Arunachala Shiva Arunachala Shiva Arunachala Namaste.
Hi everybody.
This is a quick introduction to the Ribhu Gita readings.
You know,
I've done about 10 or 12 of these now,
And I went back and I was listening to them and going,
Whoa,
This is pretty far out stuff.
It probably needs an introduction for those who are new.
If you're already familiar with it,
And you can understand it,
People in Ramana Maharshi's community already know about it,
But others are going to be like,
Where is this coming from?
Well,
Ribhu Gita is a very interesting work.
The author is unknown.
He has put his work in the mouth of Lord Shiva,
And Lord Shiva's disciple,
Ribhu,
Ribhu,
Not Ribhu,
Like it's commonly misspelled.
And Ribhu heard from Shiva at Kailash.
Now,
Who is Shiva?
Shiva is the non-dual consciousness within everything.
Confirmed.
The wind just blew the door shut.
So this non-dual consciousness,
Also called Brahman,
Is within everyone,
Within everything.
And the idea of self-realization,
Of course,
Is to realize that.
Well,
As Ramana points out often,
You can't really realize it because it's already realized.
Do you exist?
Are you?
I mean,
Who's going to say no,
Right?
Of course I am.
So if you exist,
Then you are aware that you are self.
You are conscious,
And you are conscious of your own existence.
This is Brahman,
This is Shiva.
This layer or level of consciousness,
The substrate of unconditioned awareness,
Is there in everyone.
But most of us don't realize it because it's covered over by the mind.
The old Jedi mind trick.
This is not the Shiva you're looking for.
Why is that?
Well,
We're looking outside,
Through the senses,
Trying to find happiness in a world of duality.
And obviously there's some problems with that.
This is the great cosmic joke,
Right?
Happiness is when we are completely at home in ourself,
When we're completely relaxed,
Completely at rest,
Without any effort,
Without any desire,
Without any knowledge,
Without going out through the senses or being aware of the world at all.
For example,
During deep sleep.
But the problem with deep sleep is,
In deep sleep we're not aware.
We're not self-conscious.
We're conscious.
We're conscious of nothing.
And we need that.
The mind needs to rest.
Otherwise,
If people are deprived of deep sleep,
They go crazy in a few days.
Why is that?
The mind needs to rest.
It's so busy busy all the time,
Right?
So,
Instead of resting the mind by sleep,
One can rest the mind by being aware.
The mind simply comes to rest in its natural condition,
Without any conditioning by the outside world,
Senses,
Words,
Or any of that.
That's self-realization or enlightenment.
Self is always there.
Shiva is always there.
So,
When one becomes aware of this in oneself,
Then he is considered enlightened.
He's considered a master.
So,
What are the conditions for this awareness?
Well,
There aren't any.
This is the big joke.
This is the big.
.
.
This is why I said in many videos earlier on that everything I'm saying about meditation and stuff is bullshit.
Everybody that is talking about this is just,
You know,
Saying lots and lots of words.
But what does it really mean?
Like somebody said,
Oh,
Guru means G,
You are you.
And it's true.
The only thing is,
People are identifying with something that's not themselves.
The mind,
The body,
The identity,
Their name,
Their social position,
Their bank balance,
On and on and on.
So,
We're trying to overcome that by resting the mind in its natural condition,
In its natural state.
What is that?
Shiva ham,
Aham brahmasmye,
I am Shiva,
I am Brahman.
So,
To do this,
An act of will is necessary.
One has to say to the mind,
Okay,
That's it.
I'm not following you anymore.
You just chill.
Take a chill pill,
Relax,
Be quiet.
And just be still and know that I am God.
That's the secret.
Those poor idiots that made that film,
The Secret,
They're thinking the secret is,
Oh,
It's all one,
So I'm God,
So I can have anything I want.
Idiots.
No,
No.
If you become one with Shiva,
If you become one with Brahman,
There's nothing to want.
You already are everything.
And there's no I to want anything.
And there's no want,
Because there isn't anything.
Try to understand.
So,
What is ribugita?
Ribugita is,
You could look at it as a chant to condition the mind,
To give up its role as the leader,
And to chill out and attain silence,
Quietness.
I was searching for a way to not to understand this,
But to explain it to others.
And I was reading toward the end of the ribugita in chapter 48.
And there's a wonderful verse there.
I want to share it with you,
Because it's so cool.
Slander and acclamation are regular occurrences,
Aren't they,
Though?
By self-conceived certitude,
One must be deemed as I am liberated.
Let's put it the other way around.
One must be deemed as I am liberated by self-conceived certitude.
And the Sanskrit for this is very interesting.
Svā sva-nishchāyato buddhyā.
Svā sva means in one's own way,
Or by one's own authority,
Or as is the most natural for oneself.
Svā sva.
Nishchāyato means conclusion,
Certainty.
And buddhyā of course means by intelligence,
By one's own mental exertion.
So,
Svā sva-nishchāyato buddhyā means that one simply declares,
I am liberated.
Śivoham aham brahmāsmi.
Aham brahmāsmi.
Sorry.
And this can be done by anyone,
Anytime.
At least in theory.
In practice,
However,
We need some help to overcome many,
Many lifetimes of conditioning in the mind.
Saying,
No,
You're not the Supreme.
You're just a complete,
Tiny,
Insignificant,
Powerless,
Ordinary human.
You can't say you're enlightened.
You can't say you're liberated.
You have to get somebody to approve it.
You have to get somebody,
Some authority to declare your enlightenment.
But no.
No,
That's not what Ribhūgita teaches.
So Ribhūgita is like a chant.
And it's very interesting because its style of writing in Sanskrit is very similar to Buddhist suttas.
The Theravada Buddhists have a certain style where they have like a refrain that repeats over and over again.
So Ribhūgita is like that.
Ribhūgita,
There are many passages,
You can hear them in the other videos,
Where there's a refrain that repeats again and again.
Know that I am Brahman,
Or something like that.
And then it'll give an example,
And then it'll repeat again.
Know that I am Brahman,
And so on.
So what are we doing here?
It's clearly meant for a group chant.
And Ramana Maharshi used to have the Ribhūgita read out loud in the assembly around him.
And one can imagine that those who became a little familiar with it must have been chanting the refrains along with it.
The reader in Sanskrit or in Tamil.
Because it repeats the same thing over and over and over.
And this is necessary to cut through all the conditioning and the obstacles that the mind puts up to our declaring our Self-realization.
So how to use these readings is to play them over and over and over again in the background.
You can download the audio tracks from SoundCloud.
There's a link in each video to the playlist.
And I've made each of those tracks downloadable.
You can download them to your PC,
Make an album on iTunes or whatever,
And just play them in rotation,
Repeat again and again.
That's what I do.
And I've found that it helps very much in establishing the right view for meditation.
And it gives one confidence that this assertion,
I am liberated,
I am Shiva,
I am Brahman,
I am enlightened.
This can be made.
There's no effort necessary.
Try to understand.
People are sitting in meditation,
Reading so many books,
Doing yoga,
Doing this,
Doing that,
Trying to get Self-enlightenment,
Self-liberation,
Self-realization.
But according to Ramana,
Self-realization is already there.
It's just a matter of adopting the right point of view.
This is right view.
And it happens without effort.
It happens simply by seeing.
Once you see it,
It's like,
Of course,
Duh!
Why was I working so hard?
Why was I trying so hard?
Why was I sweating all those years of meditation?
It wasn't even necessary.
You know,
That's why the Zen masters,
When they attain enlightenment,
They just laugh and laugh and laugh.
Because it's a huge cosmic joke.
But you know,
Without the background,
Without the training,
Without the deep understanding of sutras and so on,
This doesn't really happen.
So one has to become enormously learned,
Before being able to give up that learning,
And simply relax into the natural state of Self-realization.
So Ribhu Gita is a means for that.
Enjoy it.
Om Tat Sat means this is the truth.
Aum Hari Hih Aum
