Ramana
Secret of the Code Breaker
The great mystery of Ramana is himself—he cracks the code of all scripture without saying a single word. How is this even possible? His eyes glowed with an ethereal light, tremendous energy coursed through his body, and everyone felt tremendous peace in his presence. The potent depth of his teaching has transformed countless lives around the world and continues to transform lives drawing our attention to the immortal presence and teaching of this now world-famous sage. He is known as the illuminator of the gateway of eternal salvation and we are drawn to him like a moth is drawn to a flame—there is something irresistibly beautiful about Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. The many reports of his eternal presence kindle an inexplicable love for this mysterious master and his beloved mountain Sri Arunachala Siva—the formless presence of God. Sadly, as news of this great sage spread over many decades the profound depth of his teachings has been systematically highjacked by western culture, watered down, and distorted reducing this profound master to the poster child of instant enlightenment—a lie that has spread around the world like wild fire. The only way to heal this scorched earth is to intimately ask ourselves: Who is Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi? And perhaps more importantly, what did he teach?
The harsh reality is the beautiful face of Sr Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, captured in the hundreds of black and white photographs of a bygone era, is now dust—his face no longer exists. He left his body on April 14, 1950 the very instant a comet famously streaked across the sky over his beloved master Sri Arunachala Siva—the sacred mountain who Ramana not only described as his master, but also as the lineage, mantra, and teaching—there is no human chain of succession with Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. As strange as it might seem, the truth is, even though Ramana died decades ago, he is not dead the way we think of dead—he mysteriously is still very much alive and is known to appear to serious seekers whose only desire is true and final liberation. This is not idle speculation. It is based on the direct experience of his unexpected and shocking appearance at Sri Ramana Ashram in December of 2010 and again in January of 2011 at a nearby hotel. His appearance was an intense transmission of his eternal presence and teaching that cut through the many lies that had been presented as truth for years. It was the catalyst for the direct permanent realization of Sunyata—the living emptiness of the cosmos beyond all ideas of emptiness and cosmos—paragate—paragate—bodhi swaha. It was a death of everything known and the beginning of the ever-deepening realization of his true teaching that lives in the unknown and unknowable presence of the living immortal God—love beyond all ideas of love.
The mystical appearance of Ramana was the catalyst for a radical shift in conscious often described in Buddhism as the coming of the clear awareness. It was through the acute clarity of this realization that it became crystal clear who Ramana is, what his teaching actually represents, and more importantly what you need to do to initiate what can be the arduous process of self-realization and ultimately—moksha—the permanent end to all forms of your suffering. It is important to understand that his teaching is not some sort of self-help or new age empowerment training. This teaching is not going to polish your ego transforming you into a newer better more supernatural you. It is also not about chasing after bliss states that invariably vanish into thin air when old patterns of suffering reassert themselves over you. The singular purpose of his teaching is moksha—liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering—the annihilation of all the false ideas of you that reveals the immortal truth of you.
“Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real nature. If we can attain that state and abide in it that is all right. But one cannot reach it without effort, the effort of deliberate meditation. All the age-old vasanas (unconscious latent tendencies) turns the mind outward to external objects. All such thoughts must be given up and the mind turned inwards and that, for most people, requires effort. Of course, every teacher and every book tell the aspirant to keep quiet, but it is not easy to do so. That is why all this effort is necessary. ”
The teaching of Ramana is known as the mountain path of liberation and the embodiment of Sanatana Dharma—the ancient dharma comprised of the law, essence, and nature—the eternal natural way that transcends time and space. The eternal presence of Ramana illuminates this direct path of liberation—an ancient marga (path) that is infinitely deep and overflowing with the wisdom and joy that only comes from the source or Godhead—known simply as the Self—a vast indescribable intelligent presence. His yogic teaching and eternal presence purify your mind and jiva (soul), or the electromagnetic field of energy that animates your physical body, until the karmic cycle of birth and death that has transpired over eons is finally over. It is the permanent end to all forms of your suffering. This means the yogic practices he recommended removes or purifies all of your karmic debt, your egoic knot is cut, and you are released from the karmic wheel by the indescribable love of God—the vast unseen intelligent presence of the entire universe.
As strange as it might seem, you actually don’t release yourself from the karmic wheel—you are released by an unseen intelligence only when you have been purified in the fire of grace generated by the yogic practices recommended by Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. This release permanently ends all forms of suffering. It results in an extremely high state of consciousness known as Nirvana, Sunyata, Turiyatita, or the perpetual bliss that lives within and all around the form of every human being. This is the stateless bliss—the pure conscious bliss (sat-chit-ananda) that never comes and never goes—it is unending. It is the final end of eons of suffering. Once you realize that Moksha is the permanent end of all of your suffering the natural question arises; what exactly do you need to do in order to initiate the evolutionary process of moksha?
The first step in initiating this process is to see through the pervasive lie initiated by HWL Poonja (Papaji) or his strict emphasis on the idea that moksha is instant and effortless. This is an extremely potent lie based on the absolute truth, but it does not address the relative truth of your ongoing suffering nor does it represent Ramana’s teaching. It is an extremely misleading mental construct that often leads to nihilistic thinking and even atheism, which supports little or no progress. It is a naïve perspective that serves to propagate the idea that perpetual bliss is a goal to be reached or a state to be attained or worse—the total delusion that you don’t need to do anything because you are already free in the core of your being. This corrupt perspective is actually a relative truth cloaked in the absolute truth, which only serves to keep you trapped in endless loops of reflective consciousness chasing after bliss states that come and go—or worse this false teaching seduces you into thinking you are already free when the reality is you are trapped in an invisible prison of karmic debt eons in the making.
This extremely shallow perspective tends to generate bliss states that inflates egoic identity, but ultimately does nothing to address the underlying unconscious karmic tendencies that has kept you pinned to the karmic wheel for eons. In other words, moksha is earned through an evolutionary purification process—it is not a going out to get or a movement to attain a state of consciousness that changes nor is it the simplistic thought that you are already free in the absolute sense. The teaching of Ramana is a deep introspection of your conscious awareness turned inward to the source of your awareness in your heart. This inward focus ignites the purifying fire of the electromagnetic field of your soul or jiva. This a sacred fire cannot be avoided. It is the burning of unconscious layers upon layers of reflective consciousness that is essential for purifying the karmic debt incurred in countless incarnations that hide your immortal nature and keeps you enslaved to your body-mind-ego experience—the suffering that you have endured for centuries.
Ramana totally debunks the exceedingly misleading teaching of Papaji with the following statement, “Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real nature. If we can attain that state and abide in it that is all right. But one cannot reach it without effort, the effort of deliberate meditation. All the age-old vasanas (unconscious latent tendencies) turns the mind outward to external objects. All such thoughts must be given up and the mind turned inwards and that, for most people, requires effort. Of course, every teacher and every book tell the aspirant to keep quiet, but it is not easy to do so. That is why all this effort is necessary. So effortless and choiceless awareness is only attained after deliberate meditation. That meditation can take whatever form appeals to you. See what helps you keep out all other thoughts and adopt that for your meditation.” [1]
The great burning fire of grace ignited by the yogic practices that Ramana recommended is simply not something that you can bypass or skip—all your karmic tendencies, most of which are unknown to you, must be completely burned in the fire of grace ignited by these ancient yogic practices. It is actually a deep yogic teaching and advanced ancient science. This means you must actually apply and integrate these practices into your life as a daily routine that eventually transforms into an unstructured continuous practice. It is the continuous use of yoga that transforms you from within burning away all unconscious and conscious tendencies until all that remains is the sublime peace of the Self—the eternal bliss of Turiya and beyond.
It is also important to note that Ramana often referenced the eight branches of yoga known as Ashtanga Yoga, which is a completely integrated ancient yogic teaching and science based on an essential ethical code of conduct known as Yamas and Niyamas. This ancient code of ethics as well as the associated yogic practices have been rejected by the majority of western teachers due to their delusional belief that this yoga is dualistic and superfluous. In most cases, this means that there is no guiding code of conduct for western teachers nor is there any teaching regarding the yogic practices and science that supports real progress for their students. It has left these teachers very much at the effect of egoic identity as well as the deeply engrained genetic impulses known as tamasic and rajasic tendencies. The horrifying consequence of ignoring the essential code of conduct outlined in Ashtanga Yoga has led to severe physical, psychological, sexual, and financial abuse of their students.
Yamas means to constrain or control like reigns control and direct the power of a horse. For any serious teacher this code of conduct must be strictly adhered to otherwise the ego will be seduced by the power the role of teacher represents. This is not an idle or shallow perspective. It is based on the direct experience of a western student of Papaji who rejected the yogic teachings of Ramana while at the same time claiming to transmit his teachings. She did not adhere to any ethical code of conduct and blatantly lied over and over again and abused her power on more than one occasion. In ancient times this would never have been tolerated. Strict adherence to the code of non-violence, truthfulness (not lying), not stealing, chastity (sexual constraint), and non-possessiveness was required before a student could be initiated into even the most basic yogic teachings. If a student or teacher did not adhere to this very strict code of ethics the master or spiritual leader would reject this student or teacher entirely.
Nimyas is the other aspect of this moral code that actually had to be practiced and adhered to by prospective students before they could be initiated. Tapas, austere practice, self-discipline, and meditation was required as well as the radical acceptance of others and your circumstances exactly as they are. Faith in, and the deep belief in God, and devotional worship were also essential for the aspiring student. The study of the Vedas and Upanishads were required reading as well as mandatory listening to scripture read out loud by the master. The combination of Yamas and Niyamas was a potent foundation meant to guard against the misuse of the teaching or megalomania and the abuse of power that can result. This code of conduct and practice provides the essential foundation for students to develop the necessary humility, compassion, discipline, perseverance, endurance, patience, and deep surrender to the divine required for moksha.
The integration of the yogic instructions outlined by Gnapti Muni in the Ramana Gita provide you with the advanced yogic practices required for moksha. It is important to understand that Ramana Maharshi emphasized that these yogic practices as various forms of vichara or the yogic practice of self-inquiry essential for igniting the shakti energy of the Self that alone has the power to remove all conscious and unconscious karmic tendencies.
In this context, it must be understood that Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi through the ancient alchemy of vichara became the human embodiment of Siva—the formless presence of God. He is eternal. The power of his presence, his life, and teaching direct your attention to the living eternal truth in your heart.
Ultimately, the deep desire for liberation, the unequivocal surrender to the divine, combined with the willingness to apply the yogic practices, ignites the sacred blaze essential for moksha.
This is the great secret of the code-breaker—the eternal presence and sacred blaze of the Self cracks the code and sets you free from eons of suffering.
It is the power of Ramana’s Grace that sets you free from the karmic wheel in accordance with your surrender to the divine.
Who is Ramana? The indescribable power of the Self!
What did he teach? The essential yoga of Moksha!
Tat Sat
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[1] The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words by Arthur Osborne page 64.
