Category Archives: Arunachala

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The True Master

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Arunachala, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , ,

A True Master does not tell you to do this or that. Already, you are anxious and bewildered reading self-help books, going to motivational speakers, Satsang teachers, visiting holy places, and going to one guru after another.

All of these things and various practices of yoga and meditation are helpful if they advance our quest for self-knowledge. However, Truth cannot be found in a place or a person outside of us. Truth must be known as our very own nature, our essence.

The real pilgrimage we make is not to some holy place but to the Temple of the Heart within. Sri Ramana Maharshi used to say that all deep thinking people are fascinated by the nature of consciousness. This is the sacred quest in life. To know the mystery that reveals all other mysteries. In the words of the Upanishads, “Know That by which all else is known.” 

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Ramana Maharshi – Just Sitting There On The Rocks

. Arunachala, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, New York Arunachala Ashram, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Yoga . , , , , , , ,

Around the age of 31, Swami Lakshman Joo, the great yogi mystic philosopher, and exponent on Kashmiri Shaivism went to Tiruvannamalai to meet Bhagavan Ramana and spent a few weeks there. Speaking about his experiences with Sri Ramana, he later said, “I felt those golden days were indeed divine”. He is shown below in one of the pictures that were taken when he was there.

The greatest yogis of the day and Shankracharyas came and visited Bhagavan Ramana and saw an ordinary frail man, who had nothing, sitting there on the rocks. Although Bhagavan did not try to impress anyone, the highest adepts instantly saw that they were in the presence of the Eternal Presence ItSelf.

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Move Only As Grace of the Lord Moves You

. Arunachala, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , ,

In 1896, a boy ran away from home. He left a note behind for his family. It stated in part, “I have left, in search of my father…”

The father was the holy mountain of Arunachala.

On September 1, 1896, this 16 years old boy, arrived at Arunachala. He never left. 

September 1, 2018, was the 122nd anniversary Ramana Maharshi’s arrival at Arunachala.

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Sri Ramana and the Yogi Devotees

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

The Sage of Arunachala, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, gave us the purest teachings.

If we look at the devotees of Sri Ramana, we see that they were some of the greatest yogis and jnanis of their day. But they led quiet, unpretentious, and humble lives fully content in the grace of Bhagavan.

The message of Sri Ramana is to turn the mind within to see our true nature; and then we will see everything to be full of spirit.

In his life, Bhagavan exemplified his realization and manifested immense compassion for all beings. Bhagavan related to plants, trees, birds, animals, and people as sacred and treated everyone who came within his orbit with the utmost respect and love.

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All Are In God

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

“Whether you make dhyana of God or of Self, it is immaterial. The goal is the same. But you cannot escape the Self. You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all are God, are you not included in that all?” Sri Ramana speaking in Talk 254 (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi).

Devotee: Is the Universal Soul (Paramatma) always different from us? 

Sri Ramana: That is the common belief, but it is wrong. Think of Him as not different from you, and then you achieve identity of Self with God. (Talk 31).

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The Search For True Love

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Arunachala, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Love, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

The search for true love is really the search for the ultimate reality of this universe.

It manifests outwardly as the search for that perfect person, the search for God, the search for the mystery of our existence.

Underlying all fears and anxieties is the fundamental agitation of not knowing who we are.

To solve this existential riddle, Sri Ramana advocates the sincere and keen inquiry that focuses on the question, “Who Am I?” 

It is this inward focus with intent and intensity, that leads the mind to dive deep into the very heart of the unknown.

It is in the deepest core of our being, that we find the Heart, that is in reality the Self.

One never feels complete until one realizes that one who has been pursued and sought as one’s true love is one’s own Self.

In coming close to the Self, one is drawn to the Self, and then by Grace merges with the Self, the very Heart of Existence and becomes That.

Bhagavan Ramana used to say, “The Self is always there. It is you. There is nothing but you.”

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Nature of the Ego

. Advaita and Yoga, Arunachala, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Meditation, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

“When the ego rises, all things rise with it. When the ego is not, there is nothing else. Since the ego thus is everything, to question ‘What is this thing?’ is the extinction of all things”.

The quote above from Bhagavan Ramana is from ‘Reality in Forty Verses’ (‘Ulladu Narpadu’), v. 26. It can be found in Bhagavad’s “Collected Works”.

Here Bhagavan eloquently points out that one cannot force oneself to give up the ego. The very attempt to discard the ego, is itself based on the assumption of separation from the whole. In other words, the effort to conquer the ego is based on egotism!

Such forced efforts to overcome the ego end up only reinforcing the notion that we are “separate” from the Universal Existence. With such attempts, the nonexistent phantom of the ego appears real in our imagination.

Hence Bhagavan Ramana says, “Question, what is this thing, this ego which manifests as a sense of separateness from the whole”? Where does it come from?”

This inquiry requires us to simply bring our attention to the sense of identity, the sense of “I AM”. It is only by bringing quiet, nonjudgmental attention on the ego, that the ego can be see through as unreal. The method is simple and yet the mind has to be made pure and subtle to grasp it.

Love to all

Namaste

 

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Your Karma Ate My Dogma…Part 3

. Advaita and Yoga, Arunachala, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , ,

Mira Prabhu, residing at Arunachala in South India, explains the nature of karma in her characteristic straightforward way that everyone can understand.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

dalai-lama-addressSometime during the mid-90s, at a workshop at Omega, situated in Rhinebeck, upstate New York, I asked Bob Thurman, ex-Buddhist monk and father of the lovely Hollywood star, Uma Thurman, to explain the laws of karma. Bob shrugged and said he didn’t know of any. Much later, when I moved to Dharamsala from Manhattan, I realized how many versions of karmic theory there are—and not just in the Hindu world, but reflected in the four different schools of Tibetan Buddhism.Just for the record, the laws of karma according to my Gelupa Buddhist guru are as follows:

  • that karma is definite–meaning that acts that cause pleasure result in pleasure, that acts causing pain bring pain back, while neutral acts have no apparent effect;
  • that karmic energy increases exponentially–which means that if you steal one measly rupee, at least four rupees will be stolen from you;
  • that one cannot become…

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ONE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE…

. Arunachala, PERSONAL, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, Tantra, Wisdom, Yoga .

Lasting happiness and peace are an inside job…Mira Prabhu

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

b14516b6b40561bfe96c12b674d70118…is all it takes to blast open the mind and to prove to us, from the inside where it counts, that what we take for reality, as revealed to us via the five senses and our limited finite mind, is just a thin covering over an Absolute reality simply staggering in its intricate beauty and vast complexity.

As a child growing up in south India, I used to catch strangely disorienting fevers that incapacitated me for a couple of days. I would fall into a heavy sleep at night, then wake up to find myself floating above my body; what would hold my ethereal body from floating away, was, believe it or not, the thin cotton top of the mosquito net we always slept under! I would look down with a gasp of surprised terror to see my sleeping body below, and the next second I would be back within…

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Sri Ramana Maharshi’s Mahanirvana and the Comet in the Sky

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Arunachala, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , ,

Editor’s Note: The following is the description of the luminous comet that streaked across the sky disappearing behind the holy hill of Arunachala at the time of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s Mahasamadhi. The devotees who saw it from far away realized that it was an “announcement” that Bhagavan Ramana had entered Mahanirvana. 

14 April 1950:

At about 9 p.m., Monsieur Cartier-Brassen, the French photographer, who has been here for about a fortnight with his wife, related an experience of his to me.

“It is a most astonishing experience,’’ he said. “I was in the open space in front of my house, when my friends drew my attention to the sky, where I saw a vividly-luminous shooting star with a luminous tail, unlike any shooting star I had before seen, coming from the South, moving slowly across the sky and, reaching the top of Arunachala, disappeared behind it.

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