The Tao of Tapas

“Sravana, manana, niddhidhyasana continue like ever-spinning wheels even for the jivan mukta …..tapas becomes his very nature.”
Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi.

A still lake rests below the mountain, white lotus flowers scattered in profusion on its waters. On the banks, the trees are green with abundant life. Suddenly white wings flash as a heron flies up. 

Nature practices her tapasya effortlessly and constantly: her artistry is pure harmony. Nature is born of Tao.

Beauty, peace, perfection are found in the essence of all that exists: in that underlying Being that is the source and the substance of all things. 

When the mind is still and tranquil, it sinks into its source.
Merging with Being, it becomes Tao, the Self, sat-chit-ananda, existence-consciousness-bliss.

Resting in bliss in the depths of the Heart, staying forever rooted in the Self…..this is tapas.

Jnana vichara never ceases. Tapas is incessant.
With every breath you take, walking, eating, doing, sleeping -let your life be tapas. Stay unshakably rooted in the Self.

Then you will truly be one with Nature, one with Being.

Then you will be Tao.

The Way

“If one is able to see oneself with the inner eye as not the body, all desires will vanish and one will experience perfect peace.” Devikalottara

“This knowledge of the Truth makes an eloquent, wise and active person mute, inert and inactive. Hence it is shunned by those who want to enjoy the world.”
“The mind of the liberated one is neither troubled nor pleased; it is inactive, motionless, desireless and free from doubts.”Ashtavakra Gita

Be still. 

Be quiet.

Merge with the dust in utter humility.

The path to immortality is through the narrow gateway of heart-felt surrender.

Let the mind sink like a stone into the depths of Self

And dissolve like salt in that ocean of blissful peace.

That

“That which is the support, the soul, the Source, the purpose and the power of all this world, the sole reality behind all this appearance, That indeed exists. Let That, the Truth, abide in your Heart.” Yoga Vasishta,8, v.12

Blissful and peaceful, ever One, who can describe the mystery of That?

That is infinite, formless, tranquil and perfect.
Stainless as space, free from attachment and desire, ever real, That is the limitless ocean on which the universe is but a wave, appearing briefly and disappearing.

Beyond all opposites, shining as pure intelligent awareness, That is the source of all grace and beauty and love.

That is the vast infinity of Being-consciousness-joy, eternal and omnipotent.

Why do you fear and tremble before the mirage of this world of suffering and misery and death?

Drop all your fears and rejoice!

That is who you really are!

Be Still

"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46. The Holy Bible

“Stillness and tranquillity set things in order in the Universe.” Tao Te Ching

Be still.

Drop all the words. 

The word “God” cannot give you salvation, just as the word “food” cannot satisfy your hunger and the word “water” cannot quench your thirst.
Your intellectual knowledge is but a mirage, a reflection in a mirror: catch hold of the original!

All that is real is beyond the mind.
You cannot find the truth or know the truth.
You can only BE the truth.
Its all a matter of attention- stop looking outwards, turn inwards and focus your entire attention on the very source of Being.

This is the only way.

Grace is ever-present, ever-perfect, inevitable: it will act in the right way and at the right time.When you dive deep into your own being, Grace will embrace you, devour you, dissolve your mind in the silent bliss of pure existence.

Stay rooted forever in that silence.

Eternal Flame

“What is Gayatri? It really means ‘Let me concentrate on That which illumines all. “ Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi. 

Upon an altar in the cave of the Heart, a lamp-less flame burns eternally.
In this temple of the Divine, fuelled by the ever-flowing oil of heart-melting devotion, the light of Love reveals infinity.

Stillness and silence are the steps that lead to this mystic radiance, this ineffable perfection of Self.
Om reverberates here and the fragrance of sat-chit-ananda fills all space.

This is the real, the true, the One.

This is the source and the substance of all that exists.

This is the illumination of ultimate wisdom.

This is the jewel in the lotus, the secret gateway to transcendent immortality.

Sweet Lord of Grace!
Let me stay surrendered at this altar
until I am consumed like a moth in that flame. 

Searching for the Beloved

“Self-enquiry is really possible only through intense introversion of the mind. What is finally realised as a result of such enquiry into the source of aham vritti,
is verily the Heart as the undifferentiated light of Pure Consciousness, into which the reflected light of the mind is completely absorbed.”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi, Maharishi’s Gospel

In a waking dream, I fell into an abyss of profound and magical beauty, so perfect and so breath-taking as to be inconceivable by the human mind.
It was as if I drowned in an ocean of incandescent, ecstatic bliss.
Alas! My moment of ripeness was not yet upon me and so I was hurled forth, like a shell spat out by a whirlpool, back into samsara.

Now I wander the worlds, like a lover endlessly seeking for his Beloved, like an addict desperately searching for his drug; my life is nothing but a constant search within myself for the way back to that ocean.

I am not as other men, struggling to acquire the treasures of this world.
I am a fool for Love, weeping a river of tears, crying out for my Beloved:
I am driven by the haunting memory, the sweet, intoxicating echo, the unforgettable, lingering fragrance of the Divine.

Thus do I bow before the Absolute in beseeching prayer,
in abject humility,
in total and unconditional surrender.

“Even the blackest of crows,
when it alights upon beautiful golden Mount Meru,
is transformed into the form of pure gold. 

In just the same way, even those jivas 

who are entirely without distinction will, 

upon joining the presence of one’s own reality, Divine Consciousness,
attain, by its glorious majesty, the sublime form of the Self and shine. “
 Ramana Puranam.

Your Own Truth

“It is no true measure of one’s health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” J. Krishnamurti

“An indescribable state is attained by the sage whose mind has melted away and who is free from mind-display, delusion, dream or dullness.” Ashtavakra Gita.

Sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn.

To live the best possible life, you must discover and experience your own unshakable truth.You have to do your own inner work: no one else can do it for you.It takes as long as it’s supposed to take: there are no shortcuts to ripeness.

The Buddha saw that life is marked by four qualities: impermanence, suffering, selflessness, peace. Accepting the impermanence and ultimate selflessness of our existence, we will stop suffering and realize peace.

You have to die before the body dies: this is the secret of immortality.
In your journey to the source, you must burn all your sheaths, your forms, your concepts: everything that changes must be offered to the sacrificial flame.

Anchor yourself deeply and permanently in the “I am “, pure Being: stay connected there in waking or dreaming or sleep. This is the eternal center, the unshakable, the true. All else will flow naturally and perfectly from this root.

The deeper you dive, the less there is that you can say about what you discover. Once you become that Silence, there is nothing to say.

Any attempt to describe it with words brings back the mind-world, the very illusion that you struggled so hard to destroy.

Just turn within- Self is Shiva, the transcendental experience of Self is Devi, they are ONE!
In this sweet Silence where the Guru shines in the heart, Being is all there is.
Here in this vast and perfect space of consciousness,there is no body, no mind, no person, no world, no God;
there is only blissful, ecstatic and infinite peace.

“The radiance of consciousness-bliss in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without is the supreme and blissful primal reality whose form is Silence and which is declared by Jnanis to be the final and un-obstructable state of true knowledge.” Ramana Maharishi