Murthi DHyana

[Guest guest]

Question: I have faith in Murti Dhyana (worship of form). Will it not

help me to gain Jnana (knowledge)?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Surely it will. Upasana (meditation) helps

concentration of mind. Then the mind is free from other thoughts and

is full of the meditated form. The mind then becomes one with the

object of meditation, and this makes it quite pure. Then think who is

the worshipper. The answer is `I', that is the Self. In this way the

Self is ultimately gained.

 

Worshipping the formless reality by unthought thought is the best

kind of worship. But when one is not fit for such formless worship of

God, worship of form alone is suitable. Formless worship is possible

only for people who are devoid of the ego-form. Know that all the

worship done by people who possess the ego-form is only worship of

form.

 

The pure state of being attached to grace (Self), which is devoid of

any attachment, alone, is one's own state of silence, which is devoid

of any other thing. Know that one's ever abiding as that silence,

having experienced it as it is, alone is true mental worship (Manasik-

Puja). Know that the performance of the unceasing true and natural

worship in which the mind is submissively established as the one

Self, having installed the Lord on the Heart-throne, is silence, the

best of all forms of worship. Silence, which is devoid of the

assertive ego, alone, is liberation. The evil forgetfulness of Self,

which causes one to slip down from that silence, alone, is non-

devotion (Vibhakti). Know that abiding as that silence with the mind

subsided as non-different from Self, is the truth of Siva Bhakti

(devotion to God).

 

When one has completely surrendered oneself at the feet of Siva,

thereby becoming of the nature of the Self, the resulting abundant

peace, in which there is not even the least room within the Heart for

one to make any complaint about one's defects and deficiencies, alone

is the nature of supreme devotion. One's thus becoming a slave to the

Lord and one's remaining quiet and silent, devoid even of the

egotistical thought `I' am His slave', is Self-abidance, and this is

the Supreme Knowledge.

 

Hari Aum !!!