Prominent Learnings during 1750-1950 CE--VIII

Silence is truth,Silence is bliss,Silence is peace and Silence is the self -- Ramana Maharshi

Continuing our thrust on learnings from prominent Saints and Philosophers of the period 1750-1950 CE, we shall share some of the spiritual and ethical messages conveyed by a Hindu sage of Southern India and a leading proponent of Advaita Vedanta Sh Ramana Maharshi of the period 1879-1950 CE.

" Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What's wrong is seeking it outside when actually it is inside,"and ," Your true nature is that of infinite spirit. The feeling of limitation is the work of mind." are two examples of his simple, straightforward messages to the community, uplifting their self and spiritual insight.

Born in December 1879, named Venkataraman Iyer, he had a deep interest towards Self introspection and Self analysis raising basic question to his teachers on " Who am I? and seeking  answers on purpose of life. He strongly advocated Self Inquiry (आत्म विचार ) as means of Self Realization. His philosophy and wisdom has been 
compiled into several books by his disciples. Naming a few; The collected works of Ramana Maharshi, Everything is an illusion, Be as you are and Gems for Bhagwan.                                                                            

As per him, the whole Vedanta is contained in two Biblical statements --," I am that I am" and " Be still and know that I am God". God is within us. It is only our wandering minds and perverted ways that stand in the way of our knowing myself or God. Nan- Yar, meaning " Who am I ?" has been his philosophical mantra." Who am I", really means trying to find the source of the ego or the "I" thought. Let me now briefly share some of his teachings on " Self Inquiry" and " Self Realization", two of his fundamental approaches.These are;

• The Self can not be found in books. You have to find it for yourself, within yourself.
• Turn your vision inward & the whole world will be full of supreme spirit.
• " I am", is the name of the God; God is none other than the Self.
• Guru, God and Self are one. As such, knowing the self, God s known. The Self is the only Reality and there is nothing else.
• All that is required to realize the Self is to " Be Still". If one's mind is still, the whole world appears peaceful. Mind control  means concentration and  concentrating the mind solely on Self leads to happiness and bliss.
• Self Inquiry leads directly to Self Realization by removing the obstacles or ignorance. It means trying to search for the sources of Ego or" I" and making efforts of getting rid of all other thoughts. The Self is pure consciousness and once the obstructions are removed, it shines forth.
• I want you to dive consciously into the self and into the heart.. Mind turned outward results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, the mind subsides but only after self inquiry. The mind is merely thoughts and of all thoughts,"I" is the root, which has to go.
• The Self is the pure reality in whose light, the body, the ego and all else shine. When all thoughts are stilled, pure consciousness remains over.This self, which is pure consciousness, has no ego sense about it. This ego or individual being is at the root of all that is futile and undesirable in life. It is to be destroyed. This is Liberation or Enlightenment or Self Realization.
• On a question on the purpose of Self Realization, Maharishi replied," The goal of self realization is Realizing the Real which means existence without beginning or end, everywhere, infinite; existence underlying all forms, all changes, all matter & all spirit. People talk of self realization generally, under the delusion of non self as the self and unreal as real. But, actually, self always has been the self and there is no such thing as realizing it. All vices center around ego and once ego is gone, Self Realization naturally results."
• On a question on the state of Self Realized person, Maharishi said," A self realized man remains calm and composed during all activities,unaffected by worldly problems and has no anxieties, worries or cares. He feels that everything is being done by something with which he is in conscious union. Further,the sensation is common both to the realized man and the unrealized man. The difference is that the unrealized man identifies himself with the body, mistakes the body for the self & feels it while the realized man knows that all this is self which is perfect, all this is Brahman.As per him, sin is the action of the ego against the universal harmony or the will of God. .
• Your own Self Realization is the greatest service you can render to the world.

Besides the path of achieving self realization thru self inquiry, Maharishi stressed upon following an ethical and moral life in society. His message," Self reform automatically brings about social reform." conveys his priority on self reform first and then only social reforms for ethical living of society. Some of key suggestions given by him on this area include;

• No one succeeds without effort. Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance ie people must do hard work and should not shirk from owning responsibilities.
• There is neither past nor future. There is only the present. Yesterday was the present to you when you experienced it and tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it. Therefore experience takes place only in the present and beyond experience, nothing exists. In this way, he stressed upon people to live in reality and avoid either day dreaming or extending upon the past.
• A member of the community should conduct himself always by word, mind and body in such a fashion that it results in help to the society. 
• A good brotherly feeling with a sense of equality is the supreme goal to be reached collectively by the community.
• Unless one is happy, he can't bestow happiness on others. There is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy.You yourself impose limitations on your true nature of infinite being and then weep that you are a finite creature.
• When the embodied beings treat each other with equal respect, great peace and harmony flourish. The whole world shines like the one dwelling house of entire human family.
• Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns.
• Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the world.
• All good or divine qualities are included in JNANA ( spiritual enlightenment) and all bad or satanic qualities in AJNANA ( spiritual darkness). When JNANA comes,all AJNANA vanishes to make room for divine qualities in a man. If a man is Jnani, he can not utter lies or commit sins. The message is that spiritual enlightenment transforms ethical living.
• Peace is for purification of one's mind. Power is for growth of the community. Having established the community with power, one should then establish supreme peace. Ethical living demands peace all around by one's spiritual enlightenment as well as respect for others.

Maharishi had great respect for all religions and in no way his teachings oppose  any religion. He clarified," A religion involves two modes of activities; Horizontal & Vertical. Horizontally, it harmonizes and controls the life of the individual and society in conformity with its faith and morality. Vertically, it provides spiritual paths to attain a higher state or realize the ultimate truth during this life. Religions, horizontally, are not contradictory. Maharishi's vertical path has been most direct & central; the quest of one's self and for this, any religion could serve as a foundation.

There is so much to learn from Maharishi's  life. I will now share a few more relevant self related valuable  insights given by him based on his question answer sessions. 

• We are all really SAT-CHIT-ANANDA ( being, knowledge, bliss), but we imagine that we are bound by destiny and suffer. Maharshi clarified in one of the session," As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruits of his deeds; but as soon as he realizes the self thru self inquiry or surrender, his sense of being the doer falls away and the destiny ends. Maharshi called it external liberation."
• There are only two ways to conquer destiny--- thru self inquiry to discover that only ego is bound by it or killing the ego by complete surrender to the Lord saying all the time," Not I, but thou, O Lord", giving up all sense of I and mine and leaving it to Lord to do whatever he likes. Accept His will and await His pleasure.He knows what is best and when and how to do it.
• True surrender is the love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation. In other words, complete effacement of Ego is essential to conquer destiny. To explain a bit more, true surrender is giving oneself up to the original care of one's being. Let us not delude ourselves by imagining this source to be some God outside us. This source is within us.Let us seek this source, give ourselves to it and finally merge into it. 
• Holding on to Reality is Samadhi. It is totally different from Sleep.While sleep is a state of merging in ignorance and remaining unaware of  the world, Samadhi is merging in Reality. Further, remaining in the primal, pure, natural state without any efforts is " Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi".In this Samadhi, one remains calm and composed during any activity since he is moved by the deeper real self within and unaffected by anything external to it.
• Man's real nature is happiness which is inborn in the true self. Man's search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true self. The true self is imperishable and therefore when a man finds it, he finds happiness which never ends. While answering a related question, he said," First find out the truth behind yourself, then only you will be able to understand the truth behind the world.Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world."
• Grace is necessary for removal of ignorance but grace is there all along. All that is necessary is to know its existence. The highest form of grace is silence.it is also the highest spiritual instructions. If the Guru is silent, the seeker's mind gets purified by itself.

The enormous wisdom extracted from Maharishi's philosophy, writings and question answer sessions can never be contained in a small blog like that of mine. I have made a sincere attempt to pick up key learnings restricted to  my area of analysis. Let me end the blog by another gem of his saying;

The end of all wisdom is love, love and love