Peace

“The peace experienced by so many simple devotees in their hearts is the divine wealth that possesses great distinction. There is no fortune greater than peace, no force greater than peace, no excellent tapas greater than peace, no immortal life greater than peace. If you abide in the Heart in stillness, in your true state, your peace will never cease. “
Bhagavan SriRamana Maharishi

I am a fool - it took me a very long time to understand:

My learning, my knowledge, my pride, my feeling of separateness were all barriers to returning to simplicity.

To just being, in stillness, without thought, as boundless consciousness.

All I had to do was let go, to surrender in humble, but absolute, devotion,
To throw myself at your feet with total love and faith and trust.

You took pity on my tortured, suffering self, lost in the fiery desert of samsara.
You fed me your nectar of unconditional love to forever quench my thirst!
With infinite kindness, you protected me with your cool shade and led me back to the fragrant bower of the Heart.
So gently and patiently, you led me back to my beginning, you introduced me to Me!
To find you shining eternally in my Heart as “I” - what a mystery!

Now that I have tasted your Grace, how can anything else ever attract me?
Once I know you, can there be anything else to know?

Like a river pouring itself into the ocean, I come home to you at last!
Now I rest in you, immovable and forever, in blissful peace.

The Meaning of Growing Up

“Life is like carrying a precious message from the little child you were to the old person you will become. You have to make sure that the message is not lost somewhere along the way.”

What makes us human?
Is there a reason that we have been given our forms of intelligence, of self-awareness, of consciousness?
If our endless greed and power-mania is destroying millions of our fellow human beings and the very planet we live on, are we sane? Does the exponential wealth of the few justify the extreme poverty and misery of the many?
If, in our behaviour, we are far more cruel, rapacious and destructive than any other living creatures, are we superior or inferior?
Are we angels or demons – or both??

Every human was born divine – innocent, loving, happy, peaceful.
We grew ..and the cloak of ego soon veiled our original divinity, no matter that it never ceased to shine deep within us.
Driven by the torments of fear and desire, we lost our basic humanity and ran amok on planet Earth.
Fooled by the mirages of sense-objects, we left the Garden to pursue imaginary happiness in the fiery desert of this world. 

Can we return to the cool shade of sat-chit-ananda in the oasis of the Self, our source?
Can we re-discover the gift we were born with and thus see the magic and the sacred all around us once more?

Can we attain the kingdom of heaven and make this world the paradise it was always meant to be?
Can we, at last, evolve into our true humanity, our peaceful bliss, our simple dignity, our divine legacy?
Can we give this question at least a small fraction of our attention every day?

Humanity, what do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want to feel when you are old?

innocence

You ARE the Truth

“One could cause God through alchemy. But even if that God tells you something don’t believe it. If I come in front of you, don’t believe it. The Seer is most important. You are. That is most important. Concentrate on the Seer, not on the seen. All that you see is false and the Seer alone is true. All knowledge you gather is useless, until you hold on to your Self. You are the Truth, not what is being told to you, not what you see.” Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi

You cannot see the Self: you can only BE the Self.
You are always the Self; only the veil of ignorance hides this truth.

This veil is nothing but a cloud of thoughts.

When the attention is focussed outwards, the world appears.
Turn the attention inwards, focus on the one who sees, not the objects seen.
Seek the root, the source from which the “I” thought arises.
Thus, the effort is to turn within, to be still and silent and empty, to just rest in pure Being.
You do this every night when you fall asleep…..now do it consciously!
This is the only goal of all sadhana.

Atma vichara, the process of Self -inquiry, is a simple technique : ask Who am I? and Whence did I arise? and consistently focus your attention inwards.
Do this with great earnestness, with love and faith.

As you go deeper into yourself, a point arises where something inside awakens.
Something opens, like a flower blossoming; something throbs and hums within.
When you feel this, let go of everything!

All effort ceases at this point -the Divine takes over.
The ego-mind dissolves like a salt-doll in the ocean that is Being.
Here there is only infinite Love and Light.
Just abide here in blissful peace.

Nothing more needs to be done.

There is only Light

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

“To speak, and to write, is to assert who we are, what we think. The necessary other side is to surrender these things — to stand humbled and stunned and silent before the wild and inexplicable beauties and mysteries of being.” Jane Hirshfield

Who am I? What is my real nature? Where is my source? 

I set off in search of myself into the bowels of solitude,
Discovering secret, silent, realms even in the midst of the madding crowds,
Gravitating like a lost planet to that still centre of the galaxy,
Sinking like a stone into the bottomless deep of me.

In that infinite and perfect Silence, I let go of everything:
I let go my story, my past, my dreams and fears and desires;
I let go my worries, my joys, my pleasures and pains.
I dropped all my masks, my costumes, my conditioning, my projections.
I let go of I.

At last,  naked before the innermost flame:
Now, stripped of all veils, only the essence remains.

There is only Light!