#arunachala inner path

[choti12]

Arunachalam Temple A Sanctum of Spiritual Serenity

Nestled amidst the picturesque landscape of the Eastern Ghats in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India, the Arunachalam Temple stands as a revered symbol of devotion, architecture, and cultural heritage. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this ancient temple complex has attracted pilgrims and tourists alike for centuries, offering a glimpse into the rich tapestry of India's religious and architectural legacy.

The Arunachalam Temple, also known as the Annamalaiyar Temple, is situated in the town of Thiruvannamalai, which derives its name from the sacred hill, Arunachala, upon which the temple is perched. The hill itself is believed to be a manifestation of Lord Shiva's cosmic form, symbolizing the eternal cycle of creation and destruction. As such, the temple holds immense significance for devotees of Lord Shiva, who come here seeking spiritual solace and enlightenment.

Constructed over several centuries, the temple complex is a masterpiece of Dravidian architecture, characterized by towering gopurams (entrance towers), intricately carved mandapams (pillared halls), and ornate sculptures depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. The main sanctum sanctorum houses the principal deity, Lord Arunachaleswarar, in the form of a lingam, symbolizing the divine energy of Lord Shiva. Surrounding the main shrine are smaller shrines dedicated to various deities, adding to the spiritual aura of the temple complex.

One of the most revered rituals observed at the Arunachalam Temple is the Girivalam, a sacred circumambulation of the Arunachala hill. Pilgrims undertake this journey on foot, traversing a path of approximately 14 kilometers around the base of the hill, while chanting hymns and prayers. The Girivalam is believed to confer immense spiritual merit and is especially popular during full moon days and auspicious occasions.

Beyond its religious significance, the Arunachalam Temple holds a special place in the hearts of spiritual seekers due to its association with eminent saints and sages. The renowned sage Ramana Maharshi, whose teachings on self-inquiry and meditation have inspired millions, spent a significant portion of his life in the vicinity of Arunachala, meditating in caves and ashrams. His presence continues to imbue the temple and its surroundings with a sense of profound spirituality and tranquility.

Visitors to the Arunachalam Temple are not only drawn by its religious allure but also by the serene beauty of its surroundings. Surrounded by lush greenery and panoramic vistas of the Eastern Ghats, the temple offers a tranquil retreat from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Whether one comes seeking spiritual enlightenment or simply to admire its architectural splendor, the Arunachalam Temple never fails to leave a lasting impression on all who visit.

In a world where ancient traditions often clash with modernity, the Arunachalam Temple stands as a timeless beacon of spirituality and cultural heritage. As pilgrims and tourists continue to flock to this sacred abode, the legacy of Arunachalam endures, enriching the lives of all who come in search of divine grace and inner peace.

[kingmabry]

Living the Inspiration of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Maalok: Ramana Maharshi has had a lasting influence on your life. For those of us who don’t know much about the Maharshi, could you please share some of the salient aspects of his life that have influenced you deeply.

David: About two or three times a year someone asks me this question, ‘Summarise Ramana Maharshi’s life and teachings in a few words for people who know little or nothing about him’. It’s always hard to know where to start with a question like this.

Let me say first that Ramana Maharshi was one of the most highly regarded and widely respected spiritual figures that twentieth-century India produced. I can’t think of any other candidate who is as persistently held out to be an example of all that is best in the Hindu spiritual tradition. Everyone reveres him as the perfect example of what a true saint and sage ought to be.

How did this come about? While he was still in his teens Sri Ramana underwent a remarkable, spontaneous experience in which his individuality died, leaving him in a state in which he found his true identity to be the Self, the immanent and transcendent substratum. It was a permanent awakening that was truly remarkable because he had not previously had any interest in spiritual matters. He left his family home a few weeks later, without telling anyone where he was going, and spent the remainder of his life at the foot of Arunachala, a holy mountain and pilgrimage centre that is about 120 miles south west of Chennai.

After a few years there – a period in which he was largely oblivious to the world and his body – he began to attract devotees because there was a spiritual radiance emanating from him that many people around him experienced as peace or happiness. This, I think, is the secret of his subsequent fame and popularity. He didn’t get a reputation for being a great sage because of what he did or said. It came about because people, who arrived at his ashram with all kinds of questions and doubts, suddenly found themselves becoming quiet, peaceful and happy in his presence. There was a continuous, benign flow of energy coming off him that somehow evaporated the mental anxieties and busy minds of the people who came to see him. He didn’t ask people to come. People just came of their own accord. A 19th century American author once wrote that if you invent a better mousetrap, even if you try to hide yourself in the woods, people will beat a path to your door. People beat a path to Sri Ramana’s door – for many years he lived in very inaccessible places – because he had something far better than an improved mousetrap to offer; he had a natural ability to induce peace in the people around him.

Let me expand on this because this is the key to understanding both his state and the effect he had on other people. When he had his final experience at the age of sixteen, his mind, his sense of being an individual person, vanished forever, leaving him in a state of unassailable peace. He realised and understood that this was not some new experience that was mediated by and through his ‘I’, his sense of being an individual person. It was, instead, his natural state, something that is there all the time, but which is only experienced when the mind and its perpetual busy-ness is absent. By abiding in this natural and effortless state of inner silence he somehow charged up the atmosphere around him with a healing, quietening energy. People who came to see him spontaneously became happy, peaceful and quiet. Why? Because Sri Ramana himself was effortlessly broadcasting his own experience of happiness, peace and quietude in such a way that those people who were around him got an inner taste, an inner flavor of this natural state that is inherent to all of us. I should say that this power was not restricted to his physical vicinity, although it did seem to be stronger there. People who merely thought about him wherever they happened to be discovered that they could experience something of this peace simply through having this mental contact with him.

So, having given that background, I can now answer the question: ‘Who was Ramana Maharshi and what were his teachings?’

Sri Ramana Maharshi was a living embodiment of peace and happiness and his ‘teachings’ were the emanations of that state which helped other people to find and experience their own inner happiness and peace.

If all this sounds a little abstract, let me tell you a story that was passed on to me by Arthur Osborne’s daughter. In the 1940s their house was a kind of dormitory for all the stray foreigners who couldn’t find anywhere else to stay near Sri Ramana’s ashram. A miserable, crabby women appeared one evening, having been sent by the ashram. They put her up, gave her breakfast and sent her off to see Sri Ramana the next morning. She came back at lunchtime looking absolutely radiant. She was glowing with happiness. The whole family was waiting to hear the story of what happened, but she never said anything about her visit to the ashram. Everyone in the house was expecting some dramatic story: ‘He looked at me and this happened,’ or ‘I asked a question and then I had this great experience’. As the lunch plates were being cleared away, her hosts could not contain their curiosity any longer.

‘What happened?’ asked one of them. ‘What did Bhagavan do to you? What did he say to you?’

The woman looked most surprised. ‘He didn’t do anything. He didn’t say anything to me. I just sat there for the whole morning and then came back for lunch.’

She had been just one new person sitting in a crowd of people, but the power coming off Sri Ramana had been enough to wash away a lifetime of depression, leaving her with a taste of what lay underneath it: her own inherent, natural happiness and peace.

Sri Ramana knew that transformations such as these were going on around him all the time, but he never accepted responsibility for them. He would never say, ‘I transformed this woman’. When he was asked about the effect he was having on people, he would sometimes say that by continuously abiding in his own natural state of peace, a sannidhi, a powerful presence, was somehow created that automatically took care of the mental problems of the people who visited him. By abiding in silence as silence, this energy field was created, a field that miraculously transformed the people around him.

Your original question was, ‘Why has Ramana Maharshi influenced me so much?’ The answer is, ‘I came into his sannidhi and through its catalytic activity I discovered my own peace, my own happiness.’

- David Godman

[shinymoonbird]

Pachaiamman Koil Temple 

The word pacchai means one who has Emerald color and amman denotes Goddess. Pachiamma is Goddess Parvati.

✿ ✿ ✿

Pachaiamman Temple and Sri Ramana Maharshi

In 1905 when there was a plague crisis in Tiruvannamalai, Ramana Maharshi moved to Pachaiamman Kovil for six months during the worst of the epidemic and returned to the caves on the south side of Arunachala when the plague crisis was over. Again between January and March, 1908 Ramana Maharshi returned to Pachaiamman Kovil and lived there with Ganapathi Muni and others for that period. When asked how the goddess got the name Pachaiamman, Sri Ramana said,

“Pachai means emerald colour. When Parvati came to Gautamasrama to perform austerities to appease Iswara, her form was of emerald colour and she performed austerities at that place. Then, it is said that she went around the Hill, stayed at several places at different times continuing her austerities, and finally merged into Siva as half of His body and came to be known as ‘Apita Kuchamba’.”

It is recorded that Sri Ramana would visit this temple for oil baths. On one such occasion around 1915 or 1916, the Maharshi, Palaniswami, Vasudeva Sastri and others left Virupaksha Cave and proceeded to Pachaiamman Kovil taking oil and soap-nut powder for an oil bath, as facilities for such a bath were ample at that place.

It was on the way back from such a trip than Ramana had his ‘second death experience’ at Turtle rock. 

Source: http://www.arunachalasamudra.org/pachaiammantemple.html

[themodernvedic]

What is the essence of Hinduism

Hinduism literally speaking is the religion of Hindus. Hindu is one who is a believer in any form of Brahmanism (one of the religions of India). In his lecture, delivered at the Parliament of Religions, at Chicago in Sept. 1893 Swami Vivekananda said, "Three religions stand in the world, which have come down to us from prehistoric times, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. They have all received tremendous shocks, and all of them can be proven by their survival, their inner strength. Sects after sects arose in India and unwillingly tried to shake and shatter the religion of the Vedas to its very foundation but like the waters of the seashore in a tremendous earthquake it receded only for a while, only to return in an all-absorbing flood - a thousand times more vigorous and when the tumult rush was over these sects were all sucked in, absorbed and assimilated into the immense body of the mother faith." http://youtube.com/watch?v=hi8g2h7mvMA Essence of true religion consists of nothing but the eternal truths and laws of the spiritual world. These principles have been discovered by the sages of ancient India. The degradation of Hindus took place because the life-giving principles of religion or Hinduism were applied in the practical life to solve social and national problems. Caste tyranny, loss of faith in their inherent powers and social neglect, reduced poor masses to mere cogs in the wheels of the exploitative machine, which was run by a few, powerful people. In reality if religion of the Vedas i.e. Hinduism was spread among the poor masses, it would awaken the dormant powers in them and they would be able to solve their own problems without any assistance.

Hindus were a philosophical race, whose conflicts were intellectual conflicts. Fortunately, India then was a country where the people had no lack of wealth, food and security. Having the Himalayas in the north and ocean on three sides, the country was free from the danger of foreign invasion. Nature was also favorable in such a place, in the Ashrams and Tapovans, the Indian rishis absorbed themselves in deeper truths of life which gave birth to the Indian philosophy. Dr. Radhakrishnan writes "The native utterances of the Vedic poets, the wondrous suggestiveness of the Upanishads, the marvelous psychological analysis of the Buddhists and the stupendous system of Shankara are quite as interesting and instinctive from the cultural point of view of the system of Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel, if only we study them in true scientific frame of mind, without disrespect for the past or contempt for the alien" which is interesting and instructive from a cultural point of view Philosophy had a great impact and importance in India especially to Hinduism from the earliest times. "Darshan" as philosophy is called, etymologically means, "Seeing". This seeing is possible by perceptual observation direct experience, inference or self-realization. Indian philosophy recognizes that truth can never be self-contradictory. Therefore, in order to realize the distinction and relation of philosophy and religion i.e. Hinduism in the present context, we must first know what religion is. The word religion includes two Latin terms "Religio and Onis". Re-means again, ligio means to bind. Literally speaking religion binds a man to his source. Philosophers have emphasized one or the other aspect of it. Some important approaches in this connection are as follows: Intellectual Approach: Religion is clearly a state of mind. Moral Approach: Religion is nothing but morality touched with emotion Axiological Approach: God cannot be called the highest value because there is no un-valued phenomenon with which God can be contrasted.

Various definitions of Hinduism as a religion. Hinduism is a complex phenomenon in which one finds attitudes and feelings towards ultimate reality or God. From the definition of religion given by Sri Aurobindo, Hinduism appears to be highly comprehensive. To quote him "in most, essence of religion... is the search for God and finding of God. Its work is sincere giving out of the true and ultimate relation between man and God, relation of unity, relation of difference, relation of an illuminated knowledge and ecstatic love and delight, and absolute surrender and service, casting of every part of our existence of its normal status into up rush of man towards the Divine and descent of divine into man". This is true even today when we talk of Modern Hinduism. Our age is known as the atomic age. By controlling atomic energy man has achieved things which were formerly beyond his imagination. In the form of atom bombs he has developed an instrument of destruction whose after effects can be seen years after its use. Many nations, developed or even underdeveloped, of the world are busy in piling up such destructive weapons and many other nations are trying to copy them. This has made the thinkers of the world to worry about the future of man because an atomic war will not only lead to destruction and death but also deformities of crores of people and poisoning of the atmosphere and water to the extent of making human life practically impossible on this planet. But international peace and cooperation cannot be achieved through science alone because science is unable to do anything in this situation. This on the other hand is a moral and spiritual problem. For example, the philosophy of the Gita and the Upanishads may be found to be the most useful to a man at the present juncture. Hence it can be said that in this atomic age, science is more in need of philosophy than it has ever been. Ancient Indian thinkers of Hinduism have suggested different paths for reaching God or Truth, which is relevant in modern times also. These are classified into three chief paths of action, knowledge and devotion. In fact, these are the phases or the three different layers of every human mind.

Here we shall take the path of action. This is just like the choice between what is right and what is wrong, the good and the evil. One has to follow the right way and give up the wrong way. Gradually the evil will be eliminated and the good will be established which will ultimately lead one to godliness/ divinity. The question that now arises is, how to ascertain which action is good and which is evil Mahavir's advice is to walk carefully so that we do not tread over, even an ant. On the other hand, Lord Krishna advises Arjuna to fight the evil forces because no one dies, as the soul is immortal In ancient times Sri Rama accepted and abided by all limitations and restrictions of the society, and that is why he is called "Maryada Purshotam" while Shri Krishna who disregarded all social limitations and restrictions is still called "Yogeshwara Krishna". On the one hand Sita is adored as she never even saw the face of another man except her husband Rama but on the other hand Draupadi who was the wife of five Pandavas is regarded as a virtuous lady. Yudhisthira had staked his wife in a game of dice and yet he is called Dharam Raj. Bhishma was a witness to the disrobing of Draupadi and did nothing to avoid that incident, yet he is called an apostle of morality and righteousness. Parashurama killed his mother at the behest of his father and is yet called a great rishi. Therefore, no universal standard can be set for deciding what is good and what is evil. It deals with doing, not with being. As long as one does not know his inner self all his actions are cravings of the mind for the fulfillment of desires. That is why Indra says "in the very first instance try and realize what the Atman is so that all your doubts are answered. Socrates has said, "know thy self". Modern vision of Hinduism warrants us to rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of knowing the Self, because we possess spiritual wealth that can end all our woes. Secondly, we must inculcate a sense of unity and identity. Self-realization is the real definition of Hinduism. Taittiriya Upanishad declares in Tantra III-1 यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते येन जातानि जीवन्ति । यं प्रयन्ति अभिसंविशान्ति तज्जिज्ञासस्व तदेव ब्रह्म ॥ "That from which all those beings come into existence, that by which they live, that into which they are finally absorbed, know that be the eternal verity - the Absolute" Once in the Ashram of Ramana Maharshi a visitor made display of his knowledge by enumerating the various paths described by various masters along with quoting the western philosophers. He inquired "one says one thing and the other says something else, which way should I go?" Ramana Maharshi rose to leave the hall, he replied curtly "Go back the way you came". Speaking about the intellectual persons, Shri Ramana Maharshi has said, "They have made themselves like a gramophone. What else are they, Oh Arunachala? It is the unlearned who are saved, rather those whose ego has not subsided despite their learning. It is sincerity that is required and not brilliance or understanding of theory, humility, and not mental pride". Read the full article

[coherentminds]

Stillness from Nature

In honouring nature as a great master, and ceaselessly gaining spiritual insights from its abundant manifestations, the Zen tradition has reached a peak. To Bashō, the zen monk and the greatest Japanese master of haiku, the nature’s beauty and simplicity were enough to pull him into deep states of reflection and meditativeness. He sang: ‘Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.’

Lao Tzu, the ancient Tao master, invited the spiritual seeker to learn stillness from the ways of the nature. ‘Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished,’ he taught. For Lao Tzu, by observing nature, the sincere spiritual seeker could gain deep insights and wisdom. ‘In stillness,’ Lao Tzu said, ‘the muddled water returns to clarity.’ Many Taoist masters regularly drew inspiration from the trees, the rocks and the water, and made references to the elements in the nature. Through them, they widened their perception and gained perspective, necessary for living a life of balance and oneness.

Eckhart Tolle, one of the most renowned spiritual teachers today, often speaks of the power of nature to offer guidance and support to those in pursuit of the truth. ‘Allow nature to teach you stillness,’ he says. ‘Seek out a tree and let it teach you stillness,’ he advises. ‘We have forgotten what rocks and plants still know — we have forgotten how to be — to be still — to be ourselves — to be where life is here and now.’

On the path of meditation, one is often asked to create a sanctuary — a silent place imbued with sacredness, positivity and supportive vibrations. There is no sanctuary greater than the nature. Nature can be the vastest, most extraordinary and limitless abode for the spiritual seeker. True silence is not an absolute absence of sounds. It is, rather, the letting go of the idle talk and gossip, and stilling the mind that always swings between past and future. The buzz and the murmur of the insects, the birds and the wind through the trees is not noise — it is a blank canvas for your restless mind, which instills peace, tranquility and relief from all tensions.

Leaning against a tree, walking barefoot in the grass, or simply sitting on the ground (dressed preferably in cotton clothes) are simple grounding techniques that are often combined with outdoors meditation. The contact with the Earth releases chronic energetic patterns and provides holistic healing. When the excess mental or emotional charge is released, one becomes more balanced, and dissolves anxiety, stress and fears.

For ages, mystics and seekers have sought spiritual refuge in the nature. Mahavira meditated under the Ashoka tree, Buddha got enlightened sitting under a Bodhi tree. Both of them wandered the forest and the hills for many years. Ramana Maharshi spent his life in themesmerizing Arunachala Hill. The Himalayas have always been the proverbial abode of yogis, siddhis and enlightened masters.

Nature has always been a generous ally to the seeker on the path of inner transformation. Natural stimuli hone our senses and sharpen our perception. Nature pulls us out of slumber, and helps us re-establish a healthy flow of energy through our physical body. By restoring our physical health, resetting our sleep cycle and stabilizing our breath patterns through removal of common respiratory problems, nature provides us with energy. This energy is necessary in order for us to walk the spiritual path with determination and grace.

[bruxby]

SRI BHAGAVAN SPEAKS ABOUT HUMILITY:

The power of humility, which bestows immortality, is the foremost among powers that are hard to attain. Since the only benefit of learning and other similar virtues is the attainment of humility, humility alone is the real ornament of the sages. It is the storehouse of all other virtues and is therefore extolled as the wealth of divine grace. Although it is a characteristic befitting wise people in general, it is especially indispensable for sadhus.

Since attaining greatness is impossible for anyone except by humility, all the disciplines of conduct such as yama and niyama, which are prescribed specifically for aspirants on the spiritual path, have as their aim only the attainment of humility. Humility is indeed the hallmark of the destruction of the ego. Because of this, humility is especially extolled by sadhus themselves as the code of conduct befitting them.

Moreover, for those who are residing at Arunachala, it is indispensable in every way. Arunachala is the sacred place where even the embodiments of God, Brahma, Vishnu and Sakti, humbly subsided. Since it has the power to humble even those who would not be humbled, those who do not humbly subside at Arunachala will surely not attain that redeeming virtue anywhere else.

The Supreme Lord, who is the highest of the high, shines unrivalled and unsurpassed only because he remains the humblest of the humble. When the divine virtue of humility is necessary even for the Supreme Lord, who is totally independent, is it necessary to emphasize that it is absolutely indispensable for sadhus who do not have such independence? Therefore, just as in their inner life, in their outer life also sadhus should possess complete and perfect humility. It is not that humility is necessary only for devotees of the Lord; even for the Lord it is the characteristic virtue.

- Sri Ramana Darsanam Taken from http://davidgodman.org/interviews/al4.shtml

[shinymoonbird]

What Bhagavan teaches us through silence is exactly the same as what he teaches us by words, but the effect of his silent teachings is much deeper and more powerful.

[...] Bhagavan’s teaching is silence, which is the highest teaching of all. That is true, because silence is our real nature, and our real nature cannot be revealed by anything other than itself. Whatever teachings he gave us in words were only to point us in the correct direction, namely within, because only when we turn within and thereby merge back into the source from which we rose as ego will we experience true silence.

Ego is the very antithesis of silence, so we can benefit from his silent teaching only to the extent that we are willing to surrender ourself to him. The more ego subsides, the more we will be guided by his silence.

What he teaches us through silence is what Arunachala taught him through silence, and he puts that into words beautifully and clearly in verse 44 of Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai:

Arunachala, what a wonder! You said: ‘Turning back inside, see yourself daily with the inner eye [or an inward look]; it [the reality that always shines as ‘I alone am I’] will be known’.

Therefore what he teaches us through silence is exactly the same as what he teaches us by words, but the effect of his silent teachings is much deeper and more powerful. Therefore to avail of the benefit of his teaching through silence, all we need do is to follow what he taught us in words, namely to turn within to see ourself and thereby to surrender ourself wholeheartedly to him, as he implied we must do in the final sentence of the twelfth paragraph of Nāṉ Ār? - Who am I?: 

‘however, it is necessary to walk unfailingly in accordance with the path that guru has shown’.

Extract from: ~  Michael James - Happinness of Being -  Self-investigation is the only means by which we can surrender ourself entirely and thereby eradicate ego - §5: Silence

Image source: Arunachala Vedas

[shinymoonbird]

Kannappa Nayanar Temple, at the foot of Arunachala

The Kannappa temple is situated on the Girivalam (*) inner path but it is also accessible from the outer path by means of a little forest trail near the Echo mandapam. Set with Arunachala as a backdrop, this temple is a scenic and quiet spot, ideal for meditation and is built at an altitude with a fine view of the forest and hill. It was falling into ruins some years ago and was renovated to its present state by the Shantimalai foundation. Today it appears as a beautiful stone monument with carved stone pillars in front and a fine stone staircase leading up to the shrine. [...]

The Kannappa temple also plays a role in the Thiruvoodal festival in January which is the Divine quarrel between Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi. During this event, the jewels of the Gods are supposedly stolen and this episode of the ‘Divine Jewels robbery’ takes place, interestingly, inside the Kannappa temple where it is enacted every year in the form of a divine drama ritual.

- http://www.arunachala-live.com/wordpress/?ibsa=get_content&id=468

(*) Pradakshina, or in Tamil, Girivalam, is the sacred walk around the holy hill Arunachala.

Picture from: http://davidgodman.org/interviews/ttimes.shtml

“...  I wanted somewhere remote where I could live and meditate quietly. ...”

“... I stayed in the Kannappa Temple from about October 1977 to March 1978.“

[shinymoonbird]

Arunachala on the inner path southside from Ramanasramam Source:  richardarunachala.wordpress.com

ॐ

Ramana Maharshi on Samadhi

Question : What is samadhi?

Ramana Maharshi : The state in which the unbroken experience of existence-consciousness is attained by the still mind, alone is samadhi. That still mind which is adorned with the attainment of the limitless supreme Self, alone is the reality of God.

When the mind is in communion with the Self in darkness, it is called nidra [sleep], that is, the immersion of the mind in ignorance. Immersion in a conscious or wakeful state is called samadhi. Samadhi is inherence in the Self in a waking state. Nidra or sleep is also inherence in the Self but in an unconscious state. In sahaja samadhi the communion is continuous.

Question : What are kevala nirvikalpa samadhi and sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi?

Ramana Maharshi :The immersion of the mind in the Self, but without its destruction, is kevala nirvikalpa samadhi. In this state one is not free from vasanas * and so one does not therefore attain mukti *. Only after the vasanas have been destroyed can one attain liberation.

Question : When can one practise sahaja samadhi?

Ramana Maharshi : Even from the beginning. Even though one practises kevala nirvikalpa samadhi for years together, if one has not rooted out the vasanas one will not attain liberation.

Question : May I have a clear idea of the difference between savikalpa and nirvikalpa?

Ramana Maharshi : Holding on to the supreme state is samadhi. When it is with effort due to mental disturbances, it is savikalpa. When these disturbances are absent, it is nirvikalpa. Remaining permanently in the primal state without effort is sahaja.

Question : Is nirvikalpa samadhi absolutely necessary before the attainment of sahaja?

Ramana Maharshi : Abiding permanently in any of these samadhis, either savikalpa or nirvikatpa, is sahaja [the natural state]. What is body-consciousness? It is the insentient body plus consciousness. Both of these must lie in another consciousness which is absolute and unaffected and which remains as it always is, with or without the body-consciousness. What does it then matter whether the body-consciousness is lost or retained, provided one is holding on to that pure consciousness? Total absence of body-consciousness has the advantage of making the samadhi more intense, although it makes no difference to the knowledge of the supreme.

Source: Be As You Are, by David Godman

(*)

Vasana: A behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behaviour of a person.

Mukti: Liberation

[shinymoonbird]

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

~*~

People say I am leaving, he said, just before the body’s death. Where could I go? I am here. Not: “I shall be here” but “I AM HERE”

~*~

In the lifetime of Bhagavan guidance came to all who turned to him, wether they approached him physically or not. Now, as then, it radiates with especial force from his Ashram at the foot of Arunachala.

Everywhere his Presence is felt. Morning and evening there is Veda Parayana [1] (chanting of the Vedas) before his Samadhi, as there used to be in his bodily presence. As the devotes sit there in meditation it is the same as when they sat before him in the hall, the same power, the same subtlety of guidance. In the old hall is a softer, mellower atmosphere, breathing the intimacy of his long abidance.

Not only are the Ashram premises sacred, but the neighbourhood around. The peace that abides there encompasses and permeates; no passive peace but a vibrant exhilaration. The very air is redolent of his Presence. And yet his Presence is not confined to Tiruvannamalai. Devotees, wherever they may be, find his Grace and support, his inner Presence, radiating within.

It is, indeed, not a new religion that Bhagavan brought upon earth, but a new hope, a new path, for those who seek and aspire from every land. People say I am leaving, he said, just before the body’s death. Where could I go? I am here. Not: “I shall be here” but “I AM HERE”. He is here in the eternal here and now; he is here in each devotee’s Heart, wherever in the world they may be!

Sri Ramanasramam - Tiruvanamalai, Tamil Nadu, India

[1] Listen to Veda Parayanam : https://sriramanamaharishi.com/chantings/sri-ramanasramam-morning-vedaparayana/ https://sriramanamaharishi.com/chantings/sri-ramana-maharshi-evening-vedaparayana/ ----------------------------------------

🕉️  TAMIL PARAYANA SONGS:

https://www.gururamana.org/Resources/parayana-web-app

Arunachala Mahatmyam Aksharamanamalai Arunachala Navamanimalai Arunachala Padhikam Arunachala Ashtakam Arunachala Pancharathnam Arunachala Ramanam Vazhttu Upadesa Undiyar Ulladu Narpadu Ulladu Narpadu Anubandam Arunachala Pancharathnam Ekanma Panchakam Appala Pattu Anma Viddai  Devikalottaram Atma Sakshatkara Prakaranam Bhagavad Gita Saram Sri Dakshinamurthy Stotram Anma Bodham Sri Guru Stuti Sri Hastamalakam Kalai Pattu Kummi Pattu Ponnolir Pathu Ponnayotha Pathu Sri Ramana Sadguru 🕉️