Self-Realization And Existence – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on April 14, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on Self-Realization and Existence. Dialogues on action and Knowledge, karma, inquiry and egoless-ness, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Bhagavad Gita and in Tamil from chapter 15 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: Sometimes, my mind is cluttered with thoughts of this and that, being a body, stomach pains, etc. The inquiry should be on the Self or being absorbed in Consciousness.
Nome: What is the nature of one who knows that? Your Existence is not individualized, not particularized.
Questioner: I keep meditating on that and that I cannot be objective. The teaching is that I am already the Self.
Nome: The nature of the one who knows that is that. All of the clutter that you mentioned has its root in the individual ego.
Questioner: I have not found him. I keep looking.
Nome: The ego is a supposition about oneself. You may believe it, but it is not true. Inquire to know the nature of the one who believes it.
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/ Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/ SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:22 // Satsang Om
00:19:37 // Discourse Self-Realization And Existence
00:43:47 // Q1 The performer of action
00:52:07 // Q2 Inquiry for whom is the karma
01:00:18 // Q3 Not individualized
01:09:25 // Recitation Bhagavad Gita
01:16:33 // Final Meditation
01:18:25 // Recitation Song of Ribhu Chapter 15 Verse 1
01:29:45 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
The Brahman Self – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on March 9, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on Self-Knowledge and the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Dialogues on the Self being beyond thought, happiness, childlike, Self-inquiry, drops and the ocean and the undifferentiated, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Jivanmukta-Ananda-Lahari by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 28 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: On Friday, you mentioned not to use thought to inquire. During meditation, there are some thoughtless states, and, when I do japa, it gives more peace over the thoughts. When you say that we are Brahman, there is a struggle that it is on the level of thought, and there is no transcendent understanding.
Nome: What is spoken of as Brahman is the expansive Existence of the Self. To know that you exist, you do not require thought. To know yourself, you need not battle with thoughts; just withdraw the sense of identity wrongly associated with them. The content of thought does not represent a true definition of yourself. Whatever you think, it is not you. That which knows thought is itself not a thought. One thought does not know another, and thoughts are not self-luminous, but you are self-luminous. The number of thoughts may go up and down – does it change your Existence? The Existence is the Consciousness that knows them but is undefined by them.
Questioner: How do we continuously maintain that state?
Nome: Cease to regard it as a state and realize it as your nature. Thereby, the assumption of otherness vanishes. That leaves the Self alone. What is the nature of thought?
Questioner: It is transitory and ever-changing.
Nome: How do you know that thought occurs? Yes, it is changeful, and it is transitory; does it actually exist? The only experience of thought that you actually have is the knowing of it. What has an utterly dependent nature does not really exist, but it is only something else in disguise. Consciousness plus the notion of the objective comes out as thought. Make your vision nonobjective. Thank about it. (laughing) It is not wrong to think about it, but you are beyond that.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:37 // Satsang Om
00:19:29 // Discourse The Brahman Self
00:31:45 // Q1 Withdrawn the sense of identity from thought
00:39:05 // Q2 Trace the nature of yourself
00:45:24 // Q3 Origin of thought
00:50:56 // Q4 You can always be happy
00:53:14 // Q5 The search for happiness if the search for the Self
00:59:37 // Q6 Does reality come from thought?
01:04:15 // Recitation Jivanmukt-Ananda-Lahari
01:12:45 // Final Meditation
01:14:37 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 28 Verse 37
01:24:25 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
SAT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Existence and Knowledge – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth on Feb 25, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the Existence of the Self. Dialogues on correct attitude when inquiring, deep Knowledge, imagination, Knowledge of Existence, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Chandogya Upanishad and in Tamil from chapter 12 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: Namaste Swami. What should be my attitude when I inquire “Who am I?”
Nome: The attitude should be one of intensely desiring Self-Realization, which is liberation from all misidentification. The attitude should be one of wonder, discovering the nature of your Existence. Not wander, wonder (laughter). Your attitude should be one of determination, realizing the importance of Self-Knowledge. Your happiness depends on it, likewise your peace. Your attitude should be one of devotion to that which is supreme. Your attitude should be one of recognizing that this is something scared. It is not a secret, sacred. (laughter) All this amounts to turning the mind inward. An inward-turned mind loses its form, transcends its own ideas, and is quite joyful. Can we call blissful immortality an attitude?
Marker:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:15:57 // Satsang Om
00:17:20 // Discourse Existence and Knowledge
00:35:13 // Q1 Intense desire for Self-Realization
00:42:25 // Q2 Spiritual instruction that transcends words and thoughts
00:51:09 // Q3 Existence is perfectly full
00:56:01 // Q4 Know that which is uncreated
01:00:05 // Recitation Chandogya Upanishad
01:04:28 // Final Meditation
01:06:20 // Recitation Ribhu Chapter 12 Verse 24
01:22:21 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Imperceptible and Inconceivable – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on March 2, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the nonobjective knowledge of the Self. Dialogues on unbroken Self-inquiry, activities and thoughts contrasted with the Self, the eternal and infinite Self free from misidentification with the body, the Devi, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Advaita-Anubhuti by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 28 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: Self-inquiry is helping me to calm my mind. I’m endeavoring to do Self-inquiry in my day-to-day activities, but I want to make it more intense.
Nome: Inquire as much as you want to.
Questioner: It is not happening enough. I would like to cut down the gap in my inquiry. My inquiry is motivated by fear and insecurity. Can I make inquiry more frequent?
Nome: If you recognize that your happiness and your immortality depend on knowing yourself, and how else to know oneself except by inquiring, you will be drawn to do it intensely. Activities are for the body. Thoughts are for the mind. You are not the body, and you are not the mind, so, you have no activities, and no thought actually belongs to you. The happiness that you find by turning inward will make you turn inward even more. What is inward?
Questioner: Inward is what reminds me that I’m not the thoughts.
Nome: What is the nature of the one who wishes to inquire?
Questioner: Peace or Self.
Nome: That peace is innate. It is of the nature of the Self.
Questioner: I drift away.
Nome: What is the nature of the drifter?
Questioner: False imagination.
Nome: Can you actually drift away from the Self?
Questioner: No.
Nome: Keep your focus upon knowing the identity of the inquirer. The very nature of the inquirer is the inquiry. The nature of Knowledge is Being, Existence. When the mind moves, you know that it moves. You do not move. When the mind moves or drifts, where does it go?
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:15 // Satsang Om
00:19:45 // Discourse Imperceptible and Inconceivable
00:36:44 // Q1 Happiness and immortality depend on self-inquiry
00:44:48 // Q2 Self-Knowledge is not a thought process
00:48:53 // Q3 Eternal and infinite and not a body
00:55:26 // Q4 Only That
01:00:34 // Recitation Advaita-Anubhuti
01:07:19 // Final Meditation
01:09:11 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 28 Verse 25
01:18:39 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Fearless Existence – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on Feb 23, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the knowledge of Existence. Dialogues on freedom from misidentification and fear, knowledge of Existence, effort in spiritual practice, and nonduality and the Self, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Advaita-Anubhuti by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 28 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: Namaste Nome. I’m trying to understand what you are saying when you speak of Existence.
Nome: How do you understand that you are existing even now? You do not think it. You do not sense it, but you never doubt it.
Questioner: No. It seems mysterious to me. I try to get hold of it, but I cannot get hold of it.
Nome: How to get hold of something that you are? It seems mysterious, beyond conceptual understanding, but, plunging inward to know your own Existence, you find that it is self-evident and are no longer puzzled.
Questioner: You asked what are you certain of. I’m certain of what you are telling us is the truth.
Nome: When you know the Existence free of superimposed misidentification, the Knowledge of what the Existence is becomes as certain as the Knowledge that “it is” now. The Knowledge that you are not the body, for example, becomes as certain as, when in ignorance, one thinks “I am a body.” Indeed, it becomes more certain than that.
Questioner: It is not something to be thought of] but experienced.
Nome: Is Being something you do?
Questioner: It is something that I am, but when I think of what I am, it seems unreachable. I have to stop thinking.
Nome: The nature of your Existence is transcendent of thought. The Existence of the one who knows that thinking is occurring is itself beyond all thought.
Questioner: I’m trying to get to the known, which seems mysterious.
Nome: It cannot be an object known, but it can be known nonobjectively. Discriminate the knower and the known, and cease the superimposition of the known upon the knower. Negating all the known from the knower, what remains of the knower? Just Consciousness, which is the Existence. Existence and Consciousness are the same thing.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:15:23 // Satsang Om
00:22:04 // Discourse Fearless Existence
00:41:16 // Q1 How do you understand you exist
00:49:29 // Q2 Absolutely pure
00:54:10 // Q3 Eliminate the belief in duality
01:03:38 // Recitation Advaita-Anubhuti
01:09:43 // Final Meditation
01:11:35 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 28 Verse 13
01:21:23 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Egoless Happiness – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) April 21, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on freedom from the individual or ego. Dialogues on practice effort and Realization effortless, renunciation of worldly delusion, Self-inquiry, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Bhagavad Gita and in Tamil from chapter 16 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Nome’s Discourse: The Self is Brahman alone. It is not individualized or embodied. It is of the nature of undifferentiated Being-Consciousness-Bliss. In the realization of the Self, you do not become a realized being or individual. Rather, you are liberated from the individuality. Freedom from the individual, or ego notion, is natural. As bodiless Being, you do not have any of the characteristics of a body. You do not have birth, you do not have death, you do not have action, nor can you be described as inactive. The Self means your very Existence, which is changeless, timeless, nonobjective, forever unmodified, not formed, and not bound. If you think you have not realized the Self, what is the nature of the individual who assumes such? Are there two selves, one being Brahman and another being not-Brahman? The individuality, or ego-ness, is merely a false assumption, and it is the root of all kinds of ignorance. To be free of ignorance, inquire to know yourself. Without ignorance, without the assumption of individuality, or the ego, there is great joy. All of your spiritual efforts should be directed to the dissolution of the falsely assumed individual. All your efforts should be for Self-Knowledge. Thus, you not only become happy, but you find yourself to be the happiness. So, it cannot be lost, just as your Existence cannot be lost. The Consciousness which knows this, also, cannot be lost.
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/ SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/ Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/ SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:15:52 // Satsang Om
00:19:17 // Discourse Egoless Happiness
00:36:30 // Q1 In practice, there is effort
00:51:46 // Q2 Renunciation is abandonment of delusion
01:03:25 // Q3 Question “what is”
01:11:11 // Recitation Bhagavad Gita
01:18:16 // Final Meditation
01:20:08 // Recitation Song of Ribhu Chapter 15 Verse 18
01:31:20 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Knowledge of the Truth – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on Feb 09, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on knowledge of the Self. Dialogues on Knowledge and action, being transcendent of the intellect and of the ego, importance of Self-Realization, love and non-duality, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and
English of verses from the Advaita-Anubhuti by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 27 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Nome’s Discourse: Sat-Chit-Ananda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss, is your nature. It is eternal and changeless. It is bodiless. It is indivisible. It is without difference, and it knows itself. How do you know that you are? Not by bodily sensations and not by thought. You exist, and you know that you are. How do you know it? You do not stand apart from it to know it. Existence knows itself without a doubt. With the same certainty that you know that you exist, you should discern your true nature. If you cease to misidentify with the body or as an individual ego entity, Self-Knowledge will be self-evident. In Self-Knowledge, you realize your Existence. Indeed, the Existence is the Realization. In Self-Knowledge, Consciousness itself is the knower, and it alone is what is known. If you know yourself free of all misidentification, just the Self as it is, the perfect fullness of bliss, is yours, and it is as changeless as you are. What is changeless? No object is so. Discern, inquire, know yourself with a knowledge that is nonobjective. You are not a thing. Being-Consciousness-Bliss, the eternal and the infinite, is not an object, it is not removed from yourself, and you, yourself, are not removed from it. Duality is a mere illusion born of imagination. Cease to imagine, cease to misidentify, then what is there? The Self is eternal. What is birth and death for you? The Self is without location. What does here and there mean to you? The Self is timeless. What is now and then for you? The Self is I-less and without “this.” Where is there differentiation, or parts, for you? You are immutable, and ineffable, untouched by any concept of the mind. Where is thought for you? Regarding the Self as only the Self and not another, where is ignorance, where is suffering, and where is bondage? You are illimitable. What boundary can there be for you? You are the Self, only the Self, and always the Self. Where is there a second, an ego, for you? Know for certain that you are the Self and only the Self.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:14:59 // Satsang Om
00:17:46 // Discourse Knowledge of the Truth
00:40:08 // Q1 Nothing intellectual about Self-Inquiry
00:47:01 // Q2 How important is Self-Realization for you?
00:51:52 // Q3 Knowledge is what is essential
00:59:36 // Q4 Not two
01:06:44 // Recitation Advaita-Anubhuti
01:12:32 // Final Meditation
01:14:24 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 27 Verse 31
01:27:22 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Existence is Knowledge – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on Jan 19, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the Knowledge of the Existence-Consciousness of the Self. Dialogues on Self-Knowledge beyond thought and activity, use of the unreal, the soul and God’s Knowledge of God, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Advaita-Anubhuti by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 26 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote: Questioner: When the mind is externalized, I find that my happiness is covered. In meditation, I have to negate everything, what I am not. Later, I start the same cycle with an externalized mind. I’m trying to apply the teaching of having nonobjective vision.
Nome: An internal oriented mind is really no mind at all. An externalized mind is one that believes in its own ideas. Who knows the mind? What is his nature? Inquiring in this way is an internal mind.
Questioner: I conjure up the ideas.
Nome: Which ideas?
Questioner: The ideas are random.
Nome: The ideas are not random. They are determined by what you regard as your identity. Some assumption is made and thereafter follows thought. You cannot be an object, so, you cannot be the body and such. The ideas are determined by what you regard as reality, identity, and happiness. If there is no confusion regarding such, what ideas would plague you?
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:40 // Satsang Om
00:18:49 // Discourse Existence is Knowledge
00:39:26 // Q1 The Self is Knowledge
00:48:24 // Q2 Reality is partless
00:54:33 // Q3 Inward mind is no mind at all
01:04:19 // Q4 Free of the upsetting
01:15:59 // Recitation Advaita-Anubhuti
01:22:09 // Final Meditation
01:24:00 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 26 Verse 23
01:43:13 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
Not an Action – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on Jan 26, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the nature of Self-Knowledge. Dialogues on surrender and inquiry, who surrenders and who knows, sharp inquiry taught by the Upanishads, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Advaita-Anubhuti by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 27 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote: Questioner: I’ve been doing physical therapies, and, during it, I’ve developed a habit of surrendering. I’ve taken this attitude when coming here and attempting surrender. When I’m doing inquiry, there is a doing, and I’m missing something when I’m inquiring. What am I missing in inquiry and surrender, and how are they related?
Nome: The substance of inquiry is Knowledge. Knowledge is not an activity. Activities are performed with the body, speech, and mind. The Knowledge, that is, the inquiry to know the Self, is not any of those kinds of activities. When you say “you do inquiry” what are you actually doing?
Questioner: I ask, “Who am I?” Then I’m looking at the witness.
Nome: Yes, we sum up the introspective inquiry by the words “Who am I?” We do not do anything with that. It is a matter of Knowledge, of knowing your Existence as it is. It is discerning what you identify yourself with and finding out if it is true, and if not, what are you. Surrender is always to God. What is God?
Questioner: The Self.
Nome: If you surrender to God, there remains no separate identity. The very same is the inquiry – it leaves no ego identity. Looking at this deeply, when you surrender, in devotion, what are you doing? When you surrender, what changes the orientation in Knowledge.
Questioner: I do not know.
Nome: You disappear. God remains. The Self remains. That is; the Self and God are not different.
Questioner: Finding the Self is automatic without any doing?
Nome: It happens automatically when it is of your own nature. Surrender is automatic. Inquiry is automatic, that is, there is no doing involved, but there is Knowledge, not thoughts, Knowledge. The Knowledge, which is the essence, is the real spiritual practice. Otherwise, there is no elimination of the concepts of “me” and “mine”. If “me” and “mine” are abandoned, that is fruitful. Only then can it be said you surrendered because the “I” dissolves, leaving no trace of that notion. Only when you abide in that thought-transcendent Knowledge can it be said that you are actually inquiring.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:15:53 // Satsang Om
00:21:17 // Discourse Not an Action
00:36:31 // Q1 Knowledge is not an activity
00:46:26 // Q2 Not changeless and imperishable
00:57:13 // Q3 Sink into the target
01:06:31 // Recitation Advaita-Anubhuti
01:12:31 // Final Meditation
01:14:23 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 27 Verse 1
01:26:44 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/ SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/ Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/ SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
The Natural State – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on Jan 5, 2025. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the realization of the Existence of the Self. Dialogues on spiritual practice, difficulties, sphurana of the Self, conviction and Self-Knowledge, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Anatma-Sri-Vigarhana-Prakaranam by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 26 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: It is wonderful to hear this teaching that Knowledge is one’s natural state; Happiness is one natural state. When I think of practice, I’m trying to strive as a bound individual which seems to strengthen the individual. I want to experience this teaching.
Nome: If you appear to be bound, then you need to free yourself, but are you bound? What is natural is innate. There is no rule that you must practice in an ignorant context. Practice is for discerning what is innate. Any kind of spiritual practice is helpful, is beneficial, but if it is done in the context of a bound individual it is not effective.
Questioner: What prevents the understanding of the is teaching? If it is innate, but once activity gets in the way, the true understanding is veiled.
Nome: If you did not misidentify yourself as the performer of action, would the activity bind you?
Questioner: No, but because I feel that I am the performer of action, and I try to do it in the right way, so there is conflict.
Nome: If you approach this in such a way that the ego notion, the separate individuality, dissolves then that is the right way. There is nothing really binding your Existence. Existence is itself Consciousness. Where is the difficulty? Is there difficult to know, is it difficult to exist?
Questioner: To abide.
Nome: And such abidance is Knowledge. For whom is the difficulty? Not for the Self. The difficulty appears to be for the individual, but what is the nature of the individual? An unreal thing cannot have real results. The ego cannot practice – it cannot know.
Questioner: You said on Friday, who is to understand, the knower himself is the Knowledge. The truth is there and must be felt and understood. The ego cannot do it.
Nome: It is the Self within you that comprehends. Inquire. Inquire to realize the Self, to know it as it is, which is not objective knowledge. Inquire until the last drop of illusion, of delusion, is gone. You do not act. You do not think. You do not wake or dream. You do not sleep. You do not go in or out. You do not have birth or death. The Self alone knows the Self. Brahman alone knows Brahman. You imagine yourself to be bound, but all the while you are free. Sri Bhagavan says that, There will come a day when you will laugh at your efforts, and then he also said, That which is on the day of laughter is now also. You think that there is something binding your reality, but it is not so. There is nothing binding your reality.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:38 // Satsang Om
00:21:14 // Discourse The Natural State
00:38:57 // Q1 What is natural is innate
00:53:44 // Q2 Does Existence have a form?
00:59:01 // Q3 Absorption into your real nature
01:06:55 // Recitation Anatma-Sri-Vigarhana-Prakaranam
01:13:18 // Final Meditation
01:15:09 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 26 Verse 1
01:32:55 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
The Body Never, the Self Ever – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth on Dec 8, 2024, Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the Self and the body and the ego. Dialogues on Devi and Self-inquiry, the body and the Self, destruction of the ego, direct experience of Self-inquiry, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Nirvana-Manjari by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 25 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: A devotee asked Bhagavan how to destroy the ego. Bhagavan said find out who you are and find the ego. He gave the example of the police and thief, and when the police came in, the thief disappeared. Another approach is to surrender to Bhagavan. I hope I can do that.
Nome: Of course you are able. The search for your identity to determine that, inwardly, is all important. If we want to destroy the ego, first we must find out if there is an ego. How is one to destroy that which is unreal? The very discrimination that recognizes that it is unreal is sufficient. The focus of inquiry is upon your actual identity, what the nature of your Existence is. If you search for what it is, it will run away like the thief. How does it run away? Where does it go? If you surrender to Bhagavan, that means you retain no separate individuality, which is remarkably similar to finding that there is no individual. Without giving needless thought to whether you can or not, inquire. Whatever the idea may be that crosses the mind, for whom is it? For whom is the assumption, that supposition, of becoming an ego? If you ask in this manner, it will run away.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:28 // Satsang Om
00:23:21 // Discourse The Body Never, the Self Ever
00:44:50 // Q1 No scope for other-ness
00:54:25 // Q2 The change-less is peace
01:00:39 // Q3 Recognizing the unreal
01:10:18 // Q4 Existence is neither difficult or easy
01:19:42 // Recitation Nirvana-Manjari
01:29:34 // Final Meditation
01:31:26 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 25 Verse 1
01:46:46 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
The Peace of Self-Knowledge – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth on Dec 22, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the Existence of the Self. Dialogues on sphurana of the Self, breath control, freedom from difficulty, the place of Self-inquiry, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Anatma-Sri-Vigarhana-Prakaranam by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 25 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: I wonder how one cannot know oneself. There is confusion when one assumes there is birth. There is an appreciation of hearing the teaching about Existence, but it seems that only the words of the Guru can help one realize it.
Nome: Who does not realize what?
Questioner: There is a sense of an individualized being.
Nome: What constitutes the individualized being.
Questioner: That it exists and is aware, but it is limited by the body, mind, and suffering, so, I must be free of the bondage.
Nome: Bondage is only ignorance, and ignorance is only misidentification. Again, who misidentifies? Are there two selves? one being the Self and one that does not know the self? Your Existence is only one and ever indivisible. If you misidentify with the body, you are limited by it. If you misidentify with the mind, likewise, you are limited by it, but freeing yourself wisely, ceasing to misidentify, what limitation is there? Without a body, you have no birth or death.
Questioner: Then why is it so difficult to dispel the ignorance? If the unreal is seen, it should be dispelled because it is unreal.
Nome: Where does the idea of difficulty come in? Are you experiencing difficulty in existing right now?
Questioner: The unreal still persists.
Nome: Inquire and discern what the real nature of the jiva or individual is. Again, who finds it difficult? Are there two of you or a multiplicity?
Questioner: No, it is the assumed ego.
Nome: We can say the idea of difficulty and the idea of an individualized self are the same thing. So, the ego creates the difficulty for itself. The Self has nothing to do with any of that. Can you really take a step outside the Self?
Questioner: No. It was explained before that nothing is but the Self, and even thought is Consciousness.
Nome: For that which is formless, that is Consciousness, there can be no multiplicity.
Questioner: The peace seems to be right there, but it is not experienced.
Nome: What is it that you do not experience? Do you ever experience nonexistence?
Questioner: I exist, and I know that I exist.
Nome: Where Existence is, there is Consciousness, and there is bliss. For Consciousness, there is no non-knowing.
Questioner: When there is misidentification, that peace is lost. When there is no misidentification, then one remains as the Self.
Nome: That is so, but for whom is the experience of being lost? To know yourself as you truly are is to find the happiness and peace that have never been missing. There is no difficulty with that which is natural. What is natural is what is innate. What is innate neither comes nor goes. Whether one thinks it is natural or not, you have to inquire; you must know yourself. So, if you think it is difficult, do it anyway, but really there is no difficulty in knowing the Self.
Questioner: After listening to you, inquiry will take place. Thank you.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:42 // Satsang Om
00:21:00 // Discourse The Peace of Self-Knowledge
00:47:24 // Q1 The Self shining forth
00:53:36 // Q2 Who does not realize what?
01:06:48 // Q3 What is it that is aware?
01:11:40 // Recitation Anatma-Sri-Vigarhana-Prakaranam
01:18:01 // Final Meditation
01:19:53 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 25 Verse 19
01:35:04 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
The Knower – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) on December 1, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the nature of the Self. Dialogues on control of the mind, the thinker and attention, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Nondual Pentad of Gems (Advaita-panca-ratnam) by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 24 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: The Knowledge of the Self cannot be gained by thought, but control of thought is advised, and there are meditations to control thought. There was an explanation during the retreat about controlling prana.
Nome: Yes, but it is not permanent. Ceasing the misidentification with thought is permanent.
Questioner: There are thousands of thoughts that are so distracting. Does not thought have to be silent to inquire?
Nome: The knower of the thought is already silent. Abide in the Knowledge that alone is what you are, and thought can never describe you. What does not define you, does not confine you. There are, you say, thousands of thoughts. Of what are they made? What composes the thought?
Questioner: All that which is experienced and the impressions of the experience composes thought.
Nome: That tells you the forms of the thoughts; what is the substance of them? Of what is thought made? Do you ever experience a thought without the Consciousness that knows it?
Questioner: No.
Nome: Yet, Consciousness cannot be a thought, and it is never modified. So, thought is not true regarding yourself, and thought, itself, does not exist. Thought appears to have a dependent existence, but that which is entirely dependent on something else to be, does not exist.
Questioner: Without Consciousness, there is no substance to thought, but it appears to have a form?
Nome: For whom does it appear to have a form? Are you a thinker?
Questioner: It appears that I am a thinker, but it is a vague notion of a thinker.
Nome: The idea that “I am a thinker” is only just another thought. It is not you.
Questioner: All problems are centered around the idea that I am a thinker.
Nome: Without the thinker, and the thought, the “I” and the “mind”, where is bondage? Where is suffering? Happiness and peace are revealed as your own nature, not something to be attained, but something innate. Peace and happiness are of the ever-existent. No thought is ever-existent.
Questioner: So, the ceasing of misidentification with thought is the only way.
Nome: Yes, this is the direct way. Just clear up the question of your identity, what you consider yourself to be and what you truly are. That discrimination becomes wisdom, Self-Knowledge, and then no further control of the mind is needed, nor would it be possible.
Questioner: Thank you.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:16:01 // Satsang Om
00:20:23 // Discourse The Knower
00:42:41 // Q1 Prana vs Self-inquiry
00:53:30 // Q2 If you are a thinker, you would always be a thinker
01:02:33 // Recitation Advaita-panca-ratnam
01:07:15 // Final Meditation
01:09:06 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 24 Verse 17
01:23:27 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
What Do You Think You Are – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT Temple) Nov 24, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the mind and thought. Dialogues on the mind, freedom from thought, and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Contemplation on Brahman (Brahmanucintanam) by Adi Sankaracarya and in Tamil from chapter 24 of the Song of Ribhu.
Quote:
Questioner: You said anything is just a thought and that the object portion should be negated. Can you clarify what you mean when you say, “Do not misidentify with any thought”? I was seeing that all my actions are dictated by what I take myself to be. I am not clear on how to do it.
Nome: What is the lack of clarity? Is there a thought that is you? Or consider the personality a group of thoughts; who knows them? If you are not something that is conceived in thought, what are you?
Questioner: I have taken my thoughts to be real, my personality.
Nome: But are they? Are they you? Which thought is you? You are always the knower and never the known. Thought is not a knower; it is merely the known.
Questioner: I give importance to thought, and then I forget the knower.
Nome: Thoughts are not important; they are not real, and they are not you. The primal “I thought,” or ego, is the least important, and it is the most unreal, and it is not at all you.
Questioner: You say, “Do not misidentify with any thought.” I must meditate, “I am not the thoughts.”
Nome: Yes, that is right. Sever the misidentification. If you sever the misidentification, where is bondage?
Questioner: The misidentification is when I take the thought to be real. I must discriminate and know the knower.
Nome: Yes, that is antarmukha dristi, inward turned introspection of the mind. A mind that ceases to believe in its imaginings reveals itself as the very nature of Brahman. Does Brahman have a personality? Brahman is, indeed, what you are alone.
Questioner: The belief in the thoughts that make the world seem real should be questioned by asking, “For whom is it?” to eliminate the false belief.
Nome: “For whom?” indicates the direction, which is nonobjective. The world is entirely unreal. What is real is just Existence, unformed, uncreated, and unborn. Ribhu has emphasized the unreality of the world in numerous chapters in the Ribhu Gita. Why do you think that he places so much emphasis on it?
Questioner: That seems to be the cause of the entanglement, and I become the center of the world.
Nome: Without “this” and without “I,” where is the entanglement?
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:15:33 // Satsang Om
00:18:02 // Discourse What Do You Think You Are
00:40:37 // Q1 What do you think you are?
00:49:15 // Q2 The bare assumption
00:51:18 // Q3 Is there a mind?
00:57:05 // Q4 Is a thought you?
01:11:40 // Recitation Srih Brahmanucintanam
01:17:19 // Final Meditation
01:19:11 // Ribhu Recitation Chapter 24 Verse 1
01:32:06 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/
No Difference – Satsang
Recorded at Society of Abidance in Truth on May 19, 2024. Initial silence followed by spiritual instruction on the nature of the egoless Self. Dialogues on Nirguna puja, bodiless Being, transcendence of the “I,” and other spiritual topics. Concludes with a recitation in Sanskrit and English of verses from the Bhagavad Gita and in Tamil from chapter 16 of the Song of Ribhu
Quote:
Questioner: I was reading Nirguna Manasa Puja yesterday, and this stotra discusses worship without attributes. Bhagavan says “By whatever means, by whatever name and form, one worships that which is without name and form”. As stated today, there is no “I” or “this,” so the highest form of worship has to be of that nature. What is worship and how to worship?
Nome: To be “I”-less is to worship. With apparent name and form, one worships that which is nameless and formless. To be without the concepts of “I” and “this” is proper worship. Worship of the attributeless one – what is the attributeless? Only Brahman. You are attributeless. Thus, in your real nature, there are no differences. Abidance as blissful Being is worship. Dissolution of the ego is worship. In Self-Knowledge, there are no such differences of the object worshiped or a separate worshiper. The worship goes on forever.
Markers:
00:00:00 // Puja in the Mandiram
00:15:54 // Satsang Om
00:20:36 // Discourse No Difference
00:40:30 // Q1 Being “I-less” is to worship
00:49:20 // Q2 None of the perceptible and conceivable is you or yours
00:56:14 // Recitation Bhagavad Gita
01:01:47 // Final Meditation
01:03:39 // Recitation Song of Ribhu Chapter 16 Verse 18
01:14:48 // Puja in the Satsang Hall
Weblinks:
SAT Ramana website: https://satramana.org/ SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/ Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/ SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
SAT Bookstore: https://satramana.org/store/
Events at SAT Temple: https://satramana.org/web/temple-calendar/
SAT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SATTemple
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sat_ramana/