Living from the Heart & Flying Free!: Only Ramana

“To see God as apart from the seer

is only a mental image,

since God is not separate from the seer.

To abide in the poise of the Self

is the true vision of God.”

- Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

This entire entry will be from our beloved friend, Ganesan. It was written December 1994 for The Mountain Path (Vol 31, No.3&4). Ganesan, as you may know, is the grandnephew of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and was the Manager of Ramanasramam for 35 years. At that time he took tender, loving care of the old devotees that were with Sri Bhagavan until their dying breath. This Conscious Association has given Ganesan a clear perspective on the teaching of Sri Bhagavan. He lives in Tiruvannamalai, S. India at the feet of the Holy Hill, Arunachala.

This message that is now being shared with us, when I read it recently in an old Mountain Path, was important timing for me and seems to be a vital message for us all today. Check-in, for yourself, and see where you are with this … from Ganesan ...

Just as many routes can approach the summit of a mountain, people have always come to Bhagavan Ramana from many paths, religions and walks of life, all with varying notions, yet with the sole objective of knowing what Sri Ramana stands for. To know Bhagavan is to be Bhagavan. Did not Bhagavan repeatedly tell us, “There are no jnanis; there is only jnanam”? The one who knows has to disappear into that which is known. One would think that our common esteem of Sri Bhagavan would bring us all closer together in a brotherhood of common ideals and goals. Yet sadly, the opposite is occurring. And the only thing that unites us all is the slogan: “Only Ramana.” This decorative, fanciful “two-word idea” may appear to remove the superficial itch of our unenlightened minds, but it does not solve our problems. Should we not seek to go beyond our limited minds to the very Source, to the “Center without circumference,” throwing away the chaff, only to enrich ourselves with the kernel? “Only Ramana” then appears as nothing more than a mental construct, whereas “everyone, everything is Ramana” is Sri Bhagavan’s true message, vouchsafed by his own life and works of wisdom.

Yet this itch is, after all, only human nature and should not astonish or disturb us. There is not a world teacher around whom this has not happened. The Buddha taught the Total Nothingness from his own direct experience, but have not many factions Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism sprung up? Shiite Muslims fight with non-Shiites; Orthodox Jews disclaim non-orthodox ones; and Christianity, which began as a reform movement within the Jewish religion, quickly set itself apart with “Only Jesus” as the Son of God and the Way to God. It then rapidly fractured into countless splinter groups, each upholding “the one true faith” and “the one true God,” giving birth to crusades and internecine wars over such crucial issues as how many fingers to use when crossing oneself and whether or not it pleases God to do so from left to right or right to left.

Why does this happen repeatedly throughout the ages, and not in one particular religion but virtually all of them? Yet all Masters are genuine and their messages, based purely on their own experiences are absolutely true and infallible. So where does this sabotage inevitably take place? It is possible that while their messages are as genuine as they are themselves immaculately pure and perfect – “the moon” – the followers who try to proclaim them – the “finger” pointing to the moon – somehow falter and thus succeed in corrupting the very message they try to propagate? Perhaps organized religions are created by these “fingers” and, in the process, the very “moon” is obliterated and forgotten!

Thus, followers who begin with the best and sincerest intentions get caught in the unfortunate snare of trying to formulate “the one true faith.” No doubt, the attempt at formulation arises from a desire to understand. Yet invariably the efforts of faith organizers probe the modus operandi for the organizers themselves to become the new religion’s leaders. Thus, the ego, which was to be destroyed, has turned the tables and instead acquired pomp and glory, name and fame, while none of the qualifications of the hierophant – humility, simplicity, egolessness, as exemplified by their idol – are present. On the contrary, personal ambition, decoratively festooned with one’s own ideas of how he alone is right, is consuming everything. Organization of “true believers” inevitably leads to excommunication of all the rest.

Should we allow this to happen to Bhagavan Ramana, too? No!

Putting the Maharshi’s teaching into practice in everyday life, by every one of us, is a good beginning. The one unchanging no variable is only yourSelf, said Bhagavan Ramana. Be true to yourSelf, find out who you are, and all else will be clear. Each one rising the fundamental question, “Who am I?” in his own heart of hearts is the real beginning. It is easy to be true to an ideal, a cause, a concept, and institution, an organization, a country; but it is really difficult to be true to oneSelf. Why? Because the outward-going mind, our common plight, is forever straining to behold “others” in order to maintain its illusory existence, whereas being true to oneSelf requires us to turn within and face ourSelf – the Truth of our being and the death of both mind and separate identity, together with our whims, opinions and slogans. Did not Bhagavan Ramana define Self-knowledge as “giving up of the falsehood that has never been there and gaining of the Truth that has always been there?

When pressed hard on the avatar issue, Bhagavan once answered, “Who is not an avatar? Everyone is an avatar. Is not the Self residing in everyone?” Did he not frequently refer to Jesus Christ’s saying, “The Kingdom of God is within you?” “I am the way, the truth and the life” and “No man comes to the Father except through me.” While he always identified himself with “I AM,” saying “I and the Father are one,” the Son-of-God or avatar-worshippers construe the “me” to be an historical figure, and the one and only one at that, thus closing the door to their own Self-realization by locking themselves in the closet of their own ignorance. The tragedy of this particular itch is the fanaticism it breeds. This, again, cannot be said to mean lack of initial sincerity because it is based on ignorance. However, it culminates in the destruction of sincerity.

Another far subtler trap is a more intellectual one. Let us call it “The Only Greatest Master Syndrome.” Based on a mere intellectual grasp of the teachings of some great one, but combined with the inability (or unwillingness) to put these teachings into practice, it breeds a sort of tea-and-crumpets spirituality in which on can picture the would-be philosopher sipping tea and munching crumpets, discussing the finer points of his philosophy. The combination is deadly, as the patient becomes ever more blinded and self-hypnotized through spiritual indigestion. The teachings stay stuck in the head and never touch the heart or soul of the individual, never annihilating the ego, only engorging it. The initially sincere seeker, having at last found a teacher who has shown him a glimpse of the truth that appeals to his own particular mentality, now becomes absorbed in slogans, propaganda and scholarship, leading to what Americans refer to as “chapter-and-verse combat”. One undigested teaching or reference is cited and shot out after another to support their view that theirs is the one and only “greatest” master, with the one and only greatest teaching that ever appeared on earth: “His teaching alone is unique. No one else’s words are as perfect, as sublime. Everyone else is a midget by comparison, every other Guru, every other teaching, every other seeker. And here are the chapters and verses to prove it.” The jargon is legion, but the underlying theme is ever the same; “He brought to earth a new teaching, a new Path, never before revealed, and no one else has ever done so.” Always the “finger” gets bent out of shape until it points back at the hand. Always the “moon” is forgotten or lost in the process. We see this misfortune everywhere we look. It afflicts followers of all great ones. In response to one who was afflicted with this form of spiritual indigestion, did Sri Bhagavan not say, “Nothing is new. Truth is the same, yet ever fresh. It becomes fresh when one puts it into practice. There is no newness or oldness to Truth.”

However much of all these dangerous traps may appear to be true theoretically, they do vanish into thin air the moment one seriously raises within oneself the potent question, “to whom?”

A confused, ignorant or undisciplined mind automatically builds up such defense mechanisms with the sole purpose of ensuring its own survival. If scorched by one-pointed introspection in the form of powerful Self-Inquiry, can the externalized, false, non-existent mind ever hope to endure whatever act of bravado it may try to put on? “To be [Self] is truth; to be “this” or “that” [mind] is falsehood.” “The real aim of all religions,” said the Maharshi, “is to lead up to the awakening to the Truth of the Self. But the Truth of the Self is too simple for the generality of men; even though there is no one who is not aware of the Self, men do not care to be told of It; they think the Self to be of little worth; they want to hear of far-off things – heaven, hell, reincarnation and so on; they love mystery and not the plain truth; and the religions humor them, so that ultimately they may come back to the Self. But why not seek and find and abide in the Self at once, without wandering: The heavens cannot be apart from him that sees or thinks of them; their reality is of the same degree as that of the ego that wants to go there; hence they do not exist apart from the Self, which is the real heaven… The Sage is never other than the real Self of the disciple.” (Maha Yoga, pp. 189-92)

Thus, having successfully and joyously begun treading the direct path of “diving within”, and having carefully avoided falling an easy victim to the three impediments of ignorance (the religion-delusion), uncertainty (the avatar-seesaw) and wrong knowledge (“the only greatest and new path” syndrome), one is now free to have a direct perception of Bhagavan as he is. Sri Bhagavan said clearly before His Mahasamadhi, “Where could I go? I AM here.”

Yes, He is here as “I AM” in every one of us.

What, then can be the real meaning of “Only Ramana”? Bhagavan himself has supplied the key in his famous assertion, “There are no others.”

Once, when the devotees were sitting around him singing “Ramana Sat-guru,” they found to their surprise that he, too, was clapping his hands and singing along. “Why are you praising yourself?” asked one. Quick came the reply. “Ramana Sat-guru is everywhere and everything. Why do you limit it to this form?” Did he not call himself “Ramana, the Self of all.?" Did he not assert, “he alone knows me who knows me as I truly am?”

Bhagavan was very fond of Kaivalya Navaneeta, which culminates in the disciple’s Self-realization and exclamation, “O Lord, you are the Reality remaining as my inmost Self in all my countless births! Glory to you who put on this human form only to redeem me. How can I repay you except by worshipping your holy feet!” To which the Guru replies; “To stay fixed thus as the Self, without the three obstacles (ignorance, uncertainty and wrong knowledge) impeding that True State of yours, is the highest recompense you can render me.”

When a devotee came to Bhagavan asking that he give him Self-realization, Sri Ramana replied, “Even if Siva Himself comes, He cannot give it to you. Nor can I give it to you.” After a pause, he said smiling, “Because you are already That!”

Did he not wipe out in toto all of our possible doubts as to his real identity when he assured one devotee “Bhagavan is always with you, in you an in fact, you are yourself Bhagavan.” To another he simply asserted, “You, indeed, are Bhagavan.”

He exhorted us in so many ways, by word, example, silence, to remember that each one of us is nothing but the Self. If Ramana is the Self of all, and all are the Self, then all are “Only Ramana”. Is it not gross ingratitude to Him if one refuses to awaken to the Truth that one is always never “any other” than “Only Ramana?”