Swami Ramakrishnananda's Blog

Karma Yoga

In order to escape suffering, we search for distraction through amusement, parties, and jubilee. Pursuing entertainment, we go to the radio, newspapers, television, as well as to spirituality. With this erroneous attitude, we approach different spiritual masters, learn from their books, workshops, and lectures. Nevertheless, to move along on the paths of the soul merely in search of amusement will be a sheer waste of time. Seriousness is essential in order to explore, investigate, and inquire. I mean that seriousness with which we reflect on our lives after attending a funeral or facing complicated situations. With this kind of seriousness, I invite you to explore the path of karma-yoga.

The search for reality and truth through self inquiry

self-inquiry-search-vicharana - Ramana Maharishi

Don’t think too much about the answer, the answer is something which is dead. When you have the answer the quest is finished. The question is alive and the question would lead you, but not to an answer… An answer is only an escape from reality and truth; it’s not the direction to realize something. A spiritual question does not search for an answer but a presence. When you ask the Guru what is life and you don’t search for some words as an answer, but you’re sensitive enough to perceive the presence with your question then that presence is your real answer. The answer is you. Your presence now and here in this moment, the presence of your reality is the real answer…

What is a prayer?

Prayer is not about words, it is not a communication and not a way to make contact. These are not prayer.
A prayer is a state of being. You can express it through words, you can say every morning that you thank God, but is this a prayer? If so, then every parrot can pray…
What kind of state of being is it? Christians thank God before they eat; Jews thank God for returning their soul after the night’s sleep, what do they do? They say thank you. This is the highest form of prayer. Why is it the highest level of prayer to say thank you and the lowest to ask for things?

Abandon Your World of Ideas and Enter Reality – Bhagavad-Gita 18:66

We are not operating with the real; we are functioning with a map we have fabricated about reality, a map that marks out a territory, but this territory is not the map. And—this map has been fabricated from ideas, from information, thoughts, conclusions, and all that we have acquired through our senses. We operate with the map to the extent that for each one of us, his own map and his own plan, is the territory itself. We confuse the map with reality.

About the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya”

A mantra is a door towards reality; it is a mystic phenomenon capable of unifying the consciousness and invoking that which the mantra refers to. It is an instrument that stimulates interiorization, a vibration capable of opening us to the Whole and a vehicle towards Totality.

Bhagavad-gita 2.58 – Pay Attention To The Observer

Bhagavad-gita 2.58: Pratyahara - Introspection of the senses

The rays of our attention are searching like a bee. The senses are nothing more than an extension of our mind…The eyes see through the mind…and the mind is searching for happiness while it is moving as a bee from one flower to the other, from one object to the other…

Love and Attachment are similar, and yet very different…

Love and Attachment are similar, yet very different. Most people completely confuse attachment with love and consider the two the same. Attachment makes us insensitive to others and…

Desire

Desire controls and moves human beings as if they were puppets. Desire is the motivation that lies behind every action, the power and energy that causes all movement. Desire incites men to make the most incredible efforts. However, few stop to observe and analyze this force…

Yama Niyama

These sacred vows help us cultivate befitting attributes to create the foundation or the appropriate situation for the Transcendental to manifest within us. This preparation consists in the adoption of a system of moral and ethical principles that governs all aspects of life for those who take refuge in the sanatana-dharma.

Raja Yoga – The Yoga of Meditation

Generally speaking, raja-yoga is considered the yoga of meditation. However, dhyana is the essence of all types of yoga, as well as of religion, and not the exclusive property of just one of the many branches of Sanatana-dharma. Without meditation, true and authentic spirituality cannot exist.

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The Blog of H.H Avadhuta Sri Ramakrishnananda Babaji Maharaj