A sage, experiencing his own Self shining out through every name and form, expressing Its own dynamism through every circumstance, happy or sorrowful, is eternally in unison with harmony and rhythm amidst the discordant noise of life. The greatest potencies, the greatest joys, and the amplest successes in life are his. The heaviest sorrow cannot shake him even a wee-bit.
A sage does not belong to any particular culture, race, religion, or community. He belongs to all. For, all belong to him!
Why does there seem to be so few awakened beings?
On our planet at the moment it is said we are at our highest population count:
7.5 billion human beings.
Where are the buddhas? Where are the Christs, the Shivas?
Where are the Anandamayi Mayi Mas of today?
It is you, waiting for it to come through or in the form of another.
It is your Self all along. All is in You, the Self.
Then why, you may say, is it so hard to know and be this?
It is not hard. It is not hard. It is neither easy nor hard.
It simply is.
It is just your mind that is divided
and makes all these excuses and postponements.
Mind seems to have a great influence in matters of identity;
But over who? For whom does the mind work?
To whom does it say, 'You’re not good enough?’
Is it not to the 'person'?
Who is none other than the Self disguised as a person.
You are the indivisible Self.
You are the absolute Self in its mode as conscious presence,
its earliest and purest manifestation as beingness,
in its purest sense as presence.
It is the sense of presence that has the capacity
to be transformed into the sense of personhood.
It is the sense of the person that is easily misled
by the voice of the psychological mind, or the ego.
You must understand these things thoroughly.
In ignorance, it can appear we are multi-layered;
possessing three kinds of 'I':
the Self, the presence—'I am', and the ego person.
As person, we are ever changeful and unstable
unlike the state of presence.
But you are this one, single Self—timelessly perfect
and unchanging, behind the illusion of personhood.
It is only a question of being totally aware of it.
~ Mooji
२ नोव्हेंबर - आसक्ति भगवंताची असावी.
कोणत्याही धर्माची आपण कधीही निंदा करू नये. प्रत्येक धर्मात निरनिराळे विधी लावलेले असतात. धर्माला विधींची फार जरूरी असते. विषयसुद्धा आम्ही विधीने भोगतो. आम्ही गंगेवर स्नानाला जातो असे म्हणतो. खरोखर, मनाने आपण गंगेवर गेलो तरी चालू शकते. तेव्हा गंगेला स्नानाला जाऊन अपवित्र मनाने परत आलो तर त्या स्नानाचा काय उपयोग ? नाम घेऊन विषयाचा धंदा केला तर काय उपयोग ? कर्माची बंधने तुटावीत म्हणून शास्त्राची पाळावी लागतात. देवाला पैसा देण्याचा हेतू हाच की, माझा लोभ कमी व्हावा. खरे म्हणजे, आपल्याला कर्म केल्याशिवाय करमतच नाही. पण आपण फळाची आशा उगीचच करीत बसतो; इथेच आपले चुकते. काहीही न करता राहणे मनुष्याला शक्य नसते. उदाहरणार्थ, एकाला सांगितले की, हातपाय न हलवता, काही न करता, स्वस्थ रहा, तर ती त्याला शिक्षाच होईल. जर काहीतरी करणे जरूरच आहे, तर उचितच गोष्ट करावी. जी गोष्ट बंधनाला कारण होते ती विपरीतच असते. कर्तेपणाच्या अभिमानाने केलेले कर्महे असे विपरीत कर्म होय.ज्ञानावस्थेत झालेले कर्म पूर्णच असते. त्या अगोदरचे कर्म पूर्ण होत नाही. धर्म तरी काय सांगतो ? तर प्रत्येकाने आपले कर्तव्य करावे. पण कर्तव्य तरी कशासाठी करायचे ? तर ते भगवंतासाठी होय. भगवंताच्या ठिकाणी श्रद्धा ठेवून कर्तव्यकरावे, तरच मानव सुखी होईल.सुधारणांनी सोई केल्या, म्हणजे देहसुख वाढविले. त्याने परावलंबित्व मात्र आले; आणि परावलंबनात खरे सुख नाही. लौकिक विद्या ही खरी विद्या नव्हे, अविद्याच ती. विद्येने एक समाधान तरी मिळाले पाहिजे, किंवा हमखास पैसा तरी मिळाला पाहिजे. या दोन्ही गोष्टी तिने साधत नाहीत. विद्वानालासुद्धा 'मला नोकरी द्या' म्हणून अर्ज करावा लागतो;,म्हणजे ती विद्या स्वयंप्रकाशी नाही. जीवनाला हवा, पाणी, अन्नया वस्तू आवश्यकच आहेत. त्या कशाही मिळवाव्यात. पण बाकीच्या वस्तू काही आवडीखातर, तर काही लौकिकात जरूर म्हणून पाहिजेत. पैसा असेल तर दैन्यवाणे राहू नये, पण त्यामध्ये आसक्ति असू नये. आसक्ति भगवंताच्या ठिकाणी असावी, आणि इतर प्रापंचिक वस्तूंबद्दल उदास असावे. ' कुणी शत्रु नाही आणि मित्र नाही ' अशी ज्याची खरी वृत्ती तो सुखी. जो कशावरही अवलंबून नाही, ज्याच्या आड काही येत नाही, तो मुक्त समजावा. देहाला कुठेही लागले तरी आपल्याला जाणीव होते; त्याप्रमाणे मनाच्या सर्व वृत्तींमध्ये भगवंताचे स्मरण असणे हेच अनुसंधान होय. हीच विद्या होय, हाच खरा धर्म होय, आणि हेच परमार्थाचे सार होय.
३०७. ज्याच्या प्रपंचामध्ये पाठीराखा परमात्मा आहे, तो प्रपंचच त्याचा परमार्थ होतो.
D.: How to control lust, anger, etc.?
M.: Whose are these passions? Find out. If you remain as the Self, there will be found to be nothing apart from the Self. Then there will be no need to control, etc.
(From 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi': 252)
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D.: So we must rid ourselves of lust (kama), anger, (krodha), etc.
M.: Give up thoughts. You need not give up anything else. You must be there to see anything. It is the Self. Self is ever-conscious.
(From 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi': 41)
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Another of the group asked: How are lust, anger, acquisitiveness, confusion, pride and jealousy overcome?
M.: By dhyana.
D.: What is dhyana?
M.: Dhyana is holding on to a single thought and putting off all other thoughts.
(From 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi': 371)
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D.: How to conquer desire, anger, etc.?
M.: Desire or lust, anger, etc., give you pain. Why? Because of the ‘I’- conceit; this ‘I’-conceit is from ignorance; ignorance from differentiation; differentiation from the notion of the reality of the world and this again from ‘I-am-the-body’ idea. The last can be only after the rise of the ego. The ego not arising, the whole chain of mishaps disappears. Therefore prevent the rise of the ego. This can be done by remaining in your own real nature; then lust, anger, etc., are conquered.
(From 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi': 575)
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A Pilgrims’ special train brought several visitors from Bengal. One of them said that he had read Mr. Paul Brunton’s book and since then he was anxious to see Sri Bhagavan. He also asked: How shall I overcome my passions?
M.: Find their root and then it will be easy.
(Later) What are the passions? Kama (lust), krodha (anger), etc. Why do they arise? Because of likes and dislikes towards the objects seen. How do the objects project themselves in your view? Because of your avidya, i.e., ignorance. Ignorance of what? Of the Self. Thus, if you find the Self and abide therein there will be no trouble owing to the passions.
(Later) Again, what is the cause of the passions? Desire to be happy or enjoy pleasure. Why does the desire for happiness arise? Because your nature is happiness itself and it is natural that you come into your own. This happiness is not found anywhere besides the Self. Do not look for it elsewhere. But seek the Self and abide therein. Still again, that happiness which is natural is simply re-discovered, so it cannot be lost. Whereas the happiness arising from other objects are external and thus liable to be lost. Therefore it cannot be permanent and so it is not worth seeking.Moreover craving for pleasures should not be encouraged. One cannot put out burning fire by pouring petrol over it. An attempt to satisfy your craving for the time being, so that the passion may later be suppressed, is simply foolish.
There are, no doubt, other methods for the suppression of passion. They are (1) regulated food, (2) fasting, (3) yoga practice, (4) medicines. But their effects are transitory. The passions reappear with greater force as soon as the check is removed. The only way to overcome them is to eradicate them. That is done by finding their source as stated above.
('Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi': 523)
THAT WHICH IS
Q: There is the witnessed consciousness and there is the witnessing consciousness. Is the second the supreme?
M: There are the two -- the person and the witness, the observer. When you see them as one, and go beyond, you are in the supreme state. It is not perceivable, because it is what makes perception possible. It is beyond being and not being. It is neither the mirror nor the image in the mirror. It is what is -- the timeless reality, unbelievably hard and solid.
Q: The jnani -- is he the witness or the Supreme?
M: He is the Supreme, of course, but he can also be viewed as the universal witness.
Q: But he remains a person?
M: When you believe yourself to be a person, you see persons everywhere. In reality there are no persons, only threads of memories and habits. At the moment of realisation the person ceases.
Identity remains, but identity is not a person, it is inherent in the Reality itself. The person has no being in itself; it is a reflection in the mind of the witness, the 'I am', which again is a mode of being.
- Nisargadatta, I AM THAT ch 13
CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY
Q: What about P.B.'s idea of inspired action?
M: Let activities go on. They do not affect the pure Self.
The difficulty is that people think they are the doer.
This is a mistake. It is the Higher Power which does everything and people are only tools. If they accept that position they will be free from troubles, otherwise they court them.
The sculptured figure on the temple tower shows great strain, but really, the tower rests on the ground, and that supports the figure. The figure is a part of the tower, but is made to look as if it is bearing the weight of the tower. Is it not funny?
It is the same with the person who takes on himself the sense of doing.
P. 13
If the supreme state is that in which neither the senses nor the mind exist and not the state in which they exist, how can it be the perfect state (paripurnam)? As karma alone is responsible for the activity or inactivity of the sages, great souls have declared the state of sahaja nirvikalpa (the natural state without concepts) alone to be the ultimate state.
(From 'Spiritual Instruction': IV.6)
