My Master My God and He everything

Any words will fall short of description of Sri Ramana, as even the Vedas could not describe the Supreme. But the following passage caught my mind which attempts to describe Bhagawan. For me Bhagawan is everything. He cares for me, He snaps my little ego whenever it rises up, but this big fat ego in me doesn't disappear altogether, as sometimes I enjoy the ego.I should let this go , let me love the most heinous of men and lowest of the creature as there is nothing such as that.

"Profound and Magnanimous like the ocean, unshaken by fear like the Himalayas ,of charming appearance like the moon,patient and ever enduring as theEarth, giving away freely as Kubera the God of wealth as severely true and righteous as "Death itself"

Sunch indeed is Maharishi. He forgives not merely once but every time.He gives away everything as he wants nothing for his body. He speaks the Truth-for he is the Real.

Bhagawan , may the spiritual waves from you wash away any hatred and anger I have for anyone and make me qualified for the Sadhana.

Sri Ramanaya Namaha

Cravings and Self Realization

Several people have asked Maharishi from time to time for help (especially in directing their meditation) to overcome cravings and thus to prepare themselves ultimately for Self-realisation. Cravings like lover of drink , anger , sexual craving suddenly can make a veritable slave of man. Disciples have requested Maharishi's advise for similar conquests. There are some detailed considerations set out in Sri Shankara's bhajagovindam eg "Deem this body a nasty bundle of flesh, serum etc and do not enamoured of this" , "when you are impatient and wroth with me or another , remember you are worth with Sri Maha Vishnu who is in you, in me and all". 

Maharishi generally does not advise on these lines. He always goes to the root of the matter " Aim high , aim at the highest; and all lower aims are thereby achieved ", is his principle. If one tries and learns the nature of Self , where is lust and where is anger there to disturb him?. But some disciples are too conscious of their own weakness to aim so high and feel that an immediate remedy for their troubles in required. When Maharishi asks them to not look downwards at the stormy seas over which he asks them to go to the SELF they look below despite his direction , and are nearly drowned. "It is looking below on the stormy seas of differences that makes you sink . Look up, beyond these , and see the one Glorious Real and you are saved" , is his advise. " Have faith in God, Faith in Yourself: That will cure all", is his panacea for all ills. " Hope for the best, expect the best , toil for the best", he says " and everything will come right in the end." Some do rise to the occasion by acting on this advice, meditate straightaway on the SELF and over come their " defects of doubt and taints of blood" .

SRI RAMANAARPANAM

Bound and Liberated Man

Devotee: What is the difference between bound man and the one liberated"?

Bhagawan :" From the Heart, there is a subtle passage leading to the 'sahasrara' , the seat of power.The ordinary man live in the brain unaware of himself in the Heart. The 'jnana siddha'lives in the Heart. When he moves about and deals with men and things , he knows that wha he sees is not separate from the one reality".

D: What about the ordinary man?

Bhagawan : I have just said that he sees things outside himself. He is separate from the world, from his own deeper truth, from the truth that supports him and what he sees. Then man who has realised the truth of his own existence realises that it is the one reality that is there behind him., behind the world.In fact , he is aware of the one, as real , the Self in all selves, in all things , as that which is eternal and immutable in all that is impermanent and mutable".

D: I am done .But one doubt.

Bhagawan : what is it ?

Devotee : You said 'Heart ' is the centre of the ego-self as also the real-self.

Bhagawan : Yes, the Heart is the centre of the real.But the ego is impermanent. Like everything else it is supported by the Heart Centre. But the ego is the links between spirit and matter; it is a knot, the knot of radial ignorance in which one is steeped. When this knot is cut asunder by proper mean you find this centre.

Devotee : You said there is a passage from this centre to 'Sahasrara' 

Bhagawan: Yes. It is closed in the man in bondage; in the man in whom the ego-knot is cut asunder , a force-current called  'amritanadi' rises and goes up to the 'sahasrara' , the crown of the head.

Devotee: Is this 'sushunmna' ?

Bhagawan: No. This is the passage of liberation. This is called 'atmanadi' ' Brahmanadi' or 'Amritanadi'. This is the nadi that is referred to in the Upanishads. When this passage is open, you cease to be ignorant. You know the truth even when you talk , think or do anything and when dealing with men and things'. 

Ramana Ramana Ramana

The name of Bhagawan itself is enough to stir the hearts of devotees, anxieties vanish , calmness pervades in the heart. Just one visit to Ramanashramam changed my life for ever. I try and visit Bhagawan every time I go to India. Meditating particularly on the hill , in Skandashramam is just a Devine experience. We can sit next to where Bhagawan used to sit and feel his presence , although HE is all pervading , it's is not easy to feel that way for me. Going to Arunachalam , the thought itself makes me happy. The Hill pulls me and Bhagawan with his Devine grace keeps me blissful. I had to stay outside the Ashramam accommodation this time and somehow was bit disappointed , but that's me , there is no difference in Bhagawan and his love.

Sri Ramana , to your holy feet. Please may my mind be at your Feet.

The Entity Mind and Bhagawan

Bhagawan

 

 

" What is mind? If one searches to find out, then there would be no separate entity as the mind."

 

"The mind is a bundle of thoughts. They are dependent on the 'I' thought. Know the 'I' thought to be the mind"

 

"The body is insentient. The Self does not rise. Within the body's limit an 'I' arises between the body and the Self. It is named 'ego' , knot of matter and spirit, bondage , subtle body and mind"

 

 

"The mind is born of forms; rooted in forms. It feeds on forms but is itself formless."

 

 

Devotee: Bhagawan please destroy my mind.

 

Bhagawan: Is there such a thing as the mind? If so what is its form? Does it have beard or moustache?

 

 

Guru A living Fire

 

 

The Guru is the living fire that warms the logs of wood around in general while the dry ones catch the fire. And as elsewhere stated, no method suggested by the Shastra  alone , no book however sacred it be , can give the initiating touch that opens the third eye in us. The Guru gives the method, not the written instruction, not necessarily the spoken word even. The word ,, the real initiation, upadesa or diksa, is a silent one, a power, an influence issuing from the being and consciousness of the Guru, the Jnanin, who has realised the Lord, the Self of all existences, in his own being and so knows him in other beings. And in language of the Bhagavath Gita, the Jnanin knows that all is in Vasudeva and all is Vasudeva. Therefore Sri Krishna says, " The Jannin is myself". The Jnanin alone is real Guru, for none else but God is the Teacher, and He revealing Himself in the Jananin initiates the soul , faithful , chosen , fit and devoted.

 

 

 

 

Source " The Maharishi" by Sri T.V. Kapali Sastry

Sri Maharishi is a Dynamo

LEAVES FOR KAPALI SHASTHRI'S DIARY

 

It is remarkable how the Maharishi has been able to live all these seventy years. Sri Shankara lived only for 32 years while Jana Sambanda passed away in his sixteenth year. To have lived so long after the realisation and that after allowing unrestricted access to ll people at all hours is unique phenomenon. Sri Maharishi is a dynamo. Some twenty years back a devotee wrote to him that rays of light emanate from him and do their work on the devotee. Sri Maharishi corrected it to say, "He emanates and directs the rays " . That is a correct statement of the truth; for he meant to say that he was not passive in cases which required his intervention, but active and directed the rays of Grace.

 

A single look from him breaks through many coverings of ones ego, however thick, and reaches and feels the core of the being. For spiritual seekers His is the rarest type of realisation of the kind.

 

 

 

 

The Ashram Prasadam

 

The Maharishi was very particular that visitors to the Ashram should take food there. In fact, on the Jayanthi day, he did not take his meal till the last man had had his food. When I asked him about this, he said in effect, that when, in his early boyhood, he set out from the house to Tiruvannamalai, he had actually to starve for days together.

 

In those days, one Muslim family refused to give him food as he was a " kafir". Then when he was in the Patala Lingam cave, he subsisted mainly on plantains and panchamrita that were thrust down into the cave. He lived on these things for years and his body differed for want of food. Things took an opposite turn thereafter and it had been his experience that wherever he went some one or other greeted him with food. At one time when he was in deeps of the forest, some ten people were waiting for him each with separate food! And so he has been very particular that nobody should suffer the pangs as he did.

 

It is also a fact that food in Sri Maharishi's ashram is not merely food. It is definitely something more; people get better appetite there and the does not lie heavy.

 

 

SRI RAMANAYA NAMAHA

 

  

SOULABHYA AND SAHAJATHA

Among the qualities that endeared Sri Ramana to thousands, was his soulabhya-easy accessibility. He sacrificed all privacy of time and sat in the hall day in and day out, and even slept in the presence of all. He did everything possible to make himself available to the devotees. With advancing age, the Ashram management thought of some rest for him after lunch by closing the doors of the hall for two hours. When Bhagawan learnt about it , he sat outside the hall after lunch saying " to see me, people come from different parts of the world. they may have some other urgent work. The management is welcome to close the doors but I am free to meet the visitors outside. It took a lot of persuasion to make him relent.

 

 

Equally charming was his sahajata- the utter normality of behaviour. His manners were so natural that the new comer immediately felt at ease with him. by a single glance, nod of the head or by a simple enquiry from him, the visitor felt that Sri Ramana was his very own and that he cared for him . He was extremely humble and unassuming. There was no pontifical solemnity in his expositions, on the contrary his speech is lively. When a devotee asked why his prayers were not being answered , Bhagawan replied laughingly said " If they were , you might stop praying".

 

 

SRI RAMANA

SOULABHYA AND SAHAJATHA

Among the qualities that endeared Sri Ramana to thousands, was his soulabhya-easy accessibility. He sacrificed all privacy of time and sat in the hall day in and day out, and even slept in the presence of all. He did everything possible to make himself available to the devotees. With advancing age, the Ashram management thought of some rest for him after lunch by closing the doors of the hall for two hours. When Bhagawan learnt about it , he sat outside the hall after lunch saying " to see me, people come from different parts of the world. they may have some other urgent work. The management is welcome to close the doors but I am free to meet the visitors outside. It took a lot of persuasion to make him relent.

 

 

Equally charming was his sahajata- the utter normality of behaviour. His manners were so natural that the new comer immediately felt at ease with him. by a single glance, nod of the head or by a simple enquiry from him, the visitor felt that Sri Ramana was his very own and that he cared for him . He was extremely humble and unassuming. There was no pontifical solemnity in his expositions, on the contrary his speech is lively. When a devotee asked why his prayers were not being answered , Bhagawan replied laughingly said " If they were , you might stop praying".

 

 

SRI RAMANA

SOULABHYA AND SAHAJATHA

Among the qualities that endeared Sri Ramana to thousands, was his soulabhya-easy accessibility. He sacrificed all privacy of time and sat in the hall day in and day out, and even slept in the presence of all. He did everything possible to make himself available to the devotees. With advancing age, the Ashram management thought of some rest for him after lunch by closing the doors of the hall for two hours. When Bhagawan learnt about it , he sat outside the hall after lunch saying " to see me, people come from different parts of the world. they may have some other urgent work. The management is welcome to close the doors but I am free to meet the visitors outside. It took a lot of persuasion to make him relent.

 

 

Equally charming was his sahajata- the utter normality of behaviour. His manners were so natural that the new comer immediately felt at ease with him. by a single glance, nod of the head or by a simple enquiry from him, the visitor felt that Sri Ramana was his very own and that he cared for him . He was extremely humble and unassuming. There was no pontifical solemnity in his expositions, on the contrary his speech is lively. When a devotee asked why his prayers were not being answered , Bhagawan replied laughingly said " If they were , you might stop praying".

 

 

SRI RAMANA

WHO AM I --PART 2

Who am I , Questions by Sivaprakasam Pillai and Bhagawan answering forming the essence of His Teachings.

 

8. Sivaprakasam Pillai: What is the nature of the mind?

 

Bhagawan : Mind is merely thoughts. It is a form of energy. It manifests itself as all the objects (i.e. the world). When the mind sinks within the Self i.e. the Sivaswarupa, then the SELF is realised. When the mind issues out the world appears, and the Self is no realised.

 

9.S.P : How will the mind vanish?

 

Bhagawan : Only by the pursuing the enquiry ' Who am I?'. Though this enquiry is a mental operation , it destroys all other mental operations and finally itself vanishes, just as the stick with which the funeral pyre is kindled, is reduced to ashes after the pyre and corpses are burnt. Then we attain knowledge or realisation of Self. Then the thought 'I' (personality) is dissolved; breathing and other activities of prana are subdued. Both personality and breathing have a common source. Whatever you do, do without egoism, without the feeling, "I" am doing this ". When one reaches that state, even ones wife will be seen by him as the Mother of the universe. True Bhakthi is the surrender of ones ego into the Self.

 

10.S.P: Are there not other methods to make the mind disappear?

 

Bhagawan : Except enquiry, there is no other adequate method. If the mind is lulled by other means ,it keeps quiet for awhile, and again jumps up and leaps back to its former activity.

 

11. S.P: But these instincts and innumerable self-preserving and other latent tendencies in us , when will they be subdued?

 

Bhagawan : The more often you withdraw into the Self, the more these tendencies pale off ; and finally they leave you.

 

12: S.P: Is it indeed possible to root out all these tendencies, which have soaked into our minds, generation after generation?

 

Bhagawan : Never yield room for doubts of that sort in your mind. But firmly resolve and dive into the Self. The mind constantly directed by the above inquiry into the Self, becomes dissolved , and transformed in the end into the Self. Whenever you feel any doubt, do not try to clear the doubt , but try to know him who feels the doubt.

 

13: S.P: How long should go on with this inquiry?

 

Bhagawan : It is needed so long as there is the least traces of tendencies in the mind to create thoughts. So long as your enemies occupy a citadel, they will be issuing out. If you kill each, as he issues out, the citadel will be captured by you in the end. Similarly each time thoughts rear their heads and issue out , crush them by the above enquiry. This process of crushing out all thoughts a their birthplace or place of origin is termed vairagya. Hence inquiry is needful right up to the time of Self-realisation. what is required is a continuous and uninterrupted "thought" of real Self.

 

14: S.P : Is not all this , the universe and all that takes place therein , the result of Iswara's will ; and if so why should God will thus?

 

Bhagawan : God has no purpose. He is not fettered by any action. The world's activities cannot affect him. Let us take the analogies of the sun and space to make this clear. The sun arises without desire, purpose or effort. But directly the sun rises , numerous activities take place on the earth. The lens placed in the rays produces fire in its focus; the bud of the lotus blossoms, water evaporates, and every living object on earth enters upon , maintains and finally drops its activity. But, the sun is not affected by all such activity , as he merely  maintains is nature, acts by fixed laws, has no purpose, and is , merely a witness. So it is with God. Again take the case of space or ether. Earth, water, fire

and air are all in it and have their motions and modifications therein. Yet none of these affects ether or space. the same is the case with God. God has no desire or purpose in his acts of creation, maintenance, destruction, withdrawal and salvation , to which beings are subjected. As beings reap the fruit of their acts in accordance with his laws. the responsibility for such fruit is theirs, not God's . God is not affected or bound by any acts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SRI RAMANAYA NAMAHA

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHO AM I --PART 1

The fourteen questions and answers elicited in 1902, or soon after from the Swami are

1. Sivaprakasam Pillai: Swami, Who am I? How is salvation attained?

Bhagavan: By incessantly pursuing within yourself "Who am I" , you will know your true Self and thereby attain salvation .

2.Sivaprakasam Pillai: Who am I?

Bhagavan: the real "I" or true Self is not any of the five senses, nor the Prana, nor the mind nor even the deep sleep state when there is no cognisance of any of these.

3. S.P : If I am not any of these, what else am I?

Bhagavan: After excluding each of the above , saying ' This is not I' that which remains alone is 'I' , and that is consciousness.

4. S.P: What is the nature of that consciousness ?

Bhagavan: It is ' Sat Chit Ananda' , where there is not even the slightest trace of the thought 'I' at all. this is also called mouna, atman. The only thing that exists is that. The three, World, God, Ego) if considered separate entities are mere illusions like the appearance of silver in the mother of pearl .But God jivas and world are one Sivaswarupa or the Atmaswarupa are Real.

5. S.P: How are we to realise that Real?

Bhagavan:  When external objects vanish then the true nature of the seer or subject is realised.

6. S.P : Can we not realise that while we see objects also?

Bhagavan:  No, because, the seen and the seer are like the rope and the serpent. Unless you get rid of the superimposed illusion of a serpent m you cannot believe that what exists is only the rope.

7. S.P : When will the external objects vanish?

Bhagavan:  If the mind which is the cause of all thoughts and all activity vanishes , the external objects will vanish.

SRI RAMANAYA NAMAHA 

SELF ENQUIRY

In conversations with Bhagawan 

Devotee : By practising the disciplines taught by Sri Bhagawan on may get rid of the obstacles that are in the mind like ignorance, doubt, error etc ., and thereby attain quiescence of mind. Yet, there is one last doubt. After the mind has been resolved in the heart , there is only consciousness shining as the plenary reality. when thus the mind has assumed the form of the Self, who is there to enquire? such enquiry would result in self worship. It would be like the story of the shepherd searching fro the sheep that was all the time on his shoulders.

Bhagawan : The jiva itself is Siva; Siva himself is the jiva. It is true that the jiva is non other than Siva. When the grain is hidden inside the husk it is called paddy;when it is de-husked, it is called rice. Similarly , so long as one is bound by karma one remains jiva. when the bond of ignorance is broken , one shines as Siva , the Deity. Thus declares a scriptural text. Accordingly, the jiva which is mind is in reality the pure Self; but forgetting the truth, it imagines itself to be an individual soul and gets bound in the shape of the mind. So it search for the Self, which is itself, is like the search for the sheep by the shepherd. But still, the jiva which has forgotten its self will not become the Self through mere mediate knowledge. By the impediment caused by the residual impressions gathered in previous births, the jiva forgets again and again its identity with Self , and gets deceived , identifying itself with the body etc. Will a person become a high officer merely looking at him? Is it not by steady effort in that direction that he could become a highly placed officer? Similarly , the jiva which is in bondage through mental identification with the body etc should put forth effort in the form of reflection on the Self, in a gradual and sustained manner; and when the mind gets destroyed, the jiva would become the Self. 

The reflection on the Self which is thus practised constantly will destroy the mind and thereafter will destroy itself like the stick that is used to kindle the cinders burning a corpse. It is this state that is called release.

NAMO BHAGAWATHE SRI RAMANAYA