Yoga And Advaita: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

Yoga and Advaita

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Yoga and breath Jnana and mind

These questions came up some years ago. My responses are included. (Photo art above is from Andreas Farasitis).

Question: Is the way and goal of Patanjali’s Yoga and  Sri Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta the same?

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Giving to others is really giving to oneself ~ Sri Ramana

Giving to others is really giving to oneself. ~ Sri Ramana

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Bhagavan says, “Giving to others is really giving to oneself.” Bhagavan continues, “If one knows this truth, would one ever remain without giving?” (See Chapter XIII “Gems from Bhagavan.” Bhagavan here states the fundamental truth of reality at every level.

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Aids To Self Enquiry: By Alan Jacobs

Aids To Self Enquiry: By Alan Jacobs

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“Those who leave the path of Self Enquiry, the way of liberation, and wander off along the myriad forest tracks, will encounter only confusion”. Bhagavan Ramana.

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Self Enquiry is the Direct Path and Bhagavan’s great contribution for the modern age for all. 

Self Enquiry is the backbone of the main weapon in Bhagavan’s teaching for eliminating the vasanas, tendencies and vrittis, the thought forms which act as a veil and occlude your Real Self.

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Paradox Of The Mind: By Alan Jacobs

Paradox of the Mind: By Alan Jacobs

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“Oh Mind, do not waste your life in roaming outside, pursuing wonders and wallowing in enjoyments. To know the Self through grace and to abide in this way firmly in the Heart is alone worthwhile.” [1]

This relevant quotation leads us to consider that what we term ‘mind’ can be conceived as a great paradox. From one standpoint it is a benevolent friend but from another it is a malicious enemy.

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My Visit to Arunachala: By Alan Jacobs

Alan-ji’s inspiring letter to Bhagavan devotees about his 2012 visit to Arunachala.

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Letter From Alan Jacobs after returning from Arunachala

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My dear Friends,

My whole recent visit to Arunachala was filled with Bhagavan’s boundless Grace from beginning to end.

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Karma, Reincarnation, and Suffering: By Alan Jacobs

Karma, Reincarnation, and Suffering: By Alan Jacobs

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There is a great deal of misery and anxiety occupying peoples’ minds these days about the suffering currently undergone on the Planet through terrorism, local armed conflicts, starvation, disease and economic depression. Many atheists and agnostics base their skepticism about the existence of God on the observation that a benign and benevolent God of Love could not possibly exist, or else he would not permit so much world suffering.

According to sages, the highest teachings of the world religions are contained in the idea that we are all “One” and that we come from the same divine source to which many names can be given. Sri Ramana used to say that, “God is the actual form of love”. So why then so much suffering in the world?  From the standpoint of our own teaching, that of the great Sage, Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, we must first understand that this plane…

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LIFE IS A DREAM: By Alan Jacobs

Life is a Dream: By Alan Jacobs

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Bhagavan's smile Bhagavan’s smile

“To know that the world is a dreamlike illusion. Know that all of the following are a dreamlike illusion. The world, the body, the universe, all dimensions, time and all events, motions and actions”. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

215. “The world appears distinctly only in wakefulness and dream with concepts filled. In concept-free, all empty sleep, one sees no world; so then conceptual is… the world’s whole substance.”

Taken from Step Two of The Seven Steps to Awakening. All of the Ramana quotes in The Seven Steps to Awakening are taken from K. Swaminathan’s English translation of The Garland of Guru’s Sayings.

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Who Is Rama? The Doctrine Of Neti, Neti

Rama_Sita-Lakshman in_forest

In order to explain the Advaitic doctrine of “Neti Neti”, Sri Ramana used to tell the story of Sita and Rama.

Prince Rama was exiled for 14 years from the kingdom to a forest by his loving father. The full story is too complex to be told here.  

When Prince Rama, obeying his father, left the kingdom of Ayodhya, his wife Sita came with him to endure the hardships of poverty and penance side by side with her husband. Rama’s younger brother Lakshman insisted on coming as well to keep them company and to protect them in the forest.

When the three reached the forest, they took off their royal clothes and sent them back via the Chariot that had brought them to the edge of the forest. They put on clothes of forest dwellers and Rishis who lived in the forest.

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