Blogs Posts on "Natural State"

Japa of ‘I am’ as an aid to self-attentiveness by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Oct 29, 2009After I wrote my previous article, ‘Holy indifference’ and the love to be self-attentive, a series of interesting comments have been posted on it discussing the use of japa (repetition) as an aid to the practice of self-attentiveness. In the most...

Thinking, free will and self-attentiveness by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Aug 16, 2009The following is a reply that I recently wrote to a friend:Regarding your final sentence, ‘We are only given the thoughts that we are allowed to have, and we can only act from the thoughts we are given’, who gives us the thoughts that we are allo...

‘Just sitting’ (shikantaza) and ‘choiceless awareness’ by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 11, 2009A friend recently wrote to me as follows:I have been reading chapter 9 (Self-Investigation) of your book Happiness and the Art of Being.What you describe regarding the practice of atma-vichara as advocated by Ramana Maharishi, I interpret as being ve...

Staying with ‘I am’ by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 1, 2009A friend recently wrote to me asking:The path is so subtle ... how to understand this? Ramana Maharshi mentions concentrating on the right side of the chest. Is this for the merest novice? If one takes this path, will one have to unlearn that “anc...

Sadhanai Saram – The Essence of Spiritual Practice (sadhana) by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 27, 2009As I had intimated in several of my recent articles, today I have uploaded the following four new e-books to the Books section of my website:An e-book copy of the English translation by Sri Sadhu Om and Michael James of Sri Arunachala Stuti Panchakam...

Upadesa Tanippakkal – an explanatory paraphrase by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 26, 2009In continuation of my previous six articles, which were explanatory paraphrases of Upadesa Undiyar, Ulladu Narpadu, Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham, Ekatma Panchakam, Appala Pattu and Anma-Viddai (Atma-Vidya), the following is the last of seven extracts fr...

Ekatma Panchakam – an explanatory paraphrase by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 22, 2009In continuation of my previous three articles, Upadesa Undiyar – an explanatory paraphrase, Ulladu Narpadu – an explanatory paraphrase and Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham – an explanatory paraphrase, the following is the fourth of seven extracts from...

Ulladu Narpadu – an explanatory paraphrase by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 14, 2009

Upadesa Undiyar – an explanatory paraphrase by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 8, 2009As I mentioned in my previous article, Sri Arunachala Stuti Panchakam – an overview, I am currently preparing to upload four new e-books to the Books section of my website, namely Sri Arunachala Stuti Panchakam, Sri Ramanopadesa Noonmalai, Part Two...

Why to write about self? by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Apr 17, 2009A question that I am asked quite frequently is why I take so much trouble to write about the nature of self and the means by which we can know ourself as we really are, when all that we really need to do is just to be vigilantly self-attentive. For e...