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About Harsha

https://luthar.com/

Posts by Harsha

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The Destructive Dance of Monkey Mind

. Arunachala, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Ramana Maharishi, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , ,

From the sacred journey of Mira Prabhu now residing at the holy mountain of Arunachala in India.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

6d683d43b8fae0a1465e0c51199d5190-1Last night something happened that disturbed my mind. Unable to sleep, I stayed awake until the wee hours, reading an illuminating book a friend had given me containing the reminiscences of those fortunate enough to have had personal contact with Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

I woke up feeling bedraggled—but the sun was shining through many windows, and doggies and humans would soon be calling for my attention, so I rose. I did my morning practice of diving into the Self and was able to dispassionately view the antics of my mind—as if I was a wise old grandfather indulgently watching his rambunctious grandson mess up the living room. Simply being watched with love stopped my mind from spinning into even more chaos—and then bliss arose in a strong wave.

FB_IMG_1472401603075As Gautama Buddha said so beautifully over two thousand years ago, sometimes the mind is like a drunken wild elephant in rut. Somehow we must…

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The Path to Enlightenment: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Yoga . , , ,

In this essay, I suggest that the philosophies and perspectives of the gradual or the direct path are not inherently meaningful. Their truth lies only in being teaching tools. Words and concepts such as the “direct path” and the “gradual path” are meant to point at the truth but they are not themselves the truth. The Truth must reveal itself to us in our own Heart.

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A Popular Dichotomy

A popular dichotomy has emerged about Enlightenment in the West since the 1970s between the schools of “gradual enlightenment” and “instant enlightenment”. Some of this can probably be traced back to Poonja ji’s and Nisargadatta Maharaj’s disciples returning to the west in the 1970s and 1980s from India and bringing their understanding of Advaita Vedanta with them as given to them by their teachers. However, because many of these students deviate from traditional Advaita as taught in the classic lineage of Adi Shankracharya, they are referred to as neo-advaitins.

Given this thesis and antithesis between the gradual path and the direct path, I address the following question:

It is said that there are two approaches to the Truth of Being or Reality which some call Enlightenment or Self-Realization. A gradual path and a direct path. What is the truth of it? Are their really two paths? If…

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Spiritual Wisdom: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Ahimsa, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Love, Meditation, Nonviolence, PERSONAL, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

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What is spiritual wisdom other than being gentle and easy with oneself and others in awareness?

Gain and loss, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, are threads of life.

Life lived in awareness is the only meditation.

Our talents and strengths do not raise us above anyone. Our shortcomings do not diminish our original nature. That is just how it is.

Sages see action and inaction, speech and silence to be the same. So there is no need to struggle.

To simply be aware of oneself as pure and clear being is the true meditation.

The steadiness of awareness and balance is a gift of grace. It is the blessing of love that springs forth from the heart of sages.

In the company of good and wise people who know the nature of reality, the ego gradually loses its hold and pure awareness reveals itself as the eternal presence.

That is the real meditation.

Namaste

 

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Self-Realization According to Ramana: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

. Uncategorized

Summary of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teaching on the Self.

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The following is a summary of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teaching on the Self.

Self-Realization cannot be described because Self can never be an object of perception.  The Self  is always the subject. The Ultimate Subject.  When the mind is temporarily absorbed in the Heart, the Self is known with immediacy as the eternal presence. That is called Kevala Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

However, even after having attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the mind has the tendency to sprout up again with its conditioned habits due to the force of karma (previous tendencies). Hence the need for awareness and practice of reflective inquiry continues.

When the mind is completely resolved in the Heart, the Self naturally and spontaneously dominates in all states of consciousness (waking, sleeping, super-conscious). That is known as Sahaj Samadhi or the natural state. In this state, the karma that has started to bear fruition will continue until the end of…

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Nirvikalpa Samadhi – Two Different Perspectives: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

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The state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi that Sri Ramakrishna refers to and Kevala Nirvikalpa Samadhi that Ramana Maharshi refers to are two different things.Two different Samadhis.

Source: Nirvikalpa Samadhi – Two Different Perspectives: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

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The Magic of Being Alone

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From Mira Prabhu, the yogini, mystic, and insightful writer currently residing at Arunachala.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

GRAPHIC OF WOMAN1992 for me was a time of great personal darkness—sparkly on the outside, rotten on the inside. Stuck in a difficult marriage, I asked a friend at work if I could unload my troubles on her.

Karen was an opera singer at the start of her career; like me, she supported herself by freelancing in Manhattan law firms and on Wall Street. I admired her creativity, courage and higher values. Often  after work we’d walk across Manhattan to my apartment and chat while I cooked us dinner.

“Let’s go to Central Park tomorrow,” she suggested. “We can talk freely there.” So next day we strolled through that gorgeous park and I told her, tears streaming down my face, that the husband I once believed I’d love and respect to my dying day had turned into a materialistic stranger.

“Why are you so scared to leave him then?” she asked in her direct fashion. “Sounds…

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Samsara is a Fickle Beast!

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From the yogini, mystic, and a great and insightful writer, Mira Prabhu.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

Kiri 16GB sd card 3273‘Samsara’ is a Sanskrit word that approximates to ‘relative reality.’ When Buddha gave us his first noble truth: life is suffering, it was this level of reality he was referring to, simply, the ups and downs of a life lived in duality. It is his fourth truth that points the way out of suffering, and thank Ultimate Consciousness, I say, that there is indeed a highway that can lead us permanently out of this mess!

I’m writing this because I’ve been hit by a series of minor calamities (that’s probably an oxymoron, but never mind.) One dog who refuses since to eat and won’t tell me why, ha ha ha, my other dog who is totally nutso and terrified of most humans, and, out of the blue, a sciatica attack from hell, most likely due to the fact that I’ve been working way too long on the computer. It flared up last night…

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The True Master

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Advaita and Yoga, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Love, Meditation, PERSONAL, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

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A True Master does not tell you to do this or that.

Already, you are bewildered going to motivational speakers, satsang teachers, and visiting one guru after another.

The Master simply brings attention to your nature as Being-Awareness, and invites you to rest in your own Heart.

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Ego’s Death

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Love, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS . , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Sri Ramana emphasizes that the true renunciation does not involve going to some special place like a forest or ashram to meditate.

The real giving up, is letting go of the ego, the sense of doership, the identification with our mental fluctuations due to attachments and expectations.

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It Is Just You!

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Advaita and Yoga, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Love, Meditation, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , , ,

self-is-always-there-it-is-you

Sri Ramana used to say that the Eternal Divine nature cannot be present at one time and absent at another.

So we must become aware of our Self in this present moment. 

It is only in the present that the Self is Realized.

That is because the very nature of the Self is Pure Presence.

It is Pure Being.