Behind My Hand

From Talk 548 The creation is said to have an origin. How? Like a tree and the seed from which it has grown. How was the seed produced? From a similar tree. Where is the end to the series of questions? Therefore one must know one’s Self before the world is known. - Ramana Maharshi This quote is a wonderful koan.  Which came first the chicken or the egg.

All insights, however extraordinary they may be, are worthless because it is thought that has created what we call insight and through that it is maintaining its continuity and status quo. - U G Krishnamurti in “The Natural State”

There have been so many saints, sages, and jnanis, and each one has been enamored of a particular concept that he wanted the world to know about. Ultimately, the different religions were only individual concepts which appealed to the consciousness in a particular individual at a particular time. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, 12 March 1981,  “Consciousness and the Absolute”.

The doubts arise in the mind. The mind is born of the ego. The ego rises from the Self. Search the source of the ego and the Self is revealed. That alone remains. The universe is only expanded Self. It is not different from the Self.  Ramana Maharshi - from Talk 106

In Talk 29 - The Heart is used in the Vedas and the scriptures to denote the place whence the notion ‘I’ springs. Does it spring only from the fleshy ball? It springs within us somewhere right in the middle of our being. The ‘I’ has no location. Everything is the Self. There is nothing but that. So the Heart must be said to be the entire body of ourselves and of the entire universe, conceived as ‘I’. But to help the practiser (abhyasi) we have to indicate a definite part of the Universe, or of the Body. So this Heart is pointed out as the seat of the Self. But in truth we are everywhere, we are all that is, and there is nothing else.

hṛtsthalemanaḥ svasthatākriyā | bhaktiyogabodhāścaniścitam || 10| | The act (kriyā) of abiding in one’s natural state, the mind set in the Heart, is without doubt, Devotion, Yoga and Knowledge.   Notes: Here, kriyā (action) refers to the one truly continuous, uncaused, meritorious ‘act’ (kriyāyoga). This is eternal Being, the Self. Where the mind finds this place (dhyāna), i.e. its place of birth, there is the culmination of karma, bhakti, yoga, and jnana. For the purified mind, this takes the form of constant remembrance, also called nididhyāsana. This is realisation of one’s natural state. Referring to this verse Sri Bhagavan proclaims, “That is the whole truth in a nut-shell.” (Talk 222) —- —- —- Excerpt From Essence of Instruction (Upadesa Saram) Ramana Maharshi, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert https://books.apple.com/gb/book/essence-of-instruction-upadesa-saram/id908258526 This material may be protected by copyright.

D.: Does the Karma theory mean that the world is the result of action and reaction? If so, action and reaction of what? M.: Until realisation there will be Karma, i.e., action and reaction; after realisation there will be no Karma, no world. —- Talk 484; Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

31-1-1935 Talk 21. Mr. Ellappa Chettiar, a member of the Legislative Council of Madras Presidency and an influential Hindu, asked: “Why is it said that the knowledge born of hearing is not firm, whereas that born of contemplation is firm?” M.: On the other hand it is said that hearsay knowledge (paroksha) is not firm, whereas that born of one’s own realisation (aparoksha) is firm. It is also said that hearing helps the intellectual understanding of the Truth, that meditation makes the understanding clear, and finally that contemplation brings about realisation of the Truth. Furthermore, they say also that all such knowledge is not firm and that it is firm only when it is as clear and intimate as a gooseberry in the hollow of one’s palm. There are those who affirm that hearing alone will suffice, because a competent person who had already, perhaps in previous incarnations, qualified himself, realises and abides in peace as soon as he hears the Truth told him only once, where