Author: Tom Das

Ramana Maharshi: the path to self-realisation (Padamalai)

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Tom Das's avatarTom Das

The following verses are taken from Padamalai, a record of teaching statements from Ramana Maharshi which were taken down by one of his foremost devotees, Muruganar. This version I am quoting from is translated by Dr T. V. Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman – my deep appreciation to them in making this wonderful and instructive work more widely available.

In their translation they have changed the order of the verses and grouped them thematically. The following verses are taken from the chapter entitled ‘The Self’.

My comments are interspersed in italics in grey.

padamalai godman ramana

Self-knowledge

5. True jnana* is only the removal of wrong knowledge. Only this is useful for liberation.

*Jnana is a Sanskrit word that means knowledge. It is etymologically related to the words gnosis and knowledge. In a spiritual context it implies the height of spiritual knowledge. In an Advaita/non-dual context it is synonymous with self-realisation, liberation/freedom…

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Neo-advaita and the highest ‘teachings’ of Advaita Vedanta (ajata vada) – are they the same?

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In Advaita Vedanta it is said that the Ultimate Truth is that Maya never existed, and that there never was a world (Jagat), individual person (Jiva), or a God (Isvara). This is known as Ajata Vada – see here for an example of this teaching. Here in Guru Vachaka Kovai we have Sri Muruganar stating the same:

‘…I have known that in truth there is never in the least any attainment of bondage, liberation, and so on, which are fabricated when one imagines one is separate from reality’ Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 1241

Someone recently made a comment to me that this sounds remarkably like Neo-Advaita, to which my response was as follows:

They sound remarkably similar because on the verbal level both traditional and neo-Advaita talk about Ajata Vada (the view that there is no maya, no objects truly exist, and therefore no true meaning, no seeker, no teaching, no teacher, etc) as being the ultimate truth, but traditional advaita also talks about teachings from vivarta vada (world is a projected illusion) and shristi dristi vada (world is real) viewpoints and prescribes self-enquiry as a (paradoxically) valid method for this to be realised on these latter 2 levels for those who cannot fathom ajata vada. Upon this realisation it is ‘realised’ there was never a seeker and no real realisation either. Sri Ramana Maharshi explains it more fully here if you are interested.

Also see:

Advaita Vedanta: Gaudapada’s Method (Mandukya Upanishad Karika)

Ramana Maharshi – three theories of reality of the world (shristi-dristi vada, dristi-shristi vada/vivarta vada, ajata vada)

The Ultimate or Highest Truth according to the Upanishads

Shankara – If I am Brahman already, why the need for effort? Advaita Vedanta

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

If You are That, if all is already Brahman, why the need for effort? Here is what Shankara has to say about this in his masterpiece Vivekachudamani. What do you think these verses from Shankara’s Vivekachudamani are trying to convey?

If you are interested in my view, I explain more about this teaching here.


62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utter the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realisation one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.

63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman?- It would result merely in an effort of speech.

64. Without killing one’s enemies, and possessing oneself of the splendour of the entire surrounding region, one cannot claim to be an emperor by merely saying, ‘I am an emperor’ merely in an effort of speech.

65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

Also see:

Ramana Maharshi on Jiddu Krishanmurti’s Choiceless Awareness

Advaita Bodha Deepika – vital teachings for Self-Realisation that are often missing in modern non-dual and Advaita Vedanta teachings

Turn Within? Really? Isn’t this dualistic and doesn’t this just strengthen the ego?

Q. How should a beginner approach Enlightenment or Spirituality? | Sri Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

A visitor asked, “What should one, who is an absolute beginner, do in this (i.e., spiritual) line?”

Bhagavan: The very fact that you put this question shows you know what to do. It is because you feel the want of peace, that you are anxious to take some steps to secure peace. Because I have a little pain in my foot, I am applying this ointment.

Visitor: What is the method to be adopted for securing peace?

B: The conception that there is a goal and a path to it, is wrong. We are the goal or peace always. To get rid of the notion that we are not peace is all that is required.

V: All books say that the guidance of a Guru is necessary.

B: The Guru will say only what I am saying now. He will not give you anything you have not already. It is impossible for anyone to get what he has not got already. Even if he gets any such thing, it will go as it came. What comes will also go. What always is will alone remain.

The Guru cannot give you anything new, which you have not already. Removal of the notion that we have not realised the Self is all that is required. We are always the Self. Only, we don’t realise it.

The Asramam compounder asked some questions about his experiences during meditation. Bhagavan explained that the Self is the one reality that always exists and it is by its light all other things are seen. We forget it and concentrate on the appearances. The light in the hall burns, both when persons are present there and when they are absent, both when persons are enacting something as in a theatre and when nothing is being enacted. It is the light which enabled us to see the hall, the persons and the acting.

We are so engrossed with the objects or appearances revealed by the light that we pay no attention to the light. In the waking state or dream state, in which things appear, and in the sleep state, in which we see nothing, there is always the light of consciousness or Self, like the hall-lamp always burning.

The thing to do is to concentrate on the seer and not on the seen, not on the objects, but on the Light which reveals them

Day by Day with Bhaghavan, 16th September 1945, Afternoon

Ramana Maharshi: No Thoughts – A selection of quotes on Silence

~ Tom Das ~ 3 Comments

Tom Das's avatarTom Das

ramana-maharshi faceSri Ramana Maharshi

All of the following quotes were written by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi himself (as opposed to being recorded or compiled by someone else – of course translations from the original Tamil are presented here). Most of the quotes are taken from his short masterpiece ‘Who Am I?’, but I have also included two verses from Upadesa Saram (which he also wrote) which explains, in concise form, a method for liberation (click on the above links to find the texts together with them in PDF format for download).

If you read the quotes below carefully, you will see that Ramana also explains the nature of Jnana (Knowledge or Wisdom) and what it means to ‘abide as the Self’ or ‘resolve the mind in the Self’.

!Om Guru Ramana!

No thoughts

All the texts say that in order to gain release one should render the mind quiescent…

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Manonasa – what is it? And doesn’t ‘destruction of the mind’ sound dangerous and unhealthy?

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What is manonasa?

In the traditional scriptures, Manonasa, literally meaning desctruction of the mind, is a synonym for liberation of self-realisation.

Doesn’t ‘extinction of the mind’ sound dangerous?