-body”—will be totally destroyed. And ultimately, the final thought, the “I”-thought, will also be extinguished, like camphor that is burned by fire.
212. The great sages and scriptures declare that this alone is Realization.
213. Meditation is your true nature now.
214. You call it meditation because other thoughts distract you. When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain in the state of meditation, free from thoughts.
215. When the practice becomes firm, your real nature shows itself as meditation.
216. When meditation is well-established, it cannot be given up. It will go on automatically, even when you are engaged in work or play. It will persist in sleep, too.
217. Meditation must become so deep-rooted that it will be natural to one.
218. Birth and death pertain only to the body…
219. …they are superimposed on the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self.
220. If one dies while still alive, one need not grieve over another’s death.
221. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy.
222. Why do you worry about life and death?
223. Deathlessness is our real nature. The real “I” exists here and now.
224. There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement.
225. This is the final truth.
[Source: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Edited by Matthew Greenblatt
Comments or questions, as always, very welcome.
by Reena on August 25, 2010 · 4 comments
A spiritual teacher very close to my heart is Sri Ramana Maharshi. This blog provides a little background about this great Sage, and a list of 225 spiritual truths in Ramana Maharshi’s own words.
Sometimes it is hard to express how certain teachers have helped on the spiritual journey, so this post is in lieu of my inability to express my appreciation.
I particularly like the video (click post title first).
I hope you will be as changed as I have been, through his teaching.
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“Distracted as we are by various thoughts, if we would continually contemplate the Self, which is Itself God, this single thought would in due course replace all distraction and would itself ultimately vanish;. The pure Consciousness that alone finally remains is God. This is Liberation. To be constantly centered on one’s own all-perfect pure Self is the acme of yoga, wisdom, and all other forms of spiritual practice. Even though the mind wanders restlessly, involved in external matters, and so is forgetful of its own Self, one should remain alert and remember: ‘The body is not I.’
‘Who am I?’ Enquire in this way, turning the mind backward to its primal state. The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the only method of putting an end to all misery and ushering in Supreme Beatitude. Whatever may be said and however phrased, this is the whole truth in a nutshell.”
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Ramana Maharshi was known throughout India and further afield in the last century as a great sage and his presence graced the renowned sacred Arunachala hill. His mostly silent and peaceful presence and powerful gaze changed the lives of the many who came into his presence. He encouraged people to look within and decide whether they were actually the body or the changeless eternal self within. Many people were led to experience this inner self as the same self behind all awareness, above the transient mind, emotions, and body.
He was born to an ‘ordinary’ family. This is how his spontaneous self-realization is said to have occurred:
‘In his seventeenth year, in full health and in normal waking state he was suddenly overwhelmed with the fear of death and fully convinced that death was imminent. The inexplicable feeling would not leave so the boy began to ponder on the meaning of death. He was alone in his upper story room at the time so he decided to act out death and inquire into the meaning of it. He laid down with his arms stiffly at his sides as if dead, held his breath and said to himself; “Now death has come but what does it mean? What is it that is dying? The body dies and is carried off to the cremation ground and reduced to ashes. But with the death of the body, am I dead? Am I the body? This body is now silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the ‘I’ within me, apart from the body. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means that I am the deathless Spirit”.
The awareness of this knowledge took full possession of him, not at the level of mere mental awareness but at the deeper level of complete spiritual self-awareness. He suddenly became the Spirit and knew himself as That, no longer identifying himself as merely the body form that had been called Venkataraman. [His birth name] Self realization was instantaneous, complete, and irreversible. His ego was lost in a flood of pure Self awareness.’
(Thanks to: http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Sp/Ramana/Ramana.htm)
Here are 225 truths from his own words.
1. The mind is nothing but the thought “I”
2. Thoughts arise because of the thinker.
3. The thinker is the ego, which if sought will automatically vanish.
4. Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.
5. It is like a screen on which all this is cast as pictures and move as in a cinema show.
6. The Absolute Consciousness alone is our real nature.
7. Grace is within you; Grace is the Self.
8. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence in you.
9. You are never out of its operation.
10. The mind cannot seek the mind.
11. You ignore what is real and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find what it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be controlled.
12. If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this by inquiry.
13. Seek the real, the Self.
14. The Eternal is not born nor does it die.
15. We confound appearance with Reality. Appearance carries its end in itself.
16. What is it that appears anew?
17. If you cannot find it, surrender unreservedly to the substratum of appearances; then Reality will be what remains.
18. Reality is simply loss of the ego.
19. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.
20. Because the ego has no real existence, it will automatically vanish, and Reality will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method.
21. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning.
22. No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest.
23. Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.
24. “I am That I Am” sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in “Be Still.”
25. The state we call Realization is simply being one’s self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.
26. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state, but only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.
27. There is no help in changing your environment.
28. The obstacle is the mind, which must be overcome, whether at home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment?
29. The cause of misery is not in life without; it is within you as the ego.
30. You impose limitations upon yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.
31. Why attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery, which really lies within you? What happiness can you get from anything extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will it last?
32. The body itself is a thought.
33. Be as you really are.
34. There are no stages in Realization or degrees in Liberation.
35. There are no levels of Reality; there are only levels of experience for the individual.
36. If anything can be gained that was not present before, it can also be lost, whereas the Absolute is eternal, here and now.
37. It is not a matter of becoming but of Being.
38. Remain aware of yourself and all else will be known.
39. One comes into existence for a certain purpose.
40. That purpose will be accomplished whether one considers oneself the actor or not.
41. Everything is predetermined.
42. But one is always free not to identify oneself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasure and pain associated with its activities.
43. Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.
44. Find out who is subject to free will or predestination and abide in that state.
45. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions. To whom do such questions present themselves?
46. Discover that and be at peace.
47. Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.
48. The feeling of limitation is the work of the mind.
49. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind.
50. This is the direct path for all.
51. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought “I” first rises, one would discover that it rises in the heart; that is the place of the mind’s origin.
52. Grace is always present.
53. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.
54. You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it…
55. …But in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It.
56. It is like being here and asking people the way to the ashram, then complaining that each one shows a different path and asking which to follow.
57. The realized person weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the playful, sings with those who sing, keeping time to the song.
58. What does he lose?
59. His presence is like a pure, transparent mirror. It reflects our image exactly as we are. It is we who play the several parts in life and reap the fruits of our actions. How is the mirror or the stand on which it is mounted affected? Nothing affects them, as they are mere supports.
60. The Consciousness of “I” is the subject of all of our actions.
61. Inquiring into the true nature of that Consciousness and remaining as oneself is the way to understand one’s true nature.
62. All that is required to realize the Self is to Be Still.
63. What can be easier than that?
64. If one gains the Peace of the Self, it will spread without any effort on the part of the individual.
65. When one is not peaceful, oneself, how can one spread peace in the world?
66. Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.
67. Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent there will be perfect Peace.
68. Reality lies beyond the mind.
69. So long as the mind functions, there is duality. Once it is transcended, Reality shines forth.
70. Self-effulgence is the Self.
71. Satsang means association (sanga) with Being (Sat), which is the Self.
72. For whom is association?
73. The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.
74. It is a great wonder that to teach such a simple truth a number of religions should be necessary, and so many disputes should go on between them as to which is the God-ordained teaching. What a pity!
75. Just be the Self, that is all.
76. Because people want something elaborate and mysterious, so many religions have come into existence. Only those who are mature can understand the matter in its naked simplicity.
77. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present.
78. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it.
79. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond and apart from experience nothing exists.
80. Even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.
81. Because people love mystery and not the truth, religions cater to them, eventually bringing them around to the Self.
82. Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self; so why not abide in the Self here and now?
83. There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.
84. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous.
85. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.
86. If we look upon the Self as the ego, we become the ego, if as the mind we become the mind, if as the body we become the body.
87. It is thought that builds up layers in so many ways.
88. Take no notice of the ego and its activities but see only the light behind it.
89. The ego is the “I”-thought.
90. The true “I” is the Self.
91. The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.
92. It is false to speak of Realization; what is there to realize?
93. The real is ever as it is.
94. All that is required is to cease regarding as real that which is unreal. That is all we need to attain wisdom (jnana).
95. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an external entity.
96. The world phenomena, within or without, are only fleeting and are not independent of our Self.
97. Only the habit of looking at them as real and located outside ourselves is responsible for hiding our pure Being.
98. When the ever-present sole Reality, the Self, is found, all other unreal things will disappear, leaving behind the knowledge that they are not other than the Self.
99. Either surrender because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery.
100. The Divine never forsakes one who has surrendered.
101. To identify oneself with the body and yet seek happiness is like attempting to cross a river on the back of an alligator.
102. In truth, you are Spirit.
103. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit. If the wrong identification ceases, there will be peace and permanent, indescribable bliss.
104. Those who have realized the Self, which is the ground of fate and free will, are free from them.
105. Ramana’s reply to his mother, when she requested that he return home with her:
106. The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their destiny (prarabdha karma). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain.
107. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
108. The real state must be effortless. It is permanent.
109. Efforts are spasmodic and so also are their results.
110. When your real, effortless, joyful nature is realized, it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life.
111. In the interior of the heart-cave, the one Reality shines alone as “I-I” the Self.
112. The Heart is the only Reality.
113. The mind is only a transient phase.
114. To remain as one’s Self is to enter the Heart.
115. Apart from thought, there is no independent entity called “world.”
116. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts and there is no world. In waking and dreaming, there are thoughts, and there is a world, also.
117. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and then withdraws it, likewise, the mind projects the world out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself.
118. The Self is all-pervading.
119. Therefore, no particular place can be allocated for leading a life of solitude.
120. To abide in the tranquil state that is devoid of thought is to lead a life of solitude and seclusion.
121. When your standpoint becomes that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God.
122. The question is one of outlook.
123. The universe exists within the Self.
124. Therefore, it is real, but only because it obtains its reality from the Self. We call it unreal, however, to indicate its changing appearance and transient form, whereas we call the Self real because it is changeless.
125. We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written.
126. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal — an illusion — since it rests upon the paper.
127. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.
128. Our real nature is Liberation, but we imagine that we are bound…
129. …we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free.
130. A person goes to sleep in this hall and dreams he has gone on a world tour, traveling over various continents. After many years of strenuous travel, he returns to this country, enters the ashram, and walks into the hall.
131. Just at that moment, he wakes up and finds that he has not moved at all but has been sleeping. He has not returned after great efforts to this hall, but was here all the time.
132. If it is asked, “Why, being free, we imagine ourselves bound?” I answer, “Why, being in the hall, did you imagine you were on a world tour, crossing desert and sea?”
133. It is all mind.
134. With a smile, Ramana placed his little finger over his eye and said:
135. 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.
136. See how powerful it is!
137. What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.
138. We fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.
139. If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out, what remains is a feeling of fullness, which is the Self. Then there will be no such thing as a separate “I.”
140. Meditation on the Self, which is oneself, is the greatest of all meditations.
141. All other meditations are included in this.
142. True silence is really endless speech.
143. There is no attaining it because it is always present.
144. All you have to do is remove the coverings that conceal it.
145. Surrender is giving oneself up to the origin of one’s Being.
146. In due course, we will know that our glory lies where we cease to exist.
147. The pet squirrel is waiting for an opportunity to run out of its cage.
148. Ramana remarks:
149. All want to rush out. There is no limit to going out. Happiness lies within and not without.
150. All spiritual teachings are only meant to make us retrace our steps to our Original Source.
151. We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions.
152. Instead of doing this, we try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake.
153. Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.
154. What appears will also disappear and is therefore impermanent. The Self never appears and disappears and is therefore permanent.
155. It is the only Reality.
156. Environment, time, and objects all exist in oneself.
157. How can they be independent of me?
158. They may change, but “I” remain unchanging.
159. Make no effort either to work or to give up work; your very effort is the bondage.
160. What is destined to happen will happen. Leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.
161. The feeling “I work” is the hindrance.
162. Ask yourself, “Who works?” Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you; it will proceed automatically.
163. Realization is nothing to be gained anew.
164. You are the Self. You are already and eternally That.
165. There is never a moment when the Self is not; it is ever-present, here and now.
166. If Realization were something to be gained hereafter, there would be an equal chance of its being lost; this cannot be Liberation, which is eternal.
167. Realization consists of getting rid of the false idea that one is not realized.
168. What is called “mind” is a wondrous power residing in the Self.
169. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind.
170. Self-inquiry directly leads to Self-realization by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realized.
171. It reveals the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists and enables one to realize the pure, undifferentiated Being, which is the Self or the Absolute.
172. Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts.
173. Wisdom transcends both, for the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance.
174. Pain or pleasure is the result of past actions and not of the present…they alternate with each other.
175. One must always try to abide in the Self and not be swayed by the pain or pleasure met with occasionally.
176. One who is indifferent to pain or pleasure can alone be happy.
177. Thoughts change but not you.
178. Thoughts form your bondage and are not external to you, so no external remedy be sought for freedom.
179. What does it matter if the mind is active? It is only so on the substratum of the Self.
180. Hold to the Self even during mental activity.
181. The “I” casts off the illusion of “I” and yet remains as “I.”
182. Such is the paradox of Self-realization.
183. You give up various possessions. If, instead, you give up “I” and “mine,” you give them all up in one stroke and lose the very seed of possession.
184. Disinterest in the non-Self must be very strong to do this.
185. One’s eagerness must be equal to that of a person kept under water while trying to rise to the surface to breathe.
186. Be what you are.
187. That which is, is ever present. Even now you are It, and not apart from It.
188. The expectation to see and the desire to get something are all the working of the ego.
189. Be yourself and nothing more.
190. Pleasure or pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness.
191. We forget the Self and imagine the body or the mind to be the Self. It I this wrong identity that gives rise to misery.
192. Happiness is inherent in everyone and is not due to external causes.
193. Because you have lost hold of the Self, thoughts afflict you; you see the world and doubts arise, along with anxiety about the future.
194. There is no use removing doubts.
195. If we clear one doubt, another arises, and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is really nonexistent.
196. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease.
197. Investigate the nature of the mind and it will disappear.
198. Because of the emergence of thought, you surmise that it has an origin and call that the mind.
199. When you inquire to see what it is, you find there is really no such thing as mind.
200. When the mind has thus vanished, you realize eternal Peace.
201. When the mind, turning inward, inquires, “Who am I?” and reaches the heart, that which is “I” (the ego) sinks crestfallen, and the One (Self) appears of its own accord as “I-I.” Though it appears thus, it is not the ego; it is the Whole.
202. It is the real Self.
203. The Self is free from all qualities.
204. Good or bad qualities pertain only to the mind.
205. The numeral one gives rise to other numbers. The truth is neither one nor two.
206. It is as it is.
207. Dvaita and advaita are relative terms. They are based on a sense of duality. There is actually neither dvaita nor advaita.
208. I Am That I Am…
209. Simple Being is the Self.
210. The limited and multifarious thoughts having disappeared, there shines in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of “I-I,” which is pure Consciousness.
211. If one remains quiet without abandoning that understanding, then egoity—the individual sense of the form “I-am-the-body”—will be totally destroyed. And ultimately, the final thought, the “I”-thought, will also be extinguished, like camphor that is burned by fire.
212. The great sages and scriptures declare that this alone is Realization.
213. Meditation is your true nature now.
214. You call it meditation because other thoughts distract you. When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain in the state of meditation, free from thoughts.
215. When the practice becomes firm, your real nature shows itself as meditation.
216. When meditation is well-established, it cannot be given up. It will go on automatically, even when you are engaged in work or play. It will persist in sleep, too.
217. Meditation must become so deep-rooted that it will be natural to one.
218. Birth and death pertain only to the body…
219. …they are superimposed on the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self.
220. If one dies while still alive, one need not grieve over another’s death.
221. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy.
222. Why do you worry about life and death?
223. Deathlessness is our real nature. The real “I” exists here and now.
224. There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement.
225. This is the final truth.
[Source: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Edited by Matthew Greenblatt
Comments or questions, as always, very welcome.
Self-Atma: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Part One & Two
"That state which transcends speech and thought is mouna. That which is, is mouna. How can mouna be explained in words? Sages say that the state in which the thought "I" (the ego) does not rise even in the least, alone is Self (swarupa) which is silence (mouna). That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva (individual soul). Self alone is this ancient world. All other kinds of knowledge are only petty and trivial knowledge; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge. Know that the many objective differences are not real but are mere superimpositions on Self, which is the form of true knowledge." - Sri Ramana Maharshi
>
> The evidence is nailed on the front door of www.sahajayoga.org/
>
> The collective claim of the SY organization that Self Realization is
> Kundalini awakening is so simplistic that it defies logic and common
> sense. This ignorance is the very reason they believe that all they
> need is awaken the kundalini, thus instantly making the person self-
> realized!!! Despite that claim, hundreds of thousands have walked
> away from Sahaja Yoga despite the so-called bestowing of 'self-
> realization'; despite having attained the same self-realization that
> SYs have; despite feeling the same Cool Breeze. Only SYs think they
> are self-realized all the time, the proof being the Cool Breeze.
>
> But the Cool Breeze is evidence of second birth by the Spirit, not
> realization of that Spirit! This was only realized by me after years
> away from the collective, away from all their ignorance and rituals.
> You cannot realize your Spirit (Self) in Sahaja Yoga because of the
> collective mindset--chakras, kundalini, nadis, etc., (SYSSR)--and
> the constant, compulsive need of treatments to keep them clean.
>
> Without the many tributaries, streams and rivers of the Blossom
> Time it will be almost impossible for humanity to know/realize
> what the Ocean of Self is all about
>
Part One
Self-Atma
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Question: What is Reality?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Reality must be always real. It is not with forms and names. That which underlies these is the Reality. It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. It is as it is. It transcends speech. It is beyond the expressions `existence, non-existence', etc.
The reality which is the mere consciousness that remains when ignorance is destroyed along with knowledge of objects, alone is the Self (Atma). In that Brahma-swarupa (real form of Brahman), which is abundant Self-awareness, there is not the least ignorance.
The reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body, not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known, is your real form (nija-swarupa).
The radiance of consciousness-bliss, in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without, is the supreme and blissful primal reality. Its form is silence and it is declared by Jnanis (Self-realised) to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge (jnana).
Know that jnana alone is non-attachment; jnana alone is purity; jnana is the attainment of God; jnana which is devoid of forgetfulness of Self alone is immortality; jnana alone is everything.
Question: What is this awareness and how can one obtain and cultivate it?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.
Question: If the Self is itself aware, why am I not aware of it even now?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object.
Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom?
The Self is ever present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. The best definition is `I am that I am'. The Srutis (scriptures) speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. These descriptions have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.
Question: When a man realises the Self, what will he see?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realise the Self as the Self, in other words, `Be the Self.' At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is not self-evident. So, what can we say to this question?
That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains.
Question: How to know this by direct experience?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realised, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realisation, for want of a better term. How to `real-ise' or make the real that which alone is real?
Part Two
Self-Atma
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Question: You some times say the Self is silence. Why is this?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: For those who live in Self as the beauty devoid of thought, there is nothing, which should be thought of. That which should be adhered to is only the experience of silence, because in that supreme state nothing exists to be attained other than oneself.
Question: What is Mouna (silence)?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: That state which transcends speech and thought is mouna. That which is, is mouna. How can mouna be explained in words?
Sages say that the state in which the thought "I" (the ego) does not rise even in the least, alone is Self (swarupa) which is silence (mouna). That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva (individual soul). Self alone is this ancient world.
All other kinds of knowledge are only petty and trivial knowledge; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge. Know that the many objective differences are not real but are mere superimpositions on Self, which is the form of true knowledge.
Question: As the bodies and the selves animating them are everywhere actually observed to be innumerable how can it be said that the Self is only one?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: If the idea `I am the body' is accepted, the selves are multiple. The state in which this idea vanishes is the Self since in that state there are no other objects. It is for this reason that the Self is regarded as one only.
Since the body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real Self, but only in the extroverted outlook of the mind which is deluded by the power of illusion, to call Self, the space of consciousness, Dehi (the possessor of the body) is wrong.
The world does not exist without the body, the body never exists without the mind, the mind never exists without consciousness, and consciousness never exists without the Reality.
For the wise one who has known Self by diving within himself, there is nothing other than Self to be known. Why? Because since the ego, which identifies the form of a body as "I" has perished, he (the wise one) is the formless existence– consciousness.
The jnani (one who has realised the Self) knows he is the Self and that nothing, neither his body nor anything else, exists but the Self. To such a one what difference could the presence or absence of a body make?
It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The Real is as it always is. We are not creating anything new, or achieving something, which we did not have before.
The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or the well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth, which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long Samskaras (innate tendencies) which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.
Question: But how to do this and attain liberation?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it, one is in bondage.
Question: For one who has realised his Self, it is said that he will not have the three states of wakefulness, dream and deep sleep. Is that a fact?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: What makes you say that they do not have the three states? In saying, `I had a dream; I was in deep sleep; I am awake', you must admit that you were there in all three states. That makes it clear that you were there all the time. If you remain as you are now, you are in the wakeful state; this becomes hidden in the dream state; and the dream state disappears when you are in deep sleep. You were there then, you are there now, and you are there at all times. The three states come and go, but you are always there.
It is like a cinema. The screen is always there but several types of pictures appear on the screen and then disappear. Nothing sticks to the screen, it remains a screen. Similarly, you remain your own Self in all the three states. If you know that, the three states will not trouble you, just as the pictures which appear on the screen do not stick to it. On the screen, you sometimes see a huge ocean with endless waves; that disappears. Another time, you see fire spreading all around; that too disappears. The screen is there on both occasions. Did the screen get wet with the water or was it burnt by fire? Nothing affected the screen. In the same way, the things that happen during the wakeful, dream and sleep states do not affect you at all; you remain your own Self.
Question: Brahman (the Supreme Reality) is said to be sat-chit-ananda. What does that mean?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes. That is so. That which is, in only Sat. That is called Brahman. The lustre of Sat is Chit and its nature is Ananda. These are not different from Sat. All the three together are known as Sat-Chit-Ananda.
Question: As the Self is existence (Sat) and consciousness (Chit) what is the reason for describing it as different from the existent and the non-existent, the sentient and the insentient?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Although the Self is real, as it comprises everything, it does not give room for questions involving duality about its reality or unreality. Therefore it is said to be different from the real and the unreal. Similarly, even though it is consciousness, since there is nothing for it to know or to make itself known to, it is said to be different from the sentient and the insentient.
Sat-Chit-Ananda is said to indicate that the Supreme is not asat (different from being), not achit (different from consciousness) and not an ananda (different from bliss). Because we are in the phenomenal world we speak of the Self as Sat-Chit-Ananda.
www.hinduism.co.za/self-.htm
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Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi is
Christian by birth, Hindu by
marriage, and Paraclete by duty"The Self is the Spirit. This Spirit resides in the heart of every human being and is in a witness-like state.
The Spirit is the projection of God Almighty, while the Kundalini is the projection of the power of God, of His desire which is the Primordial Mother, or you can call it Adi Shakti, Holy Ghost or Athena.
So the Kundalini is the projection of the Holy Ghost, while the Spirit is the projection of God Almighty.
The All-pervading Power of Love is the power of the Primordial Mother, which creates and evolves, and does all the living work."
Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi
Question: How does one discard all the suffocating rules and manmade rituals (of the present Sahaja Yoga organization) never initiated by Shri Mataji and seek her (Holy Spirit/Adi Shakti) only in the Sahastrara (Kingdom of God)?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Despite being years in Sahaja Yoga I do not agree with what our leaders are doing. I am thinking of leaving my collective. Can you suggest something that will help me continue on my own?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am a Muslim who absolutely am against worshipping of any idol or image. How then is Sahaja Yoga and Shri Mataji compatible with Islam?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: We are devout Christians who are very uncomfortable with Hindu rituals, and see the same in Sahaja Yoga. Is there any way we can do without such rituals?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: You loudly claim on your website that all religions and holy scriptures preach the same message. I don't see such evidence. What have you got to say?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I do not want to meditate on anything non-Christian but agree that the Holy Spirit is feminine. How do I only worship the Holy Spirit but not the Adi Shakti?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: My parents and husband are against worshipping Shri Mataji. How can I solve this serious family problem but still continue to practice Sahaja Yoga without their knowledge?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I completely agree with your belief that if you have to take a single step in any direction to seek the Divine you are going the wrong way. How and why did you reach this incredible conclusion only now despite spending so many years meditating, checking the scriptures and listening to Shri Mataji's speeches?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: How can we spread Shri Mataji's message successfully? So many have failed all these years and Sahaja Yoga is very slow. Most of the seekers have never heard of Shri Mataji. Other than Her Divine Message what can we teach new seekers that will attract them?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I do not want to follow any religious organization or yoga teacher but still am interested in spirituality. You think that is possible?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: My mother-in-law is totally against Shri Mataji and regards Her as just another false guru. But I know Shri Mataji is the Adi Shakti and want to continue. However, i do not want to antagonize my mother-in-law. Any suggestions?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am a Sikh. I am completely against any Hindu ritual or worshipping of their idols and gods. Sikhism is completely against such practices. But Sahaja Yoga is also so full of such rituals and gods. What have you got to say, being a Sikh yourself?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am getting somewhat ridiculed for my own spiritual experiences regarding the crown chakra and the divine feminine. People think I'm weird by emphasizing that the Devi is the true nature of brahman and it is creating doubt about my path (despite my own experiences). Should I continue with my meditations and ignore them or try to explain to them? What do you suggest?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: There is so much information about yoga and meditation. I am so confused and do not know which path to take. What then is the truth? How do I attain it?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I have been in Sahaja Yoga for years but still do not know what is Self-realization. Can you tell me in detail what you understand by it?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I have been a SY for many years and some of us find shoe-beating and some rituals quite absurd. You also are against them. How then can we solve our subtle system problems without such treatments?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am a Muslim living in Pakistan who want to practice Sahaja Yoga. But there are no centers here. How can I continue?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: What will happen after Shri Mataji passes away? Will She still be in the photograph? Where will the vibrations come from then?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I have just started meditating on Shri Mataji in the Sahasrara but find it very difficult. Is there a better way?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I do not want to join Sahaja Yoga but believe in a number of Shri Mataji's teachings. Can you help me?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am an established SYogini who am concerned at the way the organization is heading. However, I still want to spread Shri Mataji's teachings. What do you suggest I tell others?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I want to practice meditation but find it impossible to stop the thoughts. I value you opinion. If you don't mind my asking, but how do you do it?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: What is the shortest and surest route to realize God?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Some religions claim that humans are divine in nature and that liberation is from within. Can you tell me how all this is realized in such a hectic and materialistic world?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: As a SY I am concerned that after Shri Mataji takes Mahasamadhi there will great grief and sense of loss. How can I cope with this eventuality and continue my faith and devotion? Do I continue to meditate on Her photo even though She is not physically present anymore?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Jagbir, you are already telling us to discard Shri Mataji's photo and meditate on Her is the Sahasrara. A number of SYs have been offended by this and have left. What makes you so sure you are right?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: What is the most profound and deepest enlightenment you have discovered after all these years, based on the teachings of Shri Mataji? She also claims that all religions teach the same truth about the spirit. How is that so given all the religious differences and centuries-old rivalry?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Hi, man-made religions, sects and denominations are wide spread. So much misdeeds and divisions are committed and blood is shed in the name of God and religion. Is there a way to make humans realize that they are all worshipping the One and same Creator, no matter how different religious organizations have made God to be?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: It seems that religions are all preaching about a God that is to be found only in their organizations. Why then is it that the Divine can only be realized through one's own experience? What and where is God then?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Related Articles:
“Jesus presented ... salvation .. based upon knowledge of self"
Who am I - Deepak Chopra
The Silence of Buddha and his Contemplation of the Truth
On being liberated from the dualities of pleasure and pain
Yoga Methods in Christian Mysticism
Each religion springs from a profound experience of the Spirit
This new mode of being and consciousness is the ...
For the mystics, Jesus was a living embodiment of union with God
Gnosis essentially is act of distinguishing soul from deepest self
People who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred
Eckhart Tolle's Teachings and Self-realization are in perfect harmony
Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks and T. A. are in perfect harmony
The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore - Deepak Chopra
Jesus rebukes those who seek access to God elsewhere
Self-Atma: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Part One & Two
Silence on Self (read it regularly till in Silence you realize your Self)
Guru Nanak taught that the way to connect with the Supreme is ...
The Resurrection of Christ Within You
The Second Birth of Man—In Spirit
Idolatry to take pride in belonging to a particular religious tradition
Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time) Conclusion: Salam (Peace)
We are all Hindus now # 1
We are all Hindus now # 2
We are all Hindus now # 3
We are all Hindus now # 4
We are all Hindus now # 5
We are all Hindus now # 6
In the twenty-first century ... “India will conquer her conqueror"
Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti—"that which exists is One
Jesus: "God is spirit, and those who worship him ..."
Self as Spirit: “Jesus answered them ..."
"In order to rise above darkness, people must follow ..."
Theosis is a state akin to 'enlightenment'
Look deep within
God (Brahman) exists in every living being
Aim of being reborn known to almost every religion
All Holy Scriptures uphold the Self as Spirit, for Self is God
Allâh is "closer to him (the human) than [his] jugular vein."
Has Yoga strayed from its core?
Yoga is an art of living and not a religious practice
A Christian practicing sahaja yoga meditation
Shri Mataji: "Achieve your Self, become your Self."
Shri Mataji: "But this Judgment is so beautiful."
Shri Mataji: "What Christ said ... is nothing but Advaita."
For if you walk on this road, it is impossible to go astray
Mystic’s discovery of the higher Self is only a step on a greater journey
Shri Mataji: "The ultimate act against the Spirit ..."
Shri Mataji: "Self-Realization will ... lead to the creation of a new race"
A heavenly realm where a great invisible Spirit dwells
What and where is Self/Brahman/God/Being ...?
Silence Is God's First Language
NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:
www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/ — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/ — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/ — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/ — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)
"That state which transcends speech and thought is mouna. That which is, is mouna. How can mouna be explained in words? Sages say that the state in which the thought "I" (the ego) does not rise even in the least, alone is Self (swarupa) which is silence (mouna). That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva (individual soul). Self alone is this ancient world. All other kinds of knowledge are only petty and trivial knowledge; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge. Know that the many objective differences are not real but are mere superimpositions on Self, which is the form of true knowledge." - Sri Ramana Maharshi
>
> The evidence is nailed on the front door of www.sahajayoga.org/
>
> The collective claim of the SY organization that Self Realization is
> Kundalini awakening is so simplistic that it defies logic and common
> sense. This ignorance is the very reason they believe that all they
> need is awaken the kundalini, thus instantly making the person self-
> realized!!! Despite that claim, hundreds of thousands have walked
> away from Sahaja Yoga despite the so-called bestowing of 'self-
> realization'; despite having attained the same self-realization that
> SYs have; despite feeling the same Cool Breeze. Only SYs think they
> are self-realized all the time, the proof being the Cool Breeze.
>
> But the Cool Breeze is evidence of second birth by the Spirit, not
> realization of that Spirit! This was only realized by me after years
> away from the collective, away from all their ignorance and rituals.
> You cannot realize your Spirit (Self) in Sahaja Yoga because of the
> collective mindset--chakras, kundalini, nadis, etc., (SYSSR)--and
> the constant, compulsive need of treatments to keep them clean.
>
> Without the many tributaries, streams and rivers of the Blossom
> Time it will be almost impossible for humanity to know/realize
> what the Ocean of Self is all about
>
Part One
Self-Atma
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Question: What is Reality?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Reality must be always real. It is not with forms and names. That which underlies these is the Reality. It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. It is as it is. It transcends speech. It is beyond the expressions `existence, non-existence', etc.
The reality which is the mere consciousness that remains when ignorance is destroyed along with knowledge of objects, alone is the Self (Atma). In that Brahma-swarupa (real form of Brahman), which is abundant Self-awareness, there is not the least ignorance.
The reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body, not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known, is your real form (nija-swarupa).
The radiance of consciousness-bliss, in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without, is the supreme and blissful primal reality. Its form is silence and it is declared by Jnanis (Self-realised) to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge (jnana).
Know that jnana alone is non-attachment; jnana alone is purity; jnana is the attainment of God; jnana which is devoid of forgetfulness of Self alone is immortality; jnana alone is everything.
Question: What is this awareness and how can one obtain and cultivate it?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.
Question: If the Self is itself aware, why am I not aware of it even now?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object.
Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom?
The Self is ever present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. The best definition is `I am that I am'. The Srutis (scriptures) speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. These descriptions have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.
Question: When a man realises the Self, what will he see?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realise the Self as the Self, in other words, `Be the Self.' At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is not self-evident. So, what can we say to this question?
That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains.
Question: How to know this by direct experience?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realised, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realisation, for want of a better term. How to `real-ise' or make the real that which alone is real?
Part Two
Self-Atma
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Question: You some times say the Self is silence. Why is this?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: For those who live in Self as the beauty devoid of thought, there is nothing, which should be thought of. That which should be adhered to is only the experience of silence, because in that supreme state nothing exists to be attained other than oneself.
Question: What is Mouna (silence)?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: That state which transcends speech and thought is mouna. That which is, is mouna. How can mouna be explained in words?
Sages say that the state in which the thought "I" (the ego) does not rise even in the least, alone is Self (swarupa) which is silence (mouna). That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva (individual soul). Self alone is this ancient world.
All other kinds of knowledge are only petty and trivial knowledge; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge. Know that the many objective differences are not real but are mere superimpositions on Self, which is the form of true knowledge.
Question: As the bodies and the selves animating them are everywhere actually observed to be innumerable how can it be said that the Self is only one?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: If the idea `I am the body' is accepted, the selves are multiple. The state in which this idea vanishes is the Self since in that state there are no other objects. It is for this reason that the Self is regarded as one only.
Since the body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real Self, but only in the extroverted outlook of the mind which is deluded by the power of illusion, to call Self, the space of consciousness, Dehi (the possessor of the body) is wrong.
The world does not exist without the body, the body never exists without the mind, the mind never exists without consciousness, and consciousness never exists without the Reality.
For the wise one who has known Self by diving within himself, there is nothing other than Self to be known. Why? Because since the ego, which identifies the form of a body as "I" has perished, he (the wise one) is the formless existence– consciousness.
The jnani (one who has realised the Self) knows he is the Self and that nothing, neither his body nor anything else, exists but the Self. To such a one what difference could the presence or absence of a body make?
It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The Real is as it always is. We are not creating anything new, or achieving something, which we did not have before.
The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or the well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth, which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long Samskaras (innate tendencies) which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.
Question: But how to do this and attain liberation?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it, one is in bondage.
Question: For one who has realised his Self, it is said that he will not have the three states of wakefulness, dream and deep sleep. Is that a fact?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: What makes you say that they do not have the three states? In saying, `I had a dream; I was in deep sleep; I am awake', you must admit that you were there in all three states. That makes it clear that you were there all the time. If you remain as you are now, you are in the wakeful state; this becomes hidden in the dream state; and the dream state disappears when you are in deep sleep. You were there then, you are there now, and you are there at all times. The three states come and go, but you are always there.
It is like a cinema. The screen is always there but several types of pictures appear on the screen and then disappear. Nothing sticks to the screen, it remains a screen. Similarly, you remain your own Self in all the three states. If you know that, the three states will not trouble you, just as the pictures which appear on the screen do not stick to it. On the screen, you sometimes see a huge ocean with endless waves; that disappears. Another time, you see fire spreading all around; that too disappears. The screen is there on both occasions. Did the screen get wet with the water or was it burnt by fire? Nothing affected the screen. In the same way, the things that happen during the wakeful, dream and sleep states do not affect you at all; you remain your own Self.
Question: Brahman (the Supreme Reality) is said to be sat-chit-ananda. What does that mean?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes. That is so. That which is, in only Sat. That is called Brahman. The lustre of Sat is Chit and its nature is Ananda. These are not different from Sat. All the three together are known as Sat-Chit-Ananda.
Question: As the Self is existence (Sat) and consciousness (Chit) what is the reason for describing it as different from the existent and the non-existent, the sentient and the insentient?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Although the Self is real, as it comprises everything, it does not give room for questions involving duality about its reality or unreality. Therefore it is said to be different from the real and the unreal. Similarly, even though it is consciousness, since there is nothing for it to know or to make itself known to, it is said to be different from the sentient and the insentient.
Sat-Chit-Ananda is said to indicate that the Supreme is not asat (different from being), not achit (different from consciousness) and not an ananda (different from bliss). Because we are in the phenomenal world we speak of the Self as Sat-Chit-Ananda.
www.hinduism.co.za/self-.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi is
Christian by birth, Hindu by
marriage, and Paraclete by duty"The Self is the Spirit. This Spirit resides in the heart of every human being and is in a witness-like state.
The Spirit is the projection of God Almighty, while the Kundalini is the projection of the power of God, of His desire which is the Primordial Mother, or you can call it Adi Shakti, Holy Ghost or Athena.
So the Kundalini is the projection of the Holy Ghost, while the Spirit is the projection of God Almighty.
The All-pervading Power of Love is the power of the Primordial Mother, which creates and evolves, and does all the living work."
Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi
Question: How does one discard all the suffocating rules and manmade rituals (of the present Sahaja Yoga organization) never initiated by Shri Mataji and seek her (Holy Spirit/Adi Shakti) only in the Sahastrara (Kingdom of God)?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Despite being years in Sahaja Yoga I do not agree with what our leaders are doing. I am thinking of leaving my collective. Can you suggest something that will help me continue on my own?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am a Muslim who absolutely am against worshipping of any idol or image. How then is Sahaja Yoga and Shri Mataji compatible with Islam?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: We are devout Christians who are very uncomfortable with Hindu rituals, and see the same in Sahaja Yoga. Is there any way we can do without such rituals?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: You loudly claim on your website that all religions and holy scriptures preach the same message. I don't see such evidence. What have you got to say?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I do not want to meditate on anything non-Christian but agree that the Holy Spirit is feminine. How do I only worship the Holy Spirit but not the Adi Shakti?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: My parents and husband are against worshipping Shri Mataji. How can I solve this serious family problem but still continue to practice Sahaja Yoga without their knowledge?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I completely agree with your belief that if you have to take a single step in any direction to seek the Divine you are going the wrong way. How and why did you reach this incredible conclusion only now despite spending so many years meditating, checking the scriptures and listening to Shri Mataji's speeches?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: How can we spread Shri Mataji's message successfully? So many have failed all these years and Sahaja Yoga is very slow. Most of the seekers have never heard of Shri Mataji. Other than Her Divine Message what can we teach new seekers that will attract them?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I do not want to follow any religious organization or yoga teacher but still am interested in spirituality. You think that is possible?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: My mother-in-law is totally against Shri Mataji and regards Her as just another false guru. But I know Shri Mataji is the Adi Shakti and want to continue. However, i do not want to antagonize my mother-in-law. Any suggestions?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am a Sikh. I am completely against any Hindu ritual or worshipping of their idols and gods. Sikhism is completely against such practices. But Sahaja Yoga is also so full of such rituals and gods. What have you got to say, being a Sikh yourself?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am getting somewhat ridiculed for my own spiritual experiences regarding the crown chakra and the divine feminine. People think I'm weird by emphasizing that the Devi is the true nature of brahman and it is creating doubt about my path (despite my own experiences). Should I continue with my meditations and ignore them or try to explain to them? What do you suggest?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: There is so much information about yoga and meditation. I am so confused and do not know which path to take. What then is the truth? How do I attain it?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I have been in Sahaja Yoga for years but still do not know what is Self-realization. Can you tell me in detail what you understand by it?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I have been a SY for many years and some of us find shoe-beating and some rituals quite absurd. You also are against them. How then can we solve our subtle system problems without such treatments?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am a Muslim living in Pakistan who want to practice Sahaja Yoga. But there are no centers here. How can I continue?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: What will happen after Shri Mataji passes away? Will She still be in the photograph? Where will the vibrations come from then?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I have just started meditating on Shri Mataji in the Sahasrara but find it very difficult. Is there a better way?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I do not want to join Sahaja Yoga but believe in a number of Shri Mataji's teachings. Can you help me?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I am an established SYogini who am concerned at the way the organization is heading. However, I still want to spread Shri Mataji's teachings. What do you suggest I tell others?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: I want to practice meditation but find it impossible to stop the thoughts. I value you opinion. If you don't mind my asking, but how do you do it?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: What is the shortest and surest route to realize God?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Some religions claim that humans are divine in nature and that liberation is from within. Can you tell me how all this is realized in such a hectic and materialistic world?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: As a SY I am concerned that after Shri Mataji takes Mahasamadhi there will great grief and sense of loss. How can I cope with this eventuality and continue my faith and devotion? Do I continue to meditate on Her photo even though She is not physically present anymore?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Jagbir, you are already telling us to discard Shri Mataji's photo and meditate on Her is the Sahasrara. A number of SYs have been offended by this and have left. What makes you so sure you are right?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: What is the most profound and deepest enlightenment you have discovered after all these years, based on the teachings of Shri Mataji? She also claims that all religions teach the same truth about the spirit. How is that so given all the religious differences and centuries-old rivalry?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: Hi, man-made religions, sects and denominations are wide spread. So much misdeeds and divisions are committed and blood is shed in the name of God and religion. Is there a way to make humans realize that they are all worshipping the One and same Creator, no matter how different religious organizations have made God to be?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Question: It seems that religions are all preaching about a God that is to be found only in their organizations. Why then is it that the Divine can only be realized through one's own experience? What and where is God then?
Answer: Silence on Spirit
Related Articles:
“Jesus presented ... salvation .. based upon knowledge of self"
Who am I - Deepak Chopra
The Silence of Buddha and his Contemplation of the Truth
On being liberated from the dualities of pleasure and pain
Yoga Methods in Christian Mysticism
Each religion springs from a profound experience of the Spirit
This new mode of being and consciousness is the ...
For the mystics, Jesus was a living embodiment of union with God
Gnosis essentially is act of distinguishing soul from deepest self
People who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred
Eckhart Tolle's Teachings and Self-realization are in perfect harmony
Eckhart Tolle's Stillness Speaks and T. A. are in perfect harmony
The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore - Deepak Chopra
Jesus rebukes those who seek access to God elsewhere
Self-Atma: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Part One & Two
Silence on Self (read it regularly till in Silence you realize your Self)
Guru Nanak taught that the way to connect with the Supreme is ...
The Resurrection of Christ Within You
The Second Birth of Man—In Spirit
Idolatry to take pride in belonging to a particular religious tradition
Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time) Conclusion: Salam (Peace)
We are all Hindus now # 1
We are all Hindus now # 2
We are all Hindus now # 3
We are all Hindus now # 4
We are all Hindus now # 5
We are all Hindus now # 6
In the twenty-first century ... “India will conquer her conqueror"
Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti—"that which exists is One
Jesus: "God is spirit, and those who worship him ..."
Self as Spirit: “Jesus answered them ..."
"In order to rise above darkness, people must follow ..."
Theosis is a state akin to 'enlightenment'
Look deep within
God (Brahman) exists in every living being
Aim of being reborn known to almost every religion
All Holy Scriptures uphold the Self as Spirit, for Self is God
Allâh is "closer to him (the human) than [his] jugular vein."
Has Yoga strayed from its core?
Yoga is an art of living and not a religious practice
A Christian practicing sahaja yoga meditation
Shri Mataji: "Achieve your Self, become your Self."
Shri Mataji: "But this Judgment is so beautiful."
Shri Mataji: "What Christ said ... is nothing but Advaita."
For if you walk on this road, it is impossible to go astray
Mystic’s discovery of the higher Self is only a step on a greater journey
Shri Mataji: "The ultimate act against the Spirit ..."
Shri Mataji: "Self-Realization will ... lead to the creation of a new race"
A heavenly realm where a great invisible Spirit dwells
What and where is Self/Brahman/God/Being ...?
Silence Is God's First Language
NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:
www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/ — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/ — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/ — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/ — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)
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