Inspirations and Quotes

Self Enquiry

When I first came to Bhagavan and heard him repeating constantly that everyone must eventually come to the path of self-enquiry, I wondered whether he was being partial to his own teaching, but I soon understood why he insisted that this is so. The final goal is only oneness, and to experience oneness our mind must subside, which will happen entirely only when we attend to nothing other than ourself.

So long as we attend to anything other than ourself, our mind cannot subside, because attention to other things sustains it, since that which experiences otherness is only this mind. When the mind subsides completely, only self-attention remains, and self-attention alone is the state of absolute oneness.

Bhagavan used to repeat this teaching every day, maybe ten or twenty times, but still we didn’t change. He didn’t change his teaching either, because to him this truth was so clear.

~ Ramana Maharshi
(The paramount importance of self attention / Sadhu Om – As recorded by Michael James)
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How to perceive the world, and samsara

 

I alone am the projector of this waker’s world (jagrad prapancha) with the help of my maya shakti. I also project a world within this world (svapna prapancha) with my nidra shakti. I can also say that I alone “appear” as the dream- objects because they are nothing but a ‘bunch of my thoughts’!
-Swami Paramarthananda
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Q: Can I engage in spiritual practice, even remaining in samsara?
(the cycle of births and deaths)

M: Yes, certainly. One ought to do so.

Q: Is not samsara a hindrance? Do not all the holy books advocate renunciation?

M: Samsara is only in your mind. The world does not speak out, saying ‘I am the world’. Otherwise, it must be ever there – not excluding your sleep. Since it is not in sleep it is impermanent. Being impermanent it has no stamina. Having no stamina it is easily subdued by the Self. The Self alone is permanent.

Renunciation is non-identification of the Self with the non-self. On the disappearance of ignorance the non-self ceases to exist. That is true renunciation.

Q: Why did you then leave your home in your youth?

M: That is my prārabdha (fate). One’s course of conduct in this life is determined by one’s prārabdha. My prārabdha is this way. Your prārabdha is that way.

Q: Should I not also renounce?

M: If that had been your prārabdha, the question would not have arisen.

Q: I should therefore remain in the world and engage in spiritual practice. Well, can I get realization in this life?

M: This has been already answered. You are always the Self. Earnest efforts never fail. Success is bound to result.

~ Ramana Maharshi
(Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Talk 251)
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Sharanagati, See Ishvara Pervading all, and Relax

OM, Oh Lord !
I Surrender my ego – Likes and Dislikes at your feet. I don’t objectify you lord but I recognize you in the form of a Single vast order that pervades my Body, Mind, Senses and the Whole Universe.
My callous behavior is within your order because of my background.
My Needs, Demands and Desires are within your order. My response to the situations and events in my daily life, Sometimes in the form of Anger, Envy or Jealousy, Hatred are all due to my background.
If I Correct myself, that is within your order.
If I Resist your order, even that is within your order. You are the one who understands me completely.
I never spring any surprise to you. Oh Lord.
You validate all my Actions and Reactions.
So in the eyes of Ishvara, I am Perfect.
Without being judgmental about myself and others, I just Keep watching what is going on in my daily life and see them as an Expression Of Ishvara as they cannot be outside his order. I relax in Ishvara

Swami Dayananda
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Time is a Myth

Time is a great myth. It is a very important myth, a significant myth. If you enquire into its content , it disappears. If time is a series of ‘nows’ – now, now, now, now – and you enquire into the content of now, now just disappears from being a length. It is no longer a length of time.
‘Now’ is not a length of time and now which is not a length of time makes a length of time. A series of ‘nows’ makes a length of time like a series of points making a line.A single point occupies no space and a series of points makes a length! This is what Vedanta is.
That there is a length, that there is time, is not something we should be weary about, because it is magic. Time is magic, and therefore , you need to enjoy the time you have got now.
A new year means you have one more year to accomplish what you could not accomplish last year. And if you have survived without accomplishing last year, this year is not going to be difficult.
Therefore just enjoy the day, the time that is there right now.
May this New Year be new all the time, fresh all the time. Getting up every day it is a new day. The New Year begins with a new day, the next day is a new day, the next day is a new day- again new day of the New Year. Then new day, new day, new day – new day. Let us keep it that way, new day….A NEW DAY…!!!

~ Swami Dayananda Saraswati
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Renunciation

What is the meaning of Mumuksha? – The desire to be free from the bondage of the mind. “Cittameva Samsāraḥ” The mind itself is called the world. Oh brother, the one who knows Brahman is sitting at the place where there is no Māyā, no Avidyā, neither their action nor their instruments. He is not sitting holding on to the mind. Renunciation of the mind is the renunciation of the world. Renunciation of the mind through discrimination (discernment) and detachment before the knowledge of Brahman and renunciation by negation of the mind after the knowledge of Brahman.

~ Swami Akhandananda Saraswati
(´Svetāśvataropaniṣad)

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Desolution of the Mind

“The mind is the cause of the objects of perception. The three worlds depend upon it. When it is dissolved the world is also dissolved. It is to be cured (i.e. purified) with effort.” Inspired by the 4th chapter of Yoga Vasishta Sara (Nectar of Supreme Knowledge), Swami Sarvapriyananda.

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Silence of the Mind

Even when speech is suppressed, the activity of the mind still continues. All the same, silence helps control the mind. As the mind dives deeper, its activity slackens off, and then one comes to feel that He Who provides for everything will arrange matters. When the mind is agitated by thoughts of worldly things, the benefit that should be gained by abstaining from speech is lost. When the mind is centered on God, it keeps advancing steadily, and along with this emerges purity of body and mind. To let thoughts dwell on objects of the senses is waste of energy. By constantly dwelling on the thought of God all the granthis (knots) that make up ego are unraveled, and that which has to be realized will be realized.

To say ‘through silence He is realized’ is not correct, because Supreme Knowledge does not come ‘through’ anything.
Supreme Knowledge reveals itself. For destroying the ‘veil’, there are suitable spiritual disciplines and practices.

~ Anandamayi Ma
(Ashram Talk)

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Q: How should a beginner start this practice?

M: 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 practicing thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

~ Ramana Maharshi
(Be as you are / David Godman)
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Q: 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.

M: 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.

Q: And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?

M: 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.

Q: Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.

M: Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Q: I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?

M: 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 ‘I’-thought], the vāsanās [latent desires] become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vāsanās and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vāsanās 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 one-pointed enquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.
~ Ramana Maharshi
(Be as you are / David Godman)

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Just Be!

Just be. Do not try to be quiet; do not make ‘being quiet’ into a task to be performed. Don’t be restless about ‘being quiet’, miserable about ‘being happy’. Just be aware that you are and remain aware – don’t say: ‘yes, I am; what next?’ There is no ‘next’ in ‘I am’. It is a timeless state.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
(I am That. Freedom from self identification)
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Q: I am quite willing to learn.

M: Learning words is not enough. You may know the theory, but without the actual experience of yourself as the impersonal and unqualified center of being, love and bliss, mere verbal knowledge is sterile.

Q: Then, what am I to do?

M: Try to be, only to BE. The all-important word is ‘try’. Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly and trying, just trying, to go beyond the personality, with its addictions and obsessions.
Don’t ask how – it cannot be explained. You just keep on trying until you succeed. If you persevere, there can be no failure. What matters supremely is sincerity, earnestness; you must really have had a surfeit of being the person you are, now see the urgent need of being free of this unnecessary self-identification with a bundle of memories and habits. This steady resistance against the unnecessary is the secret of success.

After all, you are what you are every moment of your life, but you are never conscious of it, except, maybe, at the point of awakening from sleep. All you need is to be aware of being, not as a verbal statement, but as an ever-present fact. The awareness that you are will open your eyes to what you ARE. It is all very simple. First of all, establish a constant contact with your self, be with yourself all the time. Into self-awareness, all blessings flow. Begin as a center of observation, deliberate cognizance, and grow into a center of love in action. ‘I am’ is a tiny seed which will grow into a mighty tree — quite naturally, without a trace of effort.

Q: I see so much evil in myself. Must I not change it?

M: Evil is the shadow of inattention. In the light of self-awareness, it will wither and fall off.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
(I am That. Freedom from self-identification)

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Q: If the self is for ever the unknown, what then is realized in self-realization?

M: To know that the known cannot be me nor mine, is liberation enough. Freedom from self-identification with a set of memories and habits; the state of wonder at the infinite reaches of the being; its inexhaustible creativity and total transcendence, the absolute fearlessness born from the realization of the illusoriness and transiency of every mode of consciousness – flow from a deep and inexhaustible source. To know the source as source and appearance as appearance, and oneself as the source only is self-realization.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
(I am That. All knowledge is ignorance)

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SarvaAtma Bhava

There is no ‘my self’ and ‘his self’. There is the Self, the only Self of all. Misled by the diversity of names and shapes, minds and bodies, you imagine multiple selves. We both are the self, but you seem to be unconvinced. This talk of personal self and universal self is the learner’s stage; go beyond, don’t be stuck in duality.

~Nisargadatta Maharaj
(I am That. Everything happens by itself)
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