How can one see God?

Vijay: "How can one see God?"

Sri Ramakrishna: "One cannot see God without purity of heart. Through attach meant to 'woman and gold' the mind has become stained - covered with dirt, as it were. A magnet cannot attract a needle if the needle is covered with mud. Wash away the mud and the magnet will draw it. Likewise, the dirt of the mind can be washed away with the tears of our eyes. This stain is removed if one sheds tears of repentance and says, 'O God, I shall never again do such a thing.' Thereupon God, who is like the magnet, draws to Himself the mind, which is like the needle. Then the devotee goes into samadhi and obtains the vision of God.

"You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without God's grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to receive the grace of God? One must altogether renounce egotism; one cannot see God as long as one feels, 'I am the doer.' Suppose, in a family, a man has taken charge of the store-room; then if someone asks the master, 'Sir, will you yourself kindly give me something from the store-room?', the master says to him: 'There is already someone in the store-room. What can I do there?'

"God doesn't easily appear in the heart of a man who feels himself to be his own master. But God can be seen the moment His grace descends. He is the Sun of Knowledge. One single ray of His has illumined the world with the light of knowledge. That is how we are able to see one another and acquire varied knowledge. One can see God only if He turns His light toward His own face.

"The police sergeant goes his rounds in the dark of night with a lantern (A reference to the lantern carried by the night-watch, which has dark glass on three sides.) in his hand. No one sees his face; but with the help of that light the sergeant sees everybody's face, and others, too, can see one another. If you want to see the sergeant, however, you must pray to him: 'Sir, please turn the light on your own face. Let me see you.' In the same way one must pray to God: 'O Lord, be gracious and turn the light of knowledge on Thyself, that I may see Thy face.'

"A house without light indicates poverty. So one must light the lamp of Knowledge in one's heart. As it is said in a song:

Lighting the lamp of Knowledge in the chamber of your heart,
Behold the face of the Mother, Brahman's Embodiment."

Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Isn't our personality beginningless?

Devotee (D).: Isn't our personality beginningless?

Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi (B).: Find out first whether it exists at all and after you have solved that problem, ask the question. Nammalwar says: "In ignorance, I took the ego to be the Self, but with right knowledge the ego is not and only you remain as the Self". Both the non-dualists and the dualists agree on the necessity for Self-realisation. Attain that first and then raise other questions. Nondualism or dualism cannot be decided on theoretical grounds alone. If the Self is realised, the question will not arise.

Whatever is born must die; whatever is acquired must be lost; but were you born? You are eternally existent. The Self can never be lost.

Source: Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in his own words by Arthur Osborne, Chapter Three

Hindu Culture and women.

Hindu culture opens doors to spirituality, whose goal is moksha - Self Realization. Ancient saints created concepts in such a way that if one applies them, it brings one closer to self realization. For Self Realization, Renunciation is very important (at least mental). Keeping all ill-practices against women aside, women do not need to take renunciation (I do not say they cannot or do not deserve). The life of women is such that it is very easy for them to progress spiritually.

Hinduism teaches that Karma (action) should be done with the spirit or detachment or acting as an instrument of God or only for God. It teaches to give responsibility to God. The feeling of 'Me' and 'mine' are not good for spiritual progress. This increases or sustains the ego and spirituality is to dissolve ego (sense of individuality) and be merged in totality. So, technically parents do not have right to name their kids. They can take care of kids and give the best they can, educate them, but when time comes, they even need to drop their attachment with kids and other family members, later on even with their own body. This is difficult to understand. It takes time and dedicated study of scriptures and meditate regularly.

In earlier days, new born babies were taken to saints for blessings and saints were requested to give suitable name of baby. Saints with their divine vision (which they get after intense meditation) can see the nature of baby and then used to name baby which suits his/her character. Unfortunately, today, these types of saints are found rare and if found are less active with society.

Even today, where people are not much interested in spirituality and just try to take pride of their religion, or choose to be an atheist, traces of Renunciation are found in day-to-day activities. Kanya-Daan (donation of daughter during marriage) and naam-karan sanskar or naam karan vidhi (naming procedure of child) are to name a few. Unfortunately, it is just followed mechanically, without proper or no understanding. Parents pre-decide the names and mother give it to sister-in-law to include this chosen name in the five options which she will give.

Living with the spirit of detachment is one of the core teachings of Hinduism.

(This is author's reply to a comment on post Women - Spiritual significance and advantage of being female enquiring why parents do not have right to name their baby).

How did the ego arise?

Devotee (D).: How did the ego arise?

Here is a question that gives rise to endless philosophizing, but Bhagavan, holding rigorously to the truth of non-duality, refused to admit its existence.

Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi (B).: There is no ego. If there were, you would have to admit of two selves in you. Therefore there is no ignorance. If you enquire into the Self, ignorance, which is already non-existent, will be found not to exist and you will say that it has fled.

Sometimes it seemed to the listener that absence of thought must mean a mere blank, and therefore Bhagavan specifically guarded against this.

Absence of thought does not mean a blank. There must be someone to be aware of that blank. Knowledge and ignorance pertain only to the mind and are in duality, but the Self is beyond them both. It is pure Light. There is no need for one Self to see another. There are no two selves. What is not the Self is mere non-self and cannot see the Self. The Self has no sight or hearing; it lies beyond them, all alone, as pure Consciousness.

Bhagavan often cited man's continued existence during deep, dreamless sleep as a proof that he exists independent of the ego and the body-sense. He also referred to the state of deep sleep as a body-free and ego-free state.

D.: I don't know whether the Self is different from the ego.

B.: In what state were you in deep sleep?

D.: I don't know.

B.: Who doesn't know? The waking self? But you don't deny that you existed while in deep sleep?

D.: I was and am, but I don't know who was in deep sleep.

B.: Exactly. The waking man says that he did not know anything in the state of deep sleep. Now he sees objects and knows that he exists but in deep sleep there were no objects and no spectator. And yet the same person who is speaking now existed in deep sleep also. What is the difference between the two states? There are objects and the play of the senses now, while in deep sleep there were not. A new entity, the ego, has arisen. It acts through the senses, sees objects, confuses itself with the body and claims to be the Self. In reality, what was in deep sleep continues to be now also. The Self is changeless. It is the ego which has come between. That which rises and sets is the ego. That which remains changeless is the Self.

Such examples sometimes gave rise to the mistaken idea that the state of Realisation or abidance in the Self which Bhagavan prescribed was a state of nescience like physical sleep and therefore he guarded against this idea also.

B.: Waking, dream and sleep are mere phases of the mind, not of the Self. The Self is the witness of these three states. Your true nature exists in sleep.

D.: But we are advised not to fall asleep during meditation.

B.: It is stupor which you must guard against. That sleep which alternates with waking is not the true sleep. That waking which alternates with sleep is not the true waking. Are you awake now? No. What you have to do is to wake up to your true state. You should neither fall into false sleep nor remain falsely awake.

B.: Though present even in sleep, the Self is not then perceived. It cannot be known in sleep straightaway. It must first be realized in the waking state for it is our true nature underlying all the three states. Effort must be made in the waking state and the Self realized here and now. It will then be understood to be the continuous Self uninterrupted by the alteration of waking, dream and deep sleep.

In fact, one name for the true state of realised being is the 'Fourth State' existing eternally beyond the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. It is compared with the state of deep sleep since, like this, it is formless and non-dual; however, as the above quotation shows, it is far from being the same. In the Fourth State the ego merges in Consciousness, as in sleep it does in unconsciousness.

In nothing did Bhagavan show more clearly that theory has to be adapted to the understanding of the seeker than in the question of death and re-birth. For those who were capable of grasping pure, non-dual theory, he explained merely that the question does not arise, for if the ego has no real existence, now, it has none after death either.

Source: Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in his own words by Arthur Osborne, Chapter 3.

When I seek the 'I', I see nothing.

D (devotee).: When I seek the 'I', I see nothing.

B. (Sri Ramana Maharshi): You say that because you are accustomed to identify yourself with the body and sight with the eyes, but what is there to be seen? And by whom? And how? There is only one Consciousness and this, when it identifies itself with the body, projects itself through the eyes and sees the surrounding objects. The individual is limited to the waking state; he expects to see something different and accepts the authority of his senses. He will not admit that he who sees, the objects seen, and the act of seeing are all manifestations of the same Consciousness - the 'I-I'. Meditation helps to overcome the illusion that the Self is something to see. Actually there is nothing to see. How do you recognize yourself now? Do you have to hold a mirror up in front of your self to recognize yourself? The awareness is itself the 'I'. Realize it and that is the truth.

D.: When I enquire into the origin of thoughts, there is the perception of the 'I' but it does not satisfy me.

B.: Quite right. Because this perception of 'I' is associated with a form, perhaps with the physical body. Nothing should be associated with the pure Self. The Self is the pure Reality in whose light the body, the ego and all else shine. When all thoughts are stilled, pure Consciousness remains over.

Source: Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in his own words by Arthur Osborne, Chapter Three