Ramana Maharshi Answers – Observation

Some answers and observation of Ramana Maharshi to certain perplexing questions in life.

Find out first. Mere book learning is not of any great use. Everything illusion or Divine must be within the Self. The truth is that Realization is eternal and already exists.

No one is ever away from his Self and therefore everyone is in fact Self-realized; only people do not know this. Abide in the natural heart-centre as the inherent reality dwells in its natural heart-centre.

After Realization useless burdens are to be thrown overboard. Realization is not anything new to be acquired.

Happiness is the very nature of the Self; happiness and the Self are not different.

There is no greater mystery than this, that being the reality yourself, you seek to gain reality.

There is nothing new or anything you do not already have which needs to be gained. The feeling that you have not yet realized is the sole obstruction to realization.

You think there is something binding your reality and that something must be destroyed before the reality is freed. This is ridiculous.

You have realized the unreal, in other words, you regard the unreal as that which is real. Give up this attitude and you will attain wisdom.

A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your efforts. What is there to realize? The real is always as it is.

No one succeeds without effort…Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.

Sadhana is not doing, but being. Withdrawing attention from external objects both of the world and the mind

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.

One should inquire into one's true nature which is ever bodiless and one should remain as such.

We are so engrossed with the objects or appearances revealed by the light that we pay no attention to the light

The whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world.

Your own self realization is the greatest service you can render to the world.

All loss, all vice, and all suffering are only due to the sense of ‘I’. All gain, all virtue and all happiness come from the extinction of the ego.

To the ignorant one the Self is lost on account of his ego sense. Therefore, even if he gains all things, he is still poor. On the other hand the sage, who has gained his Self by the extinction of the ego, sees nothing else to be gained.

There are no real fragments of the one supreme consciousness. The fragments appear only because of ignorance. To the sage in the supreme state, that consciousness shines as one whole, not divided into parts.

There is neither bondage nor deliverance for the real Self, who remains unswervingly whole and solitary.

In the waters of separate vessels there appear many different images of the one moon. Similarly, in the minds that inhabit bodies there appear many jivas, which are only reflected images of the one real Self.

The soul, who is seer of the world, is never known apart from his spectacle, the world. There is no soul in the state of deep sleep. Hence, like his spectacle [the world], he also is only a mental creation.

The soul is always known along with the body. Even when the body dies, one does not leave it without taking hold of another body.

Since thus the soul is not separable from the body, he is only part and parcel of the world. But unenlightened men, who are disciples of unenlightened gurus, ascribe immortality to this same [mythical] person.

Assuming, without enquiry, that this soul is the owner of the body and the real Self, they ascribe to that Self the qualities of worldliness and all else, which pertain only to this soul. 

From this error arises various creeds concerning the real Self, which transcends all the creeds. Believing it to be bound, they follow various paths of yoga to free it

from bondage!

The doing of actions, the reaping of their fruits, ownership of the body and the like, as well as worldliness, are the attributes of the soul. They are not attributes of the real Self, which is only pure consciousness, and is unrelated [to the world].

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A devotee to Ramana Maharshi – I am so conscious of my own weakness

“That is the surest way to handicap oneself,” Ramana Maharshi answers, “this burdening of one’s mind with the fear of failure and the thought of one’s failings.” The greatest error of a man is to think that he is weak by nature, evil by nature. What are weak and evil are his habits, his desires and thoughts but not him.

The devotee says – It is easy for You to attain and keep spiritual serenity in this jungle retreat, where there is nothing to disturb or distract You

Ramana Maharshi answers – When the goal is reached, when you know the Knower, there is no difference between living in a house in London and living in the solitude of a jungle.

(Source: Excerpts from the Maharshi and His Message by Paul Brunton)

Why are false concepts like Heaven and Hell employed in scriptures? Ramana Maharshi Answers

On seeing her child suffer from pain in the stomach a fond mother desirous of administering pepper to the child, but aware of the child’s dislike of pepper and love of honey, gently coaxes the child with a smear of honey before forcing the pepper into its mouth. In the same way the scriptures in their mercy, seeing the ignorant student suffer in the world, desirous of making him realize the truth, but knowing his love for the world and dislike of the non-dual Reality — which is subtle and hard to understand, gently coax him with the sweet pleasures of heaven, hell etc., before laying bare the non-dual Reality.

But how can the ideas of heaven, etc., lead him on to the non-dual Reality?

By right actions, heaven is gained; by austerities and devotion to Vishnu, the four stages of beatitude. On knowing it a man practices what he likes among these. By repeated practices in several rebirths his mind becomes pure and turns away from sense enjoyments to receive the highest teaching of the non-dual Reality.

Ramana Maharishi