Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.

One who renounces desires actually merges in the world and expands his love to the whole universe. Expansion of love and affection would be a far better term for a true devotee of God than renunciation, for one who renounces the immediate ties actually extends the bonds of affection and love to a wider world beyond the borders of caste, creed and race.

A sannyasi who apparently casts away his clothes and leaves his home does not do so out of aversion to his immediate relations but because of the expansion of his love to others around him. When this expansion comes, one does not feel that one is running away from home, instead one drops from it like a ripe fruit from a tree. Till then it would be folly to leave one's home or job.

Question : How does a grihastha [householder] fare in the scheme of moksha [liberation]? Should he not necessarily become a mendicant in order to attain liberation?
Ramana Maharshi : Why do you think you are a grihastha? Similar thoughts that you are a sannyasi [wandering monk] will haunt you, even if you go out as a sannyasi. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and it makes you think of being the grihastha. If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of sannyasa for that of grihastha and the environment of the forest for that of the household.

But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind and it must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever the environment.

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi [awareness of reality] while busy in worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : The feeling `I work' is the hindrance. Ask yourself `Who works?' Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you, it will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; it is your effort which is the bondage. What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined not to work, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it and you will be forced to engage yourself in it. So, leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.

Question : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of God 'within', `outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really seeking Krishna within and he forgot all about his body and went on talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt as to whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part of one's attention on the physical work?

Ramana Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self ? Or can the work go on without the Self ? The Self is universal so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.
- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

 

 

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.

One who renounces desires actually merges in the world and expands his love to the whole universe. Expansion of love and affection would be a far better term for a true devotee of God than renunciation, for one who renounces the immediate ties actually extends the bonds of affection and love to a wider world beyond the borders of caste, creed and race.

A sannyasi who apparently casts away his clothes and leaves his home does not do so out of aversion to his immediate relations but because of the expansion of his love to others around him. When this expansion comes, one does not feel that one is running away from home, instead one drops from it like a ripe fruit from a tree. Till then it would be folly to leave one's home or job.

Question : How does a grihastha [householder] fare in the scheme of moksha [liberation]? Should he not necessarily become a mendicant in order to attain liberation?
Ramana Maharshi : Why do you think you are a grihastha? Similar thoughts that you are a sannyasi [wandering monk] will haunt you, even if you go out as a sannyasi. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and it makes you think of being the grihastha. If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of sannyasa for that of grihastha and the environment of the forest for that of the household.

But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind and it must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever the environment.

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi [awareness of reality] while busy in worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : The feeling `I work' is the hindrance. Ask yourself `Who works?' Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you, it will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; it is your effort which is the bondage. What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined not to work, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it and you will be forced to engage yourself in it. So, leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.

Question : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of God 'within', `outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really seeking Krishna within and he forgot all about his body and went on talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt as to whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part of one's attention on the physical work?

Ramana Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self ? Or can the work go on without the Self ? The Self is universal so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

 

 

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.

One who renounces desires actually merges in the world and expands his love to the whole universe. Expansion of love and affection would be a far better term for a true devotee of God than renunciation, for one who renounces the immediate ties actually extends the bonds of affection and love to a wider world beyond the borders of caste, creed and race.

A sannyasi who apparently casts away his clothes and leaves his home does not do so out of aversion to his immediate relations but because of the expansion of his love to others around him. When this expansion comes, one does not feel that one is running away from home, instead one drops from it like a ripe fruit from a tree. Till then it would be folly to leave one's home or job.

Question : How does a grihastha [householder] fare in the scheme of moksha [liberation]? Should he not necessarily become a mendicant in order to attain liberation?
Ramana Maharshi : Why do you think you are a grihastha? Similar thoughts that you are a sannyasi [wandering monk] will haunt you, even if you go out as a sannyasi. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and it makes you think of being the grihastha. If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of sannyasa for that of grihastha and the environment of the forest for that of the household.

But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind and it must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever the environment.

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi [awareness of reality] while busy in worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : The feeling `I work' is the hindrance. Ask yourself `Who works?' Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you, it will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; it is your effort which is the bondage. What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined not to work, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it and you will be forced to engage yourself in it. So, leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.

Question : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of God 'within', `outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really seeking Krishna within and he forgot all about his body and went on talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt as to whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part of one's attention on the physical work?

Ramana Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self ? Or can the work go on without the Self ? The Self is universal so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

 

 

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.

One who renounces desires actually merges in the world and expands his love to the whole universe. Expansion of love and affection would be a far better term for a true devotee of God than renunciation, for one who renounces the immediate ties actually extends the bonds of affection and love to a wider world beyond the borders of caste, creed and race.

A sannyasi who apparently casts away his clothes and leaves his home does not do so out of aversion to his immediate relations but because of the expansion of his love to others around him. When this expansion comes, one does not feel that one is running away from home, instead one drops from it like a ripe fruit from a tree. Till then it would be folly to leave one's home or job.

Question : How does a grihastha [householder] fare in the scheme of moksha [liberation]? Should he not necessarily become a mendicant in order to attain liberation?
Ramana Maharshi : Why do you think you are a grihastha? Similar thoughts that you are a sannyasi [wandering monk] will haunt you, even if you go out as a sannyasi. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and it makes you think of being the grihastha. If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of sannyasa for that of grihastha and the environment of the forest for that of the household.

But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind and it must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever the environment.

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi [awareness of reality] while busy in worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : The feeling `I work' is the hindrance. Ask yourself `Who works?' Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you, it will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; it is your effort which is the bondage. What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined not to work, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it and you will be forced to engage yourself in it. So, leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.

Question : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of God 'within', `outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really seeking Krishna within and he forgot all about his body and went on talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt as to whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part of one's attention on the physical work?

Ramana Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self ? Or can the work go on without the Self ? The Self is universal so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

 

 

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.

One who renounces desires actually merges in the world and expands his love to the whole universe. Expansion of love and affection would be a far better term for a true devotee of God than renunciation, for one who renounces the immediate ties actually extends the bonds of affection and love to a wider world beyond the borders of caste, creed and race.

A sannyasi who apparently casts away his clothes and leaves his home does not do so out of aversion to his immediate relations but because of the expansion of his love to others around him. When this expansion comes, one does not feel that one is running away from home, instead one drops from it like a ripe fruit from a tree. Till then it would be folly to leave one's home or job.

Question : How does a grihastha [householder] fare in the scheme of moksha [liberation]? Should he not necessarily become a mendicant in order to attain liberation?
Ramana Maharshi : Why do you think you are a grihastha? Similar thoughts that you are a sannyasi [wandering monk] will haunt you, even if you go out as a sannyasi. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and it makes you think of being the grihastha. If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of sannyasa for that of grihastha and the environment of the forest for that of the household.

But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind and it must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever the environment.

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi [awareness of reality] while busy in worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : The feeling `I work' is the hindrance. Ask yourself `Who works?' Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you, it will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; it is your effort which is the bondage. What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined not to work, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it and you will be forced to engage yourself in it. So, leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.

Question : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of God 'within', `outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really seeking Krishna within and he forgot all about his body and went on talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt as to whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part of one's attention on the physical work?

Ramana Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self ? Or can the work go on without the Self ? The Self is universal so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

 

 

Ramana Maharshi on Realization while doing Worldly Duties

Question : I have a good mind to resign from service and remain constantly with Sri Bhagavan.
Ramana Maharshi : Bhagavan is always with you, in you, and you are yourself Bhagavan. To realize this it is neither necessary to resign your job nor run away from home. Renunciation does not imply apparent divesting of costumes, family ties, home, etc., but renunciation of desires, affection and attachment. There is no need to resign your job, only resign yourself to God, the bearer of the burden of all.

One who renounces desires actually merges in the world and expands his love to the whole universe. Expansion of love and affection would be a far better term for a true devotee of God than renunciation, for one who renounces the immediate ties actually extends the bonds of affection and love to a wider world beyond the borders of caste, creed and race.

A sannyasi who apparently casts away his clothes and leaves his home does not do so out of aversion to his immediate relations but because of the expansion of his love to others around him. When this expansion comes, one does not feel that one is running away from home, instead one drops from it like a ripe fruit from a tree. Till then it would be folly to leave one's home or job.

Question : How does a grihastha [householder] fare in the scheme of moksha [liberation]? Should he not necessarily become a mendicant in order to attain liberation?
Ramana Maharshi : Why do you think you are a grihastha? Similar thoughts that you are a sannyasi [wandering monk] will haunt you, even if you go out as a sannyasi. Whether you continue in the household or renounce it and go to the forest, your mind haunts you. The ego is the source of thought. It creates the body and the world and it makes you think of being the grihastha. If you renounce, it will only substitute the thought of sannyasa for that of grihastha and the environment of the forest for that of the household.

But the mental obstacles are always there for you. They even increase greatly in the new surroundings. It is no help to change the environment. The one obstacle is the mind and it must be overcome whether in the home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment? Your efforts can be made even now, whatever the environment.

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi [awareness of reality] while busy in worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : The feeling `I work' is the hindrance. Ask yourself `Who works?' Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you, it will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; it is your effort which is the bondage. What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined not to work, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it and you will be forced to engage yourself in it. So, leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.

Question : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of God 'within', `outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really seeking Krishna within and he forgot all about his body and went on talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt as to whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part of one's attention on the physical work?

Ramana Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self ? Or can the work go on without the Self ? The Self is universal so all actions will go on whether you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Realization_in_world.htm#sthash.o452vV8B.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Ramana Maharshi Self Inquiry Meditation Method

Question : You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi : You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

Question : When I do this and cling to my self, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi :  This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.

Question : What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi :  That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

Question : But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi :  I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.

Question : And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi :  No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.

Question : Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi :  Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question : I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi :  Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.  If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and onepointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.

Question : How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi :  The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then enquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one's nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the enquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one's real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.

Enquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing one's real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-enquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].

Question : The yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.
Ramana Maharshi :  The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

Question : What will be the result of doing that?
Ramana Maharshi :  As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

Question : Then you do not agree with the yogis?
Ramana Maharshi :  A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation.

Question : How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life of worldly activity?
Ramana Maharshi :  There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

Question : Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get enlightenment ?
Ramana Maharshi :  Why not ? But in that case one will not think that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centered in that which is beyond the little self.

Question : If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time left for him to meditate.
Ramana Maharshi :  Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

Question : Then you do not teach the way of yoga?
Ramana Maharshi :  The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.

Question : How is that done?
Ramana Maharshi :  You have to ask yourself the Question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.

Question : Why is concentration ineffective?
Ramana Maharshi :  To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see from where the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Question : In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Ramana Maharshi :  Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self. 

Question : How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?
Ramana Maharshi :  The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realization. But Self-realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source, where they do not arise. 

Question : Doubts are always arising. Hence my Question.
Ramana Maharshi :  A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

Source: from book “Be As You Are” by David Godman 

- See more at: http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Life_of_Masters/Ramana-Maharshi/Self-Inquiry.htm#sthash.hP8nACp2.dpuf

Lessons From 25 Years of Meditating

Lessons From 25 Years of Meditating by Yogi Mccaw

[Listen to Audio!]

I did meditate nearly everyday for about 25 years of my life, and some days, for hours on end. [...] Here's what I found. 

 

1. meditation is not painful. [...] As the Buddha pointed out, although everybody suffers, it does not follow that suffering leads to any kind of enlightenment. It doesn't. It just leads to suffering. Period. It doesn't go anywhere else. So don't glorify your suffering, or think you are making "progress" in meditation because your knees hurt. [...] Yet a lot of people buy this logic. You're better off taking proper care of your knees. 

 

2. If you're meditating in order to achieve something - even if it's a deeper state of meditation, you are missing the point, and probably sabotaging your meditations to boot. Meditation is a whole different universe from the achievement-driven universe of the ego. Normally, we always do something to get something. It's intrinsic. If you're actually in meditation, you're not doing anything, and you're not getting anything. Ironically, that's where you need to be to actually meditate. You are not in "doing this to get that". As simple as it sounds, most people never get to this breakthrough, even after years of "doing" stuff like meditation techniques. Which of course, they are doing in order to get into meditation. [...] 

 

3. It's impossible to describe why a person should meditate. Yes, calmness, a strong sense of being centered even in adverse conditions, and expanded viewpoint, can all result from meditations, but really all those are side-effects.All I can say is that it is truly the only way to get beyond the "doing something to get something" phenomenal existence we live in everyday. That expansion is what makes it worth it. But, remember, it doesn't actually come from doing anything. It just is. This leads to the last realization - 

 

4. That meditation is our natural state of being. The only reason we have to do meditation techniques is because we don't live in our natural state. It's an old Zen paradox that states only the Zen master is ordinary. The master appears special because he seems different from everybody else. But the secret is that he isn't different at all he is just ordinary, natural. The difference appears because everyone else lives in an unnatural state of anxiety, worries, and "doing something to get something". So it's not that the Zen master is extraordinary - he's totally ordinary. It's just that everyone else is not.

Kumbhodara – The Lion Associated with Shiva

Kumbhodara – The Lion Associated with Shiva

Kumbhodara is a lion associated with Shiva and it is believed to climb on Nandi, the divine bull, Shiva keeps his foot on the lion. The lion has a large belly and thus he got the name Kumbhodara. Symbolically, setting foot on the lion represents conquest of hunger.

The potbelly represents greed for food. By conquering hunger, one controls anger and other impulses.

Kumbhodara is also the name of a Gana.

 

Sri Ram’s advice to Lakshman in the Ramayana

Sri Ram’s advice to Lakshman in the Ramayana

 

Like a flash of lightning in a mass of clouds unstable are all worldly enjoyments. Life is also like a drop of water upon a piece of heated iron – liable to disappear any moment.

Like a frog hanging in a serpent’s throat being yet desirous of eating the serpent’s flesh with his teeth, men of the world are desirous of enjoyment of unstable worldly objects, even though they are being swallowed up by the serpent of time.

Fickle like a shadow is fortune, unstable like the waves of the ocean is youth, the pleasure derived from the company of women is like a dream, life is short and yet embodied beings have so much attachment to these.

I am this body. The notion is called avidya. I am not this body but the intelligent self. This is called knowledge.

Avidya is the cause of the world, knowledge of self destroys impressions created by Avidya. Those desirous of emancipation should, therefore, always strive for the acquirement of knowledge of self.

These advices were given by Bhagvan Sri Ram to Lakshman when an angry Lakshman wanted Sri Ram to give him permission to defeat Bharata and his mother Kaikayi. These incidents happened when Lakshman heard that Sri Ram was asked to go into exile.

 

गौ माता की अद्भुत महिमा - Bhagwad Geeta

Cow & Hinduism / Gau Mata ki Jai

गौ माता की अद्भुत महिमा - Bhagwad Geeta
महामहिमामयी गौ हमारी माता है उनकी बड़ी ही महिमा है वह सभी प्रकार से पूज्य है गौमाता की रक्षा और सेवा से बढकर कोई दूसरा महान पुण्य नहीं है .
१. गौमाता को कभी भूलकर भी भैस बकरी आदि पशुओ की भाति साधारण नहीं समझना चाहिये गौ के शरीरमें "३३ करोड़ देवी देवताओ" का वास होता है. गौमाता श्री कृष्ण की परमराध्या है, वे भाव सागर से पार लगाने वाली है.
२. गौ को अपने घर में रखकर तन-मन-धन से सेवा करनी चाहिये, ऐसा कहा गया है जो तन-मन-धन से गौकी सेवा करता है. तो गौ उसकी सारी मनोकामनाएँ पूरी करती है.
३. प्रातः काल उठते ही श्री भगवत्स्मरण करने के पश्चात यदि सबसे पहले गौमाता के दर्शन करने को मिल जाये तो इसे अपना सौभाग्य मानना चाहिये.
४. यदि रास्ते में गौ आती हुई दिखे, तो उसे अपने दाहिने से जाने देना चाहिये .
५. जो गौ माता को मारता है, और सताता है, या किसी भी प्रकार का कष्ट देता है, उसकी २१ पीढियाँ नर्क में जाती है.
६. गौ के सामने कभी पैर करके बैठना या सोना नहीं चाहिये, न ही उनके ऊपर कभी थूकना चाहिये, जो ऐसा करता है वो महान पाप का भागी बनता है .
७. गौ माता को घर पर रखकर कभी भूखी प्यासी नहीं रखना चाहिये न ही गर्मी में धूप में बाँधना चाहिये ठण्ड में सर्दी में नहीं बाँधना चाहिये जो गाय को भूखी प्यासी रखता हैउसका कभी श्रेय नहीं होता .
८. नित्य प्रति भोजन बनाते समय सबसे पहले गाय के लिए रोटी बनानी चाहिये गौग्रास निकालना चाहिये.गौ ग्रास का बड़ा महत्व है .
९. गौओ के लिए चरणी बनानी चाहिये, और नित्य प्रति पवित्र ताजा ठंडा जल भरना चाहिये, ऐसा करने से मनुष्य की "२१ पीढियाँ" तर जाती है .
१०. गाय उसी ब्राह्मण को दान देना चाहिये, जो वास्तव में गाय को पाले, और गाय की रक्षा सेवाकरे, यवनों को और कसाई को न बेचे. अनाधिकारी कोगाय दान देने से घोर पाप लगता है .
११. गाय को कभी भी भूलकर अपनी जूठन नहीं खिलानी चाहिये, गाय साक्षात् जगदम्बा है. उन्हें जूठन खिलाकर कौन सुखी रह सकता है .
१२. नित्य प्रति गाय के परम पवित्र गोवर से रसोई लीपना और पूजा के स्थान को भी, गोमाता केगोबर से लीपकर शुद्ध करना चाहिये .
१३. गाय के दूध, घी, दही, गोवर, और गौमूत्र, इन पाँचो को 'पञ्चगव्य' के द्वारा मनुष्यों के पाप दूर होते है.
१४. गौ के "गोबर में लक्ष्मी जी" और "गौ मूत्र में गंगा जी" का वास होता है इसके अतिरिक्त दैनिक जीवन में उपयोग करने से पापों का नाश होता है, और गौमूत्र से रोगाणु नष्ट होते है.
१५. जिस देश में गौमाता के रक्त का एक भी बिंदु गिरता है, उस देश में किये गए योग, यज्ञ, जप, तप, भजन, पूजन , दान आदि सभी शुभ कर्म निष्फल हो जाते है .
१६ . नित्य प्रति गौ की पूजा आरती परिक्रमा करना चाहिये. यदि नित्य न हो सके तो"गोपाष्टमी" के दिन श्रद्धा से पूजा करनी चाहिये .
१७. गाय यदि किसी गड्डे में गिर गई है या दलदल में फस गई है, तो सब कुछ छोडकर सबसे पहले गौमाता को बचाना चाहिये गौ रक्षा में यदि प्राण भी देना पड़ जाये तो सहर्ष दे देने से गौलोक धाम की प्राप्ति होती है.
१८ . गाय के बछड़े को बैलो को हलो में जोतकर उन्हें बुरी तरह से मारते है, काँटी चुभाते है, गाड़ी में जोतकर बोझा लादते है, उन्हें घोर नर्क की प्राप्ति होती है .
१९. जो जल पीती और घास खाती, गाय को हटाता है वोपाप के भागी बनते है .
२०. यदि तीर्थ यात्रा की इच्छा हो, पर शरीर मेंबल या पास में पैसा न हो, तो गौ माता के दर्शन, गौ की पूजा, और परिक्रमा करने से, सारे तीर्थो का फल मिल जाता है, गाय सर्वतीर्थमयी है, गौ कीसेवा से घर बैठे ही ३३ करोड़ देवी देवताओ की सेवा हो जाती है .
२१ . जो लोग गौ रक्षा के नाम पर या गौ शालाओ के नाम पर पैसा इकट्टा करते है, और उन पैसो से गौ रक्षा न करके स्वयं ही खा जाते है, उनसे बढकर पापी और दूसरा कौन होगा. गौमाता के निमित्त में आये हुए पैसो में से एक पाई भी कभी भूलकर अपने काम में नहीं लगानी चाहिये, जो ऐसा करता है उसे "नर्क का कीड़ा" बनना पडता है .
गौ माता की सेवा ही करने में ही सभी प्रकार केश्रेय और कल्याण है...
◙║.जय मांता दी.║◙ —

Story of dhenukasura and Krishna – Demon Vatsa in the form of Calf

Story of Vatsasura and Krishna – Demon Vatsa in the form of Calf

Kamsa had appointed numerous demons to kill Sri Krishna. Vatsasura was one such demon. He decided to kill Sri Krishna on the banks of Yamuna. The story has it that demon Vatsa took the form of a calf and joined the herd of calves that Sri Krishna and Balrama were attending to.

The demon followed Sri Krishna. The demon went wherever the Lord went. Krishna soon realized who the calf was. He then secretly told to Balrama about the presence of a demon among the calves.

Sri Krishna then pretended as if he knew nothing. The brothers behaved normally. Then casually Sri Krishna approached the demon who was unaware that he had been discovered.

In a swift move, Sri Krishna caught hold of the hind legs of the calf and whirled him round and round. He then hurled him on to a wood apple tree. Both the demon and the tree fell down creating a huge noise.

The ground was filled with fruits of wood apple. The other gopas who were with Sri Krishna were amazed at the sight.

Because Sri Krishna touched him Vatasura’s destiny changed and he attained Moksha.

 

Essential Nature of Bondage Is Nothing Other Than Desire – Sage Ashtavakra

Essential Nature of Bondage Is Nothing Other Than Desire – Sage Ashtavakra

The essential nature of bondage is nothing other than desire, and its elimination is known as liberation. It is simply by not being attached to changing things that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached.

Oh, how wonderful! I am awareness itself! No Less.

If one thinks of oneself as free, one is free, and if one thinks of oneself as bound, one is bound. Here this saying is true “Thinking makes it so.”

One who has finally learned that it is in the nature of objects to come and go without ceasing, rests in detachment and is no longer subject to suffering.

Sage Ashtavakra  

Subtle World and Who is a seeker ?

Tanuja Thakur

Subtle World
Under this series, we will mention such incidents that will throw light on some untouched, but true aspects of spirituality and subtle world. The mere arrival of saints results in Vaastu Shuddhi (purification of the premises) of the house
In the year 2001, I was doing Dharma Prasaar Seva in Sultanpur, Lucknow and Faizabad districts of Uttar Pradesh. The person at whose house I used to stay and do Prasaar Seva suffered from spiritual problems of a severe nature. As there was a severe-level problem in the house, his father who had retired from the Indian Army, used to drink a lot and was suffering from several diseases. In his house, an environment of strife and conflict prevailed without any rhyme or reason, there was a financial crunch in the house and several other problems existed too; but there was one silver lining, that the seeker couple possessed an intense desire to do Sadhana and they used to be always eager to contribute their mite in doing Dharma Prasaar Seva. I used to stay at their house for one or two days in a week and after that used to visit Kanpur, Lucknow and Faizabad. Whenever I used to stay at their house, I used to subtly feel the presence of negative energies in the house. During the night, whenever I would go to the washroom, which was in the courtyard outside, I used to feel as if some people were walking behind me. Whenever I used to switch on the lights of the washroom, I would feel as if someone had already placed a hand on the switch. In the middle of a power-cut in their house, I used to feel scared during the evening, though I usually do not get easily scared. On three occasions, when I got up to do Yogabhyas (yogic postures) at 5.00 a.m, I would feel as if someone had entered their kitchen, through a movement that I could spot beneath the curtains. One day I went inside the kitchen to actually see who was there. But nobody was there and all the household members used to be asleep.
One afternoon, when I returned from Kanpur, I was feeling a bit tired. So I went to stretch myself and relax a bit. No sooner had I fallen asleep that I felt a tall person snoring just next to me and the sound of his snores was clearly audible and I suddenly opened my eyes to look around but no one was to be seen. I asked the lady seeker of the house, if somebody had come to their house, but she replied that the children had gone to the school and only she was there in the house. I tried to go back to sleep, but I again experienced the same. I realised that their house was completely haunted. Today, unsatiated ancestors inhabit a majority of the households; hence, undergoing such experiences is a common occurrence.
Next year, a saint Bawra Maharaj (who is now Brahmaleen, meaning He has left for the final abode) had set out on a journey to rekindle Hindutva from Kashmir to Assam along with a group of saints. In accordance with the wishes of my Shree Guru, I took His message to the place in Lucknow, where Maharaj was staying during His Dharmayatra. His aura made it clear that he was a high-level saint; thus, I struck an instant affinity with Him. I said to Baba “ when You comes to Sultanpur and if Your grace is still upon me, I would like to make an effort to contribute to this Dharmayatra according to my capacity”. Baba said “Tathaastu (so be it)” to this. After a month, His group was about to reach Sultanpur and I came to learn of His arrival just one day before His arrival in Sultanpur. I thought that I should check what arrangements the people have made for His arrival, stay, food and Pravachan in the city. When I saw the arrangements, I felt sad. A majority of the Hindus today scarcely know how to behave with saints. People treat saints of high order who are basically very humble in a friendly and causal manner ! His Holiness Bawra Maharaj was a devotee of Hanuman and was a simple being but He appeared a veritable Hanuman, endowed with Braahmtej and Kshaatratej (sheen like that of a warrior) to me. One personal meeting with Him awakened in me a lot of utmost respect and devotion towards Him. Eminent citizens of that city had made arrangements for His stay in a semi-constructed government school. The place where He and other saints with Him were to provide guidance was an open ground full of slush and water, for it was the month of August and due to rains, the ground was in a pitiable condition. Along with a small band of seekers, I arranged for a hall and made all the arrangements for His arrival. Arrangements were made for the stay of the leading saints accompanying Him in the house of two seekers of Sanatan Sanstha.

His Holiness Bawra Maharaj
My efforts embarrassed some eminent persons and they started thinking in terms of making arrangements for Baba’s stay in a hotel. The next day when I reached there for Baba’s arrival, He recognised me instantly, whereas our only meeting had lasted merely for five minutes. When I told Him that there were arrangements for everyone’s stay, He said, ‘But I will stay only in the place where you are staying.” The condition of the seekers at whose house I was staying, was not so good; hence, I had not made arrangements for any saint’s stay in their house. I told Him that it would not be possible to make good arrangements for His stay in the place I was staying; hence, I would make efforts to arrange for His stay at the house of some other seeker. But He started insisting in a child-like manner that he would stay only where I was staying. When I told Him that He would face problems, as there were no good arrangements for His stay at this place, He said ‘You can live, why can’t I?’ Even today, Baba’s affection fills my heart with waves of bliss. Saints are like a child, pure, adorable and pious! In the end, I thought that it would be best to obey Him and immediately asked the couple to make all the arrangements for His stay at their house. The couple was so overjoyed to hear the news that they started crying. Baba stayed at the place for two days and the family made an effort to do Bhavpoorna Seva (service with full spiritual emotion) towards Him.
Ever since Baba’s entry into the house, I have never felt the presence of negative energies in their house again. My Shree Guru has written in a book that the moment saints step into the house, Vaastu gets purified by 10% and if saints happen to stay for a couple of days, nothing more could be better. God granted me Anubhuti of this principle and I am grateful to Him and Baba for this.

 

Tanuja Thakur

Who is a seeker ?
Till the year 2004, one of our Gurubandhu (Guru brethren) was doing Sadhana under the guidance of our Shree Guru. Like all of us seekers, when he was asked to concentrate on his defects and ego, he discontinued his Sadhana under our Guru’s guidance and started doing Sadhana under the guidance of some other Guru. After some time, he took Deeksha (initiation) in Sanyaas (renunciation) from a third Guru . Last year when I went to Buxar in connection with a Pravachan, he came to meet me and like a brother, took extra care of me by arranging lunch etc and all other arrangements from his maternal uncle’s side. His outward appearance had changed over the seven years, like any other Yogi (ascetic) and he had started wearing white clothes; but I could not see much progress in their Sadhana, I gave indirect hints to him to this effect and he also accepted what I told him partially. This year again, I visited Dehri-on-Sone, he undertook a three-hour journey merely to meet me. This time there appeared to be a change in his outward appearance and a Yogi-like change too was visible; however, I could experience an excessive black veil surrounding his mind and intellect; hence, this time when I told him directly, he accepted that he had been under extreme mental stress for the last one year.
A few days ago, his present picture in my profile caught my attention, now he has started looking like a perfect ascetic; but his spiritual progress is still not taking place. A seeker should always remember one thing that if you cannot please one Guru, or saint, you cannot please any other Guru, or saint too and the second thing is that the seeker must surely pay attention to the outward appearance too, for the society looks upon them as an ideal, but internal change, meaning Sadhana and removal of personality defects should be given top most priority. Actually, leaving the protection of a Sadguru like His Holiness Dr. Jayant Balaji Athavale, he went to a Guru whose spiritual level is merely 60%, who Himself is not a saint from a spiritual perspective. But, he liked the Sadhana preached by Him because this seeker’s spiritual level is 40%. It becomes difficult for a majority of seekers between 25-40% spiritual level to do Sadhana prescribed by a high-level saint; hence, he/she finds it simpler to do Sadhana under the guidance of elevated ones. Performing Sadhana under the guidance of the elevated ones (whose spiritual level lies between 40-65%) does not result in spiritual progress at a quick pace. Today, 98% of the so called saints or gurus have not attained the status of Guru, meaning from the perspective of the science of spirituality, they do not enjoy the status of a saint as they are below 70% spiritual level. Today since 80% of the world’s population is below 35% spiritual level; hence, large crowds throng such Unnats ( the spiritually elevated ones but below the saintly level) and become followers and some so-called seekers seeing the ostentation of these Unnats even accept them as their Guru!! Remember that we get Guru, or a guide, only according to our eligibility!

Bhagavad Gita 5.18

SidE's photo.

Bhagavad Gita 5.18
Text 18
vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah

Translation

The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada

A Krishna conscious person does not make any distinction between species or castes. The brahmana and the outcaste may be different from the social point of view, or a dog, a cow, and an elephant may be different from the point of view of species, but these differences of body are meaningless from the viewpoint of a learned transcendentalist. This is due to their relationship to the Supreme, for the Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion as Paramatma, is present in everyone’s heart. Such an understanding of the Supreme is real knowledge. As far as the bodies are concerned in different castes or different species of life, the Lord is equally kind to everyone because He treats every living being as a friend yet maintains Himself as Paramatma regardless of the circumstances of the living entities. The Lord as Paramatma is present both in the outcaste and in the brahmana, although the body of a brahmana and that of an outcaste are not the same. The bodies are material productions of different modes of material nature, but the soul and the Supersoul within the body are of the same spiritual quality. The similarity in the quality of the soul and the Supersoul, however, does not make them equal in quantity, for the individual soul is present only in that particular body whereas the Paramatma is present in each and every body. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person has full knowledge of this, and therefore he is truly learned and has equal vision. The similar characteristics of the soul and Supersoul are that they are both conscious, eternal and blissful. But the difference is that the individual soul is conscious within the limited jurisdiction of the body whereas the Supersoul is conscious of all bodies. The Supersoul is present in all bodies without distinction.

Ramana Maharshi Teachings through Silence

Question : Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the truth to the people at large?
Ramana Maharshi : How do you know I am not doing it ? Does preaching consist in mounting a platform and haranguing the people around ? Preaching is simple communication of knowledge; it can really be done in silence only. What do you think of a man who listens to a sermon for an hour and goes away without having been impressed by it so as to change his life ? Compare him with another, who sits in a holy presence and goes away after some time with his outlook on life totally changed. Which is the better, to preach loudly without effect or to sit silently sending out inner force?

Again, how does speech arise? First there is abstract knowledge. Out of this arises the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken word. So the word is the great-grandson of the original source. If the word can produce an effect, judge for yourself, how much more powerful must be the preaching through silence.

Question : How can silence be so powerful?
Ramana Maharshi :A realized 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 realized 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.

The Guru is the bestower of silence who reveals the light of Self-knowledge which shines as the residual reality. Spoken words are of no use whatsoever if the eyes of the Guru meet the eyes of the disciple.

Question : Does Bhagavan give diksha [initiation]?
Ramana Maharshi : Mouna [silence] is the best and the most potent diksha. That was practised by Sri Dakshinamurti. Initiation by touch, look, etc., are all of a lower order. Silent initiation changes the hearts of all.

Dakshinamurti observed silence when the disciples approached him. That is the highest form of initiation. It includes the other forms. There must be subject-object relationship established in the other dikshas. First the subject must emanate and then the object. Unless these two are there how is the one to look at the other or touch him? Mouna diksha is the most perfect; it comprises looking, touching and teaching. It will purify the individual in every way and establish him in the reality.