Guest guest Posted July 12, 2004 Report Share Posted July 12, 2004 Living the Inspiration of Sri Ramana Maharshi A dialogue between David Godman and Maalok, an Indian academic now teaching in America ..................................... Maalok: Did the Maharshi give some guidelines on the kind of life one should lead? Activities that would help spiritual quests? I mean mundane things such as eating, sleeping, drinking, talking, family, marriage, sexuality, etc. David: I think the key word here is 'moderation'. On several occasions he said that moderation in eating, sleeping and speaking were the best aids to sadhana. He didn't approve of or encourage excess of any kind. He didn't, for example, encourage people to take vows of silence. He used to say, 'If you can't keep your mind still, what is the point of keeping your tongue still?' Though he encouraged devotees to live decent, upright lives, he never imposed rigorous moral codes on them. He was happy if devotees took to brahmacharya naturally, but he didn't see much point in suppressing sexual desires. Someone once told him that in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the men and the women slept separately, even if they were married. His response was, 'What is the point of sleeping separately if the desires are still there?' If people who had desires and wanted to get rid of them came to him for advice, he would usually say that meditation would make them lose their strength. According to Sri Ramana, you don't get rid of desires by suppressing them, or by not indulging in them, you get rid of them by putting your attention on the Self. He didn't look down on people who were married as people who had succumbed to their desires. He once told Rangan, one of his married devotees, that it was easier to realize the Self as a householder than as a sannyasin. Sri Ramana didn't think that renouncing habits or possessions was very beneficial. Instead, he asked people to go to the root of the problem and renounce the idea that they were individual people occupying bodies. He would sometimes say that even if you give up your job, your family and all your responsibilities and go to a cave and meditate, you still have to take your mind with you. While that mind is still there, exercising its tyranny, you haven't really renounced anything that will do you any good in the long term. http://www.davidgodman.org/interviews/al1.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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