aham sphurana

Ramana Maharshi on Aurobindo’s Intergral Yoga – bringing Divinity back down into the world after Self-Realisation | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The following is taken from the text Aham Sphurana, 7th July 1936. Please see here to find out more about this text:

Questioner: I am aware that Bhagavan is a solipsist. However, to dismiss all human problems as being imaginary requires a giant leap of faith towards the Idealism end of the spectrum.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: It merely needs disillusionment with materialism.

Q.: According to Sri Aurobindo’s claims, he has probed beyond the experience of the Vedic Rishis. What is Sri Bhagavan’s opinion? Is it authentic or not?

B.: Aurobindo’s talk of bringing down divine consciousness from above overlooks the same being already Self-effulgent in the Heart. Reality simply IS. Where arises the question of moving it from place to place, etc.? People keep asking me about Sri Aurobindo’s yoga system; and if I give my reply according to my capacity, they go away disgruntled saying, “These Jnanis are always contradicting each other.” What can I do?

Q.: What about Sri Aurobindo’s claim that one must commence from Self-Realisation and then proceed to bring down the Divine to the Earth?

B.: Let us first Realize and then discuss, if need be; not now.

[Tom’s comments: Sri Aurobindo’s view was that once the truth was realised, it should be ‘brought back down’ into the level of the world, in what he called Purna Yoga or Intergral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo rejected the notion of Shankara or Vedanta that the world was unreal or ‘maya’, stating that the world is a real expression of the divine, and that the purpose of spiritual teachings is not nirvana or escape from samsara, but instead to enrich and enliven the lives of people here in this world and help people live divine lives here on Earth. Sri Aurobindo felt that the Vedic rishi’s had discovered the Truth, but had not learnt to or were not able to or even inclined to bring it back down to Earth, and that the notion of the world being an illusion was a result of the failure to bring the Divine back down to the Earth.

Here is a link to a chapter on Integral Yoga by Sri Aurobindo for those interested on these points, where he defines Purna Yoga and explains his view on the above points I have made: https://sri-aurobindo.co.in/workings/sa/37_28/02_004_e.htm

Sri Ramana in response to the questioner is saying how can Truth be ‘moved’ anywhere, let alone ‘back down’ into the world? ‘Reality simply IS’. The implication is that the very notion of bringing truth back into the world is based on ignorance or non-realisation of the actual truth]

Q.: What is the ultimate purpose of a man’s life?

B.: To find an answer to the question of “Why am I, apparently, limited to, and therefore by, a body? Am I nothing more?”. This question finally resolves itself into the question of “Who am I, who am apparently bound by this limitation of being or carrying a body?”. This much is certain: one who foolishly takes his bodily existence for granted, who thinks that it is an inevitable finality that he is, in fact, born, will never succeed in the Quest no matter what austerities or penance he might perform.

Only the Unborn can know the Unborn. The Unborn knows itself only – that is, it knows no birth or death. The intellectual understanding that the bodily existence is futile, undesirable, useless and delusory is the very first step towards Realisation. If you accept the existence of limitations [Tom: eg. if you accept or start with the premise that you are a body-mind entity, or that the world is real], any Sadhana performed will have precisely only one result – it will make the Ego grow stronger and stronger and stronger. One who wants to transcend limitation should cease to imagine himself to be limited – that will do; yes, it indeed is as simple as that. Instead of simply giving up the unreal, people want to do Sadhana to eradicate it! Is it not funny?!

Q.: Is Sadhana not useful?

B.: Only if it is done without assuming the existence of limitations. The only useful Sadhana is the investigation “Who am I?”. Everything else is just “release-of-concept-gas” [movement of mental ideas or churning of vrittis within the mind], because existence of limitations is implicitly assumed and accepted. If non-existent limitations are accepted to exist, how can any Sadhana performed on the basis of that wrong acceptence have any use, and how can such spurious Sadhana help you transcend those very limitations?

Q.: The logic seems to suggest that the Self can be discovered by the mind.

B.: The dead mind becomes the Self or discovers itself to be the Self.

Q.: I understand Nietzsche talks about the concept of Eternal Reccurrance of the same in Also sprach Zarathustra. Does B. agree with it? Each time the universe is recreated after the cosmic dissolution, does it exactly repeat itself? If that were to be true, both free-will and Self-Realisation would be impossible. If everything is going to unfold now exactly as it did previously, my incumbent free will is obviously just a myth. If everything is going to unfold in exactly the same manner in the future as now, I am never going to escape from the cycle of births and deaths!

B.: All these are only mental concepts. Even now you are not born. Realize it.

Q.: The body was born.

B.: Are you it?

Q.: It is part of me – Bhagavan’s teachings tell me that I am Brahman and therefore immanent everywhere.

B.: Leave Brahman alone. Talk about yourself first. Who are you?

Q.: I really don’t know… I am Pure Consciousness, is it not?

B.: Is Pure Consciousness now conversing with me? Is it is saying, “I am Brahman.”, etc.?

Q.: Then what is the answer?

B.: The effortless thought-free state is the answer.

Q.: How to attain it?

B.: There is no question of attaining anything. BE – don’t ask how to be. It is your very nature.

Q.: I am unable to realize it.

B.: This is also only a thought. Get rid of it and all will be well.

Q. I have heard of the Jnana-vichara technique expounded by Sri Bhagavan. How could asking oneself the question ‘Who am I?’ lead to transcendence of mind, when asking the question itself is only an activity initiated and sustained on the level of the mind?

B.: The vichara begins with the mind and ends in the Self. Mind turned fully inward discovers itself to be the Self.

Chadwick was asked by Bhagavan to give the man Bhagavan’s ‘Who am I?’ to read. He read it and then asked –

Q.: I find it shocking to consider seriously Advaita’s proclamation that the Jagrat state [Tom: waking state] is nothing better than a dream. It amounts to saying that I am now dreaming whereas I believe to the contrary, that whatever I am experiencing through the senses exist independantly of my perception thereof… How is it that the numerous disciples of yours – or followers or devotees or worshippers or afficionados or whatever it is that one would be justified in calling them take gladly to the idea that the world – the same world they experience everyday – is a dream?

B.: You say it is the same world you saw yesterday that you are seeing today. How do you know that? Through memory. Memories are also illusory. They create a deceptive fabric of intellectual continuity where in fact none exists.

What actually exists is only Beingness or Self. Even in dreams you have memories, go to familiar places, etc. How is it? Jagrat or Swapna, the same mind draws the poisonous veil of objectification or differentiation over the pure Self, hiding it. This veil is called the screen of avidya maya. Don’t ask, who cast this veil? Instead, ask, who sees the veil? Then you will see there was never any veil. This is called Self-Realisation. The desire to do sadhana to attain it is itself meaningless because it presupposes the existence of someone apart from the Self who is doing Sadhana to reach the Self.

Q.: Is it the realisation you speak of as Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi? Should I not do any Sadhana? Is Sadhana useless then?

B.: Yes, it is the same realisation. Sadhana is the means to gain the Self. Only the idea “I am doing Sadhana” renders the Sadhana totally pointless and useless. Sadhana becomes natural if attraction to worldly pleasures stands removed. Desire for worldly pleasures take to their heels when you realise the world is only a dream.

Q.: I still find it impossible to believe this solid world could only be a mere dream.

B.: [smiling] Two different categories of spiritual aspirants or sadhakas exist. One is the Spülauftrag [Kritopasaka] and the other is the Wischauftrag [Akritopasaka]. [Bhagavan sometimes used words in the questioner’s native tongue to drive the impact home, or where technical terms were involved.]

[Tom: Kritopasaka refers to those who have done sadhana previously, eg. in a previous life, and so who are mature seekers, akriopasaka is the opposite; Spulauftrag (‘rinsing task’) means that task which only needs to be washed or rinsed, whereas Wischauftrag (‘wiping task’) refers to a task in which some wiping or scrubbing is first required before rinsing/washing can take place]

The former is born with the intellectual conviction, born of aeons of serious and steadfast spiritual practice directed along the correct channel [that of making the mind turn Selfwards or Sourcewards], that the cosmos he sees around him is the merest of illusions, and that expending one’s mental faculties upon it would be the ruin of one’s inherent nature of abiding peace and unshakeable happiness; whereas the latter is shocked and unsettled when informed that there is no difference – for all practical purposes – between the Jagrat [Tom: waking] and swapna [Tom: dream] states.

The firm intellectual conviction that the perceived cosmos is seen, owing to delusion, as being constituted by multiple disparate entities while the truth is that it is vested in the same Substratum, Adhishtanum [Tom: substratum], or Sadhvasthu [Tom: Sad = true or real; vastu = thing or substance or reality] as the Seer, is born only as a result of arduous spiritual practice which is possible only if the Sadhguru’s abundant Grace is available as a catalyst, which Grace descends unto him alone who perpetually bathes his heart in the effulgent glow of unselfish and non-reciprocation-expecting love of God, Humanity or any other single-minded ideal of pure, ecstatic devotion or parabhakti, and this intellectual conviction [as to the world’s objective unreality] is the seed of Jnana that grows into the tree that chokes the poisonous weed of Egotism or Ahankara at its root, destroying it once and for all, such seed having been planted long ago in the fathomless, dark misty depths of the mind by way of the Supremely merciful glance of Grace of the infinitely compassionate Sadhguru.

Q.: So, the widely held perception that without a Guru, even Atmajigyasa [Tom: the desire for self-knowledge], leave alone Atmasakshatkara [Tom: Self-realisation], is totally impossible, is…?

[he left his words trailing in the air, for the Sage to rythimically conclude,]

B.: Unequivocally and absolutely correct.

Q. Why are some of our prayers not answered? How to know if a Jnani is genuine? | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The excerpt below is taken from the text Aham Sphurana (see here to find out more about this text and download a copy for free), 20th July 1936:

Questioner: It happens to some that they pray – in all good faith – to God, yet their prayers are unequivocally repudiated. What is the reason?

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Can you be trusted to know what is best for you?

Q.: I should hope so.

B.: That is your opinion.

Q.: What then is Sri Bhagawan’s opinion?

B.: ‘O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.’

Q.: The implication being?

B.: He knows what is best for you; you do not. Therefore unconditionally surrender yourself to him and leave your fate in his hands. That is the only thing to be done. Prayer is merely a lower form of surrender. It is highly prone to failure, because if what is asked does not aid Realisation, it may not be granted, even though you may be thinking that what you are asking is going to [serve as an] aid in Realisation. Or, your karma may not permit the request to be granted.

Q.: Spiritually-inclined people pray for strength to inrovert the mind. Or, they pray for Self-Realisation. How can that be not an aid in Realisation?

B.: Because it posits the dangerous notion that there exists an [individual] “I” who craves for himself the state called Realisation. Such prayers are unnecessary. Maam Aekam Sharanam Vraja. ‘Only surrender to Me.’

Q.: Why does God allow karma to meddle with even the efforts of sincere aspirants who are trying to Realise?

B.: The arrangement of karma – [for karma itself is] unavoidable – is actually adroitly done in such a way as to give the sadhaka the maximum possible chance of completely cleansing the mind of all vritts. So, if you are destined to Realise in this lifetime, rest assured that your karma has been ingeniously arranged in such a manner as to inevitably take you to the Goal.

Q.: And if I am destined otherwise?

B.: Perhaps you would not be here today.

Q.: The same astute God who manipulates karma so carefully – why was he not careful enough to safeguard the Self from slipping into the bondage of ignorance?

B.: Does the Self complain of having thus fallen?

Q.: No. But I do.

B.: Are you apart from the Self?

Q.: The mahavakyas state that I am supposed to be one with Brahman.

B.: And your Experience is in Corroboration?

Q.: Alas! No. All I feel is the miserable ego.

B.: Yes. Misery is one with the ego. Kill the ego.

Q.: It seems to be an impossible accomplishment even for those with decades of systematic training in the spiritual field.

B.: There is no accomplishment possible. What is intimate and inherent cannot be accquired. The only thing to do is destroy the useless accreations that cause all the nuisance. We are not trying to attain anything. On the other hand, we are trying to give up everything.

Q.: Should I not try to attain Realisation of the Self?

B.: No. Give up everything. Only the Self remains.

Q.: It sounds simple enough. Yet, only one in a million men manage to reach this supreme state, according to Sri Krishna. Does it mean that, at any given point of time in the world, the number of Jnanis living should be a precise 0.0001% of the total population?

B.: [laughing] Possibly!

Q.: In my view even this seems an outlandish estimate. Are there now circa 269 Jnanis living in India, then, regard having been had to the numbers available by the 1931 Census?

B.: [somewhat mordaciously but without deviating from his good cheer] Why not? Do you suppose all Jnanis are unfortunate enough to be put in a cage like this, and put up for ‘public examination’? [in English:] Ladies and gentlemen, presenting… THE FREAK SHOW! Exhibit No. 1 – Sharji, the Venus of the Hottentots! Exhibit No. 2 – Elephant-man Merrick! Exhibit No. 3 – The ‘Bhagawan’, Ramana! அ என்ன பாழாகப் ேபான பகவானே◌ா [Tom: What a waste, O Lord] . No. Only those whose prarabdha is destined to be exceedingly miserable suffer like this! Sri Gandhiji has written, ‘The woes of Mahatmas are known to Mahatmas alone.’ [laughs heartily]

Q.: Other Jnanis, who, according to Bhagavan, enjoy a better prarabdha – they would be meditating in solitary places such as inaccesible jungles and caves, well away from habitable zones of humanity, I presume…

B.: You may presume whatever you like, no doubt…

Q.: So I am wrong?

B.: It all varies according to prarabdha. The Jnani is unfazed by what happens to the body. He has nothing to do with it. He has no localised consciousness functioning from within it. Killing it cannot harm him. Torturing it cannot affect him. He is absorbed by the Beyond, and quite lost there – for good. He may have 4 wives and 32 children. He may be running a busy household with dozens of mouths to feed. He may be employed on both day and night shifts of duty. Or, again, he may be sitting in an inaccesible cave with sensory organs in an inactive state, body rotting. It may be either way, but all this can be only from the point of view of the onlooker, since action is altogether alien to the Jnani; he himself knows nothing, sees nothing, does nothing. He has quite perished. Only a Jnani can tell who is a Jnani.

A person might look like a simpleton, yet he might know himself as the immortal Self. Another may display an unending spout of vedantic learning, yet his mind may not in the least have subsided. In this topsy-turvy world, which must needs always judge by its usual yardstick of ‘doing’, it is the latter who is generally extolled as the genuine case. The result? Misery for all involved. People cheat themselves into believing that they are in the vicinity of a great Mahatma. The pretender eventually himself foolishly comes to believe that he must indeed be a great Jnani, since so many people praise him day and night. So his ego becomes bloated; as a consequence he lands himself in all sorts of unpleasant situations. So, display of vedantic learning may cause a great very many problems for all involved. It is best to keep quiet.

Q.: Bhagavan said a Jnani may have numerous wives. Polygamy is a sin as per Hindu dharma. Can a Jnani sin, then? As far as my knowledge goes, the Manusmriti allows taking the next wife only if the existing wife or wives are mentally ill, infecundous, or unable to participate in rituals for the departed ancestors.

B.: What the Jnani does is always right. This does not mean that a man is morally excused in pretending to be a Jnani and then conveniently committing all sorts of crimes.

Q.: But how to tell who is a genuine Jnani?

B.: Only by yourself becoming lost in Jnana. However, there is one exceedingly rare exception. If a particular Jnani is destined to be your Jnanaguru, when you meet him there is an inexplicable mutual outpouring of ecstatic Love. The Love mentioned here is not consummated by any physical act. It is consummated only by surrendering to the object of such Love. The Jnani himself never loves or hates; only, when he meets one who is destined to be placed in his ultimate care, he directs his attention toward that person. It is not volitionary, but rather Automatic Divine Activity. There is nothing in him left to choose. Unto one who has the pakkuvam [Tom: ripeness], the Grace or Love begins to flow of its own accord. The Jnana-guru might not look at the mature devotee or exchange words with him, yet, one who is Ready feels the irresistible onslaught of inevitable rapid mental introversion in the form of blissful divine Love. This way you can tell that the person in whose presence you have such experience, is your Jnana-guru. Again, this might not happen in the case of all aspirants.

Q.: I have so far not had any such novel experiences with Bhagavan. Can I still Realise in this lifetime?

B.: All will turn out Right in the end.

Q.: Sometimes Bhagavan does not look at visitors. He does not respond to their queries. Does he refuse them his impartial Grace?

B.: Have you seen how they seperate chaff from the Grain here? They pour the seeds on the றம◌் , and then trenchantly shake it in a speedious upand-down motion. Can you guess the scientific principle underlying the act?

Q.: What is worthless and light in weight is blown away by the wind. What is precious and heavy is not affected by the movement. Yes, it is clear now.

B.: நல்லத◌ ! [Tom: good]

Q.: One imagines things and enjoys them by virtue of his strength of imagination. It is said that gross manifestations of such mental creations are possible for Brahma the Creator. Should the same power not be available with His creation, man?

B.: That is your opinion.

B.: J.K. says that man should try to find out the ‘I’. Then ‘I’ dissolves away, being only a bundle of circumstances. There is nothing assertible behind the ‘I’. His teaching seems to be very much like the Buddha’s.

B.: Yes. The truth is well beyond possibility of conceptual expression or explanation. It is pure Experience only, for there is no experiencer. When you finally do reach the Self, you will be shocked to discover that you have been foolishly searching frantically for something that was always right in front of your nose – no, even closer, for the nose and the object in front of it must be seen with the eye to ascertain their apparent existence, whereas the Self requires no perception to support its actual existence. The Self is pratyakshasakshathswayamprakasha-swaroopam. Everything shines in and by its light, but it knows nothing but itself. It shines by its own light alone. The lusturous beauty of it never fades. It is truly immutable, indestructible and imperishable. One who loses himself in it has no more cares or worries. It is the one true goal of man’s life, yet it is here and now. That is the great mystery.

Ramana Maharshi: Q. How to surrender and how to live and survive if we have completely surrendered? Partial surrender vs total surrender | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

3rd August, 1936

Q.: After conversing with several devotees here, I have arrived at a rough observation that Sri Bhagavan gives spiritual advice which pertains to every conceivable genre, depending upon the inclination, maturity or palate of the aspirant in question. What, if any, is his nativistic teaching?

B.: [no response]

Q.: Is it Silence?

B.: Yes.

Q.: For those unfit to understand it?

B.: They are advised to keep quiet. [Summa iru.]

Q.: For those even this?

B.: The inquiry ‘Who-am-I?’ is suggested.

Q.: For those like me who lack the determination to practise this inquiry?

B.: Unconditional surrender.

Q.: To whom shall I surrender? To Sri Bhagawan or to my Guru Sri Chandrasekara Barathi of the Sringeri Mutt?

B.: Does surrender need a recepient? Simply surrender or let go of everything.

Q.: If I let go of everything, is Mukti assured unto me?

B.: To let go of everything is to let go of this question also.

Q.: So, expecting a reward for surrender is not appropriate?

B.: How can one who has surrendered expect anything? To surrender is to give up the spurious ‘you’ once and for all. When you are not there at all, where is the question of expecting or anticipating anything? Who would be there to do the expecting or anticipating? If there is still anyone left to engage in expecting or anticipating, no surrender has really taken place.

Q.: If I give up everything, what will happen to my body? How then will it be able to find food for itself, leave alone earn a living or maintain a family?

B.: Were you asked to neglect the body? You were asked to not deliberately take care of the body – that is all. How is it that you translate the directive, ‘Let go of everything.’ into ‘Neglect the body and its duties.’? The problem in its totality lies in the fact that you are labouring under the delusive impression that it is you as the ego who are maintaining your body, attending to your vocation, taking care of the household and everything else that it has fallen upon the body’s prarabdha to execute in this lifetime. So, when asked to give up everything, that is to say give up the ego, you give yourself to understand that your regular routine will come to a standstill.

No. Whether you are aware of it or not, whether you like the fact or not, the truth is that it is the Higher Power that does everything. We imagine ourselves to be the doer. When asked to give up the personal self, we imagine that the body’s actions also should come to cessation, because according to us, it is the personal self that is the cause and source of all action. No. It is a mistake. The ego merely fraudulently assumes responsibility for the actions of the body. Doerless doing or actorless action is not for the Jnani only; it is true – as an actual fact – in the case of all. In the case of the ajnani, something called “I” rises up to falsely claim responsibility for the body’s actions. This fictitious accreation is absent in the case of the Jnani. That is the only difference between them.

If you give up the ego or ‘Body-am-I.’ idea completely, some power effortlessly takes over the body and makes it run through its ordained course of prarabdha without the need for the least mental involvement or participation on your part. This is a matter for experience. To surrender is to totally let go of everything. People attached to concepts of the intellect or things of the world cannot possibly let go; vairagyam is necessary to let go. How to cultivate vairagyam? Proximity to the Guru.

Worldly attachment and the Guru pull the mind in opposite directions. If Love for the Guru is unequivocal and unconditional, His pull eventually wins. Again, how to cultivate this Love? By nature the minds of most men are occupied with the problems of the personal self. What vocation shall I pursue? Shall I study further or shall I opt for employment? Shall I marry the girl I like, or shall I marry the other one, the rich, obese character that I was introduced to by my parents? What measures shall I take to safeguard myself from penury in old age? How shall I ideally invest my wealth so that it stands me in good stead when I am no longer in a position to actively work to earn a living? Will my children take care of me in old age or will they abandon me and go their seperate ways? And so on and so forth.

This is how lifetime after lifetime is wasted. If you would only keep quiet without thinking these thoughts, providence would admirably take care of you; but no, you must have your ‘knowledgeable say’.

It so happens that in rare cases a man ceases to take thought of his personal self and wholeheartedly gives himself to an ideal of beauty, be it sport, literature, art, patriotism or anything else. The quantum of importance attributed to the personal self becomes negligible when the loftier pursuit occupies the whole of his attention. Thus he begins, for the first time, to experience a Love in which the personal self has no space. Such is the sweetness of this passionate Love that he yearns to experience the pinnacle thereof. The desire for this feeling of Love is not motivated by the objective of personally experiencing it. The Love for the higher ideal eventually comes to dominate and possess the soul with such complete fervour that his desire for such Love is not on account of any motive to personally experience it, but simply for the sake of such Love itself.

He does not think, I must experience more of this Love. He thinks, this Love must shine forth with the utmost possible intensity! Then, the ideal towards which Love hitherto had been directed merges imperceptibly into Love itself. Thus, the man is left with Love and only Love in his hands: Love without rhyme or reason.

Feeling it but unable to attain it, he becomes crazed with longing. It is at this stage that God or Guru appears to him as the manifestation of his Love: the manifestation may or may not be an anthropomorphic form; it may be an abstract image or ideal altogether deviod of form or even name. Eager to consummate his Love, he surrenders totally to the Guru and Realisation devours him by operation of the Guru’s benevolent grace.

Swami Vivekananda has said, ‘Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.’.

So, volitionless Love, which, allowed to wax indefinitely, surely leads to Kaivalyam, may as well come to an inveterate materialist or atheist: belief or faith in God is not of any considerable importance, for it stops at the level of the intellect – it is Love that matters, uncaused, blind, mad, unconditional Love. In the work The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, when Christian is about to drown in the dreaded river of Death, he has a vision of the Christ who reminds him of the verse: ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee…’. The next moment the Christian finds steady ground to stand upon, and he manages to ford the remaining strech of the river safely.

Likewise, when Vasudeva was travelling to the house of Nandagopa and Yashodha, carrying the infant Krishna in his arms, the Yamuna river was in full spate, ready to devour him should he behave so unwisely as to step into it. Vasudeva thought of God and was immediately assisted by the giant 10-headed celestial serpent, Vasuki; thus he managed to ford the flooded river without incident.

Again, when Sri Abbanacharyal heard the news that his Guru, Swami Raghavendra, was about to enter into his brindavanam, he forthwith rushed to Mantralayam, but did not know what to do when he was faced with the flooded Tungabhadra. He gathered courage, closed his eyes, thought of his Guru, and threw himself into the raging deluge. He was not swept away by the river, but landed safely on the other bank.

How did all this become possible? Is not genuine Love for the Lord on the part of the devotee the reason? Thus, develop a deep obsessive infatuation with any particular ideal, and of itself that will plunge you into unfathomable Love; such Love invariably leads to Kaivalyam.

Q.: I am too weak to surrender, in the total sense of the term that I find Bhagawan suggesting. Also, I do not feel attracted to any one particular ideal or idea. What am I to do?

B.: It is holding on or doing anything that requires strength. If you feel you are weak, letting go of everything should be very easy, for that alone is non-doing.

Nevertheless, if total surrender is found too hard, practise surrender as a sadhana. This is called partial surrender. In course of time it leads to complete surrender.

Q.: Various descriptions of God are given by scriptures belonging to the different religions. Which is the description that tallies with Bhagavan’s teachings?

B.: Words cannot convey the Real. Yet, the closest is, Ehyeh asher ehyeh.[Tom: Hebrew, from Exodus 3:14 meaning ‘I am that I am’]

Q.: What is the difference between attempting on one’s own to Realise the Self and taking the help of a Guru?

B.: Suppose you want to go to America. Which is the sensible method? Taking a spade in hand and digging into the Earth, saying, ‘I am confident that I shall eventually reach America, which must be located on the exact other side of this very spot.’ or booking a place for yourself on the next outbound steamer?

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 3rd August 1936, see here for more information on this text.

Q. Without a mind, how is Bhagavan able to talk and function? Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The excerpt below is taken from the text Aham Sphurana (see here to find out more about this text and download a copy for free), 8th September, 1936:

Questioner: How is it that without a mind, Bhagavan is able to conduct rational converations with us and engage in many other tasks and functions besides?

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Causality is unknown to the Jnani; the Emancipated-one’s actions therefore are always bereft of motive, purpose or volition. Bhagawan does not act at all. Action is alien to the Self; He is Life Itself, but yet absolutely motionless. He is simply AWARE. Other than fullness of Being-consciousness, which he abides as, he does not know anything.

The body may act in the world or remain idle; He cannot know. The faculties of sensory perception may remain inactive or function so as to take cognition of objects in the world; He cannot know. Being the Self, the Jnani is totally ignorant of anything and everything but the Self. He is referred to as the Witness-consciousness transcending space, time and causality; but that is exclusively from the point of view of objects with name, form and shape that take their origin in Him, subsist in Him, and dissolve back into Him, being merely appearances in Him, of Him and by reason of Him; He Himself has nothing to witness or see. The body might be working day and night like a steam-engine, but no karma can touch Him. His sensory-organs might be experiencing the greatest of pleasures, but He enjoys nothing. No matter what manner of work the body might be engaged in doing, He never does anything.

K.: Maharshi, please clarify this one thing for me: are you, or are you not, now talking to us?

B.: No. “I” am not talking to you.

K.: [reflectively] That’s right. Maharshi is not doing any talking. Maharshi simply IS.

Chadwick: I am sometimes given to wondering how a Jnani’s awareness of the Self could formerly have been obscured or obstructed by prior ignorance. Was there ever ignorance for a Jnani?

B.: No.

C.: Are Jnanis born Jnanis then?

B.: One’s idea that one took birth is merely mental information. When mind is annihilated, there is nothing to falsely inform the Jnani that he was born. Therefore, the Emancipated-one abides in perpetuity as the Unborn, to which time, space and any other transformation or possibility of measurement is wholly alien. We point to the body of the Emancipated-one and give it the name ‘Jnani’, thinking that such person must have awareness of the Self. But what is the fact? Is there anybody who can both stand apart from the Self and yet know the Self? The only way to know the Self is to BE It. So, the Jnani is verily Jnana and nothing but Jnana. There are no Jnanis. Jnana IS, Jnana alone IS, and Jnana alone could ever BE.

K.: [in an over-awed cadence of voice] Maharshi, you inspire me. I also want to become great like you; I want to attain your same greatness; I want to become as great as you. I consider it my life’s mission to emulate you. You are my idol, my super-hero. Please tell me what I should do to attain the same greatness that you have attained: you the incomparably great Bhagawan Ramana.

Chadwick: Impossible and inconceivable. How could anybody become our Bhagawan? He is God Absolute.

B.: [smiling] What is there in it? Only remain still [- i.e., summa iru].

K.: Maharshi, I would like to know how I shall get rid of all my sin.

B.: Original sin and original ignorance are all one and the same thing. To get rid of the one is to get rid of the other, and the other the one. Pursuing the investigation ‘Who am I?’ all the way to its successful culmination in Realisation, you will surely get rid of all your sin.

K.: Is the investigation ‘Who am I?’ easy or difficult?

B.: It is the easiest thing there can be. If attending to other things is readily possible for you, imagine how much more easier should be attending to yourself, and attending to yourself exclusively!

K.: Some say that it is exceedingly difficult.

B.: Pay no attention to their words. Do you trust Bhagawan or not?

K.: Implicitly and absolutely.

B.: Then never mind what others are saying. Regard only what is said here.

Bhagawan [tapping right cheek with palm multiple times rapidly and then pointing to own face] says vichara is easy. Will you practice it or not?

K.: [eyes swimming in barely suppressed tears, voice choked and face convulsed with emotion] Yes, Bhagawan.

B.: [smiling] Good.

Also see: Zen Master Huang Po’s teaching compared with the Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

The power of contemplating Arunachala | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Self-Enquiry | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The following is taken from the text Aham Sphurana, from the date 20th July 1936. See here to find out more about this text and also to download it for free:

Questioner: It is said that the legendary Sanjeevani herb is found somewhere in this Arunachala hill, by consuming which one attains to state of Immortality. Will Bhagavan please let me know where it is in the hill?

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: The hill itself bestows immortality.

Q.: How?

B.: Constant rememberance of Arunachala’s form steadily but surely introverts the mind. Then the mind accquires the strength to plunge inward, or rather loses the strength to move outwards, towards thoughts, intellectual concepts or physical objects. Eventually it becomes still entirely; then the Arunachala within pulls it into itself and destroys it once and for all. This is the Sanjeevani shakti [Tom: shakti means ‘power’] of Arunachala about which you are asking.

[Tom’s comments: here we have Bhagavan explaining how remembrance of Arunachala introverts the mind, pulling it inwards away from both gross and subtle objects, until it becomes entirely still. Arunachala then does the final step of destroying the mind, the result of which is explored below]

Q.: Is it not a herb?

B.: I have said what I know.

Q.: Is the ultimate aim of spiritual practice, only destruction of mind?

B.: Yes.

Q.: One whose mind is dead would perhaps have life in the body, but he would be in a state of comatose senselessness, like a stony, frigid vegetable, unable to understand anything. Is that the perverse fate toward which all spiritual aspirants are gravitating?

B.: Absence of mind is pure Bliss. It is possible to function in the world normally, without mind.

Q.: Oh! How so?

B.: Some power takes over his body and animates it without his knowledge.

Q.: Is it God?

B.: Give it any name you like- God, Providence, Fate, Karma, etc.; the nomenclature matters not.

[Tom’s comments: Bhagavan first confirms that manonasa, or destruction of mind, is indeed the ultimate aim of spiritual practice, thus equating manonasa with both self-knowledge or liberation. Then he goes onto explain that the body can continue to function without the mind under another higher power. This is done without the Jnani’s knowledge or awareness. Of course, Bhagavan is describing this form the relative standpoint, or the standpoint of ignorance/maya. Below we will see a higher teaching given later]

Q.: Are names unimportant in the scheme of things, then? How to call someone if he has no name?

B.: The fact is that in order to escape its own destruction the mind creates a world of name and form over the pure vastu [Tom: vastu means reality] that is the Atman. It abhors chaos and randomness and prefers order and systematisation. It creates cause-consequence relationships and gives itself to understand ideas about its environment, which is actually merely its own projection. It tries to study the nature of its body’s physical surroundings and formulates laws by means of which it then expects those surroundings to function; deviations from existing laws give rise to the birth of new laws! Never once does it wonder, ‘What is my self?’; thinking to conquer its surroundings, it foolishly occupies itself with sensory perceptions, thoughts, and intellectual hypotheses. Thus it is born again and again and needlessly undergoes all sorts of tribulations. Then it asks, ‘Alas! Why has God done this to me?’. Who is to blame for our mistake, if not ourselves?

[Tom’s comments: here Bhagavan explains that the mind creates the universe of name and form and superimposes this onto the formless objectless reality that is Atman, one’s true self. It then projects cause and effect, or karma, and starts to study the environment around it, which is actually nothing but its own projection, never asking or enquiring ‘who am I?’. Below Bhagavan will again confirm, as he has done many times in his own writings, the nature of Jnana:]

Q.: The state without mind is called Jnana?

B.: Yes.

Q.: Then what or who is a Jnani?

B.: One who has mastered the art of not knowing anything and not doing anything.

Q.: I am unable to divine the explication underlying Bhagavan’s sibylline [Tom: mysterious] words.

B.: The Jnani’s senses are unhinged from the world about him. He is sunk in the Self and quite irrevocably lost there.

[Tom’s comments: Bhagavan is explaining that the Jnani does not truly perceive the world, something he only intimated above, and he will expand on this below]

Q.: How is he different from the man on the Clapham omnibus (சாதாரண மனிதன) [Tom: the Tamil phrase given here means ‘the common man/person’ which the translator has translated as ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’ a phrase popular in the 1930s which also means ‘the common everyday person’; this latter phrase was very common amongst lawyers, and the person who was said to have recorded these dialogues, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, was also said to have been a lawyer]

B.: The standard of reality employed by the man on the Clapham omnibus is the jagrat [Tom: waking] state in the jagrat state, and so on. For the Jnani the standard of reality is Reality itself.

Q.: What is this Reality?

B.: Man’s true Self.

Q.: How am I to realise this true Self?

B.: Whose Self is it?

Q.: Mine… but really who am I?

B.: Yes. All other questions lead up only to this supreme question.

[Tom’s comments: all paths eventually lead to self-enquiry]

Q.: What is the answer to the question?

B.: The discovery that the personal self, including the one making the discovery, never existed.

Q.: What remains thereafterward?

B.: Only the Truth; it is the state where the world of word, name and form perishes and silence alone prevails.

[Tom: here Bhagavan has clearly stated that for the jnani there is no world or name and form, only the Self or Silence remaining. Now Bhagavan will explain the method of Self-Enquiry:]

Q.: How to communicate thoughts to others without the assistance of words?

B.: That is only necessary so long as duality still persists in the mind.

Q.: How to get abiding shanti [Tom: peace]?

B.: Shanti is the natural state. The mind obstructs one’s inherent peace. Atma-vichara is only in the mind; it does not affect the Self. Investigate the mind; it will disappear. There is no entity by name mind. Because of emergence of thoughts, we surmise the existence of something from which they must originate; this we term mind. When we probe inwards to see what it is, there is nothing to be found except the real Self. After the false mind has vanished, Peace will be found to be Eternal.

Q.: Then what is buddhi?

B.: The thinking or discriminating faculty. These are only names. Call it the ego, the mind or the intellect; it is all the same. Whose mind? Whose intellect? The ego’s. Is the ego real? No. We confound ourselves with the ego and call it intellect or mind. This is because of the evil influence of avidyamaya [Tom: avidya means ignorance, maya means the power which projects the illusion of the body, mind and world. Here Sri Ramana is equating or compositing the two], which has superimposed this ephemeral, illusory, and worthless world of name and form over the ever-existing substratum, which is verily pure Reality and the supreme Peace itself. How to escape from the illusion? By searching for the mind and finding it, including that very finder, to be non-existent, to have been always non-existent, and in fact impossible of existence.

Q.: Emerson says, “Soul answers soul by itself – not by description or words.”

B.: Quite so. However much you learn, there can never be an end to objective knowledge. You ignore the doubter but try to solve the doubts. On the other hand, search for the doubter, and the doubter and his doubts will both disappear.

Q.: Therefore, the question resolves itself into one of knowing the Self.

B.: Quite so.

Q.: How to know the Self?

B.: Enquire into what the self is. What you are now imagining to be your Self, is really either the mind, the intellect or the ‘I-thought’. [Tom: Bhagavan has already said above that these three are the one same thing] Other thoughts are able to arise only after the ‘I-thought’ rises. So, hold on to the I-thought without pause. Soon, you will find that all thoughts vanish leaving the Self alone as the residue.

Q.: The difficulty lies in reaching the Self.

B.: There is no reaching it at all because it is eternal, here and now. If the Self were to be gained anew, it would not be permanent. What is impermanent is not worth striving for.

Q.: How to obtain equilibrium of mind? What is the best way?

[Tom’s comments: We will see Bhagavan subtly rebuking the questioner here – Bhagavan has advised self-enquiry in which the mind is no more, and instead the questioner is asking ‘how to obtain equilibrium of the mind?’]

B.: Just now you were asked to investigate the mind. It is eliminated and the Real you remain over. Let your standpoint become that of Jnana and then the world will be found to be not apart from the Self. Drishtin jnanamayim kritva pashyaet Brahmamayam jagat [Tom: ‘Having made your outlook one of Jnana, one will see the world full of Brahman’ ~Tejobindu Upanishad 1.29; this was a phrase often repeated by Sri Ramana, eg. also see Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 238, which is likely a record of the same conversation given here]. So, the question is one of outlook. The Atman pervades all. You have now lost hold of your Self and go on doubting about other things. Find your Real Self and all your problems and doubts will disappear.

Q.: But how to find this Real Self?

B.: Are there two ‘I’s in the same One? How do you know your own existence now? Do you see yourself with these eyes? Investigate into yourself. How does this question arise? Do I remain to ask it or not? Can I find my Self as in a mirror? Because your outlook has, owing to the poisonous delusion of ignorance, become outward-bent, it has lost sight of the actual Self and your vision is external. The Self is not to be found in external objects. Turn your gaze within and plunge within; you will be the Self.

Q.: It is said that the unknowable can be attained only by the grace of the unknowable.

B.: Yes. He helps you to Realise, if only you would forsake the external world of word, name and form. Such is His merciful Grace.

Q.: How to kill the mind, since the death of the mind is said to bring about Realisation easily?

B.: Will a thief betray himself? Will the mind find itself? The mind cannot kill the mind. You abandon what is real and are holding on to the mind which is unreal and also trying to find what this unreal mind is. Was there any mind in your sleep? No. It is now here. It is therefore impermanent. Can the mind be found by you? You are not the mind. You think you are the mind and therefore ask me how it is to be checked. If it is there it can be checked. But it does not exist at all. Understand this truth by search. Search for unreality is fruitless. Therefore seek the reality, i.e., the Self. That is the way to ruin the mind. There is only one thing Real, and that is Reality, which is the same as man’s true Self.

Q.: What is the nature of the true Self of man? Is it always happy?

B.: It alone is what IS: the ‘other elements’ are only appearances. Diversity is not the nature of the Real. We read the printed characters on the newspaper but ignore the paper which is the background. Similarly you are obsessed with the modifications of the mind and ignore the ever-present background of pure consciousness. Whose fault is it?

Q.: Is there a limit to the Real Self?

B.: What is the Real Self?

Q.: The Individual soul is the only self I know. According to Bhagavan it is unreal.

B.: What is the individual soul? What is the cosmic soul? Is there any difference between the two or are they identical? Any appearances are bound to disappear. Anything created will certainly be destroyed. The eternal is not born – consequently, nor can it die. We are now confounding appearances on Reality with Reality itself. Any appearance carries its own end in itself. Can there be anything that appears newly? If you cannot find the Self through the Jnana-vichara method, surrender to the substratum of appearances unreservedly; then, actual Reality will be left over as the residue.

Q.: What happens to a man after death?

B.: Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself. There is no need to worry about the future. The state before creation, the process of creation, etc., etc. are all dealt with in the scriptures in order that you may finally endeavour to know the present. Because you say you are born, therefore they say, yes, and add that God created you. But do you see God or anything else in your sleep? If God be real why does He not shine forth in your sleep also? You are always – now the same as you were in sleep.

You are not different from the one in sleep. Thus, why should there be any difference in the feelings or experiences governing the two states? Did you ask, while asleep, the question regarding your birth? Did you ask then, where do I go after death? Why think of all this now in the wakeful state? Let what is born think of its birth, the remedy, the cause and the ultimate results. What is birth? Is it of the ‘I-thought’ or of the body? Is ‘I’ separate from the body or identical with it? How did this ‘I-thought’ arise? Is the ‘I-thought’ your nature? If not, what is your Real nature?

Q.: To whom to ask these questions?

B.: Exactly – that is it. There is no end to it all.

Q.: Are we then to merely keep quiet?

B.: Doubts cease when your apparent ignorance is transcended.

Q.: How did this ignorance originally arise?

B.: Is ignorance asking you, ‘Why have I arisen?’. It is you who are asking the question. So, find out who you are. Then other things will take care of themselves.

Q.: The vichara again! Why should I engage in this Atma-vichara?

B.: Because if Atma-vichara is not pursued, loka-vichara creeps in [Tom: Loka means world, vichara means enquiry, Atma means self]. Engage in Self-investigation; thereby the non-self disappears. The true Self is left over. This is self-investigation of the Self. The one word ‘தான்’ [Tom: ‘Thaan’ or ‘Self’ or ‘oneself’] is equivalent to the mind, body, man, individual, the Supreme and all else.

New recommended reading text: Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

I have decided to add the book Aham Sphurana to the recommended reading list. Please see the list here for more information about this decision, which may be controversial for some. For clarity, the version I am recommending is the original unabridged version and not the edited selections published by others which may contain distortions to the teachings. See here to download the text for free.

Why is man born, only to die? Why does God create, only to destroy? | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Q.: Why is man born, only to die? Why does God create, only to destroy? Is it not absurd? If one is going to die one day, why is he born? If everything is going to be destroyed one day, why create anything?

B.: All creation is mental hallucination or delusion. In Reality there is no creator and no creation.

Q.: I desire to know the reason for the existence of the world I see around me.

B.: The apparent perceiver is the reason for the apparent perceptions.

Q.: I do not understand.

B.: Perceiver perceived and perception are all completely fictitious.

Q.: For Bhagavan it might be so. I see a solid world around me. I desire an explanation for it.

B.: What of your own apparent existence in the form of this perishable body?

Do you desire no explanation for that?

Q.: Yes, that too.

B.: Any number of theoritical explanations may be given to satisfy the craving of the intellect for the time being; but there will be no permanency in your satisfaction. Soon new doubts will arise and your old intellectual standpoint or belief will collapse. Then you will set about searching for a new explanation.

This goes on happening until the mind becomes disgusted with temporal life as a whole; then, it plunges into the Heart and loses itself there – that is the final dawn of wisdom.

Q.: So, the world is something that appears to exist only because I am engaged or involved in perceiving?

B.: Quite so.

Q.: So, now, if I close my eyes for two minutes, during those two minutes do Bhagavan, the sofa he is sitting on, this Hall and Tiruvannamalai, all totally disappear or vanish into thin air? [closes his eyes seriously for sometime] There, now, was Bhagavan not there in this Hall, were the other people in this Hall not present, even whilst my eyes remained closed? If I ask anyone, ‘Excuse me, did you exist whilst my eyes were closed, or not?’ will they not think I have gone mad?

What is the explanation?

B.: You are confusing implicit existence with implied existence. No doubt corroboration is available from the ‘others’ seated in this Hall including Bhagavan, but naturally in a dream everything is in spontaneous synchronisation. It is [your] one mind that has become all this. So, naturally confirmation is available. What is the surprise in it? You think you are taking corroboration from others, and therefore asking this question. The one whom you are asking is [also] your own mind only. Of course he would corroborate.

The idea that things exist, and then you perceive them, is implied exixstence.

It derives its strength from the principle of intellection, which in turn from the buddhi [faculty of reasoning], which in turn from the mind. Implicit existence is swayam-pratyaksham. It shines by its own light, not by any borrowed light.

Therefore it is the one thing Real.

Q.: Will sriramanamasmaranam [Tom: repetition of the Holy Lord’s name ‘Sri Rama’] help me Realise?

B.: If and only if it be accompanied by intense devotion. The devotion must be so intense that even the thought ‘I am engaging in sriramanamasmaranam’ must not find it possible to arise

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 20th July 1936, see here for more information on this text.

Guru’s Grace means inward-vision or introverted mind | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Questioner: I want Bhagavan to bestow his compassionate glance of Grace on me, so that I should undergo Emancipation in this very lifetime.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Listen to the following joke:

Once upon a time man was fully aware of his Realised nature, and all humans enjoyed Transcendental consciousness while yet in a body; but on one fine morning, Brahma found he had become jealous of them, since all humans were then equal to him in rank, all being Realised gods. So, Brahma decided to take Self-knowledge away from man and hide it where it could never be found by him. Where to hide It was the question. So Brahma called a council of the gods of Heaven, headed by Indra, to help him resolve the matter.

“Let us bury it deep in the earth,” said the gods. But Brahma answered, “No, that will not do, because men will dig into the earth and find it.”

Then the gods said, “Let us sink it in the deepest ocean.” But Brahma said, “No, not there, for they will eventually learn to dive into the ocean, and so will surely find it one day.”

Then the gods said, “Let us take it to the top of the highest mountain and hide it there.” But again Brahma replied, “No, that will not do either, because they will sooner or later climb every mountain and once again find their Immortal Self.

We must hide It so thoroughly from man that he will never succeed in finding It again.” Then the gods gave up and said, “We do not know where to hide it, because it seems that there is no place on earth or under the sea that man will not eventually reach.”

Brahma thought for a long, long, long time. Finally he said, “Here is what we shall do. We will hide It deep in the center of their own being, for men will never think to look for It there.” All the gods agreed that this, in fact, was the perfect hiding place, and the deed was done. Ever since that day, men have been going up and down the earth, digging, diving, climbing, and excavating- searching for something which is already within themselves.

Q.: How cruel of Brahma to do such a thing…!

B.: That was only a joke. The point is, turn inwards and SEE. That is Guru’s Grace. Guru’s Grace means inward-vision or introverted mind. Guru’s Grace and Jnana-dhrishti [Tom: literally knowledge-vision, ie. vision of self-knowledge or experience of self-knowledge] are thus one and the same.

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 30th August 1936, see here for more information on this text.

If told ‘Everything is an illusion’ people may find it disturbing | The analogy of ‘toxic gas’ | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Gajapathi Aiyyer: If told, ‘Everything is an illusion’, people may find it disturbing…

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Thus they are told, ‘Find your Self’ or ‘Gnothi seauton’ [Tom: Greek for ‘Know thyself’], leaving them to make the discovery themselves that there is no world to see, but only the Self. Actually saying ‘Everything is an illusion’ or ‘There is no anything’ is more meaningful.

Strictly speaking, ‘Know thyself’ is absurd. The Self has nothing to know. It cannot be known by anything. People may say, ‘Bhagavan teaches that the Self is Self-aware, or that the Self knows Itself.’ It is not correct. Knowledge implies vritti [Tom: thoughts]. There are no vrittis in the Self. It is Purity Itself. The Self does not need to know Itself, because it is Knowledge Itself.

It cannot know Itself or anything else, because it is in Motionless Timeless Realisation of Actionless Reality, which is Itself; therefore it is Nescience Itself [Tom: here Bhagavan is saying the Self is actually Nescience or Ignorance, as it knows nothing, which is the literal meaning of nescience or ignorance].

Yet the Self transcends Knowledge and Nescience. Nothing can know the Self, because there is nothing besides it; therefore there is no such thing as not-Self. That day on which man awakens into Living Realisation of the fact that knowledge of the not-Self or nescience of the Self is impossible is the day on which he awakens into his true imperishable nature of Immortality. This teaching alone is verily the nectarous ambrosia which rouses man from the sleep of his illusory mortality.

Chadwick was swimming in tears by the time Bhagavan had finished enunciating these words.

G.: While the teaching sounds simple, practising the state of effortless-and-volitionless-thoughtlessness does not seem to be so easy…

B.: The biggest tragedy is that people, instead of giving up everything, think that by doing some practise they are going to go somewhere or attain something. If everything is thrown away, only Jnana remains. Supposing you want to make space inside a room – how do you go about it? Hurl away the useless objects taking up space in the room – as simple as that. There is no question of importing space from elsewhere. If all ideas or vrittis [mental modifications or conceptualisations] are thrown away or given up, only the Self remains.

If you are able to realise the truth that what you are giving up is indubitably more obnoxious than the egesta in your intestines and what you gain is indubitably worthier than your life in this ephemeral body, you will be able to give up everything in your mind one, neat, simple stroke; to such a one Jnana comes in a trice; then what awaits is only the Kingdom of Heaven from which there is no return possible.

Chadwick: We are unable to develop the conviction that the world is worthless or mirage-like – that is the problem.

B.: There is no need for any [new] convictions to be cultivated. Give up even your existing convictions.

C.: The conviction that the world is unreal can be used to combat the conviction that the world is real.

B.: [laughing] Oh! Is that so? Have you heard the story of the monkey that kept chasing its own tail?

C.: No.

B.: You would not have, and you cannot. Why? Because the story is yet to conclude. The monkey started at the beginning of Krita-yugam. Still he is going on.

C.: He must be a very energetic monkey. Bhagavan must have fed him peanuts with his own hands… [All 3 of us laugh.]

G.: What is the analogy?

B.: That will be the perverse fate of one who endeavours to counteract concepts with concepts. The fetid odour of concept-gas can be eliminated only by diverting the gas away from the mind-room. Instead, some want to release into their own originally odour-free, pristine and blemishless mental environment more and more poisonous, odious concept-gases, thinking, ‘Aa haa! This concept-gas will fight [all] the previous one[s]!’. If this should keep on happening, as it does indeed in the case of many unfortunate beings on this Earth, what will the result be? [laughs] Will not everyone suffocate unto death? What has caused the absurd mentality which prompts man to go on releasing one mephitic concept-gas after another? HE HAS FORGOTTEN THE BLISS OF HIS ORIGINAL ODOUR-FREE ENVIRONMENT.

He thinks being surrounded with the miasmic fumes of his own concept-gas is his natural state. When it has all become patently and obviously unmanageable, he goes to a charlatan, who says unto him:

[Tom: in all the following examples Bhagavan is referring to thoughts and concepts as being like toxic gas, and various false teachers as handing out these toxic-gas concepts]

‘Sir! Be certain that your anxities end with today. What I have with me is the most precious concept-gas in the world, released by the Self-Realised Sages of the Himalayas. Here I have captured it in this areca nut-coloured bottle. You are indeed fortunate that you have met with me today, sir, have not the least doubt about it. Forthwith take this invaluable gas into your room and release the same. Then you will come back and thank me till your mouth aches.’

Delighted, the man rushes back into his noisome room and with tremendous eagerness does as told. What is the result? He ends up burning his nostrils. He thinks his delicate nostrils are to blame and thus harbours no ambition to pick any quarrel with the charlatan.

What does he do next? Go to another charlatan. This time the gas has been released by the Sages of the Vidhya Hills. And then another – perhaps this time the Podhigai Hills. And so on and so forth. Finally he decides these foreign gases are only making his room more olid, and, abjectly resigning himself to his miserable fate of having to put up with his putrid mental environment, gives up hunting after newer and newer exotic nocuous concept-gases to release.

Then a friend of him chances to meet him and asks why he should look so despondent, whereupon the man confesses unto him his malodorous problem. ‘Oh! Is this all?’, says the other, ‘Don’t worry. I know just the thing to set you aright. In the Arunachala Hill there is one koupeenadhâri-swami; he-‘.

[Tom: koupeenadhâri means one who wears a kaupina or loin cloth]

The next moment the vexed man catches hold of his friend by the scruff of the neck and shouts wrathfully into the alarmed man’s face, ‘I shall have no more of it, I tell you. It is all a grand fraud; I realised the fact just some time prior. ALL GAS STINKS’.

‘Pray, do not enrage yourself, my good man.’, says the calm friend, shaking himself free from the first man’s irate grip, ‘This swami will neither demand any money from you nor will he give you any gas to release.’

‘Then what is he a swami for?’ ‘He never announced himself as a swami. People understand him to be this or that depending upon their individual tempraments of mind. I am sure you will benefit by visiting him…’ The man reluctantly makes the trip, telling himself, ‘At any rate I don’t have anything to fear from possibility of disappointment, since this time I have no expectations. What is probably going to happen is this: he will try to sell me a bottle of his gas, and I shall refuse to buy it and come away peacefully, after telling him, “Thank you very much for the kind offer, sir, but you see, my nostrils have been assaulted with enough gas for this one lifetime.”. If he tries to persuade me [into making a purchase] I shall slap him and run away from the place.’.

When he puts his difficulty before the koupeenadhâri-swami, he expects to as usual be handed with a bottle of concept-gas and demanded money, but the swami, being no gas-releaser, merely decorously says, ‘Open the windows’. The man is stunned. Can it really be that simple?, he wonders. For a time the man is reluctant to give up the rancid odours to which he has been for a long time now acclimatised. Then he begins to yearn for the odour-free state. Finally he abandons altogether his penchant for concept-gases and throws the windows open as per the advice of the koupeenadhâri-swami of Arunachala Hill. Then sweet, fresh air, which he has not experienced in [his] living memory, bursts into the room and he dances for ecstatic joy. He remembers all his various exploits with the different charlatans he had encountered and enjoys a hearty laugh at his own expense…

Chadwick is unable to contain himself. He has already collapsed against the wall of the Hall in laughter at hearing Bhagavan’s ‘gas-analogy’. His paroxysmic convulsions, which are yet to abate, are now observed with a curious eye by early inmates and visitors trickling into the Hall. ‘Shoo! Shoo!’ says Bhagavan, smiling and putting a finger to his lips. Chadwick – with difficulty – manages to straighten himself up. He wipes away the tears trickling down his cheeks and tries to look serious.

G.: Concept-gas stands for vrittis, the bottles stand for instructions on sadhana, releasing them in one’s room means trying to practise any mental activity as sadhana, and opening the windows is summa iruththal [Tom: ‘Be still’ or ‘just be’]. Am I correct?

C.: Hey, boy! Isn’t it obvious?

G.: I still want to make sure. So I am corroborating my understanding with Bhagawan. What does Bhagavan say?

B.: Yes. Also, the reluctance to abandon one’s age-old mental predilections is exclusively the handiwork of – But at that moment the brahmins enter the Hall. It is time for the chanting of the vedas. For now the conversation is at an end.

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 14th August 1936, see here for more information on this text.

One who would try to teach something can never be the Sadhguru | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

B.: One who would try to teach something can never be the Sadhguru [Tom: the true or genuine or real guru]. He who gives unto the earnest sadhaka suggestion to do this or that can never be the Sadhguru. The sadhaka wants rest from activity – that is why he has come in search of spiritual awakening. He has already become exasperated with ‘doing’, although he might be unable to understand, express or articulate that such is the case with himself. The peace he is searching for so longingly is permanent termination of possibility of activity. In other words he wants everlasting cessation of the madness called ‘doing’.

Instead of being told how to achieve the same, the conned sadhaka finds that the charlatan asks him to do something in addition to, or in place of, his incumbent activities. Could more ‘doing’ possibly be a help to the sadhaka? It will make him lose what little peace of mind he yet had.

Activity stands for creation; creation stands for the destruction of one’s inherent happiness – i.e., the natutal state of poorna.

Reality is perfect happiness only because there is no creation possible in that state. Creation is seen owing to avidya maya. If activity be advocated, the adviser is not a Guru but a heartless tormentor. In such cases we can say that Lord Yama has come in the guise of a Guru, to torture the unsuspecting, gullible sadhaka.

The [evil-minded] charlatan cannot Emancipate; but the one thing he invariably does is this – he strengthens the fetters of those who care to pay any attention to him. You talk of appointing an uttharadikari [Tom: heir or successor] for Ramana Maharshi. Ramana Maharshi has nothing to say; he makes no assertions; he has no message for the world; he has got nothing to convey; he is no teacher; he has no teachings. He IS. That is all. That being the case, where is the question of any successor? The charlatan, therefore, first collects a hefty fee as ‘dhakshina’ and then persuades the unwitting man on the Clapham omnibus to do this and that, saying, ‘If you sincerely do as I tell you, you will obtain peace of mind…’. It is like paying a fortune to purchase poison, thinking it to be amrutham, and drinking it gleefully, congratulating yourself on your ‘rare luck’ at having chanced upon the same. So, the charlatan abets your attempt to kill yourself; obscuring the self-luminous Aathman, which is fathomless Bliss Itself, with upadhis that obnubilate it, and reaffirming for yourself thereby the poisonous, false conviction that your self-identity lies with the perishable body, is certainly an act of attempting suicide. As for Sec. 306, no amount of concealment can permanently veil the Self.

No matter how dense one’s nescience [Tom: ignorance] might be, one casual, merciful glance of Grace from the compassionate Sadhguru, lasting not even for a complete nimisha, will suffice to destroy countless aeons of accumulated ignorance. A mountainsized heap of gunpowder is burnt up by a single spark of fire.

A room might have been in darkness for thousands of years, but when the door is thrown open and sunlight floods in, how long does it take for the room to become totally illumined? Thus, since ignorance is totally vulnerable to being eviscerated by the Sadhguru’s Grace at any time, it cannot be said to have any permanence; so, it is unreal or non-existent…

…The point is, turn inwards and SEE. That is Guru’s Grace. Guru’s Grace means inward-vision or introverted mind. Guru’s Grace and Jnana-dhrishti [Tom: literally, knowledge-vision, ie. seeing the self or self-knowledge] are thus one and the same.

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 30th August 1936, see here for more information on this text.

Tom: compare the above text to Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 271:

271.
The guru who tells his disciple
“Do this or that,” becomes for him
Yama, lord of death, or Brahma,
Lord of birth. He who declares
“You have done enough,” is the true guru
Bringing grace divine.

[The true guru prescribes no discipline, but the enquiry “Who am I?”]