Behind My Hand

A man was going through the forest when he was ambushed by an enemy and shot with a poisoned arrow. One of his kin stumbled upon him and raised the alarm and soon others arrived with antidotes to the poison.  As they attempted to pull the arrow prior to applying the  healing ointment the man prevented them and began to ask various questions such as, "You must find out for  me; Who was that enemy?; What was his family?; Was he tall?; What colour was his hair?; What kind of bow did  he use?; What was the arrow made of? etc...." When it was suggested that the questions were irrelevant in the present situation and that without application of the healing herbs he would die he just continued to prevent treatment intent on gathering maximum information.  Needless to say ... the cure was not effected. Having been told that Self Enquiry cuts directly to the source what is the point in asking "Who is the Creator?; Why did he create?; Why am I

'It is the mind, alone, that is the cause of people's bondage and liberation. One whose mind is devoted to the world (of objects) is bound. One whose mind is not devoted to the world (of objects) is liberated. So it is declared (by the wise)!'  - Amrtabindu Upanishad 2 No invocations, rites or paraphernalia required. Just the elimination of mindstuff's concoctions. 

Talk 551:  A man asked Sri Bhagavan: "How is it that Atma vidya is said to be the easiest?" Bhagavan replied: Any other vidya requires a knower, knowledge and the object to be known, whereas this does not require any of them. It is the Self. Can anything be so obvious as that? Hence it is the easiest. All that you need is to enquire, "Who am I?" A man's true name is mukti (liberation). 

Sri Shirdi Sai Baba states that inner enemies must be controlled, but he also allows that "...you can (and must) use them, ... within limits. e.g., Kama (love, passion) for one's partner, krodha (anger) against unrighteousness, Lobha (greed) for Hari Nama, uttering God’s name, Moha (fondness) for Mukti (salvation), Matsar (hatred) for evil action; and have no mada (pride)." (Sai Baba's Charters and Sayings) [note: the number of ripus (enemies) mentioned can vary dependent on stress/interpretation of any given Sage. Here, Sai Baba mentions all six enemies (shadripu). Sri Ramakrishna often laid stressed on kAma and lobha [the others left unsaid but understood]. The core ripus (shadripu) - kAma (desire, longing, passion), krodha (anger), lobha (greed, covetousness, confusion), moha (attachment, delusion of mind), mada (pride), matsara (jealousy and/or hatred). Although kAma (passion) is sometimes presented as enemy number one, in truth, without moha (delusion of min

Received a YouTube link purporting to explain Ramana's Self Enquiry method. Once again it was unnecessarily long winded. The speaker seemed hell bent on turning it into a philosophical exercise instead of the philosophy elimination technique it truly is. :) --------- --------- --------- Vichara is a simple process. Here is that process:  Giving up the unreal claim on reality of the body and mind, the sadhaka must fix the mind on the individual "I"-sense, which, although unreal, appears to be superimposed on the eternal substratum of the real Self.  The question "Who am I?" is the means. If during this quest, the mind turns outwards again, predicating on this or that, the sadhaka should ask "to whom do these thoughts occur?" and thus move back to the primary quest "Who am I?" Sri K. Lakshmana Sarma says "Always and everywhere there are doorways for getting at the question 'Who am I?'. By any one of these the seeker must agai

satyam eva jayate n ā nritam Truth alone triumphs, not falsehood.  (Mundaka Upanisad 3. 6)