Disciples of Ramana Maharshi

[Natha Bhaktyananda]

> Ken Stuart <kstuart at MAIL.TELIS.ORG> wrote:

>However, it is perplexing to me, that, in my personal opinion and
>estimation, one finds more false teachers who claim to be followers or
>disciples of Ramana than one finds in any other
 lineage.----------------------------

It is not at all perplexing to me, in the humbug days of Kali Yuga, that we
 live. And it
seems so easy to some people to fake the Self realisation of one like Ramana
 Maharishi,
since it does not have to be accompanied by other spectacular phenomena. As the
Maharishi himself has stated many times, his form of realisation was not
 accompanied by
any siddhi-s (supernormal powers), being the result of a pure jnana (or atma
 yoga). If
one would pretend oneself to be a Self-realised follower of Jesus, he would be
 expected
to prove amazing power of prayer, perform miracles, etc. -- as so many saints
 have
actually done. If one would claim to be an enlightened or realised follower of
 Milarepa,
Babaji, Sankara, Abhinavagupta, etc. or of some school like the Natha-s, Kaula-s
 & Co.,
one would be naturally expected to display some signs of accomplishment
 accompanying the
Self-realsation (live naked in the snow, levitate, clairvoyance, draw liquids
 through
the penis (:-), etc.) But with Ramana it is so much more easy... :-) You just
 talk about
yourself in the third person singular, play mysterious, and justify everything
 you do by
the fact that you are yourSelf. He gave moksa (liberation) to his cow, you can
 do the
same with your tape-recorder. Some poor fools are bound to fall for it; for
 every low IQ
there are bound to be some with an even lower one :-)

Someone has asked here on the list by which norms can one decide if those people
 have
been Self-realised or not, and this question has given rise to a wave of
 arguing.
        IMO the first thig to remind here is the saying of Jesus when asked how to
discriminate between the false prophets and the true ones, between the wolves
 clad in
sheepskin and the genuine lambs of God. And his answer was that "the tree is
 known by
its fruits". If one looks at the *fruits* of these false guru-s (and not at
 their
beautifully adorned sayings) one can see better through... For example look at
 the
beautiful fruits of Ramana Maharishi, and you can notice that although not
 deploying
siddhi-s he *was* a great wise.
        Second point: like it or not, but the *complete* state of nirvikalpa samadhi
(nirvana, realisation of the Void, call it what you wish) is accompanied by some
peculiar physiological signs: the heart stops, the breath stops, the EEG goes
 flat
(electric brain activity stops). If you know someone in your neighbourhood who
 can do
that for half an hour at least, don't forget to send me his/her e-mail address.
 :-)

With blessings,

--
Natha Bhaktyananda <natha at dk-online.dk>
Kxbmagergade 28, 2., 1150 K
Denmark
Tf.: (45) 33930858, Fax: (45) 33930668