Behind My Hand

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 )

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. Chitta is the subtlest essence of the mind and intellect. What proceed

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 ‘I’

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)

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

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

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

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

In Sri Ramanaparavidyopanishad, K. Lakshmana Sarma (aka 'Who') writes "praśnasya ko'smīti sadaiva sādhordvārāṇi sarvatra ca sambhavanti" - "everywhere and at all times doors (opportunities) pop up which lead to the question "Who am I?" The point being that there is no point in setting aside place and time to do vichara. Nor lighting the correct incense and wearing appropriately ethnic clothes while sitting in the lotus position, chanting a mantra you have never taken time to understand. If this is your idea of vichara then you have missed the point. Enquiry is the simple control of wayward thoughts. Thoughts like "setting aside place and time, lighting the correct incense and wearing appropriately ethnic clothes while sitting in the lotus position (or any other yoga position), chanting a mantra you misunderstand" any one of which will provide ample fuel for atma vichara. Ask the question... "Who is this poser?"  “Buddhi stan