Beauty ＆ Pure 160

Love is not different from the Self. Love of an object is of an inferior order and cannot endure. Whereas the Self is Love, in other words, God is Love.

Beauty ＆ Pure 159

Visitor: How should a beginner start this practice?

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 and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practicing thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Beauty ＆ Pure · 158

Question: Can a yogi know his past lives? 

Maharshi: Do you know the present life that you wish to know the past? Find the present, then the rest will follow. Even with our present limited knowledge, you suffer so much. Why should you burden yourself with more knowledge? Is it to suffer more?

Beauty ＆ Pure 157

Question: Can a yogi know his past lives? 

Maharshi: Do you know the present life that you wish to know the past? Find the present, then the rest will follow. Even with our present limited knowledge, you suffer so much. Why should you burden yourself with more knowledge? Is it to suffer more?

Beauty ＆ Pure 155

[Bhagavan] put his hands behind Lakshmi's horns and his head against hers. Like this they stayed for quite a long time. I stood nearby looking at the wonderful scene. After some ten minutes or so, Bhagavan turned to me and said: "Do you know what Lakshmi is doing? She is in Samadhi."

I looked at her and tears were flowing in streams down her broad cheeks. Her breathing had stopped and her eyes were fixed on Bhagavan. After some time Bhagavan changed his position and asked: "Lakshmi, how do you feel now?" Lakshmi moved backward, as if reluctant to turn her tail towards Bhagavan, walked round the Hall and went out.

Beauty ＆ Pure 154

　Only when Self, the truth of love, is known, will the knot of all the severe problems in life be severed. Only when the pinnacle of love [the supreme love or para-bhakti] is attained can even liberation be said to be attained. Love is verily the heart of all religions.

Beauty ＆ Pure 153

The mind is all. If the mind is active even solitude becomes like a market place. There is no use closing your eyes. Close the mental eye and all will be right.

Beauty ＆ Pure 152

Instead of going on, driven by the restless thoughts, performing actions such as ‘I should do this, I should give up that’ as if they were worthy to be done, acting according to how the Grace of God, the Lord of our soul, leads us, is the right form of truly worshipping Him.

Beauty ＆ Pure 151

Everyone is aware of the eternal Self. He sees so many dying but still believes himself eternal. Because it is the Truth. Unwillingly the natural Truth asserts itself. The man is deluded by the intermingling of the conscious Self with the insentient body. This delusion must end.

Beauty ＆ Pure 150

Every living being longs always to be happy, untainted by sorrow and everyone has the greatest love for him self, which is solely due to the fact that happiness is his [her] real nature. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi