Is devotion to Bhagavan required for liberation? Ramana Maharshi | Advaita Vedanta
Ramana Maharshi on great ‘public workers’ helping the world
Talk 272.
Devotee: There are widespread disasters spreading havoc in the world e.g., famine and pestilence. What is the cause of this state of affairs?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You were not aware of the world and its sufferings in your sleep; you are conscious of them in your wakeful state. Continue in that state in which you were not afflicted by these. That is to say, when you are not aware of the world, its sufferings do not affect you. When you remain as the Self, as in sleep, the world and its sufferings will not affect you. Therefore look within. See the Self! There will be an end of the world and its miseries.
D.: But that is selfishness.
M.: The world is not external. Because you identify yourself wrongly with the body you see the world outside, and its pain becomes apparent to you. But they are not real. Seek the reality and get rid of this unreal feeling.
D.: There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the problem of the misery of the world.
M.: They are ego-centred and therefore their inability. If they remained in the Self they would be different.
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Genuine non-dual teachings do NOT say there is no right or wrong or no good or bad
Genuine non-dual teachings do not say there is no right or wrong or no good or bad at the relative level of phenomenal objects.
On the relative level there are clearly some things that are more desirable in society than others, and some actions that are more harmonious and constructive than others.
This should be obvious in any clear-thinking human being that has not been brainwashed by an ideology.
Genuine non-dual teachings always encourage ethical and responsible behaviour.
Anything else, such as the notion that relatively speaking there is no right or wrong or good or bad, is just pure conceptual intellectualism, an erroneous pit of conceptual belief
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Non-Duality is NOT total acceptance of everything!
Q. Non-dual means total acceptance of everything. Everything!
Tom: No, that is just acceptance (of duality), for the ego-mind. ‘Everything’ means duality and multiplicity, and ‘accept’ means an action for the ego. (Note that practising acceptance can be a wonderful practise for some – that this can be a wonderful practise is not being denied here)
Even if we talk about the innate acceptance of awareness spontaneously ‘accepting’ all phenomena, there is still a subtle duality there.
Q. How so?
Tom: There is still the duality of awareness on one hand, and the phenomena which rise and fall within it on the other. That is still a duality, albeit a more subtle one. Non-duality is much much deeper that this, much more profound, and in its essence, much simpler too.
Genuine non-duality cannot be reduced to merely accepting whatever happens as it happens. Genuine non-duality is a shining sun, blissful, infinite, beyond all comprehension. In non-duality there is no ‘everything’ to accept, nor any entity that could accept.
It is the cessation of all phenomena, suffering and duality. There is no separation, nor any appearance of separation.
It is bliss and beyond words, infinite and bright, prior to and beyond both birth and death.
It is your true nature.
Turn within, humbled, with love and heartfelt earnest devotion and surrender, armed with and surrounded by Bhagavan’s (The Beloved’s) Grace, and discover what you truly are.
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The ‘great secret’ which many non-dual teachings do not mention
Q. Today after meditation I find myself again in a non dual state, completely present and not separate. So why does anger, irritation, fear, loneliness, sadness etc still arise?
Tom: There is a “great secret’ which many non-dual teachings do not mention, and without this vital teaching, liberation will not occur for most (for some this teaching can occur spontaneously without it being taught, but for most it will need to be taught outright).
The reason disturbances and difficulties keep on coming back is this. However when the mind first hears this teaching, it may often resist it based on what it thinks it knows about non-duality. So it is important to keep an open mind when reading about these teachings, otherwise your mind, due to its beliefs and conditioning (eg. about the nature of non-duality and non-dual teachings), will not allow you to see the truth or effectiveness of what is being presented.
The key teaching seldom taught is this: it is that you will never attain liberation as long as you stay on the level of objects (savikalpa, which means on the level of objects).
This is why all the great sages and great teachers, and all the ancient non-dual teachings recommend that the mind should go within, away from objects, which is called ‘nirvikalpa’ (without objects), and discover the self or your true nature within.
Then, and only then is the genuine non duality reached in which suffering and egotism never returns. Otherwise these both keep on returning, together with the associated frustration and bemusement.
I explain this in more detail in this video here below. Please also see the introductory articles on tomdas.com together with the recommended reading list which go into more detail. The rest of the website goes on to answer almost every single question you can have on this path. All the teachings are available for free 🙏
Here is the video, please take a look if you want to know more:
https://youtu.be/s9LgE9u6PhI?si=25hBbMfLdYZ-lud7
The excellent path ‘Who Am I?’ (Parts 1 and 2) | Self-Enquiry guidance and support| Ramana Maharshi
After the invocation to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Tom offers a vital talk on what Ramana discovered as the foremost path of all — Self-Inquiry, the question “Who am I?”.
He invites us to reflect: What path are we really following? With vivid metaphors and images, Tom illuminates how the practice of Self-Inquiry is unlike any other activity, spiritual or worldly. Instead of planning, scheming, playing, creating… we turn toward the “I” itself — the doer we believe ourselves to be. This is the source of all problems, the very root of suffering.
Though this is deeply challenging for the mind, Tom reminds us that awakening to our true nature is the freedom we long for. Nothing special is required; by opening up to the question, “Who Am I?” along with sacred silence and Bhagavan’s grace, liberation shines and delusion and ignorance are seen to have never occurred.
Here is Part 1:
In this second part, Tom responds with clarifications and pointers to help deepen understanding. If you have your own reflections or questions, you’re welcome to share them in the comments below.
Here is part 2:
What is Spirit? Spirituality defined
Q. What does spiritual mean to you? What does the word mean? And what is spirit?
Tom: to me spirit means something ineffable that you are. Or it can mean the ineffable divine power that is within you and all around you, that moves all and can also teach you and guide you.
Both are ultimately the same.
Spiritual means pertaining to spirit.
Ultimately spirituality means to know yourself as you truly are (ie. as spirit)
Q. Thanks for your reply, there Tom! Would you say that, ‘Energy, Vibration, Frequency’, fits the description you commented?
Tom: I prefer not to use any of those words to describe spirit, for they pertain to movement and form, whereas spirit is ineffable and beyond movement or form.
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Ramana said everything you need to know for liberation is in this text
Sri Ramana Maharshi said everything you need to know for liberation is in this text, and he even translated it himself.
(It seems that some people are unaware that Ramana Maharshi wrote a translation of the entirety of Shankara’s text Vivekachudamani, a relatively short and accessible masterpiece that has guided spiritual seekers for over 1400 years. As far as I know, Ramana Maharshi’s translation of this text was his first and longest spiritual written work.)
I’ve collated a bunch of free resources together for those who are interested, see here for more:
The Sage or Guru is the form of Ultimate Reality
“Those who say that the reality has no form are those who do not know the reality. For the form of the Sage [sahaja nishta] who correctly knows and abides in the reality, Self, the nature of which is like the [all- pervading] nature of space, is verily the form of the reality. Know this.”
Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 656
Commentary by Sri Muruganar:
Through this verse, Sri Bhagavan disproves the saying, ‘The reality has no form’. How? Since the Sage [sahaja nishtha] who has known the reality as it is, is none other than the reality, He Himself is the very form of that reality. This is what is meant by saying, ‘Jnani Himself is Self’. Sri Muruganar here refers to the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 7, verse 18, in which Sri Krishna says that the Jnani is Atma.
Tom Das 