Ramana Maharshi

‘The practice of witnessing thoughts and events…was never even in the least recommended’ by Sri Ramana Maharshi | Sri Sadhu Om | The Path of Sri Ramana

~ Tom Das ~ 5 Comments

The following is written by Sri Sadhu Om, a direct devotee of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s, and is taken from the text ‘The Path of Sri Ramana – Part 1’, from one of the footnotes in Chapter 7. You can download the entire text for free here – it is a wonderful and rare text that explains the entire path to liberation. Please also see recommended reading for liberation here as well as the introductory articles on the homepage for more.

The practice of witnessing thoughts and events, which is much recommended nowadays by lecturers and writers, was never even in the least recommended by Sri Bhagavan, Indeed, whenever He was asked what should be done when thoughts rise (that is, when attention is diverted towards second or third persons) during sadhana, He always replied in the same manner as He had done to Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai in ‘Who am I?’, where He says:

“If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire ‘To whom did they rise?’. What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires ‘To whom did this rise ?’, it will be known ‘To me’. If one then enquires ‘Who am I?’, the mind (our power of attention) will turn back (from the thought) to its source (Self)”.

Moreover, when He says later in the same work, “Not attending to what-is-other (that is, to any second or third person) is non-attachment (vairagya) or desirelessness (nirasa)”, we should clearly understand that attending to (witnessing, watching, observing or seeing) anything other than Self is itself attachment, and when we understand thus we will realize how meaningless and impractical are such instructions as ‘Watch all thoughts and events with detachment’ or ‘Witness your thoughts, but be not attached to them’, which are taught by the so-called gurus of the present day.

————

Tom: The following excerpt is also taken from the same chapter, chapter 7, of The Path of Sri Ramana – Part 1:

Since, whether we know it or not, Self, which is now wrongly considered by us to be unknown, is verily our reality, the very nature of our (the Supreme Self’s) attention itself is Grace (anugraha). This means that whatever thing we attend to, witness*, observe or look at, that thing is nourished and will flourish, being blessed by Grace…

…Hence, when the power of attention of the mind is directed more and more towards second and third person objects, both the strength (kriya-bala) to attend to those objects and the ignorance – the five sense-knowledges in the form of thoughts about them – will grow more and more, and will never subside! Have we not already said that all our thoughts are nothing but attention paid to second and third person objects? Accordingly, the more we attend to the mind, the thoughts which are the forms (the second and third person objects) of the world, the more they will multiply and be nourished. This is indeed an obstacle. The more our attention – the glance of Grace (anugraha-drishti) – falls on it, the more the mind’s wavering nature and its ascendancy will increase. That is why it is impossible for the mind to negate anything by thinking ‘I am not this, I am not this’ (neti, neti). (Footnote to text here: This is why aspirants who, in order to destroy evil thoughts like lust, anger and so on, fight against them and thereby think about them fail in their attempts, while aspirants practising Self-enquiry, who pay their full attention to Self with an indifference towards their thoughts, bypass them easily)

On the other hand, if our (Self’s) attention is directed only towards ourself, our knowledge of our existence alone is nourished, and since the mind is not attended to, it is deprived of its strength, the support of our Grace. “Without use when left to stay, iron and mischief rust away” – in accordance with this Tamil proverb, since they are not attended to, all the ‘vasana-seeds, whose nature is to rise stealthily and mischievously, have to stay quiet, and thus they dry up like seeds deprived of water and become too weak to sprout out into thought-plants. Then, when the fire of Self-knowledge (jnana) blazes forth, these tendencies (vasanas), like well-dried firewood, become a prey to it.

This alone is how the total destruction of all tendencies (vasanakshaya) is effected.

Q. Is it really true that I am not this body? Physical pain & liberation, How to elminate wordly attachment? Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana book excerpt | Advaita Vedanta

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

The following is a teaching excerpt from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’.

Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’] claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.

The authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.

17th July 1936

Questioner: Is it really true that I am not this body?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes.

Questioner: If so, when some damage is suffered by the body, why do I feel pain? If, say, a piece of burning coal falls on somebody near me, I do not feel anything, but that person alone feels the pain. Likewise if a thorn pricks my foot I alone feel the pain, but not the one walking by my side.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Does the body cry out, saying, ‘I am feeling pain!’? You associate yourself with your body and speak of it as your “I”. The body is only in the mind. All pain apparently suffered by the body is as imaginary as the body itself. The body cannot know anything. It is insentient flesh and bone. Notions of pain spring from our own imagination only. Thus, in deep slumber, the mind being inactive, there is no pain.

Questioner: Suppose I have a piece of metal wire in my hand. If I cut it into pieces, the metal cannot be aware that it is being cut, because it is insentient. Whereas, if a living body were to so much as be scratched, it explodes with agony. In what sense, therefore, does Bhagavan mean that the body is insentient?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: True, the body experiences the physical stimulus of pain if it is injured, but why should that fact create a thought in the mind, “I am feeling pain.”?

Physical pain creates mental agony because of the following reason – the mind assumes itself to be the body and appropriates to itself the bodily identity, because in the absence of such false self-objectification it cannot survive or thrive. If the idea “I am the body” is abandoned, everything, including pain suffered by the body, is only Bliss.

Questioner: But I am aware of the pain if the body is injured!

Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the body is injured, in the case of the unenlightened one, the following happens – his body feels the physical stimulus of pain, and his mind spontaneously manifests the thought, “I am injured”, causing him to become mentally agitated; the reason for the manifestation of such thought is the underlying erroneous idea “I am the body”. In one who is free from the mistaken idea of accepting the body for the Self, injury of the body causes no disturbance to his peace. Each one is indeed the Self, but absurdly confounds himself with the not-Self and so needlessly suffers on account of such dehatma-buddhi.

Questioner: The question still remains – if, as postulated by Sri Bhagawan, the body is insentient, how can it and why does it feel pain at all?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The word “pain” is employed because there is a prejudice in the mind against such stimuli. When the mind is dissolved in Pure Consciousness, its prejudices also disappear. For the enlightened one, therefore, pain and pleasure are physical stimuli that stand on an equal footing. He does not covet the one and abhor the other; nor does he abhor the one and covet the other. Mind gone, there remains no yardstick by means of which one sensation is to be regarded as pain and another as pleasure.

Questioner: Sri Bhagavan seriously means to say he is unable to tell the difference between the sensation that ensues when an insect bites his leg and the one that ensues when someone is massaging it?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: That they are different sensations is self-evident; that the one is abhorrent and the other agreeable is mere mental judgement from which the Jnani is quite free. He himself seeks out neither pain nor pleasure, but accepts what comes his way without resisting; in Jnana only automatic acceptance remains.

Questioner: For Jnanis it is different; what of the common man?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: You also are a Jnani; only, you think otherwise!

Questioner: How could that be?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The option of turning inwards and quietly allowing the mind to plunge and dissolve in the Self is equally available for all. It is not the fiefdom of a select few. All are verily only the Self.

Questioner: That does not satisfy me. I am unable to Realise it for myself.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: So long as worldly attachments are present the mind cannot be succesfully turned inwards.

Questioner: How to eliminate worldly attchment?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: By turning the mind inwards.

Questioner: Really!

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The more you hold on to the Self or retain the mind in its native state of subjective-awareness-sustained-effortlessly-and-volitionlessly, the more the mental tendancies and worldly attachments wither off; the lesser the mental tendancies and worldly attachments, the easier does become retention of the mind in its native state of subjective-awareness-sustained-effortlessly-andvolitionlessly.

Questioner: Which comes first?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The sadhaka recognises and reflects upon the ephemeral nature of the objective world and the transient nature of his own body. He gets fed up with material pleasures, because they eventually lead only to sorrow, when their enjoyment becomes, for any reason, impossible. He asks himself if a more permanent experience of life might not be possible. Then he discovers the Ajata-advaita doctrine. Initially he is not convinced, and argues that if it were a dream there would be no possibility of corroboration, but that here his relatives and friends are able to confirm the evidence provided by his senses; he also asks why the same dream should be repeated everyday, were it all only a dream – according to him, here he sees the same sun, moon and earth everyday, whereas in his dreams he finds himself in new worlds moment to moment. Eventually it dawns upon him that everything he thinks he knows, including an understanding of the apparent permanency of the world he believes himself to live in, is only thought or imagination.

Then at the intellectual level he understands the truth – that the names and forms constituting the world are fictitious. This sparks a search for the substratum said to be underlying them, which alone is said to be Real by the wise.

He hears the teaching that the source of the mind, Beingness, is the gateway to the Real Self. Then he begins the practice of quietening the mind by vichara or any other method, tackling various distractions as and when they arise, by withdrawing attention from them and fixing it on Beingness or the Self. The beginning is only becoming fed-up with the evanescent nature of the world and the fugacious attractions it has to offer.

Questioner: The boubts Bhagavan mentioned – they are my doubts also. Why is everyone witnessing the same dream? The sun moon etc. are seen by all.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: In turn those “all” are seen by you only. In deep slumber when there is no mind, nothing is available to be seen, but your existence is a constant.

Questioner: Why do I dream the same dream everyday? For instance yesterday I came to the ashram and had darshan of Bhagawan; he was sitting on the same sofa in exactly the same manner. Today I am seeing Bhagawan and tomorrow also it is going to be the same Bhagawan.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The future is a mere mental projection. The past is a mere memory. Have you not had dreams where the places you visit look extremely familiar?

Questioner: At least is the present real?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Anything seen cannot be Real. What is seen is not Pratyaksha. It is not self-evident, because there is a subject-object relationship involved. It is merely sensory information that is fed into the mind by the strength of its own evil faculty of avidya maya. That alone is Real which shines by its own light.

You are asking about the objects of the world. Can such objects exist without a YOU, a perceiver? When there is no perceiver, as in swoon or deep slumber, is there anything to be perceived? No. What is the inference? The objects owe the appearance of their apparent existence to you only. They are merely mental creations. The appearance of this enormous cosmos around you is merely a mental information. The mind is fiction. Therefore the ‘objects’ manufactured by it are also fictitious. Have not the least doubt about it.

Questioner: If everything is unreal, can we conclude that bondage and liberation are also unreal?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes.

Questioner: Then why should I try to obtain Liberation? Let me remain as I am.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Exactly!

Questioner: I do not understand.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Remaining as you are is the loftiest Sadhana.

Questioner: How can remaining in ignorance be sadhana?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: You think that you are in ignorance. When you do not think at all, what remains is only wisdom. Removal of the screen of thought is all that is required for Reality to be revealed. Since you want a sadhana by means of which you may reach this thought-free state, vichara is suggested. Actually there is no need for any sadhana for one who has mastered the art of remaining as he is – the art of Being. That is the import of the advice Summa Iru [Tom: ‘Be Still’]. People generally misunderstand it. It does not mean keeping the body idle. It means keeping the mind still or free from thought. Remain perpetually absorbed in the thought-free I-Current. This will automatically lead you to the Sahaja-stithi [Tom: the natural state, ie. liberation or self-realisation] without requirement for further effort.

Questioner: Is even desire for Liberation an obstacle to Liberation?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes

Aham Sphurana – Scintillations of Jnana from Sri Ramana Maharshi – PDF download of the complete unedited text

~ Tom Das ~ 11 Comments

Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’], an unedited text of over 1000 pages, claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.

This is a controversial text and the authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.

At the time of writing this post, there is also a 280 page version of this text which is available from Open Sky Press – this is a beautifully arranged set of teachings collated from Aham Sphurana – but the teachings have been edited and therefore subtly changed. Sometimes this makes the teachings easier to access, but sometimes the meaning of the text may inadvertently be altered.

For example, this post, which I have presented in unedited form, is also present in the Open Sky Press version but the word ‘solipsism’ was removed from the edited version of the text on page 57 and for some reason replaced with the word ‘egoism’; the reference to Berkeley was also removed and the Latin phrase was (slightly) wrongly translated. For some this may make it easier to access, as the word solipsism is a philosophical term that some may not be familiar with, but for others reading Sri Ramana’s alleged view on solipsism may be fascinating and useful, and the removal of this term could take away from the depth of the teaching; similarly with the reference to the philosopher Berkeley.

Having read many spiritual texts, my personal preference is to read as near to the source material as possible (and where possible to go to primary sources themselves), as this gives the most accurate presentation of the teachings. I have read many texts that try to be helpful through editing but many end up inadvertently distorting the teachings. This is also why when I make comments on texts, I try to make it very clear what is added by me as opposed to what is present in the original, so the reader has an opportunity to assess my comments in light of the actual source material. To this end I am sharing the unedited PDF here for those who find it useful.

Best wishes & Namaste

Tom

Aham Sphurana book excerpt – Solipsism and the shock of hearing the Ajata teachings | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Advaita Vedanta

~ Tom Das ~ 3 Comments

The following is a teaching excerpt from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’. You can download the entire text here.

Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’] claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.

The authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.

11th July 1936

Sri Ramana Maharshi: When a man is told he is neither the body nor the mind, he is initially puzzled, because all along his life his experience of self has been confined to these two only. When he hears the words of the Jnana-guru for the first time, he learns to his shock that these two [Tom: ie. body and mind] are suddenly to be regarded as unreal, insignificant and immaterial, and Consciousness of Being alone is to be treated as Real and material.

To one whose understanding of the world is sustained by conceptual knowledge and whose life is ruled by subject-object relationships, this can be too much of a shock to bear. He either laughs off the Ajata-advaita doctrine as sheer nonsense developed by mischievous minds that have nothing better to do, or takes it seriously and is shocked by the implications – everything he has ever known and cherished in his life is now suddenly revealed to be meaningless, fungible, evanescent and mutable, and thus unreal and unworthy of consideration, whereas what he had never before paid attention to is revealed as the only permanent, abiding Reality.

To one who has up till that point in time been regarding himself as a subject, finite across time and space, occupying an objective world, this revelation comes as a great emotional and mental upheaval, because he is attached to the things of the world.

One whose past sadhanas [Tom: spiritual practices] have weakened all attachment takes naturally to the idea that the world is a dream – either way it is not going to matter to him because he is not interested in it. The idea that the world does not exist as a collection of independent objects, but rather depends upon perception for its apparent existence, shocks some people. The evidence of the 5 sensory organs is merely random ‘information’. It does not denote that any such object is actually ‘out there’; there is no ‘out there’.

The inlet of consciousness is only one; therefore, all perceived depends upon the perceiver only; this consciousness, turned outside, is the world and its perceiver; turned inside it finds that it is the Self. Jagrat-prama [Tom: Knowledge of the waking state; Jagrat means the waking state, prama means knowledge] is the prama of jagrat-pramata [Tom: knower of the world; pramata means knower] [Tom: This entire sentence means that the [knowledge] of the waking state is knowledge for the knower of the waking state, ie. It is the ego that knows the waking state]. Apart from the perceiver there is no such thing as the perceived. The pramata[Tom:knower] believes he knows so many things about the world; he is merely accessing the contents of his own mind. All thoughts and perceptions are intra-mental modifications. The light of the Self falls on the aham-vritti and its children, the other vrittis, and a jiva [Tom: the (apparent) individual person] is born. It is for the aspirant to destroy all the other vrittis. The Self takes care of the nude ahamvritti – that is, destroys it. Then it will remain without reflection.

Questioner: This is pure solipsism – Berkeley’s Esse est percipi aut percipere [Tom: ‘to be is to be perceived or to perceive’ as expressed by George Berkeley].

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The solipsist says the mind is real, that everything, including the world and thoughts, that proceed from it is a phantom or shadow. He does not question the reality of the mind itself. I am asking you to go even further. I say that the mind itself is a shadow or phantom proceeding from the Self.

You will discover this as a matter of direct experience – if only you will probe into the source of the mind.

You ask why some do not Realize. You wonder whether prarabdha [Tom: fate or destiny] might be the reason. No. Prarabdha has no power to pull back into the world a jiva that is adamantly determined to disappear in its source forever. Then what is the reason, you ask. This is the reason – clinging fast to objective knowledge [Tom: this is the reason why some do not realise the Self].

There are learned pandits who have written rich commentaries volume after volume – upon various Advaitic texts which directly propound the Ajata-advaita doctrine- Ashtavakra Gita, Ribhu Gita, Panchadasi, Kaivalya Navaneetam, Ozhivil Odukkam, etc, etc. Go to their houses when a loved one has died, and ask how they feel. You may be met with a hostile stare. If you sit down then and there and explain all this, you may count yourself lucky if permitted thereafter to leave with your life. Where does the problem lie? All the learning has been in vain, because it has stopped at the level of the intellect.

It is unable to crush the Ego, because there was no practice. The only effort made was to read more books, go on writing commentaries, and go on receiving accolades for being ‘an Expert in the field of Advaita’, thus making the ego grow bigger and bigger. Never was effort made to still the ceaseless waves of thought. Even some effort in that direction might have brought a reciprocal flow of Grace from the Self. But no. Read, write, receive shawls at book-launch festivals, imagine oneself to be acting in a highly intelligent manner in saying the words, “No, no, it is all God’s work… I am an instrument in his hands, that is all…” there, receive applause, and inflate the ego further and further.

The Sun and the Earth may one day decide to interchange their positions out of boredom, but such people, who are infatuated with the poisonous wine of love for book-learning, cannot obtain True Knowledge. Objective knowledge and book-learning are the most deadly enemies on the path to Self-Realistion, because they are expertly disguised as sweet friends, and the disguise runs deep indeed.

Aham Spurana book excerpt – for complete beginners, is meditation on an object easier than Self-Enquiry? Sri Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The following is a teaching excerpt from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’. You can download the entire text here.

Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’] claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.

The authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.

5th July 1936

Questioner: Is it true that for complete beginners, meditation on an object is easier than attempting to practise vichara [Tom: self-enquiry]?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes. As the aspirant gains one-pointedness (ekagrata) of mind, then he can commence with vichara.

Questioner: Should sadhakas [Tom: seekers] then be discouraged from taking up vichara whilst yet being neophytes?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Leave each one to take up that method or path which appeals the most to him. All other methods, if persevered with long enough, eventually lead up to vichara only. Vichara begins to have significant effect after the aspirant is able to plainly distinguish between the inward-turned and outward-turned mind, and hastens to avoid the latter and inhere in the former as soon as he observes that his mind is wandering.

Questioner: How shall I get vairagya [Tom: dispassion, ie. turining away from objects or loss of interest in objects or objective phenomena]?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: A correct understanding of the actual nature of happiness will lead you to it. Now you seek happiness but think that happiness flows into you from the outside world, or that your mind absorbs happiness from the external, objective world. But what is the truth? Far from causing happiness, the appearance of manifestation is the cause for all our wretchedness. The pleasure that is got by interaction of the mind with objects of sensory perception also has the obverse side of pain. The desire for happiness is right but you have been deluded (by avidya maya) into imagining pain-associated and transient pleasures to be real happiness. Sensory perceptions yield short-lived pleasure which moreover causes pain in its wake. Pain and pleasure alternate with one another in the world. To ascertain the difference between fleeting, momentary, and pain-associated happinesses with the Supreme Happiness of the Self and confine oneself wisely to exclusively the latter is known as vairagya. Knowing that pursuit of sensory fascinations leads only to pain, why do you go in that direction? It is owing to the pull of the old habits of the mind. After these habits (vasanas) wear off, you will have abiding peace. The habits cannot suddenly be shaken off one day. They will go only by prolonged abhyasa [Tom: practice] and steady vairagya.

Questioner: What is the role of the Guru in making the mind steady?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The Guru will only suggest that you surrender yourself unconditionally. He will not give you anything new which you have not got already.

Questioner: The mind is peaceful for a while, but after some time, again the old mischievous tendencies assume control over the mind and lead it astray. I don’t know what to do.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: By continuous practise you will succeed in retaining the mind in its source. The state of submergence of mind in its source is its natural state. If you want to regain the natural state, a tremendous fight is inevitable.

Questioner: What is the one thing which I should know properly so as to gain the upper hand in this fight?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: That you should never trust anything revealed into the field of your consciousness that may pull you away from the path leading into further and further introversion of mind.

Questioner: So visions are not necessarily a sign of spiritual progress?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Do not be deceived by visions. Even if I appear before you, do not believe it. Only unintermittently attend to the task of keeping the mind incessantly submerged in the Heart. This is the only thing you need to do: Remain permanently submerged in the Heart.

Questioner: Guru’s Grace or God’s Grace is required for it. Please bless me with your Grace.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Introversion of mind and Grace are the same thing. Why go searching outside for Grace? Is it not fruitless to do so? Is there anything outside you?

Questioner: So Grace is something I can win by my own efforts?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Certainly. Grace is the same as the Self.

Questioner: I am not able to come here as often as I would like to. My work commitments prevent it.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: You regard the physical body as real and hence all your troubles. Whereas there are no limitations in the Self. Time and space are operative on the physical plane. Since we think that we are physical, we are enslaved by time and space. Realisation means not imagining that you are this and that, not thinking that you are conditioned by so-and-so circumstances. Are you in the world or is the world in you? In deep sleep did the world come and announce itself to you? Nevertheless, did you not exist in deep sleep? Are you different from the one that existed in deep sleep? Why then bother about time and space, which are merely concepts conjured up by the effervescent mind? Know that what you are in sleep is your true nature. That sleep continues even now; hold on to the state of sleepless sleep and see if these questions arise.

Questioner: How to sleep without sleeping?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: By always retaining the mind in its source and never allowing it to stray outwards. By practise, the state will gradually become spontaneous. That perfectly spontaneous state of continuous, volitionless and effortless thoughtlessness is the coveted state of sleepless sleep. That is the object of our efforts. It will come only by long practice.

Questioner: How to remind myself that I am not the body?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Compare the present state with deep sleep. Were you with a body in sleep? Did you not exist all the same? The same ‘I’ which slept is now also present. Hold on to Him. The experience of bodilessness that was in deep sleep is also now. Even now you are bodiless. Only rein in the malefic force that asserts contrariwise: thought.

Questioner: How shall I get nirvikalpa samadhi?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: What is nirvikalpa samadhi? It is to remain permanently submerged in the Heart. In sleep, swoon, death and so on we merge into the Heart unconsciously. In samadhi we merge into the Heart consciously. Why remain apart from the source? Who is that one who wishes to remain apart from his source? Is his existence not mere pretension? The idea of your existence as an individual being is called moola avarana [Tom: root veiling, ie. root ignorance]. The idea is false, because as soon as he is steadily called upon to investigate himself and announce his existence the ego flies away. Then only Reality is left. This process is known as Realising the Self. But there is nothing to be newly gained. The one who dissipates the clouds does not create sky.

FREE AUDIOBOOK – Who Am I? (Nan Yar?) by Sri Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

‘Who Am I?’ was originally composed by Sri Ramana Maharshi. It provides a summary of all the teachings one needs for liberation. This version is translated by Sri Sadhu Om and read by Anne, a devotee of Sri Ramana’s who attends Satsang meetings with Tom Das.

You can find the full text of ‘Who Am I?’ here.

Many people are unable to fully understand the teachings given in ‘Who Am I?’. It is therefore recommended you read The Path of Sri Ramana by Sri Sadhu Om (free download here): which more fully explains the teachings and/or find yourself a teacher.

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya Om

Aham Sphurana book excerpt: How to prevent falling asleep during meditation? | Sri Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ 4 Comments

The following is the first teaching from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’. You can download the entire text here.

Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’] claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.

The authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.

5th July 1936

Questioner: How to prevent falling asleep in meditation?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: If you think “I must not fall asleep; I am meditating now. Falling asleep would spoil my meditation”, your meditation will be spoilt, for thinking is the anti-thesis of meditation. If you try to consciously prevent sleep, therefore, it will lead to emergence of thought.

However, if you slip into sleep while meditating, the meditation will continue even during and just after sleep. Since thoughts about sleep are also distracting thoughts, such thoughts must also be got rid of, for the native thought-free state has to be obtained consciously in jagrat [Tom: jagrat means the waking state]. The resultant state of thought-free subjective consciousness sustained effortlessly and volitionlessly is known as jagrat-sushupthi [Tom: waking sleep or conscious sleep, see here for more], and it is the same as samadhi.

Never forget that dreaming, apparent wakefulness and sleeping are mere pictures upon the screen of the inherent, effortless thought-free state. Let them pass unnoticed.

You focus on Being the abiding Reality that serves as the permanent substratum underlying the 3 states, and let the 3 states, and what transpires in them, take care of themselves. Never worry about them.

The state of absence of thought and the state in which there are no ideas present is the primordial, natural state of mind for all; this is the original state of peace, which we subsequently spoil by bringing in thoughts.

Shankara: Absolute separation from the body is liberation | Bliss (Ananda) and the Self | Advaita Vedanta | Commentary on Upanishads

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Tom: Shankara writes the following in his commentary of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.9.29.7. My comments are interspersed in italicised red with Shankara’s writings in black.

Here Shankara is making the point that strictly speaking there is no knowing or knowledge in Self-Knowledge/Self-Realisation/The Self, meaning there is no existence of or involvement of the mind in Self. He gives the analogy of water being thrown into a larger tank of water – that initial water does not retain its separateness by which it can know the larger body of water into which it was thrown. Self-knowledge is just a phrase used to point to That which cannot be put into words.

If there was an entity that could know Brahman or know of Brahman, then that would imply 2 entities, Brahman and and knower of Brahman. Or it would imply differentiation of Brahman. Either of these would contradict shruti (revealed scripture/revealed knowledge).

Similarly, Shankara states that bliss is not cognised in Self-Realisation for the same reasons. Rather Bliss is the nature of Self, not something experienced by the Self or by some self-realised entity or person (which is another illusion).

Incidentally, Shankara also reveals just how radical liberation is, stating that in liberation there is no body, no organs, no mind, no knowledge:

Also see: What exactly is Jnana (knowledge) according to Shankara and Gaudapada and the scriptures?

[Shankara:] Absolute separation from the body is liberation, and when there is no body there can be no organs, for they will have no support . Hence too there will be no knowledge, there being no body and organs. If knowledge could arise even in the absence of the body and organs, there would be no necessity for any one to possess them. Moreover (if Brahman as Knowledge Absolute cognises the bliss in liberation), it will contradict the oneness of Brahman.

Tom: Shankara clearly states in liberation there is total or absolute separation from Body, and then says there is no body in liberation. Without a body, there can be no mind and without a mind there can be no cognition or knowledge (in the ordinary sense of these words).

We see similar teachings from Sri Ramana Maharshi: in Ulladu Narpadu verse 12, Sri Ramana Maharshi writes:

True Knowledge is Being, devoid of knowledge as well as ignorance of objects. Knowledge of objects is not true knowledge. Since the Self shines self-luminous, with nothing else for It to know, with nothing else to know It, the Self is Knowledge. Nescience [ignorance] It is not.

In Upadesa Saram verse 27, Sri Ramana Maharshi writes:

That is true knowledge which transcends
Both knowledge and ignorance,
For in pure knowledge
Is no object to be known.

OBJECTION: Suppose we say that the Supreme Brahman, being eternal Knowledge, ever knows Itself as Bliss Absolute?

REPLY: No, (this has just been answered). Even the person under bondage, when freed from relative existence, would regain one’s real nature (Brahman). (So the same argument would apply also) .

Like a quantity of water thrown into a tank, one does not retain a separate existence so as to know the blissful Brahman. Hence, to say that the liberated person knows the blissful Self is meaningless. If, on the other hand, the liberated one, being different from Brahman, knows the bliss of Brahman and the individual self as, “I am the Bliss Absolute”, then the oneness of Brahman is contradicted, which would be against all Srutis; and there is no third alternative.

Tom: See my explanation in the introduction above

Moreover, if Brahman ever knows Its own bliss, it is superfluous to distinguish between awareness and unawareness. If It is constantly aware of this bliss, then that is Its nature; hence there is no sense in maintaining that It cognises Its own bliss.

Tom: the point here is that if Brahman is ‘constantly aware of it’s own bliss’, then this bliss is simply the nature of the Self, as Self is One, and it doesn’t make sense to think of an entity that cognises or perceives bliss in some way in Self-Realisation.

Such a view would be tenable if ever there was the possibility of Its not knowing that bliss, as for instance one knows oneself and another (by an act of will). There is certainly no sense in distinguishing between a state of awareness and one of unawareness in the case of one whose mind is uninterruptedly absorbed in making an arrow, for instance.

Tom: Shankara’s argument here is saying that to speak of ‘constantly knowing bliss’ during self-realisation would only make sense if there would be a possibility of not knowing bliss during self-realisation, which is not possible, so again, bliss is the nature of Self and not a cognised object.

If, on the other hand, Brahman or the Self is supposed to be knowing Its bliss interruptedly, then in the intervals when It does not cognise Itself, It must know something else; and the Self would become changeful, which would make It non-permanent.

Tom: If the bliss of Brahman came and went, or increased and decreased, then that would mean the Self is subject to change (which it isn’t) and is therefore impermanent (which it isn’t).

Hence the text, ” Knowledge , Bliss “, etc, must be interpreted as setting forth the nature of Brahman, and not signifying that the bliss of the Self is cognised.

Tom: Regarding the initial statement of Shankara’s above, namely that there is no body in Liberation, here are some quotes of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s that say the same, taken from Guru Vachaka Kovai:

86 Don’t ask, “How did this error rise,
Why this ignorance that the Self
Itself is as the world transformed?”
Seek rather and find out to whom
This happened, and the error [Tom: of the world appearance] will
Persist no more.

87 What is the Self’s self-transformation
As the world? A coil of straw
Appearing as a snake? Look hard,
You see no snake at all. There is
No transformation, no creation, none,
No world at all. [Tom: ie. ajata vada]

97 Only the mind, by maya’s might
Deluded, and looking outward sees
The body. The true Self knows no body.
To call the Self of Pure Awareness
The body’s owner or indweller
Is an error.

[Tom: This is reference to Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna states the Self is the knower of the body, and various other scriptures which advise that the Self is somewhere deep within the body, dwelling in each and everyone’s body, here Bhagavan Ramana is saying even this is not true, pointing us to a deeper teaching]

1230 The things you think of as existing
Do not exist. But That of which
You know not if it does exist
Or does not [Tom: ie. the supreme birthless deathless unchanging ever-pure blissful Self], That alone exists.

First know who you are. This requires no sastras (scripture) or scholarship | Sri Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

First know who you are. This requires no sastras (scripture) or scholarship. This is simple experience. The state of being is now and here all along. You have lost hold of yourself and are asking others for guidance. The purpose of philosophy is to turn the mind inward. “If you know yourself, no evil can come to you. Because you asked me I have told you this” (see Kaivalya Navaneeta). The ego comes up only by holding you (the Self). Hold yourself and the ego will vanish. Until then the sage will be happy saying, ‘There is’, and the ignorant will be asking, ‘Where?’

Regulation of life, such as getting up at a fixed hour, bathing, doing mantra-japa, etc., all this is for people who do not feel drawn to Self-enquiry, or are not capable of it. But for those who can practise this method all rules and disciplines are unnecessary.

Undoubtedly it is said in some books, that one should go on cultivating one good quality after another and thus prepare for moksha; but for those who follow the jnana or vichara marga, their sadhana is itself quite enough for acquiring all daivic (divine) qualities; they need not do anything else.

What is Gayatri? It really means ‘Let me concentrate on That which illumines all’.

~ Gems from Sri Ramana Maharishi, Chapter 4