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Ramana Maharshi Quotes

Ramana Maharshi was an Indian Hindu sage and jivanmukta . He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is most commonly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.He was born in what is now Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu, India. In 1895, an attraction to the sacred hill Arunachala and the 63 Nayanmars was aroused in him, and in 1896, at the age of 16, he had a "death-experience" where he became aware of a "current" or "force" which he recognised as his true "I" or "self", and which he later identified with "the personal God, or Iswara", that is, Shiva. This resulted in a state that he later described as "the state of mind of Iswara or the jnani". Six weeks later he left his uncle's home in Madurai, and journeyed to the holy mountain Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai, where he took on the role of a sannyasin , and remained for the rest of his life.

He soon attracted devotees who regarded him as an avatar and came to him for darshan , and in later years an ashram grew up around him, where visitors received upadesa by sitting silently in his company asking questions. Since the 1930s his teachings have been popularized in the West, resulting in his worldwide recognition as an enlightened being.Ramana Maharshi approved a number of paths and practices, but recommended self-enquiry as the principal means to remove ignorance and abide in Self-awareness, together with bhakti or surrender to the Self. Wikipedia  

✵ 30. December 1879 – 14. April 1950  •  Other names Рамана Махарші, 拉瑪那·馬哈希
Ramana Maharshi photo
Ramana Maharshi: 75 quotes129 likes

Famous Ramana Maharshi Quotes

“Silence is most powerful. Speech is always less powerful than silence.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Have faith in God and in yourself; that will cure all. Hope for the best, expect the best, toil for the best and everything will come right for you in the end.”

Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi Quotes about heart

“11. The macrocosm is in its entirety in the body. The body is in its entirety in the heart. Therefore heart is the summarised form of all the macrocosm.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“21. During that time, the embodied person does not know the attainment in the heart. It is known in the Samadhi. The difference in name is due to the difference in cause.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“13. It is said that the heart is in the microcosm just as the orb of the sun in the macrocosm. The mind in Sahasrara is like the disc of the moon.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“18. The deeply learned ones know the mind as the directly expressed meaning of the supreme knowledge. The heart is the meaning aimed at. The Supreme is none other than the heart.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“Know Thyself. All else will be known to thee of its own accord. Discriminate between the undying, unchanging, all-pervading, infinite Atma and the ever-changing, phenomenal and perishable universe and body. Enquire, "Who am I?" Make the mind calm. Free yourself from all thoughts other than the simple thought of the Self or Atma. Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite "I". Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“19. This perception of division between the seer and the object that is seen, is situated in the mind. For those remaining in the heart, the seer becomes one with the sight.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

Ramana Maharshi: Trending quotes

“The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry 'Who am I?'. The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“17. The Jnanin present in the heart sees the mind merged in the light of the heart, like moonlight in the presence of the sun during the day.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“[A member of the community] should conduct himself always by word, mind and body in such a fashion that it results in help to the society. He should also make his own men understand this.”

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Gita

Ramana Maharshi Quotes

“Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.”

Ramana Maharshi

“There is neither creation nor destruction,
neither destiny nor free will, neither
path nor achievement.
This is the final truth.”

Ramana Maharshi

Source: Sayings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts wandering, make it quiet. If you reach the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of mind, stay still in that, the natural (real) state.”

Ramana Maharshi

Source: The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi

“The Self itself is God.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“True silence is really endless speech.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone (considered) work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“… just as the limb gives assistance to the body, likewise the member of the community helps the community and reigns supreme.”

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Gita

“Having set one's family in consonance with the community, he should make his family prosperous to ensure the prosperity of the community.”

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Gita

“Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating gyroscope.”

Ramana Maharshi

In reference to an excerpt - "by his non-action, the sage governs all" - from Lao Tze's Tao Te Ching.
Abide as the Self

“Existence of Isvara follows our conception of Isvara. Let us first know whose concept He is. The concept will be only according to the one who conceives. Find out who you are and the other problem will solve itself.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Aim high, aim at the highest, and all lower aims are thereby achieved. It is looking below on the stormy sea of differences that makes you sink. Look up, beyond these and see the One Glorious Real, and you are saved.”

Ramana Maharshi

“8. For one stationed in the Self, Sahasrara will be of pure effulgence. There: if any mental formulation falls within its presence, it will not live.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“10. Even in intake, the one steadfast thought is said to be the natural state. Nirvikalpa Samadhi will result when the sensory objects are not present.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“I want you to dive consciously into the Self, i. e., into the Heart.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Why should you trouble yourself about the future? You do not even properly know about the present. Take care of the present, the future will take care of itself.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Knowledge itself is 'I'. The nature of (this) knowledge is existence-consciousness-bliss.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“9. Even when the sensory objects to be known are in the proximity, when the difference is not taken in, the mind does not cause a break in Yoga.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“Seek the seeker.”

Ramana Maharshi

Self-Enquiry paraphrased, as spoken by Ram Dass in the film 'Abide as the Self.'
Abide as the Self

“Ishta-devata and Guru are aids - very powerful aids on this path. But an aid to be effective requires your effort also. Your effort is a sine qua non. It is you who should see the sun. Can spectacles and the sun see for you? You yourself have to see your true nature. Not much aid is required for doing it!”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire, 'To whom did they arise?', it will be known 'To me'. If one then enquires 'Who am I?', the mind (power of attention) will turn back to its source. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“There is no greater mystery than this: being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“There are no impediments to meditation. The very thought of such obstacles is the greatest impediment.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it -- the share which is allotted to you. [Question: How can it be done? Reply:] Like an actor playing his part in a drama: free from duality.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Under whatever name or form we worship It, It leads us on to knowledge of the nameless, formless Absolute. Yet, to see one's true Self in the Absolute, to subside into It and be one with It, this is the true Knowledge of the Truth.”

Ramana Maharshi

Reality in Fourty Verses

“Truly there is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy. You yourself impose limitations on your true nature of infinite Being and then weep that you are but a finite creature. Then you take up this or that sadhana to transcend the nonexistent limitations. But if your sadhana itself assumes the existence of the limitations, how can it help you to transcend them? Hence I say know that you are really the infinite, pure Being, the Self Absolute. You are always that Self and nothing but that Self. Therefore, you can never be really ignorant of the Self; your ignorance is merely a formal ignorance… Know then that true Knowledge does not create a new Being for you; it only removes your "ignorant ignorance." Bliss is not added to your nature; it is merely revealed as your true and natural state, eternal and imperishable. The only way to be rid of your grief is to know and be the Self.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“In accordance with the prarabdha of each, the One whose function it is to ordain makes each to act. What will not happen will never happen, whatever effort one may put forth. And what will happen will not fail to happen, however much one may seek to prevent it. This is certain. The part of wisdom therefore is to stay quiet.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“14. Just as the sun gives light to the moon this heart bestows the effulgence on the mind.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal--an illusion--since it rests upon paper. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“What is called mind is a wondrous power existing in Self. It projects all thoughts. If we set aside all thoughts and see, there will be no such thing as mind remaining separate; therefore, thought itself is the form of the mind. Other than thoughts, there is no such thing as the mind.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“20. The activity affected by causes like fainting, sleep, excessive joy, grief, possession by spirits, fear etc goes to the heart, its own place.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“3. It is said that the I-activity is the root of all activities. From where the I-thought emerges, that in short is the heart.”

Ramana Maharshi

In the definition of the heart is placed as a corollary that the direct Sadhana for knowing the heart is the tracking down to the origin of the I-thought.
The Science of the Heart

“Peace is for the purification of one's mind. Power is for the growth of the community. Having established the community with power, one should then establish supreme peace.”

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Gita

“The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man's real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man's search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“The Self is only one. Do you feel hurt if you blame yourself or scorn yourself for your errors? If you hold the Self there is no second person to scorn you. When you see the world you have lost hold of the Self. On the contrary, hold the Self and the world will not appear.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“The place where even the slightest trace of the 'I' does not exist, alone is Self.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“Let knowledge be guessed by the sign of equality to all beings.”

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Gita

“It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long sanskaras which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.”

Ramana Maharshi

Abide as the Self

“12. The world is none other than the mind. The mind is none other than the heart. Therefore the entire story finishes in the heart.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“15. As in the night when the sun is not present, one sees the light in the moon, the man who is not present in the heart, sees merely the mind.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“16. Without seeing the origin of light, the true form of one's Self, the ordinary man sees by the mind different things and is deluded.”

Ramana Maharshi

The Science of the Heart

“That which rises in this body as 'I' is the mind. If one enquires 'In which place in the body does the thought 'I' rise first?', it will be known to be in the heart [spiritual heart is 'two digits to the right from the centre of the chest']. Even if one incessantly thinks 'I', 'I', it will lead to that place (Self)'.”

Ramana Maharshi

Nan Yar = Who am I?

“What message is needed when heart speaks to heart?”

Ramana Maharshi

Biography

“By happy fraternity amongst themselves, the embodied beings get the supreme peace. Then all this earth shines like one house. When the men, the embodied beings treat each other with equal respect and have good brotherly feelings amongst themselves, great peace and harmony abound. Then all this earth shines like one house. The whole world shines like the one dwelling house of the entire human family.”

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Gita

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