3 Wise Men from the East

[Guest guest]

Ramesh Balsekar:

 

 

 

One who has seen his true nature no longer regards life as being

full of menace and misery as most people do. His previously

mistaken sense of

personal volition and responsibility has disappeared in such freedom

and joy that life is now just an amusing spectacle like a game or a

dream, in which he has no real part.

 

 

Ramana Maharshi:

 

Devotee: I am a man with a family. Is it possible for those in a

family to get release, and if so how?

Maharshi: Now what is family? Whose family is it? If the answers to

these questions are found the other questions solve themselves. Tell

me: Are you in the family, or is the family in you? The visitor did

not answer. Then Sri Bhagavan's answer was continued: Who are you?

You include three aspects of life, namely, the waking, the dream and

the sleep states. You were not aware of the family and their ties in

your sleep and so these questions did not arise then. But now you

are aware of the family and their ties and therefore you seek

release. But you are the same person throughout.

 

D: Because I now feel that I am in the family it is right that I

should seek release.

 

M: You are right. But consider and say: Are you in the family or is

the family in you?

 

Another visitor interposed: What is family?

 

M: That´s it. It must be known.

 

D: There is my wife and there are also my children. They are

dependent on me. That is my family.

 

M: Do the members of the family bind your mind? Or do you bind

yourself to them? Do they come and say to you "We form your family.

Be with us"? Or do you consider them as your family and that you are

bound to them?

 

D: I consider them as my family and feel bound to them.

 

M: Quite so. Because you think that so-and-so is your wife and so-

and-so are your children you also think that you are bound to them.

These thoughts are yours. They owe their very existence to you. You

can entertain these thoughts or relinquish them. The former is

bondage and the latter is release…So long as you consider yourself

as an individual, a Guru is necessary to show to you that you are

not bound by limitations and that your nature is to be free from

limitations."

 

 

 

 

 

Nisargadatta Maharaj:

 

 

 

 

"Liberation is never of the person, it is always from the person."

 

 

 

Love baba