"There is nothing beyond experience. Experience is wisdom. Your experience is my wisdom. You experience first, and I shall explain it."
அனுபவத்தைத் தாண்டி ஒன்றுமே இல்லை. அனுபவமே உனக்கு அறிவு. உனது அனுபவம் எனது அறிவு. நீ அனுபவம் கொண்டுவா, பின்னர் உரைக்கிறேன்.
All gurus strive to guide their students by providing them with the tools to work on and patiently await the blossoming within them to take place in good time, ultimately attaining the desired end results.
Muruganar shares this story that he heard from Ramana himself.
"When the four-aged Sanakadi Rishis first saw the sixteen-year-old Sri Dakshinamurti sitting under the banyan tree, they were at once attracted by him, understanding him to be the real Sadguru. They approached him, did three Pradakshinas around him, prostrated before him, sat at his feet, and began to ask very shrewd and pertinent questions about the nature of Reality and the means of attaining it. Because of the great compassion and fatherly love (Vatsalya) that he felt for his aged disciples, the young Sri Dakshinamurti was overjoyed to see their earnestness, wisdom, and maturity, and hence he gave apt replies to each of their questions. As he answered each consecutive question, further doubts rose in their minds and still they asked further questions. Thus they continued to question Sri Dakshinamurti, for one whole year, and he continued to clear their doubts through his compassionate answers. Finally, however, Sri Dakshinamurti understood that if he gave more answers to their questions more doubts would rise in their minds and hence there would never be an end to their ignorance (Ajnana). Therefore, suppressing even the feeling of compassion and fatherly love that was welling up within him, he merged himself into the supreme silence. Because of their great maturity (which had been ripened to perfection through their year-long association with the Sadguru), as soon as Sri Dakshinamurti thus merged himself, they too were automatically merged within, into silence, the state of Self."
Likewise, Bhagawan Ramana's teachings and discourses, or Upadesa is said to be through silence. After gaining numerous experiences, one is brought to sit down in silence. Silence is potent, writes Richard Schiffman in his "Sri Ramakrishna – A Prophet for the New Age", Paragon House, 1989. He writes about the significance and depth of silence. In silence, the walls that separate the guru and disciple cease to exist. Both their hearts meet. In these hours of silence, the "self" speaks with the "higher self". In silence, there is neither giving nor receiving. Just being in each other's presence. How wonderful. Indeed, in the hours of silence, the "Self" speaks with the "Higher Self," whom we have given various names and forms. All queries are answered in silence. This is the state of Gnanam. In silence, the individual identity is shed. We outwit Maya that divides and separates. What remains then is the One or Yegan. Saint Nakirar, in his song "The Vinayagar Thiruagaval", pleads to Lord Vinayagar, begging and asking Lord Ganapathy to bless him with the Gnanam that arises in this precious moment of Silence, that brings one to know Siva, where all attention and focus is on the Holy Feet of Siva, and where both the guru and disciple merge, in the Para Vezhi or deepest space, merging in the divine knowledge, understanding that Siva and him are one, and vice versa, when all that he believed to be true, crumbles, as does a fortress, realising that it is His play or Lila.
மோனா ஞான முழுதும் அளித்துசிற்பரிப் பூரண சிவத்தைக் காண
நற்சிவ நிட்கள நாட்டமுந் தந்து
குருவுஞ் சீடனுங் கூடிக் கலந்து
இருவரும் ஒரு தனியிடந் தனிற் சேர்ந்து
தானந்தமாகித் தற்பர வெளியில்
ஆனந்த போத அறிவைக் கலந்து
ஈசனிைணயடியிருத்தி
மனத்தே நீயே நானாய்
நானே நீயாய்க்
காயா புரியைக் கனவெனவுணா்ந்து
எல்லாமுன் செயலென்ேற உணர
நல்லா உன்னருள் நாட்டந் தருவாய்
காரண குருவே கற்பகத் களிேற
வாரணமுகத்து வள்ளலே போற்றி