Atma vichara the way of ramana maharshi

ATMA VICHARA – THE WAY OF RAMANA MAHARSHI

Once upon a time ago…

I was a little boy with 4 years old and my love for my Mother was unconditional – like today – but still more dependant. So, I see a whole green corncob. What a Miracle!!

What a beautiful and perfect corncob! My child’s mind went crazy and happy. My beloved and unique Mom would be so happy with this finding!! But for a moment (before that moment I don’t remember in a clear way my existence) Seems like my mind start to function: a strange thought pass by my mind: ‘’and if this corncob had life? It’s a kind of spirit? How came it here alone…walking, flying?’’ ‘’If this is a spirit I can’t go upstairs to show my Mom. Maybe the spirit can make my Mom your home and my Mom would be the corncob!!

I stopped for some minutes to make that important choice. After some time my sense of the miraculous was my strong that my fear. So, I grow up and showed the corncob to my Mom. She smiled, stay happy and put the corncob above the refrigerator. So, the 4 years old child’s agony was beginning. And my life will never be the same.

The corncob is maya the illusory world. My Love – Mom is and always will be one marvelous extension or part of myself - is the Reality.

Just watch the corncob of the life in a normal way without excitation, passion or fear.

Just BE while see the corncob. This must pass too. Just hold grab to the Watcher of the corncobs of this world: YOU. “Is there a miracle more miraculous than You?” Born out of nothing at all.

Even if you achieve all the pleasures, money, romantic relantionships..Even If you see a light or angels or magical things it’s a poor thing. The greatest miracle of all times and the most important fact ever in all Universe’s history is your Existence!! You can see?

Out of nothing at all: YOU. So, the first thing is: the so called miracles in the ordinary and even mystical tales are secondary happenings. Just happens and pass away in second, minutes..Maybe you will never see again ‘the light’ ‘the magic’ ‘’the love of my life’’ but YOU always is the case. YOU is always happening or rather everything rather to YOU. Before you were born, during ‘this life’ after you drop this body like drop a suit, YOU will remains.

But you can say. I am an atheist.

So, the answer will be the same. No, dear One. You don’t believe in a old man sitted in the sky. But the greatest and impossible thing happened. The chance YOU be born here in this little Earth, in a statiscal rate was zero. So, you are not an atheist. You are the very miracle. And you can deny all things but your existence. Even a God with beard in the sky is not such a Miracle! But happened!

So, I tell you a secret. We live so many lives, in different bodies, in different times, in different situations, awakened or dreaming YOU are always there. All the things and happenning change. YOU remain. Even while getting a snap. You live the dream and feel it’s real. The same happens in the so called awakened life. You think you are this or that, you are attached to the happenings and you lose the essential.

So, the most important thing in the life is to enquiry, investigate and fall in love with this inner feeling of ‘YOU’. This ‘I’ is God. The Ultimate. Or if You prefer the Real Being inside of us. ‘’Keep the inner sense of I all the time.’’ This sums up all the Ramana Maharshi’s Teaching. Gurdjieff said so with his “self remembering.”

Maybe you don’t know but Ramana Maharshi is the Sage that for many was the most important degree of spiritual realization of all times, like said in other words Ken Wilber. This book is about to fall in love with the most important thing in the Universe: You.

And my dedication goes to Michael JamesJi1. My Mother and Father. My Son Gabriel.

To Beloved Murshida. To Beloved Meher Baba. To My Love Ramana Maharshi. So, in another words my dedication goes to my Real Being, the Source of all and everything.

1

http://www.happinessofbeing.com/

Ramana Maharshi’s teachings on atma vichara originated in his own awakening at age 16, when he became in a strong way aware of death. Ramana summed up his insight into a word: "aham sphurana" (Self-awareness). Ramana tell us: In the vision of death, though all the senses were benumbed, the aham sphurana (Selfawareness) was clearly evident, and so I realised that it was that awareness that we call "I", and not the body. This Self-awareness never decays. It is unrelated to anything. It is Self-luminous. Even if this body is burnt, it will not be affected. Hence, I realised on that very day so clearly that that was "I".

The child Venkataraman Iyer (his real name) thought that he was possessed by a spirit, "which had taken up residence in his body". This feeling remained for several weeks.

Later, Ramana called his death experience ‘akrama mukti, or "sudden liberation", as opposed to the krama mukti, "gradual liberation" like explained in Vedanta terminology.

‘Some people,’ he said, 'start off by studying literature in their youth. Then they indulge in the pleasures of the world until they are fed up with them. Next, when they are at an advanced age, they turn to books on Vedanta. They go to a guru and get initiated by him and then start the process of sravana, manana and nididhyasana, which finally culminates in samadhi. This is the normal and standard way of approaching liberation. It is called krama mukti [gradual liberation]. But I was overtaken by akrama mukti [sudden liberation] before I passed through any of the above-mentioned stages.'

Here a picture of the most sacred and Holy Hill : Arunachala. The Very form of Shiva.

Ramana Maharshi lived here till the end of his body-llife.

ATMA VICHARA – THE DIRECT PATH TO REALIZATION The practice of self-inquiry, called atma-vichara in sanskrit, is the most important ‘meditation practice’ taught by Ramana Maharshi’s. The very core of his Teachings. It is the main practice of the yoga of knowledge (Jnana Yoga), which itself is traditionally regarded as the highest of the yogas because it takes us most directly to liberation. The great difference is that the traditional atma vichara is a arduous and inefficient “neti

neti’s way”: I am not the body. I am not my money. I am not my relationship…ad infinitum.

The Ramana’s unique approach is easy, direct and natural. Just change the focus of what we are not you. To whom WE ARE. ‘’Who are You?” ‘’I’. What is this ‘I’? Find it and You will find the most wonderful liberation, freedom and happiness. You are free. You are always free. But atma vichara is the technique to remember that fact. So, atma vichara is not a desire to enlightenment or to our real Self. Our real Self is enlightenment by itself and YOU ARE THAT IN ETERNITY. It’s the nature of our being. Not a thing to be achieved in time. Our Real Being not needs to achieve whatever. The personal I or ego is playing hide and seek with us. The hindus called this maya or illusory nature of the world. But we are here in this birth just to remember that in this life. To perceive our Realization never came never gone, its our Nature. This is our unique destiny and mission. Go through life and drop the body without such surrender to the Divine and Eternal is a sad waste of time.

Self-inquiry like said is the most important method through which Self-realization-- the realization of our true nature or Self is achieved. Self-inquiry is an ancient concept. But today this teaching became brand new and effective thanks to the insights and live of Ramana Maharshi (1878-1950), who made this approach accessible to the general public, offering it to any individual who is a sincere seeker of Truth or Lover of God. In the Hindu Tradition, Self-inquiry or atma vichara was reserved for Swamis who had renounced the world.

Yet Self-inquiry in some form or another can be helpful to all people at all stages of life.

We all want to know ourselves and discover our reality, nature and greater potential in life and beyond life. This requires understanding ourselves on all levels of body, mind and spirit, particularly the deepest level of the ‘heart’. In this book we will write with capitals: ‘Heart’ when related to Our Real Self, God. And ‘heart’ related to the right side of chest. About this point some disciples and students were taught like a simple meditation to focus the attention on that point. So, taught the and wonderful Ramana’s disciple like Maha Swami Krishna that lived in Brazil and even Artur Osborne in some of your wonderful books. Two wonderful and giants disciples. Both teach this technique. But both seemed to know that Real Teaching and meditation is just ‘BE’ or atma vichara. But the focus in the right side of heart is a acessory teaching. It’s a meditation like the body is still involved. And the body will pass soon. So, the real atma vichara is not that simple but accessory meditation. In the picture the enlightened and beloved MahaKrishna Swami.

I visited your center in Brazilia- Brazil and was so enchanted with the people and the spiritual Consort of Mahakrishna: the beloved Sutra Maha Devi. She taught me a meditation so special and She is full of Love!

About this theme please see the unique teachings and books of Michael JamesJi, Dadiv GodmanJi2 and Reinhard JungJi3. Three Sages by itself that dedicated His lives to keep the real Ramana Maharshi’s Teachings accessible to word. God Bless You. I do love these guys. The Ramana’s ‘Voice’ in our time. David Godman wrote a unique and wonderful book: ‘Be As You Are’ a classical book on Ramana Maharshi and teachings.

May be the book that will stay forever like a reference on Ramana Maharshi. David Godman lives in Arunachala and has been in Presence of Papaji, Annamalai (that is the Name of the Holy mountain Arunachala).

Michael James4 that I love in a special way for the kind way he answered some personal doubts by e-mail and for be the most important scholar on Ramana Maharshi and atma vichara. Michael is a Jnani by himself. To receive the living Flame of Ramana’s Teachings of Sadhu Om’s hands!! And. Your book ‘The Happiness of Being” is maybe the most complete and detailed description of atma vichara. And Michael James came form the greatest lineage Ramana-Muruganar-Sadhu Om: chief disciples of Ramana Maharshi. So, Michael studied and worked in books with Sadhu Om to keep the real atma vichara like the greatest Gift to the world.

Reinhard Jung5 has such special videos and pages on internet. And dedicated His Life to Ramana’s Teaching too.

TECHNIQUE OF ATMA VICHARA OR SELF-INQUIRY Because the teaching of Self-inquiry is direct and simple, its literature is not as extensive as that of other yogic practices. In addition, the path of Self-inquiry demands a certain ripeness or readiness of mind that may require other practices to develop.

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http://davidgodman.org/ http://www.reinhard-jung.com/english/traditional-paths/sri-ramana-maharshi/ 4 http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com.br/2015/03/investigating-ourself-is-only-way-to.html 5 http://www.reinhard-jung.com/english/blog/ 3

The process of Self-inquiry can be explained in a few words. To practice it you need only trace the origin or root of your thoughts back to the I-thought, from which all other thoughts arise. This can be initiated by some questions like "Who am I?". Questions that bring back our focus to the ‘I’, To the subjective. To the first person.

By asking, "Who am I?" our thoughts naturally gets focused on the search for the self and we forget about all other concerns and worries of the mind. Here one explanation.

There is only one ‘I’. This is a important insight of Ramana. But our personal ego that in true is our real and only Self when looked in a close way is Self. When the personal ego lose yourself by only keeping attention to the world objects, people, happenings and the mental objects like feelings and thoughts borns the ego or personal self. The ‘I’ thought like taught by Ramana is the basis for all other thoughts. So, look, enquiry, focus at the ‘I’ and you will find someday this ‘personal I’ or ego is no other thing that the Supreme Self. Our Real Self.

So, in our lives our thoughts are based directly or indirectly on the thought of the self.

Thoughts such as or "What will I do tomorrow?" are based directly on the personal ego or self. Thoughts like "What will happen tomorrow in the work are based on the thought of the self because they refer to our own concerns.

Thoughts like taught by the Sages consist of two components. The first is a subjective factor—“I, me, mine” like the Beatles’s song..

The second is an objective factor--a state, condition or object with which the personal I is involved, particularly the activities of our own body and mind. The habit of the mind is to get caught in the object portion and never look into the subjective and true Self apart from this changing world.

The fact is that the I or the I without attributes when mixed with bodt/mind wordly names like John, Paul an so on.. Becomes a conglomerate of "I am this or that" or "this thing or person is mine," in which the subject is in a profound and strong way identified with an object, person, happenings or conditions. Atma Vichara consists of discarding the objective stuff in order to discover the pure and real Subject:Ourselves. This requires withdrawing our focus and attention from the objects of sensation, emotion and thought to bring back the focus to ‘I’ to ourselves the only Reality.

You can note all the objects pass or change. YOU never change or pass away.

Before you were born, YOU ARE.

So, we don't know who we really are. All the people really believe that their Selves are some thought, emotion or happening in which we are temporarily. Our lives are enclosed in a basic and fundamental ignorance. Maybe the ignorance that really needs to be transcended in this life. The basic ignorance about our true identity or about our true nature. We are not the body. Rather, the body is a vehicle in which our true Self can live and learn more about Himself or God. As long as we don't question our selfidentification with the body/mind/emotions like our real identity we must come to sorrow and remain in confusion. Body and mind pass. Even now your thoughts are changing, even now your cells’ body is not the same of last year.

Atma Vichara – the direct path to Realization - does not consist of merely repeating any question like a parrot.

The tool "Who am I?" ‘Whence this thought come from?’’ ‘’Who is Depressed?’’ is to be hammered in our minds every now and then with attention. It means holding to the search for the Self in all that one does. It requires that we have a real and fundamental doubt about who we are, through which we can be free from dependence in a internal way of all outer ideas and prizes of the world. It is to fall in love with your being, yourself and to give full attention to our subjectivity, like a lover look and remember her/his beloved all the time. The only difference is that the dual romances must go on some day. And like our Self it’s not a objective thing in the mind or in the world but the very essence of our being, this ‘Romance’ is for Eternity. We are in Home.

ATMA VICHARA – THE PRACTICE Atma Vichara, is not only an intellectual or psychological investigation or meditation but rather an inquiry with one's entire focus, energy and attention. It requires a full and one-pointed focus. When You begin to feel the PRESENCE of your Being You will fall in love. And keep the focus in our Love is such a easy way. It’s a natyral way. So atma vichara becomes more and more present in our lives since we love or being more that other objects of the world or mind, objects that will pass soon.

When our focus is not outside the Self is in a natural way lived. The problem is that the senses bring us so many distractions that it is difficult to look within look to ourselves.

Self-inquiry or atma vichara means to constantly reverse the process of extroversion by seeking out the origin of our awareness in the Heart.

The true Self is beyond time and space, name and form, birth and death. It is beyond all experience because it is the very “person that experienc” or Witness of everything.

Atma Vichara leads us to that place inside our Heart when we are the Absolute Freedom, Peace and happiness. The important thing you must perceive by yourself is that conditions, thoughts, feelings, outer world will change and fade away ever and ever. Don’t believe this. Just see the fact. It happens every day to us. One friendly person or familiar let the body or dies. A romantic couple is broken when one “lose the passion”. In the objective mind we have thoughts that change every minute. For example, the seer of anger does not cease to BE when anger passes away. So, is the same with all the things that you see BUT YOU. This ‘I’ has such a importance!

Ramana even said that the foremost Name of God is ‘I’ or ‘I am.

This remember me one wonderful and healing meditation taught by the famous western Ramana’s disciple Robert Adams. In a relaxed position close your eyes and breathe in ‘’I’ feeling your being. So, the gap between the inhalation and exhalation is the seat of Eternity..Just watch that ‘gap’. And in exhalation just say mentally ‘’am’’. Repeat that breathe meditation ‘I’ and ‘am’ and really feel the Truth oh thid sentence. If some thought appears just be a good host and say to you ‘’Who is thinking this thought?’’

Whence came this feeling of depression?’’. Its simple. It’s not atma vichara. But a wonderful preparation for atma vichara or just BE. After a time of practice of bringing back the focus “to the inner presence of I” one abides in the pure Self devoid of objectivity, letting all the contents of the mind come and go like waves and bubbles on the sea.

Here a important point. Ramana never taught meditation is not to think. Or that we must fight with thoughts. No!! Ramana taught us to welcome the thoughts like they remember us to bring back the attention and focus to our inner and Eternal ‘I’ or Self.

So, when a thought arises just ask yourself in a mentally way: ‘’for whom arised this thought?’’ so you answers ‘to me’. So ask with great intensity: ‘’Who is this I? What is this ‘I’. So, we can always be in peace. With tought-friends that invite us to remember ourselves. Or just without thoughts when we just BE. This state in both cases is called: “abides in the Self, Just BE or rather Realization.”

It is best to do this process of watching the impermanence of body/world/mind by degrees, taking one's time at each stage. So, abiding as the seer of all things and return to the state of the seer, is a preliminary pass to atma vichara and a lesson learned in every moment of our lives. Impermanency is just beautiful. It makes the PERMANENT more precious. And the great secret ever is: the most precious, permanent and loving ‘thing’ in this Universe and beyond it: Its You now. Not a thing or person to be achieved outside in some future. So, Love, focus and “remember our being or sense of I” - such a Treasure - is true atma vichara.

Ramana

taught the meaning of the term atma-vichara: “… The name ‘atma-vichara’ [is truly applicable] only to [the practice of] always being [abiding or remaining] having put [placed, kept, seated, deposited, detained, fixed or established

our] mind in atma [our own real self]…” (MichalJamesJi translation of Original tamil and sanskrit6) In Sanskrit and Tamil (the root language of Ramana) the word atma, which literally means ‘self’, is a term that denotes our own true, essential and non-dual self-conscious being, ‘I am’. Ramana describes it as: “sadakalamum manattai atmavil vaittiruppadu’ that means

the state of just ‘being’, in which we keep our mind firmly fixed in and as our own being.

Michael JamesJi 7 explains this tamil worlds uttered by the Sacred lips of Ramana in a marvelous way: “The compound word sada-kalamum means ‘always’ or ‘at all times’, manattai is the accusative form of manam, which means ‘mind’, atmavil is the locative form of atma and therefore means ‘in self’, andvaittiruppadu is a compound of two words, vaittu, which is a past participle meaning ‘having put’, ‘having placed’, ‘having kept’, ‘having seated’, ‘having fixed’ or ‘having established’, and iruppadu, which is a gerund formed from the verbal root iru, which means ‘be’. When it is used alone, this gerund iruppadu means ‘being’, but when it is appended to a past participle to form a compound gerund, it serves as an auxiliary verbal noun denoting a continuity of whatever action or state is indicated by the past participle.

Therefore the compound word vaittiruppadu can be interpreted either literally as meaning ‘being having placed’, or idiomatically as denoting a continuous state of ‘placing’, ‘seating’, ‘fixing’ or ‘keeping’. However there is actually no essential difference between these two interpretations, because the state in which we keep our mind continuously placed, seated, fixed or established in atma or ‘self’ is not a state of activity or ‘doing’, but is only the state of just ‘being’ as we really are.

Thus in this sentence Sri Ramana clearly defines the exact meaning of the term atma-vichara, saying that it denotes only the state of just ‘being’ — the spiritual practice of keeping our mind firmly established in and as atma, our own real ‘self’ or essential self-conscious being, ‘I am’. In other words, atmavichara or the investigation ‘who am I?’ is only the practice of just being as we really are — that is, just being in our true and natural state, in which our mind has subsided peacefully in and as our own essential self, our thought-free and therefore absolutely actionless self-conscious being.”

6 7

http://www.happinessofbeing.com/ http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com.br/2015/03/investigating-ourself-is-only-way-to.html

So the ‘practice’ (maybe its more right call “just being”) of atma vichara or self-investigation does not depend on any activity of mind, speech or body, but is simply the non-dual state of our self-conscious being.

Since our goal is only the non-dual state of self-conscious being we are just now, the path and the goal must likewise be the same: our inner and real being. Ramana never taught to achieve goals. Achieve to abide in our ‘I’ that is at the same time the way and the goal. Maybe two names is wrong. Are both the same quality: “Beingness.”

If the nature of our path were essentially any different from the nature of our goal, we would be anxious trying to achieve some enlightenment. It’s the same business of the world. Everybody lose their lives trying to achieve more money, fame or some lover through all his life time. So when achieves that see that waste all your life. The Happiness is not in the money, lover or power. The Happiness is out of nothing at all.

It’s our nature. And when we mistake our identity we put our focus in these outside happenings and objects like the happiness itself. No. Its just our being taste. A little of our real being is confounded to be in that things or people. It’s a great illusion.

That is, since in Ramana’s way the goal is the the very path. This path/goal state is infinite and therefore devoid of all objects of the world or the mind. So the only way by which we can ‘’touch’ such a path/ goal is just to be one with it by merging in it that is, by abiding in ourself, this inner Presence inside or in other words my Self.

Atma vichara is not something that involves anything other than ourselves. Some yoga and meditations are to be done. Atma vichara has nothing to do with this. The Being its sufficient. Just abides in inner Self and Be is all We need. In that gap of silence and love all the questions are answered or rather transcended. And we can live a beautiful life in this world. But in some sense we will discover and KNOW that the world is ourselves.

Some weeks I was watching tv and saw a great carnival here in Brazil in tv. The year of the feast was before I was born. So, something in me KNEW in that moment like a ‘flash’. This people dancing and chanting only existed and this carnival just happened in time because I was staring in that scene NOW. Its impossible this world exists without You. The world just exists after YOU ARE. So, it’s a point all traditions discovered.

Every human being is the Universe. But it’s a personal discovery. Personal discovery of the fact you are everything! What a joke of our Beloved God/Being!

So atma vichara is just to regain the knowledge and to be our own real self. And the most important key of Ramana Maharshi and maybe his great legacy to the world is: “You must attend to nothing other than yourself, your own luminous, self sufficient, loving, immortal and conscious being or real Self. How: keep this sense of I. Always.

Every and all the happenings and things just exists like a reflex or mirror of Your very being. So, all things are the Ramana’s way. And someday You will remember all the time what You are. This is called by Ramana the Ultimate Samadhi or Liberation. We are free from the illusory impression of ‘sansara’ or cycle of birth and death again and again. We are in our eternal home again, whence we never went away.

So, attending to anything other than ourself is an movement into the mind, a forgetting of our being that exists like ‘I’. So mind always bring our focus, love and attention to other things, to objective things, things that must soon pass away.

Attending to yourself or this ‘sense of I or JUST BEING’ is not an movement, but is just remain in the source of your being. You just ARE. Atma-vichara is only the remembrance of this self-conscious being. The most simple technique: just bring your focus or love (attention) to your being and remains conscious of nothing other than our own self, ‘I am’. No. You will not became a monk sitted in meditation without live in the world. Yes. You will care and love your family, work, help other beings and watch movies. The difference is you will ‘touch and feeling yoursel’’ like a loving and conscious Being. And such experience rather this living like the experiencer and the experienced are the same: YOU Atma Vichara is that simple practice of self-consciousness or self-attentiveness thaody of 60 years duration. Not the thoughts that change every second. Not the feelings that are up and down like the ocean. YOU KNOW WHO OR WHAT YOU ARE. Some students of the Sages I quote before asks the fundamental question? ‘”‘How to know if I am attending to the ‘I sense of presence’ in a ‘’right way’’?

The act of communion with the Self (atma vyavahara) or abiding in the ‘I’ is always right in my experience when you really feel that Eternity lives in You like You. So, if you are ‘doing’ atma vichara with intensity honesty, surrender to God/Being Existence (this ‘expression’ to the atheist).

If you are keeping the inner attention in the sense of being or in other words you are doing right, like there is no two selves. Remember Ramana said that even the personal self is the Self. The personal self need to be looked with care and in a alert way. Since you look in that way to personal self you will soon discover that personal self is the Real Self the Supreme Being reflection. The focus or attention just switch on the lights to the personal I or ego show his real identity: the Supreme Self. Just ONE I. We mix this natural and pristine ‘feeling of I, me myself’ with objective things and conditions. Names, forms, desires, thoughts, feelings all these come from the basic misconception: “I am this or that. I have this or that. I am this body and this mind’’

So we are confused by add accessories things to OUR BEING. Atma Vichara means turn the attention to inside, to the subjective to I without accessories or adjectives.

Atma Vichara or self-investigation is to live by yourself that Beingnees, free from other things than I. And an other wonderful fact. When You - sited or in daily activities - keep this inner sense of I..You will fall in love with your being. Soon you perceive a Presence, a silent Garden. The breath can stop. The world can come to an end. Let them!! The Love and Happiness of Your Being is the real happiness, so close, so here, so YOU! And You love, you remember more and more. A moment comes when you don’t need to remember more. YOU ARE that Love and Happiness.

PRACTICAL TIPS FOR ATMA VICHARA Atma Vichara is to be lived all the time: working, eating, sleeping, loving. I love sit in my chair for 15, 30 minutes and abide in/like the BEING. The sitted way can be in the beginning for some minutes. 3, 5 minutes. I keep the 30 minutes one hour sitted atma vichara after so many decades of practice. So be natural in the beginning. And like said before the self remembering must keep all the time. Its not a doing. Its such a loving happiness. You will find it. Again, Ramana said that there is noone to achieve enlightenment. Just a bundle of thoughts derived of a I-thought give the impression of some personality. Knows that You are NO-THING. YOU ARE THE INFINITE. Some happenings can occur. I feel sometimes my breath stopped or become weak for some minutes. 5,10 minutes. Its not atma vichara. Its just a sign for me. I live beyond this time/space. That even without breath ‘I am or my Self’ remains. I lose the fear of death after this natural stoppage of breath. Please not try to stop…Can damage you and be so dangerous for your mental and pshisical sanity. It happens by itself. Its just a sign, no great thing. The great ‘thing’ is abide in the Being, always.

RAMANA MAHARSHI’S WORDS Ramana said that Realization is the more easy and natural thing. The fact is we attach ourselves to all the worldly objects or mental objects. And we identify ourselves with these objects. So, we mistake and give so much importance to external happenings or objects like these things has to do with our real identity. Because of our strong attachments to such objective and passing things, we are not living in a conscious way just ourselves. Atma vichara involves in a repeated and loving way trying to experience ourself alone, and the more we do so, the more we fall in love with God or our Real Being. So with the passing of time will be easier to be free from our attachments to other things.

If we really try to live our sense of self or presence of ‘I’ alone, we will experience what we actually are by ourselves and not by faith by by experience we will know we are not a body that will die soon or a crazy mind that wanders here, there and everywhere.

Ramana taught that someday the frail ego will disappear forever like it is a no-thing just a bundle of thoughts born out of the most illusory thought or root thought: “ I am the body-mind’’

So, Ramana and the Sages of this way explains that we must practice this ability and skill of bring back the attention to inside, to the first person, to ‘me’. We need to practice till some day the self-investigation is over. All the accessories, body, mind, feeling, attachments will fall to earth and only WE will remain. So, no need of more practice. In that moment we would be free from illusory impressions that keep the world or sansara lie something outside and self existing.

No again! You will keep loving your Son and wife/husband, work, smile, travel and care your family and maybe make a good amount of money. But You will are not involved in a bad way. You know you are the very Eternity. And Your Son, Your wife, the clouds everything is part of You. So, You will have unconditional Love. Love the world is love yourself. Love yourself is love the world.

PAPAJI INTERVIEW A great disciple and a Jnani by himself was H. L Poonja or simply Papaji. After read this important interview we can find so many pearls about Ramana Maharshi’s Teachings and insights.8: “Question: Are Ramana's teachings direct and accessible to all seekers?

Papaji: No, it's not available to all seekers. He's of no use for any seeker who has not previously prepared himself for millions of incarnations. It is of no use. But then a man who has been working for enlightenment for many, many life times, can be eligible to understand him. I have in the Nirvan Sutra that Buddha had previously spent 253 lifetimes being with the teachers. And, finally he understood that enlightenment was attained by keeping quiet. He went to Bodhgaya, sat under a tree, and discovered enlightenment. After that he got up and went for five days around that bodhi tree in appreciation of what he had received. Ananda, his disciple, came and asked him, "What did you get? How did you get it?" He kept quiet. He didn't speak at all.

Question: Can you speak about the path of Self-enquiry and how it is practised?

Papaji: Yes. Self-enquiry is the enquiry into your own Self, seeking the Source of the enquiry itself. Follow the 'I'-thought back to its Source and return to that unknown place where it begins.

Question: So, it's something that happens all the time?

Papaji: No, only once. When you arrive there, then you will know that this is the place which gives you happiness and peace. You will naturally keep quiet, knowing that this is the 8

http://www.inner-quest.org/Poonja_Interview.htm

Source of 'I' and of all the beings that appear in the universe.

When you keep quiet you will realise that you have always been That. There are no words here.

Question: How does self-surrender9 compliment the practice of Self-enquiry?

Papaji: So, self-surrender means surrendering your ego to the Self. It doesn't mean that you have to surrender to someone else. Surrender your ego to the Self and then you will keep quiet.

Question: Is it the same as surrendering your ego to the unknown? Is the Self like the unknown?

Papaji: Self is unknown. It cannot be known by any person. If it can be known, it becomes an object. It's not an object, neither a subject. Therefore, it is called 'unknown'. Nobody knows it, you see.

Question: How would you describe the Maharshi to someone who never met him?

Papaji: I would say to someone to see the Maharshi as their own Self. Then you will know who Maharshi is. He lives within your own Heart. And the Self will speak to you directly, not indirectly. You will be satisfied because your doubts will be removed from something unknown inside your own Heart. If you cannot understand, then He will take another form of a person to speak to you directly by word. But, if you understand, then there is no need for any person to tell you.

Question:Has the Maharshi's physical demise made a difference in the guidance that is available to seekers following the path he laid down?

Papaji:It doesn't make any difference whether he is alive or whether he is no more now. It doesn't make any difference, because it is not the form or the person that gives you satisfaction. And for those who want to seek the path that he laid, it is always there. That is, to keep quiet and find out who you are, and find out what is the Source of this universe and from where does it come. So, this will give you satisfaction. (...) Question:What advice would you give a person who is just starting out in spiritual life, specifically regarding the 9

Ramana Maharshi taught two Ways: Atma Vichara or Surrender to God. Just two approaches. But the same “Path/Goal”. Like taught us Sadhu Om in his wonderful books: ‘’The Path of Ramana 1 talks about atma vichara. ’The Path of Ramana 2” talk about ‘Surrender or Unconditional Devotion to God or our Real Being.’’

application

of

the

teachings

of

Ramana?

Papaji: Ramana has no teaching at all. He only pulls you from outside, from the senses which are attracted with other things.

He attracts you from inside, from within your own Self, so that you will know your own Self. This attraction is not through words or any statements given in the Upanishads.

Question:What role does the Guru play in the life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi?

Papaji: The Guru plays the part to teach you once that the Self is within your own Heart and that you have not to find it anywhere else. This is the role of the Guru: to stop your search for your Self anywhere else, outside of your own Heart. So, this is the role of the Guru. That is very important, you see. You are your own Guru and not someone who is outside, who teaches you. And this can only be known by one who has really understood it, not by anyone else. Guru is within you and the Self is that Guru, not known, not outside of any man. So, you will keep quiet. You know that, "I am the Guru and the Self is the Guru itself, and there is no difference between the Self and the Guru." You will stop your search outside and get abiding peace within your own Self. This has to be practised and not just listened to or read somewhere.

Question: Does the practice come naturally by itself, or does the individual have to do something?

Question: If you were to sum up the legacy of Ramana Maharshi in a few words, what would you say?

Papaji: I will only say, "Go to Ramana Maharshi himself, directly, not even in Tiruvannamalai, nor any form of the Maharshi. Return to formlessness, which is your own Self."

This advice I will give you, and this will be available anywhere, in any part of the world. Just keep quiet.

Question: Could you explain how the Maharshi's potent silence helped the seeker to see the transience of the mind and taste his true nature?

Papaji: The Maharshi was always silent and taught through silence. This is everyone's true nature, to keep quiet. In silence, your mind is unable to attach itself to any person, any object, any concept or to any other teaching. Maintain absolute quietness. In that quietness, one feels very happy and peaceful. [laughs]

Question: Would you share with us several stories you have of the Maharshi?

Papaji: This story alone is enough, that he appeared to me at my own house in Punjab. I was very thirsty for someone to give me guidance to be free, and the circumstances appeared to be helping me with my quest. The Self helps every seeker like this.

So, when I arrived at the railway station in Tiruvannamalai, I got down and booked a bullock cart, which was the local transportation. I went to the ashram, and left all my baggage outside. I was going to start my work in Madras so I had all my bedding with me. I left it outside and went into the hall where a man was sitting. As soon as I saw this man I recognised that it was the same man who had given me the address in Punjab. I became very angry with him. I didn't go to see him. I didn't even enter the hall. I just went to find another cart to go back to the railway station. There was a Parsi man there; his name was Thromji, and he was the owner of the Vallington Cinema Group which had cinemas all over India. Later on we became friends. He came to me and said, "You seem to be a North Indian." "Yes, I am," I replied. "Then how is it that you have just arrived and now you are going back?" I told him, "This man is a fraud! He met me just fifteen days ago in Punjab and he gave me his own address that he is a God-realised man. If he had to give me a teaching, he could very well have given it to me there, in Punjab. Why did he give me his own address here in Tiruvannamalai? " "No, no," he said. It's not possible.

You are making a mistake." I said, "How can I make a mistake?

I am not mad. He is the same man. I am quite fit, both in body and mind. I cannot make such a mistake. In only fifteen days I cannot forget. He is the same man."

He said, "No. This man has not moved from this place in fifty years. You can ask anyone. Either you have seen someone else and you are mistaking the identity, or this man must have appeared to you through his own power to help you. We have heard of some three or four instances. So come with me, I will introduce you to the manager of this ashram and you can stay in the guest house." So he took me and insisted that I went there, and they give me a place to stay.

Then I went inside. He was not speaking to anybody.

Everybody was quiet, but something was going on in this silence. For the first time I saw this happening without talking.

Something was there; some vibration was there which was entering into my heart. After about ten minutes there was a bell for lunch. Maharshi got up, everybody got up – there were maybe fifteen or twenty people there – and we all went in the hall to take lunch together. Then Maharshi went back to his

hall alone; no one else followed him. After lunch Maharshi took rest, and then people came again in the hall at 2:30 PM. I never knew this rule. So seeing him alone I went in straight away, but as I was going in the attendant stopped me. He said, "You come back at 2:30 PM." Maharshi was looking and he signalled me to come in.

I went inside and asked him, "It was you wasn't it, who saw me and gave me your own address in Punjab?" He kept quiet. "If it was you why didn't you tell me? I wanted to see God. Why you didn't do it there, and why have you called me here? I have come here and you don't speak with me. I do not understand."

Still he was silent. I said, "I do not understand your silence.

Please speak to me." Still he was silent. Still he was silent, so I was not very happy.

I was in love with Lord Krishna since my boyhood. It was a constant force in my life. So I said, "OK, this place is very nice, I like this place. This mountain is very beautiful, there are forests, there are monkeys, there are peacocks. I will live here.

I will go to the forest and stay there." I went to the forest. I had a month before I had to join my duties and I had used up only five days. So I went to the other side of the hill for some time, knowing I could join my duties later on and knowing I was in a good place.

Then the time came for me to go, so I decided to go and prostrate before him and then to leave. There was some attraction to him, even though I may not have liked him at first.

He was there again, and once again he was alone. Very few people went to see him, very few. He asked me, "Why didn't you come for so many days?" I was very proud. I said, "I have been playing with my God." "Very good, very well." He said. "You have been playing with God?" "Yes, I was. I have always been." "Do you see him now? Do you see him now?" "Not now," I said. "Not now. When I have vision I see him, sometimes in the night also. When I have vision I see him, not always. That's why I want to see him always."

Then he said, "God does not appear and disappear."

For the first time I heard this: "God is Reality itself. God doesn't disappear. He is appearance itself. So what appears and disappears is only mental, is only imagination." I didn't like this philosophy that I was hearing. "Krishna appeared and disappeared. And the seer is still here, he who has seen Krishna is still here. Find out who the seer is."I had never been confronted at any time by anyone with this question before. Neither the living saints nor any of the past saints I had heard about could confront you like this, with this

question: "Find out who the seer is. Find out who you are.

That does not disappear. It is always there, whether you are awake or dreaming or asleep. This seer is always there. Now you tell me who this seer is."

No answer came for this question but I had an experience to find out the Source of 'I'. It worked it my case. On my first trip to the Guru I found it. Actually the seer was always there; the Source of 'I' was always there. He simply asked me to, "Find out who the seer is." That's what he said. In his presence I experienced the seer, what it was. It was so quick.

My body was vibrating and became One. I did not understand this tremendous bliss, this tremendous happiness, this beauty, in just an instant. This teaching is the ultimate teaching, which I try to present to you every day. I don't think any other teaching is worth striving for except to discover your own Self.

Later on, if you need anything else you may go in search of it.

Here and now find out who you are. This is the ultimate Reality, this is the ultimate teaching. I don't think any other teaching can surpass this teaching. Know your Self and then know the rest, if it is needed. This false appearance will disappear in the recognition of your own Self. This false appearance will not show up again when the Real is revealed to you. That has no form and no name; That has no geographical location anywhere, neither inside nor outside.

This is Eternal rest. Each of you is already in This. The only impediment is your preoccupation with something else, with something unreal. That is the only hindrance. Otherwise this freedom, this wisdom, this beauty, this love is always inviting you. You only have to turn your attention within your own Self and you see that you have always been free. This is your own nature.

There is no need to seek, no need to hunt It down anywhere else. It is already here. You only have to abandon the notion that, "I am bound. I am suffering. I am born. I have to die."

This is simply a notion that you have entertained somehow, due to your unmindfulness. Any notion will immediately disappear when you want it to, when you need it to. And when you desire freedom, instantly freedom is here. You do not need to go and search for It – it is not an object to search for. It is your very inner nature. It is very close, closer even than your breath.

When something is closer and nearer than the breath what effort do you need to meet it? It is so near, so dear, so intimate to you, but you are lost in fulfilling your desires with those things or people which are not worth making friends with. They appear and disappear – they are not permanent, they are not real. So what is the use of that hunt which is not abiding, which

is not living, which is not Eternal, which is disturbing? It's not wise to purchase disturbance for nothing. If you are a good buyer you will make a bargain for those things which do not disappear. That will be the real diamond, and having that you will not see your poverty.”

THE MOST PERFECT AND TRUE EXPLANATION OF ATMA VICHARA BY BELOVED MICHAEL JAMESJI – FROM THE GREATEST LINEAGE: RAMANA- MURUGANAR-SADHU OM AND MICHAEL JAMES Michael JamesJi: So, practise self-investigation as taught by Sri Ramana, is just trying to be self-attentive (that is, trying to experience ourself alone, in complete isolation from everything else, including our mind, body and everything else that we mistake to be ourself) Because self-investigation entails only trying to turn our attention towards ourself alone, and hence away from everything else, it can be practised at any time, in any place and in any circumstances, so it is not constrained in any way by any conventional ideas of meditation such as sitting in a particular posture for a fixed period of time. Even in the midst of our daily activities, whenever our mind has no immediate or pressing need to attend to anything else, we can try for at least a few moments to be self-attentive. Therefore self-investigation is a practice for which there is no prescribed time, place or any other restriction.

Regarding your question about ‘a personal glimpse into the

state of absolute self-knowledge even if for just a moment’, we are always aware of ourself, but we are not aware of ourself as we actually are because our awareness of ourself is mixed and confused with awareness of other things. Therefore our aim is not to experience anything new or anything that we have not always experienced, but is only to experience ourself alone, in complete isolation from even the slightest awareness of anything else. If we experience ourself alone for just a single moment, we will thereby experience ourself as we actually are, and hence the illusion that we are anything else will be destroyed forever.

Therefore when we experience absolute self-knowledge (perfectly clear self-awareness) for just a moment, we will never again be able to experience anything else, because our ego (which alone is what experiences the appearance of anything else) will thereby have been destroyed. Hence there is no such thing as ‘a personal glimpse’ of absolute selfknowledge, because by experiencing self-knowledge the illusion that we are a person will be dissolved completely and forever.

What you are now experiencing is your own dream, and though you see what seem to be other people in your dream, there is actually no one other than yourself experiencing your dream.

Therefore all the other people in this dream of yours are just figments of your own imagination, like all the people you see in any other dream. (…)

Therefore to direct and guide us in our self-investigation, Sri Ramana has taught us certain theories. However, though what he taught us is from our perspective just theories until we test and verify them for ourself, from his perspective what he taught is an expression in words of what he actually experienced. Of course words cannot adequately convey what he experienced, but they can point us in the right direction to enable us to investigate and experience what he experienced.

All the essential theories he taught, such as that the world is merely a mental creation or projection of our own thoughts, are intended to direct us to investigate ourself — that is, to try to experience ourself as we actually are by attempting to focus our entire attention on ourself alone. If everything that we experience other than ourself is just an illusion created and experienced only by our own mind, by continuing to attend to that illusion we are just perpetuating our own delusion — the delusion that we are this mind. If we alone are real, we can experience what is real only by trying to experience what we ourself are.

More real teachings of Michael JamesJi: “So long as we allow ourself to attend to anything other than ourself, our body and all the other extraneous things that we thus experience seem to be real, so Sri Ramana advises us to try to attend only to ourself, the ‘I’ who is conscious of both ourself and all those other things. Therefore if we wish to follow his path and thereby to experience what this ‘I’ really is, we should not be concerned with our body or any connection we may seem to have with it, but should focus all our interest and attention only on ourself, the one absolute consciousness or pure self-awareness ‘I am’.

Of course śravaṇa (hearing, reading or studying Sri Ramana’s teachings about ātma-vicāra) and manana(reflecting on them) do entail activity of our mind, but the actual practice of ātmavicāra entails giving up all action by attending to ourself alone.

Attending to anything other than ourself entails a movement of our attention away from ourself towards that other thing, so it is an action, whereas being self-attentive entails no movement of our attention away from ourself but only its resting calmly in its source, ourself, so it is not an action but only a complete cessation of all action.

When I wrote “ourself, the ‘I’ who is conscious of both ourself and all those other things”, I was obviously referring to ourself as the ego, because we experience other things only when we experience ourself as the ego. When we experience ourself as we really are, we are conscious of ourself alone (because nothing else actually exists), whereas when we experience ourself as the ego, we are conscious not only of ourself but also of other things.

You say ‘I infer that the first ourself is the ego-I and the second ourself is the self’, but there is only ever one ‘ourself’, because we are not two but only one. It is we ourself who now experience ourself as this ego (and consequently experience other things also), and it is we ourself who must therefore try to experience ourself alone in order to experience ourself as we really are.

You ask, “why would Sri Ramana advise us to try to attend the ‘I’ that is conscious of both ourself and other things, instead of just ourself (without other things)”, but when I wrote that he “advises us to try to attend only to ourself, the ‘I’ who is conscious of both ourself and all those other things”, I did not

mean to imply that we should be conscious of anything other than ourself. In fact I wrote ‘attend only to ourself’, which clearly implies that we should not be conscious of anything else. Now we are conscious of other things, but this ‘I’ who is now conscious of all these other things should try to be conscious of itself alone, because only when we are conscious of nothing other than ourself will we experience ourself as we actually are.

This is the simple but fundamental principle on which Sri Ramana based his essential teachings: so long as we are aware of anything other than ourself, we are experiencing ourself as the ego, so in order to experience ourself as we actually are, we must try to be aware of ourself alone.”