About ten days after my arrival I [Annamalai Swami] asked Bhagavan, 'How to avoid misery?'
This was the first spiritual question I ever asked him.
Bhagavan replied, 'Know and always hold onto the Self. Disregard the body and the mind. To identify with them is misery. Dive deep into the Heart, the source of being and peace, and establish yourself there.'
I then asked him how I could attain Self-realisation and he gave me a similar answer: 'If you give up identifying with the body and meditate on the Self, which you already are, you can attain Self-realisation.'
As I was pondering on these remarks Bhagavan surprised me by saying, 'I was waiting for you. I was wondering when you would come.'
As a newcomer I was still too afraid of him to follow this up by asking how he knew, or how long he had been waiting. However, I was delighted to hear him speak like this because it seemed to indicate that it was my destiny to stay with him.
A few days later I asked another question: 'Scientists have invented and produced aircraft which can travel at great speeds in the sky. Why do you not make and give us a spiritual aircraft in which we can quickly and easily cross over the sea of samsara?'
Ramana Maharshi: 'The path of self-enquiry,' replied Bhagavan, 'is the aircraft you need. It is direct, fast and easy to use. You are already travelling very quickly towards realisation. It is only because of your mind that it seems that there is no movement. In the old days, when people first rode on trains, some of them believed that the trees and countryside were moving and that the train was standing still. It is the same with you now. Your mind is making you believe that you are not moving towards Self-realisation.'
Source: Living by the Words of Bhagavan by David Godman
Monday, 23 November 2009
Sri RamaKrishna says Will-power is needed for renunciation
"In order to be able to renounce, one must pray to God for the will power to do so. One must immediately renounce what one feels to be unreal. The rishis had this will-power. Through it they controlled the sense-organs. If the tortoise once tucks in its limbs, you cannot make it bring them out even by cutting it into four pieces.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
As I Saw Ramana Maharshi By S. S. Cohen - Part2
THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY 1936, early morning, saw my horsecart rolling on the uneven two-and-a-half mile road from Tiruvannamalai railway station to Ramanasramam. Two sleepless nights in the train from Bombay found me tired in body and mind. My head was swimming and my senses confused.
I had hoped for some rest at the Ashrama, but when I arrived there at last there was not a soul to be seen anywhere. Presently, a corpulent man with a giant, rugged head and scarlet-red lips from perpetual chewing of betel nuts appeared. "Is that Mr. Cohen? Follow me quickly before the Maharshi goes out for his walk," he called out.
I obeyed, extremely eager to see the great sage who had haunted me night and day for three long months.
I was led to a small dining room, at the door of which I was asked to remove my shoes. As I was trying to unlace them my eyes fell on a pleasant-looking middle-aged man inside the room, wearing nothing but a koupin, with eyes as cool as moonbeams, sitting on the floor before a leafplate nearly emptied and beckoning me with the gentlest of nods and the sweetest smile imaginable.
It was then the Ashrama's custom to honour the newcomer by giving him his first meal in a line directly opposite the Maharshi's seat and at hardly four feet distance from it.
I took no notice of the cakes, although my hand fingered them, but directed my whole look at the peaceful countenance of Sri Bhagavan.
He had by then finished eating and was slowly rolling a betel leaf for a chew, as if deliberately to give me a little more of his company, when a man entered from the back door, which was the passage to the small kitchen, and in a low voice said something in Tamil to him. Then Maharshi rose, looked at me by way of farewell, and left the room. I hastily swallowed half a cake, gulped the cup of tea and went out in search of my room to which my luggage had been taken, when someone announced that Sri Maharshi was coming to the Darshan Hall.
I rushed straight to the Hall with my hat and full suit on. Behind me calmly walked in the tall, impressive figure of the Maharshi with leisurely though firm steps.
I was alone in the Hall with him. Joy and peace suffused my being - such a delightful feeling of purity and well-being at the mere proximity of a man, I never had before.
My mind was already in deep contemplation of him - him not as flesh, although that was exquisitely formed and featured, but as an unsubstantial principle which could make itself so profoundly felt despite the handicap of a heavy material vehicle.
When after a while I became aware of my environment, I saw him looking at me with large, penetrating eyes, wreathed in smiles rendered divinely soothing by their childlike innocence.
Bhagavan was then enjoying the sound, robust health of middle age and could very well afford to be available at almost all hours of the day to devotees.
The years 1936-1938 were very blissful indeed to us, when we could gather round his couch and speak to him as intimately as to a beloved father, tell him all our troubles and show him our letters without let or hindrance.
After 8:00 p.m. when the Hall contained only the local residents, we sat round him for a 'family chat' till about ten o'clock.
Then he related to us stories from the Puranas or the lives of saints, yielding to transports of emotion when he depicted scenes of great bhakti, or great human tragedies to which he was sensitive to the extreme. Then he shed tears which he vainly attempted to conceal.
On one occasion, Bhagavan recited from memory a poem of a Vaishnava saint in which occurred the words, "Fold me in Thy embrace, O Lord," when the arms of Bhagavan joined in a circle around the vacant air before him and his eyes shone with devotional ardour, while his voice shook with stifled sobs which did not escape our notice.
It was fascinating to see him acting the parts he related and be in such exhilarated moods as these.
Some disciples and his attendants used to sleep on the floor of the Hall at night. Bhagavan's sleep was very light. He woke every now and then and almost always he found an attendant nearby fully awake to say a few words to, and then sleep again. Once or twice he would go out for a few minutes and, by 5:00 a.m, when the Veda chanters came from the township, they found him fully awake and chatting in a soft, subdued voice. Now the parayanam would get started and go on for little less than an hour, during which everybody abstained from talking and Bhagavan often sat cross-legged and completely indrawn.
Then he went out on the hill and returned at about 7:30, when visitors and devotees began trickling in - men, women and children, till they filled the Hall by about 9:00 a.m. This morning hour of the parayanam was the best time of the day for meditation. The congregation was small, women and children absent, the weather cool, and the mind had not yet completely emerged to run its usual riot.
Over and above this, Bhagavan then shone in the stillness of his samadhi, which permeated the hall and the meditation of his disciples.
Bhagavan went out at his usual hours. These were : 9:45, for a few minutes; 11 o'clock, for luncheon, followed by the midday stroll in Palakottu; evening, 4:45 on the hill, preceding the evening Veda parayanam; and 7 o'clock for dinner.
The constant influx of visitors was of some help in that it afforded the much-needed relaxation to an otherwise tense life.
Secondly, the peculiar problems which visitors brought with them were a useful study. Watching the masterly ways Bhagavan tackled these problems was a sadhana in itself.
Rationality was the very essence of his arguments, while the ultimate answer to all the questions was always the same, namely, "Find out who you are."
He first met every questioner on his own ground, and then slowly steered him round to the source of all problems - the Self - the realisation of which he held to be the universal panacea.
When the audience shrank, he at times became humorously autobiographical about his early school and home life or about his many experiences on the hill with sadhus, devotees, etc.
As time passed and the Master's state of mind and ideas took firm root in me, I ceased to ask questions, or to intercept him in his walks outside the Ashram grounds, as I used to do in the first six months.
The final conclusion to which I came in the end of these six months I reported one day to Bhagavan. He showed his gracious approval by a gesture of finality with his hand and said:
"So much lies in your power, the rest must be left entirely to the Guru, who is the ocean of grace and mercy seated in the heart as the seeker's own Self."
The builders had put the finishing touches to my small mud hut in Palakottu garden on April 4, 1936. I completed my arrangements for the warming ceremony, known here as griha pravesham, to take place the next day. The invited devotees gathered in my hut, and about noon the Master himself strolled in, on his way back from his usual walk and, refusing the special chair I had ready for him, he squatted like the others on the mat covered floor.
After the ceremony, Bhagavan left. I followed him from a distance, waited till the devotees cleared away and approached him. "Bhagavan," I started, "you have given a home for my body, I now need your grace to grant the eternal home for my soul, for which I broke all my human ties and came."
He stopped in the shade of a tree, gazed silently on the calm water of the tank for a few seconds and replied: "Your firm conviction brought you here; where is the room for doubt?"
"Where is the room for doubt, indeed?" I reflected.
Three years had passed since that griha-pravesham day. "Bhagavan," I said on a day then near my hut, "I feel a strong urge to go on Yatra (pilgrimage). I feel that I need a change for some months, which I intend spending in holy places." He smiled approval and enquired about the date and time of my starting and whether I had made arrangements for my stay in the various places I was to visit. Extremely touched by his solicitude, I answered that I was going as a sadhu, trusting to chance for accommodation.
For three months thereafter I lay on a mat in Cape Comorin, immensely relieved of the mental tension which the Master's physical form had caused me. In solitude I plunged into reflections on his blissful silence and calm repose. The stillness of his mind haunted me everywhere I went - in the beautiful, gem-like temple of the youthful virgin goddess, on the shores of the vast blue ocean around me and the sand dunes, in the fishing villages and endless stretches of coconut groves, which ran along the sea shore and the interior of the Cape.
I felt his influence in the depth of my soul and cried: "Oh Bhagavan, how mighty you are and how sublime and all pervasive is the immaculate purity of your mind! With what tender emotions do we, your disciples, think of your incomparable qualities, your gentleness; your serene, adorable countenance; your cool, refreshing smiles; the sweetness of the words that come out of your mouth; the radiance of your all-embracing love; your equal vision towards one and all, even towards diseased stray animals."
Evening Shadows
The years 1948-50 saw the evening shadows gathering and closing on the mortal coil of the Master. Advancing age brought a series of mishaps to it - a fall, a nervous hiccup lasting many days, a clinging rheumatism, and, lastly, a malignant tumor which inch by inch ate the flesh of his left arm, poisoned his blood and finally rang down the curtain on an immaculate life.
22 February 1949
About a fortnight ago, the Ashrama doctor, Dr. Shankar Rao, assisted by Dr. Srinivasa Rao, removed a very small growth from the left elbow of the Maharshi, since when it has remained bandaged; but today the bandage has been removed and it is left exposed - it is presumed to have healed.
27 March 1949
The lump which was removed from Maharshi's left elbow last month and which was thought to be healing satisfactorily, subsequently started to grow again, so that the eminent surgeon, Dr. Raghavachari, came today from Madras with surgical instruments to remove it. The surgeon, we are told, performed the operation skillfully by cutting deep and removing the last cell of growth. He does not expect a recurrence of the growth.
4th December 1949
This is Deepam day, most holy to Hindus in the South. The holy beacon will be lighted tonight on top of Arunachala. Tonight Sri Maharshi sat in the north verandah of the Darshan Hall. All around him hundreds of devotees squatted. This jubilation is not without a sting. Will the health of Sri Maharshi favor us with another Deepam day and he be with us in the flesh, or is this to be the last? As we see him seated fresh and bright as ever, gazing expectantly at the top of his beloved Arunachala, we cannot help being optimistic of his recovery.
The body which is stricken by a most malignant disease, hacked on many occasions by the surgeon's knife, burnt by radium, and drugged by all sorts of powerful drugs, bears no trace of the agonizing ordeal in the brilliance of its eyes or in the joyful expressions of its face. What miracles are being performed in it! What are its mysteries!
- The preceding was gathered from the pages of S.S. Cohen's book, GURU RAMANA
I had hoped for some rest at the Ashrama, but when I arrived there at last there was not a soul to be seen anywhere. Presently, a corpulent man with a giant, rugged head and scarlet-red lips from perpetual chewing of betel nuts appeared. "Is that Mr. Cohen? Follow me quickly before the Maharshi goes out for his walk," he called out.
I obeyed, extremely eager to see the great sage who had haunted me night and day for three long months.
I was led to a small dining room, at the door of which I was asked to remove my shoes. As I was trying to unlace them my eyes fell on a pleasant-looking middle-aged man inside the room, wearing nothing but a koupin, with eyes as cool as moonbeams, sitting on the floor before a leafplate nearly emptied and beckoning me with the gentlest of nods and the sweetest smile imaginable.
It was then the Ashrama's custom to honour the newcomer by giving him his first meal in a line directly opposite the Maharshi's seat and at hardly four feet distance from it.
I took no notice of the cakes, although my hand fingered them, but directed my whole look at the peaceful countenance of Sri Bhagavan.
He had by then finished eating and was slowly rolling a betel leaf for a chew, as if deliberately to give me a little more of his company, when a man entered from the back door, which was the passage to the small kitchen, and in a low voice said something in Tamil to him. Then Maharshi rose, looked at me by way of farewell, and left the room. I hastily swallowed half a cake, gulped the cup of tea and went out in search of my room to which my luggage had been taken, when someone announced that Sri Maharshi was coming to the Darshan Hall.
I rushed straight to the Hall with my hat and full suit on. Behind me calmly walked in the tall, impressive figure of the Maharshi with leisurely though firm steps.
I was alone in the Hall with him. Joy and peace suffused my being - such a delightful feeling of purity and well-being at the mere proximity of a man, I never had before.
My mind was already in deep contemplation of him - him not as flesh, although that was exquisitely formed and featured, but as an unsubstantial principle which could make itself so profoundly felt despite the handicap of a heavy material vehicle.
When after a while I became aware of my environment, I saw him looking at me with large, penetrating eyes, wreathed in smiles rendered divinely soothing by their childlike innocence.
Bhagavan was then enjoying the sound, robust health of middle age and could very well afford to be available at almost all hours of the day to devotees.
The years 1936-1938 were very blissful indeed to us, when we could gather round his couch and speak to him as intimately as to a beloved father, tell him all our troubles and show him our letters without let or hindrance.
After 8:00 p.m. when the Hall contained only the local residents, we sat round him for a 'family chat' till about ten o'clock.
Then he related to us stories from the Puranas or the lives of saints, yielding to transports of emotion when he depicted scenes of great bhakti, or great human tragedies to which he was sensitive to the extreme. Then he shed tears which he vainly attempted to conceal.
On one occasion, Bhagavan recited from memory a poem of a Vaishnava saint in which occurred the words, "Fold me in Thy embrace, O Lord," when the arms of Bhagavan joined in a circle around the vacant air before him and his eyes shone with devotional ardour, while his voice shook with stifled sobs which did not escape our notice.
It was fascinating to see him acting the parts he related and be in such exhilarated moods as these.
Some disciples and his attendants used to sleep on the floor of the Hall at night. Bhagavan's sleep was very light. He woke every now and then and almost always he found an attendant nearby fully awake to say a few words to, and then sleep again. Once or twice he would go out for a few minutes and, by 5:00 a.m, when the Veda chanters came from the township, they found him fully awake and chatting in a soft, subdued voice. Now the parayanam would get started and go on for little less than an hour, during which everybody abstained from talking and Bhagavan often sat cross-legged and completely indrawn.
Then he went out on the hill and returned at about 7:30, when visitors and devotees began trickling in - men, women and children, till they filled the Hall by about 9:00 a.m. This morning hour of the parayanam was the best time of the day for meditation. The congregation was small, women and children absent, the weather cool, and the mind had not yet completely emerged to run its usual riot.
Over and above this, Bhagavan then shone in the stillness of his samadhi, which permeated the hall and the meditation of his disciples.
Bhagavan went out at his usual hours. These were : 9:45, for a few minutes; 11 o'clock, for luncheon, followed by the midday stroll in Palakottu; evening, 4:45 on the hill, preceding the evening Veda parayanam; and 7 o'clock for dinner.
The constant influx of visitors was of some help in that it afforded the much-needed relaxation to an otherwise tense life.
Secondly, the peculiar problems which visitors brought with them were a useful study. Watching the masterly ways Bhagavan tackled these problems was a sadhana in itself.
Rationality was the very essence of his arguments, while the ultimate answer to all the questions was always the same, namely, "Find out who you are."
He first met every questioner on his own ground, and then slowly steered him round to the source of all problems - the Self - the realisation of which he held to be the universal panacea.
When the audience shrank, he at times became humorously autobiographical about his early school and home life or about his many experiences on the hill with sadhus, devotees, etc.
As time passed and the Master's state of mind and ideas took firm root in me, I ceased to ask questions, or to intercept him in his walks outside the Ashram grounds, as I used to do in the first six months.
The final conclusion to which I came in the end of these six months I reported one day to Bhagavan. He showed his gracious approval by a gesture of finality with his hand and said:
"So much lies in your power, the rest must be left entirely to the Guru, who is the ocean of grace and mercy seated in the heart as the seeker's own Self."
The builders had put the finishing touches to my small mud hut in Palakottu garden on April 4, 1936. I completed my arrangements for the warming ceremony, known here as griha pravesham, to take place the next day. The invited devotees gathered in my hut, and about noon the Master himself strolled in, on his way back from his usual walk and, refusing the special chair I had ready for him, he squatted like the others on the mat covered floor.
After the ceremony, Bhagavan left. I followed him from a distance, waited till the devotees cleared away and approached him. "Bhagavan," I started, "you have given a home for my body, I now need your grace to grant the eternal home for my soul, for which I broke all my human ties and came."
He stopped in the shade of a tree, gazed silently on the calm water of the tank for a few seconds and replied: "Your firm conviction brought you here; where is the room for doubt?"
"Where is the room for doubt, indeed?" I reflected.
Three years had passed since that griha-pravesham day. "Bhagavan," I said on a day then near my hut, "I feel a strong urge to go on Yatra (pilgrimage). I feel that I need a change for some months, which I intend spending in holy places." He smiled approval and enquired about the date and time of my starting and whether I had made arrangements for my stay in the various places I was to visit. Extremely touched by his solicitude, I answered that I was going as a sadhu, trusting to chance for accommodation.
For three months thereafter I lay on a mat in Cape Comorin, immensely relieved of the mental tension which the Master's physical form had caused me. In solitude I plunged into reflections on his blissful silence and calm repose. The stillness of his mind haunted me everywhere I went - in the beautiful, gem-like temple of the youthful virgin goddess, on the shores of the vast blue ocean around me and the sand dunes, in the fishing villages and endless stretches of coconut groves, which ran along the sea shore and the interior of the Cape.
I felt his influence in the depth of my soul and cried: "Oh Bhagavan, how mighty you are and how sublime and all pervasive is the immaculate purity of your mind! With what tender emotions do we, your disciples, think of your incomparable qualities, your gentleness; your serene, adorable countenance; your cool, refreshing smiles; the sweetness of the words that come out of your mouth; the radiance of your all-embracing love; your equal vision towards one and all, even towards diseased stray animals."
Evening Shadows
The years 1948-50 saw the evening shadows gathering and closing on the mortal coil of the Master. Advancing age brought a series of mishaps to it - a fall, a nervous hiccup lasting many days, a clinging rheumatism, and, lastly, a malignant tumor which inch by inch ate the flesh of his left arm, poisoned his blood and finally rang down the curtain on an immaculate life.
22 February 1949
About a fortnight ago, the Ashrama doctor, Dr. Shankar Rao, assisted by Dr. Srinivasa Rao, removed a very small growth from the left elbow of the Maharshi, since when it has remained bandaged; but today the bandage has been removed and it is left exposed - it is presumed to have healed.
27 March 1949
The lump which was removed from Maharshi's left elbow last month and which was thought to be healing satisfactorily, subsequently started to grow again, so that the eminent surgeon, Dr. Raghavachari, came today from Madras with surgical instruments to remove it. The surgeon, we are told, performed the operation skillfully by cutting deep and removing the last cell of growth. He does not expect a recurrence of the growth.
4th December 1949
This is Deepam day, most holy to Hindus in the South. The holy beacon will be lighted tonight on top of Arunachala. Tonight Sri Maharshi sat in the north verandah of the Darshan Hall. All around him hundreds of devotees squatted. This jubilation is not without a sting. Will the health of Sri Maharshi favor us with another Deepam day and he be with us in the flesh, or is this to be the last? As we see him seated fresh and bright as ever, gazing expectantly at the top of his beloved Arunachala, we cannot help being optimistic of his recovery.
The body which is stricken by a most malignant disease, hacked on many occasions by the surgeon's knife, burnt by radium, and drugged by all sorts of powerful drugs, bears no trace of the agonizing ordeal in the brilliance of its eyes or in the joyful expressions of its face. What miracles are being performed in it! What are its mysteries!
- The preceding was gathered from the pages of S.S. Cohen's book, GURU RAMANA
Sri RamaKrishna says The world does not exist apart from God
"It may be asked, 'How has Satchidananda become so hard?' This earth does indeed feel very hard to the touch.The answer is that blood and semen are thin liquids, and yet out of them comes such a big creature as man. Everything is possible for God.
First of all reach the indivisible Satchidananda, and then, coming down,look at the universe. You will then find that everything is Its manifestation. It is God alone who has become everything. The world by no means exists apart from Him.
"All elements finally merge in akasa. Again, at the time of creation, akasa evolves into mahat and mahat into ahamkara. In this way the whole world-system is evolved.It is the process of involution and evolution. A devotee of God accepts everything.He accepts the universe and its created beings as well as the indivisible Satchidananda.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
First of all reach the indivisible Satchidananda, and then, coming down,look at the universe. You will then find that everything is Its manifestation. It is God alone who has become everything. The world by no means exists apart from Him.
"All elements finally merge in akasa. Again, at the time of creation, akasa evolves into mahat and mahat into ahamkara. In this way the whole world-system is evolved.It is the process of involution and evolution. A devotee of God accepts everything.He accepts the universe and its created beings as well as the indivisible Satchidananda.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Sri RamaKrishna answers to the question "Is the world unreal"?
M: "Is the world unreal?"
MASTER: "Why should it be unreal? What you are asking is a matter for philosophical discussion.
"In the beginning, when a man reasons following the Vedantic method of 'Not this, not this', he realizes that Brahman is not the living beings, not the universe,not the twenty-four cosmic principles. All these things become like dreams to him.Then comes the affirmation of what has been denied, and he feels that God Himself has become the universe and all living beings.
"Suppose you are climbing to the roof by the stairs. As long as you are aware of the roof, you are also aware of the stairs. He who is aware of the high is also aware of the low. But after reaching the roof you realize that the stairs are made of the same materials—brick, lime, and brick-dust—as the roof.
"Further, I have given the illustration of the bel-fruit. Both changeability and
unchangeability belong to one and the same Reality.
"The ego cannot be done away with.As long as 'I-consciousness' exists, living beings and the universe must also exist. After realizing God, one sees that, it is He Himself who has become the universe and the living beings. But one cannot realize this by mere reasoning.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
MASTER: "Why should it be unreal? What you are asking is a matter for philosophical discussion.
"In the beginning, when a man reasons following the Vedantic method of 'Not this, not this', he realizes that Brahman is not the living beings, not the universe,not the twenty-four cosmic principles. All these things become like dreams to him.Then comes the affirmation of what has been denied, and he feels that God Himself has become the universe and all living beings.
"Suppose you are climbing to the roof by the stairs. As long as you are aware of the roof, you are also aware of the stairs. He who is aware of the high is also aware of the low. But after reaching the roof you realize that the stairs are made of the same materials—brick, lime, and brick-dust—as the roof.
"Further, I have given the illustration of the bel-fruit. Both changeability and
unchangeability belong to one and the same Reality.
"The ego cannot be done away with.As long as 'I-consciousness' exists, living beings and the universe must also exist. After realizing God, one sees that, it is He Himself who has become the universe and the living beings. But one cannot realize this by mere reasoning.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Sri RamaKrishna says difference between worldly and other-worldly things?
DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the difference between worldly and other-worldly things?"
MASTER: "While striving for the realization of God, the aspirant has to practise renunciation, applying the logic of 'Neti, neti'—'Not this, not this', But after attaining the vision of God, he realizes that God alone has become all things.
"At one time Rama was overpowered by the spirit of renunciation.Dasaratha,worried at this, went to the sage Vasishtha and begged him to persuade Rama not to give up the world. The sage came to Rama and found him in a gloomy mood. The fire of intense renunciation had been raging in the Prince's mind.
Vasishtha said: 'Rama,why should You renounce the world? Is the world outside God? Reason with me.' Rama realized that the world had evolved from the Supreme Brahman. So, He said nothing.
"Buttermilk is made from the same substance as butter. One who realizes this knows that butter goes with buttermilk and buttermilk with butter. After separating the butter with great effort-that is to say, after attaining Brahmajnana—you will realize that as long as butter exists, buttermilk also must exist.
Wherever there is butter there must be buttermilk as well. As long as one feels that Brahman exists, one must also be aware that the universe, living beings,and the twenty-four cosmic principles exist as well.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
MASTER: "While striving for the realization of God, the aspirant has to practise renunciation, applying the logic of 'Neti, neti'—'Not this, not this', But after attaining the vision of God, he realizes that God alone has become all things.
"At one time Rama was overpowered by the spirit of renunciation.Dasaratha,worried at this, went to the sage Vasishtha and begged him to persuade Rama not to give up the world. The sage came to Rama and found him in a gloomy mood. The fire of intense renunciation had been raging in the Prince's mind.
Vasishtha said: 'Rama,why should You renounce the world? Is the world outside God? Reason with me.' Rama realized that the world had evolved from the Supreme Brahman. So, He said nothing.
"Buttermilk is made from the same substance as butter. One who realizes this knows that butter goes with buttermilk and buttermilk with butter. After separating the butter with great effort-that is to say, after attaining Brahmajnana—you will realize that as long as butter exists, buttermilk also must exist.
Wherever there is butter there must be buttermilk as well. As long as one feels that Brahman exists, one must also be aware that the universe, living beings,and the twenty-four cosmic principles exist as well.
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
Monday, 16 November 2009
Sri Ramakrishna says How can one recognize a holy man?
Devotee: "How can one recognize a holy man?"
Rama Krishna: "He who has surrendered his body, mind, and innermost self to God is surely a holy man. He who has renounced 'woman and gold' is surely a holy man. He is a holy man who does not regard woman with the eyes of a worldly person. He never forgets to look upon a woman as his mother, and to offer her his worship if he happens to be near her.
The holy man constantly thinks of God and does not indulge in any talk except about spiritual things. Furthermore, he serves all beings, knowing that God resides in everybody's heart. These, in general, are the signs of a holy man."
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
Rama Krishna: "He who has surrendered his body, mind, and innermost self to God is surely a holy man. He who has renounced 'woman and gold' is surely a holy man. He is a holy man who does not regard woman with the eyes of a worldly person. He never forgets to look upon a woman as his mother, and to offer her his worship if he happens to be near her.
The holy man constantly thinks of God and does not indulge in any talk except about spiritual things. Furthermore, he serves all beings, knowing that God resides in everybody's heart. These, in general, are the signs of a holy man."
Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
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