tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24422056955840655722024-03-16T18:28:44.188-07:00SpiritualTeachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and othersSuresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.comBlogger414125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-60755614188805904102024-03-15T18:27:00.000-07:002024-03-16T18:28:12.786-07:00Nisargadatta Gita<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> 1. 1. The ‘I am’ came first; it is ever present, ever available. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Refuse all thoughts except ‘I am’. Stay there.</span><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This ‘I am’ is still there with you, ever present, ever available. It was and still is the first thought. Refuse all other thoughts and come back there and stay there. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So try to understand and grasp this ‘beingness’ or ‘I amness’ that is inherent in you. The more precisely and clearly you do it the more rapid will be your progress.</span></div><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. Just stay put firmly and establish yourself in the ‘I am’. </span><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">Reject all that does not go with ‘I am’.</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. </span><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-family: verdana;">Consistently and with perseverance separate the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’; just keep in mind the feeling ‘I am’.</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Only the ‘I am’ is certain.</span> It is impersonal, all knowledge stems from it. It is the root. Hold on to it and let all else go.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">From this tiny, minuscule ‘I am’, further knowledge grew leaps and bounds to gigantic proportions. So all knowledge stems from the ‘I am’. It is absolutely fundamental, the base, the origin, the root of everything. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">You have to hold on to this ‘I am’ and let everything else go.</span></span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">5. <span style="color: #800180;">You are sure of the ‘I am’.</span> It is the totality of being. Remember ‘I am’ and it is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Throwing aside everything, come back to this sense of ‘presence’ or ‘being’ in all its purity and it will heal your mind.</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. <span style="color: #800180;">The ‘I am’ is; it is ever fresh, all else is inference. When the ‘I am’ goes all that remains is the Absolute.</span></span></p><span><!--more--></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Give all your attention to the ‘I am’, which is timeless presence. The ‘I am’ applies to all, come back to it repeatedly.</span></span></p><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><!--more--></span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">8. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Hang on to the ‘I am’ and go beyond it.</span> Without the ‘I am’ you are at peace and happy.</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">9. <span style="color: #800180;">Hold on to the ‘I am’ to the exclusion of everything else.</span> The ‘I am’ in movement creates the world. The ‘I am’ at peace becomes the Absolute.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Come back to the 'I am’ and let the ‘I am’ be in the ‘I am’. Then it becomes still and disappears, and then there is peace, for there is only the Absolute now. </span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">10. Immortality is freedom from the feeling ‘I am’, to have that freedom remain in the sense ‘I am’. It is simple! It is crude! Yet it works!</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">11. The ‘I am’ appears spontaneously on your True state. It is wordless and can be used to go beyond.</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">12. <span style="color: #800180;">The ‘I am’ has brought you in, the ‘I am’ will take you out. The ‘I am’ is the door, stay at it! It is open! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The feeling ‘I am’ very clearly qualifies as the port of entry or doorway through which you came into this world and thus it also qualifies as the way out. And there is no other way out! Stay at it and you shall see that this door is always open, it was never closed. Unless you go back and stay in the ‘I am’ for a sufficiently long time you won’t come to know this fact.</span></p><p><span></span></p><!--more--><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-43364192234181130482023-11-22T20:34:00.000-08:002023-11-22T20:34:01.926-08:00What is reality<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;">"Everyone is aware of two things, namely himself, the seer, and the world which he sees; and he assumes that they are both real. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #800180;">But that alone is real which has a continuous existence</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;">. Judged by this test, the two, the seer and the spectacle, are both unreal: these two appear intermittently. They are apparent in the waking and dream state alone. In the state of deep sleep, they cease to appear. That is, they appear. That is, they appear when the mind is active, and disappear as soon as the mind ceases to function. Therefore, the two are but thoughts of the mind. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">There must be something from which the mind arises, and into which it subsides. That something must have a continuous, uninterrupted existence. That is, it must be the reality!</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;">" </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;">- Ramana Maharshi</span></span></p><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" />Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-28476349280093325382023-11-16T05:08:00.000-08:002023-11-16T05:09:39.163-08:00DeMello: Being a Changed Person<div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180;">In your pursuit of awareness, don't make demands.</span><br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You can't imitate Christ by imitating his external behaviour. You've got to be Christ. Then you'll know exactly what to do in a particular situation, given your temperament, your character, and the character and temperament of the person you're dealing with. No one has to tell you. But to do that, you must be what Christ was. An external imitation will get you nowhere.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">If you think that compassion implies softness, there's no way I can describe compassion to you, absolutely no way, because compassion can be very hard. Compassion can be very rude, compassion can jolt you, compassion can roll up its sleeves and operate on you. Compassion is all kinds of things. Compassion can be very soft, but there's no way of knowing that. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180;">It's only when you become love -- in other words, when you have dropped your illusions and attachments -- that you will "know." </span><br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As you identify less and less with the "me," you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything. Do you know why? Because you are no longer afraid of being hurt or not liked. You no longer desire to impress anyone.</span></div><div><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Nobody was mean to you. Somebody was mean to what he or she thought was you, but not to you. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Nobody ever rejects you; they're only rejecting what they think you are</span>. But that cuts both ways. Nobody ever accepts you either. Until people come awake, they are simply accepting or rejecting their image of you. They've fashioned an image of you, and they're rejecting or accepting that. See how devastating it is to go deeply into that. It's a bit too liberating. But how easy it is to love people when you understand this. How easy it is to love everyone when you don't identify with what they imagine you are or they are. It becomes easy to love them, to love everybody. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">One can not say anything about the awakened state; one can only talk about the sleeping state.</span> One hints at the awakened state. One cannot say anything about happiness. Happiness cannot be defined. What can be defined is misery. Drop unhappiness and you will know. Love cannot be defined; unlove can. Drop unlove, drop fear, and you will know. We want to find out what the awakened person is like. But you'll know only when you get there. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Am I implying, for example, that we shouldn't make demands on our children? What I said was: "You don't have a right to make any demands." Sooner or later that child is going to have to get rid of you, in keeping with the injunction of the Lord. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">And you're going to have no rights over him at all. In fact, he really isn't your child and he never was. He belongs to life, not to you. No one belongs to you</span>. What you're talking about is a child's education.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">When I talk about not having expectations of others, or not making demands on them, I mean expectations and demands for my well-being.</span></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-67529763723807930112023-11-05T05:24:00.000-08:002023-11-16T05:12:02.998-08:00DeMello: The Most Important Minutes in Your Life<div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're a success in life when you wake up! Then you don't have to apologise to anyone, you don't have to explain anything to anyone, you don't give a damn what anybody thinks about you or what anybody says about you. You have no worries; you're happy. That's what I call being a success. <br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You could be a plumber or a lawyer or a business man or a priest, but that does not affect the essential "I." It doesn't affect you. If I change my profession tomorrow, it's just like changing my clothes. I am untouched. Are you your clothes? Are you your name? Are you your profession? Stop identifying with them. They come and go. <br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Do you want to be happy? <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Uninterrupted happiness is uncaused. True happiness is uncaused. You cannot make me happy. You are not my happiness. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You say to the awakened person, "Why are you happy?" and the awakened person replies, "Why not?" <br /></span><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. <br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">To acquire happiness you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. <br /></span></span><span style="color: #800180;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Does anybody know why? </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? <br /></span></span><span style="color: #800180;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then why don't you experience it? </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because you've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!</span></span></span></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-81473527423044997252023-11-02T03:34:00.007-07:002023-11-16T05:13:02.962-08:00DeMello: Are you Sleep Walking?<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But even there we've got to make sure that you're not swinging into action simply to get rid of your negative feelings. Many people swing into action only to make things worse. <span style="color: #800180;">They're not coming from love, they're coming from negative feelings. </span>They're coming from guilt, anger, hate; from a sense of injustice or whatever.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><span>You've got to make sure of your "being" before you swing into action</span>.</span> You have to make sure of who you are before you act. Unfortunately, when sleeping people swing into action, they simply substitute one cruelty for another, one injustice for another. And so it goes. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Meister Eckhart says, <span style="color: #ffa400;">"It is not by your actions that you will be saved" (or awakened; call it by any word you want), "but by your being. It is not by what you do, but by what you are that you will be judged."</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">What good is it to you to feed the hungry, give the thirsty to drink, or visit prisoners in jail? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Remember that sentence from Paul: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #ffa400;">"If I give my body to be burned and all my goods to feed the poor and have not love . . ."</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It's not your actions, it's your being that counts. Then you might swing into action. You might or might not. You can't decide that until you're awake. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"Plunge into the heat of battle and keep your heart at the lotus feet of the Lord"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. That is why when two people look at something or someone, you get two different reactions. We see things and people not as they are, but as we are. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">When you finally awake, you don't try to make good things happen; they just happen. You understand suddenly that everything that happens to you is good. Think of some people you're living with whom you want to change. You find them moody, inconsiderate, unreliable, treacherous, or whatever. But when you are different, they'll be different. That's an infallible and miraculous cure. <span style="color: #6aa84f;">The day you are different, they will become different. And you will see them differently, too.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Put this program into action, a thousand times: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">(a) identify the negative feelings in you; </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">(b) understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality; </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">(c) do not see them as an essential part of "I"; these things come and go; </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">(d) understand that when you change, everything changes</span></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-75961486427392137712023-09-12T02:32:00.002-07:002023-09-12T02:32:08.658-07:00Ramana Mahrashi - Quotes<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There are only two ways to conquer destiny or be independent of it. One is to enquire for whom is this destiny, and discover that only the ego is bound by destiny and not the Self, and that the ego is non-existent.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The other way is to kill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realising one's helplessness and saying all the time, 'Not I, but Thou Oh Lord' and giving up all sense of 'I' and 'mine, and leaving it to the Lord to do what he likes with you. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-enquiry or Bhakti Marga (Path of Devotion).</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Gems from Bhagavan</span></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-54135780333525029412023-09-12T02:25:00.003-07:002023-09-12T02:25:53.476-07:00Aksharamanamalai - Text<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaB7bbk8LU0ryuboQNbiMB_CkASIxM0rI_yoaWivsR7aRrH2ul5czwMC2MinnMFv7RptGDkIM43oPErDxYkuoRb2s9xXdqBodFzNhzxB4mjgdczZTQW4rmoDNxGp8LGRFBhk1mf8beIK3EGsQQbHjwHMBgGscYxd6G6iJIto8_oOzSHwdM6R9TZNoBNcJo/s612/aks-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="612" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaB7bbk8LU0ryuboQNbiMB_CkASIxM0rI_yoaWivsR7aRrH2ul5czwMC2MinnMFv7RptGDkIM43oPErDxYkuoRb2s9xXdqBodFzNhzxB4mjgdczZTQW4rmoDNxGp8LGRFBhk1mf8beIK3EGsQQbHjwHMBgGscYxd6G6iJIto8_oOzSHwdM6R9TZNoBNcJo/s320/aks-1.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMz5jGEWB_qJrOz3hw6o1ijDDfXJGoabd69e7uYYgKiiZKYhTrC73dBoh3dgwEW2ypwYKgDpKfv392xxkRyebOjH6E0AqzCT89AE5nUic5o6EmtB1QanbDDtRF2abdeOjrDHjbhZhP7B0OxDcgRWsu0MbmElKC-0FLle9utBrHXltKWV5VbV3iZtoKdru/s554/aks-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="554" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMz5jGEWB_qJrOz3hw6o1ijDDfXJGoabd69e7uYYgKiiZKYhTrC73dBoh3dgwEW2ypwYKgDpKfv392xxkRyebOjH6E0AqzCT89AE5nUic5o6EmtB1QanbDDtRF2abdeOjrDHjbhZhP7B0OxDcgRWsu0MbmElKC-0FLle9utBrHXltKWV5VbV3iZtoKdru/s320/aks-2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">This hymn should be chanted every day with unfailing regularity, with a one-pointed, inward-turned mind, and with the heart deeply absorbed in contemplation [of the Self, Arunachala Siva]</span></div></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-87070329761527592252023-09-06T19:05:00.003-07:002023-09-06T19:08:58.585-07:00Aksharamanamalai - Invocation<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KUlw3x_wJLX7xZ1Vmw3t_Vj1HUjDJl9mze1YhVu9CBgSIuWThQRVJXE9vildxIndzl63pco3D-9roYDp1gqMwNcpk6mrwoGvfnKQxCNwVm_nBehmO7C28hitEJlD6L83W0HuD5v3oHzctgAsEVnHNx_H-fjq52lEsIEPFftdwat_fF5VNuFbZYB1rCmK/s936/invocation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="936" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KUlw3x_wJLX7xZ1Vmw3t_Vj1HUjDJl9mze1YhVu9CBgSIuWThQRVJXE9vildxIndzl63pco3D-9roYDp1gqMwNcpk6mrwoGvfnKQxCNwVm_nBehmO7C28hitEJlD6L83W0HuD5v3oHzctgAsEVnHNx_H-fjq52lEsIEPFftdwat_fF5VNuFbZYB1rCmK/w420-h150/invocation.png" width="420" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrxiGd6qTYG8CXOlSAnwFx5Gw6ybZPaK_ZHyGzYMqieSh5dts1drb7IiXLVf8bUiwTGWOkl5Gtn7OZNfNZg_xXTaDDR2JMylgrRby2srCRaFfI56sQcs-GzCgySdJJI5Wb7l9T6-CptSmvhCSbvmvqNyhpK-3rCbKep1T2EglDRqkySBP6jY4D9vKGYD0/s1048/in1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1048" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrxiGd6qTYG8CXOlSAnwFx5Gw6ybZPaK_ZHyGzYMqieSh5dts1drb7IiXLVf8bUiwTGWOkl5Gtn7OZNfNZg_xXTaDDR2JMylgrRby2srCRaFfI56sQcs-GzCgySdJJI5Wb7l9T6-CptSmvhCSbvmvqNyhpK-3rCbKep1T2EglDRqkySBP6jY4D9vKGYD0/w387-h289/in1.png" width="387" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">O Ganapati, the bestower of grace, protect me by </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">giving Your helping hands so that I may make and offer </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">a Bridal Garland of Letters worthy of the bridegroom,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Arunachala</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">karuṇā ākara kaṇapatiyē – Ganapati, Ocean of compassion! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">karam aruḷi – Graciously bestowing your hand, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">kāppāyē – may
you protect [me], </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">akṣara maṇa mālai cāṟṟa – to speak (i.e. that I
may speak) the Marital Garland of Letters, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">aruṇācala varaṟku
ēṟṟa – such that it is fitting for the Great One / the Bridegroom
Aruṇācala! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">--</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h4 style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Paraphrase</span></h4></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ganesha , Ocean of Compassion, extend your helping hand
and protect me, that I may offer to, and adorn as befits
Him, my Lord Arunachala, my beloved, the best among all
bridegrooms, with this Marital Garland of Letters.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Commentary </span></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poetic licence has here been employed to change the word
cāttal – to adorn to cāṟṟal – to speak, tell, so as to create a pun
upon the two meanings to adorn and to compose a text. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">varaṉ
[can mean] great one or husband, bridegroom. mālai cāṟṟa
[means] to relate a work in the form of a garland. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">karuṇākaram
[can also mean] hand of compassion, hand of grace; further
karam [can mean] ray, consciousness. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Split as aruṇācala araṉ </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">[the meaning is] Arunachala Siva. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">araṉ [Sanskrit hara – the
Destroyer] is a derivative, causal name for Siva, as destroying
the suffering of his devotees. ‘The Lord who, as the Destroyer
[of suffering], bestows grace upon the devotees who follow
Him, when suffering follows on their heels and assails them.’
(Appar, Tēvāram, [5:51, v. 8]). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was Ganapati [Lord Ganesha] who facilitated the marriage
between Valli and [his younger brother] Skanda [Murugan];
note therefore that this Invocation possesses this special
significance, in addition to the general one of facilitating the
marriage between devotees and his father, Arunachala.</span></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-78516607112253757182023-07-07T18:34:00.017-07:002024-03-14T23:27:57.564-07:00Nectar Drops - Diary of Annamalai Swami<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Annamalai Swamigal asked Sri Bhagavan, </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"How should one act without forgetting God at all times?" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bhagavan did not reply. After some time, a few children came to Sri Bhagavan and played a Kummi song. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">They sang, "<span style="color: #cc0000;">Let us churn the curd, without forgetting Sri Krishna!</span>" </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan looked at the disciple and asked with a benign smile on his face, "Have you understood now?"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">--</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>What is the use of trying to meditate assuming that there is a mind (which in fact is non-existent) and that one should control it? </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">If we do our assigned duties with this determined resolve - "I am not this body and mind, the ever-present Self am I," then meditation will come searching for us.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div><div><div>"You have been bitten by the deadly black cobra of ego, <span style="color: #cc0000;">O son, drink the nectar of faith "I am not doer" and attain bliss!</span>" - Ashtavakra Gita</div><div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. </span><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">He alone is a true man who performs without desire, all activities that come of their own accord, never letting go of Self-abidance.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">He who does not think that he is the doer is superior the one who thinks that he </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">has given up everything.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">A sanyasi who carries the notion 'I am a sannyasi (renunciate) is not a sannyasi. A grihastha (householder) who does not carry the notion - 'I am a grihastha' is indeed a sannyasi.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Each one perceives himself everywhere; World and God are mere reflections of one's own state of mind.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">5. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">To enquire "Who am I?" is the eradication of all sorrow the attainment of supreme bliss.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. Is there not a medicine to escape from the miseries of the world? - To this question of mine, Sri Bhagavan responded: <span style="color: #800180;">Abiding in the Self continuously without letting go is the medicine.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. <i>Mouna</i> (silence) is an unceasing speech. To be still is to be forever active. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Mouna is the means for supreme attainment</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">11. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Desire alone is <i>Maya</i></span> (illusory appearance of the phenomenal world). Dispassion indeed is Divine.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am pure consciousness and whole. Remaining firmly aware thus, what does it matter however much one thinks or whatever one does? <span style="color: #cc0000;">Like the dream that vanishes on waking from sleep, all is unreal</span>. I am the very form of bliss</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Kaivalya Navaneeetham (Chapter 2, Verse 173)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">16. To my question as to how the same happiness experienced in meditation can also be found in activity, </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan replied, "Happiness and misery are akin to one's mind. Happiness is our inherent nature. <span style="color: #cc0000;">To think "I am the body" or "I am the mind" while ignoring the Self is misery</span>. What to do? The thought "I am the body" has gathered strength over many births. If this is eradicated, what remains is happiness</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">18. On Solitude</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div><i>Bhagavan</i>: How does it matter where one is? <span style="color: #cc0000;">The mind should forever abide in the Self. Other than this, there is no such thing as a solitary place outside</span>. Wherever one stays with thoughts, such a place is already crowded. One does not need to meditate always with eyes shut, it is enough to shut the mind. There is no world outside the mind. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Those who tread the righteous path will not make such plans. Why? </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Before we are ushered into this world, God has already ordained the course of our lives.</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><div>19. One day, a group of people came for Sri Bhagavan's darshan and departed after praying, "O Bhagavan! grant us Bhakti (devotion) and Moksha (Liberation)."</div><div><br /></div><div>Later Bhagavan told us, <span style="color: #800180;">"Everyone indeed wants to attain moksha, but when I say 'Give yourself unto me' they are unwilling to comply. Then how will moksha be attained?"</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I understood that Bhagavan's words were meant for us.</div></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><div>20. You desire that the world should proclaim you as a Great one</div><div>The Iswara who resides in you alone confers bondage or freedom</div><div>What avails it if others know it or not </div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Be devoted to the Lotus feet of God, oh, mind,</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Then Iswara would raise you to be acknowledged and admired by the world.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>-- Vairagya Satakam</div></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div>21. At one night when Sri Bhagavan was going out, I approached him and sought his advice saying, "Ever since I was assailed by sexual desire that day, I have not had proper food and sleep for the last three days. Since this is happening often, what will be my fate?"</div><div><br /></div><div>After two minutes of silence, Sri Bhagavan graciously said,</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #0b5394;">"Why should one dwell on a bad thought that occurred long back? If one enquires as to whom this thought occurred, it would take flight."</span></div><div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div></span><span><!--more--></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">22. I </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">once asked Bhagavan: A person who on deeds still undergoes suffering, while and committing bad deeds does not encounter st do you explain this paradox?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan's response: <span style="color: #cc0000;">Each one encounters happiness and misery alternately according to their karmic deposits from past births. Remaining indifferent to happiness and misery, accepting both with patience while abiding in the Self irrespective of whatever activity one happens to be engaged in, that alone is good.</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">23. My question: How is it that one can attain the abode of moksha easily by the grace of the Guru?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan's response: <span style="color: #800180;">There is no such abode of moksha anywhere outside. It is only within oneself. Whoever has an earnest desire to attain moksha, the inner Guru gives him his hand and pulls him in from within. The outer Guru lends his hand and pushes him in from outside. This is Guru Krupai (Guru's grace).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">As an example, Sri Bhagavan refers to the following song from Kaivalya Navaneetham:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">O Lord, abiding within and having ruled over countless births</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">O Embodiment of truth, who manifested as Guru to instruct me- Praise Thee</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">This poor being has nothing to offer in return for your help in redeeming me and bestowing Freedom - Praise thy holy feet.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">24. Sri Bhagavan replied with a smile: <span style="color: #800180;">To know oneself and to abide in that state alone is the greatest benefit to the world.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taking to the stage and giving lectures can be of benefit to only a few during that time, whereas the eloquence of silence can be heard by the whole world forever. It works eternally.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">25. A devotee approached Sri Bhagavan and asked three questions in writing:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. Did God create this world with all these differences fight in the beginning? Or did these differences creep</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">in later?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. It God is impartial, how is it that he has created some as good and many as bad, one as lame, another as blind, one as jani, and many as ajnanis?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. Are the eight Dikpalas (deities of directions e.g., East, West, etc.) thirty-three crores of Gods and the seven rishis (sages) existent even today?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">After glancing through these questions, Sri Bhagavan immediately answered all of them in a single sentence: </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">The answer will be plain to you if you ask yourself to whom these questions arose.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>This reply was not clear to the seeker.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan explained: If we first come to know our Self, then the Truth about God and the world he created will be revealed to us. Without knowing the Self, seeking to know God and the world, is merely ignorance. A man suffering from jaundice sees everything yellow. If he tells others that everything is yellow who will accept his statement?</div><div><br /></div><div>Further, that which is created anew is only a rehash of the old. As an example, Sri Bhagavan cites Bijangura Nyaya:</div><div><br /></div><div>How is an entire banyan tree hidden in the banyan seedy How could you say which came first, the seed or the tree?</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe;">If one knows the Self, there is no world. If one knows the world, the Self is not perceived.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Without knowing the true nature of oneself, knowing about all other things is merely ignorance, not Wisdom</span> [Ulladu Narpadu Verse 11, line 1]</div><div><br /></div><div>If one considers oneself the form of this body of flesh, then the world and God will also be forms. [Ulladu Narpadu Verse 4, line 1]</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">If the Self is realised, what else is there to know?</span> [Ulladu Narpadu Verse 3, line 1]</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><div>27. Sri Bhagavan often speaks about the meaning behind namaskaram (prostration) as follows:</div><div><br /></div><div>"Sometime in the past, elders used namaskaram as a practice to surrender their body and mind to God. Totally forgetting that, to think that by simply prostrating to God He will fall for us, and we can use him for all our needs is a big mistake, because God can never be deceived. It is only the selfish and fake worshipers who get deceived.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, I don't like it when people approach me to do namaskaram. What namaskaram does the Swami need? <span style="color: #800180;">To keep one's mind on the right path is the true namaskaram.</span>"</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div>29. One night a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan a question in reference to the opening lines of Atmavidya Kirtanam: You say "Lo! Atma Vidya (the highest knowledge by which one experiences the Truth) is very easy! Atma Vidya is indeed very easy!" </div><div><b>How is it that Atma Vidya is easy?</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: A common example used to explain direct-perception, is the simile "as obvious as an Amalak (gooseberry fruit) in one's palm." </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">More directly perceptible than that, is the Self. To perceive an Amalak in one's palm, one needs Amalak fruit, the palm to hold it, the eye to see it and a mind available to perceive it.</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Without these four, even those with little knowledge say, "I am. I slept well." Since the self-awareness "I Am" is self-evident, Atmavidya is very easy. Enquiring who it is that wants to attain Atma, is the easiest way.</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180;">32. </span>Sri Bhagavan used to say that Advaita (Vedantic doctrine of non-duality) should not be practised in outer activities (Kriya).</div><div><br /></div><div>"It is enough if there is no differentiation in the mind. If we key cartloads of discriminating thoughts within, one should not pretend that all is one on the outside. Under the pretext of equality and freedom, when people mix indiscriminately, we have seen what the result is. Only fights and battlefields are the legacy left behind. No one is happy as a result. This world is a huge theatre. Each person has to act whatever role is assigned to him. <span style="color: #800180;">It is the nature of the universe to be differentiated, but there should be no discrimination within</span>." </div><div><br /></div><div>I was so moved by this saying of Sri Bhagavan that I requested Sri Bhagavan to summarise these ideas in Tamil verse. Sri Bhagavan, the ocean of compassion, composed a Venba (poem) beginning with the words, <span style="color: #ff00fe;">'Always experience Advaita in the heart' </span></div><div><br /></div><div>I further requested Sri Bhagavan to write it in his own hand in my diary. Sri Bhagavan agreed and graciously wrote the following Venba on February 16, 1938. (This verse-39 is from the appendix of Ulladu Narpadu)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>O son, forever experience Advaita in the heart, </div><div>Never ever practise it in action.</div><div><br /></div><div>Advaitic attitude may befit the three worlds </div><div>Yet is improper towards the Guru, know this.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>(Tattvopadesam)</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div>33. During the night, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan how long one should stay with the Guru</div><div><br /></div><div><div>The pure-minded and earnest seeker of knowledge should hold on to the Guru like a young monkey clings to its mother, right from the time of wrong identification with the body constituted of five elements to the moment of attainment of Nirguna Vidheha Mukti.</div><div><br /></div><div>He further said: Forever inseparable like a man and his shadow, is the life of one who is in Gurukula Vaasam (Living with the Guru). Then, where is the question of his leaving it to go somewhere, or his staying inside? For such a one, all places are Gurukula Vaasam alone.</div><span><!--more--></span><div>34. Sri Bhagavan looked at the plans with little or no attention and' said, "What has happened by which plan? </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">All these works are planned already by some power, even before coming to this place. When the appropriate time comes, everything will definitely happen according to plan</span>."</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>37. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">True <i>bhakti</i> is to know oneself and to always remain this, without forgetting it</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>38. Like the river on reaching the ocean ceases to flow, and merges with the ocean becoming one with it, so does one's mind become the Atman (<i>Anma mayam</i>) in the end, if one uninterruptedly meditates on the Self (Atman).</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>39. To someone who asked: How to get rid of anger?, </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan replied: Be angry with anger. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Desire indeed is the root cause of anger. Absence of desire is supreme bliss.</span></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>42. On 20th March 1938, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan three questions. Sri Bhagavan graced us with answers to all three questions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Devotee's Question #1: God has no desires. So then, why did he create everything?</div><br /><div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Only if there is any question that is apart from God, does this question have any validity. </div><div><br /></div><div>What question can be there then? </div><div>First, who asks this question?</div><div>Does this question exist in sleep? </div><div>Who asked you to think "I am different and God is different?" </div><div>Only if we know our own worth can we even know about God, correct? </div><div>In sleep are you aware that the body exists? </div><div><br /></div><div>First, you find out who you are. Later on, you can know about Anma and Shiva.</div><div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div><div>Devotee's Question #2: What is Atma?</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Sri Bhagavan: That which always is indeed is Atma! </span></div><div><br /></div><div>In sleep, what do we perceive? </div><div>Is it not common experience for all that we are not aware of anything? </div><div>Only on waking, does the world appear. To whom does it appear and vanish?</div><div><br /></div><div>Look at that. That which is always, is the Self. After knowing that, let us worry about the connection between Atma and the Jiva.</div><div><br /></div><div>What happens to the Atma after death? — let us contemplate that after death! First, enquire about sleep. Is Atma different (from us? Who is the one who wants to know about it?</div><div><br /><span style="color: #800180;">If the buddhi (mind) which says "I am different and Atma is different disappears, that alone is enough.</span></div><div><br />If one holds on to a single thought or chant a <i>Nama Japa</i> (a repeated chanting of the Lord's name), other thoughts will leave on their own.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">We should first know what birth is. </span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">First the "I" thought arises. This is Jananam (birth). Only after this does the world arise. If we surrender to Iswara (God), He says, "I will take care of everything!" Without doing this, man thinks he is doing everything.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Devotee's Question #3: What is the fate of the one who does not know the Self?</div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Why bother about others? </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Whatever comes, will go. Whatever is, exists always. Even though you know the one which is existing always, why do you concern yourself with the thoughts that arise continuously?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Forgetting the screen, if one believes the changing images on it to be true, what to do? Is everything seen through our eyes true? Is it not right that one should first examine all these, and only then worry about whether what was stated in the Puranas (epics) is true or not? </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Nammazvar has sung, "I am indeed Thou, indeed my belongings are Thou." If you see "Who am I" what exists is only You (Self).</span></div></div></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br /></span></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>43. Once Sri Bhagavan said: </div><div><br /></div><div>The real Guru will not prescribe any sadhana to a disciple to attain mukti (Liberation) because mukti is our real nature. Other than that, anything new is not real. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Whatever comes will go one day. That which comes and goes cannot be eternal. The Self always exists; it is the experience for all; it is that which everyone loves the most. Therefore, not letting go of the Self is the highest Sadhana. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>In the end, there is neither Sadhana nor what is achieved by Sadhana. That which exists always is only one. Instead of that, if a Guru instructs a disciple that only by doing a sadhana he will attain mukti, then there is no greater Yama (God of death) than him.</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>44. When Sri Bhagavan used to stay up on the mountain, Sri Kavyakanta Sastrial said, My opinion is that for a person to live in this world, three Rupees per month is enough." to live in this world, three Rupees per month is enough." He then requested Sri Bhagavan's opinion on this matter.</div></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Immediately Sri Bhagavan said, <span style="color: #cc0000;">"If a person has a resolve that at any point of time, in order to live, he desires nothing whatsoever, then he can live in happiness."</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><br /></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-family: verdana;">45. Greatness of Arunachala</span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Since this Hithopadesa was in Sanskrit, I requested Sri Bhagavan to render it in Tamil. Hearing my request, Sri Bhagavan, the embodiment of compassion, graced </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">us with the following verse:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Forever to those who do not slip from the virtuous path and devotion,</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Their refuge is Arunachalam only.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The evil-minded who harbour evil for others will perish</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Being afflicted by many harmful diseases.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The power of evil will lose its potency here.</i></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>So do not perish falling in the fire of the anger of Arunachala whose form is Fire </i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>itself</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan then said, "Who can talk about the greatness of this mountain Arunachala?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">48. One morning, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan: Is it true that God exists? I am not sure.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan replied, Know whether it is true or false that you exist. Then we can see whether God exists or not. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">49. Once after supper, an old lady asked Sri Bhagavan: What is the way to keep my mind steady?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan graciously answered: <span style="color: #800180;">It is enough to always contemplate on one thing. When the mind steps out again, if you bring it back to that single thought, in due course of time the mind will remain under our control.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">50. </span>A Marvadi (an ethnic group from the Rajasthan region) devotee asked Sri Bhagavan: I want to know myself. Sri Bhagavan should please prescribe a method for it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan answered with a smile: Do you accept that you have two I's?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: That is what I don't know. What does one do to control the mind?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #cc0000;">It is enough to observe from where the mind rises.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">51. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Scholar: How does one control the mind?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: Controlling the mind implies that there is another mind that is needed to control it. Just as a person who tries to measure his own shadow is incapable of doing so, similar is the futility in trying to control one's mind. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">While asleep, how were we? The same Self we are even now. Ignoring that, and to think that we are this specific body, is the first mistake. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just like on a canvas, there are many forms painted, but by seeing just one form one doesn't conclude "this form is indeed the entire canvas." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">On a cinema screen, so many forms appear and disappear, but the screen itself remains still. Similarly, even though so many thoughts rise and fall, the Self remains still.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Scholar: Alas! The ajnana (ignorance) needs to go!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: It is enough to observe to whom this ajnana needs to go.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">53. One night a devotee requested permission from Sri Bhagavan thus: Swami, I intend to leave my town and go to the forest to perform tapas. I have decided to go with Sri Bhagavan's permission.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Si Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">One can leave his town but cannot leave his Self. If the town is apart from his Self, he can leave it. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">Abiding in his Self alone, is like being in the forest. Leaving his Self and going to the forest is no different from staying in his town.</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;">57. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">One night Chadwick asked Sri Bhagavan: It is said that only when the mind arises does the world comes into being. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">My mind subsides in sleep and in dhyana (meditation) </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">where the world does not appear to me. But does the extermal world really disappear? Looking at the experience of others, is it not true that the world still exists? Isn't the same world eternally present since it is created by some <i>samashti</i> (macrocosm) mind? That being so, how is it right to assert that the world does not exist and that it is only a dream?</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #ff00fe;">The world never says that it has been created. by a <i>samashti</i> mind. Does it not appear only in our tiny little minds? If our mind (ego) is destroyed, no world exists.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">58. One day when Sri Bhagavan was taking a stroll by the side of the hill, a scavenger who cleans the ashramam on seeing Sri Bhagavan, stopped his work and prostrated to him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan gave him this upadesa: <span style="color: #ff00fe;">If you perform your work correctly that itself is a great <i>namaskar</i> (prostration). </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">If each one without relinquishing his <i>svadharma</i> (prescribed duties in life) performs it, it is easier to attain the absolute Truth.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">59. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the night of 23rd July 1938, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan: It is said in the Shastras that one should focus his attention at the centre of the eyebrows. Is that correct?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: The awareness that "I am" is evident for everyone. Discarding that, what happiness is there in seeing whichever God? There is nothing more foolish than believing that God exists only at the centre of the eyebrows etc. The suggestion that one needs to focus on the places you mentioned is one kind of crude method to concentrate the mind without letting it wander around and nothing more. Much easier than this, is to enquire </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Who am I." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">All methods of religion are only good for certain stages of maturity. The Maya which is a result of the mind has to be destroyed only by the mind.</span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: When it comes to matters of food, how should an Atma Sadhaka (a spiritual practitioner) conduct himself?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">Better than all rules, the regimen of moderate sattvic (pure) food alone is good.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: So many asanas (yogic postures) are prescribed in the books - which is the best of these? Which one needs to be performed?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>Nitidhyasanam</i> (abiding in the Self) alone is good. It is enough to do just this.</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>61. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: What is the purpose of one's life? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bhagavan graciously answered: That a person even thinks that he should understand the true principle of life and conduct himself accordingly, is itself the result of austerities performed in his past lives. Those who are unmindful of this are wasting their time.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">64. A person asked Sri Bhagavan about the form and formless aspects of the mind.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan answered: Pure mind is also called manokasam (a mind as clear as space). Waking up from sleep, we all experience <i>Jnepthy</i>, an awareness that occurs before the body-idea takes hold. This is the formless aspect of the mind</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then thoughts like "I am this body, there is the world," etc. come in. This indeed is the form of the mind. For example, in a cinema, only after the light is turned on, do forms appear on the screen. In the same way, this <i>Atma Jyothi</i> alone exists and in its presence, everything shines.</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">65. On the night of 22nd October 1938, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan: O Bhagavan, I have seen so much of Vedas and Shastras but alas! I have not attained <i>Atma Jnana</i> (knowing the Self). Why?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: Only if <i>Atma Jnana</i> is in the Shastras can it be attained from them. If one observes the Shastras, only Shastra Jnana (knowing the Shastras) can happen.</span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">If one perceives Atma, then <i>Atma Jnana</i> shines.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee's second question: How to perceive the Atma?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: Each one of us says "I am." How did we come to know that? By looking at ourselves in a mirror? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">If Atma were to be perceived, you need two Atmas. Will you accept that there are two I's for you?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: No.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">All that exists is only one. That being so, how can one perceive another? Everybody exists as <i>Atma</i> alone everywhere, but that is not understood. It is a pity, what to do! If one drops the idea "I am the body" then what remains is Atma alone.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: What am I to do now? What is my duty?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: You do not have to do anything now. See who you are. Afterward, if there is any duty, you can do</span></div><div> </div><div><br /></div></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">THIRUDHASANGAM SONGS</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. Sri Bhagavan's Name</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Glorious Parrot! Please tell, what is the holy name of our Master, the one who gracefully resides at Tiruvannamalai?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: For He who wears many garlands and plays in the infinite space, for that Vedanayakan Bhagavan Ramana (Lord of the Vedas) <span style="color: #800180;">all given names are His names only.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. Sri Bhagavan's Country</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot from the garden enriched with beautiful flowers and climbers! Please tell me which is the noble country where the golden king of Annamalai shines?</span></div><div><br /></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: For He who has conquered the kingdom of divine Grace, for that pure one, can there ever be a country greater than that? Tell me!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. Sri Bhagavan's Place</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot with a mouth rich in honey! Please tell me which is the place our divine Lord of Thiruchuzi </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">belongs to?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: The Gods from the sky and Humans on this earth whose attention (<i>chittam</i>) is rooted in the <span style="color: #800180;">cave of consciousness, there is the place where He belongs.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. Sri Bhagavan's River</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot with a lovely red beak and beautiful golden wings! Please tell me which is the river of our Lord and Guru of Arunachala.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: The gushing river of supreme bliss which floods its banks to cleanse the deadly impurities of karma, egotism, and maya (illusion, delusion) is His river indeed!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">5. Sri Bhagavan's Mountain</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O young Parrot of greenish hue! Please tell me which is the mountain that our famous Guru of Annamalai praises the most?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: For our great God who revels in the highest state of attainment extolled by the scriptures, <span style="color: #800180;"><i>upasantham</i> (deep silence) is the mountain He likes and praises the most.</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. Sri Bhagavan's Horse</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot of beauty and elegance who is inseparable from me! Which is the horse that is worthy of our Lord and Guru of Annamalai?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: Those <i>Devas</i> (Gods) who have severed their attachment over the body and other <i>upadhis</i> (adjuncts) which lead to suffering, who bow down to the great Lord (Ramana), for Him, <span style="color: #800180;">Space indeed is the horse.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. Sri Bhagavan's Weapon</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot who lives in the garden rich with flower-creepers! Please tell me, the weapon our Satguru uses to take the life of his enemies?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: <span style="color: #800180;"><i>Jnana Shakti</i> (Power of Jnana) is the weapon</span> that our Satguru uses to destroy the most harmful enemy on earth, which is the bondage of Karma.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">8. Sri Bhagavan's Musical Drum</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O great young Parrot! Please tell me what type of drum is played for our sweet Master of Annamalai?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: The crescendo of Supreme bliss due to which the body and mind of the virtuous one dissolve is the drum of divine music.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">9. Sri Bhagavan's flower garlands</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot of blemishless speech! What is the garland that our Master, who resides in the hearts of devotees, loves the most?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: On this earth, the garland of poems composed by the four great types of poets like Asukavi, whose words bring tears of love, is the garland He loves the most.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">10. Sri Bhagavan's Flag</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Poet: O Parrot of sweet words without malice! Tell me, which is the flag of the </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">stainless one living in beautiful Tiruvannamalai?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Parrot: He who does not argue with anyone, that master of compassion who abides in Himself without the notion of </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">'other,' <span style="color: #800180;">the flag He chose is Silence.</span></span></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(128, 1, 128);">68. <span style="color: #800180;">Body and mind are the property of God. To offer them to God alone is the only true surrender. Then the individuality having gone, he becomes one with God Himself, without duality.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(128, 1, 128);"><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(128, 1, 128);"><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(128, 1, 128);">69. </span>Once while looking at a small baby, Sri Bhagavan said, "If one's mind becomes so pure like this child, then he can attain <i>Brahmananda</i> (the bliss of Brahman)."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I asked Sri Bhagavan, "What is the difference between the child and a Jnani?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan replied, "The child, because of ajnana is ignorant. The </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Jnani</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, because of Jnana is a child of </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">wisdom." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">70. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">20th September 1938.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan graciously mentioned: Whosoever at all times anticipates God's deeds, knowing that nothing happens by him, and loves God as the one who takes care of everything, God makes him follow the path of Truth every single minute.</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">72. September 23rd, 1938.</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan was extolling the greatness of Arunachala:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">"This hill is a <i>Tejolingam</i> (a glowing symbol of Lord Shiva). Nowhere, not in any world, is there a Linga like this. Though the other lingas are the creation of Iswara (God), they cannot be equal to this. This hill is the Self itself, shining as the Self. This place has another name, Nava Dwara Puri. That is, there are nine entrances to Tiruvannamalai available always. Purana says that Arunagiri Yogi in the form of a Siddha is ever-present under a banyan tree on the north side of the hill."</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">73. If you stay wanting nothing, everything comes as if it was just meant for you! That is why one should avoid both likes and dislikes</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">74. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 2nd January 1939, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan: It has been said in the Shastras that there are different kinds of Ananda. Are there so many kinds?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">Ananda is only one. That itself is God. Ananda is our true nature. </span>Since we experience that Ananda outwardly through various sense pleasures, it has resulted in so many names.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">No matter how many pleasures you enjoy through the mind, that many millions of troubles will also have to be endured. But for a Jnani that is not the case. The entire Ananda that all those in the world experience - the Jnani forever experiences that as his <i>Brahmananda</i> (the Bliss of Brahman).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Brahmananda</i> is like an ocean. External pleasures are like wave, froth, bubbles, and water drops. In sleep, <i>Ananda</i> is common for all. All living beings, from the very poor to great kings - all experience <i>Ananda</i> equally in sleep.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">75. November 11th, 1938.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the evening when I was walking along the hill with Sri Bhagavan, I asked him: When I meditate, what should I do to avoid falling asleep?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">Those who meditate should not do too much work and should not load the stomach with heavy food. If the stomach is always kept empty, one can ascend. That is, one should neither tighten the strings of the veena (a stringed instrument) too much nor loosen them too much. The body should be maintained like that; sleep also like that.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is one kind of arrangement that divides the night ino 3 parts where one needs to sleep during one part. That is going to bed at 10 in the night, one should give up seep at 2 in the morning. One should not sleep in the </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">afternoon. There is another kind too. One should get up whenever one wakes up, should sleep whenever he feels sleepy but should not think, "I slept, I woke up."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Further, he recited a verse for us from Devikalothram and graciously explained its meaning</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><i>On account of sleep and countless thoughts daily,</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><i>Mind indeed gets much degenerated</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><i>Make this mind realise through effort</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><i>And keep it abiding in Being and not becoming.</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><i>Keep abiding on and on.</i></span></div></div><div><br /></div></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">77. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">On January 38, 1939 during Satsang at night, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan: I forget to meditate because I have too much work to do. How will I advance if I forget like this?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: Does not matter. Jnana does not dawn in just a day. The seeds of past actions will vanish only over time. Today we think we have forgotten to meditate once in 4 hours. The next day, once in 3 1/2 hours that awareness will occur. The next day once in 3 hours. Like this day by day when one meditates, he gets enthusiasm. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">Why should one think "I have not meditated at all; I have been doing work only?" If one stops thinking "I have done; I have not done," all activities will culminate as <i>dhyana</i>. Then one cannot give up dhyana. Even if we give it up, it will not give us up. That indeed is Sahaja Samadhi.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Devotee: Would I have done meritorious deeds in past births?</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: Aha! Without it will such thoughts arise?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">79. Some time ago (thinking Sri Bhagavan would suggest some medicine) I asked Sri Bhagavan: I often get stomach pain. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">What should I do about this?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: What to do? This body itself is a great disease. To get rid of this disease one should remain till (Summa Iru: abide in the Self.) All other diseases will then vanish. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">You are telling me! Who will I tell about the diseases I have? (referring to the body).</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">81. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kaivalya Navaneetham, </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chapter 2, Verse 60</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Disciple: How is it that God, who is impartial, advances a few and degrades others?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Master: He is like the father who encourages his sons who are in the right way, and frowns on the other sons who are in the wrong way. Know it to be mercy to punish the erring and direct them to be righteous.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chapter 2, Verse 61</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The celestial tree, fire, and water protect those who seek them, by fufilling their desires, keeping them warm, and quenching their thirst. So also, Iswara is kind to His </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">devotees who seek him and not so to others who don't. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now think well and judge whose fault it is.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Chapter 2, Verse 35</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hear me further. The activities of the Jnani are solely for the benevolence of the world. He does not stand to lose or gain anything. Just as the Almighty, who bestows his Grace on all, is not affected by the merits or demerits resulting from creation and other actions.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">82.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan said that the meaning of <i>Yajna</i> and <i>Yaga</i> is simply renunciation. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">Furthermore, when compared to all renunciations, the renunciation of the body indeed is freedom, he said.</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">83. Sri Bhagavan explained the difference between a Jnani and an Ambani using some stories as examples:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. "Like sleeping in a vehicle that is moving."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. "In a certain place, two men were lying down, both fast asleep. One of them dreamt that both men were running in a forest, wandering here and there, climbing uphill and struggling. The other man slept well without any dreams. Nevertheless, the one who dreamt, thinks that he (the other person who slept well) too underwent difficulties like him. Just like this are the states of a Inani and an ajnani."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">"The <i>ajnani</i> is ever awake to the world and asleep </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;">to the Reality, while the <i>Jnani </i>is ever awake to the Reality and asleep to the world."</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. The <i>ajnani</i> is like the one who missing the screen, sees only the names and forms appearing on it, whereas the <i>Jnani</i> is like the one who perceives the screen which is the background for all names and forms." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">This indeed is the difference between a <i>Jnani</i> and an <i>ajnani</i>", Sri Bhagavan concluded. </span></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">84. On the evening of October 8th, 1938, when Sri Bhagavan was taking a stroll on the hill, I went along and asked for a boon, "<span style="color: #cc0000;">Oh, Sri Bhagavan, I do not need anything else in the world, only grant me the boon that I should not get <i>dehatma buddhi</i></span>" (the identification of the Self with the body).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan nodding his consent said, "It is precisely for this that all the great ones struggled. You are also like them."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">85 </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">October 11th, 1938.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Si Bhagavan's younger sister Alamelu Ammal, taking pity on me, asked Chinnaswami and Sri Bhagavan, "Why did Annamalai Swami leave the ashram and go to Pelakothu?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan answered graciously, "How do I know what the reason is? <span style="color: #cc0000;">There is the One who can take care of all burdens. When I say, surrender everything to Him and be still (Summa Iru), who listens to me?</span>"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">88. How did so much sin and suffering come to me?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: We should say, it is because of one's past life. Suppose you contemplate how that past <i>karma</i> came about. Instead of reasoning that it happened because of the previous life, enquire as to whom this birth has occurred. If the body has taken birth, then let the body ask all these questions. You say that you are always experiencing sorrow. Only your thoughts say so. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana;">What exists always is happiness only. What comes and goes is indeed sorrow. Being the embodiment of bliss forever, to think one is in sorrow is indeed sorrow. Whatever comes and goes anew is all just sorrow. Only that which exists always is happiness.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">A great Monarch, despite having all kinds of wealth and so many attendants to accomplish whatever he wants to be done, yet experiences sorrow, only because his state of mind is not good. Another person though struggling to get a morsel of food, because his mind is pure, is always happy. See who is the happy one in this.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dattatreya used to wander in the forest without any clothes on him and would be always be seen in a blissful state.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">King Yadu on seeing him wondered, "What, he always seems happy! Whereas, though I have everything, I am always steeped in sorrow." So, one day he went to Datareya and asked him, "Dear Sir, how do you always seem to be blissful?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dattatreya responded to King Yadu's question at length:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">"O, Rajah! I have twenty-four Gurus. I move about in the world as a liberated being because of the Jnana earned through those Acharyas. Know who are those Acharyas.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">After negating a few, they are earth, air, ether, water, fire, moon, sun, wild sparrow, python, ocean, moth, bee, elephant, honey collector, deer, fish, a damsel by name Pingala, child, small girl, archer, and a serpent. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">1-7. I realized patience from the earth, omnipresence from the air, non-attachment from the ether, purity from water, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">holiness from fire, from the moon the realization that all changes are only for the body and not for Self, from Sun how a Yogi though perceiving worldly objects through senses, is never attached to them.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">8. From wild sparrow I learnt that whosoever gets attached to a home, he, though practicing higher <i>sadhana</i> slips down.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">9. From python, I learnt that whether food is available or not, one should accept both without worry and doership like a python.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">10. Like the ocean, I learnt that I should be graceful, majestic, unfathomable by the minds of others, expansive and undisturbed.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">11. When the moth falls into a lamp, it burns and dies. I learnt, so also the person falling into the fire of lust for women gets destroyed.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">12. I learnt from the bee that one should seek just enough food for one's sustenance without desiring anything from others.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">13. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I learnt from the elephant that even though the male is all-powerful, it suffers pangs of distress when it becomes attached to the female elephant; that touching a woman or even going near her is akin to meeting Yama (Lord of Death).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">14. Learnt from the honey collector that just as the honey bee works for several days collecting honey, only to lose it all in an instant, to the honey collector, similarly everything a person has worked hard for, can be taken away from him by someone instantaneously</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">15. Just as the deer, atracted by the hunter's song gets trapped in his net, so also a <i>Sadhu</i> (monk), when fascinated by worldly affairs is sure to be bound. So, I learnt from the deer, that a Sadhu should not engage in worldly affairs.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">16. Being unable to control its tongue, the fish gets attracted to the bait of a fishing rod and dies. So also, I learnt from that fish that a man who cannot control his tongue will suffer. One should be a master of one's tongue.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">17. Once a <i>dasi</i> (immoral woman) called Pingalai, fully decorated, was waiting in the expectation that a paramour with money would come to her. She wandered here and there till late in the night. Since no one came, she felt pained, crest-fallen, became weak mentally and began to enquire into the cause for her sorrow. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">She learnt that happiness comes from <i>Paramatma</i> (Supreme Self) alone and not from the cheap pleasures attained from mean men and money. She became dispassionate. She attained the happiness bom of wisdom by worshiping the one who is always by her side, the eternal one, the <i>Paramatma</i> (Supreme Self) indeed as her husband. I learnt from Pingala that there is no happiness in worldliness and what is to be attained is only the bliss of the Self.</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">18. I learnt from a child how one should remain in a state without honour or dishonour.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">19. Further, I shall tell you a story about a girl. When her parents were not in town, she saw a group of people who </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">came to arrange her marriage. She thought of serving them food and started to make rice, by pounding paddy to separate it from the husk. The bangles on her wrists made a lot of noise. Feeling shy, she removed all but two bangles and continued pounding. Still, she could hear the noise of the bangles. So, she removed one of them and put it on the other hand. Now there was no noise at all. So also, I learnt from the actions of this young girl that a Yogi should practice solitude.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">20. From the archer, I learnt the principle that one should remain focused on his target.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">21. Just as a serpent lives happily moving into a rat's hole, so also, I learnt the principle of not possessing a home for myself but rather be able to live comfortably no matter where.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is a 25th Guru for me and that is my body. This body is the cause for my <i>Vairagya</i> (dispassion) and <i>Jnana</i> (enlightenment). <span style="color: #800180;">Dispassion comes from the knowledge that birth and death of the body invariably lead to sorrow</span></span></div></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">90. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">March 29, 1939.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maurice Friedman asked Sri Bhagavan: When I meditate, I am not aware of anything. Is it <i>manolayam</i> (temporary stillness of thought) or <i>manonasam</i> (annihilation of ego)?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: No question arises in <i>manolayam</i> and <i>manonasam</i>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Friedman: What does <i>manonasam</i> mean?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Bhagavan: "I am not aware of anything, "I am aware of something".. Not having any doubtful thoughts like these, is <i>manonasam</i>.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span><!--more--></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>91. On April 2nd, 1939 </div><div><br /></div><div>two Congress workers asked Sri Bhagavan, “After attaining Jnana with your grace, can we teach the world?” </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Leave aside the idea of teaching the world. First, know yourself. Then, if at all there is a world or there are people, you may teach. To think of helping the world without knowing yourself is very much like a blind person going out to give eye treatment to people at large. First, clean your eyes. Then, if you can perceive all the eyes of others truly as your own eye, can you remain without helping others? </div><div><br /></div><div>Workers: Why are we not able to attain Jnana, however long we try to hold on to what is mentioned in the Vedanta Shastras (scriptures) as Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman)? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">There is no Atma Jnanam in Vedanta Shastra. If one studies oneself, then there is Atma Jnanam.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Workers: How to study ourselves? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Only if the Self is dual, we can study it, is it not? </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Self, abiding as the Self, is indeed Self-knowledge. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Without knowing oneself, by studying the Veda Shastras, one can get all the respect one wants from the world. Society will garland this person, recite words of appreciation for him, he will obtain food, name, fame, and money. That is all. But all these are huge obstacles for Jnana and sadhana. </div><div><br /></div><div>Workers: Howsoever we try, alas! The sorrow of samsara never ends at all! Sri </div><div><br /></div><div>Bhagavan: If one inquires as to who is affected by this sorrow of samsara, then the sorrow will end. </div><div><br /></div><div>Workers: It is said that Atma can be attained through Patanjali’s Yoga. Is that so? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Yogam (Union) means there are two entities, and they unite. Will you accept that there are two selves? </div><div><br /></div><div>Workers: No.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sri Bhagavan: You are Atma. Only if there is something apart from you, something other than you, can you either help or hinder it. If all that exists is only you, then where is the question of liking or disliking? </span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Desirelessness is the greatest bliss. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Workers: Again, we are asking you due to our ignorance, O Bhagavan! Please </div><div>forgive us and we request you to answer. It is advised that one should do Abhyasa (practice, sadhana) to end the mind. How is that? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Who is the one that wants to end the mind? Observing that, is the way to end the mind. </div><div><br /></div><div>Worker: Who am I? Alas! I do not know! </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Without knowing who I am, we want to attain something else. We are “That” indeed. Without That, no matter what new divine world or position comes to you, it will vanish at some point. We are not that which comes and goes. That which is always experienced by all, That alone we are. That is moksha (liberation). </div><div><br /></div><div>Worker: How does the Guru help the disciple? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">Guru and God can only point out “You are That.” They cannot do anything else. To follow that path is the work of the disciple</span> (Sri Bhagavan became silent). The workers prostrated and left.</div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span><br /></div></div></div><div><div>92. Sri Bhagavan once graced us with this: When you tend to fall asleep, wake up. When you are awake, sleep. This indeed is sleeping without sleep. It is said that being without any worries is indeed sleeping without sleep (Bhagavan is referring to that state which is beyond sleep i.e., beyond sushupti, svapna, and jagrat).</div><div><br /></div></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><div>93. On April 7th, 1939, a few devotees asked, “O Bhagavan! Atma (Self) is not evident to us. Why is that?” </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sri Bhagavan: Atma alone is self-evident. No other thing or entity is self-evident. Even though we are so self-evident, the idea that “I am the body” conceals it. If we drop that idea, then Atma which is always the experience of all will reveal itself. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Question: Bhagavan, you say it so easily, but for us, the idea that we are the body has not gone! </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Sri Bhagavan: Since that thought is so strong, it has not gone. </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Question: Why? How did that thought come about? </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">Sri Bhagavan: It came only because we never enquired about it. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>He then recited a song from Kaivalya Navaneetham: </div><div><br /></div><div><i>My dear child! Being impossible to talk about it, Truth is beyond words.</i></div><div><i>Those who believe that their body, world, etc. are real are indeed immersed in maya.</i></div><div><i>How this falsehood came about, none knows.</i></div><div><i>If you ask why this maya came about, it is only because of the absence of Vichara (enquiry).</i></div><div><br /></div><div>—Kaivalya Navaneetham, Chapter 2, Verse 95 </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">If we see our own Self, the things we see will not be felt as separate from us. Very much like seeing the words on a page without seeing the paper (which is the basis for those words), all this suffering happens because we only see what is manifested, without seeing the substratum. So, we should not be consumed by the manifestations without forgetting the basis for them, the substratum. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">How were we while we were asleep? That same Self, we are now as. Why only now should we think that we are the body? While sleeping so many thoughts such as this body, this world, etc. were never there, were they? To identify ourselves with those that appear and disappear is indeed misery. We always have the experience that “I Am.” </span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">“I slept well, I dreamt, I did not know anything when I was unconscious, I woke up”… In all these states, you are the one that is existing, and yet if you search for yourself, where can you find it? Whatever is seen is the Self. The one thing that you should never ever do is to think that you are the body.</span></div><div><br /></div></div><span><!--more--></span><div>94. 9th April 1939. Devotees asked Sri Bhagavan: What is <i>satsangam</i>? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Satsangam is only Atma sangam. For those it is not possible, there needs to be sadhu sangam which is being in the company (sangam) of those who have realized the Truth. </div><div><br /></div><div>Devotees: When shall we be blessed with sadhu sangam? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Those who for many lives have been performing puja to Iswara, japa, tapas, pilgrimages, etc. properly, only they are blessed with sadhu sangam. That is, all this will lead them to the Satguru. </div><div><br /></div><div>The song by Saint Thayumanavar Swami is about this. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>For those who have been properly initiated with Deity, place of pilgrimage and holy waters of the temple, O Absolute One, to initiate the upadesa a Satguru will be ordained to arrive. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">He who has done a lot of nishkamya punya (actions done without expecting results) in his past lives, for him alone will strong faith in the Guru arise. With such faith in his Guru’s words and by following the path, he will reach his home (liberation). </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Devotees: What are we, who live in a place where there are no sadhus, to do? Alas! We cannot have darshan of sadhus daily, what to do? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Are you asking what to do? It is for this purpose that idols, pictures, divine names, pujas, etc. have been created. Only those who have first obtained the Grace of Iswara will get the Grace of Satguru. Only by the Grace of the Satguru will he obtain the Grace of the Self, which is within. That indeed is the abode of moksha (liberation).</div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>95. Sri Bhagavan said: Man first ruins himself. Then he thinks of ruining others.</div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span><br /></div></div><div><div>97. One day Sri Bhagavan graced us by saying: Even for the Jnani who is in the Varishta stage (a supreme state), vasanas appear to manifest according to his prarabdha (They seem to manifest at the body level, but a Jnani is beyond the body and prarabdha - prarabdha is only for the body). </div><div><br /></div><div>Vasanas are of two types: <i>bandhahethu</i> (vasanas that lead a jiva to bondage) and <i>mokshahethu</i> (vasanas that lead a jiva to liberation) (These two vasanas are only in a jiva and not in a Jnani because he is beyond all vasanas). </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><i>Akarmam</i> (actionless action) indeed is Jnana. Effortlessly doing whatever comes on its own is Jnana.</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div></div><div>99. One day I asked Sri Bhagavan: Can one practice sahaja samadhi in the beginning stage itself? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Aha! One can practice it very well. </div><div><br /></div><div>I asked: How to practice it? How to be in nirvikalpa samadhi? What are the types of samadhis? </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Sri Bhagavan: Samadhi is only one indeed. Not many kinds. Without any thoughts, abiding in the Self is nirvikalpa samadhi. Never forgetting one’s Self (during activity) is sahaja samadhi. Both are equally blissful.</span></div></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">100. On the night of June 19th, 1942 Sri Bhagavan spoke about the greatness (Mahatmyam) of Arunachala: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">“This is not a hill that appears at one point in time and destroyed later. It has neither beginning nor end. It is a Swayambu Lingam — Meaning of Lingam: ling means union, gam means manifests. There are many more meanings such as God, Atma, Siva, and so many other names. This hill is not of the earth. All universes owe their existence to this hill. Lingam is the source of all manifestation and dissolution.” </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bhagavan told another story: Purana (epic) stories say that God takes the dust of his devotees’ feet, keeps it in a box, covers it with silk cloth, and does puja to it. God does it to demonstrate that he is the devotee of his devotees. Whoever in the world worships me, I worship him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">101. “Worshiping the holy feet of one’s Self is the greatest worship.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><br /></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">102. Sri Bhagavan said: There should be no one humbler than us. Only the one who knows how to be the humblest, he alone can become the greatest of all. God is like an atom to the smallest atom and much larger than the largest creation. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180; font-family: verdana;">All are God’s form indeed. Because of our bedha buddhi (the idea of differentiation), we consider ourselves to be an individual. There is no greater mistake in the world than this.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">104. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Sri Bhagavan once said, “What we see in the waking state and that which we see in dreams are both the same. There is not even an iota of difference. The purpose of dreams is only to prove that the waking state is false. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the grace of God, the world in the waking state keeps changing continuously, and yet we assume that the same world we saw before is still there. So how are we to know that the world we see in the waking state is false? History says that this world has been here for thousands and thousands of years. As a result, we conclude that the world we see in the waking state does not change and is indeed real. This is only our ignorance. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The world keeps changing every minute. If you ask how, our body now is not the same body we had when we were young. For example, a lamp is lit at night and continues to glow the next day. We say the lamp has not changed, but is that right? Hasn’t it been changing continuously? Hasn’t the oil been changing? A river has so much water flowing continuously. When we see the river the next day, we assume that the water that was flowing yesterday is the same water that is flowing today also. Is that right? The water that was flowing yesterday has changed long ago and is no longer here now. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana;">Similarly, the world is continuously changing. The world is not permanent. Whereas we (Self) remain the same, without any change whatsoever, in all three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. No one can say that he does not exist. Therefore, we (Self) are the permanent reality. Do not forget this. This indeed is the home (abode of Freedom)."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">105. One day Sri Bhagavan graced us by saying: The amount of sin that one incurs by not remembering God, an equal amount of sin is incurred by one who has reached a state of high spiritual maturity but yet thinks “I am different, God is different.” </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-family: verdana;">The fate of the mature one who thinks he is different from God is the same fate as that of the one that never remembers God.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><!--more--></span></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>May 15th, 1939. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the evening, as Sri Bhagavan was returning from his stroll, I asked him a question: Bhagavan says being still (Summa Iru) means to be always active, and being in maunam (silence) means to be speaking always. I do not quite understand this. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan (still walking): Is that so? Are you able to perceive “I am”? </div><div><br /></div><div>My humble self: Yes, I perceive. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: How do you perceive? </div><div><br /></div><div>My humble self: Oh! I do not know how I perceive that “I am.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Just like that indeed. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Being still means doing work always. Doing work does not mean digging with a spade. Working means ever shining as That (Self). Remaining in silence, indeed, is speaking forever. Further, both (action and silence) are the same. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">This is what is referred to by great men so graciously as, “I think without thinking (the thinker), say without saying (the speaker), listen without listening (the listener.)” </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">If you remain without speaking, God will come and speak indeed. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Silent exposition is indeed a great Shastra (scripture). If that one thing is learnt, all doubts will vanish. Instead, even if you read countless millions of books as vast as the sky, your doubts will never vanish.</div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>On June 4th, 1939, </div><div><br /></div><div>a devotee wrote the following question to Sri Bhagavan: O Bhagavan! I must attain mukti. For that, you alone are my Guru. I do not approach anyone else. Please bless me. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sri Bhagavan: Mukti is not something new to be attained. We all are indeed the embodiment of mukti. We forget this. The erroneous thought that we are the body leads to thousands of thoughts, wave after wave, which instantly cover us. Only when we totally give up this thought (that I am the body) mukti will shine. </span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Devotee: How to give up the thought that I am the body? </span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sri Bhagavan: Since you have prayed to the Guru, surrender totally to him.</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><div>Devotee: I am often faced with difficulties. How will they go? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Give up the dehatma buddhi (the idea that you are the body). All difficulties will fly away.</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></div></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Also, in the following song from Kaivalya Navaneetham, it is mentioned that Iswara and the Jnani are one. </div><div><br /></div><div>The song is as follows: </div><div><br /></div><div>O Guru who manifests as God, formless and with form </div><div>Told us that God and Jnani are the same, how is it so? </div><div>God and Jnani are the same once ‘I and Mine’ have been obliterated </div><div>He is the One who is God, numerous jivas, the world and all!</div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div></div></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>#5 On June 6th, 1939, </div><div><br /></div><div>a person asked Sri Bhagavan: It is said in the puranas (epics) that being in Kailash, Vaikuntam, and Brahmaloka is indeed moksha (liberation). Is that so? Or does moksha mean the merging in Brahman without consciousness of body, mind, and world? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: It is not moksha to be present in Kailash or Vaikunta. If everybody goes to Kailash and Vaikunta, where is the space available for all to live? Where are Kailash, Vaikunta and Swarga? </div><div><br /></div><div>If I continue to exist separate from God and then enjoy the bliss of God, in that case God has to be jada (inert). If He is jada, where is the question of enjoying his bliss? </div><div><br /></div><div>For him who is the bliss of Self arising from the extinction of the ego, what is there to do? He knows nothing other than his Self. How to conceive the nature of his state?</div><div>— Ulladu Narpadu, Verse 31</div><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><!--more--></span><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>#7 On June 17th, 1939, </div><div><br /></div><div>I asked Sri Bhagavan: In the Shastras, it is said that even a Jivan Mukta (one who attained liberation in his bodily life) will only act according to his prarabdha. But O Bhagavan! How do you say that there is no <i>prarabdha</i> for the Jnani? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: For the Jnani there is neither Shastra nor <i>prarabdha</i>. These do not apply to the Jnani. The rules of Shastras have been created only for the ajnanis. </div><div><br /></div><div>We can use an analogy to explain <i>prarabdha</i> for a Jnani. For example, assume that a man has three wives. If the man dies and you say that only two of his wives are now widows and one remains a sumangali (a woman whose husband is alive), who will accept it? Are not all three widows? So also for the Jnani, none of the three types of karma are applicable. Indeed, there is no karma at all for the Jnani. </div><div><br /></div><div>Prarabdha is only for those who see and ask this question. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the song from Ulladu Narpadu Appendix – verse 33, this idea is mentioned: </div><div><br /></div><div>On knowing the Self, the act of doership having gone, all three types of karmas will vanish. The state of mukti is eternal indeed.</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div>#8 On 19th June 1939, </div><div><br /></div><div>a lady scholar lovingly requested, “O Sri Bhagavan! I want to attain peace. You alone can help me.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: <span style="color: #800180;">Shanti (peace) indeed is our real nature. How can we attain it in the future?</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>For example, if one has a headache right from birth till his death, he never thinks of taking medicine for it. This is because the headache is ever-present and natural to him. Just like this, peace also is always ever-present and natural. <span style="color: #800180;">What enters and disrupts the peace is the differential thought that I am separate</span>. </div><div><br /></div><div>In sleep, this differentiation is not there. That I slept well is an experience for all. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you wonder how, it is like a person standing in water up to his mouth and shouting “I am thirsty,” or like saying that the water itself is thirsty. <span style="color: #800180;">Peace, Happiness, and Moksha — all these are indeed our natural names.</span></div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div><div>#11 On 25th June 1939, </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan while talking to a devotee, said the following about Jnana: </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">•. “Words of Jnani are <i>asariri</i> (without a body. So, God’s words.)” </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">•. “Trying to understand a Jnani’s actions is like trying to measure the sky using the palm of your hand as a scale.” </span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #800180;">•. “Atma is the subtlest, being smaller than the point of a pin, like an atom to the smallest atom, and much larger than the largest creation.”</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span><!--more--></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>#15 On August 2nd, 1939 </div><div><br /></div><div>I asked Sri Bhagavan, “Sri Bhagavan says that if one attains Jnana, he is no longer bound by the three karmas. But in Kaivalya Navaneetham it is said that the Jnani will only experience his <i>prarabdha</i>. Why is that?”</div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: Since <i>prarabdha</i> is already destined before he acquires Jnana, it is only for those who see him that it appears as though the Jnani experiences <i>prarabdha</i>. There are many analogies to explain this. </div><div><br /></div><div>•. A hunter shot an arrow at what he thought was a tiger. Instead, it turned out to be a cow. Now, even if the hunter repents thinking, “Oh! It is not a tiger; why did I shoot the arrow to kill a cow?”, the arrow that left his bow would have still hit the cow. </div><div><br /></div><div>•. An electric fan, even after it is switched off, will continue to run for some time. </div><div><br /></div><div>•. A rope that has been burnt still looks like a rope, but it cannot be used for tying anything. </div><div><br /></div><div>•. A tree that has been cut down still resembles a living tree, but it is by no means a living tree. </div><div><br /></div><div>•. Fried grains are grains too, but they cannot sprout. </div><div><br /></div><div>The <i>prarabdha</i> of a Jnani is just like what we see in these five examples. There is no <i>prarabdha</i> from the standpoint of a Jnani. Only from the standpoint of an observer, it appears as though the Jnani is experiencing <i>prarabdha</i>.</div><div><br /></div><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div></div><div><div>#16 On 8th August 1939, </div><div><br /></div><div>a noble lady from America posed a few questions which were gracefully answered by Bhagavan as follows: </div><div><br /></div><div>Question: What is the state that I should attain? I request Sri Bhagavan to kindly explain it to me clearly (Requesting with great respect). </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Sri Bhagavan: It is everlasting happiness that is most dear to everyone, and it is only that which we should attain. We keep searching for it and try to attain it in many ways. But it is not something that is new and to be attained in the future. It is already an experience for everyone and is our real nature, this experience that “I Am.” This is always with us. Even though we all are experiencing this, due to our ignorance we imagine that it is somewhere outside of us and therefore, our mind is always seeking it without rest. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>To give an analogy, it is like a person using his very tongue to say that he has no tongue. </div><div><br /></div><div>Question: Then why is there a need for so many sadhanas? </div><div><br /></div><div>Sri Bhagavan: It is only to drop the idea that this experience is something new to be attained, that so many sadhanas exist. <span style="color: #ff00fe;">Forgetting oneself, thinking that I am the body is indeed the root of maya. The rising of this single thought, instantly multiples into thousands of thoughts and covers the Self. Only if we dispel all these thoughts will the Truth of the Self shine in all its splendour. Then what remains is only Brahmananda (the bliss of Brahman).</span></div><div><br /></div><div>...</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Seeing God and attaining God is just like the difficulties illustrated in this story. Avoiding the thought that it is something new to be attained and abiding as the Self is indeed the attainment of it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus, in a detailed manner, Sri Bhagavan gracefully gave the American lady the <span style="color: #ff00fe;">true upadesa that abiding as one’s Self alone is attaining God. Through her, Sri Bhagavan dispelled the ghosts of doubts in the minds of all devotees and shone like the Sun of Jnana that destroys all darkness. </span></div><div><br /></div></div></div><div><span><span><!--more--></span><div><br /></div><div>Shubam, Shubam, Mangalam</div><div>(Peace, Peace, Auspiciousness)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaya.</span></div><div><br /></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-24034599913862417772023-06-30T09:30:00.002-07:002023-06-30T09:30:14.570-07:00A conversation between Sri Rama and Hanuman<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sri Rama asked Hanuman, “O Hanuman! How do you look upon me?”<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hanuman answered, </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“O Rama, when I have body consciousness, you are my master and I am your servant; when I am conscious of myself as a soul, then you are the whole, and I am a part; when I have the knowledge of Atman, then I am you, and you are I. This is my definite and firm opinion.”</span></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-29482692178712788492022-04-16T04:06:00.008-07:002022-04-16T04:28:22.767-07:00Aksharamanamalai - Prefatory Verse<p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgN3luHdmacKvh2um3Txgmb_o1t24f9SFYzMevyndlozZe7aKbbW1i7Kqv3rC9WAdHlg1HOTfVHu4aVHtJAHYZxeZOy9RW9nBOn25b9eW8Lu8yQMtj7bBlWgW_1ei3Z-nBMikSz3hDOyQJb01MuqEg20fDDtf1ks9U3MkjqbAgRlGRWRC548Z89oXYriw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="656" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgN3luHdmacKvh2um3Txgmb_o1t24f9SFYzMevyndlozZe7aKbbW1i7Kqv3rC9WAdHlg1HOTfVHu4aVHtJAHYZxeZOy9RW9nBOn25b9eW8Lu8yQMtj7bBlWgW_1ei3Z-nBMikSz3hDOyQJb01MuqEg20fDDtf1ks9U3MkjqbAgRlGRWRC548Z89oXYriw" width="320" /></a></p><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">taruṇā ruṇamaṇi kiraṇā valinikar</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">taruma kṣaramaṇa makiḻmālai</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">teruṇā ṭiyatiru vaṭiyār terumaral</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">teḷiyap paravutal poruḷākak</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">karuṇā karamuṉi ramaṇā riyaṉuva</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">kaiyiṉāṟ coliyatu katiyāka</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">varuṇā calameṉa vakamē yaṟivoṭu</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">māḻvār civaṉula kāḷvārē.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Paraphrase</b></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The meaning of ‘Aksharamanamalai,’ is the praise and worship of Lord Arunachala. (Out of the joy which arose in him on their behalf ), our master Ramana wrote it to dispel the mental confusion of true devotees who steadfastly sought true realisation (to which that mental confusion was an impediment). Those who trust in it as their salvation, (thinking) ‘Arunachala’ (in their minds) and subside into the Heart with full awareness, will, through divine grace, come to rule in the realm of Sivam. <i>- Robert Butler</i></span><div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Those who sink into the Heart with the thought ‘Arunachala' - taking as a means this joyful Akshara - mana - malai (the bridal garland of letters), which is like a series of golden rays of the rising sun and which was sungin divine ecstasy by our Guru, Muni Ramana, the Embodiment of Grace, as a refuge, as a prayer to dispel the ignorance of good devotees who seek enlightenment - will rule Siva-Loka (that is, they will become one with Lord Siva Himself). - <i>Michael James and Sadhu Om</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Commentary</b></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>taruṇa aruṇa maṇi… makiḻmālai</b> – ‘a fragrant garland decorated with makil flowers in the form of letters, which emits a radiance like that of the clusters of rays from the jewel-like disc of the young sun.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>taruṇa aruṇan</b> – ‘the morning sun.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>maṇi</b> [‘jewel’] (used figuratively for ‘the disc of the sun’ by ākupeyar – metonymy) [means] ‘the sun as the jewel of the heavens, a flawless, unpierced gem.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>kiraṇa āvali</b> – ‘clusters of rays.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>nikar tarum</b> – ‘which shines’; (‘nikar’ [means] ‘brightness, splendour.’) ‘As soon as she said, <br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">“Why don’t you go and pick some bright (nikar) flowers?”’ </span><i style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">– Maṇimēkalai, [3:15]; <br /></i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">if the word ‘nikar’ is taken in its usual sense of ‘likeness, comparison,’ there is no great difference in the meaning. The ‘[Tamil] letters’ are compared to the rays of the sun and the ‘garland’ made out of them is compared to the clusters of the sun’s rays.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Further, <b>akṣara maṇa makiḻ mālai</b> [means] ‘a garland woven with letters as its flowers’ and ‘garlands symbolically exchanged by the bride and bridegroom in the marriage ceremony (<i>ref</i>); also there is the meaning ‘garland which affords delight (makizh) to them mind,’ ‘fullness of the heart’; these meanings are all intentional double-meanings (iraṭṭura moḻital); here ‘joy’ [means] ‘the union as one with the form of Arunachala.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Note by Muruganar (ref)</b>: It is clear from [v. 108], ‘Giving me your garland, Arunachala Ramana, grant your grace by wearing my garland,’ that Bhagavan himself intended the words ‘maṇamālai’ to be understood in this sense.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>teruḷ</b> [means] ‘true understanding’; he says, ‘<b>teruḷ nāṭiya tiru aṭiyār</b>’ in the sense that it is those who seek true understanding who possess the quality of holiness; it is as if to say that they are devotees possessed of a fortunate destiny.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>nāṭal</b> [‘seeking’] [means] ‘yearning for with intense desire.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>terumaral</b> [is] the mental delusion which obscures the truth of the supreme reality, the ground of our being, so that it cannot be perceived as it really is. This occurs through the inner and outer attachments that arise as the ideas of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ in the body and the world, which consist of a multitude of imaginary names and forms, appearing in an illusory manner, like a conjuring trick, and then disappearing again.<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">paravutal</b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> [is] ‘praising,’ ‘worshipping.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>poruḷ</b> [means] ‘fruit, benefit, meaning.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>karuṇā ākara</b>(ṉ) – ‘the one which exists as the ocean of grace, the dwelling place of grace.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>muni</b> – ‘one practised in the discipline of reflection.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>āriyan</b> – ‘one worthy of being worshipped by those who are virtuous and holy.’</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>uvakaiyināl coliyatu</b> can also mean, ‘that which he said out of the transports of overpowering bliss, which flooded into his heart, welled up and overflowed through the grace of Arunachala.’ The words ‘joy[-giving] fragrant garland of letters’ should be taken with [i.e. in apposition to] the words, ‘that which was spoken out of joy by the venerable Ramana,’ [i.e. ‘the fragrant garland which is that which Ramana spoke’]. It is declared that that garland is the way for those who are desirous of liberation to subside into the Heart with an awareness which is of the form of meditation upon Arunachala.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>kati</b> [means] ‘guide, leader, fellow traveller.’ No one can become free of their delusion and attain true realisation unless they worship within their hearts Arunachala, who is the fiery mass of the light of consciousness which through its very nature completely destroys the darkness of ignorance which has overspread the heart. Thus meditation on Arunachala is indispensable for the blessed devotees who seek clear understanding. According to Arunachala Mahatmyam it is ruṇa (the veiling ignorance [which gives rise to] the bondage of karma) that binds all living beings in the delusion of worldly existence, and that through the sight of which it will come to an end is only Aruṇāchala.</span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Because through their very nature they bind [the beings in] all the worlds, ruinous deeds are ruṇa (bondage). This indeed is the radiant Arunachala, through the mere sight of which all those deeds, which are the dwelling place of that bondage, will cease to exist<br /></span> </div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Bhagavan also gives ‘the concentrated essence (ghana) of being-consciousness-bliss,’ ‘the union of god and soul,’ and ‘that which is of the form of radiant golden light’ (svarṇa tejomaya) as meanings for the word ‘Arunachala.’</span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The meaning of [the name] ‘a-ru-ṇa’ is ‘being-consciousness-bliss,’ and also, ‘That art thou,’ which signifies the union of the soul and the Supreme (jiva and Siva). ‘achala’ signifies perfection. So meditate on Arunachala, shining with the lustre of ruddy gold, the very thought of whom bestows liberation.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>– Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai, v. 2.</i></span></div><p></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>akam</b>, [Tamil] ‘uḷḷam’ – ‘the heart’ [is] the birthplace of the mind. Also, taking the ‘ē’ of ‘akamē’ and appending it to ‘aruṇācalam’, we get the meaning, ‘Arunchala indeed am I.’</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><div></div><blockquote><div>Not seeing him as other, but knowing I am He,</div><div><br /></div><div>to contemplate, and not differentiate, fly unthii fly,</div><div><br /></div><div>is, of all these, the highest state, fly unthii fly.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>– Upadesha Unthiyar, v. 8.</i></div></blockquote><p> </p></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">What is being referred to here is ‘the surrender of the self’ (ātma samarpaṇa), ‘the loss of one’s self,’ – taking refuge in the Supreme – which is the total renunciation of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, and which arises from the absence of awareness in oneself of anything that is other than the pure, non-dual Self. In this state, that which flashes forth and shines within the Heart is the experience of Brahman, the realisation of the pure Self, Atma Swarupa. The following verse from Nammalvar’s Tiruvāymoḻi (II-209) should be taken as an indication of the meaning being expressed here:</span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Not being able to know my [true] Self,<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I was caught up in thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. <br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Our radiant Lord, worshipped by the celestials, <br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I am only you, and what is mine is yours alone.</span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Further, <b>arivoṭum āltal</b> – ‘subsiding yet with full awareness’ refers to the cessation of the states of sleep and waking, xxiii [that is to say] the state in which the mind has subsided (laya), and the state in which it projects the world (vikṣepa). In this state, which is the state intervening between the two aforementioned states, and in which the mind is as sharp as the tip of a sword, self-enquiry arises in the spiritually mature mind through the Lord’s grace; it is this which entirely destroys the suffering caused by the primordial veiling which is the substratum of all that [occurs in those two states]. Then, as these obstacles fall away, the jiva, through the destruction of the antagonistic ego, ‘I’, whose form is delusion, sinks and lies peacefully merged in the nature of Arunachala-Brahman, which is not only the Heart of the jiva itself, but of all that is. This occurs through the experience of the Self, in which it is known, ‘Brahmaivaham’ (‘Brahman indeed am I’) or ‘That supreme Reality of the form of pure consciousness is I’. This state of waking sleep (jagrat suṣupti) is called the state of turiya (the fourth state).</span></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>civan ulaku āḷvār</b> – ‘they will rule in the realm of Siva’ is as if to say, ‘they will succeed in attaining the unsurpassed bliss of liberation, eternal and absolute.</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Note by Muruganar (xxiii)</b>: Sleep (laya) masks the truth of the Self, whose nature is pure consciousness, preventing it from shining out, and the waking state (vikṣepa) projects the imaginary differentiated phenomena, consisting of the triads (seer, seeing, thing seen etc.), like a moving picture show, upon the changeless screen that is the ground of all that is, thus entirely concealing it, so that to the reflected consciousness [of the jiva], they are perceived as real. Thus sleep and waking (laya and vikṣepa) are the obstacles to the experience of the Self whose nature is undifferentiated consciousness and unsurpassed bliss. Whilst in sleep the mind subsides in the Heart in darkness, and in laya it subsides in light, there being no other difference between them, in that both of them mask that which is their own supreme Reality, the pure being-consciousness of the Self, so that it is not known to consciousness. When it appears as the phenomenal world, the Self never shines alone as it really is, as the pure ‘I’, as undivided, non-dual, absolute being-consciousness. Rather does it appear always in the form of duality along with the brilliant imaginary display created by the mind, as ‘I’ (the seer) and ‘this’ (the world), the two being inseparably bound together. Therefore the consciousness (caitanya) that appears in the waking state is reflected consciousness (cidābāsa caitanya) and the associated knowledge of multiplicity is a false appearance of knowledge. [That is to say] the consciousness of the waking state is an unreal consciousness, the imaginary creation of maya. ‘If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts to wander, make it subside. If you attain the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of the mind, remain unmovingly in that state.’ (Devi Kālottara, v. 39, in The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.) Know through such teachings as this, communicated by the great sages to spiritual aspirants, that it is necessary, through assiduous practice, to establish the mind in the state that is intermediate between those two states.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-28563445241527726672022-04-16T02:43:00.004-07:002022-04-16T02:43:32.034-07:00Arunagiri Vibhu – The all-pervading Arunagiri<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The aham sphurāṇa – ‘I [am] I’</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Since the body, being an inert entity like a clay pot, does not possess the light of consciousness, which says, ‘I’, and since, in our nature (which is of the form of awareness), it is our daily experience that the body does not exist in deep sleep, the body is not ‘I’. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">What is it then that arises as ‘I’? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Within the cave of the Heart of those who have understood its nature, and who have themselves become that very Reality, the supreme Arunachala-Siva, whose form shines as ‘I [am] I’ will shine with his own radiance.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-50802173123688460772021-04-12T06:03:00.009-07:002021-04-12T07:33:55.152-07:00DeMello: The Four Steps to Wisdom<p><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>The first thing</i></span><b> </b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;">you need to do is <i><span style="color: #38761d;">get in touch with negative feelings</span></i> that you’re not even aware of.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;">What negative feelings? </span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gloominess, for instance. You’re feeling gloomy and moody. You feel self-hatred or guilt. You feel that life is pointless, that it makes no sense; you’ve got hurt feelings, you’re feeling nervous and tense. Get in touch with those feelings first.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The second step</span></i></span><span style="background-color: white;"> is to understand that <i><span style="color: #38761d;">the feeling is in you, not in reality.</span></i></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. So stop trying to change reality. Stop trying to change the other person. We spend all our time and energy trying to change external circumstances, trying to change our spouses, our bosses, our friends, our enemies, and everybody else. We don’t have to change anything. No person on earth has the power to make you unhappy. There is no event on earth that has the power to disturb you or hurt you. No event, condition, situation or person. </span></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;">We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if you wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You're just vulnerable as before; you're just as idiotic as before; you're just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. <span style="color: #38761d;"><i>You keep insisting, "I feel good because the world is right" Wrong! The world is right because I feel good</i></span>. That's what all the mystics are saying.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;"><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind</span></i>. Take away human beings from the planet and life would go on, nature would go on in all its loveliness and violence. Where would the problem be? No problem. You created the problem. You are the problem. The feeling is in you, not in reality.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></strong></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The third step</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">:</span> <i><span style="color: #38761d;"><span>Never identify with the negative feeling. It has nothing to do with the 'I'. </span>Don’t define your essential self in terms of that feeling</span></i>. Don’t say, “I am depressed.” If you want to say my experience is depression or depression is there, that’s fine; if you want to say gloominess is there, that’s fine. But not: I am gloomy. You’re defining yourself in terms of the feeling. That’s your illusion; that’s your mistake.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Everything passes, everything. Your depressions and your thrills have nothing to do with happiness. Those are the swings of the pendulum.</span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;"><span><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;">You do not belong anywhere:</span></i><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">You don't need to belong to anybody or anything or any group. You don't even need to be in love. Who told you </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 15px;">you do? <i><span style="color: #38761d;">What you need is to be free. What you need is to love. That's it; that's your nature.</span></i> But what you're really telling me is that you want to be desired. You want to be applauded, to be attractive, to have all the little monkeys running after you. You're wasting your life. WAKE UP! You don't need this. You can be blissfully happy without it.</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>No event justifies a negative feeling.</i></span> There is no situation in the world that justifies a negative feeling. The negative feeling is in you. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, "Plunge into the heat of battle and keep your heart at the lotus feet of the Lord". </span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You don't have to do anything to acquire happiness. The great Meister Eckhart said very beautifully, "God is not attained by a process of addition to anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction". <span style="color: #38761d;"><i>You don't do anything to be free, you drop something. Then you're free.</i></span></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The fourth step</span> is: </span><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>to keep going</i></span>. If you try these three steps, you will get it. You might not need to do it even three times or you might need to do it a thousand times; there’s no rule for it. </span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Do it as much as it takes and you’ll make the biggest discovery in your life.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-71938884856628227292021-04-12T04:26:00.002-07:002021-04-12T04:26:22.991-07:00 Bhramari Pranayama (humming bee breath)<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Technique 1 </span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyDe_Zo6IYpt278-pV0q1-kxKzjhufh4wvAYTfAqnzzOA4jQCGIoh4483RT6sI0xH8yw2oQc3iFMmz-Dej-VVrUWi-zwovTMqILhoTOWPfjNTZdcXVlUJsmRUzK2eVTujkR8RGz2chiBfF/s692/Snip20210412_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="692" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyDe_Zo6IYpt278-pV0q1-kxKzjhufh4wvAYTfAqnzzOA4jQCGIoh4483RT6sI0xH8yw2oQc3iFMmz-Dej-VVrUWi-zwovTMqILhoTOWPfjNTZdcXVlUJsmRUzK2eVTujkR8RGz2chiBfF/s320/Snip20210412_1.png" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sit in a comfortable meditation asana, preferably padmasana or siddha/siddha yoni asana with the hands resting on the knees in jnana or chin mudra. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Close the eyes and relax the whole body. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The lips should remain gently closed with the teeth slightly separated throughout the practice. This allows the sound vibration to be heard and felt more distinctly.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Raise the arms sideways and bend the elbows, bringing the hands to the ears. Use the index or middle fingers to plug the ears or the flaps of the ears may be pressed without inserting the fingers. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bring the awareness to the centre of the head, where ajna chakra is located, and keep the body absolutely still. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inhale through the nose. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Exhale slowly and in a controlled manner while making a deep, steady humming sound like that of the black bee. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The humming should be smooth, even and continuous for the duration of the exhalation. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The sound should be soft and mellow, making the front of the skull reverberate. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the end of exhalation, the hands can be kept steady or returned to the knee and then raised again for the next round. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The inhalation and exhalation should be smooth and controlled. This is one round.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-69113488290151355822021-04-12T04:19:00.008-07:002021-04-12T04:19:40.393-07:00Nadi Shodhana Pranayama - 4<p><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: verdana;"><b>Technique 4: Antar and Bahir Kumbhaka (internal and external retention) </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this technique bahir kumbhaka or outer breath retention is introduced. Do not try to hold the breath outside for long at first, even though it may seem easy.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-47913297719310279612021-04-12T04:15:00.005-07:002021-04-12T04:17:36.908-07:00Nadi Shodhana Pranayama - 3<p><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: verdana;"><b>Technique 3: with Antar Kumbhaka (inner retention) </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this technique antar kumbhaka or internal breath retention is introduced. The inhalation and exhalation should be silent, smooth and controlled. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 1</span></b>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Begin with equal inhalation, inner retention and exhalation, using the ratio 1:1:1.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Close the right nostril and inhale slowly through the left nostril for a count of 5. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the end of inhalation, close both nostrils and retain the air in the lungs for a count of 5. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Open the right nostril and exhale for a count of 5. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the end of exhalation, inhale through the right nostril for a count of 5, keeping the left nostril closed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Again, retain the breath for a count of 5 with both nostrils closed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Open the left nostril and exhale for a count of 5. </span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana;"><i>This is one round using the ratio 5:5:5. </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maintain constant awareness of the count and of the breath. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise up to 10 rounds. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: After becoming comfortable with the count of 5:5:5, the breath and kumbhaka can be lengthened. Gradually increase the count by adding 1 unit to the inhalation, 1 unit to the retention and 1 unit to the exhalation. The count of one round will then be 6:6:6. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When this has been perfected and there is no discomfort, increase the count to 7:7:7. </span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana;"><i>Continue in this way until the count of 10:10:10 is reached. </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Do not force the breath. At the slightest sign of strain reduce the count. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 2</span></b>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">After perfecting the ratio of 1:1:1, <i><span style="color: #cc0000;">increase the ratio to 1:1:2. </span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Initially use a short count. Inhale for a count of 5, perform internal kumbhaka for a count of 5 and exhale for a count of 10. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">After mastering the count of 5:5:10, gradually increase the count by adding one unit to the inhalation, one unit to the retention and two units to the exhalation. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The count of one round will then be 6:6:12. When this has been perfected and there is no discomfort, increase the count to 7:7:14. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gradually increase the count over several months of practice until the <span style="color: #cc0000;">count of 10:10:20 is reached. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 3</span></b>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Change the ratio to 1:2:2.</span></i> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inhale for a count of 5, do internal kumbhaka for a count of 10 and exhale for a count of 10. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise until the ratio is comfortable and there is no tendency to speed up the count during retention or exhalation due to shortness of breath. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: When this has been perfected, the count can be gradually increased by adding 1 unit to the inhalation, 2 units to the retention and 2 units to the exhalation. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The count of one round will then be 6:12:12. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">In this manner, gradually increase the count to 10:20:20. </span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 4</span></b>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next ratio, 1:3:2, is intermediary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">First reduce the count, inhale for a count of 5, do internal kumbhaka for a count of 15 and exhale for a count of 10. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise until the ratio is comfortable and there is no tendency to speed up the count during retention or exhalation due to shortness of breath. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When this has been perfected and there is no discomfort, the count can be gradually increased by adding 1 unit to the inhalation, 3 units to the retention and 2 units to the exhalation. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The count of one round will then be 6:18:12. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">In this manner, gradually increase the count to 10:30:20. </span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 5: </span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>The final ratio is 1:4:2. </i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Begin with 5:20:10. Once the ratio has been established, the count can gradually increase. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Add 1 unit to the inhalation, 4 units to the retention and 2 units to the exhalation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The count of one round will then be 6:24:12. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">In this manner, gradually increase the count to 10:40:20. </span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Contra-indications</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Technique 3 is not suitable for women in the later half of pregnancy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is not recommended for people with heart problems, high blood pressure, emphysema or any major disorders. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Stage 2 is not recommended for asthmatics. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Benefits</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The inner retention of breath, which characterizes technique 3, activates various brain centres and harmonizes the pranas. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The benefits increase with the progression of the ratios. The ratio 1:4:2 is most widely recommended in the yogic texts. It gives profound psychological and pranic effects and is used as a preparation for kundalini awakening.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-87281196149126049952021-04-02T00:41:00.006-07:002021-04-12T04:20:25.532-07:00Nadi Shodhana Pranayama - 2<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Technique 2: Alternate nostril breathing</span></b> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this technique the basic pattern of alternate nostril breathing is established. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 1</span></b>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Begin with equal inhalation and exhalation, using the ratio 1:1. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Close the right nostril with the thumb and inhale through the left nostril. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the same time count mentally, “1, Om; 2, Om; 3, Om”, until the inhalation ends comfortably. This is the basic count. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Breathe deeply without strain. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Close the left nostril with the ring finger and release the pressure of the thumb on the right nostril. While exhaling through the right nostril, simultaneously count, “1, Om; 2, Om; 3, Om”. The time for inhalation and exhalation should be equal. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Next, inhale through the right nostril, keeping the same count in the same manner. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the end of inhalation, close the right nostril and open the left nostril. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Exhale through the left nostril, counting as before. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is one round. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise 5 to10 rounds. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">After one week, if there is no difficulty, increase the length of inhalation and exhalation by one count. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Continue to increase the count in this way until the count of 10:10 is reached. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Do not force the breath in any way. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Be careful not to speed up the counting during exhalation to compensate for shortage of breath. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reduce the count at the slightest sign of discomfort. </span></p><p><b style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 2</span></b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: </span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana;"><i>After perfecting the above 1:1 ratio, it may be changed to 1:2. </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Initially halve the length of the inhalation. Inhale for a count of 5 and exhale for a count of 10. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Repeat on the other side. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is one round. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise 5 to10 rounds. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">During the ensuing months of practice, continue extending the breath by adding one count to the inhalation and two to the exhalation, up to the count of 10: 20. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When this technique can be performed with complete ease, move on to technique 3. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Contra-indications</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Stage 2 of technique 2 begins the process of introversion, which is not recommended for a depressed or withdrawn person. The extension of stage 2, involving longer counts, is not recommended for people with heart problems. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Benefits</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Technique 2 gives more pronounced balancing of the breath and the brain hemispheres. It has calming effects and relieves anxiety, improves concentration and stimulates ajna chakra. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The ratio 1:1 in stage 1 establishes a calming rhythm for the brain and heart, assisting people with cardiovascular and nervous disorders specifically, and stress-related conditions generally. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the count is extended, the breath slows down. The respiration becomes more efficient because the air flow is smoother and less turbulent. This ratio helps people with respiratory problems such as asthma, emphysema and bronchitis. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><span>The ratio 1:2 in stage 2 gives profound relaxation</span></i>.</span> The heartbeat and pulse rate slow, and blood pressure drops, but the extension of count should be built up slowly.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-85148050329620549852021-04-02T00:32:00.007-07:002021-04-12T04:21:22.018-07:00 Nadi Shodhana Pranayama - 1<p><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: verdana;"><b>Technique 1: Preparatory practice </b></span></p><p><b style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 1</span></b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sit in any comfortable meditation posture, preferably siddha/siddha yoni asana or padmasana. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Keep the head and spine upright. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Relax the whole body and close the eyes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise yogic breathing for some time. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adopt nasagra mudra with the right hand and place the left hand on the knee in chin or jnana mudra. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Close the right nostril with the thumb. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inhale and exhale through the left nostril 5 times. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The rate of inhalation and exhalation should be normal. Be aware of each breath. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">After completing 5 breaths, release the pressure of the thumb on the right nostril and press the left nostril with the ring finger, blocking the flow of air. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inhale and exhale through the right nostril 5 times, keeping the respiration rate normal. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lower the hand and breathe 5 times through both nostrils together. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is one round. Practise 5 rounds or for 3 to 5 minutes, making sure that there is no sound as the air passes through the nostrils. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise until this stage is mastered before commencing the next stage. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Stage 2</span></b>:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Begin to control the duration of each breath. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Count the length of the inhalation and exhalation through the left, right and both nostrils. Breathe deeply without strain. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">While inhaling, count mentally, “1, Om; 2, Om; 3, Om”, until the inhalation ends comfortably. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">While exhaling, simultaneously count, “1, Om; 2, Om; 3, Om”. Inhalation and exhalation should be equal. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Practise 5 rounds or for 3 to 5 minutes, making sure that there is no sound as the air passes through the nostrils. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Extension</span>: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Notice that the length of the breath will spontaneously increase after some days of practice. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When the count reaches 10 without any strain, go on to technique 2. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Contra-indications</span>: Nadi shodhana is not to be practised while suffering from colds, flu or fever. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Benefits</span>: Technique 1 increases awareness of and sensitivity to the breath in the nostrils. Minor blockages are removed and the flow of breath in both nostrils becomes more balanced. Breathing through the left nostril tends to activate the right brain hemisphere; breathing through the right nostril activates the left hemisphere. The long, slow, balanced breathing of stage 2 has profound effects, calming and balancing the energies. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Practice note</span>: Both nostrils must be clear and flowing freely. Mucous blockages may be removed through the practice of neti. If the flow of breath in the nostrils is unequal, it may be balanced by practising padadhirasana as a breath balancing technique (see Vajrasana Group of Asanas). Beginners should be familiar with abdominal breathing before taking up nadi shodhana.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-79986116422210925492021-04-02T00:25:00.001-07:002021-04-02T00:26:34.105-07:00Nasagra Mudra (nosetip position) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2Bej3IAeV7CuK7HrGv1kAkZHGADjbKzAl8OGMT5I2p4lXHLsNzsigJH6ii4K8Tns_uHAuKMu7UKJFGYTIe9C54kuq7idwb9Ie4PEGU3lMkFdRywE_9l3-J_tEyDCR6w2lCvlSeRCUas7/s510/Snip20210402_15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2Bej3IAeV7CuK7HrGv1kAkZHGADjbKzAl8OGMT5I2p4lXHLsNzsigJH6ii4K8Tns_uHAuKMu7UKJFGYTIe9C54kuq7idwb9Ie4PEGU3lMkFdRywE_9l3-J_tEyDCR6w2lCvlSeRCUas7/s320/Snip20210402_15.png" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hold the fingers of the right hand in front of the face. Rest the index and middle fingers gently on the eyebrow centre. Both fingers should be relaxed. The thumb is above the right nostril and the ring finger above the left. These two digits control the flow of breath in the nostrils by alternately pressing on one nostril, blocking the flow of breath, and then the other. The little finger is comfortably folded. When practising for long periods, the elbow may be supported in the palm of the left hand, although care is needed to prevent chest restriction.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-72541768757620724662021-04-01T04:36:00.006-07:002021-04-01T04:38:30.329-07:00Yogic Breathing<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yogic breathing combines the previous three techniques - Abdominal, Thoracic, Clavicular. It is used to maximize inhalation and exhalation. Its purpose is to gain control of the breath, correct poor breathing habits and increase oxygen intake. <span style="color: #674ea7;"><i><span>It may be practised at any time and is especially useful in situations of high stress or anger for calming the nerves</span></i>. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">However, while its inclusion in a daily yoga program will correct and deepen natural breathing patterns, <span style="color: #674ea7;"><i><span>yogic breathing itself should not be performed continually</span></i>. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sit in a meditation posture or lie in shavasana and relax the whole body. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inhale slowly and deeply, allowing the abdomen to expand fully. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Try to breathe so slowly that little or no sound of the breath can be heard. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Feel the air reaching into the bottom of the lungs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the end of abdominal expansion, start to expand the chest outward and upward. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When the ribs are fully expanded, inhale a little more until expansion is felt in the upper portion of the lungs around the base of the neck. The shoulders and collar bone should also move up slightly. Some tension will be felt in the neck muscles. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The rest of the body should be relaxed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Feel the air filling the upper lobes of the lungs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This completes one inhalation. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The whole process should be one continuous movement, each phase of breathing merging into the next without any obvious transition point. There should be no jerks or unnecessary strain. The breathing should be like the swell of the sea. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now start to exhale. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">First, relax the lower neck and upper chest, then allow the chest to contract downward and then inward. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Next, allow the diaphragm to push upward and toward the chest. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Without straining, try to empty the lungs as much as possible by drawing or pulling the abdominal wall as near as possible to the spine. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The entire movement should be harmonious and flowing. Hold the breath for a few seconds at the end of exhalation. This completes one round of yogic breathing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At first perform 5 to 10 rounds and slowly increase to 10 minutes daily. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Relax any effort and once again watch the spontaneous breathing pattern. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bring the awareness back to observing the physical body as a whole. Be aware of the surroundings and gently open the eyes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Practice note</span></b>: The main requirement in pranayama is that respiration be comfortable and relaxed. <span style="color: #674ea7;">Consequently, once awareness and control of the breathing process has been established, <span><i>the clavicular technique is dropped and yogic breathing is modified to become a combination of abdominal and thoracic breathing. The breath should flow naturally and not be forced.</i></span></span></span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-69465546497959979002021-04-01T04:29:00.001-07:002021-04-01T04:29:13.106-07:00 Clavicular breathing<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Clavicular breathing is the final stage of total ribcage expansion. It occurs after the thoracic inhalation has been completed. In order to absorb a little more air into the lungs, the upper ribs and the collar bone are pulled upwards by the muscles of the neck, throat and sternum. This requires maximum expansion on inhalation and only the upper lobes of the lungs are ventilated. In daily life, clavicular breathing is only used under conditions of extreme physical exertion and when experiencing obstructive airway diseases such as asthma. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lie in shavasana and relax the whole body. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maintain unbroken awareness of the natural breath for some time, concentrating on the sides of the chest. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perform thoracic breathing for a few minutes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inhale, fully expanding the ribcage. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When the ribs are fully expanded, inhale a little more until expansion is felt in the upper portion of the lungs around the base of the neck. The shoulders and collar bone should also move up slightly. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This will take some effort. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Exhale slowly, first releasing the lower neck and upper chest, then relaxing the rest of the ribcage back to its starting position. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Continue for a few more breaths, observing the effect of this type of breathing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Relax any effort and once again watch the spontaneous breathing pattern. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bring the awareness back to observing the physical body as a whole. Be aware of the surroundings and gently open the eyes.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-72380220338430103502021-04-01T04:25:00.007-07:002021-04-01T04:26:04.772-07:00 Thoracic breathing<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thoracic breathing utilises the middle lobes of the lungs by expanding and contracting the ribcage. It expends more energy than abdominal breathing for the same quantity of air exchange. It is often associated with physical exercise and exertion, as well as stress and tension; when combined with abdominal breathing, it helps the body to obtain more oxygen. However, the tendency in many people is to continue this type of breathing instead of abdominal breathing long after the stressful situation has passed, creating bad breathing habits and continued tension. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sit in a meditation posture or lie in shavasana and relax the whole body. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maintain unbroken awareness of the natural breath for some time, concentrating on the sides of the chest. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Discontinue any further use of the diaphragm and begin to inhale by slowly expanding the ribcage. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Feel the movement of the individual ribs outward and upward, and be aware of this expansion drawing air into the lungs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Expand the chest as much as possible. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Exhale by relaxing the chest muscles. Feel the ribcage contracting and forcing the air out of the lungs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Breathe slowly and deeply through the chest with total awareness. Do not use the diaphragm. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Continue thoracic breathing for a few minutes, pausing slightly after each inhalation and exhalation. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Relax any effort and once again watch the spontaneous breathing pattern. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bring the awareness back to observing the physical body as a whole. Be aware of the surroundings and gently open the eyes.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-87209129968738039892021-04-01T00:41:00.005-07:002021-04-01T04:26:17.631-07:00 Unite with the Light<p><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: verdana;"><b>The “STROBOSCOPE” Exercise</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Beautiful being, beautiful soul, would you like to illuminate your consciousness? Come, just lie here on the sofa. Are you comfortable? Do you feel good? Hey, what did you do this morning? You say you woke up? I did the same thing! Wow, parallel universe. You say you have stress, tension, all that mental shit? Whatever you are thinking, I don’t care. Let it go. Let it go. Now all there is for you to do is relax and breathe. Just drop everything and get into this breathing. We are all lightworkers. Work with the light and get free.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">1 Sit in a relaxed, comfortable position. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">2 Close your eyes, follow your breath, witness yourself calming down. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">3 Just look at what you see with your eyes closed. Don’t try to see anything in particular. Be patient. In this way, your energy is able to disconnect from the external perception of the visual cortex and go into the deeper realms of the brain. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">4 Keep following your breath, and turn your inner focus to the center of your forehead, the “third eye.” You may see a luminous halo that pulses with your breath — in, out, in, out, like the flashing light from a stroboscope. You might feel you want to look more directly at it, but then you will take away the intensity. Learn to let it be. This is a phenomenal way to subtly observe the neural activity of your brain. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once you have some experience with this meditation, try adding the focus on the center of your forehead to the Basic Breathing Exercise. You may start to have spontaneous experiences of your inner light.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-27091440067467717812021-04-01T00:38:00.011-07:002021-04-01T00:42:13.084-07:00 Breathing for Stress Control<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Stress is the killer in modern society — all that thinking, going into overdrive, making deadlines. They really are dead lines! Stress deregulates our system. You can tell if you are stressed by counting how many times you breathe in a minute. Try it now with a timer. <i><span style="color: #674ea7;">If you’re breathing between fifteen to twenty times a minute, you are stressed. </span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What I do for stress is one minute of humming and breathing. This always works for me. It taps into your parasympathetic nervous system — where the peace is inside — and calms down your hectic sympathetic nervous system. And it’s like a massage for your spine from within — all the way up to your brain stem and to the center of your head. It brings you directly inside your body. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">1 Set a timer for one minute. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">2 Settle yourself somewhere comfortable. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">3 Breathe in deeply. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">4 Breathe out with a sound like “Hum,” “Ah,” or “Om.” Make whatever sounds make you happy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">5 When you run out of air, breathe in deeply and let it out with another “Hum.” </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">6 Continue until the timer stops. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">How many times did you breathe in a minute of humming? Maybe four, five, six times? Nice.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2442205695584065572.post-2458626997612875182021-04-01T00:36:00.002-07:002021-04-01T00:36:19.734-07:00 Interoception of the Heartbeat<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this exercise we are going to forge a conscious connection with the heart and circulatory system. Because the heartbeat is involuntary, few of us pay much attention to it or to the circulatory system it serves. But if we channel our interoceptive focus to it, we can decrease our heart rate during times of stress, which not only serves to relieve that stress but also to improve the absorption of oxygen and nutrients within our cells. Here’s how: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">1 Sit or lie down in a safe, comfortable space. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">2 Relax. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">3 Feel and visualize your heartbeat. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">4 Connect with your heartbeat and try to synchronize your breath with it so that you can feel it everywhere. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">5 Now visualize your circulatory system. Visualize that with every inhalation, oxygen-rich blood is flowing from your lungs to your heart, to every part in your body, through a network of blood vessels that could wrap around the earth two and a half times. Imagine how your blood provides oxygen and nutrients to organs and muscles, and transports waste products (like carbon dioxide) to your liver, kidneys, and lungs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">6 Reconnect with your heartbeat and try to synchronize your breath with it again. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">7 Make a journey through your body and try to feel the heartbeat in different parts of it. If you focus on your hand, feel the heartbeat there, and if you focus on your feet, feel the blood flow from your ankles to your toes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is connecting your mind and your body. This is interoceptive focus. A couple of minutes per day is enough to help you deepen this connection and reap the benefits of it.</span></p>Suresh Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12509393443138066518noreply@blogger.com0