Ramana Maharshi (1879 – 1950)
Hindu sage, and a proponent of Advaita Vedanta.
Peace is for the purification of one's mind. Power is for the growth of the community. Having established the community with power, one should then establish supreme peace.
It is said that a good brotherly feeling with a sense of equality is the supreme goal to be reached collectively by all members of the community.
[A member of the community] should conduct himself always by word, mind and body in such a fashion that it results in help to the society. He should also make his own men understand this.
It is said that the heart is in the microcosm just as the orb of the sun in the macrocosm. The mind in Sahasrara is like the disc of the moon.
Why should you trouble yourself about the future? You do not even properly know about the present. Take care of the present, the future will take care of itself.
It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long sanskaras which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.
During that time, the embodied person does not know the attainment in the heart. It is known in the Samadhi. The difference in name is due to the difference in cause.
As in the night when the sun is not present, one sees the light in the moon, the man who is not present in the heart, sees merely the mind.
Know Thyself. All else will be known to thee of its own accord. Discriminate between the undying, unchanging, all-pervading, infinite Atma and the ever-changing, phenomenal and perishable universe and body. Enquire, "Who am I?" Make the mind calm. Free yourself from all thoughts other than the simple thought of the Self or Atma. Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite "I". Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.
Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. I Am That I Am sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in Be Still.
Let knowledge be guessed by the sign of equality to all beings.
This perception of division between the seer and the object that is seen, is situated in the mind. For those remaining in the heart, the seer becomes one with the sight.
There are no impediments to meditation. The very thought of such obstacles is the greatest impediment.
There is no greater mystery than this: being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.
Having set one's family in consonance with the community, he should make his family prosperous to ensure the prosperity of the community.
For one stationed in the Self, Sahasrara will be of pure effulgence. There: if any mental formulation falls within its presence, it will not live.
We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal--an illusion--since it rests upon paper. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.
Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone (considered) work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking.
Just as the sun gives light to the moon this heart bestows the effulgence on the mind.