Self- Reliance

Once, a young man, around twenty years old, arrived at the Ramana Ashram. He made his way through the crowd in the Jubilee Hall and stood before Bhagavan with folded hands.

Bhagavan greeted him with a kind smile. The young man asked, "Bhagavan, during Nama Japa (the chanting of God's name), should I chant 'Rama' or 'Krishna'? Or can I combine both and say 'Ramakrishna'?"

Bhagavan replied, "Every Name carries the same power. You can chant 'Rama', 'Krishna', or 'Ramakrishna', whichever you prefer. What truly matters is not the Name itself but the level of mental focus and concentration you bring to the chant."

The youth then inquired, "Is it alright to perform this japa at home, or should one go to an Ashram or some secluded place?"

Bhagavan answered, "There's no need to leave your home. Spiritual practices can be done wherever you're comfortable. Your house is just as suitable as any other place."

Encouraged, the young man asked, "Then why did Bhagavan leave Madurai and come to Tiruvannamalai? Wasn't Madurai a good enough place?"

Bhagavan straightened up and said, "Ah, so this is what you're really wondering about. You question is why I left home or if any other place is better for spiritual practices. But remember this—I didn’t go around asking people, 'Should I stay or should I go?' I simply followed what I felt within. If you too, feel a deep urge to leave home, then do so. If your conviction is strong, you won’t need anyone’s approval or support."

The young man was left speechless, standing in silence for a moment before leaving the hall.

After he had gone, Bhagavan turned to the other devotees and said, "This boy lacks confidence and the courage to face the consequences of his decisions. He's afraid that if he leaves the comfort of his home, he may not be able to manage on his own. It is the weak-minded who constantly seek advice from others. The strong-willed simply follow their heart. Such strength comes from God’s grace. Complete self-reliance is not possible without it."

Discussion Points

On the spiritual path, everybody is in a doubt whether he has to leave the home or can he stay at home and still proceed with the spiritual practices.

This anecdote from the life of Sri Ramana Maharishi provides a clear insight on this question. As stated by the Maharishi, if there is a very strong urge, you do not need validation from outside, and you can take the plunge but if you are seeking the help from outside, then this may not be the right thing to do.

For important decision, we should not be looking for validation from outside but from within. We need to know that if the decision goes wrong , then it is we who is to be blamed and we should move towards self-reliance.

Once you are confident of handling the situation yourself, even if your decision does not turn out to be as expected, you will be at peace.

The second important thing that Maharishi talks about is the consequence of the Jap, which is concentration of the mind and exclusion of other thoughts. Whatever name we take is just a placebo to help of mind and one should not dwell too much on it rather focus should be more on the process to make one’s mind more focused.

Thirdly , we should also not be looking forward to Copy the decision of others and try to judge the decision taken by others on our parameters. It is the self-reliance with Maharshi took the decision of leaving his home, and only if a person is ready to take that decision, he can do it otherwise not.

The parameter of knowing that the conviction is very strong is that when you are convinced and you do not need to take the approval of others .

This situation is similar for people who leave their college to do the start-up… there are some success stories where we have seen that people have created multi billion dollar empire while leaving the college in between, but that does not mean that every such decision will be correct. we should be convinced on why we are doing it, and if things do not work out what will we do and when.

When we are leaving something, we are getting detached from comfort and the sense of security of normal life. If someone chooses to leave it, then he should know that all the comfort of normal life will be gone and he needs to be de-attached to the point that he do not care about them, and then only he should look forward to take a decision. Same goes for someone who is looking forward to leave his job and start a new business. One should ask, is he comfort table of not-getting paycheck every month and how will he pay his bills if his business does not give any money in next 2-3 years?

Every big game comes from enduring the smaller pains. The bigger question is what is your personal threshold of pain?

Story Credit: My Cherished Memories, By T. R. Kanakammal