Place your burden at the feet of the Lord of the universe who is ever victorious and accomplishes everything. Remain all the time steadfast in the heart, in the Transcendental Absolute. God knows the past, present and future. He will determine the future for you and accomplish the work. What is to be done will be done at the proper time. Don’t worry. Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the Divine.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Our real nature is mukti (Liberation). But we are imagining we are bound and are making various, strenuous attempts to become free, while we are all the while free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
Q: I asked Mother in Sri Aurobindo Ashram the following question: To keep my mind blank without thoughts arising so that God might show himself in his true being.
But I do not perceive anything. The reply was to this effect:
The attitude is right. The power will come down from above . It is a direct experience / Should I do anything further?A: Be what you are. There is nothing to come down or become manifest. 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 blank is seen by you. You are there to see the blank.What do you wait for? The thought, ‘I have not seen’, the expectation to see and the desire of getting something, are all the workings of the ego. You have fallen into snares of the ego. The ego says all these
and not you. Be yourself and nothing more!Once born you reach something. If you reach it you return also.
Therefore leave off all this verbiage. Be as you are. See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming and returning.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
God, on being worshipped, bestows steadiness in devotion which leads to surrender. On the devotee surrendering, God shows His mercy by manifesting as the Guru. The Guru, otherwise God, guides the devotee, saying that God is in you and He is the Self. This leads to introversion of the mind and finally to realization.
When a person has realized, a universal life-current takes possession of him and he becomes an instrument in its hands. His own separate will is gone. This is the real Self-surrender. This is the highest kundalini (the divine cosmic energy), this is real bhakti (devotion), this is jnana (knowledge of the Self).
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
The Guru is powerful. His work is not external. It is internal. He works directly in the minds of his disciples. In front of a Guru, the desires of the disciples become weak and disappear. Mind becomes quiet. The mind which was wandering till now, settles automatically on the Soul. So he gets enlightened. A disciple need not do anything in the presence of a Guru. The disciples shall execute all the works assigned by the Guru without fail and without any delay
Note: We shall be gifted to get such Guru. Generally Guru seeks the disciple who is ready for the teaching or he attracts the disciple towards him. For those who are not blessed with a Guru, our Soul directly guides us. There is not even a single moment where we are left unguided. All out thoughts, words and actions are monitored continuously and we are corrected to be on the right course.
The Testament of Sri Ramana Maharshi
(by V. Kadal Amutham)
”Q: ”What is the easiest way and most effective way to do atma-vichara, self-inquiry?”
Ramana Maharshi:”To always be aware consciously in all situations of the ”I Am”. No matter what you’re doing, where you are, be aware of the ”I Am” in your heart. This is the most effective practice.”
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I am”, and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the “I am”. Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form.
– Ramana Maharshi
This is the surest way to handicap oneself. This is burdening of one’s mind with the fear of failure and thought of one’s failing. That fear is not true. The greatest error of a man is to think that he is weak by nature, evil by nature. Every man is divine and strong in his real nature. What are weak and evil are his habits, his desires and thoughts, but not himself.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
Q: How to churn up the nadis, so that the kundalini may go up the sushumna?
~ Ramana Maharshi:
Though the yogi may have his methods of breath-control, pranayama, mudras, etc., for this object, the jnani’s method is only that of enquiry. When by this method the mind is merged in the Self, the Self, its shakti or kundalini, rises automatically.
-Sri Ramana Maharshi
Day by Day with Bhagavan
Devotee: The sleep state is the state when the mind is quiet. I consider it a worse state.
Maharshi: If that were so, why do all desire sleep?Devotee: It is the body when tired that goes to sleep.
Maharshi: Does the body sleep?Devotee: Yes. It is the condition in which the wear and tear of the body is repaired.
Maharshi: Let it be so.
But does the body itself sleep or wake up? You yourself said shortly before that the mind is quiet in sleep. The three states are of the mind.Devotee: Are they not states of the soul functioning through the senses, etc.?
Maharshi: They are not of the soul or of the body. The soul remains always
uncontaminated. It is the substratum running through all these three states. Wakefulness passes off, I am;
the dream state passes off, I am;
the sleep state passes off, I am.
They repeat themselves, and yet I am.
They are like pictures moving on the screen in a cinema show.
They do not affect the screen.
Similarly also, I remain unaffected although these states pass off. If it is of the body, are you aware of the body in sleep?
Devotee: No.Maharshi: Without knowing the body to be there how can the body be said to be in sleep?
Devotee: Because it is still found after waking up.Maharshi: The sense of body is a thought; the thought is of the mind, the mind rises after the ‘I-thought’, the ‘I-thought’ is the root thought.
If that is held, the other thoughts will disappear. There will then be no body, no mind, not even the ego.
Devotee: What will remain then?
Maharshi: The Self in its purity.
– Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Talk 244.
An Excerpt.
