Behind My Hand

  jyotishAmapi tajjyotistamasah paramucyate | jnAnam jneyam jnAnagamyam hrdi sarvasya vishThitam || “Light of lights, beyond the darkness, He is called; true knowledge, that which is to be investigated, understood through knowledge, abiding in the Heart of all.” (Bhagavad Gita 13;18)” (trans. MWright) Commentary As the sun illuminates the world, so the Light of lights (Atman) illuminates mind and senses. As the eye cannot see without the light of the sun, so the intellect cannot function without the Light of the Self.  Conceptual twaddle falls away in obeisance to this Light of all. Take to Vichara and merge yourself in this constant, eternal light of lights, the light of the Self.  — Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert

“ When you cling to the body-mind you become separate from the manifested world and see different entities. In that state you will have all kinds of desires to improve yourself or somebody else. The next state is “I Amness”, in which every action is myself, every manifest thing is myself. In that state there is no question of improving. You are just manifestation, “I am everything”. Next is the unborn state, where there is no beingness to understand “I Am”. That is the highest state.”   - Nisargadatta Maharaj in Seeds of Consciousness; p.152 ————-

  Once upon a time, there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away.  That evening, all of his neighbours came around to commiserate.  They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away.  This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “ Maybe .” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening, everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky.  What a great turn of events.  You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “ Maybe .” The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg.  The neighbours then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “ Maybe .” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.  Again all the neighbours came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “ Maybe ”. The whole process of nature is an...

 “20.6.2002 Truthfulness >Is truth in speech subjective and therefore varies according to ones conditioning?< Where truth is ... falsehood is not. Brahman is truth. The Self cannot be attained without practising truth. Suffering is the result of false relationships, false fears, false ideas. Liberation is truth. How is this liberation realised? Through right action of mind, speech and body. That is jnana, that is freedom, that is moksha. Self Enquiry is constant truth. Maintaining the quest even in the midst of worldly duties ensures right action.” - Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert

 Devotee: “That is all right, Swami. But, however much we try, this mind does not get under control and envelopes the Swarupa [real form] so that it is not perceptible to us. What is to be done?” Bhagavan with a smile placed his little finger over his eye and said, “Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents the Brahman from being seen. See how powerful it is!”   — Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 22nd Jan. 1949

 After finishing his education in medical school, he had gone to see Sri Ramana Maharshi and told him about his desire to join the Ramakrishna Order as a monk. Hearing that, the Maharshi was pleased and said to Swami Bhavyananda (then Gundappa), “In this age Sri Ramakrishna will work.” —Swami Bhaskarananda

  Explanations are always expressed using existent knowledge.  If you do not share this knowledge, they have little value. While they may be considered to be pointers, without appropriate discrimination,  they are like decomposing heaps of dung.

  The universe is the game of the self, which plays hide and seek forever and ever. When it plays 'hide,' it plays it so well, hides so cleverly, that it pretends to be all of us, and all things whatsoever, and we don't know it because it's playing 'hide.' But when it plays 'seek,' it enters onto a path of yoga, and through following this path it wakes up, and the scales fall from one's eyes. - Alan Watts in “The World as Emptiness”.

  Talk 1 A wandering monk (sannyasi) was trying to clear his doubt: “How to realise that all the world is God?” Maharshi: If you make your outlook that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God. Without knowing the Supreme Spirit (Brahman), how will you find His all-pervasiveness? (Ramana Maharshi in Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi) ————- “Dealing with the world is part of the illusion. It is symptomatic of the human condition which, having forgotten its own Self, dwells in an external, material universe. As long as one does not see the Self as the origin of all, and one's very identity, so long can it (world and objects) be described as illusionary.”   (Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry, Miles Wright & edited by Gabriele Ebert) ————- naiva cintyam na cAcintyam na cintyam cintyameva tat /   pakshapAtavinirmuktam brahma sampadyate tadA // 6 //   'Neither is that, which is conceivable (the phenomenal manifestation), to be ignored (or dismissed as unreal), nor th...

Ramana Maharshi mentioned Svetaketu’s fast in Talk 105 when discussing the mahavakya  tattvamasi. ————- Svetaketu’s Fast Mind is made up of food. Breath (vital force) is made up of water. Speech is made up of heat. (so ends Chandogya Upanishad, 6.6) ————- Chandogya Upanishad 6.7 As an experiment, in a bid to further a deeper understanding, śvetaketu was asked, by his father, not to eat for fifteen days but to drink as much water as he needed. Since the vital force is made up of water, life will be maintained. When fifteen days were up, śvetaketu returned to his father and asked what he should recite.  His father said, "Mantras from ṛg Veda, Yajur, and Sāma." śvetaketu, no matter how hard he tried, could not bring any mantras to mind. His father then said, "Listen to this example. When a huge fire, with a lot of fuel, has reduced to an ember the size of a firefly, with very little fuel, that fire can no longer burn very much. Similarly you are left depleted, for want of f...

  Mahāvākyas       (- the following phrases are said to be phrases of truth) prajñānam brahma - "Knowledge is Brahman"       (Aitareya Upanishad) tat tvam asi - "That you are"                         (Chãndogya Upanishad) aham brahmāsmi - "I am Brahman"               (Bṛhadãranyaka Upanishad) ayam ātmā brahma - "This Self is Brahman"       (Mãndükya Upanishad) —- —- —- Ramana Maharshi, in Talk 105, discusses Chandogya Upanishad, Chapter 6, with Madhavaswami .  (Chandogya references added by MW) M.: Yena asrutam srutam bhavati (Chandogya Upanishad). (CU 6.1.3 - By which the unheard of becomes heard, the unthought of becomes thought of, the unknown becomes known.)  Madhavaswami, Bhagavan’s attendant: Are there nine methods of teaching the Mahavakya ‘ Tattvamasi ’ in the Chandogya Upanishad? M.: No. Not so. The metho...

“Bhagavan said that instead of holding on to that which exists, we are looking for that which does not. We bother about the past and the future, not realising the truth of the present. We do not know the beginning or the end. But we know the middle. If we find out the truth of this, we shall know the beginning and the end. Bhagavan quoted from Bhagavad Gita (10:20) “I am in the heart of all beings and am their beginning, middle and end.” (Day by Day, 21.11. 45)

 Day by Day, 2-2-46 Morning A visitor told Bhagavan that he was working for Harijan uplift, that he and his co-workers in the cause had darshan of Mahatma Gandhi and got his blessings, that Mahatma Gandhi told them that if they could bring about marriages between Harijan girls and higher caste gentlemen, such marriages would have his blessings; and that he (visitor) would like to have Bhagavan’s views in the matter. Bhagavan said, “If Mahatma Gandhi has said so, we will all hear what he has said. What more is there for us to do? He is a distinguished man and is working in that field. What have we to do with that?” Turning to us, Bhagavan added, “If I open my mouth, something will appear in the papers that so-and-so has also said such-and-such a thing. The next day there will be people to criticise it. Our business is to keep quiet. If we enter into all these, people will naturally ask, and justifiably, ‘Why is he interfering in all these instead of keeping quiet?’ Similarly if Maha...

  चित्तमणीयो   वित्तं   य   इदं   मूल्ये   प्रपञ्चतोऽप्यधिकम्   । हृदयगुहायां   निहितं   जानीते   स   विजहाति   बहिराशाः   ॥   ४ . २१॥ cittamaṇīyo vittaṁ ya idaṁ mūlye prapañcato'pyadhikam |  hṛdayaguhāyāṁ nihitaṁ jānīte sa vijahāti bahirāśāḥ  ॥  4.21 ॥ “ Whoever has found the pure mind, encamped within the Cave of the Heart, worth more than the conceptual universe, gives up all desires .” ( trans. MWright) Here is Ramana’s explanation of the above verse from Umasahasram as found in Nayana’s Biography by Dr G. Krishna (1978; p. 194): “Ramana explained slowly - Nayana has extolled the very precious nature of Chitta in the first sloka and then explained his own experience gained by spiritual practice. Though the radiance passing from Heart to head gets entangled in external influences due to its association with sense organs, it will be experienced in its pristine purity by those who arrest the flow of th...

tam yogam iti manyate sthiram indriya-dharanam                                                                     apramattas tada bhavati yogo hi prabhavapyayau Katha Upanishad 6.11 Yoga is considered to be the continuous concentration of the senses. One then becomes attentive, thereby yoking the coming and going (of thought). naiva vācā na manasā prāptum śakyō na cakṣuṣā    astīti bruvato’nyatra katham    tadupalabhyatē  Katha Upanishad 6.12   Not by speech, nor by mind, nor by eye is it to be obtained. How else can it be ascertained other than to ascertain for itself,  “It is!” ———— Trans. MWright

  From N.N.Rajan's diary, November 6, 1943 After a brief discussion between Major Chadwick and Bhagavan on the necessity of periodic action to ensure that the body remains healthy, there was a ten-minute silence. Then a devotee asked, "It is stated that one should dive into oneself with a keen one-pointed mind controlling speech and breath. Is it necessary to control the breath also?" Bhagavan replied, "If all thoughts are controlled, automatically the breath is also controlled. By intense and sustained practice it will become habitual. Controlling the breath through various yogic exercises is like putting brakes to the train when the entire engine is working. But by watching the source of the mind with full concentration, the thoughts would get controlled. This method will be more effective and easy. It is like shutting the power of the engine and thereby stopping the train completely." 

tasmād yah śabdasamskārah sā siddhih paramātmanah |                                                                                                 pravrttitattvajñas tad brahmāmrtam aśnute || “.... that which purifies the word is the attainment of the Supreme Self. One who knows the truth of its origin attains the immortal Brahman.”     (Bhartrhari’s Vakyapadiya, 1. 131; translated from Sanskrit by MWright) —- Sabdapurvayoga is the return to that state which is prior to the arising of the ego. Bhartrhari’s method of attaining the Self is clearly a tracing back of the mind to its source. At that point the unreality of the ego is discovered. This is the true purification of the word. When Brahman is known to be all there is, can there be...

ahamayamkuto bhavaticinvatah | ayipatatyaham nijavicAraNam ||19|| “Where does this ‘I’ come from?” For one who enquires …Aha! ... the ‘I’ falls away. This is Self-enquiry.     Notes When, at last, one pursues Self-enquiry with single-minded devotion, the inevitable result is for the ego-‘I’ simply to fall away, defeated, destroyed, leaving a spontaneous iteration of one’s true identity. All the ‘stuff’ that this ‘I’ had given substance to, vanishes in an instant. The subject/object relationship has shifted. (Excerpt From Essence of Instruction (Upadesa Saram) Ramana Maharshi, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert)

9th November, 1935 Talk 93. All are aware of their own Self only. Wonder of wonders! They take what is not as what is, or they see the phenomena apart from the Self. Only so long as there is the knower is there knowledge of all kinds (direct, inferential, intellectual etc.); should the knower vanish they all vanish together with him; their validity is of the same degree as his. (Ramana Maharshi) An interesting statement but who reads it?

D.: Which is the best of the different yogas, Karma, Jnana, Bhakti or Hatha? M.: See stanza 10 of “Upadesa Sara” [ see below ]. To remain in the Self amounts to all these in their highest sense. Maharshi added: In dreamless sleep there is no world, no ego and no unhappiness. But the Self remains. In the waking state there are all these; yet there is the Self. One has only to remove the transitory happenings in order to realise the ever-present beatitude of the Self. Your nature is Bliss. Find that on which all the rest are superimposed and you then remain as the pure Self. ( Ramana Maharshi in Talk 189 ) —- Upadesa Saram v. 10 hrtsthalemanah svasthatAkriyA / bhaktiyogabodhAScaniScitam // The act (kriyA) of abiding in one’s natural state, the mind set in the Heart, is without doubt, Devotion, Yoga and Knowledge.   Notes: Here, kriyA (action) refers to the one truly continuous, uncaused, meritorious ‘act’ (kriyAyoga). This is eternal Being, the Self. Where the m...

Talk 191. Mr. Cohen, a resident disciple, was speaking of yoga method. Maharshi remarked: Patanjali’s first sutra is applicable to all systems of yoga. The aim is the cessation of mental activities. The methods differ. So long as there is effort made towards that goal it is called yoga. The effort is the yoga. The cessation can be brought about in so many ways. (1) By examining the mind itself. When the mind is examined, its activities cease automatically. This is the method of jnana. The pure mind is the Self. (2) Looking for the source of the mind is another method. The source may be said to be God or Self or consciousness. (3) Concentrating upon one thought make all other thoughts disappear. Finally that thought also disappears; and (4) Hatha Yoga. All methods are one and the same inasmuch as they all tend to the same goal. ( Ramana Maharshi in Talks ) —- —- —- Note : Patanjali’s first and second sutras 1. atha yoganusasanam - “Now, the principle of yoga” 2. ...

There is no point in becoming “like” Buddha or Ramana or any other so-called enlightened being. In effect, that is simply mindstuff. “The ideas of enlightenment and need for vichara belong to ego alone. When ego searches within the foothills of its own existence and finds its source it settles down exhausted, vanquished. At that point there is no longer any need for vichara. Only wayward mind needs the map of vichara. Self is ever self-aware of its whereabouts.” ( Excerpt From  Talks on Self Enquiry ,  Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert) Don't think, do it!

Having ears, the attentive sadhaka does not dwell on what is heard. Having eyes, the attentive sadhaka does not dwell on what is seen. Although immersed in the world, the attentive sadhaka does not react, inappropriately, to the world. —- “If you do not make Atma vichara, then loka vichara creeps in. That which is not, is sought for, but not that which is obvious.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 186) Note: loka - that which is seen (and heard), worldly affairs. —- Atma vichara includes pratyahara which is turning away or withdrawing from external affairs and holding to the ongoing internal question posed by Enquiry. Buddhi (mind) stands at the doorway to liberation. Turning one way buddhi, wanders, discriminates, vocalises and rationalises a sequential description of worldly affairs where multiple views dependent on ahamkara (ego) are observed. Then undifferentiated Brahman appears to be differentiated like the snake in the rope. Turning the other way buddhi stops dead in its tracks...

19.3.45 You should not mix up the dream and the waking states. Just as you seek corroboration about the waking state experiences from those whom you see in the waking state, you must ask for corroboration about the dream experiences from those whom you saw in the dream state, i.e., when you were in the dream. Then in the dream, those friends or relations whom you saw in the dream would corroborate you. The main point is, are you prepared when awake to affirm the reality of any of your dream experiences? Similarly, one who has awakened into jnana cannot affirm the reality of the waking experience. From his viewpoint, the waking state is dream. ( Ramana Maharshi in Day by Day )

23rd December, 1936 Talk 298. A certain visitor formulated a question, saying that meditation is more direct than investigation, because the former holds on to the truth whereas the latter sifts the truth from untruth. M.: For the beginner meditation on a form is more easy and agreeable. Practice of it leads to Atmavichara which consists in sifting the Reality from unreality. What is the use of holding on to truth when you are filled with antagonistic factors? Atmavichara directly leads to realisation by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realised. ( Ramana Maharshi )

D.: Even if the mind is brought to bear on the search for the Self, after a long struggle the mind begins to elude him and the man is not aware of the mischief until after some time. M.: So it would be. In the earlier stages the mind reverts to the search at long intervals; with continued practice it reverts at shorter intervals until finally it does not wander at all. It is then that the dormant sakti manifests. The sattvic mind is free from thoughts whereas the rajasic mind is full of them. The sattvic mind resolves itself into the Life-current. from Talk 91

 The original person is none other than the arising ‘I’.  “ The one Infinite Unbroken Whole (plenum) becomes aware of itself as ‘I’. This is its original name. All other names, e.g., OM, are later growths. Liberation is only to remain aware of the Self. The mahavakya “I am Brahman” is its authority. Though the ‘I’ is always experienced, yet one’s attention has to be drawn to it. Only then does knowledge dawn.” Ramana Maharshi in Talk 92, 7th November, 1935

There was a great need for a clear instruction to aspirants and a treatise based on the experience of a realised being would certainly be most welcome to the spiritually inclined. That intellectual conviction gained by mere knowledge of scriptures is all which constructed Gnyaana, has been widely prevalent among many pandits. This mistaken notion rendered superfluous the necessity of Saadhana (practice) of either a Mantra or otherwise. Some religious propagandists tried to impress the gullible with the cults of pseudo-love. The acquaintance with metaphysics and its lingo emboldened some to propagate the need to concentrate on an absolute attributeless Brahman, which cult merely degenerated into tall talk. As usual there were some who sought to provide materialistic interpretations to spiritual truths in the light of their understanding quite unsupported by practice or experiended. Then there were numerous commentaries on sacred works which successfully helped to highlight the erudition...

Maharshi said: “There is a state when words cease and silence prevails.” (From Talk 238)

“... the talk drifted to the various schools of thought, one saying there is only reality, others saying there are three eternal entities such as jagat, jiva and Ishwara, or pati, pasu and pasam. In this connection, Bhagavan observed humorously, “It is not at all correct to say that Advaitins or the Shankara school deny the existence of the world or that they call it unreal. On the other hand, it is more real to them than to others. Their world will always exist, whereas the world of the other schools will have origin, growth and decay and as such cannot be real. Only, they say the world as world is not real, but that the world as Brahman is real. All is Brahman, nothing exists but Brahman, and the world as Brahman is real. In this way they claim they give more reality to the world than the other schools do. For example, according to schools which believe in three entities, the jagat is only one-third of the reality whereas according to Advaita, the world as Brahman is reality, the wor...

Pratibhā pratibhā is every individual’s pre-thought experience of reality as it is. This level of speech is called paśyanti. It is undifferentiated in any way and word and meaning remain without sequence or form. This is the unmanifested Śabdabrahman. The essential prompt of this inner self stimulates a wordless intuition of the complete and indivisible reality.    However as soon as words arise, division ensues. Words may attempt to describe it but they can do no more than offer an unreal representation of it. Bhartrhari writes: śabdeśvevāśritā śaktir viśvasyāsya nibandhani /  yannetrah pratibhātmāyam bhedarupah pratiyate // (VP, 1. 118) “The power which resides in words is the sole cause of this universe. Led by that intuitive self, this appearance of division is recognised.” Pratibhā is innate in all living beings. It is the reason that the natural behaviour of birds and animals takes place without instruction or any other prompting. It is the ...

naiva vācā na manasā prāptum śakyō na cakṣuṣā    astīti bruvato’nyatra katham    tadupalabhyatē  Katha Upanishad, 6.12 Not by speech, nor by mind, nor by eye is it to be obtained. How else can it be known, other than to tell itself, “ It is !”

tam yogam iti manyate sthiram indriyadharanam apramattas tada bhavati yogo hi prabhavapyayau Katha Upanishad 6.11 Yoga is considered to be the continuous concentration of the senses. One then becomes attentive, thereby yoking the coming and going (of thought).

D.: People cite disasters, e.g., earthquakes, famines, etc., to disprove God. How shall we meet their contention? M.: Wherefrom have they come - those who argue? D.: They say, “Nature”. M.: Some call it “Nature” - others “God”. D.: Are we to keep anything against a rainy day; or to live a precarious life for spiritual attainments? M.: God looks after everything. Sri Ramana Maharshi in Talk 377, 22March 1937

D.: It is not necessary that the saints should mix with people and be helpful to them? M.: The Self alone is the Reality; the world and the rest of it are not. The realised being does not see the world as different from himself. D.: Thus then, the saint’s realisation leads to the uplift of humanity without the latter being aware of it. Is it so? M.: Yes. The help is imperceptible but is still there. A saint helps the whole of humanity, unknown to the latter. D.: Would it not be better if he mixed with others? M.: There are no others to mix with. The Self is the one and only Reality. Sri Ramana Maharshi in Talk 20

D.: On what should we meditate? M.: Who is the meditator? Ask the question first. Remain as the meditator. There is no need to meditate. ( Ramana Maharshi, Talk 205 ) —- — —- Why should one be meditating ‘I am Brahman’? Only the annihilation of ‘I’ is Liberation. But it can be gained only by keeping the ‘I-I’ always in view. So the need for the investigation of the ‘I’ thought. If the ‘I’ is not let go, no blank can result to the seeker. Otherwise meditation will end in sleep. There is only one ‘I’ all along, but what arises up from time to time is the mistaken ‘I-thought’; whereas the intuitive ‘I’ always remains Self-shining, i.e., even before it becomes manifest. ( Ramana Maharshi, Talk 139 ) —- —- —- Why do you wish to meditate at all? Because you wish to do so you are told Atma samstham manah krtva (fixing the mind in the Self); why do you not remain as you are without meditating? What is that manah (mind)? When all thoughts are eliminated it becomes Atma samstha (fi...

“The fact is: There is Reality. It is not affected by any discussions. Let us abide as Reality and not engage in futile discussions as to its nature, etc.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 201)

You give up this and that of ‘my’ possessions. If you give up ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ instead, all are given up at a stroke. The very seed of possession is lost. Thus the evil is nipped in the bud or crushed in the germ itself. Dispassion ( vairagya ) must be very strong to do this. Eagerness to do it must be equal to that of a man kept under water trying to rise up to the surface for his life. ( Sri Ramana Maharshi in Talk 28 )

(a) Existence without beginning or end - eternal. (b) Existence everywhere, endless, infinite. (c) Existence underlying all forms, all changes, all forces, all matter and all spirit. The many change and pass away (phenomena), whereas the One always endures (noumenon). (d) The one displacing the triads, i.e., the knower, the knowledge and the known. The triads are only appearances in time and space, whereas the Reality lies beyond and behind them. They are like a mirage over the Reality. They are the result of delusion. ( Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, from Talk 28 )

Human thought evolved to help navigate the world which resulted in self consciousness. However, thought, having developed a tendency to constantly feed on itself, has created the illusion of separation from the universe upon which, in reality, it relies absolutely.

चित्तमणीयो   वित्तं   य   इदं   मूल्ये   प्रपञ्चतोऽप्यधिकम्   । हृदयगुहायां   निहितं   जानीते   स   विजहाति   बहिराशाः   ॥   ४ . २१॥ “Whoever has found that pure mind, encamped within the Cave of the Heart, worth more than the conceptual universe, gives up all desires.” ( Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni,   trans. MWright) Ramana’s explanation of the above verse as found in Nayana’s Biography by Dr G. Krishna (1978; p. 194): “Ramana explained slowly - Nayana has extolled the very precious nature of Chitta in the first sloka and then explained his own experience gained by spiritual practice. Though the radiance passing from Heart to head gets entangled in external influences due to its association with sense organs, it will be experienced in its pristine purity by those who arrest the flow of the current in between in the Amritanadi. This radiance is not anything different form the Pure Awareness of the Heart. C...

yas tu sarvāṇi bhūtani ātmany evānupaśyati | sarvabhūteṣu catmānaṁ tato na vijugupsate ||6|| One who sees all beings in the Self alone, and the Self in all beings, thence feels no disdain . (Sri Isopani śad, 6)

...regulation of breath is prescribed for making the mind quiescent. Quiescence lasts only so long as the breath is controlled. So it is transient. The goal is clearly not pranayama. It extends on to pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. Those stages deal with the control of mind. Such control becomes easier for the man who had earlier practised pranayama. Pranayama leads him to the higher stages involving control of mind. Therefore control of mind is the aim of yoga also. A more advanced man will naturally go direct to control of mind without wasting his time in practising control of breath. A simple development of pranayama alone may confer siddhis which so many hanker for. ( Ramana Maharshi in Talk 154, 5 February 1936 )

The Master said: The Brahma akara vritti helps to turn the mind away from other thoughts. Either some such practice is necessary or association with sadhus should be made. The sadhu has already overcome the mind and remains in Peace. His proximity helps to bring about such condition in others. Otherwise there is no meaning in seeking a sadhu’s company. Deho aham (I am the body) is limitation and is the root of all mean and selfish actions and desires. Brahma aham (I am Brahman) is passing beyond limitation and signifies sympathy, charity, love etc., which are divine and virtuous. [ note: Brahma akara vrtti - thoughts of Brahman ] ———— Ramana Maharshi in Talk 54, 16 June 1935 ———————————- Remember that both “ deha aham ” and “ brahma aham ” are in the realm of thought. This needs to be resolved hence Sri Ramana says:  “I am Brahman” is only a thought. Who says it? Brahman itself does not say so. What need is there for it to say it? Nor can the real ‘I’ say so. For ...

M.: If the eyes are closed, it is nirvikalpa; if open, it is (though differentiated, still in absolute repose) savikalpa. The ever-present state is the natural state sahaja. Ramana Maharshi in Talk 17, 24 January 1935

M.: (a) Existence without beginning or end - eternal. (b) Existence everywhere, endless, infinite. (c) Existence underlying all forms, all changes, all forces, all matter and all spirit. The many change and pass away (phenomena), whereas the One always endures (noumenon). (d) The one displacing the triads, i.e., the knower, the knowledge and the known. The triads are only appearances in time and space, whereas the Reality lies beyond and behind them. They are like a mirage over the Reality. They are the result of delusion. (from Talk 28, Ramana Maharshi) ————- The man awake says that he did not know anything in the state of sleep. Now he sees the objects and knows that he is there; whereas in deep sleep there were no objects, no spectator, etc. The same one who is now speaking was in deep sleep also. What is the difference between these two states? There are objects and play of senses now which were not in sleep. A new entity, the ego, has risen up in the meantime, it pla...

19th January, 1936, Talk 139. Mr. Ellappa Chettiar, a Member of the Legislative Council, from Salem, asked: “Is it enough to introvert the mind or should we meditate on ‘I am Brahman’?” M.: To introvert the mind is the prime thing. The Buddhists consider the flow of ‘I’ thought to be Liberation; whereas we say that such flow proceeds from its underlying substratum - the only - Reality. Why should one be meditating ‘I am Brahman’? Only the annihilation of ‘I’ is Liberation. But it can be gained only by keeping the ‘I-I’ always in view . So the need for the investigation of the ‘I’ thought. If the ‘I’ is not let go, no blank can result to the seeker . Otherwise meditation will end in sleep. There is only one ‘I’ all along, but what arises up from time to time is the mistaken ‘I-thought’; whereas the intuitive ‘I’ always remains Self-shining, i.e., even before it becomes manifest. (Emphasis by the poster)

2nd February, 1935, Talk 23. M.: Who is a Master? He is the Self after all. According to the stages of the development of the mind the Self manifests as the Master externally. The famous ancient saint Avadhuta said that he had more than 24 Masters. The Master is one from whom one learns anything. The Guru may be sometimes inanimate also, as in the case of Avadhuta. God, Guru and the Self are identical. A spiritual-minded man thinks that God is all-pervading and takes God for his Guru. Later, God brings him in contact with a personal Guru and the man recognises him as all in all. Lastly the same man is made by the grace of the Master to feel that his Self is the Reality and nothing else. Thus he finds that the Self is the Master. (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)

“The thought ‘I’, ‘mine’ erroneously imposed on the body and senses, which are not the real Self, must be removed by the wise, by abiding as the real Self.” (Vivekacudamani) Misunderstanding this, all is misunderstood. Then self and other emanate relentlessly from our own consciousness. So, to reiterate, the questioning  (i.e. Enquiry - “who am I?) subverts the intellect and returns one, one-pointedly, to the Heart – i.e. Self-abidance. Here, the answer comes without words, like an irresistible pull, a quickening. This is an answer that, self-evidently, leaves no question begging (i.e. the question “To whom does this thought occur?” cannot be raised). This pull from the Heart is not under the control of the mind, all mind can do is keep itself emptied except for the thought “Who am I?” and where necessary “to whom do these thoughts arise?” in order that it remains open to the pull.” —- Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert https://books.apple....

30.9.2003 The Self is the primal experience. This is the only real experience. All else is modification, imagining, built on a false premise. “There is no one who even for a trice fails to experience the Self.” ( from Ramana Maharshi’s Talk 97 ) ————- Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert

Mr. Dewanji asked Bhagavan, “What is the   easiest way to attain one-pointedness of mind?” Bhagavan   said, “The best way is to see the source of the mind. See if there is such a thing as the mind. It is only if there is a mind   that the question of making it one-pointed will arise. When   you investigate by turning inwards, you find there is no such   thing as the mind.”  (Ramana Maharshi on the night of 29-12-45, Day by Day with Bhagavan)

Sri Ramana’s central teaching is: Self-inquiry. Instead of wanting to know this and that, seek to know the Self. Ask ‘Who am I?’ instead of asking about a hundred other things. Self-inquiry ought to be the easiest of all tasks. But it seems to be the most difficult because we have become strangers to our Self. What one has to do is simple - to abide as the Self. This is the ultimate Truth. This is one’s eternal, natural, inherent state. On account of ignorance we identify ourselves with the not-I. The most subtle of all these identifications is with the ego. Let us search for the root of the ego. Where from does this pseudo-I arise? At the end of this quest we shall find that the ego disappears letting the eternal Self shine. So the best discipline is the inquiry: ‘Who am I?’ This is the greatest japa. This is the true pranayama. The thought ‘I am not the body’ (naham) is exhalation (rechaka); the inquiry ‘Who am I?’ (koham) is inhalation (puraka); the realization ‘I am He’ (soham) ...

36 . Life is changing like a big wave, beauty of youth abides for a few days; earthly possessions are as transient as thought; the whole series of our enjoyments are like (occasional) flashes of lightning during the monsoons; the embrace round the neck given by our beloved ones lingers only for a while. To cross the ocean (of the fear) of the world, attach your mind to Brahman. Bhartrhari’s Vairagya Satakam,  trans. Swami Madhavananda

You study only those concepts which arise from within you. Those concepts which you do not like will not occur to you. Suppose you do not like mathematics, that subject will not appeal to you; it is a stranger to your concepts. You will be involved with only those subjects or matters which you like. Analyze your thoughts and see if this is not true. Find out the nature of your thoughts. Are they spiritual? I abide in the state where there is no mind. ————- Nisargadatta Maharaj, June 18, 1981.

“It is false to speak of Realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is, ever. How to real-ise it? All that is required is this. We have real-ised the unreal, i.e., regarded as real what is unreal. We have to give up this attitude. That is all that is required for us to attain jnana. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. —- Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 9-11-46

When I entered the hall Bhagavan was already answering a question which, I gathered, was to the effect “Is the theory of evolution true?” and Bhagavan said, “The trouble with all of us is that we want to know the past, what we were, and also what we will be in the future. We know nothing about the past or the future. We do know the present and that we exist now. Both yesterday and tomorrow are only with reference to today.Yesterday was called ‘today’ in its time, and tomorrow will be called ‘today’ by us tomorrow. Today is ever present. What is ever present is pure existence. It has no past or future. Why not try and find out the real nature of the present and ever-present existence?” Another visitor asked, “The present is said to be due to past karma. Can we transcend the past karma by our free will now?” Bhagavan: See what the present is, as I told you. Then you will understand what is affected by or has a past or a future and also what is ever-present and always free, unaffecte...

The atma is as it is. It is sakshat always. There are not two atmas, one to know and one to be known. To know it is to be it. It is not a state where one is conscious of anything else. It is consciousness itself. —- Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 28.12.45, afternoon  ————- The Atman does not love, it is love itself. It does not exist, it is existence itself. The Atman does not know; it is knowledge itself. —- Christopher Isherwood, Swami Prabhavananda, How to Know God, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, number 17 (commentary)

Question: When I think ‘Who am I?’, the answer comes ‘I am not this mortal body but I am chaitanya, atma, or paramatma.’ And suddenly another question arises — ‘Why has atma come into maya?’ or in other words ‘Why has God created this world?’ Answer: To enquire ‘Who am I?’ really means trying to find out the source of the ego or the ‘I’ thought. You are not to think of other thoughts, such as ‘I am not this body, etc.’ Seeking the source of ‘I’ serves as a means of getting rid of all other thoughts. We should not give scope to other thoughts, such as you mention, but must keep the attention fixed on finding out the source of the ‘I’ thought, by asking (as each thought arises) to whom the thought arises and if the answer is ‘I get the thought’ by asking further who is this ‘I’ and whence its source? —- Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 28.12.45, afternoon

Talking of the innumerable ways of different seekers after God, Bhagavan said, “Each should be allowed to go his own way, the way for which alone he may be built. It will not do to convert him to another path by violence. The Guru will go with the disciple in his own path and then gradually turn him into the supreme path at the ripe moment. Suppose a car is going at top speed. To stop it at once or to turn it at once would be attended by disastrous consequences. —- Day by Day with Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi 22.11.45

The visitor also asked, “When a man realises the Self, what will he see?” Bhagavan replied, “There is no seeing. Seeing is only Being. The state of Self-realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. All of us are realising, i.e., regarding as real, that which is not real. We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realise the Self as the Self, or in other words, ‘Be the Self’. At one stage one would laugh at oneself that one tried to discover the Self which is so self-evident. So, what can we say to this question? “That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains. —- Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 19.11.46

I ask you to see where the ‘I’ arises in your body, but it is really not quite correct to say that the ‘I’ rises from and merges in the heart in the right side of the chest. The heart is another name for the Reality and it is neither inside nor outside the body; there can be no in or out for it, since it alone is. I do not mean by ‘heart’ any physiological organ or any plexus of nerves or anything like that, but so long as one identifies oneself with the body and thinks he is in the body he is advised to see where in the body the ‘I’-thought rises and merges again. It must be the heart at the right side of the chest since every man, of whatever race and religion and in whatever language he may be saying ‘I’, points to the right side of the chest to indicate himself. This is so all over the world, so that must be the place. And by keenly watching the daily emergence of the ‘I’-thought on waking and its subsiding in sleep, one can see that it is in the heart on the right side. Ramana ...

There is no difference between dream and the waking state except that the dream is short and the waking long. Both are the result of the mind. Because the waking state is long, we imagine that it is our real state. But, as a matter of fact, our real state is what is sometimes called turiya or the fourth state which is always as it is and knows nothing of the three avasthas, viz., waking, dream or sleep. Because we call these three avasthas we call the fourth state also turiya avastha. But it is not an avastha, but the real and natural state of the Self. When this is realised, we know it is not a turiya or fourth state, for a fourth state is only relative, but turiyatita, the transcendent state called the fourth state. ( Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 5. 1. 46 )

Joshi : I am a beginner. How should I start? Bhagavan : Where are you now? Where is the goal? What is the distance to be covered? The Self is not somewhere far away to be reached. You are always that. You have only to give up your habit, a long-standing one, of identifying yourself with the non-self. All effort is only for that. By turning the mind outwards, you have been seeing the world, the non-Self. If you turn it inwards you will see the Self. (Ramana Maharshi in Day by Day, 5. 1. 46)

From N.N.Rajan's diary,   After a brief discussion between Major Chadwick and Bhagavan on the necessity of periodic action to ensure that the body remains healthy, there was a ten-minute silence. Then a devotee asked, "It is stated that one should dive into oneself with a keen one-pointed mind controlling speech and breath. Is it necessary to control the breath also?" Bhagavan replied, "If all thoughts are controlled, automatically the breath is also controlled. By intense and sustained practice it will become habitual. Controlling the breath through various yogic exercises is like putting brakes to the train when the entire engine is working. But by watching the source of the mind with full concentration, the thoughts would get controlled. This method will be more effective and easy. It is like shutting the power of the engine and thereby stopping the train completely."

Who knows  Speaks not Who speaks  Knows not.  - Lao Tzu George Harrison

“This is the crux of the whole problem. The one that is looking at what you call the self is the self. It is creating an illusory division of itself into subject and object, and through this division it is continuing. This is the divisive nature that is operating in you, in your consciousness. Continuity of its existence is all that interests it. As long as you want to understand yourself or to change yourself into something spiritual, into something holy, beautiful or marvelous, you will continue. If you do not want to do anything about it, it is not there. It's gone.“ —- The Natural State, In the Words of U.G. Krishnamurti, p. 15 —- It is a trap. A conundrum. A koan. A wonderful absurdity.

https://archive.ashrama.org/newsletters/2016/jul-aug#article.2 Dennis Hartel “Remembering Graham Boyd” -  https://archive.ashrama.org/newsletters/2016/jul-aug#article.2 “Graham restored many photos and also produced digitally colored photos of Bhagavan which were excellent. He was a perfectionist in everything he did. I believe he was the first to take up the task of digital restoration of Ashrama photos. There was only one actual color photo of Bhagavan ever available, whereas all the other color prints we see of him were hand colored and reproduced. Graham took up the digital coloring of some popular photos of Bhagavan and whatever Graham did, he did it to the best of his ability in the way he conceived it best done. He would rarely compromise on quality or materials used to restore and print the photos. cwIn oder to settle on the colors to be used, Graham would do extensive research on each item in the photo to determine the correct color. He was quite successful in this end...