Self inquiry

Every night when you sleep you experience leaving everything behind - your relations and friends, your house, your country, the mountains, and rivers. You don't see anything when you are asleep and you have no trouble; you are happy. This is a very short experience which we have every night due to the compassion of your own Self; giving you a hint to discover Eternal Bliss. This is for a very short time. When you go to sleep you are at peace. The only troublesome states are waking and dreaming. Who wakes up and gets into trouble? Who dreams? The dreamer gets into trouble, but no one knows who they are and where they have to return to. This is so simple that every reasonable person can solve it, here and now.

We speak every day about this which has been lost. You turn outside to a guide who is deceiving you and you trust that guide. Who is that guide? It is your own mind. Although he has always deceived you, you return to the same guide because you are used to him. He has been your guide since the beginning, but he has always deceived you. Now ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” for the first time. This question has never been asked. You have simply trusted the mind to tell you what to do and you have obeyed. This is the time for all of us here to ask this question. Do away with this guide and you will return to your Eternal Home, to Existence, to Consciousness, to Bliss.

Is there any time when you are not in the mind, when you stop your race after pleasures of the senses, when you simply see? Keep still and this guide disappears, simply with the question, “Who are you?” Then you will know what the mind is, and it disappears. This question has never been asked. This guide has never been challenged before. Wherever you have gone until now you have allowed it to deceive you. It has told you this or that is good, and you accepted it - that this is a world of pleasure, and you accepted it - that these gods will give you pleasures in heavens, and you accepted it. When you challenge the mind it disappears instantly. This is why every day we emphasize the question, “Who are you?”

Man is tool

From: ~~~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 63.

Bhagavan:

The difficulty is
that man thinks he is the doer;
it is a mistake.

It is the higher power
which does everything
and man is only a tool.

If he accepts that position
he is free from troubles,
otherwise he courts them.

~~~~~~~

Spirituality person behavior

Q: Some people seem to keep spirituality separate from life. Why is this? Is awareness only when you are meditating?

Sadhguru: If your spirituality is time-bound, from five to seven in the morning or whatever time, you are just trying to be spiritual; there is nothing spiritual about you.

If your spirituality is time-bound, from five to seven in the morning or whatever time, you are just trying to be spiritual; there is nothing spiritual about you.

What conclusions have you made about being spiritual? If you have made the conclusion that being spiritual means speaking kindly to everyone, you are mistaken. If someone is communicating with different aspects of life in different ways, out of their understanding, out of their sensitivity, out of their own experience – they know how to communicate with a baby, a buffalo, a mountain, they know how to speak to the bus driver – if they know it out of this awareness, then it is wonderful and fine. That is how life should be.

If someone, out of their so-called spirituality, is trying to speak with whatever they believe is kindness or goodness, to every aspect of life, they are just moralistic and stupid. Maybe they are good people, but they have no sense of life. There is no inner experience; it is just coming from their goodness and morality. They may make good citizens, but they will not know anything of the beyond.

If one is communicating in different ways with different aspects of life because of theirunawareness or prejudices, that is a different aspect altogether. How one talks to a bus driver may be a way of seeing where that person is, or may not be at all. It is best that you do not judge a person by the way they are speaking to someone at a certain moment. If there is a pattern of addressing something kindly and another aspect of life rudely, then you know it is coming from ignorance.

Spirituality – Not a Moral Code

First, let us understand that spirituality is not a moral code. Spirituality means you are beginning to experience that which is beyond the physical. It has nothing to do with the way you communicate and handle the world around you. The way you do that is just a question of your capability, intelligence, exposure, inclination, and what kind of objectives you have in your life.

Spirituality means you are beginning to experience that which is beyond the physical.

There was a yogi who lived many decades ago. Once, he was sitting in the forest, absolutely blissful, but if people came anywhere near him, he threw stones at them. He never hit anyone, but he threw stones at them like a mad man. As far as people were concerned, he was a madman throwing stones. It was only much later when people looked back, they were able to see that not once did he hit anyone. He always made sure of that. He just did not want people around him. He knew that if people came, they would ask for things, and because of the way he was – his energy was in a certain state – naturally miracles would happen. Then people would gather and mess up his whole life. So if people came anywhere near him, he would throw stones at them.

If you go by one’s behavior, about what he is doing or what he is saying, you will definitely come to a wrong conclusion, a wrong judgment. If you had knownSadhguru Sri Brahma, if somebody came and said something stupid to him, he would just kick them – not out of arrogance or hatred. That was how he dealt with people. I don’t do that. This is not because I am more realized or less realized, it is simply from being a little smarter with the world. How you operate is just a question of your inclination, intelligence and exposure. It has got nothing to do with your spirituality.

http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/spirituality-not-moral-code/

Surrender

SURRENDER

Q: What is unconditional surrender?

Ramana: If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be thought of. Either the thoughts are
eliminated by holding on to the root-thought ‘I’, or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the higher power. These are the only two ways for realization.

Q: Does not total or complete surrender require that one should not have left even the desire for liberation or God?

Ramana: Complete surrender does require that you have no desire of your own. You must be satisfied with whatever God gives you and that means having no desires of your own.

Q: Now that I am satisfied on that point, I want to know what the steps are by which I could achieve surrender.

Ramana: There are two ways. One is looking into the source of ‘I’ and merging into that source. The other is feeling ‘I am helpless by myself, God alone is all-powerful and except by throwing myself completely on him, there is no other means of safety for me.’ By this method one gradually develops the conviction that God alone exists and that the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation.

Q: I find surrender is easier. I want to adopt that path.

Ramana: By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the one. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage ‘Thou art all’ and ‘Thy will be done’.

Chapter 7 Be As You Are edited by David Godman

Image from Sat Temple

Self realization

8th January, 1935
TALK 14.

An old man came and sat in the hall. Maharshi was reading Sarma’ Sanskrit recension of Arunachala Akshara Manamalai (the first of The Five Hymns to Arunachala). The man asked softly: “It is said that realisation is beyond expression; and expression always fails to describe the realisation. How is it?”

Maharshi.: The point has been mentioned in Arunachala Ashtakam, Verse three where it is admitted that, although the expression of realisation is impossible, still its existence is indicated. Soon after there were visible signs of emotion in the man. His breath was deep and hard and he fell on the floor prostrating humbly and got up only after one or two minutes. Remaining calm a brief while, he left the place. Evidently the man had some illumination. He sought confirmation from Maharshi, who responded fittingly. He found confirmation, and humbly and feelingly acknowledged the divine intercession on his behalf.