Surrender

Humility, Vulnerability, Surrender and GRACE | Holy Bhagavan Sri Ramana, the Self Within! Bhakti, poetry

~ Tom Das ~ 2 Comments

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!

Does Jnana (or Self-Enquiry) lead to Bhakti (or Self-Surrender) or the other way round? Sri Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ 4 Comments

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

Some say that self-enquiry eventually culminates in surrender, and others say the opposite. Which is true? By the way, Self-Enquiry can also be referred to the path of Jnana (Knowledge or Wisdom) and Self-Surrender is also known as the path of Bhakti (love or devotion).

Ramana Maharshi has sometimes said it one way, and other times another, and other times said they are the same path. Again, which of these is true?

Let us see definitively what Sri Ramana says about this (surrender = Bhakti; Self-enquiry = jnana) in Guru Vachaka Kovai*, a text that is widely considered to be the most authoritative, reliable and comprehensive collection of the verbal teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi:

722. When scanned, bhakti supreme and jnana
Shine as in their essence one.
Saying that one of them is but
A means to the other is only due
To understanding neither.

723. Even those who know may sometimes seem
To honour this saying and so prefer
One or the other of these paths.
This is in order to prevent
Some seeker half-way on one path
From giving it up and choosing the other.

724. When one adopting self-enquiry
Reaches the journey’s end and gains
Samadhi’s bliss, it is solely due
To the grace of God, one’s inmost Self,
Life of one’s life.

725. Unless the Self, the God within,
By power of grace pulls in the mind,
Who has the strength through his own effort
To stop the rogue mind’s outward drift
And merge it in the Heart and so
Gain peace?

728 To tell the truth, God’s grace supreme
And the keen quest “Who am I?”,
Which means abidance in the Heart,
Will work together as mutual aids
And bring one to the state of oneness
With the Self supreme.

729 This maya world-dream will not end
Unless the Self within speaks out.
The enquiry, “Who is the dreamer
Of this dream?” is prayer addressed
To Him to speak and wake us up.

730. It is said that meditation
On one’s own being [Tom: ie. Self-enquiry] is supreme
Devotion to all-transcending God,
Because, though spoken of as two,
They are in substance one.

731. The way of knowledge and the way of love
Are interwoven close. Don’t tear
Asunder these inseparables.
But practise both together holding
In the heart the two as one.

Meditation on the Self
Is devotion to the Lord
Supreme, since He abides as this,
Our very Self.
– SRI BHAGAVAN 13

*Guru Vachaka Kovai, or The Garland of Guru’s sayings, is widely considered to be the most authoritative, reliable and comprehensive collection of the verbal teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Here is what Ramana Ashram states about the Guru Vachaka Kovai in the foreword of their publication of it:

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

The paths of knowledge and love are more fully explained in the text The Path of Sri Ramana which you can download for free here. This is one of the few texts that goes into detail into both the paths of knowledge and love.

Also see:

Non-dual devotion, worship and prayer

Ramana Maharshi on those who ridicule idol-worship or image-worship

The paths of Devotion and Knowledge – Bhakti vs Jnana | Advaita Vedanta

Bhakti Yoga as a complete path to Final Liberation

Sri Ramana Maharshi: the necessity of Meditation

Devotion is key | Do we need to make an effort? | Yoga Vasistha | Sadhanai Saram

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

We need to make an effort, but the primary effort we make is to let go and surrender ourselves to Him, and then it’s done by God’s Grace. You’ll find all the answers come, synchronicities happen, or a great difficulty will come your way and it will give rise to a Jewel.

Here is a link to the piece about Sadhanai Saram mentioned in this video.
https://tomdas.com/2020/11/05/sadhanai-saram-the-essence-of-spiritual-practice-devotion-and-self-enqiry-ramana-maharshi-advaita-vedanta/

This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers.

To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.

For guided meditations see the ‘guided meditation’ playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TomDasNonduality/playlist

For recommended reading for liberation see here: https://tomdas.com/2020/10/19/recommended-reading-books-for-enlightenment-liberation-and-self-realisation/

To book a 1 to 1 session with Tom see here: https://tomdas.com/nondual-spiritual-counsellor/

You have to surrender the mind | holding on to the branch of the tree of Maya

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

We have to surrender the mind. And then That what we are looking for is revealed naturally, spontaneously, effortlessly, but not to the mind. If you start the practice, even if it is atrocious in the beginning, faith will come. You will start to fall into the path and accelerate.

Every attempt at stilling the mind is progress.

You are holding onto the branch of a tree (your mind is holding onto the illusion of body/mind/world – Maya) when your feet are on the ground (you are the Self already).
Only when you turn within and let go of the name and the form (the illusion/Maya) you will discover that you have always been standing on the ground (you have always been the Self).
Do not take this world to be real, or this body mind to be yourself. Do not take your thoughts to be your thoughts.

Abide as the Self. Merge with the Knowledge that is within you.

This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers. To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events.

For guided meditations see the ‘guided meditation’ playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TomDasNonduality/playlist

For recommended reading for liberation see here: https://tomdas.com/2020/10/19/recommended-reading-books-for-enlightenment-liberation-and-self-realisation/

To book a 1 to 1 session with Tom see here: https://tomdas.com/nondual-spiritual-counsellor/

When you let go of everything | Letting go vs effort | The spark of the divine | Inner knowing

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Q. I want to see if I comprehend properly, between the terms self-effort and self-inquiry, because what comes into my mind is letting go, which seems to be somehow in contradiction to the term effort.

This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das and put together by volunteers.

See https://tomdas.com/events for further information.

Letting go vs effort | The spark of the divine | Inner knowing