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"The search after Truth is the one thing by which the shape of human life should be determined.
Genuine desire itself opens the road to fulfilment."
Sri Anandamayi Ma
Wisdom Bytes of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (Section #1)
Compiled from
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
with commentary by Swami Sadasivananda Giri
This website section is dedicated with respectful thanksgiving to Arthur Osborne,
who in his life of discipleship to Sri Ramana Maharshi sought to bring understanding for those
'of little dust'.
It is related (and the story is no less significant whether historically true or not) that after attaining Enlightenment the Buddha's first impulse was to abide in the effulgence of Bliss without turning back to convey the incommunicable to mankind.
Then the Buddha reflected:
“Some there are who are clear sighted and do not need my teachings,
and some whose eyes are clouded with dust who will not heed it though given,
but between these two there are also some with but little dust in their eyes,
who can be helped to see; And for the sake of these I will go back among mankind and teach.”
For Those with Little Dust, Selected Writings of Arthur Osborne, p. 85.
"Mental japa is very good. That helps meditation.
Mind gets identified with the repetition
and then you get to know what worship (puja) really is
- the losing of one’s individuality in that which is worshipped."
Talk #31 p. 38
‘By practice does Bhagavan mean meditation?’
22nd March, 1937. Talk #377. p.356
A middle-aged Andhra visitor: A man is said to be divine. Why then does he have regrets? M.: Divinity refers to the essential nature. The regrets are of Prakriti.
D.: How is one to overcome regrets?
M.: By realizing the Divinity in him.
D.: How?
M.: By practice.
D.: What kind of practice?
M.: Meditation.
D.: Mind is not steady while meditating.
M.: It will be all right by practice.
D.: How is the mind to be steadied?
M.: By strengthening it.
D.: How to strengthen it?
M.: It grows strong by satsanga (the company of the wise). D.: Shall we add prayers, etc.?
M.: Yes.
No matter how many times Sri Ramana Maharshi stressed the need for meditation, there will always be those who declare that he never told people to meditate. But these same people are not to be condemned; for they suffer from the same contagious dilemma we all suffer from - human nature. May I site two scriptural sources for this seemingly outrageous statement? First is from the Bhagavatam, in the Udhaav Parva, where one of the mind-born sons of Brahma declares that death is pramada, literally defined as “the willful indifference to the consequences of ignoring God.” Thus, Bhagavan urges for the Divine to be realized within, and the means he stressed in the above quote was meditation (universally said to be the best way not only to avoid ignoring God, but to be acutely aware of His Presence). The second, and possibly more to the point, is Terry Pratchett’s fourth Discworld Novel Mort. Here Mort inquires of Death why people don’t see Him. Death, with a definably wistful air of sadness responds, “Though they all know that I am part of the arrangement, they refuse to accept what they don’t want to see.”
By Divine Grace, Sri Ramana Maharshi and so many Saints and Sages, are also parts of the arrangement. But they are not afflicted by the contagion of humanity’s wants and dislikes. Bhagavan especially did not preach, nor did he seem to express sadness over the “human
condition”. Nonetheless, he wept for his Lord Arunachala, he wept over personal human tragedy, he wept to the point of exhaustion while reading about the dedicated practice and sacrifice of the Saints. And having assumed our human form, he definitely did urge ‘those who had ears to hear’ to find and merge with the source of peace and love and the Divine “small still voice within”. He taught the ‘way that makes us perfect’ within the tradition to which he took birth. Those who have ‘ears to hear’ understand his guidance when he says it is:
‘Practice that makes us perfect.’
First Byte from Bhagavan, Taste and See
18th June, 1935 - Talk #55 p. 61
Devotee: Can Advaita be realized by japa of holy names; say Rama, Krishna, etc.?
Maharshi: Yes.
D.: Is it not a means of an inferior order?
M.: Have you been told to make japa or to discuss its order in the scheme of things?
Many who lived with Bhagavan during his physical sojourn on Earth said that he embodied the purest simplicity, truth and tradition. Although his guidance was a revelation of Universal Truth, he brought each of his followers to a unique experience of God in their journey toward the realization of the Self.
His traditional approach embraced the teaching of the Rishis, including the use of the Name says:
"Though Bhagavan rarely gave out mantras, when he did, he generally recommended 'Siva, Siva'. Muruganar himself was given this mantra by Bhagavan, as were several other devotees including Annamalai Swami, the brother of Rangan (who was one of Bhagavan's childhood friends), and also an unknown harijan."
Muruganar continues, making special note of Bhagavan's teachings regarding the use of mantras:
"Through grace, Padam (Muruganar's epithet for Bhagavan) ensures that there is never any danger to those who remain in their heart, meditating 'Sivaya Nama'".
Although these disciples daily bathed in the spiritual effulgence of Bhagavan's presence, through his instruction to make japa in meditation, they learned to invoke and taste the Divine Flavor of the Name of God.
Taste and see!
"Love and devotion to God are a bridge
across the abyss to Salvation."
Arthur Osborne, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge p.174
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'Meditation for the Mind,
the Breath and the Self'
Talk #223
Dr. Lohara: Why does the mind not sink into the Heart even while meditating?
Maharshi: “A floating body does not readily sink unless some means are adopted for making it do so. Breath-control makes the mind quiescent. The mind must be alert and meditation pursued unremittingly even when it is at peace. Then it sinks into the heart. Or the floating body might be loaded with weights and made to sink. So also association with the wise will make the mind sink into the Heart.”
“Such association is both mental and physical. The extremely visible being (of the Guru) pushes the mind inward. He is also in the heart of the seeker and so he draws the latter's inward-bent mind into the Heart.”
“This question is asked only when the man begins to meditate and finds it difficult. Let him practice breath-control just a little and the mind will be purified. It does not now sink into the heart because the latent tendencies stand as obstacles. They are removed by breath-control or association with the wise. In fact the mind is always in the Heart. But it is restive and moves about on account of latent tendencies. When the tendencies are made ineffective it will be restful and at peace.
By breath-control the mind will be only temporarily quiescent, because the tendencies are still there. If the mind is transformed into the Self it will no longer give trouble. That is done by meditation.”
Let those who have ears to hear, hear!
“The specious theory that Bhagavan was not a Guru
had simply evaporated in the radiance of his Grace.
Moreover, I now perceived that, far from his teaching
not being practical guidance, it was exclusively that.
I observed that he shunned theoretical explanations
and kept turning the questioner to practical
considerations of sadhana, of the path to be followed.
It was that and only that he was here to teach!”
- from My Life and Quest by Arthur Osborne, p.92
Transcending both Will and Fate
19th June, 1936 - Talk #209
Maharshi: “Whose will is it? ‘It is mine’, you may say. You are beyond will and fate. Abide as that and you transcend them both. That is the meaning of conquering destiny by will. Fate can be conquered. Fate is the result of past actions. By association with the wise the bad tendencies are conquered. One’s experiences are then viewed to their proper perspective... Free-will is implied in the scriptural injunctions to be good. It implies overcoming fate. It is done by wisdom. The fire of wisdom consumes all actions. Wisdom is acquired by association with the wise, or rather, its mental atmosphere.”
During the months of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s final illness in 1950, the attendant, who always remained by his bedside, asked Bhagavan if he was in much pain. The attendant’s hearing prolonged groaning coming from Bhagavan invoked this question. In response, the Maharshi replied: “The sound of groaning is the body following its nature, “I” am untouched and unaffected.” He had conquered fate. In the quote from Talks above, Bhagavan clearly guides us to the source of the profound wisdom, which transcends even the most abject physical suffering.
“Wisdom is acquired by association with the wise, or rather, its mental
atmosphere.” God only knows who will have the good fortune to be in the
company of the truly wise. And even if such blessings come to us, how long will
they remain? And furthermore, when we are in the “mental atmosphere” of
blessedness, will we be receptive to it? Bhagavan declared: "Grace is always there,
it is only you who have to make yourself receptive to it."(1)
Being physically present within the transforming grace of association with the wise is not a magic potion. We must put forth effort to receive the “transmission” from the wise. To understand this, perhaps we should refer to one of the close disciples of Bhagavan, when he was pondering this very subject:
"To do this constitutes the effort of which the teachers and scriptures speak.
The mind has created the obstruction; the mind has to remove it.
But merely to recognize this, to recognize, that is to say, that the ego is (according to the Advaitin or non-dualist)
an illusory self or (according to the dualist) a creation of the Spirit,
to which it should be totally submissive and passive, is far from constituting the full effort required.
Indeed, it increases the obligation for total effort and therefore, so to speak, the guilt in not making effort."(2)
_________________
1. Be Still, It Is The Wind That Sings, Arthur Osborne, p. 74
2. Ibid, p. 73
D.: What is Guru's Grace? How does it work?
M.: Guru is the Self. D.: How does it lead to realization?
M.: Isvaro gururatmeti (God is the same as Guru and Self).
A person begins with dissatisfaction.
Not content with the world he seeks satisfaction of desires by prayers to God;
his mind is purified; he longs to know God more than to satisfy his carnal desires.
Then God's Grace begins to manifest.
10th June, 1936. Talk #198. p.170
