Part 2 -- Talks of Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

News of someone’s death was brought to the Master. He remarked: “Good. The dead are indeed happy. They have got rid of the troublesome overgrowth — the body.The dead man does not grieve. The survivors grieve for him. Do men fear sleep? On the contrary they court it and on waking up they remark that they have had a happy sleep. Yet sleep is nothing but temporary death. Death is a long sleep.” -- Talks 64

“See how a tree, whose branches are cut grows again. So long as the life-source is not affected it will grow. Similarly the samskaras sink into the heart in death: they do not perish. They are reborn. Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so the wide universe with names and forms sprouts forth from the Heart.” -- Talks 108

“If a person we love dies, grief results. Shall we avoid grief by loving all alike, or by not loving at all?” Bhagavan: “Both amount to the same thing. When all have become the one Self, who remains to be loved or hated? The ego that grieves must die. That is the only way.” -- Talks 252

“As long as you feel yourself the doer of action so long you are bound to enjoy its fruits. But if you find out whose karma it is, you will see that you are not the doer. Then you will be free. This requires the Grace of God, for which you should pray to Him and meditate on Him.” -- Talks 115

“Action without motive does not bind. Even a Jnani acts and there can be no action without effort and without sankalpas — motives. Therefore there are sankalpas for everyone. But these are of two kinds, the binding (bandha-hetu) and the liberating (mukti-hetu). The former must be given up and the latter cultivated.” -- Talks 115

“It is not enough that one thinks of God while doing karma (service, or worship), but one must continually and unceasingly think of Him. Only then will the mind become pure.” Bhagavan’s attendant then remarked: “Is it then not enough that I serve Bhagavan physically, but must also remember him constantly?” To which Bhagavan remarked: “‘I-am-the-body’ idea must vanish through vichara.” -- Talks 337

“Your idea of will-power is success insured, whereas willpower should be understood as the strength of mind which meets success and failure with equanimity. It is not synonymous with certain success.Why should one’s attempts be always attended with success? Success develops arrogance and one’s spiritual progress is thereby arrested. Failures on the other hand are beneficial, inasmuch as they open one’s eyes to one’s limitations and prepare him to surrender himself. Therefore one should try to gain equipoise of mind under all circumstances. That is will-power. Again success and failure are the results of prarabdha and not of will-power. One man may be doing only good and yet prove a failure. Another may do otherwise and yet be uniformly successful. This does not mean that the will-power is absent in one and present in the other.” -- Talks 423

“Leave off false notions and perceive intuitively the Real.That alone matters. If you melt a gold ornament what matters how it is melted, whole or in parts, or of what shape the ornament had been? You are only interested in the gold. Realise the Self.” -- Talks 31

“Celibacy is certainly an aid to realisation among so many other aids.” -- Talks 17“Is not then celibacy indispensable? Can a married man realise the Self?” Bhagavan: “Certainly, it (Realisation) is a matter of fitness of mind. Married or unmarried one can realise the Self, because the Self is here and now.” -- Talks 17

“How does a grihasta fare in the scheme of Moksha?” Bhagavan: “Why do you think yourself to be a grihasta? If you go out as a sannyasi, the thought that you are a sannyasi will haunt you. You will be only substituting one thought by another. The mental obstacles are always there. They even increase in new surroundings. There is no help in the change of environment. The mind is the obstacle. Therefore why change the environment?” -- Talks 54

.... To Be Contined-- Om namo Bhagavate Sri RamanayaPrasanth Jalasutram