Ramana Maharishi

Even though the reality of the Self has been explained in many ways, the truth of it remains unspoken because it can only be known by directly experiencing it. Those who seek liberation are prevented from having this direct experience by their minds which hold onto the deeply-rooted conviction 'I am the body / mind'.

Silence (mowna diksha) changes the hearts of all.

Questioner: How to find the Atman [Self]?

Ramana Maharshi: There is no investigation into the Atman. The investigation can only be into the non-self. Elimination of the non-self is alone possible. The Self being always self evident will shine forth of itself.

~ from 'Talk 78'; 29th September, 1935

" It is true Wisdom

For the 'mind' to turn away

From outer objects and behold

Its own effulgent form.

When unceasingly the 'mind'

Scans its own form

There is nothing of the kind.

'Thoughts' alone make up the 'mind'.

What is called 'mind' is but the notion 'I'.

When one turns within and searches

Whence this 'I'-thought arises,

The shamed 'I' vanishes --

And, Wisdom's quest begins.

Where this 'I'-notion faded

Now there as "I"-"I" arises

The ONE, the very SELF,

The Infinite. "

--- SRI BHAGAVAN in UPADESA SARAM ,VERSES 16 TO 20.

Dazzling Mystical Lights and the Astral Plane

This is the whole philosophy of karma. It is a very simple fact of life: whatsoever we sow we reap. And of course if you sow a single seed, you will reap thousands of seeds.

Existence is not miserly, it gives abundantly, but it can give only when you have given already -- it multiplies that which you give, so everything basically depends on you. If you want bliss, shower bliss on everyone, on everything. If you want love, love.

If you want anything, wanting is not going to help -- do it, materialize it, and soon you will be surprised: whatsoever you have given always comes back to you, multiplied a thousandfold, not less than that…..

Every moment, you are creating yourself; either a grace will arise in your being or a disgrace: this is the law of karma…..

“ One who loves is loved by the whole existence. Existence only echoes us from all directions, from all dimensions. If we sing a beautiful song the song comes back to us a thousand fold more beautiful, it showers back on us.

Whatsoever we give is given back. People are miserable for the simple reason that they are giving misery to others, they are giving pain to others.

This is the whole philosophy of karma. It is a very simple fact of life: whatsoever we sow we reap. And of course if you sow a single seed, you will reap thousands of seeds. Existence is not miserly, it gives abundantly, but it can give only when you have given already -- it multiplies that which you give, so everything basically depends on you.

If you want bliss, shower bliss on everyone, on everything. If you want love, love. If you want anything, wanting is not going to help -- do it, materialise it, and soon you will be surprised: whatsoever you have given always comes back to you, multiplied a thousandfold, not less than that.

And everybody is in need of love. It is impossible to find a person who is not in need of love. But we don't love, we only want to be loved -- and that is not possible.

Everybody wants to be loved and nobody loves; hence there is so much conflict, so much destructiveness, violence.

The same energy can bring great benediction, but it only creates hell.

Let this be the foundation for your sannyas: whatsoever you want, give and you will not remain empty.

You will be fulfilled, immensely fulfilled; beyond your imagination, beyond your dreams you will be fulfilled.

“OSHO Darshan Diary - The Imprisoned Splendour , Chapter # 17 , Date - 17 June 1980 , Venue - Chuang Tzu Auditorium, Rajneesh Ashram, Pune, India

“ Question : WHAT IS THE LAW OF KARMA ?

OSHO answers :

“ It is not in fact a law, because there is nobody behind it as a lawgiver. On the contrary, it is intrinsic to existence itself. It is the very nature of life: whatsoever you sow, you reap. But it is complex, it is not so simple, it is not so obvious.

To make it more clear, try to understand it in a psychological way, because the modern mind can understand only if something is explained in a psychological way.

In the past, when the law of karma was talked about – when Buddha talked about it and Mahavira talked about it – they had used physiological, physical analogies.

Man has gone far away from that, man has moved far away from that. Now man lives more in the psychological, so this will be helpful.

Every crime against one’s own nature, every one, without exception, records itself in our unconscious – what the Buddhists call alayavigyan, the storehouse of consciousness – each crime.

And what is a crime? It is not because the court of Manu says it is a crime, because that court is no more relevant; not because the Ten Commandments say it is a crime, that too is no more relevant; not because a certain government says it is a crime, because that goes on changing.

Something is a crime in Russia and the same thing is not a crime in America. Something is a crime according to the Hindu tradition and the same thing is not a crime according to the Mohammedan tradition. Then what is crime? There has to be a universal definition for it.

My definition is: that which goes against your nature, that which goes against your self, your being, is a crime. And how to know that crime? Whenever you commit that crime it records in your unconsciousness.

It records in a certain way: it records and starts giving you a feeling of guilt.

You start feeling yourself despised by yourself, you start feeling yourself unworthy, you start feeling yourself not as you should be.

Something inside you becomes hard, something closes inside you. You are no more as flowing as you have been before.

Something has become solid, frozen; that hurts, brings pain, and brings a feeling of unworthiness.

Karen Horney has a good word to describe this unconscious perceiving and remembering. She says “It registers”. I liked it… it registers.

Everything that you do registers itself automatically. If you have been loving, it registers that you are loving; it gives you a feeling of worth.

If you have been hateful, angry, destructive, dishonest, it registers and gives you a feeling of unworthiness, a feeling of being something below human, a feeling of inferiority.

And whenever you feel unworthy you feel cut off from the flow of life.

How can you flow with people when you are hiding something? Flow is possible only when you expose yourself, when you are available, totally available.

If you have been cheating your woman and seeing another woman, you cannot be with your woman totally. It is impossible, because it registers: deep in your unconscious you know that you have been dishonest, deep in your unconscious you know that you have betrayed, deep in your unconscious you know that you have to hide it, that you are not to reveal it.

If you have something to hide, if you have something to keep secret from your beloved, there will be distance – the bigger the secret, the bigger the distance will be.

If there are too many secrets then you are completely closed. You cannot relax with this woman, and you cannot allow this woman to relax with you because your tenseness creates tenseness in her, her tenseness makes you even more tense, and it goes on creating a vicious circle.

Yes, it registers in our books, in our beings. Remember, there are no books which God is keeping: that was an old way of saying the same thing. Your being is the book!

Whatsoever you are and whatsoever you do is constantly being registered. Not that there is somebody writing it; it is a natural phenomenon.

If you have been lying it is registered that you are lying, and now you have to protect those lies, and to protect one lie you will have to tell one thousand lies, and again to protect those one thousand lies you will have to go on and on and on. You become, by and by, a chronic liar.

Truth becomes impossible for you, because to tell one truth will be dangerous now.

See how things go together: if you tell one lie then many lies are invited – the same attracts the same – and now truth is unwelcome, because the darkness of the lies will not like the light of truth. So even when your lies are not in any danger of being exposed you will not be able to speak truth.

If you speak one truth, many other truths are invited – the like attracts the like.

If you are naturally truthful it is very difficult to lie, even once, because all that truth protects you. And this is a natural phenomenon.

There is no God keeping a book. You are the book. You are the God, your being is the book.

Abraham Maslow says, “If we do something we are ashamed of, it registers to our discredit. And if we do something good, it registers to our credit.” You can watch it, you can observe it.

The law of karma is not some philosophy, some abstraction. It is simply a theory which explains something true inside your being.

The net result: either we respect ourselves, or we despise and feel contemptible, worthless and unlovable.

Every moment, you are creating yourself; either a grace will arise in your being or a disgrace: this is the law of karma. Nobody can avoid it. Nobody should try to cheat on karma, because that is not possible.

Watch… and once you understand it things start changing. Once you know the inevitability of it you will be a totally different person.

“OSHO From The Wisdom of the Sands , V.1 , Chapter Two

Sometimes, during meditation, you will get very powerful and dazzling lights, bigger than the sun. They are white in color. In the beginning, they come and disappear quickly. Later on, they are steady and they become fixed for ten to fifteen minutes according to the strength and degree of concentration. For those who concentrate at the Trikuti, the light appears in the forehead; while for others who concentrate at the Sahasra Chakra, the light manifests itself at the top of the head. The light is so powerful and dazzling sometimes that you have to withdraw yourself from looking at it and break the meditation.

Some people are afraid and do not know what to do and how to proceed further. They come to me for instructions. I tell them that this is a new sensation, which they have not hitherto experienced. By constant practice, the mind engaged in concentration will be used to it and the fear will vanish. I ask them to go on with the practice. Some people concentrate at the heart, some at Trikuti, and some at Sahasra Chakra. It is a question of personal taste. It is easy to control the mind by concentrating at the Trikuti. If you are used to fix at the Trikuti, stick to it always. Do not make frequent changes. Steadiness is very necessary.The beings and objects with whom you are in touch with during the early period of meditation belong to the astral world. They are similar to human beings minus a physical overcoat. They have desires, cravings, love, hatred, etc., just as human beings have. They have a fine body. They can move about freely. They have powers of materialization, dematerialization, multiplying and clairvoyant vision of an inferior order. The lustrous forms are higher Devatas and encourage you. Various Shaktis manifest themselves in lustrous forms. Do mental puja as soon as they give you darshana. Angels are beings of mental or higher planes. They also appear before your mind’s eye.Sometimes, you will feel an invisible help, possibly from your Ishta Devata when you are actually pushed from the physical body into the new plane. That invisible power assists in your separating from the body and going above body consciousness. You will have to mark carefully all these operations.

Do not waste your time in looking at these visions. This is only a curiosity. These are all encouragements to convince you of the existence of super-physical, metaphysical realities and the solid existence of Brahman. Drive away these pictures. Fix your mind on the Lakshya, the goal. Advance. Proceed seriously and energetically with your meditation.

As soon as you retire for sleep, these lights manifest themselves without any exertion on your part. Just when you are going to transcend the physical consciousness, just when you are getting drowsy, these lights appear without your effort. In the morning, before you get up, in the transitional stage of half sleep, half waking, you will get again these lights by themselves without any attempt.

Sometimes during meditation, you will see an infinite, blue sky, ethereal space. You will see yourself in the blue space as a black dot. Sometimes your form will appear in the center of the light. Sometimes you will notice highly vibratory, rotating particles in the light. You will see physical forms, human beings, children, males, females, Rishis with beards, Siddhas and lustrous Tejomaya forms also. Visions are either subjective or objective, your own mental reactions or of realities on finer planes of matter. Universe consists of planes of matter of various grades of density. Rhythmical vibrations of Tanmatras in various degrees, give rise to the formation of various planes. Each plane has its beings and things. The visions may be of these things or beings, or they may be purely imaginary. They may be crystallization of your own intense thinking. You must discriminate in Yogic practice. Reason and common sense must be used all throughout.