Beauty ＆ Pure 239

Sri Ramana Maharshi ;

Keep your mind steadily on your family deity,
discard outside thoughts and meditate,
or keep the Self itself before your mind
and meditate.

If that is done,
that which comes from outside
will gradually disappear
and meditation alone will remain.

You need not meditate separately.
The meditation on Self will steady itself
and will remain constant.

What IS, is meditation.
There is no such thing as attaining deliverance.
Getting rid of extraneous things itself is deliverance.

Breath control (pranayama)
and other spiritual practices are only
for concentrating the mind on one thing.

Breath control
keeps the wandering mind within the body.
That is why breath control has been prescribed first,
and only then the practising of japa
(repetition of Divine name),
tapa (austerities) and the rest.

If breath is controlled and kept within for a while,
it helps in practising Self-enquiry.

If the family deity or some other form is meditated upon,
the mind becomes controlled of its own accord.
Where that is done repeatedly,
that meditation itself leads on to the realization of the Self.

You will not then have the duality of the doer
and the thing done.
All becomes one’s natural state (Swarupa) only.

Beauty ＆ Pure 238

Bhagavan.:

One should hold on to the single Atman
and not swerve therefrom.
There will be no distraction
and no fear.
Troubles arise only
when there is a second to oneself.
If the Atman be realised to be only unitary,
there is no second and therefore
no cause for fear.

Beauty ＆ Pure 237

“hearing, reflection and one-pointedness are necessary”.

They think that they must pass through
savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi
before attaining Realisation.
Hence all these questions.

Why should they wander in that maze?
What do they gain at the end?

It is only cessation of the trouble of seeking.

They find that the Self is eternal and self-evident.
Why should they not get that repose
even this moment?

A simple man, not learned,
is satisfied with japa or worship.

A Jnani is of course satisfied.

The whole trouble is for the book-worms.
Well, well. They will also get on.

Beauty ＆ Pure 236

Guru is the Self....

Sometimes in his life a man
becomes dissatisfied with it,
and, not content with what he has,
he seeks the satisfaction of his desires,
through prayer to God etc.

His mind is gradually purified
until he longs to know God,
more to obtain His grace
than to satisfy his worldly desires.

Then,
God’s grace begins to manifest.

God takes the form of a Guru
and appears to the devotee,
teaches him the Truth and,
moreover,
purifies his mind by association.

The devotee’s mind gains strength
and is then able to turn inward.
By meditation it is further purified
and it remains still
without the least ripple.

That calm expanse is the Self.

~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 235

"In this state
it is as difficult to think a thought
as it is for those in bondage
to be without thoughts."


I also remember him telling us,

"You ask me questions
and I reply and talk to you.
If I do not speak or do anything,
I am automatically drawn within,
and where I am I do not know."

Beauty ＆ Pure 234

Five Verses on The Self *.

These are the last verses composed by Bhagavan.
They were written at the instance of a devotee, Suri Nagamma,
the author of Letters from Sri Ramanasramam.

He wrote them first in Telugu,
but to a Tamil metrical form called venba,
and then translated them into Tamil.

Since there was already a composition of
Shankaracharya called the Atma Panchakam,
Bhagavan decided to call his composition
Ekatma Panchakam.

Beauty ＆ Pure 233

Q.
Can I dispense with outside help
and by my own effort
get into the deeper truth by myself?.

M.
True.
But the very fact you are possessed
of the quest of the Self
is a manifestation of the Divine Grace.

It is effulgent in the Heart,
the inner being,
the Real Self.
It draws you from within.

You have to attempt to get in from without.
Your attempt is Vichara,
the deep inner movement is Grace.

That is why I say
there is no real Vichara without Grace,
nor is there Grace active for him
who is without Vichara.

Both are necessary.