Legends:
D: Devotee
B: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
Comments in Italics: Comments by Arthur Osborne, Author of book, ‘Teachings of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi in his own Words’
Sri Ramana Maharshi on Meditation
For one who found Self-enquiry too difficult, he would recommend worship and submission.
D.: What should one think of when meditating?
B.: What is meditation? It is the suspension of thoughts.
You are perturbed by thoughts which rush one after another. Hold on to one thought so that others are expelled. Continuous practice gives the necessary strength of mind to engage in meditation. Meditation differs according to the degree of advancement of the seeker. If one is fit for it one can hold directly to the thinker; and the thinker will automatically sink into his source, which is Pure Consciousness. If one cannot directly hold on to the thinker, one must meditate on God; and in due course the same individual will have become sufficiently pure to hold on to the thinker and sink into the absolute Being.
Sri Ramana Maharshi on Meditation
In case the path of worship was chosen, he demanded absolute surrender.
D.: God is described as manifest and unmanifest. As the former, He is said to include the world as a part of His Being. If that is so, we, as part of the world, should find it easy to know Him in His manifested form.
B.: Know yourself before you seek to know the nature of God and the world.
D.: Does knowing myself imply knowing God?
B.: Yes, God is within you.
D.: Then, what stands in the way of my knowing myself or God?
B.: Your wandering mind and perverted ways.
D.: I am a weak creature. But why does not the superior power of the Lord within remove the obstacles?
B.: Yes, He will, if you have the aspiration.
D.: Why should He not create the aspiration in me?
B.: Then surrender yourself.
D.: If I surrender myself, is no prayer to God necessary?
B.: Surrender itself is a mighty prayer.
D.: But is it not necessary to understand His nature before one surrenders oneself?
B.: If you believe that God will do all the things that you want Him to do, then surrender yourself to Him. Otherwise let God alone, and know yourself.
If there be true surrender, there can be no complaint or frustration.
D.: We are worldly people and are afflicted by some grief that we cannot get over. We pray to God and are still not satisfied. What should we do?
B.: Trust God.
D.: We surrender but still there is no help.
B.: But if you have surrendered, it means that you must accept the will of God and not make a grievance of what may not happen to please you. Things may turn out differently from what they appear. Distress often leads people to faith in God.
D.: But we are worldly people. We have wife, children, friends and relations. We cannot ignore them and resign ourselves to the Divine will without retaining some trace of individuality.
B.: That means that you have not really surrendered, as you say you have. All you need to do is to trust God.
Following the path of devotion, one should leave everything to God.
The Lord bears the burden of the world. Know that the spurious ego which presumes to bear that burden is like a sculptured figure at the foot of a temple tower which appears to sustain the tower’s weight. Whose fault is it if the traveller, instead of putting his luggage in the cart which bears the load anyway, carries it on his head, to his own inconvenience?
There cannot even be impatience for speedy realisation. To one who was so afflicted, he replied:
Surrender to Him and accept His will whether He appears or vanishes. Await His pleasure. If you want Him to do as you want, it is not surrender but command. You cannot ask Him to obey you and yet think you have surrendered. He knows what is best and when and how to do it. Leave everything entirely to Him. The burden is His and you have no more cares. All your cares are His. That is what is meant by surrender.
Sri Ramana Maharshi on Prayer
Even prayer can betoken a lack of trust and Bhagavan did not normally encourage prayer in the sense of petition.
They pray to God and finish with: ‘Thy will be done’. If His will be done, why do they pray at all? It is true that the Divine will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. Individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine will and keep quiet. Everyone is looked after by God. He created all. You are only one among two thousand millions. When He looks after so many, will He omit you? Even common sense dictates that one should accept His will. There is no need to tell Him your requirements. He knows them Himself and will look after them.
On other occasions, however, he would confirm the efficacy of prayer. As in other matters, he would put the viewpoint which would best help the spiritual development of the particular questioner.
D.: Are our prayers granted?
B.: Yes, they are granted. No thought will ever go in vain. Every thought will produce its effect some time or other. Thought force will never go in vain.
It will be seen that this hints at a doctrine far wider than personal response by an anthropomorphic God. It indicates the general power of thought for good or evil and its repercussions on the thinker. Understanding of this involves a great responsibility for thoughts no less than for actions, just as Christ indicated that to look at a woman lustfully was a sin, the same as committing adultery with her. The following passage shows how far this teaching was from any humanised conception of a God.
Not from any desire, resolve, or effort on the part of the rising sun, but merely due to the presence of his rays, the lens emits heat, the lotus blossoms, water evaporates, and people attend to their various duties in life. In the proximity of the magnet the needle moves. Similarly, the soul or jiva subjected to the threefold activity of creation, preservation and destruction, which takes place merely due to the unique Presence of the Supreme Lord, performs acts in accordance with its karma, and subsides to rest after such activity. But the Lord Himself has no resolve; no act or event touches even the fringe of His Being. This state of immaculate aloofness can be likened to that of the sun, which is untouched by the activities of life, or to that of the all-pervasive ether, which is not affected by the interaction of the complex qualities of the other four elements.
Source: ‘Teachings of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi in his own Words’ by Arthur Osborne
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