Self

In deep sleep you are not a self-conscious person, yet you are alive. When you are alive and conscious, but no longer self-conscious, you are not a person anymore.

Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
86. The Unknown is the Home of the Real

Grace

SRI MURUGANAR SINGS

123 The nature of His grace, conferred through the bliss of divine silence, was such that it established in me an unshakeable devotion that I experienced as a deep love for my Lord, a love in which my bondage was ended and my mind dissolved in the limitless expanse of the Supreme Self.

124 Setting me on the straight path of true knowledge He led me to the glorious goal of union with him in the one-pointed state of holy silence. My heart's gracious jewel, true wisdom's sun, He dissipated the dark clouds of the senses' illusory world.

126 When the Lord's gracious gaze fell upon me, my heart was filled with the Self’s divine radiance in which all distinctions are obliterated so that my evil and treacherous ego faded in the spreading glory of divine realization's dawn, and was no more.

127 Gladly He ruled me, true wisdom's flame, and now within my heart where in joy I made for Him a home I can perceive no other. Only He remains, the Supreme Self, manifesting as consciousness’ pure light, empty and yet replete.

Sri Muruganar in 'Sri Ramana Anubhuti', transl by Robert Butler

SELF-REMEMBRANCE

SELF-REMEMBRANCE

Remembering the Self, one’s real nature, without faltering even slightly,
is the eminent victory of true jnana.

With your consciousness hold fast to and never abandon the substratum, your real nature, the Supreme that can neither be held nor relinquished.

Is the Self something far away that you have to touch? The higher Self exists as one but it is only your thoughts that make you feel it is not.
You can neither think about it nor forget it.

Other than the thought of the Self, any other thought you may associate with, is a mere mental construct, foreign to that Self.

Thinking of the Self is to abide as that tranquil consciousness. Padam, the true swarupa, can neither be remembered nor forgotten.

The Self is self-luminous without darkness and light, and is the reality which is self-manifest. Therefore, one should not think of it as this or that.

All such thoughts would only end in bondage. The purport of meditation on the Self is to make the mind take the ‘form’ of the Self. In the middle of the heart-cave is the pure Brahman directly manifest as the Self in the form of ‘I-I’. Can there be greater ignorance than to think of It in manifold ways, without knowing it as aforementioned?

-Padamalai p 76, 77

Free your mind

LESSONS OF DIPA MA

Free your mind:
"Your mind is all stories.”

Dipa Ma did not say that the mind is mostly stories; she said that there is nothing in the mind but stories. These are the personal dramas that create and maintain the sense of individual identity: who we are, what we do, what we are and are not capable of. Without our being aware of it, the endless series of such thoughts drives and limits our lives. And yet those stories are without substance.

Dipa Ma challenged students' beliefs in their stories, their attachment to the stories. When someone said, "I can’t do that,'' she would ask, "Are you sure?" or "Who says?" or "Why not?

She encouraged students to observe the stories, to see their emptiness, and to go beyond the limitations they impose.
“Let go of thinking," she urged. "Meditation is not about thinking.”

At the same time, Dipa Ma taught that the mind is not an enemy to be gotten rid of. Rather, in the process of befriending the mind, in getting to know and accept it, it ceases to be a problem. Dipa Ma knew the freedom that follows that process; she lived in a state of thought-free awareness.

In a group interview, Jack Kornfield innocently asked, "What is it like in your mind?"

Dipa Ma smiled, closed her eyes, and quietly answered,

"In my mind there are three things: concentration, loving-kindess, and peace."

Jack, not sure if he had heard correctly, asked, "Is that all?"
“Yes, that is all,” Dipa Ma replied.

- Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master

Dream

Most of us are stuck in a dream world.
We're stuck in a dream world because it presses down on us.
It appears so real.
Things are happening every day.
Yet, one day you will awaken.
It's the same as awakening from your dream at night.
There is no difference.
When you awaken to the dream at night, do you have any interest in the dream?
You may for a while.
If you're into dreams, you may try to decipher what the dream means, for a little bit.
But after a while you forget all about the dream.
So it is with this world.
When a person awakens, or a person becomes liberated, they are able to see the dream, but they know they are not part of it.
They also observe everything, but they are not part of the dream.
The world no longer has any power over them, over the awakened person, the liberated person.
The world has no power whatsoever over you once you're liberated.

Robert Adams 

197 - Why Should We Do Anything? - November 5, 1992

Papaji Says

Papaji Says: "The Atman consumes you, giving you eternal existence, eternal consciousness, and eternal bliss. And nobody knows it. Everyone is searching outside through the senses. Whatever you see, wherever you see name and form, it is not true. These names and forms will never give you peace or love. Whatever you see, feel, or experience through pleasurable sense objects ultimately will leave you hungry." https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.papajidaily

नामजपाचे महत्त्व

  नामजपाचे महत्व :
मुंबईमध्ये गोंधळेकर नावाचे गृहस्थ होते त्यांचे महाराजावर प्रेम होते ते नामस्मरण करीत असत सन १९३३ मध्ये त्यांना काळपुळी झाली ,मुंबईतील एका चांगल्या डॉक्टरने त्यांचे ऑपरेशन केले,पण पाठीवर ज्या ठिकाणी कापले होते त्या ठिकाणी पुष्कळ मोठी जखम झाली होती,त्या जखमेमध्ये पु न होता ती लवकर बरी व्हावी म्हणून तिचे ड्रेसिंग डॉक्टर रोज करत ,ड्रेसिंगच्या वेळी जखम धुताना गोंधळेकराना अक्षरशः प्राणांतिक वेदना होत असत एक दिवशी त्यांनी महाराजांना प्रार्थना केली "महाराज देहाचा भोग हा भोगलाच पाहिजे हे मला कबुल आहे ,हि जखम बरी व्हायला जो वेळ लागेल तो लागुदया त्यामध्ये मी नामस्मरण करण्याचा प्रयत्न करीन,परंतु रोज ड्रेसिंगच्या वेळी ज्या प्राणांतिक वेदना मला होतात त्या इतक्या भयंकर असतात कि माझा जीव कासावीस होतो, मला आपला वेदांत नको,माझ्या या वेदना कमी करा नाहीतर माझा प्राण जाउद्या " अशी अगदी कळवळून प्रार्थना केल्यावर "काळजी करू नये ,ड्रेसिंगची वेळ आली कि नामस्मरणाला सुरवात करावी राम वेदना कमी करेल " हे उत्तर त्यांना मिळाले. दुसर्या दिवशी सकाळी डॉक्टर ड्रेसिंग साठी आले इकडे गोंधळेकरानी नामस्मरण सुरु ठेवले कौतुकाची गोष्ट अशी कि त्यादिवशी डॉक्टरने जखम धुवून टाकलेली त्यांना कळली देखील नाही पुढे आठ दिवस ड्रेसिंग होत होते पण त्यांना त्याचा अजिबात त्रास झाला नाही त्यातून बरे झाल्यावर ते लोकांना सांगत कि " आपण मनापासून नामस्मरण केले तर महाराज खात्रीने आपल्यापाशी असल्याचा अनुभव येतो ,काहीही झाले तरी आपण नाम सोडता कामा नये. . या प्रसंगावरून नामजपाचे सामर्थ्य आपल्या लक्षात येते , नामजपाने प्रारब्धाने आपल्या वाटय़ाला आलेले भोग,व दुःख सौम्य होतात. प्रारब्धाचे भोग हे कोणालाही चुकले नाहीत ते माणसाच्या देहाला व मनाला ते भोगावेच लागतात. परंतु आपले रामाशी नामरूपाने सततचे अनुसंधान असेल तर ते भोग आपल्याला जाणवत नाहीत नामाने देहाचे ममत्व कमी होते. अखंड नामाने मीपणाची जाणीव नकळत कमी होते व "मी कर्ता" हि भावना नाहीशी होते,व "राम कर्ता" हि भावना निर्माण होते,. भगवंताच्या अखंड नामस्मरणात इतके सामर्थ्य आहे. की माणसांवर असलेला दुष्कर्माचा प्रभाव कमी होऊन त्याची वृत्ती सात्त्विक बनते. व सद्विचार आणि सद्वर्तनाकडे वळते. विषयासक्त आणि चंचल, अशांत मन, शांत आणि स्थिर होते. महाराज म्हणतात, भक्तांनो, आपल्या जिभेचा उपयोग केवळ भगवंत नामासाठीच करा. कोणालाही वाईट बोलु नका, कोणाचे वाईट चिंतू नका. सत्कर्मे करा, आणि पुण्य जोडा. आपल्या वाटय़ाला जे भोग येतील ते राम नामात सदैव दंग राहून हसतहसत भोगा. नामावर पूर्ण विश्वास ठेवा. कारण नामाच्या सामर्थ्यानेच प्रारब्धातील दुखः कमी होणार आहे.