Loss and Advaitha

Just as morning follows night, gain inevitably follows loss. At each important stage of our lifespan we leave behind a part of us who we identified with and step into a new sense of identity. Life is a series of alternations between expansion and contraction. Though we may desire  just the positive and dread the negative , the impersonal current of our existence inexorably moves by laws over which we have little or no control. Our destiny is already pre-ordained according to Bhagawan , it is just a question of whether we identify with the prarabdha of our body-mind complex or not. 

Arthur Osborn once described life in terms of an analogy of sitting in a boat going down a stream without any idea of its course and without knowing what bends or falls loom ahead. The only one who could know all that he said , was one who was sitting on a hill over looking the stream and seeing exactly where the travelers were going. We live with approximations and our understanding is fragmentary. Though we have religious , scientific , social and personal explanations but none of them are ultimately satisfactory because death is implacable.

Bondage and Liberation

It is only if bondage is real that liberation and the nature of its experiences have to be considered. So far as the SELF (Purusha) is concerned it has really no bondage in any of the four states. As bondage is merely a verbal assumption according to emphatic proclamation of the Vedanta system, how can the question of Liberation ,which depends upon the question of bondage , arise when there is no bondage? Without knowing this truth, to enquire into the nature of bondage and Liberation , is like enquiring into the non-existent height, color , etc of a barren woman's son or the horns of a hare. 

Sadhana and Sadhaka

 Long time since I started blogging. But Bhagawan's Grace which is ever flowing initiated me to write this.

The foremost sadhaka is he who has surrendered himself completely to the practice, which he views as the only reason for his being in an embodied existence. Nothing else matters to him. His mind remains fixed on the search for the Heart , whether in hi meditation, which is the time for intense concentration, or in his studies. In this mood he mood he makes rapid progress, for then the mind will be able to shed quickly much for its inherited encumbrances and propensities, its vasanas- and replace them by the habits of the QUEST. He asks nothing of the Guru that has no bearing on his Sadhana , and desires nothing but to be left in peace to pursue it in his own way. 

Page 28 Advaitic Sadhana S.S.Cohen

Good deeds and Sins : Punya and Papa

 

Sri Ramana , Back again after a very very long time . Bhagwan please keep me with you thoughts always and let me keep writing few things about you at regular intervals 

SRI RAMANA 

Bhagavan was most tender with people who thought themselves for some reason or other to be miserable sinners and who went to him torn by repentance.

During summer evenings we used to sit in the open space near the well. We would collect in the dining hall for dinner and come back to the well. Suddenly, one day, a visitor started weeping bitterly, "I am a horrible sinner. For a long time, I have been coming to your feet, but there is no change in me. Can I become pure at last? How long am I to wait? When I am here with you I am good for a time, but when I leave this place I become a beast again. You cannot imagine how bad I can be, hardly a human being. Am I to remain a sinner forever?"

Bhagavan answered: "Why do you come to me? What have I to do with you? What is there between us that you should come here and weep and cry in front of me?"

The man started moaning and crying even more, as if his heart were breaking. "All my hopes of salvation are gone. You were my last refuge and you say you have nothing to do with me! To whom shall I turn now? What am I to do? To whom am I to go?"

Bhagavan watched for some time and said, "Am I your guru that I should be responsible for your salvation? Have I ever said that I am your master?"

"If you are not my master, then who is? And who are you, if not my master? You are my guru, you are my guardian angel, you will pity me and release from my sins!"  He started sobbing and crying again.

We all sat silent, overcome with pity. Only Bhagavan looked alert and matter-of-fact.

 

Bhagavan:  "If I am your guru, what are my fees? Surely you should pay me for my services."

Devotee:  "But you won't take anything," cried the visitor "What can I give you?"

Bhagavan:  "Did I ever say that I don't take anything? And did you ever ask me what you can give me?"

Devotee:  "If you would take, then ask me. There is nothing I would not give you."

Bhagavan:  "All right. Now I am asking. Give me. What will you give me?"

Devotee:  "Take anything, all is yours."

Bhagavan:  "Then give me all the good you have done in this world."

Devotee:  "What good could I have done? I have not a single virtue to my credit."

Bhagavan:  "You have promised to give. Now give. Don't talk of your credit. Just give away all the good you have done in your past."

Devotee:  "Yes, I shall give. But how does one give? Tell me how the giving is done and I shall give."

Bhagavan:  "Say like this: 'All the good I have done in the past I am giving away entirely to my guru. Henceforth I have no merit from it nor have I any concern with it.' Say it with your whole heart."

Devotee:  "All right, Swami, I am giving away to you all the good I have done so far, if I have done any, and all its good effects. I am giving it to you gladly, for you are my master and you are asking me to give it all away to you."

Bhagavan:  "But this is not enough," said Bhagavan sternly.

Devotee:  "I gave you all I have and all you asked me to give. I have nothing more to give."

Bhagavan:  "No, you have. Give me all your sins."

Devotees:  The man looked wildly at Bhagavan, terror-stricken. "You do not know, Swami, what you are asking for. If you knew, you would not ask me. If you take over my sins, your body will rot and burn. You do not know me; you do not know my sins. Please do not ask me for my sins." And he wept bitterly.

Bhagavan:  "I shall look after myself, don't you worry about me," said Bhagavan. "All I want from you is your sins."

For a long time, the bargain would not go through. The man refused to part with his sins. But Bhagavan was adamant.

Bhagavan:  "Either give me your sins along with your merits, or keep both and don't think of me as your master."

 

In the end the visitor's scruples broke down and he declared:   "Whatever sins I have done, they are no longer mine. All of them and their results, too belong to Ramana."

Bhagavan seemed to be satisfied. "From now on there is no good nor bad in you. You are just pure. Go and do nothing, neither good nor bad. Remain yourself, remain what you are."

A great peace fell over the man and over us all. No one knows what happened to the fortunate visitor, he was never seen in the Ashram again. He might have been in no further need of coming.

 

Arunachala Ramana, Eternal Ocean of Grace

The Guiding Presence, Book 7, page 337-339

Some Incidents

 One day when all the visitors went to the dining hall for the midday meal a Brahmin youth was ejected

 from there. At the sight of this a devotee felt disinclined to sit down for his meal ; however he consoled

 himself and took his food . He was , however , so badly upset buy the incident that he did not take any of

the prasdam given to him later that day .At about 3 PM ., a monkey came and sat apposite to him in the

 Hall and he attempted to give it all the prasdam so far collected. Sri Bhagawan , looking at him ,

 remarked that if he fed that one fellow hundreds of others idlers would pour in to the ashram and it would

 be converted form a place of retreat of sadhakas , Jananis and yogis to an idlers asylum . 

Divine Grace and Self Surrender

 Divine Grace is a manifestation of the cosmic free will in operation. It can alter the course of events in a mysterious manner through its own unknown laws, which are superior to all natural laws, and can modify the latter by interaction. It is the most powerful force in the universe.

It descends and acts only when it is invoked by total self- surrender. It acts from within, because God resides in the Heart of all beings. Its whisper can be heard only in a mind purified by self-surrender and prayer. Rationalists laugh at it, and atheists scorn it, but it exists. It is a descent of God into the soul’s zone of awareness. It is a visitation of force unexpected and unpredictable. It is a voice spoken out of cosmic silence - It is ‘Cosmic Will which can perform authentic miracles under its own laws’.

From :Gems of Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharishi 

Revelation -- Sri Raman Hridayam

 All the ills of the worldly life are the outcomeof the primary ignorace, by which the body, composed of the five sheaths, is identified with the SELF, so that all the defects and limitations of the former are tansferred to the latter; this is improper , because the SELF is pure spirit, Consciousness, not only distinct from these sheaths but also quite unconnected with them. The SELF is therefore timeless and spaceless, the Transcendental Reality, which is the substratum of the world-appearance, which is not real in its own right, but only because it has Reality for its substratum, which alone is real.  The Self therefore is ever-free and perfect , and does not need to be freed or perfected. By following the direct path , the mind- the agent of ignorance - is disolved in the Self , bondage and all the ills of life are trancended , and the Self is realised as Pure Consciouseness-Bliss without wants and limitations.

Revelation -- Sri Raman Hridayam 

Author Introduction.

Sri Ramanaya Namah