Rough Notebook-Open Forum

[atmavichar100]

CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY

The body is born again and again.
We wrongly identify ourselves with the body, and hence imagine we are reincarnated constantly. No!

We must identify ourselves with the true Self. The realized one enjoys unbroken consciousness, never broken by birth or by death ? how can he die? Only those who think 'I am the body' talk of reincarnation. To those who know 'I am the Self' there is no rebirth.

Reincarnations exist only so long as there is ignorance. There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter.

This is the truth.

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Bhagavan to Maha Krishna Swami:

?Silence is the most powerful form
of teaching transmitted from master to adept.
The soundless voice is pure intuition.
It is the voice of spiritual sound speaking in
our innermost being. Self-enquiry is the only
path we have in order to eliminate spiritual
unconsciousness, which is widespread.
Self-enquiry brings the consciousness of
the divine, the universal truth and the light
that governs the universe. All this must be
known, felt, lived and realized. In order to
realize this truth, we need to eliminate
the thinking mind, to dissolve it in
the Universal Self?.

~ Ramana Smrti, p. 53

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CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY

Q: What of idols?

M: They have a deep significance. Worshipping them is a method of concentrating the mind. The mind is apt to move externally. It must be checked and turned within. Its habit is to dwell on names and forms, for all external objects possess them.

Certain names and forms are symbolic concepts used to divert the mind away from external objects and make it dwell within itself.

Thus the idols, mantras, sacred syllables, rites etc, are all meant to give food to the mind in its inward course so that it may become capable of being concentrated.

Only after this can the supreme state be reached.

[Ravi.N]

As you recall your father by his photograph, so likewise the worship of the image reveals in a flash the nature of Reality.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

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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?,

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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!

[atmavichar100]

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.

[Subramanian.R]

We should love the Self and depend on the Self.  But we should deal with the world but fear the world. 

Sarvam Vastu Bhayam, says Barthruhari the famous Sanskrit poet. All worldly objects should give us
also a sense of fear and not merely elation.   A healthy man fears sickness, a learned person fears that
there could be a more learned person to beat him, and a handsome person may be afraid of disease
and decay to his handsomeness.  The greatest fear for all these, is death, marana bhayam.   

The only fearless state is Self abidance and it is deathlessness. This is what Nachiketas asked Yama to give.  Yama wanted to divert Nachiketas with wealth, kingdom, good food and nice dancing girls.  Nachiketas
asked:  Will they not become old and decayed?  Will they not reduce in quantity and quality?
Keep these dancing girls with you.  I want only Deathlessness, where there is no fear and death.  (Katha Upanishad).

Sankara says as to what to do to ward off this fear and death. Run for the Guru, Run as if your head
is on fire!  Run quickly. Do not say, Tomorrow.  Do not say:  I shall go after watching
this TV serial.  Will you wait for tomorrow or the completion of the TV serial, when your head is on fire?

Saint Manikkavachagar says in Tiruvachakam, Yathirai Pathu, Verse 7, Decad on Pilgrimage:

"This world is not going to stand for ever.  Hence, we shall also not stand here for long.  Let us go to
the lotus feet of Siva, our God with golden hue.  Do not delay, do not stand here.  IF YOU
STAY BEHIND AND DELAY, He will become rare to obtain!"

Arunachala Siva.       

[Subramanian.R]

1. Firstly regarding meat, Bhagavan Ramana only said that vegetarian food would help to develop
purity of mind, since meat and fish consist of chemicals that would encourage rajasic character.
He did not recommend vegetarian food to Western devotees, as a matter of obligation.  But these
sincere Western devotees like Chadwick turned to vegetarianism on their own after some time.
Perhaps he was already a vegetarian.

2.  Regarding sex, Bhagavan Ramana has said that a family life with wife and children is not prohibited.
One cannot become an ascetic just because he wants.  He should be mentally prepared in all sincerity.
Unless mind is controlled, sex cannot be controlled.  So He permitted the householders to stay as householders and do atma vichara.  But by obverse, He did not definitely recommend permissive sex.
Since He has said mind must be controlled, one should conclude that permissive sex where there is no
control of mind, is definitely prohibited.

3.  Those who do not follow these guidelines, have no business to speak about Bhagavan Ramana or
consider Him as their guru or consider their own path as Bhagavan Ramana's Way.

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?

Arunachala Siva.     

[atmavichar100]

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 :

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 .