Choose!

It is indeed the mind that is the cause of men’s bondage and liberation. The mind that is attached to
sense-objects leads to bondage, while dissociated from sense-objects it leads to liberation.” – Amrita-Bindu Upanishad

“The Self that is subtler than the subtle and greater than the great is seated in the heart of every creature. One who is free from desire sees the glory of the Self through the tranquillity of the mind and senses and becomes absolved from grief.” – Katha Upanishad

The Self is always the very core of one’s own being.

It is the infinite Being-Awareness-Bliss, radiant in the eternal Now, that is your true nature.

Every human being has a choice : 
to identify with an illusory, limited persona formed from memories of the dead past and projections into the non-existent future, a mind-body-ego complex that briefly exists and disappears like a passing image on a screen
or

to be the immortal, blissful and transcendent Self that is the ever-present source and  substance of all that exists. 

This choice is your birth-right; it is why the sages declare that every human life is a precious gift.

Would you choose repeated cycles of doubt, fear and suffering or unshakable, eternal joy and peace?

O friend, life is short, death is certain: do not wait any longer.

Now, while you still can,

choose!

“Dissolve the self in the supreme Self as the space in a clay pot is dissolved in infinite space; then, as the infinite, be silent for ever, o sage!” – Adhyatma Upanishad

“To the seer, all things have verily become the Self: what delusion, what sorrow, can there be for him who beholds that oneness?” – Isa Upanishad

Love is Devotion

 ( For my friend, Tintu and family)

“Love is the source and the sustenance of all beings. Love is a fire; its glow is devotion , its flame is wisdom, its smoke is attachment and its ashes, detachment. The flame of love illuminates the devotee’s path in life, banishing all darkness.” Hazrat Inayat Khan.

“ My sole occupation is love. There is nothing better or more necessary than love.” John of the Cross (Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom, 1586)

All the scriptures say : God is Love.

To reach God you must first learn to be Love.

Love is selfless and unconditional. 

It sees no differences, being that unity where no duality can exist.

It is a natural outpouring of nectar from a heart that blossoms in surrender to the Divine.

To surrender to the Divine is to merge in the Divine, like a drop falling into an ocean.

If you would be immortal, let go of your drop-hood.

This is ultimate love and devotion.

Thus will you be one with  the infinite, aware ocean of fulfilment and peace.

“That which is consciousness alone, which is all-pervading, which is eternal, which is all-full, which is of the form of bliss and which is indestructible, is the only true Brahman .” – Varaha Upanishad

Who You Really Are

“ Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness.
It is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.” Eckhardt Tolle.

Like the forest fire burns dry grass, jnana burns up the ego and all the vasanas.

This reveals the great truth that there is only One who is everything.

Once you know this One, you will see His light shining in every living being.

Who sees through your eyes, hears through your ears, breathes through your nose, feels through your heart?

Who is the sleeper, the dreamer, the thinker, the doer?

Who is that silent, pure presence, that still, shining Witness in your depths?

Seek this One who throbs as your very Self.

Throw away the mask of name and form, the illusion, the story.

Be still, turn inwards, dive deep within;

 behold the Light that shines as the very core of your being!

This is the wish-fulfilling tree, the fountain of immortality, the boundless peace that is beyond time and space.

This is the incorruptible, blemishless treasure of Grace.

This is the infinite, eternal perfection of Divine Brahman.

This is who you really are.

“As rivers, flowing down, become indistinguishable on reaching the sea by giving up their names and forms, so also the illumined soul, having become freed from name and form, reaches the self-effulgent supreme Self. “ – Mundaka Upanishad.

The Teaching

                                          

“Unless one looks upon death as a thing that is very near and that might happen at any moment, one will not be aware of the Self. This means that the ego must die, must vanish along with the inherent vasanas. If the ego vanishes thus, the Self will shine forth radiantly. Then there can be no more births and deaths.” 

“ Only humility can destroy the ego, that which keeps you far away from God. The doorway to God is always open but the lintel is very low: to enter, one has to bow low.”
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi

The greatest power is in the teaching of the master. 

The greatest blessing is his compassionate grace that grants understanding of the teaching.

Open the door to the flood of grace by tapasya, the practice of faith, devotion and surrender.

At last, learn to listen with the soul, to trust, without doubt or hesitation, in the teaching. 

This is the master’s gift, the still, silent awareness that is his transcendental peace.

This is the master shining as the Self within the Heart.

Stay as this - always.

“If one abides clinging constantly to the Self in the Heart, then ,through that state of peace, all other attachments and desires will fall away and only your natural state, liberation, will remain.”

“Nirvana is perfection. In the perfect state, there is no subject and object; there is nothing to see, nothing to feel, nothing to know. Seeing, feeling and knowing are functions of the mind. In nirvana , nothing exists but the blissful, pure consciousness “I am”.”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi.

Respecting Nature

          ( Painting by Meenakshi S, acrylic on canvas )
“The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.” Albert Einstein

The greatest wisdom is understanding how little we know.
Human beings are often filled with hubris over their so-called vast advances in science, technology , medicine etc. Yet we do not even know how to live sustainably, gracefully, peacefully and happily on this bountiful earth!

The total knowledge of the human race, accumulated over millennia in every field of human endeavour , is less than a few grains of sand on the vast beach of Nature’s perfection. Therefore, a little humility is always in order.

From the mystical world of sub-atomic particles to the perfect orbits of stars and planets in the vast cosmos, from the magic of every leaf that effortlessly creates its own food using sunlight and carbon-di-oxide to the encyclopaedic knowledge built into the DNA of every cell, Nature’s miraculous tapestry of brilliance commands respect!

The greatest scientists have always been those who approached the wonders of Nature with humility, awe and delight. They had the wisdom and mature intuition to recognise the elegant, aware intelligence that underlies everything. Such understanding is a natural outcome of deep, continuous contemplation and tremendous inner refinement, which is also the state of the greatest sages and mystics of the race.
It is time to wake up from the nightmare, the insanity that is our current “civilisation”, to heed the wisdom of our greatest scientists, philosophers and spiritual teachers. Existing in harmony with the universal web of life is our birthright .

The only real solution to the self-created problems of the human race is to discover our own innermost nature.

This can only happen when we learn to still the mind and listen to our souls, when we turn our attention inwards instead of outwards. This is what all the prophets and sages and sacred books have been saying, since time began. We did not listen.  Will we listen now?

May the Divine intelligence that is the source and the substance of creation guide and bless us all !

“ The Divine gives light to the mind and shines within it. Except by turning the mind inward and fixing it in the Divine, there is no other way to know Him through the mind.” Forty Verses on Reality, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi

https://lightsongs.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-tao-of-tapas.html

The Jnani

“Noble men live calmly and loftily,
Moving for the benefit of the world, like the spring,
Having themselves crossed the fearful ocean of life,
They, with no motive, help others also to cross it.”
Vikachudamani, Adi Sankaracharya.

O Lord, you have lit the lamp of wisdom in the Heart-cave wherein you dwell:

now grant me your grace that the wick of my soul may always be fuelled with the oil of devotion and surrender.

May the shields of attention and stillness shelter the flame from vasana winds.

May all that is illusion and darkness be dispelled by the radiance of that Light.
May the eternal flame of jnana burn steady and bright in the Heart,ever worshipping your lotus feet.

May my true Being blossom as the blessing of your transcendent peace.

“ My darkness was revealed and dispelled by the mere confrontation with light – light that did not condemn me or wish to change me but accepted and loved me totally and unconditionally; that saw me as nothing other than light.
When thought is seen as nothing but consciousness or clarity, as nothing but a ripple on a whirlpool of light, then thought disappears and light alone remains. This is the real death and the return to life as it really is, ever now.

When it is clearly seen that every perception, sensorial or emotional or mental, is nothing but a brief movement in consciousness, in light, then, from that moment on, every perception chants the glory of this clarity, as every wave is a song of the sea. 

Love does not search for love. It recognises it everywhere.”

Wolter Keers, after meeting with Ramana Maharishi

https://lightsongs.blogspot.com/2016/07/lord-of-hearts-osweet-gurudev-how-can-i.html