Quotes by Sri Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

To become aware of anything is to disconnect the mind from the Self and that

is unhappiness.

 

First you should know how is inside you, then the same god will show you who

is inside others.

 

Total surrender of the EGO to the SELF (atman, supreme being) is the real

bhakti.

 

Atman is also known as MAUN, where there is not even a trace of EGO.

 

Do not let this doubt enter into your mind " is it possible to uproot all the

karmas which is have committed in my past lives " , but dive deeply and more

deeply into yourself (by meditating on your self with the help of self

enquiry 'WHO AM I').

 

If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable.

One must fight one's way through before regaining one's original primal

state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely

the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely.

 

Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally

unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.

 

You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present

thoughts, that is all.

 

The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration

on a single thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.

 

No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to

perseverance.

 

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as

he himself will be seeking you.

 

It is not enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself

up to the original cause of one's being. Do not delude yourself by imagining

such a source to be some God outside you. One's source is within oneself.

Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge

in it.

 

If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable.

One must fight one's way through before regaining one's original primal

state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely

the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely.

 

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is

seeking it outside when it is inside.

 

 

Nearly all mankind is more or less unhappy because nearly all do not know

the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is

fleeting. To know one's Self is to be blissful always.

 

....Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss.

 

This desire [for Bliss] is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is

this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful. Now

you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss?

It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are Bliss.

 

Nobody doubts that he exists, though he may doubt the existence of God. If

he finds out the truth about himself and discovers his own source, this is

all that is required.

 

'That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit, Eternal, ever effulgent, full and

infinite Bliss, Single, indivisible, whole and living, Shines in everyone as

the witnessing awareness. That self in its splendour, shining in the cavity

of the heart. This self is neither born nor dies, Neither grows nor decays,

Nor does it suffer any change. When a pot is broken, the space within it is

not, And similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal.

 

We loosely talk of Self-realization, for lack of a better term. But how can

one realize or make real that which alone is real? All we need to do is to

give up our habit of regarding as real that which is unreal. All religious

practices are meant solely to help us do this. When we stop regarding the

unreal as real, then reality alone will remain, and we will be that.

 

" Heart " is merely another name for the Supreme Spirit, because He is in all

hearts. The entire Universe is condensed in the body, and the entire body in

the Heart. Thus the Heart is the nucleus of the whole Universe. Your own

Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.

 

You and I are the same. What I have done is surely possible for all. You are

the Self now and can never be anything else. Throw your worries to the wind,

turn within and find Peace.

 

There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though

in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and

that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day

will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be

the day you laugh is also here and now.

 

Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like

trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on

stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.

 

From `Happiness and God's Grace' - by Ramana Maharshi

 

Every living being longs always to be happy, untainted by sorrow; and

everyone has the greatest love for himself, which is solely due to the fact

that happiness is his real nature. Hence, in order to realize that inherent

and untainted happiness, which indeed he daily experiences when the mind is

subdued in deep sleep, it is essential that he should know himself. For

obtaining such knowledge the inquiry 'Who am I?' in quest of the Self is the

best means. "

 

-The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi (Page 39, Samuel Weiser Edition

1977)

 

Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.

Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will

shine forth by itself.

 

-'Be As You Are', The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Edited by David

Godman

 

God dwells in you, as you, and you don't have to 'do' anything to be

God-realized or Self-realized, it is already your true and natural state. "

Just drop all seeking, turn your attention inward, and sacrifice your mind

to the One Self radiating in the Heart of your very being. For this to be

your own presently lived experience, Self-Inquiry is the one direct and

immediate way.

 

It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is

as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something

which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We

dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been

created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space

there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have

simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras [innate tendencies] which are

inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.

 

- " Be As You Are " - The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Edited by David

Godman

 

'I exist' is the only permanent self-evident experience of everyone. Nothing

else is so self-evident as 'I am'. What people call self-evident, that is,

the experience they get through the senses, is far from self-evident. The

Self alone is that. So to do self-enquiry and be that 'I am' is the only

thing to do. 'I am' is reality. I am this or that is unreal. 'I am' is

truth, another name for Self.

 

- " Be As You Are " - The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Edited by David

Godman

 

Relative knowledge pertains to the mind and not to the Self. It is therefore

illusory and not permanent. Take a scientist, for instance. He formulates a

theory that the Earth is round and goes on to prove it on an

incontrovertible basis. When he falls asleep the whole idea vanishes; his

mind is left a blank. What does it matter whether the world remains round or

flat when he is asleep? So you see the futility of all such relative

knowledge. One should go beyond relative knowledge and abide in the Self.

Real knowledge is such experience, and not apprehension by the mind.

- " Talks with Ramana Maharshi "

 

--

Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prashant Jalasutram