Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi

[Iyest]

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Mechanical repetition is useless:

Q: Can repetition of the name Rama bring about Realisation?
B: Provided you call upon Rama with yearning. Mechanical repetition of the name is useless. God cannot be deceived. He knows whether there is Love in the heart or not.

- Aham Sphurana, page 721

 

[Iyest]

Man believes samsara is somehow manageable. Guru’s Grace makes him suffer:

Man is led to the belief that samsara is somehow ‘manageable’; for this reason he never really makes any effort to break out of it. When the Guru’s Grace commences to plunge into operation, the glove of ignorance begins to rupture. Then that fortunate one who is earmarked for total destruction in his incumbent lifetime begins to suffer like never before. His old stance concerning samsara tries to convince him that these bad circumstances are only passing clouds of bad weather, and that soon matters would improve; but no signs of improvement arrive. Meanwhile, the rupture in the glove has become larger; his hand is squirming with the unbearably scorching blaze of what he had once fondly regarded as a ‘challenge’. Finally just as the glove is sundered he sees the pointlessness of offering any more resistance and disgustedly throws away the glowing ember known as samsara. This is the secret of how Guru’s Grace brings about Realisation: he does not bring about Realisation from anywhere; he merely removes the obstacles to it by hastening the devotee’s arrant surrender.

- Aham Sphurana, page 720

 

[Iyest]

Happiness experienced during sadhana is a dangerous distraction:

The genuine State of Self is the non-dual Sahajastithi. This cannot be experienced because in that state there is no experiencer. Whatever is experienced is indubitably unreal and illusory. The fact that an experiencer is available to assert “I experience” shows that any experience is ipso facto futile and worthless. “Who is the experiencer?” is what we must investigate. Some think experiencing pleasure during meditation means the Self is Realised. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The happiness experienced during sadhana is a dangerous distraction. Many fall prey to it. Do not incinerate your hands in dabbling with it and then regret later. The moment any experience is felt, ask yourself “Who feels this experience?”. Our goal is not acquisition of experience but unequivocal destruction of the experiencer.

- Aham Sphurana, page 910