Searching for God

 

“ Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat. My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in places of worship , not in legs winding around your neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables. 
When you really look for me, you will see me instantly – you will find me in the tiniest house of time. Kabir says: O student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside your breath.”

“Inside this clay jug, there are canyons and pine mountains and the Maker of canyons and pine mountains!  All seven oceans are inside and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that  tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.
And the music from strings that no one touches and the source of all water.
If you want the truth I will tell you the truth:
Friend, listen : the God whom I love is inside me.”
Kabir ( Robert Bly translation.)

I fell into this deep chasm in my chest and drowned in the ocean of God.

Now there is only silence.

Breathing in, who am I? Breathing out, I am.

Contentment is peace.

Bliss is no-mind.

Acceptance is freedom.

Wrapped up in the soft petals of the heart-lotus, I rest like a baby on its mother’s lap.

The sunlight of divine grace blesses me forever.

I bow again and again in deep gratitude and joy: the Light of the Universe shines in me!

In you, in everyone and everything!

Nothing else exists.

“ The emperor himself is not as happy as the man who has no wants.
When the sun of Self shines bright and real in the vast Heart-expanse, darkness dies, all afflictions end and infinite bliss wells up.” Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi

Choose

 “It is tremendously exhilarating to learn for the first time, the truth of the one Self and the possibility of Self realization. At last, life has a meaning and a purpose. It is not a question of whether there is a God apart from you but whether there is a “you” apart from God!” Arthur Osborne, devotee of Sri Ramana Maharishi.

In the twilight of my life, I catch a glimpse of truth.

Humbled and made wiser by the seeming passage of time, I begin to understand what it all means.

I learn that I have never been in control of anything that happens. I accept my helplessness and the hidden presence of a higher power. I surrender completely and beg only for Grace, for blessing, for guidance.

As I let go of my story, my imagined reality crumbles like a sandcastle before the tide.

The elaborate edifice that I believed was me disappears like salt in the sea.

From the depths of my own being, Light emerges.

At last, I see who I truly am.

“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.”      Lao Tzu , Tao Te Ching

Hiding in plain sight, the Lord of the Universe is in the wind and the rain and the dust; He is the source and the substance of all that exists.

Even though He is closer to us than our heartbeat, we do not see Him or know Him .

Invisible and silent, yet infinite and all-powerful, He creates, sustains and dissolves all things in the ripeness of season.

Effortlessly miraculous, He maintains the perfection of Nature and the harmony of all that exists, without fanfare or fuss.

We take this magic for granted and complain endlessly about all that is not right with our petty world and its affairs.

Its not our fault: we are under the spell of His Maya.We are the characters in His dream, the actors in His play.He is the author of the script, the director, the actors, the props, the stage and the audience.

Its very complex, yet very simple : nothing but Him exists!

When you wake up, it is He who wakes up. So ends one story….and the next one begins.

All the worlds, all the plays and all the actors are but froth on the ocean that is Him.

Would you rather be a brief bubble in the froth or the infinite, eternal ocean itself?

You choose. 

God Dwells Within

 “When the sun of Self shines bright and real in the vast Heart-expanse, darkness dies, all afflictions end and infinite bliss wells up.” Ramana Maharishi

When I was 21, my guru told me, “ God dwells within you as you!”

After 47 years, I begin to understand the profound significance of this truth.

God is my very being.

How strange! We search for God everywhere when He is closer to us than our own breath.

Grace is the key.

Surrender totally and Grace will flow over you like a mother’s embrace.

Grace takes care of everything.

Kabir said, “ I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.”

How miraculous! God, the infinite, eternal, omnipotent ocean of love and joy and peace is right here in me! In you, in them, in everyone and everything. 

Everywhere I look, I see God, wherever I go, I walk in God, everything I touch is God. Nothing but God exists!

So what is there to do but be?

Just be – and praise God, give thanks to God, sing His name in joy.

In this very life, know the kingdom of Heaven : right here, right now.

Abide in the Self that is the core of your being.

All will be well.

Paul Brunton writes: “I remain perfectly calm and fully aware of who I am and what is occurring. The Self still exists but it is a changed radiant Self. Something that is far superior to my unimportant personality rises into consciousness and becomes me. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. I sit in the lap of holy bliss. Divine grace descends and acts only when it is invoked by total surrender. It acts from within because God resides in the heart of all beings. Its whispers can be heard only in a mind purified by self surrender and prayer. Rationalists laugh at it and atheists scorn it but it exists. It is a descent of God into the soul‟s zone of awareness. It is visitation of a force unexpected and unpredictable. It is voice spoken out of cosmic silence. It is cosmic will which can perform authentic miracles under its own law.”

“To learn the Buddhist Way is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to perceive oneself as all things. To realize this is to cast off the body and mind of self and others. When you have reached this stage you will be detached even from enlightenment but will practice it continually without thinking about it.”    Zen Master Dogen 

Ramana Jayanthi

 “You who wish to celebrate a birthday, inquire first who was born. One’s true birthday is when one enters into the Eternal Being which shines forever without birth or death.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi.

Today, at Sri Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai, the 143rd birthday of Sri Ramana Maharishi is being celebrated with deep love and devotion. 

“The Maharshi was an idol of peace and silence. The ocean’s surface dances in waves, laughs in sparkling foam, roars as its thunderous waves clap and clash! And yet deep in its inner vaults it rests in eternal silence and peace. Without such a divine and spiritual depth, the work and activities of this universe would become worthless and aimless. Work should be undertaken and pursued to take us ultimately to the workless abode of Divine Silence and endless Peace. This is the secret doctrine of all our Vedas and ancient scriptures.” Swami Tapovanam, on Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi

This is how Suddhananda Bharati, the philosopher-poet-saint describes his first glimpse of Bhagavan: “I saw no human form. I felt dazed, effulgence enveloped me and Bhagavan dissolved me into silence. Bhagavan implanted grace in me and my eyes involuntarily closed themselves. I felt I was entering into the inner cave of my Heart. An hour passed like a moment and when I opened my eyes, I noticed that Bhagavan Ramana’s lotus eyes were riveted on me. A voice from within said, “Now, you have felt it. The cave is open. The “I AM” is the truth.” After many years of intense sadhana, now, here at the holy feet of Ramana Maharshi, I experienced for the first time, the truth as my own inner reality, and caught hold of his holy feet and shed tears of joy remembering the sacred words of the saint Manickavachagar: “Today, you have risen in my Heart as a sun destroying all forms of darkness. I am swimming in ecstasy.”

O gracious Bhagavan, lord of hearts, you who were never born and will never die, indulge your children who cannot refrain from expressing their love and gratitude and joy.

You deigned to incarnate in human form and bless the whole world with your Light. At the tender age of sixteen, you attained Brahman. For fifty-five years you dwelt in the bosom of your beloved Arunachala mountain so that millions could experience the divine in human form.  Now, more than seven decades after you dropped that form, human beings from every corner of planet earth keep visiting your shrine, where Grace blazes forth unceasingly.

O gentle and compassionate Lord, so many thousands of souls have taken shelter at your feet and found peace and joy beyond all description!

No words can begin to thank you or describe your infinite glory.

Om namo bhagavathe Sri Ramanaya! Om namo bhagavathe Sri Ramanaya!

Jai Bhagavan! Jai Bhagavan! Jai Bhagavan! Pray, shine forever in my Heart!

“Abandon the drama of the world and seek the Self within. Stay within and I will protect you, ensuring that no harm befalls you. Seek my grace within the Heart. I will drive away the darkness and show you the light. This is my responsibility. Like the children of an emperor, my devotees are heirs to abundant rejoicing.!” Sri Ramana Maharishi, Padmalai.

I Wish

"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you!" Holy Bible

 “There is nothing in the world so dear as life or so desirable. What is life? God’s existence is my life. If my life is God’s existence then God’s being is my being and God’s is-ness is my is-ness, neither more nor less.” Meister Eckhardt, Sermon 65

I wish you happiness and laughter, patience and fortitude and the gift of seeing beauty in everything.
May you enjoy true fellowship in caring and sharing and rejoice in the glory of the One! 
I wish you a glad life, an awakened and aware life, as uplifting as birdsong at dawn.
May you know the magic of unconditional love and the perfect joy of surrender.

I wish you calmness and strength, courage and faith, as you persist in the face of all odds.

May discrimination and detachment help you navigate the treacherous rapids of earthly existence.
I wish you a journey of joyous discovery and wonder, of deep insight and intuitive understanding.
May you appreciate the gifts of connection and compassion woven into the mystery of this universe.

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” Jalaluddin Rumi

I wish you a tranquil mind in a healthy body as you live life directly, centered in the here and now.
May you always be aware of the grace and the blessings that you continually receive.
I wish you peace and contentment as you ripen in wisdom and self-knowledge.
May your life flow as a river of gratitude and acceptance into the ocean of God.

I wish that you see through the constructs of mind and find the eternal, ineffable truth.
May you feel God’s compassionate presence in you, around you, everywhere!
I wish that you discover the immortal Self hidden deep in the core of your being.
May you know the Divine within and experience the end of all suffering.

“By fixing the attention lightly, effortlessly in the present moment without allowing it to wander into past or future, the mind becomes ‘no-mind’ – the Self!”   Yoga Vashishta.

I wish your heart blossoms with infinite love and fills all the heavens with its song.
May the light in you brighten everything around you and bless all that you touch with its bliss!
May your being be whole and tranquil and joyous, free from regret and worry and fear.
Dearly beloved, with all my heart, I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

"There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy.  It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility."  Thomas Merton

Coming Home

 “The root of all desires is the one desire: to come home, to be at peace. There comes a moment in life when our compensatory activities, the accumulation of money, learning and objects, leaves us feeling deeply apathetic. This can motivate us towards the search for our real nature beyond appearances. We may find ourselves asking, 'Why am I here? What is life? Who am I?' Sooner or later any intelligent person asks these questions. What you are looking for is what you already are, not what you will become. What you already are is the answer and the source of the question. In this lies its power of transformation. It is a present actual fact. Looking to become something is completely conceptual, merely an idea. The seeker will discover that he is what he seeks and that what he seeks is the source of the inquiry.”

― Jean Klein, I Am

From the very root of being, an ancient memory arises, a tantalising glimpse of pure joy and peace.

Once you have tasted the divine, you can never forget it. Nothing else will ever fully satisfy you.

So there comes a stage in every human life when the soul craves to return home.

The search begins.

For most of us, this search takes a great deal of effort and time.

We search with great diligence in all the wrong places. Often, we give up in despair.

In the darkest hour, light suddenly appears : this is how Grace dawns.

Surrender is the key.

“Who is the doer and what is done? Is the end of the quest the end of the question?
You think you are the seeker and find you are the sought.
You think you are the teacher and find you are the taught.
 Sing a song of glory and you will be the glory!” Sufi Choir

Grace guides us, intuitively, to focus all our attention inwards.

Stillness and tranquility lets us sink into the deepest core of being.

This is where we rest every night in deep sleep, without any thought or dream.

This is where we discover who we really are.

In this perfect silence, the mind dissolves in the divine like salt  in the sea.

Here the soul experiences an infinite, blissful peace that is changeless, eternal.

This is our true home.

Stay anchored in this bliss and never leave.

Whatever needs to happen will happen.

Nothing more needs to be done.

“As, in your mother’s womb, you dwelt unattached to anything else; so too, sink into the womb of the Heart and dwell in the Self alone. Where all the holy scriptures end, there tranquil Self- abidance begins!” Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi.

Nothing But Perfection

 

O compassionate Master, no words can describe your boundless grace.

Death dances like a madman all around but cannot touch me anymore.

You took my hand and led me into the dimension of infinite joy.

Just as darkness cannot survive the sunrise, here it is impossible for suffering to exist.

This heaven beyond all sorrow, O Lord, is your gracious gift, your merciful blessing, your vast, inexpressible peace!

I dissolve in a river of blissful tears as my story disappears in your Light.

O Gurudev! I burn like a wick in your flame!

For the rest of my days, my heart can do nothing but give thanks, again and again;

With every fibre of my existence, I constantly sing your praise.

Om Bhagavan ! Jai Bhagavan! Om Bhagavan! Jai Bhagavan! Om Bhagavan! Jai Bhagavan!

You opened my eyes and now I see: nothing but perfection exists!

The Om Purnamadah Mantra is a universal chant for awakening the consciousness and tuning into the infinite bliss accessible within oneself.

“You are the fullness. There is fullness, here is fullness. From the fullness, the fullness is born. Remove the fullness from the fullness, and the fullness alone remains.Om , peace, peace, peace.” Isho Upanishad

The meaning of this ancient Vedic mantra is that the entire creation constitutes one whole unit of perfection.

Each and every particle, non-living or living, represents the same whole unit. There is no place where this whole is not present. Every atom contains it.

This whole reproduces itself in its own image.

Removing every entity from this unit has no effect on it because that which remains represents the same whole. So, forever and always, nothing but perfection exists.

Human life is precious because, by the Guru’s grace,  human beings can truly know and experience this understanding. Thus, all suffering ends.