Alignment

Cultivate Alignment

Question & Answer

From: I Am That Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Chapter 38: Spiritual Practice Is Will Asserted And Reasserted

Questioner: Are you serious? Would you tell a Westerner to repeat ‘Om’ or ‘Ram’ or ‘Hare Krishna’ ceaselessly, though he lacks completely the faith and conviction born of the right cultural and religious background? Without confidence of fervor; repeating mechanically the same sounds, will he ever achieve anything?

Maharaj: Why not? It is the urge, the hidden motive that matters, not the shape it takes. Whatever he does, if he does it for the sake of finding his own real self, will surely bring him to himself.

From: I Am That Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Chapter 87: Keep the Mind Silent And You Shall Discover

Questioner: All my life I was fed on words. The number of words I have heard and read goes into billions. Did it benefit me? Not at all!

Maharaj: The mind shapes the language and the language shapes the mind. Both are tools, use them but don’t misuse them. Words can bring you only up to their own limit; to go beyond, you must abandon them. Remain as the silent witness only.

From: Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Chapter 11: Mantras And Japa

Question: I am taught that mantra japa is very potent in practice.

Answer: The Self is the greatest of all mantras – it goes on automatically and eternally. If you are not aware of this internal mantra, you should take to it consciously as japa, which is attended with effort, to ward off all other thoughts. By constant attention to it, you will eventually become aware of the internal mantra which is the state of realization and is effortless. Firmness in this awareness will keep you continually and effortlessly in the current, however much you may be engaged in other activities.

By repetition of mantras, the mind gets controlled. Then the mantra becomes one with the mind and also with the prana [the energy that sustains the body].

When the syllables of the mantra become one with the prana, it is termed dhyana, and when dhyana becomes deep and firm it leads to sahaja sthiti [the natural state].