Grace is Always There - 5

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Source: Guru Ramana, Residual Reminiscences (Cohen, S.)

Four, five, six months have elapsed since my arrival. I waited, but began to notice a new turn in the working of my mind, a thing which I had not felt before, a peculiar, slow but extremely subtle movement was taking place within my consciousness and I wondered what it could be, and whether the Maharshi was aware of it as well. Seeing me from close quarters, always near the foot of his couch, I thought, was easier for him to guess than if I were at greater distance. Obviously, the notion that the guru always watched his disciples continued lurking in my head. But in fact, as I discovered later, Bhagavan was doing nothing of the kind. He was Supreme Detachment incarnate.

The strict aloofness which appeared to me at first as sheer callousness on the part of the Maharshi, standing against the traditional concern said to be shown by the gurus to promote the spiritual advancement of their disciples, turned out across the years to be more potent in its action to purify, reform, guide and mature the disciples' consciousness than the guru's conscious interference.

Grace is Always There - 4

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Source: The Mountain Path, January 1966 (G. L. Narasimha Rao)

My contact with him began in 1930. It was by Divine Providence, not by my planning, that I was able to spend a continuous period of three years at Sri Ramanasramam. It was a great blessing...

The essence of what Bhagavan said to me in my talks with him was: "You say that on final analysis all that I see or think or do is one; but that really comprises two notions: the all that is seen and the I that does the seeing, thinking and doing, and says 'I'. Which of these two is the more real, true and important? Obviously the seer, since the seen is dependent on it. So turn your attention to the seer who is the source of your 'I' and realize that. This is the real task. Up to now you have been studying the object, not the subject; now find out for what reality this word 'I' stands. Find the entity which is the source of the expression 'I'. That is the Self, the Self of all selves."

This direct, simple teaching was like a tonic to me. It swept away the unrest and confusion that till then had haunted my mind. The simplicity of it made me burst out: "Then Bhagavan, Self-realisation is very easy, just as you say in the poem Atma Vidya!"

Bhagavan smiled and said: "Yes, yes, it seems so at first, but there is difficulty too. You have to overcome your present false values and wrong identification. Therefore the quest requires concentrated effort and steadfast abidance in the Source when this is reached."

However, even while warning me, he also added words of solace: "But don't let that deter you. The rise of the urge to seek for the 'I' is itself an act of Divine Grace. Once this urge gets hold of you, you are in its clutches. The grip of Divine Grace never relaxes and finally devours you, just as the prey in a tiger's jaws is never allowed to escape."

Grace is Always There - 3

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Source: "Bhagavan Ramana: His Silent Upadesa," The Mountain Path, June 1999.

A. Bose, a Bengali industrialist, as recorded by S. S. Cohen, once tried to elicit a precise statement. He said, "I am convinced that a guru is necessary for the success of the aspirant's efforts. " Then he added with a quizzical smile, "Does Bhagavan feel for us?"

But Sri Bhagavan turned the tables on him, "Practice is necessary for you; Grace is always there." After a short silence he added, "You are neck deep in water and yet you cry out that you are thirsty."

.............

Source: Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Talk 425

D: Is success not dependent on Guru's Grace?

M: Yes, it is. Is not your practice itself due to such Grace? The fruits are the result of the practice and follow it automatically. There is a stanza in Kaivalya which says, "O Guru! You have been always with me watching me through several reincarnations, and ordained my course until I was liberated." The Self manifests externally as Guru when occasion arises; otherwise He is always within, doing the needful.

Grace is Always There - 2

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Source: Letters from Sri Ramanansramam

Yesterday morning, a group of Andhras arrived, and started questioning Bhagavan within ten minutes of arrival.

Question: "Bhagavan teaches us always to know ourselves. He should kindly teach us how to know ourselves, and bless us."

Bhagavan's reply: "The kindness is always there. You should ask for something that is not there, and not for something that is there already. You should believe with all your heart that the kindness is there. That is all."

Source: Day by Day with Bhagavan

A barrister from Bombay asked Bhagavan, "I have tried Bhagavan's method for about six years and yet I have not made any progress. When I meditate, other thoughts come. For people like me, living in cities and doing our work and coming here only occasionally, what sadhana would Bhagavan advise so that we may succeed better than I have so far been able to do?"

Bhagavan: Your real nature is always there, your meditation, etc., come only temporarily. Reality being your Self, there is nothing for you to realise. All that is required is that you should give up regarding the unreal as real, which is what all are doing. The object of all meditation, dhyana or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts regarding the not-self, to give up many thoughts and to keep to the one thought. As for sadhana, there are many methods. You may do vichara, asking yourself "Who am I?" or, if that does not appeal to you, you may do dhyana "I am Brahman" or otherwise, or you may concentrate on a mantra or name in japa. The object is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts, and if we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in its source.

Visitor: In actual practice I find I am not able to succeed in my efforts. Unless Bhagavan's Grace descends on me I cannot succeed.

Bhagavan: Guru's Grace is always there. You imagine it is something, somewhere high up in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its source, the Grace rushes forth, spouting as from a spring, from within you.

Grace is Always There - 1

Sri Ramana Maharshi

D: Doubts are always arising. Hence my question.

M: A doubt arises and is cleared; another arises and that is cleared, making way for another, and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

D: Grace alone can help me to it.

M: Grace is not exterior. In fact your very desire for grace is due to grace that is already within you.

From 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi'

....

Natesa Mudaliar opened his mouth and asked Maharshi: "I wish to learn and experience what your anugraham is, as people differ in their accounts of it." Maharshi replied: "I am always giving my anugraham. If you cannot apprehend it, what am I to do?" Natesa Mudaliar understood thereby that his silent samadhi was itself anugraham which all aspirants should aspire for, contact, and get into.

Sometime later Mudaliar came again to Maharshi. Some highly gifted persons were comparing notes with the Maharshi about their advanced experiences in matters spiritual, i.e., in the highest reaches of the soul's flight. Sitting very near and drinking in ever word through his ears, Mudaliar was aghast. The words that were heard were easy, well-known Tamil or Sanskrit words. But thei sense was far above him. The talk was all far, far above him. A great sorrow overwhelmed his soul. "Shall I or shall I never have these experiences, now or in any future births?" Thus he thought within himself. His dejection must have caught the master's keen eye; as after the visitors left, Maharshi said to him: "Why are you dejected? What you seek is that which is always ready (siddha) at hand. Can anyone feel anxious, whether he will get what exists always? Do you feel just now that you have not got possession of it, i.e., that it is not in the palm of your hand? If it is not clear today it will be clear to you tomorrow. Why should you be downcast over such a matter? If you were really unfit to have it how could the thought of seeing great ones have occurred to you?" 

Peace entered Mudaliar's soul immediately.

From: 'Self-Realization' (Narasimha Swami)

Guru Vachaka Kovai

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Give up thinking that the loathsome body is ‘I’. Know Self, which is eternal Bliss. Cherishing the ephemeral body as well as trying to know Self is just like using a crocodile as a raft to cross a river. 

Those who show great care and love for their bodies, while saying that they are trying to know Self, are like one who tries to cross a river, mistaking a crocodile for a log. 

Instead of attending to Sat-Chit-Ananda, the subtlest, which is beyond the reach of speech or mind, to spend one’s life attending merely to the welfare of the gross body is just like drawing water with great difficulty from a well in order to water some useless grass [instead of paddy]. 

Those who take to the petty life, mistaking the body as ‘I’, have lost, so to speak, the great life of unlimited Bliss in the Heart, which is ever waiting to be experienced by them. 

Not knowing that the world in front of them brings only great harm, those who take it to be real and a source of happiness will drown in the ocean of birth and death, like one who takes hold of a floating bear as a raft. 

Just as the movements of a vehicle in which one is sitting is wrongly taken to be one’s own movements, so also those who do not have Self-Knowledge suffer from the delusion of mistaking the birth and death [i.e., samsara] experience by the ego as their [Self’s] own [birth and death]. 

If the ignorant one, who is clinging to the body and world as real, wants to have peace, he should, giving up his wrong notion, cling like an udumbu to Self in his heart. 

From Collection of Guru's Sayings by Sri Muruganar

Guru Vachaka Kovai

Sri Ramana Maharshi/Sri Muruganar

From Guru vachaka kovai (Collection of Guru's Sayings by Sri Muruganar)

Individual Gods and Goddesses and their particular powers will appear to be real only in the imagination of those minds which admire them. Such mental delusion is at all times completely non-existent for Self, which transcends the mind. 

It is only due to the false sense-bound knowledge of the ignorant that they say that Muktas who have realized the Truth have individuality [vyakti]. Truly, universality [avyakti] is the real state of a Jnani, whose nature is the Expanse of Consciousness; the individuality seen in Him by devotees is a reflection of their own individuality. 

That which shines in the heart of an earnest aspirant as the Supreme Reality is mere Jnana itself. Why therefore, after the annihilation of the ego, point out “This One is a great Jnani, and that One is another”? Are They merely the bodies? 

With great eagerness and wonder you fly to see one Mahatma here and another Mahatma there! If you inquire, attain and know the Maha-Atma [i.e. the Great Self] within your own heart, then every Mahatma is none other than that One [within you]. 

Whatever high and wonderful state of tapas one may have attained, if one still identifies oneself with an individuality, one cannot be a Sahaja-Jnani [i.e. One in the State of Effortlessness]; one is only an aspirant of, perhaps, an advanced stage. 

Leaving aside that true Self-Consciousness, which is devoid of the least feeling of individuality, and displaying any number of siddhis, is a sheer waste. Who but those fools who are incapable of knowing Self, will desire these senseless siddhis? 

The Jnani, the Formless One who ever abides as the Supreme Self, is a collected totality of all individual siddhis. All the siddhis which function through them are His alone, since He is the witness of them. Know Him as none other than Lord Dakshinamurti! 

Purpose of Vedas: Self-Enquiry

From Guru Vachaka Kovai (Collection of Guru's Sayings) By Sri Muruganar

Why do the different portions of the Vedas describe creation in different ways? Their sole intention is not to proclaim a correct theory of creation, but to make the aspirant enquire into the Truth which is the Source of creation.

Just as all beings, moving and unmoving, engage in their own activities due to the mere presence of the sun, which rises without any prior intention, so it is said in the scriptures that all actions are performed by God [who in truth neither acts nor has intentions].

In the mere presence of the sun, the convex lens emits fire, the lotus blossoms, the water-lily closes, and all creatures rise up, work and rest [according to their nature].

The five-fold phenomenon functions merely because of God’s potent presence, just as the needle trembles near the magnet, or as in the light of the moon, the moonstone drips, the water lily blossoms and the lotus closes.

In the Presence of the Lord, who has no intention of His own, jivas busy themselves outwardly, treading on various paths of action, and reap the fruits with justly result, until finally [realising the uselessness of action] they turn Selfward and attain Liberation.

Just as the [good and bad] incidents that happen on earth do not affect the sun, and as the properties of the four elements do not affect the vast ether, so also the actions [karmas] of jivas will certainly never affect God, who is beyond the mind

Only the Reflection Moves

From Guru Vachaka Kovai (Collection of Guru's Sayings) By Sri Muruganar

Though Self, which is ever still because of Its wholeness, seems to move with the movements of the unsteady mirror, the mind, it is never the real Self that moves, but only its reflection, the mind.

If it is asked, “How did the delusive upadhis [attributes such as mind, intellect, chittam etc.] [appear to] arise for the Supreme Self, which is One without a second?”, it must be replied that they are seen to arise only in the view of the ignorant jiva, and that in reality no attribute has ever arisen for Self. Thus you should know!

A spark of fire can fly out only for a fire-ball of limited size [and it could not do so from a fire which is unlimited and all pervading]. Similarly, it is impossible for jivas and the world to arise as tiny separate entities, ‘I’ [and ‘this’], from the Supreme Self, which is the unlimited Whole.

The body exists only in the view of the mind, which is deluded and drawn outwards by the power of Maya. In the clear view of Self, which is a single vast Space of Consciousness, there is no body at all and it is therefore wrong to call Self ‘Dehi’ or ‘Kshetrajna’ [the owner or knower of the body].

Unless the body is taken to be ‘I’, otherness – the world of moving and unmoving objects – cannot be seen. Hence, because otherness – the creatures and their Creator – does not exist, it is wrong to call Self the Witness.

The world does not exist apart from the body; the body does not exist apart from the mind; the mind does not exist apart from Consciousness; and Consciousness does not exist apart from Self, which is Existence.

Although Guru Ramana taught various doctrines according to the level of understanding of those who came to Him, we heard from Him that ‘Ajata’ alone is truly His own experience. Thus should you know.

It is this same ‘Ajata’ that Sri Krishna revealed to Arjuna in an early Chapter [two] of the Gita, and know that it was only because of the latter’s bewilderment and inability to grasp the Truth, that other doctrines were then taught in the remaining sixteen chapters.

Ignorance Is False

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• The seed and its sprout seem to co-operate, each being in turn the cause of the other, and yet each effect also destroys its cause; in fact the effect is not really produced by the cause, since both are produced only by the imagination of the ignorant mind. 
• If the rope were itself a sentient being, would any other being be needed for it to be seen as a snake? Similarly, as Self is Existence-Consciousness, the world is merely a destruction of this single Consciousness.
• Has Self changed its nature of still Being into that of motion, or how else has this world come into existence? Self has never undergone change or movement; this world seems to exist solely because of ignorance, which is itself false.
• When, in the view of the one indivisible space, even the pot has no separate existence, is it not foolish to say that the space inside the pot moves with the movements of the pot?
• Similarly, when, in the plenitude of Self-Consciousness, body and world cannot even exist, being non-Self and incomplete, it is ridiculous to say that Self moves because of the movements of the mutable body and world.

From Guru Vachaka Kovai By Sri Muruganar

No Confusion For Self

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Realizing the truth of Self within your heart and ever abiding as the Supreme, act according to the human role which you have taken in this world, as if you taste its pleasures and pains.
• It is not right for the Wise One to behave improperly, even though He has known all that is to be known and attained all that is to be attained. Therefore, observe the code of conduct which is befitting to your outward mode of life.
• All that is perceived by the mind was already within the heart. Know that all perceptions are a reproduction of past tendencies now being projected outside [through the five senses].
• Self Itself is seen [due to Maya] appearing as the many names and forms of this universe, but It does not act as the cause or the doer, creating, sustaining and destroying this universe.
• Do not ask, “Why does Self, as if confused, not know the Truth that It is Itself which is seen as the world?” If instead you enquire, “To whom does this confusion occur?”, it will be discovered that no such confusion ever existed for Self!
• Self appearing as the world is just like a rope seeing itself as a snake; just as the snake is, on scrutiny, found to be ever non-existent, so is the world found to be ever non-existent, even as an appearance.
• In fact, is it not a single deluded thought that creates the snake – which, though appearing to be separate, is truly not other than that thought itself – in a rope; and that then sustains this snake as the cause of its own misery; and that will finally destroy this snake [by obtaining a clear knowledge of its own true nature]?

From Collection of Guru's Sayings (Guru Vachaka Kovai) by Muruganar

It Is .. Even Now

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Grace is beginning, middle and end. Grace is the Self. Because of the false identification with the body, the grace is considered to be with body. But the Guru's outlook is only the Self. The Self is only one. He tells you that the Self alone is, then is not the Self your Grace? Where from will grace come? It is from the Self only. Manifestation of the Self is the manifestation of grace and vice-versa. All the doubts arise because of the wrong outlook and consequent expectation of things external to one self. Nothing is external to the Self.
• There is no greater mystery than this - that being the Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality. We think that there is something binding our Reality and that it must be destroyed before the Reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your effort. That which is on the day of laughter is also now.

OM TAT SAT

From 'Thus Spake Ramana'

Real Attainment

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• The state of non-emergence of 'I' is the state of your being THAT. Without questing for that state of the non-emergence of 'I' and attaining it, how can one accomplish one's own extinction, where after 'I' never revives? Without that attainment how is it possible to abide in one's own state where one is That?
• Without uttering the word 'I' to quest with the mind turned inwards, as to whence the 'I' rises, is alone the enquiring leading to Self-knowledge. Other than this, can contemplation, "This I am not, That I am", be by itself the enquiry, though it may be an aid thereto?
• Questing 'who am I' within one's mind, when one reaches the Heart, the individual 'I' sinks crest-fallen, and at once Reality manifests itself spontaneously as 'I-I'. Thought it reveals itself thus, it is not the ego 'I', but the Perfect Being the Absolute Self.
• To seek and abide in the Reality that is ever attained is alone the attainment. If it is said that liberation is of three kinds, with form or without form or with and without forms, then let me tell you, the extinction of ego which asks, which form of Liberation is true is the true Liberation.

From 'Thus Spake Ramana'

Association With The Wise

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• That Knowledge is real knowledge which transcends both knowledge and ignorance. There is no object to be known 'there'. When one's true nature is known, then there is Being without beginning and end - it is unbroken Awareness-Bliss. Remaining in this state of Supreme, the Realization of That which subsists when all trace of 'I' is gone is good tapas.
• That Supreme state obtained here and now as a result of one's association with the Sages, and realized through the deep meditation of the Self-enquiry in contact with the Heart, that State cannot be gained with the aid of a preceptor, nor through the knowledge of the scriptures, nor by spiritual merit nor by any other means. If the association with Sage is obtained, to what purpose are the several methods of self-discipline? Tell me of what use is a fan when the cool, gentle, southern breeze is blowing?
• The holy water of pilgrimage, the images of gods made of earth and stone, cannot stand comparison with the benign look of the Sage. They make one pure only after countless days of grace. Know that the Sage no sooner bestows his gracious glance than he makes one pure!

..............
From Thus Spake Ramana

Karma Insentient

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• That alone is Knowledge which is neither knowledge nor nescience. What is known is not true Knowledge. Since the Self shines with nothing else to know or to make known, It alone is Knowledge. No void It is. The Self, which is knowledge, is alone the Reality. Knowledge of diversity is but false knowledge. This false knowledge, which is but ignorance, does not exist apart from the Self, which is Knowledge-Reality. Ornaments in their variety are unreal. Do they exist without gold, the substance?
• Karma bears fruit; for, so the Creator ordains. Is Karma God, It is not sentient. The results of Karma pass away, and yet leave seeds that cast the agent into an ocean of Karma. Karma yields no salvation. But acts performed without any attachment and in the spirit of service to God, cleanse the mind and point the way to salvation.

From Thus Spake Ramana

chit-jada-granthi

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• The ego functions as the knot between the Self which is pure Consciousness and the physical body which is inert and insentient. The ego is therefore called the chit-jada-granthi. In your investigation into the Source of aham-vritti, you take the essential chit aspect of the ego; and for this reason the enquiry must lead to the realization of the pure Consciousness of the Self.
• The undifferentiated Consciousness of pure Being is the heart or hridayam which you really are, as signified by the word itself (hrit + ayam - Heart am I). From the Heart arises the I AMness as the primary datum of one's experience. By itself is shuddha-sattva in character. It is in this shuddha-sattva svarupa (that is uncontaminated by rajas and tamas) that the 'I' appears to subsist in the jnani.
• Knowledge does not exist without ignorance; ignorance does not exist without knowledge. That knowledge alone is true knowledge, wherein one knows the Self through enquiry to whom knowledge and ignorance pertain. Is it not, rather, ignorance to know all else without knowing oneself, the knower? On knowing oneself, the substratum of knowledge and ignorance, knowledge and ignorance perish.

...............
From Thus Spake Ramana

Trace the I AM

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• All religions postulate the three fundamentals - the world, the soul and God. The one Reality alone manifests Itself as the three. One can say 'The three are indeed three' only while the ego lasts. Therefore to inhere in one's own Being, where the I, the ego, is dead, is the perfect state.
• Self-enquiry by following the clue of ahamvritti is just like the dog tracing its master by his scent. The master may be at some distant, unknown place, but that does not at all stand in the way of the dog tracing him. The master's scent is an infallible clue for the animal, and nothing else, such as the dress he wears, or his build and stature etc. counts. To that scent the dog holds on undistractedly while searching for him, and finally it succeeds in tracing him.
• The word aham is itself very suggesting. The two letters of the word show that it comprises all. How? Because aham signifies existence itself. Although the concept of I-ness or I amness is by usage known as ahamvritti, it is not really a vritti like other vrittis of the mind. Because unlike the other vrittis which have no essential interrelation the ahamvritti is equally and essentially related to each and every vritti of the mind. Without the ahamvritti there can be no other vritti but the ahamvritti can subsist by itself without depending on any other vritti of the mind. The ahamvritti is therefore fundamentally different from other vrittis.

From Thus Spake Ramana

The Best Language

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Sleep is not ignorance, it is one's pure state; wakefulness is not knowledge, it is ignorance. There is full awareness in sleep and total ignorance in waking. Your waking nature covers both and extends beyond. The Self is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. Sleep, dream and waking states are only modes passing before the Self: they proceed whether you are aware of them or not. That is the state of the jnani, in whom pass the state of samadhi, waking, dream and deep sleep, like the bulls moving, standing, or being unyoked, while the passenger is asleep. These answers are from the point of view of the ajnani; otherwise such questions would not arise.
• The state which transcends speech and thought is mouna (silence); it is meditation without mental activity. Subjugation of the mind is meditation; deep meditation is eternal speech. Silence is ever-speaking; it is the perennial flow of language. It is interrupted by speaking; for words obstruct this mute language. Lectures may entertain individuals for hours without improving them. Silence, on the other hand, is permanent and benefits the whole of humanity. By silence eloquence is meant. Oral lectures are not so eloquent as Silence. Silence is unceasing eloquence. It is the best language.

From Thus Spake Ramana

Solitude Everywhere

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Actions and states are according to one's point of view. A crow, an elephant, a snake, each makes use of one limb for two alternate purposes. With one eye, the crow looks on either side; for the elephant the trunk serves the purpose of both a hand and a nose; and the serpent sees as well as hears with its eyes. Whether you say the crow has an eye or eyes, or refer tot eh trunk of the elephant as hand or nose or call the eye of the serpent its ears, it means all the same. Similarly in the case of the jnani, sleep-waking or waking-sleep or dream-sleep or dreaming-wakefulness are all much the same thing.
• There is only one consciousness subsisting in the states of waking, dream and sleep. In sleep, there is no 'I'; thought arises on waking and then the world appear. Where was this 'I' in sleep? Was it there or was it not? It must have been there also, but not in the way that you feel now. The sleeping I is the real I. That subsists all through. That is consciousness. If that is known, you will see that it is beyond thoughts.
• There is solitude everywhere. The individual is solitary always. His business is to find out within and not without. Do not allow yourself to be distracted. Enquire for whom there is distraction. You say the answer does not come from the search inwards. The enquirer is the answer and no other answer can come. What comes cannot be true. What is, is true.

From Thus Spake Ramana

Screen (Self) is Ignored

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• A traveller in a cart has fallen asleep. The bulls move, stand still or are unyoked during the journey. He does not know these events but finds himself in a different place after he wakes up. He has been blissfully ignorant of the occurrences on the way, but the journey has been finished. Similarly with the Self of a person. The ever-wakeful Self is compared to the traveller asleep in the cart. The waking state is the moving of the bulls; samadhi is their standing still (because samadhi means jagrat-sushupti, that is to say, the person is aware but not concerned in the action; the bulls are yoked but do not move); sleep is the unyoking of the bulls, for there is complete stopping of activity corresponding to the relief of the bulls from the yoke.
• Scenes are projected on the screen in the cinema show, but the moving pictures do not affect or alter the screen. The spectator pays attention to them, not to the screen. They cannot exist apart from the screen, yet the screen is ignored. So also the Self is the screen where the pictures, activities etc are seen going on. A man is aware of the latter but not aware of the essential former. All the same the world of pictures is not apart from the Self. Whether he is aware of the screen or unaware, the actions continue.

From Thus Spake Ramana