Question: You endorse Maya's teaching, but I cannot reconcile my sense of this chair's reality with your assertion of its unreality. Ramana Maharshi: The root of your difficulty lies in the confused mingling of two separate ideas into one: the ‘I' and the 'body'. Ramana continues: When you are aware of the chair, it is the thought subsequent to the primal one, 'I am the body.' This 'I am the body' is the substratum of all your thoughts of world experience. It arises first. On

You can even create God outside yourself, the strange irony - you make an idol with your own hands, and then you bow down before and pray. You never understand what can come of praying before something that you make yourself. Seek who has made you. You sit with folded hands before a god of your own creation. But your god cannot be greater than you. It can only be smaller. That is why all the gods and goddesses seated in your temples and mosques are smaller than you. You have

Talk 187 Devotee: I maintain that the physical body of the man sunk in samadhi as a result of unbroken contemplation of the Self becomes motionless for that reason. It may be active or inactive. The mind fixed in such contemplation will not be affected by the body or the senses being restless. A disturbance of the mind is not always the forerunner of physical activity. Another man asserts that physical unrest certainly prevents nirvikalpa samadhi or unbroken contemplation. Wh

Q: What about responsibility? Bhagavan: It is the sense of responsibility that causes the bondage. Q: Have we no responsibility for what our bodies and eyes do? They might run riot and commit crimes. Bhagavan: You are not your body, and unless you are a jnani, you cannot question what a jnani would or would not do. Q: But could a jnani go through the torture camp unmoved? Has it ever been known? Bhagavan: You may think you see a jnani cry, but from your standpoint, you cannot

Q: Ravi, why do you say this world is just a dream and only an illusion? Ravi: Where are you coming from? Q: Mexico. Ravi: How did you reach India, flight, train, then bus to Rishikesh, right? Q: Yes. Ravi: So, the body only had a little bit of movement. It walked from home to a cab, within the Airport, and a few other walks here and there. But otherwise, some container service, or conveyance, only brought this body here, now up to this Satsang, correct? Q: Yes. Ravi: All our

Click on the picture to go to the video on YouTube For those who seek not just knowledge, but liberation through clear seeing, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, in Verse 2.4.5, proclaims the profound Vedantic formula “Śrotavyo mantavyo nidhidhyāsitavyo”, which means that the Self can be realized by following the three-step process: Sravana (Hearing or listening to the Truth & Wisdom with utmost attention) Manana (Reflecting upon the wisdom received through Sravana) Nidhidhyasana (S