"The guru is not other than the self"

[Guest guest]

Disciple: "Bhagavan, will you graciously bestow self-realisation on me?"

Maharshi: "As one enquires for whom is this realisation, one's individuality

goes, and with that the delusion that the self has not been realised drops off.

This alone is the grace of the guru. The guru can only dispel the delusion that

self is yet to be realised but to grant self-realisation is impossible. To pray

for the grant of self-realisation is like asking 'give myself to me'. Because of

the identification with the body, there arises the delusion that I am an

individual. That creates the further delusion that the guru is an individual

other than myself. Really the guru is not other than the self."

 

(Ramana Maharshi answers 100 Questions. - ed. and compiled by A.R. Natarajan,

no. 42)

 

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