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.
~~~~~~~
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
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
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.
CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY
Grace is within you; if it were external it would be useless.Grace is the Self; you are never out of its reach. If you remember the guru, it is because you have been prompted by the Self.
Isn't grace already there? Is there a moment when grace is not operating in you?
Your remembrance of the guru is the fore
runner of grace, Grace is both the response and the stimulus. That is the Self and that is grace. There is no cause for anxiety.
Q: But isn't a guru's grace or God's grace necessary for one' s progress with vichara?
M: Yes, but the enquiry that you are making is itself guru's grace or God's grace.
p. 149
SADNESS IS NOT NATURAL
Sadness is always a sign that you're believing a stressful
thought that isn't true for you. It's a constriction, and it feels bad.
Conventional wisdom says differently, but the truth is that sadness isn't rational, it isn't a natural response, and it can't ever help you. It just indicates the loss of reality, the loss of the awareness of love.
Sadness is the war with what IS. It's a tantrum. You can experience it only when you're arguing with God. When the mind is clear, there isn't any sadness. There can't be.
What does compassion look like? At a funeral, just eat the cake. You don't have to know what to do. It's revealed to you.
Someone comes into your arms, and the kind words speak
themselves; you're not doing it. Compassion isn't a doing.
Whether or not you're suffering over their suffering, you're standing or you're sitting. But one way you're comfortable, the other way you're not.
You don’t have to feel bad to act kindly. On the contrary:
the less you suffer the kinder you naturally become. And if compassion means wanting others to be free of suffering, how can you want for others what you won’t give yourself?
- Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy
I am here to meet you, but not superficially.
The invitation is for a much deeper meeting.
The true meeting is where you yourself, as a person, disappear.
It happens often, naturally, but you don’t remember.
Even throughout a single day it occurs;
when you are without self-reference,
when you are in the pure state, the natural, primal mind
—but not being conscious of it.
The opportunity here is to wake up,
to be free from the influence of the psychological mind,
free from the confusion or doubt as to your true nature.
And not merely as an intellectual conviction!
Awakening is a good term for this,
because then you will see that we have been sleeping.
Eyes wide open, limbs moving, mouth speaking, mind thinking
—but still sleeping, and not aware of your true nature.
How rare it is in the human kingdom
that beings are aware of that silence,
that space that is unmoving, that does not age,
it does not grow, it doesn’t expand or contract,
and yet everything that moves, that appears or disappears,
take their birth from Here.
Your calling is to discover this consciously, powerfully.
Only then will you be able to face the storms
that come from the body-mind identity,
and the psychological noise that comes from personhood.
You will see through all of these things.
They will not overwhelm you anymore.
I want to remind you that it is possible to be free of such states.
It is not difficult to awaken to the True.
What seems difficult is to overcome the reflex
to go back into the old regime of identity
—that will happen for a time.
The tendency to want to protect our projections and attachments
will in fact create this feeling of separation
and will slow you down.
But don’t despair!
All of this is going somewhere very beautiful.
And where is that? To You. Right Here.
Sitting inside the heart of your own Being.
The drive, the natural evolution of conscious beings,
is to return to the Source.
Not out-out-out, but in-in-in…
there is no other place for you to be proven than Here.
I present to you a powerful invitation,
a powerful claim which I hope you will fulfill
by coming to that recognition irrefutably for yourself.
Recognise the divinity behind the façade of the person.
I wonder if you are up for it.
For once you should take this invitation personally.
It is for You. Come with that attitude. Just to be open.
You are not being asked to create the Self.
It is not about creativity or imagination.
Even a blind man can see what is being pointed to here,
for it is beyond the realm of names and forms.
Don’t think you know your limits.
It is better to have a sense that you are unlimited
than that you are limited and knowable.
Keep your doors open.
Not for who may come in, but for who may come out.
~ Mooji
