Guru vachaka kovai

https://www.happinessofbeing.com/Guru_Vachaka_Kovai-2004.pdf


297. Do not wander outside, eating the scorching sand of worldly pleasures, which are non-Self; 

Come home to the Heart where Peace is shining as a vast, everlasting, cool shade, and enjoy the feast of the Bliss of Self.

294. Attention to one’s own Self, which is ever shining as ‘I’, the one undivided and pure Reality, is the only raft with which the jiva, who is deluded by thinking “I am the body”, can cross the ocean of unending births. 

295. The false delusion of the jiva can never be lost, unless Self – the pure Sat-Chit, which is the one Reality ever shining within, without a second – is realised. 

296. Having annihilated the delusive mind which always dwells upon worldly things,
 having killed the restless ego, 
and having completely erased the worldly vasanas, 

shine as Shiva, the pure Consciousness Itself.


292. Be assured that That which ever shines [for all] is certainly the true Existence of Self, “I am”. When the True God is thus realised as one’s own Self,
  without doubt or misconception,
the Supreme Bliss will brim over. 

293. Having known for certain that everything which is seen, without the least exception, is merely a dream, and that it [the seen] does not exist without the seer, turn only towards Self – Sat-Chit-Ananda – 

without attending to the world of names and forms, 

which is only a mental conception.


291. If one wants to be saved, one is given the following true and essential advice: just as the tortoise draws all its five limbs within its shell, so one should draw the five senses within and turn one’s mind Selfward. This alone is happiness.


289. Destroy the stealthy ego, which is the thought “I am the body”,

either by enquiring “Who am I?”, or

by melting into nothing by always thinking with love of God’s feet.

284. Just as a deer caught in the jaws of a tiger [cannot escape], so those who are caught by the glance of the Sadguru’s Grace will never be abandoned, but, having their ego and vasanas completely destroyed, they will realize the non-dual Truth.


 That which will then remain is the Light of Jnana. 


288. Thinking in the proper manner of the Guru’s Grace, which is beyond expression, and Being Still, remaining unattached to the false [world] appearance in front of us, is alone Blissful.

285. The disciple’s mind which has soaked in the Light of Jnana – the Feet of the Sadguru – which is abundant like [the light of] the sun, can never be imprinted by the three-fold differences, which appear to exist, as if real, in Self, the Pure Consciousness.




274. Those who do not understand that the Jnana-Guru is the Formless Supreme Space, though He appears in the human form, are the chief amongst all the vilest sinners and criminals.

272. Since one does not love to listen to the teaching of the Supreme Self, 

which is ever going on in the Heart, 

one comes out with great enthusiastic delusion. 

Because of this, one needs a Guru outside.



273. That Self-Consciousness [Sat-Chit] which shines in all, as All, is the Guru.


267. This natural Self-Consciousness of mere Existence,
without any sense of duality,
is the Supreme Silence,
which is glorified [by the scriptures] as the perfection of Jnana,
 and
which cannot be known by the ego, the foolish demon-nature


265. The Heart, which shines pure after the eradication of wavering [tendencies] and veiling [delusion], and which remains as the One Truth, is the Supreme Atma-Loka for which even the gods of heaven are longing.



263. Therefore, only the Jnani – who has seen the death of the ego which is in the form of the notion ‘I am the body’ – will, with His sharp, subtle, and divine outlook, 
which is completely freed from delusion,
 see the Heart everywhere and attain greatness. 


264. The Heart, where the Supreme Silence of God’s Grace is shining, is the only state of Kaivalyam, in the Presence of which the rare pleasure of all the heavens are revealed to be nothing.


257. Heart, the Source, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all. Heart, the Supreme Space, is never a form, It is the Light of Truth.


256. The indescribable Heart is the mirror in which all [i.e., the entire universe] appears. The One Single Consciousness, the Space of mere Being, alone is the Primal and Supreme Thing, the Silent Whole.


247. To stray from the immortal Self, which is the Primal Thing, the Source of all, the Home of Love, the form of Bliss, and the Space of Supreme Jnana, is Death.

not apart from seer = dnyana

243. If the world that is seen is found to be not apart from the seer, that is Jnana. 

Vairagya is clinging fast to Self and rejecting this world with detachment viewing it as merely void.


241. Whatever thought may rise, not to let it live or grow, 
but to destroy it then and there,

without the least slackness, 

by merging it back into its Source, is powerful and intense Vairagya. 


237. Supreme Jnana dawns with ease only for those fortunate ones in whose hearts dispassion towards the pleasures of this world and the next springs forth naturally in this birth.



234. As a result of prolonged, worthy, and well-performed tapas,
 desiring to stabilize one’s individuality instead of ever-remaining in the Supreme Silence,
 is due to dense ignorance,

 like achieving poverty with great longing and struggling.


231. The real, unique Self-Knowledge, which is distilled and obtained when the repeatedly rising ego merges into its Source is the true Kalpa [medicine].



228. Can immortality be obtained unless the one who takes this body as ‘I’ dies as Self, 

having become afraid of this body’s death and having, therefore, enquired “Who is this I?” [No.] 



229. Know and accept that Immortality is only the shining of the true Clarity [i.e. pure Consciousness], without the delusion of mental modifications.

 Death cannot be overcome by anything other than that Pure Consciousness.


213. When the insentient ego turns inwards through Self-attention and dies,
 the Fire of Jnana burns in the Heart and consumes all the three worlds in its blazing red flame,
which is the significance of the red kumkum.



197. Having eradicated the ego, which was wandering like a ghost in delusion, and having destroyed the duality of the sentient and the insentient, the soul which is thus drowned and well soaked in the light of the pure and blissful Sahaja Samadhi, is the Supreme Shiva.

198. When the ego, the feeling of being separate entity, is removed, chittam remains as Shivam,
 the Supreme Chit, having merged within the Heart as “I am Consciousness Itself”,

and having thus destroyed all the false and dense mental conceptions.


196. The unlimited Space of Turiyatita which shines suddenly, in all its fullness, within the Heart of a highly mature aspirant during the state of complete absorption of mind, as if a fresh and previously unknown experience, is the rarely attained and true Shiva-Loka [i.e., Kingdom of God], which shines by the Light of Self.



192. To arrest the mind – which tries to rush outwards – securely within, is the truly heroic act of the ripe aspirant who wants to see the Supreme Lord in the Heart. 

Sadhu Om: The end of this verse may also be translated as, ‘to see the Supreme, who is Lord of the Saints.’

193. When the mind [i.e., the ego’s attention] which wanders outside,
 knowing only other objects [2nd and 3rd persons] –
begins to attend to its own nature,
 all other objects will disappear,
and then, by experiencing it’s own true nature [i.e. Self], the pseudo-‘I’ will also die.


191. The ship would be destroyed by the storm if its sails were spread outside, but it is safe when its anchor is sunk deep into the sea. Similarly, if the mind were sunk deep in the Heart instead of being spread outside, that would be Jnana.


190. O people, not knowing that Shiva is dwelling within
you, you fly about like birds from one holy place to another [seeking His Darshan].
Consciousness, when abiding still in the Heart, is the Supreme Shiva.

188. [O mind,] do not waste your life in roaming outside, pursuing wonders and courting enjoyments;

to know Self through Grace [Self-enquiry], and to thus abide firmly in the Heart, is alone worthwhile. 


189. Since it is only the notion of duality that spoils Bliss and causes misery, to avoid yielding to the attractions of that notion and to thus arrest all chitta vrittis is alone worthwhile.


187. O mind, it is not wise for you to come out
 [in the form of thoughts]; 

it is best to go within. 

Hide yourself deep within the Heart and escape from the tricks of Maya, 
who tries to upset you by drawing you outwards.


186. O miserable and extroverted people, failing to see the seer, you see only the seen! 

To dissolve duality by turning inwards instead of outwards is alone Blissful.



26. Is the word ‘Real’ befitting to this world, which is seen only by the illusory and changeful mind, but not by Self, the source of mind?


39. This world is a mere illusion seen in the deluded objective sight of the ego, which is simply the ‘I-am-the-body’ idea.

In the sight of Self-Knowledge, however, it is as false as the apparent blueness in the sky.

40. How does this false and villainous vast world, that cheats and ravages the minds of all people [except the wise], come into existence? Because of no reason other than our own mistake in falling away from, instead of clinging to, Self-attention.

41. This life, an illusion based upon [our] likes and dislikes, is an empty dream, which appears, as if real, during the sleep [of ignorance], but which is found to be false when one wakes up [into Self-Knowledge].


46. Self is hidden when the world appears, but when Self shines forth, the world will disappear. Being different in nature, like the [apparent] dog [seen in] the stone, both cannot be seen together.


47. This world which appears, concealing Self, is a mere dream, but when ‘concealed’ by Self, it remains as none other than Self.



49. As the fire shines hidden within the smoke,

the Light of Knowledge shines hidden within the names and forms of this world.


When the mind is made clear by Supreme Grace, 

the nature of the world is found to be real [as Self],

 and it will appear no more as the illusory names and forms.



50. For those who never lose the True Knowledge of Self,
which is the base of all sense-knowledge,

the world also is nothing other than Self-Knowledge.


 But, how can an ordinary man, who has not gained Self-knowledge, understand the statement of Sages who, seeing through Jnana, say that the world is real?


51. Those who have given up worldly [i.e. sense-] knowledge and attachment to it,
and who have destroyed the evil force of mind [i.e. Maya],
thus gaining Supreme Self-Consciousness,

alone can know the correct meaning of the statement, “The world is Real”.


55. The appearance of this world, like the illusory appearance of a dream, is merely mental

and its truth [therefore] can be known correctly only by the Supreme Consciousness

that transcends Maya, the mind.



..61. If you abide in the Heart as Sat-Chit [‘I am’], by which the whole universe exists and shines, then this world will also become one with you, losing its false, frightening dualities.

 62. He who knows this world-appearance to be his own form, Supreme-Consciousness, experiences the same Consciousness even through his five senses.

66. The One Supreme Bliss, ‘Sadhasivam’ [i.e. Self] is alone approved [by Jnanis] to be the Whole Reality.
This world, seen as full of miseries and defects, is  known only by the mind which is unreal and divided with differences.


67. It is the result of the delusion I-am-the-limited-body, 
that the world, which is nothing but Consciousness, is known as a second entity, separate from Consciousness.


68. Will that which is perceived by the senses of this unreal body be real or unreal?

O mind, worried and wearied by worldly ways, consider this thoroughly now and reply.


69. Whatever is seen by the ego who, having fallen from the true state of Self and having been buried deep in dark ignorance, takes the body as ‘I’, is not at all real and is simply non-existent.


71. Just as the goat’s beard wanders and wags for nothing, people roam about merrily but in vain, doing Karmas for the fulfillment of their worldly desires, while despising the disciplines [followed by aspirants] which lead to eternal Moksha in Self. Ah, what a pitiable spectacle is the condition of these worldly people!


72. Longing for a tiny grain of pleasure, people toil so  hard using the mind to plough the field of the five senses, but they never wish for the flood of Bliss which is the fruit that comes by ploughing the Heart, the Source of the mind, with [simple] Self-attention.
Ah, what a wonder!


74. Only when the world’s allurement is lost will true Liberation be possible [and its allurement cannot be lost unless it is found to be unreal]. 

Hence, to try to foist reality upon this world is to be just like an infatuated lover who tries to foist chastity upon a prostitute.



75. Only for the mad folk who are deluded, mistaking this fictitious world as a fact, and not for the Jnani, is there anything to revel in except Brahman, which is Consciousness.

99. The world does not exist apart from the body; the body does not exist apart from the mind; the mind does not exist apart from Consciousness; and Consciousness does not exist apart from Self, which is Existence.

Who but those fools who are incapable of knowing Self, will desire these senseless siddhis?

130. If the ignorant one, who is clinging to the body and world as real, wants to have peace, he should, giving up his wrong notion,

cling like an udumbu to Self in his heart.




131. Those who live the life of an ego, desirously entertaining themselves with the pleasures of false sense objects, will be doomed to delusion.
The only life worth living is revelling in the Supreme Consciousness – that is, being Self.



136. One who is permanently established in Self-Consciousness – having destroyed delusion, which is in the form of doubt and misunderstanding – is the Supreme Pandit.



141. After knowing that the purport at the heart of all scripture is that the mind should be subdued in order to gain Liberation, what is the use in continuously studying them? 
Who am I?


140. The divine flow of poetry can spring only from a heart which has become still, being completely freed by Self-attention from all attachment towards the five sheaths, starting with Annamaya [the body composed of food].



143. For those who are very attached to their filthy bodies, all the study of Vedanta will be as useless as the swinging of the goat’s fleshly beard unless,

with the aid of Divine Grace, their studies lead them to subdue their egos.


144. To be freed from ignorance by mere studies is as impossible as the horns of a horse,

 unless by some means the mind is killed

and the tendencies are thus completely erased 

by the blossoming of Self Knowledge


145. For the jiva’s weak and unsteady mind, which is ever wavering like the wind, there is no place to enjoy bliss except the Heart, its Source;
the study of scriptures is, for it, like a noisy shandai [a cattle fair].


146. Rooting out useless sense-desires is possible only for those expert enquirers who, giving up the vast Vedas and Agamas,

know through Self-enquiry, the Truth within the Heart.



147. Though one learns the blemishless Jnana Sastras perfectly and with great enthusiasm, one has to forget, give up and be free of them when one tries to abide as Self.

148. Worldly people, deluded by sensual pleasures which lead to destruction, cannot know of the existence of the Truth.

They call the fertile glory of the aspirant’s blossoming Jnana, which was attained by dispassion towards sense-pleasures, as the ‘barren ground philosophy’.


154. The nature of the ego is similar to that of an elf, being very enthusiastic, rising in many wicked ways by means of innumerable imaginations, being erratic in behaviour, and knowing only things other than itself.

But the nature of Self is mere Existence-Consciousness.


155. Some jivas suffer, being often thrown back into the eddying stream of samsara by their vasanas,

which are like mischievous boys not allowing them to cling fast to Self, the bank [of samsara’s stream]

156. The reason for our mistake of seeing a world of objects in front of us is that we have risen as a separate ‘I’, the seer, due to our failure to attend to the vast perfection of Self-Consciousness, which is our Reality.

157. The false, deceitful and self-blinded ego-knot, believing the body to be real, lusts after various allurements which are all fancied like the blueness of the sky, and thus it tightens itself

158. It is only the sight which is blind to the unlimited Self, having veiled itself as “I am the body”, that also appears as the world before it.

159. The life of the filthy ego, which mistakes a body both as ‘I’ and as ‘my place’, is merely a false imagination seen as a dream in the pure, real, Supreme Self.

160. This fictitious jiva, who lives as ‘I [am the body]’, is also one of the pictures on the screen.


Nothing possible until Ego detroyed

161. Only when the ego is destroyed does one become a Devotee; 
only when the ego is destroyed does one become a Jnani;
 only when the ego is destroyed does one become God; 
and only when the ego is destroyed does Grace blaze forth.


175. The only worthy occupation is to thoroughly absorb the ego by turning Selfward 

and, without allowing it to rise, to thus abide quietly,

like a waveless ocean, in Self-Knowledge,

having annihilated the delusive mind-ghost,

which had been wandering about unobstructed.


176. The truly powerful tapas is that state in which,

having lost the sense of doership, 

and knowing well that all is His Will, 

one is relieved from the delusion of the foolish ego. 
Thus should you know.


177. To be deluded and without Self-knowledge, and to thus see all the worlds and the jivas therein as different from oneself, is truly doing treason against Self,

that vast Space of Consciousness in whose view nothing is other than Itself, and which absorbs everything into Itself.

180. Only those who do not know the nature of misery are terrified of the tortures of hell.

 But if one understands what misery is, one will know the way to end it, and will certainly attain one’s natural state of Bliss.

Narakasura = I am body

181. The Puranas say that Lord Narayana has killed the demon [of misery], Naraka Asura. This demon is none other than the one who lives as “I am this body, the source of misery”. One who seeks Naraka Asura’s [i.e., the ego’s] source, and thus annihilates him, is truly Lord Narayana Himself.

185b. For the extroverted intellect, the means to abide in Self is to begin enquiring inwardly
“Who am I, who suffer greatly, knowing through the senses only the objects of form and quality before me?”

186. O miserable and extroverted people,

failing to see the seer,

 you see only the seen! 

To dissolve duality by turning inwards instead of outwards is alone Blissful.


187. O mind, it is not wise for you to come out [in the form of thoughts];
 it is best to go within. 
Hide yourself deep within the Heart and escape from the tricks of Maya, who tries to upset you by drawing you outwards.


189. Since it is only the notion of duality that spoils Bliss and causes misery, to avoid yielding to the attractions of that notion and to thus arrest all chitta vrittis is alone worthwhile.

190. O people, not knowing that Shiva is dwelling within  you, you fly about like birds from one holy place to another [seeking His Darshan]. Consciousness, when abiding still in the Heart, is the Supreme Shiva.

191. The ship would be destroyed by the storm if its sails were spread outside, but it is safe when its anchor is sunk deep into the sea. Similarly, if the mind were sunk deep in the Heart instead of being spread outside, that would be Jnana.

192. To arrest the mind – which tries to rush outwards – securely within, 
is the truly heroic act of the ripe aspirant who wants to see the Supreme Lord in the Heart.


193. When the mind [i.e., the ego’s attention] which wanders outside, knowing only other objects [2nd and 3rd persons] – 
begins to attend to its own nature,
 all other objects will disappear, and then, by experiencing it’s own true nature [i.e. Self], the pseudo-‘I’ will also die.



197. Having eradicated the ego, 
which was wandering like a ghost in delusion,
 and having destroyed the duality of the sentient and the insentient, 
the soul which is thus drowned and well soaked in the light of the pure and blissful Sahaja Samadhi, is the Supreme Shiva.

199. That eternal and subtlest Being which pervades and transcends all is God, the Supreme Shivam, which is realised when the widely-scattered mind is resolved into its Source, having had its impurities removed and having been well refined.

Absolute stillness of mind alone is the attainment of Liberation.

joke

223. O man, the most wonderful siddhi is that you, who are really pure formless Self-Consciousness,

take the body with its legs and hands as ‘I’ 

and go dancing about as if real;

[compared to this] even the eight kinds of siddhis are no real wonders.


227. Death is nothing but the delusion that “I am the alien body”, and Immortality is nothing but the Bliss that is gained when that delusion dies through the knowledge of the non-dual Self.

Death cannot be overcome by anything other than that Pure Consciousness.

231. The real, unique Self-Knowledge, which is distilled and obtained when the repeatedly rising ego merges into its Source is the true Kalpa [medicine].


237. Supreme Jnana dawns with ease only for those fortunate ones in whose hearts dispassion towards the pleasures of this world and the next springs forth naturally in this birth

241. Whatever thought may rise, not to let it live or grow, but to destroy it then and there, without the least slackness, by merging it back into its Source, is powerful and intense Vairagya

246. Great disaster will result if, instead of seeking inward beauty, ones seeks only outward beauty. Such [foolishness] is just like the moth which loves the beauty of the flame, or the cobra which loves the female viriyan snake.


250. Since the flame of Kundalini rises upwards [from the base of the spine – the mooladhara] and the Nectar flows downwards from the brain [the sahasrara], the target is the Heart, the Life-Centre.

Michael James: In the waking state, when world and body-consciousness are felt, the I-consciousness is spread throughout the body, but when Self-attention is practised the I-consciousness begins to withdraw itself. This withdrawal takes place through the channel known as Sushumna Nadi, which stretches from the base of the spine [the mooladhara chakra] to the brain [the sahasrara chakra]. This rise of the I-consciousness through the Sushumna Nadi is known as the rise of Kundalini which is described as a serpent only for the dull beginners in yoga [see Vichara Sangraham, The Compilation on Self-enquiry, Chapter 7]. The I-consciousness having been withdrawn and gathered in the Sahasrara, will then flow down towards its Source the Heart, and the thought-free vacuum thus left in the Sahasrara is felt as bliss. This bliss is known by Yogis as the Nectar and it is felt to be flowing downwards as the I-consciousness descends towards the Heart.


268. Know and discover that He alone who possesses such Akila Para Shakti [i.e., the Power of Supreme Silence which consumes all by remaining as mere Existence-Self-Consciousness], is the Real Guru who can by His unlimited Grace merge any soul who comes to Him into the non-dual Self, the Jnana beyond all speech.


281. Without killing the body, but by killing, with the glance of His eyes, the ego which poses as if it were really existing, the Guru in no time exposes the entire fiction [from the body to the whole universe] as non-existent, and reveals the shining of the one Supreme Self as the only real existence.

307. When Sri Krishna, the Ocean of Grace – having Arjuna between Himself and us - tells us “Know for  certain that I will release you from the bondage of the two kinds of karmas if you reach me”, He is advising us to reach Self.

349. When the tricky senses are controlled, 
when mental conceptions are removed, 
and when one is unshakably established as Self in the Heart, 
then the Knowledge which shines in that State of firm Self-Abidance is the Real God [Shiva].


350. Such a True Seeing, which is devoid of illusion and deception, is the State in which one shines as the Ocean of Bliss. Only in the Supreme Silence which is thus achieved in Self-Abidance, will the soul never again have a downfall.

390. To know the Supreme Thing, which shines in the heart as Existence-Consciousness, it is useless to search for It [as God] outside with great enthusiasm,
 instead of slowly and steadily attending to It [as It is] by remaining in solitude. 


[To search for It outside is] just like trying to dive within the water with a naked lamp in one’s hand, in order to find a person who has drowned in a flood.




392. When mano-laya is gained by restraining the breath,
 one should keenly enquire,
 using such a peaceful mind which is now condensed from the scattered five [sense-knowledges] into the one ‘I’-consciousness,
and know that Sat-Chit which is not the body.


393. Those who take to the pure path of Self-enquiry are never derailed because, like the sun, this supremely direct path itself reveals to them its own unchallengeable clarity and uniqueness.



The method 398-401

398. When one thus inwardly enquires, “Is it not to me that this thought has arisen – then who am I?”, the mind will return to subside in its Source, and the already risen thought will also vanish.

399. When one daily practices in this manner, since the impurities are being removed from the mind, it will become purer and purer to such an extent that the practice will become so easy that the mind will reach the Heart as soon as the enquiry is commenced.

400. Just as the creature which come out of the bushes to save their lives, being unable to bear with the heat of the wild forest-fire, are surely burnt to death, so all the vasanas hiding in the Heart will be destroyed, being unable to stand before the growing and blazing fire of the strength of Self-enquiry.

401. The thought “Who am I?”, after destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally die just like the stick which is used to stir the funeral pyre, and then the supreme Silence will prevail for ever.



402. When the delusion which has veiled Self, the Light of Consciousness of unlimited Bliss [Sat-Chit-Ananda], is destroyed by the clear enquiry “Who am I?”, one’s own Nature will shine forth gloriously as the Atmakasha [i.e. Space of Self].


403. Just as an iron ball which is heated in fire will itself shine as fire, when the impure jiva is burnt in the fire of Self-enquiry, it will itself shine as Self.

 404. By enquiring, “Who am I, the deluded one who suffers so much?”, the delusion will be dissolved, the Reality will be attained, Jnana will dawn, Mouna will flow forth and the Bliss of Peace will prevail.

405. It is only due to the delusion which is caused by not learning the Truth of Self that jivas are suffering. Therefore, always take to the practice of Jnana – the inward enquiry “Who am I that is suffering?”

406. By contact with the philosopher’s stone – proper and  unceasing enquiry – the ghostly jiva will lose the rust of mental impurities and will be turned into the supreme Shiva.

408. The purpose of Tapas is to know 

that the supreme Atma-Jnana [Self-Knowledge]

 is graciously and naturally shining always in all creatures, 

and to experience It by being It;

 tapas is not to newly create or obtain Jnana.


409. “To fix the stupid and egotistical mind as One with the pure Shiva [i.e. Self],

 by subduing it within the Heart 

so that it cannot wander out through the sense-organs,

 is alone the best tapas,” say the true Tapasvins.


atmakara vritti = tapa

410. Uninterruptedly maintaining Atmakara-vritti 

[i.e. the flow of Self-attention],

 which swallows within itself the appearance of the universe with all its differences,

 is, when pondered over, the only mark of the unique Tapas.


412. Silence – which is the experience of Shiva, the supreme chit [jnana] – is the true tapas by which Brahman [Tat or Sat] is achieved.

 413. Just as it is impossible to trace the path through which a bird flew in the sky and the path through which a fish swam in the water, so it is also impossible to trace the path by which Jnanis have reached the Self.

414. Union with the Feet of the Lord as the form of Love [Bhakti], in which all the ego’s activities die, is the Path of Siddhanta.

The loss of the ego by abiding in Self [Atma-Nishta], which is the supreme Jnana and Bliss, is the Path of Vedanta.


418. The highest Jnana, which is knowing the perfect Reality is knowing the Knowledge by Knowledge itself. Until the Knowledge is thus known by the Knowledge Itself, the mind will have no peace.

433. Only the truth of Self is worthy of being scrutinized and known.

Taking It alone as the target, one should keenly attend to It and know It in the heart [i.e. within].

It can be known only by the silent and clear mind which is free from agitation and activity.


443. Since it is our common experience [for one and all] that we remain bodiless and shine alone even in a state of nothingness [i.e. sleep] where the world does not exist, losing permanently our identification as ‘I’ with the form of five sheaths, is indeed the attainment of Self [or Self-realization]. Thus should you be sure!

444. Since, when the ego is destroyed, the Self-sun shines as the sole Reality, putting an end to this dream, which is false, and bringing about the true awakening – the mere destruction of the ego, through Selfenquiry, is the attainment of Self [or Self-realization]. Thus should you know!


446. Since the reality, the source [of ‘I’, the ego], shines so very subtle in the heart as to be known only to a very subtle attention,

it is impossible for those whose mind is as gross 

and as blunt as the head of a pestle to attain the target!

452. If you firmly fix your mind in the Heart, the true knowledge will dawn. 

Being then drowned in the experience of the joyous peace of Sada Siva, you will shine as the Sun of true knowledge with the splendour of a thousand rising suns.


463. The rope, the true knowledge [Self], into which disappears the wonderful snake, the mind-delusion – which exists so long as it is not enquired into and becomes non-existent when enquired into – alone is the real Thing.


466. The pure Bliss of peace will shine within only for those who have lost the sense of doership. 
For, this foolish sense of doership alone is the poisonous seed that brings forth all evil fruits.


 478. When scrutinized well, what results from all the efforts made in Bhakti-marga is that

one’s ego-form dissolves through the strength of intense meditation 

on the Feet of the Lord, and the individuality is lost at His Feet by self-surrender.






.... chp 2 ...




503. The true knowledge [jnana] will not dawn without exploring within,

 the essence of the instruction ‘That Thou Art’ uttered unceasingly 

through the speech of His glance by the Sadguru, Self, the form of Siva [on earth], dwelling in the hearts of His devotees.


504. The uninterrupted shining of Self, the life of life, as the natural consciousness ‘I-I’ in the heart is the nature of God’s giving unbroken upadesa to the worthy disciple

506. For the highly mature souls who seek the supreme sat-chit-ananda in order to free themselves from the scorching heat of birth [and death], it is by the enquiry into only the word ‘Thou’, which [out of the three words ‘That’, ‘Thou’ and ‘Art’] denotes the nature of the individual soul, that the glory of Liberation is attained.


507. Only in order to turn inward the minds of less mature aspirants, which will be favourable for the aforesaid enquiry, [the Vedas] added the other two words ‘That’ [tat] and ‘Art’ [asi] to the word ‘Thou’ [tvam], thereby forming the Mahavakya ‘That Thou Art’ [tat tvam asi]. Thus should you know.


mauuna defined

520. Installing the Lord on the heart-throne and fixing the mind uninterruptedly in Self in such a manner that it will become one with It, is the true and natural worship through Silence [maunopasana].

531. The supreme Jnana [Self-knowledge], which destroys deceptive delusion, will be born only out of a true enquiry in the form of an attention towards that which exists as the Reality [‘I am’] in the heart.

 But know that mere book-knowledge about enquiry, even though learnt from clear scriptures, will be like a picture-gourd drawn on a sheet of paper, which is useless for cooking.


532. Is it possible to appease one’s hunger by eating food cooked by a painted picture of a blazing fire? Likewise, an end to the miseries of life and the enjoyment of the bliss of Self cannot be achieved by mere verbal knowledge, but only by the practical knowledge of Self, which is obtained by extinguishing the ego in the heart. Thus should you know.



533. The bliss of the sphurana of the Supreme Self cannot be obtained by intellectual arguments, but

only by  the knowledge which shines in the heart as the form of the Divine Lord who lends light to the mind.


534. Let highly mature and courageous aspirants who have a bright and sharp intellect, firmly accept that soul [jiva] is only one [eka] and thereby be established deep in the heart [by enquiring ‘Who am I, that one jiva?’]. It is only to suit immature minds that scriptures generally say that souls [jivas] are many [nana].


536. O worldly people who more and more scrutinize one thing after the other and run after each of them thinking that each one is worthier than the other!

To scrutinize that one Thing [Self] by scrutinizing which nothing more will remain [to be scrutinized], alone is [true] knowledge.

537. For those who can scrutinize [enquire into] and know the subtlest thing [Self], what benefit is there by the research on and knowledge of gross objects?

Worthier than the research done [by the mind] through the eye and so on, is the indestructible research done within [that is, Self-enquiry or Self-attention].


538 (a) To know Self clearly,

 rejecting all alien things [the universe] as mere nothingness [sunya] 

is the supreme knowledge [jnana] transcending time and space, 

other than which there is no worthy [or superior] knowledge.

The knowing of all times and places or the knowing of others’ minds is not worthy knowledge.

550. In the same manner as a dream appears in the mindspace by mere mental imagination, the scene of this world-picture [as our life] appears in this waking state. Therefore, to abide in Self by firmly knowing thus, by destroying all objective knowledge [the knowledge of second and third persons in this waking state] and by annihilating all the foolish desires for the objective scenes here, alone is worthy.

563. If the mind, which is full of ignorant delusion and which sees the worlds in dreams [in the two dreams, that is, in waking and dream] but which does not see its own truth, enquires who it itself is [in other words, ‘Who am I?’] and thereby loses its mind-nature, it will then shine as the Sun of true knowledge [jnana], remaining at the Feet of the Lord.

564. Rightly knowing Self is just like one, on awakening from a dream, knowing that all the whirl of sufferings experienced in that dream have become false and that one is really the same unaffected one who was previously lying safe on the soft bed.

568. Only so long as the one who is attached to the states [the avasta-abhimani, that is, the one who identifies himself with a body and thereby feels ‘I am now in the waking state; I was having dreams’] exists, will the [aforesaid five] different states be known as if existing. But when this attached one [abhimani], who has risen in the form of an ego-consciousness, is  lost through Self-enquiry, all the differences that pertain to the states will also end.



569. The one [the Jnani] who has by supreme devotion [that is, by complete self-surrender] attained the kingdom of the supreme state [para-avasta, that is, Self], 
through his natural supreme state never sees that any state other than that really exists.



571. God, the Lord of the soul, has appointed the ghost, the ego, as a strange gaoler [or sentry] to protect the body and extend its lifetime until the soul experiences, without missing a bit, all the fruits of karma allotted to it in prarabdha.



575. The nature of the non-Self is to remain as the base of the imaginary perception of dyads through the senses by the mind, which has slipped down from the real state of Self. There is no room for such dyads [or triads] in Self.



 When the firm true knowledge is obtained by learning how to withdraw the mind from the five senses, which cause the madness [of desire, fear, and so on], the differences will cease to exist.


587. The minds of ignorant people, having forgotten the divine life which is flourishing in the heart and which [alone] is worthy of being known and enjoyed, will meltingly long for the taste of sense-pleasures, which are insignificant fragments.


601. Those who do not have the ability to know even their own Self,........

607. Because they have slipped down from the fearless state of Self, the souls, feeling themselves to be low and mean, undergo the sufferings of birth [and death]. “People who slip down from their status are like a hair which has dropped down from the head”.

609. Instead of keenly enquiring ‘Who am I?’ within the Heart – the rising place of thought, where the divine Thing, Siva, shines devoid of thought – and knowing It [the divine Thing], merging into It and becoming one with It as ‘I am That’,
it is foolish to slip down from the Self.


613. The impure mind, which functions as thinking and forgetting, itself is samsara, the sequence of births and deaths.

The pure Self-consciousness in which the thinking and forgetting mind is dead, itself is the perfect liberation [mukti], devoid of birth and death.



Sri Muruganar:

The rising of thought (the rising of the first thought, ‘I am so-and-so’) itself is birth, 

and the forgetfulness of Self itself is death.

 The mind’s phenomena of such thinking and forgetting is
called samsara.

When the mind, freed from its impure state of thinking and forgetting, stands ever holding on to Self, that is called the destruction of the mind [mano-nasa], which itself is liberation.





614. The big, delusive samsara is [nothing but] the mind which leaves its true nature of shining as existence [Self],
which mistakes the fleshy body to be Itself,
and which is thereby filled with the dense darkness of ignorance
and through that deluded outlook sees the sense-objects as if real, like the blueness in the sky.


622. When rightly considered, nothing will be more wonderful and laughable than one’s toiling very much through some sadhana to attain Self in the same manner as one toils to attain other objects, even though one really ever remains as the non-dual Self.


629. The petty soul’s wandering [through the five senses], his suffering in the world, his again turning his attention within and his resting peacefully in the heart for a while, is just like one’s wandering in the hot sun, one’s coming back to the cool shade of a tree and the subsiding of one’s heat [for a while].


630. The discriminative person [viveki], having once suffered in the hot sunshine, will not like to go again into the sunshine from the shade. Likewise, those who have suffered in the three-fold heat [of desire for wealth, women and fame] which scorches this world, should not again turn worldwards, leaving the Heart [Self].
...

....it is clear that the aim of this chapter is to expose the futility of objective attention (that is, to expose that Self cannot be attained by attention to second and third person objects)......

...

648. Except by the Lord’s Grace, which begins to function when one surrenders oneself completely to His Feet with sincere devotion,

it [the reality] cannot be cognised merely by the skill of the mind of the jiva. 

So subtle is the reality.


656. Those who say that the reality has no form are those who do not know the reality.

 For the form of the Sage [sahaja nishtha] who correctly knows and abides in the reality, Self, the nature of which is like the [all-pervading] nature of space, is verily the form of the reality. Know this.


657. Worship of the formless is possible only for those who have lost the notion ‘I am this form [the body]’.

 Any kind of worship [that is, any effort at formless meditation] being done by those who have the notion ‘I am this form [the body]’ is nothing but a worship of form. Know this.


658. To worship the formless reality through thought-free thought [that is, by attending to the thought-free Self-awareness, ‘I am’] is best.

 If one is incapable of doing this formless worship of God, to worship God in form is proper.

659. Let those who have become a prey to the delusion of action [karma],

being unable to follow the original path of the light of Self, 

existence-consciousness, worship the form of their beloved God.

Then they will gradually lose their delusion [towards names and forms and action] and finally [by the Grace of God or Guru] attain the Supreme Self.


No one pointedness...then, all in vain

662. If the observances prescribed in the Vedas do not abundantly give you real and one-pointed devotion towards the Feet of God, know that all the strenuous efforts made by you to observe them strictly and unfailingly are utterly in vain.


665. For those first-grade sadhus who aspire only to reach the Feet of Lord Siva [God], it is better to live as an object to be pitied in the eyes of the worldly people rather than to be envied.


B10. Those who take as ‘I’ their body, which takes in pure food and converts it into filth, are worse than a pig which takes in filth and converts it into filth.



685. If the inner instruments of knowledge [the four antahkaranas, namely mind, intellect, chittam and ego] and the outer instruments of knowledge [the five bahihkaranas, namely the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin] have been brought under control day and night [i.e. always], the supreme Reality which shines in the inexpressible state of turiya will dawn.



697. For those who uninterruptedly concentrate upon the unlimited and all-pervading space of consciousness [chitrambalam], there is not even an iota of fate [prarabdha]. This alone is what is meant by the scriptural saying, “Fate does not exist for those who seek heaven”.

700. Giving up the name and form [the false aspects] of the world – which consists of existence, consciousness, bliss, name and form – is exhalation [rechaka], realising existence-consciousness-bliss is inhalation [puraka], and ever firmly abiding as existenceconsciousness-bliss is retention [kumbhaka]. Do [such pranayama].


B12. For those who cannot reach through jnana-marga [i.e. Self-enquiry] the place [source] where ‘I’ exists, it is better to know during japa the place where the supreme Word [para-vak] shines.



706. For those who cannot dive deep within through silence, the keenest knowledge, seeking “What is the source from which the ‘I’ rises?”, it is better to scrutinize while mentally doing japa wherefrom the supreme Word [para-vak] comes.



707. Since you yourself are the form of japa, if you enquire ‘Who am I?’ and know your nature, ah, you will find that the japa which you were doing previously with effort will be ever going on effortlessly and untiringly in the heart.



719. The best devotee is only that hero who, in the incomprehensible ocean of bliss [Self], destroys the false ‘I’, the thought-form which floats like a bubble in the water.


720. Those who, with minds matured through bhakti, have fully drunk the essence of bhakti, will like to attain only the divine nectar of supreme bhakti as the fruit of [their] bhakti.

725. Unless the Lord [the God and Guru] who resides within [as Self], by the power of His Grace pulls the mind within,
 who can, by the mere power of the stealthy and mischievous mind,
prevent its out-going nature and reach the Heart and rest in peace?

Grace by Bhakti alone

726. The Grace of God, whose form is eightfold, cannot be obtained without the Grace of Guru. Neither by vidyas [arts and learning] nor by any other means will Grace be obtained, but only by bhakti [towards Guru].

727. Let one not doubt whether God’s Grace, the great support, has been bestowed on one or not, for

the fact that one’s mind is much interested in enquiry,

having a great liking for release from bondage,

is itself sufficient proof [that God’s Grace has been bestowed].


728. To tell the truth, the Grace of God and the enquiry ‘Who am I?’, which is the means for abiding within, each being a great help to the other, together lead one to the state of oneness with the supreme Self.

729. Unless the supreme Reality [God or Self] Itself reveals Itself in the Heart, the delusion [maya] of this world-dream will not end.

 The enquiry ‘Who am I who sees this dream?’ is the worship [upasana] which brings forth [the Grace of the Supreme for] this revelation.



What is Dhyana?

738. Mentally imagining oneself to be the Supreme Reality, which shines as existence-consciousness-bliss  [sat-chit-ananda], is meditation [dhyana]. 


What is Enquiry?

Fixing the mind in Self so that the seed of false delusion [the ego] is destroyed is enquiry [vichara].



739. Whoever meditates upon Self in whatever bhava [i.e. in whatever form or with whatever feeling of relationship], attains It only in that bhava [i.e. in a qualified or saguna manner].

Those peaceful ones who remain quiet without any such bhava, attain the noble and unqualified state of Kaivalya [the nirguna state of Self].

740. One’s source [the Self] can be attained only after oneself, the ego [the separate individuality], has been completely annihilated. 

How to meditate ‘I am That’ by the ego?
Therefore, the ego having been annihilated [through Self-enquiry],
 to remain silently in Self is the proper way.


741. The reason why one sees Siva as ‘This [form] is He’ by meditating upon Him as if He were one among the sense-objects – though [in fact] He shines as the formless consciousness – and why one laments [when that form disappears], is because of the folly of not knowing oneself by enquiring ‘Who am I?’


742. He who well and truly meditates upon himself, who is consciousness, will be established in Siva, the Self.


743. Meditation upon the vast, unexplored and undivided space, will enable one to attain whatever [worldly] greatness one desires in whatever way one desires.

744. Among those who meditate upon space, only those who then give up that meditation upon vast space [by enquiring ‘Who am I who meditates upon space?’]
 will attain the [true] greatness of birthlessness.
 Others will fall into the cycle of birth and death.

745. To say that one who practised Self-abidance [nishtha] by clinging to the Lord, Self, the form of consciousness, lost his balance of mind and became insane, is just like saying that by drinking the nectar of immortality one died. Know thus.

748. Those who are firmly established in their own state [of Self-existence], never see any such thing as time, but only their own Self. 

will no longer know the one whole reality [tattva] as the three different times [present, past and future].



Sri Muruganar: It is said in scriptures that one becomes whatever one thinks of at the time the life leaves the body. Therefore, in this verse it is instructed that those who want Liberation should think about Self in order to set aside other thoughts, which are the cause of rebirth. Since death can come at any time, any second of our life may be the second prior to death.

Therefore, it is Sri Bhagavan’s opinion that meditation on Self should be done every second.


754. Rather than achieving the powerful sankalpa-siddhi, which enables one to achieve anything in any way one thinks [or desires], attaining the inner peace –

where not even a single thought [or desire] rises – 

by abiding in the true consciousness [Self], is the most powerful state.

...
The state of Jnana, in which one knows Self and thereby abides in unbroken peace, devoid of miseries, alone is the true sign of God’s Grace.

 It is also to be noted here that the peaceful clarity of Self-consciousness, which was said in verse 751 to be “the ultimate goal of tapas”, is said in this verse to be the true sign of God’s Grace.
..



755. The life will become very great for jivas if they practice Self-enquiry without wasting the days of their life. [If they do so, the feeling] ‘The wretched bodyform is I’ will end and the ocean of supreme enjoyment will surge within.

Re worded

Practice self enquiry. The feeling 'the wrteched body form is 'I' ' will disappear.



756. Other than Self-enquiry, which is the best [sadhana], there is no sadhana whatsoever to make the mind subside. 

If made to subside by other sadhanas, the mind will remain a while as if subsided, but will rise up again.


758. The best path to subside the activities of the mind – which springs forth externally as [the triad or triputi] the seer, the seeing and the object seen – is to train the mind to see its own nature

[in other words, to practice Self-attention].


759. Since one’s own reality [Self] shines in itself as ‘I am’, It can know itself. The best aid to enquire into the nature of Self as It is in the heart,
 is the unrejectable real Self-light.

760. That [pure] state of mind in between two thoughts, is the supreme Self [paramartha swarupam]. Having known thus through enquiry, to abide in the Heart is the [supreme] state.


761. By continuously doing japa many times,
by meditating with love upon a [name and] form of God,
 and by observing diet restrictions [that is, taking only sattvic food in moderate quantities],
the mind will become one-pointed and will gain strength, the past tendencies having been weakened.


762. Just as the wandering nature [chalana] of an elephant’s trunk is easily restrained by the iron chains which it holds, so the stealthy [or illusive] wandering nature of the base and weak mind will be restrained by the name and form [of God which it holds].


763. Only to such a mind which has gained the inner strength of one-pointedness, Self-enquiry will be successful. 

But a weak mind will be like wet wood put into the fire of jnana-vichara.


764. Those advanced souls who have given up all desires, knowing that increasing misery alone is the fruit of desires, will attain the eternal bliss of Self by taking to the direct path of Self-enquiry


765. So long as there is triputi-bheda [the experience of the difference between the triad – the knower, the act of knowing and the object known], sadhana is indispensable. From [the experience of] the triad [triputi], one can determine that the false delusion, the ego, has not yet been annihilated.

Michael James: From this verse it is clear that the ego is the base upon which the triads (triputis) depend for their existence

766. It is to be understood that as long as in the other two bodies [the gross and subtle bodies] the binding triad [triputi] appears as three different things, so long the attachment to [or bondage to] the delusive causal body will not have been destroyed, and hence the illusory rebirth will not end.




767. If the ego is destroyed by the sadhana [of Selfenquiry], then nothing will be seen as another [that is, the experience of the triputis will cease]. 

Then, as declared by Advaita, all that was previously known as deceptive other things, will be [known as] only Self.



768. Those who have destroyed the ego, the embryo [of all names and forms], and who have [thereby] seen the reality, know [the names and forms of] this world to be an illusory appearance. 

Since they shine as the unlimited space of consciousness [which is devoid of names and forms], their decision is that consciousness, their own nature, alone exists.


769. Self-abidance [atma-nishtha], which shines without defect, alone will destroy all bondage, which is non-Self.

 [On the other hand] discrimination [viveka] which distinguishes the real, one’s own nature, from the unreal, is only an aid to pure desirelessness.



770. If you enquire [you will find that] you are not that [the body] 
which you now take yourself to be. 

[Therefore]  enquire what you are, drown in the heart and be directly established as ‘You are That [Self]’.


771. Knowing well that there is no permanent foothold anywhere for the soul except in remaining merely as the one reality,
 destroy desires towards everything,
 but without aversion [towards anything],

and abide in the Heart as one with the supreme existence-consciousness [Sat-Chit]. 



772. Those who have destroyed ignorance by the clarity of knowledge and who are established firmly in Selfabidance [nishtha], are completely dead-minded.

They will survive as eternal Muktas, their mind having been given jiva-samadhi [i.e. having been buried alive] at the Feet of Siva.

773. What our Lord [Sri Ramana] firmly teaches us to take to as the greatest and most powerful tapas is only this much, “Summa iru” [‘Just be’ or ‘Be still’],

and not any other duty for the mind to do in the form of thoughts [such as meditation, yoga and so on].


774. The lazy state of just being and shining [as ‘I am’] is the state of Self, and that is the highest state that one can become.
 Revere as most virtuous ones those who have attained that lazy state, which cannot be attained except by very great and rare tapas.


775. He who behaves as ‘I am so-and-so, the fleshy body, not having the true knowledge “I am is I am”, will vainly suffer when the body dies, being caught by the net of the dream-like delusion that he is also dying.


776. Since the defectless Supreme Reality, which is the true knowledge, shines as the primal, one and perfect Whole, to rise as an individual separate from the Lord – who cannot be defined as ‘He is this’ – even in order to worship Him is wrong.

777. To rise up forcefully as the jumping and suffering false ‘I’ different from the Reality, the unbroken space of Jnana, is the sin of cutting into two parts and slaying the highest [non-dual] dharma [namely Brahman].



779. The nature of bondage is merely the rising, ruinous thought ‘I am different from the reality’. Since one surely cannot remain separate from the reality, reject that thought whenever it rises.


780. Leaving the state of Self, do not think any thought [even the first thought, ‘I’]; 

if you do, repent for it and do not commit the same folly again. 

“Do nothing for which you will repent; if you do, it is better not to do such a thing again.”



781. Be not disheartened thinking, “When shall I attain the bliss of yoga, the state of Self?”, for the true state of Self-knowledge shines ever the same without [the condition of] a time or a space such as far or near.

782. Enquiring ‘What is our birth-place [source]?’ and thereby knowing and reaching that birth-place, is the best of all paths to root out miseries, which can exist only in the place you have entered [and not in the place you were born].



783. O [foolish] mind who wanders [outside] searching [for happiness], not knowing that the state of Liberation is your own right, if you go back the way you came [out], but that way you will regain the state of Liberation, the unending perfect happiness.

784. Until one’s own subsidence in the Heart [Self], the centre [of all], is experienced,
 the five sense-knowledges will not subside even a little,
 and until the delusive five sense-knowledges are completely extinguished, 
happiness, the knowledge of the reality, will not be attained.


785. O mind, instead of looking at and thereby worrying about that which is imagined [the world], turn towards your source and enter the Heart. In that supreme state of consciousness, all [that you were seeking before] will become the one non-dual Self, your real nature.


786. When it is said that even the mere slipping down from [abidance in] the state of the pure non-dual Self is a crime 

for those who have started to do their duty [namely the true tapas of Self-abidance],

will it on consideration be proper for them to interfere in the affairs of others?


788. Unless one follows the principle,

“That which is essential to be reformed is only my own mind”,

 one’s mind will become more and more impure by seeing the defects of others.


791. Since the prescribed observances [niyamas] help one for a long distance, they are fit to be accepted and observed.

But when they [are found to] obstruct the highest practice, the enquiry for true knowledge [mey-jnana-vichara], give them up as useless.


793. Let that which happens, happen as it has to happen [i.e. as it is destined by God to happen]. Do not think to go against it even in the least. Without doing anything as a new starting,

abide as one with the Sakshi [Self] who peacefully shines in the Heart.



796. Higher than quietude there is no achievement; higher than quietude there is no effort; higher than quietude there is no tapas; higher than quietude there is no deathless life.


Sri Muruganar: What is here called quietude is the state of stillness of mind. This can be achieved only by unceasing enquiry [vichara]. When the mind knows that in truth there is nothing to reject or to accept, it will lose its movements [chalana] and will abide in supreme peace [parama-santi]. Since such peace is the seed of the natural [sahaja] state, it is here said to be the “deathless life” [amara vazhu].


797. Agitation is the trouble-giving enemy; agitation drives one to do heinous sins; agitation is drunkenness; agitation of mind is the deep, dark pit.

Sri Muruganar: Since the rapid movement of very subtle thoughts is itself misery, that agitation is described here as drunkenness and as a heinous enemy. Since all the inner enemies such as desire, anger and pride are nothing but the subtle movements of thoughts, he who has destroyed that movement will from that time be devoid of all kinds of enemies, heinous sins, miseries and the pit of ignorance

798. Yet, the duty of a disciple is, even in dream, to follow steadfastly and to abide by the worthy teaching given  from His immortal experience by the Guru, who shines with the highest divine quality, that of uncaused Grace [avyaja Karuna].


802. The Jnani, who has saved himself, alone can do good to others.

Others, who have not dispelled the darkness of ignorance, are like the blind to the blind.


803. A Jnani who, having destroyed the ego, abides in the state of Self, which is Jnana, bestows Self-knowledge upon those who, troubled by miseries, come to Him with faith by destroying the delusion of their body-identification; 

His doing so is [the real] kindness to jivas [jiva-karunya]. All other kinds of kindness are of no avail [and hence are not at all real kindness].


819. If one’s conscience, according to which one has [always] been acting, once tells one not to live in a [seemingly] good society, 
it is better for one to live alone rather than to live in that society, rejecting one’s pure conscience.


824. One who is free at heart from any attachment will never be at any risk, even though engaged in all [activities], because of the clarity with which his mind shines.



825. Instead of clinging to this wonderful but utterly false world for refuge [or instead of depending upon it for happiness] and thereby drowning in it, it is wise to renounce it inwardly like a shell of a tamarind fruit and forget it totally.



827. If one unceasingly and firmly clings to the true Being [Self] and thereby achieves clarity [of true knowledge], the attachments, which are superimposed appearances like the blueness of the sky, will of their own accord go away leaving one pure.


829. Since it is impossible to know beforehand the last moment of one’s life, it is best for one who has a firm determination [to put an end to birth and death] to renounce at the very moment he gets disgust for the body and world.


830. Just as a fruit falls from the tree when ripe, so an  aspirant will certainly renounce his family life like saltless gruel as soon as he becomes fully mature,
unless his prarabdha interferes as an obstacle.


831. Those who have understood that the multiple objects, which appear in and from oneself like a dream
 [but which are seen as if an external universe]

are mere mental conceptions [projections of one’s vasanas within]

 and who have therefore renounced them,

alone can destroy maya the deceptive defect.

 Others do not know how to destroy this defect.



832. Perfect Jnanis, who have experienced Self, the nondual real knowledge, will not be bewildered by this dual sight [the world-appearance]. They will renounce it as an empty, tricky delusion [maya].



833. Buddha renounced unlimited wealth because he had understood the transitoriness [of this world].
Therefore, for one who has known the transitoriness of the world visible to the senses,

it is impossible to be laukika [a worldly-minded person].


834. Only those who, considering the world as worthless, have fearlessly renounced it with great courage, are the wise ones who definitely see the Supreme Reality.

 Others are fools who see only what is unreal.


835. “Renouncing the world as ever non-existent even while it appears to exist, is the attainment of Self, the consciousness which appears to be non-existent,” say the Sages.


836. That which remains unrenounced after all that can be renounced has been renounced – that existence shining in the Heart as the real Self, alone is the attainment of bliss abundant.


837. For those who have made the rarest renunciation, that of the ego, nothing remains to be renounced.


838. Since the Sadhu’s mind [chittam] shines as Sadasiva, nothing remains [to be renounced or] even to be desired.

839. The majestic one [the true renunciant] who wanders carefree, possessing nothing and refusing everything, bewilders and perplexing even the mind of a king who can give anything! Ah, what a wonder!



840. Know that, rather than one’s thinking in the heart ‘I have renounced everything’, one’s not thinking ‘I am limited to the measure of the body, and I am caught in the mean bondage of family life’, is a superior renunciation.


842. Considering ‘This is my mind, that is your mind’ is the cause of bondage. But when the mind shines as it is, [that is, as] the power of the clear supreme Selfconsciousness, it is surely only one. Know thus.

844. Sever the delusive and sorrow-laden ego by the keen knowledge gained through enquiry, [because] the true happiness of peace [santi] cannot prevail except in a heart where this knot [granthi] has been rooted out.


845. By the sharp edge of the sword of divine Silence cultivated in the heart by the practice of jnana-vichara, one should dig out and cast away the root, the ego, ‘I am the body’. This is the means to attain the overbrimming happiness of peace.


846. Do not make any real and firm effort except to annihilate the feeling ‘I am the body’ [the ego]. Know that the ego, ‘I am the body’, is the sole cause of all samsara-duhkha [the miseries of life].


847. Know that the rarely attained supreme bliss, liberation, the greatest renunciation, the deathless death and wisdom are all one and the same – the destruction of the ignorant delusion ‘I am the body’.


848. [The destruction of this delusion is also] all these: reading and listening [i.e. sravana],
 reflecting [manana],
abiding [nididhyasana],
the attainment of Grace, Silence, the supreme abode, peace, ritualistic sacrifice, devotion, charity, tapas, dharma and yoga.

B17. Know that the annihilation of the feeling ‘I am the body’ [dehatma-bhava] is charity [danam],

 austerity [tapas], ritualistic sacrifice [yagna], righteousness [dharma], union (yoga), devotion [bhakti], heaven [Swarga], wealth [vastu], peace [santi], truthfulness,

Grace [arul], the state of silence [mauna-nilai], the deathless death, knowledge [arivu], renunciation, liberation [mukti] and bliss [ananda].


849. Though the good dharmas [righteous acts] are said to be so many, just as the golden ornaments are many, the sole reality of all those dharmas is self-sacrifice [tyaga], just as the sole reality of all ornaments is gold.


850. If the extremely courageous aspirant who has renounced the ‘mine’-ness [mamakara] – the gateway to all miseries, which are in the form of desires – succeeds in completely renouncing the ‘I’-ness [the ego or ahankara] through vichara, that is the attainment of the fruit of every great dharma.


851. Instead of spoiling the wholeness of the existence of the Lord [Self] by proudly rising as ‘I [am a separate individual]’, to subside within is the correct observance [niyama] or tapas for entering the sanctum sanctorum, the presence of Jnana-Siva

852. In the view of the wise, dispelling the ego, which contracts the perfect wholeness of the Supreme [limiting it to the body by feeling ‘I am the body’], is the real and flawless worship of the Supreme [whose nature is to shine as the unlimited and adjunctless ‘I am’].

854. Unless the appearance [of this world] known objectively by the senses, and the wicked ego, the knower of it, die as food to Siva, 

who shines as the state of supreme consciousness,

 the supreme reality cannot be attained.


855. Can the unmoving state of the real Self be cognised by the petty [wandering] mind?

 [Therefore] unless the ego-sense in the form of the knot between consciousness and the insentient

[chit-jada-granthi] is annihilated, [our] real nature cannot be attained.


856. Is it not because of the rising of an ‘I’ in between [consciousness and the insentient body] that one’s peace is completely destroyed?
[Therefore] unless the wretched Vritrasura, the vain ego-‘I’, is killed, Kaivalyam [the state of oneness] cannot be attained.


857. When the moonlight, the jiva or mind-knowledge, merges into the real sunlight, the supreme Selfknowledge, dies and becomes one with It, that is the auspicious time of amavasya [the night of the no moon]


858. Only by dying and by no other means can one reach Moksha-loka [the world of Liberation]. But what is that death? It is [not merely killing the body but] killing ‘I’ and ‘mine’, [for] to kill this body is a crime.

859. Only those who are dead to desires for [the pleasures of] the vast delusive panorama of the world will have their life transformed into Siva.

There will be no bliss by any means other than the dawn of the pure and fresh experience of Self.


860. If you ask, “What is that great death which will not bring any more birth and which will destroy the innumerable births and consequent deaths?”, it is the death of the ignorance ‘I’ and ‘mine’.

861. Only by attention to the reality, ‘Who am I?’, will the body-bound ego-life die.

862. Destroying one’s false ego in [Self-]Knowledge and abiding [in that Self-Knowledge] is the true clarity [i.e. the real waking].

863. Except through the destruction of the false delusive sense ‘I’ (am the body)’, there is no experience of real Jnana.


864. He whose delusive ego [completely] subsides in and  becomes one with existence-consciousness, will cease from making the effort of starting [any action or karma] and will shine in the Heart, having attained the natural and peaceful state of bliss.

865. Only when the ego-delusion, the sense of individuality [jiva-bodha] – which rises from scheming Maya, who does many heroic deeds with immense power and authority [as if she were separate from yet equal to the supreme Brahman] – is destroyed, will the experience of the supreme Self-knowledge [Paramatmabodha] arise.


866. When the feeling ‘I am the body’ [dehatma-buddhi] goes, the delusive confusion and anxieties will end. 

Aha! The ‘I’ shining in the heart in which enquiry is conducted, is the differenceless supreme consciousness [nirvikalpa chit-param].


867. God, who seems to be non-existent, alone is ever existing, while oneself [the individual], who seems to be existing, is ever non-existent.


The state of thus seeing one’s own non-existence [maya] can alone be said to be the supreme Jnana




868. Sahaja samadhi, the silence of sattva, alone is the beauty of tattva-jnana [the knowledge of the reality].




870. If I feel that I see the world, what is the secret behind this?

It is that a world of sense-objects and a seer of it rise in ‘me’, the space of the perfect and true light of unbroken [Self-]Knowledge. Know thus definitely.


871. The conviction created by the senses that the appearance is real is a mistaken conviction.

 Know that both the senses, which enable the appearance to be known, and the jiva, the knower of it, are of the same degree of reality as the appearance.


872. He who sees the seer [the knower of the mind, namely Self] will shine as the Supreme Self Itself, having destroyed the sense of difference ‘I am different form the seer of the seer’ and having attained his own nature.


873. Such a seer of the seer [i.e. a Jnani] will never see the bondage of karmas. He will rule the space of supreme consciousness as His kingdom. Through the Self’s sight, He will be able to rule [i.e. to view] all that is seen as His own Self. Know thus. 

874. When seen through the sight of the supreme space of Self, the illusion of taking births in this mirage-like false world is [found to be]

 nothing but the egotistical ignorance of identifying a body as ‘I’.



875. When seen not through the petty ‘I’ but through the infinite ‘I’, everything is known to be within Self, the real Supreme.
Know that, just like the appearance of many different objects in a dream, Self alone is seen as other things [the world].

876. Until the false appearance of the snake goes, the real rope, the base, will not be known. [Likewise] until the false appearance of the world vanishes, the real Self, the base, will not be seen.


877. Only when the knowledge of the world ceases will the knowledge of Self be obtained.
Such a glorious life illumined by Self is the true and natural life of the jiva; all other kinds [of so-called glorious life] will be useless for him.



................................   Part 3        Experience of the truth.............................



878. Self alone is the real eye. Therefore Self, which is known by itself, alone is the real direct knowledge. But insentient people, who do not have Self’s sight, claim the knowledge of alien sense-objects to be direct knowledge.

879. Can the appearance of the triads [triputis] be possible in the view of Self, which exists and shines as the [one] unlimited eye [of pure consciousness]? All other objects in front of It will be [found to be] Self alone, having been burnt by the powerful look of the eye of the fire of Jnana.


880. The one undivided real consciousness which does not know anything as different [from itself] and which is devoid of the knowledge of all these – the dual sight of good and bad, time, space, cause, effect, karma and so on – is the unlimited eye [mentioned in the previous verse].


881. All the benefit to be obtained by inner enquiry is only the destruction of the deceptive ‘I’-sense [the ego].

 It would be too much to say that it is to attain Self, which always shines clear and ever-attained.


882. The pure and direct shining forth of Self, like that of the tenth man, is attained merely by the removal of the false forgetfulness [of Self]; the gain experienced is not a new one. Know thus.



883. Will an ornament become gold only when its form is destroyed by melting? Is it not [in reality] gold even while it is in the form of an ornament? Therefore, know that all the three [unreal] entities [the world, soul and God] formed by the mind, are likewise [in reality] nothing but existence-consciousness [Self].


884. One’s seeking and attaining Self in the heart is just like a woman searching for her necklace being deluded into thinking that she had lost it though she was [in fact] always wearing it around her neck, and [finally] regaining it by touching her neck.

885. Except by [the effort made through] the path of enquiring into the mysterious sense, [the ego],

by whatever effort is made through other paths such as karma, it is impossible to attain and enjoy Self, the treasure shining in the heart.


886. If that unequalled state which is to be experienced in future through tapas in the form of [the six steps of] sama and so on is a real state, it should exist [and be experienced] even now as much as then.


887. If that state does not exist now but will come [into existence] only later, that state which will come cannot be our natural state, and hence it will not remain with us permanently but will [at some time] go away from us.

888. That [Brahman] is the whole [purnam]; this [the worldappearance] is also the whole. Even when [this] whole merges into [that] whole, it is the whole. Even when [this] whole goes out [as if a separate reality] from [that] whole, the whole alone remains.


889. That [Brahman] is the supreme space; you are also the supreme space. That [the Mahavakya] which instructs that ‘You are That’ is also supreme space. [By ‘yoga’ or ‘union’] nothing is newly added to that real whole, which exists and shines as the common space, and [by ‘neti-neti’ or ‘negation’] nothing is removed from it.

890. “Except the non-dual whole [Self], all the mundane multiplicities imposed on It as ‘this’ or ‘that’ are not real even in the least; they are all nothing but a complete illusion superimposed on It” – such alone is the final verdict [of all Jnanis].

891. Since they [the Jnanis] say, “Though the One [seemingly] becomes the many [objects of this world], [in truth] It does not become anything”, and since from the very beginning everyone remains as that One [Self],

the attainment of the true knowledge [that our natural state is thus ever-experienced or nityaaparoksha] is Liberation.


892. After understanding theoretically [through sravana  and manana] that Self is non-dual,

 and after staggering again and again in one’s efforts to attain [through nididhyasana] the practical experience of the real Self, 

when, [finally and with great dejection] all one’s mental efforts subside,

 the knowledge which then shines in the heart is the nature of that reality.



893. Merely being unaware of the differences [vikalpas] in the outside world is not the sign of the real nirvikalpa samadhi. The non-existence of differences [vikalpas] in the mind which is dead is the supreme nirvikalpa samadhi.


894. Abiding in one’s natural consciousness, ‘I am’, is samadhi. Being freed from the adjunct-mixed awareness [‘I am so-and-so’, ‘I am the body’, ‘I am a man’, ‘I am this or that’ and so on], firmly abide in this boundless [adjunct-free] state [of real samadhi].

895. Great Sages say that the state of equilibrium which is devoid of ‘I’ [the ego, ‘I am this or that’] is mounasamadhi, the summit of knowledge [jnananta].

Until that mouna-samadhi, ‘I am that [I am]’, is reached, as your aim seek the annihilation of the ego.


896. Unlike the rising and setting ‘I’ [the ego], Self remains shining always. Therefore reject and thereby destroy the false first person, ‘I [am so-and-so]’, and shine as the real ‘I’ [Self].

897. O my mind who is suffering [or who have lost your real nature] by thinking ‘I am a jiva’, you will again be deceived if you think or meditate ‘I am God’ [‘I am Brahman’ or ‘I am Siva’]. [Because] in the supreme state nothing exists as ‘I [am this or that]’ but only the one Self [I am], the Heart [which ever exists as it is].

898. The well-established state in which the quiet mind [the mind devoid of thoughts] has the unbroken experience [of pure consciousness] is samadhi. 

Such a settled mind, which has the attainment of the unlimited supreme Self, is the essence of Godhood.

899. Listen to the clue to attain the reality which abides [as ‘I am’] within the knowledge [the mind] as the knowledge to the knowledge [i.e. as the Self which gives light to the mind]: to scrutinize and know the object-knowing knowledge [the mind] by that same knowledge [enquiring ‘What is it?’ or ‘Who am I?’] is the means to abide within [as the reality].

900. Firmly abiding as ‘I am I’, without any movement of the mind, is the attainment of Godhood [Sivatvasiddhi]. [Because] the shining of the truly well-established state of knowledge [Self-knowledge] where nothing exists other than that [knowledge] is pure Siva, is it not?

901. The radiance of consciousness-bliss in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without is the supreme and blissful primal reality whose form is Silence and which is declared by Jnanis to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge.

902. Who can and how to think of the whole primal reality, whose finality is Silence, as ‘I am That’, and why to suffer thereby? Attaining the [thought-free] Silence is Self-abidance [nishtha]; it is [attained by] the destruction of [the first thought] ‘I’. When ‘I’ is thus destroyed, where is the room to think?


903. O very great and rare wise men, what is the nature of change? Are the appearance and disappearance of all these things really going on continuously, or are they merely [seeming changes] appearing and disappearing [in the ever-unchanging reality]?


904. The rising and setting of this universe is a defect [or change] caused by the birth and death of the filthy and fleshy body. To ascribe these changes to Self, the space of Jnana, is a delusion, like ascribing the appearance and disappearance of the clouds to the sky.

905. Is there any delusion worse than the delusion of being confused into thinking that Self, which knows  the seemingly existing world to be completely nonexistent, is subject to change?

908. When scrutinized, among all the many qualities necessary for those who wish to attain the imperishable Liberation, 

it is the attitude of a great liking to be in permanent solitude

 that must be well established in their mind



909. O mind [whose true nature is Self], though by the power of your mere presence all the tattvas [the unreal principles such as the mind, senses, body and world] join together and play havoc within, be not bewildered by them but be a mere witness to them by [the strength of] the experience of the knowledge of the unattached Self.


910. Whatever and however much [good or bad] either comes [to one] or goes [away from one], 

to remain as other than the knower of them

 and to be unaffected by them, 

unlike a straw carried away by the wind, is Jnana


911. Unless one realizes oneself to be the unattached Self,

 which is like the space that remains not even in the least attached to anything,

 though it exists inside, outside and pervading everything, 

one cannot remain undeluded.


912. The tendencies [vasanas] in the heart are the real attachment [sangam] which should be discarded. Therefore, in whatever society [sangam] they may live, no harm will befall those great ones who have complete control over the deceitful mind [having destroyed all their vasanas and having thereby achieved mano-nasa]


913. For those who allow their mind to wander here and there, everything will go wrong.


914. To make the mind, which runs in all directions with such a speed that even the wind is frightened, crippled like a completely lame man who cannot move anywhere, and thereby to destroy it, is to attain true immortality.

915. To root out the weed-like three desires [the desires for women, wealth and fame] even before they sprout out, and to make the mind subside and remain still like an ocean without wind-created waves, is Jnana.

916. When the mind does not wander in the least through any of the senses, which are the cause that throws one into misery, and when the mind remains subsided like a stormy ocean which has completely subsided and become calm, that is Jnana


917. Just as the sun cannot be seen in a densely clouded sky, so one’s own Self cannot be seen in a mind-sky which is darkened by a dense cloud of thoughts.


918. One who has destroyed the mind is the emperor who rides on the neck of the elephant of supreme Jnana. Know for certain that the turmoil of the mind is the sole cause of the miserable bondage of the cruel and fierce birth [and death].


919. The tranquil clarity devoid of mental turmoil is the samadhi which is essential for Liberation. [Therefore] try earnestly to experience the peaceful consciousness, the clarity of heart, by destroying the deceptive turmoil [of mind].

920. Without Self-realization [atma-darsanam], the ego will not die. Likewise, without the glorious death of the mind [or ego], this miserable dream world-scene will not disappear. Know thus

Sadhu Om: If all the miseries of life are to come to an end, the mind must die. If the mind is to die, Self realization must be attained. Therefore only Self-realization will remove all miseries


921. [By confronting it] no one can destroy the [mind’s] nature [of rising and jumping out through the senses].
 [The only way to destroy it is to] ignore it as something non-existent [i.e. as a mere false appearance].
 If you know and consciously abide in Self, the base [for the rising and setting] of the [mind’s] nature, the velocity of the [mind’s] nature [i.e. the velocity with which it rises and jumps out through the senses] will gradually come to an end [since there will be no one to attend to it].

922. O people who are longing and grieving so much, not knowing in the least the means to destroy the mind so that it will function no more, the means is to experience clearly that the seen [the world-appearance] and the seer [the jiva] are nothing but oneself [the Self].

923. Like ornaments [seen] in gold, like water [seen] in a mirage, and like a dream city with battlements, everything that is seen is nothing but Self alone. To take them as being other than Self is wrong.

924. I declare with certainty that even when the mind is extinguished and is no more functioning in the form of thoughts, there still exists a reality [‘I am’] as the abode of Jnanananda [the bliss of true knowledge], which was [previously] hiding [as ‘I am this body’] as though it were limited by time and space.

925. The one which is ever-attained [nitya-siddha] and which shines pervading everywhere devoid of [the differences such as] ‘now’ or ‘then’, ‘here’ or ‘there’, ‘existing’ or ‘not existing’, is the pure Siva.


926. Only the absolute knowledge which shines undivided because of its knowing no existing thing other than Self, and not the objective knowledge which knows even [everything that happens in all] the three times [past, present and future], is the supreme omniscience. Know thus

927. Since even with their little knowledge so many evils and miseries are already crowded in those whose minds have not subsided, if they gain omniscience they will derive no benefit at all but only an increase in the dense darkness of delusion which is already existing within them. 


928. Only for him who, instead of knowing himself to be the one who merely exists, mistakes himself to be a knower [of other things] and who thereby sees the deceptive sight [of this world], omniscience consisting of a flood [of relative knowledge] is real.
But for a Jnani, who does not have such delusion, omniscience [consisting of so many knowledges] is nothing but a lunatic knowledge

929. Only when one is deluded [into thinking] that one is the knower [the mind], one feels ‘I am one of little knowledge’. But when the true knowledge dawns, omniscience will also perish completely like the little knowledge.


930. The Vedas glorify God as ‘omniscient’ only for the sake of those who think themselves to be people of little knowledge. [But] when keenly scrutinized, [it will be understood that] since God is by nature the real Whole [apart from which no ‘other’ can exist for Him to know], He does not know anything.

931. “Since the experiences of seeing [hearing, tasting and so on] are, when experienced, the same for Muktas [as for others], and since they [the Muktas] are thus experiencing the many differences which appear as a result of seeing [hearing and so on], they are experiencing non-difference [even while seeing those differences]” – to say so is wrong.


932. The Mukta is seen as if He is also seeing the many [different] forms only in the deluded outlook of onlookers who see the many differences; but [in fact] He is not the seer [or anything at all]


933. It is only due to the wrong habit of attending to second persons that one is deluded [into thinking] that one has little knowledge.

When one gives up that attention towards second persons and knows the truth of one’s own Self through vichara,

 the little knowledge will die and shine as the full one [i.e. as the full knowledge or true omniscience].


 934. Knowing directly the non-dual Self, which because of one’s wrong outlook appears as all these many [names and] forms, [the universe], and nothing else, is [true] experience.


935. If all one’s mental images [that appear] in dream were not [already] dwelling within [one], they could not be seen. Since it is so, to attain the experience of Self, in which dwell all these [mental images that appear] in the waking state, alone is [true] omniscience.

936. If one does not take to the deluded life of modern civilization, if one rejects the liking towards the useless worldly knowledges [such as sciences, arts and languages], and if one removes the sense of differentiation [bheda-buddhi] between Siva [or Paramatma] and the soul [or jivatma], then only will the true import of Siva Jnana Bodham shine forth.


937. In Jnanis, who have destroyed the ego, the three states [waking, dream and sleep], which were seen previously, will disappear, and the noble state of turiya [the ‘fourth’] will itself shine gloriously in them as turiyatita [the state transcending the ‘fourth’].


938. The state of turiya, which is Self, pure sat-chit, is itself the non-dual turiyatita. Know that the three states are mere [false] appearances, and that Self is the supporting base for them [i.e. the base on which they appear and disappear].


granthi bheda

942. The state in which the mind does not become heartbroken in pain, in which the mind does not become immersed in pleasure, and in which it remains equally indifferent and peaceful [both in pain and in pleasure], is the sign of granthi-bheda
[the severance of the knot of identification with the body]

943. Not thinking about what has happened in the past and not thinking about what is to come [in the future],
 but remaining as an unattached witness even to all that is happening [in the present] and being blissful because of abundant peace, is the sign of granthi-bheda.


944. Whatever thoughts may come, their nature is such that they cannot exist without the indispensable Self;
therefore, not succumbing to inattentiveness [pramada] such as [will make one feel],
“Alas, the state of Self [Self-abidance or Self-attention] has been lost on   the way”, is also that [i.e. is also the sign of granthi-bheda].


946. Since Self pulls inwards the first thought [the mind], the experiencer [of happiness], drowns it in the heart and does not allow its head to rise.
Its form is pure sukhatita [that which transcends happiness]; to call It sukha-swarupa [the form of happiness] is wrong.


948. Vedic injunctions which say, “You have to do this”, are not applicable to true Jnanis, in whom the dark delusion of doership is dead. The reason why it is said [in the ‘Karma Kanda’ of the Vedas] that even Jnanis have to perform so many karmas, is only to protect the vaidika dharma [and not to compel Jnanis to perform karmas].

950. If one subsides without one’s own effort in Sadasiva, one’s own Self, as Self itself, then one will remain in peaceful bliss as one who has already done everything and who has nothing further to do.

951. Will those Jnanis, who have gained the plenitude of Self-experience, know anything other [than Self]? How can the deluded and limited mind imagine their supreme bliss, which transcends the seeming duality [of happiness and misery]?


952. One’s own reality [Self], which shines within everyone as Heart, is the ocean of unalloyed bliss. Therefore misery, which is unreal like the blueness of the sky, truly does not exist except in mere imagination.



953. Since one’s own reality, the sun of Jnana which has never seen the darkness of delusion, itself shines as happiness, the confusion of misery appears only because of the unreal sense of individuality [jiva-bodha]; but in truth no one has [ever] undergone any such thing [as ‘misery’]




954. If [through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’] one scrutinizes [and knows] one’s own Self, which is auspicious bliss, there will be no misery at all in one’s life. It is due to one’s having a wicked delusion that one suffers through the notion that the body, which is never oneself, is ‘I’


955. Those who do not know themselves to be the one [non-dual] Self will perish daily, vainly suffering in fear [because of seeing the world as something other than themselves].

 [Therefore] destroying the notion ‘I am the body’, the root [of all misery], by gaining [through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’] the firm knowledge of your real Self, attain the state of non-duality [advaita].


956. If one clings only to the knowledge [of one’s own Self] as the real refuge, then the misery of birth [or the birth of misery], which is caused by ignorance, will come to an end.


957. Do not be disheartened and lose your mental vigour thinking that [the state of experiencing] sleep in dream has not yet been obtained.
If the strength of [experiencing] sleep in the present waking state is obtained, then [the state of experiencing] sleep in dream will also be obtained.


958. Until the state of sleep in waking [i.e. the state of wakeful sleep or jagrat-sushupti] is attained, Selfenquiry should not be given up. 

Moreover until sleep in dream is also attained, it is essential to persist in that enquiry [i.e. to continue trying to cling to the mere feeling ‘I’]


B19. The state of sleep in waking [or jagrat-sushupti] will result by constant scrutinizing enquiry into oneself. Until sleep pervades and shines in waking and in dream, do that enquiry continuously.

959. O men who, caught by the dangerous snares of the world and struck by the sharp arrows of cruel miseries, are suffering greatly and are wandering in search of the attainment of supreme bliss, the sleep in which there is no loss of consciousness [i.e. wakeful sleep or jagrat-sushupti] alone is the imperishable happiness.


960. Those who are sleeping, having given up the habit of [going out through] the deceitful senses and having become established in the heart-lotus, are those who are awake in the abode of real knowledge [meyjnana]. Others are those who are asleep, being immersed in the dense darkness of this unreal world [poy-jnala]

961. When the ‘I’ has died by Sivaya Namah [complete obeisance to Lord Siva] and is burning in the fire of unobstructed and blazing devotion [bhakti], then in the flame of Self-experience will shine the true clarity of the unfailing Sivoham [the experience ‘I am Siva’]

....
“The state in which ‘I’ does not rise, is the state ‘We are That’. Unless one scrutinizes the source whence ‘I’ rises, how to attain the state of egolessness, in which ‘I’ does not rise?...”]. Therefore Self-enquiry, the true practice of ‘Sivaya Namah’, alone is the sadhana which will destroy the ego and thereby bring about the true experience of ‘Sivoham’.
....



962. Know that the bright light of fire that rises within, kindled by more and more inwardly grinding the mind, which has been made free from impurities, on the stone of heart through [the enquiry] ‘Who am I?’, is the true knowledge “Ana’l-Haq” [I am the reality].


963. Only steadfastness in non-dual knowledge [advaita jnana] is heroism. 

On the other hand, even conquest over [one’s] enemies is, on scrutiny, [found to be due not to heroism but only to] great fear possessing the mind, which is shaken by the hubbub of the unreal world of duality. Know thus.



964. Only that [state] which is devoid of the differences created by the ego, the dense and great delusion, is the realization of Oneness [Kaivalya-darsanam].

That piercing, all-transcendent, silent and divine supreme consciousness is the Supreme Abode [param-dhana] experienced by the great Sages.


965. If you, thinking of Him [God or Guru], take one step [towards Him], in response to that, more [graciously] than even a mother, that Lord, thinking of you, will Himself come nine steps [towards you] and receive [you]. See, such is His Grace!

966. When divine Grace is only the reality which shines [in the heart of every jiva] as ‘am’ [ullam], the blame of disregarding [or being ungracious towards] the reality will be fitting only to the jivas who do not think of it [i.e. who do not attend to that reality which shines as ‘I am’] melting inwardly [with love]; how, on the contrary, can the blame of not bestowing sweet Grace be fitting to that reality?

967. Although the existence-consciousness [sat-chit] that shines abundantly in the [state of] abidance
– in which the mind has turned inwards [through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’] and the ego has [thereby] subsided
– is devoid of characteristics and qualities and is beyond the mind, it appears as Guru,

 [having characteristics such as name and form].

[Such is] the Grace of God, who is Self.


968. The ‘I’ of [those] true devotees who have seen the form [or nature] of Grace, will shine as the form of the supreme reality, since the ego, the unreal chitjada-granthi [the knot between the conscious Self and the insentient body] which creates the delusive mental agonies, has died and no longer rises in the heart.


969. [Since, as explained in verse 966, the Lord is always and everywhere bestowing His Grace upon everyone by shining in them as ‘I am’] jivas stand immersed in the ambrosial flood of Grace; [when it is so, their] being deluded and suffering through illusion is foolishness, [just like one’s] dying [because of] not knowing how to quench [one’s] thirst [even though  one is] standing in the midst of the flood of water of the rushing river Ganga.

967. Although the existence-consciousness [sat-chit] that shines abundantly in the [state of] abidance – in which the mind has turned inwards [through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’] and the ego has [thereby] subsided – is devoid of characteristics and qualities and is beyond the mind, it appears as Guru, [having characteristics such as name and form]. [Such is] the Grace of God, who is Self


968. The ‘I’ of [those] true devotees who have seen the form [or nature] of Grace, will shine as the form of the supreme reality, since the ego, the unreal chitjada-granthi [the knot between the conscious Self and the insentient body] which creates the delusive mental agonies, has died and no longer rises in the heart.


969. [Since, as explained in verse 966, the Lord is always and everywhere bestowing His Grace upon everyone by shining in them as ‘I am’] jivas stand immersed in the ambrosial flood of Grace; [when it is so, their] being deluded and suffering through illusion is foolishness, [just like one’s] dying [because of] not knowing how to quench [one’s] thirst [even though  one is] standing in the midst of the flood of water of the rushing river Ganga.


972. When [all its] mischiefs [or movements] subside, the mind [chittam], which is [in its real nature] consciousness [chit], will itself see itself as the reality [sat]. [When thus] the chit-sakti [the power of consciousness or power of knowing] becomes one with the reality [sat], what is the [resulting] dense supreme bliss [paramananda], the remaining one [of the three aspects of Brahman], other than that Self?


974. Not forgetting consciousness [i.e. not forgetting one’s own Self-consciousness due to pramada or inattentiveness] is the path of devotion [bhakti], the relationship of unfading real love, because the real consciousness of Self, which shines as the undivided [non-dual] supreme bliss itself, surges as the nature of love [or bhakti].

975. When the fleshy ego-defect, the efficient cause [of the seeming existence of the world-appearance], which is [itself] non-existent, has been destroyed, that state [of Self] is the one existence [sat] which was lying [as a supporting base] for all the worlds that appeared to exist, being dependent on It [for their apparent existence].


977. When the miserable ego-pride, which is the one cause [of all suffering] and which is [itself] unhappiness, has been destroyed, that state [of Self] is the bliss [ananda] which was lying [as a supporting base] for all objective pleasures, which appeared as if having happiness, to be experienced [as seemingly pleasurable].


980. Existence [literally, to be that which exists] is the nature of Self. All things other than that one [the Self] are a multitude of false imaginations [kalpanas] and cannot [really] exist. All of them will go away from Self, but this one [the Self] will never go away [i.e. will never become non-existent].


981. He [i.e. Self] who exists as the form of conscious ness, will not become non-existent. If one remains devoid of other knowledges, [that is] if the deceptive, unreal and dual imaginations [superimposed] on consciousness are removed, for oneself who [thus] exists as [mere] consciousness there will be no destruction.


982. Self, the Whole [paripurnam], will appear as if completely non-existent [sunya]
 to those who have pramada [inattentiveness to Self],
which murders Self [and which comes into existence] when the ‘I’ rises [even] a little
due to superimposition [of adjuncts or upadhis] upon one’s own supreme Self,
which is the supreme Reality.


983. He who knows himself to be the great one, the real state [of Self], instead of wrongly knowing himself to be the one who sees objects outside, will attain the  state of fullness of peace, having lost through [proper discrimination] the desire for all the eightfold siddhis.

984. The powerful One who [always] clings to the reality will never be afraid, due to mental delusion, of anything at all.


992. It is best to give up the various arguments about duality [dvaita], qualified non-duality [visishtadvaita] and pure non-duality [suddhadvaita], and instead think of and worship God with ripening love [tapas] in order to attain the wealth of divine Grace, and [thereby] to know the reality.
the reality will never be afraid, due to mental delusion, of anything at all.

985. It is only Self, the one pure knowledge, that, as the unreal knowledge [the mind], makes all differences [vikalpas] appear. [Therefore] for the one who knows and reaches Self, which is the harmonious knowledge, all those other things [the entire world-appearance] will be [found to be] of the nature of the one Self.


ripening love = tapas

992. It is best to give up the various arguments about duality [dvaita], qualified non-duality [visishtadvaita] and pure non-duality [suddhadvaita], and instead think of and worship God with ripening love [tapas] in order to attain the wealth of divine Grace, and [thereby] to know the reality.


Bhakti's fruit is Bhakti

998. [Only] those who have united [with Self] can know the nature of those who have united [with Self]. 

How can those who have not united [with Self] know it? 

 The nature of those who have united [with Self], like a honey-bee which has drunk honey, is so great that they do not know anything other than Self.


Michael James: When a honey-bee has drunk honey, it is so much intoxicated that it knows nothing else. Likewise, having become one with Self, the Jnani knows nothing other than Self, and hence the nature of his state [i.e. the nature of His existence, the nature of His consciousness or knowledge, and the nature of His bliss] cannot be known by others who have not attained that state. Compare here verse 31 of Ulladu Narpadu


Sri Muruganar:

The nature of those who have united with the reality, 

like a honey-bee which has drunk honey,

is so great that it cannot be known by others.

This is so because they do not know otherness.

Only those who have united can know the nature of those who have united; those who have not united cannot know it.


999. Even by those who have united [with Self], the happiness of union cannot be thought of but can only be experienced. Those who have united [cannot think even of] the method by which they have attained [that state of] Silence, annihilating the ego-sense in that anandatitam [that state transcending bliss].


1000. The knowledge which sees the world as if different [from itself],
 the objective knowledge which is the ego [ahankara], 
is merely insentient [jada]. 

When [this] ego dies, 
the flame of pure non-duality [suddhaadvaita], 
which is the knowledge of the source of the mind, will shine forth.


1001. Existence [sat] itself shines as consciousness [chit]. Therefore, until the mind [chittam] is completely extinguished and [thereby] becomes the absolute existence-consciousness [kevala sat-chit], it is impossible for the petty mind, which is a false imagination [kalpana], a reflection of consciousness [chit-abhasa], to see the reality, which is the non-dual supreme consciousness.

Michael James: The upadesa given by Sri Bhagavan in this verse is the same as that given by Sanatkumara in the Chandoyga Upanishad, 7.24.1, namely,

 “That [state] in which one does not see what-is-other [anya], does not hear what-is-other and does not know what-is-other, is the Infinite [bhuma],

whereas that [state] in which one sees what-is-other, hears what-is-other and knows what-is-other, is finite [alpa].

 That which is infinite [bhuma], alone is immortal [eternal and hence real], whereas that which is finite [alpa] is mortal [transitory and hence unreal] ... ”.

 In the same Upanishad 7.25.1 and 7.25.2, the Infinite [bhuma] is identified as being synonymous first with ‘I’ (aham) and then with Self (atma).

 Therefore in this verse and the next, the word ‘Bhuma’ should be understood to mean Self or Brahman, our own true state of mere being.

From the present verse we have to understand that any state in which there is even the least knowledge of any second- or third-person object is not the true state of Self, 

the real waking;

it is only another dream occurring in the sleep of Self-forgetfulness (refer here to The Path of Sri Ramana – Part One, p. 143).

Therefore, whatever state we may experience, even if it be a divine or heavenly state such as living in Siva Loka or Vaikuntha, so long as we experience anything other than the mere Self-consciousness ‘I am’, we should enquire ‘Who knows these other things?’ and thereby turn our attention back towards the first person feeling ‘I’.

 When the attention is thus fixed more and more intensely upon the first person, the rising of that first person (the ego or mind which sees those other things) will subside more and more, until finally it merges forever in its source, whereupon the true state of Self, in which nothing other than the mere Self-consciousness ‘I am’ is known, will be experienced.


1002. Only till the sun appears on the eastern horizon, will  the self-conceit of that moon [shine proudly] in this world. [Likewise] only till the knowledge which is of the nature of consciousness [chinmaya-unarvu i.e. Self-knowledge] appears, destroying the delusive knowledge, the ego, will the self-conceit of the jiva’s knowledge [shine proudly]. Know thus.



What is Bhuma?

..no second person, no object

1005. The state in which one does not see any second-person object, the state in which one does not hear a second-person object,

 the state in which one does not know any second-person object – know that state alone is the infinite [bhuma]


1006. Where that which is seen, that which is heard and  pramada [i.e., the ego, whose nature is pramada or inattentiveness to Self], which has the greatness of seeing finiteness, are [all] destroyed,

[that] immeasurable Bhuma, [whose form is] the non-dual knowledge [advaita-jnana], alone is the pure happiness of abundant peace.



Michael James: The upadesa given by Sri Bhagavan in this verse is the same as that given by Sanatkumara in the Chandogya Upanishad, 7.23.1, namely, “That which is infinite [bhuma] alone is happiness [sukham]. In the finite [alpa] there is no happiness. The infinite alone is happiness [bhumaiva sukham] ....”


Ramana...nondual dnyana = bhuma

what is ego?

ego, whose nature is pramada (inattentiveness to Self) and whose so-called ‘greatness’ lies only in knowing finite objects.

 But in the present verse Sri Bhagavan reveals more about the nature of that Bhuma, which alone is happiness, namely that it is the non-dual Jnana which is devoid of anything seen or anything heard, and which is devoid even of the ego, whose nature is pramada (inattentiveness to Self) and whose so-called ‘greatness’ lies only in knowing finite objects.

From the two verses in this chapter we should understand that true happiness lies only in the infinite, eternal and real state of non-dual knowledge,

which is devoid of both the knowing mind and the objects known,

 and that not even the least real happiness exists in the finite, transitory and unreal state of dual knowledge, in which objects are known.



1007. O men who – after running all over the world and after seeing and worshipping holy men – are making research upon the truth with great love, 

if you scrutinize the supreme reality which [those] great tapasvins clearly know, 

[you will find that it is nothing but] the open and empty space of Jnana.

..

’. ..This space of Jnana is the same as the Bhuma described in the previous chapter, and it is here said to be an open and empty space because it is the state which is completely devoid both of objects to know and of a mind to know them..
..

1008. When scrutinized, that which is shown and given by the Guru-Fathers [the father-like Gurus] to the disciples who go in search of spiritual masters, hurrying around the world,
is only the wonderful space of Jnana [the mere consciousness ‘I am’]

1009. The eternal goal, which is the resort or refuge in which the weary wanderings here and there come to an end, [and which is given by] the Jnana-Guru, who is Siva, the supreme reality, who shines triumphantly as the defectless existence-consciousness [sat-chit], is only the wonderful space of turiya [the empty space of Jnana].



1010. If, to the very end, one makes a full effort to attain abidance [as Self], which removes bondage [in the form] of desires [sankalpas], just as a snake removes its skin, what emerges is [only] the open and empty space of Jnana.

1011. The glory of the light of the space of consciousness [chit-akasa jyoti] is the cremation-ground in which the jiva, the unlimited reflection of consciousness [chit-abhasa], is completely dead [and is being burnt to ashes]. It is like [a fire] catching a dense dry forest and spreading and burning without limit.

1012. Know that that which is worthy [to be attained] is only Silence, which is mere Self, the [wrong] knowledge ‘I’ having died as ignorance [ajnana]. If you ask the truth, “Why [is it so]?”, [it is because that state of Silence is] the space [of Jnana] in which nothing exists to desire and [thereby] be a cause of misery


...
Michael James: Desire is the sole cause of misery, and it can arise only if something other than oneself exists. Therefore, since Silence, the state of Self, is the space of mere consciousness in which nothing other than Self exists, it alone is worthy to be attained. In order to attain this Silence, the ego, the wrong knowledge ‘I am the body’, must be destroyed, having being found to be nothing but a non-existent ignorance.
...

1013. The glory of the vast space of true knowledge [meyjnana], whose greatness cannot be excelled by anything else, cannot easily be seen by any other means, but only by the Grace of the Guru, who destroys [all our] defects.

1014. Those who have seen the glory of [that] vast space [of Jnana] will be transformed into the supremely blissful and silent Siva, having destroyed birth [and death], which were multiplied more and more because of the vanity of attachment [to the body as ‘I’] and the other vanity [of taking the objects of this world, including the body, to be ‘mine’].


1016. Wandering here and there in search of the space of consciousness [chit-ambara], which exists and shines everywhere as Self, is like searching with a flaming torch for the sun in broad daylight, which by its supremacy puts the white moon to shame.


1017. ‘I’ [the ego] is unreal; this [the world], which is not [that ‘I’], is also unreal; the knowledge which knows ‘That I am this [body]’ is also utterly unreal [or that ‘I’, the knowledge which knows this, is also utterly unreal]; the primordial cause [mula-prakriti] which makes the triad [triputi] appear, is also unreal. The  wonderful space of consciousness [chit-ambara] alone is real.

1018. Those who are deluded, thinking ‘That which is known through the five senses is real,’ and who set aside as unreal their own state [of Self],
which is the space of consciousness on which all the many vast and crowded worlds appear [like pictures on a cinema-screen],
cannot attain the supreme benefit [of Self-knowledge].

1019. Who else but Jnanis, who shine as Siva Himself, having destroyed the impurities of the mind [i.e. the tendencies or vasanas], can clearly know the greatness of the glorious space of consciousness [the state of true Jnana], which is untouched by any defect or deficiency?



1020. “Therefore that space of consciousness is itself the real supreme Siva, which cannot be described by anyone” – saying thus, the divine Lord Ramana, the supreme Jnani, revealed to me the state of Self, which is Siva Himself.

1021. Self itself graciously revealed and bestowed Self, which is the form of Self, at the time, which is the form of Self, and in the place, which is the form of the Self; in order for Self to attain [itself], it realized itself as the form of Self.

1022. When the ego, which projects the world but hides itself [being unable to know its own true nature], enters the heart [by enquiring] thus ‘What is the shining source of myself?’, the supreme knowledge which shines forth triumphantly and with vigour [in the form of the sphurana ‘I-I’] is the unending and real state of Self.

1023. If – instead of whirling with longing [for worldly pleasures] because of objectively knowing other things which appear in front of it due to [its] objective attention – the wicked mind attends to itself,
enquiring ‘Who am I who knows objects?’, [it will attain that state of] abidance in its own reality which alone is the true state [of Self].

....

If it is asked why that happiness, which existed as one’s own nature in that state, ceases to be experienced as soon as sleep comes to an end, it is because of one’s desire to run after sense-objects, having been separated from one’s own state. Therefore it is advised that one should attain the unsurpassed happiness which is one’s own true experience, by keeping the mind unshaken by the desire for sense-objects, which arises due to delusion, by knowing oneself and by shining without inattention [pramada], remaining peaceful even in the waking state as in sleep.

....


1027. Jnanis know that the taste of Self [atma-rasam] alone is the best taste [ati-rasam],

 and hence they abide in the state of Self.

 Those who do not know that the happiness of Self alone is definitely the highest, abide in the state of the world [i.e. they remain immersed in worldly life seeking only mundane pleasures].

If [through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’] one knows one’s true nature in the heart, [it will be found to be] existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda], which is beginningless and endless fullness [wholeness or perfection].


1028. Those who do not know that their own nature is happiness, will be deluded like a musk-deer,

[whereas] those who clearly know their own nature [to be existence-consciousness-bliss], will abide in their own  state [of Self] without attending to the world [and without seeking happiness from worldly objects].

B20. Proclaim thus, “Whoever has conquered the senses by knowledge [jnana], being a knower of Self [atmavid]
 who abides as existence-consciousness, is the fire of knowledge [jnanagni];

[He is] the wielder of the thunderbolt of knowledge [jnana-vajrayudha];

He, Kala-kalan, is the hero who has killed death.


1034. The reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known [as in sleep], is your real form [nija-swarupa].

 1035. Let the world which is known [through the five senses] be real or let it be discarded as an imagination of the mind which knows [it], do you not exist there as the form of the knowing consciousness?

 That, the pure consciousness [‘I am’], alone is the form of Self [atma-swarupa].


1036. The reality which is the mere consciousness [of one’s own existence] that remains when ignorance [of objects] is destroyed along with knowledge [of objects], alone is Self [atma]. In that Brahma-swarupa, which is abundant Self-awareness [prajnana], there is not the least ignorance [ajnana]. Know thus.


1038. That knowledge is not a quality [guna] of Self, because the nature of Self is nirguna [devoid of qualities].

[Moreover] Self-knowledge is not an act [of knowing], because [Self is] without doership [akartritva]. 

[Therefore] knowledge is the very nature [of Self].


1039. That adjunctless knowledge, which is merely powerful existence, which shines within of its own accord as the indestructible ‘I am’, and which does not depend even in the least upon any other thing, alone is the nature of one’s own unshakeable reality [Self].


1040. How to know one’s own reality, which [as described in the previous verse] exists as the shining of Jnana, like [one knows] petty sense-objects [second and third persons]? [But] if one peacefully abides in Self, [thereby] destroying the false first person ‘I’ [the ego which rises mixed with adjuncts as ‘I am this, I am so-and-so’], the real first person [Self, the real ‘I’] will shine forth of its own accord.


1041. Among the many groups which are triads [triputis or the three factors of objective knowledge], no factor [puti] can exist leaving Self.
However, not even one among those factors is Self.
Only that which remains as the base of all those [factors] is the real state of Self.

1042. One’s own Self, whose greatness is eternality and perfect wholeness is not at all duality [another thing] to be attained.

Uniting with [attaining yoga with] Self is knowing [one’s own] existence [sat] and is not knowing any other thing. 

That knowledge [the know edge of one’s own existence] alone is the real form of Self.


...

Michael James: Real yoga is only union with Self, which is not the state of knowing other things but only the state of knowing one’s own existence. Since in order to know a thing we must attend to it, the only path to attaining the real yoga is Self-attention and not attention to any other thing. When by Self-attention one thus attains yoga or union with one’s own Self, it will be found that such Self-attention (the consciousness of one’s own existence) is itself the real form or nature of Self.
.....




1054. The pure knowledge which shines forth [as the sphurana ‘I-I’] when that deceitful ego is scrutinized [through the enquiry ‘Who is this I?’] and destroyed,

 which the Upanishads praise as the glorious darshan  of Siva’s dance and which is the true clarity of God’s Grace, alone is the form of Self.

1059. Those who dive deep fixing their mind [or attention] in Self – the abode of the bliss of consciousness, the vast ocean of peace, the greatest thing [mahat] – will attain the Grace of Self, the unending treasure


1060. Self alone is the greatest thing [mahat]; indeed, there is no other mahat which is greater than Self. Therefore, by any kind of means [or tapas] whatsoever, we have not seen any other thing worthy for one to gain by bartering Self.

1061. Except the glorious attainment of the supreme Self, which is the greatest thing [mahat], there is no [worthy] attainment in this life.

To know and experience it [the supreme Self], destroy the worthless ego-self by enquiry [or scrutiny] done in the heart.


1062. If by enquiring [Who am I?’] in the heart one attains the rare wealth of Self,

 which is the beautiful gem of true knowledge [mey-jnana] that is [ever] existing and shining,

the poverty in the form of dense delusion will die,

[thereby] destroying the misery of birth [and death], which is the root of [all] suffering.


1064. Instead of abiding in the consciousness of one’s own Self by peacefully scrutinizing thus, ‘Who am I, the form of consciousness?’, why to suffer [by going out] through the wicked senses, mistaking [oneself] to be the reflection of consciousness [chit-abhasa], which, being separated [from the true Self-consciousness], is the form of the mind [chittam]?



1065. Even though one has attained abundantly and completely [all] the occult powers [siddhis] beginning with anima, which are loved [so much] by foolish worldly people,

all the learning learnt by one who has not attained the perfect gem of Self by severing the primal knot [the chit-jada-granthi or ego], 

is void.


1066. They [the Sages] say that the treasure of GraceSilence, the never-leaving thought of divine Siva [i.e. the unbroken state of attention to Self] – is the real wealth.

That lustrous supreme treasure, which is difficult to attain, is the wealth which is [available] only to those who have the love to destroy [all] thought


1067. Just as [a pearl-diver] dives into the ocean, [where  pearls lie] hidden, with a one-pointed mind and with a stone [tied to his waist], obtains the precious pearl and [thereby] becomes happy, dive into the heart with non-attachment [vairagya], attain the treasure of Self and [thereby] be free from misery.


1070. Those who do not know [themselves to be] Self, which is the reality uncontaminated by [even the least] unreality, but [know themselves to be] only the body, which is transient and unreal, will mentally feel happy by sometimes seeing with enthusiasm many kinds of forms of God.


1071. If one approaches and worships any other [any God other than Self], one can obtain all other things [all things other than Self].
But which petty one [which petty God] can bestow upon the jiva the life in the divine state of Siva, who is the eternal and real supreme consciousness?

Sadhu Om: If one wishes to attain things other than Self, such as wealth, health, fame, heavenly pleasures and so on, one can attain them by worshipping Gods other than Self. But if one wishes to attain Self-realization, the state of Siva, the supreme consciousness,

the direct path is for one to worship Self through the practice of Self-attention.

 By itself, the worship of any of the names and forms of God is not sufficient to enable one to attain Self-realization, and this is why Sri Bhagavan says in this verse, “Which petty God can bestow upon the jiva the life in the divine state of Siva?’. The worship of God in name and form can only purify the mind and thereby lead one indirectly to the path of Self-enquiry



1077. Know that for those who abide within with dutiful love [for Self], bliss will surgingly rise more and more. Bliss, love, Siva, Self, Grace, knowledge, peace and liberation – all these are [only names for] one’s own real nature


1078. Because of the ignorance of the mind experiencing a sense of difference [bheda-buddhi] in Self, [even] great devas are disturbed by fear. 

[Therefore] it is wise to remain without fear in the supreme state of non-duality, having attained the reality, one’s own Self, through negation [of the non-Self].

...

...This story thus illustrates that even God cannot serve as permanent refuge from fear so long as one retains the sense of difference [bheda-buddhi]. Only by attaining the non-dual Self can one become truly and permanently free from fear.
....

1079. Only when one attains the freedom of Self [the state of Self-realization] will the abundant peace of mind in which one will endlessly rejoice, be obtained. In the experience of that monarchy [the kingdom of Self], which is the real and space-like [state of] non-duality, there will not be the least dual desire for fear.


1080. Since the one existence-consciousness-bliss alone is seen as God and the soul – just as because of a pot or a room the one open space alone is seen as this or  that space [as a pot-space or a room space] – their existence [the real existence of God and of the soul] cannot be different. Know thus.

1082. Will not only he who mistakes himself to be that which does not exist [i.e. to be the body, which is in truth non-existent] declare You [God] to be non-existent?
 How can he who knows his own reality as it is [that is, as the mere existence-consciousness ‘I am’] deny You, who are that [same] reality, saying that You are non-existent?



1093. Bliss will surge forth in the heart which is soaked in the experience of the love-suffused true knowledge [mey-jnana].
Misery-creating, delusion-caused desire will not exist there.
That extremely pure natural life of Self will be full of peace.

Jiva Mischief = Nama, roopa, objects

1096. No tapas is needed for those who abide [firmly in Self] devoid of the jiva-mischief of catching the world of delusive [names and] forms by the attention which springs upon the petty sense-objects [on account of] believing the world which is seen through the five senses to be real.

Sadhu Om: What is meant in this verse by the words ‘jiva-mischief’ [uyir-cheshtai] is only the extroverted activity [pravritti] of the mind going out towards the world through the five senses.

 The real ‘observance of reality’ [sat-achara] is to prevent the mind from thus running after second and third persons and to make it abide instead in Self, the real first-person consciousness.

1097. For those who are established in Grace and who experience [or rule] all the worlds as Self, having lost the life of the rising ego and having conquered the dyads such as pain and pleasure, no [other] tapas need be done.

Sadhu Om: In order to do any kind of tapas, an ego or individual ‘I’ must rise as the doer. But the perfect fruit of all tapas is the destruction of this ‘I’. Once the ‘I’ is destroyed, what other tapas is to be done and who is to do it?

That is why, in order to establish that any yoga other than the destruction of the ego is useless,

 Sri Tayumanuvar sang, “When you remain still [summa irukka], bliss will surge forth;

 why then [to do any] such illusory yoga [maya-yoga]?

 Is it possible [to attain bliss] by your objective attention?

Say no more, O karma-nishtha [one immersed in karma], O you small child.”


1098. If oneself is a form [the body], even Self, the source who is the Lord, will also appear in that manner [i.e. will also appear as a form].
 If oneself is not a form, since there cannot be knowledge of other things [in that state], will that statement [that God has a form] be correct?


1104. Except those who subside [and abide] in the Heart with consciousness [with remembrance of the existence-consciousness ‘I am’], no one can attain the flawless state of reality,

 [because] the reality is veiled by the mind’s forgetfulness and thinking in sleep and in waking respectively.


...

Sadhu Om: Atma-anusandhana, the state of attention to and abiding as Self, alone is the perfect way of praising God 

[see verses 730 and B13, where it is said that atma-anusandhana is the supreme devotion to God].

Why? What is the aim of all praises or stotras? Is it not to glorify the real greatness of the Lord?

The only way to glorify the greatness of the Lord permanently and perfectly is to make the ego merge into Self so that it will not rise again.

That is, since the real greatness of God lies in the fact that He alone exists, and since that perfect state of oneness is marred by the rising of the ego [being seemingly divided into two separate entities, the soul and God], only when one abides in Self and thereby prevents the ego from rising, does the real greatness of God shine in all its glory.

 Therefore, the perfect way of praising God is only to abide in Self without the least rising of the ego.
.....





1111. The Jnani [literally, the one who is the space of consciousness], who ever abides only as the bright knowledge [the mere consciousness ‘I am’] devoid of the difference of the transitory [states of] attention of introversion and extroversion, alone is the immutable sthita-prajna [the one who firmly abides as the immutable pure consciousness].


1113. Just as the whirling-minded ignorant people [ajnanis] see [only] the world, which is a bundle of senseobjects, everywhere due to [their] objective knowledge [the knowledge by which they see everything as second and third persons, as objects other than themselves], 

so the Sage who abides [as Self] having severed the knot [the chit-jada-granthi or ego] 

and having [thereby] given up [the objective knowledge] sees [only] Self, 

the basic consciousness, existing and shining everywhere.

1114. He alone is a Buddha [a Sage or Atma-jnani] who ever exists and shines as the [self-luminous] sun [of Jnana] and in front of whom

the dual world-appearance, which appears as a wonder having so many differences, does not appear and becomes [completely] non-existent.


1115. Know that the knower of reality [mey-jnani], who is  well established in the Heart and who is always contentedly rejoicing in the greatness of Self,

will neither think the world to be a dense [unreal] delusion,

nor will think it to be other than Himself.


1116. The Jnani knows the whole world, which appears in consciousness, to be of the nature of consciousness [the Self].

He, the fortunate one, will [always] abide in Self,

 knowing that other than consciousness [the Self] there is no reality for the world.


1117. He whose mind has been destroyed, having drowned in the non-dual whole [advaita-purna], will never be perturbed in this unreal life of duality, 

[because] in that supreme state of Grace, [the state of] Self, which is pure consciousness [unmixed with any adjuncts such as ‘this’],

nothing such as ‘I’ [the ego or subject] and ‘this’ [the world or object] exists except that [Self, the pure consciousness ‘I am’].


1118. Since the Jnani has severed the knot of doership [kartritva], 

He does not see [any] action which must be done [by Him].

 Since in His state of Jnana not even an atom will appear to be an insentient other object [an insentient object other than Himself],

not even an atom of doubt or delusion will arise [for Him].


1119. Though the mind [of a Jnani] which has been enchanted by the true light [of Self-knowledge] is [seemingly] engaged as before in the five senses, which know taste, smell, sight, sound and touch,
 it has [in fact] been severed [destroyed] by the power of intense Self-enquiry.

1120. He who has attained the life of a Jnani in the heart, will not derive even the least pleasure from the life of the fleshy body and the petty [five] senses.
Is not that  life of Silence itself the unlimited and unbroken experience of [the bliss of] the supreme Brahman?

1121. Just as a river which has joined and become one with the wavy ocean will not become separate [from the ocean] by changing [itself once again into a river], so for the jiva which has reached [and become one with] Self, which is the form of knowledge, there will be no rebirth on account of its being deluded.

1122. Among those whose minds are possessed with forgetfulness [of Self], those who are born will die and those who die will be born [again]. [But] know that those whose minds are dead, having known the glorious supreme reality, will remain only there in [that] elevated state [of reality], devoid of [both] birth and death.


1123. He who has seen [Himself to be] existence-consciousness [sat-chit], has seen Sadasiva; He has seen the destruction of fear-creating duality; He has seen His natural state, which is the pure state of turiya; He is the Great One; He will not see birth [ever again].

1124. If at one time previously the original knot [the ego] has been severed, one will not be bound again at any time.
This [state of liberation], which is one’s own nature, alone is the state of Godhood; this alone is the powerful Lordship; this alone is the abundant peace. Know thus.


1126. He [the Jnani] who abides as Siva Himself, having destroyed the mind [the limited knowledge ‘I am soand-so’], is residing equally within all jivas [as their real Self, the unlimited knowledge ‘I am’].

 [Therefore] by one’s meditating upon the form [swarupa] of Him, who clearly shines as a Mukta, [by His Grace] the true light [of Self-knowledge] will shine forth from within [as the sphurana ‘I-I’].


1127. The glance of Him [the Jnani] who is rich in true knowledge [mey-jnana], which is the supreme life that surges like the rising of a hundred suns without ever diminishing, will easily bestow the unequalled Jnana upon those who bathe in it, thereby saving them and leading them to the goal of immortality.

1128. Those [the Jnanis] whose minds are soaked in the essence of the enjoyment of Siva [Siva-bhoga-rasam], the true knowledge [mey-jnana] which exists and shines as the eka-rasam [the one essence, the non-dual Self], will convert the void [the mind of the jiva], which is a burning desert, the essence of delu sion [moha-rasam], into a [cool and fertile] place [which yields the fruits of bhakti and Jnana and] which is loved even by gods


1131. Since agitation [or confusion] will never rise without [the rising of] the feeling ‘I am only the body’ [the ego] in the heart, one whose tendencies [vasanas] – [which are the form of] the ego or mind – are dead will not be mentally agitated [or confused] even in dream.

1132. Low creatures such as four-legged animals and birds [always] live with agitated [or wandering] minds. 

[But] the enlightened one [the Jnani], whose mind lives devoid of any thought [as mere existence-consciousness ‘I am’], [alone] is the one who [really] lives.

1133. Though they undertake and do many actions [vyvaharas], those whose mental tendencies [manavasanas] are dead are just like one who sits for a  long time [seemingly] listening to puranic stories but who has [in fact] directed his mind far away.

1134. Though they are [sitting] quiet, if their mental tendencies [mana-vasanas] are not destroyed they are indeed those who have done everything as the doer, just like one who [suffers by thinking] in dream [that he] has climbed a hill and is falling head-first over a precipice, though [in fact his body is] lying quietly [sleeping on his bed].

B22. Just like one who is [seemingly] listening to a story when his mind has [in fact] gone far away, the mind [of the Jnani] in which the vasanas have been erased, has not done [anything] though [seemingly] it has done [many things].

[On the other hand] the mind [of the ajnani] which is soaked with them [the vasanas], has done [many things] though [seemingly] it has not done [anything], [just like] one who [thinks] in dream [that he] has climbed a hill and is falling over a precipice, though [in fact his body is] lying motionless here [sleeping on his bed]

1140. The actions of the great Jivan-muktas in the intoxication of Silence, which is devoid of all ‘I’ and ‘mine’, are like children’s eating in very deep sleep when made to sit up and take food



1141. Just as a coolie carries a burden and happily places it down at the destination,

 so also the great knower of reality [mey-jnani] will be happy to place down the burden of this body.

He who has known Self will discard the body just like [one discards] a leaf after food has been eaten [from it].


1142. Will the wave of the deep ocean allow a small creature which has fallen [into it] and which is on the point of death, to raise up its head? 

[Likewise] in the face of the full flood of the Silence of true knowledge [mey-jnana-mouna], is it possible for the ego, ‘I am the base and fleshy body’, to rise?


1143. Can the mind [of the Jnani] which has known the greatness of its own Self, having lost the ‘I’ [the ego, whose form is ‘I am this’], be deluded by the deceptive and delusive appearance [of this unreal world]? 

Can the perception of the unreal appearance of duality be real in the midst of the wonderful and pure space of turiya [the nameless and formless space of pure consciousness]?


1144. For a jiva who is suffering due to dying and taking birth, the most worthy thing to do and to attain with full love, is [to have] the experience of the great state of Jivan-mukta, having subsided and known [its own true nature], so that the rising [of the ego], which is the coming to life [of the jiva] because of [its] forgetting its own reality [Self], may die.



1145. Tell me, when their husband, who is the doer, dies – the sense of doership [kartritva] having been destroyed – instead of the wives, who are his three karmas, becoming widows altogether, can two of them become widows and one of them remain unwidowed?


Sadhu Om: The jiva is not only the doer of the karmas, but also the experiencer of their fruits. Therefore, when the jiva is destroyed by Self-knowledge, all the three karmas [agamya, sanchita and prarabdha] will become non-existent, since there is no one remaining either to do or to experience them. Hence for the Jnani there is no karma at all. Thus, when some scriptures say that agamya and sanchita are destroyed and that prarabdha alone will remain for the Jnani, their saying so is to be understood as a mere formality [upachara] and should not be taken to be the actual truth.

B23. Know that just as no wife will remain unwidowed when the husband dies, all the three karmas will become non-existent when the doer dies.



1146. To the body, which was born because of prarabdha, that prarabdha will never fail [to give fruit]. 

[But] the Jivan-mukta, who has separated Himself [from the body] by severing the chit-jada-granthi, has transcended prarabdha itself.



1148. One who is blinded by drunkenness does not know whether the cloth on his body remains there or has fallen down. 

[Likewise] the Siddha [i.e. Jnani] who knows [and is immersed in] the form of light [His own Self-consciousness], which is [limitless and subtle like] the space, does not know the connection [the living] or the removal [the death] of the unreal and insentient body.


B24. The body is transitory [and hence unreal]. Whether [due to prarabdha] it is resting or moving, whether due to [prarabdha] karma it is clinging [living] or has left [died],

the Siddha who knows Self does not know the body, just as one who is blinded by toddy-intoxication [does not know his] clothes.


1149. The form of the living body of the perfect Jnanamukta, who has destroyed the ego-defect, is like a [burnt] red silk cloth, which remains without losing its appearance even though it has lost its reality, having become ashes.


1150. Just as only a snake can know the legs of a snake, only a Jnani can know the nature of a Jnani. The nature of a Jnani cannot be known by anyone else correctly but only wrongly [literally, as viparita].


1151. The supreme experience [brahmanubhava] – which has the glory of not knowing any other thing – of the great enjoyer of the bliss of true knowledge [meyjnana-maha-anandi], who has attained the state of Silence [mouna], the form of That [tadakara] which shines triumphant on the destruction of oneself [the ego], cannot be conceived by anyone whosoever.

B25. For Him who enjoys the bliss of Self, which has risen on the destruction of himself [the ego], what single thing remains to do? 

He does not know anything other than Self;

 [therefore] who can and how to conceive what His state is?


1152. It is impossible to express the greatness of a Jnani.
 He alone knows the nature [or beauty] of His existence.
He is vaster than the space; He is firmer than a mountain.
Having scrutinized and destroyed the ‘[I am] the body’ feeling, know [this truth clearly].

1154. The mind of the Jnani, who sleeps in Self, having settled down immovably in the ocean of the perfectly  natural bliss [nir-atisaya ananda] of the differenceless Silence of Self [swarupa-nirvikalpa-manna], will not sufferingly go to waste in the world.


1155. The wise men who, having slipped down [through pramada] from Self, which is the [real] waking, desire the illusory dream of the world which is seen, as [if it were] the [real] waking, are different,

and the wise men who are in clarity, having known Self, are different.


1157. Among those who approach the mirror – the true Jnana-sastras which reveal that that which is to be known is Self – many [merely] look at the sastras and the big commentaries [on them],

 while few save themselves [as those scriptures recommend] by searching [within] and knowing their own nature [Self].

 1158. If [the truth is] told, 
the knower of reality [mey-jnani] is different, 

and the scholar [vijnana] who knows the scriptures [which tell] about the true knowledge [mey-jnana] is different. 

For those who wish to sever the bondage of ignorance [ajnana], it is necessary to leave the scholars and to associate with those who abide as the supreme Self [atma-para-nishthar].


1159. Know that the words [of upadesa] uttered by a Jnani, who has known the reality which supports everything by the power of [its] Grace, will always be a saving support to the souls who have been deluded for a long time under the sway of darkness [but who wish to be saved].



1160. If the verdict is that actionlessness alone is Jnana, [then it would mean that] the verdict is that even the actionlessness due to leprosy is Jnana!

Know that that exalted state in which one has given up likes and dislikes for actions
 [and for their fruits]
and which is devoid of any doership

 [literally, responsibility] in the mind, alone is the state of Jnana.


1161. For those who live in Self as the beauty devoid of thought, there is nothing to be thought of.

That which is to be adhered to is only the experience of Silence [mauna-anubhava-katchi], [because] in [that] supreme state nothing exists to be attained other than oneself.

1162. Know that though they do many immense activities, those who have realized the majestic state of being devoid of thought,

 having known that the mere existence [‘I am’] alone is their real nature, 

are non-doers [akartas]

 and [due to firmness of their knowledge ‘I am he that exists, not he that does’]

will not be deluded as [if they were] the doers [kartas].



1165. Though the Jnani – who, having discarded the collection of implements [karuvi] and instruments [karana] as the doers which perform the actions, has no contact with them, which are the doers – [seemingly] does [actions], He is a non-doer.

1166. Those [the Jnanis] who are joyfully content at heart with whatever comes [of its own accord due to prarabdha], who have transcended all the dyads [dvandvas], who are devoid of jealousy and who have attained the state of peace in the midst of success and failure, will not be bound by the actions [karmas] which they [seem to] do.



1167. Those who scrutinize [and judge] the Jnani by outward signs, will come back having seen [Him] as emptiness,

[because] they do not see the inner light [of the Jnani], which cannot be known by the empty [fleshy] eye in the face.

...

“The one letter [or ezhuttu] is that which always shines of its own accord [or as Self] in the heart! Who is able to write it?”
..
.

1174. Since that great Brahman, which cannot be revealed even by countless commentaries, is revealed only by the Silence of the Guru, 

who is rare to attain, 

know that the commentary of that Silence alone is the best commentary.


1175. The ‘I am the body’-sense [alaya-vijnana] is the supporting base for the world, which appears as if very real.

 The imperishable foundation stone for the alayavijnana is Silence [mauna], the ancient primal reality.


1180. “If the sense of difference will not remain in that Silence, can the opposite sense [the sense of nondifference] alone remain?” – if it be asked thus, [the answer is that] the sense of non-difference [abhedabuddhi] glorified by the knowers of reality is only the loss of the sense of difference [bheda-buddhi].
...
Michael James: .......When Jnanis speak of the experience of non-difference, what they mean is only the non-experience of difference.........

..

1184. The state of the experience of the one non-dual Silence [eka advaita mouna anubhuti], 

which is attained as the experience of the unlimited true knowledge [mey-jnana],

 is only the shining [of oneself] as the empty space 

devoid of the false imagination which is the rising of the wicked ego-mind.



1185. Since the Silence of Self, which shines through the pure mind [the pure existence-consciousness which is devoid of all thoughts],

 alone turns out to be the gateway to Liberation, even though they proceed along any path which is agreeable [to them],

 that gate alone is the final refuge.


1186. Attending unceasingly and with a fully [concentrated] mind to Self, which is the non-dual perfect reality, alone is the pure supreme Silence; 

on the other hand, the mere [unthinking] laziness of the dull mind is nothing but a defective [and tamasic] delusion. Know thus



1187. Know that the inner Silence – the undecreasing strength of unceasingly praising and worshipping, without worshipping,

 the Feet of Lord Siva by the beautiful Supreme Word [para-vak],

which is the pure unrising speech

 [that is, worshipping by Self-attention, the non-rising of the ego]

 – alone is the true and natural worship [of the reality


1189. The glory of the state of Silence –

 in which one has merged and died in the real principle [mey-tattva], God,

who is the egoless Self,

by enquiring ‘Who am I, the false first person?’

– alone is the nature of the observance of self-surrender [sarangati-dharma].


1191. It is not possible for anyone to do anything opposed to the ordinance [niyati] of God, who has the ability to do [anything and] everything. [Therefore] to remain silent at the Feet [of God], having given up [all] the anxieties of the wicked, defective and delusive mind, is best

1192. If we scrutinize [what] the method [is] to end [for ever] the movements of the wavering mind or ego, which is [like] a reflection in [wavy] water, [we will discover that]

the method is for one to remain silently attending to oneself alone,

and not for one to attend to that [the wavering mind], which will make one slip down from the state [of Self].



Sadhu Om: The only method to still the wandering mind permanently is for one to attend silently to oneself [the first person, ‘I’], and not for one to attend to the wandering mind, which is nothing but a bundle of ever-changing thoughts pertaining to second and third persons.........

.....but only that we should attend to and scrutinize the first person or ego the root-thought ‘I’. If we thus attend to the thought ‘I’, it will automatically subside and disappear,.......
..

1193. Those who have perfect knowledge say that the state of true knowledge [mey-jnana-samadhi], in which one remains without ‘I’ [the ego], alone is mauna-tapas.

 In order to experience [that] silence [mauna], which is devoid of the body-thought [the feeling ‘I am this body’], clinging to the Self in the heart is the sadhana. 


1194. The pure Silence which shines forth 

when the ‘I’-sense [the ego] is lost by [one’s] abiding in the heart, 

knowing one’s own real existing state

 instead of going outwards cherishing and attending to other things, 

alone is the limit of Jnana.


1195. Since, just as the activities seen within [and by] a dream-person become laughable and non-existent in the outlook of the waking person, even the activities of the jiva [such as his birth and death], which are an  imagination [seen by him] within himself, become non-existent in [the true awakened outlook of] Selfknowledge, all [of those activities, including his bondage and liberation] are unreal [and are a mere play of maya].


1196. When the pure gracious Supreme reveals the nature of Self, 

he who was in the dark room [of ajnana] will merge in the Silence of Self-abidance,

 drowning in Siva-bodha [God-knowledge or existence-consciousness],

 which is the beauty of the reality.



1197. Know that Silence – which is the perfect knowledge of the form of Self and which shines within when the ego reaches the heart by rejecting all the juggleries of thoughts [sankalpa-jalas], which are rarely rejected – alone is the glorious Supreme Word [para-vak].

1198. Only those who have not keenly listened to the Lord’s language of Grace [Silence],

which is the Supreme Word [para-vak], [which shines forth] when the wandering mind subsides,

 will say that [the sound of] a flute is sweet, that [the sound of] a veena is sweet, or that the prattling speech of their own babbling children is very sweet.

1199. If the noise of thoughts [sankalpas] rising [incessantly] within does not subside, 
the ineffable state of Silence will not be revealed.

 Those whose thoughts [vrittis] have subsided within, will not leave the strong and perfect [state of] Silence even in a big battlefield.





1200. Tell me, is not the vocal silence observed by those who do not engage in Self-enquiry [jnana-swavichara]

and who do not know the real goal, which is  the Silence [that shines forth] when the ego, ‘I am the fleshy and filthy body’, subsides and reaches the heart,

 a [mere] mental endeavour [chitta-vyapara]?


1201. The life of Self – the true knowledge [mey-jnana] which shines forth devoid of the ego-sense due to the drowning [of the ego] in its source

when the madness of desire for the petty, illusory and delusive sense-objects has been completely destroyed –

alone is that which can [truly] satisfy the mind.

1202. Those whose hearts are surging with joy by experiencing the ever-new ambrosia [amrita] of Self, which shines brightly in the pure Silence,
 will not be spoilt in the world by experiencing the petty sense-objects,
which give a little mad pleasure caused by mental delusion.


1203. The reality which is very clearly known by Sages as the goal [siddhanta] of all Vedas and Agamas, and the observance of reality [sat-achara] recommended by all dharma-upadesas, is [nothing but] Silence, the state of supreme peace.

1205. When one has completely surrendered oneself at the Feet of Siva and has become of the nature of Self,
the [resulting] abundant peace, in which there is not even the least room within the heart [for one] to make any complaint about [one’s] defects and deficiencies,
alone is the nature of supreme devotion.


1207. Only so long as there are other thoughts in the heart, can there be a thought of God conceived by one’s mind. The death of even that thought [of God] due to the death of [all] other thoughts [including the rootthought ‘I’], alone is the true thought [of God], the unthought thought.

1209. The love that wells up within, in the place [the heart] where the clear peace is attained due to the light [of Jnana], 

which surges forth when the delusive mind, which is filled with the poisonous darkness [of ajnana], is destroyed 

and when the heart becomes open like the space, alone is the true love [meybhakti] for Siva.



1210. Only those fortunate ones who live always depending only upon Self 

[which is the true form of God] 


as the best refuge,

 will attain their own reality. 

For others, 
liberation, that unending gracious Supreme Abode  [param-dhama], is unattainable by any means whatsoever.

1211. The true devotees who in all ways remain subjected [adhina] only to Self [God], 

[alone] are tadiyars [those who belong to the Lord]. 

Know that only for them [those true devotees],
 in whom there is unceasing love,
 will the Supreme Abode [param-dhama],
 which triumphs as transcendent, 
be a complete attainment.



1212. Though siddhis are said to be many and different, Jnana alone is the highest of those many different siddhis, [because] those who have attained other siddhis will desire Jnana, [whereas] those who have attained Jnana will not desire other [siddhis]. [Therefore] aspire [only for Jnana].


1214. If by diving deep one reaches the bottom of the heart, the sense of baseness [the feeling ‘I am a petty jiva’] will leave and perish,

 and the life of being the Lord of Jnana, at whose Feet even the king of heaven [Indra] will bow down his head, will come to be lived [by one].


1215. The blissful silent real principle [Self or Brahman] alone is the stage or base for Maya – who is the great power of consciousness [maha-chit-sakti], which is not other than the real perfect principle – to play [her] game for ever, having the three principles [the world,  soul and God] as [her] playthings. What a wonder it is!


1216. If they see the many moving pictures, they do not see the one unmoving screen, the base. Those who see the unmoving screen do not see any of the pictures. This is the nature of a cinema theatre.


1218. The screen, the unmoving base, alone is Brahman [or Self]. The soul, God and worlds are only the moving pictures on that unmoving screen. [Therefore] know  that all that is seen [on that screen] is an illusion [maya].


1219. He who, in the picture world, thinks about and longs not only for the picture world – which moves with picture souls, which move like himself – but also for the picture God [who creates, sustains and destroys the picture world and picture souls], is only the soul [jiva], who is a moving picture.

1220. For the thought [chitta-vritti] which undergoes suffering by thinking itself –
who is [in its real nature nothing but] the screen, the unmoving base
 – to be a moving picture [the soul or jiva],
 the proper thing to do is to abide firmly in the state of Silence,
having completely subsided [through Self-attention].


1221. The knowledge of one’s own true nature – which remains in the heart when even the thought of being saved from bondage is destroyed due to the complete removal of the thought of that bondage in the mind which sees itself [by scrutinizing] thus ‘Who am I that am bound?’ – alone is the nature of liberation.

1222. That which is the consciousness-filled peace [bodhamaya-santa] which shines as that which remains [when the thoughts of bondage and liberation are thus removed by Self-enquiry], alone is Sada-sivam [the eternal reality]. The egoless Silence [which  shines] as [the true knowledge] ‘That [Sada-sivam], which is the ever-existing Supreme, alone is “I”,’ alone is the finality of liberation.


1223. One’s giving up of everything [by one’s remaining firmly] without being shaken from the state [of peaceful Self-abidance] on account of slackness [or pramada] in [that state of] peace, which surges because of one’s enquiry into Self, which is the basic consciousness on which everything [the world, soul and God] appears – alone is liberation.


1224. Unless the objective knowledge [the mind which knows second and third person objects] is completely destroyed, 
the attachment to the world, which is formed by the senses, which bind the soul, cannot be severed.

 The destruction of that [objective] knowledge by [one’s] remaining in the state of Self, which is nishtha, 

alone is the nature of liberation which one enjoys.



1225. Merely being [as ‘I am’] – having known the path which destroys attachment, the enemy which is the mother of the bondage of birth [and death], which gives room for laughter [i.e. which is laughed at by Sages], and having attained that non-attachment – alone is liberation.


1226. The saying, “The attainment of a life of pure Self-consciousness, which shines merely as existence [‘I am’], alone is the state of liberation, which is the light of supreme knowledge [para-jnana]”, is the firm verdict of the Seers of reality, which is the crown of the Ved


1227. There is no becoming [creation], and there is also no destruction, the opposite [of creation]; there are no people in bondage, and there are also no people at all doing sadhana;
 there are no people who seek the highest [i.e. liberation],
 and there are also no people who have attained liberation. Know that this alone is the supreme truth [paramartha]!

1228. Since it is possible only in [the dim light of] unreality [or ignorance] to make that which exists [appear to be] non-existent
and to make that which does not exist [appear to be] that which exists,

 but impossible [to do so] in the clear [light of] truth,

 in the certainty which is the truth everything is consciousness [chit].



1229. Know that all that is told about the soul and God – [such as] that which is the soul that has the bondage of attachment will become God when bondage is removed, just as paddy becomes rice when the husk is removed –

is [merely] an imagination of the defective mind [superimposed] on Self, the form of that consciousness.

1230. Whatever by the mind you think [or know] to be that which exists is in truth that which does not exist.

That one [Self] which you cannot have in your mind [i.e. which you cannot think] either to be that which exists or to be that which does not exist, alone is that which exists [ulladu].

1231. Say, is it possible by the imagination [the mind] to  deny the greatness [and reality] of the widely pervading and transcendent Supreme, which completely swallows within itself the defects and differences caused by the crowd of all kinds of knowledge?

1232. Know that the consciousness which always shines in the heart as the formless and nameless Self, ‘I’, [and which is known] by [one’s] being still without thinking [about anything] as existent or non-existent, alone is the perfect reality.

1233. Among the six doctrines declared to be without beginning, that non-duality [advaita] alone is without end, whereas the other five doctrines have an end. Bearing this in mind, know it clearly.


1234. When known [correctly], that which is said to be real is only one.

 Know that that firm, whole perfect reality alone is that which is described in many ways by Brahma-jnanis,

who have known [it] by quietly entering the heart with a very subtle intellect.


1235. The truth of non-duality [advaita-tattva], which is the highest of all religions, which are so very many, alone is the silent reality, whose nature is the consciousness devoid of the insubstantial and ghostly ego, the seed of the different religions.

1236. Those who know the perfect reality – which does not have beginning or end, which is devoid of change, cause or even object of comparison, and which is that which cannot be known by the deceptive sense of individuality [the ego] – [alone] will attain glory.


1237. The glory of Advaita will shine in the hearts of Jnanis as the unaffected Self after the deceptive triads [triputis] have disappeared, 
but cannot be attained by those who think [of it] by mind like [they think of] the imaginary, unreal, dual and petty sense objects. 


1238. The thought-free Siva, who is Self, the real consciousness, cannot be known by those who have a mind which thinks,
 but only by the thought-free heroes
who have a mind which,
 due to inner consciousness [or Self],
has entered and abides in the source of thought, [their thinking] mind having died.



1239. O you [highly mature aspirants] who have intense madness for [the experience of] the greatness of non-duality [advaita]!

[The experience of] non-duality is only for those who abide in the state of reality, having attained perfect peace of mind

[which results  from the complete subsidence of all the thoughts which rise in the mind].

 Say, what is the benefit for backward people who do not seek direct abidance in reality.

1240. When we recount the experience [attained on account] of the sayings of the Guru [Sri Ramana], [it is the experience that] all that was seen as a forest of attachment [or bondage] is nothing but the ineffable space of the Silence of true Knowledge [mey-jnanamauna] and [that] all inferior knowledge is a dream.

1241. I have known, I have known the state of supreme truth, which is full of transcendent existence-consciousness [and in which it is known] that in actual truth there is not even the least acquiring of what is called as bondage, liberation and so on, [which all appears only due to one’s] having mistaken [oneself] to be other [than Self].


1243. When entering and abiding in the Whole [purna], which is of the nature of consciousness [chinmaya], which shines there in the unerring Vedas as the reality,

 then it is impossible to see the three times [past, present and future], the three places [the first, second and third persons] and the triads [the knower, the act of knowing and the object known].

1250. Know that the vision of seeing equality – which is [the experience] that Self alone is the reality in all that is known [through the senses]

 – alone is the ‘equal vision’ [sama-darsana]

 which is lucidly proclaimed by Sages, [who have attained] true knowledge [mey-jnana] which abounds in equality [samarasa].



....the end..............................................