Ramana Maharshi's Upadesa Sara - Day 2 update

Sadhana Sangama Day 2 program on Ramana Maharshi's Upadesa Sara at New Delhi (Malai Mandir) started with Guruji's guided Meditation. Below is a brief synopsis of 2nd day's program.

Guruji at the start of Day2 Program

Ramana’s language is direct, he does not believe in indirect way of understanding the reality. Ramana’s language is like a telegraphic language, it is direct, similar to our Gurudev Swami Rama’s language. There would be no ambiguity. Their languages are coded and when we start chewing them, the coded language starts releasing signals after signals.
 

Guruji then recited the first sloka of Ramana Maharshi's Upadesa Sara:

Karthru ajnayaa prapyathe phalam
Karma Kim Param Karma Tad jadam

Karthru ajnayaa – Everything happens at the command of the Karthuh, i.e. at the will of the doer.  If everything is happening at the command of the Karthru, then as a Sadhaka what is our responsibility? So friends what is our responsibility as a Sadhaka if everything is at the command of the karthru? Our responsibility is to find out who is this Karthru.
 

A person who has known his true Karthru, starts sharing everything he has. If we don’t realize our Karthru, our life contracts. We are interested in storing, possessing, keeping our possession in secret chambers, that’s why all our experiences are stale experiences. That’s the reason there are no joy in all our experiences.
 

Guruji says, Anything that is known is not tasty. Anything which is unknown is always tasty. Spiritual experience never repeats. Material experiences are called as "pleasure" as it keeps repeating whereas Spiritual experiences are called as "bliss" because it never repeats. We are always in pursuit of pleasure and not the bliss. To experience bliss, it is important to know the true Karthru.
 

We go through this material experiences in the form of various pleasures and we start craving for that experience again and again. As the pursuit continues, a monster keep developing inside. It is very difficult to satisfy this growing pleasure and it has become our habit. So Ramana, a great spiritual master, an innovative scientist, not guided by any written literature, simply asking us to find out the karthru who is behind all these.
 

Guruji is asking us to use this as a formula, without questioning. He is asking us to find out the true Karthru. We are only seeing the actions and getting identified with the actions. However we are not seeing the real Karthru who is behind these actions.
 

We have so much noise inside that we are not able to sit in silence. We don’t have that rejoicing resort in us and we go in search of such resort outside. Guruji says there is nothing needed from outside for this self-enquiry.
 

Guruji is asking us to study ourselves from morning till evening,  to be aware how we behave, how we relate with people, how we talk with people,  how we relate with the situations outside, how do we behave with our relations. Guruji says when we start seeing them; we would then start seeing the intentions, the experiences, the suppressed thing, unexpressed things that are all behind each actions. This would help us to find our Karthru.
 

When we see a person going to temple, then immediately we identify that person as very pious. Same person if we see going to bar, we immediately identify that person as being spoiled. So here depending upon action the person is judged. It might be so that the person might be going to the bar only to convey a message or to see someone. So it’s not the action through which we can decide but it’s the intention, the motivating energy behind the action that would give us a real picture. So if there is hurt in us, hurt becomes the driving energy, and then all our reactions are controlled at the will/command of the hurt.

Why people behave differently? Who is guiding all their reactions, movements etc.? Karthru ajnayaa, Guruji says, please go into & explore the karthru, don’t worry about the crisis, betrayal, dejection, depression, disappointment, failure, pride, joy, pleasure etc. Don’t even try to analyze the action; just find out who is that Karthru inside who is making you do it. We are only seeing the kriya but not the Karthru. Outwardly we may be a very good human being, but inside, every sweet word that is coming out might be dipped in the poison.
 

When we try to find out the Karthru, then we realize, action is not the Karthru. Ramana says Karma Tad Jadam, your Karma is dull & lame, it cannot move. Without creating any guilt or hurt you start studying & understand that there is something behind every action. There is something hidden which is acting.

When Karma is Jada, then Ramana says, Karma Kimparam, why are you glorifying it? Guruji says, don’t think you are working & slogging for family, all nonsense. Your existence is nothing to do with the external things. We are run by the agencies like hurt, discontentment, pleasure, expectation, emotions etc., which is making us to perform these activities.

We are suffering because we go into into self pity and don’t have the guts to see the reality and look at the truth as truth. We always try to glorify our actions. Karma Kimparam Ramana Maharshi says, why are you glorifying them? The moment one start glorifying, then they miss the reality.

Guruji here asks a question back to us, why are you doing so much service for your Guru?  Why are you serving Guru when He visits your place? And after serving Him, we then start glorifying our actions, stating "Look how much I am serving or helping my Guru”? Guruji is asking us to see who is working here and what is that which is making you to serve the Guru.  Please see this impartially, then one can find the true Karthru. Once you have identified your true Karthru, then the life would become full of enthusiasm, one would see opportunities everywhere. The moment you see it, the fear, suffering, all would disappear. 

Find out your true 'Karthru'

Guruji also said that mere by doing pooja or asanas, no transformation is going to happen, unless one realizes & understand the Karthru who is making these actions. We are glorifying our karma, because we don’t know our karthru. So what needs to be done?. Guruji says detach yourself from the karma and start looking at the Karthru. That’s why we have to so our Sadhana and be silent.  For e.g. when you try to sit straight keeping your back, head and the neck along the same straight line, you can identify hundreds of Karthru’s attacking you, by not allowing you to sit straight. Once you start analyzing these karthru’s, then they would lead you to identify the true Karthru.

Today parents are becoming victims of our own children, and the children become helpless. We don’t have any strength to relate with the kids & we have pampered them so much. Guruji is asking a question here, “Have we allowed our child to cry to its last stroke? We don’t because we are scared. We keep feeding them and we don’t allow the children to know what appetite is. We as a parents have failed to show our children the true Karthru here which is in the form of appetite.

So one has to ask this question, Karthru ajnayaa -  who is guiding, commanding, dictating, pushing, motivating us to perform actions in the external world. Who is that? So when you see a action, try to see the immediate Karthru behind it, it may lead you to another Karthru and keep searching until you find out the true Karthru.

You may ask how to look at it. For example, I have gone somewhere and return home with hurt feeling. So who am I now? (Naan Yaar?) I now related myself with the hurt feeling. So the doer is hurt now. When the doer is hurt, all the actions is going to be hurt only. Here Ramana says you are angry because you are hurt. Ramana says, if you are hurt, depressed, anger, frustrated, feeling helpless, these qualities are only the effects. But find out who has created this? In this example, because of my hurt, i become angry. So here the karthru is not anger, but hurt is the karthru. So catch this hurt and look into it, and ask who are you? The hurt says, I am ‘expectation’, I was hurt because my expectation was not met. So who is the karthru of the hurt, punctured expectation is the karthru. So come to the expectation, ask who are you? The expectation says, I am assumption. So expectation is not the karthru and we go to assumption and ask who are you? Assumption says I am not the karthru, and you go further. As you keep going, you will find out it’s the ignorance which is our karthru.

We assume karthru is god, and we blame & throw everything on Bhagwan (God). It’s the act of irresponsibility. There are two karthru that are working in us, one is the karthru created out of ignorance and another is the karthru of something else which is in its true form. If we have to experience the later,  we have to negate the false / fake karthru’s mercilessly.

Most of us are identifying the wrong karthru because of our ignorance. This leads to hurt, expectation, assumption, anger etc.  Go back and find out who is the true karthru in you.

Friends as you can see, in Day 2 of the program, Guruji has repeatedly asking us to go inside and find out the 'Karthru' in us. Instead of literally translating the bookish meaning for the word 'Karthru' as 'God', our Guruji is asking us to find out who is this 'Karthru' as it would lead us to identify that True Self.  So in search of that true Karthru, let us spend our day today.

With Pranams

'Bansuri'

(the messenger)