Sann verklighet (sat-cit-ananda) kan inte avstås. Insikten ska ske antingen via inquiry till självet. Eller genom surrender. Det senare är att ”dö” fortfarande i livet för de flesta.
(jivanmukti)
After we have renounced whatever
Can be renounced, That which abides,
And cannot be renounced, is
True Being shining in the Heart,
The fount, the flood of Bliss.
~ Guru Vachaka Kovai (Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s Teachings presented by Sri Muruganar)
Everybody knows and feels that he exists. There cannot be any time when a person feels, ”I do not exist”. Hence the main inherent attribute of the Self is ’Awareness of existence’ or ’Awareness and Existence (Chit and Sat)’ – ie. ’I AM’. As there is no doubt in anyone’s mind about one’s being or existence, it should be possible for one to practise daily for some time to remain merged in the feeling of ”amness” or ”existence” to the exclusion of all
thoughts, just like a new born baby.A baby which is just born has no vocabulary of any language and so cannot think of any object. One has to think in one language or other. So a child just born cannot have any thoughts. It can only feel. When once its basic need of hunger and thirst are satisfied, the only feeling the child will possibly have is the feeling or knowledge of being or amness.
The knowledge that someone or something else ’is’ or exists (say, my neighbour or a pot) is an indirect knowledge derived through my senses like my eye and established by the conditioning of my mind which has learnt about what is a pot and how it looks like,
etc. On the contrary, the fact that ’I AM’ is a direct knowledge which has come to me instinctively directly from the very EXISTENCE and not through my senses.Hence if a person manages initially to sit for a few hours daily directing his attention (through imagination) to the spiritual heart and get merged in the feeling of ”amness” or ”BEING” or ”I AM” like the newborn child, he is sure to get Self-Realisation.
One condition is that he should not think or repeat ”I AM” like a Mantra. Secondly, he should not add any more qualifications to ”I AM” – like, ’I am a man’, ’I am 40 years old’, ’I am an Engineer’, etc.
A new born child cannot add or think of such epithets. One of the recent philosophers of repute, late Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj of ’I AM THAT’ fame has claimed that by adopting the process of ’I am’ as directed by his Guru, he had attained Self realisation (enlightenment) in three years’ time. This method of remaining in one’s being or Self is nothing but another version of the other method of enquiry as to, ”Who am I ?” advocated by Bhagavan Ramana.
Ramana Maharshi has said that, ”Even if he thinks constantly I-I, one will be led to that place”, ie. the source of ’I’ or mind. This method has also been advocated by Ashtavakra as an instant ’Moksha capsule’ .
”Bereft of the body-sense, if you can remain resting in your Self alone, you will, here and now, become blissful, peaceful and free from bondage.”
According to Ramana Maharshi,
”There is nothing so simple as being the Self. It requires no effort, no aid. One has to leave off wrong identity and be in one’s eternal, natural and inherent state.”(TALKS with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk No.101).
~ From Golden Guidelines to Who Am I? book by Swami Shantananda Puri
Q: I long for bhakti. I want more of this longing. Even realization does not matter for me. Let me be strong in my longing.
~ Ramana Maharshi:
If the longing is there, realization will be forced on you even if you do not want it. Long for it intensely so that the mind melts in devotion.After camphor burns away no residue is left. The mind is the camphor. When it has resolved itself into the Self without leaving even the slightest trace behind, it is realization of the Self.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
Mrs. and Mr. Kelly, an elderly couple from America, and others of their company desired to know what they should do to gain concentration in the face of discomfort of sitting and the sting of mosquitoes, etc.
M.: The discomforts will not worry you if your concentration is right. Do not mind the discomforts. Keep your mind steady in meditation.
If you do not have the strength and endurance to bear mosquito stings, how do you hope to gain realization of the Self? Realization must be amidst all the turmoil of life. If you make yourself comfortable and go to bed, you fall asleep. Face the troubles, but keep yourself steady in meditation.
Think of the Self despite the mosquitoes or toothache. It needs strength, but one must be a hero to gain realization.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
– Talk 150
What is the ego?
Enquire.
The body is insentient and cannot say ’I’.
The Self is pure consciousness and non-dual. It cannot say ’I’.
No one says ’I’ in sleep.
What is the ego then?
It is something intermediate between the inert body and the Self.
It has no locus standi.
If sought for it vanishes like a ghost.
At night a man may imagine that there is a ghost by his side because of the play of shadows.
If he looks closely he discovers that the ghost is not really there, and what he imagined to be a ghost was merely a tree or a post.
If he does not look closely the ghost may terrify him.
All that is required is to look closely and the ghost vanishes.
The ghost was never there.
So also with the ego.Bhagavan
In April 1950 Bhagavan was very ill; yet even in this state of utter prostration when unable to sit up, he insisted that all who had come for his ”darshan” must be allowed to have their desire fulfilled. So they were allowed to pass in a queue in front of the room where he was lying.
There were always, many people in the queue and it was so long that a person had not more than a second or two for his darshan.
Even these silent marches past were not without some incident or other, to show how compassionate and alert Bhagavan was.
One timid devotee who was never known to have talked to Bhagavan or to sit in the half anywhere except in the back rows, summoned up courage to throw a slip of paper at the feet of Bhagavan, as he passed along. Bhagavan took the slip, read it and asked for the person to be brought. The attendants fetched him before Bhagavan as though he were a culprit to be reprimanded for breaking discipline. Sri Bhagavan looked him full in the face with a broad and benign smile and nodded assent.
The slip contained the words ”Bhagavan! Save me.”
