notes 8

Nurtureoneslife:

Question: Why is the individual born into this world?

Mataji: To fulfill his own desires, to experience happiness and sorrow. 

Question: Is it not possible to go beyond desire and experience?

Mataji: Is everything is possible, why should not this be possible as well.

Question: Is there any short cut towards this goal?

Mataji: By the grace of God such short cut may sometimes be found.

.................

Question: When can we get the grace of God?

Mataji: It will come whenever necessary. 

Question: How can we know it?

Mataji: When you have eaten, you know that your hunger is appeased. Similarly, God's grace is known. 

- MATRI UPADESHAMRITA.

"The nectar of Mother's teachings." Comprises excerpts from various sources of Sri Ma Anandamayi's spiritual instructions on selected subjects.

Someone asked, "How was it that St. Paul who hated Jesus Christ so violently that he wanted to kill him later became his most ardent disciple?"

Sri Ramana replied, 

"Whether it be love or hate, it is the thought of Him that takes you there."

- As the Flower Sheds its Fragrance.

Atmananda. Diary Leaves Part 1.(1947-1954) page 21.

A flower doesn't make an effort to spread it's fragrance..Right? 

Wake up! 

You cannot make an effort either to love yourself or anybody..

Realize that you are love..

Relax..

Whatever is yours is always yours..

The one who goes away was never yours even before..

Know this..

Feel happier and lighter than before..

Talk 141

Jnana, once revealed, takes time to steady itself. The Self is certainly within the direct experience of everyone, but not as one imagines it to be. It is only as it is. This Experience is samadhi. Just as fire remains without scorching against incantations or other devices but scorches otherwise, so also the Self remains veiled by vasanas and reveals itself when there are no vasanas. 

Owing to the fluctuation of the vasanas, jnana takes time to steady itself. Unsteady jnana is not enough to check rebirths. Jnana cannot remain unshaken side by side with vasanas. True, that in the proximity of a great Master, the vasanas will cease to be active, the mind becomes still and samadhi results, similar to fire not scorching because of other devices. Thus the disciple gains true knowledge and right experience in the presence of the Master. To remain unshaken in it further efforts are necessary. He will know it to be his real Being and thus be liberated even while alive. Samadhi with closed eyes is certainly good, but one must go further until it is realised that actionlessness and action are not hostile to each other. Fear of loss of samadhi while one is active is the sign of ignorance. Samadhi must be the natural life of everyone.

There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until it is realised effort is necessary. After tasting such Bliss, even once one will repeatedly try to regain it. Having once experienced the Bliss of Peace no one would like to be out of it or engage himself otherwise. 

It is as difficult for a Jnani to engage in thoughts as it is for an ajnani to be free from thought. The common man says that he does not know himself; he thinks many thoughts and cannot remain without thinking.

Any kind of activity does not affect a Jnani; his mind remains ever in eternal Peace.

Understand, that there is nothing warranting reverence or religious awe, in the spontaneous process of manifestation.

*******

The life of a sage appears to others, to be as purposeless as the actions of an infant.

The infant lives in the bliss of ignorance, while the self-realized sage lives in the bliss, beyond both ignorance and knowledge.

In fact, the sage is no longer even an individual, in spite of the presence of a fully developed intellect.

 

Ramesh Balsekar

10th April

The one who follows the thought 

is also a thought! 

The one who follows the thought 

IS in thought. 

When you know that both are thoughts, 

you are home. 

You are not at home, you ARE home. 

Then allow thoughts to arise 

and allow them to be followed. 

You remain as That unmoved 

and unconcerned Being. 

This is the highest understanding.

♥️ Papaji

God can never be close. God can never be close because it would mean that there is someplace where God is not. God is infinite. We cannot exist outside of the infinite. Therefore, God is our Reality. ~Mooji

Everything happens in its own time. The one who is ready for the absolute knowledge will be made somehow to hear of it and follow it up. He will realize that Atmavidya is the highest of all virtues and also the end of the journey. 

🕉 Ramana Maharishi

Life is desire. How can one live without desire?

"Mind is full of desires, but you are not the mind. You know the mind, therefore, you are before it, you are apart from it. Find this understanding and you will discover with great delight that you are this unaffected presence. You live well without mind. Use mind for practical things only; this is the best use of the mind."

Mooji

[Before I Am]

The true karma, yoga, bhakti or jnana consists in finding out who it is that does the karma, or seeks reunion through yoga, or feels separation from his Lord, or is in ignorance. 

All these do not exist without the ‘I’. 

So to remain as the ‘I’ is the Truth.

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. 

Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream we call 

dream. 

Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. 

The screen is real, 

the pictures are mere shadows on it.

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Of the devotees, who is the greatest?

He who gives himself up to the Self that is God is the most excellent devotee. Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self. 

Whatever burdens are thrown on God, He bears them. 

Since the supreme power of God makes all things move, why should we, without submitting ourselves to it, constantly worry

ourselves with thoughts as to what should be done and how, and what should not be done and how not? 

We know that the train carries all loads, so after getting on it why should we carry our small luggage on our head to our discomfort, instead of putting it down in the train and feeling at ease?

- The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. 

Who Am I? (Nan Yar?). (18).

Talk 289

Devotee: Having heard this truth, why does not one remain content?

Maharshi: Because samskaras have not been destroyed. Unless the samskaras cease to exist, there will always be doubt and confusion (sandeha, viparita). 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. This truth mentioned is in the stage of the hearing of the Truth (sravana). That is not drdha (firm). 

For making it unshaken, one has to practise reflection (manana) and one-pointedness (nididhyasana). These two processes scorch the seeds of vasanas so that they are rendered ineffective.

Some extraordinary persons get drdha jnana (unshaken knowledge) even on hearing the Truth only once (sakrchhravana matrena). Because they are krthopasakah (advanced seekers), whereas the akrthopasakah (raw seekers) take longer to gain drdha jnana (unshaken knowledge). 

People ask: “How did ignorance (avidya) arise at all?” We have to say to them: “Ignorance never arose. It has no real being. That which is, is only vidya (knowledge).”

Devotee: Why then do I not realise it?

Maharshi: Because of the samskaras. However, find out who does not realise and what he does not realise. Then it will be clear that there is no avidya (ignorance).

Be still !

"If you are aware of the mortal nature of your life, where is the time to get angry with someone or to quarrel with someone or to do anything stupid in life?"

Once you come to terms with death, and you are conscious that you will die, you will want to make every moment of your life as beautiful as possible. Those who are constantly aware of the mortal and fragile nature of Existence do not want to miss even a single moment; they will naturally be aware. They cannot take anything for granted; they will live very purposefully. Only people who believe they are immortal can fight and fight to death.

Sadhguru Isha Foundation

The sense of doership is false.

You are a witness, so remain like that.

~Nisargadatta Maharaj

The mind knowing its own form of light 

[its true form of mere consciousness, the real Self],

having given up [knowing] external objects, alone is true knowledge. 

Note: When, having given up attending to and knowing external objects, the mind attends to and knows Self (its own true form of consciousness, from which it was deriving light to know those external objects), that alone is true knowledge or Jnana. 

The Sanskrit version of this verse has been misunderstood by some people to mean, ‘The mind which is withdrawn from what-is-seen, is the seeing of one’s own nature of consciousness; 

(that itself is) the seeing of the reality’. However, in the original Tamil version of this verse Sri Bhagavan has left no room for any ambiguity since He has clearly placed emphasis only on the positive aspect of Self-enquiry (‘the mind knowing its own form of light’), and He has mentioned 

the negative aspect (‘having given up external objects’) only as a preliminary requisite. Merely giving up knowing external objects (or withdrawing the mind form what-is-seen) is insufficient by itself, because even though the mind gives up knowing external objects when going to sleep, it does not thereby attain true knowledge. If it is to attain true knowledge, the mind must not only give up knowing external objects, but must also make the positive effort of attending to its own 

form, the first person feeling ‘I’, in order to know ‘Who am I?’ 

Therefore, in the light of the original Tamil version of this verse, the Sanskrit version should be understood to mean, ‘The mind, which is withdrawn from what-is-seen (drisya), seeing its own nature of consciousness, is the seeing of the reality (tattva-darsanam)’.

- UPADESA UNDIYAR. Verse 16.

Translation & Commentary 

by Michael James.

When a man looks for experience,

he becomes the body. When he looks

for knowledge, he becomes the mind.

When he looks for God, he becomes

the Heart. When he looks for Truth,

he becomes nothing 💛

Mooji