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Sex and the Self
Aham Sphurana
A Glimpse of Self Realisation
New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi
Available Worldwide
On www.openskypress.com and Amazon:
“In my opinion, Aham Sphurana, a Glimpse of Self Realisation, will become a Treasure Trove of Wisdom to the Seekers of Truth in general, and particularly to the devotees of Bhagavan.”
Swami Hamsananda – Athithi Ashram, Tiruvannamalai
Sex and the Self
Q: It cannot be denied that it is sexual desire that causes man to engage in coitus, even when reproduction is not the motive.
B: You ask about the biological sexual urge. That is impregnated in the ego mind body complex to facilitate reproduction, according to nature’s design. If the act did not involve pleasure, man would likely ask ‘Why should I give birth to children?’
What is the highest joy man can know? It is the state of no-mind. Daily he experiences it in sleep. Only the yogi has experience of it in waking; for the Jnani there can be no question of experiencing anything. So, nature has seen fit to introduce this bliss of no-mind in the coital act.
A moment before the commencement of the spasms that bring about emission of the seminal fluid, for precisely 1/128th of a second, the mind is removed. It is like a plate being exposed with a very quick shutter speed. The impression of the bliss tasted, leaves behind a strong craving for more such bliss in the mind. This is how men end up addicted to the act.
Edited by John David Nov 2024
Complete Cessation of Mental Activity
Aham Sphurana
A Glimpse of Self Realisation
New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi
Available Worldwide
On www.openskypress.com and Amazon:
“In my opinion, Aham Sphurana, a Glimpse of Self Realisation, will become a Treasure Trove of Wisdom to the Seekers of Truth in general, and particularly to the devotees of Bhagavan.”
Swami Hamsananda – Athithi Ashram, Tiruvannamalai
Complete Cessation of Mental Activity
Bhagavan: People are so obsessed with and enamoured by mental activity that they imagine that by some special kind of mental activity, such as meditation, for instance, the Self can be duped into revealing Itself. It is not so. Only complete cessation of mental activity can reveal the Self. Giving up the personal self or the idea of the seekers existence, should, again, be volitionless and unconditional; it should not be driven by any motive.
If you feel tempted to ask for a formula for this also, know that there is none. You abandon the personal self not because you expect or anticipate or want Self-Realisation in return [in which case you never really abandon it at all – you only absurdly think that you do], but because in that very act of such abandonment, you discover for yourself, practically, as a DIRECT INSIGHT, that no such thing as the personal self ever existed and that no such thing could ever exist.
Edited by John David Nov 2024
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Mixed Blogs
Love is our Being
Love is our Being, Being is existence, so love is existence. Your essential state is love. What distorts that is that we look outside for love not realising that the love we experience outside is a reflection of the love we have for our deepest self.
Realisation and Doubts
A person like Ramana Maharshi or a person like Eckhart Tolle, who I know quite well, who realised, and that’s it, end of doubts, end of everything, end of the vasanas, the tendencies, is very, very rare. It’s a very, very rare occurrence.
Meditation
Practiced diligently, meditation techniques purify the mind because they bring awareness to unholy patterns of thought and feeling. Unhealthy thoughts cannot survive the penetrating light of awareness. Nothing purifies like experience of the Self, which releases a flood of healing, cleansing, spiritual energy into the conscious and unconscious minds.
A Glimpse is Enough
There are a couple of things that Papaji says: ‘Having the longing for enlightenment is enlightenment.’ I think that is a very beautiful statement; it’s both profound and compelling at the same time. One other thing: ‘A little bit is enough. There is no more, a glimpse is enough.’
Poem of J. Krishnamurti
I am neither low nor high;
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.
I am free.
My song is the song of the river calling for the open seas;
Wandering, wandering;
I am Life.
Celibacy and Relationship
It’s quite clear that for almost everybody this issue of intimacy with another human being is a strong structure, a strong issue. In the eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism there is a deep understanding that if you seriously want to become a spiritual seeker you become celibate and stay alone.
A Dog and A Monkey
Q.: Can then an animal Realise the Self?
B.: It is not unheard of.
B. now looked at Chadwick, who was present in the Hall, squarely in the eye, and said:
When you came here first, you asked [me] how the Guru’s help is useful in bringing about Realisation. You were told that it makes the poisonous fangs of samsara ineffective. Now do you see?
Chad. merely looked uncomprehendingly vacant.
B.: Whilst the monkey was seated on this [pointing to his body], it was quite beyond the reach of the dog.
Schopenhauer and Renunciation
Q.: I have heard that Bhagawan once spoke highly of Schopenhauer.
B.: He has discovered that the world is an inherently and incorrigibly unhappy place; he has also discovered that man’s true purpose is happiness; furthermore, he states correctly that extirpation of one’s personal will leads to Emancipation. However, what seems to be missing is practical technique. How shall the wille-zum-leben, which is the cause for all suffering, be defeated and annihilated?
Realise the Self.
Q.: What is the guarantee that I shall Realise the Self if I surrender?
B.: You are missing the point of surrender.
Q.: How so?
B.: To surrender is to let go of everything without anticipating or expecting anything in return. Letting go of everything also encompasses abandoning the aspiration to Realise the Self. Suppose you are holding a red-hot iron-ball. Your hand is quivering in unbearable pain. Somebody suggests unto you that you let go.
How shall we kill the mind?
B.: Is it the mind that wants to kill the mind? The mind cannot kill the mind. Anything that you endeavour to ‘do’ with the mind will only reinforce and perpetuate the notion of mind. Rather than pointlessly wondering, ‘How shall I eradicate the mind?’, go on seeking the mind. Incessant search for what mind is results in its disappearance.
The thing to do is to completely ignore the objects that appear by the reflected light of the mind, and instead seek the source of the mind’s illumination. If the source of the mind is continuously sought for, it begins to subside.
Enlightenment is an Illusion
The first thing I would say is that there are not any enlightened people. This word enlightenment is a wrong word. It is like sex or love or god. It is like some idea far away in the future. Maybe it has a value because it can bring people to find themselves, just as the peak of Mount Everest brings people to climb mountains.
Unrealise the not-Self
Q.: If the theological pronouncements of the Christians are to be believed, we are all born mired in sin. Is the doctrine of original sin correct?
B.: What is born is born only in sin. The Unborn is sinless; therefore He is never born. Birth into samsara is the harbringer of agony. In fact you are the one original Absolute.
Beauty
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but when you’re really, really Quiet, there’s so much Beauty! Everything is beautiful! It was one of those days: today, the ocean was beautiful, the houses were beautiful, the people were beautiful, the weather was beautiful, the paintings were beautiful, the lunch was great. It was just like a flow through Beauty, the whole day.
Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer Ashram Report
For the most part of today I was unable to go to the Ashram. Since Sri Cycle-Pillai seemed to be indisposed for the time-being with one of his occasional abdominal ailments, and was thus not in a position to do his usual chores for the Ashram. The sarvadhikari [manager] has asked me to purchase roots of the shathavari [Asparagus racemosus] plant from a herbs-dealer who put up his wares in different parts of the town on different days.
Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, Author of Aham Spraruna
Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer was a distinguished lawyer and a devotee par excellence of the Maharshi. He came to Ramanasramam in the 1930s. He stayed for perhaps six months and kept meticulous diaries of the meetings in Bhagavan’s hall.
He is the author of the core of the manuscript known as Aham Sphurana. It seems in 1950’s his friend Swami Rajeshwarananda wanted to publish these notebooks. At that time the ashram didn’t have the necessary resources. Now some 70 years later a manuscript has appeared, Aham Sphurana, which appears to contain the material from Gajapathi Aiyyer’s Red Notebooks.
