Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

This house will be properly maintained only if you are in it.

Hence we must realise that we are keeping the house
habitable only so long as we are in it and must never give up
the knowledge that the house is separate from the Self. The
moment that is forgotten the feeling of ego comes in and
troubles begin. Everything in the world thus appears real
and the destruction of that feeling is the destruction of the
ego. When that ego is destroyed nothing (of this world) is
real. What is to happen will happen; and what is not to
happen will not happen.”
Questioner: “You say that what is to happen will happen
and what is not to happen will not happen; if that is so, why
should it be said that good deeds must be done?”
Bhagavan: “If something good is done, it results in
happiness. Hence people say good deeds must be done.”
Questioner: “Yes. That is why elders say that sorrow is
adventitious.”
Bhagavan: “That is so. Sorrow is adventitious. It is
only happiness that is natural. Every living being desires
happiness because his natural state is the embodiment of
happiness. All sadhanas (spiritual efforts) are for
overcoming adventitious sorrow. When a headache comes
on casually, you have to get rid of it by medicine. If it is a
permanent ailment of the body, attached to it from birth
to death, why should you try to get rid of it? Just as boils
and other diseases of the body are cured by a doctor’s
treatment, sorrows which are the result of various
difficulties can be overcome by sadhana specially aimed at
them. This body itself is a disease. The root cause of it is
ignorance. If for that ignorance the medicine called jnana
is administered all inherent diseases will disappear at
once.”
Questioner: “Is it possible to get immediate results by
sadhana?”
Bhagavan: Some yield immediate results and some do
not. That depends upon the intensity or otherwise of the
sadhana. If good acts or evil acts are done with great intensity
the results will manifest themselves immediately; otherwise
the results are slow. The results, however, necessarily follow.

It cannot be helped.