Choice "A" Quotes

Read some or all of the quotes on this page every day.

More context for Choice A quotes can be found in Chapters 5 and 13 of the book at this link: most-rapid/contents.htm

The purpose of these quotes is Encouragement. The following quotes are descriptions of the experience of liberation by those who have ended the ego. Reading these quotes can increase the desire for liberation, and increasing the desire for liberation is the most important step one who desires freedom can take.

How important is the desire for the Realization of Truth?

The following quote from Sorupa Saram* reveals the answer:
* 16th centrury advaita text. Link at David Godman's website opens an 18 page pdf [More quotes from this are further below.]

Q: How to be rid of desires?

A: Through the desire for realization of the truth.

O desire!
Though I suffered much through you,
(the desire for objects and intellectual and sensual experiences)
on account of your help I dwelt in the Self.
(the help of the desire for the realization of truth)
I reached the True Teacher (Sadguru) through you
In liberation I have, along with you, become the Self.
I swear to this.

Read the quotes very slowly, reflecting on the meaning of each sentence before going onto the next sentence.

The following quotes are from the book "The Garland of Gurus (Sri Ramana Maharshi's) Sayings" by Sri Muruganar translated by K. Swaminathan:

393. One who has wisely chosen the straight path of Self-inquiry,
can never go astray;
for like the bright, clear Sun,
the Self-Awareness reveals itself to whomever turns towards it.
451. The deeper into the Heart one dives,
the greater grows the bliss enjoyed,
the intense bliss of the sole Self-Awareness,
which once appeared in various forms.
452. Once you are well established in the Heart,
true Awareness rises bright.
Then you live like an unsetting Sun,
Resplendent with the light of Truth,
enjoying the blissful peace of eternal Self-Awareness.
500. Worth pursuing is Self-inquiry,
worth enjoying is the infinite Self-Awareness.
Worth giving up is the ego sense.
To end all sorrow, the final refuge is one's source,
the Self of pure Awareness.
554. The deeds we do in a dream do not touch our "waking" life,
and they slip away when we "awake".
Our deeds done in this clouded ego life, disappear and leave no trace,
when we wake up, in the divine white light of Self-Awareness.
697. They say that fate can never bind those heaven bound.
What does this mean?
Not an iota of the past can touch those,
who dwell unceasingly in the firmament of vast, boundless, borderless, full Self-Awareness.
884. A woman with a necklace around her neck imagines it is lost,
and after a long search elsewhere,
touches her own neck and there finds it;
even so, the Self-Awareness is here within.
Probe for it within and find it.
885. Except the path of Self-inquiry, probing the mysterious I-sense,
no other effort or action, however strenuously pursued,
can take one to the fount of bliss,
the treasure shining in the heart,
forever as the Self-Awareness.
924. I shall assert with certainty,
that when the mind as thoughts has ceased to function,
it remains as a temple of Awareness-Bliss,
hidden till then behind the veil of time.
956. The goal, the Truth, is Self-Awareness.
Reaching it is the annihilation of the painful illusion of birth.
974. Unbroken Self-Awareness is the true bright path of devotion or love.
Knowledge of our inherent nature,
as indivisible supreme Bliss,
wells up as love.
984. The strong one who abides in Being,
knows neither fear or doubt.
1029. Bliss is the very nature of the Self-Awareness.
Self-Awareness is infinite Bliss.
Knowing this firmly,
abide in the Self-Awareness,
enjoying bliss forever.
1059. The Self, the home of blissful Awareness,
is a vast ocean of serene peace.
He whose mind turns inward and dives deep within it,
gains the infinite treasure of its grace.
1062. The ever-present Self-Awareness,
the radiant gem, this is the rarest, richest treasure.
Look within, and find and hold it fast.
Your poverty, the grand illusion, source of every trouble on earth,
will vanish without delay.
1069. The pure unflawed Awareness of Being
is the transcendent state wherein both mind and breath find bliss.
This state of supreme grace,
surcharged with peace,
serves also as the medicine which to the sick, restless mind
restores healthful peace.
1077. To those who dwell within the Heart,
loving the Self-Awareness,
bliss comes surging up, mounting ever higher,
as love, Self, grace, Awareness, peace and liberation.
Bliss is the real nature of the Self-Awareness.
1079. Only when the Self-Awareness is gained,
is permanent, perfect, blissful peace attained.
In this Self-sovereignty,
non-dual, heaven-like, all pervasive,
no desire and no fear can exist.
1091. Abiding as Self-Being,
living a life that is a steady unhindered flow of true love
welling up in the heart,
this is the bright, joyous Selfhood,
which ends forever the inveterate, false, deceitful ego.
1093. That Heart which truly knows the Self-Awareness,
is full of love whence supreme Bliss wells up forever.
There, desire and its shadow, sorrow, have no place.
Such a life, whose nature is pure,
flows serenely calm from Being.
1121. The river that has merged in the ocean,
will never lapse again into separateness.
No more will he who has reached his Being as Awareness,
forget the Self and be reborn.
1124. If once the primal knot is cut,
never again can one be bound,
for this is one's natural Being.
This is the divine state,
this is the supreme power,
this is the serene peace.
1209. When, the dense darkness of ignorance is gone,
the Heart's wide open firmament is filled with serene, clear, bright peace,
and an inner fount of love springs up,
which is true devotion,
the pure auspiciousness of Self-Awareness.
1222. That which alone abides and shines as pure Awareness,
perfect peace, is the eternal Self.
Egoless silence,
the supreme state of Being That,
this is the fullness of liberation.
906. The troubles that result from change,
can never touch the Self-Awareness,
as changes and flaws in earth, water, fire and air,
do not affect the element ether,
which pervades and transcends them all.

* * *

The following is a dialogue with Sri Ramana Maharshi from the book "Letters from Sri Ramanasramam" by Suri Nagamma

Q: Swami, it is good to love God, is it not? Then why not follow the path of love?
RM: Who said you couldn't follow it? You can do so.
But when you talk of love, there is duality, is there not? – the person who loves and the entity called God who is loved?
The individual is not separate from God.
Hence love means one has love towards one's own Self.
Q: That is why I am asking you whether God could be worshipped through the path of love.
RM: That is exactly what I have been saying.
Love itself is the actual form of God.
If by saying, 'I do not love this, I do not love that',
you reject all things,
that which remains is the real form of the Self.
That is pure bliss.
Call it pure bliss, God, Self, or what you will.
That is devotion, that is realization and that is everything.
If you thus reject everything, what remains is the Self alone.
That is real love.
One who knows the secret of that love
finds the world itself full of universal love.

The experience of not forgetting consciousness, alone,
is the state of devotion
which is the relationship of unfading real love,
because the real knowledge of Self,
which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself,
surges up as the nature of love.

Only if one knows the truth of love,
which is the real nature of Self,
will the strong entangled knot of life be untied.
Only if one attains the height of love will liberation be attained.

Such is the heart of all religions.
The experience of Self is only love,
which is seeing only love,
hearing only love,
feeling only love,
tasting only love
and smelling only love,
which is bliss.

The following is the preamble to the book 'Who am I' by Sri Ramana Maharshi

As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery,
as in the case of everyone there is observed supreme love for one's self,
and as happiness alone is the cause for love,
in order to gain that happiness which is one's nature
and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep
where there is no mind, one should know one's self.
For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry
of the form "Who am I?", is the principal means."

The following quotes are from "Sorupa Saram" *
* 16th centrury advaita text. See link above.

92. Question: Will not the ego-nature, beginning with desire, touch these liberated sages (jnanis)?

Answer: As they have attained total destruction of tendencies, it will not.
81. O mind!
Just as I once remained, assuming your form, now you have come and merged with me as my own form.
Is there anyone like you who values the virtue of gratitude?
Dwell henceforth in the loving care of the supreme state, without returning to your prior form.
76. Question: How to be rid of desires?

Answer: Through the desire for realization of the truth.

O desire!
Though I suffered much through you,
on account of your help I dwelt in the Self.
I reached the true teacher (Sadguru) through you.
In liberation I have, along with you, become the Self.
I swear to this.
12. The following are the names for the Self, given by the scriptures (Vedas):

Knowledge is 'I';
love is 'I';
perfect bliss is 'I';
being is 'I';
consciousness is 'I';
tranquility is 'I';
purity is 'I';
that which is unique and beyond the scope of the Vedas is 'I';
pure consciousness, the source of all, is 'I'.
13. Question: Are all these descriptions experienced?

Answer: They are experienced and also transcended.
60. Question: Why do they suffer instead of inquiring and realizing the Self?

Answer: They suffer because what they have known to be one, by studying, has not been experienced.
67. Question: Will not this experience come to everyone?

Answer: If one becomes inward-turned instead of being externalized, this experience will come for everyone.

I declare: 'If their minds are directed inward, attending to the light (the Self), and do not become outward-turned, all those upon this earth are capable of seeing the Self, just as I have seen my Self.'
26. Question: What is obtained and experienced if one sees the Self?

Answer: The mind dissolves in love and one becomes being-awareness-bliss.

As a reminder, read some or all of the quotes on this page every day.

There are two translations of the book "The Garland of Gurus Sayings" by Muruganar. The best translation for those who would like to be liberated in this lifetime is the translation by K. Swaminathan.

For information on where you can order Sri Ramana Maharshi books including books by Sri Muruganar, Sri Sadhu Om and Sri Annamalai Swami, go to one of these links:

1. http://thefreedomreligionpress.com

2. Author's page

 

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Michael Langford