Selected extracts from Gems from Bhagavan: A Necklace of Sayings by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Various Vital Subjects, strung together by A. Devaraja Mudaliar (Sri Ramanasramam, 2014)
- The Self and the appearances therein, as the snake in the rope, can be well illustrated like this. There is a screen. On that screen first appears the figure of a king. He sits on a throne. Then before him on that same screen a play begins with various figures and objects, and the king on the screen watches the play on the same screen. The seer and the seen are mere shadows on the screen which is the only reality, supporting all the pictures. In the world also, the seer and the seen together constitute the mind, and the mind is supported by or based on the Self.
- The Self is the one Reality that always exists, and it is by the light of the Self that all other things are seen. We forget it and concentrate on the appearance. The light in the hall burns both when persons are present and when they are absent, both when persons are enacting something, as in a theatre, and when nothing is being enacted. It is the light which enables us to see the hall, the persons and the acting. We are so engrossed with the objects or appearances revealed by the light, that we pay no attention to the light. In the waking or dream state in which things appear, and in the sleep state in which we see nothing, there is always the light of Consciousness or Self, like the hall lamp which is always burning. The thing to do is to concentrate on the seer and not on the seen, not on the objects, but on the Light which reveals them.
- The world is of the form of the five categories of sense objects, and nothing else. These five kinds of objects are sensed by the five senses. As all are perceived by the mind through these five senses, the world is nothing but the mind. Is there a world apart from the mind?
- Though the world and consciousness emerge and disappear together, the world shines or is perceived only through consciousness. That source wherein both these arise and disappear, and which itself neither appears nor disappears, is the perfect Reality.
- The body composed of insentient matter cannot say ‘I’ (i.e., cannot be the cause of the ‘I-thought’). On the other hand, the Eternal Consciousness cannot have such a thing as birth. Between the two something arises within the dimensions of the body. This is the knot of matter and Consciousness (chit-jada-granthi), variously called bondage, jiva, subtle body, ego, samsara (attachment), mind, etc.
- Though ancient and timeless sense attachments in the shape of vasanas (subtle tendencies) may rise countless like the waves of the sea, they will all be destroyed as dhyana progresses. Without giving any room for doubt whether it would at all be possible to eradicate all those vasanas and be the Self alone, one must take hold ceaselessly of dhyana of the Self. However great a sinner one may be, instead of lamenting ‘I am a great sinner, how can I make any progress?’ one must completely forget the fact of being a sinner and earnestly pursue meditation of Self. He is then sure to succeed.
- Who am I?’ is not a mantra. It means that you must find out where in you the ‘I-thought’ arises, which is the source of all other thoughts. But if you find that vichara marga (path of enquiry) is too hard for you, you go on repeating ‘I-I’ and that will lead you to the same goal. There is no harm in using ‘I’ as a mantra. It is the first name of God
- When we quest within our mind ‘Who am I?’ and reach the Heart, ‘I’ topples down and immediately another entity will reveal itself proclaiming ‘I-I’. Even though it also emerges saying ‘I’, it does not connote the ego, but the One Perfect Existence.
- Thoughts alone constitute the mind, and for all thoughts the base or source is the ‘I-thought’. ‘I’ is the mind. If we go inward questing for the source of the ‘I’, the ‘I’ topples down. This is the jnana enquiry.
- Reality being yourself, there is nothing for you to realize. All regard the unreal as real. What is required is that you give up regarding the unreal as real. The object of all meditation (dhyana) or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts regarding the non-self, to give up many thoughts and to hold on to one thought. The object of all sadhana is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts. If we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in its source.
- What is the best way of killing the ego? To each person that way is best which appears easiest or appeals the most. All the ways are equally good, as they lead to the same goal, which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the bhakta calls surrender, the one who does vichara calls jnana. Both are trying to take the ego back to the source from which it sprang and make it merge there.
- I ask you to see where the ‘I’ arises in your body; but it is not really quite correct to say that the ‘I’ rises from and merges in the Heart on the right side of the chest. The Heart is another name for the Reality, and it is neither inside nor outside the body. There can be no in and out for it, since It alone is. I do not mean by ‘Heart’ any physiological organ, any plexus of nerves or anything like that, but so long as one identifies oneself with the body and thinks he is the body, he is advised to see in the body where the ‘I-thought’ rises and merges again. It must be the Heart at the right side of the chest, since every man of whatever race and religion and in whatever language he may be saying ‘I’, points to the right side of his chest to indicate himself. This is true all over the world. So that must be the place. And by keenly watching the constant emergence of the ‘I-thought’ on waking and its subsiding in sleep, one can see that it is in the Heart on the right side.
- I have not said that a Guru is not necessary. But a Guru need not always be in human form. First a person thinks that he is inferior and that there is a superior, all-knowing, all powerful God who controls his own and the world’s destiny and worships him or does bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as Guru and leads him onward. That Guru comes only to tell him, ‘That God is within yourself. Dive within and realize’. God, Guru and the Self are the same.
- Realization is the result of the Master’s (Guru’s) grace, more than teachings, lectures, meditations, etc. They are only secondary aids, whereas the former is the primary and essential cause.
- Guru’s grace is always there. You imagine it to be something somewhere high up in the sky, far away and which has to descend. It is really inside you in your Heart, and the moment, by any of the methods, you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its source, the grace rushes forth, spouting as from a spring from within you.
- The state we call Realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, he is That which alone is, and which alone has always been. He cannot describe that state. He can only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.
- That which is, is peace. All that we need do is to keep quiet. Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to spoil it. For instance, there is space in a hall (room). We are not going to create space anew. We fill up the place with various articles. If we want space, all that we need do is to remove all those articles and we get space. Similarly, if we remove all the rubbish from the mind the peace will become manifest. That which is obstructing the peace must be removed. Peace is the only Reality.
- Mukti or Liberation is our Nature. It is another name for us. Our wanting mukti is a very funny thing. It is like a man who is in the shade voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the sun, feeling the severity of the heat, making great efforts to get back into the shade, and then rejoicing ‘At last I have reached the shade, how sweet is the shade!’ We are doing exactly the same. We are not different from the Reality. We imagine we are different, i.e., we create the bheda bhava (the feeling of difference) and then undergo great sadhanas to get rid of the bheda bhava and realize the oneness. Why imagine or create the bheda bhava and then destroy it?
- It is false to speak of Realization. What is there to realise? The Real is as it is, ever. How to realise it? All that is required is this. We have “real-ised” the unreal, i.e. regarded as real what is unreal. We have to give up this attitude. That is all that is required of us to attain jnana. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before.
- Effortless and choiceless awareness is our Real State. If we can attain It or be in It, it is all right. But one cannot reach It without effort, the effort of deliberate meditation. All the agelong vasanas (latent tendencies) carry the mind outwards and turn it to external objects. All such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward. For most people effort is necessary. Of course, everybody, every book says summa iru (be quiet or still). But it is not easy. That is why all this effort is necessary. Even if you find one who has effortlessly achieved the mouna (silence) or Supreme State indicated by summa iru, you may take it that the effort necessary has already been completed in a previous life. Such effortless and choiceless awareness is reached only after deliberate meditation.