We are the Light of the World

This picture was taken on December 21^st at Bhagavan Ramana’s Jyanthi, from the same spot I took the previous picture in the Shrine Hall. You could not fit another person in here. And, we sat this way for several hours! ...

It was a sacred time being shared by all.

At the wake of Bhagavan’s birthday celebration (Jyanthi) and Christ’s Birthday, it has been said that the best way to celebrate the birthday of a Jnani, is to share their teaching. Let’s be with the words of these two Illumined Beings and receive the true reason for this holiday season …

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

Where moth and rust consume

And where thieves break in and steal,

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

Where neither moth nor rust consumes

And where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is,

There will your Heart be also.

[Jesus speaking from the Bible: Matthew 6:19-21]

Know this: To simply abide as and be at one with That,

in the Heart as the Heart,

is itself to contemplate or meditate on it – for It is All.

This One Reality ever dwells in the Heart of All creatures

as the Very Self of each one,

as the Silent Witness without thoughts,

unrelated to anything.

To remain ever-present in It, as It, is its contemplation,

for it is the One Presence and Power of simple Awareness

In which and on which everything is dependent,

and is always, already occurring.

There is, in Truth, no separate-self or individual being.

[From “Realization: Sum and Substance” – Compiled by A. Ramana,

from the works of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi]

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,

What you shall eat or what you shall drink,

Nor about your body, what you shall put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air:

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

Every one then who hears these words of Mine,

And does them will be like a wise man

Who built his house upon the rock;

And, the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew

And beat upon that house,

But it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

[Jesus speaking from the Bible: Matthew 6:25-26 & 7:24-25]

One should not be elated on having his desire fulfilled,

or disappointed on being frustrated.

To be elated on the fulfillment of desire is so deceitful.

A gain will certainly be lost ultimately.

Therefore elations must end in pain at a future date.

One should not give place to feelings of pleasure or pain,

come what may.

How do the events affect the person?

You do not grow by acquiring something,

nor wither away by losing it.

You remain what you always are.

Accept with equanimity whatever happens.

[From “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi” p. 596]

You are the Light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hid.

Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel,

But on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Let your Light so shine before men,

That they may see your good works

And, give glory to your Father who is in Heaven

[Jesus speaking from the Bible: Matthew 5:14-16]

This Universal Awareness or One Reality, which is the Divine Self,

or Heart of the Absolute –

ever abiding prior to and beyond time and space –

being one-without-a-second and always complete in Itself –

is Itself the giver of existence to the whole world.

It also gives its One and Only Light of Consciousness to the mind,

which lacks or is itself entirely without consciousness.

This One Self is always, already realized, for there is no other.

Although obscured or seemingly hidden,

being covered up by the world of objects,

it is ever available here and now as

the One and Only Presence and Power.

All else is a false appearance, being a product of the mind.

This One Reality is “ever-known” as

the Silence and Stillness of pure Being.

[From “Realization: Sum and Substance” - Compiled by A. Ramana,

from the works of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi]

Being and Sharing in the Spirit of this Holiday Season…

In Stillness & Peace,
em