Behind My Hand

  “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

It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize? The real is as it is, ever. How to realize it? All that is required is this: We have realized 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. The illustration given in the books is this: We dig a well and create a huge pit. The akasa (space) in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the akasa there. The akasa was there, then, and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras (innate tendencies) which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone. (Ramana Maharshi in Gems from Bhagavan, p. 27)

  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

 “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

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

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