Ramana Maharshi's Teachings On The Guru - Session 4

Listen to Ektaji talk about Ramana Maharshi's teachings on the Guru. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and that consciousness is the only existing reality.

Transcript

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

Salaam.

So let's start with the real questions asked to Ramana.

Till now was just the author's little introduction.

Now is the real question and answer with Ramana Maharshi.

What is Guru's grace?

How does it lead to self-realisation?

Answer.

Guru is the Self.

Do you get it?

The Guru is the Self.

It does not mean an external Guru called Ekta or Phalana or Dhimkana is myself.

No.

The Guru is the Self.

Sometimes in his life a man becomes dissatisfied and not content with what he has.

He seeks the satisfaction of his desires through prayer to God.

This happened to you?

Yes?

You went through your own miseries in life and then you were like,

Boss I really need to find out what is the purpose of this life?

How can it be the same thing,

The same thing,

Same thing,

Same thing I am doing every day?

At least this question came up and that propelled your spiritual journey to begin.

His mind is then gradually purified.

Here really you are praying to God,

External God that you have created because you don't know the truth at this point.

So you have created an external God or an external Guru or an external whatever and you are praying to Him,

Please purify me.

I really want to get out of this misery.

And his mind is gradually purified until he longs to know God.

Now highlight,

More to obtain His grace than to satisfy His worldly desires.

You are not praying to God,

Give me good marks then I will give you 10 nareels,

10 coconuts.

No,

We are not talking about that kind of prayer here.

This is the real cry from your heart that came when you really got bumped up this life and really started questioning this life.

I am not talking about bribing God in exchange for some worldly desires.

This is that thirst that came,

No there has to be something more,

There has to be something,

I need peace of mind,

I have to look for that actual peace within me.

That thirst,

We are talking about that here.

Then God's grace begins to manifest.

Which is the God?

Not your external idol,

Not your Jesus and Krishna and Allah,

No.

The creative function of the self called God,

That is what we are talking about.

That God's grace begins to manifest.

God takes the form of a guru and appears to the devotee,

Teaches him the truth and moreover purifies his mind by association.

So the creative function called God in me only creates my own universe in which a guru manifests and that guru helps me look within,

Go within.

Then the devotee's mind gains strength and is then able to turn inward.

For some people it's not such a shortcut process.

You might have multiple gurus,

Multiple steps till you find this guru shows you look inward and that's fine.

We've already addressed this point that we have to be compassionate with ourselves.

Some of us are raw mangoes,

Some of us are ripe mangoes and that's fine.

By meditation it is further purified and it remains still without the least ripple.

That calm expanse is the self.

Again,

Meditation in Ramana's language is not the meditation that is in your language where you sit for hours together,

Focusing on some mind or body or something.

No.

Here meditation is the word nididhyasa.

Nididhyasa is actually exploring inside and recognizing the calm witness,

The expanse which is beyond the mind and which is beyond the body.

That is meditation.

The guru is both external and internal.

From the exterior he gives a push to the mind.

Baharhat Chotmare.

He gives a push to the mind to turn it inwards.

From the interior he pulls the mind towards the self.

Antarhat Sahardi.

Your intellect gets sharpened with the knowledge,

Helps you deal with the situation and then again and again reminds you to come to the witness.

That's the interior guru.

From the interior he pulls the mind towards the self and helps in the quietening of the mind.

That is guru's grace.

Understood?

That is guru's grace.

There is no difference between God,

Guru and the self.

That God,

That guru,

The self is who I am.

It's got nothing to do with external.

Everything external is a creation of my own self.

I have created through sankalpa,

Kama,

Karma,

Karma phalam in that order.

And I keep doing it moment to moment to moment to moment.

The only way to recognise it is to withdraw from doing and just be.

Just be.

That calm expands.

Each one of you has already recognised it.

You have already recognised the witness.

Just be there.

Just be the witness.

The moment you are doing,

You are becoming the mind.

So you say,

Okay,

So then I should not work,

I should not do other things.

No,

No,

No.

You do everything from here.

Recognise that I am giving only that much energy to the body to get up and finish this task.

I am giving only that much energy of inclination to the mind to get that task done.

No more,

No less.

This creation that I am doing,

This is something I need to work on.

I am creating my bubble every morning.

I am living through that bubble all day.

In the night,

I withdraw from that bubble.

It becomes an empty bubble.

You see the empty bubbles there?

Again,

The hidden impressions next morning come up again.

This has to become your experience,

Not intellectual knowledge that you got from Meekta.

So your homework until tomorrow is to recognise how am I creating?

How am I creating?

How am I projecting?

Moment to moment you are projecting.

Moment to moment you are creating this bubble.

You believe it is true.

You think this is My world.

Yeah,

We are not going to make this an intellectual philosophical class where you just listen to the Advaita philosophy.

No point.

You have to do Nidhidhyasa.

Actually explore within.

Am I really doing it?

Prove it to yourself.

Don't believe me.

Never have I told you to blindly believe me.

In fact,

Blind faith completely cut it off from your life.

No blind faith.

You check after this session how you will have that first little sankalpa to do something.

And how from the sankalpa all the way you create that,

It happens.

You start seeing that in small small activities,

Going to the bathroom,

Eating,

Talking to somebody.

In small small activities start noticing.

Then move on to the activities like a big outburst that happens.

You might not be able to see it immediately,

But you might be able to see it in retrospect.

Oh,

That sankalpa came up.

That ritti in the mind is like an image in the mind.

I already have an image in the mind before I create it in real life.

Are you seeing what I'm saying?

This is very subtle.

I create it in my mind first.

Simple thing like a chakubar ice cream.

I first create the ritti of the taste of the chakubar ice cream and the look of the chakubar ice cream.

I create it in my mind.

That is your first signal you are about to create something.

I'm not saying don't have chakubar ice cream.

Please go have it.

All I'm saying is recognize that I am creating.

I am creating.

I am creating.

Which also means the reverse is true.

Which means if I want to withdraw from creation,

I have the power.

I have the power to not do.

To just be.

So the signal for you is the ritti in the mind.

Ritti is simple.

It's just a Sanskrit word for an image that comes in your mind.

Before you go to do it or eat it or have it or act on it,

There's a prior image in the mind.

So this is your main homework until tomorrow.

If you understand this,

You have come to the level of Ramana's audience.

Remember,

Ramana's audience was people who had been walking the spiritual path for a very long time.

They knew all these spiritual concepts but some were still struggling.

Some had already understood this.

Yes,

I create my universe.

Now you teach me how to stop.

Before we go on to how to stop,

First at least understand that you create it.

How do I create?

Can I observe that I create?

So one observation you have to do of creation and one you withdraw from creation.

Prove it to yourself.

See,

I was just about to do this and I did not.

Prove it to yourself.

And then you list it down.

This was my sankalpa.

Very clearly I lusted for this.

That was my karma.

This was the karma.

You can't see the karmic impression but the repetition in the memory is nothing but a reflection of the karmic impression.

You keep repeating it to yourself in the mind.

Chocobar ice cream,

Chocobar ice cream,

Chocobar ice cream.

So work on this today.

The same awareness when it forgets itself,

It becomes the mind.

When it becomes the mind,

It lusts.

When there is lust,

A karmic impression is formed.

It happens in that order.

You have just forgotten who you are.

It's that simple.

And God and devil are in one only plane.

It cannot be that the devil exists outside.

The other flavour of God is the devil.

It itself forgets itself,

Becomes that devilish mind and does all the havoc and disaster.

And that only again withdraws from doing and is itself.

God and devil are not two separate entities.

They are not two separate entities.

If they were separate,

That means the devil exists outside of God.

Then the devil can attack God.

Then what kind of a God is this?

He is not present everywhere.

What God are you talking about?

That is why I tell you,

Keep your intellectual philosophy aside.

Work on yourself.

It is very simple.

Eyes are the seer.

This world is the seen.

Eyes become the seen.

The mind is the seer.

And then behind the mind there is that witness watching that you are watching Ekta talk right now.

That witness is there.

That is the consciousness.

That is Brahman.

That is the self.

God and devil both here.

It is that simple.

Unnecessarily we have complicated it with thousands and thousands of things that we have picked up from here and there.

We never saw them together.

We saw them in bits and pieces.

Like if you see the pieces of a thousand piece puzzle,

You see them separately.

You feel that,

Oh,

What is this?

You learn one concept there,

One concept there,

One concept there,

One concept there.

When you learn the whole thing together,

You put the whole puzzle together,

You see that God and devil are here.

Everything is here.

There is nothing outside God.

There is nothing outside the consciousness.

There is nothing outside the witness.

And you can experience it.

Have you experienced anything outside your awareness?

Does an outside exist?

Not in my experience.

It's not possible.

There is no outside.

Wake up!

Wake up!

Drop all these philosophical questions from concepts of the past that you have picked up and become very clear.

Only go with pure experience.

What do I experience?

Then you will find all your answers within.

The same awareness when it is at rest,

It is pure witnessing.

Awareness in motion becomes the mind and that creates this whole jagat.

And then I have become the doer.

Then I become the experiencer.

And I only want to experience pleasant.

I don't want to experience unpleasant.

It's not possible.

You are lost in the mind.

The same mind when it withdraws,

It comes to rest.

Then you have learnt to just be.

That's exactly what I am telling you.

Learn to be.

Your problem is you want to do.

Learn to be.

Going with the flow is just being.

Just being.

When you are in the witness,

There is no desire.

There is no sankalpa.

Witness cannot have desire.

It's like space.

You are saying,

Can space produce objects?

It cannot produce objects.

Pure witness cannot produce mental objects of desire.

Pure witness is like space.

Thoughts are mental objects.

Recognise this.

Unless you taste it by your own exploration,

There is no way you will get this answer.

Impossible.

Absolutely everything is projected.

Everything has been created.

Every single thing.

This is selective.

Oh,

This is karma and this is not karma.

It doesn't work like that.

It's an all or none law.

Do you understand?

All or none.

Everything is your creation.

Whatever is happening in your life is your own creation.

Your sukkha and your dukkha.

You are the creator of both including this pandemic.

Wake up and see the truth.

Wake up and see the truth.

Again,

I told you,

The moment there is sankalpa creation,

It will go to karma.

Karma will go to karma.

Karma will go to karma phala.

Now it is your choice.

Do you want to create more and create more?

Then you have to accept this creation as your peace.

Whatever it brings up.

Sukkha,

Dukkha.

You choose,

No?

You are the one who is creating and you are asking me,

Is it possible to be at peace with this creation?

You experiment on yourself.

You explore this.

Recognise I am doing it and then withdraw from some of the instances and you test where was the peace in creation or in withdrawing.

And you come to your conclusion rather than asking me.

You want peace?

You have to look inside and find it.

Ekta's peace cannot be your peace.

Only your peace can be your peace.

If there is darkness in this room and I shine a light,

It's not going to shine a light in your room.

You will have to shine the light in your room.

For that,

You have to work on yourself.

No shortcut.

Be very earnest and sincere in your search.

Be ready to make the effort that is required.

You will get there very easily.

You are looking for a shortcut.

Then okay.

20 years.

No,

No.

I will work hard.

Okay,

40 years.

I will work very hard.

Okay,

60 years.

What?

I am working hard?

No.

Why are you going on increasing the duration?

Shouldn't you be decreasing it?

Doing,

Doing.

The doing tendency increases the duration.

How much you want to do,

Do,

Do,

Do.

Earnestness is not required in doing.

Earnestness is required in not doing.

Just being and recognising that being.

That's it.

There is nothing to do there.

You started your path.

You said,

Okay,

Because you say so,

I am believing.

And you started following and started doing those techniques.

You spent time,

5 years,

10 years.

You are the same horrible person.

15 years,

20 years.

You are the same horrible person.

Right?

Because you went on belief,

Faith,

External influence.

You said,

No,

No,

I don't have the time to work on myself.

You tell me do this and by this I will get there,

I will get there.

Wrong understanding.

Do you get it?

You will have to go in,

Explore yourself,

Experience it for yourself,

Recognise the quiet expanse that Ramana Maharshi is talking about,

The witness.

Get addicted to being there.

And then you have found home.

Then you do not need any faith.

You do not need any belief because now you know.

There is a difference between knowing and believing.

Believing is I don't know,

You tell me.

Knowing is it is my own experience.

Now let God come and tell me,

Know it is wrong.

I will say,

No boss,

This is right.

I have experienced it.

I know it.

Yes,

That is why self-experience,

Self-exploration,

Knowing is emphasised over just blindly believing what Ekta says.

I hope that's clear.

Good.

So you all have your homework for tomorrow?

Yes?

No chit-chatting.

The quieter you are,

The easier it is to see that I am creating,

I am creating.

And if you recognise that ritti that I was talking about,

The image before even a sankalpa comes up,

Pat yourself from my side.

Good job.

I will see you tomorrow at the same time.

Until then,

Keep not doing.

Just be.

Just be.

Thank you.

Reviews

Keep posting. I need to hear it. Thank you❤️

Love the straight talk. This episode gets to the heart of the matter; pulls the blinders off and exposes the truth.

🙏🏼