Behind My Hand

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

D.: It is not necessary that the saints should mix with people and be helpful to them? M.: The Self alone is the Reality; the world and the rest of it are not. The realised being does not see the world as different from himself. D.: Thus then, the saint’s realisation leads to the uplift of humanity without the latter being aware of it. Is it so? M.: Yes. The help is imperceptible but is still there. A saint helps the whole of humanity, unknown to the latter. D.: Would it not be better if he mixed with others? M.: There are no others to mix with. The Self is the one and only Reality. Sri Ramana Maharshi in Talk 20

D.: On what should we meditate? M.: Who is the meditator? Ask the question first. Remain as the meditator. There is no need to meditate. ( Ramana Maharshi, Talk 205 ) —- — —- 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. ( Ramana Maharshi, Talk 139 ) —- —- —- Why do you wish to meditate at all? Because you wish to do so you are told Atma samstham manah krtva (fixing the mind in the Self); why do you not remain as you are without meditating? What is that manah (mind)? When all thoughts are eliminated it becomes Atma samstha (fi

“The fact is: There is Reality. It is not affected by any discussions. Let us abide as Reality and not engage in futile discussions as to its nature, etc.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 201)

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 )

(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. ( Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, from 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.