Advaita Vedanta

The entire path explained: the Path of Sri Ramana (Parts 1 and 2; PDF downloads)

~ Tom Das ~ 54 Comments

This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles.

Ramana younger face
Sri Ramana Maharshi
See also:
IN BRIEF: HOW TO ATTAIN LIBERATION (MOKSHA)

Recommended Reading: books for Liberation & Self-Realisation

‘The path of Sri Ramana is meant for anyone who craves for happiness…’

These texts, written by Sri Sadhu Om, himself a direct devotee of Sri Ramana Maharshi, clearly, unambiguously and thoroughly explain the path to Self-Realisation, which is the extinguishment of suffering, as taught by Sri Ramana Maharshi.

  • Part one focuses on Self-Enquiry (the path of knowledge or Jnana), which is the principal path for liberation/Moksha.
  • Part two focuses on Self-Surrender (the path of Bhakti or love/ devotion).

Together these texts summarise the entire Vedanta path, and are consistent with the Vedanta scriptures, but the teachings are arranged practically for those with a genuine yearning for liberation and not just philosophical study.

There is also a text which is considered to be ‘Part three’ called Sadhanai Saram, which means ‘The Essence of Spiritual Practice’, and this text further explains what is given in parts one and two, and goes into more detail about the nature of liberation itself as well as various other topics. Click on the link above to download this as a PDF file.

Sri Sadhu Om (1922-1985), sometimes known as Sri Sadhu Om Swamigal, spent 4 years with Sri Ramana Maharshi from 1946 until Ramana’s death in 1950. He was regarded by many other direct devotees as both Self-Realised and an authority on Ramana Maharshi’s teachings. Sri Muruganar, one of the few devotees of Sri Ramana Maharshi who Sri Ramana openly conceded to be Self-Realised, considered Sri Sadhu Om to be one of the few people who truly understood Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings.

We are indeed fortunate to have these clear and precise teachings to hand!
All we have to do is understand them and put them into practice!

Click on the links below to download these precious texts, and then put them into practice:

The Path of Sri Ramana Part One (PDF file)

The Path of Sri Ramana Part Two (PDF file)

UPDATE 2023: a new revised translation in a single volume is now available to purchase, eg. on Amazon, called ‘The Path of Sri Ramana’. There are 60 pages of new additional previously untranslated material, part 2 is now called the supplement, and the biographical section has been removed. Personally I find the older version, available as a PDF on this website, easier to read, however several people who attend satsang meetings with me have informed me they prefer the newer translation which they feel is more precise and more accurate.

Sri Sadhu Om Mind turn towards first person
Sri Sadhu Om

“We should not run after the world; we should not look outwards at the world, we should look inwards at Self. Those sannyasis who run after the world achieve neither the world nor Self (God). If we try to chase after our shadow, we will never catch it; but if we go towards the sun, our shadow will automatically come running behind us.

Those sannyasis who are always attending to the world with the aim of teaching the world became spoilt in the end. . . No Sage (jnani) who ever came on earth was the product of an ashramam, math or any such institution. Each one of them stood alone and realized the Truth by himself.

There is no rule that a man can attain true knowledge (jnana) only by becoming an inmate of a religious institution. Therefore, in the name of service to the world, let no one cheat himself and retard his spiritual progress by forming foundations and associations and by preaching, shouting slogans and running magazines”

~ Sri Sadhu Om

The entire path is also explained in more concise form in Ramana Maharshi’s text ‘Who Am I?’ (Nar Yar?). However I have found that many people actually miss the key teachings in ‘Who Am I?’ even though they are plainly written due to the ego’s distortion in interpreting what it hears/reads. After reading ‘The Path of Sri Ramana’, the teachings in ‘Who Am I?’ become crystal clear.

ramana-maharshi face

IN BRIEF: HOW TO ATTAIN LIBERATION (MOKSHA)

~ Tom Das ~ 25 Comments

Om red multiple

 

This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles. For more detailed explanations of the entire path to liberation please see this following link – I recommend you read and study the two texts found here and put them into practice: The Path of Sri Ramana

Alternatively you can explore one of more of these books: Recommended Reading: Books for Enlightenment, Liberation and Self-Realisation

Also see Q. I already know I am not the body-mind but I still have difficulty with the teaching and with aspects of daily life

Suffering: our predicament

Ever-obsessed with the transient*, we suffer. Ever-involved with that which changes*, the Self remains (seemingly) covered** and unrealised, and so we, taking ourselves to be a separate body-mind entity, remain in bondage and illusion and continue to suffer and feel confused.

Our True Nature

What you truly are has never suffered, has never undergone change, has never been confused and never been subject to birth, death, illusion or delusion. It is beyond both happiness/peace and suffering/sorrow. It is that pure consciousness ‘within’, it is That which you truly are.

How to Attain Liberation (Moksha)

Release yourself from this suffering and destroy ignorance in its totality by turning away from transient things and attending to your Self, that Pure Consciousness which is You. Turn your attention to That Which You Are and in doing this Be What You Are. Know the Knower, attend to the Seer, that is, Be Your Self and abide as such, until illusion/suffering/ignorance/doubt is no more.

Why This Practice is Necessary

For most, without this sadhana (spiritual practice), ignorance will continue to rise up again and again due to the strength of the habitual tendencies (vasanas) to identify as a separate body-mind entity, and so confusion and suffering will continue as will the seeking and various doubts.

See here for why other ways tend not to work.

In Summary

So Attend to what You Are, Be what You Are, Abide as the Self until ego/maya/ignorance/delusion is no more 🙏

Also see here: Self-Enquiry is not a ‘doing’, it is a ‘being’

🕉🕉🕉***

OBJECTIONS: Turn within? Really?

For objections that the mind throws our way, please see the following posts:

Q. Turn Within? Really? Isn’t this dualistic and doesn’t this just strengthen the ego?
Q. Isn’t it unhealthy and inhumane to turn away from the world? This kind of denial hasn’t worked for me. Integration is working.
Q. Why turn within? Nonduality as I have experienced it is the actual disappearance of what is considered within and without, one seamless blending
Q. Doesn’t the notion of ‘turning within’ to find yourself create an artificial duality? All is already one!
Q. Who or what does Self-Enquiry? Why still the mind? Isn’t this more mind?

Notes

*’the transient’ or ‘that which changes’ refers to the body, mind (thoughts, feelings, imaginings, experiences, conceptual knowledge) and the world, also known as Maya or illusion.

**for practice purposes of the teaching, in this context it is said that the Self is covered by Maya, as this is how it seems to the suffering seeker of truth and liberation. This aspect of the teaching has a practical orientation and places instruction on the path to liberation above mere conceptual/intellectual notions such as ‘the Self is never covered’, etc. These intellectual notions are are often used by the ego to avoid spiritual practice and liberation, which is the ending of egotism, and perpetuate ignorance-ego-suffering.

***the True Self is symbolised by the symbol ‘Om’, the Pure Consciousness within, that which is beyond name, form, description, conceptualisation, knowledge or experience. It is beyond both suffering and happiness/peace. It is also the meaning of the terms ‘true knowledge’ (Jnana) and ‘direct experience’ (Aparokshanubhuti), Bliss (Ananda) and Peace (Shanti), and Non-Duality (Advaita). It is what is signified in the Mandukya Upanishad as Turiya or AUM

Also see

This first link, The Path of Sri Ramana, contains detailed descriptions and explanations of the entire path in an easy to read way. I recommend you read, study and put into practice these two texts:

The entire path explained: the Path of Sri Ramana (Parts 1 and 2; PDF downloads)

Ramana Maharshi: how to abide as the Self

How to know God. How to see God.

Ramana Maharshi: Know the Knower

Ramana’s own writing: Who Am I? (Nan Yar?) by Sri Ramana Maharshi

Q. What in brief is the means to know one’s own real nature? What is the effort that can bring about the sublime inner vision?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Strenuously withdrawing all thoughts from sense objects, one should remain fixed in steady, non-objective [ie. subjective] enquiry. This, in brief, is the means of knowing one’s own real nature; this effort alone bring about the sublime inner vision.

Sri Ramana Gita, Chapter 3, verses 4-6

If, on the contrary, you withdraw your mind completely from the world and turn it within and abide thus, that is, if you keep awake always to the Self, which is the substratum of all experience, you will find the world, of which alone you are now aware, just as unreal as the world in which you lived in your dream.

Ramana Maharshi, Maharshi’s Gospel

291. If one wants to be saved, one is given the following true and essential advice: just as the tortoise draws all its five limbs within its shell, so one should draw the five senses within and turn one’s mind Selfward. This alone is happiness.
 
Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 291
 
Commentary from Sri Sadhu Om on the above verse:
This important advice, to withdraw the mind from the five senses and to turn it Selfward, is not given to one and all; it is given only for the benefit of those who wish to save themselves, and not for those who are still vainly hoping to save the world. Such people, who want to save the world, will find no taste for Self-attention, and thus they are not yet fit even to save themselves, let alone to save the world; unless one has first learnt to swim, it is vain and futile to jump into the water to save others.

The Upanishads and Vedanta

I have collated a whole series of quotes from the Upanishads, Shankara and Vedanta texts that give the same teaching here.

Some further very brief examples are given below:

Amritabindu Upanishad:

The mind severed from all connection with sensual objects, and prevented from functioning out, awakes into the light of the heart, and finds the highest condition. The mind should be prevented from functioning, until it dissolves itself in the heart. This is Jnana, this is Dhyana, the rest is all mere concoction of untruth.

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

When the mind…remains unshakable and does not give rise to appearances, it verily becomes Brahman.

The controlled mind is verily the fearless Brahman.

When the mind, after realising the knowledge that Atman alone
is real, becomes free from imaginations and therefore does not
cognise anything, for want of objects to be cognised, it ceases
to be the mind.

Shankara: How to Meditate for Self-Realisation:

Dwelling on external objects will only increase evil propensities, so wisely recognising this fact, one should abandon external objects and and constantly attend to one’s true nature within, the Atman [the Self].

Yoga Vasishta Sara (The essence of the Yoga Vasishta)

Katha Upanishad:

When the five organs of perception become still, together with the mind, and the intellect ceases to be active: that is called the Supreme State [Brahman]

Svetavastara Upanishad:

Be absorbed, through samadhi, in the eternal Brahman.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

The Self alone is to be meditated upon.

Mandukya Upanishad:

Mandukya Up not simple consciousness

Mandukya Up cessation of all phenomena

Om red multiple

Guru Vachaka Kovai (Garland of Guru’s Sayings) PDF download – Ramana Maharshi: Know the Knower

~ Tom Das ~ 17 Comments

Ramana younger face

Also see: Recommended Reading: Books for Enlightenment, Liberation and Self-Realisation

It is widely accepted that the text Guru Vachaka Kovai (Garland of Guru’s Sayings) presents the most precise, systematic and authoritative exposition of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings; Here is what Ramana Ashram states about the Guru Vachaka Kovai in the foreword of their publication of it:

‘[Guru Vachaka Kovai] provides the most precise, systematic and authoritative exposition of Sri Bhagavan’s teaching, explaining step by step the theory, the practice and the experience of jnana, the Truth supreme which is Being as Life Eternal, Pure Awareness, Perfect Bliss. Thus, the most comprehensive collection of the Maharshi’s sayings is Guru Vachaka Kovai.’

Download Guru Vachaka Kovai (Garland of Guru’s Sayings) as a PDF file here

Here is another version of Guru Vachaka Kovai (PDF) with commentary by Sri Sadhu Om

Following my previous post, here are some more verses for you:

132.
Why do people call me learned?
What is the mark of real learning?
Learning that all garnered knowledge
Of things is empty ignorance
And that true knowledge is the search
For the Knower.

133.
He, who by questing inward for
The Knower, has destroyed the ego
And transcended so-called knowledge,
Abides as the Self. He alone
Is a true knower, not one who has
Not seen the Self and therefore has
An ego still.

134.
Those who, learning to forget
Completely all objective knowledge,
Turn inward firmly and see clearly
The Truth, abide serene. Those who
Try to recall forgotten things
Pine bewildered, fretting over
False phenomena.

Self-Enquiry (Vichara Sangraham) by Sri Ramana Maharshi – Ramana’s first spiritual writing

~ Tom Das ~ 9 Comments

Sri Ramana Maharshi 1902
 The earliest known photo of  Sri Ramana Maharshi, taken in 1902 on Arunachala when he was 22 years old

To download the full text of Self Enquiry by Sri Ramana Maharshi in PDF format click here

The following is the introduction to the text as found in the Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi published by Sri Ramanasramam:

Self-enquiry is the first work the Maharshi ever wrote. It was written about 1901, that is, when he was a young man of about twenty-two. He was already a Jnani (Sage) in perfect realization of the Self, in the resplendent bliss of Divine Knowledge. At that time he was living in Virupaksha Cave on the hill of Arunachala. A number of disciples had already gathered round him. Although he had not actually taken a vow of silence, he seldom spoke, and so wrote his replies to certain questions put to him by Gambhiram Seshayya, one of the earliest devotees. The latter copied them in his diary. After his death this diary was obtained from his brother. The questions and answers were edited by Natanananda and published with Bhagavan’s approval under the name of Vichara Sangraham, or Self-Enquiry. Subsequently they were changed into the form of an essay. The original form has been adopted in the present work.

There is no youthfulness or immaturity in the work. The Master wrote with the authority of full spiritual knowledge, just as in his later years. Like all his expositions, verbal as well as written, this is concerned with practical questions of the path to realization of the Self, never with barren theory. However, it does differ from later expositions in one important respect: that is, that it describes not only the path of Self- enquiry but others also; meditation on one’s identity with the Self and a yogic path based on breath-control. He himself prescribed only Self-enquiry or submission to the Guru. He would say: “There are two ways: ask yourself `Who am I?’ or submit.”

Why did he include the mention of less direct and more elaborate methods in this first exposition? The obvious contingent reason is that the disciple for whom it was written had been reading books about these various methods and asked questions about them. Perhaps also, in a wider sense, it is appropriate that there should first be a general exposition of various methods before the lifelong instruction in that which he prescribed. Certainly the other methods, although described, are scarcely recommended.

The breath control that is described is, of course, not mere physical exercise. It is the spiritual significance of the exercise that makes it an elaborate science. `Science’ is indeed the right word for it, for it is a traditional Indian science of self- purification. This makes it abstruse for the Western reader who has no previous grounding in it, especially as, like all sciences, it has its technical vocabulary which does not permit adequate translation without lengthy notes. One has to remember that in writing this exposition the Maharshi knew that he could count on a technical knowledge of the science in question in the person for whom he wrote. The consolation for Western readers is to remember that he neither recommended nor prescribed this path and in his later works scarcely mentioned it. It is not necessary for them to learn its technicalities.

To download the full text of Self Enquiry by Sri Ramana Maharshi in PDF format click here

Ramana Maharshi: True Wisdom

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

ramana-maharshi.asr_12.crop

The following are sayings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, taken from the text Guru Vachaka Kovai which is widely accepted as the most precise, systematic and authoritative exposition of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings:

Download Guru Vachaka Kovai as a PDF file here

536.
O worldly folk who long for and run after
An endless series of unenduring things
’Tis wisdom true to seek and know
That one thing, on knowing which
All other things will cease to be.

537.
For those who see with insight keen
The subtle Truth, what is there to gain
From knowledge of gross material things?
What the imperishable inner sense
Perceives surpasses far the sight
Seen by the corporeal eye.

538.
Knowing aright the nature of the Self
And abandoning the non-self as void,
Unreal, is wisdom true.
All other knowledge is ignorance,
And not wisdom.

Ramana Maharshi: ‘…unless you give up the idea that the world is real…’

~ Tom Das ~ 5 Comments

ramana maharshi eyes of grace

Question: I cannot say it is all clear to me. Is the world that is seen, felt and sensed by us in so many ways something like a dream, an illusion?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no alternative for you but to accept the world as unreal, if you are seeking the Truth and the Truth alone.

Question: Why so?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: For the simple reason that unless you give up the idea that the world is real, your mind will always be after it. If you take the appearance to be real you will never know the Real itself, although it is the Real alone that exists. This point is illustrated by the analogy of the ‘snake in the rope’. As long as you see the snake you cannot see the rope as such. The non-existent snake becomes real to you, while the real rope seems wholly non-existent as such.

Question: It is easy to accept tentatively that the world is not ultimately real, but it is hard to have the conviction that it is really unreal.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Even so is your dream world real while you are dreaming. So long as the dream lasts, everything you see, feel, etc., therein is real.

Question: Is then the world nothing better than a dream?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: What is wrong with the sense of reality you have while you are dreaming? You may be dreaming of something quite impossible, for instance, of having a happy chat with a dead person. Just for a moment you may doubt in the dream saying to yourself, ‘Was he not dead?’, but somehow your mind reconciles itself to the dream vision, and the person is as good as alive for the purposes of the dream.

In other words, the dream as a dream does not permit you to doubt its reality. Even so, you are unable to doubt the reality of the world of your wakeful experience. How can the mind which has itself created the world accept it as unreal? That is the significance of the comparison made between the world of wakeful experience and the dream world. Both are but creations of the mind and so long as the mind is engrossed in either, it finds itself unable to deny the reality of the dream world while dreaming and of the waking world while awake.

If, on the contrary, you withdraw your mind completely from the world and turn it within and abide thus, that is, if you keep awake always to the Self, which is the substratum of all experience, you will find the world, of which alone you are now aware, just as unreal as the world in which you lived in your dream.

The above excerpt was taken from Maharshi’s Gospel

Ramana Maharshi: Encouragement for Self-Enquiry

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

ramana maharshi

The following are teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi taken from the text Guru Vachaka Kovai, a text which is widely considered to be the most precise, systematic and authoritative collection of Sri Ramana’s spoken teachings.

I have arranged them in an order with the aim of encouraging Self-Enquiry.

I hope these verses are of help to you,

best wishes

Tom

755.

If without wasting time one starts
And keeps up steady self-enquiry,
One’s life becomes at once ennobled,
One is no more this wretched body,
And there wells up within one’s heart
A sea of bliss supreme.

644.

Those who do not keenly seek
And recognise the Being Awareness
Shining incessant in the heart
Sink deep into delusive maya,
Thanks to the denotative knowledge
Piled up by the mounting ego.

393.

One who has wisely chosen the straight path
Of self-enquiry can never go astray;
For like the bright, clear Sun, the Self
Reveals itself direct to whoso
Turns towards it.

77.

What does one gain, you well may ask,
By giving up the wealth immense
Of worldly pleasure and seeking only
Mere Awareness?
The benefit of true Awareness
Is the unbroken prevalence
Of peace within the heart, the bliss
Of one’s own natural being.

71.

How piteous is the spectacle
Of people wandering in the world’s ways
Aimless, frisky like a goat’s beard
And chafing at the discipline
That leads to permanent freedom.

756.

Barring fruitful self-enquiry
There is, for real mind-control,
No other sadhana whatsoever.
The mind may seem to be controlled
By other methods. But after a while
It will spring up again.

692.

Since it was one’s own past effort
That now has ripened into Fate,
One can with greater present effort
Change one’s Fate.

1186.

Uninterrupted and whole-minded
Concentration on the Self,
Our true, non-dual Being, this
Is mouna, pure, supreme, the goal;
Not at all the lazy mind’s
Inertia which is but a state
Of dark illusion.

186.

Poor seer, who suffers endlessly
Because you still perceive the object,
Not the subject, please look inward,
Not without, and taste the bliss
Of non-duality

878.

The Self alone is the true Eye.
Only of the Self one has
Direct immediate knowledge.
But minds averted from the Self
Look through the senses at a world
Other than the Self and think it can
Be known directly.

190.

You pilgrims, who without discovering
What is within, proceed from place
To place, ever hovering bird-like,
Know Siva supreme is but Awareness,
Absolutely still, abiding
Centred in the Heart.

529.

The jiva’s thirst will vanish only
When the vasanas of the frenzied mind
Die and direct experience comes
Of Pure Awareness.
If mirage water could quench thirst
Then only would knowledge indirect
Satisfy the jiva’s longing.

921.

None can confront and overcome
The mind. Ignore it, then, as something
False, unreal. Know the Self
As the real ground and stand firm-rooted
In it. Then the mind’s movements will
Gradually subside.

694.

Even in this worldly life one’s labours bear
No fruit without abundant faith.
Hence till one merges in the bliss
Supreme and boundless, one’s strong zeal
In sadhana should never slacken.

695.

However great one’s former sins, if one
Repines not, sighing “A sinner am I”
But plunges straight into one’s own Being,
One reaches quick the ocean of bliss
And sports in it.

192.

For the man of dharma seeking
Experience of the state supreme,
The heroic action needed is
To draw in the outward-darting mind
And fix it firmly in the Heart.

193.

If the mind, turned outward and distracted,
Starts observing its own being,
Alienation ends, the vestige ego
Merges in the light of true
Awareness shining in the Heart.

697.

They say that Fate can never bind
Those heaven-bound. What does this mean?
Not an iota of the past can touch
Those who dwell unceasingly
In the firmament of Self-Awareness,
Vast, boundless, frontierless and full.

1059.

The Self, the home of blissful Awareness,
Is an ocean vast of peace serene.
And he whose mind turns inward and dives
Deep within it, gains the infinite treasure
Of its grace.

1062.

The ever-present Self, the radiant
Gem, this is the rarest, richest
Treasure. Look within and find
And hold it fast. Your penury,
The grand illusion, source of every
Trouble on earth, will vanish forthwith.

343.

Those who, diving deep within,
Have found the Self have nothing else
To know. And why? Because they have gone
Themselves beyond all forms and are
Awareness without form.

763.

Only a mind one-pointed, inward turned,
Succeeds in self-enquiry. Weak,
Faltering minds, like green banana trees,
Are not fit fuel to feed this fire.

531.

From questing inward in the heart
Comes knowledge which destroys
All false illusions. Searching books
For pure, clear wisdom is like trying
To cook and eat the picture of a gourd.

532.

Can hunger be appeased by eating
Food cooked over a painted flame?
The end of pain, the bliss of peace,
Results from egoless awareness,
And not at all from verbal wisdom.

533.

Never through argument, but only
By abiding in the heart as pure
Awareness, which lights up and shines
Within the mind, can one enjoy
The thrill, the throb, the bliss supreme
Of being the Self.

612.

Undeluded by whatever else
May come and go, unwinking watch
The Self, because the little fault
Of forgetting for one moment one’s true Being
As Pure Awareness brings tremendous loss.

750.

What we incessantly think of,
That we become. Hence, if we
Keenly seek the Self and think
Of nothing else, the malady
Of birth will cease and all thoughts end.

1029.

Bliss is the very nature of the Self.
Self is the infinitude of Bliss.
All Being is but Bliss.
Knowing this firmly, in the Self
Abide enjoying Bliss forever.