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General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 21, 2015, 06:26:43 PM »
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771
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 18, 2015, 10:59:45 AM »From Ramana Ashram FB Page
On the auspicious occasion of Ganesha Chathurthi we recount references to Lord Ganesha by Sri Ramana Maharshi. He prayed to Lord Ganesha before composing the ?Marital Garland of Letters?. Read the reference to ?Karunakara Ganapati? or Compassionate Lord Ganesha; ?Lord Ganesha, Ocean of Compassion, extend your helping hand and protect me, that I may offer to, and adorn as befits Him, my Lord Arunachala, my beloved, the best among all bridegrooms, with this Marital Garland of Letters. One day in l912, a potter came to the Virupaksha Cave and presented a small image of Sri Ganesa to Sri Ramana Maharshi who wrote:
He who begot you as a child you made
Into a beggar; as a child yourself
You then lived everywhere just to support
Your own huge belly; I too am a child.
Oh Child God in that niche! Encountering one
Born after you, is your heart made of stone?
I pray you look at me!
Sri Ramana Maharshi frequently told the story of a man who made an image of Lord Ganesha with jaggery for worship. At the end of the worship realizing that he had nothing to offer to the Lord broke off a piece of the image to offer to Him as Naivedya. ?The offering of oneself to God is similar to the offering, to a Ganesh-figure made of jaggery, a portion of jaggery taken from the figure itself; for there is no individual self apart from Him.? Whatever we say is ?mine? is an act of theft or misappropriation of the Lord?s property. What is really meant by the term self-surrender is just the cessation of this theft, by the recognition by the devotee that the Lord is the real owner of everything.
Bhagavan?s explains the merit of worshiping Lord Ganesha: ?Seeing that Sundaramurthi was going away on a white elephant which had come from Kailas, the Rajah of Chera whispered in the ear of his horse the panchakshari mantra and got upon it to go to Kailas. Avvaiyar, who was at the time doing puja to Lord Ganesa, saw them both going to Kailas and so tried to hurry up her puja as she too wanted to go to Kailas. Seeing that, Ganesa said, ?Old woman, don?t hurry. Let your puja be performed as usual. I shall take you to Kailas before they reach it.? Accordingly, the puja was performed in due course. Waving his hand around, he said, ?Old lady, close your eyes.? That was all. When she opened her eyes, she found herself seated in Kailas in front of Parvati and Parameswara. By the time Sundaramurthi and Chera Rajah reached the place, they found her already seated there. Surprised at that, they asked her how she had got there. She told them how Lord Ganesa helped her.
775
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 17, 2015, 01:11:52 PM »Quote
4. Papaji came to Bhagavan Ramana and Bhagavan Ramana had guided him suitably. Whether
Papaji later gave mantras to his disciples or prescribed any specific guru mantras, I do not know.
Bhagavan Ramana did not give any mantras. His only mantra was to inquire Who am I?
Papaji never gave any form of Mantra Initiation to his disciples ( though he did intense Mantra Japa in his early days ) and in his satsangs some times Bhajans were sung and some scriptures like Bhagavatham , Vivekachudamani , Ribhu Gita were read and discussed in an informal way .
776
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 17, 2015, 11:52:17 AM »Quote
He did not recommend vegetarian food to Western devotees, as a matter of obligation.
I feel with regard to Sri RamanAshram Bhagavan Ramana was very strict that no non veg food must be taken inside the Ashram be it Indian or Foreigner . It is a different matter that some Westren devotees when abroad ate meat at their home but as far as the Ashram was concerned the rule then and even now is that no form of non veg food is allowed for anyone .
The following piece from Maj.Chawick's book "A Sadhu?s Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi" clears the same :
Quote
However he was dead against meat-eating. Once in my early days someone spread the rumour that I was preparing meat dishes in my kitchen. It was, of course a lie, my food was actually much more Satvic than the Ashram food. When Bhagavan heard this story he said, ?We don?t want that sort of thing here.?
There is another intrepretation of this incident by Annamalai Swami's about discussing this Chadwick's discussion with Bhagavan Ramana wherein it seems he quotes Saint Appar's song claiming that even if a person who commits the sin of eating meat as long he worships Lord Shiva in the heart I will forgive him . That can be at the most considered to be an exceptional case and that took place between a 1-1 conversation between Bhagavan Ramana and Annamalai Swami and not a sort of giving an exemption to Shiva worshippers because then anyone can claim themselves to be Shiva Worshippers and eat meat citing that particular Appar's Thevaram that was quoted by Bhagavan Ramana .
So I would prefer to go by Chadwick's version in this case . BTW I have nothing against those who take meat and just wanted to clarify this rule regarding meat eating in Sri Ramana Ashram .
777
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 16, 2015, 04:55:57 PM »
16th December, 1938
Talk 595.
Devotee.: Is an intellectual understanding of the Truth necessary?
Maharshi.: Yes. Otherwise why does not the person realise God or the Self
at once, i.e., as soon as he is told that God is all or the Self is all? That shows some wavering on his part. He must argue with himself and gradually convince himself of the Truth before his faith becomes firm.
Talk 595.
Devotee.: Is an intellectual understanding of the Truth necessary?
Maharshi.: Yes. Otherwise why does not the person realise God or the Self
at once, i.e., as soon as he is told that God is all or the Self is all? That shows some wavering on his part. He must argue with himself and gradually convince himself of the Truth before his faith becomes firm.
778
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 15, 2015, 09:20:42 PM »
From: ~~~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 183.
Be what you are.
There is nothing to come down or become manifest.
All that is needful is to lose the ego,
That what is, is always there.
Even now you are That.
You are not apart from it.
The blank is seen by you.
You are there to see the blank.
What do you wait for?
The thought ?I have not seen,?
the expectation to see
and the desire of getting something,
are all the working of the ego.
You have fallen into the snares of the ego.
The ego says all these and not you.
Be yourself and nothing more!
Be what you are.
There is nothing to come down or become manifest.
All that is needful is to lose the ego,
That what is, is always there.
Even now you are That.
You are not apart from it.
The blank is seen by you.
You are there to see the blank.
What do you wait for?
The thought ?I have not seen,?
the expectation to see
and the desire of getting something,
are all the working of the ego.
You have fallen into the snares of the ego.
The ego says all these and not you.
Be yourself and nothing more!
780
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 15, 2015, 10:39:41 AM »
CONVERSATIONS WITH ANNAMALAI SWAMI
Q: How did this single, unbroken ?I? become the many different things and people that we see in the world?
AS: It didn?t. It always remains single and unbroken. Your defective vision and your misperceptions give you the impression that the one became the many. The Self has never undergone any change or transformation except in your imagination.
When we identify ourselves with the body the mind, the one appears to become many. When one?s energy is diverted from the mind and the outside world towards the Self, the illusion of multiplicity fades away.
Go deeply into this feeling of ?I?. Be aware of it so strongly and so intensely that no other thoughts have the energy to arise and distract you. If you hold this feeling of ?I? long enough and strongly enough, the false ?I? will vanish leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent ?I?, consciousness itself.
?Living by the Words of Bhagavan?,
Q: How did this single, unbroken ?I? become the many different things and people that we see in the world?
AS: It didn?t. It always remains single and unbroken. Your defective vision and your misperceptions give you the impression that the one became the many. The Self has never undergone any change or transformation except in your imagination.
When we identify ourselves with the body the mind, the one appears to become many. When one?s energy is diverted from the mind and the outside world towards the Self, the illusion of multiplicity fades away.
Go deeply into this feeling of ?I?. Be aware of it so strongly and so intensely that no other thoughts have the energy to arise and distract you. If you hold this feeling of ?I? long enough and strongly enough, the false ?I? will vanish leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent ?I?, consciousness itself.
?Living by the Words of Bhagavan?,