Limitation is Created by Mind Only

ANNAMALAI SWAMI – FINAL TALKS

I once asked Bhagavan: ‘You are at the top of the hill. You have reached the summit of spiritual life, whereas I am still at the bottom of the hill. Please help me to reach the summit.'

Bhagavan answered, ‘It will be enough if you give up the thought, "I am at the bottom of the hill". If you can do this, there will be no difference between us. It is just your thoughts that are convincing

you that I am at the top and you are at the bottom. If you can give up this difference, you will be fine.'

Don't adopt attitudes such as these that automatically assume that you are limited or inferior in any way.

On another occasion, I asked Bhagavan: 'Nowadays, many people are crossing big oceans by plane in very short periods of time. I would like Bhagavan to find us a good device, a jnana airplane that can speedily transport us all to moksha.'

This time Bhagavan replied, 'We are both traveling in a jnana airplane, but you don't understand this.'

In his answers to me, Bhagavan would never let me fall into the false belief that I was separate or different from him or that I was a person with a mind and a body who needed to do something to reach some exalted spiritual state. Whenever I asked him questions that were based on assumptions such as these, he would show me the error that was implicit in the question and gently point me back to the truth, the Self.

He would never allow me to entertain wrong ideas.

Meditation - The Essence

A young boy about seven years of age, once asked Ramana Maharishi, "Can you explain to me what is meditation? Whenever I ask my parents they tell me that I need not bother about it now. I will come to know when I grow up." Ramana said, "I shall tell you presently. For now, sit by my side."

A little later someone brought a carrier full of dosa, dinner for everybody in the ashram.

Ramana took a small piece for himself, gave one full dosa on a leaf to the boy by his side, and ordered the rest to be distributed to the many devotees present.

He told the boy, "Look here, I'll raise my finger as a signal for you to start eating. Once you start, please continue to eat but don't finish eating this dosa till I raise my finger again to stop. Once I signal to stop, you have to stop and also, no dosa should remain on the leaf. If there's even one small bit, you lose."

Ramana gave the signal and the boy started eating. He was looking with concentration at Ramana for the stop signal while eating - tearing off big pieces in the beginning and later on, smaller bits. Suddenly Ramana signaled stop! The little boy put the last piece of dosa into his mouth and said "I'm finished. I win!"

Ramana then said, "what you now did is meditation. You were looking at me all the time but were eating dosa. Similarly keep your mind pointed upon God, but continue with your normal duties."

"Let your normal activities - walking, eating, talking, etc., go on, but focus the mind constantly on God all the time. That is Meditation."

From Venkatarama Ayyar to Ramana

 

How the Maharshi got his name

Ganapati Sastri quivered with emotion as he walked up to the Virupaksha cave. Luckily for him the Swami was seated alone on the outer pial. Sastri fell flat on his face and held the Swami's feet with both hands and his voice trembled with emotion as he cried: "All that has to be read I have read. Even Vedanta Sastra I have fully understood. I have performed japa (repetition of a holy name) to my heart's content. Yet I have not up to this time understood what tapas is. Hence have I sought refuge at thy feet. Pray enlighten me about the nature of tapas." For fifteen minutes the Swami silently gazed at Sastri as he sat at his feet in anxious expectation. None came to interrupt them at the time. Then the Swami spoke in short and broken sentences in Tamil: (translation)
"If one watches whence this notion of 'I' springs, the mind will be absorbed into that. That is tapas. If a mantra is repeated, and attention directed to the source whence the mantra-sound is produced, the mind will be absorbed in that. That is tapas."
This instruction filled Sastri's heart with joy. He stayed for some hours and ascertained the Swami's name from the attendant Palaniswami to be Venkatarama Ayyar. Sastri immediately composed five stanzas in praise of the Swami in which he contracted his name to Ramana which has stuck to the Swami ever since. In the letter which Sastri wrote next day he added that he must henceforth be called 'Maharshi' since his teaching was quite original.

From: Bouquet of Spiritual Instruction by Viswanathan Sri Ramanasramam