In memory of my plumber

In memory of my plumber

~~~~

the silence exploded, in silence,
drowning my plumber in it's gush
my tear glands torn beyond repair
jettisoning me forever into the now
the chain of my weights snapped
day and night a black and white frame
hung upside down somewhere, a ray of
fresh breath took me away in its sway,
a drama in a piece of paper floated
away into the ray waking me up into my
last dream which said I am the dream.

~ ~~~

About this poem:
silence, the launching pad inward.

The ' SELF ' as my ' I '

The  ' SELF '   as my   ' I '

Light at its subtle most level is consciousness or awareness which forms the substratum for the beginning less endless cosmos. The creation starting from this base is a projection or a vision of matter extending from zero density to the grossest manifestation outward.

The all embracing awareness which is truth, power, light, consciousness, god and the ocean of compassion is knowledge which can take any form it chooses, create and destroy anything it wants as per the code of conduct that has given meaning to it.

It can create matter with form and name and remain as its axis, the centre of gravity or the force which commands its movements and actions based on the principles of truth.

Man looks upon his body as his identity because of ignorance. The body is inert matter which does not have its own source of power. Its centre of gravity or the inner force which is the Self that controls it’s every action fills this body with its subtle energy like the hand in a glove. It finds a way to merge the misplaced identity called the mind with itself and thus makes the ignorance disappear and shines itself as the master of its creation.

So far so good and whatever has been penned above was necessitated to draw the attention of the seeker to the universal life force which abides as the Self in every individual as his original identity and to give him a hint that mind is only a collection of thoughts and an imagined entity which disappears when searched for.

The thoughts circumvent the ‘I’ thought like in a whirlpool where the ‘I’ thought forms the centre of gravity which sucks in the multitude of circumventing thoughts and make them disappear into its vortex.

Bhagavan very clearly says “concentrate and hold on to the ‘I’ thought and watch the mind becoming silent.” One gets his first vision of the blissful inner silence. By untiring
Practice one starts acquiring enough strength to remain constantly in silence for longer stretches of silence and finally abide in silence without outward disturbances.

Thus Self Enquiry helps one focus inward towards silence and the Self which opens up the gateway to one’s inner voyage to meaning, permanence and the Heart.


The Self is one’s guru or master, the ocean of compassion which comes to the seeker of truth naturally to help him retrieve his original identity. Its divine ways are mysterious. It is said that the guru or master comes half the way to meet his disciple who goes out to seek him in his hours of doubt.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

THE SINGING MIND

A lyricist wanted to write a song and tune it in a very catchy way. So he went and sat under a tree and started humming tunes in his mind. He remembered his last song and the tune he has given it. He wanted to listen to that song and closed his eyes and mouth and started listening to his tune. The tune flowed down beautifully in his mind in a better way than he could have sung it by way of singing it loud. He was so proud of it that tears rolled down his cheeks. At that moment his friend wandered into his presence and saw him crying. So he asked “My dear friend why are you crying?” The lyricist then said “I was overjoyed while singing one of the tunes I composed. It was so beautiful.” Hearing this friend said “Hey, but I didn’t hear you singing at all?” So the lyricist said “The singing was going on in my mind”.

Here the lyricist listened to his song and he heard it extremely well and was overjoyed.
If we put the question “How could he hear a song which was never sung by his mouth?”
And who heard it? For his ears to hear it the singing has to be loud. So his body has not heard it. That’s certain. So there was certainly another entity with his body which could hear the song in the tune and understand it too.

The lyricist said “‘I’ was listening to the tune “. The ‘I’ was listening to the tune collected by the ‘Ears’, the sense in the body for hearing sound. It can only gather the sound of the tune. The enjoying person was the ‘I’.

The five sensory organs in human body are Ears, Eyes, Nose, tongue and the Skin for hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching respectively. The mind collects the data brought in by these five agents in the body. The four inner subtle instruments are mind, intellect, ego and memory. The mind is of the nature of indecision, decision is the nature of intellect, ego is the notion of “I am the body” and memory is the storage of data collected. Generally these four subtle parts together is known as ‘mind’ only.

The mind keeps collecting data continuously according to its inherent tendencies. This process keeps running untiringly. One finds it difficult to stop this process at one’s will initially. The data is in the form of thoughts and the wrong notion of ‘I’ finds itself harassed by this continuous activity of the mind and becomes restless resulting in loss of peace and quititude.

'Bhagavan' says that it is at this point that one has to become aware of what is going on. Many come across a dead end here not knowing how to quell the mind. Because the active mind starts telling upon the gross body leading to various psychosomatic illnesses like anxiety, depression ,fear loss of appetite, hopelessness and many other diseases.
He comes to the rescue of the suffering individual and leads him by hand and shows him how to get rid of the disturbing mind and arrive at peace and life’s goal.

Let us now listen to his instructions on holding on to one’s ‘I’ thought to begin with 'self enquiry'.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

About this poem:
Self Enquiry is the answer for all problems one may face. It leads one to meaning, purpose and goal.

VALUE -- Breaking down the word

VALUE -- Breaking down the word

Value is a quality of life, a living standard observed by one at the height of discrimination which is a product of knowledge obtained naturally as a result of one’s earnest seeking of his true identity. Only a primary inward search can help one establish in his true identity. The word Value will shine to its full meaning in one at this point of retrieval of one’s lost true identity.

Mere jugglery of words cannot take one to the reality. It will take one back to square one in his efforts to discover the truth.

The Heart beckons one always and waits patiently like a mother trying to wake up her child early in the morning. It is the Heart that is leading us by hand to dive inward into our own being as a first step towards finding our original identity which in reality is the Heart only. But for this information to register in one experience of the heart is necessary.  But  how? Experience blossoms fully in three stages.

My Master said “The easiest way to reach the other side of the mountain is to go through this cave”. Hearing  these  words, giving it a serious consideration and intently focusing the mind on the execution of the instruction form the three stages of experience. In short, you can say Hearing, Reflecting and contemplating on a subject give one real experience. It is worth quoting the famous words ‘I am that I am’ at this point. Having experience means becoming the experience or identifying with the experience by knowing its truth.

Be as it may we have to back track here to pick up the thread of investigation into the source of the ‘I‘ thought as it is only the entrance to our journey inward.

So here we are forced to engage the reverse gear……………….

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

a beeline to the heart

a beeline to the heart

like a swarm of bees, in a world full of swirling pieces
of my fragmented mind, my queen in person, licensed to kill
preferred herself to be my only footwoman,  all my footmen
dispensed with by her mighty sword, mercilessly, for
the means justified the end, to lead me to her dwelling place
my ‘heart’, my one and the only  queen  !  i  call  her my "I"

********

About this poem :
the core of my existence is my "I" thought which leads me to my heart.

a vibe for you

"Destiny, fantasy's child with wings of colors
wove a Wonderland named existence with it's magic,
a hologram in one piece from begining till end
if held in proper perception by eyes that pierce,
a vision that fades into timeless nothingness,
the vibes of beginingless endless compassion pure
which blew a breath of it's awareness into a mass
of organisms multiplying into humanity, the pawns
in a crazy play for the celestial delight, with
a silent code of conduct that guides the play and
send them back into oblivion at the celestial dusk"

Hey wait ! Where did these words rise from ? Me ? A microcosm ?
as illusionary as the “king's gown” ? Who am I ? and how come me ?

I found these words, simple as they come
at a stretch, at the bottom of my heart,
as echoing truth from a joyous dancing vibe.


PS – 'fantasy' is 'maya' (maya in Sanskrit means 'illusion')
which set in motion 'destiny'.

A THOUGHT TO QUELL A THOUGHT

Sree Ramana Maharshi was resting on a rock after a walk on the mountain path. He was in deep contemplation  as always, one with the Cosmos and  it’s creator. His face shown in a hallow of divine light, composed in absolute tranquility and peace,  the ocean of compassion he was and  is  still  today, remained  seated on a rock.

Suddenly a jettison of flies emerged from a tiny hole by the side of the rock  spreading themselves into the space as a piece  of black cloud and moving around. A vast number of flies filled the atmosphere for some time and then  the entire flies suddenly made a beeline into the tiny whole from where they came and vanished in a jiffy. One could not but wonder how such a large number of flies  from a tiny whole appeared and disappeared in such a short span of time.

 Bhagavan, as Sri Ramana Maharshi  is known and addressed by one and all, cited this incident and compared the tiny hole to the ‘ I ‘  thought  and the large number of flies to the innumerable thoughts circumventing it. He said if you hold on and concentrate on the ‘ I ‘ thought, that is, one’s feeling of  ‘ I ‘  when one thinks or says ‘ I ‘, a keen observation, an inward  attention, will show you that  all the  thoughts  move around the  event horizon, the spherical boundary surrounding  the ‘ I ‘  thought  within which there is a strong gravity which  sucks in all the thoughts to its core. Because the thoughts are experienced by the ‘ I ‘ feeling which emerges from  the self  within and  stays as one’s identity.

The ‘ I ‘ thought  is only  the  smell  of honey   for  the  bear  and it has to keenly follow this smell with the single aim of  discovering its  ‘ source’ or  ‘ origin ‘. At this juncture some  may want  to  enter the  think  tank, naturally, but beware, don’t hibernate there. It's action in inaction that we want  inside the think tank.

A VOYAGE INWARD

A look at the sky in the night  makes us  wonder in awe as we behold the beginingless endless space  around us. We  drill a  hole  into the earth till its  other end  and we see space and stars on the other side. So where does my being fit in  in this grand picture ? we feel humbled  by our size and our limited intelligence. But then the intelligence is not limited.

We all liked the TV serial ‘ Startrek ‘  and the space ship named ‘ Enterprise ‘.Let  us  imagine we are into a similar quest for meaning. And here we goooooo.

It is general knowledge that  the  integration of  the five  natural  elements  viz; space, air, fire, water and earth  leads to formation of the human  body. Let it be any human body from any faith or religion or group. The body disintegrates later naturally at old age and  merges  back  into the five elements. So in between birth and death of the body it is exposed to many good and bad situations as per the whims and   fancies   of   a  Mind  associated with it. Before that when we examine the constitution of the mind it can be experienced by  all  that  mind is the nature of consciousness in general. Again the Mind can be divided into   four   parts  when  we go to the root of it.  viz; indecision, decision,  the feeling of  ‘ I ’,   and the Memory.

Sree Ramana  Maharshi says that the Mind does not exist. Because when we search for it  it vanishes and becomes one with the ‘ I ‘.  In general  when we search for the mind the ‘I ‘ in us rises and says the mind has brought you to me . It no longer exists, it has now become ‘ I ‘. ‘ I ‘ am the self. By what means this search  for the ‘ I ‘  is made ?  He says let your mind search for the feeling of  ‘ I ‘. For this we have to  draw our attention inward and search keenly with the mind where from this feeling of  ‘ I ‘ rises within us. This requires practice in the beginning since we may be sidelined  by various miscellaneous thoughts rising from within and taking us away from the main pursuit. Sree Ramana  comes here to our rescue by saying that  at this juncture hold on dearly to this ‘ I ‘ thought  since it is the core of all the thoughts.  The  ‘I ‘ thought being the core central powerful thought from where all other thoughts rise, holding on to this ‘ I ‘  thought makes all other sundry thoughts dissolve into the vast vortex of the  ‘I ‘  thought till the ‘ I  ‘ thought becomes the only shining thought and you identify with that. At this point you will  see the ‘ I ‘ thought alone vibrating  in absolute silence in the absence of all other thoughts. This is the beginning of an end  for all of us when meaning of life starts unfolding at the various stages of our pursuit for identity.

Unless and until we come to absolute clarity to the nature of our true identity  our identity keeps changing from one to another  as  is forced upon us by our fragmented mind at it’s whims and fancies and we remain in ever changing  newer  identities .

Here we are able to understand the  nature  of  the  body  and  the  mind  in  a nutshell. There is ample scope for going further deep down  into  the origin of the elements and the source from where creation started naturally. But at this stage it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  into  it  as our curiosity has its ways of taking us there at the appropriate time and if necessary.

The Bee in our Bonnet is still lingering and takes us back to square one. That is, the thought  “ where do the ‘ I ‘  reside  in me ?  or rather ‘ Who am ‘I’ ?  The mind  is understood to be in the form of consciousness and the source of  this curiosity originates from there. Then is the mind the so called ‘ I ‘ ? It is the mind asking this question. Hence naturally the mind cannot be the ‘ I ‘. If that is so  it won’t be putting forth this question at all. It will know itself and will be silent. Need a man or woman   say always  ‘I am a man’ or  ‘I  am a woman’   because he or she  is a  human  being ?  The ‘ I ‘ has no doubt as to its existence and  it  shines as it is. But the mind  has  the doubt  and the question.

So let us make use of the mind to search  for the  ‘ I ‘ thought. The path for this is a direct one bypassing all the other hitherto followed procedures   religious, spiritual and or  philosophical  ones. And it is hence called the Direct path by the  Maharshi.

Hence no wonder it is a very unique secular subject embracing and over riding all philosophical pursuits hitherto made in search of  identity. It is beyond religion, color, creed  and  society  and embraces the citizen of the universe, leave alone our own humanity.

The Govt. of India  found  the practice of ‘ Self  Enquiry ‘ as advocated by  Sree Ramana Maharshi  as a most fitting secular method   for practice by our contemporary society taking into consideration the   innumerable religions, faiths, languages, spiritual pursuits etc; prevalent in  our Indian society. Be it for the layman or the ruler it takes one into an inner journey to peace, meaning and goal of life.The Govt. has made the subject ‘ Self Enquiry ‘ and has approved and recommended  it as a Human Resources Development  concept. A postal stamp was also released by the Govt. to mark this occasion a few years back. Also the Govt of India conducted an International Seminar  on the subject in Bangalore  and the Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning, Bangalore was entrusted with the organizing of the whole  event.

Sree Ramana calls  for the development of  inwardness  in us, first of  all. Looking into us. Or how to focus one’s attention inward ?

what's the exact position of our Milky way Galaxy in the Space ?

Can u guess ? no ? so we can't fix it anywhere in the vast space..we can fix all our concepts nicely compartmentalised in our mind ..
But my  'mind' cannot be given any fixed  location  in  'me'....leave alone the  ' ME ' or  the  ' I '....
' I 'cant locate it's exact position...
' I '  is  with me but ' I ' dont know where to locate the ' I ' in me...
Then ' I " think ' I ' am my body..but then who says ' I ' ? the sound coming out of my mouth.. ' I ' think so..
But is it not the air from the lungs and the vocal chords and the tounge and the lips together working  to produce the sound ' I ' ?
And why should they work together at all to produce the sound ' I '  ?
Well..we always let our  curiosity trail off at  this point of our  question...and go for a cup of coffee or tea and buiscuits..
So the question still remains unanswered...
WHO AM ' I '  ?