Behind My Hand

  चित्तमणीयो   वित्तं   य   इदं   मूल्ये   प्रपञ्चतोऽप्यधिकम्   । हृदयगुहायां   निहितं   जानीते   स   विजहाति   बहिराशाः   ॥   ४ . २१॥ cittamaṇīyo vittaṁ ya idaṁ mūlye prapañcato'pyadhikam |  hṛdayaguhāyāṁ nihitaṁ jānīte sa vijahāti bahirāśāḥ  ॥  4.21 ॥ “ Whoever has found the pure mind, encamped within the Cave of the Heart, worth more than the conceptual universe, gives up all desires .” ( trans. MWright) Here is Ramana’s explanation of the above verse from Umasahasram 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

tam yogam iti manyate sthiram indriya-dharanam                                                                     apramattas tada bhavati yogo hi prabhavapyayau Katha Upanishad 6.11 Yoga is considered to be the continuous concentration of the senses. One then becomes attentive, thereby yoking the coming and going (of thought). naiva vācā na manasā prāptum śakyō na cakṣuṣā    astīti bruvato’nyatra katham    tadupalabhyatē  Katha Upanishad 6.12   Not by speech, nor by mind, nor by eye is it to be obtained. How else can it be ascertained other than to ascertain for itself,  “It is!” ———— Trans. MWright

  From N.N.Rajan's diary, November 6, 1943 After a brief discussion between Major Chadwick and Bhagavan on the necessity of periodic action to ensure that the body remains healthy, there was a ten-minute silence. Then a devotee asked, "It is stated that one should dive into oneself with a keen one-pointed mind controlling speech and breath. Is it necessary to control the breath also?" Bhagavan replied, "If all thoughts are controlled, automatically the breath is also controlled. By intense and sustained practice it will become habitual. Controlling the breath through various yogic exercises is like putting brakes to the train when the entire engine is working. But by watching the source of the mind with full concentration, the thoughts would get controlled. This method will be more effective and easy. It is like shutting the power of the engine and thereby stopping the train completely." 

tasmād yah śabdasamskārah sā siddhih paramātmanah |                                                                                                 pravrttitattvajñas tad brahmāmrtam aśnute || “.... that which purifies the word is the attainment of the Supreme Self. One who knows the truth of its origin attains the immortal Brahman.”     (Bhartrhari’s Vakyapadiya, 1. 131; translated from Sanskrit by MWright) —- Sabdapurvayoga is the return to that state which is prior to the arising of the ego. Bhartrhari’s method of attaining the Self is clearly a tracing back of the mind to its source. At that point the unreality of the ego is discovered. This is the true purification of the word. When Brahman is known to be all there is, can there be any misunderstanding? —-

ahamayamkuto bhavaticinvatah | ayipatatyaham nijavicAraNam ||19|| “Where does this ‘I’ come from?” For one who enquires …Aha! ... the ‘I’ falls away. This is Self-enquiry.     Notes When, at last, one pursues Self-enquiry with single-minded devotion, the inevitable result is for the ego-‘I’ simply to fall away, defeated, destroyed, leaving a spontaneous iteration of one’s true identity. All the ‘stuff’ that this ‘I’ had given substance to, vanishes in an instant. The subject/object relationship has shifted. (Excerpt From Essence of Instruction (Upadesa Saram) Ramana Maharshi, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert)

9th November, 1935 Talk 93. All are aware of their own Self only. Wonder of wonders! They take what is not as what is, or they see the phenomena apart from the Self. Only so long as there is the knower is there knowledge of all kinds (direct, inferential, intellectual etc.); should the knower vanish they all vanish together with him; their validity is of the same degree as his. (Ramana Maharshi) An interesting statement but who reads it?

D.: Which is the best of the different yogas, Karma, Jnana, Bhakti or Hatha? M.: See stanza 10 of “Upadesa Sara” [ see below ]. To remain in the Self amounts to all these in their highest sense. Maharshi added: In dreamless sleep there is no world, no ego and no unhappiness. But the Self remains. In the waking state there are all these; yet there is the Self. One has only to remove the transitory happenings in order to realise the ever-present beatitude of the Self. Your nature is Bliss. Find that on which all the rest are superimposed and you then remain as the pure Self. ( Ramana Maharshi in Talk 189 ) —- Upadesa Saram v. 10 hrtsthalemanah svasthatAkriyA / bhaktiyogabodhAScaniScitam // The act (kriyA) of abiding in one’s natural state, the mind set in the Heart, is without doubt, Devotion, Yoga and Knowledge.   Notes: Here, kriyA (action) refers to the one truly continuous, uncaused, meritorious ‘act’ (kriyAyoga). This is eternal Being, the Self. Where the mind finds