Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi a vécu de 1879 à 1950 ; il est l'un des saints les plus éminents que l'Inde ait jamais connus. Il est considéré comme l'un des plus grands maîtres spirituels de l'Inde moderne.
Ramana Maharshi était un écolier indien qui comprit très tôt que sa véritable nature était impérissable et indépendante de son corps. Il quitta sa famille, se rendit sur la montagne sacrée de Shiva, Arunachala, se débarrassa de tous ses biens et de son argent, puis s'assit pour méditer. Son corps commença à dépérir, ses cheveux et ses ongles poussèrent jusqu'à atteindre une longueur ingérable, et des insectes lui rongeaient les jambes. Son désir de Dieu était si intense que rien d'autre n'avait vraiment d'importance.
Très vite, cette lumière christique se mit à rayonner, et il attira une foule nombreuse, devenant finalement l’un des saints hommes les plus populaires d’Inde. Il montrait une voie vers la réalisation de Dieu. Et au-delà de l’esprit enfantin, l’esprit de Dieu se reflétait clairement dans une âme mûre qui connaissait une note de l’harmonie cosmique et la jouait à merveille : la communion avec le Tout — il devint le Tout.
Sri Ramana Maharshi enseignait l'unité avec la Présence de Dieu, mais en l'enrobant dans la conception cosmique orientale. Après avoir atteint la réalisation de Soi, il a enseigné pendant de nombreuses années à ses milliers de disciples au sein d'une communauté située près d'Arunachala. Son principe fondamental était que l'unité avec Dieu, ou le Soi, n'est pas « un état étranger ou mystérieux, mais la condition naturelle de l'homme ».[1] Comment prend-on conscience du Soi ?
The Self is ever-present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. The best definition is ‘I AM THAT I AM’. The srutis [scriptures] speak of the Self as being the size of one’s thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. They have no foundation in fact. It is only Being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is Knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply Being.[2]
Ramana Maharshi gave the following teaching on non-attachment to a student who misunderstood renunciation to simply mean giving up all money and leaving his family:
A beginner once said to him: “I want to give up my job and family and stay with you, sir, so that I can be with God.” Maharshi said: “God is always with you, in you. That is what you should realize.”
Questioner: But I feel the urge to give up all attachments and renounce the world.
Maharshi: Renunciation doesn’t mean giving away your money or abandoning your home. True renunciation is the renunciation of desires, passions, and attachments.
Questioner: But single-minded devotion to God may not be possible unless one leaves worldly things.
Maharshi: No: a true renunciate actually merges in the world and expands his love to embrace the whole world. It would be more correct to describe the attitude of the devotee as universal love than as abandoning home to become a monk.
Questioner: At home the bonds of affection are too strong.
Maharshi: If you renounce home when you aren’t ripe for it, you only create new bonds.
Questioner: Isn’t renunciation the supreme means of breaking attachments?
Maharshi: That may be so for someone whose mind is already free from entanglements. But you haven’t grasped the deeper meaning of renunciation. Great souls who have abandoned their homes have done so not out of aversion to family life, but because of their largehearted and all-embracing love for all mankind and all creatures.
Questioner: Family ties will have to be left behind sometime, so why shouldn’t I take the initiative and break them now, so that my love can be equal toward all people?
Maharshi: When you truly feel this equal love for all, when your heart has expanded so much that it embraces the whole of creation, you will certainly not feel like giving up this or that. You will simply drop off from secular life as a ripe fruit drops from the branch of a tree. You will feel that the whole world is your home.[3]
Sources
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Lost Teachings of Jesus 2: Mysteries of the Higher Self, chapter 5.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, June 29, 1992.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, August 29, 1993.
- ↑ David Godman, éd., « Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi » (Boston : Arkana, 1985), quatrième de couverture.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 12.
- ↑ Stephen Mitchell, The Gospel According to Jesus: A New Translation and Guide to His Essential Teachings for Believers and Unbelievers (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).