From Ramana Maharshi
What is happiness? Happiness is the very nature of the Self; happiness and the Self are not different. There is no happiness in any object in the world. We imagine through our ignorance that we derive happiness from objects. When the mind goes out, it experiences misery. In truth, when its desires are fulfilled, it returns to its own place and enjoys the happiness that is the Self.
From Sri Ramakrishna
“The world consists of illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains knowledge and devotion, and also attachment to ‘woman and gold’; righteousness and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do righteousness and unrighteousness, but Brahman is not at all affected by them.
One man may read the Bhagavad Gita by the light of the lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtous.”
Simple Life
The simpler the life you have—all things being equal—the less opportunity for telling lies. It’s not that masters don’t have the capacity to lie, it’s that they understand humans have a proclivity to do so, and the more complex life you live, the more opportunities you have to tell a lie.
That’s why masters stress the importance of living as simple a life you can, as best you can, under the circumstances of your environment.
On the Passing of Time
You can make observations about, have small talk, and even discuss how fast time goes.
But internally, don’t wrap yourself around the passing time too much because it will go fast no matter what. Whether you speak of it, or not, it will go fast. And if you think about it too much, then that’s the time you could have spent doing something else.
If time went ‘slower’, we’d also obsess how slow it goes.
Time will pass how time will pass. Just as there is order and elegance everywhere else throughout God consciousness, so too does time, and our perception of it, also have order.
And don’t wish it away. Don’t wish for tomorrow to be here, or 5 days from now to be here, because tomorrow and 5 days will arrive whether you wish for it or not.
Time will pass how time will pass.
Quote from Ramana Maharshi
“To investigate the past and the future without considering yourself, you who abide perpetually in the present moment as the peerless ‘now’, is this not like counting without the number one?”
Different paths
One time I stood in the middle of a circle, and the Hindu master appeared next to me.
In the middle of this circle, we spoke of God. Light pulsated from the master and travelled in all directions. I noticed paths branching out from the circle. One path went this way, the other that way, and another, went uphill and through a forest. I asked the Hindu master, “what happens if I take this path? Will I be able to find my way back to this circle?”
“This circle is our home. If you don’t forget the reminders, then you’ll never lose your way.”
And so, I took the path. It meandered its way up a dirt trail, and through the forest. The adventures I came upon, and the observations I made.
But then, the path ended. It went nowhere. At the end of it was just thick brush and fallen trees. The path had taken me as far as it could. I turned around and pondered, all that, for that. It all seemed so pointless.
I had forgot that the Hindu master had been with me the whole time, silently walking behind me. His voice echoed through the still forest.
“But it wasn’t pointless. It wasn’t a waste of time. Look at the adventures and observations you came upon. And all the while, you remained fully aware of God consciousness, thus it was not a waste of time.”