At the Guru's Feet

There is a realm of infinite serenity and bliss.
Worry and fear cannot exist in this pure ambience of divine love.
Free from all suffering, this is the space beyond delusion and desire,
the timeless haven of Grace.
This is where I dwell forever, at the Guru’s lotus feet.

I have wandered in the wasteland of samsara for so many lifetimes.
Lost in false ego-mind, I left the cool shade of Self
and suffered in the burning desert of duality – again and again and again.
Enough is enough ; no more!
Now this is where I dwell forever, at the Guru’s lotus feet.

So weary of pointless struggle, at last I let go!

Dropping all my masks, my names, my forms, I am naked as a new-born babe –

Before the shining Self in the Heart, I bow down in total surrender.
Drunk with devotion, I burn like a moth in that flame.
This is how I dwell forever at the Guru’s lotus feet.

Awakening from an endless dream, suddenly - a clear and cloudless sky!
In that still, thought-free silence, I see who I truly am.
When all the movies end, only Light remains.
Being-awareness-bliss is all that ever is.
This is how it feels to dwell forever at the Guru’s lotus feet.

Be still; be silent; just be! this is all I have to do.
Grace is the only key.
It’s as simple as that – praise be and hallelujah!
Now my life is a song of gratitude, a paean of glad delight.

This is why I bow forever at the Guru’s lotus feet.

" The tranquil clarity devoid of mental turmoil is the samadhi which is essential for liberation. Therefore try earnestly to achieve the peaceful consciousness, the clarity of heart, by destroying the mind.” Guru Vachaka Kovai, teachings of Sri Ramana Maharishi

The Great Mystery

Thou infinite, eternal ocean of grace,
who can begin to describe your mystery?
O wondrous power of the silent void,
Spinning the vast web of this cosmos across space and time,
Being and becoming all that exists – pray, reveal your secret!
Life of all life, you are the formless, absolute whole;
Shining as unconditional love, your ineffable radiance is the origin of all light.

You contain all the worlds, yet, becoming smaller than the smallest,
You dwell as the very core of every creature.
Greater than the greatest, you stay lower than the lowest,
Perfect humility is the source of your divine, invincible might.

Gods and demons, sinners and saints, the fools and the wise, philosophers and poets and kings – they all try so desperately to find you, to know you, to seize and posess you, to use or appease or control you….all in vain.
Though so many worship you, none can see or understand or measure you;
All-pervasive and omni-present, like the invisible air, you hide so cunningly in plain sight.

Abiding so still in the cave of my heart, you direct my entire attention outwards.
Hypnotised by your illusion, I search for you in all the wrong places.
Driven by desire and fear, I suffer in the bleak desert of samsara.
Your compassionate grace manifests as the Guru to turn my attention inwards;
Only then does my weary mind fall still.
Deep inside me, when I find you at last – I disappear!

Now all that exists is your unending dance of delight.

“Liberation is losing the illusion of separate individuality and merging with the everpresent, uncaused, unchanging, silent stillness that is the blissful celebration of unconditional love.”
Robert Adams

The Thumb-sized Infinite One

"Angushtta maatra: Purusha: madhye aatmani tishtthati.
The Lord of the Universe dwells as the thumb-sized In-dweller in the Heart of every being." Taitirriyopanishad

Every night in deep sleep, everything is gone;
No body, no mind, no person, no thing.
Who still exists in that emptiness?
Who preserves my being when I have vanished?

Who drinks the wine that mysteriously fills me with such intoxication?
Who stays still and silent and dissolves my tumultous mind?
Who rises like a sun and makes my Heart-lotus blossom?
Whose grace embraces me in an ocean of blissful peace?

Older than time, this in-dweller is the source of everything;
Smaller than an atom, He contains all the galaxies!
When I sought the root of my own existence,
I disappeared in the radiance of His glory –
Perfect, infinite, unchanging.

Nothing else exists.

Sacred Silence

“We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.”

― Robert M. Pirsig

Every human being creates his or her own universe.
The experience of reality is the result of a narrow, limited spectrum of signals received through the senses, interpreted by each individual brain using the filter of its own internal database.
So what you see is a reflection of what you are : your own heaven or hell.

You are that which you identify with.
Every human being has a choice : to identify with an illusory and temporary body-mind complex or with the infinite, eternal, radiant and blissful consciousness that underlies everything.
The latter choice is only possible for the one who dwells in the still, thought-free state called turiya or the state of waking sleep.

All atttempts at meditation and mind-control are attempts at achieving this state.
It is impossible to control the mind with the mind.

Atma vichara or self-inquiry is the most direct route to turiya.
Seek the source of the mind, the source of the “I” thought that is the root of all thought.
With faith and dogged persistence, turn the attention inwards and dive deep into yourself, seeking this source.

If you faithfully persist in this pursuit, one day your effort ends and Grace takes over.
Something reaches up and embraces you, something compassionate and divine.

Surrender totally to this power - let yourself rest in that radiant bliss.
Like the drop returning to the ocean, the mind dissolves in the Self.

Only the sacred silence remains .

“ The radiance of consciousness-bliss in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without is the supreme, primal reality whose form is silence. This is declared by jnanis to be the ultimate and incontrovertible state of true knowledge.” Padamalai,Teachings of Ramana Maharishi recorded by Muruganar.