THE TEACHINGS OF SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI
ON THE TOPICS OF:
HOW TO
PRACTICE SELF INQUIRY
Two ways to practice Self-Inquiry according to
Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om:
(I have put the actual practice instructions in black)
#1. SELF- INQUIRY:
THE AWARENESS WATCHING AWARENESS APPROACH:
In the book The Path of Sri Ramana Part One, Sri Sadhu Om describes an approach to Self-inquiry that is more like Self-attention or awareness watching awareness or awareness aware of awareness and less like asking a question ‘Who am I’. A question might arise, was this awareness watching awareness approach actually taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi?. According to both Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om the answer is yes. In the book “Garland of Guru’s Sayings” Sri Muruganar uses the word awareness throughout the entire book and describes this awareness watching awareness approach to Self-inquiry in detail in the following passages:
#418. “The only true and full awareness is awareness of awareness.
Till awareness is awareness of itself, it knows no peace at all.”
#432. Is it not because you are yourself awareness that you now perceive this universe?
If you observe awareness steadily,
this awareness itself as Guru will reveal the Truth.”
#921. “None can confront and overcome the mind.
Ignore it, then, as something false, unreal.
Know the Self as the real ground and stand firm-rooted in it.
Then the mind’s movements will gradually subside.”
If one were to distinguish between Self-inquiry and Self-abidance,
then it might be more accurate to call the awareness watching awareness approach Self-abidance.
If the instructions given by Sri Ramana Maharshi to Be the Self or to abide as the Self have not
been clear for you as to how?, this instruction of
awareness watching awareness while ignoring thought, provides easy clear instructions as to how.
Just your present awareness watching itself.
There are other ways that this can be described: “Know the knower”, “watch the watcher” etc.
However, the clearest easiest instruction to follow is:
Your awareness watching your awareness while ignoring thought.
Automatically the “your” will drop off and it will be obvious that awareness watching awareness is really awareness abiding in or being awareness. The reason to start with the instruction
“your present awareness watching your present awareness”
is so that it is clear that one is not referring to some far off awareness called the Self.
It is just:
your awareness that is now looking through your eyes turned around to watch itself.
Awareness watching awareness, consciousness watching consciousness.
If you notice you are thinking, just go back to awareness watching awareness.
Take your attention away from the thinking and back towards awareness watching awareness.
Your attention should be turned around 180 degrees, away from and ignoring the world, people,
places, things, the body and thought, towards awareness watching awareness.
It is awareness watching awareness only, excluding all else.
How long should you practice? Practice for at least an hour or two per day, everyday.
Set aside as many hours per day as you can, just for awareness watching awareness practice,
with no other activities going on during your practice time.
Everything you need to know to practice the awareness watching awareness method,
is written above in the practice instructions in black.
The following are some additional quotes regarding the practice:
From the Garland of Guru’s sayings by Sri Muruganar:
52. If mind turned towards Awareness and concentrating on Awareness,
seeks the Self, the world made up of ether and other elements is real, as all things are Awareness,
the one sole substance of true Being.
435. True natural awareness which goes not after alien objects is the Heart.
Since actionless awareness shines as real Being,
its joy consists in concentration on itself.
638. If instead of looking outward at objects, you observe that looking,
all things now shine as I, the seer. Perception of objects is mere illusion.
694. Even in this worldly life one’s labors bear no fruit without abundant faith.
Hence till one merges in the bliss Supreme and boundless,
one’s strong zeal in spiritual practice should never slacken.
742. In the Self, he stands firm fixed who dwells and truly meditates on himself as pure awareness.
755. If without wasting time one starts and keeps up steady self-inquiry,
one’s life becomes at once ennobled, and there wells up within one’s heart a sea of bliss supreme.
756. Barring fruitful self-inquiry there is, for real mind control, no other spiritual practice whatsoever.
The mind may seem to be controlled by other methods, but after a while it will spring up again.
1038. Awareness is not a quality of the Self. The Self is without qualities.
Awareness is not an action of the Self. The Self does nothing.
The Self, our Being, IS Awareness.
1066. True wealth is but the gracious silence of steady, unswerving Self-awareness.
This bright, rare treasure can be gained only by those who earnestly strive for the extinction of all thoughts.
1103. It is folly to waste one’s life running in all directions searching different goals.
Learn to practice firm abidance at the feet of the Self supreme, the eternal and auspicious silence,
which alone can still the ego’s restlessness.
1157. Holding in their hands the mirror, the scripture which declares “The Self alone is to be known”,
many alas, study the text and commentaries; but only a few seek the Self and gain true life.
1192. The ego image moves reflected in the mind’s waves.
How to stop this movement, how to regain the state of stillness?
Don’t observe these movements, seek the Self instead.
It is wisdom to gain and abide in silence.
The following quote is from ‘Sri Ramana Experience’ by Sri Muruganar:
212. Those who have sunk within their own inner selves to dwell as pure knowledge,
so that their infatuation with worthless desires is abolished, will through holy silence,
establish the fulfillment of the real within their own selves.
This practice of meditation upon consciousness itself, is the true way.
#2. SELF INQUIRY:
THE ‘TO WHOM DO THESE THOUGHTS ARISE’ APPROACH:
The following instructions come from “Who am I?” by
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. I have put the actual practice instructions in black.
10. How will the mind become quiescent?
By the inquiry 'Who am I?'.
The thought 'who am I?' will destroy all other thoughts,
and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre,
it will itself in the end get destroyed.
Then, there will arise Self-realization.
11. What is the means for constantly holding on to the thought 'Who am I?'
When other thoughts arise,
one should not pursue them,
but should inquire: 'To whom do they arise?'
It does not matter how many thoughts arise.
As each thought arises,
one should inquire with diligence,
"To whom has this thought arisen?".
The answer that would emerge would be "To me".
Thereupon if one inquires "Who am I?",
the mind will go back to its source;
and the thought that arose will become quiescent.
With repeated practice in this manner,
the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source.
When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain
and the sense organs,
the gross names and forms appear;
when it stays in the heart,
the names and forms disappear.
Not letting the mind go out,
but retaining it in the Heart is what is called "inwardness".
Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as "externalization".
Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart,
the 'I' which is the source of all thoughts will go,
and the Self which ever exists will shine.
Whatever one does, one should do without the egoity "I".
If one acts in that way, all will appear as of the nature of Self-Awareness.
In black above are actual practice instructions for two approaches to Self-inquiry.
You can choose one or the other or try a combination of both.
The ‘To who do these thoughts arise?’ approach to Self-inquiry is more compatible with daily activities.
Thus you could, if you wish, use the “To whom do these thoughts arise?” approach when you have other activities
going on, and use the awareness watching awareness approach when you have set aside time with no other activities going on.
The following quote by Sri Ramana Maharshi is from the book “Who am I?”:
12. The questioner asks:
“Are there no other means for making the mind quiescent?”
Sri
Ramana Maharshi replies:
“Other than inquiry, there are no adequate means.
If through other means it is sought to control the mind,
the
mind will appear to be controlled, but will again go forth
Ignoring and turning one’s attention away from the world
and towards Awareness watching Awareness:
638. If, instead of looking outward at objects,
you observe that looking,
all things now shine as I, the seer.
Perception of objects is mere illusion.
647. If you refrain from looking at this, that, or any other object,
then by that overpowering look into Absolute Being,
you become yourself the boundless space of pure Awareness,
which alone is real Being.
1194. When one refrains from looking out and noting outward objects,
and instead abides within the Heart in Self-Awareness,
the ego disappears.
The pure silence that then shines forth is the goal of Knowledge.
1202. Those in whose Heart, pure silence shines,
and the perennial, blissful nectar of Self-Awareness overflows,
will never look at or get lost in this world,
and its false, trivial, maddening pleasures.
1096. Those whose five senses no longer turn towards the world,
which once seemed real,
those who have learned to live without their mind being moved
by the illusive universe of forms,
they need perform no penance.
749. The universe out there appears when scanned.
When not scanned, the universe disappears.
Turning away from this,
search keenly for the Self-Awareness within the Heart,
and think no more of birth.
1006. Non-dual infinite Awareness,
where the error of seeing, hearing, and knowing various objects
has been destroyed,
this is the purest bliss supreme.
1017. The “I” is false; “this world is false”;
the seeing of “this world” by “I” is false.
The primal ignorance of illusion is also false.
The sole reality is the bright, marvelous inner space, Being-Awareness.
1224. Unless there is a final end
of so called “knowledge” of things out there,
one cannot gain release from bondage to the sense created world.
This “knowledge” being destroyed by firm abidance in the Self-Awareness,
what remains is the supreme bliss of liberation.
630. Having felt the sun’s fierce heat,
the wise one stays in the shade,
and those who know the fire raging in the world,
will never leave the Heart and turn again towards the world.
186. Poor seer who suffers endlessly,
because you still perceive the object, not the subject,
please look inward,
not without,
and taste the bliss of non-duality.
876. Until the snake illusion goes,
its ground, the real rope, will not be recognized.
Until the world of false phenomena disappears,
the Self-Awareness, its ground, will not shine clear.
877. Only when the world illusion goes,
does the blissful light of Self-Awareness arrive.
Life lived in this bright, blissful light, is our true natural life.
Other ways of life are full of trouble and fear.
905. Is there a greater foolishness, than the aching foolishness,
of supposing that the Self, the I of pure Awareness,
which does not see this changing world at all,
is subject to some change.
708. Until in the seer’s awareness objects disappear,
until firm and clear, one knows the truth of Self-awareness,
what use is it to mouth in vain the words “I am God, I am God”?
293. Know that these countless things are pictures in a dream,
and none is real, apart from the beholder.
Shun this phantom world of names and forms,
and dwell in the pure, blissful being of Awareness.
971. When the intellect, withdrawn from questing after outer objects,
returns to its own natural home,
the Heart, our Being-Awareness-Bliss,
restored to us, abides forever.
337. Awareness which survives,
when all illusions, the mirage-like world,
he who beholds it and the sight his eyes drink in,
are destroyed without a vestige,
this Awareness, this and nothing else, is Knowledge.
430. Those who have not searched and found the truth of their own natural Being,
will perish, deluded by alien forms.
Live as one sole Being-Awareness.
Everything, except for this, is false appearance, the realm of illusion.
549. When the full identity is reached,
the Self-Awareness is all, and there is no “other”,
the various common perceptions,
in the absence of self-inquiry and Self-Abidance,
are all seen as mere mistakes.
611. Seeing this mind-projected world is sheer delusion,
then taking it as real,
and swerving from the sublime truth of one’s own Being as pure Awareness,
one but proves oneself insane.
25. Alienated and deluded from your true being as Awareness,
do not pursue appearances, deeming them as real.
They are false, since they must disappear.
Your own being as Awareness is real, and cannot cease to be.
643. The Self, the sole Reality, the light of pure Awareness,
shines clear as “I,I” in the heart.
This dear, dear Being, directly known, alone is true,
not the things perceived by the eye and the other senses.
829. Even the strongest willed aspirant,
does not know how long his life will last.
Hence, when you feel the body and the world turn sour,
renounce them all at once.
833. Seeing how transient the world is,
Lord Buddha gave up wealth and kingship.
When one has seen how false and fleeting
that which is perceived by the senses is,
how can one still be worldly minded?
834. Courageous ones, who know no fear,
renounce the world, and find the world to be worthless,
and so gain true wisdom.
Others are foolish folk, blinded by falsehood.
835. Renouncing this phenomenal world,
which seems to, but does not, exist,
we gain (the great Ones say) the Self,
the shining, unseen, Awareness.
836. After we have renounced whatever can be renounced,
That which abides, and cannot be renounced,
is True Being shining in the Heart,
the fount, the flood of Bliss.
825. The tamarind fruit grows unattached to its dry shell.
Even so, the wise renounce at heart,
and quite forget the wondrous charms of this false world,
which only ruins those who trust it.
51. Only those who have utterly renounced the world and all attachment,
and rejoicing in Self-luminous Awareness,
have minds pure and free from illusion’s power
only they know the sense in which “The World is Real”.
673. Destroying through discrimination, the basic error that I am the body,
an object, and rejecting it, and the world as mere false mirages,
the surviving Awareness that shines alone as Being, That I am.
1223. Firm, steady abidance in the serene peace
gained by the quest for Self, the Awareness,
the sole ground supporting all appearances,
and the consequent relinquishment of all objects as unreal,
this alone is liberation.
34. The bewildered mind, which mistakes the body for oneself,
conceives the transient world of names and forms,
makes it seem real and lovable,
and promptly entraps one in the strong, illusive bondage of desire.
60. With mind turned inward,
drown the world in the great void and dispel illusion.
Beholding then the void as void,
destroy the void, by drowning it in the deep ocean of Self-Awareness.
71. How piteous is the spectacle of people wandering aimless in the world’s ways,
and ignoring the discipline that leads to permanent freedom.
128. Those who forget the harm the false world does,
and cling to it as real and comfortable, mistake a floating bear for a boat,
only to be crushed and drowned in the sea of births.
130. When will the fool, who thinks the body and the world are permanent,
and clings to them, find peace?
Only when this foolishness leaves him,
and like a limpet, he clings to that Self-Awareness within.
From then on, he shall never know pain.
245. The world’s many and various bright objects, give pleasure,
only to bring grievous evil.
Unlike these, inner purity alone has true beauty.
Hence, the wise regard and marvel at the sage, the living embodiment of truth,
as God made manifest, here on this earth.
288. Grasping aright the ineffable grace of the supreme Teacher,
being unentangled in the illusory world that stands in front,
abidance in mere Being, is true bliss.
368. What is That, forgetting which,
we have fallen under the powerful spell of this false world?
Unless we know That, the Real,
there is no chance for the death, and disappearance, of our pain.
536. O worldly folk, who long for, and run after, an endless series of temporary things,
it is true wisdom, to seek and know, That one thing,
on knowing which, all other things will cease to be.
538. Knowing aright the nature of the Self-Awareness,
and abandoning the non-self as void and unreal, is true wisdom.
All other knowledge is ignorance, and not wisdom.
550. Like a dream,
this “waking” world is but a mind conceived appearance in mind space.
Hence, greatness lies, in firmly ending indicative knowledge,
and the foolishness of fondness for outer objects.
785. O heart of mine,
instead of being confused by this conceptual world,
enter within, and seek the source.
Then in the realm of pure Awareness,
you experience sheer non-duality,
where the one Self-Awareness,
shines as all things.
1027. Having found that Self-relish is the highest bliss,
the wise abide as Self-Awareness alone.
But
those who do not know
that the sole, certain, supreme bliss is in Self-Awareness alone,
they stay forever worldly minded.
1028. Those who cannot see that Bliss is their own Self-nature
roam bewildered like the musk deer in the forest.
Those who have know the Self-Awareness,
instead of wandering in the world,
abide in their own natural state.
1094. The only goal worth seeking
is the supreme bliss of Self-Awareness.
Constant remembering and abiding as That,
within the Heart,
amounts to completeness of life.
1095. Such a life of Grace alone,
is life lived in full, real Being.
This worldly life of false phenomena,
full of fear,
is sinking deeper in illusion,
not authentic living.
1154. The sage abiding in Self-Being,
asleep and yet awake,
immersed in the still, deep, immutable ocean of supreme bliss,
will never lapse back into this ruinous world and suffer.
188. Do not perish running out in search of wonders, and dancing there with pleasure.
Better with the light of grace to look, look within,
and find certitude in being and abiding as your true Self-Awareness.
1023. When the villainous mind,
instead of being bewildered by objects appearing there without,
looks inward, questing “Who am I?”,
and rests firmly in its ground, the Self-Awareness,
this is our true, authentic Being.
429. While in truth you are that Awareness,
you do not abide as such, but suffer,
since you only recognize this worldly life alone,
which rises from yourself, this sole Awareness.
How shall I describe this foolishness?
127. Those who desire, like, and live, the trivial life the ego knows,
reject, as if it were unreal,
the natural life of infinite bliss within their own hearts,
ever present for their enjoyment.
131. Those who enjoy the ego’s life of false phenomena, perish and die.
The state of grace, supreme Awareness, the life lived in Self-Being,
this alone is the bliss worth seeking.
185. How to make the mind,
which now looks painfully, at forms and features without,
turn inward?
By asking who is this “I”, this mind, which sees this trivial world,
and thus directing it towards the Self-Awareness.
454. In the false, frenzied ego life,
created by the mind, constricted to some thought,
who can enjoy the clear, bright, bliss of pure Awareness, free from thought?
911. Within, without, and through and through all objects,
the ethereal sky is present and yet is bound or affected by none.
And unless one knows one’s Self as the pure transcendent Self-Awareness,
one cannot but get caught in the world’s illusive bonds.
1089. You desire life.
But you do not know how to live.
Thinking that sinking in this deep, void,
vain, illusive waking-dream is “life”,
you proudly claim you “live”.
Pierce this illusion,
go, grasp the Truth, eternal life.
1103. It is foolishness to waste one’s life
running in all directions, searching different goals.
Learn to practice firm abidance in Self-Awareness,
the eternal and auspicious silence,
which alone can still the ego’s restlessness.
1117. Those whose minds are merged and lost in one non-dual fullness,
will never be bewildered by this false, phenomenal life.
In that blessed, supreme state of Being pure Awareness,
That exists alone without an “I” or “this”.
1118. The sage whose knot of doer-ship has snapped,
finds no more “duties” to discharge.
In his Awareness there is no other and no objects,
hence no doubt and no delusion.
1067. As the pearl fisher, with single thought, weighted with a stone,
dives deep into the sea and grasps the pearl most precious, and rejoices,
dive into the Heart with stern non-attachment,
gain the Self-treasure,
and so end all suffering and sorrow.
291. For those who seek eternal life, the assurance stands:
the five senses retracted like a tortoise,
the mind turned homeward to the Self-Awareness,
and there abiding, is pure bliss.
327. Steadfast clinging to the wisdom learnt,
the mind restrained and withdrawn from the field of the false senses,
living within,
in the clear light of Truth,
such practice is the only true teaching.
77. What does one gain, you well may ask,
by giving up the “immense wealth” of worldly pleasure,
and seeking only “mere” Awareness?
The benefit of true Awareness is the unbroken prevalence of peace within the heart,
the bliss of one’s own natural being.
331. Since every vice springs from the false pleasures
of swerving from the Self-Awareness,
the completion of virtue, is the perfect peace of pure Awareness,
following the end of the ego, which is fed by such false pleasures.
502. The apt speech of one firmly established in the Heart,
prevents the bewildered and confused devotee’s mind,
from wastefully running in the desert of the senses,
and points the way inward,
to permanent liberation.
581. Knowledge is multiple and various,
say those who know objects, but not freedom from, the dire delusion of differences.
When the five senses, driven outward by desire, are pulled back,
then, true, full Awareness comes,
and there is no “other” to be known.
584. The only Being is Awareness,
and Bliss is nothing but Awareness.
Pleasure from elsewhere is mere delusion.
Apart from the Self of Being-Awareness,
how can real joy come from objects merely fancied?
586. Not knowing the bliss of Self-Awareness,
people highly rate sex and other similar pleasures.
Living thus, they yearn for these, even when they die.
587. Forgetting the pure bliss eternal,
welling up in the heart for our enjoyment,
foolish people yearn for honey driblets,
squeezed from objects, worse than broken rice.
589. Sense pleasures, sought and found by blind, unguarded fools,
are fit only for contempt by those who long to taste the rich,
ripe fruit of immeasurable sweet, supreme Bliss.
605. Those who with minds far from mature,
yearn for and wallow in sense pleasures,
why would they seek, why would they join,
the company of saints whose conquest of the senses is complete and final?
678. Absence of mental craving for sense enjoyment is true fasting.
Abidance in the Self is true worship,
hence, those with pure, clear wisdom,
cherish as most precious, this fasting and this worship.
686. Instead of plugging holes, and keeping Awareness still within,
to break the lock, and spill it through the senses, is despicable,
like demolishing the bank and draining out the tank,
to devastate the land.
764. Seeing that desires, bring in their wake, increasing sorrow,
noble ones, renouncing all desires, begin direct self-inquiry
and attain the infinite bliss, of the Self-Awareness within.
784. Until you taste the bliss at the Heart’s core,
the five senses will never subside.
Till these distracting senses utterly die,
you will not gain true Being’s bliss.
916. It is true wisdom to restrain the mind
from flowing out into any of the five senses,
the home of every sorrow and pain,
and to contain and keep it still,
like a once roaring ocean, now lying calm and tranquil.
960. Those who, unlured by the false senses,
abide in the heart lotus in waking sleep,
enjoy the bliss of true Awareness,
which is liberation.
Others but slumber,
lost forever, in the illusive world’s dense darkness.
1026. Being is by its nature supreme bliss.
It is the treacherous mind’s fond, eager search
all day for pleasure in alien objects
that insures the loss of our inherent bliss.
1120. Those who live within the Heart,
the life of pure Awareness,
find no happiness in the trivial pleasures of the senses.
Is not that still, silent state of Being,
the one boundless and unbroken supreme bliss
of absolute Self-Awareness?
237. Some fortunate, through former deeds,
naturally disdain pleasures, of this world and the next.
To these alone, does true Awareness come with ease.
134. Those who, learning to forget completely all objective knowledge,
turn inward firmly, and see clearly the truth, abide serene.
Those who try to recall forgotten things, pine bewildered,
fretting over false phenomena.
645. The import of the teaching “Know the Self”
is only giving up the illusive knowledge of the non-self.
For bright like the true Sun, shines Being-Awareness as “I am, I am”, in everyone.
343. Those who, diving deep within, have found the Self-Awareness,
have nothing else to know. And why?
Because they have gone beyond all forms, and are Awareness without form.
415. To recognize through reason, the Supreme,
and in the heart, renounce the relative,
to act without a sense of “I” and “mine”,
is the sage’s way of life divine.
420. The knowledge that ignores the Self-Awareness, the knower,
and holds as true the field perceived,
is but illusive foolishness.
No matter how much one has learned,
true knowledge is the merging of all indicative knowledge
in Awareness of the Self.
422. All other kinds of knowledge are base, trivial.
The only true and perfect knowledge, is the stillness of pure Awareness.
The many differences perceived in the Self, whose nature is Awareness,
are wrong attributions, and not real.
423. What sort of knowledge, is this wretched bodily-mental knowledge, of objects?
Would those who long for pure Awareness, hanker after this?
To know pure Awareness is true wisdom.
All other knowledge, is mere foolishness.
427. What is lifeless and unreal, needs for support pure Being-Awareness.
The mind deluded and impure, forgets its oneness with the Self-Being-Awareness,
and then looks for some other object of Awareness.
436. Incomparable liberation, is the truth of clear, shining Self-Awareness,
when, all differences destroyed by concentration,
knowledge being but Awareness,
becomes merged in the Self, which is Awareness.
455. For those who have enjoyed the supreme bliss of profound sleep,
devoid of every object,
it is foolishness not to cherish pure Awareness,
and to long for some other object,
pretending it could give dependable relief from suffering.
537. For those who see with keen insight the subtle Truth,
what is there to gain from knowledge of gross material things?
What the imperishable inner sense perceives,
surpasses by far, the sight seen by the physical eye.
998. Only those who have experienced this union with Self-Awareness,
can know its bliss.
How else is one to know it?
And those who have the experience,
know nothing but That,
lost in stillness.
Like honey bees drunk with honey.
1076. To search amid bewilderment,
some other truth than the supreme Truth,
the Truth of Self-Awareness,
is the foolish barber’s vexed exploring of each and every hair,
instead of swiftly sweeping out the rubbish on the floor.
1201. When the mad craving for false, trivial objects is no more,
and the ego is absorbed in its source and lost,
the life of true Self-Awareness,
that now shines forth, is supreme bliss.
372. Good hearts, that yearn for dear contentment,
to swim across this poverty of heart, it is good to gain serenity of mind,
instead of gathering piles of tangible things.
187. O heart of mine, it is not wise to stay out.
It is safe to stay within.
Conceal yourself from illusion, which plans to draw you out and to destroy you.
Stay within.
192. For the man of Truth, seeking experience of the supreme state,
the heroic action needed, is to draw in, the outward darting mind,
and fix it firmly in the Heart.
193. If the mind turned outward and distracted,
starts observing its own being,
alienation ends, and the vestige ego,
merges in the light of true Awareness, shining in the heart.
1225. The foe desire,
is the sole cause of our laughable bondage to birth and death.
Know and use the means to end desire.
Pure Being, free from all desire, this alone is liberation.
783. O mind, you wander far in search of bliss,
not knowing your natural state of freedom.
You will regain your home of infinite bliss,
only if you go back the way you came.
908. Of all the many qualities desirable,
in an earnest seeker of imperishable liberation,
none is more essential than love for the bliss of solitude.
435. True natural Awareness, which does not go after alien objects, is the Heart.
Since actionless Awareness shines as real Being,
its joy consists in concentration on itself.
389. The method of Self-inquiry is:
to turn the outward going mind,
back to its source, the Heart, the Self-Awareness, and fix it forever there,
preventing the rising of the empty “I”.
190. You pilgrims, who without discovering what is within,
proceed from place to place, forever hovering like a bird,
the Self supreme is but Awareness, Absolutely still, centered in the Heart.
786. If in an earnest seeker it is a fault
to slip from the high summit of pure non-dual Self-experience,
would it be right for him to interfere in other’s affairs?
802. Only he who has attained immortal life,
can save the world.
For the ignorant one to help another,
is but the blind leading the blind.
(Only the Liberated One can save the world. The blind cannot guide the blind. –Sri Ramana)
The above quotes were for the purpose of showing the mind
the need for and the beauty of turning inward.
For actual practice instructions
in Self-inquiry and Self-Abidance, click these links:
Following are quotes from the book “The Garland of Guru’s (Sri Ramana Maharshi’s) Sayings” on the subject of turning inward. There are 7 sub categories: #1. Encouragement, the Goal, Benefits
(25 Sayings). #2. The Awareness watching Awareness approach to Self-inquiry and Self-Abidance
(15 Sayings). #3. Practice, Earnestness, Effort, and Zeal (10 Sayings). #4. Ignoring and turning one’s attention away from thought and towards Awareness watching Awareness (14 Sayings).
#5. The Body (16 Sayings) #6. Turning Inward (21 Sayings). #7. Ignoring and turning one’s attention away from the world and towards Awareness watching Awareness (108 Sayings).
Sri Muruganar spent decades in the company of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Reading the Sayings very slowly helps to understand what Sri Ramana and Sri Muruganar
are attempting to convey in these Sayings. I have put the actual practice instructions in black.
#1. Encouragement, the Goal, the Benefits: (25 Sayings)
393. One who has wisely chosen the straight path of Self-inquiry,
can never go astray;
for like the bright, clear Sun,
the Self-Awareness reveals itself to whoever turns towards it.
451. The deeper into the Heart one dives,
the greater grows the bliss enjoyed,
the intense bliss of the sole Self-Awareness,
which once appeared in various forms.
452. Once you are well established in the Heart,
true Awareness rises bright.
Then you live like an unsetting Sun,
Resplendent with the light of Truth,
enjoying the blissful peace of eternal Self-Awareness.
500. Worth pursuing is Self-inquiry,
worth enjoying is the infinite Self-Awareness.
Worth giving up is the ego sense.
To end all sorrow, the final refuge is one’s source,
the Self of pure Awareness.
554. The deeds we do in a dream do not touch our “waking” life,
and slip away when we “awake”.
Our deeds done in this clouded ego life, disappear and leave no trace,
when we wake up, in the divine white light of Self-Awareness.
697. They say that fate can never bind those heaven bound. What does this mean?
Not an iota of the past can touch those,
who dwell unceasingly in the firmament of vast, boundless, borderless, full Self-Awareness.
884. A woman with a necklace around her neck imagines it is lost,
and after a long search elsewhere,
touches her own neck and there finds it;
even so, the Self-Awareness is here within.
Probe for it within and find it.
885. Except the path of Self-inquiry, probing the mysterious I-sense,
no other effort or action, however strenuously pursued,
can take one to the fount of bliss,
the treasure shining in the heart,
forever as the Self-Awareness.
924. I shall assert with certainty,
that when the mind as thoughts has ceased to function,
it remains as a temple of Awareness-Bliss,
hidden till then behind the veil of time.
956. The goal, the Truth, is Self-Awareness.
Reaching it is the annihilation of the painful illusion of birth.
974. Unbroken Self-Awareness is the true bright path of devotion or love.
Knowledge of our inherent nature,
as indivisible supreme Bliss,
wells up as love.
984. The strong one who abides in Being,
knows neither fear or doubt.
1029. Bliss is the very nature of the Self-Awareness.
Self-Awareness is infinite Bliss.
Knowing this firmly,
abide in the Self-Awareness,
enjoying bliss forever.
1059. The Self, the home of blissful Awareness,
is a vast ocean of serene peace.
He whose mind turns inward and dives deep within it,
gains the infinite treasure of its grace.
1062. The ever-present Self-Awareness,
the radiant gem, this is the rarest, richest treasure.
Look within, and find and hold it fast.
Your poverty, the grand illusion, source of every trouble on earth,
with vanish without delay.
1069. The pure unflawed Awareness of Being
is the transcendent state wherein both mind and breath find bliss.
This state of supreme grace,
surcharged with peace,
serves also as the medicine which to the sick, restless mind
restores healthful peace.
1077. To those who dwell within the Heart,
loving the Self-Awareness,
bliss comes surging up,
mounting ever higher,
as love, Self, grace, Awareness, peace and liberation.
Bliss is the real nature of the Self-Awareness.
1079. Only when the Self-Awareness is gained,
is permanent, perfect, blissful peace attained.
In this Self-sovereignty,
non-dual, heaven-like, all pervasive,
no desire and no fear can exist.
1091. Abiding as Self-Being,
living a life that is a steady unhindered flow of true love
welling up in the heart,
this is the bright, joyous Selfhood,
which ends forever the inveterate, false, deceitful ego.
1093. That Heart which truly knows the Self-Awareness,
is full of love whence supreme Bliss wells up forever.
There, desire and its shadow, sorrow, have no place.
Such a life, whose nature is pure,
flows serenely calm from Being.
1121. The river that has merged in the ocean,
will never lapse again into separateness.
No more will he who has reached his Being as Awareness,
forget the Self and be reborn.
1124. If once the primal knot is cut,
never again can one be bound,
for this is one’s natural Being.
This is the divine state,
this is the supreme power,
this is the serene peace.
1209. When, the dense darkness of ignorance is gone,
the Heart’s wide open firmament is filled with serene, clear, bright peace,
and an inner fount of love springs up,
which is true devotion,
the pure auspiciousness of Self-Awareness.
1222. That which alone abides and shines as pure Awareness,
perfect peace, is the eternal Self.
Egoless silence,
the supreme state of Being That,
this is the fullness of liberation.
906. The troubles that result from change,
can never touch the Self-Awareness,
as changes and flaws in earth, water, fire and air,
do not affect the element ether,
which pervades and transcends them all.
#2.
The Awareness watching Awareness
approach to Self-inquiry and Self-Abidance:
(15 Sayings)
638. If, instead of looking outward at objects,
you observe that looking,
all things now shine as I, the seer.
Perception of objects is mere illusion.
647. If you refrain from looking at this, that, or any other object,
then by that overpowering look into Absolute Being,
you become yourself the boundless space of pure Awareness,
which alone is real Being.
418. The only true and full Awareness is
Awareness of Awareness.
Until Awareness is Awareness of itself,
it knows no peace at all.
432. Is it not because you are yourself Awareness, that you now perceive this universe?
If you observe Awareness steadily,
this Awareness as Teacher, will reveal the Truth.
52. If mind turned towards Awareness and concentrating on Awareness,
seeks the Self, the world made up of ether and other elements is real, as all things are Awareness,
the one sole substance of true Being.
435. True natural Awareness, which does not go after alien objects, is the Heart.
Since actionless Awareness shines as real Being,
its joy consists in concentration on itself.
742. In the Self, he stands firm fixed who dwells and truly meditates on himself as pure awareness.
389. The method of Self-inquiry is:
to turn the outward going mind, back to its source,
the Heart, the Self-Awareness, and fix it forever there,
preventing the rising of the empty “I”.
1066. True wealth is but the gracious silence
of steady, unswerving Self-Awareness.
This bright, rare treasure can be gained
only by those who earnestly strive for the extinction of all thoughts.
862. Losing the false ego in awareness,
and firm abidance as awareness, is true clarity.
1068. In that flawless state of Being the Self-Awareness,
without a sense of “I” or “mine”,
the still abidance in and as pure Awareness,
this is the noblest victory worth winning.
428. Not like other things unreal, but always by its Being real,
the Self as permanent Awareness, has no other dwelling place, than in its own radiant Awareness.
1039. That which unaided shines within as “I AM, I AM” without a break,
the strong, true Being free from all adjuncts,
this pure Awareness, is our firm, authentic nature.
1038. Awareness is not a quality of the Self. The Self is without qualities.
Awareness is not an action of the Self. The Self does nothing.
The Self, our Being, IS Awareness.
1194. When one refrains from looking out and noting outward objects,
and instead abides within the Heart in Self-Awareness,
the ego disappears.
The pure silence that then shines forth is the goal of Knowledge.
#3. Practice, earnestness, effort, zeal: (10 Sayings)
755. If without wasting time,
one starts and keeps up steady self-inquiry,
one’s life becomes at once ennobled,
one is no more this wretched body,
and there wells up within one’s heart,
a sea of supreme bliss.
694. Even in this worldly life,
one’s labors bear no fruit without abundant faith.
Hence, till one merges in the boundless supreme bliss,
one’s spiritual practice should never slacken.
692. Since it was one’s own past effort,
that has now ripened into fate,
one can with greater present effort, change one’s fate.
1066. True wealth is but the gracious silence of steady, unswerving Self-awareness.
This bright rare treasure, can be gained only by those who:
earnestly strive for the extinction of all thoughts.
826. A superstructure raised, without a strong foundation,
soon collapses in disgrace.
Hence, earnest seekers first ensure by every means,
their own stern self discipline
through devotion and detachment.
612. Undeluded by whatever may come and go,
unwinking, watch the Self-Awareness,
because the little fault of forgetting for one moment,
one’s true Being as Pure Awareness,
brings tremendous loss.
1063. Not knowing the value of this treasure,
people perish through mere laziness.
The great ones who have found the clue and traced and gained it,
they enjoy eternal bliss.
1186. Uninterrupted and whole minded concentration on Self-Awareness,
our true, non-dual Being,
this is pure, supreme silence, the goal;
Not the lazy mind’s inertia,
which is but a state of dark illusion.
780. Swerve not from your true state,
thinking some thought,
but if you do,
do not commit the same foolishness again.
Do nothing you may regret later,
even if you did it once, never repeat it.
790. To err is human.
When those strong in virtue err,
they do not hide it in their pride.
Instead, they own up to their lapse,
and quickly reform themselves.
#4. Ignoring and turning one’s attention away from, thoughts
and towards Awareness watching Awareness: (14 Sayings)
921. None can confront and overcome the mind.
Ignore it, then, as something false and unreal.
Know the Self-Awareness as the real ground and stand firm rooted in it.
Then the mind’s movements will gradually subside.
1192. The ego image moves reflected in the mind’s waves.
How to stop this movement, how to regain the state of stillness?
Don’t observe, these movements, seek the Self, instead.
It is wisdom to gain and abide in silence.
1193. The Seers declare that pure silence
is firm abidance in egoless, true Awareness.
For such thought free silence,
the means is clinging to the Self-Awareness
within the Heart.
421. The one true light there is, is pure Awareness.
Other kinds of knowledge clinging to it, and claiming to be real,
are ego born conceptual clouds.
To trust them is sheer foolishness.
424. What if one knows, the subtle secret, of manifold inscrutable mysteries?
Until one knows the Awareness which reveals all other knowledge,
does one know the Truth?
529. The individual’s thirst will vanish,
only when the habits-predispositions-tendencies, of the frenzied mind, die,
and direct experience comes of pure Awareness.
If mirage water could quench thirst,
then only would indirect knowledge satisfy the individual’s longing.
644. Those who do not keenly seek and recognize
the Being Awareness shinning incessant in the heart,
sink deep into delusive illusion,
due to the denotative knowledge piled up by the mounting ego.
750. What we incessantly think of, that we become.
Hence, if we keenly seek the Self-Awareness,
and think of nothing else,
the malady of birth will cease,
and all thoughts will end.
1161. What need is there for any thinking
for those who in the thought free bliss of Self-Awareness, live their lives?
All they experience is bright stillness.
In this supreme state, there is no “other” and nothing to gain.
1184. Shining as the bright void,
devoid of concepts raised by the villainous ego,
this is the true experience of infinite Being-Awareness,
the one non-dual bliss of pure silence.
1197. When the ego, shaking off all tricky concepts,
finally merges in the silence of the Heart,
the fullness of blissful, bright Self-Awareness , this,
this is what the sages call transcendent speech.
1238. The Self, who is pure Awareness, transcending thought,
is only known to heroic seers,
who with minds extinct,
abide thought free within the Heart,
and not to those whose minds are still engaged in thought.
917. As in the sky covered with thick clouds,
no eye can see the glorious sun,
one fails to see one’s Self-Awareness,
when the mind firmament is darkened by a dense cloud of thoughts.
918. He who has vanquished thought,
only he sits like an emperor on the neck of the majestic elephant, knowledge.
Know for certain that the mind’s movements alone
give rise to birth and every cruel pain and sorrow.
#5. The body: (16 Sayings)
97. Only the mind deluded by illusion’s might, and looking outward, sees the body.
The true Self knows no body.
To call the Self of pure Awareness, the body’s owner or indweller, is an error.
125. Like one who takes a crocodile for a boat,
and with its help tries to cross a river,
are those who, while they pamper the trivial flesh,
claim that they are earnest seekers of the living Self-Awareness.
(Give up the thought that this frail body is the Self-Awareness. Pursue the Self-Awareness,
which is eternal bliss. To seek It, while cherishing the perishable body,
is like trying to cross a river, using a crocodile for a raft. – Sri Ramana.)
615. Except the Self-Awareness, nothing exists.
But then the deep delusion that the body is one’s self,
makes one let go the solid, non-dual bliss of immortality,
and fall into birth and death.
657. Worship of the Formless is for him alone
who has left behind the notion “I am this form, this body.”
One who is still identified mentally with his body-form, worships only form,
though he may think he is worshipping the Formless.
682. Those who love,
deeming they are this putrid body of flesh,
that in a brief while turns clean food to filth,
are baser than the swine that feast on filth as food.
(Those who deem themselves the body, that soon converts clean food to filth,
are worse than swine that feed on filth. – Sri Ramana)
688. What is conquest of the elements?
Destroying the ego, the attachment to the body, made up of the five elements,
and scorning with contempt the flaws of the flesh,
which have nothing to do with the true Self-Awareness,
but are only based on the five elements.
775. He who, being ignorant of the truth that he is “I,I”, the Self-Awareness,
regards this body as himself,
can only perish with the perishing flesh,
caught in the web, the dreamlike web,
woven by his own illusions.
847. What is liberation, the bliss supreme attained by few?
And what is noble renunciation?
What is Death that brings immortality?
What is the highest achievement?
All are but this one thing:
the ending of the foolish, false illusion that “I am the body”.
866. When the sense that “I am the body” dies,
all troublesome illusions and confusions vanish once and for all.
Within the explored heart,
the non-dual Self of pure Awareness appears as “I,I”.
953. Our real Being, the Sun that never can see the darkness of illusion,
knows no trace of pain or suffering.
Misery is what one brings upon one’s self,
by fondly thinking that one is the body, not the Self-Awareness.
954. Blissful and auspicious is the Self-Awareness, our real Being.
One who knows this, sees in life no trace of suffering or pain.
Misery is what one brings upon one’s self,
by foolishly thinking that the body, not the Self-Awareness,
is one’s true self.
955. Not seeing one’s self as the One Self-Awareness,
one always suffers fear and aguish.
Destroy the “I am the body” thought,
and in Self-Awareness firmly fixed,
abide in real non-dual Being.
1012. When the false notion “I am the body” dies,
what abides is what’s worth having,
the vast, bright, silent void,
the Self-Awareness.
Why is it so? Because in truth,
the only state free from all pain and all desire is pure Self-Being.
1085. The darkness of illusion never touches
the seer who knows his true identity as pure Awareness,
vast as the sky, bright as the sun.
Only the blind, who think they are bodies,
suffer from dark ignorance.
1088. Why do you suffer in vain,
believing you are hemmed in by the body?
Even in sleep, when you are free from thoughts of separateness,
your being abides intact and whole.
1200. True silence is the state of being Self-Awareness in the heart,
when the false, foolish sense that one is but the body, is no more.
Mere verbal silence, undertaken without inquiring “Who am I?”,
is no better than a mental trick.
#6. Turning Inward: (21 Sayings)
17. To those who look within,
the highest good gained by the Master’s grace is wakeful sleep, the fourth state,
the undying flame, the sweet, uncloying fruit, forever fresh.
140. True poetry, springs only from the calm heart’s clarity,
which follows the elimination of the ego,
by inward search, and finding out that none of the five sheaths is I.
763. Only a one-pointed mind,
turned inward,
succeeds in Self-inquiry.
Weak, faltering minds, like green banana trees,
are not fit fuel to feed this fire.
878. Self-Awareness alone is the true Eye.
One has direct immediate knowledge, only of the Self-Awareness.
But minds averted from the Self-Awareness,
look through the senses at a world other than the Self-Awareness,
and mistakenly think it can be known directly.
551. Only those foolish folk,
who have not searched and found the Truth supreme, the Heart,
flounder in fear, in the treacherous illusion.
Those who have known the supreme bliss,
the boundless flood of heavenly brightness,
fear no more.
822. The boat moves in the water,
but water should never enter into it.
Though one lives in the world,
the world should not occupy one’s mind.
191. Not like a boat’s sail, outspread wide and worn away by wind and weather,
but like the humble anchor, sunk in the vast ocean’s depth,
the mind should plunge and settle in the heart of wisdom.
1065. Though one should win at one stroke all the powers people yearn for,
all one’s learning is just wasted,
if one fails to undo the primal knot,
and to reclaim the one sole, perfect Jewel,
the Self-Awareness.
594. Non-existent illusion, this alone,
seeming to be real and powerful,
makes fools of even the cleverest folk,
and smiles inwardly, with wonder at its own success.
560. “A dream in a moment comes and goes. This ‘waking’ life is enduring.”
Such argument is but the trick played by mind and illusion conspiring.
1016. The inner light, self-luminous, shines all the time as I, as I.
To go from place to place in search of That,
is like looking at noon, torch in hand, for the bright Sun
which hides the full moon from our sight.
1007. You who in eager search of Truth,
roam over the world looking for saints,
when you examine what they teach as definitive,
it is only the empty sky of pure Awareness.
1008. Seekers hurrying round the world in search of teachers,
find at last that their paternal gift
is only the marvelous sky of ‘mere’ Awareness.
804. The true physician is one’s Self-Awareness.
Hence, people tell the would be Teacher:
“Before you start prescribing medicines for us,
first cure yourself (of blindness),
and then come to us.”
1234. Reality is one and only one.
This permanent and perfect Being,
has been described variously by sages
who with keen minds have searched the Heart,
and there experienced It.
115. Though thus Reality is one,
all schools concede at first, three primal entities, God, individual and world,
because the discursive, outward looking mind
cannot straightaway, face the unity of Being.
108. In the mere presence of the Lord, Himself free from all traces of thought,
individuals set out in numerous paths of action, work away,
and wearied, turn inward and return to freedom.
966. That which Is, forever shines in Grace as I, the Self-Awareness, the Heart.
Can that be blamed for lacking Grace?
The fault is theirs who do not turn within and seek the Self-Awareness, in love.
967. Mind turned inward and ego dead,
there shines the Self, the Being-Awareness,
and though transcending form and feature,
It appears as Teacher.
Thus does God, the Self-Awareness,
bestow as Teacher, His Grace.
970. Why should God’s glance of Grace,
which falls on all alike, seem to avoid some “sinners”?
The universal Eye avoids no creature.
We are blind, for we look outward, not within.
247. What else is death, but straying from,
the perfect state of Being the immortal Self,
home of eternal love and supreme bliss, the heaven of true Awareness?
THINKING ABOUT, READING AND DISCUSSING SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS:
FROM “THE GARLAND OF GURU’S SAYINGS BY SRI MURUGANAR:
132. Why do people call me learned? What is the mark of real learning?
Learning that all collected knowledge of things is empty ignorance,
and that true knowledge is the search for the Knower.
133. He, who by questing inward for the Knower,
has destroyed the ego and transcended so-called knowledge, abides as the Self.
He alone is a true Knower, not one who has not seen the Self
and therefore is an ego still.
144. Unless by one means or another mind dies out
and certitude from true Self-recognition comes,
the knowledge which mere learning brings is, like the horse’s horn, unreal.
328. Sensible people shun the company of empty talkers
who are not content to humbly tread the path of righteousness,
and uphold in practice life’s ideals,
who instead proudly mouth vain words.
329. Many are the ills that flow from mixing with mad folks
afflicted with confused minds and rattling tongues.
The best friendship is with those good men whose minds are dead
and who abide in the pure silence of Awareness.
330. Give up without delay, O mind,
the friendship of worthless folks with speech perverse and wicked ways.
From now on, live in the company of sages steadfast in their state of motionless stillness.
Hence, gain new life by dwelling in the company of those
who live in the purity of true Awareness, free from all falsehood.
391. Those who do not dive into the Heart and there confront the Self,
in the five sheaths hid,
are only students answering out of books, clever questions raised by books,
and not true seekers of the Self.
420. The knowledge that ignores the Self, the Knower,
and holds as true the field perceived, is but illusive foolishness.
No matter how much one has learned,
true knowledge is the merging of all indicative knowledge in Awareness of the Self.
421. The one true light there is, is pure Awareness.
Other kinds of knowledge, clinging to it and claiming to be real,
are ego born conceptual clouds.
To trust them is sheer foolishness.
422. All other kinds of knowledge are base, trivial.
The only true and perfect knowledge is the stillness of pure Awareness.
The many differences perceived in the Self, whose nature is Awareness,
are wrong attributions, and not real at all.
423. What sort of knowledge is this wretched Bodily-mental knowledge of objects?
Would those who long for pure Awareness hanker after this?
To know pure Awareness is true wisdom.
All other knowledge is mere folly.
424. What if one knows the subtle secret of manifold inscrutable mysteries?
Until one knows the Awareness which reveals all other knowledge,
does one know the Truth?
431. How can any treatise thrust some wisdom into that human-seeming heap of clay,
which keenly watches things perceived and not the Self, Awareness?
432. Is it not because you are yourself Awareness, that you now perceive this universe?
If you observe Awareness steadily,
this Awareness Itself as Guru, will reveal the Truth.
522. “Of fate and effort, which is stronger? Which will yield? Which will prevail?”
Those who wage this war of words are wholly ignorant
of That from which the world and the ego both appear
and into which they disappear.
523. Some there are who endlessly jump and, sweating,
shout full throated refuting or elaborating doctrines,
instead of biding in clear silence, inquiring into That which is,
and in the Heart enjoying it.
524. None can perceive the Sun, the Self, by arguments.
Irritating mental disputes are but conceits that cloud the light of truth
and make the eyes swim in dizziness.
525. Far from revealing Truth, words only darken and conceal It.
To let the Truth shine of itself, instead of burying It in words,
merge in the Heart both word and thought.
526. Let not your intellect become a slave to the mere sound and fury of controversy.
Enter the Heart with mind clear, concept free, and realize your natural Being as the Truth.
529. The individual’s thirst will vanish,
only when the habits-predispositions-tendencies of the frenzied mind die,
and the direct experience of pure Awareness comes.
530. True, non-dual experience of the Self supreme as pure Being
is called direct Knowledge.
False dualistic knowledge too is called knowledge though qualified as indirect,
even as a demon might be called “virtuous”!
531. From questing inward in the Heart comes knowledge which destroys all false illusions.
Searching books for pure, clear wisdom is like trying to cook and eat the picture of a gourd.
532. Can hunger be appeased by eating food cooked over a painted flame?
The end of pain, the bliss of peace results from egoless Awareness,
not from “verbal wisdom”.
533. Never through argument,
but only by abiding in the heart as pure Awareness,
which lights up and shines within the mind,
can one enjoy the thrill, the throb, the bliss supreme of being the Self.
538. Knowing aright the nature of the Self,
and abandoning the non-self as void, unreal, is wisdom true.
All other knowledge is ignorance, and not wisdom.
599. The innocent bride thinking that betrothal is full conjugal union is filled with joy.
Even so the learned who have yet to turn within and taste true bliss,
claim that the “verbal wisdom” which they prattle is non-dual Knowledge.
600. Those whom from books have learnt about the Truth supreme,
esteem themselves supreme in Wisdom,
and fail to seek the Knower and taste the bliss of Self,
but they test and measure the silent sage. What foolishness is this!
649. Do not wander endlessly searching in vain for certitude
through strenuous study, listening, learning.
In love surrender to the Love supreme, the Lord,
and reach and hold the supreme state of Real Being.
708. Till in the seer’s Awareness objects disappear,
till firm and clear one knows the truth of Self aright,
what use is it to mouth in vain the words “I am God, I am God”?
709. Instead of wandering about proclaiming “I am God”, abide as the Supreme.
For such abidance in the Self, not loud repeated noise, puts and end to sorrow.
710. For curing a dire malady, one must consume, not merely name, the medicine.
Even so, the bonds of birth won’t snap by merely muttering “I am That” and so on.
802. Only he who has attained immortal life, can save the world.
For the ignorant one to help another, is but the blind leading the blind.
(Only a liberated sage can save the world. The blind cannot guide the blind. – Sri Ramana)
902. The primal ground whose being is silence, That I am.
Why take the trouble of thinking “That am I”?
Meditation is stillness; it is the extinction of the “I”/
When “I” is gone, where is the room for thought?
917. As in the sky covered with thick clouds, no eye can see the glorious sun,
one fails to see one’s own Self, when the mind-firmament is darkened by a dense cloud of thoughts.
918. He who has vanquished thought,
he only sits like an emperor on the neck of the majestic elephant Knowledge.
Know for certain that the mind’s movements alone give rise to birth
and every cruel pain and sorrow.
927. For those whose mind has not completely subsided,
the false knowledge already theirs has only served to pile up sorrows.
Gaining more such so-called knowledge, only deepens illusion’s darkeness,
and does not help life at all.
993. While the mind exists, creeds too exist.
When the mind turns inward in Self-quest and gets caught up in the heart,
no creed can survive in that peace.
997. What scope is there for speech or breath
in silent union where the two, the “I” and “He”, have merged in one?
When “I” is gone, and when two pairs of lover’s eyes have met and mingled,
of what use are spoken words?
998. Only those who have experienced this union with the Self can know Its bliss.
How else is one to know it?
Those who have the experience, know nothing but That,
lost in stillness, like honey bees drunk with honey.
1076. To search amid bewilderment some other truth than the Truth supreme,
the Truth of Self,
is the foolish barber’s vexed exploring,
instead of swiftly sweeping out the rubbish on the floor.
1155. The learned man who, letting go the Self, the real Being,
sees and cherishes this dream, this false, illusive world,
may be a scholar.
Something different is he who has gained the clarity of Knowing the Self;
he is a Knower.
1157. Holding in their hands the mirror,
the scripture which declares “The Self alone is to be known”,
many study with care the text and commentaries;
only a few seek the Self and gain true life.
1158. Far different from the scholar learned in books of wisdom, is the Seer.
Those who seek freedom from the bondage of ignorance had better leave scholars alone,
and enter the presence of Seers established in the Self supreme.
1176. What is true religion?
It is not speculating with the inconstant mind and endless speaking:
“That is Being. No, that has no being. That has form. No, that is formless.
That is non-dual. No, it is dual.”
True religion is the silence, the experience of deathless Being-Awareness-Bliss.
1181. If we look deep, these troublesome questions and answers
both belong to the language of duality.
In silence, the transcendent speech of non-duality, they have no place at all.
(In the language of duality alone are questions and answers. In non-duality they are not. – Sri Ramana)
1183. What is the bliss supreme attained by keen inquiry,
and what is the Self in the Heart?
It is pure silence, free from false dualistic knowledge.
1184. Shining as the bright void,
devoid of concepts raised by the villainous ego,
this is the experience true of infinite Being-Awareness,
the one non-dual bliss of pure silence.
1197. When the ego, shaking off all tricky concepts, finally merges in the Heart,
the silence, the plentitude of Self-Awareness, blissful, bright, this,
this is what the sages call transcendent speech.
1238. The Self, who is pure Awareness transcending thought,
is only known to heroic Seers,
who with minds extinct abide thought free within the Heart,
and is not known to those whose minds are still engaged in thought.
FROM THE BOOK “TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI”:
331.
18th January, 1937:
“To resume polemics – the author of Vritti
Prabhakara claims to
have studied 350,000 books before writing this book.
What is the use?
Can they bring in Realization of the Self?
Vichara Sagara is full of logic and technical terms.
Can these ponderous volumes serve any real purpose?
However, some people read them and then seek sages
only to see if they can meet their questions.
To read them, to discover new doubts and to solve them,
is a source of pleasure to them.
Knowing it to be sheer waste,
the sages do not encourage such people.
Encourage them once and there will be no end.
Only the inquiry into the Self can be of use. (Self-inquiry)
Those familiar with logic, Vritti Prabhakara, Vichara Sagara or Sutra Bhashya, or similar large works,
cannot relish small works like Truth Revealed (Forty verses on Reality)
dealing only with the Self and that pointedly too,
because they have accumulated latent tendencies of mind (vasanas).
Only those whose minds are less muddy, or are pure,
can relish small and purposeful works.”
392. 6th April, 1937: Later Sri Bhagavan continued:
“The intricate maze of philosophy of different schools is said to clarify matters
and reveal the Truth.
But in fact they create confusion where no confusion need exist.
To understand anything there must be the Self.
The Self is obvious.
Why not remain as the Self?
What need to explain the non-self?
Take the Vedanta for instance:
They say there are fifteen kinds of prana. The student is made to commit the names to memory
and also their functions. The air goes up and is called prana; goes down and is called apana;
operates the indriyas and is called something.
Why all this?
Why do you classify, give names and enumerate the functions, and so on?
Is it not enough to know that one prana does the whole work?
The antahkarana thinks, desires, wills reasons, etc., and each function is attributed to one name
such as mind, intellect, etc.. Has anyone seen the pranas or the antahkaranas?
Have they any real existence?
They are mere conceptions.
When and where will such conceptions end?
Consider the following:
A man sleeps. He says on waking that he slept. The question is asked: ‘Why does he not say in his
sleep that he is sleeping?’ The answer is given that he is sunk in the Self and cannot speak,
like a man who has dived into water to bring out something from the bottom. The diver cannot speak
under water; when he has actually recovered the articles he comes out and speaks.
Well what is the explanation?
Being in water, water will flow into his mouth if he were to open the mouth for speaking.
Is it not simple?
But the philosopher is not content with this simple fact.
He explains, saying that fire is the deity presiding over speech; that it is inimical to water
and therefore cannot function!
This is called philosophy and the learners are struggling to learn all this!
Is it not sheer waste of time?
Again Gods are said to preside over the senses of Virat (samashti).
So they go on explaining Hiranayagarbha, etc.
Why should confusion be created and then explained away?
Ah! Fortunate is the man who does not involve himself in this maze!
I was indeed fortunate that I never took to it.
Had I taken to it, I would probably be nowhere - always in confusion.
My former tendencies (purva vasanas)
directly took me to the inquiry ‘Who am I?’
It was indeed fortunate.”
428. 15th December, 1937:
“How can logic or other polemics be of real use?
Can the favorite examples of the logicians, such as the pot and the cloth (ghatapatas)
save you in a crisis?
Why waste your time thinking of them and on discussion?”
578. 15th November, 1938:
“Coming here, some people do not ask about themselves.
They ask: ‘Does the sage, liberated while alive (Jivanmukta), see the world?
Is he affected by Karma? What is liberation after being disembodied?
Is one liberated only after being disembodied or even while alive in the body?
Should the body of the sage resolve itself in light or disappear from view in any other manner?
Can he be liberated though the body is left behind as a corpse?’
Their questions are endless.
Why worry oneself in so many ways?
Does liberation consist in knowing these?
Therefore I say to them: ‘Leave liberation alone.
Is there bondage? Know this.
See yourself first and foremost.’”
252. 30th September, 1936:
Questioner: “What is the Sun marga? What is the moon marga? Which of them is easier?”
Sri Bhagavan: “Ravi Marga (Sun Marga) is jnana. Moon marga is Yoga. They think that after purifying
the 72,000 nadis in the body sushumna is entered and the mind passes up to the sahasrara
and there is nectar trickling.
These are all mental concepts.
The man is already overwhelmed by world concepts.
Other concepts are now added in the shape of this Yoga.
The object of all these is to rid the man of concepts
and to make him inhere as the pure Self – i.e. absolute consciousness, bereft of thoughts!
Why not go straight to it?
Why add new encumbrances to the already existing ones?”
616. 23rd January, 1939:
“Therefore the seekers aim must be to drain away the latent tendencies of mind (vasananas)
from the heart and not allow the reflecting medium obstruct the Light of Eternal Consciousness.
This is acheived by the search for the origin of the ego
and by diving into the heart.
This is the direct method for Self-Realization.
One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain, the Sushumna, the Paranadi,
the Kundalini, pranayama or the six centers.”
297. 18th December, 1936:
Mr Cohen asked: “Meditation is with mind in the waking (jagrat) state. There is mind in dream also.
Why is there no meditation in dream? Nor is it possible?”
Sri Bhagavan: “Ask it in the dream.”
After a short silence Sri Bhagavan continued:
“You are told to meditate now and find who you are.
Instead of doing it you ask
‘Why is there no meditation in dream or in sleep?’
If you find out for whom there is waking (jagrat),
it will be clear that dream and sleep are also for the same one.
You are the witness of waking (jagrat), dream (svapna) and sleep (sushupti) –
rather, they pass before you.
Because you are out of meditation now, these questions arise.
Stick to meditation and see if these questions arise.”
109. 13th December, 1935:
Two gentlemen from Ambala (the Punjab) had been here for a few weeks.
Just before taking leave of Sri Bhagavan one of them asked
how he should remove the spiritual drowsiness of his friends or of other people in general.
Sri Bhagavan: “Have you removed your own ‘spiritual drowsniness?’
The force which is set up to remove your own ‘drowsiness’ will also operate in other centers.
There is the will-power with which you can act on others.
But it is on a lower plane and not desirable.
Take care of yourself first.”
226. 3rd July, 1936:
A visitor from Tirukoilur asked if the study of the sacred books will reveal the truth.
Sri Bhagavan: “That will not suffice.”
Questioner: “Why not?”
Sri Bhagavan: “Samadhi alone can reveal it.
Thoughts cast a veil over Reality and so it cannot be clear in states other than Samadhi.”
Questioner: “Is there thought in Samadhi? Or is there not?”
Sri Bhagavan: “There will only be the feeling ‘I am’ and no other thoughts.”
Questioner: “Is ‘I am’ a thought?”
Sri Bhagavan: “The egoless ‘I am’ is not thought. It is realization.
The meaning and significance of ‘I’ is God.
The experience of ‘I am’ is to Be Still.”
28. 4th February, 1935:
Questioner: “Is the study of science, psychology, physiology, philosophy, etc. helpful for:
1. this art of yoga-liberation 2. the intuitive grasp of the unity of the Real?
Sri Bhagavan: “Very little.
Some knowledge is needed for yoga and it may be found in books.
But practical application is the thing needed,
and personal example, personal touch and personal instructions are the most helpful aids.
As for the other, a person may laboriously convince himself of the truth to be intuited,
i.e. its function and nature,
but the actual intuition is akin to feeling and requires practice and personal contact.
Mere book learning is not of any great use.
After realization all intellectual loads are useless burdens and are thrown overboard as jetsam.”
565. 23rd October, 1938:
Questioner: “I have read many books. My mind does not turn to the Self.”
Sri Bhagavan: “Because the Self is not in the books; it is in you.
Reading books makes one learned.
That is its purpose and it is fulfilled. “
THE FOLLOWING QUOTES ARE FROM:
THE COLLECTED WORKS OF RAMANA MAHARSHI:
THE FOLLOWING QUOTE IS FROM “WHO AM I”:
23. Questioner: “Is it any use reading books for those who long for release?”
Sri Bhagavan: “All the texts say that in order to gain release one should render the mind quiescent;
therefore their conclusive teaching is that the mind should be rendered quiescent;
once this has been understood there is no need for endless reading.
In order to quiet the mind one has only to
inquire within oneself what one’s Self is;
how could this search be done in books?
One should know one’s Self with one’s own eye of wisdom.
The Self is within the five sheaths; but books are outside them.
Since the Self has to be inquired into by discarding the five sheaths,
it is futile to search for it in books.
There will come a time when one will have to forget all that one has learned.”
THE FOLLOWING QUOTE IS FROM THE BOOK “SELF-INQUIRY”:
31. Questioner: “How is one to think of the Self?”
Sri Bhagavan: “The Self is self-luminous without darkness and light,
and is the reality which is self-manifest.
Therefore one should not think of it as this or as that.
The very thought of thinking will end in bondage.
The purport of meditation on the Self is to make the mind take the form of the Self.
In the middle of the heart-cave the pure Absolute (Brahman) is directly manifest as the Self
in the form of ‘I-I’.
Can there be greater ignorance than to think of it in manifold ways,
without knowing it as aforementioned?”
THE FOLLOWING QUOTES ARE FROM THE BOOK:
‘REALITY IN FORTY VERSES’ ALSO KNOWN AS ‘TRUTH REVEALED’:
3. “’The World is true’; ‘No, it is a false appearance’; ‘The World is Mind’; ‘No, it is not’;
‘The World is pleasant’; ‘No, it is not’;
What avails such talk?
To leave the world alone and know the Self,
to go beyond all thought of One and Two,
this Ego-less condition is the common goal of all.”
9. “’Twos’ and ‘Threes’ depend upon one thing, the ego.
If one asks in one’s Heart ‘What is this ego?’ and finds it, they slip away.
Only who have found this know the Truth, and they will never be perplexed.”
11. “Without knowing the Self that knows, to know all objects is not knowledge;
it is only ignorance.
Self, the ground of knowledge and the non-self, being known,
both knowledge and ignorance fall away.”
12. “True knowledge is being devoid of knowledge as well as ignorance of objects.
Knowledge of objects is not true knowledge.
Since the Self shines self-luminous, with nothing else for it to know It,
the Self is Knowledge. Nescience It is not.”
19. “The debate ‘Does Free-will prevail or Fate?’ is only for those who do not know the root of both.
Those who have known the Self, the common source of Free-will and of Fate,
have passed beyond both and will not return to them.”
22. “Without turning inwards and merging in the Lord His light that shines within the mind
and lends it all its light,
how can we know the Light of Lights with the borrowed light of the mind?”
29. “Cease all talk of ‘I’ and search with inward-diving mind whence the thought of ‘I’ springs up.
This is the way of wisdom.
To think, instead, ‘I am not this, but That I am’, is helpful in the search,
but it is not the search itself.”
32. “When the Vedas have declared, ‘Thou art That’ ,
not to seek and find the nature of thy Self and abide in It,
but to think ‘I am That, not This’ is want of strength;
because That abides for ever as the Self.”
34. “The natural and true Reality for ever residing in the Heart of all,
- not to realize It there and stay in It –
but to quarrel: - ‘It is’, ‘It is not’, ‘It has form’, ‘It has no form’; ‘It is one’, ‘It is two’, ‘It is neither’; -
This is the mischief of illusion (maya).
40. “If asked; ‘Which of these three is final liberation;
- with form, without form, or with-and-without-form?’
I say, ‘Liberation is the extinction of the ego which inquires –
‘with form, without form, or with-and-without-form?’”
THE FOLLOWING QUOTES ARE FROM:
THE SUPPLEMENT TO REALITY IN FORTY VERSES:
2. “Not by listening to preachers, nor by study of books,
not by meritorious deeds nor by any other means can one attain that Supreme State,
which is attainable only through association with the sages
and the clear quest of the Self.”
34. “For unlearned folk there is only one family consisting of wife, children and dependents.
But in the mind of those with much learning
there are many families of books, theories and opinions as obstacles to yoga.”
35. “What is the use of letters to those lettered folk
who do not seek to wipe out the letters of fate by inquiring ‘Whence are we born?’
What else are they but gramphones, O Lord of Arunachala?
They learn and repeat words without realizing their meaning.”
36. “The unlettered are easier saved than those who are learned but unsubdued.
The unlettered are free from the clutches of the demon Pride,
they are free from the malady of many whirling thoughts and words;
they are free from the mad pursuit of wealth;
they are free from many, many ills.”
THE FOLLOWING IS A STRAY VERSE WRITTEN BY SRI BHAGAVAN:
“By him alone who’s saved himself can other folk be freed;
The help of others is as if the blind the blind would lead”
THE FOLLOWING IS FROM MAHARSHI’S GOSPEL:
Questioner: “Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the Truth to the people at large?
Sri Bhagavan: “How do you know that I am not doing it?
Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and haranguing the people around?
Preaching is simple communication of Knowledge;
it can really be done in silence only.
What do you think of a man who listens to a sermon for an hour
and goes away without having been impressed by it so as to change his life?
Compare him with another who sits in a holy presence
and goes away after some time with his outlook on life totally changed.
Which is the better, to preach loudly without effect
or to sit silently sending out inner force?
Again, how does speech arise?
There is abstract Knowledge, whence arises the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought,
and thought to the spoken word. So the word is the great-grandson of the original Source.
If the word can produce effect, judge for yourself,
how much more powerful the preaching through Silence!
But people do not understand this simple, bare truth,
the truth of their everyday, ever-present, eternal experience.
This Truth is that of the Self. Is there anyone unaware of the Self?
But they do not like even to hear of this Truth,
whereas they are eager to know what lies beyond, about heaven, hell and reincarnation.
Because they love mystery and not the Truth,
religions cater to them so as eventually to bring them round to the Self.
Whatever the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self;
so why not abide in the Self here and
now?”