InnerRealisation

Giving up activities means giving up attachment to activities or the fruits thereof,
giving up the notion ‘I am the doer’.

The activities which this body is destined to perform will have to be gone through. There is no question of giving up such activities, whether one likes it or not.

If one remains fixed in the Self,
the activities will still go on and their success will not be affected.
One should not have the idea that one is the doer. The activities will still go on.

That force, by whatever name you call it, which brought the body into existence will see to it that the activities which this body
is meant to go through are brought about.

~ GEMS FROM BHAGAVAN.

“You are punishing the soul by keeping it buried, slumbering in matter life after life, frightened by nightmares of suffering and death. Realize that you are the soul! Remember that the Feeling behind your feeling, the Will behind your will, the Power behind your power, Wisdom behind your wisdom is the Infinite Lord. Unite the heart’s feeling and the mind’s reason in a perfect balance. In the castle of calmness, again and again cast off identification with earthly titles, and plunge into deep meditation to realize your divine kingship.”

– Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
(Man’s Eternal Quest, page 10)

When I first came across Bhagavan’s teachings and for some years afterwards, I didn’t like them very much and much preferred teachings that emphasised the oneness of formlessness and form or spoke about ‘no self’ rather than True Self such as the modern Buddhist style teachings and the modern non-dual teachings we see in the West. I also preferred the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, Dzogchen, Mahamudra and the like, as they made much more sense to my mind.

I used to think things such as ‘there is no outer or inner, so how can you turn within? And what entity would turn within? Perhaps these ‘turn within’ teachings are lower teachings for those who do not have non-dual insight already…’

Again, these teachings intellectually made more sense to my mind than all this talk of ‘Self’ and ‘attend to the Self’ or ‘ Abide as the Self’ that Bhagavan spoke of. I thought even using concepts such as ‘Self’, and phrases such as ‘cling to the self’, concretised something that didn’t need to be concretised, and that ‘no self’ was a much more accurate and a generally more helpful expression. Now I know that intellectuals often think in this way.

However luckily for me, for some unknown reason (ok, it was by his Grace ❤️), I felt intense love, devotion and surrender to Bhagavan Sri Ramana. Even then, I still didn’t like his teachings though! It was only after much devotion and surrender and through his grace ❤️ that I came to appreciate just how wonderful and rare his written teachings actually are, how they are relatively unique and how they have a power to truly liberate in a way that most other teachings do not.

~ Tom Das

🙏🙏🙏

Simple-mindedness takes one easily to God. If a person is simple,
spiritual instructions easily fructify in him, as seeds germinate easily and grow to bear fruit soon when sown in tilled soil free from stones.

The Master used to say;
“People become generous and simple-minded only in consequence of
much penance. God can never be attained except with a simple mind. It is to the simple-minded that He reveals His own nature.”
But to safeguard people from developing into simpletons in the name of simplicity and truthfulness, the Master would also sound a note of warning:
“You are to be a devotee but not a simpleton on that account,” or again,
“Always you must discriminate in your mind between the true and the false, the eternal and transient; and then leaving aside all that is transient, you should fix your mind upon that alone which is eternal.”

– Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna. (420 & 421)

Prabhupāda: Unity is possible on the spiritual platform, not on the material platform. Material platform means “I am envious of you; you are envious of me.” Mātsaratā. Mātsaratā means mātsaratā para utkarṣaḥ asahanam… When I cannot tolerate other increasing in opulence, I become envious. This is material life. The spiritual life is different. Spiritual life means if somebody has advanced in spiritual life, and somebody, one, he is still in the neophyte stage, he will eulogize, “Oh, how fortunate he is. He has advanced. He is serving Kṛṣṇa in such a nice way. When I can get that position.” There is no enviousness. That is glorifying. That is the distinction between material life and spiritual life. Material life means enviousness: “How to kill you, how to stop you.” But spiritual life means to see you advancing, one becomes happy, “Oh, how fortunate he is.” This is spiritual life. Therefore spiritual life is meant for a person who is completely not envious. That is spiritual life. Paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vāstavaṁ vastu vedyam atra. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ‘tra (SB 1.1.2). This Bhāgavata-dharma is meant for the person, paramo nirmatsara, paramahaṁsa. He is not envious of anyone. Suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām (friendly to all living entities).

(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Bombay, December 25, 1974)

The wise who knows the Self
as bodiless within the bodies,
as unchanging among changing things,
as great and omnipresent,
does never grieve.

That Self cannot be gained by the Veda,
nor by understanding,
nor by much learning.

He whom the Self chooses,
by him the Self can be gained.
The Self chooses him (his body) as his own.

But he who has not first turned away from his wickedness, who is not tranquil, and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self (even) by knowledge.

~ Katha Upanishad

The majority of human beings are not capable of experiencing even this minute thrill at its fullest, because the lower-level energies are not capable of containing or measuring higher-level energies. By the same token, if given more than requisite voltage, any energy system will overload and blow up the circuits. We have established such strong identification with the lower-level energies that we have weakened our  power system and made it incapable of receiving a larger dose of the thrill. So we have to purify the personal consciousness and gradually tune it to its higher-level energies until enough strength is built up in the system.

-SWAMI RAMA
Inspired Thoughts of Swami Ram

There are thoughts that create great grooves or imprints in your mind, and those thoughts are called samskaras. You can eliminate those thoughts if you have the power, and if you know how to eliminate them. You can obtain freedom from your samskaras, from the impressions that you have stored in the unconscious mind. You have the power to do that. The mind has a habit of going into the grooves of past experiences. When you create a new groove, the mind stops flowing into the past grooves and starts flowing in the new grooves that you have consciously created. These new grooves lead you to silence. Your aim in meditation is to go into that silence from where wisdom flows.

– SWAMI RAMA

Life after life, you have formed the habit of letting the mind go outwards. The mind is so used to it, and now you have to reverse its direction and make it turn inwards. Until the movement of the mind is turned inwards, it is impossible to find God.

By internalizing the mind, God who is entrenched in the lotus of your heart will be revealed to you. Continue with your practice diligently  until you enter the current that drives the mind inwards. After that, you transcend both practice and non-practice and enter Unity.

~ Sri Anandamayi Ma
Excerpts from a post by Jorge Herreos

We are not trying to quiet the mind. We are trying to reach an inner silence which is Brahman, the Absolute Reality. This is true Silence.
Robert Adams

Do not allow the world to run your life.
Do not allow people to run your life.
Be yourself.
Know yourself.

Realize that you are Brahman, the pure awareness. There is nothing that can interfere with you.
You are pure consciousness.
This is your real state. This is what you are, whether you know it or not, whether you care or not. You can walk out of this door and go about your business like you always have, but your nature is pure consciousness and one day you will have to awaken.
So why not begin now.
Why wait?

Do not let the world fool you.
I reiterate again and again.
The world appears very powerful.
It makes you want things. It tells you to pursue this, to pursue that, to become
successful. All this is an illusion.

You are already successful.
All your needs will be met if you have faith and trust the powers that be that are within you and without you.
You will always be taken care of.
There is no doubt about this.
You have absolutely nothing to worry about. You have absolutely nothing to fear.

Do not allow the world to run your life.
Do not allow people to run your life.
Be yourself.
Know yourself.

Realize that you are Brahman, the pure awareness. There is nothing that can interfere with you.
You are pure consciousness.
This is your real state. This is what you are, whether you know it or not, whether you care or not. You can walk out of this door and go about your business like you always have, but your nature is pure consciousness and one day you will have to awaken.
So why not begin now.
Why wait?

Do not let the world fool you.
I reiterate again and again.
The world appears very powerful.
It makes you want things. It tells you to pursue this, to pursue that, to become
successful. All this is an illusion.

You are already successful.
All your needs will be met if you have faith and trust the powers that be that are within you and without you.
You will always be taken care of.
There is no doubt about this.
You have absolutely nothing to worry about. You have absolutely nothing to fear.
Robert Adams Satsangs