Self-enquiry as taught by Sri Bhagwan is enough

[eranilkumarsinha]

  Dear Sri Subramanian Sir, Bhagwan Sri Ramama's Grace is ever full, ever present and ever available. Only ' i', ' you ' , etc. should not come in between.
  However, it is because of His Grace alone that devotees and seekers turn to Him, adore Him, surrender to Him, learn ' Atmavichara ' as taught by Him and it is His Grace alone because of which they  make efforts ceaselessly on the path of Jnana.
  Besides, Guru is the Self within as the Inner Guru. It is His Grace that He manifests as the external Guru with a name and form and pushes the mind of His devotees within and as the Inner Guru pulls to the Centre, the Self. Sri Annamalai Swami says that this pushing and pulling is the Guru's Grace. ( p-59, Final Talks )
  Dear Sir, ji, yes, the very nature of the Self  or God is Grace. Therefore, it follows that so long as ' i ', ' you '  etc. are obstacles, His Grace cannot be fully be realised. For full realisation of His Grace the mind or the ego will either have to seek its Source and will have to be fully submerged in the Self or surrender to Him.
  Grace is the primary  essential and efficient cause for realisation. THEREFORE, I SAY THAT GRACE IS OUR GOAL. Regards. Anil       

[eranilkumarsinha]

  Dear Devotees and Seekers, a purified and peaceful mind is easily aware of Bhagwan Sri Ramana's Grace. As the sadhana of Self enquiry or Atmavichara progresses, the awareness of His Grace deepens which in turn strengthens the spirit of enquiry. Thus, the Grace and the practice of Atmavichara mutually act and react on each other.
  Sometimes, the mind of even an earnest seeker is weak and fragmented and is not able to focus his entire attention on the Self. He invariably invokes for the Guru's Grace with full ' Faith ' on such occassions and, ' Hail to our exalted Guru ' , He invariably comes to his rescue. Did Sri Bhagwan not come, by space root, to His great devotee and poet Sri Ganapati Muni while he was afflicted because he was not able to achive inwardness due to a disturbed mind ?
 
  Sri Bhagwan : The rise of the urge to seek for the ' I ' is itself an act of divine grace. Once this urge gets hold of you, you are in its clutches. The grip of divine grace never relaxes and finally devours you, just as the prey in a tiger's jaws is never allowed to escape.

 ( Quoted from ' Know Yourself ' by Sri A. R. Natarajan, p-114 ) 

           Thank you,
                Anil

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

Once I was in the Asramam, someone told me with full emotion:
Not all come to Sri Bhagavan.  Even to develop an interest in His
teachings and also to visit the Asramam, one should have done a
lot of merits in the previous birth.  Then someone else intervened
and added:  "We might all have been some lice on the monkeys'
heads, which Bhagavan Ramana had caressed when He was in body!

This statement may appear emotional.  But it is very true.  Without His grace, and only with His grace not intervened by our ego, we
may seek Him as our Guru.

Bhagavan said about Major Chadwick:  "In the previous birth, he
must have been a Hindu in India.  Otherwise, how can he come to
me, fully prepared?"



Arunachala Siva.

[Subramanian.R]

A correction to my previous post:

About Chadwick, Bhagavan Ramana did not say that he must have
been a Hindu in India, in his previous birth.  He only said: "He
must have been one of our people here."



Arunachala Siva.
 

[eranilkumarsinha]

  Dear Sri Subramanian Sir, I am aware that Bhagwan Sri Ramana is Pure Knowledge, can be known only by knowledge and the only 'One' in the whole universe fittest  to know who abides in the innermost recess of hearts of all as the Self and the Universal Guru. And when mind melts with love of Him and reaches there where abides the beloved, subtle Eye of Consciousness opens and He reveals Himself as Pure Knowledge. Thank you so much. Regards. Anil

[Om Hridayam]

When Ramana says "One of our people"... if he -only- meant Hindu it seems to suggest that a Christian, A Muslim, A Jain, a Buddhist, etc. could not reach a high spiritual level.
I sincerely hope that he did not mean only Hindus can reach a high spiritual level. Was there any evidence he said something like this elsewhere?
It does not seem to line up with what I have read of his views. Surely anyone of a high spiritual level would be "one of our people" no matter what the path is?

[silentgreen]

Dear Om Hridayam,

You are correct.

Surely anyone of a high spiritual level would be "one of our people" no matter what the path is?

Major Chadwick showed a greater earnestness and understanding of spirituality. That is why Bhagavan has said this.

Person of any religion can reach a high spiritual level, be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain, Buddhist etc. Otherwise that religion would not have come into existence itself and lived. Because at least the founder of that religion has reached a high spiritual level, that is why that religion was accepted and continues.

[eranilkumarsinha]

  Dear Sri om hridayam,
             Pranam,

  The Life and Teaching of Bhagwan Sri Ramana is a divine manifestation of ' Oneness of all that is ' in which there is nothing different or separate from Him and in which there is no differentiation of time, space, country, religion and even species. What to talk of human beings, He bestowed realisation and liberation to even animals. He is Pure Consciousness pervading all and abiding in the hearts of all jivas (life) as their own Self and Universal Guru.

  Dear Sri om hridayam, implicit in your coming to Bhagwan Sri Ramana is the operation of His Grace on you. Let us enquire our way back to Him from the illusory mental world.

              Thank you,
                  Anil

[eranilkumarsinha]

  " your duty is to be and not to be this and that. ' I AM THAT I AM ' Sums up the whole truth. "
          Bhagwan Sri Ramana

  Dear Seekers, our duty is to be and not to be this and that. But except the state of being ourselves, we identify ourselves with this and that. We should enquire on what substratum the drama of this and that is being enacted.
  All is the Self. I am not different from the Self. The state of being myself is to remain still as the Self and not to imagine or think this and that. In the state of perfect stillness there is neither mind nor the body and, therefore, neither this nor that. Sri Bhagwan says that in the state of being merely ourselves there is not even the thought of ' I ' , only being is.

  Now, if I remain as the Self there is no need of the Self enquiry. But the moment I swerve away from the state of being my Self, need arises to ask, " Who am I ? " and return to our Source i. e, the Self. Thank you. Anil
 

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Om Hridayam,

As silentgreen observed and as you have mentioned, all those who
are interested in atma vicharam coupled with ardent devotion are
His people.  He meant only that way.  He did not, to my knowledge,
mentioned anyone else like this. However, when Akhilandamma brought Mastan, a Moslem, for the first time to Bhagavan Ramana, and when Sri Bhagavan gazed at him, Mastan stood in the same place in Virupaksha Cave for more than six hours!  He is the one,
it is said, among very few people, who had a direct Atma Jnanam even at the first visit. Perhaps, Wolter Kiers was another example, I am not sure.

Major Chadwick had even before coming to Sri Bhagavan, had
inquired into the mind somewhat vaguely that there is Atma inside and one should quell the mind to realize  Atma.   He himself had
expressed this in his reminiscences.  

To Mr. Humphreys, Bhagavan Ramana had said that He was his
Guru and to no one He had said that.



Arunachala Siva.  

[Om Hridayam]

Thanks everyone for clarifying my question... I was not aware of Bhagavan anywhere saying one path was better than another, quite the opposite.
It has been my direct exprience (After 30+ years of comparative religion study) that every path has a mixture of the noble, heroic and saintly
people as well as the... let's just say not so highly developed people. I find claims that "My religion is better than yours" to be of a very low nature.
Again I hadn't seen anything even close to that from Bhagavan...

Thanks again.

[eranilkumarsinha]

  Annamalai Swami : If there is no external light such as Bhagwan to guide you,you have to look within to find the Self. You will not benefit from looking anywhere else, from doing anything else, or from listening to any other voice. Walking round and round a temple , doing rituals to a deity- activities like these will not bring you any nearer to the Self. The pujas, the japas, the rituals-these are just for beginners. Meditation is the syllabus in a higher class. We need not waste our time by indulging in the activities of the infant class again and again. Here, in this class, I ask you to put all your attention, all your interest on realising the final teaching : ' I am not the body or the mind. I am Self. All is the Self. ' This is Bhagwan's final teaching.
      From Final Talks, p-76

  Yes, I am not the body or the mind. I am Self. If I have drifted and moved to mind and body which I am not, I must enquire, " who am I ? Whence am I ? " and return back to Self. We at the same time not forget that there is no other purpose of this temporal life. Seeking our Self and being the Self is the only purpose. Everything else is secondary and superimposed on the substratum of the only truth i. e. the Self. Thank you. Anil

     

[eranilkumarsinha]

  Dear Devotees and Seekers, a rope is mistaken to be a snake, a post is mistaken to be a thief, in the feeble light. Such confusion cannot arise in the broad day light. But in the dim light, threat of the snake or the thief appears to be real. Investigation is launched. Enquiry is afoot. The snake or the thief turns out to be a rope or a thief. We see before us a rope or a post after the enquiry. What happened to the snake or the thief ? Where did the snake or the thif go away ? Nothing happened. They did not go any where. Simply there is a realisation, there is a knowing, that there never was a snake or a thief. They never existed in the first place. Snake was superimposed on the substratum of the rope. Thief was superimposed on the substratum of the post. Likewise, we, due to ignorance, imagine or think ourselves to be limited individuality bearing false names and forms. Guru's Grace makes us see the error of such beliefs. Then Self enquiry is afoot. After the conclusion of the enquiry, we realise our true identity as the Self. What happened to the limited ieentity, the name and the form, to the ego ' I ' ? Nothing happened to it. There is the realisation, there is a knowing that this ego ' I ' never existed, never had any reality. That this ego ' I ' was erroneously foisted and superimposed on the substratum of the Self just like the snake or the thief superimposed on the rope or the post. Thank you. Anil     

[Subramanian.R]

Once one visitor asked Bhagavan Ramana:  "Should I not be
patriotic?"  [It was the time of freedom movement in India].
Sri Bhagavan said:  "You need not be this and that.  You be
as you are."

Sri Bhagavan's path of Jnana Vicharam transcended
all  religions and faiths.  He wanted a Christian to be a good
Christian and a Moslem to be a good Moslem and a Hindu to
be a good Hindu and do Atma Vicharam.  That is why,  His Path
appealed to everyone beyond these divisions.  He never even
advised people to wear ochre robes which are only external symbols
for ascetism.  He insisted only internal renunciation.



Arunachala Siva.

[Om Hridayam]

One recent thing that disturbed me was looking at the official Ramana site and seeing a picture of Bramin boys in class.. As far as I could tell from the picture they were only Bramins.
I thought Ramana was opposed to those separations... are people of any caste invited to class or are the castes separated at the ashram these days?
(I am a Westerner so the caste system is difficult for me to understand... where I went to school everyone of every creed, race, gender were all mixed together... no one was above
anyone else... so that is what seems natural and "just" to me.)
I realize the caste system is ancient and runs deep in India, but being that is was Ramana's ashram and something that (from what I've read) he spoke out against and equality was
very important to him I was wondering if I understood the picture correctly.