Sunday, October 19, 2014

Bhakti is the same as vichara (Self-enquiry).’


~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

Really there are only two methods, Enquiry and devotion. One leads to the other. A devotee concentrates on God.
A seeker, follower of the Jnana-marga seeks the Self. The practice is equally difficult for both.

Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of the God and that is bhakti. Jnana and Bhakti are thus one and the same.

Service, like prayers, japa and even businesss done in God’s name, lead to the highest Goal; Self-realization.

Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self enquiry or through bhakti-marga.
Self-enquiry is possible for mature minds, not for immature ones.

For the immature ones, japa nama, worship of images, pranayama, visualizing a pillar of light and similar yogic and spiritual and religious practices have been prescribed.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi



Wednesday, October 15, 2014

THE MEANING OF SATSANGA By Swami Sivananda

THE MEANING OF SATSANGA

The word ‘Satsanga’ is the combination of the two words ‘Sat’ and ‘Sanga.’

Sat’ means existence absolute, which is Brahman (Truth).

Sat’ is the essential nature of Brahman which is permanent in things that change, which is the only reality that upholds the world of appearance.
The same ‘Sat,’ with the accidental attributes of omnipresence, omniscience and
omnipotence is called Isvara or Paramatman. In brief, ‘Sat’ refers to Isvara (God) as well as Brahman, both ultimately being the one and the same reality.

Sanga’ literally means company or union.

 To be always in the company of the Lord, or to be established in Brahman, is the literal meaning of the word ‘Satsanga.’

 But, as long as ignorance or Avidya remains, the direct realization of Brahman is impossible.

 Because the company of the wise leads to the realization of Brahman (with attributes or without attributes), it is also termed as Satsanga. 

When ignorance is destroyed by wisdom, the real nature reveals itself. This is the highest Satsanga.

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Saturday, October 11, 2014

Quotes of Sri Ramana Maharshi



Quotes of Sri Ramana Maharshi
the Sage of Arunachala (1879-1950)

O Arunachala!
Ocean of grace in the form of Hill!
Graciously bestow Thy grace on me
             ~Arunachala Aksharamanamalai


1.     THE GOAL: 

The highest goal of man is to enquire ‘Who am I?’ and realize the Self. If a human being does not try to realize this, he lives in vain.

Firm resolve to discover the truth for oneself is important.

2.     ACTIONS:

Whatever is done lovingly, with righteous purity and with peace of mind is a good action.

Do not perform any good action through a bad means.

3.     AWARENESS:

Pure awareness is the Self which is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness – Bliss)
Awareness which already exists within everyone, everywhere, is imperishable & changeless.
Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real nature.

4.     BODY:

The body-consciousness is the wrong ‘I’. Give up this body-consciousness.

‘I am the body’ idea will become extinct only on Self realization.

The body is a mental projection.

The entire universe is condensed in the body and the entire
body in the Heart. Thus the Heart is the nucleus of the whole
universe.

Reality is not within the body. The body is within the Reality.

5.     BLISS:

One’s own reality, which shines within everyone as the heart, is itself the ocean of unalloyed bliss.

Bliss is a state of unbroken happiness.

Bliss cannot be complete tillthe nerger in the Self is complete.The bliss of the Self is always with you and you will find it for yourself if you would seek it earnestly.


6.     BHAKTI:

Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of the God and that is bhakti. Jnana and Bhakti are thus one and the same.

Bhakti is the same as vichara.

Service, like prayers, japa, and even businesss done in God’s name, lead to the highest Goal- Selfrealization.

 7.     CONSCIOUSNESS:

The Self, which is consciousness, is alone real. Nothing else is.
You cannot deny your own existence. That existence is consciousness, the Self.

 8.     DESTINY:

Everything happens according to each individual’s karma

Freewill and destiny are ever existent. Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body.

Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self enquiry or through bhakti-marga.2

Freewill and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But jnana transcends both.

 9.     DESIRES:

To resolve all inherent desires into one’s own Self is real surrender.
Desires are the food for the mind. Giving them up is the real fasting.

 10.EGO:

Ego, if looked for, disappears. If not, it continues to give trouble.

The enquiry into the source of ahamvrtti (‘I’ thought) touch the very existence of the Ego.

The Ego falls, crestfallen, when one enquires ‘Who am I? and enters the heart.
The Ego is the source of all thought. It creates the body and the world.

On the rising of the Ego everything rises. With its subsidence all subside. The Ego is therefore all.

It is only after the feeling ‘Aham; (Ego) comes that the other feelings follow

The Ego must, die, must vanish along with th inherent vasanas..

That which comes and goes, rises and sets, is born and dies is the ego. That which always abides, never changes and is devoid of qualities is the Self.

To destroy the ego and be as the Self is the supreme method of attainment.

 11.ENQUIRY:

The very purpose of self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its source.

If you do not make Atma vichara, then loka vichara will creep in.

The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the beginning and the end of the teaching of Vedanta.

Self-enquiry is possible for mature minds, not for immature ones.

For the immature ones, japa nama, worship of images, pranayama, visualizing a pillar of light and similar yogic and spiritual and religious practices have been prescribed.

12.EFFORT:

Effort is needed so long as there is mind.

There must be untiring effort to go inward all the time until the self is realized.

No one success without effort and the successful few own their victory to perseverance.

There is a state beyond effort and effortlessness. Until it is realized effort is necessary.

13.FAILURES- OBSTACLES:

There is a steady determination that gets you on your feet again after a fail or break.
One who seeks his real Self will not be afraid on any obstacle

 14.GRACE:

Divine Grace is essential for realization. It leads one to God-realization. It is only given to those who striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom.

The Grace of God is obtaind, practically by Self Surrender..

How could God be expected to be favorable towards you without your striving for it?


God, Grace and guru are the one innermost essence of awareness, which is revealed or experienced when attachment to all forms is broken.

15.GOD:

God is immanent and formless. He is pure being and pure consciousness.

Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact, God is no one other than the Self.

To see God, is to be God.

16.GURU:

The externally visible Guru pushes the mind inward. He is also in the hearts of the seekers and so he draws the inwardly turned mind into the Heart.

The Guru’s Grace works automatically and spontaneously. The disciple gets precisely the help he requires.


17.HEART:

What is called the Heart is not other than the Absolute.

The whole cosmos is contained in one pinhole in the Heart.

The Heart is pure consciousness, is beyond space and time.

The point to be grasped is this, the Heart means the core of one’s Being, the center without which there is nothing whatever.


18.HAPPINESS:

What happiness can you get from things extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will last?
Happiness is our real nature. That happiness does not depend on our possessions or achievements.

Happiness is the nature of the Self. Self is not other than perfect happiness.

 19.IGNORANCE:

The thought ‘I am the body’ is ignorance. That the body is
not apart from the Self is knowledge.

Ignorance draws a veil over the pure bliss. Direct your attends only towards removing the ignorance

The wrong lies in the false identification of the Self with the body and mind. This false identity must go by enquiring into the Self.

20.JNANI:

It is impossible to express the greatness of a Jnani.
He alone knows the nature [or beauty] of His existence.
He is vaster than the space; He is firmer than a
mountain.

 The Jnani, who has saved himself, alone can do good to others.

 A jnani has attained liberation even while alive, here and now.

 The power of a Jnani’s Self-Realization is more powerful than all occult powers.

 It is as difficult for a Jnani to engage in thoughts, as it is for an ajnani to be free from thought.

 To the jnani it is immaterial whether the world appears or not. Whether it appears or not, his attention is always on the Self.
 
21.LIBERATION FREEDOM:

Know that the pure and changeless Self-awareness in the heart is the knowledge which, through the destruction of the ego, bestows liberation.

Liberation is our very nature.

22.LOVE:

Love itself is God.

The experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love and smelling only love, which is bliss.

23.MIND:

It is the mind that stands between and veils our happiness.

The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. They are dependent in the ‘I’ thought. Know ‘I’ thought  to be the mind.

The mind turned inwards is the Self. Turned outwards , it becomes the Ego and the world.

Mind alone is the cause of bondage and realize.

Success in turning the mind inward is achieved by practice and dispassion and it succeeds only gradually.

This world is not other than the mind, the mind is
not other than the Heart; that is the whole truth.

24.MIND CONTROL:

The mind becomes quiescent by regulation of breath.

If the mind is watched thoughts cease, peace results.

Breath control is meant for one who cannot directly control his thoughts.

The mind also gets controlled by repetition of sacred syllables (mantra)

It is necessary to be aware while controlling thoughts.

25.MISERY:

The cause of your misery is not in the life outside you, it is in you as the ‘Ego’.

26.MEDITATION:

For the bigginer meditation on a form is more easy and agreeable.
Dhyana is holding on to a single thought and putting off all other thoughts.

What is dhyana (meditation)?
It is abiding as one’s Self without swerving in any way from
one’s real nature and without feeling that one is meditating.

The mind must be alive and meditation pursued, unremittingly,
even when it is at peace. Then the mind will sink into the heart.

27.THE NOW:

Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.

28.NON-ATTACMENT:

Attachment is bondage. Attachment disappears with the elimination of the ego.

Non-attachment is the sign of a realized Soul.

Only a man with non-attachment can know the power of non-attachment.

29.OTHER TYPES OF YOGA:

Bhakti, vichara and japa are only different forms of our efforts to keep out the unreality.

30.PRACTICE:

Solitude cannot efface one’s thoughts. Practice does it.

31.PURITY:

The purified mind alone is capable of grasping a method and sticking to its practice.

32.PRANAYAMA:

If breath is controlled and kept within for a while it helps in practicing self-enquiry.

33.PATHS:

One must go by one path.

Really there are only two methods, Enquiry and devotion. One leads to the other.

A devotee concentrates on God. A seeker, follower of the Jnana-marga seeks the Self. The practice is equally difficult for both.

34.PEACE:

That which results in peace is the highest perfection (siddhi).

Perfect peace is of the Self. Peace is your natural state

When the mind itself is absent, there is perfect peace. Unless a person has annihilated the mind, he cannot gain peace and be happy.

If one’s mind had peace, the whole world will appear peaceful.,

35.RENUNCIATION:

Renunciation and realization are the same. They are different aspects of the same state.
lf you renounce and give up everything, what remains is only ‘Moksha’ (Iiberation).

Renunciation is the giving up of the Ego. It is not only the giving up the possessions but the possessor too.

Internal renunciation means that all vasanas should be subdued.

36.REALITY:

Reality can only be experienced, it cannot be explained.

Reality is at once Being and Consciousness. To know That, is to Be That in the heart transcending thought.

Reality is only one and that is the Self. All the rest is mere phenomena in it, of it, and by it.
Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. That alone is real which exists by itself, which reveals itself by itself and is eternal and unchanging.
Reality alone exists as a perfect undivided whole, and you experience it here and now, whether you think you are aware of it or not.

37.REALIZATION:

Abiding in it and being it , not seeing it , is Self-realization.

‘I am’ is realization. To pursue the clue till realization is vichara.

Merging into the source of ego, which is the fullness of consciousness, and abiding there, is realization. It is the natural state.

38.SEEKER :

One must be ready to sacrifice everything for the truth.

If you seek God with your whole heart you may be asured that the grace of God also seeking you.

39.SAMADHI:

To be one’s own Self is Samadhi.

The state, in which awareness is firm, even when the objects are sensed, is called the natural state.

When through practice we are constantly in that state (free from thought-nirvikalpa Samadhi) not going into Samadhi and coming out again, that is sahaja state (the natural state).

The state in which the unbroken experience of existence-consciousness is attained by the still mind alone is Samadhi.

40.SADHANA:

All sadhanas are for getting rid the delusion that you are the body.

41.SELF:

Know that you are really the infinite being, the Self.
What are the obstacles which hinder realization of the Self? A: they are habits (vasanas) of mind.

Pure awareness alone is the Self. Self is the only reality. The Self is ever present.

The Self is the world, the Self itself is ‘I’, the Self itself is God all is the Self.

42.SILENCE:

Only silence is the eternal speech. The only words, the heart to heart talk.

Silence is Truth.
Silence is bliss.
Silence is peace.
And hence silence is the Self.
 Mouna (Silence) is the speech of Self.
 The Self is that where there is absolutely no ‘I’ thought. That is called ‘silence’.

That which is, is Silence


43.SURRENDER”:

Complete surrender does require that you hjave no desire of your own. You must be satisfied with whatever God gives you.

Complete surrender to God means giving up thoughts and concentrating the mind to Him.

If you have surrendered but still doubt God’s grace, where does the fault lie?

If surrender is complete all sense of individuality is lost and there is no cause for misery.

44.SOLITUDE:

Abiding in the Self is solitude, because there is nothing alien to the Self

The state of being free from mental concepts is called ‘dwelling on solitude’

45.STILLNESS:

The bible says, ‘be still and know that I am God.’ Stillness is the sole requisite for the realization of the Self as God.

Your duty is to be , and not to be this or that. The method is summarized in ‘BE STILL’

What does stillness mean? It means ‘Destroy yourself’ because every name and form is the cause of trouble.

The Self is always realized. Look within and be still.

46.SATSANG:

Sat-sang really means association with the unmanifest Sat, or Absolute existence. But as very few can do that, they have to do the second best which is association with the manifest Sat, that is the Guru.

By remaining in contact with realized sages the man gradually loses the ignorance until its removal is complete.

It is necessary both, for you to strive and for the Guru to help.

47.SAMSARA REBIRTH:

Rebirth is due to vasanas which are binding. But they are destroyed in the one of Self-realization.
There are births and deaths, but they are of the Ego, not of you (the Self).

Unless one realize this state one will have to be born and die again and again

Forgetfulness of the real nature is the real death. Remembrance of it, it is the true birth. It puts an end to successive births.

48.SIDDHIS:

Self- abidance alone is a miracle. The other miracles are like dreams which last till waking.

‘Siddhi’ is to know and realize that which is ever Real(Self). Other ‘siddhis’ are mere dream siddhis’.

Occult powers (Siddhis) will not bring happiness to anyone, but will make him all the more miserable.

49.THOUGHTS:

The state free from thoughts is the only real state.
No thought will go in vain. Every thought will produce its effect sometime or other.
Each person will get results according to his thoughts.

50.TIME SPACE:

There is neither past nor future. There is only present. Yes, even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.

There is no time for the Self. You exist even in the absence of time and space.
 
51.UNITY:

Brotherhood based on equality is the supreme goal of human society.
Through Brotherhood peace will prevail among mankind.

Self-reform automatically results in social reform.

52.VICHARA:

Vichara is the process and the goal also. ‘I am’ is the goal and the final reality. To hold on to it with effort is Vichara. When spontaneous it is realization.

53.VASANAS:

Effort must be made to eradicate the vasanas. Jnana can only remain unshaken after all the vasanas are rooted out.

Self remains veild by vasanas and reveals it self when are no vasanas.

Vasanas themselves are the mind. If there are no vasanas there is no mind.

54.WORLD:

The world is as we see it. If we see it as material, it is material. If we see it as Brahman, it is Brahman.

There is in reality no change , no creation.
All the crores of worlds is built upon the weak (or no) foundation of the ego. They all topple down when the atomic bomb of Jnana comes down upon them.

55.WISDOM:

The eternal unbroken natural state of abiding in the Self is wisdom.


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