q and a

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was born in 1879 and passed in 1950. He spent his adult life in the practise of meditation. i have included here a small collection of questions and answers from the early 20th century.

Q. what are the marks of a real teacher?

A. Steady abidance in the Self, looking at all with an equal eye, unshakeable courage at all times in all places and circumstances.

Q. What are the marks of an earnest disciple?

A. An intense longing for the removal of sorrow and attainment of joy and an intense aversion for all kinds of mundane pleasure.

Q. How did some great persons attain Knowledge without a Guru.

A. To a few mature persons the Lord shines as the light of Knowledge and imparts awareness of truth.

Q. What is the mark of the ego.?

A. The individual form of 'I' is the ego. The Self which is of the nature of intelligence has no sense of 'I'. The mysterious appearance of a delusive ego being the root cause of all troubles, upon its destruction by whatever means, that which really exists will be seen as it is. This is called Liberation.

Q. What is the method of practice?

A. As the Self of a person who tries to attain Self- realization is not different from him and as there is nothing other than or superior to him to be attained by him, Self-realization being only the realization of one's own nature the seeker of liberation realizes, without doubts or misconceptions his real nature by distinguishing the eternal from the transient and never swerves from his natural state. This is known as the practice of Knowledge. This is the enquiry leading to Self-realization.

Q. Can this path of enquiry be followed by all aspirants?

A. This is suitable only for ripe souls. The rest should follow different methods according to the state of their minds.

( He goes into numerous other methods but i will not mention them here.)

Q. Is the state of 'being still' a state involving effort or effortless?

A. It is not an effortless state of indolence. All mundane activities which are ordinarily called effort are performed with the aid of a portion of the mind and with frequent breaks. But the act of communion with the Self is intense activity which is performed with the entire mind and without break.

Q. What is the nature of Maya.(delusion or ignorance.)

A. Maya is that which makes us regard as non-existent the Self, the Reality, which is always and everywhere present, all pervasive and self luminous .

Q. What are the rules of conduct which an aspirant should follow?

A. Moderation in food, moderation in sleep and moderation in speech.

Q. How long should one practise.?

A. Until the mind attains effortlessly its natural state of freedom from concepts, that is till the sense of 'I' and 'mine' NO LONGER EXISTS.

Q. What is the meaning of dwelling in solitude?

A. As the Self is all-pervasive it has no particular place for solitude. The state of being free from mental concepts is called 'dwelling in solitude.'

There are many more Qs and As found in the book 'Words of Grace' written by the followers of Ramana Maharshi but the above are enough for now.

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