Ramana Maharshi Quotes from Guru Vachaka Kovai

Ramana Maharshi Quotes from Guru Vachaka Kovai

1. For those who allow their mind to wander here and there, everything will go wrong.
2. Just as the sun cannot be seen in a densely clouded sky, so one’s own Self cannot be seen in a mind-sky which is darkened by a dense cloud of thoughts.
3. All the benefit to be obtained by inner enquiry is only the destruction of the deceptive ‘I’-sense [the ego]. It would be too much to say that it is to attain Self, which always shines clear and ever-attained.
4. Firmly abiding as ‘I am I’, without any movement of the mind, is the attainment of Godhood.
5. When scrutinized, among all the many qualities necessary for those who wish to attain the imperishable Liberation, it is the attitude of a great liking to be in permanent solitude that must be well established in their mind.
6. According to the outlook of different people the same woman is considered to be wife, husband’s sister, daughter-in-law, wife of one’s brother-in-law, mother, and so on. Yet in truth she does not at all undergo any change in her form.
7. Unless one realizes oneself to be the unattached Self, which is like the space that remains not even in the least attached to anything, though it exists inside, outside and pervading everything, one cannot remain undeluded.
8. One who has destroyed the mind is the emperor who rides on the neck of the elephant of supreme Jnana (self-knowledge). Know for certain that the turmoil of the mind is the sole cause of the miserable bondage of the cruel and fierce birth [and death].

Bhagvan Ramana Maharshi Quotes on Renunciation

Bhagvan Ramana Maharshi Quotes on Renunciation

1. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
   
2. A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.
   
3. Renunciation is always in the mind, not in going to forests or solitary places or giving up one's duties. The main thing is to see that the mind does not turn outward but inward.

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi Quotes and Sayings

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi Quotes and Sayings

1. Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it, one is in bondage.
   
   
2. Realization is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought `I have not realized'.
   
   
3. There is no other way to succeed than to draw the mind back every time it turns outwards and fix it in the Self.
   
   
4. Hold the `I'-thought and find its source.
   
   
5. The proper way to get rid of a desire is to find out `Who gets the desire? What is its source?' When this is found, the desire is rooted out and it will never again emerge or grow.
   
   
6. We are wrongly persisting in unreality, that is, attachment to thoughts and worldly activities. Cessation of these will reveal the truth.
   
   
7. Search for the source of the `I'-thought. That is all that one has to do. The universe exists on account of the `I'-thought. If that ends there is an end to misery also. The false `I' will end only when its source is sought.
   
   
8. Divine grace is essential for realization. It leads one to God realization. But such grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogi. It is given only to those who have striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom.

Ramana Maharshi - Be what you are

Ramana Maharshi - Be what you are. There is nothing to come down or become manifest. All that is needful is to lose the ego, That what is, is always there. Even now you are That. You are not apart from it. The blank is seen by you. You are there to see the blank. What do you wait for? The thought “I have not seen,” the expectation to see and the desire of getting something, are all the working of the ego. You have fallen into the snares of the ego. The ego says all these
and not you. Be yourself and nothing more!

So long as you seek Self-realization the Guru is necessary

Ramana Maharshi - So long as you seek Self-realization the Guru is necessary. Guru is the Self. Take Guru to be the real Self and your self as the individual self. The disappearance of this sense of duality is the removal of ignorance. So long as duality persists in you the Guru is necessary. Because you identify yourself with the body you think that the Guru is also a body. You are not the body, nor is the Guru. You are the Self and so is the Guru. This knowledge is gained by what you call Self-realization.

Ramana Maharshi - Why do you think you are a householder

Ramana Maharshi - Why do you think you are a householder? The similar thought that you are a sannyasi will haunt you even if you go forth as one. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to live in the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and makes you think of being a householder.

If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of renunciation for that of the family and the environment of the forest for that of the household. But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. Change of environment is no help. The one obstacle is the mind, and this must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest why not in the home? So why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever be the environment.

Ramana Maharshi Quotes - I am Brahman’ is only a thought

Ramana Maharshi : ‘I am Brahman’ is only a thought. Who says it? Brahman himself does not say so. What need is there for him to say it? Nor can the real ‘I’ say so. For ‘I’ always abides as Brahman. So it is only a thought. Whose thought is it? All thoughts come from the unreal ‘I’, that is the ‘I’-thought. Remain without thinking. So long as there is thought, there will be fear.

Ramana Maharshi saying on Guru, Guru is the Self

Ramana Maharshi - The Guru is the Self. At some time a man grows dissatisfied with his life and, not content with what he has, seeks the satisfaction of his desires through prayer to God. His mind is gradually purified until he longs to know God, more to obtain His Grace than to satisfy worldly desires. Then God’s grace begins to manifest.

God takes the form of a Guru and appears to the devotee, teaches him the Truth and, moreover, purifies his mind by association with him. The devotee’s mind thus gains strength and is then able to turn inward. By meditation it is further purified until it remains calm without the least ripple. That calm Expanse is the Self.

The Guru is both outer and inner. From outside he gives a push to the mind to turn inward while from inside he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps in quieting it. That is the Grace of the Guru. There is no difference between God, Guru and Self.

Ramana Maharshi sayings on Self and Ego

Ramana Maharshi - It is like a cinema show. There is the light on the screen and the shadows flitting across impress the audience as the acting of some story. Now suppose that in this film story an audience is also shown on the screen. The seer and the seen will then both be on the screen.

Apply this to yourself. You are the screen, the Self has created the ego, the ego has its accretions of thoughts, which are displayed as the world, trees, plants, etc., about which you are asking. In reality all these are nothing but the Self. If you see the Self it will be found to be all, everywhere and always. Nothing but the Self exists.

Ramana Maharshi - Householder's life is not a bar

Ramana Maharshi - The householder's life is not a bar, but the householder must do his utmost to practise self-control. If a man has a strong desire for the higher life then the sex tendency will subside. When the mind is destroyed, the other desires are destroyed also.

Ramana Maharshi - attempt to destroy the Ego or Mind

Ramana Maharshi - The attempt to destroy the ego or the mind through sadhanas other than atma-vichara is just like the thief pretending to be a policeman to catch the thief, that is, himself. Atma-vichara alone can reveal the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists, and enable one to realize the pure, undifferentiated being of the Self or the absolute. Having realized the Self, nothing remains to be known, because it is perfect bliss, it is the all.

Ramana Maharshi - Turn inwards enquiring `Where is this I'

Ramana Maharshi -The thought `l am this body of flesh and blood' is the one thread on which are strung the various other thoughts. Therefore, if we turn inwards enquiring `Where is this I?' all thoughts (including the `I'-thought) will come to an end and Self-knowledge will then spontaneously shine forth.

Ramana Maharshi - Pure `I' is the pure being, eternal existence

Ramana Maharshi - You must distinguish between the `I', pure in itself, and the `I'-thought. The latter, being merely a thought, sees subject and object, sleeps, wakes up, eats and thinks, dies and is reborn. But the pure `I' is the pure being, eternal existence, free from ignorance and thought-illusion. If you stay as the `I', your being alone, without thought, the `I'-thought will disappear and the delusion will vanish for ever. In a cinema-show you can see pictures only in a very dim light or in darkness. But when all the lights are switched on, the pictures disappear. So also in the floodlight of the supreme atman all objects disappear.

Ramana Maharshi - Self Enquiry by following the clue of aham-vritti

Ramana Maharshi - Self Enquiry by following the clue of aham-vritti is just like the dog tracing his master by his scent. The master may be at some distant unknown place, but that does not 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.

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi - You are already that

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi - You are already that. Time and space cannot affect the Self. They are in you. So also all that you see around you is in you. There is a story to illustrate this point. A lady had a precious necklace round her neck. Once in her excitement she forgot it and thought that the necklace was lost. She became anxious and looked for it in her home but could not find it.

She asked her friends and neighbors if they knew anything about the necklace. They did not. At last a kind friend of hers told her to feel the necklace round her neck. She found that it had all along been round her neck and she was happy. When others asked her later if she had found the necklace which was lost, she said, `Yes, I have found it.' She still felt that she had recovered a lost jewel.

Now did she lose it at all ? It was all along round her neck. But judge her feelings. She was as happy as if she had recovered a lost jewel. Similarly with us, we imagine that we will realize that Self some time, whereas we are never anything but the Self.

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi Sayings

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi - There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing to be attained. You are the Self. You exist always. Nothing more can be predicated of the Self than that it exists. Seeing God or the Self is only being the Self or yourself. Seeing is being. You, being the Self, want to know how to attain the Self. It is something like a man being at Ramanasramam asking how many ways there are to reach Ramanasramam and which is the best way for him. All that is required of you is to give up the thought that you are this body and to give up all thoughts of the external things or the not-Self.

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi Quotes

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi - Even the thought `I do not realize' is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is. Our real nature is mukti. But we are imagining we are bound and are making various, strenuous attempts to become free, while we are all the while free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are.

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi Insights on Bliss of Self

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi - The Bliss of Self is always yours and you will find it if you seek it earnestly. The cause of your misery is not in your outer life; it is in you, as your ego. You impose limitations on yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.

All unhappiness is due to the ego. With it comes all your trouble. What does it avail you to attribute the cause of misery to the happenings of life when that cause is really within you? What happiness can you get from things extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will it last?

If you would deny the ego and scorch it by ignoring it, you would be free. If you accept it, it will impose limitations on you and throw you into a vain struggle to transcend them. That was how the ‘thief ’ sought to ruin King Janaka. To be the Self that you really are is the only means to realise the Bliss that is ever yours.

Ramana Maharshi - Person’s last thought at death determines his next Birth

Ramana Maharshi - It is said in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VIII, that whatever is a person’s last thought at death determines his next birth. But it is necessary to experience Reality now, in this life, in order to experience it at death. Consider whether this present moment is any different from the last one at death and try to be in the desired state