Calm is Greater Than Joy

The four Sages who have contributed to this book had nothing in common except the wisdom of the Self. Maharshi had a direct experience of Being without the body. There was no need for any thinking about the Unthinkable.

Maharaj had a quantum leap of faith when heard his Guru for the first time. Because of not much reading, his heart was open and the mind-intellect empty of questions.

Ramesh was very much a man of the world who had a firm conviction that everything was predetermined. He could have met Ramana Maharshi personally, but he was destined to meet Maharaj and serve him. In spite of his devotion to his Guru, his mantra was 'investigation' into how spiritual concepts help the man on the street in his daily living.

Wayne most humbly admits he was lucky to have resonance with his Guru and there was no preparation (spiritual reading or doing) whatsoever.

This book represents a conceptual movement from the traditional teachings of Maharshi to a completely modern representation by Wayne according to the need of the present generation.

I used to sell books at my Guru's house as my service to Him. Before selling He would give me a few tips about the books.

The three books we would 'hard-sell' were, Peace And Harmony In Daily Living, my favourite book. Ramesh called it the complete book.

A Personal Religion of Your Own, which helped my grown-up children a lot.

Pursue 'Happiness' And Get Enlightened, after which my wife gave me the much-awaited permission to pursue my own selfish happiness.

I have taken generous portions from these books and also from the following books: Pointers From Nisargadatta Maharaj, The Ultimate Understanding, Guru Pournima, Net Of Jewels, Maharshi's Gospel and Talks With Ramana Maharshi.

I am not sure Ramesh would agree with me, but I would go so far as to say a lot of Ramesh's "negative" approach served as a counterbalance to the "positive" approach of Ramana. When people came to Ramesh after having studied Ramana's teachings, he lifted their burden of believing that Ramana's teachings were an absolute truth.

The statements that Ramana made, when talking about the Self, the characteristics of the Self, discovering the Self, reuniting with the Self, and all of those "positive" statements, are readily misinterpreted as descriptors of some thing. There were many people who had had that kind of indoctrination prior to coming to Ramesh. If the student was to move forward, that false understanding had to be stripped away. One of the ways to strip that away, was to counterbalance it with a neti-neti, a not this and not that approach.

So curiously, after Ramesh did that for fifteen years or so, he then switched to a positive approach. His latest books are much more about a positive form of self-inquiry, such as to pick one of the events out of your day that you feel was your doing, and to look at it to see whether it was, in fact, your doing - a deconstructing of personal authorship. You should have heard the screams of the people in the talks when he first rolled this out. They were moaning, "How can you say this? How can you tell people to do this after you have been saying that there is nothing to do and no-one to do it for all these years?"

WAYNE LIQUORMAN

THE seeking of freedom from so-called human bondage is based on a complete misconception. The misconception lies in the fact that the ego misconceives as his own reaction what is essentially a natural biological reaction in the human sensory system. The reaction in the sensory system to an outside event, which is certainly not in the control of the ego concerned, is an entirely natural or biological reaction as much to an outside event as to heat or cold The ego mistakes this biological reaction for his OWn reaction: anger or fear arises as a biological reaction and the ego transforms it into his anger or his fear, and want; to change it. The ego, in other words, reacts to a biological reaction, and therein lies the bondage: wanting not to be angry, wanting not to be afraid, wanting always to be calm and collected, wanting always to be a brave man. This is truly the human bondage, from which freedom is sought The freedom that is sought really consists in not being dependent on any tendency, inclination or circumstance What does this freedom truly mean in day-to-day living? We could say in general terms that it means a state of mind, an awareness, which is not dependent on any knowledge (information) or any stimulus, or any conformity to any code of conduct. Freedom consists in being able to accept What-Is in the moment. In other words, it means peace, serenity, tranquility - perhaps 'love'.

**Book's Contents and Sample Pages**