Give yourself a quarter of an hour a day. Try to keep the mind unshakably fixed on that which sees. It is inside you. I have given you these teachings in the same words that the master gives to his intimate disciples. From now on, let your whole thought in meditation be not on the act of seeing, nor on what you see, but immovably on that which sees.
Sri Ramana summarized his method in a pamphlet called "Who Am I? The title has probably contributed to the widespread but mistaken impression that the method consists of questions. Actually, the main significance of the title is that the method is a technique for finding the answer.
Sri Ramana didn't intend the question to be mysterious. Early editions of the pamphlet began with the sentence "Who am I? He was born on December 30, in a village called Tirucculi about 30 miles south of Madurai in southern India. His middle-class parents named him Venkataraman after Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati, the family deity. His family were Iyers, members of the Tamil Brahmin caste. His father died when he was twelve, and he went to live with his uncle in Madurai where he attended American Mission High School.
At age 16, he became spontaneously self-realized. Six weeks later he ran away to the holy hill of Arunachala where he would remain for the rest of his life. When he arrived he threw away all his property including the thread which marked him as a Brahmin.
For several years he stopped talking and spent many hours each day in samadhi. When he began speaking again, people came to ask him questions and he soon acquired a reputation as a sage. Eventually he became world-famous and an ashram was built around him. He died of cancer in at the age of At age 16, he heard somebody mention "Arunachala.
At about the same time he came across a copy of Sekkilar's Periyapuranam, a book that describes the lives of Shaivite saints, and became fascinated by it.
In the middle of , at age 16, he was suddenly overcome by the feeling that he was about to die. He lay down on the floor, made his body stiff, and held his breath. Hundreds of books have been written about Sri Ramana, and some are much better than others. Among the many books of dialogs, in addition to Talks which we recommended in the preceeding paragraph, we especially like the one translated and compiled by Devaraja Mudaliar called Day by Day With Bhagavan because Ramana once said source :.
One of the most important categories of books for seekers are those that give detailed, concrete instructions for doing Self-enquiry and which were written by Sri Ramana or by his direct disciples.
At least three books of this type exist. The first and by far most important is Who Am I? Narayan Aiyer recommends the use of japa, pranayama, and attention to the Heart in a quasi-physical sense. Both are edited by David Godman.
We recommend these two books very highly. There are many books of reminiscences of Sri Ramana by people who knew him personally. Two other documents are of special importance although they may not be to the average reader's taste. Ulladu Narpadu , a poem of 42 verses, is regarded by many as Sri Ramana's most significant work. Guru Vachaka Kovai , a collection of verses composed by one of Sri Ramana's closest disciples, Sri Muruganar, and checked for accuracy by Sri Ramana, is probably the most detailed statement of Sri Ramana's teachings.
It is available in three different translations. In our opinion this superb collection of extracts from Ramana Maharshi's writings and dialogues is the best single-volume introduction to his teachings.
This is the book we recommend to people who want to read about Sri Ramana for the first time. The editor, David Godman, is probably the foremost living expert on Sri Ramana's teachings. David has gone through dozens of books by and about Sri Ramana and collected passages which most clearly state various points of his teaching.
These extracts are organized thematically into chapters with higher teachings first and less important ones last. Owing to non-apprehension of the world in sleep, swoon and so on, the location of the Self has to be inferred.
Even as the subtle forces like the electric current pass through visible wires, the light of awareness flows through a nadi in the body. The effulgent light of pure awareness, taking hold of a centre, lights up the entire body as the Sun illumines the world. Owing to the diffusion of that light in the body, one has experiences in the body. That centre of radiation the sages say, is the Heart. From the play of forces in the nadis one infers the flow of the light of awareness.
The forces course through the body each hugging its special nadi. The particular nadi through which pure awareness flows is called sushumna. It is also called atma nadi, para nadi and amrita nadi. As the light pervades the entire body, one gets attached to the body, mistakes the body for the Self and regards the world as different from oneself.
When the discerning one renounces attachment and the identification of himself with the body and pursues one-pointed enquiry, a churning starts in the nadis. With this churning of the nadis, the Self gets separated from the other nadis, and clinging to the amrita nadi alone, shines forth.
When the effulgent light of awareness shines in atma nadi alone, nothing else shines except the Self. Anything that appears before such a jnani has no separate existence.
He knows the Self as clearly as the ignorant one his body. He for whom the atman alone shines, within, without and everywhere, as clearly as objects to the ignorant, is called one who has cut the nexus. The nexus is two-fold; one the bond of the nadis, the other mental attachment. I will start with his brief explanation from his essay Who am I?
Question: What is the path of enquiry for understanding the nature of the mind? It is only after the rise of this that the other thoughts arise. Without the first personal pronoun there will not be the second and third. Then there will arise Self-realisation. After this reply there is this crucial question about practice.
With repeated practice in this manner the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source. This is a two-way transaction. Nothing will make it want to go out and follow a thought. But this is not liberation.
It will draw it into itself. It will then destroy it and liberation will result. You started off [this interview] by talking about the Buddha, [mentioning his statement] that one should not take anything on trust, not take anything as a belief. One should instead find out for oneself what is true and what is not true. One should reject what is not true and hold on to truth.
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