Ramana Maharishi - Ulladu Narpadu - first mangalam

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Ramana Maharishi was a great saint of the Advaith (non-dual) school.

But he looked with equal favour on all paths. One of his famous works

on the nature of existence explains the Advaith philosophy " Ulladu

Narpadu " .

 

 

 

mangalam i:

 

" Can there be a sense of existence without something that is? Is Real

Consciousness a thing other than That? Since that (Reality) dwells,

thought free, in the Heart, how can It - Itself named the Heart - be

meditated on? And who is there, distinct from It, to meditate on It,

the Self whose nature is Reality Consciousness? Know that to meditate

on It is just to be at one with It within the Heart. "

 

(from Bhagavan Ramana's forty verses on the nature of Existence,

titled

Ulladu Narpadu, translated by Sri K. Lakshmana Sarma.

 

----- (Please see an explanation below)

 

These words from Bhagavan Ramana may throw some light on the first

mangalam...

 

Devotee: Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of

consciousness and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart

exactly signify ?

 

Bhagavan: The question about the heart arises because you are

interested in seeking the source of consciousness. To all deep

thinking minds, the enquiry about the 'I' and its nature has an

irresistible fascination.

 

Call it by any name, God, Self, the Heart or the seat of

consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be grasped is this,

that Heart means the very core of one's being, the centre, without

which there is nothing whatever. The Heart is not physical, it is

spiritual. Hridayam equals hrit plus ayam; it means `this is the

centre'. It is that from which thoughts arise, on which they subsist

and where they are resolved. The thoughts are the content of the mind

and they shape the universe. The Heart is the centre of all. That

from which beings come into existence is said to be Brahman in the

Upanishads. That is the Heart. Brahman is the Heart.

 

(Maharshi's Gospel, Ch.4)