Ramana Maharshi on Fear, How does one get rid of Fear of death

Question : How does one get rid of fear ?

Ramana Maharshi : What is fear ? It is only a thought. If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear. Who sees things separate from the Self ? First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is nothing external. For anything external to oneself implies the existence of the seer within. Seeking it there will eliminate doubt and fear. Not only fear, all other thoughts centred round the ego will disappear along with it.

Question : How can the terrible fear of death be overcome?

Ramana Maharshi : When does that fear seize you? Does it come when you do not see your body, say, in dreamless sleep? It haunts you only when you are fully `awake' and perceive the world, including your body. If you do not see these and remain your pure Self, as in dreamless sleep, no fear can touch you. If you trace this fear to the object, the loss of which gives rise to it, you will find that that object is not the body, but the mind which functions in it. Many a man would be only too glad to be rid of his diseased body and all the problems and inconvenience it creates for him if continued awareness were vouchsafed to him. It is the awareness, the consciousness, and not the body, he fears to lose. Men love existence because it is eternal awareness, which is their own Self. Why not then hold on to the pure awareness right now, while in the body, and be free from all fear?

Ramana Maharshi : You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you

Question : What is reality?
Ramana Maharshi : Reality must be always real. It is not with forms and names. That which underlies these is the reality. It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. It is as it is. It transcends speech. It is beyond the expressions `existence, non-existence', etc.

The reality which is the mere consciousness that remains when ignorance is destroyed along with knowledge of objects, alone is the Self [atma]. In that Brahma-swarupa [real form of Brahman], which is abundant Self-awareness, there is not the least ignorance.

The reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body, not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known, is your real form [nija-swarupa].

The radiance of consciousness-bliss, in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without, is the supreme and blissful primal reality. Its form is silence and it is declared by jnanis to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge [jnana]. Know that jnana alone is non-attachment; jnana alone is purity; jnana is the attainment of God; jnana which is devoid of forgetfulness of Self alone is immortality; jnana alone is everything.

Question : What is this awareness and how can one obtain and cultivate it?
Ramana Maharshi : You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-Self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.

Question : If the Self is itself aware, why am I not aware of it even now?
Ramana Maharshi : There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object.

Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom? The Self is ever-present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself ? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined.

The best definition is `I am that I am'. The srutis [scriptures] speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being.

Source - David Godman book "Be as You Are"

Ramana Maharshi on Illusory world and Real world

Question : So the world is not really illusory?
Ramana Maharshi : At the level of the spiritual seeker you have got to say that the world is an illusion. There is no other way. When a man forgets that he is Brahman, who is real, permanent and omnipresent, and deludes himself into thinking that he is a body in the universe which is filled with bodies that are transitory, and labours under that delusion, you have got to remind him that the world is unreal and a delusion.

Why ? Because his vision which has forgotten its own Self is dwelling in the external, material universe. It will not turn inwards into introspection unless you impress on him that all this external, material universe is unreal. When once he realizes his own Self he will know that there is nothing other than his own Self and he will come to look upon the whole universe as Brahman.

There is no universe without the Self. So long as a man does not see the Self which is the origin of all, but looks only at the external world as real and permanent, you have to tell him that all this external universe is an illusion. You cannot help it. Take a paper.

We see only the script, and nobody notices the paper on which the script is written. The paper is there whether the script on it is there or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal, an illusion, since it rests upon the paper. The wise man looks upon both the Paper and script as one. So also with Brahman and the universe.

Ramana Maharshi discourse on God and the World

Question - What is the relationship between God and the world? Is he the creator or sustainer of it?
Ramana Maharshi - Sentient and insentient beings of all kinds are performing actions only by the mere presence of the sun, which rises in the sky without any volition. Similarly all actions are done by the Lord without any volition or desire on his part. In the mere presence of the sun, the magnifying lens emits fire, the lotus-bud blossoms, the water-lily closes and all the countless creatures perform actions and rest.

The order of the great multitude of worlds is maintained by the mere presence of God in the same manner as the needle moves in front of a magnet, and as the moonstone emits water, the waterlily blossoms and the lotus closes in front of the moon.

In the mere presence of God, who does not have even the least volition, the living beings, who are engaged in innumerable activities, after embarking upon many paths to which they are drawn according to the course determined by their own karmas, finally realize the futility of action, turn back to Self and attain liberation.

The actions of living beings certainly do not go and affect God, who transcends the mind, in the same manner as the activities of the world do not affect that sun and as the qualities of the conspicuous four elements [earth, water, fire and air] do not affect the limitless space.

Ramana Maharshi - How to Avoid Grief of Loved One death

Question : If some one we love dies, it causes grief. Should we avoid such grief by either loving all alike or not loving at all?
Ramana Maharshi - If someone we love dies, it causes grief to the one who continues living. The way to get rid of grief is not to continue living. Kill the griever, and who will then remain to grieve? The ego must die. That is the only way. The two alternatives you suggest amount to the same. When all are realised to be the one Self, who is there to love or hate?

Ramana Maharshi discourse on Absence of Mental Strength

Ramana Maharshi discourse on Absence of Mental Strength

Question : What is the reason for the absence of mental strength?
Ramana Maharshi : The means that make one qualified for enquiry are meditation, yoga, etc. One should gain proficiency in these through graded practice, and thus secure a stream of mental modes that is natural and helpful.

When the mind that has become ripe in this manner, hears about this enquiry, it will at once realize its true nature which is the Self, and remain in perfect peace, without deviating from that state. To a mind which has not become ripe, immediate realization and peace are hard to gain through hearing about the enquiry.

Yet, if one practises the means for mind control for some time, peace of mind can be obtained eventually.

Question : Of the means for mind control, which is the most important?
Ramana Maharshi : Breath control is the means for mind control.

Question : How is breath to be controlled?
Ramana Maharshi : Breath can be controlled either by absolute retention of breath (kevala kumbhaka) or by regulation of breath (pranayama).

Ramana Maharshi on pain and suffering to Good people

Ramana Maharshi on pain and suffering to Good people

Question : A person does something good but he sometimes suffers pain even in his right activities. Another does something wicked but is also happy. Why should it be so?

Ramana Maharshi : Pain or pleasure is the result of past Karma and not of the present Karma. Pain and pleasure alternate with each other. One must suffer or enjoy them patiently without being carried away by them. One must always try to hold on to the Self. When one is active one should not care for the results and must not be swayed by the pain or pleasure met with occasionally. He who is indifferent to pain or pleasure can alone be happy.

Question : Some one was once badly distracted by sexual thoughts. He fought against them. He fasted three days and prayed to God so that he might be free from such thoughts. Finally, he decided to ask Sri Bhagavan about it.
Sri Bhagavan listened to him and remained silent for about two minutes. Then He said: Well, the thoughts distracted you and you fought against them. That is good. Why do you continue to think of them now? Whenever such thoughts arise, consider to whom they arise and they will flee away from you.

Ramana Maharshi on state of emptiness, Nothingness

Ramana Maharshi on state of emptiness, Nothingness

Question : When all the thoughts are banished and the mind is still or enters into a state of nothingness or emptiness, what is the nature of effort needed on the part of the ‘seeker’ to have a pratyakshabhava of the ‘sought’ (e.g., seeing a mango as a mango)?
Ramana Maharshi : Who sees nothingness or emptiness? What is pratyaksha? Do you call
perception of mango pratyaksha? It involves the play of karma, karta, and karya (action, doer and deed). So it is relative and not absolute.

Because you see a thing now you say there is nothing afterwards (i.e., when you no longer see it). Both are functions of the mind. What lies behind both these assertions is pratyaksha. There is indriya pratyaksha (directly perceived by senses), manasa pratyaksha (directly perceived
by the mind) and sakshat pratyaksha (realised as the very Being). The last alone is true. The others are relative and untrue.

Question : If no effort is needed, can the perpetuated state of emptiness of mind be called the state of realisation?
Ramana Maharshi : Effort is needed so long as there is mind. The state of emptiness has been the bone of contention in all philosophies.

Question : Is there anything like pratyakshabhava in the state of realisation or is realisation merely felt or experienced as the very Being or Sthiti of the soul?
Ramana Maharshi : Pratyaksha is very being and it is not feeling, etc.

Question : Until the seeker realizes that he is the sought, the above questions arise for him (the former).
Ramana Maharshi : True. See if you are the seeker. The Self is often mistaken for the knower. Is there not the Self in deep sleep, i.e., nescience? Therefore the Self is beyond knower and knowledge. These doubts are in the realm of mind. To speak from this point of view, the advice is to keep the mind clear, and when rajas and tamas are wiped off, then the satva
mind alone exists. So the ‘I’ vanishes in the satva (oonadhal kan).

Jnana chakshus does not mean that it is an organ of perception like the other sense-organs. Jnanameva chakshuh. Television, etc., are not functions of jnana chakshus. So long as there is a subject and also an object it is only relative knowledge. Jnana lies beyond relative knowledge. It is absolute.

The Self is the source of subject and object. Now ignorance prevailing, the subject is taken to be the source. The subject is the knower and forms one of the triads whose components cannot
exist independent of one another. So the subject or the knower cannot be the ultimate Reality. Reality lies beyond subject and object. When realised there will be no room for doubt.
“Bhidyate hridayagranthih chhidyante sarvasamsayah.”

The heart knot is snapped; doubts are set at rest. That is called pratyaksha and not what you are thinking of. Avidya nasa is alone Self-Realisation. Self-Realisation is only owpacharika. Self-
Realisation is only a euphemism for elimination of ignorance.

Ramana Maharshi discourses on Jnana and Ajnana

Ramana Maharshi discourses on Jnana and Ajnana

One Swami of Sri Ramakrishna Mission had more questions to ask:
Swamiji, I went up the hill to see the asramas in which you lived in your youth. I have also read your life. May I know if you did not then feel that there is God to whom you should pray or that you should practise something in order to reach this state?

Ramana Maharshi : Read the life and you will understand. Jnana and ajnana are of the same degree of truth; that is, both are imagined by the ignorant; that is not true from the standpoint of the jnani.

Question : Is a jnani capable or likely to commit sins?
Ramana Maharshi : An ajnani sees someone as a jnani and identifies him with the body. Because he does not know the Self and, mistakes his body for the Self, he extends the same mistake to the state of the jnani. The jnani is therefore considered to be the physical frame.
Again since the ajnani, though he is not the doer, yet imagines himself to be the doer and considers the actions of the body his own, he thinks the jnani to be similarly acting when the body is active. But the jnani himself knows the Truth and is not confounded.

The state of a jnani cannot be determined by the ajnani and therefore the question troubles only the ajnani and never does it arise for the jnani. If he is a doer he must determine the nature of the actions. The Self cannot be the doer. Find out who is the doer and the Self
is revealed.

Question : There could be no advaita in actions. That is how the questions arose.
Ramana Maharshi : But the stanza says there should be. This ‘do’ is applicable only to the practiser and not the accomplished ones.

Question : Yes. I quite see it. Moreover, advaita cannot be practised in one’s dealings with the Guru. For, consistently with it, he cannot receive instructions.
Ramana Maharshi : Yes, the Guru is within and not without. A Tamil saint has said, “O Guru! always abiding within me, but manifesting now in human form only to guide and protect me!” What is within as the Self manifests in due course as Guru in human shape.

Question : So it amounts to this. To see a jnani is not to understand him. You see the jnani’s body and not his jnanam. One must therefore be a jnani to know a jnani.
Ramana Maharshi : The jnani sees no one as an ajnani. All are only jnanis in his sight. In the ignorant state one superimposes his ignorance on a jnani and mistakes him for a doer. In the state of jnana, the jnani sees nothing separate from the Self. The Self is all shining and
only pure jnana. So there is no ajnana in his sight.

There is an illustration for this kind of allusion or super-imposition. Two friends went to sleep side by side. One of them dreamt that both of them had gone on a long journey and had strange experiences. On waking up he recapitulated them and asked his friend if it was not so. The
other one simply ridiculed him saying that it was only his dream and could not affect the other.
So it is with the ajnani who superimposes his illusive ideas on others.

Regarding ajnana in early youth and jnana at the present time, Sri Bhagavan said: There is no jnana as it is commonly understood. The ordinary ideas of jnana and ajnana are only relative and false. They are not real and therefore not abiding. The true state is the non-dual Self. It is eternal and abides whether one is aware or not. It is like kanthabharana or the tenth man.

Question : Someone else points it out.
Ramana Maharshi : That one is not external. You mistake the body for the Guru. But the Guru does not think himself so. He is the formless Self. That is within you; he appears without only to guide you.

Ramana Maharshi on World Peace, Good Conduct

Ramana Maharshi on World Peace, Good Conduct

Question : What is the best way to work for world peace?
Ramana Maharshi : What is the world? What is peace, and who is the worker? The world is not in your sleep and forms a projection of your mind in your jagrat [waking state]. It is therefore an idea and nothing else. Peace is absence of disturbance. The disturbance is due to the arising of thoughts in the individual, which is only the ego rising up from pure consciousness.
To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide as pure consciousness. If one remains at peace oneself, there is only peace everywhere.

Question : If it is a question of doing something one considers wrong, and thereby saving someone else from a great wrong, should one do it or refrain?
Ramana Maharshi : What is right and wrong? There is no standard by which to judge something to be right and another to be wrong. Opinions differ according to the nature of the individual and according to the surroundings. They are again ideas and nothing more. Do not worry about them but get rid of thoughts instead. If you always remain in the right, then right will prevail in the world.

Question : Will not right conduct be enough to secure salvation?
Ramana Maharshi : Salvation for whom? Who wants salvation? And what is right conduct? What is conduct? And what is right? Who is to judge what is right and what is wrong? According to previous samskaras, each one regards something or other as right. Only when the reality is known can the truth about right and wrong be known. The best course is to find out who wants this salvation. Tracing this `who' or ego to its original source is the right conduct for everyone.

Question : Will not the practice of good conduct [nitya karmas] lead to salvation? Several books state that it will.
Ramana Maharshi : It is said so in books. Who denies that good conduct is good or that it will eventually lead you to the goal? Good conduct or sat karma purifies the chitta or mind and gives you chitta suddhi [pure mind]. The pure mind attains jnana, which is what is meant by salvation. So, eventually, jnana must be reached, that is, the ego must be traced to its source. But to those to whom this does not appeal, we have to say that sat karmas lead to chitta suddhi, and chitta suddhi will lead to right knowledge or jnana, and that in its turn gives salvation.

Question : What about motives? Are the motives for performing actions not important?
Ramana Maharshi : Whatever is done lovingly, with righteous purity and with peace of mind, is a good action. Everything which is done with the stain of desire and with agitation filling the mind is classified as a bad action. Do not perform any good action [karma] through a bad means, thinking `It is sufficient if it bears good fruit.' Because, if the means is bad, even a good action will turn out to be a bad one. Therefore, even the means of doing actions should be pure.

Ramana Maharshi on God, Will of God, Creator

Ramana Maharshi on God, Will of God, Creator

Question : What is the relationship between God and the world? Is he the creator or sustainer of it?
Ramana Maharshi : Sentient and insentient beings of all kinds are performing actions only by the mere presence of the sun, which rises in the sky without any volition. Similarly all actions are done by the Lord without any volition or desire on his part. In the mere presence of the sun, the magnifying lens emits fire, the lotus-bud blossoms, the water-lily closes and all the countless creatures perform actions and rest.

The order of the great multitude of worlds is maintained by the mere presence of God in the same manner as the needle moves in front of a magnet, and as the moonstone emits water, the waterlily blossoms and the lotus closes in front of the moon.

In the mere presence of God, who does not have even the least volition, the living beings, who are engaged in innumerable activities, after embarking upon many paths to which they are drawn according to the course determined by their own karmas, finally realize the futility of action, turn back to Self and attain liberation.

The actions of living beings certainly do not go and affect God, who transcends the mind, in the same manner as the activities of the world do not affect that sun and as the qualities of the conspicuous four elements [earth, water, fire and air] do not affect the limitless space.

Question : Why is samsara - creation and manifestation so full of sorrow and evil ?
Ramana Maharshi : God's will!

Question : Why does God will it so?
Ramana Maharshi : It is inscrutable. No motive can be attributed to that power - no desire no end to achieve can be asserted of that one infinite, all-wise and all-powerful being. God is untouched by activities, which take place in his presence. Compare the sun and the world
activities. There is no meaning in attributing responsibility and motive to the one before it becomes many.

Question : Does everything happen by the will of God?
Ramana Maharshi : It is not possible for anyone to do anything opposed to the ordinance of God, who has the ability to do everything. Therefore to remain silent at the feet of God, having given up all the anxieties of the wicked, defective and delusive mind, is best.

Question : Is there a separate being Iswara [personal God] who is the rewarder of virtue and punisher of sins? Is there a God?
Ramana Maharshi : Yes.

Ramana Maharshi on Eight limbs of knowledge, jnana ashtanga

Ramana Maharshi on Eight limbs of knowledge, jnana ashtanga

Question : What are the eight limbs of knowledge (jnana ashtanga)?
Ramana Maharshi : The eight limbs are those which have been already mentioned, viz., yama, niyama etc., but differently defined:

(1) Yama: This is controlling the aggregate of sense-organs, realizing the defects that are present in the world consisting of the body, etc.

(2) Niyama: This is maintaining a stream of mental modes that relate to the Self and rejecting the contrary modes. In other words, it means love that arises uninterruptedly for the
Supreme Self.

(3) Asana: That with the help of which constant meditation on Brahman is made possible with ease is asana.

(4) Pranayama: Rechaka (exhalation) is removing the two unreal aspects of name and form from the objects constituting the world, the body etc., puraka (inhalation) is grasping the
three real aspects, existence, consciousness and bliss, which are constant in those objects, and kumbhaka is retaining those aspects thus grasped.

(5) Pratyahara: This is preventing name and form which have been removed from re-entering the mind.

(6) Dharana: This is making the mind stay in the Heart, without straying outward, and realizing that one is the Self itself which is Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

(7) Dhyana: This is meditation of the form ‘I am only pure consciousness’. That is, after leaving aside the body which consists of five sheaths, one enquires ‘Who am I?’, and as a result of that, one stays as ‘I’ which shines as the Self.

(8) Samadhi: When the ‘I-manifestation’ also ceases, there is (subtle) direct experience. This is samadhi. For pranayama, etc., detailed here, the disciplines such as asana, etc., mentioned in connection with yoga are not necessary. The limbs of knowledge may be practised at all places and at all times. Of yoga and knowledge, one may follow whichever is pleasing to one, or both, according to circumstances. The great teachers say that forgetfulness is the root of all evil, and is death for those who seek release so one should rest the mind in one’s Self and should never forget the Self: this is the aim.

If the mind is controlled, all else can be controlled. The distinction between yoga with eight limbs and knowledge with eight limbs has been set forth elaborately in the sacred texts; so only the substance of this teaching has been given here.