Beauty　＆　Pure

Beauty ＆ Pure 257

2024-01-23T18:56:00.007+09:00

From ~~~ Gems from Bhagavan, Ch. II
If the mind, the source of all knowledge and activity subsides, the vision of the world will cease. Just as knowledge of the real rope does not dawn till the fancied notion of the serpent disappears, vision (experience) of the Reality cannot be gained unless the superimposed vision of the universe is abandoned.
That which really exists is only the Self. The world, jiva (individual self) and Iswara (God) are mental creations, like the appearance of silver in mother of pearl. All these appear at the same time and disappear similarly. The Self alone is the world, the ego and Iswara.
As regards the existence of pain in the world, the wise one explains from his experience, that if one withdraws within the Self there is an end of all pain. The pain is felt so long as the object is different from oneself. But when the Self is found to be an undivided whole, who and what is there to feel?
~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 256

2023-11-30T19:10:00.004+09:00

An American lady asked Bhagavan
what his experiences of samadhi were.
When suggested that she should relate her experiences
and ask if they were right,
she replied that Sri Bhagavan’s experiences
ought to be correct and should be known,
whereas her own were unimportant.
She thus wanted to know if Sri Bhagavan
felt his body hot or cold in samadhi,
if he spent the first three and a half years
of his stay at Tiruvannamalai in prayers
and so on.
M.:
Samadhi transcends mind and speech
and cannot be described.
For example, the state of deep slumber
cannot be described;
samadhi state can still less be explained.
Q.:
But I know that I am unconscious in deep sleep.
M.:
Consciousness and unconsciousness
are only modes of the mind.
Samadhi transcends the mind.
Q.:
Still you can say what it is like.
M.:You will know only when you are in samadhi.

Beauty ＆ Pure 255

2023-05-28T08:04:00.003+09:00

From ~~~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 73

Bhagavan :
When you are everywhere, where are you to search?
The real delusion is the feeling that you are the body.
When you get rid of that delusion,
what remains is your Self.
You should search for a thing which is not with you
but where is the need to search for a thing
which is always with you?
All sadhanas are for getting rid of the delusion
that you are the body.
The knowledge that ‘I am’ is always there:
call it Atma, or Paramatma or whatever you like.
One should get rid of the idea that ‘I am the body’.
There is no need to search for that ‘I’ that is the self.
That Self is allpervading.
~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 254

2022-09-29T19:11:00.003+09:00

There are two ways of achieving surrender.
One is looking into the source of the ‘I’
and merging into that source.
The other is feeling,
‘I am helpless myself,
God alone is all powerful,
and except by throwing myself completely on Him,
there is no other means of safety for me’;
and thus gradually developing the conviction
that God alone exists and the ego does not count.
Both methods lead to the same goal.
Complete surrender is another name
for jnana or liberation.
Bhakti is not different from mukti.
Bhakti is being as the Self.
One is always That.
He realizes It by the means he adopts.
What is bhakti?
To think of God.
That means only one thought prevails
to the exclusion of all other thoughts.
That thought is of God,
which is the Self,
or it is the self
surrendered unto God.
When He has taken you up,
nothing else will assail you.
The absence of thought is bhakti.
It is also mukti.
Bhakti is Jnana Mata, i.e.,
the mother of jnana.
It is asked,
why all this creation is so full of sorrow and evil.
All one can say is that it is God’s will,
which is inscrutable.
No motive, no desire,
no end to achieve can be attributed
to that infinite, all-wise
and all-powerful Being.
God is untouched by activities
which take place in His presence.
There is no meaning in attributing
responsibility and motive to the One,
before it became many.
But God’s will for the prescribed course of events
is a good solution for the vexed question of free-will.
If the mind is worried over what befalls us,
or what has been committed or omitted by us,
it is wise to give up the sense of responsibility and free-will,
by regarding ourselves as the ordained instruments
of the All-Wise and the All-Powerful,
to do and suffer as He pleases.
Then He bears all the burdens
and gives us peace.
~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 253

2022-05-29T08:32:00.004+09:00

Q.:
Is it enough to introvert the mind
or should we meditate on ‘I am Brahman’?
M.:
To introvert the mind is the prime thing.
The Buddhists consider the flow of ‘I’ thought to be Liberation;
whereas we say that such flow proceeds
from its underlying substratum - the only - Reality.
Why should one be meditating ‘I am Brahman’?
Only the annihilation of ‘I’ is Liberation.
But it can be gained only by keeping the ‘I-I’ always in view.
So the need for the investigation of the ‘I’ thought.
If the ‘I’ is not let go, no blank can result to the seeker.
Otherwise meditation will end in sleep.
There is only one ‘I’ all along,
but what arises up from time to time is the mistaken ‘I-thought’;
whereas the intuitive ‘I’ always remains Self-shining,
i.e., even before it becomes manifest.
The birth of the gross body does not amount to one’s own birth,
on the other hand, the birth of the ego is one’s own birth.
For liberation, nothing new remains to be gained.
It is the original state and continues unchanged too.

Beauty ＆ Pure 252

2022-01-17T18:59:00.001+09:00

O Arunachala! Hill of Patience! Bear with my
poor strains, considering them to be good
poetry and be Thou gracious. Thy will be done!
To go wrong is human, to grant pardon is divine. The
devotee-soul prays that the defects in her hymn of praise
should be overlooked, and the devotion that inspired it should
be accepted. Any attempt to praise the Lord is bound to fail;
for He is beyond the reach of words and thoughts. The
devotee-soul cannot but praise Him; but she does not ever
hope to find words that are adequate. The devotee-soul has
no will of her own. It is the Lord’s will that moves the world.

Beauty ＆ Pure 251

2022-01-05T18:47:00.011+09:00

Sri Ramana Experience
I was a learned fool.
My flawed mind knew nothing till I came to dwell with Him
whose Glance filled my heart with the Light of Awareness.
Dwelling in that gracious state of Peace,
whose nature is Holy Silence,
so hard to gain and know,
I entered into union with the deathless state
of the Knowledge of Reality.
- Sri Muruganar

Beauty ＆ Pure 250

2021-11-10T19:09:00.000+09:00

Sri Muruganar :
This joyful Marital Garland of Letters which resembles a
beam of the rays of the rising sun was sung by the noble Sage
Ramana, the ocean of compassion, with the object of removing
the delusion of the devotees who sought his grace. Those who
look upon it as their sole refuge will realize within themselves
that they are Arunachala and will reign in the world of Siva.

Beauty ＆ Pure 249

2021-06-16T18:57:00.000+09:00

There are said to be six (subtle) organs of different
colours in the chest, of which the spiritual heart is said to be the
one situated two fingers’ breadth, to the right from the centre!
But the heart is also said to be formless. Does that mean that we
should imagine it to have a form and meditate on this?
B.:
No; only the quest – ‘Who am I?’ is necessary. That
which continues to exist throughout sleep and waking is the same
being in both; but while waking there is unhappiness and therefore
the effort to remove it. When asked who awakes from sleep, you
say ‘I’. Hold fast to this ‘I’. If that is done the Eternal Being
reveals itself. The most important thing is the investigation of the
‘I’ and not concentration on the heart centre. There is no such
thing as the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’. Both words mean the same or
nothing at all. Nevertheless, there is also the practice of
concentration on the heart-centre, which is a form of spiritual
exercise. Only he who concentrates on the heart can remain aware
when the mind ceases to be active and remains still, with no
thoughts, whereas those who concentrate on any other centre
cannot retain awareness without thought but only infer that the
mind was still after it has become active again.
In the following passage an English lady remarks on this
awareness without thought and Bhagavan approves.

Beauty ＆ Pure 248

2021-04-21T18:46:00.005+09:00

Bhagavan.:

Short or long duration applies only
to the dream and waking states.
Someone may say:
‘we have lived so long
and these houses and belongings
are so clearly evident to us
that it surely can’t be all a dream’.
But we have to remember
that even dreams seem long while they last.
It is only when you wake up that you realize
that they only lasted a short time.
In the same way,
when one attains Realization (jnana),
this life is seen to be momentary.
Dreamless sleep means nescience;
therefore it is to be rejected in favour
of the state of pure Awareness.

Beauty ＆ Pure 247

2021-02-18T19:59:00.002+09:00

If I know my presence then how I know the presence of other person . Is that any feeling in silence present ?

Beauty ＆ Pure 246

2021-01-08T19:20:00.008+09:00

He asked:
I am leaving tonight. It gives me pain to tear myself away from this
place. But I must go to America. I ask for a message from the Master. The Master understands me even better than I do myself. So I pray for a message to keep me up when I am away from the Master.
M.:
The Master is not outside you as you seem to imagine. He is
within, is in fact the Self. Recognise this truth. Seek within you
and find Him there. Then you will have constant communion with
Him. The message is always there; it is never silent; it can never
forsake you: nor can you ever move away from the Master.
Your mind is outgoing. Because of that tendency it sees objects as
being outside and the Master among them. But the Truth is different. The Master is the Self. Turn the mind within and you will find the objects within. You will also realise that it is the Master who is your very Self and there is nothing but Him.
Because you identify yourself with the body you have accepted
objects as being outside you. But are you the body? You are not.
You are the Self. There are all the objects and the whole universe.
Nothing can escape the Self. How then can you move away from
the Master who is your very Self? Suppose your body moves from
place to place; does it ever move away from your Self? Similarly,
you can never be without the Master.
Mr. Lorey was struck by the answer although he was already
familiar with the Master’s ways. He was even visibly moved. He
prayed that the Grace of the Master might abide with him.
Sri Bhagavan:
The Master being the Self. Grace is inseparable from the Self.
Mr. L. Saluted Sri Maharshi with intense fervour,
saying that he might be enabled to realise the Truth.
M.:
Is there any moment when you have not realised the Self? Can
you ever be apart from the Self? You are always That.

Beauty ＆ Pure 245

2020-11-04T18:54:00.004+09:00

Are there any aids to
(1) concentration and (2) casting off distractions?
M.:
Physically the digestive and other organs are kept free from irritation. Therefore food is regulated both in quantity and quality. Non-irritants are eaten, avoiding chillies, excess of salt, onions, wine, opium, etc. Avoid constipation, drowsiness and excitement, and all foods which induce them. Mentally take interest in one thing and fix the mind on it. Let such interest be all-absorbing to the exclusion of everything else. This is dispassion (vairagya) and concentration. God or mantra may be chosen. The mind gains strength to grasp the subtle and merge into it.
~~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 244

2020-06-10T18:41:00.000+09:00

PRACTICE (Abhyasa)
1. What is the method of practice?
As the Self of a person who tries to attain Self-realization is not different from him and as there is nothing other than or superior to him to be attained by him, Self-realization being only the realization of one’s own nature, the seeker of Liberation realizes, without doubts or misconceptions, his real nature by distinguishing the eternal from the transient, and never swerves from his natural state. This is known as the practice of knowledge. This is the enquiry leading to Self-realization.

Beauty ＆ Pure 243

2020-05-23T07:15:00.003+09:00

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

Beauty ＆ Pure 242

2019-10-23T18:50:00.001+09:00

People often say that a mukta purusha should go out and preach his message to the people. They argue, how can anyone be a mukta so long as there is misery by his side?

True. But who is a mukta? Does he see misery beside him? They want to determine the state of a mukta without themselves realizing the state. From the standpoint of the mukta their contention amounts to this: a man dreams a dream in which he finds several persons. On waking up, he asks, “Have the dream individuals also wakened?”
It is ridiculous.

Again, a good man says, “It does not matter even if I do not get mukti. Or let me be the last man to get it so that I shall help all others to be muktas before I am one.” It is all very good. Imagine a dreamer saying, “May all these wake up before I do”. The dreamer is no more absurd than the amiable philosopher aforesaid

Beauty ＆ Pure 241

2019-02-22T19:56:00.003+09:00

Although Guru Ramana taught various doctrines according to the level of understanding of those who came to Him, we heard from Him that ‘Ajata’* alone is truly His own experience. Thus should you know.

('Guru Vachaka Kovai', v. 100)

* Sadu Om: 'Ajata’ is the knowledge that nothing – neither the world, soul nor God – ever comes into existence, and that ‘That Which Is’ ever exists as IT is.

Beauty ＆ Pure 240

2019-01-06T09:20:00.003+09:00

That which is, is peace. All that we need do is to keep quiet. Peace is our real nature. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

Beauty ＆ Pure 239

2018-11-13T19:19:00.001+09:00

Sri Ramana Maharshi ;

Keep your mind steadily on your family deity,
discard outside thoughts and meditate,
or keep the Self itself before your mind
and meditate.

If that is done,
that which comes from outside
will gradually disappear
and meditation alone will remain.

You need not meditate separately.
The meditation on Self will steady itself
and will remain constant.

What IS, is meditation.
There is no such thing as attaining deliverance.
Getting rid of extraneous things itself is deliverance.

Breath control (pranayama)
and other spiritual practices are only
for concentrating the mind on one thing.

Breath control
keeps the wandering mind within the body.
That is why breath control has been prescribed first,
and only then the practising of japa
(repetition of Divine name),
tapa (austerities) and the rest.

If breath is controlled and kept within for a while,
it helps in practising Self-enquiry.

If the family deity or some other form is meditated upon,
the mind becomes controlled of its own accord.
Where that is done repeatedly,
that meditation itself leads on to the realization of the Self.

You will not then have the duality of the doer
and the thing done.
All becomes one’s natural state (Swarupa) only.

Beauty ＆ Pure 238

2018-10-08T21:58:00.000+09:00

Bhagavan.:

One should hold on to the single Atman
and not swerve therefrom.
There will be no distraction
and no fear.
Troubles arise only
when there is a second to oneself.
If the Atman be realised to be only unitary,
there is no second and therefore
no cause for fear.

Beauty ＆ Pure 237

2018-06-25T20:39:00.002+09:00

“hearing, reflection and one-pointedness are necessary”.

They think that they must pass through
savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi
before attaining Realisation.
Hence all these questions.

Why should they wander in that maze?
What do they gain at the end?

It is only cessation of the trouble of seeking.

They find that the Self is eternal and self-evident.
Why should they not get that repose
even this moment?

A simple man, not learned,
is satisfied with japa or worship.

A Jnani is of course satisfied.

The whole trouble is for the book-worms.
Well, well. They will also get on.

Beauty ＆ Pure 236

2018-05-31T19:42:00.003+09:00

Guru is the Self....

Sometimes in his life a man
becomes dissatisfied with it,
and, not content with what he has,
he seeks the satisfaction of his desires,
through prayer to God etc.

His mind is gradually purified
until he longs to know God,
more to obtain His grace
than to satisfy his worldly desires.

Then,
God’s grace begins to manifest.

God takes the form of a Guru
and appears to the devotee,
teaches him the Truth and,
moreover,
purifies his mind by association.

The devotee’s mind gains strength
and is then able to turn inward.
By meditation it is further purified
and it remains still
without the least ripple.

That calm expanse is the Self.

~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 235

2018-04-15T18:59:00.001+09:00

"In this state
it is as difficult to think a thought
as it is for those in bondage
to be without thoughts."

I also remember him telling us,

"You ask me questions
and I reply and talk to you.
If I do not speak or do anything,
I am automatically drawn within,
and where I am I do not know."

Beauty ＆ Pure 234

2018-03-30T19:39:00.002+09:00

Five Verses on The Self *.

These are the last verses composed by Bhagavan.
They were written at the instance of a devotee, Suri Nagamma,
the author of Letters from Sri Ramanasramam.

He wrote them first in Telugu,
but to a Tamil metrical form called venba,
and then translated them into Tamil.

Since there was already a composition of
Shankaracharya called the Atma Panchakam,
Bhagavan decided to call his composition
Ekatma Panchakam.

Beauty ＆ Pure 233

2018-02-04T20:03:00.003+09:00

Q.
Can I dispense with outside help
and by my own effort
get into the deeper truth by myself?.

M.
True.
But the very fact you are possessed
of the quest of the Self
is a manifestation of the Divine Grace.

It is effulgent in the Heart,
the inner being,
the Real Self.
It draws you from within.

You have to attempt to get in from without.
Your attempt is Vichara,
the deep inner movement is Grace.

That is why I say
there is no real Vichara without Grace,
nor is there Grace active for him
who is without Vichara.

Both are necessary.