It is generally used to denote the Self as the source of the mind and manifestation. Heart: a translation of the Sanskrit ‘hridayam ’ or the Tamil ‘ullam ’, this is a synonym for the Self or Brahman. Jnana is the state of irrevocable enlightenment.īrahman : a vedantic term used to denote the absolute, impersonal reality. Jnana : ‘knowledge’, meaning direct unmediated knowledge of what is true and real, rather than knowledge of objects. Swarupa : ‘one’s own true nature’, or ‘one’s own real form’.Ītma-swarupa : Self, one’s own true nature. The following brief definitions should be useful for those who are not familiar with these words: I have left some of the technical terms in the original Sanskrit or Tamil. For this article I have selected some of the Guru Vachaka Kovai verses that deal with mauna, and I have arranged them by subject. It is due to appear in English in a few months’ time. Venkatasubramanian and Robert Butler, I have spent the last three years preparing a new annotated English translation of this work. This book is the biggest collection of Sri Ramana’s teachings that was personally checked and revised by him during his lifetime. Eventually these verses came out in Tamil in a book entitled Guru Vachaka Kovai ( Garland of the Guru’s Sayings ). These were all shown to Sri Ramana, who corrected and revised them whenever he felt it necessary. He generally recorded them on the day he heard them by composing short Tamil verses that encapsulated the teachings he had heard. Muruganar began collecting Sri Ramana’s teaching statements in the 1920s. Sri Ramana often spoke about how this process worked, and in this article I shall present some of his teachings on mauna that were recorded by Muruganar, one of his foremost disciples. He also maintained that those who could remain mentally silent in his presence were the ones who would be most able to take advantage of the silent spiritual energy that was flowing from him.
In using this term he made it clear that he was not indicating a mere absence of sound rather, he was referring to the unmoving, silent, peaceful state of the Self that is beyond and prior to the antonyms of noise and physical quietness.įor Sri Ramana mauna was both the state of the enlightened being and the medium through which an awareness of the Self is transmitted. When Sri Ramana spoke on the subject of silence, he usually used the Sanskrit word ‘mauna ’. Sri Ramana did, of course, answer questions as well, but he frequently said that the silent force which spontaneously radiated from him was the highest and purest form of his teachings. This silent presence resolved the doubts and problems of those who came to see him, and on occasions even gave them a direct glimpse of the Self. Abiding in and as the Self, as the unmoving substratum of manifestation, he emanated a silent radiance that quietened the minds of those who were drawn to him. Silence in the Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshiīhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the mostly widely revered advaita teacher of the 20th century, always maintained that ‘silence’ was his primary and most direct teaching. The verses are in roman type while the supplementary quotations and the introduction are in italics. These extra quotes will also appear in the published version of Guru Vachaka Kovai. The verses that follow it have been arranged under various topics I have added parallel quotes from Bhagavan after some of them. I have left in the introduction I sent her. I hope to post the German article on my site whenever it becomes available. The verses had been translated, she said, and were due to appear in one of her forthcoming issues. A couple of weeks ago, though, I received an email from her saying that she was delighted with my change of plan. I assumed that she didn’t want to use my offering, and was too polite to tell me so. I emailed it to her and heard nothing for several months. I threw away all the questions and instead put together a compilation of verses on ‘silence’ from our new translation of Guru Vachaka Kovai.
Eventually, with the deadline approaching, I decided that I would let Bhagavan speak for himself.
The questions arrived and they sat in my in-tray for months and months, without inspiring me to do anything about them.