Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi on great ‘public workers’ helping the world
Talk 272.
Devotee: There are widespread disasters spreading havoc in the world e.g., famine and pestilence. What is the cause of this state of affairs?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You were not aware of the world and its sufferings in your sleep; you are conscious of them in your wakeful state. Continue in that state in which you were not afflicted by these. That is to say, when you are not aware of the world, its sufferings do not affect you. When you remain as the Self, as in sleep, the world and its sufferings will not affect you. Therefore look within. See the Self! There will be an end of the world and its miseries.
D.: But that is selfishness.
M.: The world is not external. Because you identify yourself wrongly with the body you see the world outside, and its pain becomes apparent to you. But they are not real. Seek the reality and get rid of this unreal feeling.
D.: There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the problem of the misery of the world.
M.: They are ego-centred and therefore their inability. If they remained in the Self they would be different.
❤️❤️❤️ 🙏🙏🙏 ❤️❤️❤️
Humility, Vulnerability, Surrender and GRACE | Holy Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the Self Within! Bhakti, poetry
by Tom Das
(Please see if the following is helpful for you…)
Total and utter humility and total self-honesty are keys to liberation:
Realise how fragile you are, how little you really know, and how vulnerable you are to suffering.
Your beliefs, your ego, your defences, your conceit and your thought patterns convince you that you will be safe, that you can weather the storm…but admit the truth! That you are totally helpless and totally vulnerable to immense suffering and calamity. Admit it.
At any moment you are liable to crack open, break down and become a nervous wreck. Be truthful with yourself – admit it.
So…
Instead…
Be small, be vulnerable, be humble…
And then you can,
With tears of pining despair flowing,
Admit how much you want to be with HIM,
SAFE IN HIS ARMS:
Take refuge in HIM
– only in HIM are you safe:
Withdraw from the many objects into the SUBJECT,
HIM,
– ‘Out there it is unsafe’…
Therefore,
Timid, vulnerable, cowing,
Withdraw within,
Fearful and quivering,
TAKE REFUGE in HIS PRESENCE
Wherein he will cleanse you and MAKE YOU WHOLE.
Guru Bhavagan Sri Ramana has told us:
“O heart of mine, it is not wise to stay out.
Safe it is to stay within. Conceal yourself from maya
Which plans to draw you out to destroy you.
Stay within.”
(Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 187)
and
“For those who ever think of and cling to the Feet of
the Sadguru, who is the blazing flame of pure Jnana,
through the Grace obtained by such Guru-bhakti, their
minds will become clear and they will achieve Mei-
Jnana [True Knowledge].”
(Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 305)
Abide with HIM, the SELF within,
Immerse yourself in HIS GRACE,
Drown and anihilate your ego-self, the SOLUTE
in HIM, the DIVINE SOLVENT.
As Guru Bhavagan Sri Ramana has told us:
“Worship of [ie. surrender to] the Feet of the Guru,
with Guru-bhakti, is the real mantra, which will
destroy all the rising vasanas and bestow Jnana,
in which there will be no fear of Maya’s delusion.
Thus should you know.”
(Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 306)
You – the ego – who are the source of all suffering and pain,
DISSOLVE YOURSELF in HIM
So that ONLY HIS RADIANT PRESENCE remains
Abiding silently as SELF WITHIN
is to BE WITH HIM
-This is the highest WORSHIP OF HIM
As Bhagavan Sri Ramana says:
“Extinguishing the triple fire,
The Guru’s Feet have given us shelter.
To abide there and control the mind
From craving for the world of sense
Is worship of those Flowery Feet.“
(Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 318)
Do NOT allow the world to take you away from him
Do NOT allow the world to prevent you from BEING WITH HIM
Do NOT allow the world to prevent you from BEING IN HIS BLISSFULL EMBRACE
Do NOT allow the world to prevent you from WORSHIPPING HIM EVERY SPARE SECOND YOU HAVE
Do NOT allow your thoughts to take you away from HIM
Do NOT allow your thoughts to prevent you from WORSHIPPING HIM IN SILENT BLISS
Do NOT allow your thoughts to stop you WITHDRAWING INTO YOURSELF and taking HIM AS REFUGE
Tell yourself:
I will NOT allow the world to take me away from HIM
I will NOT allow my thoughts to take me away from HIM
I will NOT allow the mind and world to take me away from MY WORSHIP OF HIM,
MY BEAUTIFUL REFUGE WITHIN
BE WITH HIM
Be in his PRESESNCE
BE STILL
and
BE WITH HIM
DISSOLVE YOURSELF IN HIM
So ONLY HE,
The Residue,
Remains.
Tell yourself:
I will allow myself to DISSOLVE IN HIM until ONLY HE REMAINS
Holy Mount Arunachala,
The FORM OF THE SELF,
Holy BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA,
The FORM OF THE SELF,
May I gaze upon thy form,
outwardly and inwardly,
May I take refuge in thee,
May I entrust myself to your BLISSFULL EMBRACE,
WITHIN
And become one with YOU
Destroying myself
Discovering myself
So that only YOU remain
As Maha Guru Sri Bhagavan says:
“By coming near to the Sadguru
and by depending completely upon His Grace,
with great Guru bhakti,
one will have no misery in this world
and will live like Indra.”
(Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 324)
!Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya Om!
!Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya Om!
!Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya Om!
2 Spiritual Secrets For Profound Transformation
In this moment in satsang, Tom shares two simple yet revolutionary teachings — practical secrets that can be effortlessly woven into your daily life. Many who walk the path of devotion to Ramana Maharshi have found that these treasures spark profound transformation, bringing quiet but powerful shifts in both subtle and significant ways.
These practices can be embraced together or on their own, offering you a direct doorway into presence and devotion and sacred silence; they can guide you to your True Nature and longed for liberation.
If you feel moved, we invite you to share in the comments how these teachings resonate with you, or to tell us about your own experiences of devotional practice—whether with Ramana, or with an image of the Divine that speaks to your heart.
This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das on September 11th, 2025 and put together by volunteers. To download full unedited satsang recordings see here: https://payhip.com/tomdas
To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events
Keeping Company With The Sages – A Shortcut To Bliss & Freedom
How can physical objects be part of my EGO?
THE ENTIRE NON-DUAL ‘PATH’ EXPLAINED
The entire path to liberation is explained here in this text called The Path of Sri Ramana, which you can download for free here:
If you read it carefully, all the teachings are there for you. Nothing else is needed. However many, for some reason, do not read it clearly and do not understand the teachings. Their mind skips over key sentences and paragraphs. Their ego or minds will not allow them to see what is clearly written on the page! I have come across many seekers like this!
So, even more detail is given and the teachings are further explained here, in this very slim text called Sadhanai Saram, which means ‘the essence of the spiritual practice’, also available for free download:
Even though everything is clearly spelt out, some people for some reason still don’t understand the teachings! Their minds will not let them read the words plainly and interpret them correctly! Their egos reinterpret the words according to their own views – in that case you should read this text too, The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss’:
Of course the true teaching can never be fully given in a book or in words, but these are great pointers nonetheless – they are some of the best texts on liberation ever written imho.
🙏🙏🙏
True Silence Burns All Impurities — But Not All Silence Is True
The perfect set up for your sadhana (spiritual practice)
Why is man born, only to die? Why does God create, only to destroy? | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana
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.
Tom Das 