Behind My Hand

“Practice Vichara, until it becomes automatic throughout life, but leave open the door to spontaneity (effortlessness). This is Grace.” Excerpt From,  Talks on Self Enquiry,  Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert

न हि देहभृता शक्यं त्यक्तुं कर्माण्यशेषत: |  यस्तु कर्मफलत्यागी स त्यागीत्यभिधीयते ||11||  na hi dehabhṛtā śakyaṁ tyaktuṁ karmāṇyaśeṣataḥ  yastu karmaphalatyāgī sa tyāgītyabhidhīyate (Bhagavad Gita, 18. 11) “It is certainly not possible for the embodied being to abandon activities entirely. However, one who renounces the fruits of action is called “ the renouncer ”.” —- Note: When there is no “I”, can there be any karma! So long as egoity lasts the mind games go on. When egoity ceases to be, actions become spontaneous. The mind games might appear to go on but who on earth is playing them? —- Translation by MWright

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 .

असतो मा सद्गमय । तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । मृत्योर् मामृतं गमय ।  asato mā sadgamaya,  tamaso mā jyotirgamaya,  mṛtyor mā'mṛtaṃ gamaya, From untruth lead me to truth, From darkness lead me to light, From death lead me to immortality. —- Note: “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 https://books.apple.com/gb/book/talks-on-self-enquiry/id1078197373 This material may be protected by copyright. —- A very nice musical rendition of the verse by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison. Being a fan of both

yathā somyai kena mrtpindena sarvam mrnmayam vijñātam syādvācārambhanam vikāro nāmadheyam mrttiketyeva satyam || 6. 1. 4 | “O gentle sir, as by knowing a lump of earth everything made of earth becomes known, the transformation begins with speech. It is name only. In fact, ‘earth’ is the reality.” ( Chandogya Upanishad) na so ’sti pratyayo loke yah śabdānugamād rte |  anuviddham iva jñānam sarvam śabdena bhāsate   ||   Bhartrhari’s   Vakyapadiya 1. 123 “In this world, there is no cognition which does not follow language. All knowledge appears as if permeated by words.” api prayoktur ātmānau śabdam antaravasthitam | prāhur mahāntam rsabham yena sāyujyam isyate || tasmād yah śabdasamskārah sā siddhih paramātmanah |  tasya pravrttitattvajñas tad brahmāmrtam aśnute || VP 1. 130-131 “It is also said that the self of the speaker is the word situated within, the Great Bull with whom one desires union. Therefore that which purifies the word is attainment of the Supr

"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.

.... the culture which most of us have inherited is too extroverted and too aggressively intellectual to permit us to understand within a short time what it all means to be a sadhaka, a practical aspirant for a truth of which in our homes and colleges we were not given an inkling. We are apt, moreover, to bring with us scraps of knowledge gleaned from a wide reading of miracle ridden theology and "occultism", including an endeavour to accommodate the Vedanta inside them. The result is that we return from the Guru (the qualified Teacher) and his Ashram with our doubts still in our heads, uncleared, and our minds, about truth and untruth, still befogged. -S. S. Cohen in " Advaitic Sadhana "  (note:  Cohen was an ashram resident during Ramana Maharshi's lifetime )