The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words
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*The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words– 086 *
_Mental invocation is better than oral _
Devotee: When I invoke the Divine Name for an hour or more I fall into a state like sleep. On waking up I recollect that my invocation has been interrupted, so I try again.
Bhagavan: ‘Like sleep’, that is right. It is the natural state. Because you now identify yourself with the ego, you look upon the natural state as something which interrupts your work. So you must have the experience repeated until you realise that it is your natural state. You will then find that the invocation is extraneous, but still it will go on automatically. Your present doubt is due to false identification of yourself with the mind that makes the invocation. Invocation really means ‘clinging to one thought to the exclusion of all others’. That is the purpose of it. It leads to absorption which ends in Self-realisation or Jnana.
D: How should I practise invocation?
B: One should not use the name of God mechanically and superficially without a feeling of devotion. When one uses the name of God one should call on Him with yearning and unreservedly surrender oneself to Him. Only after such surrender is the name of God constantly with you.
D: Isn’t mental invocation better than oral?
B: Oral incantation consists of sounds. The sounds arise from thoughts, for one must think before one expresses one’s thoughts in words. The thoughts form the mind. Therefore mental invocation is better than oral.
D: Shouldn’t we contemplate the invocation and repeat it orally also?
B: When the invocation becomes mental, where is the need for sound? On becoming mental, it becomes contemplation. Meditation, contemplation and mental invocation are the same. When thoughts cease to be promiscuous and one thought persists to the exclusion of all others, it is said to be contemplation. The object of invocation or meditation is to exclude varied thoughts and confine oneself to one thought. Then that thought too vanishes into its source, which is pure Consciousness or the Self. The mind first engages in invocation and then sinks into its own source.
This is certain: worship, incantations and meditation are performed respectively with the body, the voice and the mind and in this they are of ascending order of value. One can regard this eight-fold universe as a manifestation of God; and whatever worship is performed in it is excellent as worship of God.
The repetition aloud of His name is better than praise. Better still is its faint murmur. But the best is repetition with the mind – and that is meditation, above referred to.
Better than such broken thoughts (meditation) is its steady and continuous flow like the flow of oil or of a perennial stream.
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Edited by: Arthur Osborne
www.saisaranamyatra.com
*The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words– 086 *
_Mental invocation is better than oral _
Devotee: When I invoke the Divine Name for an hour or more I fall into a state like sleep. On waking up I recollect that my invocation has been interrupted, so I try again.
Bhagavan: ‘Like sleep’, that is right. It is the natural state. Because you now identify yourself with the ego, you look upon the natural state as something which interrupts your work. So you must have the experience repeated until you realise that it is your natural state. You will then find that the invocation is extraneous, but still it will go on automatically. Your present doubt is due to false identification of yourself with the mind that makes the invocation. Invocation really means ‘clinging to one thought to the exclusion of all others’. That is the purpose of it. It leads to absorption which ends in Self-realisation or Jnana.
D: How should I practise invocation?
B: One should not use the name of God mechanically and superficially without a feeling of devotion. When one uses the name of God one should call on Him with yearning and unreservedly surrender oneself to Him. Only after such surrender is the name of God constantly with you.
D: Isn’t mental invocation better than oral?
B: Oral incantation consists of sounds. The sounds arise from thoughts, for one must think before one expresses one’s thoughts in words. The thoughts form the mind. Therefore mental invocation is better than oral.
D: Shouldn’t we contemplate the invocation and repeat it orally also?
B: When the invocation becomes mental, where is the need for sound? On becoming mental, it becomes contemplation. Meditation, contemplation and mental invocation are the same. When thoughts cease to be promiscuous and one thought persists to the exclusion of all others, it is said to be contemplation. The object of invocation or meditation is to exclude varied thoughts and confine oneself to one thought. Then that thought too vanishes into its source, which is pure Consciousness or the Self. The mind first engages in invocation and then sinks into its own source.
This is certain: worship, incantations and meditation are performed respectively with the body, the voice and the mind and in this they are of ascending order of value. One can regard this eight-fold universe as a manifestation of God; and whatever worship is performed in it is excellent as worship of God.
The repetition aloud of His name is better than praise. Better still is its faint murmur. But the best is repetition with the mind – and that is meditation, above referred to.
Better than such broken thoughts (meditation) is its steady and continuous flow like the flow of oil or of a perennial stream.
thanks from sai saranam shirdi tours
to
Edited by: Arthur Osborne
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