Behind My Hand

  Faith, intense faith, in the words of your Guru will make everything easy for you. Without this all forms and rituals of religion are useless. So surrender yourself absolutely to your Guru as a kitten does to its mother. He will then look after you and provide you with everything; yours is only to have simple faith alone. Swami Brahmananda, Spiritual Teachings, p. 222 —- —- —- M.: So long as you think you are the individual you believe in God. On worshipping God, God appears to you as Guru. On serving Guru He manifests as the Self. This is the rationale. - Ramana Maharshi in Talk 271

  Under the impulse of name and fame, it is indeed easier to do a magnificent work, but through such work you cannot appraise the value of a man as he really is. In order to do so, you have to examine his daily actions; for it is the ordinary actions of a man which reveal the real man. Through such actions alone can you know how far the man has developed his character. A true Karma-Yogin (selfless worker) will lose himself heart and soul in any undertaking, even though it is of a most inferior kind. He is never actuated by the least desire of winning cheap popular applause. Swami Brahmananda in Spiritual Teachings, p. 167 —- x —- Karma yoga is that yoga in which the person does not arrogate to himself the function of being the actor. The actions go on automatically. Ramana Maharshi in Talk 643 ————-

  Sri Ramakrishna: "Meditate in your mind, in the forest, or in a quiet corner." The meaning of this is that all Sadhana must be done in strict privacy, that others may not come to know of it. If you steadily practise like this even for a little time, you will find what great joy and bliss will come to you. Swami Brahmananda in Spiritual Talks (1933), p. 227

 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

I was fortunate to correspond with Swami Bhavyananda in the 80s and early 90s. This is an excellent interview which I highly recommend. He mentioned to me that, as a young monk, he met Sri Ramana Maharshi. This, in itself, was sufficient to encourage me to correspond with him. I am glad I did. His help in providing clarity was immense. Part two of this interview can be found here .

"Bhagavan is among the most severely intellectual of our sages. And yet he warns us that the idea of the Absolute is only, to use the words of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the correlative of the relative. It is still a category of thought, whereas the final realization is the annihilation of the mind and all its categories. How shall that which shines with borrowed light illumine the source of its brightness?  - from K. Subrahmanyam's article, "Bhagavan Ramana the White Radiance of Truth" as it appears in Arunachala's Ramana volume 6, page 252.

215. That which is perceived by something else has for its witness the latter. When there is no agent to perceive a thing, we cannot speak of that thing having been perceived at all. 216. This Atman is a self-cognised entity, because It is cognised by Itself. Hence the individual soul is itself and directly the Supreme Brahman, and nothing else. Swami Madhavananda, Advaita Ashrama, 1921, Vivekacudamani: v. 215-216

204. Just as the water which is very muddy again appears as transparent water when the mud is removed, so the Atman also manifests Its undimmed lustre when the taint has been removed. [ Water is naturally pure, but it is polluted by foreign substances mixing with it. These impurities can be removed by filtration, distillation etc. So the apparent impurity of the soul can be removed by discrimination, which shows that it is Nescience that hides the real nature of the Self. ] Vivekachudamani, Swami Madhavananda, Advaita Ashrama, 1921; 204

This death process is yoga, not the hundreds of postures and breathing exercises. When the thought process stops splitting itself in two, the body goes through a clinical death. First the death must take place, then yoga begins. Yoga is actually the body's skill in bringing itself back from the state of clinical death. This is supposed to have happened to a few people, like Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharshi. I wasn't there and have no interest or resources to find out if this is so. This yoga of renewal is an extraordinary thing. (UG Krishnamurti in Mind is Myth)

Mrs S.: How to Pacify the mind? Gurudas Maharaj.: To find out what is real in life, that which does not change; when one knows that truth, happiness or misery, love or hatred, praise or blame –– nothing can affect the mind. This is the only way to get above events, to know what is real. - Swami Atulananda in "Atman Alone Abides" (Chapter VIII, 224)

“The universe and the body are both simultaneously revealed to me. I have no right to say that the body is mine and the universe is not mine because both are revealed to me.” -Swami Virajananda

yogī yuñjīta satatam ātmānaṁ rahasi sthitaḥ | ekākī yata-cittātmā nirāśīr aparigrahaḥ || A comparison of some translations of Bhagavad Gita verse 6.10 that I have read over the years. Ramana Maharshi's comment on this verse. My own translation follows. --- --- --- I first read the following translation from Juan Mascaro circa 1970.  "Day after day, let the yogi practise the harmony of soul : in a secret place, in deep solitude, master of his mind, hoping for nothing, desiring nothing."  6.10,   Juan Mascarao's Bhagavad Gita --- --- --- A couple of years later I was given a copy of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's translation "Bhagavad-Gita As It Is". "A transcendentalist should always try to concentrate his mind on the Supreme Self; he should live alone in a secluded place and should always carefully control his mind. He should be free from desires and possessiveness." 6.10,   A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada'

“The universe and the body are both simultaneously revealed to me. I have no right to say that the body is mine and the universe is not mine because both are revealed to me.”  Swami Virajananda 

Kalpataru Day Photo of Sri Ramakrishna  01 January 1886 I was sent this picture almost 40 years ago.