my article

In a comment on my previous article, Self-investigation ( ātma-vicāra ) is just the simple practice of trying to be attentively self-aware , an anonymous friend asked, ‘Does this practice work?’ and went on to explain why he or she asked this question, saying, ‘There are so many Gurus each offering a unique method — a method that might have worked for them. The real question is does it work for others? Michael, from your writings I gather you have been practicing this for more than two decades (?). What is your realization so far? Have you been able to achieve what Bhagavan describes? Honestly, if the answer is no, then I will be very skeptical of this method’. Should we rely on what others claim to be their experience? What is the goal that we should aim to experience or attain? By knowing what goal we should seek, we can logically infer what must be the means to achieve it No matter how long it may take us to reach our destination, patient perseverance is required 1. Should we rely ...

In a comment on one of my recent articles, In order to understand the essence of Sri Ramana’s teachings, we need to carefully study his original writings , a friend called Sanjay wrote, ‘I have also noticed that many of the current devotees of Bhagavan somehow are not able to reconcile to the advaitic standpoint of Bhagavan, Shankara and others, but are more comfortable to accept and believe in all their own dualistic ideas’, and this triggered a long discussion, with some other friends defending the path of dualistic devotion against what was perceived to be criticism of it by those who are more attracted to Bhagavan’s non-dualistic path of self-investigation ( ātma-vicāra ). This article is written partly in response to that discussion. However, I actually began to write this article before that discussion started, and I did so in response to a comment on one of my earlier articles, What is unique about the teachings of Sri Ramana? , in which a friend called Viswanathan wrote: [......