Ramana Maharshi
A Message for the New Year (Ramana Maharshi’s teachings summarised)
Some consider Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s text ‘Ulladu Narpadu’ or ’40 verses on Reality’ to be the most profound teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
Here in the first invocatory verse of Ulladu Narpadu, Bhagavan Sri Ramana summarises the path of knowledge:
1. Unless Reality exists, can thought of it arise? Since, devoid of thought, Reality exists within as Heart, how to know the Reality we term the Heart? To know That is merely to be That in the Heart.
In the second invocatory verse he summarises the path of Love or Bhakti:
2. When those who are in dread of death seek refuge at the feet of the deathless, birthless Lord Supreme, their ego and attachments die; and they, now deathless, think no more of death.
Therefore, in just these two verses, the entire teaching is summarised. Let us contemplate upon them, meditate upon them and realise their essential teaching!
Wishing you all a wonderful 2022!
Happy New Year!
🙏🙏🙏
Isn’t Love Dualistic? No, Love is the Self! God is Love! (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Questioner: Love postulates duality. How can the Self be the object of love?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Love is not different from the Self. Love of an object is of an inferior order and cannot endure. Whereas the Self is Love, in other words, God is Love.
~Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 433
‘Do not wander and search, having failed to find the Abiding State in spite of receiving tuition in all the arts and sciences, and thoroughly mastering them. The Supreme State is to abide wholly as the Reality that remains enshrined as the form of Love’
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, as recorded by Sri Muruganar in Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 649 (translation by T.V. Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman)
Tom’s comments: Our True Nature is simply Love, also known as Happiness. To find what is referred to in the verse above as ‘the Abiding State’, we just need to rest as or Be Love. This is what is meant as ‘Abide as the Self’ – to simply Be Love or Be God.
Except by the Lord’s Grace (Sri Ramana Maharshi | Tips for Self-Enquiry | Guru Vachaka Kovai)
‘Except by the Lord’s Grace, which begins to function when one surrenders oneself completely to His Feet with sincere devotion, It [The Reality] cannot be cognised merely by the skill of the mind of the jiva [the apparently individual person]. So subtle is the reality.’
~Sri Ramana Maharshi (Guru Vachaka Kovai, Verse 648, translated by Sri Sadhu Om and Michael James)
Here is the same verse 648 translated by T.V. Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman:
‘Know that reality is so extremely subtle, it cannot be known and realised through the exertions of the jiva‘s intellect, but only through the Grace of God, which manifests when you offer yourself up with love at His Feet’
Here is the next verse, verse 649 translated by T.V. Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman:
‘Do not wander and search, having failed to find the Abiding State in spite of receiving tuition in all the arts and sciences, and thoroughly mastering them. The Supreme State is to abide wholly as the Reality that remains enshrined as the form of Love’
The Law of Attraction Teachings – Are they helpful for spiritual enlightenment or liberation? What does Advaita Vedanta say about Law of Attraction Teachings? Tripura Rahasya
Did you know that many Vedanta and Vedic texts contain what are now often called ‘Law of Attraction’ Teachings? Including the text Tripura Rahasya, a text recommended by Sri Ramana Maharshi?
Just through Being Still
Be still.
Just be still.
Gently,
Without force,
Allow all thoughts to subside,
In their own time,
So that only Stillness (Subject-Self-Consciousness) remains.
All doubts, confusions and questions
Will gently fade away effortlessly,
By themselves,
Just through Being Still.
Have faith in your Self-Nature
(Or Guru or God),
Know you are One and All,
And armed with this Knowing-Faith-Intuition,
Surrender,
And Be Still
Once one starts to gain experience in Being Still/turning within,
All teachings that do not encourage stillness or turning within
To discover the Pure Subject-Self/Divine Essence,
Are seen to be utterly superficial, egoic
And of the nature of delusion.
The Simple Being
That is your own True Self or True Nature
(Also known by more grandiose terms
Such as ‘Ultimate Truth’ or ‘Thoughtless Reality’ or ‘God’)
Will be revealed as simply your own Being
Or Isness
Devoid of objective arisings,
Just through Being Still.
‘You’ will discover your own True Self,
which is naturally devoid of arising objective phenomena,
just through Being Still.
Suffering will slips away of its own accord,
there being nowhere for it to attach itself to,
just through Being Still.
Bliss overflows
Infinity Dawns,
Eternity Rises,
Consuming all:
One is thrust into Eternal Life-Joy-Bliss,
One with Source (‘The Father’)
Just through Being Still
All duality is destroyed,
And with it suffering and egoity also disappear,
As the many waters of duality,
Flow into the Ocean of Unity,
(That is my Beloved Guru Bhagavan Sri Ramana,
Who is Grace,
Oneness itself)
Just through Being Still
Without Being Still,
(Also known as Self-Enquiry, Self-Surrender, Abiding as Self,
Being with God, Being with Guru, Residing in The Heart,
Turning Within, Awareness Watching Awareness, Self-Attention,
Parabhakti, Samadhi, Meditation,
Yoga, Devotion, Loving Self/God
Nididhyasana, Silence, Just Being),
Without this Sadhana (Spiritual Practice),
Know that ego-duality-confusion-suffering-samsara will continue potentially forever until the practice is undertaken.
Therefore,
Be Still.
For those who find themselves unable to practice thus,
Contemplate deeply upon this:
What will bring Eternal Joy-Peace-Happiness-Bliss?
Attending to/paying attention to that which changes (ie. various objects that arise and fall)
Or paying attention to that which never changes (the Subject-Consciousness-Self)?
Contemplating thus,
Know that attending to objects/maya simply leads to more objects/maya,
And thus more ego & suffering.
Contemplate this deeply.
Contemplating deeply, and knowing thus,
Discover what You Are:
Abide as the Self,
And Be Still.
Therefore
Be still.
Just be still.
Gently,
Without force,
Allow all thoughts to subside,
In their own time,
So that only Stillness (Subject-Self-Consciousness) remains.
❤️🙏❤️
Unity amidst diversity? No! This is not true! (Sri Ramana Maharshi refuting the view of Bheda-Abedha)
Also see:
How can the sage function with NO THOUGHTS? Sri Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi Quotes: Nobody here/ the jnani is not a person
Does the Sage (Jnani) see the world? Does the world appearance exist after liberation?
In verse 931 of Guru Vachaka Kovai, Sri Ramana Maharshi says:
931. “The mukta [‘liberated sage’] like the rest of us perceives the world in all its vast variety and yet he sees non-difference in it”, so people say. This is not true.
Tom: the idea that the liberated sage still perceives differences ‘like the rest of us’ but perceives an underlying unity despite various objects being seen is here being refuted. Let us see Sri Sadhu Om’s commentary on Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 931:
Sri Sadhu Om: People have many wrong conceptions about the state of a Jnani or Jivanmukta, and one such misconception is refuted here. “What people see as water, the Jivanmukta also sees as water, and what they see as food, He also sees as food. Therefore, in His experience of sense-objects, the Jivanmukta is the same as other people. But even while the Jivanmukta thus sees these differences, He sees the non-difference in them” – are there not many pandits and lecturers who talk and write thus, even though they themselves have no experience of Advaita but have only read about it in books?
But who is the proper authority to say what is the actual experience of a Jivanmukta? Only a real Jivanmukta! Thus Bhagavan Sri Ramana, who has actually experienced the reality and who is the true Loka Maha Guru, declares in this verse that such statements are wrong, and in the next verse He explains how and why they are wrong.’
~Sri Sadhu Om
Tom: Let us see the next verse:
932. Those who mistakenly perceive the variegated universe believe the mukta [‘liberated sage’] too is a perceiver like them. But he is not the perceiver.
Tom: ie. Taking yourself, in ignorance, to be a perceiver and doer, one also, in ignorance, takes the sage to be a perceiver and doer. The sage is not a perceiver! The sage is not a doer! It is just a projection of ignorance that views ‘a sage’ in this way, as a human being or individual person. Again let us see Sri Sadhu Om’s comments:
Sri Sadhu Om: Verse 119 of this work should again be read here. So long as one sees oneself as an individual who sees the world of differences, one cannot but see the Jnani likewise as an individual who sees differences. But since the jnani is in fact nothing but the bodiless and individuality-less Jnana Itself [Tom: ie. in reality we not a human being or body-mind entity at all – we are in fact Spirit, or the Bodiless Atman-Brahman], to see Him as a seer and to believe that even He is seeing differences like oneself, is true only in the outlook of ajnanis.
The absolute truth, however, is that the Jnani is not a seer and that He never sees any differences, for as Sri Bhagavan says in verse 13 of Ulladu Narpadu, “Knowledge of multiplicity is only ignorance [ajnana]”. Thus in the above two verses Sri Bhagavan clearly refutes the wrong idea expressed in the note at the end of the introduction to Sat-Darshana-Bhashya, 6th ed. pp. 35 to 38, namely the idea that a Jnani or liberated soul retains His individuality in spite of the destruction of the ego, and that He “perceives diversity in unity and experiences unity in diversity”.
Regarding this erroneous theory of bheda-abheda or unity in diversity, Sri Bhagavan used to say that if the least difference or diversity is perceived, it means that the ego or individuality is there, so if difference is experienced, non-difference or unity would merely be a theoretical proposition and not an actual experience.
~ Sri Sadhu Om
Q. I don’t understand the obsession with stopping thought. Are not thoughts also part of the Absolute?
Questioner: Surely though we are all Ultimate Reality. Everything that exists is really Ultimate Reality – and that includes thoughts. I don’t understand the obsession with stopping thought rather than accepting that thought is also part of the Absolute. If thinking wasn’t meant to be happening, it wouldn’t occur. I find Nisargadatta’s teachings regarding thinking – let the thoughts flow and don’t identify with them to be more realistic and helpful.
Tom: Sri Nisargadatta also recommended the total cessation of thoughts as the means to liberation – although both he and Sri Ramana (and most sages) also advised other (lower) practices depending on the context of the conversations. Shankara also taught cessation of thoughts.
It is not something that is easy to understand, and most share your view, which is fine of course.
My experience is that without cessation of thoughts, the resultant liberation is not really liberation at all – the Eternal Immortal and Blissful nature of the Self is not really discovered at all, and so suffering and ego keeps on coming back.
This is why the scriptures are so insistent upon cessation of thoughts. This is why the scriptures state that Reality is without thoughts.
Otherwise the scriptures would be much shorter, no? They would just say – ‘nobody here, what is happening is what is happening, nobody doing any of it!’ – but we never see this in the traditional scriptures of Vedanta or Buddhism – did you ever wonder why!
That said, if you find the teaching of Sri Nisargadatta that you mentioned to be more helpful, I agree that it is best to go with that!
Irrespective of what we believe or practice, if we are truly earnest and long for liberation, and follow that genuine longing within us, and allow it to lead us, we all find our way to liberation eventually. As you say, it is our nature already!
🙏
A joyful spiritual practice for liberation: ‘Genuine Spiritual Feeling’
This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles.
Just to have and allow ‘genuine spiritual feeling’, just this is enough. If attended to and nurtured, if allowed to naturally deepen of its own accord, it will, in its own time and own way, overcome you with Love, destroying you, revealing All to be Divine Oneness-Love-Happiness-Bliss, your Own True Nature.
Like a tiny mustard seed that grows to overcome great city walls, simply by nurturing this ‘spiritual feeling’ or ‘connection with the Divine’, the vast ocean of duality is transcended, in time, effortlessly and with joy, without one even caring for concepts such as Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Progress, Liberation or Non-duality.
Beware to those who are stuck in the prison-house of concepts: those who cling to concepts of duality and non-duality, concepts doing and non-doing, concepts oneness and many – these people remain trapped in a prison of their own making, endlessly chattering to themselves, ignoring the Vast Open Fertile Pastures of Love that lie in their very midst.
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That which perceives the limited body-mind is itself the Unlimited. Growing more and more still, feeling more and more Love, following your Heart within, Infinite Truth-Reality-Oneness-Bliss is gently revealed as your Own Being
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To simply have ‘spiritual feeling’ moment by moment, to have this ‘spiritual connection’ of joy and love every day, whenever we remember, and to allow it to deepen of its own accord – this is a wonderful, intuitive & joyful way of effacing the ego and allowing the Divine Within that is All-Encompassing Love and our Own True Nature to blossom, flower and bloom.
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Those overly reliant on intellectual arguments, scriptures and concepts will never connect to the true Spiritual Way which shines from Within* with Wholeness, Oneness and Love.
We must leave behind the barren field of words to discover the fertile pastures of the Divine that is All-Embracing Love.
(*’Within’ here just means you don’t have to go anywhere ‘outside’ to find it and that it is not dependent on any particular object of perception that arises or falls)
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What is ‘Spiritual Feeling’? It is simply to feel good, wholesome, happy, connected. It is to connect with Presence. It is an Openness and Gentle Surrender to Life and Love and God and Self.
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Question: But I thought the practice of Self-Enquiry is that of Self-Attention or Awareness Watching Awareness and for that we need to turn away from objects towards the Subject-Self. How does this fit in?
Tom: This simple practice of allowing Natural Spiritual Feeling to arise by itself will take you everywhere you need to go. It is the path of Love, the path of Surrender, the path of Bhakti. It will calm and purify the mind, filling it with joy and love, removing it of negative (tamasic) qualities. It will then quieten the mind, removing the passionate and anxious aspects of mind (Rajas). Thus far the practice has not turned away from the world – it is a Saguna or Savikalpa practice (ie. practice with objects being present). Then the practice, when it is ready, will naturally turn Nirvikalpa or Nirguna (ie. practice without objects being perceived or being present) , ie. there will be a natural turning towards Source or Self, also known as God or Sri Ramana (the Guru Within). All will happen in good time. It may well happen quicker than you think!
Only when you turn within through self-enquiry is your true nature revealed as not body nor mind, but Spirit, Love, God, Bliss.
For this to happen it is useful to have read and been aware of Bhagavan Ramana’s teachings, eg. as set out in The Path of Sri Ramana, and it can also be useful to adopt Vivarta Vada, which is the view that everything perceived (ie. mind, body and world) is actually an illusory projection of ignorance/ego/maya. Often if Bhagavan’s Teachings are not known, the mind will continue to cling to objects, taking them to be real and thinking objects will lead us to our goal.
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As recorded in the text Sadhanai Saram (The Essence of Spiritual Instruction, a record of teachings from Sri Ramana Maharshi) by Sri Sadhu Om:
79.
To the extent to which love for God arises in one’s heart, to that extent will one acquire knowledge about Him. And to the extent to which one knows the nature of God, to that extent will the mind gain steadfast love for Him. Thus, knowledge (jnana) will be increased by devotion (bhakti), and devotion (bhakti) will be increased by knowledge (jnana).
80.
By means of our love for God, He will give us more knowledge of Him, and by means of our knowledge of Him, He will give us more love for Him. Therefore, of these two paths, bhakti and jnana, follow that one for which you first gain a liking, because that one path will lead you to follow the other one into the heart.
81.
In the life of an aspirant who is seeking liberation, bhakti and jnana will be experienced as inseparable, like the two sides of one sheet of paper. Hence, each one is equal to the other. They are not two different things, for the true nature of both of them is one and the same; know that bhakti and jnana are merely two names for that one thing. (Garland of Guru’s Sayings (Guru Vachaka Kovai) verses 722, 731)
82.
The state of abiding firmly in Self-alone is wisdom (jnana). Would it be possible to abide thus in Self if one did not have love for Self? Love for Self-alone is bhakti; abiding firmly in Self on account of that love alone is jnana. What difference is there between these two? Discriminate and know this truth. (Maharshi’s Gospel p.24)
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Question. What is our Goal?
Tom: Our goal is One. It is simply to be Happy and Free, without any misery, as Sri Bhagavan states in the opening paragraph of Nan Yar? (Who am I?). We just want to feel good. There is nothing wrong with this. This desire for Happiness is an innocent desire and is the greatest of our desires. It is actually the Desire for Liberation, the Desire to Know and Be What We Truly Are.
For this, the only way is Self-Enquiry. The Path of Bhakti naturally and joyfully takes us to Self-Enquiry. The only danger on this path is that we remain caught up in objects and fail to transcend them. Eventually we must ‘go Nirvikalpa’ (ie. we must turn away from objects) in order to realise the Self, our true nature, the Divine Within.
This is why Bhagavan Sri Ramana writes in his text ‘Who am I?’:
Question: When will the realization of the Self be gained?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realization of the Self which is the seer.
Q. Will there not be realization of the Self even while the world is there?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: There will not be.
Question: When will the world which is the object seen be removed?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition’s and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear.
Question: How will the mind become quiescent?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’. The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization.
Question: Are there no other means for making the mind quiescent?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Other than inquiry, there are no adequate means. If through other means it is sought to control the mind, the mind will appear to be controlled, but will again go forth.
But all in good time. Bhakti will turn us within and lead us to Self-Enquiry when the time is right without us (the ego) having to worry about such things – practically speaking all we have to do is connect with ‘spiritual feeling’, have faith in it, let this feeling grow and guide us. Ultimately it will consume and destroy us (ego) and reveal to us the Divine Truth that is our very own Self. It will take us Home.
!!Om Namo Sri Arunachala Ramanaya Om!!
Guided Meditation: A Wonderful & Joyful Way to Liberation (with devotion to Sri Ramana Maharshi)
A wonderful and joyful way to liberation. With loving devotion to Guru Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Please allow these words to wash over you – if you have difficulty hearing the words please turn the volume up!
Namaste and love to you all
To see all the guided meditations I have created please see the Guided Meditation playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TomDasNonduality/playlist
Tom Das 