Quotes from Ramana Maharshi on GOD

Quotes from Ramana on God:

You needn’t be confused by some of the terminology . . .

All of the “many names for God” are—despite their origin in different cultures—pointing ultimately to the same One, the same Absolute, the infinite and eternal omnipresence that is considered to be the ground of all being.

Ramana, for example, uses the word Self (with a captital S) to denote the Absolute. This reason for this is because he is trying to emphasize that the “you”—the “self” with the small s—is, in essence the very same Self.

Some writers in Vedanta, use the word Brahman rather than Self, but again both words equate with the Absolute. 

Then again, the word Consciousness—as in “cosmic Consciousness” is also sometimes used; usually capitalized, to make clear that the allusion is to the limited sense of consciousness (as “awareness”) that the self supposes that it possesses “individually.”

 

And then there’s what Ramana calls the “false I”—the sense that the subjective “person” embodies some sort of separate entity—which predicates the “I-versus-you” dichotomy.  Thus when he speaks of the “true I” of course, he means your essential nature as an aspect of the Absolute in which the I/you perspective disappears.

 

“You”, in your purest beingness, are not “I”; you are the source of the I.

 

There is no one who has not known God: ignorance consists in not being aware of this Truth. Loss of ego means gaining Self-realization: knowing oneself is knowing the Self. Peace is stillness of mind; when the mind knows that, in truth, there is not anything to “reject” or “accept”, it will abide in Supreme peace. Thus, such peace is therefore extolled as immortal life. If a person “dies” while alive, by extinction of the ego, he will not ever grieve for any body.

 

There is something which is eternal and changeless. And weexist. Let us find out that which alwaysexists.

There is only one true state: that called consciousness or awareness or existence.

 

The Self, or God, is not somewhere else—but is inside each of us. In loving ouneself, one can only love the Self. Love itself is the formof God.

 

What ever I do, or consider doing, is really God’s doing Nothing ultimately belongs to “me.”

 

To know oneself is to know God. God consciousness is not different from one’s true consciousness. Is God real? As real as “you” are. Where does God exist? In you. Your are the Self; you “exist” always.

 


The world of objects, names and form is only the mind; when the mind dies [into the Self], the “world” dies with it. Only the Self then remains. The “personal” God is the last of the unreal forms to go. Only the absolute Being is real. Hence not only the world, not only the “me”, but also the individual God are of unreality. Yours is eternal life.

Yes, call it by any name—God, Self, the Absolute, or the seat of consciousness—it is all the same. The point to be grasped is that it is the very core of one’s being; the center, without which there is nothing else. God is in all, and is seen in the “seer.” Where else could God be seen: not “outside,” but known within. The consciousness within, beyond the mental operation, is known as God. It is only after seeing That, within one, that one will be able to see That in everything.

One must first realize that there is nothing butthe Self—and that he is that Self. Then, only, can he view everythingas a form of the Self. There is no difference between God and the Self (which is the self).

 

A person who desires [something “apart”], identifies with the body. But the sage is free of the thought “I am the body.” So long as you think you are an individual, you believe in a [separate] God. If one is separate, the “world” and one’s “God” will be also. You must look upon all “objects” [e.g., body] as God’s form.

 

If one learns one’s real nature, there will be no misery. One has to give up one’s (“individual”) mind, in surrender; after that mind is given away, there is will be no duality of any kind. He who remains separate from God has thus not surrendered.

 

Q. Yes, I understand now that God, or Self, is not something apart from me, or this body. Nor separate from the world and its objects. And it is ultimately the source of actions, mind, and thoughts—consciousness. The Self, as consciousness, sees itself in “objects”—such as the body, as I experience it. This is Self-realization . . .?

 

R. Know the I (as Self), and the present(eternal) and consider if anything is “created” (as a separate reality).

When this “individual” consciousness is merged in the supreme One, this is Self-realization. 

 

From the book: “Ramana Maharshi, Teachings of Self-Realization

By  Robert Wolfe, (2016)

 

 

 

 

More about Ramana Maharshi

 

An Amazing Spontaneous Awakening!

An Important Person to Know and Study!

 

 

In 1896 a sixteen-year-old schoolboy walked out on his family and, driven by an inner compulsion, slowly made his way to Arunachala, a holy mountain and pilgrimage centre in South India. On his arrival he threw away all his money and possessions and abandoned himself to a newly-discovered awareness that his real nature was formless, immanent consciousness. His absorption in this awareness was so intense that he was completely oblivious of his body and the world; insects chewed away portions of his legs, his body wasted away because he was rarely conscious enough to eat and his hair and fingernails grew to unmanageable lengths. After two or three years in this state he began a slow return to physical normality, a process that was not finally completed for several years. His awareness of himself as consciousness was unaffected by this physical transition and it remained continuous and undimmed for the rest of his life. In Hindu parlance he had ‘realised the Self’; that is to say, he had realised by direct experience that nothing existed apart from an indivisible and universal consciousness which was experienced in its unmanifest form as beingness or awareness and in its manifest form as the appearance of the universe. 
Normally this awareness is only generated after a long and arduous period of spiritual practice but in this case it happened spontaneously, without prior effort or desire. Venkataraman, the sixteen-year-old schoolboy, was alone in an upstairs room of his uncle's house in Madurai (near the southern tip of India) when he was suddenly gripped by an intense fear of death. In the following few minutes he went through a simulated death experience during which he became consciously aware for the first time that his real nature was imperishable and that it was unrelated to the body, the mind or the personality. Many people have reported similar unexpected experiences but they are almost invariably temporary. In Venkataraman's case the experience was permanent and irreversible. From that time on his consciousness of being an individual person ceased to exist and it never functioned in him again. Venkataraman told no one about his experience and for six weeks he kept up the appearance of being an ordinary schoolboy. 

However, he found it an increasingly difficult posture to maintain and at the end of this six week period he abandoned his family and went directly to the holy mountain of Arunachala.

His love for the mountain was so great that from the day he arrived in 1896 until his death in 1950 he could never be persuaded to go more than two miles away from its base.
After a few years of living on its slopes his inner awareness began to manifest as an outer spiritual radiance. This radiance attracted a small circle of followers and, although he remained silent for most of the time, he embarked upon a teaching career. One of his earliest followers, impressed by the evident saintliness and wisdom of the young man, decided to rename him Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi –Bhagavan means Lord or God, Sri is an Indian honorific title, Ramana is a contraction of Venkataraman and Maharshi means ‘great seer’ in Sanskrit. The name found favour with his other followers and it soon became the title by which he became known to the world. 

At this stage of his life Sri Ramana was speaking very little and so his teachings were transmitted in an unusual fashion. Instead of giving out verbal instructions he constantly emanated a silent force or power which stilled the minds of those who were attuned to it and occasionally even gave them a direct experience of the state that he himself was perpetually immersed in. In later years he became more willing to give out verbal teachings, but even then, the silent teachings were always available to those who were able to make good use of them. Throughout his life Sri Ramana insisted that this silent flow of power represented his teachings in their most direct and concentrated form. The importance he attached to this is indicated by his frequent statements to the effect that his verbal teachings were only given out to those who were unable to understand his silence.
. . . he guided spiritual seekers and interpreted religious teachings, and some merely came to tell him their problems. Whatever their reasons for coming almost everyone who came into contact with him was impressed by his simplicity and his humbleness. He made himself available to visitors twenty-four hours a day by living and sleeping in a communal hall which was always accessible to everyone, and his only private possessions were a loin-cloth, a water-pot and a walking-stick. Although he was worshipped by thousands as a living God, he refused to allow anyone to treat him as a special person and he always refused to accept anything which could not be shared equally by everyone in his ashram. He shared in the communal work and for many years he rose at 3 a.m. in order to prepare food for the residents of the ashram. His sense of equality was legendary. When visitors came to see him –it made no difference whether they were VIPs, peasants or animals –they would all be treated with equal respect and consideration. 

 

From:  Be As You Are: The Teachings of Shi Ramana Maharshi  by David Godman

I highly recommend you read this book. It might lead to your own spontaneous awakening!

Thoughts on Ramana Maharshi, Who is He? 7/30/18

It was in Ken Wilber's book, "Integral Spirituality" that I first heard of Ramana Maharshi. I bought a book, "Talks with Ramana Maharshi." I found it very difficult at first  to understand what he was saying. I stayed with the book and eventually  bought many others written about him. The more I learned, the more I felt that I was given a precious opportunity to renew my  Catholic faith and actually "transcend but include" it, to enhance my spiritual development.

I love this quote so I shall share this before I tell you more about Ramana.

"First set yourself right, and only then, set out to improve others. Change the hearts of men and the world will surely change. But one must begin somewhere; and one can only begin with oneself'"

Of course it might take more than a lifetime to set myself right, so it affirms the non-directive approach of Carl Rogers. Maybe by just being me and "being with" you, without trying to change you, we might both begin to grow and change together.  

I would like you to get to know this very unique spiritual teacher who had no ego! No ego! I have never heard of anyone or met anyone like that! Maybe Jesus had no ego. There only seemed to be love in Jesus. Ramana became an enlightened being a very early age. From what I have learned about the way he lived there seemed to be only LOVE in his heart. This is a man I want to learn from and I would like to share what Robert Wolfe has said about him in his 2016 book Raman Maharshi, "Teachings in Self-Realization". So see below a short over view of Ramana's life:

"Ramana, at seventeen, immersed himself in several years of the deepest meditation imaginable—death-like—as he sat silent and desireless in a mountain cave. For the balance of his life, while engaged in the role of a (reluctant) guru, he owned no personal property, had no romantic life and never traveled. Basically, he had nothing to gain from anything he said. Yet, because he personally experienced the sweeping range of human religious discovery, his teachings make it unnecessary for spiritual seekers to reinvent the wheel.

Buddha is not the only revered teacher who is regarded as having been enlightened. In our own time, there have been those whose life story is similarly remarkable, and whose biography and teachings are verified.
Ramana Maharshi, as a case in point (who died as recently as 1950), went from having next to nothing, to having nothing. He left his modest family home at around age 16, and chose to be homeless. He was often without even shelter, in the earlier years, before taking up lodging in a cave. When afoot, he begged for his food, and throughout his life he wore only the barest covering. He evidently never had a romantic relationship, nor did he ever travel more than a few miles from his abode near the foot of a mountain. Though an ashram was eventually formed around him, he never handled money. The divan on which he slept and sat (while discoursing his enlightenment teachings) was in a room open to anyone, at all hours of the day. Two possessions are said to have been his, a walking stick and a water pot. He, like Siddhartha, had surrendered every comfort, security and pleasure that most people desire. And he, too, achieved his aim of discovering the source of unending peace and contentment. And, he taught to others the means by which to do so, until he died fifty-five years after he left home. (Buddha taught for 45 years).

Basically, he had nothing to gain from anything he said. Yet, because he personally experienced the sweeping range of human religious discovery, his teachings make it unnecessary for spiritual seekers to reinvent the wheel. 

Like Buddha and Jesus before him, he speaks from the authority of first-hand realization. Unlike Buddha and Jesus, his teachings come to us unfiltered by historic doctrinal censors. And thankfully, for the present-day seeker, his advice is brief and direct.

The books that report Ramana’s discussions, like other books of its kind, contains all that needs to be known by the seeker of enlightenment. Through a piecemeal process, one tries to discover the meaning of the teachings. 

In my next blog I want to share from this same book what Ramana had to say about God. Most was not new to me because I had learned this in my Catholic schools growing up. However, I had lost the significance of my upbringing until most recently when I realized that through Ken Wilber, Ramana,Maharshi and Joyce and John Weir, I was continuing a very deep spiritual journey.

Part Two on Ramana and God will be up on the site soon.

 

Percept Orientation

PERCEPT ORIENTATION Learning to orient myself in the percept world was about the greatest gift I have received in this lifetime. The 55 days spent with John & Joyce thrust me into a new way of viewing life. It revived and strengthened me on my spiritual path of self-knowledge and self-awareness. It strengthened my capacity to be present to myself and live more in the here and now. Carl Rogers had this deep capacity of presence. To experience it felt like entering another world.   As I talked with him just one time, for a minute or so,  in a room of 8o people listening in, it felt like for a moment that they all disappeared! There was only he and I, his eyes, and his intense concentration on what I was saying. I came away from this dreamlike event feeling  like I wanted to be able to enter the world of another as he did with me. But i gets in the way! As I learned to observe more this ego, my i shifts began to take place away from my ego to my Observer, Witness, Self. The more I do me that way I feel more present to others (and more present to myself). Percept language has been my developmental path to this realization. So I now stay with a question that Sandra Matri has talked about; what is my primary perceptual skew that forms a twist in my soul? I have found that to be a profound question for me to keep asking myself. That question helps me to shed more and more of the layers of my ego.

Some Pretty Crazy Places

You and I meet and talk together. We may be in my office, or on a phone session. We may be in our meditation group or we may be at the retreats in Rhode Island. When we meet I know this about you and about me; ". . . My experience is that even in the sanest of us, some pretty crazy places are present, and we become conscious of them the deeper we dive into our souls." Sandra Matri, The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram

I have that knowledge be a reassuring part of me. I have me be a feeling less alone part of me. I have me be a humble part of me. I have me not be an expert, but a person open to knowing the "crazy places that may be present" in you. I have me be a more courageous part of me and more willing to go to those crazy places both in you and in be. I can go there. And I feel like I can go there with you if you ever need to go there and visit that part of you for a while.

Pat 2/8/18