https://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/Manishapanchakam.pdf
1. O great among the twice-born! What is it that you want to
move away by saying, ”Go, go”? Do you want the body made
up of food to move away from another body made up of food?
Or do you want consciousness to move away from
consciousness?
2. Is there any difference between the reflection of the sun in
the waters of the Ganga and its reflection in the water in a
ditch in the quarters of the outcastes? Or between the space in
a gold pot and in a mud pot? What is this illusion of difference
in the form, “This is a Brahmana and this is an outcaste” in
the indwelling self which is the ripple-free ocean of bliss and
pure consciousness?
1.If a person has attained the firm knowledge that he is not an
object of perception, but is that pure consciousness which
shines clearly in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep,
and which, as the witness of the whole universe, dwells in all
bodies from that of the Creator Brahma to that of the ant, then
he is my Guru, irrespective of whether he is an outcaste or a
Brahmana. This is my conviction.
2. “I am Brahman (pure consciousness). It is pure
consciousness that appears as this universe. All this is only
something conjured up by me because of avidya (nescience)
which is composed of the three gunas (sattva, rajas and
tamas)”. One who has attained this definite realization about
Brahman which is bliss itself, eternal, supreme and pure, is
my Guru, whether he is an outcaste or a Brahmana.
3. Having come to the definite conclusion, under the
instruction of his Guru, that the entire universe is always
perishable, he who, with a calm and pure mind constantly
meditates on Brahman, and who has burnt his past and
future sins in the fire of knowledge, submits his present body
to the operation of his prArabdha karma. This is my
conviction.
4. The Self or pure consciousness is experienced clearly within
by animals, men, and gods as ‘I’. It is by the reflection of this
pure consciousness that the mind, senses and body, which are
all insentient, appear to be sentient. External objects are
perceived only because of this consciousness. This Self is,
however, concealed by the very mind, senses and body which
are illumined by it, just as the sun is concealed by clouds. The
yogi who, with a calm mind, always meditates on this Self is
my Guru. This is my conviction.
5. The Self, which is Brahman, is the eternal ocean of supreme
bliss. A minute fraction of that bliss is enough to satisfy Indra
and other gods. By meditating on the Self with a perfectly calm
mind the sage experiences fulfillment. The person whose mind
has become identified with this Self is not a mere knower of
Brahman, but Brahman itself. Such a person, whoever he may
be, is one whose feet are fit to be worshipped by Indra himself.
This is my definite conviction
.... .......................... .....................................
Note. The Upanishads say that the happiness experienced by all living
beings, including the gods, is only a minute fraction of the supreme,
infinite bliss of Brahman (Brihadaranyaka, 4.3.32, Taittiriya, 2.8).
Knowing Brahman means knowing that one is Brahman and not the
body-mind complex. He who attains this knowledge is Brahman itself
(Mundaka, 3.2.9).Thus knowing Brahman is the same as remaining as
Brahman. It should be noted that this is not the attainment of any new
state. Every one is in reality Brahman, even when he is in bondage and
looks upon himself as a limited human being. Liberation is nothing but
the removal of the wrong identification with the body-mind complex by
the realization of his real nature as the infinite, eternal Brahman. A rope
is mistaken for a snake in dim light, but when it is examined with a light
it is found that there never was a snake and that there was only a rope
all the time. No one would say that there was a snake previously and
that it had gone away. Similarly, when a person realizes that he is not
the body-mind complex, but Brahman, it follows that he was always
Brahman and that only the wrong notion about himself has been
removed and nothing new has emerged. Thus there is no real bondage,
but the individual jIva thinks, wrongly, that he is in bondage, due to
ignorance of his real nature. When this ignorance is removed as a result
of shravaNa, manana, and nididhyAsana, the person becomes a
jIvanmukta here itself.
Note. The Self or pure consciousness is what enlivens the mind, senses,
etc., which are insentient, and enables them to function. Clouds owe
their origin to the heat of the sun which makes the water in the oceans
evaporate. The clouds become visible only because of the light of the sun
behind them. The same clouds hide the sun from our view. Similarly, the
body, mind, and senses, which owe their sentiency to the pure
consciousness that is the Self, conceal the Self from us by making us
engage ourselves in worldly pursuits all the time. The self can be realized
only if the senses and mind are withdrawn from external objects.
Note. Karma, in the sense of results of actions performed, is divided into
three categories . (1) sanchita karma—the accumulated results of actions
performed in past births, (2) prArabdha karma-- those results of past
actions which have given rise to the present body and (3) AgAmi karma—
the results of actions performed in the present birth. On the dawn of
Self-knowledge the first category is completely destroyed along with the
third category acquired up to the time of attainment of knowledge. After
the dawn of Self-knowledge any action performed does not produce any
result in the form of merit or demerit. The second category, prArabdha
karma, is not destroyed on the attainment of Self-knowledge, but has to
be exhausted only by being actually experienced. On the exhaustion of
this category of karma the body of the enlightened person falls and the
jIvanmukta becomes a videhamukta. This is brought out in the above
shloka by the statement that the enlightened person merely submits his
body to the operation of prArabdha karma.
Note. In the waking state the physical body as well as the senses and the
mind function and experience external objects. In the state of dream
there are no objects and the body and senses do not function, but the
mind creates objects and events and experiences them. In deep sleep
even the mind does not function. In all these three states consciousness
is present. In the first two states the presence of consciousness is
obvious because of the experience of external objects and the creations of
the mind respectively. It may appear as if in deep sleep there is no such
experience, but it is the experience of every one that on waking up he
remembers that he slept happily and did not know anything.
Remembrance is possible only of what has actually been experienced
previously. It therefore follows that consciousness existed during deep
sleep also and that it was because of this consciousness that happiness
and ignorance were experienced. This consciousness is thus the witness
of all experiences as well as the absence of experiences. This
consciousness is the Self that dwells in every living being. Everything
other than this consciousness is an object. The external objects are
objects of experience for the sense organs. The sense organs are objects
for the mind. The mind itself is an object for the consciousness or Self.
Thus the self alone is the subject and everything else is an object of
experience. The person who has realized that he is the Self and not the
mind or the senses or the physical body is an enlightened person. Such a
person is the Guru for the whole world.
Note. The indwelling self, which is identical with the supreme Self whose
nature is bliss and pure consciousness, is the same in all creatures. As
the Bhagavadgita says, “The enlightened see the same Self in the
Brahmana endowed with learning and humility, the cow, the elephant,
the dog and the outcaste” (5. 18).
Sunday, 21 July 2019
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Katha Upanishad
https://www.arshabodha.org/Kathopanishad/kathaTrans1.pdf
12−13 Nachiketa said: In the Heavenly World there is no fear whatsoever. You, O Death, are not there and no one is afraid of old age. Leaving behind both hunger and thirst and out of the reach of sorrow, all rejoice in Heaven. You know, O Death, the Fire−sacrifice, which leads to Heaven. Explain it to me, for I am full of faith. The inhabitants of Heaven attain immortality. This I ask as my second boon. 14 Yama said: I know well the Fire−sacrifice, which leads to Heaven and I will explain it to you. Listen to me. Know this Fire to be the means of attaining Heaven. It is the support of the universe; it is hidden in the hearts of the wise. 15 Yama then told him about the Fire, which is the source of the worlds and what bricks were to be gathered for the altar and how many and how the sacrificial fire was to be lighted. Nachiketa, too, repeated all this as it had been told him. Then Yama, being pleased with him, spoke again. 16 High−souled Death, being well pleased, said to Nachiketa: I will now give you another boon: this fire shall be named after you. Take also from me this many−coloured chain. 17 He who has performed three times this Nachiketa sacrifice, having been instructed by the three and also has performed his three duties, overcomes birth and death. Having known this Fire born of Brahman, omniscient, luminous and adorable and realised it, he attains supreme peace. 18 He who, having known the three, has performed three times the Nachiketa sacrifice, throws off, even here, the chains of death, overcomes grief and rejoices in Heaven. 19 This, O Nachiketa, is your Fire−sacrifice, which leads to Heaven and which you have chosen as your second boon. People will call this Fire by your name. Now, O Nachiketa, choose the third boon. 20 Nachiketa said: There is this doubt about a man when he is dead: Some say that he exists; others, that he does not. This I should like to know, taught by you. This is the third of my boons. Katha Upanishad 3 21 Yama said: On this subject even the gods formerly had their doubts. It is not easy to understand: the nature of Atman is subtle. Choose another boon, O Nachiketa! Do not press me. Release me from that boon. 22 Nachiketa said: O Death, even the gods have their doubts about this subject; and you have declared it to be not easy to understand. But another teacher like you cannot be found and surely no other boon is comparable to this. 23 Yama said: Choose sons and grandsons who shall live a hundred years; choose elephants, horses, herds of cattle and gold. Choose a vast domain on earth; live here as many years as you desires. 24 If you deem any other boon equal to that, choose it; choose wealth and a long life. Be the king, O Nachiketa, of the wide earth. I will make you the enjoyer of all desires. 25 Whatever desires are difficult to satisfy in this world of mortals, choose them as you wish: these fair maidens, with their chariots and musical instruments − men cannot obtain them. I give them to you and they shall wait upon you. But do not ask me about death. 26 Nachiketa said: But, O Death, these endure only till tomorrow. Furthermore, they exhaust the vigour of all the sense organs. Even the longest life is short indeed. Keep your horses, dances and songs for yourself. 27 Wealth can never make a man happy. Moreover, since I have beheld you, I shall certainly obtain wealth; I shall also live as long as you rule. Therefore no boon will be accepted by me but the one that I have asked. 28 Who among decaying mortals here below, having approached the undecaying immortals and coming to know that his higher needs may be fulfilled by them, would exult in a life over long, after he had pondered on the pleasures arising from beauty and song? 29 Tell me, O Death, of that Great Hereafter about which a man has his doubts. Chapter II 1 Yama said: The good is one thing; the pleasant, another. Both of these, serving different needs, bind a man. It goes well with him who, of the two, takes the good; but he who chooses the pleasant misses the end. Katha Upanishad 4 2 Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to a man. The calm soul examines them well and discriminates. Yea, he prefers the good to the pleasant; but the fool chooses the pleasant out of greed and avarice. 3 O Nachiketa, after pondering well the pleasures that are or seem to be delightful, you have renounced them all. You have not taken the road abounding in wealth, where many men sink. 4 Wide apart and leading to different ends are these two: ignorance and what is known as Knowledge. I regard you, O Nachiketa, to be one who desires Knowledge; for even many pleasures could not tempt you away. 5 Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. 6 The Hereafter never reveals itself to a person devoid of discrimination, heedless and perplexed by the delusion of wealth. "This world alone exists," he thinks, "and there is no other." Again and again he comes under my sway. 7 Many there are who do not even hear of Atman; though hearing of Him, many do not comprehend. Wonderful is the expounder and rare the hearer; rare indeed is the experiencer of Atman taught by an able preceptor. 8 Atman, when taught by an inferior person, is not easily comprehended, because It is diversely regarded by disputants. But when It is taught by him who has become one with Atman, there can remain no more doubt about It. Atman is subtler than the subtlest and not to be known through argument. 9 This Knowledge cannot be attained by reasoning. Atman become easy of comprehension, O dearest, when taught by another. You have attained this Knowledge now. You are, indeed, a man of true resolve. May we always have an inquirer like you! 10 Yama said: I know that the treasure resulting from action is not eternal; for what is eternal cannot be obtained by the non−eternal. Yet I have performed the Nachiketa sacrifice with the help of non−eternal things and attained this position which is only relatively eternal. 11 The fulfilment of desires, the foundation of the universe, the rewards of sacrifices, the shore where there is no fear, that which adorable and great, the wide abode and the goal−all this Katha Upanishad 5 you have seen; and being wise, you have with firm resolve discarded everything. 12 The wise man who, by means of concentration on the Self, realises that ancient, effulgent One, who is hard to be seen, unmanifest, hidden and who dwells in the buddhi and rests in the body−he, indeed, leaves joy and sorrow far behind. 13 The mortal who has heard this and comprehended it well, who has separated that Atman, the very soul of dharma, from all physical objects and has realised the subtle essence, rejoices because he has obtained that which is the cause of rejoicing. The Abode of Brahman, I believe, is open for Nachiketa. 14 Nachiketa said: That which you see as other than righteousness and unrighteousness, other than all this cause and effect, other than what has been and what is to be−tell me That. 15 Yama said: The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at and which men desire when they lead the life of continence, I will tell you briefly: it is Om. 16 This syllable Om is indeed Brahman. This syllable is the Highest. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires. 17 This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma. 18 The knowing Self is not born; It does not die. It has not sprung from anything; nothing has sprung from It. Birthless, eternal, everlasting and ancient, It is not killed when the body is killed. 19 If the killer thinks he kills and if the killed man thinks he is killed, neither of these apprehends aright. The Self kills not, nor is It killed. 20 Atman, smaller than the small, greater than the great, is hidden in the hearts of all living creatures. A man who is free from desires beholds the majesty of the Self through tranquillity of the senses and the mind and becomes free from grief. 21 Though sitting still, It travels far; though lying down, It goes everywhere. Who but myself can know that luminous Atman who rejoices and rejoices not? Katha Upanishad 6 22 The wise man, having realised Atman as dwelling within impermanent bodies but Itself bodiless, vast and all−pervading, does not grieve. 23 This Atman cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas, or by intelligence, or by much hearing of sacred books. It is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Atman reveals Its own form. 24 He who has not first turn away from wickedness, who is not tranquil and subdued and whose mind is not at peace, cannot attain Atman. It is realised only through the Knowledge of Reality. 25 Who, then, knows where He is−He to whom Brahmins and kshattriyas are mere food and death itself a condiment? Chapter III 1 Two there are who dwell within the body, in the intellect, the supreme akasa of the heart, enjoying the sure rewards of their own actions. The knowers of Brahman describe them as light and shade, as do those householders who have offered oblations in the Five Fires and also those who have thrice performed the Nachiketa sacrifice. 2 We know how to perform the Nachiketa sacrifice, which is the bridge for sacrificers; and we know also that supreme, imperishable Brahman, which is sought by those who wish to cross over to the shore where there is no fear. 3 Know the atman to be the master of the chariot; the body, chariot; the intellect, the charioteer; and the mind, the reins. 4 The senses, they say, are the horses; the objects, the roads. The wise call the atman−united with the body, the senses and the mind−the enjoyer. 5 If the buddhi, being related to a mind that is always distracted, loses its discriminations, then the senses become uncontrolled, like the vicious horses of a charioteer. 6 But if the buddhi, being related to a mind that is always restrained, possesses discrimination, then the senses come under control, like the good horses of a charioteer. Katha Upanishad 7 7 If the buddhi, being related to a distracted mind, loses its discrimination and therefore always remains impure, then the embodied soul never attains the goal, but enters into the round of births. 8 But if the buddhi, being related to a mind that is restrained, possesses discrimination and therefore always remains pure, then the embodied soul attains that goal from which he is not born again. 9 A man who has discrimination for his charioteer and holds the reins of the mind firmly, reaches the end of the road; and that is the supreme position of Vishnu. 10−11 Beyond the senses are the objects; beyond the objects is the mind; beyond the mind, the intellect; beyond the intellect, the Great Atman; beyond the Great Atman, the Unmanifest; beyond the Unmanifest, the Purusha. Beyond the Purusha there is nothing: this is the end, the Supreme Goal. 12 That Self hidden in all beings does not shine forth; but It is seen by subtle seers through their one−pointed and subtle intellects. 13 The wise man should merge his speech in his mind and his mind in his intellect. He should merge his intellect in the Cosmic Mind and the Cosmic Mind in the Tranquil Self. 14 Arise! Awake! Approach the great and learn. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, so the wise say−hard to tread and difficult to cross. 15 Having realised Atman, which is soundless, intangible, formless, undecaying and likewise tasteless, eternal and odourless; having realised That which is without beginning and end, beyond the Great and unchanging−one is freed from the jaws of death. 16 The wise man who has heard and related the eternal story of Nachiketa, told by Death, is adored in the world of Brahman. 17 And he who, practising self−control, recites the supreme secret in an assembly of Brahmins or at a after−death ceremony obtains thereby infinite rewards. Yea, he obtains infinite rewards. Part Two − Chapter I Katha Upanishad 8 1 Yama said: The self−existent Supreme Lord inflicted an injury upon the sense−organs in creating them with outgoing tendencies; therefore a man perceives only outer objects with them and not the inner Self. But a calm person, wishing for Immortality, beholds the inner Self with his eyes closed. 2 Children pursue outer pleasures and fall into the net of widespread death; but calm souls, having known what is unshakable Immortality, do not covet any uncertain thing in this world. 3 It is through Atman that one knows form, taste, smell, sounds, touches and carnal pleasures. Is there anything that remains unknown to Atman? This, verily, is That. 4 It is through Atman that one perceives all objects in sleep or in the waking state. Having realised the vast, all−pervading Atman, the calm soul does not grieve. 5 He who knows the individual soul, the experiencer of the fruits of action, as Atman, always near and the Lord of the past and the future, will not conceal himself from others. This, verily, is That. 6 He verily knows Brahman who knows the First−born, the offspring of austerity, created prior to the waters and dwelling, with the elements, in the cave of the heart. This, verily, is That. 7 He verily knows Brahman who knows Aditi, the soul of all deities, who was born in the form of Prana, who was created with the elements and who, entering into the heart, abides therein. This, verily, is That. 8 Agni, hidden in the two fire−sticks and well guarded−like a child in the womb, by its mother−is worshipped day after day by men who are awake and by those who offer oblations in the sacrifices. This, verily, is That. 9 Whence the sun rises and whither it goes to set, in whom all the devas are contained and whom none can ever pass beyond−This, verily, is That. 10 What is here, the same is there and what is there, the same is here. He goes from death to death who sees any difference here. 11 By the mind alone is Brahman to be realised; then one does not see in It any multiplicity Katha Upanishad 9 whatsoever. He goes from death to death who sees multiplicity in It. This, verily, is That. 12 The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, dwells in the body. He is the Lord of the past and the future. After knowing Him, one does not conceal oneself any more. This, verily, is That. 13 The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, is like a flame without smoke. The Lord of the past and the future, He is the same today and tomorrow. This, verily, is That. 14 As rainwater falling on a mountain peak runs down the rocks in all directions, even so he who sees the attributes as different from Brahman verily runs after them in all directions. 15 As pure water poured into pure water becomes one with it, so also, O Gautama, does the Self of the sage who knows. Chapter II 1 There is a city with eleven gates belonging to the unborn Atman of undistorted Consciousness. He who meditates on Him grieves no more; liberated from the bonds of ignorance, he becomes free. This, verily, is That. 2 He is the sun dwelling in the bright heavens. He is the air in the interspace. He is the fire dwelling on earth. He is the guest dwelling in the house. He dwells in men, in the gods, in truth, in the sky. He is born in the water, on earth, in the sacrifice, on the mountains. He is the True and the Great. 3 He it is who sends prana upward and who leads apana downward. All the devas worship that adorable One seated in the middle. 4 When the soul, identified with the body and dwelling in it, is torn away from the body, is freed from it, what then remains? This, verily, is That? 5 No mortal ever lives by prana, which goes up, nor by apana, which goes down. Men live by something different, on which these two depend. 6 Well then, Gautama, I shall tell you about this profound and eternal Brahman and also about what happens to the atman after meeting death. Katha Upanishad 10 7 Some jivas enter the womb to be embodied as organic beings and some go into non−organic matter−according to their work and according to their knowledge. 8 He, the Purusha, who remains awake while the sense−organs are asleep, shaping one lovely form after another, that indeed is the Pure, that is Brahman and that alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are contained in Him and none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That. 9 As the same non−dual fire, after it has entered the world, becomes different according to whatever it burns, so also the same non−dual Atman, dwelling in all beings, becomes different according to whatever It enters. And It exists also without. 10 As the same non−dual air, after it has entered the world, becomes different according to whatever it enters, so also the same non−dual Atman, dwelling in all beings, becomes different according to whatever It enters. And It exists also without. 11 As the sun, which helps all eyes to see, is not affected by the blemishes of the eyes or of the external things revealed by it, so also the one Atman, dwelling in all beings, is never contaminated by the misery of the world, being outside it. 12 There is one Supreme Ruler, the inmost Self of all beings, who makes His one form manifold. Eternal happiness belongs to the wise, who perceive Him within themselves−not to others. 13 There is One who is the eternal Reality among non−eternal objects, the one truly conscious Entity among conscious objects and who, though non−dual, fulfils the desires of many. Eternal peace belongs to the wise, who perceive Him within themselves−not to others. 14 The sages realise that indescribable Supreme Joy as "This is That." How can I realise It? Is It self−luminous? Does It shine brightly, or not? 15 The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightnings−not to speak of this fire. He shining, everything shines after Him. By His light all this is lighted.
Chapter III 1 This is that eternal Asvattha Tree with its root above and branches below. That root, indeed, is called the Bright; That is Brahman and That alone is the Immortal. In That all Katha Upanishad 11 worlds are contained and none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That. 2 Whatever there is−the whole universe−vibrates because it has gone forth from Brahman, which exists as its Ground. That Brahman is a great terror, like a poised thunderbolt. Those who know It become immortal. 3 From terror of Brahman, fire burns; from terror of It, the sun shines; from terror of It, Indra and Vayu and Death, the fifth, run. 4 If a man is able to realise Brahman here, before the falling asunder of his body, then he is liberated; if not, he is embodied again in the created worlds. 5 As in a mirror, so in the buddhi; as in a dream, so in the World of the Fathers; as in water, so Brahman is seen in the World of the Gandharvas; as in light and shade, so in the World of Brahma. 6 Having understood that the senses have their separate origin and that they are distinct from Atman and also that their rising and setting belong to them alone, a wise man grieves no more. 7 Beyond the senses is the mind, beyond the mind is the intellect, higher than the intellect is the Great Atman, higher than the Great Atman is the Unmanifest. 8 Beyond the Unmanifest is the Person, all−pervading and imperceptible. Having realised Him, the embodied self becomes liberated and attains Immortality. 9 His form is not an object of vision; no one beholds Him with the eye. One can know Him when He is revealed by the intellect free from doubt and by constant meditation. Those who know this become immortal. 10 When the five instruments of knowledge stand still, together with the mind and when the intellect does not move, that is called the Supreme State. 11 This, the firm Control of the senses, is what is called yoga. One must then be vigilant; for yoga can be both beneficial and injurious. 12 Atman cannot be attained by speech, by the mind, or by the eye. How can It be realised in Katha Upanishad 12 any other way than by the affirmation of him who says: "He is"? 13 He is to be realised first as Existence limited by upadhis and then in His true transcendental nature. Of these two aspects, Atman realised as Existence leads the knower to the realisation of His true nature. 14 When all the desires that dwell in the heart fall away, then the mortal becomes immortal and here attains Brahman. 15 When all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the teaching. 16 There are one hundred and one arteries of the heart, one of which pierces the crown of the head. Going upward by it, a man at death attains immortality. But when his prana passes out by other arteries, going in different directions, then he is reborn in the world. 17 The Purusha, not larger than a thumb, the inner Self, always dwells in the hearts of men. Let a man separate Him from his body with steadiness, as one separates the tender stalk from a blade of grass. Let him know that Self as the Bright, as the Immortal−yea, as the Bright, as the Immortal. 18 Having received this wisdom taught by the King of Death and the entire process of yoga, Nachiketa became free from impurities and death and attained Brahman. Thus it will be also with any other who knows, in this manner, the inmost Self.
12−13 Nachiketa said: In the Heavenly World there is no fear whatsoever. You, O Death, are not there and no one is afraid of old age. Leaving behind both hunger and thirst and out of the reach of sorrow, all rejoice in Heaven. You know, O Death, the Fire−sacrifice, which leads to Heaven. Explain it to me, for I am full of faith. The inhabitants of Heaven attain immortality. This I ask as my second boon. 14 Yama said: I know well the Fire−sacrifice, which leads to Heaven and I will explain it to you. Listen to me. Know this Fire to be the means of attaining Heaven. It is the support of the universe; it is hidden in the hearts of the wise. 15 Yama then told him about the Fire, which is the source of the worlds and what bricks were to be gathered for the altar and how many and how the sacrificial fire was to be lighted. Nachiketa, too, repeated all this as it had been told him. Then Yama, being pleased with him, spoke again. 16 High−souled Death, being well pleased, said to Nachiketa: I will now give you another boon: this fire shall be named after you. Take also from me this many−coloured chain. 17 He who has performed three times this Nachiketa sacrifice, having been instructed by the three and also has performed his three duties, overcomes birth and death. Having known this Fire born of Brahman, omniscient, luminous and adorable and realised it, he attains supreme peace. 18 He who, having known the three, has performed three times the Nachiketa sacrifice, throws off, even here, the chains of death, overcomes grief and rejoices in Heaven. 19 This, O Nachiketa, is your Fire−sacrifice, which leads to Heaven and which you have chosen as your second boon. People will call this Fire by your name. Now, O Nachiketa, choose the third boon. 20 Nachiketa said: There is this doubt about a man when he is dead: Some say that he exists; others, that he does not. This I should like to know, taught by you. This is the third of my boons. Katha Upanishad 3 21 Yama said: On this subject even the gods formerly had their doubts. It is not easy to understand: the nature of Atman is subtle. Choose another boon, O Nachiketa! Do not press me. Release me from that boon. 22 Nachiketa said: O Death, even the gods have their doubts about this subject; and you have declared it to be not easy to understand. But another teacher like you cannot be found and surely no other boon is comparable to this. 23 Yama said: Choose sons and grandsons who shall live a hundred years; choose elephants, horses, herds of cattle and gold. Choose a vast domain on earth; live here as many years as you desires. 24 If you deem any other boon equal to that, choose it; choose wealth and a long life. Be the king, O Nachiketa, of the wide earth. I will make you the enjoyer of all desires. 25 Whatever desires are difficult to satisfy in this world of mortals, choose them as you wish: these fair maidens, with their chariots and musical instruments − men cannot obtain them. I give them to you and they shall wait upon you. But do not ask me about death. 26 Nachiketa said: But, O Death, these endure only till tomorrow. Furthermore, they exhaust the vigour of all the sense organs. Even the longest life is short indeed. Keep your horses, dances and songs for yourself. 27 Wealth can never make a man happy. Moreover, since I have beheld you, I shall certainly obtain wealth; I shall also live as long as you rule. Therefore no boon will be accepted by me but the one that I have asked. 28 Who among decaying mortals here below, having approached the undecaying immortals and coming to know that his higher needs may be fulfilled by them, would exult in a life over long, after he had pondered on the pleasures arising from beauty and song? 29 Tell me, O Death, of that Great Hereafter about which a man has his doubts. Chapter II 1 Yama said: The good is one thing; the pleasant, another. Both of these, serving different needs, bind a man. It goes well with him who, of the two, takes the good; but he who chooses the pleasant misses the end. Katha Upanishad 4 2 Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to a man. The calm soul examines them well and discriminates. Yea, he prefers the good to the pleasant; but the fool chooses the pleasant out of greed and avarice. 3 O Nachiketa, after pondering well the pleasures that are or seem to be delightful, you have renounced them all. You have not taken the road abounding in wealth, where many men sink. 4 Wide apart and leading to different ends are these two: ignorance and what is known as Knowledge. I regard you, O Nachiketa, to be one who desires Knowledge; for even many pleasures could not tempt you away. 5 Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. 6 The Hereafter never reveals itself to a person devoid of discrimination, heedless and perplexed by the delusion of wealth. "This world alone exists," he thinks, "and there is no other." Again and again he comes under my sway. 7 Many there are who do not even hear of Atman; though hearing of Him, many do not comprehend. Wonderful is the expounder and rare the hearer; rare indeed is the experiencer of Atman taught by an able preceptor. 8 Atman, when taught by an inferior person, is not easily comprehended, because It is diversely regarded by disputants. But when It is taught by him who has become one with Atman, there can remain no more doubt about It. Atman is subtler than the subtlest and not to be known through argument. 9 This Knowledge cannot be attained by reasoning. Atman become easy of comprehension, O dearest, when taught by another. You have attained this Knowledge now. You are, indeed, a man of true resolve. May we always have an inquirer like you! 10 Yama said: I know that the treasure resulting from action is not eternal; for what is eternal cannot be obtained by the non−eternal. Yet I have performed the Nachiketa sacrifice with the help of non−eternal things and attained this position which is only relatively eternal. 11 The fulfilment of desires, the foundation of the universe, the rewards of sacrifices, the shore where there is no fear, that which adorable and great, the wide abode and the goal−all this Katha Upanishad 5 you have seen; and being wise, you have with firm resolve discarded everything. 12 The wise man who, by means of concentration on the Self, realises that ancient, effulgent One, who is hard to be seen, unmanifest, hidden and who dwells in the buddhi and rests in the body−he, indeed, leaves joy and sorrow far behind. 13 The mortal who has heard this and comprehended it well, who has separated that Atman, the very soul of dharma, from all physical objects and has realised the subtle essence, rejoices because he has obtained that which is the cause of rejoicing. The Abode of Brahman, I believe, is open for Nachiketa. 14 Nachiketa said: That which you see as other than righteousness and unrighteousness, other than all this cause and effect, other than what has been and what is to be−tell me That. 15 Yama said: The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at and which men desire when they lead the life of continence, I will tell you briefly: it is Om. 16 This syllable Om is indeed Brahman. This syllable is the Highest. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires. 17 This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma. 18 The knowing Self is not born; It does not die. It has not sprung from anything; nothing has sprung from It. Birthless, eternal, everlasting and ancient, It is not killed when the body is killed. 19 If the killer thinks he kills and if the killed man thinks he is killed, neither of these apprehends aright. The Self kills not, nor is It killed. 20 Atman, smaller than the small, greater than the great, is hidden in the hearts of all living creatures. A man who is free from desires beholds the majesty of the Self through tranquillity of the senses and the mind and becomes free from grief. 21 Though sitting still, It travels far; though lying down, It goes everywhere. Who but myself can know that luminous Atman who rejoices and rejoices not? Katha Upanishad 6 22 The wise man, having realised Atman as dwelling within impermanent bodies but Itself bodiless, vast and all−pervading, does not grieve. 23 This Atman cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas, or by intelligence, or by much hearing of sacred books. It is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Atman reveals Its own form. 24 He who has not first turn away from wickedness, who is not tranquil and subdued and whose mind is not at peace, cannot attain Atman. It is realised only through the Knowledge of Reality. 25 Who, then, knows where He is−He to whom Brahmins and kshattriyas are mere food and death itself a condiment? Chapter III 1 Two there are who dwell within the body, in the intellect, the supreme akasa of the heart, enjoying the sure rewards of their own actions. The knowers of Brahman describe them as light and shade, as do those householders who have offered oblations in the Five Fires and also those who have thrice performed the Nachiketa sacrifice. 2 We know how to perform the Nachiketa sacrifice, which is the bridge for sacrificers; and we know also that supreme, imperishable Brahman, which is sought by those who wish to cross over to the shore where there is no fear. 3 Know the atman to be the master of the chariot; the body, chariot; the intellect, the charioteer; and the mind, the reins. 4 The senses, they say, are the horses; the objects, the roads. The wise call the atman−united with the body, the senses and the mind−the enjoyer. 5 If the buddhi, being related to a mind that is always distracted, loses its discriminations, then the senses become uncontrolled, like the vicious horses of a charioteer. 6 But if the buddhi, being related to a mind that is always restrained, possesses discrimination, then the senses come under control, like the good horses of a charioteer. Katha Upanishad 7 7 If the buddhi, being related to a distracted mind, loses its discrimination and therefore always remains impure, then the embodied soul never attains the goal, but enters into the round of births. 8 But if the buddhi, being related to a mind that is restrained, possesses discrimination and therefore always remains pure, then the embodied soul attains that goal from which he is not born again. 9 A man who has discrimination for his charioteer and holds the reins of the mind firmly, reaches the end of the road; and that is the supreme position of Vishnu. 10−11 Beyond the senses are the objects; beyond the objects is the mind; beyond the mind, the intellect; beyond the intellect, the Great Atman; beyond the Great Atman, the Unmanifest; beyond the Unmanifest, the Purusha. Beyond the Purusha there is nothing: this is the end, the Supreme Goal. 12 That Self hidden in all beings does not shine forth; but It is seen by subtle seers through their one−pointed and subtle intellects. 13 The wise man should merge his speech in his mind and his mind in his intellect. He should merge his intellect in the Cosmic Mind and the Cosmic Mind in the Tranquil Self. 14 Arise! Awake! Approach the great and learn. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, so the wise say−hard to tread and difficult to cross. 15 Having realised Atman, which is soundless, intangible, formless, undecaying and likewise tasteless, eternal and odourless; having realised That which is without beginning and end, beyond the Great and unchanging−one is freed from the jaws of death. 16 The wise man who has heard and related the eternal story of Nachiketa, told by Death, is adored in the world of Brahman. 17 And he who, practising self−control, recites the supreme secret in an assembly of Brahmins or at a after−death ceremony obtains thereby infinite rewards. Yea, he obtains infinite rewards. Part Two − Chapter I Katha Upanishad 8 1 Yama said: The self−existent Supreme Lord inflicted an injury upon the sense−organs in creating them with outgoing tendencies; therefore a man perceives only outer objects with them and not the inner Self. But a calm person, wishing for Immortality, beholds the inner Self with his eyes closed. 2 Children pursue outer pleasures and fall into the net of widespread death; but calm souls, having known what is unshakable Immortality, do not covet any uncertain thing in this world. 3 It is through Atman that one knows form, taste, smell, sounds, touches and carnal pleasures. Is there anything that remains unknown to Atman? This, verily, is That. 4 It is through Atman that one perceives all objects in sleep or in the waking state. Having realised the vast, all−pervading Atman, the calm soul does not grieve. 5 He who knows the individual soul, the experiencer of the fruits of action, as Atman, always near and the Lord of the past and the future, will not conceal himself from others. This, verily, is That. 6 He verily knows Brahman who knows the First−born, the offspring of austerity, created prior to the waters and dwelling, with the elements, in the cave of the heart. This, verily, is That. 7 He verily knows Brahman who knows Aditi, the soul of all deities, who was born in the form of Prana, who was created with the elements and who, entering into the heart, abides therein. This, verily, is That. 8 Agni, hidden in the two fire−sticks and well guarded−like a child in the womb, by its mother−is worshipped day after day by men who are awake and by those who offer oblations in the sacrifices. This, verily, is That. 9 Whence the sun rises and whither it goes to set, in whom all the devas are contained and whom none can ever pass beyond−This, verily, is That. 10 What is here, the same is there and what is there, the same is here. He goes from death to death who sees any difference here. 11 By the mind alone is Brahman to be realised; then one does not see in It any multiplicity Katha Upanishad 9 whatsoever. He goes from death to death who sees multiplicity in It. This, verily, is That. 12 The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, dwells in the body. He is the Lord of the past and the future. After knowing Him, one does not conceal oneself any more. This, verily, is That. 13 The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, is like a flame without smoke. The Lord of the past and the future, He is the same today and tomorrow. This, verily, is That. 14 As rainwater falling on a mountain peak runs down the rocks in all directions, even so he who sees the attributes as different from Brahman verily runs after them in all directions. 15 As pure water poured into pure water becomes one with it, so also, O Gautama, does the Self of the sage who knows. Chapter II 1 There is a city with eleven gates belonging to the unborn Atman of undistorted Consciousness. He who meditates on Him grieves no more; liberated from the bonds of ignorance, he becomes free. This, verily, is That. 2 He is the sun dwelling in the bright heavens. He is the air in the interspace. He is the fire dwelling on earth. He is the guest dwelling in the house. He dwells in men, in the gods, in truth, in the sky. He is born in the water, on earth, in the sacrifice, on the mountains. He is the True and the Great. 3 He it is who sends prana upward and who leads apana downward. All the devas worship that adorable One seated in the middle. 4 When the soul, identified with the body and dwelling in it, is torn away from the body, is freed from it, what then remains? This, verily, is That? 5 No mortal ever lives by prana, which goes up, nor by apana, which goes down. Men live by something different, on which these two depend. 6 Well then, Gautama, I shall tell you about this profound and eternal Brahman and also about what happens to the atman after meeting death. Katha Upanishad 10 7 Some jivas enter the womb to be embodied as organic beings and some go into non−organic matter−according to their work and according to their knowledge. 8 He, the Purusha, who remains awake while the sense−organs are asleep, shaping one lovely form after another, that indeed is the Pure, that is Brahman and that alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are contained in Him and none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That. 9 As the same non−dual fire, after it has entered the world, becomes different according to whatever it burns, so also the same non−dual Atman, dwelling in all beings, becomes different according to whatever It enters. And It exists also without. 10 As the same non−dual air, after it has entered the world, becomes different according to whatever it enters, so also the same non−dual Atman, dwelling in all beings, becomes different according to whatever It enters. And It exists also without. 11 As the sun, which helps all eyes to see, is not affected by the blemishes of the eyes or of the external things revealed by it, so also the one Atman, dwelling in all beings, is never contaminated by the misery of the world, being outside it. 12 There is one Supreme Ruler, the inmost Self of all beings, who makes His one form manifold. Eternal happiness belongs to the wise, who perceive Him within themselves−not to others. 13 There is One who is the eternal Reality among non−eternal objects, the one truly conscious Entity among conscious objects and who, though non−dual, fulfils the desires of many. Eternal peace belongs to the wise, who perceive Him within themselves−not to others. 14 The sages realise that indescribable Supreme Joy as "This is That." How can I realise It? Is It self−luminous? Does It shine brightly, or not? 15 The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightnings−not to speak of this fire. He shining, everything shines after Him. By His light all this is lighted.
Chapter III 1 This is that eternal Asvattha Tree with its root above and branches below. That root, indeed, is called the Bright; That is Brahman and That alone is the Immortal. In That all Katha Upanishad 11 worlds are contained and none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That. 2 Whatever there is−the whole universe−vibrates because it has gone forth from Brahman, which exists as its Ground. That Brahman is a great terror, like a poised thunderbolt. Those who know It become immortal. 3 From terror of Brahman, fire burns; from terror of It, the sun shines; from terror of It, Indra and Vayu and Death, the fifth, run. 4 If a man is able to realise Brahman here, before the falling asunder of his body, then he is liberated; if not, he is embodied again in the created worlds. 5 As in a mirror, so in the buddhi; as in a dream, so in the World of the Fathers; as in water, so Brahman is seen in the World of the Gandharvas; as in light and shade, so in the World of Brahma. 6 Having understood that the senses have their separate origin and that they are distinct from Atman and also that their rising and setting belong to them alone, a wise man grieves no more. 7 Beyond the senses is the mind, beyond the mind is the intellect, higher than the intellect is the Great Atman, higher than the Great Atman is the Unmanifest. 8 Beyond the Unmanifest is the Person, all−pervading and imperceptible. Having realised Him, the embodied self becomes liberated and attains Immortality. 9 His form is not an object of vision; no one beholds Him with the eye. One can know Him when He is revealed by the intellect free from doubt and by constant meditation. Those who know this become immortal. 10 When the five instruments of knowledge stand still, together with the mind and when the intellect does not move, that is called the Supreme State. 11 This, the firm Control of the senses, is what is called yoga. One must then be vigilant; for yoga can be both beneficial and injurious. 12 Atman cannot be attained by speech, by the mind, or by the eye. How can It be realised in Katha Upanishad 12 any other way than by the affirmation of him who says: "He is"? 13 He is to be realised first as Existence limited by upadhis and then in His true transcendental nature. Of these two aspects, Atman realised as Existence leads the knower to the realisation of His true nature. 14 When all the desires that dwell in the heart fall away, then the mortal becomes immortal and here attains Brahman. 15 When all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the teaching. 16 There are one hundred and one arteries of the heart, one of which pierces the crown of the head. Going upward by it, a man at death attains immortality. But when his prana passes out by other arteries, going in different directions, then he is reborn in the world. 17 The Purusha, not larger than a thumb, the inner Self, always dwells in the hearts of men. Let a man separate Him from his body with steadiness, as one separates the tender stalk from a blade of grass. Let him know that Self as the Bright, as the Immortal−yea, as the Bright, as the Immortal. 18 Having received this wisdom taught by the King of Death and the entire process of yoga, Nachiketa became free from impurities and death and attained Brahman. Thus it will be also with any other who knows, in this manner, the inmost Self.
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Swarupa saram / Ellam ondre/ vakya vritti / sadhanai saram
https://davidgodman.org/tamilt/Sorupa_Saram_final.pdf
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The great tapasvin devotedly worships with the flower of tranquil space and with the mantra of aloneness the deity [who abides as] the expanse of consciousness in the temple of the body. Who can equal those who live forever, revering such jnanis?
53
You who, babbling the scriptures, become haughty! You who accumulate karma with your caste and lineage! Can you not become sattvic, know your Self through your Self, give up unceasing activity and remain still?
56
Question: If so, is yoga good?
Answer: For knowing consciousness it is not necessary.
They will practise the highly respected yoga, remaining in a corner and controlling their breath and speech. For seeing and abiding as supreme consciousness, why this sadhana? They are attempting to eat and live here for a long time by making the body strong.
59
Question: Is not sadhana necessary to know the Self?
Answer: What use is a sadhana that does not enable one to see the sadhaka?
The objects, which are seen to be many, such as male, female and neuter, and the seer who remains as one – all this is only the manifestation of the excellent consciousness. Can they exist apart from consciousness? However much sadhana they practise, how will it be of use for those who do not know this clearly?
60
Question: Why do they suffer instead of enquiring and realising the Self?
Answer: They suffer because what they have known to be one by studying has not been experienced.
62
Question: Then what is the way to attain Sivam?
Answer: The way to see one’s Self is by rejecting everything else as maya.
64
Question: If one renounces the jnana sastras, how can one attain the bliss of liberation?
Answer: Liberation is only delighting in the Self through tranquillity and without anxiety. When this is attained, what is the use of books? One may know the jnana sastras, or take up good sannyasa, or attempt to experience mauna samadhi, but the indescribable delight of liberation is simply to become the Self, remaining free of all anxiety, experiencing bliss.
He may be endowed with learning, or established in great yoga, or his body and senses may be active, but he who does not merge with supreme grace will not know tranquillity and will not obtain the final reward, the bliss of liberation that never fails.
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Question: If so, do they not have to experience even prarabdha?
Answer: If one remains without movement as the Self, like the column supporting the windmill, the prarabdha will exhaust itself.
70
Question: How did this experience arise?
Answer: It was obtained providentially through the grace of the Guru.
Like a sweet mango fruit appearing under the thorny karuvelam tree, the divine lotus feet of the Guru – who has the power to bestow the grace to transform me into the reality that is sought by everyone, everywhere – came to me who was replete with evil, taking birth over and over again.
71
Question: Is getting this experience so difficult?
Answer: It is extremely difficult.
72
Question: What is the benefit of this experience?
Answer: It is obtaining the Self that is beyond the mind. I did not obtain anything other than my Self. I had my Self in my possession all the time. Separate from me, there is no bondage or release. If one sees [this], even the mind that enquires into these is non-existent.
74 Question: How to get rid of the vasana of the gross body?
Answer: It should be rejected by seeing it as the form of food. You body who remain as the sheath of food! If you do as I tell you, you will experience bliss as long as you live. I swear to this. Do not go near evil and useless vasanas. Whatever comes according to prarabdha, remain a mere witness.
75 Question: How to remove [or be rid of] the senses of perception?
Answer: They should be removed by seeing them as the Self. O senses! You cherished and nourished me all these years. Now I have become blissful consciousness. Even you, who [appear to] become different from me, I have come to know as my Self. Henceforth, remain one with me, without becoming divergent.
76 Question: How to be rid of desires?
Answer: Through desire for realisation of the truth. O desire! Though I suffered much through you, on account of your help I dwelt in the Self. I reached the Sadguru through you. In liberation I have, along with you, become the Self. I swear to this.
77 Question: How to destroy anger?
Answer Through tranquillity. O anger! Through you I rid myself of my deficiency. Because of the weariness experienced by your rising that invariably produced misery, I rid myself of this danger
and dwelt in supreme tranquillity. Even in dream, do not rise up in lamentation, but remain calm.
79 Question: How to dissolve the mind?
Answer: It should be dissolved in the Self, which is its basis. O mind! I myself am you. You yourself are me. Despite being so, deceitfully you forgot me. That I am surrendered to you is also true. But do not remain different from me, the reality.
80 [The same answer continues in verses 80, 81 and 82.] My mind! You roamed about, laboured hard and learned many arts, seeking a way to make a living. You sought and gave me a Sadguru. To you who were so considerate to me, what help did I render in return?
81 O mind! Just as I once remained, assuming your form, now you have come and merged with me as my own form. Is there anyone like you who values the virtue of gratitude? Dwell henceforth in the loving care of the supreme state, without returning to your prior form.
82 O mind! You remained, right from the beginning, without renouncing love towards me. Through that love you gave me the benefit of cultivating all the virtues of a devotee, beginning with forbearance. You removed desire and its progeny. Now, like me, you remain still through good and proper discernment.
86 Question: Is this the experience of all jnanis?
Answer: There is no experience other than this experience of the Self. He who has attained liberation will see, as not different from his Self, all this world that rises in the Self, which remains in the Self, and which merges in the Self. Will he see it as opposed to his Self?
87 Question: Will likes and dislikes arise in him?
Answer: As everything has become his Self, they will not arise in him. For what will he desire? For what will he rise as ‘I’? For what will he experience envy and malice? He will dwell as the unmoving support for everything, as the sum of all things animate and inanimate, like the great Meru mountain that is the axis for the seven worlds.
89 Question: How to determine those with such experience?
Answer: They remain unruffled in joy and misery. They should be known by taking this as the hallmark. Only he is a jnani whose mind does not get agitated, who does not identify with and desire [objects] before him, and whose state of purity never wavers whether he lives on alms in poverty or enjoys the illusory state of being Brahma.
95
Question: What does the jnani think?
Answer: There are only thoughts that everything is the Self.
The jivanmukta is he who has become one [with the reality] through the experience ‘I have seen myself everywhere; I have seen everything in me’; who possesses intensely and clearly the experience of having learned ‘unlearning’, and who has renounced everything.
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Question: What are the disciplines and pujas for the jnani?
Answer: They are meditating on the Self, and so on.
Meditating on consciousness is bathing for a jnani. Whatever external appearances he delights in, that is noble discipline. Whatever he obtains as alms and eats without ego, that is his supreme puja. His faultless movements are pure samadhi.
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Sorupa Saram (The Essence of One’s Own True Nature) by Sorupananda Sorupa Saram (also known as Swarupa Saram when it is spelt in the Sanskrit way) is a Tamil advaitic work that was composed by Sorupananda, a distinguished Tamil saint and Guru who lived near Virai, a Tamil town, probably around the end of the sixteenth century. He is associated historically with Tattvarayar, an eminent scholar who was also his sister’s son. The following biographical information about them has been taken from a Tamil introduction to Sorupa Saram:
1 Sorupananda and Tattvarayar were fluent in Sanskrit and Tamil, and both were learned in all the sastras. However, the true realisation dawned upon them that the profit to be gained from this limited knowledge, however praiseworthy, did not have the power to grant freedom from birth in the way that true knowledge does. They realised that it showed a lack of judgement on their part to devote their time any longer to the acquisition of this limited knowledge, which confers advantages in this life only. By doing so, they would waste a human birth, something that is very hard to attain. Since they were both overcome by a desire to free themselves from worldly attachments, they devoted themselves to the task of seeking out a Sadguru who could bestow jnana. Having made this resolution, the two of them, before leaving their dwelling-place, made an agreement with one another: ‘Whichever of us is first to obtain the fortune of a Guru’s darshan, he shall assume the position of Guru to the other.’ They then set out on a pilgrimage, Sorupananda to the South, and Tattvarayar to the North. Upon the banks of the Kaveri, in a holy place called Govattam, Sorupananda had a miraculous experience in which he attained a tranquillity of mind that had thus far eluded him. ‘This occurrence is due to the presence here of some great mahatma,’ he decided. Upon consulting the learned people in that place, he discovered that a great being called Sri Sivaprakasa Swami dwelt there in a patch of rushes, immersed in perpetual samadhi. However, he ascertained that on a few occasions he had been known to come outside in the morning time. Going immediately to the holy presence of that Sadguru, he waited until Sivaprakasa Swami emerged from his state of absorption and came outside. Making obeisance in the proper manner, he beseeched him to accept him as his devotee. When he had received the Guru’s grace, Sorupananda waited for Tattvarayar’s return. Tattvarayar had travelled to the North, but he had not obtained the darshan of any Guru. When he lost all hope of doing so, he gave up his search and returned to the South. On his way, he had the good fortune to meet Sorupananda, who by that time had realised the Self. Tattvarayar then received the grace of his uncle. Whilst Sorupananda and Tattvarayar were peacefully dwelling in this way as Guru and disciple, Sorupananda one day ordered that oil be brought for an oil bath. Since that day was amavasai [new moon], the disciple was acutely aware of the sastraic injunction that an oil bath was forbidden on the day of the ancestors. ‘But today is amavasai,’ he said. On hearing this, Sorupananda said: ‘What have all the prohibitions of the sastras to do with sadhus? Although you have dwelt in my presence for many days, you remain unable to free yourself from the constraints of the sastras. Is there really any advantage in your remaining here any longer?’ 1 Sorupa Saram, pub. Kasyapa Nagarajan, 1971. Thus, by means of this question and answer, he confirmed his suspicion that for Tattvarayar birth was not yet at an end. Tattvarayar was shocked by these compassionate words from his Guru. Realising that he had not yet succeeded in eliminating his vasanas, he was filled with remorse. He came to the following decision: ‘Rather than remaining here and besmirching the holy presence of my Guru, it would be better to drown this sinful block beneath the ocean.’ Then, realising that it was forbidden to turn one’s back on the Guru, he retired, slowly moving backwards. When Tattvarayar was departing in this way, meditating on his Guru, the devotees who were accompanying him took down the gems of truth that came out of his lips as his divine utterances and submitted them to Sorupanandar. These words were published in jnana texts that are revered even today. When Sorupananda saw these works he was astonished by their profundity. Realising in his heart that such a sea of learning did not deserve to drown in the watery ocean, he commanded Tattvarayar to return to his presence. As soon as Tattvarayar returned Sorupananda said to him: ‘These difficult works, useful as they are to yourself, will not easily benefit the world as a whole. Compose, therefore, a simple work that everyone may understand and win salvation from.’ After giving this command, Sorupananda went off to eat. In accordance with his Guru’s wishes Tattvarayar composed and completed Cacivanna Bodham while his Guru was still eating. This work became part of the Mohavatai Bharani.
Ramana Maharshi was particularly fond of the next development in the story. This is how he narrated the story. The extract is from Day by Day with Bhagavan, 21st November 1945: Tattvarayar composed a bharani [a kind of poetical composition in Tamil] in honour of his Guru, Sorupananda, and convened an assembly of learned pandits to hear the work and assess its value. The pandits raised the objection that a bharani was only composed in honour of great heroes capable of killing a thousand elephants, and that it was not in order to compose such a work in honour of an ascetic. Thereupon the author said, ‘Let us all go to my Guru and we shall have this matter settled there’. They went to the Guru and, after all had taken their seats, the author told his Guru the purpose of their coming there. The Guru sat silent and all the others also remained in mauna. The whole day passed, night came, and some more days and nights, and yet all sat there silently, no thought at all occurring to any of them and nobody thinking or asking why they had come there. After three or four days like this, the Guru moved his mind a bit and thereupon the assembly regained their thought activity. They then declared, ‘Conquering a thousand elephants is nothing beside this Guru’s power to conquer the rutting elephants of all our egos put together. So certainly he deserves the bharani in his honour!’ Though Tattvaraya was the author of many verses (most of which have disappeared) Sorupananda himself only wrote one poem. This was Sorupa Saram, a distillation of his advaitic experience. This work was highly regarded by Ramana Maharshi. When he gave Annamalai Swami a list of six books to read, he included Sorupa Saram on a list that also included Kaivalya Navaneetam, Ribhu Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, Ellam Ondre, and Yoga Vasishta. This recommendation puts the text in very distinguished company. This is the first-ever English translation of Sorupa Saram. It has been translated by Dr T. V. Venkatasubramanian and Robert Butler and edited by David Godman
. The verses themselves are by Sorupananda and the interpolated questions, answers and comments are by a later, unknown commentator.
However, these additional remarks have always been associated with the work and they are now regarded as being an integral part of it. Benedictory Verse Addressed to the Self
1 May the unique Self, which appears as various objects in the same way that gold takes the shape of the mould into which it is cast, be our support and guide for composing this work, Sorupa Saram, which proclaims that the nature of the world is only consciousness. Text
2 Since the three kinds of differences do not exist, everything is only consciousness. The certainty of the existence of consciousness is stated in this way. Since there is nothing at all that is different from consciousness, the five elements, along with the five senses and the five organs of sense, all these are consciousness only. Whatever is in the beginning, in the middle and in the end – all these are also consciousness. The indescribable illusion is also consciousness. The one who perceives everything and the act of perceiving are also consciousness.
3 Question: Is there a logical way of concluding that everything is consciousness alone?
Answer: Yes, there is. All the world’s diversity, which derives from the misperceptions of the mind and which appears to be real – is it not the witnessing consciousness alone? Hence, everything – beginning with liberation and including purity and impurity, joy and misery, that which is and that which is not – is only being.
4 Question: If all is being, do objects appear as one’s own Self, which is beingconsciousness-bliss?
Answer: Yes, they do. In whichever direction I look there is absolute perfection. The real nature of all the holy waters is blissful consciousness. The real nature of all the verses praising the Lord is bliss. Apart from me, what other form can exist?
5 Question: Is the above statement merely verbal or is it experienced?
Answer: It is experienced as well. My Guru instructed: ‘Sir, the world appearance and its substratum – all these are you. There is no one who does not say “I”. Therefore enquire thoroughly into the “I”.’ If this is known intently and thoroughly [one can say] ‘I myself am pure consciousness’. Hence, I am the primal entity.
6 Question: Which entity had this experience of the Self, and when did the experience arise?
Answer: It is experienced by myself and the experience is ever-present. I saw my real nature as pure consciousness. I see only myself, and not the great multitude of the world. Simply because I had not looked at myself thoroughly, did I at any time cease to exist?
7 Question: If everything is only the Self, why are the names many?
Answer: The many names do not make the Self multiple. Since everyone abides as ‘I’ and declares himself to be ‘I’, right up to Iswara there is nothing other than ‘me’. The same person is addressed differently as son, brother and father; but for that reason will the body of the person become different?
8 Question: If so, the known and the knower will be different.
Answer: No, they won’t be different. It is my Self who remained as the [seer] ‘I’. Those objects that were rejected as ‘not I’ – these too are my Self. It is like someone who goes to sleep at night as himself, manifests [in dream] as the form of [the seer and] the world and then wakes up as himself.
9 Question: What is the inherent nature of the Self that shone as everything?
Answer: It is ‘shining by itself as itself’. The Self that shines as the body, as the beloved soul, as all the actions, as ignorance, as the enjoyment of true knowledge, as the blissful reality and as the one consciousness – that indeed is my own real nature.
10 Question: Is it possible to give a true name to the Self that shines by itself?
Answer: As it is a transcendental experience, it is not possible to give it a name. They will describe it as bliss, as transcendence, and as the witness of all that remains at the culmination of the four Vedas. What designation might I apply to my real nature, which all the treatises on jnana are unable to track down?
11 Question: If it is transcendent, there is no scope for enquiry. It is therefore necessary to indicate and signify it in some way.
Answer: As it is everything and as it is nothing, it is beyond description. Is it ‘I’? Is it That? Am I That? Is That ‘I’? Is it shining jnana? Is it the source of all sounds [nadanta]? Is it mauna? Is it the pure state [suddha]? Is it a void? The self-shining natural state is all these and none of them.
12 Question: If it is said like this, none can realise the Self, and so there can be no realisation. Hence, a name should be given.
Answer: The following are the names given by the Vedas. Enlightenment is ‘I’; liberation is ‘I’; perfect bliss is ‘I’; being is ‘I’; consciousness is ‘I’; tranquillity is ‘I’; purity is ‘I’; that which is unique and beyond the scope of the Vedas is ‘I’; pure consciousness, the source of all, is ‘I’.
13 Question: Are all these descriptions experienced?
Answer: They are experienced and also transcended. My son! I became and dwelt as the indescribable experience, transcendental joy, and everything else. I felt no need to declare, ‘I have rid myself of the misery-causing karma’. I recovered my Self and have been freed.
14 Question: What is the benefit arising from this experience?
Answer: It is becoming the ruler of the kingdom of liberation. I obtained the supreme lordship that is never lost. I burned up the pair of opposites – happiness and misery. I gave up the life of the body-forest, which tormented the mind. I entered and occupied the house of liberation.
15 Question: What play will this king witness on his stage?
Answer: He will witness the dance of the three avasthas [waking, dreaming and sleeping]. In the waking state I will witness the dance of the five organs of action and the five organs of sense. In dream I will witness the dance of the mind. In thought-free sleep I will dance the object-free void-dance. However, I will [always] remain as the exalted essence [the Self].
16 Question: Where was this experience when you were regarding happiness and misery as ‘I’?
Answer: Then, too, I was remaining as the Self. I was nothing else. Who was the one who remained as [the ego] ‘I’? If I see him, I will not allow him to take up the form of the body. Only the ‘I’ whose form is consciousness is the real ‘I’. All other ‘I’s will get bound to a form and go through birth and death.
17 Question: The Self is immutable. Will it not get bound if it gets involved in activities?
Answer: As the Self remains a witness, like the sun, it will not get bound. Even if I bear the burdens of the family and have them follow me like a shadow, or even if the cloud called ‘maya’ veils, I am, without doubt, the sun of knowledge, self-shining as pure light and remaining as the witness [of the world].
18 Question: But the jnani is not remaining motionless like the sun.
Answer: He also remains actionless. Whatever comes, whatever actions are performed, in whatever I may delight, I am only pure consciousness, remaining aloof and aware, without becoming any of them.
19 Question: All things move because the Self makes them move. Hence, is there bondage for the Self?
Answer: Like the rope that makes the top spin, there is no bondage for it. In the same way that a top is made to spin by a rope, desires fructify in my presence. But, like the rope that is used to spin the top, I will not merge with them. I have rid myself of their connection. I became my own Self. My bondage is indeed gone.
20 Question: But what is the way by which knowledge and ignorance was destroyed?
Answer: In one’s own experience of the Self neither attainment of knowledge nor removal of ignorance is seen. By what did ignorance get destroyed? Through what did knowledge gained through enquiry arise? How was the clarity, known as the experience of true knowledge, obtained? Other than myself, what do I know?
21 Question: If the dawn of knowledge and the removal of ignorance are not known, how can we call such a one a jnani?
Answer: With ignorance removed from knowledge, like unreal from real, becoming both and becoming neither – this indeed is the nature of the jnani. When, ultimately, the real shone as ‘I’, did the unreal, which became ‘I’, go anywhere? I myself became the base of both the real and the unreal, but remained beyond the reach of the conflicting pair of real and unreal.
22 Question: Previously it was stated, ‘I am the possessor of the body, but not the body’. Now it is said, ‘I will remain different from the body and also be the body’. Which is true?
Answer: The truth is remaining in but aloof from the body, like the kernel in the mango seed that remains within the seed shell, but aloof from it. Oh, I said, ‘I am the body!’ I regarded wealth as mine! I felt, ‘I am the enjoyer!’ Are all these not false? Though I remained as everything, beginning with the body, the real ‘I’ always remained aloof without associating with anything, like the mango kernel in the seed of the sweet mango.
23 Question: Is remaining like this [attached and detached] only in the period of ignorance, or also in the period of knowledge?
Answer: It is in both. The periods of jnana and ajnana were seen and passed like the periods in which intellect had not developed and in which intellect had developed. Everything that was a superimposition during practice has now become false.
24 Question: Is there birth and death during the period of ignorance that exists prior to this experience?
Answer: As these are illusory, they do not exist. Oh, where was I born? What did I worship as God? Where did I seek refuge? When I became the blissful essence, the reality, experiencing unbroken bliss, were not all these [known to be] false?
25 Question: In what condition was the Self before the dawning of this experience?
Answer: When I am redeemed by realisation of the truth, I am not confused any more.
I lived as ‘someone’. I laboured in vain for ‘somebody’. I underwent change, taking a thousand names. Now, enough of this! I have seen myself, that which is hard for me to discover. Oh, now I am free!
26 Question: What is obtained and experienced if one sees the Self?
Answer: The mind dissolves in love and one becomes sat-chit-ananda. I made the deceitful mind melt and dissolve. I knew myself as I really am. Since I am the substratum for everything, I became and dwelt as myself, the clear ambrosia of sat-chitananda.
27 Question: Is the statement ‘The world is only the Self’ figuratively true and not literally true?
Answer: Anything seen cannot exist apart from the eye. Similarly, the world does not exist apart from the Self. Can there be anything seen that is apart from the eye? Can there be anything heard that is apart from the ear? Did any of the other four elements manifest independently of space? Though the world may appear like a flowing mirage-river, when thoroughly examined, can the world exist apart from the Self?
28 Question: Seer and seen appear different.
Answer: This is just like seeing gold as various ornaments. They are not different. Here, other than myself, nothing else exists. I swear to this. A gold ornament does not exist separate from the gold. In the same way that one can change the shape of gold and give it different names, I described my Self in various ways.
29 Question: What is the nature of this experience?
Answer: It is the transcendence that arises, dissolving thoughts, and in which everything shines as the Self. It is beyond the reach of speech and it is beyond the reach of the mind. It is the clear ambrosia with which one does not get satiated, even when it overflows. Like saliva that secretes on the tongue, it springs forth from within me. Like a dumb pot it remained as ‘I’, without being another.2
30 Question: When everything exists as Sivam, why should one become Sivam?
Answer: This is to enable the removal of all differences of ‘one’ and ‘two’ and to become perfect jnana. Do not question, ‘What is the bliss of Siva? What is Siva-nature? What is Siva’s activity?’ It is only the fullness of consciousness that does not get divided, does not unite, and does not become different.
31 Question: What is to be rejected as asat [unreal], and what is to be accepted as sat [reality]?
Answer: Reject objects that are known as asat and accept consciousness as sat. This is tranquillity. All the tattvas [principles] that one knows are foreign to oneself. While rejecting these objects as ‘not-Self’, realise the Self through the consciousness that remains as the one who rejects objects. This is tranquillity.
32 Question: If tranquillity is the one true thing, what is the witness? 2 A dumb pot is a spherical, baked mud pot, without a mouth, that absorbs water through its porous skin.
Answer: Tranquillity is itself everything, beginning from the witness right down to svanubhava [one’s own experience]. It is Sivam, the state of realisation. Tranquillity is itself the witness-Self. The witness-Self is itself Brahman. Brahman is fullness. The pure fullness realised by enquiry is itself the ever-present svanubhava. This is the state of realisation, which is itself Sivam.
33 Question: Even if the mind subsides, sayujyam [union] is attained only when maya is destroyed.
Answer: The destruction of the mind is itself the destruction of maya,
and hence it is sayujyam.
I have seen the way of the birth of the mind that leads to the birth of the world and the birth of the doer, the ego ‘I’.
The non-subsidence of the mind is itself maya.
The firmness of those who destroy this maya is sayujyam.
34 Question: If this is sayujyam, where will the past karmas go?
Answer: In this experience they will disappear without leaving a trace.
I rid myself of the fear that arises from the misery of imagining, ‘I underwent an endless succession of births and deaths’. All of the ancient world has become the vast, empty expanse that is my own Self, since everything other than my Self is false.
35 Question: When there is such an experience, why perform karma?
Answer: When this experience has not arisen, actions are performed. Until I became the endless, blissful experience through the superior wisdom that regards all worship and similar things as the ‘not-Self’, I worshipped the gods at the prescribed times and observed all the vows.
36 Question: Who will attain this experience?
Answer: Only those who are pure and who have the prescribed qualifications will attain it. The experience of reality – eternally abiding and shining as oneness, as blemishlessness, as fullness, and as truth – is attained only by those who are most qualified, pure, who have a steady mind, and who are undergoing their final birth. 37 Question: What are the marks of a pure one? Answer: They are as follows: [The answer is the content of verses 37-42] They will not utter harsh words; they will not hate anyone; they will be of cheerful countenance; whatever things they relish, they will not use them for themselves but will offer them to the great ones; they will not associate with evil persons; they will not curse anyone; their eyes will not blaze with anger. These are the ones who will rid themselves of birth. 38 They will not value as real those things that are destructible; they will never speak out, saying, ‘This is good and this is bad’; they will not grieve over events of the past; they will not condemn anything; they are the exalted ones. 39 They will not speak contemptuously of the ordinances of the Vedas; they will not remain without chanting and melting with devotion as long as they live; they will not forget death; they will not get attached to this world through weakness of mind; they are the ones who will not be born again. 40 They will not experience at all sudden movements of the mind; they will only desire to know the path of salvation; their minds will not get immersed in attachments, saying greedily, ‘This is my wealth, my house, my wife and my children’. Such are the mature ones. 41 Will they care for things that are valued by others as desirable and not desirable? When one really looks, those who become tranquil and eternal, who experience truth and abide in the final state are few in number. 42 Those who do not see anything other than their Self here and in the hereafter, who are beyond both and without any division, will they degrade themselves by not regarding as trivial this phantom-like world appearance that is an illusory play of the sankalpas? 43 Question: Sastra vasana [a latent desire for scriptural knowledge], or the vasanas of knowledge and ignorance – will these too not arise in those jnanis even through forgetfulness? Answer: As these are vasanas, they will not arise. During every superimposing avastha the liberated one clearly knows that the illusion of sound and the illusion of real and unreal are only the illusion of the mind, because [he knows that] the superimposed avastha that appears and disappears is false. 44 Question: If this is so, for such ones what constitutes the worship of God? Answer: Worship is only seeing the Self. The great tapasvin devotedly worships with the flower of tranquil space and with the mantra of aloneness the deity [who abides as] the expanse of consciousness in the temple of the body. Who can equal those who live forever, revering such jnanis?
45 Question: Why does everyone not perform this worship? Answer: Because of ignorance. When the three prime fruits [mango, jackfruit and banana] along with rice pudding made with milk are right in front of them, they will long for food vomited by a dog. Without knowing that we ourselves are the great essence, the basis of all things and all powers, they become slaves of the mighty. 46 This concerns the fate of those who insult jnanis. They do not know fairness and rectitude; they do not know the phantom-like nature of the world; they do not know themselves; they do not realise the disgrace that arises from their ignorance. They are dark within themselves and without any reason insult those who are good, the righteous. Which way will these people go? 47 Question: Are all books, other than those jnana scriptures that speak of supreme bliss, not true? Answer: No, they are not true. The five flowers are his arrows. The six-legged beetle is the bowstring. The soft sugarcane is his bow. This formless cupid is a valorous warrior. He will infect everyone with powerful lust. All this is false. Similarly, is all this barren world-appearance true? You yourself reply. 48 Question: Are time and so on false? Answer: To those who are not attached to anything, they are certainly false. Be it time, or God, or karma, or illusory observances, the workings of the mind, the great enthusiasm that accomplishes things – to him who is not attached in any way, where is the question of taking them to be either good or bad?
49 Question: Are they [time and so on] at least necessary for the body?
Answer: Since the body is not-Self, they are not needed. Why are they born, those cunning ones who do not seek their Self? What is this body that has come into being through food? Who is the ‘I’? How many were the bodies that were discarded before? Innumerable were the bodies that were taken with delight again and again.
50 Question: But are all these [jivas] reflected consciousness?
Answer: As there is no knowledge without the Guru enabling one to know, they are only reflected consciousness. To reveal the unreal as unreal and the real as real, truly a Guru was needed. Alas! All the jivas, becoming kings and achieving greatness,3 are only reflected consciousness.
51 Question: Why should the one Brahman appear differentiated as many, as reflected consciousness?
Answer: To those who do not see it as one, it appears as many. What is the truth of the world reflection that appears in the one [Brahman] but does not appear as one? Like the scenes that appear to the vision of a bewildered person, the world appears as many only to those with defective knowledge and who therefore do not see it as the one reality.
52 Question: When all is one like this, what is the reason for not seeing it as one?
Answer: I do not know the reason for not knowing the Self that exists as one’s own Self. What a wonder it is that one seeks the Self without knowing the Self! What can I say of this? Know that this is like a person in this world standing [neck-deep] in water having his thirst unquenched. What else can we say?
53 Question: What is the way to see the Self? 3 I would take this phrase to mean ‘arrogantly strutting around’. It can also be translated as ‘flourishing and becoming like little children’.
Answer: By abiding still in the Self. This is the essence of enquiring into the scriptures. You who, babbling the scriptures, become haughty! You who accumulate karma with your caste and lineage! Can you not become sattvic, know your Self through your Self, give up unceasing activity and remain still?
54 Question: Can devotion to God be jnana? Answer: There can be no devotion apart from the devotee. Those who are wallowing, identifying with the body, will perform puja, wave lights and bring their palms together in salutation before the idol of the god with much longing, but they will not enquire whether the true God is the worshipper or the idol.
55 Question: Is it not necessary to go and see the car festival?
Answer: No. The one who sees the car festival should be seen. They will go, see, and salute the car on the auspicious day of the car festival. Alas! Leaving their Self, whom are they going to worship? The god seen in the car is not fullness. Does anyone not know this?
56 Question: If so, is yoga good?
Answer: For knowing consciousness it is not necessary. They will practise the highly respected yoga, remaining in a corner and controlling their breath and speech. For seeing and abiding as supreme consciousness, why this sadhana? They are attempting to eat and live here for a long time by making the body strong.
57 Question: In that case, can sannyasa be good?
Answer: True bliss, which is present in those who renounce the ego, is not there in sannyasa. How, then, can it be good? Without any difficulty they will take up a begging bowl in their hands; they will shave their heads and wear only a loincloth; and they will appear to be great ones. But will they also experience the bliss of sleeping without sleeping that is experienced by those who have renounced the ego?
58 Question: In that case, are scriptural study and spiritual practice not necessary?
Answer: To those who have seen the Self, which is their true import, they are not necessary.
To see one’s Self, what sastra is needed?
What sadhana is necessary?
Is not all this a mad game?
Those who regard as real the illusion that has arisen – like the imaginary imp created to scare simple-minded people – will not see the Self
59 Question: Is not sadhana necessary to know the Self?
Answer: What use is a sadhana that does not enable one to see the sadhaka? The objects, which are seen to be many, such as male, female and neuter, and the seer who remains as one – all this is only the manifestation of the excellent consciousness. Can they exist apart from consciousness? However much sadhana they practise, how will it be of use for those who do not know this clearly?
60 Question: Why do they suffer instead of enquiring and realising the Self?
Answer: They suffer because what they have known to be one by studying has not been experienced. What does it matter [to the realised one] who lives and in what way? What does it matter [to the realised one] who goes where and in what manner? His solitary state is like that of a bat in its roost. He will be detached in every way and will sleep experiencing the blessed state that never leaves. Bliss is only for him.
61 Question: Is it not necessary to know the nature of Iswara and jiva?
Answer: Since Sivam is non-dual, it is not necessary. They will say that Iswara is infinite and that jiva is finite. They will say that jiva is like the eye and that Iswara is like the sun. These two definitely cannot be non-dual. Pure consciousness, which is neither of these two, alone is Sivam.
62 Question: Then what is the way to attain Sivam?
Answer: The way to see one’s Self is by rejecting everything else as maya. The inert semen became the foetus and then became alive by mixing with the conscious principle. It appears to be real. When this happens, he who contemplates his real nature, regarding all this as illusory, is Sivam.
63 Question: Will not those who know the past, present and future become Sivam?
Answer: Only those who have seen the Self, which is beyond time, are Sivam, not those who know the three periods of time. The self-effulgent Self destroys both night and day, the two that determine yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence, he alone is Sivam who has become the Self and who consequently worships the auspicious day that remains perpetually as the one unique day.
64 Question: If one renounces the jnana sastras, how can one attain the bliss of liberation?
Answer: Liberation is only delighting in the Self through tranquillity and without anxiety.
When this is attained, what is the use of books?
One may know the jnana sastras, or take up good sannyasa, or attempt to experience mauna samadhi, but the indescribable delight of liberation is simply to become the Self, remaining free of all anxiety, experiencing bliss.
65 [continued from verse 64] He may be endowed with learning, or established in great yoga, or his body and senses may be active, but he who does not merge with supreme grace will not know tranquillity and will not obtain the final reward, the bliss of liberation that never fails.
66 Question: If so, do they not have to experience even prarabdha?
Answer: If one remains without movement as the Self, like the column supporting the windmill, the prarabdha will exhaust itself. You base, ignorant ones, wallowing in the three types of prarabdha! 4 If you understand that those who accepted alms will now be donors, you can be like the column that supports the windmill.
67 Question: But will not this experience come to everyone? Answer: If one becomes inward-turned instead of being externalised, this experience will come for everyone. I declare: ‘If their minds are directed inward, attending to the light [the Self], and do not become outward-turned, all those upon this earth are capable of seeing the Self, just as I have seen my Self.’
68 Question: Don’t jnanis have to perform karma? Answer: Since they have seen the truth of both action and the one who performs the action, they do not have to perform activities. He who has clearly seen in his mind both the performer of actions and the actions themselves, who has thus redeemed himself and become the reality, will he perform, without fail in every birth, every action at the prescribed time?5
69 Question: Will the jnanis hate the karmis [the performers of activities] when they see them?
Answer: They will delight in seeing the karmis, in the same way that they witness conjuring tricks, but they will not hate them. Seeing the deceitful ones who cannot see and enjoy reality as it is and who cannot melt by experiencing it, I rejoiced. However many illusory lotus flowers bloom, is there any anger on the part of the moon?
70 Question: How did this experience arise?
Answer: It was obtained providentially through the grace of the Guru. Like a sweet mango fruit appearing under the thorny karuvelam tree, the divine lotus feet of the Guru – who has the power to bestow the grace to transform me into the reality that is sought by everyone, everywhere – came to me who was replete with evil, taking birth over and over again.
71 Question: Is getting this experience so difficult?
Answer: It is extremely difficult.
here is my [state of] remaining as the ego? Where is my attachment? Where is my desire to rule heaven and earth? Siva! Siva! Where is the jnana Guru? Where is liberation? How can I express this?6
72 Question: What is the benefit of this experience? Answer: It is obtaining the Self that is beyond the mind. I did not obtain anything other than my Self. I had my Self in my possession all the time. Separate from me, there is no bondage or release. If one sees [this], even the mind that enquires into these is non-existent. 73 Question: As soon as one obtains this experience, who should be worshipped? Answer: The Guru, the ‘I’ and the body should be worshipped, seeing them as one’s own Self. I will worship as my own Self the gracious Guru who showed everything to be like a conjuror’s trick, or the Self that is realised after thus scrutinising everything, or the bodytemple that came [into being] to terminate the evil of birth. 74 Question: How to get rid of the vasana of the gross body? Answer: It should be rejected by seeing it as the form of food. You body who remain as the sheath of food! If you do as I tell you, you will experience bliss as long as you live. I swear to this. Do not go near evil and useless vasanas. Whatever comes according to prarabdha, remain a mere witness. 75 Question: How to remove [or be rid of] the senses of perception? Answer: They should be removed by seeing them as the Self. O senses! You cherished and nourished me all these years. Now I have become blissful consciousness. Even you, who [appear to] become different from me, I have come to know as my Self. Henceforth, remain one with me, without becoming divergent. 76 Question: How to be rid of desires? Answer: Through desire for realisation of the truth. O desire! Though I suffered much through you, on account of your help I dwelt in the Self. I reached the Sadguru through you. In liberation I have, along with you, become the Self. I swear to this. 77 Question: How to destroy anger? Answer Through tranquillity. O anger! Through you I rid myself of my deficiency. Because of the weariness experienced by your rising that invariably produced misery, I rid myself of this danger 6 The wide disparity between his previous wretched state and the state of knowledge makes the author wonder at the greatness of the Guru’s grace that accomplished the transformation, and how little he deserved it. and dwelt in supreme tranquillity. Even in dream, do not rise up in lamentation, but remain calm. 78 Question: How to get rid of avarice? Answer: By abiding peacefully in the Self. O avarice! I took you as my relation. Those who do not know the truth say that your form is only sin. You will exert yourself hard merely to accumulate. O sinner! Because of you I am now possessed by peace.
79 Question: How to dissolve the mind?
Answer: It should be dissolved in the Self, which is its basis. O mind! I myself am you. You yourself are me. Despite being so, deceitfully you forgot me. That I am surrendered to you is also true. But do not remain different from me, the reality.
80 [The same answer continues in verses 80, 81 and 82.]
My mind! You roamed about, laboured hard and learned many arts, seeking a way to make a living. You sought and gave me a Sadguru. To you who were so considerate to me, what help did I render in return?
81 O mind! Just as I once remained, assuming your form, now you have come and merged with me as my own form. Is there anyone like you who values the virtue of gratitude? Dwell henceforth in the loving care of the supreme state, without returning to your prior form.
82 O mind! You remained, right from the beginning, without renouncing love towards me. Through that love you gave me the benefit of cultivating all the virtues of a devotee, beginning with forbearance. You removed desire and its progeny. Now, like me, you remain still through good and proper discernment.
83 Question: Will the mind subside through the above means?
Answer: If it is firmly established in the experience of the Self, it will then shine as consciousness and remain still.
As my mind roamed about, I too was similar to it, thus allowing myself to remain in an unquiet state.
With my mind remaining still and motionless, I too remained similar to it, shining and dwelling like gold.
84 Question: Are there no likes and dislikes in this experience? Answer: Since everything is experienced as the Self, these do not exist. Whatever is to come, let it come. Whatever is to leave, let it leave. I will not reject even a life of living on alms as defective. Neither do I desire even the state of Brahma. I became all actions.
85 Question: Will he worship God?
Answer: He has no worship other than the worship of seeing everything as his own Self. What I extol everywhere is only my Self. What I worship everywhere as God – that too is only my Self. In all places, sitting, lying down and running are all performed only in my Self. I myself am the enjoyer and that which is enjoyed.
86 Question: Is this the experience of all jnanis?
Answer: There is no experience other than this experience of the Self. He who has attained liberation will see, as not different from his Self, all this world that rises in the Self, which remains in the Self, and which merges in the Self. Will he see it as opposed to his Self?
87 Question: Will likes and dislikes arise in him?
Answer: As everything has become his Self, they will not arise in him. For what will he desire? For what will he rise as ‘I’? For what will he experience envy and malice? He will dwell as the unmoving support for everything, as the sum of all things animate and inanimate, like the great Meru mountain that is the axis for the seven worlds.
88 Question: Will not this experience cease? Answer: Even if the creations of Iswara falter, this experience will not cease. Even if the cardinal points change, even if the moon gets burned, fire becomes cold, or the sun travels north to south, the Self-state of the liberated one who has enquired thoroughly into the primal state will not cease. 89 Question: How to determine those with such experience? Answer: They remain unruffled in joy and misery. They should be known by taking this as the hallmark. Only he is a jnani whose mind does not get agitated, who does not identify with and desire [objects] before him, and whose state of purity never wavers whether he lives on alms in poverty or enjoys the illusory state of being Brahma.
90 Question: Will they not care for praise and slander?
Answer: No, they will not. Some may utter praises and worship, or evil and cruel ones may utter words of slander and insult, but the jnani’s mind will not associate with them. He will remain without thoughts, like the sky that remains the same whether the sun rises or a vast collection of clouds appear. 91 Question: What is food for the jnani? Answer: Whatever happens to come to him is food for him. Whatever enjoyments present themselves to him, and in whatever measure, he will undergo those pleasures. Like the sun that spreads its rays, he will remain free of bondage in the unique and natural state. 92 Question: Will not the ego-nature, beginning with desire, touch these jnanis? Answer: As they have attained total destruction of vasanas, it will not. Desire, anger and so on will not touch the liberated one – who has become the form of consciousness and the witness of the world – since he has uprooted and destroyed all the base vasanas, and is therefore without sankalpas.
93 Question: Do they not need to stay in a holy place, or take baths in holy waters, and so on? Answer: The place where they reside is the holy place. Their look is holy water. The place where the unique jivanmukta – who exists everywhere equally – resides is itself the holy place. His look itself is holy water. The service to his lotus feet is itself liberation.
94 Question: What are the eternal attributes of a jnani? Answer: They are soft words, and so on. They are soft-spoken; their look is free of desire; they experience everything to be sat alone; they have a measured gait, and their mind is filled with a joy that never diminishes. The characteristic of a jnani is to be ever firm in these.
95 Question: What does the jnani think?
Answer: There are only thoughts that everything is the Self. The jivanmukta is he who has become one [with the reality] through the experience ‘I have seen myself everywhere; I have seen everything in me’; who possesses intensely and clearly the experience of having learned ‘unlearning’, and who has renounced everything.
96 Question: What is proper conduct and what is prohibited conduct for jnanis?
Answer: Actions they undertake are proper conduct; actions they abandon are prohibited actions. For the jnani has become one, tranquil and blemishless, everything, beginning with space [and including the other elements], is his own form. The actions he abandons are prohibited actions, and the actions he takes up are proper actions.
97 Question: What are the disciplines and pujas for the jnani?
Answer: They are meditating on the Self, and so on.
Meditating on consciousness is bathing for a jnani.
Whatever external appearances he delights in, that is noble discipline.
Whatever he obtains as alms and eats without ego, that is his supreme puja.
His faultless movements are pure samadhi.
98 Question: The actions that should be performed, and the actions that should be avoided: are these not necessary for jnanis?
Answer: As they remain as Sivam, they do not exist for them. To the jnani who has become Sivam, having seen all the universe as his Self and as the form of consciousness, what is there that should be sifted and rejected, and what is there that should be accepted as proper?
99 Question: What is the state attained by those who criticise the conduct of jnanis?
Answer: It is the hell of transmigration. Know that those cruel ones, who view as faulty the life of the jnani who has attained supreme bliss, will experience crore upon crore of births like the silkworm that never gets detached from its cocoon
100 Question: What is the benefit obtained by those who worship them?
Answer: It is becoming the non-dual Self. Those who are able to obtain the grace of the jnani – who remains as the eternal, formless, blemishless, blissful and pure non-dual reality, and for whom everything is his own Self – will become jnanis.
101 Question: How will the jnani shine?
Answer: He will shine as everything and as different from everything. They have rid themselves of the blemish of the mind; they have rid themselves of the mind; they have rid themselves of the entity within the mind; they have transcended the shore of jnana; they have rid themselves of the blissful state of consciousness, the supreme; they have rid themselves of the experience of Sivam. They have also rid themselves of all concepts. The Benefit of Studying this Work
102 Those who are able to enjoy through their two ears the savour of Sorupa Saram, which describes the experience attained at the proper stage of ripeness, will be able to see the entire world as their own Self.
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ellam Ondre
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I. UNITY 1. All including the world seen by you and yourself, the seer of the world, is one only.
2. All that you consider as I, you, he, she and it, is one only.
3. What you consider to be sentient beings and what you consider to be insentient, such as earth, air, fire and water is all one.
4. The good which is derived by your considering all as one cannot be had by considering each as separate from the other. Therefore all is one.
5. The knowledge of the unity of all, is good for you and good for others as well. Therefore all is one.
6. He who sees "I am separate," "you are separate," "he is separate" and so on, acts one way to himself and another way to others. He cannot help doing so. The thought "I am separate, others are separate" is the seed from which grows the tree of differing actions in relation to different persons. How can there be any lapse from righteousness for a person who knows the unity of himself with others? As long as the germ of differentiation is there, the tree of differing actions will flourish, even unawares. Therefore give up differentiation. All is one only.
7. Ask: "If in the world all things appear different, how can I consider all as one? Is there any way of gaining this knowledge?" The reply is: "In the same tree we see leaves, flowers, berries and branches, different from one another, yet they are all one because they are all included in the word 'tree'. Their root is the same; their sap is the same. Similarly, all things, all bodies, all organisms are from the same source and activated by a single life principle." Therefore all is one.
8. Oh good man! Is the statement that "All is one," good or evil? Think for yourself. Just as the person will always be righteous who regards himself like others and others like himself, how can any evil attach itself to him who knows himself to be others and the others to be himself? Tell me if there is any better way for obtaining good than the knowledge of unity? Certainly other methods cannot be as good as this one. How can anyone love others more than when knowing them to be himself, to know them in unity-love as unity, for they are truly one
9. Who can share the mental peace and freshness of the knower of unity?
He has no cares.
The Good of all is his own good.
A mother considers her children's well-being to be her own well-being. Still, her love is not perfect because she thinks she is separate and her children are separate. The love of a Sage, who has realized the unity of all, far excels even the love of a mother. There is no other means of gaining such love than the knowledge of unity. Therefore all is one.
10. Know that the world as a whole is your undecaying body and that you are the everlasting life of the whole world. Tell me if there is any harm in doing so? Who fears to go the harmless way? Be courageous. The Vedas teach this very truth. There is nothing but yourself. All good will be yours. Yea, you become the good itself. All that others gain from you will be good only. Who will work evil to his own body and soul? A remedy is applied if there is an abscess in the body. Even if the remedy is painful, it is meant to do good only. Such will be some of your actions; they will also be for the good of the world. For that reason, you will not be involved in differentiation. I put it briefly: The knower of unity will act as one should. In fact, the knowledge of unity makes him act. He cannot err. In the world, he is God made visible. All is one.
II. YOU 1. Who are you? Are you this body? If so, why are you not aware of a serpent crawling on it when you are in deep sleep? So then can you be this body? No, certainly not. You must be other than this body. 2. Sometimes in sleep you dream. There you identify yourself with someone. Can you be that one? You cannot be. Otherwise, what becomes of that individual on your waking? You are not he. Furthermore, you are ashamed of having identified yourself with him. Clearly, you are not that particular person. You are the one that stands apart from him. 3. Recall the state of dreamless slumber. What is your state then? Can that be your true nature? Surely you will not subscribe to this belief. Why? Because you are not so foolish as to identify yourself with the massive darkness which obstructs you from knowing the state you are in. Discerned by the intellect from the things around, how can you admit yourself to be the same as ignorance or blank? Or, how can it truly be your real nature? It cannot be. You are the knower who knows that this state remains one of dense darkness veiling your true nature. How can you be that which you have experienced and condemned? Therefore you are not the dark ignorance of deep sleep. You stand apart from this too. 4. When it is said that even this gross body is not you, can you be any other thing which is yet farther away from you? In the same way that you are not this gross body, you are not anything farther from the body, nor the dream person, nor the ignorance of deep sleep. You are distinct from these three states and this world. 5. These three states can be reduced to two conditions only-namely, the one of the subject and object, and the other is the unawareness of the subject itself. The former includes the waking and dream states, whereas the latter represents deep slumber. All your experiences are comprised in these two conditions only. Both of them are foreign to you. Your true nature remains distinct from them. 6. If you ask what that is, it is called turiya, which means the fourth state. Why is this name used? This name is proper because it seems to say the three states of your experience-waking, dream and deep sleep-are foreign to you and your true state is the fourth, which is different from these three. Should the three states, waking, dream and deep sleep, be taken to form one long dream, the fourth state represents the waking from this dream. Thus it is more withdrawn than deep sleep, also more wakeful than the waking state. Therefore your true state is that fourth one which is
distinguished from the waking, dream and deep sleep states. You are that only. What is this fourth state? It is knowledge which does not particularize anything. It is not unaware of itself. That is to say, the fourth state is Pure Knowledge which is not conscious of any object, but not unconscious itself. Only he who has realized it even for a trice, has realized the Truth. You are that only. 8. What is there more for him who has gained the fourth state? Practically, it is not possible for anyone to remain forever in that state, that is, the state of no particular knowledge. He who has realized the fourth state later wakes up in this world, but for him this world is not as before. He sees that what he realized as the fourth state, shines forth as all this. He will not imagine this world as distinct from that Pure Knowledge. Thus what he saw within, he now sees without in a different form. In the place of the differentiation of old, he is now established in the state of nondifferentiation everywhere. Now, he is all. There is nothing distinct from himself. His eyes closed or open, howsoever the things may change, his state remains unchanged. This is the state of Brahman. This is the natural eternal state. You are that ever-true state. 9. There is nothing beyond this state. The words, 'inward' and 'outward' have no meaning for him. All is one. His body, speech and mind cannot function selfishly. Their workings will be grace for the good of all. The fragmentary "I" is lost forever. His ego can never revive. Therefore he is said to be liberated here and now. He does not live because his body lives, nor does he die because his body dies. He is eternal. There is nothing other than he. You are He. 10. Who is God? He is grace. What is Grace? Awareness without the fragmentary ego. How can one know that there is such a state? Only if one realizes it. The Vedas laud such a one as having realized God and become one with Him. Therefore the greatest good that one can derive from the world and the greatest good which one can render unto it, is to realize this state. In fact, there are no states besides this. They appear in the state of ignorance. For him who knows, there is one state only.
You are that
III. GOD 1. Who is God? God is He who has transcended all that is seen by us. If transcending this world, is there no relation between Him and this world? Not a particle here is unrelated to Him. Then what is meant by transcending the world? The world comprises us and the objects seen by us. In other words, the animate and inanimate together form the world. What shall we say of Him who created the beings and things? Of these two, we say the conscious beings to be superior. All that we can apprehend is that He belongs to the highest order of beings known to us. Our intellect cannot proceed further. Thus, our Creator is superior to us; He cannot be apprehended by our intellect; therefore His Name, Transcended Being, "Kadawul," means that He surpasses our intellect. Hence His Name is "Kadawul" - Transcended Being. 2. Can God then not be made known to us? Not quite so. In a way, He is known to us. This much of His Grace is enough for us. We have no need for all His Greatness. He has made known so much of His Greatness as will suffice to eradicate our misery. There is no reason for Him to reveal a jot more of His Power than is necessary to remedy our defects in the present state. Thus He is known according to our needs. Nay, He is in our grasp. However limitless, He is within reach of our knowledge to some extent. 3. What is it which brings Him within reach of our knowledge? That He is known as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Being denotes that which is imperishable, that which exists forever. Should He become nonexistent at any time, who is His Destroyer? Who created Him? Since the perishable nature of all leads to the inference that they are lorded over by One who is imperishable, this immortal Overlord is God. His imperishable nature is Being (Sat). Now, what is Consciousness (Chit)? By Consciousness we mean knowledge. This is absolute Knowledge, and not like our erring intellectual knowledge. Irregularity or mistake cannot stain its actions. It is Knowledge, pure and simple. Frequently He teaches us saying, "Your knowledge is irregular and erring." How orderly are even the insentient objects of His creation! It is known to many how an atheist was taught a good lesson when he derided the scheme of things saying, "Why did He make the seed so small for the banyan tree which is so big?" That an insentient thing is found in good order and later becomes useful, implies a conscious agency at work. Can a simple, insentient thing do something which is possible for unfailing knowledge
only? Or, can't it be done by our inadequate knowledge? No, it can never be. Therefore God is said to be Consciousness (Chit) also. Now, what is Bliss? It is the state of being free from desire for anything. It is Peace which is ever full. Were He to desire anything, how could He be better than ourselves? How could we gain Bliss from Him? He Himself would require another being to fulfil His desires. But who would think Him to be so? The state of selfcontentment is that of Bliss also. Therefore He is called Bliss (Ananda). The three - Being, Consciousness and Bliss-are inseparable; otherwise, they would become naught individually. Hence, He is known as Being-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda). Thus God remains not only transcendent but also falls within the reach of our knowledge as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. 4. He who has gained the fourth state and sees all as one, only he knows God truly as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Words cannot express nor the ears hear how such a one is united with God; it is a matter of realization. But there are ways and means for such realization. They can be spoken of, learned and acted upon. 5. He who can be realized thus, is God. He has no name; we give Him a name. He has no form; we give Him a form. Where is the harm in doing so? What name is not His, or what form is not His? Where is the sound or form in which He is not? Therefore, in the absence of true knowledge of Him you can name Him as you please or imagine Him as of any form so to remember Him. Your hope for His Grace without any effort on your part is utterly fruitless. Should it be possible to have His Grace without any effort on your side, all would be alike; there would be no reason for any difference. He has shown us the ways and means. Make effort, reach the goal, be happy. Your idleness and selfishness make you expect His Grace without your effort. The rule for all is for you too. Do not relax your efforts. God can be realized by your effort only. 6. There is an effort which excels all others. This may, however, appear to be less effective than devotion to God with name and form. Nevertheless, this is the more efficient. It is simply the love which you extend to all beings, whether good or bad. In the absence of such love to all, your devotion to God amounts to a mere parody. Of what use are you to God? That you seek fulfilment of your desires from God without doing your duty towards the needy in the world must be attributed to your selfishness. In God's presence, there is no use for such. The workings that take place in His presence are all unselfish. Therefore, think that all the Centers are His and He is in all the Centers and thus be devoted to Him. God is truly bound by such high devotion. 7. As you go on ascribing names and forms to God and showing love to all because you have understood all names and forms to be His, your mind will gradually
mature. Just as the taste improves with the ripening of a fruit, so also you will recognize the waxing of good and the waning of evil in you. As your mind matures, there will come a time when you should meet your Master. This is not to say that you go in search of him or he comes in search of you. At the right time the meeting will happen. All are moving in their own ways. Your fitness brings you together, makes you trust him, makes him teach you the right way, also makes you follow his instructions. That is the straight way to reach God, which is to gain the fourth state. You will follow the way and reach your goal which is Being-Consciousness-Bliss, which is God. 8. The way shown by the Master is final, straight and making for unity. It is welltried, natural, and free from pain. When you are following the way shown by the master, doubts will not arise; there will be no fear. Are not fear and doubt the characteristics of the ways of darkness? How can they meet you in the way of Truth shown by the Master? In this manner, the way will itself speak to you and say that it is the right one. In that way, there will be nothing more for you to do but to meet your Master and learn from him. That way will be familiar to you, as the Master and God have made it so. Before you, he had treaded the way. He has shown you the way and you are following him. To how many will you show the same way? And how many more will follow the same way later? Obviously fear and doubt have no place in the way of truth. When once you have taken a step forward you will step back. The master's help is only for the first step forward. You need not do anything for your master in order to have the way shown to you. Know him to be the messenger of God sent down to disclose the way to the fit who have become ripe by their own efforts in either or both the directions mentioned earlier. It is God who sends this godly messenger just when you are ripe. 9. Practice with faith in the period of ignorance is called Bhakti (path of Devotion); the same, with knowledge, is called Jnana (the path of Wisdom). Of the two divisions ofJBhakti, the one is devotion to God with name and form, and the other is karma which is love for all. Of the two divisions of Jnana, the practice of the true way shown by the Master is called yoga and the resulting state is called Jnana (knowledge). It is natural for all to believe in something which is not seen and then to find it. Those who do not believe can never find. Therefore, the believers will gain something sometime or other and the unbelievers never gain anything. You can believe even for the simple reason that faith in God is not harmful. Thereby you can share the good effects. This world is meant only for creating faith in you. This is the purpose of creation. Have faith and you can reach God. 10. Though you may not believe all that is said of God, believe at least "There is God." This seed is very potent in its growth. It is so mighty as to negate all else and fill all by itself. It is so almighty that you will not see anything besides God, not even yourself. Truly, God is all
IV. PEACE Peace - Equanimity - Equal Mindedness 1. What is peace? Although the world persists when a man is in deep sleep, does he have any cares concerning it? His mind is tranquil and refreshed. Should his mind be in the same degree calm and refreshed even when he is face to face with the world and is active therein, then there is peace. 2. Can the mind remain so even when the world confronts us? It depends upon our estimate of the world. The mind is more excited when one's own property is plundered than when another's property is similarly plundered. Of one's own things, the loss of one thing causes greater concern than those of another. Why? Because our estimate of the things is the cause of the degree of the delight or anxiety concerning them. Therefore, should one learn to regard all equally, the mind will be extremely peaceful. Or should all things be considered as our own and highly prized, then too there is no cause for pain. Why? What will a man regret? The mind which knows that universal concern is beyond its capacity, must needs become tranquil. Also when one feels that one has no claim on anything or that everything is perishable, the mind will remain cool. Thus there will be lasting peace if one looks on all as of the same value. Peace is dependent upon one's intellectual appraisals. 3. I shall now illustrate this. A man wakes up from a dream. His mind is happy or troubled according to his opinion of the things seen in the dream. But on waking, his mind remains unaffected by all the happenings in the dream; it remains the same. Why? Because, only now his mind has learned to value all the matters of the dream equally. He is not sorry for the cessation of the dream. Why? He is convinced that the dream is not everlasting and must end on waking. In the same manner, should a man be convinced that he cannot but wake up sometime from the long dream of the world, his mind will be unchanging. It is the state of freshness. This is the state of Peace. 4. This is not to say that his relation with the world will cease. Now only peace and freshness of the mind are his. His actions cannot but vary according to circumstances. The only change in him after the mind has become peaceful is this: his mind has known the truth and become unattached; therefore, it rests in peace. His actions though changeful will always be impartial. But the actions of others are changing and cannot be impartial. Thus, the coolness of the mind produces enormous good not only to himself but also to the world at large. Peace shows the way to right conduct.
5. A man walks with a lighted lamp in his hand. Can there be any hostility between the light and the ups and downs on the way? There cannot be. But light and darkness cannot be together. The light chases away darkness, it discloses the ups and downs on the way and makes the man walk carefully, whether he moves up, down, or sideways. It removes the cause of vain complaints, such as, "That snag hurt my foot" or "This hollow made me slip." Similarly, after peace is gained, the state of peace makes the man neither hate nor antagonize the world. Rather it dispels the darkness which conceals from our view the true nature of the world and its snags. In the absence of the light of Peace which enables people to adjust themselves to varying circumstances, they condemn the world as full of misery, as they would complain of the snags on the road. Therefore a man who has gained the utmost peace after knowing the whole world as a complicated dream, should not be considered either unrelated to the world or unconcerned with its activities; he alone stands in effective concord with it; only he is competent to be a man of action. Thus Peace is that which regulates one's duties. 6. The concern of a man of Peace in the actions of the world lies in rectifying them. Should he feel fear before this world, what hope of reformation can there be, especially from those who esteem it and want to possess it? They are in the grip of selfishness, blind to impartiality. To guide the blind on the way or treat the blindness of the eye, one's eyesight must itself be good. Similarly, it is for him to reform the world who has already discerned his unchanging nature from the changeful nature of the world and become peaceful. These cannot help serving the world. Why? Can anyone be so hard hearted as not to lift up a child when it slips and falls? So also for the wise ones who can rightly appraise the troubles of the world and help the people. Because he has already withdrawn himself from the mind and body the sage feels no concern under the strain of service to the world, just as the life principle does not suffer even when loaded carts pass over the corpse it has left behind (by itself). He will not shrink from work or trouble. Only truly realized peace can bestow such courage and coolness. 7. To all appearances. Peace will look poor and quite weak. But in effect, it beats all. In tenacity and courage, it surpasses all. After all, success depends on these qualities. Even if Mount Meru should topple over, the incident will hardly produce a gentle smile in the man of peace, or it will leave him unmoved. This state is helpful both for worldly and spiritual matters. True happiness in the world is his, and that happiness comes out of release from bondage. Peace means doing good to any one in any manner. 8. The obstacles to peace are several. They are meant to prove the man. When they confront us we should be wide awake and keep the delicate flower of the mind distant from even their shadows. If the flower of the mind be crushed, it will lose its fragrance, freshness and color; it will neither be useful to you, nor can it be presented to others, nor offered to God. Know that your mind is more delicate than
even a blossom. By means of a peaceful mind, all your duties to yourself, to others and to God must be discharged. Let it release the same freshness throughout. All blessings for the mind are contained in Peace. 9. Unremittingly worship the God of your Self with the flower of your mind. Let the children of the mental modes watch this worship. Gradually they will learn to cast away their childish pranks and desire to delight like yourself. As they watch your Peace, they will themselves recoil from their vagaries. Continue the worship patiently. Be not led away by the vagaries of the mind. On the contrary, they should become peaceful by your peace. All must get peace. 10. I shall finish in one word: The essence of all the Vedas is "Peace."
V. ACTION 1. All action is God's. His power has fixed each thing into its own individual function. By His agency the insentient objects and the sentient beings do their work. All actions are His. 2. All are doing their respective work. So what has God to do with it? We will first consider the sentient beings and, later on, the insentient objects. We are sentient beings. Let us first see whose actions are ours. We all desire a higher state and work for it. But our achievements are not uniform. Sometimes the goal is the same and so is the work, but why is there a difference in the results? Here God makes us understand that the action is His. Otherwise all must be alike. The difference in the conditions cannot be accounted for. Can there be anyone who does not wish to improve his position? Whatever their intention towards others, their intention towards themselves is surely honest. The conditions of people of the same intention are yet different. This is because all actions are of God. 3. All beings have the same intention; yet their efforts are of different degrees, so also their states. After saying this, the question arises: What is effort? Is it not simply a mental image? All these images have the same origin, namely, the common intention of all. Why then should the image of effort differ in each? Here too God makes us see that all actions are His. 4. If it is said that notwithstanding the same intention, the effort can vary according to individual capacity, the question arises: What is the source of this capacity? It is of the body and mind. The environment may also affect it. One must take account of all the factors before one makes an effort. However, these factors are not under one's control so that the effort may not be equal to the task. Therefore all actions are God's. 5. Again, if it is said that the body, the mind and the environment will gradually be made equal to the task, it implies a present incapacity. This is to admit that all actions are God's. 6. Now, is it for good or bad that people do not gain their objectives? It is certainly good. Why? Most of them are selfish. Judge for yourself if their success is for the good of the world or otherwise. You may ask: Should not the attempts of the unselfish be entirely successful? Though to all appearances they may look unselfish, yet they are not free from blemishes. These depend on the ego. If the imagined
unselfishness has given rise to a sense of superiority over others, God frustrates their purpose and teaches them that "You are also like others and I govern you". On the other hand, free from selfishness and free from ego is the representative of God, within whom the cloud of ego that conceals God does not exist and from whom God is ever shining forth. To such a one of true purpose (Sattva Sankalpa) all his intentions come out true. God shines forth directly in him. There is no darkness in him. Only he knows the Divine purpose as it is. Through him God fulfills the purpose of His creation. All actions are God's. 7. If it is asked: Is there not a single person of true intent? And why should not the world have all blessings in full? The answer, which is a secret, is that the sages who are aware that all actions are God's, wish to make it known to others as well. There is no greater good than to know that all actions are God's and not our own. This knowledge contains all the blessings in itself. Therefore the intention of the sages is to clearly instruct others in the knowledge of God and His actions. Even so, they do not say "Know God this very instant," but they teach the ways and means to knowledge and encourage us in right conduct-this much only. They do not say, "Be emancipated at once." Why? Because this is not possible for the common people. Nor do the sages say to God, "Liberate the people at once." Because the sages are free from the ego and think, "God knows what He should do and when to do it. What is there for me to say to Him?" Thus they wish only to do their work, without any interest in the fruits this work may produce. They have known that God alone dispenses the fruits of actions. Simply they watch the course of events in the world and do their work, never thinking of creating a world of their own. Why? To do so is a form of egoism. The creation is as it should be. Everything is in order. All actions are God's. 8. Knowing their actions are subservient to the Higher Power, how could they hope to achieve something dear to their hearts? No, they cannot. They will do their work simply as a duty. The scriptures say, "Do work, but do not think of its fruits." Just as anger unconsciously overpowers a man even though he is determined not to get angry, so also the sages of true intent (Sattva Sankalpa) may be shocked by the iniquities of the world and unwittingly think, "God, let that be made good!" If so, then it will certainly happen and good will prevail. This is the cause of some extraordinary events in the world. These extraordinary events are the results of a wish stealing into the mind of a sage. This is the law of nature. Who can change it? All actions are God's. 9. Whatever takes place, it is in the natural order of things. Also, it is right. Everything happens by His will alone. In truth, it is not wrong to think "He makes the thief steal." Why? Because at the time of punishment He also makes the thief suffer for the robbery. Thus, there should be no ill-will directed towards the thief. Such is the fruit of the knowledge that all actions are God's. Although there is no ill- Read this and other texts at www.advaita.com.br – Teachings of Advaita Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, Nisargadatta Maharaj e Mooji – will towards the thief, there is a dislike of theft. This is also the result of our
knowledge that all actions are God's. How is this? Because the thief himself dislikes theft: Would he keep quiet if his own belongings were stolen by another? He would not. Who can be unaware that good is right and evil is wrong? Therefore the knowledge that all actions are God's will bring into the world an era of orderly conduct. Our knowledge does not extend further. We can repeat only what we know. We need not worry about what lies beyond our knowledge. This too is God's will. 10. One of the fruits of knowledge granted to us by God is the knowledge that all actions are God's. We are powerless to ask God, "Why do you act thus?" Because the fruits of our actions are not always according to our desire, all religions admit similar states of our powerlessness. In other words, because our powers are limited, we cannot but say that all actions are God's. The law which applies to us, applies to insentient objects also. Our law is no better than theirs. All is one. Even though some do not admit that all actions are God's, yet they admit their own incapacity. This itself is the act of God.
VI. EGO 1. Oh ego, all the evils of the world are from you. To crush you, the kings make laws and the wise give lessons. In spite of their efforts from time immemorial, alas! you are yet alive; you simply go into hiding and reappear again and again. Can there be no end to you? Yea, it is surely approaching. Another Ego has started to kill you. It is the Universal Ego called "I am Brahman". 2. Oh ego, think not that your enemy is of your kind. You are perishable whereas He is not. You are conceited as "I" because you always differentiate as "I", "you" and "he," but your enemy is free from this conceit. How? He harmonizes all differences, resolves all into Himself. Moreover, you feel enmity towards Him because he has arisen to kill you. But He has no ill-feelings towards you. How is this? Because you are not to be found in His presence. He regards you as a part of His limbs. Your loss in his proximity is the working of your own falsity; He would not think of killing you because you are of no consequence in His sight. Therefore, ego, you are His enemy, but He is not yours. More briefly put, you are your own enemy. Why? Owing to your greed you flaunted yourself before the Great One as you would elsewhere. Instantly, you were lost; therefore, the Universal Self obscures you by devouring you and then shines forth as All-light. 3. Oh ego, the evils of your works have no limits. You are not content unless you are exalted above others and others are lowered before you. Endless are your desires, such as "By what title shall I gain honor?" "In what form shall I appear elegant?" "Do others bow to me? Do others obey me in silence?" "Do others say that no one excels me?". Alas! How short is your life! And yet to how much do you aspire! And how much evil you do! You have deluded yourself that there is happiness in such ideas and in differentiating yourself from all others. This is not to your good. Why not? Are not others also entitled to all these? What is your share in things which are common to millions and millions of others? Such being the case, do not desire in vain to rule over all. By your vain desire you bring about evil to yourself and to others. Listen to my friendly advice. Truly speaking, He whom you regard as your mortal enemy is your friend. He knows how to make you worthy of true greatness and blessings. Surrender to Him. This Universal Ego does not treat you as an enemy but is your greatest benefactor. 4. By no means can you discover what He will make of you unless you surrender yourself to Him. However much I may speak of it, you cannot understand. It is a matter of experience. Doubtless He will do nothing less than exalt you to His state. Therefore, be not perplexed about your future; directly surrender yourself. You can always turn away if joy does not overtake you from the very instant of surrender.
Just as the drinking of milk starts with an agreeable taste and ends with the satisfaction of hunger, so also surrender starts with delight and ends with Perfect Bliss, which lies beyond even pleasure and pain. Therefore your goal, without doubt, is this Universal Ego (I-am-Brahman). 5. What will be your new name after surrender? There is no name besides yours. The Vedas laud you; the world praises you; the essence of religious teachings is yourself. Then what is your form? All forms are yours. There is no form which is not yours. What is installed in the temples of worship is you; what is described in the Vedas is you; festivities and celebrations are all for you. Now what can be your power? In your presence the world is active; each is what it is, because of you. Briefly said, all things glorify you and bear witness to your being. They are duty bound to do so. You would not have even dreamt that this will be your state. Start at once, be not self-conceited. The Universal Ego awaits you. 6. Do you wish to wake up from your dream or continue in it? How long will the dream images last? Be not idle, shake off your sleep, wake up! You are witnessing your own mental images and imagining more and more. It is all in vain. Just find out who it is that sees the visions. Do not delude yourself that you are these that rise and sink in you. Wake up. The instant you wake up you will know that waking is better than this dream. Get up! The Universal Ego waits to rejoice at seeing you awake. 7. Fear not the cessation of the present ego dream. Once you are awake you will enjoy the same all the more. You will no longer be deluded and will observe it with cheerful detachment, unconfused. The folly of all appearances will be understood and you will have no burdens. In dream your mental imagery assumes shapes. On waking you know the dream as just a dream. Do not mistake dream for the waking state. Know the dream as dream. For doing so, you must reach the state of "I-amBrahman" (Universal Ego) and wake from the illusion of the ego. 8. I have instructed you for your good and not in my own interest. If you believe me, you should act upon what I have taught you. On the other hand, if you see no good in what I have said, then turn away from this ideal. How can I help you if my advice and all the advice of the saints do not make any impression on you? No state is higher than this. Believe me, it is for your good that you realize this truth; and through you others may realize the same. Be free from self-conceit. Start at once. Realize that the Universal Ego is your own. 9 Oh ego, see how you are a slave to all and therefore suffer. How pitiable is your state! All are hostile to you! When you say "for me only," all others will also contend "for me only, for me only". When you say "I am great," they protest, "Why? We are also." All are hostile to you. Owing to the troubles caused by others, your mental images increase a million fold. Should you not rise above them and profit by surrendering to a Master? Then all your enemies will befriend you. If you say to
others, "All these are yours," everyone becomes your friend. There is only One who can make you that magnanimous and that is "I-am-Brahman" (Universal Ego). 10. I shall say one word only and this is not owing to my egoism. It is simply my duty. I do not say this word just for your or my good alone. It is for the good of all. The truth is "I-am-Brahman" (Universal Ego).
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From Ellam Ondre
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5. He who can be realized thus, is God. He has no name; we give Him a name. He has no form; we give Him a form. Where is the harm in doing so? What name is not His, or what form is not His? Where is the sound or form in which He is not? Therefore, in the absence of true knowledge of Him you can name Him as you please or imagine Him as of any form so to remember Him. Your hope for His Grace without any effort on your part is utterly fruitless. Should it be possible to have His Grace without any effort on your side, all would be alike; there would be no reason for any difference. He has shown us the ways and means. Make effort, reach the goal, be happy. Your idleness and selfishness make you expect His Grace without your effort. The rule for all is for you too. Do not relax your efforts. God can be realized by your effort only.
7. As you go on ascribing names and forms to God and showing love to all because you have understood all names and forms to be His, your mind will gradually
mature. Just as the taste improves with the ripening of a fruit, so also you will recognize the waxing of good and the waning of evil in you. As your mind matures, there will come a time when you should meet your Master. This is not to say that you go in search of him or he comes in search of you. At the right time the meeting will happen. All are moving in their own ways. Your fitness brings you together, makes you trust him, makes him teach you the right way, also makes you follow his instructions. That is the straight way to reach God, which is to gain the fourth state. You will follow the way and reach your goal which is Being-Consciousness-Bliss, which is God.
8. The way shown by the Master is final, straight and making for unity. It is welltried, natural, and free from pain. When you are following the way shown by the master, doubts will not arise; there will be no fear. Are not fear and doubt the characteristics of the ways of darkness? How can they meet you in the way of Truth shown by the Master? In this manner, the way will itself speak to you and say that it is the right one. In that way, there will be nothing more for you to do but to meet your Master and learn from him. That way will be familiar to you, as the Master and God have made it so. Before you, he had treaded the way. He has shown you the way and you are following him. To how many will you show the same way? And how many more will follow the same way later? Obviously fear and doubt have no place in the way of truth. When once you have taken a step forward you will step back. The master's help is only for the first step forward. You need not do anything for your master in order to have the way shown to you.
Know him to be the messenger of God sent down to disclose the way to the fit who have become ripe by their own efforts in either or both the directions mentioned earlier.
It is God who sends this godly messenger just when you are ripe.
10. Though you may not believe all that is said of God, believe at least "There is God." This seed is very potent in its growth. It is so mighty as to negate all else and fill all by itself. It is so almighty that you will not see anything besides God, not even yourself. Truly, God is all.
A man wakes up from a dream. His mind is happy or troubled according to his opinion of the things seen in the dream. But on waking, his mind remains unaffected by all the happenings in the dream; it remains the same. Why? Because, only now his mind has learned to value all the matters of the dream equally. He is not sorry for the cessation of the dream. Why? He is convinced that the dream is not everlasting and must end on waking. In the same manner, should a man be convinced that he cannot but wake up sometime from the long dream of the world, his mind will be unchanging. It is the state of freshness. This is the state of Peace.
Thus, the coolness of the mind produces enormous good not only to himself but also to the world at large. Peace shows the way to right conduct.
6. The concern of a man of Peace in the actions of the world lies in rectifying them. Should he feel fear before this world, what hope of reformation can there be, especially from those who esteem it and want to possess it? They are in the grip of selfishness, blind to impartiality. To guide the blind on the way or treat the blindness of the eye, one's eyesight must itself be good. Similarly, it is for him to reform the world who has already discerned his unchanging nature from the changeful nature of the world and become peaceful. These cannot help serving the world. Why? Can anyone be so hard hearted as not to lift up a child when it slips and falls? So also for the wise ones who can rightly appraise the troubles of the world and help the people. Because he has already withdrawn himself from the mind and body the sage feels no concern under the strain of service to the world, just as the life principle does not suffer even when loaded carts pass over the corpse it has left behind (by itself). He will not shrink from work or trouble. Only truly realized peace can bestow such courage and coolness.
By no means can you discover what He will make of you unless you surrender yourself to Him. However much I may speak of it, you cannot understand. It is a matter of experience. Doubtless He will do nothing less than exalt you to His state. Therefore, be not perplexed about your future; directly surrender yourself. You can always turn away if joy does not overtake you from the very instant of surrender.
Just as the drinking of milk starts with an agreeable taste and ends with the satisfaction of hunger, so also surrender starts with delight and ends with Perfect Bliss, which lies beyond even pleasure and pain. Therefore your goal, without doubt, is this Universal Ego (I-am-Brahman).
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https://www.arshabodha.org/adiShankara/LaghuVakyaVritti-3.pdf
vakyavritti
pure consciousness should be distinguished
from reflected consiousness with great effort
distinct from qualities and defects ..guna /durguna ...is pure consciousness.
cognitions of M change , moment to moment,
but not of consciousness.
Restrain of all cognitions should be practised with great effort
by those who seek the experience of bramha.
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sadhanai saram
56 note:
Sri Bhagavan says, “that supreme state (of liberation) that is praised (by all the scriptures) and that is attained here (in this very life) by the clear Inquiry (vichara) that arises in the heart when one gains association with a sage (Sadhu), is impossible to attain by (listening to) preachers, by (studying and learning) the meaning of the scriptures, by (doing) virtuous deeds or by any other means”.
79. To the extent to which love for God arises in one’s heart, to that extent will one acquire knowledge about Him.
And to the extent to which one knows the nature of God, to that extent will the mind gain steadfast love for Him.
Thus, knowledge (jnana) will be increased by devotion (bhakti), and devotion (bhakti) will be increased by knowledge (jnana).
57. Though your mind lacks the strength of discrimination or dispassion (viveka and vairagya) required to withdraw itself from the false attraction of the pleasures of this unreal world, your mind will naturally and spontaneously become mature to the extent to which you humbly and lovingly come very close and associate with enlightened sages (Jnanis), who abide as the reality (sat).
82. The state of abiding firmly in Self-alone is wisdom (jnana).
Would it be possible to abide thus in Self if one did not have love for Self?
Love for Self-alone is bhakti;
abiding firmly in Self on account of that love alone is jnana.
What difference is there between these two?
Discriminate and know this truth. (Maharshi’s Gospel p.24)
87. When, having wept and wept with intense yearning for a long time,
unceasingly thinking of and adoring the Gracious Feet (of the Lord),
the mind which rises (as “I am so-and-so”) dissolves and becomes pure,
the blemishless Self-inquiry (jnanatmavichara) will become firmly settled (in the heart)
and the experience of Self (swarupa-anubhava) will of its own accord arise very easily indeed
. – Sri Muruganar
89. Since the ego itself is everything (as revealed by Sri Bhagavan in verse 26 of Reality in Forth Verses), giving up the ego, the feeling “I am this body,” by surrendering it to God, is lovingly surrendering everything to Him.
Having once surrendered the ego to God, abiding in Self without taking it back again (that is, without again identifying the body as “I” or “mine”) is true tapas.
192. All the knowledge which one learns (by studying countless scriptures) is nothing but a great store of thoughts and tendencies (vasanas).
The pure (adjunctless and contentless) knowledge “I am”, which remains as Silence when one has completely discarded all those thoughts and tendencies (vasanas), is alone true knowledge (mey-jnana). Therefore, know that all one’s learning more and more is only ignorance (ajnana).
Self-knowledge will shine forth spontaneously only when the mind subsides.
200. If the liking to attain true knowledge really rises with one, it will be easy for one to experience Self-knowledge, the state of perfect emancipation, as clearly as an amalaka (crystal, or goose berry) fruit in the hand.
But so long as even an iota of the liking to enjoy the pleasures of this unreal world remains unsubsided in one’s heart, the real thirst to know Self will not rise within one
201. To the extent in which the conviction grows stronger in us that all the extroverted activity of the mind is only misery,
to that extent the desire and love to turn within will also increase.
And to the extent to which the strength to attend to Self alone increases in us, to that extent the conviction will grow.
that attending to anything other than Self is useless.
Thus, each one of these two (namely vairagya or desirelessness towards external objects and bhakti or the love to attend to Self) is an aid to increase the other.
Spiritually mature aspirant
202. Know that he who likes to remain steadfastly attending to Self, knowing that Self-attention is far more important than any action that he has to do,
than any word that he has to speak,
or than any thought that he has to think,
alone is a true mature spiritual aspirant (pakvi).
203. Though many crores (millions) of very important thoughts rise in one’s heart, bliss can be enjoyed only when one rejects all of them and remains still,
knowing that to be still is far more important than to continue attending to any thought whatsoever.
Only by those earnest aspirants who have clearly understood this truth, can real austere practice (tapas) be possible.
204. Just as a pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, dives and takes the fine pearl lying in the depths of the ocean, one should fasten upon the mind a stone girdle of firm desirelessness (vairagya) and dive within oneself to take the ancient pearl of Self, the original consciousness.
205. If a pearl-diver remains on the shore of the ocean waiting for the roaring waves to subside, will he ever succeed in gathering pearls? If he plunges through the waves on the surface and dives deep into the ocean with a heavy stone tied to his waist,
what waves will he find there in the depths? (Similarly, if we steadfastly dive beneath the waves of thoughts into the depths of our heart, by keenly attending to the consciousness “I”, we will find that there are no thoughts there to disturb us).
207. Having dived deep into the heart, which is the consciousness “I”, and having thereby rectified all kinds of sense-knowledge, which are distortions of the one real consciousness, and which rise like bubbles on the surface of the ocean, we should abide only as this existence-consciousness, which shines as “I am”, without knowing anything through the senses.
208. When we thus abide more and more in the natural state of Self, all the innumerable tendencies (vasanas) will be destroyed. Other than this practice of Self-abidance, there is no effective means that will destroy the tendencies so easily and so quickly.
209. Even before all the tendencies have been completely destroyed, by one’s own desirelessness (vairagya) and by the Grace of God, it is possible for one to attain the blemishless light of Self-knowledge. Then by the power and clarity of that Selfknowledge, the delusion of attachment to the body and mind will automatically be destroyed.
210. Those aspirants who have attained purity of mind due to the strength of the good qualities that they have gradually cultivated, and acquired through so many births, will easily learn how to abide in this state of Self-knowledge as soon as they come into the presence of the Sadguru who has manifested Himself in human form.
216. The tendencies (vasanas) are the seeds, and the thoughts that rise are the plants. The Grace of God or Guru is the water that makes the vasanas sprout in the form of thoughts. Then in order to destroy those thoughts, which exist in the form of desires, that same Grace crushes them by the power of the clear discrimination that it bestows upon us. Therefore, until you achieve victory in this war of Grace, do not become disheartened and give up your meditation.
223. The state in which our power of attention, which now sees the objects that exist in front of our eyes, sees its own existence “I am”, having suddenly become introverted by giving up all objective attention and turning towards “I,”
is alone the state of true austerity (tapas) or yoga.
If our power of attention is used in any other way, that is only an objective attention that is opposed to true tapas or yoga
Intermittent attempts
224. Know that a vichari (a person practicing Self-inquiry) who makes effort with the liking always to turn inwards to see the “I” with the inner eye, will not be able to experience the pure Selfconsciousness merely by the process of sitting majestically with closed eyes for a long period of time at one stretch.
225. If at one single attempt you strive persistently for long hours without limit, to pull Selfwards and restrain the running mind without leaving your hold on Self-attention, you will find that you are not able to maintain a steady intensity of Self-attention.
Therefore, after making one attempt for a few minutes, relax your effort for a while, and then again make a fresh attempt with renewed effort.
226. If you continue incessantly to struggle for many hours at a stretch to turn your power of atten-
tion towards Self, your effort will become slack and the intensity of your Self-attention will decrease.
On the other hand, if you take rest as and when each attempt becomes slack, and then if you repeatedly make fresh efforts to turn Selfwards, with each fresh attempt your Self-attention will gain an increased vigor and intensity.
Note: If we press our hand on a weighing-scale and if we try to maintain the pressure continuously for a long time by not removing our hand, as time passes the dial will indicate that the pressure is gradually decreasing. But if instead we relax by removing our hand for a while, and if we then again apply the pressure, the dial will indicate that with each fresh attempt the pressure is increasing. Similarly, instead of struggling to maintain the intensity of Self-attention for a long time, if we make intermittent attempts to turn our attention keenly towards Self, with each fresh attempt our Self-attention will gain a greater degree of intensity and clarity.
227. When the mind, our power of attention, having little by little gained the strength to turn Selfwards, finally at one time reaches the heart due to the intensity and clarity of its Self-attention, it will drown in Self, having been caught in the clutch of the Grace of God who has ever been waiting without the least forgetfulness to catch it, and hence it will never again turn outwards to know objects other than “I”.
228. Knowing that this is indeed the peerless divine marriage of Grace, the power of attention will become settled and will attain firm abidance in Self. To remain steadily established in Self-abidance, being firmly bound by Self in Self, having known oneself to be that Self, is alone the state of supreme bliss.
42. Watching the Breath
229. If one takes to Self-attention, the practice of keenly observing only the consciousness “I,” then one need not perform any other practice (sadhana). But let those who cannot take to this practice of Selfattention from the very outset, practice for a short while either repetition of mantras (japa) or watching of the movement of the breath, and then let them give up all such practices and cling only to Selfattention.
232. If you fix your attention upon the one power within you, which is experienced in the form of the effort that draws the breath within and then pushes it out, then retention of the breath (kumbhaka) will be attained without difficulty or strain.
233. But if you think that effort of yours to be something other than “I,” no benefit will be gained from the retention kumbhaka. And even though you understand this effort of yours to be only yourself, if your attention does not cling to that first person consciousness “I,” know that even this practice will only be a buffoonery.
43. Self-Inquiry and Other Methods of Practice (Sadhana)
236. For those who listen and pay heed to what Sri Ramana Bhagavan has said, the path of Selfinquiry is very easy.
Only to those who ask, “What is this path? What is that path?”, having already confused their mind by learning so much, does it become necessary to teach all the other superficial and extroverted methods of sadhana saying, “First subdue the breath (by practicing pranayama), subdue the tongue (by observing silence), and subdue the mischief of the mind (by practicing meditation).”
239. The state in which the mind, by the strength of practice (abhyasa-bala), abides or immerses itself in the attention to any second person object, however exalted that object may be, is only a state of temporary absorption of the mind (manolaya). On the other hand, by abiding in the state of Self-attention, the natural state of true awakening, the state of destruction of the mind (mano-nasa) will be attained. Since this natural state of Selfknowledge alone is our goal, cling firmly only to this flawless practice (sadhana), or incessantly thinking “I, I”.
240. The one-pointedness of mind, which is gained by the practice of repetition of a mantra (japa) or meditation (dhyana), will also be gained by practicing Self-inquiry;
but in a very easy manner without the need of any restriction or restraint,
such as those that are to be observed while practicing other methods of practice (sadhana). Rather than the common existence-consciousness “I am,” which is always experienced by all people, what more worthy and easy target of attention (dhyana-lakshana) is now needed?
248. (When will the intellect decide that Self alone is the greatest thing?)
The intellect will esteem something as the greatest according to its decision as to what is eternal and what is ephemeral.
What can be correctly decided by the intellect to be eternal?
Only that thing, which can be decided to be real, is unquestionably eternal; other things are only ephemeral objects that are fit to be discarded.
259. Those people who have a clear and unshakable understanding of their own reality, having thus discriminated and concluded that Self, the existence-consciousness “I am,” alone is real and eternal, will gain unlimited love to abide as Self and will thus attain the state of one-pointed Self-attention.
260. When you attain the non-dual state of Selfabidance, by gaining such one-pointedness and such unequaled love for Self, you will experience the state of true spiritual discipline (tapas) in which you alone blissfully exist as the direct knowledge of Self.
265. Why is it said, “Abide in this existenceconsciousness repeatedly” and “Abide in this state with great love?” Because until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive us out of this state have ceased to exist, this state will seem to come and go. Therefore, until those vasanas have been com-
pletely destroyed, it is necessary to have love and to make repeated efforts to abide in this state.
266. When by this practice of abiding in the state of existence-consciousness, this existenceconsciousness is always experienced to be effortless and inescapably natural, then no harm will result even if sleep, dream and waking appear to come and go.
48. The Manner of the Dawn of Knowledge (Janodaya Vidham)
268. Death happens in a split second. Awakening from sleep happens in a split second.
Similarly, the destruction of the delusion of individuality happens in just a split second.
True knowledge is not something that can be gained and then lost. If a person feels that true knowledge is coming and going, he is still only in the state of practice (or ab-
hyasa). It cannot be said that such a person has attained true Self-knowledge.
The perfect awakening into the state of Selfknowledge happens in just a split second.
That state is not attained gradually over a long period of time. All the sadhanas that are practiced over a period of many years are meant only for attaining blemishless maturity. Listen to an apt illustration. After people have placed gunpowder in the iron barrel of a temple-cannon, after they have added broken pieces of brick, after they have packed it tight with a ramrod, after they have placed a wick in contact with the powder, and after they have plastered the open end of the barrel with clay, as soon as the charge is ignited it will explode in a split second with a blast that sounds like thunder.
Similarly, after one has learnt the truth about the real Self through hearing and reading, after one has practiced sadhana for a long time, after one has wept and prayed with heart-melting devotion, and after one has thereby attained purity of mind, the knowledge of the reality will instantaneously shine forth in a split second as “I am I”. As soon as the dawn of Self-knowledge thus takes place, due to the clear shining of the reality of this state, which is an empty space devoid of objective knowledge, will be spontaneously realized to be the state of true knowledge, which is our beginningless real nature. When even the effort of attending to Self thereby merges in Silence, that state of mere Being, in which there is nothing further to do and nothing further to attain at any time, alone is the real state.
49. Self-Knowledge
269. One’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is sleep. One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am this body,” is dream; which is of two kinds, known as the waking state and the dream state. One’s experiencing one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” without any forgetfulness (pramada), is the true waking. The former two are unreal, the latter alone is real.
273. Therefore, one’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is not (something which ever truly happened). One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am the body,” is not (something which ever truly happened). One’s newly experiencing one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” is not (something which ever truly happens). Such is the nature of the experience of true knowledge (jnana).
289. If someone is a Jnani, what is that to us? So long as we do not know ourself, that will be of no benefit to us.
On scrutiny, Jnana alone is the Jnani; the Jnani is not a human form; he is only the supreme space of pure consciousness.
That supreme space is our true nature.
Seeing the Jnani thus by Silence (the thought-free state which remains after the mind has been destroyed) is alone seeing him correctly.
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1. ELEVEN VERSES ON SELF-INQUIRY (ATMA-VICHARA PATIKAM)
1. Thinking is a vritti; being is not a vritti (thought). If we scrutinize “Who is thinking?” the thinking process will come to as standstill. Even when thoughts do not exist, do you have any doubt about your own existence as “I am”? Abiding in your own existence, which shines as “I am,” the source, from which all thoughts rise, is the state of Selfabidance. Abide thus.
2. He who thinks is the soul, or jiva. He who exists as “I am” without any thought is God. If the thinker thinks with great love of that which merely exists as “I am,” this Selfward-turned thought will become the thought-free consciousness, which will destroy all thoughts. When the thinker thus dies along with his thoughts, the state of abidance, which then remains shining as “I am,” is the state of union with God or Siva-sayujya.
3. He who thinks, “I am so-and-so” is just a thought like all the other thoughts. But of all thoughts, this thought, “I am so-and-so” alone is the first. The soul who thinks, “I am so-and-so” is merely a reflection of our real Self. When we abide and shine only as that real Self, the thought “I am so-and-so” will not rise.
4. In dreamless sleep, this thought “I am so-andso” does not at all exist. In the true state of Selfknowledge also, this thought “I am so-and-so” does not at all exist. But in the states of waking and dream, which rise in between the darkness of sleep The Essence of Spiritual Practice 89 and the pure light of Self-knowledge, the thought “I am this body” seems to appear and disappear. Therefore this limited “I” is not real; this “I” is only a thought.
5. The flourishing of this “I” is only the flourishing of misery. This “I” is that which is called the ego. This ego-”I” rises and flourishes only because of non-inquiry (avichara). If we inquire “Who is this I?”, and thereby vigilantly scrutinize only the feeling “I,” without attending to the adjunct “so-and-so” with which it is mixed, this adjunct will disappear, since it is devoid of any real existence.
6. The second and third persons, the known objects, subsist only because of the first person, the knowing subject, who is the root. If the mind, which is ever wavering because of attending to second and third persons, turns and attends to the first person, who rises as “I am so-and-so,” the adjunct “soand-so” will cease to exist and the real Self, which always exists as “I am,” will shine forth spontaneously. That real Self, which is the indestructible base of the first person, alone is true knowledge (Jnana).
7. Thinking about second and third persons is foolishness, because when we attend to second and third persons the mental activities (mano-vrittis) rise up and multiply. But the act of attending to the first person is equal to committing suicide, because only by scrutinizing the first person will the ego die of its own accord.
8. Attending to any second or third person instead of turning and attending to this “I,” the first 90 A Light on the Teaching of Ramana Maharshi person feeling that is always experienced by everyone, is only ignorance (ajnana). If you ask, “The ego (the feeling ‘I am so-and-so’) is only a product of ignorance, so attending to the ego is also ignorance, is it not? Why then should we attend to this ‘I’?” Listen to what is said below:
9. Why is the ego destroyed when we scrutinize “What am I”? Because this “I”-thought (aham-vritti) is a reflected ray of Self-consciousness; and thus unlike other thoughts, which are devoid of consciousness, it is always directly connected with its source. Therefore, when our attention dives deeper and deeper within by following this reflected ray “I,” the length of this reflected ray “I” will diminish until finally it has shrunk to nothing. When the ego, the feeling “I am so-and-so,” thus disappears, the consciousness that will remain shining as “I am I” is the true knowledge of Self.
10. Do not do anything thinking, “It should be done only by me.” Nothing is done by you, because you are simply nothing. Knowing this truth from the beginning, if you refrain entirely from rising as “I am the doer,” all actions will happen of their own accord, and your peace will ever remain undisturbed.
11. If we scrutinize “What is the reality that ever exists?” we will find that nothing in this world is real. Since Self alone is real, let us mentally renounce everything else and ever abide unshakably as that reality, which will remain shining alone as “I am.” This alone is the service enjoined upon us by Lord Ramana, who ever-abides as the eternal Self.
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40 verses on renunciation
3. The afflictions that possess us exist without leaving us even for a moment, in two forms, as “I” and “mine.” Along with the renunciation of the “mine”-ness (mamakara), which is the feeling “These things are mine,” to renounce the “I”-ness (ahankara), which is the feeling “I am this body,” is the highest among all the kinds of renunciation
Unless you can discover the peerless means by which to bring about the death of yourself, the ego, O my dear sir, your renunciation will not yield any benefit.
8. If a wandering religious mendicant (parivrajaka sannyasi) wanders about depending entirely upon God to provide his material needs each day, without ever seeking to acquire or save anything for the morrow with the thought, “Let this place of abode or this food be available for me for another occasion,” his faith in God will increase (and he will gain the strength to live with an attitude of complete dependence upon God alone, and not upon any people).
If the sannyasi is unable to endure the mean words of worldly people who speak thus, know that he is not a true sannyasi.
26. With the firm dispassion (vairagya) of not cherishing or hoarding anything for the morrow (having an unshakable faith that God will provide you each day with whatever is good for you), pass the days of accepting whatever comes to you of its own accord on each occasion without giving any work to your brain (to investigate whether each thing which comes is good or bad and to decide whether it is to be accepted or rejected)
27. If you, who have come to this world alone, live alone (being free of attachment to anything) and subside in Self by knowing what is the reality of yourself, know that that is the greatest help which you can render to all the other people in this world.
30. The path of karma yoga (selfless service), which is practiced by anyone other than such a Jivanmukta (see previous verse), will gradually remove the impurities from the mind, and it will stop with thus imparting complete purity of mind.
After thus attaining purity of mind, it is proper that a person should give up the path of karma yoga and should follow either the path of devotion (bhakti) or the path of Self-inquiry and thereby attain the egoless state of Self.
33. You have taken this renunciation (sannyasa) not for the sake of giving spiritual instructions (upadesa) to the people of this world, but only to attain the infinite Self, and to remain firmly established in Self-abidance. Why do you forget this truth and wander about in the world giving lectures?
34. Only the real renunciate (sannyasi), who never deviates from the state of firm Self-abidance is a person who is correctly teaching true knowledge to all other people. Rather than by climbing on platforms to give lectures by mouth, if one turns the mind within away from the world and abides in Self, then the entire world, which seems to exist externally, will be awakened into the state of true knowledge.
35. Without renunciation (sannyasa), to attain liberation is not in the least possible; but renunciation (sannyasa) truly means only inward renunciation (that is, the renunciation of the first thought “I am this body”) and not anything else
If one abides in the true state of Self, which is devoid of all thoughts, that itself is all virtues and ethical conduct (dharmas).
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44
The great tapasvin devotedly worships with the flower of tranquil space and with the mantra of aloneness the deity [who abides as] the expanse of consciousness in the temple of the body. Who can equal those who live forever, revering such jnanis?
53
You who, babbling the scriptures, become haughty! You who accumulate karma with your caste and lineage! Can you not become sattvic, know your Self through your Self, give up unceasing activity and remain still?
56
Question: If so, is yoga good?
Answer: For knowing consciousness it is not necessary.
They will practise the highly respected yoga, remaining in a corner and controlling their breath and speech. For seeing and abiding as supreme consciousness, why this sadhana? They are attempting to eat and live here for a long time by making the body strong.
59
Question: Is not sadhana necessary to know the Self?
Answer: What use is a sadhana that does not enable one to see the sadhaka?
The objects, which are seen to be many, such as male, female and neuter, and the seer who remains as one – all this is only the manifestation of the excellent consciousness. Can they exist apart from consciousness? However much sadhana they practise, how will it be of use for those who do not know this clearly?
60
Question: Why do they suffer instead of enquiring and realising the Self?
Answer: They suffer because what they have known to be one by studying has not been experienced.
62
Question: Then what is the way to attain Sivam?
Answer: The way to see one’s Self is by rejecting everything else as maya.
64
Question: If one renounces the jnana sastras, how can one attain the bliss of liberation?
Answer: Liberation is only delighting in the Self through tranquillity and without anxiety. When this is attained, what is the use of books? One may know the jnana sastras, or take up good sannyasa, or attempt to experience mauna samadhi, but the indescribable delight of liberation is simply to become the Self, remaining free of all anxiety, experiencing bliss.
He may be endowed with learning, or established in great yoga, or his body and senses may be active, but he who does not merge with supreme grace will not know tranquillity and will not obtain the final reward, the bliss of liberation that never fails.
66
Question: If so, do they not have to experience even prarabdha?
Answer: If one remains without movement as the Self, like the column supporting the windmill, the prarabdha will exhaust itself.
70
Question: How did this experience arise?
Answer: It was obtained providentially through the grace of the Guru.
Like a sweet mango fruit appearing under the thorny karuvelam tree, the divine lotus feet of the Guru – who has the power to bestow the grace to transform me into the reality that is sought by everyone, everywhere – came to me who was replete with evil, taking birth over and over again.
71
Question: Is getting this experience so difficult?
Answer: It is extremely difficult.
72
Question: What is the benefit of this experience?
Answer: It is obtaining the Self that is beyond the mind. I did not obtain anything other than my Self. I had my Self in my possession all the time. Separate from me, there is no bondage or release. If one sees [this], even the mind that enquires into these is non-existent.
74 Question: How to get rid of the vasana of the gross body?
Answer: It should be rejected by seeing it as the form of food. You body who remain as the sheath of food! If you do as I tell you, you will experience bliss as long as you live. I swear to this. Do not go near evil and useless vasanas. Whatever comes according to prarabdha, remain a mere witness.
75 Question: How to remove [or be rid of] the senses of perception?
Answer: They should be removed by seeing them as the Self. O senses! You cherished and nourished me all these years. Now I have become blissful consciousness. Even you, who [appear to] become different from me, I have come to know as my Self. Henceforth, remain one with me, without becoming divergent.
76 Question: How to be rid of desires?
Answer: Through desire for realisation of the truth. O desire! Though I suffered much through you, on account of your help I dwelt in the Self. I reached the Sadguru through you. In liberation I have, along with you, become the Self. I swear to this.
77 Question: How to destroy anger?
Answer Through tranquillity. O anger! Through you I rid myself of my deficiency. Because of the weariness experienced by your rising that invariably produced misery, I rid myself of this danger
and dwelt in supreme tranquillity. Even in dream, do not rise up in lamentation, but remain calm.
79 Question: How to dissolve the mind?
Answer: It should be dissolved in the Self, which is its basis. O mind! I myself am you. You yourself are me. Despite being so, deceitfully you forgot me. That I am surrendered to you is also true. But do not remain different from me, the reality.
80 [The same answer continues in verses 80, 81 and 82.] My mind! You roamed about, laboured hard and learned many arts, seeking a way to make a living. You sought and gave me a Sadguru. To you who were so considerate to me, what help did I render in return?
81 O mind! Just as I once remained, assuming your form, now you have come and merged with me as my own form. Is there anyone like you who values the virtue of gratitude? Dwell henceforth in the loving care of the supreme state, without returning to your prior form.
82 O mind! You remained, right from the beginning, without renouncing love towards me. Through that love you gave me the benefit of cultivating all the virtues of a devotee, beginning with forbearance. You removed desire and its progeny. Now, like me, you remain still through good and proper discernment.
86 Question: Is this the experience of all jnanis?
Answer: There is no experience other than this experience of the Self. He who has attained liberation will see, as not different from his Self, all this world that rises in the Self, which remains in the Self, and which merges in the Self. Will he see it as opposed to his Self?
87 Question: Will likes and dislikes arise in him?
Answer: As everything has become his Self, they will not arise in him. For what will he desire? For what will he rise as ‘I’? For what will he experience envy and malice? He will dwell as the unmoving support for everything, as the sum of all things animate and inanimate, like the great Meru mountain that is the axis for the seven worlds.
89 Question: How to determine those with such experience?
Answer: They remain unruffled in joy and misery. They should be known by taking this as the hallmark. Only he is a jnani whose mind does not get agitated, who does not identify with and desire [objects] before him, and whose state of purity never wavers whether he lives on alms in poverty or enjoys the illusory state of being Brahma.
95
Question: What does the jnani think?
Answer: There are only thoughts that everything is the Self.
The jivanmukta is he who has become one [with the reality] through the experience ‘I have seen myself everywhere; I have seen everything in me’; who possesses intensely and clearly the experience of having learned ‘unlearning’, and who has renounced everything.
97
Question: What are the disciplines and pujas for the jnani?
Answer: They are meditating on the Self, and so on.
Meditating on consciousness is bathing for a jnani. Whatever external appearances he delights in, that is noble discipline. Whatever he obtains as alms and eats without ego, that is his supreme puja. His faultless movements are pure samadhi.
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Sorupa Saram (The Essence of One’s Own True Nature) by Sorupananda Sorupa Saram (also known as Swarupa Saram when it is spelt in the Sanskrit way) is a Tamil advaitic work that was composed by Sorupananda, a distinguished Tamil saint and Guru who lived near Virai, a Tamil town, probably around the end of the sixteenth century. He is associated historically with Tattvarayar, an eminent scholar who was also his sister’s son. The following biographical information about them has been taken from a Tamil introduction to Sorupa Saram:
1 Sorupananda and Tattvarayar were fluent in Sanskrit and Tamil, and both were learned in all the sastras. However, the true realisation dawned upon them that the profit to be gained from this limited knowledge, however praiseworthy, did not have the power to grant freedom from birth in the way that true knowledge does. They realised that it showed a lack of judgement on their part to devote their time any longer to the acquisition of this limited knowledge, which confers advantages in this life only. By doing so, they would waste a human birth, something that is very hard to attain. Since they were both overcome by a desire to free themselves from worldly attachments, they devoted themselves to the task of seeking out a Sadguru who could bestow jnana. Having made this resolution, the two of them, before leaving their dwelling-place, made an agreement with one another: ‘Whichever of us is first to obtain the fortune of a Guru’s darshan, he shall assume the position of Guru to the other.’ They then set out on a pilgrimage, Sorupananda to the South, and Tattvarayar to the North. Upon the banks of the Kaveri, in a holy place called Govattam, Sorupananda had a miraculous experience in which he attained a tranquillity of mind that had thus far eluded him. ‘This occurrence is due to the presence here of some great mahatma,’ he decided. Upon consulting the learned people in that place, he discovered that a great being called Sri Sivaprakasa Swami dwelt there in a patch of rushes, immersed in perpetual samadhi. However, he ascertained that on a few occasions he had been known to come outside in the morning time. Going immediately to the holy presence of that Sadguru, he waited until Sivaprakasa Swami emerged from his state of absorption and came outside. Making obeisance in the proper manner, he beseeched him to accept him as his devotee. When he had received the Guru’s grace, Sorupananda waited for Tattvarayar’s return. Tattvarayar had travelled to the North, but he had not obtained the darshan of any Guru. When he lost all hope of doing so, he gave up his search and returned to the South. On his way, he had the good fortune to meet Sorupananda, who by that time had realised the Self. Tattvarayar then received the grace of his uncle. Whilst Sorupananda and Tattvarayar were peacefully dwelling in this way as Guru and disciple, Sorupananda one day ordered that oil be brought for an oil bath. Since that day was amavasai [new moon], the disciple was acutely aware of the sastraic injunction that an oil bath was forbidden on the day of the ancestors. ‘But today is amavasai,’ he said. On hearing this, Sorupananda said: ‘What have all the prohibitions of the sastras to do with sadhus? Although you have dwelt in my presence for many days, you remain unable to free yourself from the constraints of the sastras. Is there really any advantage in your remaining here any longer?’ 1 Sorupa Saram, pub. Kasyapa Nagarajan, 1971. Thus, by means of this question and answer, he confirmed his suspicion that for Tattvarayar birth was not yet at an end. Tattvarayar was shocked by these compassionate words from his Guru. Realising that he had not yet succeeded in eliminating his vasanas, he was filled with remorse. He came to the following decision: ‘Rather than remaining here and besmirching the holy presence of my Guru, it would be better to drown this sinful block beneath the ocean.’ Then, realising that it was forbidden to turn one’s back on the Guru, he retired, slowly moving backwards. When Tattvarayar was departing in this way, meditating on his Guru, the devotees who were accompanying him took down the gems of truth that came out of his lips as his divine utterances and submitted them to Sorupanandar. These words were published in jnana texts that are revered even today. When Sorupananda saw these works he was astonished by their profundity. Realising in his heart that such a sea of learning did not deserve to drown in the watery ocean, he commanded Tattvarayar to return to his presence. As soon as Tattvarayar returned Sorupananda said to him: ‘These difficult works, useful as they are to yourself, will not easily benefit the world as a whole. Compose, therefore, a simple work that everyone may understand and win salvation from.’ After giving this command, Sorupananda went off to eat. In accordance with his Guru’s wishes Tattvarayar composed and completed Cacivanna Bodham while his Guru was still eating. This work became part of the Mohavatai Bharani.
Ramana Maharshi was particularly fond of the next development in the story. This is how he narrated the story. The extract is from Day by Day with Bhagavan, 21st November 1945: Tattvarayar composed a bharani [a kind of poetical composition in Tamil] in honour of his Guru, Sorupananda, and convened an assembly of learned pandits to hear the work and assess its value. The pandits raised the objection that a bharani was only composed in honour of great heroes capable of killing a thousand elephants, and that it was not in order to compose such a work in honour of an ascetic. Thereupon the author said, ‘Let us all go to my Guru and we shall have this matter settled there’. They went to the Guru and, after all had taken their seats, the author told his Guru the purpose of their coming there. The Guru sat silent and all the others also remained in mauna. The whole day passed, night came, and some more days and nights, and yet all sat there silently, no thought at all occurring to any of them and nobody thinking or asking why they had come there. After three or four days like this, the Guru moved his mind a bit and thereupon the assembly regained their thought activity. They then declared, ‘Conquering a thousand elephants is nothing beside this Guru’s power to conquer the rutting elephants of all our egos put together. So certainly he deserves the bharani in his honour!’ Though Tattvaraya was the author of many verses (most of which have disappeared) Sorupananda himself only wrote one poem. This was Sorupa Saram, a distillation of his advaitic experience. This work was highly regarded by Ramana Maharshi. When he gave Annamalai Swami a list of six books to read, he included Sorupa Saram on a list that also included Kaivalya Navaneetam, Ribhu Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, Ellam Ondre, and Yoga Vasishta. This recommendation puts the text in very distinguished company. This is the first-ever English translation of Sorupa Saram. It has been translated by Dr T. V. Venkatasubramanian and Robert Butler and edited by David Godman
. The verses themselves are by Sorupananda and the interpolated questions, answers and comments are by a later, unknown commentator.
However, these additional remarks have always been associated with the work and they are now regarded as being an integral part of it. Benedictory Verse Addressed to the Self
1 May the unique Self, which appears as various objects in the same way that gold takes the shape of the mould into which it is cast, be our support and guide for composing this work, Sorupa Saram, which proclaims that the nature of the world is only consciousness. Text
2 Since the three kinds of differences do not exist, everything is only consciousness. The certainty of the existence of consciousness is stated in this way. Since there is nothing at all that is different from consciousness, the five elements, along with the five senses and the five organs of sense, all these are consciousness only. Whatever is in the beginning, in the middle and in the end – all these are also consciousness. The indescribable illusion is also consciousness. The one who perceives everything and the act of perceiving are also consciousness.
3 Question: Is there a logical way of concluding that everything is consciousness alone?
Answer: Yes, there is. All the world’s diversity, which derives from the misperceptions of the mind and which appears to be real – is it not the witnessing consciousness alone? Hence, everything – beginning with liberation and including purity and impurity, joy and misery, that which is and that which is not – is only being.
4 Question: If all is being, do objects appear as one’s own Self, which is beingconsciousness-bliss?
Answer: Yes, they do. In whichever direction I look there is absolute perfection. The real nature of all the holy waters is blissful consciousness. The real nature of all the verses praising the Lord is bliss. Apart from me, what other form can exist?
5 Question: Is the above statement merely verbal or is it experienced?
Answer: It is experienced as well. My Guru instructed: ‘Sir, the world appearance and its substratum – all these are you. There is no one who does not say “I”. Therefore enquire thoroughly into the “I”.’ If this is known intently and thoroughly [one can say] ‘I myself am pure consciousness’. Hence, I am the primal entity.
6 Question: Which entity had this experience of the Self, and when did the experience arise?
Answer: It is experienced by myself and the experience is ever-present. I saw my real nature as pure consciousness. I see only myself, and not the great multitude of the world. Simply because I had not looked at myself thoroughly, did I at any time cease to exist?
7 Question: If everything is only the Self, why are the names many?
Answer: The many names do not make the Self multiple. Since everyone abides as ‘I’ and declares himself to be ‘I’, right up to Iswara there is nothing other than ‘me’. The same person is addressed differently as son, brother and father; but for that reason will the body of the person become different?
8 Question: If so, the known and the knower will be different.
Answer: No, they won’t be different. It is my Self who remained as the [seer] ‘I’. Those objects that were rejected as ‘not I’ – these too are my Self. It is like someone who goes to sleep at night as himself, manifests [in dream] as the form of [the seer and] the world and then wakes up as himself.
9 Question: What is the inherent nature of the Self that shone as everything?
Answer: It is ‘shining by itself as itself’. The Self that shines as the body, as the beloved soul, as all the actions, as ignorance, as the enjoyment of true knowledge, as the blissful reality and as the one consciousness – that indeed is my own real nature.
10 Question: Is it possible to give a true name to the Self that shines by itself?
Answer: As it is a transcendental experience, it is not possible to give it a name. They will describe it as bliss, as transcendence, and as the witness of all that remains at the culmination of the four Vedas. What designation might I apply to my real nature, which all the treatises on jnana are unable to track down?
11 Question: If it is transcendent, there is no scope for enquiry. It is therefore necessary to indicate and signify it in some way.
Answer: As it is everything and as it is nothing, it is beyond description. Is it ‘I’? Is it That? Am I That? Is That ‘I’? Is it shining jnana? Is it the source of all sounds [nadanta]? Is it mauna? Is it the pure state [suddha]? Is it a void? The self-shining natural state is all these and none of them.
12 Question: If it is said like this, none can realise the Self, and so there can be no realisation. Hence, a name should be given.
Answer: The following are the names given by the Vedas. Enlightenment is ‘I’; liberation is ‘I’; perfect bliss is ‘I’; being is ‘I’; consciousness is ‘I’; tranquillity is ‘I’; purity is ‘I’; that which is unique and beyond the scope of the Vedas is ‘I’; pure consciousness, the source of all, is ‘I’.
13 Question: Are all these descriptions experienced?
Answer: They are experienced and also transcended. My son! I became and dwelt as the indescribable experience, transcendental joy, and everything else. I felt no need to declare, ‘I have rid myself of the misery-causing karma’. I recovered my Self and have been freed.
14 Question: What is the benefit arising from this experience?
Answer: It is becoming the ruler of the kingdom of liberation. I obtained the supreme lordship that is never lost. I burned up the pair of opposites – happiness and misery. I gave up the life of the body-forest, which tormented the mind. I entered and occupied the house of liberation.
15 Question: What play will this king witness on his stage?
Answer: He will witness the dance of the three avasthas [waking, dreaming and sleeping]. In the waking state I will witness the dance of the five organs of action and the five organs of sense. In dream I will witness the dance of the mind. In thought-free sleep I will dance the object-free void-dance. However, I will [always] remain as the exalted essence [the Self].
16 Question: Where was this experience when you were regarding happiness and misery as ‘I’?
Answer: Then, too, I was remaining as the Self. I was nothing else. Who was the one who remained as [the ego] ‘I’? If I see him, I will not allow him to take up the form of the body. Only the ‘I’ whose form is consciousness is the real ‘I’. All other ‘I’s will get bound to a form and go through birth and death.
17 Question: The Self is immutable. Will it not get bound if it gets involved in activities?
Answer: As the Self remains a witness, like the sun, it will not get bound. Even if I bear the burdens of the family and have them follow me like a shadow, or even if the cloud called ‘maya’ veils, I am, without doubt, the sun of knowledge, self-shining as pure light and remaining as the witness [of the world].
18 Question: But the jnani is not remaining motionless like the sun.
Answer: He also remains actionless. Whatever comes, whatever actions are performed, in whatever I may delight, I am only pure consciousness, remaining aloof and aware, without becoming any of them.
19 Question: All things move because the Self makes them move. Hence, is there bondage for the Self?
Answer: Like the rope that makes the top spin, there is no bondage for it. In the same way that a top is made to spin by a rope, desires fructify in my presence. But, like the rope that is used to spin the top, I will not merge with them. I have rid myself of their connection. I became my own Self. My bondage is indeed gone.
20 Question: But what is the way by which knowledge and ignorance was destroyed?
Answer: In one’s own experience of the Self neither attainment of knowledge nor removal of ignorance is seen. By what did ignorance get destroyed? Through what did knowledge gained through enquiry arise? How was the clarity, known as the experience of true knowledge, obtained? Other than myself, what do I know?
21 Question: If the dawn of knowledge and the removal of ignorance are not known, how can we call such a one a jnani?
Answer: With ignorance removed from knowledge, like unreal from real, becoming both and becoming neither – this indeed is the nature of the jnani. When, ultimately, the real shone as ‘I’, did the unreal, which became ‘I’, go anywhere? I myself became the base of both the real and the unreal, but remained beyond the reach of the conflicting pair of real and unreal.
22 Question: Previously it was stated, ‘I am the possessor of the body, but not the body’. Now it is said, ‘I will remain different from the body and also be the body’. Which is true?
Answer: The truth is remaining in but aloof from the body, like the kernel in the mango seed that remains within the seed shell, but aloof from it. Oh, I said, ‘I am the body!’ I regarded wealth as mine! I felt, ‘I am the enjoyer!’ Are all these not false? Though I remained as everything, beginning with the body, the real ‘I’ always remained aloof without associating with anything, like the mango kernel in the seed of the sweet mango.
23 Question: Is remaining like this [attached and detached] only in the period of ignorance, or also in the period of knowledge?
Answer: It is in both. The periods of jnana and ajnana were seen and passed like the periods in which intellect had not developed and in which intellect had developed. Everything that was a superimposition during practice has now become false.
24 Question: Is there birth and death during the period of ignorance that exists prior to this experience?
Answer: As these are illusory, they do not exist. Oh, where was I born? What did I worship as God? Where did I seek refuge? When I became the blissful essence, the reality, experiencing unbroken bliss, were not all these [known to be] false?
25 Question: In what condition was the Self before the dawning of this experience?
Answer: When I am redeemed by realisation of the truth, I am not confused any more.
I lived as ‘someone’. I laboured in vain for ‘somebody’. I underwent change, taking a thousand names. Now, enough of this! I have seen myself, that which is hard for me to discover. Oh, now I am free!
26 Question: What is obtained and experienced if one sees the Self?
Answer: The mind dissolves in love and one becomes sat-chit-ananda. I made the deceitful mind melt and dissolve. I knew myself as I really am. Since I am the substratum for everything, I became and dwelt as myself, the clear ambrosia of sat-chitananda.
27 Question: Is the statement ‘The world is only the Self’ figuratively true and not literally true?
Answer: Anything seen cannot exist apart from the eye. Similarly, the world does not exist apart from the Self. Can there be anything seen that is apart from the eye? Can there be anything heard that is apart from the ear? Did any of the other four elements manifest independently of space? Though the world may appear like a flowing mirage-river, when thoroughly examined, can the world exist apart from the Self?
28 Question: Seer and seen appear different.
Answer: This is just like seeing gold as various ornaments. They are not different. Here, other than myself, nothing else exists. I swear to this. A gold ornament does not exist separate from the gold. In the same way that one can change the shape of gold and give it different names, I described my Self in various ways.
29 Question: What is the nature of this experience?
Answer: It is the transcendence that arises, dissolving thoughts, and in which everything shines as the Self. It is beyond the reach of speech and it is beyond the reach of the mind. It is the clear ambrosia with which one does not get satiated, even when it overflows. Like saliva that secretes on the tongue, it springs forth from within me. Like a dumb pot it remained as ‘I’, without being another.2
30 Question: When everything exists as Sivam, why should one become Sivam?
Answer: This is to enable the removal of all differences of ‘one’ and ‘two’ and to become perfect jnana. Do not question, ‘What is the bliss of Siva? What is Siva-nature? What is Siva’s activity?’ It is only the fullness of consciousness that does not get divided, does not unite, and does not become different.
31 Question: What is to be rejected as asat [unreal], and what is to be accepted as sat [reality]?
Answer: Reject objects that are known as asat and accept consciousness as sat. This is tranquillity. All the tattvas [principles] that one knows are foreign to oneself. While rejecting these objects as ‘not-Self’, realise the Self through the consciousness that remains as the one who rejects objects. This is tranquillity.
32 Question: If tranquillity is the one true thing, what is the witness? 2 A dumb pot is a spherical, baked mud pot, without a mouth, that absorbs water through its porous skin.
Answer: Tranquillity is itself everything, beginning from the witness right down to svanubhava [one’s own experience]. It is Sivam, the state of realisation. Tranquillity is itself the witness-Self. The witness-Self is itself Brahman. Brahman is fullness. The pure fullness realised by enquiry is itself the ever-present svanubhava. This is the state of realisation, which is itself Sivam.
33 Question: Even if the mind subsides, sayujyam [union] is attained only when maya is destroyed.
Answer: The destruction of the mind is itself the destruction of maya,
and hence it is sayujyam.
I have seen the way of the birth of the mind that leads to the birth of the world and the birth of the doer, the ego ‘I’.
The non-subsidence of the mind is itself maya.
The firmness of those who destroy this maya is sayujyam.
34 Question: If this is sayujyam, where will the past karmas go?
Answer: In this experience they will disappear without leaving a trace.
I rid myself of the fear that arises from the misery of imagining, ‘I underwent an endless succession of births and deaths’. All of the ancient world has become the vast, empty expanse that is my own Self, since everything other than my Self is false.
35 Question: When there is such an experience, why perform karma?
Answer: When this experience has not arisen, actions are performed. Until I became the endless, blissful experience through the superior wisdom that regards all worship and similar things as the ‘not-Self’, I worshipped the gods at the prescribed times and observed all the vows.
36 Question: Who will attain this experience?
Answer: Only those who are pure and who have the prescribed qualifications will attain it. The experience of reality – eternally abiding and shining as oneness, as blemishlessness, as fullness, and as truth – is attained only by those who are most qualified, pure, who have a steady mind, and who are undergoing their final birth. 37 Question: What are the marks of a pure one? Answer: They are as follows: [The answer is the content of verses 37-42] They will not utter harsh words; they will not hate anyone; they will be of cheerful countenance; whatever things they relish, they will not use them for themselves but will offer them to the great ones; they will not associate with evil persons; they will not curse anyone; their eyes will not blaze with anger. These are the ones who will rid themselves of birth. 38 They will not value as real those things that are destructible; they will never speak out, saying, ‘This is good and this is bad’; they will not grieve over events of the past; they will not condemn anything; they are the exalted ones. 39 They will not speak contemptuously of the ordinances of the Vedas; they will not remain without chanting and melting with devotion as long as they live; they will not forget death; they will not get attached to this world through weakness of mind; they are the ones who will not be born again. 40 They will not experience at all sudden movements of the mind; they will only desire to know the path of salvation; their minds will not get immersed in attachments, saying greedily, ‘This is my wealth, my house, my wife and my children’. Such are the mature ones. 41 Will they care for things that are valued by others as desirable and not desirable? When one really looks, those who become tranquil and eternal, who experience truth and abide in the final state are few in number. 42 Those who do not see anything other than their Self here and in the hereafter, who are beyond both and without any division, will they degrade themselves by not regarding as trivial this phantom-like world appearance that is an illusory play of the sankalpas? 43 Question: Sastra vasana [a latent desire for scriptural knowledge], or the vasanas of knowledge and ignorance – will these too not arise in those jnanis even through forgetfulness? Answer: As these are vasanas, they will not arise. During every superimposing avastha the liberated one clearly knows that the illusion of sound and the illusion of real and unreal are only the illusion of the mind, because [he knows that] the superimposed avastha that appears and disappears is false. 44 Question: If this is so, for such ones what constitutes the worship of God? Answer: Worship is only seeing the Self. The great tapasvin devotedly worships with the flower of tranquil space and with the mantra of aloneness the deity [who abides as] the expanse of consciousness in the temple of the body. Who can equal those who live forever, revering such jnanis?
45 Question: Why does everyone not perform this worship? Answer: Because of ignorance. When the three prime fruits [mango, jackfruit and banana] along with rice pudding made with milk are right in front of them, they will long for food vomited by a dog. Without knowing that we ourselves are the great essence, the basis of all things and all powers, they become slaves of the mighty. 46 This concerns the fate of those who insult jnanis. They do not know fairness and rectitude; they do not know the phantom-like nature of the world; they do not know themselves; they do not realise the disgrace that arises from their ignorance. They are dark within themselves and without any reason insult those who are good, the righteous. Which way will these people go? 47 Question: Are all books, other than those jnana scriptures that speak of supreme bliss, not true? Answer: No, they are not true. The five flowers are his arrows. The six-legged beetle is the bowstring. The soft sugarcane is his bow. This formless cupid is a valorous warrior. He will infect everyone with powerful lust. All this is false. Similarly, is all this barren world-appearance true? You yourself reply. 48 Question: Are time and so on false? Answer: To those who are not attached to anything, they are certainly false. Be it time, or God, or karma, or illusory observances, the workings of the mind, the great enthusiasm that accomplishes things – to him who is not attached in any way, where is the question of taking them to be either good or bad?
49 Question: Are they [time and so on] at least necessary for the body?
Answer: Since the body is not-Self, they are not needed. Why are they born, those cunning ones who do not seek their Self? What is this body that has come into being through food? Who is the ‘I’? How many were the bodies that were discarded before? Innumerable were the bodies that were taken with delight again and again.
50 Question: But are all these [jivas] reflected consciousness?
Answer: As there is no knowledge without the Guru enabling one to know, they are only reflected consciousness. To reveal the unreal as unreal and the real as real, truly a Guru was needed. Alas! All the jivas, becoming kings and achieving greatness,3 are only reflected consciousness.
51 Question: Why should the one Brahman appear differentiated as many, as reflected consciousness?
Answer: To those who do not see it as one, it appears as many. What is the truth of the world reflection that appears in the one [Brahman] but does not appear as one? Like the scenes that appear to the vision of a bewildered person, the world appears as many only to those with defective knowledge and who therefore do not see it as the one reality.
52 Question: When all is one like this, what is the reason for not seeing it as one?
Answer: I do not know the reason for not knowing the Self that exists as one’s own Self. What a wonder it is that one seeks the Self without knowing the Self! What can I say of this? Know that this is like a person in this world standing [neck-deep] in water having his thirst unquenched. What else can we say?
53 Question: What is the way to see the Self? 3 I would take this phrase to mean ‘arrogantly strutting around’. It can also be translated as ‘flourishing and becoming like little children’.
Answer: By abiding still in the Self. This is the essence of enquiring into the scriptures. You who, babbling the scriptures, become haughty! You who accumulate karma with your caste and lineage! Can you not become sattvic, know your Self through your Self, give up unceasing activity and remain still?
54 Question: Can devotion to God be jnana? Answer: There can be no devotion apart from the devotee. Those who are wallowing, identifying with the body, will perform puja, wave lights and bring their palms together in salutation before the idol of the god with much longing, but they will not enquire whether the true God is the worshipper or the idol.
55 Question: Is it not necessary to go and see the car festival?
Answer: No. The one who sees the car festival should be seen. They will go, see, and salute the car on the auspicious day of the car festival. Alas! Leaving their Self, whom are they going to worship? The god seen in the car is not fullness. Does anyone not know this?
56 Question: If so, is yoga good?
Answer: For knowing consciousness it is not necessary. They will practise the highly respected yoga, remaining in a corner and controlling their breath and speech. For seeing and abiding as supreme consciousness, why this sadhana? They are attempting to eat and live here for a long time by making the body strong.
57 Question: In that case, can sannyasa be good?
Answer: True bliss, which is present in those who renounce the ego, is not there in sannyasa. How, then, can it be good? Without any difficulty they will take up a begging bowl in their hands; they will shave their heads and wear only a loincloth; and they will appear to be great ones. But will they also experience the bliss of sleeping without sleeping that is experienced by those who have renounced the ego?
58 Question: In that case, are scriptural study and spiritual practice not necessary?
Answer: To those who have seen the Self, which is their true import, they are not necessary.
To see one’s Self, what sastra is needed?
What sadhana is necessary?
Is not all this a mad game?
Those who regard as real the illusion that has arisen – like the imaginary imp created to scare simple-minded people – will not see the Self
59 Question: Is not sadhana necessary to know the Self?
Answer: What use is a sadhana that does not enable one to see the sadhaka? The objects, which are seen to be many, such as male, female and neuter, and the seer who remains as one – all this is only the manifestation of the excellent consciousness. Can they exist apart from consciousness? However much sadhana they practise, how will it be of use for those who do not know this clearly?
60 Question: Why do they suffer instead of enquiring and realising the Self?
Answer: They suffer because what they have known to be one by studying has not been experienced. What does it matter [to the realised one] who lives and in what way? What does it matter [to the realised one] who goes where and in what manner? His solitary state is like that of a bat in its roost. He will be detached in every way and will sleep experiencing the blessed state that never leaves. Bliss is only for him.
61 Question: Is it not necessary to know the nature of Iswara and jiva?
Answer: Since Sivam is non-dual, it is not necessary. They will say that Iswara is infinite and that jiva is finite. They will say that jiva is like the eye and that Iswara is like the sun. These two definitely cannot be non-dual. Pure consciousness, which is neither of these two, alone is Sivam.
62 Question: Then what is the way to attain Sivam?
Answer: The way to see one’s Self is by rejecting everything else as maya. The inert semen became the foetus and then became alive by mixing with the conscious principle. It appears to be real. When this happens, he who contemplates his real nature, regarding all this as illusory, is Sivam.
63 Question: Will not those who know the past, present and future become Sivam?
Answer: Only those who have seen the Self, which is beyond time, are Sivam, not those who know the three periods of time. The self-effulgent Self destroys both night and day, the two that determine yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence, he alone is Sivam who has become the Self and who consequently worships the auspicious day that remains perpetually as the one unique day.
64 Question: If one renounces the jnana sastras, how can one attain the bliss of liberation?
Answer: Liberation is only delighting in the Self through tranquillity and without anxiety.
When this is attained, what is the use of books?
One may know the jnana sastras, or take up good sannyasa, or attempt to experience mauna samadhi, but the indescribable delight of liberation is simply to become the Self, remaining free of all anxiety, experiencing bliss.
65 [continued from verse 64] He may be endowed with learning, or established in great yoga, or his body and senses may be active, but he who does not merge with supreme grace will not know tranquillity and will not obtain the final reward, the bliss of liberation that never fails.
66 Question: If so, do they not have to experience even prarabdha?
Answer: If one remains without movement as the Self, like the column supporting the windmill, the prarabdha will exhaust itself. You base, ignorant ones, wallowing in the three types of prarabdha! 4 If you understand that those who accepted alms will now be donors, you can be like the column that supports the windmill.
67 Question: But will not this experience come to everyone? Answer: If one becomes inward-turned instead of being externalised, this experience will come for everyone. I declare: ‘If their minds are directed inward, attending to the light [the Self], and do not become outward-turned, all those upon this earth are capable of seeing the Self, just as I have seen my Self.’
68 Question: Don’t jnanis have to perform karma? Answer: Since they have seen the truth of both action and the one who performs the action, they do not have to perform activities. He who has clearly seen in his mind both the performer of actions and the actions themselves, who has thus redeemed himself and become the reality, will he perform, without fail in every birth, every action at the prescribed time?5
69 Question: Will the jnanis hate the karmis [the performers of activities] when they see them?
Answer: They will delight in seeing the karmis, in the same way that they witness conjuring tricks, but they will not hate them. Seeing the deceitful ones who cannot see and enjoy reality as it is and who cannot melt by experiencing it, I rejoiced. However many illusory lotus flowers bloom, is there any anger on the part of the moon?
70 Question: How did this experience arise?
Answer: It was obtained providentially through the grace of the Guru. Like a sweet mango fruit appearing under the thorny karuvelam tree, the divine lotus feet of the Guru – who has the power to bestow the grace to transform me into the reality that is sought by everyone, everywhere – came to me who was replete with evil, taking birth over and over again.
71 Question: Is getting this experience so difficult?
Answer: It is extremely difficult.
here is my [state of] remaining as the ego? Where is my attachment? Where is my desire to rule heaven and earth? Siva! Siva! Where is the jnana Guru? Where is liberation? How can I express this?6
72 Question: What is the benefit of this experience? Answer: It is obtaining the Self that is beyond the mind. I did not obtain anything other than my Self. I had my Self in my possession all the time. Separate from me, there is no bondage or release. If one sees [this], even the mind that enquires into these is non-existent. 73 Question: As soon as one obtains this experience, who should be worshipped? Answer: The Guru, the ‘I’ and the body should be worshipped, seeing them as one’s own Self. I will worship as my own Self the gracious Guru who showed everything to be like a conjuror’s trick, or the Self that is realised after thus scrutinising everything, or the bodytemple that came [into being] to terminate the evil of birth. 74 Question: How to get rid of the vasana of the gross body? Answer: It should be rejected by seeing it as the form of food. You body who remain as the sheath of food! If you do as I tell you, you will experience bliss as long as you live. I swear to this. Do not go near evil and useless vasanas. Whatever comes according to prarabdha, remain a mere witness. 75 Question: How to remove [or be rid of] the senses of perception? Answer: They should be removed by seeing them as the Self. O senses! You cherished and nourished me all these years. Now I have become blissful consciousness. Even you, who [appear to] become different from me, I have come to know as my Self. Henceforth, remain one with me, without becoming divergent. 76 Question: How to be rid of desires? Answer: Through desire for realisation of the truth. O desire! Though I suffered much through you, on account of your help I dwelt in the Self. I reached the Sadguru through you. In liberation I have, along with you, become the Self. I swear to this. 77 Question: How to destroy anger? Answer Through tranquillity. O anger! Through you I rid myself of my deficiency. Because of the weariness experienced by your rising that invariably produced misery, I rid myself of this danger 6 The wide disparity between his previous wretched state and the state of knowledge makes the author wonder at the greatness of the Guru’s grace that accomplished the transformation, and how little he deserved it. and dwelt in supreme tranquillity. Even in dream, do not rise up in lamentation, but remain calm. 78 Question: How to get rid of avarice? Answer: By abiding peacefully in the Self. O avarice! I took you as my relation. Those who do not know the truth say that your form is only sin. You will exert yourself hard merely to accumulate. O sinner! Because of you I am now possessed by peace.
79 Question: How to dissolve the mind?
Answer: It should be dissolved in the Self, which is its basis. O mind! I myself am you. You yourself are me. Despite being so, deceitfully you forgot me. That I am surrendered to you is also true. But do not remain different from me, the reality.
80 [The same answer continues in verses 80, 81 and 82.]
My mind! You roamed about, laboured hard and learned many arts, seeking a way to make a living. You sought and gave me a Sadguru. To you who were so considerate to me, what help did I render in return?
81 O mind! Just as I once remained, assuming your form, now you have come and merged with me as my own form. Is there anyone like you who values the virtue of gratitude? Dwell henceforth in the loving care of the supreme state, without returning to your prior form.
82 O mind! You remained, right from the beginning, without renouncing love towards me. Through that love you gave me the benefit of cultivating all the virtues of a devotee, beginning with forbearance. You removed desire and its progeny. Now, like me, you remain still through good and proper discernment.
83 Question: Will the mind subside through the above means?
Answer: If it is firmly established in the experience of the Self, it will then shine as consciousness and remain still.
As my mind roamed about, I too was similar to it, thus allowing myself to remain in an unquiet state.
With my mind remaining still and motionless, I too remained similar to it, shining and dwelling like gold.
84 Question: Are there no likes and dislikes in this experience? Answer: Since everything is experienced as the Self, these do not exist. Whatever is to come, let it come. Whatever is to leave, let it leave. I will not reject even a life of living on alms as defective. Neither do I desire even the state of Brahma. I became all actions.
85 Question: Will he worship God?
Answer: He has no worship other than the worship of seeing everything as his own Self. What I extol everywhere is only my Self. What I worship everywhere as God – that too is only my Self. In all places, sitting, lying down and running are all performed only in my Self. I myself am the enjoyer and that which is enjoyed.
86 Question: Is this the experience of all jnanis?
Answer: There is no experience other than this experience of the Self. He who has attained liberation will see, as not different from his Self, all this world that rises in the Self, which remains in the Self, and which merges in the Self. Will he see it as opposed to his Self?
87 Question: Will likes and dislikes arise in him?
Answer: As everything has become his Self, they will not arise in him. For what will he desire? For what will he rise as ‘I’? For what will he experience envy and malice? He will dwell as the unmoving support for everything, as the sum of all things animate and inanimate, like the great Meru mountain that is the axis for the seven worlds.
88 Question: Will not this experience cease? Answer: Even if the creations of Iswara falter, this experience will not cease. Even if the cardinal points change, even if the moon gets burned, fire becomes cold, or the sun travels north to south, the Self-state of the liberated one who has enquired thoroughly into the primal state will not cease. 89 Question: How to determine those with such experience? Answer: They remain unruffled in joy and misery. They should be known by taking this as the hallmark. Only he is a jnani whose mind does not get agitated, who does not identify with and desire [objects] before him, and whose state of purity never wavers whether he lives on alms in poverty or enjoys the illusory state of being Brahma.
90 Question: Will they not care for praise and slander?
Answer: No, they will not. Some may utter praises and worship, or evil and cruel ones may utter words of slander and insult, but the jnani’s mind will not associate with them. He will remain without thoughts, like the sky that remains the same whether the sun rises or a vast collection of clouds appear. 91 Question: What is food for the jnani? Answer: Whatever happens to come to him is food for him. Whatever enjoyments present themselves to him, and in whatever measure, he will undergo those pleasures. Like the sun that spreads its rays, he will remain free of bondage in the unique and natural state. 92 Question: Will not the ego-nature, beginning with desire, touch these jnanis? Answer: As they have attained total destruction of vasanas, it will not. Desire, anger and so on will not touch the liberated one – who has become the form of consciousness and the witness of the world – since he has uprooted and destroyed all the base vasanas, and is therefore without sankalpas.
93 Question: Do they not need to stay in a holy place, or take baths in holy waters, and so on? Answer: The place where they reside is the holy place. Their look is holy water. The place where the unique jivanmukta – who exists everywhere equally – resides is itself the holy place. His look itself is holy water. The service to his lotus feet is itself liberation.
94 Question: What are the eternal attributes of a jnani? Answer: They are soft words, and so on. They are soft-spoken; their look is free of desire; they experience everything to be sat alone; they have a measured gait, and their mind is filled with a joy that never diminishes. The characteristic of a jnani is to be ever firm in these.
95 Question: What does the jnani think?
Answer: There are only thoughts that everything is the Self. The jivanmukta is he who has become one [with the reality] through the experience ‘I have seen myself everywhere; I have seen everything in me’; who possesses intensely and clearly the experience of having learned ‘unlearning’, and who has renounced everything.
96 Question: What is proper conduct and what is prohibited conduct for jnanis?
Answer: Actions they undertake are proper conduct; actions they abandon are prohibited actions. For the jnani has become one, tranquil and blemishless, everything, beginning with space [and including the other elements], is his own form. The actions he abandons are prohibited actions, and the actions he takes up are proper actions.
97 Question: What are the disciplines and pujas for the jnani?
Answer: They are meditating on the Self, and so on.
Meditating on consciousness is bathing for a jnani.
Whatever external appearances he delights in, that is noble discipline.
Whatever he obtains as alms and eats without ego, that is his supreme puja.
His faultless movements are pure samadhi.
98 Question: The actions that should be performed, and the actions that should be avoided: are these not necessary for jnanis?
Answer: As they remain as Sivam, they do not exist for them. To the jnani who has become Sivam, having seen all the universe as his Self and as the form of consciousness, what is there that should be sifted and rejected, and what is there that should be accepted as proper?
99 Question: What is the state attained by those who criticise the conduct of jnanis?
Answer: It is the hell of transmigration. Know that those cruel ones, who view as faulty the life of the jnani who has attained supreme bliss, will experience crore upon crore of births like the silkworm that never gets detached from its cocoon
100 Question: What is the benefit obtained by those who worship them?
Answer: It is becoming the non-dual Self. Those who are able to obtain the grace of the jnani – who remains as the eternal, formless, blemishless, blissful and pure non-dual reality, and for whom everything is his own Self – will become jnanis.
101 Question: How will the jnani shine?
Answer: He will shine as everything and as different from everything. They have rid themselves of the blemish of the mind; they have rid themselves of the mind; they have rid themselves of the entity within the mind; they have transcended the shore of jnana; they have rid themselves of the blissful state of consciousness, the supreme; they have rid themselves of the experience of Sivam. They have also rid themselves of all concepts. The Benefit of Studying this Work
102 Those who are able to enjoy through their two ears the savour of Sorupa Saram, which describes the experience attained at the proper stage of ripeness, will be able to see the entire world as their own Self.
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ellam Ondre
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I. UNITY 1. All including the world seen by you and yourself, the seer of the world, is one only.
2. All that you consider as I, you, he, she and it, is one only.
3. What you consider to be sentient beings and what you consider to be insentient, such as earth, air, fire and water is all one.
4. The good which is derived by your considering all as one cannot be had by considering each as separate from the other. Therefore all is one.
5. The knowledge of the unity of all, is good for you and good for others as well. Therefore all is one.
6. He who sees "I am separate," "you are separate," "he is separate" and so on, acts one way to himself and another way to others. He cannot help doing so. The thought "I am separate, others are separate" is the seed from which grows the tree of differing actions in relation to different persons. How can there be any lapse from righteousness for a person who knows the unity of himself with others? As long as the germ of differentiation is there, the tree of differing actions will flourish, even unawares. Therefore give up differentiation. All is one only.
7. Ask: "If in the world all things appear different, how can I consider all as one? Is there any way of gaining this knowledge?" The reply is: "In the same tree we see leaves, flowers, berries and branches, different from one another, yet they are all one because they are all included in the word 'tree'. Their root is the same; their sap is the same. Similarly, all things, all bodies, all organisms are from the same source and activated by a single life principle." Therefore all is one.
8. Oh good man! Is the statement that "All is one," good or evil? Think for yourself. Just as the person will always be righteous who regards himself like others and others like himself, how can any evil attach itself to him who knows himself to be others and the others to be himself? Tell me if there is any better way for obtaining good than the knowledge of unity? Certainly other methods cannot be as good as this one. How can anyone love others more than when knowing them to be himself, to know them in unity-love as unity, for they are truly one
9. Who can share the mental peace and freshness of the knower of unity?
He has no cares.
The Good of all is his own good.
A mother considers her children's well-being to be her own well-being. Still, her love is not perfect because she thinks she is separate and her children are separate. The love of a Sage, who has realized the unity of all, far excels even the love of a mother. There is no other means of gaining such love than the knowledge of unity. Therefore all is one.
10. Know that the world as a whole is your undecaying body and that you are the everlasting life of the whole world. Tell me if there is any harm in doing so? Who fears to go the harmless way? Be courageous. The Vedas teach this very truth. There is nothing but yourself. All good will be yours. Yea, you become the good itself. All that others gain from you will be good only. Who will work evil to his own body and soul? A remedy is applied if there is an abscess in the body. Even if the remedy is painful, it is meant to do good only. Such will be some of your actions; they will also be for the good of the world. For that reason, you will not be involved in differentiation. I put it briefly: The knower of unity will act as one should. In fact, the knowledge of unity makes him act. He cannot err. In the world, he is God made visible. All is one.
II. YOU 1. Who are you? Are you this body? If so, why are you not aware of a serpent crawling on it when you are in deep sleep? So then can you be this body? No, certainly not. You must be other than this body. 2. Sometimes in sleep you dream. There you identify yourself with someone. Can you be that one? You cannot be. Otherwise, what becomes of that individual on your waking? You are not he. Furthermore, you are ashamed of having identified yourself with him. Clearly, you are not that particular person. You are the one that stands apart from him. 3. Recall the state of dreamless slumber. What is your state then? Can that be your true nature? Surely you will not subscribe to this belief. Why? Because you are not so foolish as to identify yourself with the massive darkness which obstructs you from knowing the state you are in. Discerned by the intellect from the things around, how can you admit yourself to be the same as ignorance or blank? Or, how can it truly be your real nature? It cannot be. You are the knower who knows that this state remains one of dense darkness veiling your true nature. How can you be that which you have experienced and condemned? Therefore you are not the dark ignorance of deep sleep. You stand apart from this too. 4. When it is said that even this gross body is not you, can you be any other thing which is yet farther away from you? In the same way that you are not this gross body, you are not anything farther from the body, nor the dream person, nor the ignorance of deep sleep. You are distinct from these three states and this world. 5. These three states can be reduced to two conditions only-namely, the one of the subject and object, and the other is the unawareness of the subject itself. The former includes the waking and dream states, whereas the latter represents deep slumber. All your experiences are comprised in these two conditions only. Both of them are foreign to you. Your true nature remains distinct from them. 6. If you ask what that is, it is called turiya, which means the fourth state. Why is this name used? This name is proper because it seems to say the three states of your experience-waking, dream and deep sleep-are foreign to you and your true state is the fourth, which is different from these three. Should the three states, waking, dream and deep sleep, be taken to form one long dream, the fourth state represents the waking from this dream. Thus it is more withdrawn than deep sleep, also more wakeful than the waking state. Therefore your true state is that fourth one which is
distinguished from the waking, dream and deep sleep states. You are that only. What is this fourth state? It is knowledge which does not particularize anything. It is not unaware of itself. That is to say, the fourth state is Pure Knowledge which is not conscious of any object, but not unconscious itself. Only he who has realized it even for a trice, has realized the Truth. You are that only. 8. What is there more for him who has gained the fourth state? Practically, it is not possible for anyone to remain forever in that state, that is, the state of no particular knowledge. He who has realized the fourth state later wakes up in this world, but for him this world is not as before. He sees that what he realized as the fourth state, shines forth as all this. He will not imagine this world as distinct from that Pure Knowledge. Thus what he saw within, he now sees without in a different form. In the place of the differentiation of old, he is now established in the state of nondifferentiation everywhere. Now, he is all. There is nothing distinct from himself. His eyes closed or open, howsoever the things may change, his state remains unchanged. This is the state of Brahman. This is the natural eternal state. You are that ever-true state. 9. There is nothing beyond this state. The words, 'inward' and 'outward' have no meaning for him. All is one. His body, speech and mind cannot function selfishly. Their workings will be grace for the good of all. The fragmentary "I" is lost forever. His ego can never revive. Therefore he is said to be liberated here and now. He does not live because his body lives, nor does he die because his body dies. He is eternal. There is nothing other than he. You are He. 10. Who is God? He is grace. What is Grace? Awareness without the fragmentary ego. How can one know that there is such a state? Only if one realizes it. The Vedas laud such a one as having realized God and become one with Him. Therefore the greatest good that one can derive from the world and the greatest good which one can render unto it, is to realize this state. In fact, there are no states besides this. They appear in the state of ignorance. For him who knows, there is one state only.
You are that
III. GOD 1. Who is God? God is He who has transcended all that is seen by us. If transcending this world, is there no relation between Him and this world? Not a particle here is unrelated to Him. Then what is meant by transcending the world? The world comprises us and the objects seen by us. In other words, the animate and inanimate together form the world. What shall we say of Him who created the beings and things? Of these two, we say the conscious beings to be superior. All that we can apprehend is that He belongs to the highest order of beings known to us. Our intellect cannot proceed further. Thus, our Creator is superior to us; He cannot be apprehended by our intellect; therefore His Name, Transcended Being, "Kadawul," means that He surpasses our intellect. Hence His Name is "Kadawul" - Transcended Being. 2. Can God then not be made known to us? Not quite so. In a way, He is known to us. This much of His Grace is enough for us. We have no need for all His Greatness. He has made known so much of His Greatness as will suffice to eradicate our misery. There is no reason for Him to reveal a jot more of His Power than is necessary to remedy our defects in the present state. Thus He is known according to our needs. Nay, He is in our grasp. However limitless, He is within reach of our knowledge to some extent. 3. What is it which brings Him within reach of our knowledge? That He is known as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Being denotes that which is imperishable, that which exists forever. Should He become nonexistent at any time, who is His Destroyer? Who created Him? Since the perishable nature of all leads to the inference that they are lorded over by One who is imperishable, this immortal Overlord is God. His imperishable nature is Being (Sat). Now, what is Consciousness (Chit)? By Consciousness we mean knowledge. This is absolute Knowledge, and not like our erring intellectual knowledge. Irregularity or mistake cannot stain its actions. It is Knowledge, pure and simple. Frequently He teaches us saying, "Your knowledge is irregular and erring." How orderly are even the insentient objects of His creation! It is known to many how an atheist was taught a good lesson when he derided the scheme of things saying, "Why did He make the seed so small for the banyan tree which is so big?" That an insentient thing is found in good order and later becomes useful, implies a conscious agency at work. Can a simple, insentient thing do something which is possible for unfailing knowledge
only? Or, can't it be done by our inadequate knowledge? No, it can never be. Therefore God is said to be Consciousness (Chit) also. Now, what is Bliss? It is the state of being free from desire for anything. It is Peace which is ever full. Were He to desire anything, how could He be better than ourselves? How could we gain Bliss from Him? He Himself would require another being to fulfil His desires. But who would think Him to be so? The state of selfcontentment is that of Bliss also. Therefore He is called Bliss (Ananda). The three - Being, Consciousness and Bliss-are inseparable; otherwise, they would become naught individually. Hence, He is known as Being-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda). Thus God remains not only transcendent but also falls within the reach of our knowledge as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. 4. He who has gained the fourth state and sees all as one, only he knows God truly as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Words cannot express nor the ears hear how such a one is united with God; it is a matter of realization. But there are ways and means for such realization. They can be spoken of, learned and acted upon. 5. He who can be realized thus, is God. He has no name; we give Him a name. He has no form; we give Him a form. Where is the harm in doing so? What name is not His, or what form is not His? Where is the sound or form in which He is not? Therefore, in the absence of true knowledge of Him you can name Him as you please or imagine Him as of any form so to remember Him. Your hope for His Grace without any effort on your part is utterly fruitless. Should it be possible to have His Grace without any effort on your side, all would be alike; there would be no reason for any difference. He has shown us the ways and means. Make effort, reach the goal, be happy. Your idleness and selfishness make you expect His Grace without your effort. The rule for all is for you too. Do not relax your efforts. God can be realized by your effort only. 6. There is an effort which excels all others. This may, however, appear to be less effective than devotion to God with name and form. Nevertheless, this is the more efficient. It is simply the love which you extend to all beings, whether good or bad. In the absence of such love to all, your devotion to God amounts to a mere parody. Of what use are you to God? That you seek fulfilment of your desires from God without doing your duty towards the needy in the world must be attributed to your selfishness. In God's presence, there is no use for such. The workings that take place in His presence are all unselfish. Therefore, think that all the Centers are His and He is in all the Centers and thus be devoted to Him. God is truly bound by such high devotion. 7. As you go on ascribing names and forms to God and showing love to all because you have understood all names and forms to be His, your mind will gradually
mature. Just as the taste improves with the ripening of a fruit, so also you will recognize the waxing of good and the waning of evil in you. As your mind matures, there will come a time when you should meet your Master. This is not to say that you go in search of him or he comes in search of you. At the right time the meeting will happen. All are moving in their own ways. Your fitness brings you together, makes you trust him, makes him teach you the right way, also makes you follow his instructions. That is the straight way to reach God, which is to gain the fourth state. You will follow the way and reach your goal which is Being-Consciousness-Bliss, which is God. 8. The way shown by the Master is final, straight and making for unity. It is welltried, natural, and free from pain. When you are following the way shown by the master, doubts will not arise; there will be no fear. Are not fear and doubt the characteristics of the ways of darkness? How can they meet you in the way of Truth shown by the Master? In this manner, the way will itself speak to you and say that it is the right one. In that way, there will be nothing more for you to do but to meet your Master and learn from him. That way will be familiar to you, as the Master and God have made it so. Before you, he had treaded the way. He has shown you the way and you are following him. To how many will you show the same way? And how many more will follow the same way later? Obviously fear and doubt have no place in the way of truth. When once you have taken a step forward you will step back. The master's help is only for the first step forward. You need not do anything for your master in order to have the way shown to you. Know him to be the messenger of God sent down to disclose the way to the fit who have become ripe by their own efforts in either or both the directions mentioned earlier. It is God who sends this godly messenger just when you are ripe. 9. Practice with faith in the period of ignorance is called Bhakti (path of Devotion); the same, with knowledge, is called Jnana (the path of Wisdom). Of the two divisions ofJBhakti, the one is devotion to God with name and form, and the other is karma which is love for all. Of the two divisions of Jnana, the practice of the true way shown by the Master is called yoga and the resulting state is called Jnana (knowledge). It is natural for all to believe in something which is not seen and then to find it. Those who do not believe can never find. Therefore, the believers will gain something sometime or other and the unbelievers never gain anything. You can believe even for the simple reason that faith in God is not harmful. Thereby you can share the good effects. This world is meant only for creating faith in you. This is the purpose of creation. Have faith and you can reach God. 10. Though you may not believe all that is said of God, believe at least "There is God." This seed is very potent in its growth. It is so mighty as to negate all else and fill all by itself. It is so almighty that you will not see anything besides God, not even yourself. Truly, God is all
IV. PEACE Peace - Equanimity - Equal Mindedness 1. What is peace? Although the world persists when a man is in deep sleep, does he have any cares concerning it? His mind is tranquil and refreshed. Should his mind be in the same degree calm and refreshed even when he is face to face with the world and is active therein, then there is peace. 2. Can the mind remain so even when the world confronts us? It depends upon our estimate of the world. The mind is more excited when one's own property is plundered than when another's property is similarly plundered. Of one's own things, the loss of one thing causes greater concern than those of another. Why? Because our estimate of the things is the cause of the degree of the delight or anxiety concerning them. Therefore, should one learn to regard all equally, the mind will be extremely peaceful. Or should all things be considered as our own and highly prized, then too there is no cause for pain. Why? What will a man regret? The mind which knows that universal concern is beyond its capacity, must needs become tranquil. Also when one feels that one has no claim on anything or that everything is perishable, the mind will remain cool. Thus there will be lasting peace if one looks on all as of the same value. Peace is dependent upon one's intellectual appraisals. 3. I shall now illustrate this. A man wakes up from a dream. His mind is happy or troubled according to his opinion of the things seen in the dream. But on waking, his mind remains unaffected by all the happenings in the dream; it remains the same. Why? Because, only now his mind has learned to value all the matters of the dream equally. He is not sorry for the cessation of the dream. Why? He is convinced that the dream is not everlasting and must end on waking. In the same manner, should a man be convinced that he cannot but wake up sometime from the long dream of the world, his mind will be unchanging. It is the state of freshness. This is the state of Peace. 4. This is not to say that his relation with the world will cease. Now only peace and freshness of the mind are his. His actions cannot but vary according to circumstances. The only change in him after the mind has become peaceful is this: his mind has known the truth and become unattached; therefore, it rests in peace. His actions though changeful will always be impartial. But the actions of others are changing and cannot be impartial. Thus, the coolness of the mind produces enormous good not only to himself but also to the world at large. Peace shows the way to right conduct.
5. A man walks with a lighted lamp in his hand. Can there be any hostility between the light and the ups and downs on the way? There cannot be. But light and darkness cannot be together. The light chases away darkness, it discloses the ups and downs on the way and makes the man walk carefully, whether he moves up, down, or sideways. It removes the cause of vain complaints, such as, "That snag hurt my foot" or "This hollow made me slip." Similarly, after peace is gained, the state of peace makes the man neither hate nor antagonize the world. Rather it dispels the darkness which conceals from our view the true nature of the world and its snags. In the absence of the light of Peace which enables people to adjust themselves to varying circumstances, they condemn the world as full of misery, as they would complain of the snags on the road. Therefore a man who has gained the utmost peace after knowing the whole world as a complicated dream, should not be considered either unrelated to the world or unconcerned with its activities; he alone stands in effective concord with it; only he is competent to be a man of action. Thus Peace is that which regulates one's duties. 6. The concern of a man of Peace in the actions of the world lies in rectifying them. Should he feel fear before this world, what hope of reformation can there be, especially from those who esteem it and want to possess it? They are in the grip of selfishness, blind to impartiality. To guide the blind on the way or treat the blindness of the eye, one's eyesight must itself be good. Similarly, it is for him to reform the world who has already discerned his unchanging nature from the changeful nature of the world and become peaceful. These cannot help serving the world. Why? Can anyone be so hard hearted as not to lift up a child when it slips and falls? So also for the wise ones who can rightly appraise the troubles of the world and help the people. Because he has already withdrawn himself from the mind and body the sage feels no concern under the strain of service to the world, just as the life principle does not suffer even when loaded carts pass over the corpse it has left behind (by itself). He will not shrink from work or trouble. Only truly realized peace can bestow such courage and coolness. 7. To all appearances. Peace will look poor and quite weak. But in effect, it beats all. In tenacity and courage, it surpasses all. After all, success depends on these qualities. Even if Mount Meru should topple over, the incident will hardly produce a gentle smile in the man of peace, or it will leave him unmoved. This state is helpful both for worldly and spiritual matters. True happiness in the world is his, and that happiness comes out of release from bondage. Peace means doing good to any one in any manner. 8. The obstacles to peace are several. They are meant to prove the man. When they confront us we should be wide awake and keep the delicate flower of the mind distant from even their shadows. If the flower of the mind be crushed, it will lose its fragrance, freshness and color; it will neither be useful to you, nor can it be presented to others, nor offered to God. Know that your mind is more delicate than
even a blossom. By means of a peaceful mind, all your duties to yourself, to others and to God must be discharged. Let it release the same freshness throughout. All blessings for the mind are contained in Peace. 9. Unremittingly worship the God of your Self with the flower of your mind. Let the children of the mental modes watch this worship. Gradually they will learn to cast away their childish pranks and desire to delight like yourself. As they watch your Peace, they will themselves recoil from their vagaries. Continue the worship patiently. Be not led away by the vagaries of the mind. On the contrary, they should become peaceful by your peace. All must get peace. 10. I shall finish in one word: The essence of all the Vedas is "Peace."
V. ACTION 1. All action is God's. His power has fixed each thing into its own individual function. By His agency the insentient objects and the sentient beings do their work. All actions are His. 2. All are doing their respective work. So what has God to do with it? We will first consider the sentient beings and, later on, the insentient objects. We are sentient beings. Let us first see whose actions are ours. We all desire a higher state and work for it. But our achievements are not uniform. Sometimes the goal is the same and so is the work, but why is there a difference in the results? Here God makes us understand that the action is His. Otherwise all must be alike. The difference in the conditions cannot be accounted for. Can there be anyone who does not wish to improve his position? Whatever their intention towards others, their intention towards themselves is surely honest. The conditions of people of the same intention are yet different. This is because all actions are of God. 3. All beings have the same intention; yet their efforts are of different degrees, so also their states. After saying this, the question arises: What is effort? Is it not simply a mental image? All these images have the same origin, namely, the common intention of all. Why then should the image of effort differ in each? Here too God makes us see that all actions are His. 4. If it is said that notwithstanding the same intention, the effort can vary according to individual capacity, the question arises: What is the source of this capacity? It is of the body and mind. The environment may also affect it. One must take account of all the factors before one makes an effort. However, these factors are not under one's control so that the effort may not be equal to the task. Therefore all actions are God's. 5. Again, if it is said that the body, the mind and the environment will gradually be made equal to the task, it implies a present incapacity. This is to admit that all actions are God's. 6. Now, is it for good or bad that people do not gain their objectives? It is certainly good. Why? Most of them are selfish. Judge for yourself if their success is for the good of the world or otherwise. You may ask: Should not the attempts of the unselfish be entirely successful? Though to all appearances they may look unselfish, yet they are not free from blemishes. These depend on the ego. If the imagined
unselfishness has given rise to a sense of superiority over others, God frustrates their purpose and teaches them that "You are also like others and I govern you". On the other hand, free from selfishness and free from ego is the representative of God, within whom the cloud of ego that conceals God does not exist and from whom God is ever shining forth. To such a one of true purpose (Sattva Sankalpa) all his intentions come out true. God shines forth directly in him. There is no darkness in him. Only he knows the Divine purpose as it is. Through him God fulfills the purpose of His creation. All actions are God's. 7. If it is asked: Is there not a single person of true intent? And why should not the world have all blessings in full? The answer, which is a secret, is that the sages who are aware that all actions are God's, wish to make it known to others as well. There is no greater good than to know that all actions are God's and not our own. This knowledge contains all the blessings in itself. Therefore the intention of the sages is to clearly instruct others in the knowledge of God and His actions. Even so, they do not say "Know God this very instant," but they teach the ways and means to knowledge and encourage us in right conduct-this much only. They do not say, "Be emancipated at once." Why? Because this is not possible for the common people. Nor do the sages say to God, "Liberate the people at once." Because the sages are free from the ego and think, "God knows what He should do and when to do it. What is there for me to say to Him?" Thus they wish only to do their work, without any interest in the fruits this work may produce. They have known that God alone dispenses the fruits of actions. Simply they watch the course of events in the world and do their work, never thinking of creating a world of their own. Why? To do so is a form of egoism. The creation is as it should be. Everything is in order. All actions are God's. 8. Knowing their actions are subservient to the Higher Power, how could they hope to achieve something dear to their hearts? No, they cannot. They will do their work simply as a duty. The scriptures say, "Do work, but do not think of its fruits." Just as anger unconsciously overpowers a man even though he is determined not to get angry, so also the sages of true intent (Sattva Sankalpa) may be shocked by the iniquities of the world and unwittingly think, "God, let that be made good!" If so, then it will certainly happen and good will prevail. This is the cause of some extraordinary events in the world. These extraordinary events are the results of a wish stealing into the mind of a sage. This is the law of nature. Who can change it? All actions are God's. 9. Whatever takes place, it is in the natural order of things. Also, it is right. Everything happens by His will alone. In truth, it is not wrong to think "He makes the thief steal." Why? Because at the time of punishment He also makes the thief suffer for the robbery. Thus, there should be no ill-will directed towards the thief. Such is the fruit of the knowledge that all actions are God's. Although there is no ill- Read this and other texts at www.advaita.com.br – Teachings of Advaita Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, Nisargadatta Maharaj e Mooji – will towards the thief, there is a dislike of theft. This is also the result of our
knowledge that all actions are God's. How is this? Because the thief himself dislikes theft: Would he keep quiet if his own belongings were stolen by another? He would not. Who can be unaware that good is right and evil is wrong? Therefore the knowledge that all actions are God's will bring into the world an era of orderly conduct. Our knowledge does not extend further. We can repeat only what we know. We need not worry about what lies beyond our knowledge. This too is God's will. 10. One of the fruits of knowledge granted to us by God is the knowledge that all actions are God's. We are powerless to ask God, "Why do you act thus?" Because the fruits of our actions are not always according to our desire, all religions admit similar states of our powerlessness. In other words, because our powers are limited, we cannot but say that all actions are God's. The law which applies to us, applies to insentient objects also. Our law is no better than theirs. All is one. Even though some do not admit that all actions are God's, yet they admit their own incapacity. This itself is the act of God.
VI. EGO 1. Oh ego, all the evils of the world are from you. To crush you, the kings make laws and the wise give lessons. In spite of their efforts from time immemorial, alas! you are yet alive; you simply go into hiding and reappear again and again. Can there be no end to you? Yea, it is surely approaching. Another Ego has started to kill you. It is the Universal Ego called "I am Brahman". 2. Oh ego, think not that your enemy is of your kind. You are perishable whereas He is not. You are conceited as "I" because you always differentiate as "I", "you" and "he," but your enemy is free from this conceit. How? He harmonizes all differences, resolves all into Himself. Moreover, you feel enmity towards Him because he has arisen to kill you. But He has no ill-feelings towards you. How is this? Because you are not to be found in His presence. He regards you as a part of His limbs. Your loss in his proximity is the working of your own falsity; He would not think of killing you because you are of no consequence in His sight. Therefore, ego, you are His enemy, but He is not yours. More briefly put, you are your own enemy. Why? Owing to your greed you flaunted yourself before the Great One as you would elsewhere. Instantly, you were lost; therefore, the Universal Self obscures you by devouring you and then shines forth as All-light. 3. Oh ego, the evils of your works have no limits. You are not content unless you are exalted above others and others are lowered before you. Endless are your desires, such as "By what title shall I gain honor?" "In what form shall I appear elegant?" "Do others bow to me? Do others obey me in silence?" "Do others say that no one excels me?". Alas! How short is your life! And yet to how much do you aspire! And how much evil you do! You have deluded yourself that there is happiness in such ideas and in differentiating yourself from all others. This is not to your good. Why not? Are not others also entitled to all these? What is your share in things which are common to millions and millions of others? Such being the case, do not desire in vain to rule over all. By your vain desire you bring about evil to yourself and to others. Listen to my friendly advice. Truly speaking, He whom you regard as your mortal enemy is your friend. He knows how to make you worthy of true greatness and blessings. Surrender to Him. This Universal Ego does not treat you as an enemy but is your greatest benefactor. 4. By no means can you discover what He will make of you unless you surrender yourself to Him. However much I may speak of it, you cannot understand. It is a matter of experience. Doubtless He will do nothing less than exalt you to His state. Therefore, be not perplexed about your future; directly surrender yourself. You can always turn away if joy does not overtake you from the very instant of surrender.
Just as the drinking of milk starts with an agreeable taste and ends with the satisfaction of hunger, so also surrender starts with delight and ends with Perfect Bliss, which lies beyond even pleasure and pain. Therefore your goal, without doubt, is this Universal Ego (I-am-Brahman). 5. What will be your new name after surrender? There is no name besides yours. The Vedas laud you; the world praises you; the essence of religious teachings is yourself. Then what is your form? All forms are yours. There is no form which is not yours. What is installed in the temples of worship is you; what is described in the Vedas is you; festivities and celebrations are all for you. Now what can be your power? In your presence the world is active; each is what it is, because of you. Briefly said, all things glorify you and bear witness to your being. They are duty bound to do so. You would not have even dreamt that this will be your state. Start at once, be not self-conceited. The Universal Ego awaits you. 6. Do you wish to wake up from your dream or continue in it? How long will the dream images last? Be not idle, shake off your sleep, wake up! You are witnessing your own mental images and imagining more and more. It is all in vain. Just find out who it is that sees the visions. Do not delude yourself that you are these that rise and sink in you. Wake up. The instant you wake up you will know that waking is better than this dream. Get up! The Universal Ego waits to rejoice at seeing you awake. 7. Fear not the cessation of the present ego dream. Once you are awake you will enjoy the same all the more. You will no longer be deluded and will observe it with cheerful detachment, unconfused. The folly of all appearances will be understood and you will have no burdens. In dream your mental imagery assumes shapes. On waking you know the dream as just a dream. Do not mistake dream for the waking state. Know the dream as dream. For doing so, you must reach the state of "I-amBrahman" (Universal Ego) and wake from the illusion of the ego. 8. I have instructed you for your good and not in my own interest. If you believe me, you should act upon what I have taught you. On the other hand, if you see no good in what I have said, then turn away from this ideal. How can I help you if my advice and all the advice of the saints do not make any impression on you? No state is higher than this. Believe me, it is for your good that you realize this truth; and through you others may realize the same. Be free from self-conceit. Start at once. Realize that the Universal Ego is your own. 9 Oh ego, see how you are a slave to all and therefore suffer. How pitiable is your state! All are hostile to you! When you say "for me only," all others will also contend "for me only, for me only". When you say "I am great," they protest, "Why? We are also." All are hostile to you. Owing to the troubles caused by others, your mental images increase a million fold. Should you not rise above them and profit by surrendering to a Master? Then all your enemies will befriend you. If you say to
others, "All these are yours," everyone becomes your friend. There is only One who can make you that magnanimous and that is "I-am-Brahman" (Universal Ego). 10. I shall say one word only and this is not owing to my egoism. It is simply my duty. I do not say this word just for your or my good alone. It is for the good of all. The truth is "I-am-Brahman" (Universal Ego).
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From Ellam Ondre
https://www.advaita.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Ellam-Ondre.pdf
5. He who can be realized thus, is God. He has no name; we give Him a name. He has no form; we give Him a form. Where is the harm in doing so? What name is not His, or what form is not His? Where is the sound or form in which He is not? Therefore, in the absence of true knowledge of Him you can name Him as you please or imagine Him as of any form so to remember Him. Your hope for His Grace without any effort on your part is utterly fruitless. Should it be possible to have His Grace without any effort on your side, all would be alike; there would be no reason for any difference. He has shown us the ways and means. Make effort, reach the goal, be happy. Your idleness and selfishness make you expect His Grace without your effort. The rule for all is for you too. Do not relax your efforts. God can be realized by your effort only.
7. As you go on ascribing names and forms to God and showing love to all because you have understood all names and forms to be His, your mind will gradually
mature. Just as the taste improves with the ripening of a fruit, so also you will recognize the waxing of good and the waning of evil in you. As your mind matures, there will come a time when you should meet your Master. This is not to say that you go in search of him or he comes in search of you. At the right time the meeting will happen. All are moving in their own ways. Your fitness brings you together, makes you trust him, makes him teach you the right way, also makes you follow his instructions. That is the straight way to reach God, which is to gain the fourth state. You will follow the way and reach your goal which is Being-Consciousness-Bliss, which is God.
8. The way shown by the Master is final, straight and making for unity. It is welltried, natural, and free from pain. When you are following the way shown by the master, doubts will not arise; there will be no fear. Are not fear and doubt the characteristics of the ways of darkness? How can they meet you in the way of Truth shown by the Master? In this manner, the way will itself speak to you and say that it is the right one. In that way, there will be nothing more for you to do but to meet your Master and learn from him. That way will be familiar to you, as the Master and God have made it so. Before you, he had treaded the way. He has shown you the way and you are following him. To how many will you show the same way? And how many more will follow the same way later? Obviously fear and doubt have no place in the way of truth. When once you have taken a step forward you will step back. The master's help is only for the first step forward. You need not do anything for your master in order to have the way shown to you.
Know him to be the messenger of God sent down to disclose the way to the fit who have become ripe by their own efforts in either or both the directions mentioned earlier.
It is God who sends this godly messenger just when you are ripe.
10. Though you may not believe all that is said of God, believe at least "There is God." This seed is very potent in its growth. It is so mighty as to negate all else and fill all by itself. It is so almighty that you will not see anything besides God, not even yourself. Truly, God is all.
A man wakes up from a dream. His mind is happy or troubled according to his opinion of the things seen in the dream. But on waking, his mind remains unaffected by all the happenings in the dream; it remains the same. Why? Because, only now his mind has learned to value all the matters of the dream equally. He is not sorry for the cessation of the dream. Why? He is convinced that the dream is not everlasting and must end on waking. In the same manner, should a man be convinced that he cannot but wake up sometime from the long dream of the world, his mind will be unchanging. It is the state of freshness. This is the state of Peace.
Thus, the coolness of the mind produces enormous good not only to himself but also to the world at large. Peace shows the way to right conduct.
6. The concern of a man of Peace in the actions of the world lies in rectifying them. Should he feel fear before this world, what hope of reformation can there be, especially from those who esteem it and want to possess it? They are in the grip of selfishness, blind to impartiality. To guide the blind on the way or treat the blindness of the eye, one's eyesight must itself be good. Similarly, it is for him to reform the world who has already discerned his unchanging nature from the changeful nature of the world and become peaceful. These cannot help serving the world. Why? Can anyone be so hard hearted as not to lift up a child when it slips and falls? So also for the wise ones who can rightly appraise the troubles of the world and help the people. Because he has already withdrawn himself from the mind and body the sage feels no concern under the strain of service to the world, just as the life principle does not suffer even when loaded carts pass over the corpse it has left behind (by itself). He will not shrink from work or trouble. Only truly realized peace can bestow such courage and coolness.
By no means can you discover what He will make of you unless you surrender yourself to Him. However much I may speak of it, you cannot understand. It is a matter of experience. Doubtless He will do nothing less than exalt you to His state. Therefore, be not perplexed about your future; directly surrender yourself. You can always turn away if joy does not overtake you from the very instant of surrender.
Just as the drinking of milk starts with an agreeable taste and ends with the satisfaction of hunger, so also surrender starts with delight and ends with Perfect Bliss, which lies beyond even pleasure and pain. Therefore your goal, without doubt, is this Universal Ego (I-am-Brahman).
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https://www.arshabodha.org/adiShankara/LaghuVakyaVritti-3.pdf
vakyavritti
pure consciousness should be distinguished
from reflected consiousness with great effort
distinct from qualities and defects ..guna /durguna ...is pure consciousness.
cognitions of M change , moment to moment,
but not of consciousness.
Restrain of all cognitions should be practised with great effort
by those who seek the experience of bramha.
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sadhanai saram
56 note:
Sri Bhagavan says, “that supreme state (of liberation) that is praised (by all the scriptures) and that is attained here (in this very life) by the clear Inquiry (vichara) that arises in the heart when one gains association with a sage (Sadhu), is impossible to attain by (listening to) preachers, by (studying and learning) the meaning of the scriptures, by (doing) virtuous deeds or by any other means”.
79. To the extent to which love for God arises in one’s heart, to that extent will one acquire knowledge about Him.
And to the extent to which one knows the nature of God, to that extent will the mind gain steadfast love for Him.
Thus, knowledge (jnana) will be increased by devotion (bhakti), and devotion (bhakti) will be increased by knowledge (jnana).
57. Though your mind lacks the strength of discrimination or dispassion (viveka and vairagya) required to withdraw itself from the false attraction of the pleasures of this unreal world, your mind will naturally and spontaneously become mature to the extent to which you humbly and lovingly come very close and associate with enlightened sages (Jnanis), who abide as the reality (sat).
82. The state of abiding firmly in Self-alone is wisdom (jnana).
Would it be possible to abide thus in Self if one did not have love for Self?
Love for Self-alone is bhakti;
abiding firmly in Self on account of that love alone is jnana.
What difference is there between these two?
Discriminate and know this truth. (Maharshi’s Gospel p.24)
87. When, having wept and wept with intense yearning for a long time,
unceasingly thinking of and adoring the Gracious Feet (of the Lord),
the mind which rises (as “I am so-and-so”) dissolves and becomes pure,
the blemishless Self-inquiry (jnanatmavichara) will become firmly settled (in the heart)
and the experience of Self (swarupa-anubhava) will of its own accord arise very easily indeed
. – Sri Muruganar
89. Since the ego itself is everything (as revealed by Sri Bhagavan in verse 26 of Reality in Forth Verses), giving up the ego, the feeling “I am this body,” by surrendering it to God, is lovingly surrendering everything to Him.
Having once surrendered the ego to God, abiding in Self without taking it back again (that is, without again identifying the body as “I” or “mine”) is true tapas.
192. All the knowledge which one learns (by studying countless scriptures) is nothing but a great store of thoughts and tendencies (vasanas).
The pure (adjunctless and contentless) knowledge “I am”, which remains as Silence when one has completely discarded all those thoughts and tendencies (vasanas), is alone true knowledge (mey-jnana). Therefore, know that all one’s learning more and more is only ignorance (ajnana).
Self-knowledge will shine forth spontaneously only when the mind subsides.
200. If the liking to attain true knowledge really rises with one, it will be easy for one to experience Self-knowledge, the state of perfect emancipation, as clearly as an amalaka (crystal, or goose berry) fruit in the hand.
But so long as even an iota of the liking to enjoy the pleasures of this unreal world remains unsubsided in one’s heart, the real thirst to know Self will not rise within one
201. To the extent in which the conviction grows stronger in us that all the extroverted activity of the mind is only misery,
to that extent the desire and love to turn within will also increase.
And to the extent to which the strength to attend to Self alone increases in us, to that extent the conviction will grow.
that attending to anything other than Self is useless.
Thus, each one of these two (namely vairagya or desirelessness towards external objects and bhakti or the love to attend to Self) is an aid to increase the other.
Spiritually mature aspirant
202. Know that he who likes to remain steadfastly attending to Self, knowing that Self-attention is far more important than any action that he has to do,
than any word that he has to speak,
or than any thought that he has to think,
alone is a true mature spiritual aspirant (pakvi).
203. Though many crores (millions) of very important thoughts rise in one’s heart, bliss can be enjoyed only when one rejects all of them and remains still,
knowing that to be still is far more important than to continue attending to any thought whatsoever.
Only by those earnest aspirants who have clearly understood this truth, can real austere practice (tapas) be possible.
204. Just as a pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, dives and takes the fine pearl lying in the depths of the ocean, one should fasten upon the mind a stone girdle of firm desirelessness (vairagya) and dive within oneself to take the ancient pearl of Self, the original consciousness.
205. If a pearl-diver remains on the shore of the ocean waiting for the roaring waves to subside, will he ever succeed in gathering pearls? If he plunges through the waves on the surface and dives deep into the ocean with a heavy stone tied to his waist,
what waves will he find there in the depths? (Similarly, if we steadfastly dive beneath the waves of thoughts into the depths of our heart, by keenly attending to the consciousness “I”, we will find that there are no thoughts there to disturb us).
207. Having dived deep into the heart, which is the consciousness “I”, and having thereby rectified all kinds of sense-knowledge, which are distortions of the one real consciousness, and which rise like bubbles on the surface of the ocean, we should abide only as this existence-consciousness, which shines as “I am”, without knowing anything through the senses.
208. When we thus abide more and more in the natural state of Self, all the innumerable tendencies (vasanas) will be destroyed. Other than this practice of Self-abidance, there is no effective means that will destroy the tendencies so easily and so quickly.
209. Even before all the tendencies have been completely destroyed, by one’s own desirelessness (vairagya) and by the Grace of God, it is possible for one to attain the blemishless light of Self-knowledge. Then by the power and clarity of that Selfknowledge, the delusion of attachment to the body and mind will automatically be destroyed.
210. Those aspirants who have attained purity of mind due to the strength of the good qualities that they have gradually cultivated, and acquired through so many births, will easily learn how to abide in this state of Self-knowledge as soon as they come into the presence of the Sadguru who has manifested Himself in human form.
216. The tendencies (vasanas) are the seeds, and the thoughts that rise are the plants. The Grace of God or Guru is the water that makes the vasanas sprout in the form of thoughts. Then in order to destroy those thoughts, which exist in the form of desires, that same Grace crushes them by the power of the clear discrimination that it bestows upon us. Therefore, until you achieve victory in this war of Grace, do not become disheartened and give up your meditation.
223. The state in which our power of attention, which now sees the objects that exist in front of our eyes, sees its own existence “I am”, having suddenly become introverted by giving up all objective attention and turning towards “I,”
is alone the state of true austerity (tapas) or yoga.
If our power of attention is used in any other way, that is only an objective attention that is opposed to true tapas or yoga
Intermittent attempts
224. Know that a vichari (a person practicing Self-inquiry) who makes effort with the liking always to turn inwards to see the “I” with the inner eye, will not be able to experience the pure Selfconsciousness merely by the process of sitting majestically with closed eyes for a long period of time at one stretch.
225. If at one single attempt you strive persistently for long hours without limit, to pull Selfwards and restrain the running mind without leaving your hold on Self-attention, you will find that you are not able to maintain a steady intensity of Self-attention.
Therefore, after making one attempt for a few minutes, relax your effort for a while, and then again make a fresh attempt with renewed effort.
226. If you continue incessantly to struggle for many hours at a stretch to turn your power of atten-
tion towards Self, your effort will become slack and the intensity of your Self-attention will decrease.
On the other hand, if you take rest as and when each attempt becomes slack, and then if you repeatedly make fresh efforts to turn Selfwards, with each fresh attempt your Self-attention will gain an increased vigor and intensity.
Note: If we press our hand on a weighing-scale and if we try to maintain the pressure continuously for a long time by not removing our hand, as time passes the dial will indicate that the pressure is gradually decreasing. But if instead we relax by removing our hand for a while, and if we then again apply the pressure, the dial will indicate that with each fresh attempt the pressure is increasing. Similarly, instead of struggling to maintain the intensity of Self-attention for a long time, if we make intermittent attempts to turn our attention keenly towards Self, with each fresh attempt our Self-attention will gain a greater degree of intensity and clarity.
227. When the mind, our power of attention, having little by little gained the strength to turn Selfwards, finally at one time reaches the heart due to the intensity and clarity of its Self-attention, it will drown in Self, having been caught in the clutch of the Grace of God who has ever been waiting without the least forgetfulness to catch it, and hence it will never again turn outwards to know objects other than “I”.
228. Knowing that this is indeed the peerless divine marriage of Grace, the power of attention will become settled and will attain firm abidance in Self. To remain steadily established in Self-abidance, being firmly bound by Self in Self, having known oneself to be that Self, is alone the state of supreme bliss.
42. Watching the Breath
229. If one takes to Self-attention, the practice of keenly observing only the consciousness “I,” then one need not perform any other practice (sadhana). But let those who cannot take to this practice of Selfattention from the very outset, practice for a short while either repetition of mantras (japa) or watching of the movement of the breath, and then let them give up all such practices and cling only to Selfattention.
232. If you fix your attention upon the one power within you, which is experienced in the form of the effort that draws the breath within and then pushes it out, then retention of the breath (kumbhaka) will be attained without difficulty or strain.
233. But if you think that effort of yours to be something other than “I,” no benefit will be gained from the retention kumbhaka. And even though you understand this effort of yours to be only yourself, if your attention does not cling to that first person consciousness “I,” know that even this practice will only be a buffoonery.
43. Self-Inquiry and Other Methods of Practice (Sadhana)
236. For those who listen and pay heed to what Sri Ramana Bhagavan has said, the path of Selfinquiry is very easy.
Only to those who ask, “What is this path? What is that path?”, having already confused their mind by learning so much, does it become necessary to teach all the other superficial and extroverted methods of sadhana saying, “First subdue the breath (by practicing pranayama), subdue the tongue (by observing silence), and subdue the mischief of the mind (by practicing meditation).”
239. The state in which the mind, by the strength of practice (abhyasa-bala), abides or immerses itself in the attention to any second person object, however exalted that object may be, is only a state of temporary absorption of the mind (manolaya). On the other hand, by abiding in the state of Self-attention, the natural state of true awakening, the state of destruction of the mind (mano-nasa) will be attained. Since this natural state of Selfknowledge alone is our goal, cling firmly only to this flawless practice (sadhana), or incessantly thinking “I, I”.
240. The one-pointedness of mind, which is gained by the practice of repetition of a mantra (japa) or meditation (dhyana), will also be gained by practicing Self-inquiry;
but in a very easy manner without the need of any restriction or restraint,
such as those that are to be observed while practicing other methods of practice (sadhana). Rather than the common existence-consciousness “I am,” which is always experienced by all people, what more worthy and easy target of attention (dhyana-lakshana) is now needed?
248. (When will the intellect decide that Self alone is the greatest thing?)
The intellect will esteem something as the greatest according to its decision as to what is eternal and what is ephemeral.
What can be correctly decided by the intellect to be eternal?
Only that thing, which can be decided to be real, is unquestionably eternal; other things are only ephemeral objects that are fit to be discarded.
259. Those people who have a clear and unshakable understanding of their own reality, having thus discriminated and concluded that Self, the existence-consciousness “I am,” alone is real and eternal, will gain unlimited love to abide as Self and will thus attain the state of one-pointed Self-attention.
260. When you attain the non-dual state of Selfabidance, by gaining such one-pointedness and such unequaled love for Self, you will experience the state of true spiritual discipline (tapas) in which you alone blissfully exist as the direct knowledge of Self.
265. Why is it said, “Abide in this existenceconsciousness repeatedly” and “Abide in this state with great love?” Because until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive us out of this state have ceased to exist, this state will seem to come and go. Therefore, until those vasanas have been com-
pletely destroyed, it is necessary to have love and to make repeated efforts to abide in this state.
266. When by this practice of abiding in the state of existence-consciousness, this existenceconsciousness is always experienced to be effortless and inescapably natural, then no harm will result even if sleep, dream and waking appear to come and go.
48. The Manner of the Dawn of Knowledge (Janodaya Vidham)
268. Death happens in a split second. Awakening from sleep happens in a split second.
Similarly, the destruction of the delusion of individuality happens in just a split second.
True knowledge is not something that can be gained and then lost. If a person feels that true knowledge is coming and going, he is still only in the state of practice (or ab-
hyasa). It cannot be said that such a person has attained true Self-knowledge.
The perfect awakening into the state of Selfknowledge happens in just a split second.
That state is not attained gradually over a long period of time. All the sadhanas that are practiced over a period of many years are meant only for attaining blemishless maturity. Listen to an apt illustration. After people have placed gunpowder in the iron barrel of a temple-cannon, after they have added broken pieces of brick, after they have packed it tight with a ramrod, after they have placed a wick in contact with the powder, and after they have plastered the open end of the barrel with clay, as soon as the charge is ignited it will explode in a split second with a blast that sounds like thunder.
Similarly, after one has learnt the truth about the real Self through hearing and reading, after one has practiced sadhana for a long time, after one has wept and prayed with heart-melting devotion, and after one has thereby attained purity of mind, the knowledge of the reality will instantaneously shine forth in a split second as “I am I”. As soon as the dawn of Self-knowledge thus takes place, due to the clear shining of the reality of this state, which is an empty space devoid of objective knowledge, will be spontaneously realized to be the state of true knowledge, which is our beginningless real nature. When even the effort of attending to Self thereby merges in Silence, that state of mere Being, in which there is nothing further to do and nothing further to attain at any time, alone is the real state.
49. Self-Knowledge
269. One’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is sleep. One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am this body,” is dream; which is of two kinds, known as the waking state and the dream state. One’s experiencing one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” without any forgetfulness (pramada), is the true waking. The former two are unreal, the latter alone is real.
273. Therefore, one’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is not (something which ever truly happened). One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am the body,” is not (something which ever truly happened). One’s newly experiencing one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” is not (something which ever truly happens). Such is the nature of the experience of true knowledge (jnana).
289. If someone is a Jnani, what is that to us? So long as we do not know ourself, that will be of no benefit to us.
On scrutiny, Jnana alone is the Jnani; the Jnani is not a human form; he is only the supreme space of pure consciousness.
That supreme space is our true nature.
Seeing the Jnani thus by Silence (the thought-free state which remains after the mind has been destroyed) is alone seeing him correctly.
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1. ELEVEN VERSES ON SELF-INQUIRY (ATMA-VICHARA PATIKAM)
1. Thinking is a vritti; being is not a vritti (thought). If we scrutinize “Who is thinking?” the thinking process will come to as standstill. Even when thoughts do not exist, do you have any doubt about your own existence as “I am”? Abiding in your own existence, which shines as “I am,” the source, from which all thoughts rise, is the state of Selfabidance. Abide thus.
2. He who thinks is the soul, or jiva. He who exists as “I am” without any thought is God. If the thinker thinks with great love of that which merely exists as “I am,” this Selfward-turned thought will become the thought-free consciousness, which will destroy all thoughts. When the thinker thus dies along with his thoughts, the state of abidance, which then remains shining as “I am,” is the state of union with God or Siva-sayujya.
3. He who thinks, “I am so-and-so” is just a thought like all the other thoughts. But of all thoughts, this thought, “I am so-and-so” alone is the first. The soul who thinks, “I am so-and-so” is merely a reflection of our real Self. When we abide and shine only as that real Self, the thought “I am so-and-so” will not rise.
4. In dreamless sleep, this thought “I am so-andso” does not at all exist. In the true state of Selfknowledge also, this thought “I am so-and-so” does not at all exist. But in the states of waking and dream, which rise in between the darkness of sleep The Essence of Spiritual Practice 89 and the pure light of Self-knowledge, the thought “I am this body” seems to appear and disappear. Therefore this limited “I” is not real; this “I” is only a thought.
5. The flourishing of this “I” is only the flourishing of misery. This “I” is that which is called the ego. This ego-”I” rises and flourishes only because of non-inquiry (avichara). If we inquire “Who is this I?”, and thereby vigilantly scrutinize only the feeling “I,” without attending to the adjunct “so-and-so” with which it is mixed, this adjunct will disappear, since it is devoid of any real existence.
6. The second and third persons, the known objects, subsist only because of the first person, the knowing subject, who is the root. If the mind, which is ever wavering because of attending to second and third persons, turns and attends to the first person, who rises as “I am so-and-so,” the adjunct “soand-so” will cease to exist and the real Self, which always exists as “I am,” will shine forth spontaneously. That real Self, which is the indestructible base of the first person, alone is true knowledge (Jnana).
7. Thinking about second and third persons is foolishness, because when we attend to second and third persons the mental activities (mano-vrittis) rise up and multiply. But the act of attending to the first person is equal to committing suicide, because only by scrutinizing the first person will the ego die of its own accord.
8. Attending to any second or third person instead of turning and attending to this “I,” the first 90 A Light on the Teaching of Ramana Maharshi person feeling that is always experienced by everyone, is only ignorance (ajnana). If you ask, “The ego (the feeling ‘I am so-and-so’) is only a product of ignorance, so attending to the ego is also ignorance, is it not? Why then should we attend to this ‘I’?” Listen to what is said below:
9. Why is the ego destroyed when we scrutinize “What am I”? Because this “I”-thought (aham-vritti) is a reflected ray of Self-consciousness; and thus unlike other thoughts, which are devoid of consciousness, it is always directly connected with its source. Therefore, when our attention dives deeper and deeper within by following this reflected ray “I,” the length of this reflected ray “I” will diminish until finally it has shrunk to nothing. When the ego, the feeling “I am so-and-so,” thus disappears, the consciousness that will remain shining as “I am I” is the true knowledge of Self.
10. Do not do anything thinking, “It should be done only by me.” Nothing is done by you, because you are simply nothing. Knowing this truth from the beginning, if you refrain entirely from rising as “I am the doer,” all actions will happen of their own accord, and your peace will ever remain undisturbed.
11. If we scrutinize “What is the reality that ever exists?” we will find that nothing in this world is real. Since Self alone is real, let us mentally renounce everything else and ever abide unshakably as that reality, which will remain shining alone as “I am.” This alone is the service enjoined upon us by Lord Ramana, who ever-abides as the eternal Self.
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40 verses on renunciation
3. The afflictions that possess us exist without leaving us even for a moment, in two forms, as “I” and “mine.” Along with the renunciation of the “mine”-ness (mamakara), which is the feeling “These things are mine,” to renounce the “I”-ness (ahankara), which is the feeling “I am this body,” is the highest among all the kinds of renunciation
Unless you can discover the peerless means by which to bring about the death of yourself, the ego, O my dear sir, your renunciation will not yield any benefit.
8. If a wandering religious mendicant (parivrajaka sannyasi) wanders about depending entirely upon God to provide his material needs each day, without ever seeking to acquire or save anything for the morrow with the thought, “Let this place of abode or this food be available for me for another occasion,” his faith in God will increase (and he will gain the strength to live with an attitude of complete dependence upon God alone, and not upon any people).
If the sannyasi is unable to endure the mean words of worldly people who speak thus, know that he is not a true sannyasi.
26. With the firm dispassion (vairagya) of not cherishing or hoarding anything for the morrow (having an unshakable faith that God will provide you each day with whatever is good for you), pass the days of accepting whatever comes to you of its own accord on each occasion without giving any work to your brain (to investigate whether each thing which comes is good or bad and to decide whether it is to be accepted or rejected)
27. If you, who have come to this world alone, live alone (being free of attachment to anything) and subside in Self by knowing what is the reality of yourself, know that that is the greatest help which you can render to all the other people in this world.
30. The path of karma yoga (selfless service), which is practiced by anyone other than such a Jivanmukta (see previous verse), will gradually remove the impurities from the mind, and it will stop with thus imparting complete purity of mind.
After thus attaining purity of mind, it is proper that a person should give up the path of karma yoga and should follow either the path of devotion (bhakti) or the path of Self-inquiry and thereby attain the egoless state of Self.
33. You have taken this renunciation (sannyasa) not for the sake of giving spiritual instructions (upadesa) to the people of this world, but only to attain the infinite Self, and to remain firmly established in Self-abidance. Why do you forget this truth and wander about in the world giving lectures?
34. Only the real renunciate (sannyasi), who never deviates from the state of firm Self-abidance is a person who is correctly teaching true knowledge to all other people. Rather than by climbing on platforms to give lectures by mouth, if one turns the mind within away from the world and abides in Self, then the entire world, which seems to exist externally, will be awakened into the state of true knowledge.
35. Without renunciation (sannyasa), to attain liberation is not in the least possible; but renunciation (sannyasa) truly means only inward renunciation (that is, the renunciation of the first thought “I am this body”) and not anything else
If one abides in the true state of Self, which is devoid of all thoughts, that itself is all virtues and ethical conduct (dharmas).
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