RAMANA  MAHARSHI  |  GURU

WHO  IS  THE  GURU ?

THE  GURU  IS  THE  POWER  OF  THE  SELF  WITHIN

THE  NECESSITY  OF  THE  PHYSICAL  GURU

An external Guru is needed because the desire-filled, infatuated mind rushes out without listening with love to the Truth unceasingly proclaimed in the Heart by the Self, being-consciousness.

One may have acquired all the virtues and renounced all the vices; one may have renounced totally all one's relationships and have no attachment; one may have completely performed all the many penances enjoined upon the virtuous by the scriptures; but however great one may be by virtue of one's intellect and accomplishments, will one attain the experience, the state of Oneness that is wholly bliss, until one obtains, as a result of meritorious action, the good fortune of seeing the jnana Guru [one who grants true knowledge]?

For those who are suffering from worldly existence - to which they are yoked by the twin actions of good and evil that arise through ignorance, the powerful dense delusion - the devotion and longing they feel for the grace of the Guru, who has taken responsibility for them, is alone the medicine for dispelling their mental anguish.

It is impossible to experience the marvellous dance of true knowledge in the Heart unless the antics of the unbridled monkey-mind cease through the grace-power of the valiant One who wields the divinely granted sword of true knowledge, He who has already cut off and brought down his own mind demon.

Those who have realised the Truth are alone the possessors of faultless virtues. Apart from these, everyone else is only base of nature. Hence, he who longs for the fortune of liberation must redeem himself only by resorting to those aforementioned meritorious ones who shine as Reality through the knowledge of Reality that is devoid of the world-delusion.

THE  GRACE  OF  THE  GURU

Peace of mind, shanti, which is desired by everyone, is not attained by anyone, anywhere, through any means, except through the grace of the Guru. Therefore, those who want peace should continuously enquire and seek alone that grace in the Heart, with their whole mind.

The blessed grace of the Supreme, who has the eightfold form, will be impossible to secure except through the grace of the Guru. It will not come through learning or through any other means, but it will spontaneously arise through devotion.

Those of perfect and mature wisdom will declare: Reality, the consummation of knowledge that shines in the perfectly pure state of still silence, the hard-to-attain vedantic experience, will, through the Guru's grace, spontaneously flare up and shine as 'I-I' within the Heart.

Unless we first obtain the divine grace of a Guru, a liberated one in whose perspective the triputi-differences [seer-seeing-seen and knower-knowing-known] have ended and who shines as the undivided and single essence, it will be impossible to obtain the life of liberation and live illustriously under the shade of Reality's twin feet, a life that is all bliss and the ultimate of all benefits.

BEING  A  GOOD  DISCIPLE

If you want to attain liberation and redeem yourself by cutting asunder with the sword of true knowledge the false ignorance that has strongly bound you in the form of an individual self, let your mind spring up immediately with surging love and, without wasting a moment of your life, meditate constantly upon the golden lotus-like feet of the Reality who, in the form of the Guru, has taken you into his fold.

By taking the Sadguru as one's sole refuge, one should know, through His grace, that the cause of the continuous and distressing confusion that nurtures births is the fragmented mind which regards itself as different from Reality. One should also learn from Him the means for ending the fragmented mind and, adopting that means, one should steadfastly unite with the Self, the ego-free natural state of being, and abide in still silence. This alone bestows eminence.

This state of being the best among the noble disciples is this: a constancy of mind whence gushes forth the feeling of supreme devotion that manifests when the 'I' is lost in the radiance of the state of still silence, the Supreme. Know and keep in your mind that this is itself the state of being the Guru.

Meditating in the way that one ought to meditate on the sweet and ineffable grace of the supreme Guru, and remaining still without getting caught in illusion, the unreal and deceptive panorama that appears in front of us - this alone is bliss.

TRUE  GURUS  &  FALSE  GURUS

The Guru who instructs the disciple, who has taken complete refuge in Him, by giving one more prescription for action, instead of directing him towards knowledge, and who leads him into activities, saying "These should be done", is for the disciple equivalent to the coming of cruel Yama and Brahma, the gods of Death and Birth. Only He who consummates disciples, transforming them into those who have done all that needs to be done, enabling them to attain the true benefit of this birth, is the grace-bestowing, divine Guru.

Know that the Heart-directed conduct in which one steadfastly holds onto true knowledge in the way one has been taught, and abiding there firmly as being-consciousness, without letting the mind stray towards the ignoble sense objects, is alone the true teaching of the Guru.

THE  GURU' S  LOOK

Since his glance transforms the rusty iron that is the individual self into the gold that is the taint-free, pure Awareness, the grace-bestowing eyes of the Guru Lord are the potent alchemical substance that transforms by a mere glance. Therefore, search thoroughly to eradicate your impurity, and worship Him to attain His glance.

With His twin eyes the Guru will instantaneously kill without killing the one who came into existence without actually existing in such a way that "that which is not" vanishes as "that which is not", leaving that which exists as the transcendental light shining as "that which is".

The Guru abides as the silent benefactor and reveals the light that shines, remaining as the one and only enduring residue. If His eyes and the eyes of the disciple meet in total harmony, spoken words are redundant.

Beyond the reach of both mind and speech is the glory of those who have the good fortune, earned through past austerities, of becoming the target of the grace-bestowing glance of the Guru, He who has ripened into the embodiment of the absolute Supreme through the excellence of the matchless experience of true knowledge, the Self.

Those who, through rare, intense and surging devotion exist by trusting solely in the Guru's piercing glance of grace will live in this world like Indra, the King of the gods. There will be no suffering for them.

The jnana Guru actually abides as both the Self and the real form of the absolute Reality within the hearts of disciples, although in their externalised view He appears and moves around as if He is different from them. True knowledge will not dawn for anyone who has not experienced directly, through investigation in the Heart, the essence of this instruction "You are That", which the Guru silently and unceasingly conveys to his disciples through the language of His gaze.

Like a deer caught in the jaws of a tiger, those who are trapped by the Sadguru's knowledge-bestowing glance of grace will never be abandoned. Rather, they are destined to lose their individuality, their restricted nature, and attain liberation.

WORSHIPPING  THE  FEET  OF  THE  GURU

For those who possess the quality of habitually meditating upon the feet of the Guru, the blazing flame of flawless true knowledge, their devotion, dispelling their suffering, will elicit the grace of that supreme One. Through that grace their minds will become clear and they will attain true knowledge.

For those who have the good fortune of living a life in which they take the feet of the Guru, the Supreme, as the sole target of their attention, a longing to merge with Reality will flourish. That true devotion will itself become the fire of knowledge that will scorch to destruction the desires for the false, the non-Self.

As worship of the feet of the Guru simultaneously destroys the twin desires [vasanas] accumulated over endless eons, and as it brings forth in the Heart the dawn of knowledge that is the cause for our being unafraid of indescribable ignorance, that worship, performed with devotion and reverence, alone is the befitting true mantra for noble disciples in whom dispassion is strong.

One may, through body speech and mind, perform, without leaving any out, all the possible varieties of worship to the jnana Guru, He who is the walking supreme Reality who has accepted with delight the disciple. However, for the disciple, losing the idea that he exists as a distinct entity, separate from that Guru who shines as the soul of his soul, completely dissolving, like ice in water, his individuality in His [the Guru's] supreme Self, and becoming one with Him as love alone - this is the perfect and complete worship that he should perform.

The mind that has settled in the radiance of the feet of the Guru, who is limitless knowledge, effulgent like the sun, does not merge in the triple differences that are an imaginary appearance in Guru-consciousness.

GURU  PUJA

Bear in mind that the true worship to the jnana Guru is only the Self-abidance in which the desire-free silence surges once the disciple-consciousness that proclaimed itself as 'I' is destroyed by the raging fire of the consciousness of the jnana Guru, He who is Reality Himself.

The true worship performed to the Guru by worthy disciples is the complete destruction of the false disciple-consciousness brought about by firm abidance in the state of Self-consciousness, the experience of perfection that arises through the Heartward enquiry, "Who is the 'I' who has been accepted as a disciple?"

Know clearly that the excellent conduct wherein the ego-mind does not rise in the all-pervading Supreme firmament, the sun of true knowledge that shines as the real nature of the Guru, constitutes the only worship worthy of being performed to the Guru Lord.

When the ice of the ego-consciousness that is limited to the form of the body melts into the ocean of Guru-consciousness, the expanse of the Self that exists and shines as the one savour of love, know that this is Guru puja.

The polluting ego-view causes the fullness of the Guru, which knows no lack, to be limited. Only the behaviour in which this does not appear is the shining worship to the Guru who stands out like a mountain in a plain.

After surrendering one's body and possessions to the jnana Guru, to regard the body as 'I' and the possessions as 'mine' is to commit the sin of stealing back what has been given away as a gift. You should know that avoiding this fault is the authentic worship of the Sadguru.

To destroy the form of the mind, enquire into the ego, the delusion, and enter the Heart. This indeed is the worship to the lotus feet of the Guru's holy form who abides in the still silence that is beyond the mind.

Like a cataract upon the eye, the ego-view plays tricks on us, masquerading as being-consciousness even as it moves about in the insentient body. To prevent its formation and growth is worship to the graceful twin lotus feet of the Guru who exists and shines as the transcendental firmament.

Abandoning the protection of the feet of the Guru Lord, who has extinguished the burning fires of the triple miseries [tapatraya], the ego suffers, seeking water in the scorching mirage of the perceived sense objects. When this mischief of the ego is stilled and one becomes established at those feet, that indeed is the worship to be performed to the twin lotus feet of the pure One.