Swami Ramanagiri [Peer Wertin]

Aum Sai Ram.

I discovered Swami Ramanagiri on the internet and find him very inspiring. It's always wonderful to learn about holy souls, especially westerners who attained Enlightenment.

Swami Ramanagiri (Peer Wertin) was a natural born western mystic, a member of the Swedish Royal family, who renounced an $8 million inheritance to become a holy man in India and attained Moksha (liberation) under the great Sage Ramana Maharshi.

Sayings of Swami Ramanagiri:

"His Name, taken once with whole hearted love and a one-pointed mind, is worth more than the knowledge collected from every book all over the world."

"Learning is learned ignorance. Unlearning is learning."

"What you speak about others doesn’t reveal anything about them, but about you."

"The power of listening attracts more than the power of speaking."

"Jnana and bhakti are not separate from each other. One cannot know Him without loving Him, and one cannot love Him without knowing Him."

"Non-attachment does not mean indifference; love does not mean attachment; attachment is that which takes; love is that which gives."

"Shut the doors and the door will be opened."

"Religion is experience. It should be practiced, not studied or discussed, and at the very least not preached. Those who preach don’t know; those who know don’t preach."

"About your worldly troubles: you must do as you think best yourself, but it is good policy to keep away from other’s plates, however sweet and inviting they look. Both sugar and arsenic are white."

"When a soul turns his mind towards the divine, the following two things will happen. First, he will get some joyful experience, which shows that he is on the right path, and that he is progressing. Second, when the asuric forces see that he is progressing, they will put every possible obstacle before the sadhaka in the form of worldly troubles, mental botherations and sex urges. I think you have reached that second stage and will get further troubles. But don’t mind. They are good in so far as they make us fed up with the world."

"If the ego is allowed to play with our emotions, it is capable of causing havoc. Only by drawing the ego to its source can the saddest feeling be converted into ananda."

"Perfection in any form is the manifestation of the divine. The greatest service to humanity is self-enquiry, and the greatest remedy for this world is Self-realization, but that does not mean that we should not do anything for others. As long as we have not got the power to withdraw the mind from the objects of sense perceptions, we should do, and must do, whatever we can for others. Selfless activity will soon give the power of introversion, but when the mind has become introverted, we should not spoil what we have gained by outward activity."

"The main thing with worship is not what we worship, but that we worship, and if we have got love, we can easily surrender the feeling of ‘I’ which is the wall between ourselves and God."

"The disciple’s love for the Guru is more important than the Guru’s power."

"The behavior of a fool and a wise man is the same. The only difference is that a fool goes from life to lives while a wise man goes from lives to Life. One leaves the ocean behind; the other returns."

"To speak or write about Him is pollution. The only truth which becomes falsehood when expressed is Aham Brahmasmi or Sivoham."

"The best weapon of defense is ahimsa. The best weapon of offense is love."

"The ego will cry like a mad man when he sees that he is going to be killed."

"The human body is the greatest hindrance in realising the Self, but it is also the only means."

"O Mother! What a painful bliss you gave this child! Mother is always the same, but we are different, depending on the purity of the body, mind and heart. That is why Mother’s bliss sometimes gives extreme pain, sometimes extreme joy."

"Renunciation of that which renounces is renunciation."

"In my father’s lap, Mother, Father and I are one; or there is none; but IT is."