Web versions of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi Books

http://benegal.org/ramana_maharshi/books/books.html

Several web versions of the Ramana Maharshi's books are available at  this location with more appearing in end January. Some works have been hyperlinked for ease of reading and research, and hyperlinking will continue when the team returns from Arunachala.

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Wishing you the best of bhakti in the new year.

Bhagavan on Moksha

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi responds to a request from a lady, "Will you give me moksha (liberation) now? I must be going"

"If you renounce and give up everything, what remains is only moksha. What is there for others to give? It is there always. That is."

Subbalakshmi Amma replied "We don't know all that. Bhagavan himself must give us mokhsa."
Bhagavan remarked,

"I should give them moksha, they say. It is enough if moksha alone is given to them. Is not that itself a desire? If you give up all the desires you have, what remains is only
moksha. And you require sadhana to get rid of all those desires."

See Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma (Letter 22, p38, 8 Jan 1945)

Letter 42 Moksha, Html

Sampurnamma's memories of Bhagavan

The lives of the very fortunate devotees who got to serve during Bhagavan's mortal life continue to be a deep inspiration to devotees today. Reading accounts and memoirs is a great way of understanding Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's life, as well His teachings. It is often said that His life itself was a teaching.

Some words of Bhagavan that she recollects are:

You must cover your vegetables when you cook them. Only then will they keep their flavor and be fit to eat. It is the same with the mind. You must put a lid over it and let it simmer quietly. Then only does a man become food fit for God to eat.

Bhagavan would allow nothing to go to waste. He once explained,

"Yes, this is my way. Everything is in my care, and I let nothing go to waste. In these matters I am quite strict."

One another occasion:

 "This is the property of my father Arunachala. I have to preserve it and pass it on to His children"

 

It is the cooking that matters, not the cook or the eater. A thing well done, with love and devotion, is its own reward. What happens to it later matters little, for it is out of our hands.

Once when Bhagavan noticed that she was afraid walking along along the jungle path, he told her, "Why are you afraid? Am i not with you?". He later told the ashram manager, "Why are you surprised? Was she alone? Was i not with her all the time?"

Once during her periods, when she sat hungry in the mantapam outside the ashram, Bhagavan ordered that she be brought in and fed decently. When people protested that she was impure Bhagavan replied, "Who is pure and who is impure? All are one, all are the same!"

This was Bhagavan's lesson of compassion towards all.
See Ramana Smriti

Remembering Sri Natesa Iyer

Very much reminiscent of the deeply dedicated devotee Sri Ramanatha Brahmachari was Sri Natesa Iyer of Chidambaram. He served Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi from the 1930's till his final day. (He first saw Bhagavan in 1922). Sri Natesa Iyer served devotees in the dining hall at all hours of the day or night.

Once in a state of deep surrender after having a vision of Bhagavan in Villupuram, he said to Swami Ramanananda,

"Bhagavan is not something or someone we can fathom with our minds. We have to admit our ignorance and our inability to say anything about him that is true. When we accept that Bhagavan is unfathomable, when we surrender our compulsion to understand and explain him, we fall into a deep silence that is the experience of the real Bhagavan within us."

"Bhagavan was like Dakshinamurthi to me. The inner feeling of his presence was so stilling, I rarely had any desire to open my mouth in His presence, For most of the time, no thoughts or desires for answers could survive the power of that presence."

Sri Natesa Iyers worldly collections consisted of a spare dhoti, a cloth to wrap around his shoulders and 2 books, Bhagavan's Collected Works and the PeriaPurAnam.

He left his body in the most interesting and touching circumstances. He had confided the date and time of death to Swami Ramanananda. He would say "Bhagavan is calling me. I am going in n days". As the days approached his eyes shone, and he looked happy as if going home. One day prior to leaving, he said, "Only one more day! I am going to merge with Sri Ramana Paramatman"

His final words, minutes before passing away were, "Has Bhagavan come? I am coming".

An End To Suffering

Obedience to Bhagavan - the only rule

As part of today's sadhana we look at a few moments from the life of Sri Sundaram (aka Sadhu Trivenigiri):

Standing before the deity in the Sri Subrahmania shrine in Tiruchendur in 1932, the following words flashed in his mind " Here i am, a God who does not talk. Go to Tiruvannamalai. There is a God who talks, the Maharshi"

He later received a reply from the Sri Ramanashramam telling him that the joys and sorrows of life are inevitable, and can be borne easily, if placed at the feet of God.

When he was choked with tears reading the Sri Ramana Vijayam his mother said:
God is calling you. Go to Him. This path will result in the salvation of 27 generations of our family. This is the upadesha of Mother Truth. Go along this path. If you meet any obstacles, regard it as maya. You will soon be liberated.

Sundaram: At first I merely thought Him to be a good man, but after some time, I came to understand that I was dealing with God Himself, my supreme Master, in whose hands lay my life and salvation.

One must master this art of instantaneous and unquestioning obedience, for the secret of realization lies in the utter surrender and renunciation of one's own judgement.

Blessed are those who had no other rule than obedience to Bhagavan.

Some words of Bhagavan to Sri Sundaram:

Eat to appease hunger and not to satisfy taste or craving

Sundaram! Attend to what I said first. It is from me that everything arises. Attend to it first.

Oh! you have made a sankalpa (resolution). Sankalpas lead to samsara.

Regarding the welfare of Major Chadwick:

How is he now? ... Please go and see him at once. He left his country and travelled thousands of miles, staying with us and making us his own. Should we not take care of him and look to his needs?

Once when meditating in the presence of Bhagavan, the mind persisted in wandering. I couldn't control it. So I gave up meditation and opened my eyes. Bhagavan at once sat up and said,

"Oh! You abandoned it thinking it is the swabhava (habit) of the mind to wander. Whatever we practise becomes the swabhava. If control is practised persistently that will become the swabhava."

- From the January, 1971 Mountain Path: "How Bhagavan Came To Me,"
by Sadhu Trivenigiri Swami. See this (Jan 1997).

A shloka on the benefits of water

Bhagavan on the benefits of drinking water:

Water acts as a medicine, when indigestion.
Water serves as a tonic, when no indigestion.
Water serves as nectar, taken at the end of the meal
Water acts as poison, taken before a meal.

Memories of Bhagavan

He was about 30 at the time, and wonderful to behold. His eyes were blooming and clear, like lotus petals, and he shone brightly like burnished gold.

"You hands may do the work but your mind can remain still. You are that which never moves. Realize this and you will find that work is not a
strain. But as long as you think that you are the body, and that the work is done by you, you will feel your life to be an endless toil. In
fact, it is the mind that toils, not the body..."

"Why do you imagine that I am pleased only when I am full of rasam? ... Is my grace proportionate to the amount of rasam I take?"

"Unless one becomes a 6-month old baby, there
is no hope for one in the realm of Self-knowledge"

"God wants us to make a fire of our past evil deeds and burn our karma in it. ... Clearing the mind of thoughts, and remaining steady in the peace of Self: that is the only offering worthy of the
Lord."

Varanasi Subhalakshmiammal

See Ramana Smriti (pdf 511kb)
Also see List of Reminiscenses

His Feet are everywhere

Devaraja Mudaliar once gently scolded GV Subbaramayya for missing the Jayanthi celebration, and concluded saying: I believe that Sri Bhagavan expects His children to gather at His Feet especially on such special occasions.

Bhagavan smiled and said:

The feet of Bhagavan are everywhere. So where can we gather except at His feet? Time and space are no barriers to the gathering of hearts.

Be like me ... remember me

Bhagavan Ramana spoke these words to G V Subbaramayya (p155):

Why can't you be like me ... this ashram has grown around me but I am ever the same. The sun rises and sets. To me there seems no other change. Through all the ups and downs of life, be like me, and ever you are prone to sadness, remember me.

Compassion for trees

A man was once chopping dead leaves off an almond tree to the north of Bhagavan's hall. Bhagavan seeing him, winced with pain and called out:

Hey, what are you doing? You are hurting the tree so much, Don't you know it is alive?
You people can do nothing without causing pain. Imagine what would happen if I suddenly grabbed you by the hair and pulled. Your hair my have no life, yet you would feel it. Better leave the tree alone and go away!

Name superior to form

Once a devotee (p 71) said to Bhagavan: Bhagavan, earlier whenever I thought of you, your form would appear before my eyes. But now it does not happen. What am i to do? Bhagavan advised:

You can remember my name and repeat it. Name is superior to form. But in the course of time, even the name will disappear. Until then repeat the name.

Offer yourself to God

Echammal once wished to perform a puja which required a very large number of tulsi (similar to basil) leaves.
One day (circa 1942) Bhagavan told her:

People will not allow the leaves to remain where they are, beautiful and alive. They pick them, pierce them, thread them. The poor leaves and flowers and mercilessly maimed and killed. Does God need such worship? Don't they belong to him when they are on their trees? We do these horrible things to flowers, but we would not offer our own selves to God

(Letters, letter 42. Also p88)

Bhagavan Ramana and previous births

A devotee (p 103) once asked Bhagavan, We have met at Your Feet. Was it good luck, or is there a link between us from our previous births?
Bhagavan replied,'Were it not for old links, how could you all have come here.'
One other occasions too Bhagavan gave a similar reply. Those who loved Him in previous births come to Him again in this. However far they would be born, Bhagavan would pull them to Himself. Invariably, they would find their way to Him

Leave it to the Guru

Once a visitor wept to Bhagavan that he felt no improvement in himself despite coming to Bhagavan. Bhagavan replied:

On this road there are no milestones. How can you know in which direction you are going? Why dont you do what the first-class railway passenger does? He tells the guard his destination, locks the doors and goes to sleep. The rest is done by the guard. If you trust your Guru as much as you trust the railway guard, it would be enough to make you reach your destination. Your business is to shut the door and windows and sleep. The guard will wake you up at your destination.

Remembering Bhagavan

Sambasiva Rao once overheard Bhagavan telling someone: If you must get angry, get angry with good people. For if you get angry with bad people, you may get it back with interest.

He asked Bhagavan whether there was really no danger in abusing good people.

Bhagavan replied smiling: "When good people are abused, they may not retaliate. However, they are hurt, and so the abuser may have to suffer. There is also a saying that he who curses good people, gets all the bad that may still be left in them. If you want to curse at all, curse Bhagavan. He will not be hurt and he is without sin. You are safe in cursing Him.

"He wants only to be remembered. The mood in which you remember Him is of less importance. Were it otherwise, how could Ravana and Sishupala get salvation?" (p91)

The Eternal Sadguru

In His final words of assurance to devotees in 1950, Bhagavan Ramana said, "They say I am going, but where can I go? I am Here."

In the days leading to His leaving the body, Bhagavan did not make any attempt to appoint a successor, or to send seekers to another guru. Had there been a need to transfer seekers, Bhagavan, out of His deep compassion, would have certainly done so.

Never when He was in the body did He seek glory, and thus there is no reason to think He would do so at this moment (by saying that He is here). (For example, we know that He never claimed to having devotees)

Additionally, knowing His honesty, one cannot doubt the statement that He would always be here, to guide seekers.

Thus, his final spoken statement has to be taken literally. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi is here, guiding those who consider Him to be their sadguru.

He is the eternal sadguru.

Place your burden at His Feet

“Place your burden at the feet of the Lord of the universe who is ever victorious and accomplishes everything. Remain all the time steadfast in the heart, in the Transcendental Absolute. God knows the past, present and future. He will determine the future for you and accomplish the work. What is to be done will be done at the proper time. Don’t worry. Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the Divine.”



Advice given by Bhagavan to Nayana:

Tags: RamanaMaharshi | acalayoga
Source: http://acalayoga.suddenlaunch3.com/

Arunachala Ramana

In the recesses of the lotus-shaped Hearts of all, beginning with Vishnu, there shines as pure intellect (Absolute Consciousness) the Paramatman, who is the same as Arunachala Ramana. When the mind melts with love of Him, and reaches the inmost recess of the Heart wherein He dwells as the beloved, the subtle eye of pure intellect opens and He reveals Himself as Pure Consciousness.

A devotee named Amritanatha Yati wrote on a paper a Malayalam verse imploring Bhagavan to say whether he was Hari (Vishnu) or Sivaguru (Subrahmanya) or Yativara (Siva) or Vararuchi. Bhagavan wrote his reply in the same Malayalam metre on the same paper. A translation of it is given above.
Source: Collected Works, p143

Bhakti melting flesh and bone

I just wrote this short poem, Burning in Arunachala and then opened "Talks" to see what Bhagavan has to say to me. The book opened on the following page:
22nd June, 1936 Talk 215.

Bhagavan was reading G. U. Pope’s translation of Tiruvachakam and
came across the stanzas describing the intense feeling of bhakti as
thrilling the whole frame, melting the flesh and bones, etc. He
remarked: “Manickavasagar is one of those whose body finally
resolved itself in a blazing light, without leaving a corpse behind.”
Another devotee asked how it could be.
Maharshi said the gross body is only the concrete form of the subtle
stuff - the mind. When the mind melts away and blazes forth as light,
the body is consumed in that process. Nandanar is another whose
body disappeared in blazing light.

[July 1st 1936] Bhagavan read out a stanza from Tiruvachakam which is an address to the mind, saying,
‘O humming bee [namely, mind]! Why do you take the pains of collecting tiny specks of honey from innumerable flowers? There is one from whom you can have the whole storehouse of honey by simply thinking or seeing or speaking of Him. Get within and hum to Him [hrimkara].

Do not sip the nectar,
tiny as a millet seed
found in any flower,
but speed to that mystic dancer
and hum the praise of Him, King Bee,
He who, whenever we think of Him,
whenever we behold Him,
whenever we speak of Him,
perpetually pours forth the honeyed bliss
that melts all our bones to the core.

Purifying the mind

Jan 22, 1937, Talks 337:
Mr K V R Iyer: How is the mind to be purified?
Bhagavan: The sastras say: "By karma, bhakti and so on.". My attendant asked the same question once before and was told, "By karma dedicated to God". It is not enough that one thinks of God while doing the karma, but one must continually and unceasingly think of Him. Then alone will the mind become pure.

Jan 12, 1937, Talks 325:
Mr Rama Sastri from Guntur district composed 8 slokas on Sri Bhagavan and read them out with feeling. The sastri then prayed for guidance, " ... the affairs of the world are distracting me..."

Bhagavan: Think of Bhagavan. How will the affairs of the world distract Him? You and they (the affairs) are in Him.

Meditation Guide
Bhagavan Ramanam Sharanam

Wherever you may be, you cannot leave ME (March 10, 1938)

You do not go anywhere away from the Presence as you imagine. The Presence is everywhere. The body moves from place to place; yet it does not leave the one Presence. So no one can be out of sight of the Supreme Presence. Since you identify one body with Sri Bhagavan and another body with yourself, you find two separate entities and speak of going away from here.

Wherever you may be, you cannot leave ME.


To illustrate it: The pictures move on the screen in a cinema show; but does the screen itself move? No. The Presence is the screen: you, I, and others are the pictures. The individuals may move but not the Self.

Tags:RamanaMaharshi | acalayoga
See also: this blog entry

I Am Thou (Jan 10, 1939)

A certain lady was singing a devotional song. It said among other things:

“You are my father and my mother,
You are my friend and companion,
You are knowledge and wealth
You are everything, You are God,” and so on.

Sri Bhagavan remarked with a smile, “Yes, Yes, You are this, that and everything except ‘I’. Why not say ‘I am You’ and finish it?”

Tags:RamanaMaharshi |
acalayoga

The Guru is within (August 17, 1938)

The Master is not outside you as you seem to imagine. He is within you, is in fact the Self. Recognize this truth. Seek within you and find Him there. Then you will have constant communion with Him. The message is always there; it is never silent; it can never forsake you; nor can you ever move away from the Master.

Your mind is outgoing. Because of this tendency it sees objects as being outside and the Master among them. But the truth is different. The Master is the Self. Turn the mind within and you will find the objects within. You will also realize that it is the Master who is your very Self and there is nothing but Him.

Because you identify yourself with the body, you have accepted objects as being outside you. But are you the body? You are not. You are the Self. _There_ are all the objects and the whole universe. Nothing can escape the Self. How then can you move away from your Master who is your very Self? Similarly you can never be without the Master.
...
Is there any moment when you have not realized the Self? Can you ever be apart from the Self? You are always That.

August 17, 1938 (p 504)

Give up 'I am the body-mind'

The Self alone exists and it can be directly and consciously experienced merely by ceasing to pay attention to the wrong ideas we have about ourselves.

The principal misperception is the 'I am the body-mind' idea. As soon as one stops imagining oneself as an individual, attached to a body, the whole superstructure of wrong ideas collapses and is replaced by a conscious and permanent awareness of the real Self.

The false identification must go.

Realization is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought 'I have not realized'.
Tags: RamanaMaharshi |
acalayoga

What is self-realization

The state of Self-realization as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been.

All that is needed is that you give up your realization of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realize the Self as the Self, in other words, 'Be the Self'.

The Self is Reality

That in which all these worlds seems to exist steadily,
that of which all these worlds are a possession,
that from which all these worlds rise,
that for which all these exist,
that by which all these worlds come into existence,
and that which is indeed all these --
that alone is the existing reality.

Let us cherish that Self, which is reality, in the Heart.

Introduction

This blog will contain some salient teachings and quotations of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Tags: RamanaMaharshi | God | Acalayoga

Feb 10, 2005