O Shonachala Ramana, the perfectly free one, the almighty embodiment of Grace, the one who bestows mukthy to anyone who thinks of You, graciously glance at me, the abandoned. ~ Sri Sadhu Om
🕉️
Sadhu Om: Someone once asked Bhagavan whether devotees who had spent time with him but later left him or even turned against him, such as Perumal Swami, who put a court case against him, had wasted the precious opportunity they had been given. He replied that their association with him cannot go in vain. Even the worst of people will be benefitted by such association, because the seed of bhakti and vairāgya will thereby be sown in their heart, so though it may not sprout immediately, in due course it will certainly sprout, grow and bear fruit. It may take more time, but it can never fail.
Sadhu Om [talking to a devotee of Bhagavan who understood very little about his teachings]: We all read about Bhagavan’s teachings in various books, and thereby we understand something, but mere casual reading is not sufficient. We need to think about them very carefully and deeply. This is called manana, which is a necessary prerequisite for effectively practising what he taught us. The more deeply we immerse ourself in his teachings, the more we will learn from them. What he has taught us is very simple but nevertheless extremely deep and subtle, so we can understand them only to the extent that we think deeply about them and put them into practice.
The more we think about his teachings and try to practise them, the more clarity he will give us from within, and thus we will gradually come to understand from our own experience that his silent teaching is always going on in our heart, but that we need to turn within to experience it. Even though he has left his body, he is still guiding us as effectively as he did during his bodily lifetime. We come to understand this clearly as a result of his silent presence in our heart. If we spend our whole life studying and thinking about his teachings, our life will not have been wasted. Even if we are unable to go sufficiently deep in the practice of self-investigation and self-surrender, if we go deep in contemplating his teachings, that will be a worthwhile and fruitful way to spend our life. Meditating on his teachings is a good practice of guru-bhakti, second only to actually practising them, because the more deeply we think about them, the more clearly we will understand them, and the more we understand them, the more our love to put them into practice will grow.
If we truly love Bhagavan, we will love his teachings. From love comes knowledge. The more we love him and his teachings, the more we will dwell on them; the more we dwell on them, the more we will understand them; the more we understand them, the more effectively we will be able to practise self-investigation and self-surrender; and the more effectively we practise them, the more clarity of true knowledge will shine brightly in our heart. This is why he said that bhakti [love] is the mother of jñāna [true knowledge].
✨
Excerpt from “Mountain Path” - 2020-II April-June The Paramount Importance of Self Attention - Part Thirty Three, Sadhu Om As Recorded By Michael James
✨