Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi: Peace is your natural state

Question : How can I get peace? I do not seem to obtain it through vichara.
Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi: Peace is your natural state. It is the mind that obstructs the natural state. Your vichara has been made only in the mind. Investigate what the mind is, and it will disappear. There is no such thing as mind apart from thought. Nevertheless, because of the emergence of thought, you surmise something from which it starts and term that the mind. When you probe to see what it is, you find there is really no such thing as mind. When the mind has thus vanished, you realise eternal peace.

The enquiry "Who am I?" is the principal means to the removal of all misery

Ramana Maharshi - A Brahmin may play various parts in a drama; yet the thought that he is a Brahmin does not leave his mind. Similarly, when one is engaged in various empirical acts there should be the firm conviction "I am the Self," without allowing the false idea "I am the body, etc." to rise. If the mind should stray away from its state, then immediately one should enquire, "Oh! Oh! We are not the body etc.! Who are we?" and thus one should reinstate the mind in that (pure) state.

The enquiry "Who am I?" is the principal means to the removal of all misery and the attainment of the supreme bliss. When in this manner the mind becomes quiescent in its own state, Self-experience arises of its own accord, without any hindrance. Thereafter sensory pleasures and pains will not affect the mind. All (phenomena) will appear then, without attachment, like a dream. Never forgetting one's plenary Self-experience is real bhakti (devotion), yoga (mind-control), jnana (knowledge) and all other austerities. Thus say the sages.

Ramana Maharshi Teachings on Bliss and state beyond bliss

Question - What is the light of consciousness?

Ramana Maharshi - It is the self-luminous existence-consciousness which reveals to the seer the world of names andforms both inside and outside. The existence of this existence-consciousness can be inferred bythe objects illuminated by it. It does not become the object of consciousness.

Question - What is knowledge (vijnana)?

Ramana Maharshi - It is that tranquil state of existence-consciousness which is experienced by the aspirant and whichis like the waveless ocean or the motionless ether.

Question - What is bliss?

Ramana Maharshi - It is the experience of joy (or peace) in the state of vijnana free of all activities and similar todeep sleep. This is also called the state of kevala nirvikalpa (remaining without concepts).

Question - What is the state beyond bliss?

Ramana Maharshi - It is the state of unceasing peace of mind which is found in the state of absolute quiescence,jagrat-sushupti (lit. sleep with awareness) which resembles inactive deep sleep. In this state, inspite of the activity of the body and the senses, there is no external awareness, like a child immersedin sleep1 (who is not conscious of the food given to him by his mother). A yogi who is in this stateis inactive even while engaged in activity. This is also called sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi (naturalstate of absorption in oneself without concepts).

Ramana Maharshi : People say that they are not able to know the Self

Question : However often Bhagavan teaches us, we are not able to understand.
Ramana Maharshi : People say that they are not able to know the Self that is all pervading. What can I do ? Even the smallest child says, `I exist; I do; this is mine.' So, everyone understands that the thing `I' is always existent. It is only when that `I' is there that there is the feeling that you are the body, he is Venkanna, this is Ramanna and so on. To know that the one that is always visible is one's own Self, is it necessary to search with a candle ? To say that we do not know the atma swarupa [the real nature of the Self] which is not different but which is in one's own Self is like saying, `I do not know myself.`

After the ‘I’-thought has arisen, the wrong identification with the body arises

Ramana Maharshi - The birth of the ‘I’-thought is a person’s birth and its death is his death. After the ‘I’-thought has arisen, the wrong identification with the body arises. Identifying yourself with the body makes you falsely identify others also with their bodies.

Just as your body was born and grows and will die, so you think the other also was born, grew and died. Did you think of your son before he was born? The thought came after his birth and continues even after his death. He is your son only insofar as you think of him.

Where has he gone? To the source from which he sprang. So long as you continue to exist, he does too. But if you cease to identify yourself with the body and realise the true Self, this confusion will vanish. You are eternal and others also will be found to be eternal. Until this is realised there will always be grief due to false values which are caused by wrong knowledge and wrong identification.

Ramana Maharshi on thirst for Life and Rebirth

Question : What is the cause of tanha, the thirst for life and the thirst for rebirth?
Ramana Maharshi : Real rebirth is dying from the ego into the spirit. This is the significance of the crucifixion of Jesus. Whenever identification with the body exists, a body is always available, whether this or any other one, till the body-sense disappears by merging into the source - the spirit, or Self. The stone which is projected upwards remains in constant motion till it returns to its source, the earth, and rests. Headache continues to give trouble, till the preheadache state is regained.

Thirst for life is inherent in the very nature of life, which is absolute existence - sat. Although indestructible by nature, by false identification with its destructible instrument, the body, consciousness imbibes a false apprehension of its destructibility. Because of that false identification it tries to perpetuate the body, and that results in a succession of births. But however long these bodies may last, they eventually come to an end and yield to the Self, which alone eternally exists.

Ramana Maharshi on Life after Death

Ramana Maharshi on Life after Death

Question : What happens to a person after death?
Ramana Maharshi : Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself. Do not worry about the future. The state before creation and the process of creation are dealt with in the scriptures in order that you may know the present. Because you say you are born, therefore they say, yes, and add that God created you.

But do you see God or anything else in your sleep? If God is real, why does he not shine forth in your sleep also? You always are, you are the same now as you were in sleep. You are not different from that one in sleep. But why should there be differences in the feelings or experiences of the two states?

Did you ask, while asleep, questions regarding your birth? Did you then ask `Where do I go after death?' Why think of all these questions now in the waking state? Let what is born think of its birth and the remedy, its cause and ultimate results.

Question : What becomes of the jiva [individua ] after death?
Ramana Maharshi : The question is not appropriate for a jiva now living. A dead jiva may ask me, if he wishes to. In the meantime let the embodied jiva solve its present problem and find who he is. Then there will be an end of such doubts.

Question : Is the Buddhist view, that there is no continuous entity answering to the ideas of the individual soul, correct or not? Is this consistent with the Hindu notion of a reincarnating ego? Is the soul a continuous entity which reincarnates again and again, according to the Hindu doctrine, or is it a mere mass of mental tendencies - samskaras?
Ramana Maharshi : The real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego belongs to the lower plane, namely, thought. It is transcended by Self-realization. Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot. Therefore they are denied by the Buddhists. The present state of ignorance is due to the identification of consciousness [chit] with the insentient [jada] body.

Question : Do not we go to heaven [svarga] as the result of our actions?
Ramana Maharshi : That is as true as the present existence. But if we enquire who we are and discover the Self, what need is there to think of heaven?

Ramana Maharshi on Dream World, Illusory World

Ramana Maharshi on Dream World, Illusory World

Question : Is then the world no better than a dream?
Ramana Maharshi : What is wrong with the sense of reality you have while you are dreaming? You may be dreaming of something quite impossible, for instance, of having a happy chat with a dead person. Just for a moment, you may doubt in the dream, saying to yourself, `Was he not dead?', but somehow your mind reconciles itself to the dream-vision, and the person is as good as alive for the purposes of the dream.

In other words, the dream as a dream does not permit you to doubt its reality. It is the same in the waking state, for you are unable to doubt the reality of the world which you see while you are awake. How can the mind which has itself created the world accept it as unreal?

That is the significance of the comparison made between the world of the waking state and the dream world. Both are creations of the mind and, so long as the mind is engrossed in either, it finds itself unable to deny their reality.

It cannot deny the reality of the dream world while it is dreaming and it cannot deny the reality of the waking world while it is awake.

If, on the contrary, you withdraw your mind completely from the world and turn it within and abide there, that is, if you keep awake always to the Self which is the substratum of all experiences, you will find the world of which you are now aware is just as unreal as the world in which you lived in your dream.

Ramana Maharshi on Free will - Destiny, Overcoming Fate

Ramana Maharshi on Free will - Destiny, Overcoming Fate

Question : Mr. B. C. Das, the Physics Lecturer, asked about free-will and destiny.

Ramana Maharshi : Whose will is it? ‘It is mine’, you may say. You are beyond will and fate. Abide as that and you transcend them both. That is the meaning of conquering destiny by will. Fate can be conquered. Fate is the result of past actions.

By association with the wise the bad tendencies are conquered. One’s experiences are then viewed to their proper perspective. I exist now. I am the enjoyer. I enjoy fruits of action. I was in the past and shall be in the future.

Who is this ‘I’? Finding this ‘I’ to be pure Consciousness beyond action and enjoyment, freedom and happiness are gained. There is then no effort, for the Self is perfect and there remains nothing more to gain.

So long as there is individuality, one is the enjoyer and doer. But if it is lost, the divine Will prevails and guides the course of events. The individual is perceptible to others who cannot perceive divine force. Restrictions and discipline are for other individuals and not for the liberated.Free-will is implied in the scriptural injunctions to be good.

It implies overcoming fate. It is done by wisdom. The fire of wisdom consumes all actions. Wisdom is acquired by association with the wise, or rather, its mental atmosphere.

Ramana Maharshi Spiritual instructions for Seekers

Ramana Maharshi Spiritual instructions for Seekers

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi : The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?'

What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa].

Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi : The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Source : from the book "Be As You Are"David Godman

Ramana Maharshi on Remembering Self, Jnana

Ramana Maharshi on Remembering Self, Jnana

Question : Why do I never remember that I am the Self ?
Ramana Maharshi : People speak of memory and oblivion of the fullness of the Self. Oblivion and memory are only thought-forms. They will alternate so long as there are thoughts. But reality lies beyond these. Memory or oblivion must be dependent on something.

That something must be foreign to the Self as well, otherwise there would not be oblivion. That upon which memory and oblivion depend is the idea of the individual self. When one looks for it, this individual `I' is not found because it is not real. Hence this `I' is synonymous with illusion or ignorance (maya, avidya or ajnana]. To know that there never was ignorance is the goal of all the spiritual teachings. Ignorance must be of one who is aware. Awareness is jnana. Jnana is eternal and natural, ajnana is unnatural and unreal.

Question : Having heard this truth, why does not one remain content?
Ramana Maharshi : Because samskaras [innate mental tendencies] have not been destroyed. Unless the samskaras cease to exist, there will always be doubt and confusion. All efforts are directed to destroying doubt and confusion. To do so their roots must be cut. Their roots are the samskaras. These are rendered ineffective by practice as prescribed by the Guru.

The Guru leaves it to the seeker to do this much so that he might himself find out that there is no ignorance. Hearing the truth [sravana] is the first stage. If the understanding is not firm one has to practise reflection [manana] and uninterrupted contemplation [nididhyasana] on it. These two processes scorch the seeds of samskaras so that they are rendered ineffective.
Some extraordinary people get unshakable jnana after hearing the truth only once. These are the advanced seekers. Beginners take longer to gain it.

Question : How did ignorance (avidya] arise at all?
Ramana Maharshi : Ignorance never arose. It has no real being. That which is, is only vidya [knowledge].

Question : Why then do I not realize it?
Ramana Maharshi : Because of the samskaras. However, find out who does not realize and what he does not realize. Then it will be clear that there is no avidya.

Source : from the book "Be As You Are"David Godman

Ramana Maharshi on Different Paths and Teachings

Ramana Maharshi on Different Paths and Teachings

Question : Why should the path to release be differently taught? Will it not create confusion in the minds of aspirants?

Ramana Maharshi : Several paths are taught in the Vedas to suit the different grades of qualified aspirants. Yet, since release is but the destruction of the mind, all efforts have for their aim the control of mind. Although the modes of meditation may appear to be
different from one another, in the end all of them become one. There is no need to doubt this. One may adopt that path which suits the maturity of one’s mind.

The control of prana which is yoga, and the control of mind which is jnana — these are the two principal means for the destruction of the mind. To some, the former may appear easy, and to others the latter. Yet, jnana is like subduing a turbulent bull by coaxing it with green grass, while yoga is like controlling it through the use of force.

Thus the wise ones say that of the three grades of qualified aspirants, the highest reach the goal by making the mind firm in the Self through determining the nature of the real by Vedantic enquiry and by looking upon one’s self and all things as of the nature of the Real; the mediocre by making the mind stay in the Heart through kevala kumbhaka and meditating for a long
time on the Real; and the lowest grade, by gaining that state in a gradual manner through breath-control, etc.

The mind should be made to rest in the Heart till the destruction of the ‘I-thought’ which is of the form of ignorance, residing in the Heart. This itself is jnana; this alone is dhyana also. The rest are a mere digression of words, digression of the texts. Thus the scriptures proclaim.

Therefore, if one gains the skill of retaining the mind in one’s Self through some means or other, one need not worry about other matters. The great teachers also have taught that the devotee is greater than the yogi and that the means to release is devotion, which is of the nature of reflection on one’s own Self.

Thus, it is the path of realizing Brahman that is variously called Dahara vidya, Brahma Vidya, Atma vidya, etc. What more can be said than this? One should understand the rest by inference. The scriptures teach in different modes. After analysing all those modes the great ones declare this to be the shortest and the best means.

Ramana Maharshi Teachings through silence Silent teachings

Ramana Maharshi Teachings through silence, Silent teachings

Question : Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the truth to the people at large?
Ramana Maharshi : How do you know 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? First there is abstract knowledge. Out of this 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 an effect, judge for yourself, how much more powerful must be the preaching through silence.

Question : How can silence be so powerful?
Ramana Maharshi :A realized one sends out waves of spiritual influence which draw many people towards him. Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence. We may listen to lectures upon truth and come away with hardly any grasp of the subject, but to come into contact with a realized one, though he speaks nothing, will give much more grasp of the subject. He never needs to go out among the public. If necessary he can use others as instruments.

The Guru is the bestower of silence who reveals the light of Self-knowledge which shines as the residual reality. Spoken words are of no use whatsoever if the eyes of the Guru meet the eyes of the disciple.

Question : Does Bhagavan give diksha [initiation]?
Ramana Maharshi : Mouna [silence] is the best and the most potent diksha. That was practised by Sri Dakshinamurti. Initiation by touch, look, etc., are all of a lower order. Silent initiation changes the hearts of all.

Dakshinamurti observed silence when the disciples approached him. That is the highest form of initiation. It includes the other forms. There must be subject-object relationship established in the other dikshas. First the subject must emanate and then the object. Unless these two are there how is the one to look at the other or touch him? Mouna diksha is the most perfect; it comprises looking, touching and teaching. It will purify the individual in every way and establish him in the reality.