Speaking of Robes, Broken Vows and Imperfection…

Insights on the human condition from yogini mystic writer Mira Prabhu

mira prabhu

1391429277When I moved to Dharamsala (seat of the Tibetan Government- in-Exile located in the foothills of the Himalayas) on the eve of the new millennium, my life changed overnight. You see, I had just left the world’s craziest city (Manhattan) for a small mountain town in northern India and was almost totally unprepared for what I was to encounter.

As my eyes opened to a new world of seeing, my views began to transform. For instance, I had long harbored a multitude of unchallenged assumptions about those who consciously enter the spiritual path; one such assumption was that all those who wore monastic robes were blessed creatures emanating love and light. After all, I subconsciously reasoned, most had taken the Boddhisattva Vow in one form or the other—which is to become enlightened for the sake of all beings—and which therefore meant they had to be perfect, right? RIGHT?

So I was both…

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Can an animal attain Self-Realization?

Birth as a Human

Bhagavan Ramana generally went along with the Hindu orthodox traditions and rarely contradicted them. But there were several notable exceptions.

One exception involved his own mother who lived with him despite the fact that Bhagavan was a Sadhu, a renunciate.

The second exception involved animals around him whom Bhagavan gave equality with human beings.

Once Bhagavan said, “It is not true that birth as a man is necessarily the highest, and that one must attain realisation only from being a man. Even an animal can attain Self-realisation”. (‘Day by Day with Bhagavan’ 2-9-46)

Analysis Of The Mind Or Transcendence? By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

Analysis Of The Mind Or Transcendence?

Luthar.com

Bhagavan Ramana’s teaching of self-inquiry is fundamentally different than the schools of thought which focus on self-improvement through a variety of motivational approaches. Sri Ramana used to say that when you are going to throw out the trash, you need not spend time analyzing its contents. He was referring to the mind.

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ARUNACHALA, NOT ABRACADABRA

Mira Prabhu sharing and sending her greetings from Arunachala. ❤

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dfa1c558daeba093bd582958cc97f9a1“Why don’t you teach an analytical meditation at my learning center?” a woman asked me. It was a bright morning in Rishikesh, and while I loved my new apartment with its spectacular view of the Himalayas, my heart was heavy with confusion about the future. I did not like the commercialization of this ancient city, nor the sharks I encountered, mostly wealthy urban businessmen who had bought up all the apartments in my enclave for ‘investment’ purposes and appeared to have few ethics.

“All right,” I agreed, albeit reluctantly; perhaps it would do me good to teach the Seven Flavors of Samsara, an analytical meditation on the nature of relative reality that I had learned from a powerful guru, and which I occasionally shared with those perplexed about the nature of reality—particularly those  who agonized over why bad things happened to good people and vice versa.

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Ahimsa Is The Highest Virtue

Ahimsa Is The Highest Virtue

Luthar.com

No teaching higher than Self Realization

Ahimsa (nonviolence) is the primary ideal and the virtue to be cultivated on the yogic path to Self-Realization. This is a subtle, deep, and fundamental psychological and spiritual truth.

Why such an emphasis on Ahimsa by the sages?

It is because the perfect and calm state of relaxed awareness is only possible in a mind that is free of all violence.

It is in this state that Grace takes over and allows the pure devotee to surrender fully to God who sits in the Heart, as the Universal Heart, and recognize it to be the Self, one’s very own Self.

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In the Jaws of the Beloved Tiger: By Dr. Evan Keith

By Evan Keith, a brother in Bhagavan Ramana

Luthar.com

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I do not know when I first learned of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. I know that at most he was little more than a name to me before my eighteenth birthday and only in the last year has he become of central importance to me. In fact, now I think of Bhagavan as my Guru. Bhagavan never did formal initiation of anyone as a devotee and never even referred to anyone as being or not being his devotee. Nevertheless, he sometimes mentioned that most people needed a guru to overcome their ancient tendencies and “realize” the Self. Sometimes Bhagavan would allude to the Self, itself, or in particular the mountain Arunachala as having been his Guru. In this respect, Bhagavan Ramana is my Sadguru and I am His devotee.

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The Maharshi’s Advice to Poonja-Ji

Sri Ramana and Poona-ji (also known as Papa-ji)

Luthar.com

Editor’s note:

As you read this personal account by Poonja-ji, keep in mind the background and the context of the times of the year 1947 as India was getting ready to be split into two countries.

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Rejection is God’s Protection…

Mira Prabhu on the nature of things writing from the Sacred Hill of Arunachala.

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image-1Years ago in Manhattan I enjoyed attending a spiritual meeting where people of varied ethnic backgrounds, professions and ages congregated to remind themselves of the power of the Divine running through their often thorny lives.

One guy—a talented young actor who’d made it big in a Broadway show, and who had then been fired unceremoniously when its sponsor went bankrupt, had been breaking my heart with his stark honesty about the frightening situation into which he’d been hurled: on the strength of the lucrative role he’d just lost, he’d bought an expensive east side condo and married his girlfriend—who, to top it all, was now heavily pregnant.

Success, he confessed miserably, had gone to his head like pink champagne used to: anticipating a large income for an indefinite period of time—Broadway shows can run forever—he and his wife had extravagantly remodeled their new home and taken a slew of expensive mini vacations…

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