Sri Ramana Maharshi ~ Teachings on Self-Liberation

0:13 [Music]

1:01 Shri Bhagwan ramana maharshi's teachings and self-liberation the illusion created by the mind must be destroyed by the mind itself your duty is to be and not to be this all that I am that I am sums up the whole truth

1:49 the method is summed up in the words be still stillness means destroy yourself every name and form is the cause of trouble [Music] and give up the notion I am so-and-so [Music]

2:42 all that we have to do is to give up identifying the self with the body with forms and limits and then we shall know ourselves the self that we always are [Music] do not associate with the mind that

3:28 rises like the goddess who smites one with love destroy it by abiding in the self should you succumb to its spell and embrace it alas it will destroy your life by drowning you in the intoxication of pride that demon in the mind is extremely adept at Emmer ously caressing you with

4:14 false pretences heed this warning from now on stay away from that utterly sinful one without even mentioning its name [Music] the mind is a great demon whose embrace brings death to all it somehow deceives everyone and brings them under its spell [Music] it is an extremely cunning trickster a

5:01 thief who practices deception this murderer this beautiful and seductive one is a despicable sinner who has totally ruined the lives of many an aspirant it is an evil lowborn one who hates and torments your lawfully-wedded one piece [Music]

6:05 one who is forgetful of the self mistaking the physical body for it and goes through innumerable birth is like one who wanders all over the world in a dream thus realizing the self would only be like waking up from the dream wanderings [Music]

6:57 know that the path of knowledge and the path of devotion are interrelated follow these inseparable two paths without dividing one from the other [Music] the lazy state wherein you exist motionlessly and shine is the natural

7:43 state in that supreme state you have become that it cannot be obtained except by direct excellent and rare austerities you should therefore honor those who are established in that laziness as holy beings [Music]

8:44 bliss is a thing which is always there and it's not something that comes and goes that which comes and goes is a creation of the mind and you should not worry about it [Music]

9:35 and I rises forth with every thought and with its disappearance that I disappears too many eyes are born and die every moment the subsisting mind is the real trouble that is the thief find him out and you will be happy [Music]

10:45 during worldly activity if your attention is fixed on the fundamental reality there is no difficulty but ordinary people forget the reality and take the name alone to be real [Music] the different eyes are not real there is only one eye the separate eye is like a

11:35 watchman in a fort he is like the protector of the body [Music] the real owner in everybody is only the one real eye so when the separate eye surrenders to the real eye then because the idea of a separate self who owns the

12:23 body disappears I and mine are eliminated [Music] the true state comes into existence when after sorting out what belongs to whom the ego I surrenders itself to the real owner [Music]

13:48 many fear that with the destruction of the mind they themselves will cease to exist but destruction of the mind is nothing to be feared [Music] what we conceive of now as mind is only a combination of restlessness and dullness by their elimination the mind becomes pure

14:34 [Music] such a mind is one's own real nature [Music]

15:41 one who considers the body to be themselves is an ignorant person one who regards himself as the self is the enlightened one who is realized to sell [Music] in the oneself the sole reality alone exists eternally

16:28 [Music] when even the ancient teacher Dakshinamurthy revealed it through speechless eloquence who else could convey it by speech [Music] you since past and future have never been without the present to know the eternal

17:15 now is to know the truth the changeless infinite self transcends time and space which are relative to the body and the mind [Music] the sage who has realized the self

18:04 transcends both freewill and destiny with which only the ignorant are concerned [Music] to the ignorant the eye is a self-limited to the body to the wise the eye is the infinite self [Music]

19:01 though the non-dual knowledge is difficult to attain it becomes easy to attain when the true love for the feet of the Lord becomes intense since its grace the revealing light which dispels ignorance then begins to flare [Music]

19:53 if the agent upon whom the karma depends namely the ego mergers in its source and loses its form how can the Karma which depends upon it survive when there is no I there is no Karma [Music]

20:51 only when the self is gained is permanent perfect blissful peace attained [Music] in this self sovereignty non-jew heaven like all-pervasive no desire and no fear can exist [Music]

21:42 beyond the reach of words extends the sages greatness none but them can know their state of being faster than the sky to experience it yourself you should first aired your own body consciousness [Music] you [Music]

22:30 one who turns inward with an untroubled mind to search where the consciousness I arises realizes the self and rests in that like a river when it joins the ocean [Music]

23:18 to all deep thinking minds the inquiry about the eye and its nature has an irresistible fascination call it by any name god-self the heart or the seed of consciousness it is all the same the point to be grasped is this that heart needs the very core of one's being the center without which there is nothing

24:04 whatsoever [Music]

24:50 when the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature it transpires that there is no such thing as mind this is the direct path to truth for all [Music] the mind is merely thoughts of all sorts the thought I is the root

25:37 therefore the mind is only the thought I [Music] whence does his eye arise seek for even it then vanishes this is a pursuit of wisdom [Music]

26:38 this is always the true import of the term I for we do not cease to exist even in the deepest sleep where there is no waking eye [Music]

27:32 as there is no second being to know that which is [Music] that which is his consciousness we are that [Music] the state we call realization is simply being oneself not knowing anything or

28:21 becoming anything if one is realized they are that which alone is and which alone has always been they cannot describe that state they can only be that [Music] of course we loosely talk of self-realization for want of a better

29:06 term [Music] that which is his piece [Music] all that we need do is to keep quiet peace is our real nature we spoil it [Music] what is required is that we cease to spoil it [Music]

30:07 for instance there is space in a hall we are not going to create space and new we fill up the place with various articles if we want space all that we need do is to remove all those articles and we get space similarly if we will remove all the rubbish from the mind the piece will become manifest that which is obstructing the piece must be removed

30:56 [Music] peace is the only reality [Music] Mukti or liberation is our nature it is

31:42 another name for us [Music] our wanting Mukti is a very funny thing it is like a man who was in the shade voluntarily leaving the shade going into the Sun feeling the severity of the heat making great efforts to get back into the shade and then rejoicing at last I have reached the shade how sweet is the shade [Music] we are doing exactly the same we are not

32:27 different from the reality we imagine we are different we create the feeling of difference and then undergo great sudden ease to get rid of the imagined differences and realize the oneness [Music] why imagine will create the differences and then destroy it [Music]

33:37 it is false to speak of realization what is there to realize the real is as it is ever how to realize it all that is required is this we have realized the unreal regarded as real what is unreal we have to give up this attitude that is all that is required for us to attain jnana

34:28 [Music] we are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before [Music]

35:28 effortless and choiceless awareness is our real state if we can attain it or be in it it is alright but one cannot reach it without effort the effort of deliberate meditation all the age-long vasanas latent

36:14 tendencies carry the mind outwards and turn it to external objects all such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward for most people effort is necessary [Music]

37:08 be quiet or still but it is not easy that is why all this effort is necessary [Music] even if you find one who has effortlessly achieved the Mona of

37:54 silence or supreme state you may take it that the effort necessary has already been completed in a previous life such effortless and choiceless awareness is reached only after deliberate meditation

38:41 [Music] we are always the real and what is there for one to attain after that [Music]

39:27 what is changing what appears and dissapears what is not real we regard as real we are always and nothing can be more directly present than we we say we have to attain realization after all these sudden errs or practices [Music] nothing can be more strange than this the self is not attained by doing

40:15 anything other than remaining still and being as we are [Music] we say that what we see with the eyes alone is directly present they must first be the seer before

41:03 anything could be seen you are yourself the eye that sees the infinite eye [Music] people are afraid that when the ego or the mind is killed the result may be a

41:50 mere blank and not happiness [Music] what really happens is that the thinker the objective thought and thinking all merge into the one source which is consciousness and bliss itself and thus that state is neither inert nor blank [Music]

42:59 I do not understand why people should be afraid of that state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is killed every day they experience that state in sleep there is no mind or thought in sleep yet when one rises from sleep one says I slept happily sleep is so dear to everyone that no one Prince or bigger can do without it

43:56 [Music] what happens when you make a serious quest for the self is that the I thought as a thought disappears something else through the deaths takes hold of you and that is not the I which commenced the quest that is the real

44:44 self the import of knowledge it is not the ego nor the mind it is the Supreme Being itself [Music]

45:33 the very fact that you are possessed of the quest of the self is a manifestation of the divine grace it is a foal Junt in the heart the inner being the real self [Music] it draws you from within you have to attempt to get in from without your attempt is earnest quest the deep inner movement is grace that is

46:21 why I say there is no real inquiry without grace nor is there grace active for one who is without inquiry both unnecessary [Music]

47:17 the ego-self is the Jiva it is different from the Lord of all the absolute [Music] [Laughter] [Music] when through this interested devotion the individual self approaches the Lord [Music] it graciously assumes name-and-form and takes the self into itself [Music]

48:09 therefore they say the Guru is none other than the Lord they are a human embodiment of the divine grace [Music] the real guru is God in human form [Music]

49:21 knowing oneself is only being oneself as there is no second existence this is self-realization [Music] you may go on reading any number of books on Vedanta they can only tell you realize the self the self cannot be found in books you have to find it for yourself in yourself

50:07 [Music] the quest for the self I speak of is a direct method indeed superior to the other meditations

50:52 for the moment you get into a movement of quest for the self and go deeper and deeper the real self is waiting there to take you in [Music] and then whatever is done is done by something else and you have no hand in it [Music] in this process all doubts and discussions are automatically given up just as one who sleeps forgets for the

51:41 time being all their cares [Music] the Lord whose home is the interior of the heart Lotus and who shines there as

52:28 I is extolled as the Lord of the cave [Music] if by force of practice the feeling i am that i am the lord of the cave becomes firmly established enough you stand forth as the lord of the cave the illusion that you are the perishable body will vanish like darkness before the Rising Sun [Music]

53:57 if we regard ourselves as the doers of action [Music] we shall also be the enjoyers of the fruits of such action if by inquiring who does these actions one realizes oneself the sense that one is the doer vanishes and with it all the three kinds of karma [Music] this is the state of eternal Mukti or liberation

54:44 [Music] our real nature is Mukti but we imagine that we are bound and are making strenuous attempts to become free while we are all the time free

55:31 [Music] this will only be understood when we reach that stage we'll be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and our [Music]

56:18 you the dyads are the pairs of opposites such as pleasure and pain and the Triads or such differences as the Noah the known and the process of knowing depend on one thing the ego [Music] when one seeks for that thing in the heart and finds out its real nature they

57:07 will vanish [Music] those alone who have found out the real nature of the ego have seen the reality [Music] they will have no more doubts or anxieties [Music] [Laughter]

58:07 [Music] the thought I am the body is ignorance [Music] that the body is not a path from the self is knowledge the body is a mental projection the mind is the ego and the ego rises from the cell the body thought is distracting

58:53 and strays away from the self for whom is the body or birth not for the self the spirit it is for the non self which imagines itself separate from the self [Music]

59:47 so long as there is the sense of separation there will be afflicting thoughts if the original source is regained and the sense of separation ends there is peace [Music]

1:00:44 the waters of the sea evaporating and rising into the skies clouds find no rest until they come back as rain and finally rush back to the sea [Music] the ego can have peace only when it merges back into its source the cell [Music]

1:02:00 the nanny appreciates all distinctions but they always perceive and experience the one reality in all of them that is why they have no preferences whether one moves about or talks or acts it is all the one reality in which they act or move or talk then Yanni sees nothing apart from the one the supreme truth

1:02:45 [Music] the transcendental awareness I speak of is the natural state sahaja Samadhi [Music]

1:03:33 here you are naturally poised you remain calm and composed even while you are active you realize that you are moved by the deeper real self within you have no worries no anxieties no cares here you realize there is nothing belonging to you everything is done by something with which you get into conscious union

1:04:20 [Music] a natural being or natural abidance itself is without concepts for in this state the mind is free from doubts it has no need to swing between alternatives of possibilities and

1:05:08 probabilities [Music] it has no active predispositions of any kind [Music] it is sure of the truth [Music]

1:06:09 myself makes itself felt in the pure mind so that even when you are in the midst of thoughts you feel the presence you realize the truth that you are one with the deeper self and that the thought waves are there only on the surface [Music]

1:07:10 the heart is the one supreme center of the self [Music] you need have no doubt about it the real self is there in the heart behind the ego-self [Music] self cannot be known with your mind you cannot realize it by imagination

1:07:56 the only direct way to realize it is to cease to fancy and try to just be yourself then you realize or you automatically feel that the center is there this is the center the heart of being spoken of in the scriptures [Music] as the cavity of the heart [Music]

1:09:15 when you go deeper within yourself you lose yourself in the abysmal deaths then the reality takes hold of you it is an incessant flash or current of I consciousness you can be aware of it feel it hear it sense it this is what I call self manifestation

1:10:09 [Music] in direct knowing you can feel yourself one with the one that exists the whole body becomes a mere power a force can't [Music]

1:10:56 your life becomes a needle and drawn to a huge massive magnet and as you go deeper and deeper you become a mere center and then not even that before you become a mere consciousness [Music] there are no thoughts or cares any longer [Music] they were shattered at the threshold

1:11:44 it is an inundation you are a mere straw you are swallowed alive but it is very delightful [Music] for you become the very thing that swallows you [Music] this is the union of the individual would be absolute [Music]

1:14:55 you