Some Teachings of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

(What follows below are answers given by Ramana at various times to

devotee's questions, strung together and brought into flowing English for

ease of comprehension.)

 

There is no greater mystery than this, that being the reality yourself, you

seek to gain reality.You think there is something binding your reality and

that something must be destroyed before the reality is freed. This is

ridiculous.

 

A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your efforts. What is there to

realize? The real is always as it is. You have realized the unreal, in other

words, you regard the unreal as that which is real. Give up this attitude

and you will attain wisdom.

 

There is nothing new nor anything you do not already have which needs to be

gained. The feeling that you have not yet realized is the sole obstruction

to realization. In fact,you are already free. If it were not so, the

realization would be new. If it has not existed so far,it must take place

hereafter. What comes will also go, what can be gained can also be lost. If

realization is not eternal it is not worth having.

 

Therefore what you seek is not that which must happen afresh. It is only

that which is eternal, but not now known due to obstruction.Remove the

obstruction. That which is eternal is not known to be so because of

ignorance.Ignorance is the obstruction. Get over the ignorance and all will

be well. The ignorance is identical with the 'I-thought'. Find its source

and it will vanish. Then the Self alone will shine as it always has, in the

stillness of being.

 

People often ask how the mind is controlled. I say to them, 'Show me the

mind and then you will know what to do.' The fact is that the mind is only a

bundle of thoughts. How can you extinguish it by the thought of doing so, or

by a desire? Your thoughts and desires are part and parcel of the mind.

 

The mind is simply fattened by new thoughts rising up. Therefore it is

foolish to attempt to kill the mind by means of the mind. The only way of

doing it is to find its source and hold on to it. The mind will then fade

away of its own accord. In deep sleep you are entirely free from thoughts,

because the 'I-thought' is absent. The moment the 'I-thought'rises on

waking, all other thoughts rush forth spontaneously.

 

The wisest thing for one to do is therefore to catch hold of this leading

thought, the 'I-thought', and dissect it - who and what it is - giving

thereby no chance to other thoughts to distract you. Therein lies the true

value of self-inquiry and its efficacy in mind control. All that you need do

is to find out the origin of the

'I-thought' and abide there. Your efforts can extend only thus far. Then the

beyond will take care of itself.

 

It is with the inward-going mind that you eliminate the outward-going mind.

You do not set about saying there is a mind and I'm going to kill it, but

you seek the source of the mind. Then you will find that the mind does not

exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects.

Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self.

 

To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He

will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained.

So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will

cease to exist.Whenever you are disturbed by thoughts you need merely

withdraw within to the Self.

 

This is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the

Self. The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress

towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of

progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization.

 

The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of

the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts

must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. Go to their source and they

will not arise.

 

The truth of yourself alone is worthy to be scrutinized and known. Taking it

as the target of your attention, you should keenly seek to know it in your

spiritual heart. This knowledge of yourself will be revealed only to the

consciousness which is silent, clear and free from the activity of the

agitated and suffering mind.

 

Know that the consciousness which always shines in the heart as the formless

Self, the true 'I', and which is known by your being still without thinking

about anything as existent or non-existent, alone is the perfect reality.

Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. 'I am that I am' sums up the

whole truth. The method is summed up in the words 'Be still'. What does

stillness mean? It means destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the

cause of trouble.

 

Give up the notion that 'I am so and so'. All that is required to realize

the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? Association with a

realized master pushes the mind inward. He is also in the heart of the

seeker and so he draws the latter's inward-bent mind into the heart. Satsang

will make the mind sink into the heart.

Satsang means association with truth. Truth is the Self.

 

Since the Self is not now understood to be truth, the one reality, the

company of the sage who has thus understood it is sought. That is satsang.

Introversion results and truth is revealed. In all the three worlds there is

no boat like satsang to carry one safely across the ocean of birth and

death.

 

When unity in the heart is replaced by a variety of perceived phenomena, it

is called the outgoing mind. When you enter the inner stillness of being,

the heart-going mind is called the resting mind. When one daily practices

more and more abiding in the heart, the mind will become extremely pure due

to the removal of its defects, and the practice will become so easy that the

purified mind will plunge into the heart as soon as the inquiry is

commenced. Be what you are.

 

All that is necessary is to lose the ego. That which is, is always there.

Even now you are that. You are not apart from it. The thought, 'I have not

realized', the expectation to become realized, and the desire of getting

anything, are all the workings of the ego. You have fallen into snares of

the ego. Be yourself! See who you are, drop your mind into the cave of the

heart and remain as the Self, free from birth and death, free from all

comings and goings.Man is always the Self and yet he does not know it.

 

Instead he confounds it with the non-Self,the body, etc. Such confusion is

due to ignorance. If ignorance is wiped out, the confusion will cease to

exist and the true knowledge will be unfolded. By remaining in contact with

realized sages the man gradually loses the ignorance until its removal is

complete. The eternal Self is

thus revealed. When the mind is weak, grace is necessary. Serving a realized

being will bring forth the grace. There is however nothing new to get.

 

Just as a weak man comes under the control of a stronger one, the weak mind

of a man comes under control easily in the presence of a strong-minded wise

person. Every plane of worldly existence has its own illusion, which can be

destroyed only by another illusion on the same plane. For example, a man

takes a full meal and goes to sleep. He dreams of being hungry in spite of

the food he has in his stomach.To satisfy the dream hunger, he has to take

dream food. A wound in dream requires dream treatment. A great king once

dreamt that he was ill but was too poor to call a doctor.

 

Although he had fabulous wealth in the waking state, it was of no use to him

in the dream state.Similarly, the illusion of ignorance can be destroyed

only by the illusion of the master's grace.Liberation is ever present and

bondage ever absent. That which is, is only grace; there is nothing else;

but as long as the dream prevails, the master must be sought and served to

evoke the grace.

 

Association with the wise, satsang, and service of them is required of the

disciple. As very few can hold satsang with the unmanifested truth of being,

the absolute existence, most have to begin with association with the

manifested truth, that is, the embodied guru. Association with sages should

be made because thoughts are so persistent. The sage has already overcome

the mind and remains in peace.

 

Being in his proximity helps to bring about this condition;otherwise there

is no meaning in seeking his company. Serve the guru selflessly with a full

heart. Service to the guru is primarily abidance in the Self, but it also

includes making the guru's body comfortable, looking after his place of

abode, and serving all mankind by seeing

all as God. It is the spiritual contact which is important.

 

If the disciple finds the guru internally, then the guru will always be with

him no matter where he goes. In the proximity of a great master, the

negative tendencies cease to be active, the mind becomes still and samadhi

results.

 

Thus the disciple gains true knowledge and right experience in the presence

of the master. To remain unshaken in this peaceful state, further efforts

are necessary. Eventually the disciple will know it to be his real being and

will thus be liberated even while alive.God is said to reside in the heart

in the same way as you are said to reside in your body.

 

Yet heart is not a place. Some place must be named as the dwelling of God

for those who mistake their bodies as themselves and who comprehend only

relative knowledge. The fact is neither God nor you occupy any space.

 

You are bodiless and spaceless in deep sleep, yet in the waking state and in

dream you appear to be the opposite. Whatever the dream, the only thing that

has value and is worth doing with regard to dream is to wake up. When you

wake up, do you say that the experiences of the dream were real, although

within the dream everyone there would have tried to convince you of it? No.

Similarly, when you wake up to the Self these experiences of the world will

be unreal, like in a dream, although others in that state will try to

convince you that they are real.

 

In truth, you are ever in the peace of deep sleep. Being aware of this peace

while in the waking state is samadhi. The unwise cannot remain long in that

state because his ego pushes him out of it. For the wise, although he has

scotched it, the ego continues to rise again and again due to the karma with

which his body has taken birth.

 

So, for both the wise and the unwise, the ego springs up, but with this

difference: Whereas the sage enjoys the transcendental experience, keeping

his attention always fixed on his source, the unwise is completely ignorant

of it.

 

For the wise, the ego is not harmful, being a mere skeleton of its normal

self, like a burnt up rope. By constantly fixing his attention on his

source, the heart, the ego of the wise gets dissolved like a salt doll which

has fallen into the ocean. To the

wise it is immaterial whether the world appears or not. In either case, his

attention is directed towards the Self. He sees nothing separate from the

Self. He is the Self. He always remains as the Self. That is all.

 

--

à°“à°‚ నమో భగవతే à°¶à±à°°à±€ రమణాయ

à°ªà±à°°à°¶à°¾à°‚తౠజలసూతà±à°°à°‚

à°ªà±à°°à±‡à°®à±‡ శాశà±à°µà°¤à°®à±