Photos by Guy Gonyea - Skandashram where Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi lived from 1916-1922, and where his mother attained Samadhi.
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The Paramount Importance of Self Attention, by Sri Sadhu Om, As recorded by Michael James
Part One - Mountain Path: April-June 2012 - Excerpt
Note of 10th December 1977
Sadhu Om: In verse 273 of Guru Vācaka Kovai (*) Bhagavan says that the self-awareness (satbōdha or being-consciousness) that exists and shines in all, as all, is the guru.
To be qualified for the fourth standard [in the school of bhakti] one must have wholehearted love for guru, and one must try to put his teachings into practice, at least insofar as one understands them. Unless one sincerely wants and tries to follow the guru’s teachings, one does not have the true guru-bhakti required to be in the fourth standard (**).
For example, although Devaraja Mudaliar said he had no brain for self-enquiry, Bhagavan was everything to him, so he followed the path of self-surrender as he understood it. One may be bottom of the class, but unquestioning faith in the guru can overcome all obstacles in a moment. Even if we do not succeed now in our attempts to abide as self, we should at least sincerely want and try to abide thus.
Progress can never be judged. Bhagavan knows exactly the right medicine required to mature each one of us, so he knows which vāsana (propensity) to release at each moment. Someone who is getting 5% today may get 100% tomorrow, whereas someone else who is getting 90% today may not seem to improve for years. A person may be always caught up in worldly affairs, but if he is always feeling, ‘This is all useless nonsense; when can I be quiet?” he may be doing better than someone who is always sitting in meditation.
A lady devotee who lived nearby complained to Bhagavan that she had not been able to come to his hall for fifteen days because she had to attend to relatives who had come to stay. He replied, ‘That is good. It is better that you were at home with your relatives and that your mind was here, than if you had been here and your mind had been thinking of them’.
Ramakrishna told the following story: A sādhu led a pure life and wanted to help a pious prostitute, so he counted the number of people who visited her house by placing stones in a pile, and after many years he told her that the pile of stones represented her sins, so in repentance she locked her door and starved to death. He also passed away, but she was taken to heaven because she was repentant, whereas he was taken to hell because his mind was always dwelling on her sins.
He also told a similar story of two friends, one of whom listened to the Bhāgavatam while the other went to a brothel. The first regretted his decision and envied his friend, who he thought was enjoying himself in the brothel, while the second felt disgusted with himself and would have preferred to be listening to the holy book. The first went to hell and the second went to heaven.
The moral of these stories is that our outward actions are not as important as our inner thoughts and attitude. Likewise, intense longing for self-abidance is essential, even if we fail in our efforts to abide as self.
In order to be free, we only need to experience our being as it really is for just one moment. When an aspirant is sufficiently matured through the school of bhakti, the guru will give the final tap, and thus he will be promoted to the fifth standard, which is liberation (mōkṣa). That may happen at any moment.
The love to abide as self is the real sign of guru-bhakti.
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(*) Guru Vachaka Kovai - The Garland of Guru’s Sayings, by Sri Muruganar
(**) Compare the final clause of the twelfth paragraph of Nāṉār? (Who am I?): ‘…nevertheless, it is necessary to proceed [behave or act] unfailingly according to the path that guru has shown’.
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