| Ramana Maharshi |
| In 1927 the beloved Advaita Sage Ramana Maharshi
composed a thirty verse poem summarizing his teaching. Unlike other writings,
he composed this as an integral work without revision. He considered it
important enough to prepare in four of the major Indian languages. What
follows is a portion of an English-language interpretation by Ramesh Balsekar's
disciple Shirish Murthy. |
| Upadesa Saram "Teaching Essence" |
- In the vast ocean of cause and effect, actions
happen and impermanent results follow. If one takes them as 'my'
actions the idea of having a free will gets stronger. This sense of
personal doership gives rise to a feeling of guilt or pride and effectively
blocks the spiritual understanding that everything happens according
to the will of God.
When there is total acceptance that all actions happen purely by the
will of God, and if the fruits and the consequences are accepted as
His grace, the mind gets purified and attains freedom from expectations.
- Accepting and understanding that God
has created the world for His sport and God is playing the lila
through billions of body-mind organisms, is better than chanting the
sacred names of the Lord, which in turn is superior to worshipping the
image of the Lord with body, mind and speech.
- When there is an understanding that God himself
has become the manifestation; when, by His grace, one feels His presence
in the phenomenal existence one obtains the blessings of worshipping
the Lord of eight-fold forms without neglecting one's responsibilities.
- Understanding that nothing happens according
to 'my' will and merely witnessing the billions of body-mind
organisms act under God's will is excellent. It is superior to singing
the glories of the Lord or reciting His sacred names.
- When there is an understanding that God's
will prevails all the time and witnessing happens without any 'one'
to witness, it is like the stream of ghee (clarified butter)
or the flow of a river. This is true meditation. It is much better than
meditating with an assumption that one has free will.
- The nondualistic approach of understanding
that 'I AM' is God is far more purifying and superior than
the dualistic approach of assuming the difference between God and the
'me' and struggling to be one with Him.
- By the grace of God or the Master when one
is firmly established in the 'I AM,' devoid of the thinking
mind, with an impersonal knowing that there is no 'me' to
get involved, that is Supreme Devotion.
- The dissolving of the thinking mind in the
Heart, purely by the grace of God or the Master, is true devotion, Yoga
and understanding.
- Through the act of regulating breath the
mind is subdued, just as a bird is restrained when caught in a net.
This helps in checking the involvement of the thinking mind at that
moment.
- Thought and breath have their origin in Consciousness.
- When the mind is absorbed, in work or otherwise,
and the thinking mind is not active it may be said that the mind is
in control temporarily, only to become active again. When, through the
deep understanding that "God is the doer and no 'one'
has any control over thoughts and actions" the thinking mind is
totally annihilated, then it can be said that the thinking mind in that
body-mind organism is dead and only the working mind remains.
- The thinking mind can be temporarily suspended
through the control of breath. It can be annihilated only when there
is total understanding that God's will prevails all the time and the
different forms are only puppets having no free will of their own. With
this understanding three beautiful things happen: there is no 'one'
to feel guilty or proud, to get frustrated or to have a sense of enmity.
Life becomes simple.
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- The Sage, whose thinking mind has been destroyed
by the total acceptance of the fact that nothing happens unless it is
the will of God, and Who rests in the 'I AM' does all the
actions with the knowledge that Consciousness alone functions through
the billions of body-mind organisms.
- When the enquiry, "What is the thinking
mind?" occurs, the thinking mind understands intuitively that
it has no free will and stops thinking itself to be the doer and gives
way to the feeling of 'I AM.' This is the Direct path.
- In the ordinary man when a thought occurs
the ego takes delivery of it as 'my thought' and gets involved.
The thinking mind is nothing but the ego identifying with a thought
and getting involved. In the enlightened Sage, when a thought arises,
witnessing happens and involvement with the thought does not take place.
Ramana Maharshi says, "The Sage has no thinking mind and therefore
there are no 'others' for him."
- When one enquires, "Where has the
'me' come from?" it will vanish into Consciousness
revealing the truth that the 'me' has really come from Totality
as part of the 'divine hypnosis'. Consciousness has created the ego
and Consciousness will annihilate the ego by initiating the process
of Self-enquiry.
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- When we accept that God's will prevails
all the time and not the individual will, the 'me' as the
doer gets smaller and smaller till it gets completely merged in Consciousness.
- When the sense of personal doership disappears
with the total acceptance that "All there is, is Consciousness,"
the thinking mind ceases to exist during the waking hours as in deep
sleep. What remains is the light of pure Consciousness, the indestructible
'I AM.'
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