Here are some verses from Guru Vachaka Kovai (Garland of Guru’s Sayings, a collection of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings) on Bhakti:
314. Treading the path, one finds the world
Composed of ‘I’ and ‘this’
Transformed into the Guru Himself.
This steadiness of vision, this
Awareness of his presence bright
Everywhere is the true pupil’s
Worship of the Master.
512. Rare indeed is the non-dual jnana.
Yet fixing firmly one’s true love
On Siva’s Feet will easily lead
One to the Grace divine, the light
Which destroys illusion dark
And reveals the Real.
513. Through love firm fixing the Lord’s Feet
Ever in the heart, one can destroy
All false desires. And then the heart,
Now blossoming wide, beholds the true
Light of supreme awareness.
649. Do not wander endlessly
Searching in vain for certitude
Through strenuous study, listening, learning.
In love surrender to the Love
Supreme, the Lord, and reach
And hold the state supreme of Real
Being.
651. Those poor fools who have not savoured
The taste ineffable of Love
May go on talking of seven savours.
But we who have enjoyed Love’s sweetness,
We assert that this alone,
Love, is the sole true savour.
652. To disentangle life’s hard knots
One needs must understand the Self
As Love itself. Only when one knows
This Love supreme is moksha gained.
Of every creed this is the heart,
The real teaching.
720. Those with mind matured by bhakti,
Relishing, drinking in, its sweetness,
Deem bhakti supreme, the ever fresh
Nectar, as its own reward
And yearn for more and more of it.
792. If all you wish for is fulfilled,
Think not that it is due to your
Tapas. Know it is but God’s
Good grace, and cling with more and more
Love to His Feet.
(Tom: note, this is how the Law of Attraction can lead one to liberation – it eventually encourages love of God more than love of Things, and this in turn takes one eventually to Self as described above)
965. If towards the Lord you take
One single step, then with much more
Than a mother’s love He takes
Nine steps towards you to accept you.
Such is the Guru’s Grace.
974. Unbroken Self-awareness is
The true, bright path of devotion or love.
Knowledge of our inherent nature
As indivisible Bliss supreme
Wells up as Love.
1205. The mark of bhakti true, total
Self-surrender at Siva’s Feet,
Is perfect peace without a thought
Or word of prayer or plaint.
1206. In the heart which grace divine
Has filled with radiant bliss, can there
Be room for any trivial care,
The symptom of the ignorance which
Is knowledge for the body-bound ego?
1209. When, the dense darkness of ignorance gone,
The heart’s wide open firmament
Is filled with peace serene, clear, bright,
An inner fount of love up springs
Which is devotion true, the pure
Auspiciousness of Siva Himself.
1210. The fortunate ones who in the Self
Abide forever, they alone,
Have realised the Truth. From others
Far indeed is that eternal
Home of grace supreme.
1211. True devotees are they who are
Forever to the Self alone
Devoted. Only they enjoy
Eternally the bliss supreme
Of all-transcendent, highest heaven.
The path is full of paradoxes such as ‘make effort, but in fact realizing liberation is effortless,’ follow the teachings, but in the end all teachings are an illusion.’ Having full faith in teachings such as the verses above keeps me inspired and keeps deepening ‘my experience,’ learning to let go more and more of who I think I am.
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