Question: In last month’s conference Shiva made a comment about an Indian guru who famously said: “The highest teaching is silence” but then went on to explain why this is not a teaching that came from the River of Life or the ascended masters. However, I was surprised to learn that the guru in question was Ramana Maharshi who Jesus said had ascended. This left me a bit confused. Can Shiva explain why he referenced Ramana Maharshi in his dictation? Is the lesson perhaps that even the words of a sage may not be the highest expression possible?
Answer from the Ascended Master Shiva through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2023 American webinar.
The fact that you ascend does not mean that you are perfect in every way or that you were perfect in your last embodiment. It means you have reached a certain level where you do not need to come back into embodiment. There are beings who have spent quite some time after their physical body died to qualify before they could really go through the process of the ascension.
And Jesus did not say that Ramana Maharshi ascended two seconds after his body died. The reason why I use this teaching is that it has become sort of a fashionable word in certain spiritual circles especially those who talk about non-duality. Where there are certain people who claim that the greatest teaching is silence therefore nothing should really be said. And this of course is as I said just an expression of the fallen consciousness that wants to take everything into extremes. There is the one dualistic extreme of trying to explain everything with words and there is the other dualistic extreme of saying: “Oh nothing can be explained with words.” What we have given is the middle way where we say there are certainly certain aspects of the spiritual realm and the spiritual reality that cannot be put into words on a dense planet like earth. But this does not mean that it is worthless to give teachings with words. Because if people are willing to use the word of teaching to reach for the experience that is beyond words then words can serve as a foundation as a trigger for giving that experience.
Now, you will see that there are some of the followers of Ramana Maharshi who have idolized him to a very unhealthy degree. And they have this concept that when he sat there in silence, he was transferring something to the students through the silence. Well, I am not denying that a person in embodiment who has achieved a higher level of consciousness can transfer spiritual energy to another person which Jesus of course did many times. But what is the logic of saying that this transfer of energy can only happen through silence? Why could it not just as easily happen through words which Jesus also did many times? And that is why my point was that Ramana Maharshi regardless of his level of consciousness had misunderstood certain things. Including the entire Vedic image that there is only Brahman that is real and the world is an illusion. You see if you want to take this a step further you can see that there are people who can hold certain outer beliefs based on particular religions. But still in the inner levels of their beings they have overcome enough of the separate selves, enough of the human consciousness that they can actually ascend.
In other words, you do not have to have only correct beliefs and no wrong beliefs in order to qualify for your ascension. You will see that there are people who have ascended from a Christian tradition and they were, until they ascended believing in certain Christian doctrines. There are people from the Hindu tradition, from the Buddhist tradition, from the Taoist tradition, even a few from the Muslim at least Sufi tradition. Many of these people have until they died, held on to certain beliefs that came from their religious background or their culture. But there was still enough inner resolution that they did not have to come back into embodiment.
Copyright © 2023 Kim Michaels