InnerRealisation

MUKHERJI: “It is good to read sacred books like the Gitā.”

MASTER: “But what will you gain by mere reading?
Some have heard of milk, some have seen it, and there are some, besides, who have drunk it.
God can indeed be seen; what is more, one can talk to Him.

“The first stage is that of the beginner. He studies and hears.

Second is the stage of the struggling aspirant.
He prays to God, meditates on Him, and sings His name and glories.

The third stage is that of the perfect
soul. He has seen God, realized Him directly and immediately in his inner Consciousness.

Last is the stage of the supremely perfect, like Chaitanya. Such a devotee establishes a definite relationship with God, looking on
Him as his Son or Beloved.”

• The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.

“That Man is a true man whose mind dwells on God. He alone is a man whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened and who is really convinced that God alone is real and all else illusory. Futile is the human birth without the awakening of spiritual consciousness.”

– Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa.

It is all right to enjoy life; the secret of happiness is not to become attached to anything. Enjoy the smell of the flower, but see God in it. I have kept the consciousness of the senses only that in using them I may always perceive and think of God. “Mine eyes were made to behold Thy beauty everywhere. My ears were made to hear Thine omnipresent voice.” That is Yoga, union with God. It is not necessary to go to the forest to find Him. Worldly habits will hold us fast wherever we may be until we free ourselves from them. The yogi learns to find God in the cave of his heart. Wherever he goes, he carries with him the blissful consciousness of God’s presence.

-Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda,
“Man’s Eternal Quest”

Girish: “Well sir, which way is more difficult: to renounce the world painfully, or to call upon Him while living in the household?”

Sri Ramakrishna (to M.): “Don’t you know what the Gita says? One truly attains the Lord, if one attends to worldly work in a detached spirit, if one lives the worldly life after knowing everything to be illusory.

People, who renounce the world painfully, belong to an inferior class.

Do you know what a householder jnani is like? It is as if he is in a glass house, from where he can see inside as well as outside”.

Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
(“Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita” word to word translation by Sri Dharm Pal Gupta, V2, Section XXVI, Ch. II, “Sri Ramakrishna in Cossipore Garden House”, 16 April, 1886)

They could never substitute for the bliss of God. Even if you do no more than pray sincerely to Him, His great joy will eventually come upon you.
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
You should wish for a thousand million deaths rather than enmesh yourself in bad habits from which you cannot free yourself. Money, sex, and wine were created as make-believe pleasures. They could never substitute for the bliss of God. Even if you do no more than pray sincerely to Him, His great joy will eventually come upon you. Naturally, God wants to test you with the taste of temptation and the lure of your bad habits to see if you really want Him more than the enticing pseudo-pleasures of the body. If you give in, you will get nowhere. If you keep pouring water into a pot, you cannot expect the pot to dry out. You must dry up the water of bad habits in the sun of good company, wholesome activity, introspection, and will power; and, above all, meditation and God-communion. No one can help you unless you are willing to help yourself. As I said, if you are willing, then God Himself will help you.
When Jesus prayed to the Heavenly Father, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” he meant, “Leave us not in the pit of temptation wherein we fell through the misuse of Thy gift of reason.” Temptation cannot lead us unless we misuse our God-given reason. If once you taste the sweetness of God in meditation, you shall not be touched by temptation anymore. You will throw off your bad habits and go after Him. If you truly seek God, you will find Him.
Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.
The Divine Romance. P.334.
[How to free yourself from bad habits]

“You waste precious time each day. Every little time you spend with God will be spent to your best advantage; and whatever you achieve with the desire to please God in your heart will stand unto eternity. God is freedom from all misery. God is the wealth and the health you seek. The desire of the soul for God is behind all other desires. Worldly desires camouflage the longing of the soul to be reunited with God-bliss. Only God can satisfy all the desires of this life and of past incarnations. I have found it so.”

– Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
(Journey to Self-Realization, page 412)

A JNANI HAS NO BODY

Before leaving the ashram, I wrote down several questions for Guy Hague to ask Bhagavan that I had not had a chance to ask myself. I had been bothered by the fact that so many saints and enlightened people had been ill and suffering physically. I asked, “Should they not have perfect bodies and why do they not cure themselves?” In Europe, I got a letter from Guy saying he had discussed my question with Bhagavan. He wrote:

“Bhagavan told me to tell you that the spiritually perfect person need not necessarily have a perfect body. The reason, as he explained it, is very simple.
“You see, the ego, the body, and the mind are the same thing. The spiritually perfect person, like Bhagavan, is above these three things. Consequently, he has… no body to heal, neither a mind — or ego — to heal it with. He is beyond all this because it is illusion. He is living in Reality. Christian Scientists can take the mind and heal the body — for they are the same thing. American Indians heal, too, in this manner. It is faith healing.

“But if the spiritually perfect person is sick in body it is because the body is working out its karma. Bhagavan gave an illustration of karma, which he says is like an electric fan and must just run its course, only gradually ceasing even after it has been turned off. He says the mind is born into illusion and builds a body and a world to suit it — that is, a world that it has earned and deserves (by its karma). Bhagavan, knowing the body and the mind to be illusion, cannot experience any bodily ailment or discomfort. We make him suffer pain, loss of weight, etc. It is in our minds, not his. He is actually bodiless, though you and I cannot realize this as a fact.”

• Mecedes de Acosta, Here lies the Heart
  https://realization.org/p/ramana/mercedes-de-acosta.html

In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world.

In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also.

Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself.

When the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears. Therefore, when the world appears (to be real), the Self does not appear; and when the Self appears (shines) the world does not appear.

When one persistently enquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will end leaving the Self (as the residue).

What is referred to as the Self is the Atman.

[Who Am I
Question number 8 ]
The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“When a man surrenders himself as a slave to the divine Lord, he realises at the end that all his actions are the actions of God.

He loses his mine-ness. This is what is meant by ‘doing the will of God’. This is Siddhanta [the final view; the settled conclusion].

When a man realises that he has lost his ahamkara (I-ness) and that he is not different from Isvara, he is a jnani. This is Vedanta.

But see! The goal is the same.

There are two ways open to one: bhakti and jnana.

A bhakta surrenders to God and rests secure in His protection.

A jnani knows that there is nothing beside the Self and so remains happy. One must adhere firmly to either of these courses.”

[Chapter 5 The Meaning of Philosophy]

Conscious Immortality: Conversations With Sri Ramana Maharshi
Paul Brunton

It is in the boundless ocean of my Self that the mind-creation called the world takes place. I am supremely peaceful and formless, and I remain as such.

My true nature is not contained in objects, nor does any object exist in it, for it is infinite and spotless. So it is unattached, desireless and at peace, and I remain as such.

I am pure consciousness, and the world is like a magician’s show. How could I imagine there is anything there to take up or reject?

– King Janak. Ashtavakra Gita. (7.3-7.5)