Still mind

On a free day, just lie down somewhere outdoor and keep looking at the sky. A moment will come when the mind becomes still, there are no thoughts and you don't know where you are, but you know you are.
- Sri Sri Ravishankar

Self realization

From ~~~ Maharshi’s Gospel, B.I, Ch.VI.

Q.:
Does my Realization help others?

M.: (Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Yes,
and it is the best help
that you can possibly render to others.

Those who have discovered great truths
have done so in the still depths of the Self.

But really there are no ‘others’ to be helped.

For,
the Realized Being sees only the Self,
just as the goldsmith sees only the gold
while valuing it in various jewels
made of gold.

When you identify yourself with the body,
name and form are there.
But when you transcend the body consciousness,
the ‘others’ also disappear.

The Realized one
does not see the world
as different from Himself.

Q.:
Would it not be better if the saints mix with others?

M.:
There are no ‘others’ to mix with.
The Self is the only Reality.

Q.:
Should I not try to help the suffering world?

M.:
The Power that created you
has created the world as well.
If it can take care of you,
it can similarly take care of the world also ....

if God has created the world,
it is His business to look after it,
not yours.

Q.:
Is it not our duty to be patriots?

M.:
Your duty is to be
and not to be this or that.

‘I AM THAT I AM’
sums up the whole truth;
the method is summarized in
‘be still’.

And what does stillness mean?
It means ‘destroy yourself ’;
because,
every name and form
is the cause of trouble.

‘I-I’ is the Self.
‘I am this’ is the ego.

When the ‘I’ is kept up
as the ‘I’ only,
it is the Self.

When it flies off
at a tangent and says
‘I am this or that,
I am such and such’,
it is the ego.

Q.:
Who then is God?

M:
The Self is God.
‘I AM’ is God.

If God be apart from the Self,
He must be a Selfless God,
which is absurd.

All that is required
to realize the Self is to be still.
What can be easier than that?

Hence
atma vidya (Self-knowledge)
is the easiest to attain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sri Guru Gita book

**** Happy Guru Purnima ****

॥ ॐ नमो भगवते श्रीरमणाय ॥
// Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya //

ब्रह्मानन्दं परमसुखदं केवलं ज्ञानमूर्तिं
द्वन्द्वातीतं गगनसदृशं तत्वमस्यादिलक्ष्यम् |
एकं नित्यं विमलमचलं सर्वधीसाक्षिभूतम्
भावतीतं त्रिगुणरहितं सदगुरुं तं नमामि ||

I prostrate myself before that Guru,
the Bliss of Brahman,
the bestower of Supreme Happiness,
who is Knowledge absolute,
transcending the pairs of opposites,
expansive like the sky,
the goal indicated by the great sayings like “Thou art That”,
the one eternal, pure, unchanging, the witness of functions of the intellect, who is above all Bhavas (mental conditions)
and the three Gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas).

जो ब्रह्मानंदस्वरूप हैं, परम सुख देनेवाले हैं जो केवल ज्ञानस्वरूप हैं,
(सुख, दुःख, शीत-उष्ण आदि) द्वन्द्वों से रहित हैं, आकाश के समान सूक्ष्म और सर्वव्यापक हैं, तत्वमसि आदि महावाक्यों के लक्ष्यार्थ हैं, एक हैं, नित्य हैं, मलरहित हैं, अचल हैं, सर्व बुद्धियों के साक्षी हैं, भावना से परे हैं, सत्व, रज और तम तीनों गुणों से रहित हैं ऐसे श्री सदगुरुदेव को मैं नमस्कार करता हूँ |

***

यस्य प्रसादादहमेव सर्वं मय्येव सर्वं परिकल्पितं च |
इत्थं विजानामि सदात्मरूपं त्स्यांघ्रिपद्मं प्रणतोऽस्मि नित्यम् ||
अज्ञानतिमिरान्धस्य विषयाक्रान्तचेतसः |
ज्ञानप्रभाप्रदानेन प्रसादं कुरु मे प्रभो ||

By whose grace that one realizes “I am everything,
everything is superimposed in me,
I offer my salutations and
worship to my self-realised Satguru’s lotus feet.

O Lord, by the gift of the light of knowledge, may Thy blessings be bestowed on me, whose eyes are covered by the cataracts of ignorance, and whose mind is captured by sense pleasure.

मैं ही सब हूँ, मुझमें ही सब कल्पित है, ऐसा ज्ञान जिनकी कृपा से हुआ है ऐसे आत्मस्वरूप श्री सद्गुरुदेव के चरणकमलों में मैं नित्य प्रणाम करता हूँ |

हे प्रभो ! अज्ञानरूपी अंधकार में अंध बने हुए और विषयों से आक्रान्त चित्तवाले मुझको ज्ञान का प्रकाश देकर कृपा करो |

~ From Sri Guru Gita book

Samadhi and Dhyana

Q: What is dhyana [meditation]?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

It is abiding as one's Self without swerving in any way from one's real nature and without feeling that one is meditating.

Q: What is the difference between dhyana and samadhi?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Dhyana is achieved through deliberate mental effort.
In samadhi there is no such effort.

Q: What are the factors to be kept in view in dhyana?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

It is important for one who is established in his Self [atmanishtha] to see that he does not swerve in the least from this absorption.

By swerving from his true nature he may see before him bright effulgences, or hear unusual sounds,
or regard as real the visions of gods appearing
within or outside himself.

He should not be deceived by these and forget himself.

~ From Be as you are book

Life in Harmony

The minute you start taking things personally
life becomes a task and harmony is disturbed.
The more you stay in the height of your Being
you are functioning from the place
of the impersonal consciousness,
and life is flowing beautifully.
In fact you are not even attached to that flowing life.
It is a beautiful flowing life
because it flows in and as harmony itself.
A time comes when a challenge arises
and a choice must be made. Life brings this.
Go in one direction
and you enter a field of noise and confusion.
Go in the opposite and there is silence, joy and stillness.
The wise exercise the higher choice
until choice itself disappears.
They are living in the fruit of their higher choices
and become one with the great flow.
The river does not ask where it will flow,
‘Should I turn the corner or not?’ It flows naturally.
Your being, as life's expression,
will become such a beautiful river

Satguru Sri Mooji Baba

Silence

How can Silence be so powerful? Bhagawan Ramana Maharish explains, “A realised one sends out waves of spiritual influence, which draw many people towards him. Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence. We may listen to lectures upon truth and come away with hardly any grasp of the subject, but to come into contact with a realised one, though he speaks nothing, will give much more grasp of the subject. He never needs to go out among the public. If necessary he can use others as instruments. Om Namo Bhagavate Ramanaya

DEATHLESSNESS IS OUR REAL NATURE

DEATHLESSNESS IS OUR REAL NATURE

When the post arrived it brought a letter with news of the death of L. Sarma’s first daughter-in-law. This led Bhagavan to speak of death. He said:

“The dead are fortunate. It is only those who are left behind who feel miserable. It is our constant concern to bear the burden of this body and look after its needs. Day in, day out, this is our occupation — bathing, eating, massaging our legs, and so on — no end to it.

When we die it takes four persons to carry this body and yet we carry it about constantly without even stopping to think that we are doing so. We can easily lift a heavy stone under water, but as soon as we take it out we find how heavy it is, and in the same way we don’t feel the weight of the body as long as a chaitanya or life force permeates it.

“Deathlessness is our real nature, and we falsely ascribe it to the body, imagining that it will live for ever and losing sight of what is really immortal, simply because we identify ourselves with the body. It says in the Upanishads that the jnani looks forward eagerly to the time when he can throw off the body, just as a laborer carrying a heavy load looks forward to reaching his destination and laying it down.”

- Day by Day