1. Like your hand on a puppy’s belly: The quivering, the warmth. “Oh! It’s alive!” 2. Like a kite string tugging your hand. You tug back. The dynamic give and take. Unpredictable, surprising, never the same. (The second one is based on a remark by Rajiv Kapur on this page.)
Author: Freddie
Self-enquiry is the simulation of sahaja samadhi
If there’s one quote from Ramana that every serious seeker should know, it’s this one: Inquiry consists in retaining the mind in the Self. That’s from Who Am I? Here’s the same sentence in another translation: The name ‘ātma-vicāra’ [refers] only to [the practice of] always keeping the mind in [or on] ātmā [oneself]. That’s […]
Peas in a Pod
The eyes are very similar, don’t you think? Both these young men realized the Self spontaneously as children, and at the time when the pictures were taken, both were spending a lot of time absorbed in the Self. The fellow on the left grew up to be Ramana Maharshi, who said that nirvikalpa samadhi can’t […]
Two ways to stretch
There are two ways to stretch. One way is by feel. You reach or arch or bend or unbend until you find the position that feels right. You know by feel when you’ve unkinked the kinks and decompressed the compression. The second way is by following instructions in a book or from a teacher. Sound […]
Imitating Ramana
From V. Ganesan’s book Ramana Periya Puranam: Sadhu Natanananda raged, “What a fool you are! What do you think you have come to Bhagavan for? For what function has he chosen you? It is only to make you like him!” Photo: Sri Ramanasramam catalog number boa_52
T. N. Krishnaswami
Dr. T. N. Krishnaswami, known as Dr. TNK, took most of the photos in Sri Ramanasramam’s archives. In the 1930s when he was a medical student he came from Madras with friends to visit Sri Ramanasramam for the first time. He brought a camera and took this picture: People at the ashram liked the photo […]
Ouspensky’s tragic mistake
Introduction added in 2019 During the two years since this article was published, a number of readers have posted comments below accusing me of misunderstanding Ouspensky. To those readers: this article is my reaction to a section of one of Ouspensky’s books which you can read for free at this link: Self Remembering by Ouspensky […]
Ramana’s crucial secret
The title of this post refers to an article by Michael James. According to Michael: This is the crucial and extremely valuable secret that Sri Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] has revealed to us all about the nature of our ego or mind: If we attend to anything other than ourself, our mind will thereby rise and […]
A short love letter to India
India is the only human civilization that discovered Self-realization and created institutions to hand down that knowledge. India is the spiritual teacher of all humanity. Photo: Vitalla Temple in Hampi, Karnataka, India