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