Be aware of this trick of the mind. Spirituality is to be aware of “what is”. This very awareness brings transformation of present chaotic state of “what is”, to a perfect state of clarity here and now. Transformation happens in the “now”, in the present moment.

Transformation and understanding are not time bound.They are the result of awareness which is not time bound.

Psychological time is a movement of dead past projecting a future which is yet to be. This orientation bypasses the present moment.

The present moment is a living thing and is beyond the dimension of time. Time has only past tense and future tense and both are non-existential. The present moment is existential and so it is a living phenomena.

Transformation through understanding happens only in the present. Becoming is time bound and understanding never happens in becoming because becoming is a continuation of the past. Becoming is perpetuation of the past.

Only when there is ending of the past, there is a possibility of something new to happen. In the awareness of Self-inquiry we are dissociated from the past and there is the observation of “what is” without wearing the lenses of the past. In that process of awareness we are in direct contact with “what is’ without any attempt to translate “what is” according to the past and convert into the language of the past, the known.

The quality of watchfulness is central to spirituality. All other things done in the name of spirituality belong to a religious circus. There are always plenty of those.

~Dr.Raju.

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Consciousness reflects diamonds or pebbles equally. By its very nature it won’t choose that which is reflected.

Ego is the consummation of all past experiences. So if we observe through the observer there is the perpetuation of the past. Nothing new can be observed with such a type of observation.

Self-inquiry is not a process of “doing”.It is a process of conscious observation without the interference of the “doer”. In such a type of observation even “doer” is an object of observation.

When you are in a state of observation during the process of Self-inquiry, you are not in a state of thinking. Either there is thinking or there is pure observation and both of them do not happen simultaneously. If there is a thought “I am doing Self-inquiry”, then you are not in a state of Self-inquiry.

The pure act of observation in Self-inquiry cannot be reduced to a thought.

Here is an example to demonstrate this. When you see a bird on the wing, just be watchful and be in a state of wonder in seeing the beauty of it. Let that beauty and its dance in the wind penetrate you. But the moment the mind enters and says how beautiful is the bird, the “thought of beauty” becomes a barrier to perceive the beauty of the bird on the wing.

You are no longer seeing the bird on the wing, its suchness. You have gone into past memories of the bird and comparing them with the present. It is a mind game and it is a fall from pure observation into the domain of mind. Then your awareness become clouded by the smoke of the past and dust of the past started collecting on the mirror of consciousness which no longer reflects the beauty of the bird on the wing because you are not “here and now”.

Thats what happens whenever a thought arises in you, your consciousness is disturbed, starts wavering, waves start arising in you and you are not capable of reflecting the suchness of that which is.

In Self-inquiry we have to learn the new art of observing things and thoughts without judging,verbalizing, evaluating. The state of observation is more important than what is being observed.

Observation without any choice is total freedom. In pure observation we don’t wipe out the known, but we enter into a different dimension altogether from which the known, the past, the ego is observed. In this awareness memory acts without impediment, and efficiently.

If you persist and if you are patient enough and if you go on working at cleaning and polishing the inner, one day this implosive state of pure observation happens. Then you are born anew in the consciousness with eyes which are so clear and your mirror of consciousness reflects so deeply, so totally without distortion, the whole ego unfolds itself, flowers and withers in the passive state of observation.

When there is observation without the observer,you are simply a witness.Then you don’t think that ‘I am observing”, there is no “I”,there is no thinking, there is only observation because all thinking and the “I”,they have all become objects of your witnessing. But witnessing cannot be its own object and those who claim that they are aware of their awareness do not know anything about awareness.We can be awareness which is a state of unicity.

No mirror can reflect itself. Bhagawan Ramana says your eyes cannot see themselves.

Adi Sankara in Vivekachudamani pointed out that even those with Self knowledge must always be alert (Sada Apramada) because Maya may veil them at anytime again and if it happens their position is like a ball slipping from top of a hill and getting lost into a deep valley where it is impossible to trace it even.

So the quintessence of Self-inquiry lies in observing the “what is” without the observer and in that process “what is” is transformed.

DR.RAJU

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Bhagavan Ramana

Sri Ramana used to say that there are so many scriptures, it is hard to read them all.  Bhagavan’s view was that once an aspirant understands the essence of the pure teaching of self-inquiry, practice becomes the most critical factor on the path.

I should add that the commentaries on the scriptures are endless as well!

Those who are bent on Self-Realization, grasp the teaching and, after that, remain in the awareness of their self-nature without distraction.

The essential teaching is contained in the great Vedic Mahavakya, “Aham Brahmasmi!” or “I Am Brahman!”

It means that “I Myself Am The Infinite!” One gains conviction in this when heard from the Guru who says, “Thou Art That”.

Once the firm conviction is there, then one should meditate on the nature of the “I-Awareness” until the inner eye within the “I” reveals itself as pure consciousness which is the core of existence being Existence itself.

That is all there is to it. The rest is all entertainment!

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I came to the conviction that the highest human attainment was the state of Jivanmukti (full enlightenment whilst still in the body). I was then at Tiruchengode (1921-1925) studying in college. When I was 18 years old, I fervently prayed that I should meet a Jivanmukta and receive his blessings.

My prayers were soon answered! My father, a police officer, was transferred to Tiruvannamalai. I came to know of Bhagavan Ramana living there. I gave up my studies and rushed to Arunachala. At Katpadi, while traveling in the train towards Tiruvannamalai, I had a remarkable vision of Bhagavan. Thus my Sadguru came to me and absorbed me even before l could have His physical darshan!

When I arrived at the Ashrama, Bhagavan gave me a warm welcome with a benign smile. As He was seeing me for the first time, His two spontaneous utterances surprised me. Like an affectionate mother, He asked me, “When did you come?” and “How is your right hand?”

My right hand was badly fractured when I was 14-years-old and though it healed up the hand remained bent and short. I used to cover it up with full sleeves and even my friends did not know of this serious deformity. How did Bhagavan know about it? And what affectionate concern He showed! After Bhagavan inquired about it, my sense of inferiority because of the defect totally disappeared. More than all this, He asked me to be seated in front of Him.

Gazing at Him I sat down and I do not know what happened to me then. When I got up two hours had elapsed. This was an experience I had never had before and I have always cherished it as the first and foremost prasad and blessing received from my Sadguru. That day I understood the purport of the statement, “The Sadguru ever gives unasked!” That moment I knew I had been accepted into His Fold. This strong bond He allowed me to enjoy until His Mahasamadhi, and even after.

Daily I would go to Bhagavan by two in the afternoon and return home only at 8 p.m. My father, who was a staunch devotee, was instrumental in constructing, in a remarkably short time, the Old Hall where Bhagavan was to stay for more than twenty years. Bhagavan would quote from Ribhu Gita, Kaivalya Navaneetam, Jnana Vasishta and other Advaitic texts and explain to me their greatness. All the while I was aware I was in the blissful presence of a Brahmajnani, so highly extolled in all our scriptures.

He was a sarvajna (all-knower). I got many proofs of it, though I never demanded them. Daily pocket-money of three annas was given to me by my father. I bought for that amount sambrani (incense) which was burnt in the presence of Bhagavan. One day I did not get the three annas, so I could not buy the sambrani. I, therefore, refrained from going to Bhagavan that day. The next day when I went, Bhagavan graciously remarked: “Yesterday you did not come because you could not get sambrani. Veneration in the heart is enough.”

My father was suddenly transferred to Vellore. None of us, particularly myself, wanted to leave Tiruvannamalai since darshan of Bhagavan would then be denied. We ventilated our grievance to Bhagavan. He gave me a benign smile. A few days after, strangely, the transfer order was canceled!

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• Assuming one’s responsibility
• Accepting the state of affairs of our life as it stands today
• this brings us to a general sense of devotion to our lives
• which in turn brings about the surrender required to experience Unity Consciousness

Acceptance is one of the key qualities that we need to implement in our lives. Understanding that our particular form of life is the result of an evolutionary process brings us into terms with life, as it is experienced by our own particular individual mind. Karma is a very much misunderstood concept.

A fictional conversation between chela and Guru by Raman Leonato based on the teachings of Gururaj Ananda Yogi

The Lover: You have said that we carry the memory of millions of years of experience in our subconscious mind and that these impressions are the basis of our karma.  From a practical point of view, how many of these experiences can we free ourselves of in one life?

The Beloved: Karma works hand in hand with Grace.  If you have millions of years worth of karma stored up within you, which are the impressions that make up your ego self, it does not mean that you have to live millions and millions of lifetimes to get rid of them all.  They can be got rid of in one lifetime.  Man has the ability in him to reach enlightenment in one lifetime. Not by getting rid of the karmas, but by shedding them.
Now, how does one shed karma?  The seeds are there, and the normal expression used by Sanskritists is this, that you burn the seeds so that they could not germinate.  Now, how does one burn the seeds?  Spiritual practices play a great part.  The proper mode of life, of living and thinking, plays a great part.  But the greater part is played by action and by non-stagnation.
I usually say that if you have killed ten people it is not necessary to be killed ten times.  You might be faced today by a fire in the school nearby, save eleven lives of the children inside, risking yours each of the times you get into the fire, and you end up with one in the credit balance. So, the impressions and the karma formed by ten killings is automatically removed because it works on the balance sheet principle, and is forever balancing itself.  How much karma you have left on the debit or the credit side is what you are today, and the circumstances you are in are those in which you resolve yourself.

The Lover: So I should then not worry at all about my past deeds, even if I have been doing bad things?

The Beloved: If you have done bad things that does not effect your spiritual self at all.
Your spiritual self cannot be touched by good nor bad. It is above it all.  The spiritual life we talk of is above good and bad.  But, if some things you have done are contrary to the laws of nature, then you have to pay for that.  That is what we call the concept of hell, where you are tortured for it and you pay for it.  Yet those very heavens and hells are here and now today and can all be rewarded, or paid for, or repented upon, here now.  So the entirety of millions of years of buildup can be done away with here in this lifetime.
According to karmic law, time is not the factor.  We measure time only in the relative expression of the here and now, but in the entire scheme of things there is no such thing as time.  In ordinary existence, on the relative or the grosser relative, a million years might have passed, but all of that can be wiped away in a few moments.  The time it takes in preparing the candle and the match is far, far longer than just striking the match and creating light, and that is illumination.  Then the darkness of all those samskaras  – disappear.  A darkness might exist in an old ancient English castle for a few hundreds of years, and yet you walk in there with a lighted lamp and the darkness of hundreds of years in this unoccupied castle vanishes immediately. It vanishes because you are there with this light.  And this light is lit by meditation and spiritual practices.

The Lover: Should I then think that my circumstances today are there for me to pay back my karmas?

The Beloved: You’ve gone through so many lifetimes and so many experiences and you are paying for it today.  It is good to think that way.  That gives you a sense of acceptance that – “I must accept my lot wherever I am placed”.  That is why Christianity says we are born in sin. There is great truth in that. We have brought with us all those samskaras which form our tendencies in life. Essentially the human being is divine; but he does come with this burden.

The Lover: So I accept that. My circumstances today are those in which the karma, the burden I carry is resolved. How do I resolve it?

The Beloved: With this acceptance you must perform action, for acceptance alone will not help you, and it cannot be cowardly acceptance – because you are a coward and you are not prepared to fight; you just accept.
If a person is stronger than you, a big bully and you don’t fight him and you say, “Oh, well, I am a stronger man because I’m not going to be violent.”  Sounds beautiful from the outside, but really speaking, you are afraid.  You are accepting defeat there now, not because you are stronger but because you are weak.  Because you fear.  The proper kind of acceptance would mean that you are accepting the challenge by action.

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The subject tonight is Love

And for tomorrow night as well,

As a matter of fact

I know of no better topic

For us to discuss

Until we all

Die!

Hafiz is not a name, he is a Legend…. One of  greatest spiritual poets to have emerged from Iran. Also called Hafiz of Shiraz, he had memorized the Koran while still in his teens. His father died early, leaving him and his mother with much debt. Hafiz and his mother went to live with his uncle. Because of their poverty, he had to leave school to work in a drapery shop and later in a bakery.

Here is where the story begins.

In 1341, Hafiz was 21 and still working at the bakery. Working by the day and marveling at the works of  Saadi,  Farid ad-Din Attar, Rumi or Nizami by the night, he had learnt to get by with little sleep.

Early one morning at the bakery a worker who delivered the bread was sick, and he had to deliver to a certain quarter of Shiraz where the rich, Turkish ruling class lived. At a mansion, Hafiz happened to see a young woman of delicate beauty standing on the balcony. Her name was ‘Shakh-e-Nabat’ (meaning ‘Branch of Sugarcane’). Nabat’s unique beauty immediately intoxicated Hafiz and he fell hopelessly in love with her. This single encounter had such a profound effect on him that he almost lost most human consciousness. Sleep, hunger and other urges left him and Nabat seemed to colour his poetry in hues of her name.

Love has

Befriended Hafiz so completely

It has turned to ash

And freed

Me

Of every concept and image

my mind has ever known.

Hafiz realized the futility of his longing when heard that she had been promised in marriage to the king’s brother. His love was destined to be hopeless, yet the vision of her beauty filled his heart and his being. A state wherein the thought of the Beloved is constantly with you, like a soft background score to every scene. His thoughts were constantly with her.

Then one day he remembered the famous ‘promise of Baba Kuhi.’ Baba Kuhi was a Perfect Master-Poet who had died in Shiraz in 1050 and had been buried four miles from Shiraz on a hill named after him. Baba Kuhi had composed a ruba’i that held some hope

Wherever a heart has blood flowing from it, I see it.
Crazy for hair of moon-faced ones? I admit I see it!

That particular Essence … the same in both worlds,
in moon-faced ones looks, pure, exquisite … I see it.

The promise that Baba Kuhi gave was that if anyone could stay awake for forty consecutive nights at his tomb he would grant them the gift of poetry, immortality, and their heart’s desire. Hafiz, most keen on the third, vowed to keep this vigil. He had plenty of practice in not sleeping.

Every day Hafiz would go to work at the bakery, eat his day’s meal and then walk past the house of Nabat. By now even she had come across some of the poems Hafiz had composed for her.

You should come close to me tonight wayfarer

For I will be celebrating you……….

She had noticed him passing, each day more weary, but with fire in his eyes. Hafiz was in a kind of trance. The only thing that kept him going was the love in his heart and his determination to keep the lonely vigil.

As Hafiz’s love increased for this ‘Beloved’, so also increased his desire for ‘That’ Beloved- God. He saw the Divine as her Higher self…. And it was to this Higher self that he now composed his ghazals. Hafiz, was by and by getting to love the actual flame of which Nabat was a reflection.

Don’t surrender your loneliness so quickly
let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
as few human or even divine ingredients can
Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft
my voice so tender
my need of god
absolutely clear.

The days passed, as if in a frenzy, Hafiz going about his grueling life and then keeping an all night vigil on the dargah, night after night after night. The moon smiled at the earth

They say that there is a promise of fulfillment in every deep yearning. On the fortieth day she ran out and threw herself in the dust at his feet, declaring that she had lost her heart to him. That she would no longer marry the prince. That she loved him…… but  Hafiz stumbled on, single-mindedly towards his quest

Finally, utterly exhausted, Hafiz saw a radiant angel who asked him what he desired most. Some say this was Angel Gabriel, who gave Hafiz a cup of Water of Immortality and the gift of poetry and asked him his heart’s desire.

Hafiz could not take his eyes off Gabriel. So great was the divine beauty of this messenger of God, that Hafiz had forgotten his muse. The flame which burnt in him, was now all around him in this dazzling brilliance of the Angel’s light and Hafiz knew, that if the messenger is so beautiful, then how much more beautiful The Divine must be.

And at the hour of the boon, beholding the Angel of God, the cup of immortality in his hand, Hafiz declared: “I want God.”

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In Hinduism, the term “Avatar” refers to an “Incarnation” of some aspect of God in a form. For example, Rama (from Ramayana), and Krishna (from Mahabharata) are both considered Avatars of the Hindu God Vishnu. In Hinduism, many saints are also considered Avatars by their devotees. In this context,  Sri Ramana was sometimes asked by devotees if he was an Avatar; and if so, of which Hindu God was he an Avatar of?  Bhagavan was generally aloof from such questions and kept silent letting people believe what they wished.

The curiosity in the mind of many Hindu devotees of Bhagavan was to find out his  “true identity”. Bhagavan’s teaching on the Self, of course, makes such questions moot. However, once in a while when Bhagavan did indulge such questions, he always pointed to the heart of the issue. Below is an example of that.

Editor

_______________________

A devotee named Amritanatha Yati wrote on a paper a Malayalam verse imploring Bhagavan to say whether he was Hari (Vishnu) or Sivaguru (Subrahmanya) or Yativara (Siva) or Vararuchi.

Bhagavan, in his answer, wrote his reply in the same Malayalam metre on the same paper. A translation of it is given below for the benefit of the devotees. The answer speaks for it self.

“In the recesses of the lotus-shaped Hearts of all, beginning with Vishnu, there shines as pure intellect (Absolute Consciousness), the Paramatman, who is the same as Arunachala Ramana. When the mind melts with love of Him, and reaches the inmost recess of the Heart wherein He dwells as the beloved, the subtle eye of pure intellect opens and He reveals Himself as Pure Consciousness.”

(Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi, p143)

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I have been writing on the web on Eastern spirituality, nonduality, yoga, and mysticism, in the context of Bhagavan Ramana’s teachings since 1997.  You will find articles on luthar.com by me and other authors that are diverse and varied and touch on many different aspects of self-inquiry, yoga, kundalini, meditation and related topics.  If you look at the home page, you will see that many International scholars and sages have written on the luthar.com site.

I am not tech savvy and since 1997 have focused mostly on the content of what I write and not on how to market it. I have a professional webmaster who helps me keep the site going and I rent my own server. The monthly cost is considerable but writing on yoga. advaita, and meditation in the context of Bhagavan’s teaching on self-inquiry and sharing it with others has been a labor of love for me.  Luthar.com does not have any google ads and things like that. The site has grown via word of mouth and is currently ranked second in the advaita-vedanta category by Alexa Rankings (adyashanti.org is first, only slightly ahead of luthar.com)

A few months ago my webmaster added the tab of “Testimonials” to my menu bar. Many of you (over the last 13 years) have written to me privately and expressed appreciation for the luthar.com site and the content on it.  I am now asking for testimonials from the readers and my friends so that I can put them on luthar.com under the testimonial tab. I believe it will take the site to the next level in its natural progression.

Please contact me if you wish to write a brief testimonial for the site. You can include your picture if you like as well. I will periodically forward the materials to my webmaster who will then start uploading it.

Thank you for your support.

Yours in Bhagavan Ramana.

Namaste.

Harsh K. Luthar

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For one who is fascinated by self-inquiry and focusing on the core of one’s being and existence, the need to endlessly brood over the mind and its activities evaporates. The mind is what it is.

In the short run people can benefit from positive thinking and various self-help methodologies.  Ultimately, the point of self-inquiry is not to improve the ego mind, but to fully transcend it and recognize our inherent perfection in the Heart of Being.

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The ocean-girdled maiden Earth’s
Hard, long penance has borne fruit,
Pure Being, glorious Siva Himself,
Embodied in human form as Guru
Ramana of flawless wisdom
Has come to us.

Let us in the Heart Cherish His sacred Feet.
Our blessed benediction fits
This Sacred Guru Purnima Day,
which Seeks to dispel delusion.
That One word is Ramana, the Self,
Abiding In every Devotees spiritual Heart.

Awareness pure, true Being shining
In silence. Self-experience of
The real I, behind the false.
Conceptual “I”, is Bhagavan transcendent,

With His lotus Feet we crown our heads.
To those who look within, the highest
Good gained by the Master’s grace,
Is wakeful sleep, the turya state,
The undying flame, the sweet, uncloying
Fruit for ever fresh.

Heart, free from liking and disliking.
Form comely with the comeliness
Of perfect wisdom, He, our Master.
The goal of all true goodness,
Has destroyed our ignorance and fear.
His Feet are our last refuge.

[Freely adapted from V 14-18 0f the Guru
Vachaka Kovai of Sri Muruganar- A.J.]

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