Behind My Hand

  “Now, when we study metaphysics, we come to know the world is one, not that the spiritual, the material, the mental, and the world of energies are separate. It is all one, but seen from different planes of vision. * When you think of yourself as a body, you forget that you are a mind, and when you think of yourself as a mind, you will forget the body. There is only one thing, that you are; you can see it either as matter or body — or you can see it as mind or spirit. Birth, life, and death are but old superstitions. None was ever born, none will ever die; one changes one's position — that is all. I am sorry to see in the West how much they make of death; always trying to catch a little life. "Give us life after death! Give us life!" They are so happy if anybody tells them that they are going to live afterwards! How can I ever doubt such a thing! How can I imagine that I am dead! Try to think of yourself as dead, and you will see that you are present to see your own dead...

 D.: Do not one’s actions affect the person in after-births? M.: Are you born now? Why do you think of other births? The fact is that there is neither birth nor death. Let him who is born think of death and palliatives therefore. Ramana Maharshi talking to Evans Wentz - 24 January 1935, Talk 17

Maharshi then read out from the Tamil version of Yoga Vasishta the story of Deerga Tapasi who had two sons, Punya and Papa. After the death of the parents the younger one mourned the loss and the elder brother consoled him as follows: “Why do you mourn the loss of our parents? I shall tell you where they are; they are only within ourselves and are ourselves. For the life-current has passed through innumerable incarnations, births and deaths, pleasures and pains, etc., just as the water current in a river flows over rocks, pits, sands, elevations and depressions on its way, but still the current is unaffected. Again the pleasures and pains, births and deaths, are like undulations on the surface of seeming water in the mirage of the ego. The only reality is the Self from where the ego appears, and runs through thoughts which manifest themselves as the universe and in which the mothers and fathers, friends and relatives appear and disappear. They are nothing but manifestations of the Self...

  Talk 18 Mr. Evans-Wentz asked: There are yogis with occult powers. What does Maharshi think of them? M.: The powers are known by hearsay or by exhibition. Thus they are in the realm of the mind only. D.: Mr. Brunton mentions a yogi in Madras who is said to hold communion with his master in the Himalayas. M.: It is not more marvellous than telepathy - so commonly known. Telepathy cannot exist without the hearer and television without the seer. What is the difference between hearing from far and from near? It is only the hearer who matters. Without the hearer there cannot be hearing; without the seer there cannot be vision. D.: So you want me to consider the subject and not the object. M.: The subject and object appear only after the mind has arisen. The mind comprises them and also the occult powers. (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)

  “When discrimination comes and man finds there are not two but one, he finds that he is himself this universe.” From The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,  Volume Two

 16 September, 1947 Bhagavan with a smile, said: “Bliss is a thing which is always there and is not something which comes and goes. That which comes and goes is a creation of the mind and you should not worry about it.” Bhagavan  Sri Ramana Maharshi in Letters from Sri Ramanasramam 

 This succinct quotation, from Paul Brunton, which I came across in 1968, set me on the path of Self Enquiry.