The path of Ramana -2

https://www.happinessofbeing.com/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_Two.pdf

210 pgs total


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...After an ‘I’ rises, everything rises... - Ulladu Narpadu verse 23 If the ego comes into existence, everything will come into existence. If the ego does not exist, everything will not exist. The ego itself is everything. - Ulladu Narpadu verse 26 If the thought ‘I’ does not exist, no other things will exist.... – Sri Arunachala Ashtakam verse 7





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But for the most advanced and mature aspirants who possess perfect courage and clarity of intellect, the Vedas teach only the final truth known as ‘no creation’ (ajata), the import of which is as follows: “No such thing as the world has ever come into existence; what you see is not the world; it is only you, the real Self. Other than you, nothing has ever existed. There never was any such thing as creation, sustenance or destruction. You alone exist”.

That is, while teaching the truth of ajata, the Vedas do not at all accept the existence of the world even as a false appearance. The reason why they finally have to deny the existence of the world so entirely is that the world could exist as a false appearance only if there were a mind to see it, and in actual truth there is no such thing as mind at all.

When one scrutinizes the form of the mind without forgetfulness, (it will be found that) there is no such thing as mind... – Upadesa Undiyar verse 17. When the mind is thus found to be ever non - existent, the world-appearance seen by it will also be found to be non-existent. Hence ajata alone is the absolute truth (paramarthika satya).


...............  Upadesha Undiyar....27 pgs ...............



As revealed by Sri Bhagavan in verse 30 of Upadesa Undiyar, real tapas is nothing but the complete subsidence of the ego or sense of separate individuality, whose form is the feeling ‘I am the body’, which gives rise to the sense of doership, the feeling ‘I am performing karma’.

................


Knowing how gross and unrefined the minds of the ascetics had become due to their longstanding attachment to karma, Lord Siva knew that it would not be possible to bring them immediately to the path of Self-enquiry, which alone is the direct path to liberation. Therefore He had to guide them towards the path of Self-enquiry in a gradual and roundabout way. That is why in the first fifteen verses of Upadesa Undiyar it was necessary for Sri Bhagavan to summarize the paths of nishkamya karma, bhakti and yoga, which Lord Siva first had to teach to the ascetics in order to elevate their minds gradually to the level of maturity in which they could understand that liberation can ultimately be attained only through the path of Self-enquiry. Only after summarizing those paths could Sri Bhagavan begin in verse 16 to summarize His own path of Self-enquiry, which is the true path of jnana.

............

He (shiva) had to lead them gradually from the grosser methods of spiritual practice such as puja, japa, dhyana and pranayama towards the most refined method of practice, namely Self-enquiry or Self-attention.

Though Sri Bhagavan no doubt accepted the validity of such spiritual practices as indirect and roundabout means, which if practiced with devotion and without the desire for attaining any selfish end, would gradually purify the mind and would thereby sooner or later lead an aspirant to the direct path of self-enquiry (as indicated by Sri Bhagavan in verse 3 of Upadesa Undiyar), the main purpose of His assuming a human form in our present age was not merely to give an approval to those ancient indirect practices. The main purpose of His life was to teach to the world the correct method of practising the simple and direct path of Self-enquiry, which is not only the only path which can ultimately lead one to the goal of Self-knowledge, but which is also the spiritual path which is most suited to the rational and scientific temperament of modern man. That is why Sri Bhagavan always put the main emphasis of His teaching upon the path of Self enquiry, which is a short-cut means that bypasses the need for all other kinds of spiritual practice.

Having come to this point, in verse 9 Sri Bhagavan declares that to abide in one’s own true state of mere being, which is attained by the strength of such ananyabhava or Self-attention and which transcends meditation, is the truth of supreme devotion or para-bhakti.

Rather than anya-bhava, ananya-bhava [done with the conviction] ‘He is I’ is indeed the best among all [the various kinds of meditation].


Thus in this verse Sri Bhagavan reveals how all the practices of karma yoga and bhakti yoga mentioned in the previous four verses must finally merge in the practice of Self-attention or Selfenquiry, and in the next verse He reveals that by the strength of such Self-attention one will attain the state of Self-abidance, which is the truth of supreme devotion

other practises  ........self attention....self abidance.

By the strength of meditation [that is, by the strength of such ananya-bhava or Self-attention], abiding in the state of being, which transcends meditation, alone is the truth of supreme devotion [para-bhakti-tattva].


Tattava Darshanam

 ‘The mind, which is withdrawn from what-is-seen (drisya), seeing its own nature of consciousness, is the seeing of the reality (tattva-darsanam)’.

repeated:

When one scrutinizes the form of the mind without forgetfulness [that is, without pramada or slackness of attention], [it will be found that] there is no such thing as mind; this is the direct path for all.

Note: In the previous verse Sri Bhagavan taught that the mind knowing its own form of light (or consciousness) is true knowledge, and in this verse He teaches how the mind is thus to know its own form of light. When one vigilantly scrutinizes the form of a snake seen in the twilight, it will be found that there is no such thing as a snake at all, and that what was appearing as a snake is nothing but a rope. Similarly, when the mind scrutinizes its own form without forgetfulness – that is without pramada (slackness of attention) resulting either in the rising of thoughts or in sleep – it will be found that there is no such thing as mind at all, and that what was appearing as the mind is nothing but Self, the pure existence-consciousness ‘I am’. Just as the rope is the sole reality of the unreal snake, so this existence-consciousness, which is the form of light mentioned in the previous verse, is the sole reality of the unreal mind.

dnyana Vichara

When one scrutinizes within thus, ‘What is the rising-place of ‘I’?’, the ‘I’ will die. This is Selfenquiry [jnana-vichara].

No upadhis = God

Knowing oneself having given up [one’s own] adjuncts [upadhis], is itself knowing God, because He shines as oneself [as one’s own reality, ‘I am’].

Tanmaya nishtha

Being Self is itself knowing Self, because Self is that which is not two. This is abidance as the reality (tanmaya-nishta).

‘The soul [jiva] who attains here the supreme bliss which transcends bondage and liberation, is indeed divine [daivikah]’


The best Tapa

‘What [is experienced] if one knows that which remains after ‘I’ has ceased to exist, that alone is excellent tapas’ – thus said Lord Ramana, who is Self.




..................cont path of Ramana -2..


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aparokshanubhuti 116:
 “Making one’s outlook of the nature of knowledge (jnanamaya), one should see the world as Brahman”.

The same truth is also expressed by Sri Bhagavan in verse 52 and 54 of Guru Vachaka Kovai :

Having transformed one’s outlook as of the nature of knowledge (jnanamaya), if one sees through that outlook, which is of the nature of real knowledge, the world (consisting) of the five elements beginning with space will be (seen as) real, being (found to be nothing but) the supreme reality, which is of the nature of knowledge. See thus.

Since that sight (which is seen) cannot be otherwise than the eye which sees, know for certain that to the knower of reality (mey-jnani) who due to the cessation of (all mental) activities, sees with the outlook which has became existence-consciousnessbliss (sat-chit-ananda); this world is that (existenceconsciousness–bliss) alone.

When one always abides unswervingly in one’s own state without knowing (any differences such as) ‘oneself’ and ‘others’... who is there other than oneself? –Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham verse 38.

There is no becoming, no destruction, no one in bondage, no one having desire to be released, no one making effort (to attain liberation) and no one who has attained Liberation. Know that this is the absolute truth (paramartha). – Upadesa Tanippakkal verse 24


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In due course, however, because of the clarity and strength which he will gain by repeatedly practicing Self-attention, it will become possible for him to notice the exact moment when Self-attention is lost, and thus it will become possible for him to regain it immediately

On all the occasions when he thus clearly cognizes the moment when Self-attention is lost and the moment when it is regained, the aspirant will be able to know very easily from his own experience how the world is created by his losing Self-attention and how it is then destroyed by his regaining Self-attention.

Thus the aspirant will come to know with absolute certainty that his giving room to slackness in Self-attention is the means by which the body and world are created,

that his maintaining slackness in Self-attention on account of his lack of interest either to notice that such slackness had occurred or to put an end to it, is the means by which the world is sustained,

 and that his firmly abiding once again in his own real and, blissful state of pure Consciousness, which is devoid of the limitations of name and form,

having vigilantly known the exact moment when slackness in Self-attention occurred

 and having thereby put an end to it, is the means’ by which the world is destroyed.


When the aspirant comes to know this truth from his own direct experience, he will realise himself to be the perfect Supreme Reality which transcends the three functions of creation, sustenance and destruction, and hence he will remain unshakably established in the state of absolute peace.


A person will feel no liking to take to the practice of Self-attention until he gains the proper discrimination whereby he can understand that the two states of creation and sustenance, which are merely a mixture of pleasure and pain, are not worthy to be cherished and pursued.


54

....whereby he can understand that the two states of creation and sustenance, which are merely a mixture of pleasure and pain, are not worthy to be cherished and pursued.


Therefore the world and man do not now need to be made either blissful or immortal. All that we need to do is to see them as they really are. That is why Sages say, “Making one’s outlook of the nature of knowledge, one should see the world as Brahman”

(drishtim jnanamayin kritva pasyet brahmamayam jagat).

64

...and for those who have realised the Self within the body (i.e., in this very life time), the ‘I’ shines as the limitless Self.

65

“The world is real for those who have not realised the Self as well as for those who have realised.

 For those who have not realised, the reality is of the measure (i.e, name and form) of the world:

For those who have realised, the reality shines as the nameless and formless substratum of the world.

 Know that this is the only difference between these two”.

The Jnani’s Selfishness is verily the real and right kind of “Unselfishness” glorified by the people till now. On the other hand, if other’s welfare is decided with whatever amount of generosity coming through the satvic mood that may rise at times in the poor mind of the Jeeva, (no matter how marvelously brilliant his intellect is or how well versed he is in all the different branches of learning) whose knowledge is confined to the idea ‘I am the body’, it will end only in the ill-fare of the world!!

........But, to really experience the universe as God (which is really worshipping it) is possible only,

 after realising the true nature of the Self, 

where the world and God will not remain as entities other than the Self.

68

The true purpose of Yoga is only to remove this root-impurity.

The methods of removing the impurities vary according to the maturity of the aspirants. Consequently different Yogas had to be framed. To the aspirants who are very intent on removing their impurities, the impurity in the form of ‘mine’ being gross rather than the impurity in the form of ‘I’ which is subtle, come first within the range of their perception.

 Just as a dirty cloth becomes purer and purer as it is beaten and squeezed more and more** so also every unselfish activity of his, serves the purpose of dealing a blow upon his ‘mine-ness’ and thereby makes his mind purer and purer.


If we minutely scrutinise every injunction and prohibition such as fasting, charitable deeds and other codes of conduct as enjoined by the Vedas, to be followed by people in their daily actions (Nitya-Karma anushtana), it will become clear that all these aim at making one to sacrifice at least a bit of ‘mine-ness’ and put a check on one’s craving for the worldly enjoyments.

Thus out of the two impurities ‘I’ and ‘mine’, as ‘mine’ is easily noticeable, it is no wonder that all good people with noble aspiration generally first try to tackle only the ‘mine-ness’.


For, such a mind which is thus purified through the renunciation of ‘mine-ness’ another truth also will dawn :- “This ‘mine’ is just like the leaves and branches of a tree. No matter with what effort and how many times they are cut, the leaves and branches -‘mine-ness’ – will, under favourable conditions, keep on sprouting again and again in some form or other in their own time. Therefore, the root ‘I’ should be traced out and annihilated”.

Even for this truth to dawn, is it not necessary that the restless intensity of ‘mine-ness’ should be lessened to a very great extent?

Until this understanding comes to an earnest seeker 

through the proper discrimination of the purified mind that ‘I’ is the right root-impurity and that it has to be rooted out,

service to humanity, sacrifice for others and similar unselfish activities in the line of Karma Yoga will be going on in his life making up the major part of his endeavour.

Then, according to his previous tendencies and tastes he steps into either the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga) or the path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) which alone are directly concerned with the annihilation of the ego, the root-impurity.

The Path is to attend to ‘I am’ and the Goal is to remain as ‘I am’!

..............

72 chp 2 bhakti

“Since his mind form is thus destroyed, and since he is established in the Supreme Truth, for that great Yogi there is not even a single karma to do. For, He has attained His Natural State!” – Upadesha Undiyar, verse 15.


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He who has not yet come to the School (the Vedas) where Bhakti is purified, is still a beast.


95

“Because the mind branches out into innumerable thoughts, the power of attention of each thought
becomes very weak. As thought subside more and more, the mind becomes one-pointed and thereby gains strength” ‘Who Am I?’ – Bhagavan Sri Ramana

The main point of Yoga is to collect the scattered thoughts into one and fix the mind on that one thought only.


In the Path of Love (Bhakti Marga) when such confidence in God: “God will look after everything in my life; why should I think and worry about it” increases, thousands of unnecessary thoughts will depart.


“From now onwards there is no such thing for me as a need in my life. Let anything take place in my life as you will ” “… all such sorts of ups and downs, happiness or misery, prosperity or poverty, honour or dishonour, fame or ill-fame…” The only need is You alone; fulfill that one need of mine, my Lord! – Sri Ramalinga Swamy.

“Shouldst Thou forsake me, I will be miserable. So, do bless me that when I leave the body I do not lose hold of Thee”. – ‘Arunachala Aksharamanamalai’ - Verse 96.

“When will the wave of thought in me cease so that I may reach Thee, the most minute as well as the most great?” – ‘Arunachala Aksharamanamalai’ - Verse 57.

111

Knowing that the present pangs of separation of our Man are due to his love for Him (God) and this in turn is due to not having the right knowledge of His reality, (Real Nature) and that the only remedy for this is to bestow upon him the Supreme Knowledge; God withdraws from the sight of the Man His unreal aspects, the name and form.

...he has become Godmad having no thoughts for wife, children, house or work, but he remains drowned in the meditation on his Beloved Krishna


127

The knowing of your Self (Sat) is spontaneously ever present, because you are Knowledge itself. So also, even any feeling of love in you cannot be but you, because you are Love itself.

141

The Self-awareness eternally shining and ever directly experienced as ‘I-I’ within you, is the real Feet of your Sad-Guru. Cling to it. That alone will lead you to the goal.

“The true form of prostration (Namaskaram) to the Guru is to remain in the Supreme Silence where, the sense of differentiation, Master-disciple, God-man, cannot rise through the delusion born of the ignorant ego.” –‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’-Verse 310

“The dissolving of the ice - the ego sense ‘I am the body’ into the ocean – the Guru-Awareness – that is the same as the oneness of Self-Awareness, is the true worship of the Guru.” – ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ - Verse 315

“After submitting oneself – the ego, as a prey to the Guru who is the source of the Silence of Perfection, experiencing what remains in the heart - Awareness, is receiving the consecrated food (prasad) from the Guru.” – ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ - Verse 302

“Only when you know your Self, no harm can befall you….” -‘Kaivalyam’ - Chapter I - Verse 13


Therefore, you must understand that diving deep within in quest of the Self (‘I’ – the Reality) is the only true way of worshipping your Guru.

“Only those who do not know the Self, the eternal Truth as ‘I’, but merely know the transitory body as ‘I’, will see enthusiastically, for a short while, the different names and farms of God and wonder at them.” - G.V.K. - Verse 1070

“All the manifestations of God that are obtained through worship, appear and disappear. Therefore, Self, one’s true Nature, shining ever, without appearing and disappearing, alone is the True God.” – ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ - Verse 1073

He alone truly knows me who knows me as I myself know me.

 “Those who do not understand that the JnanaGuru is the formless Supreme Space though he appears in the human form, are the vilest of all criminals.” – ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ - Verse 274

145

Guru is the Self. Attaining the Self alone is to attain God or Guru. On the other hand, so long as you see your God or Guru as different from your Self, you cannot know the Self which is the state of Perfect Freedom. So long as there is the feeling of separateness, fear is bound to be there. If you want to be free from fear (the state of fearlessness) be in the state of otherlessness, Self. But that does not mean that your Guru is no longer there.

When you dive within and are established in the heart, you will know that your Self is the true nature of your SadGuru.

It is in that state alone that you are ever with your Guru. Your Love of the Self (Swatma Bhakti) i.e., your (ego’s) merging into the Self, is verily your true Love of the Guru (Guru-Bhakti).

“Because one has no Love (Swatma Bhakti) to listen to the teaching of the Supreme Self ever going on in the heart, one comes out with great enthusiastic delusion. Because of this one needs a Guru outside.” –

 ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ - Verse 272

Till then all your present love towards this gross name and form in the name of the Love for the Guru (Guru Bhakti) is only a divided love, a partial love. This is nothing but the defective state of love.


.............’ (Ananya Bhakti) is one who has the Full Love (Sampoorna Bhakti).


The final state of refinement of the feeling of Love will be experienced as the unshakable Self-abidance.


A state of love less than that, is not at all either Supreme Love (Para Bhakti) or the Fullness of Love (Sampoorna Bhakti),


 and this Love is Self and this Love is Shiva.

When love abides as itself, it is the full and perfect Love. When the Love takes the form of movement, it is fragmented and becomes desire which springs upon other objects. It is Love when it is in the form of unbroken Existence; it is desire when it is in the form of movement or fragmentation.

As second and third person objects are fragments, your love towards them will be in the form of a mere desire – even towards such a loved one as your Guru.


But, when the Love abides in the unbroken being of the first person – the Self, It is full and perfect.


This state of Love of Self (Swatma Bhakti) is the final state of refinement of love and is called Supreme Love (Para Bhakti), Non-dual Love (Ananya Bhakti).

“...Remaining in one’s own real Beingness is the very truth of Supreme Love” –‘Upadesha Undiyar’ - Verse 9

So long as you think that your Guru’s Divine Love towards you is a love that springs from one entity to an other, certainly this love (your Guru’s love towards you) is to be taken as a divided love. Therefore, it is a lesser one than your love towards Self.


“…One who has such ‘Love for not an other’ drowns in Thee, the Self the form of Bliss.”

 –‘Sri Arunachala Pancharatnam’ Verse 5



If we scrutinize deeper, we will find that even the love which the individual had towards himself all this time when he was taking the body and mind as himself, even that very love becomes so trivial that it cannot stand comparison with the love which now flows towards his Guru.

 Therefore, the disciple is now ready to be indifferent towards his own mind and body (which he was taking all this time as his Self) and even to sacrifice them for the sake of his Guru. Guru is really his Self.

“When the mind remains permanently absorbed in its source whence it had its rising – it is Karma, Bhakti; it is Yoga and Jnana also.” – ‘Upadesha Undiyar’ - Verse 10

155

The Guru Bhakti in the IVth standard is like the chastity of the wife towards her husband.




The only essential thing to do for those who want to cut the knot of the bondage of ignorance,

is to quit those who know the scriptures

and to join those who abide in the Self, the Knowers of Truth.”

–‘Guruvachaka Kovai’ - Verse 1158




“The only worthy disciplehood which is the steadfast Supreme Devotion

that springs up with the merging of the ego into the Light of Supreme Silence (or Self-Awareness), is verily the right Guruship. 

Thus should you know” –‘Guruvachaka Kovai’- Verse 269



We have to know that to adhere entirely to the teachings of one’s Guru, without any reservation such as one’s own inclination, principle, aim, wishes etc.. is to have Sad-Guru Bhakti

 If one has ‘Bhakti one cannot but be as the Self. So Bhakti and Jnana are not two but the Self, like the two faces of the same coin.

“Without the power of gravitation, can anything remain stable on earth? So also, the pull of gravitation is Bhakti; the remaining stable is Jnana. Therefore, neither of them can remain without the other.” – ‘Sadanai Saram’

That Path of Knowledge, i.e., the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ which results in the dawning of Self-Knowledge is explained as ‘The Path of Sri Ramana’ (Part One).

Now, as the love in its perfectly refined state shines as Self alone, the method of purifying the love up to Self-Love (Swatma Bhakti) is explained as ‘The Path of Sri Ramana’ (Part Two).

Unless they come to us completely disgusted with their practices and ask for a better truth, we should not interfere and disturb the course of others. Let us encourage every one of them in their own way. “One who knows the Truth should not create confusion in the minds of ignorants who are attached to karmas…” –‘Bhagavad Gita’- Chapter III – Verse 26



..........................          chp 2  bhakti ends.......................


162 chp 3 karma


What does it mean when we say that we are perfectly free? It means that we have the Power (Shakti) to do every thing as we Will (Ichcha).


 He mistakes the nature of his unlimited non-dual, perfect Knowledge, Self, to be the mind or sense-knowledge which knows other things only (other than Self through the senses).

dwitiya

He who once saw not an other, now sees others and is either afraid of them or attracted towards them

... Sage Auvaiyar when she said, “For those who surrender in Shiva (Shivaya nama) there is no possibility of danger befalling them.

This alone is Free Will. If not surrendered, every thing will become Fate.”




“O Arunachala….O Bliss born out of Love! What is there for me to say? Thy Will is my will and Thy Will is Itself my happiness.” -‘Sri Arunachala Pathikam’ - Verse 2



Thus the Guru places in front of the disciple the path of Self-enquiry and the path of Self-surrender – the path of Knowledge and the path of Love (Jnana Marga and Bhakti Marga).

From that time onwards the devotee, who takes to either Self-enquiry or Self-surrender, is able to understand that whatever happens in his life is only favourable to lessen the activities of his mind and make him turn Self-ward.


 If one turns one’s attention towards the first person (the subject) in the waking state, the waking should come to an end, leaving one in the State of Awakening.


This Self-ward turn is Being only, and not doing; hence it is not a thought or karma.

imp

Only this kind of Self-effort is called the effort of destroying karmas. This alone will lead to Liberation. As all other efforts of attention are towards second and third persons objects, they are only generating karmas and will not give Liberation. Such is the truth! Yet, some of us used to say that even Jnana, the Awakening, is the result of Prarabdha. It is wrong. Jnana is not bound by, but transcending the results of karmas. The aforesaid second kind of Self-effort will be known as the Natural State (Sahaja State) when it is found to be going on effortlessly. This is the state of Effortless-effort – Dynamic Stillness.

So long as one’s efforts are towards second and third persons (i.e., effort in generating karmas) the tendencies derived from them are ‘Doingness-innature’, which will never yield Liberation, the annihilation of the ego!


...Therefore, let no one ‘depend upon Prarabdha for Liberation. Liberation is in no way connected with Prarabdha.

From what has been said above, we must realize the facts that Liberation is not at all bound by Prarabdha and that the strength of such spiritual practice (Atma-Sadhana) done in past births, will resume itself and help one in the present birth also.

.... let us turn Self-ward with great courage and attain Liberation through the tendency ‘Beingness-in-nature’.

‘Being’ alone is the True Knowledge and not ‘knowing’. Self-Knowledge is subjective and not objective. “Even such knowing the Self is nothing but Being the Self” says Shri Bhagavan in verse No. 26 of ‘Upadesha Undiyar’. This ‘Being the Self’ is the Pure Awareness ‘I AM’.

...In the last two lines of this verse (verse 3) Shri Bhagavan gives His is own experience that the individuality does not exist when the Knowledge of the Supreme – Self, dawns

.......................the end.................





Ulladu narpadu

pg 252 imp ..cant copy

Guru Gita

http://www.yogalifesociety.com/GuruGita.html


100. The essential nature of objects, and the knower of objects - the mind - are worthy of being known.

 One should reflect on the truth that objects of awareness and awareness are identical.

 There is no other way to liberation. 

115. Listen as I describe the state that arises when meditating on the Self.

 Reflect on it as all pervading knowledge and light, the size of a thumb, residing in the heart. 

118. Having become one with Brahman, one may abide anywhere, firm in that realization.  

Just as larvae unfold their true nature as bees by incessantly meditating on the nature of a bee, one who meditates on the Guru as Brahman becomes Brahman. 


119. Meditating on the Guru in this manner, the disciple becomes one with Brahman, and is liberated from

 pinda, pada, and rupa: the force of creation, the movement of the life force, and matter. 

There is no doubt about this.

122. O beautiful One! One experiences liberation when the Divine creative power within is fully awakened, when the life force becomes utterly still, and when one can hear within the mantra of the transcendent Self – Hamsa - repeating by itself. 

One no longer identifies with the physical form and is liberated. But those who go beyond even all these are truly free. 

126. The awakened ones say that having attained the all-knowing state, the embodied soul becomes one with everything. Ever blissful and tranquil, such a one rejoices everywhere. 

127. Moreover, wherever the knower of Brahman lives, that place becomes a vessel for all that is auspicious, good, and holy. O Goddess! Thus I have described to you the characteristics of a liberated being. 

161. One who always repeats the Guru Gita is pure of mind and wise. By merely seeing such a one, rebirth is overcome. 

162. Just as the water of a river merges with the water of the ocean, as milk perfectly merges with milk, clarified butter with clarified butter, the space within a pot with the space outside it, so too, the individual self merges with the Supreme Self. 

163. In this manner, the individual self of the wise one merges with the Supreme Self. Day and night, and in every location, the wise one delights in Oneness. 

164. Thus, the Awakened One always dwells in Supreme Freedom, existing as the embodiment of devotion, and serving all. 

....end...  total 182............

Swami Ramdas

http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/dasbodha.pdf



I WANT GOD

 Whenever the wisdom of recognizing what is full of Atman and what is not;

is fully imbibed by the mind,

one finally realizes that the visible is an illusion. 



One is then attracted towards the real thing, one’s own self.


 After getting to know this, he then yearns for more;

that is the constant realization of one’s own self;

which yields him bliss, hitherto never experienced.


Once he gets the bliss, he wants it for ever.

For he feels, that without it;
 everything in this world is worthless.

 Then he starts feeling that he unnecessarily wasted his life till this period by running after the non existent visible,

and strongly desires to get as close and as early to the Para bramha as possible.

 This then gives way to the feeling of being distant from everything except the truth.

 At this stage one should try his best to have self realization.

The desire to see and become a part of the God, then automatically follows.

This is the root of real worship.



Wisdom makes the feeling of being distant from everything, except the truth

 and worship, to congenially grow with each other.





. Having no desire for the visible; is the essence of the feeling of being distant from everything,

 except the truth and the desire to be as close to  God as possible; 

is the essence of worship.




This is easier said than done. 

It requires application of wisdom and insurmountable Sadhana.


It is our mind which works as a curtain between us and him. 

Our mind creates all the illusions including the one that I am the body and the body is me.

This in itself is a hindrance in recognizing the God inside us.

 Our mind should unify with the universal mind. 

We should make a conscious effort for this change. 

If our mind becomes very clean, very broad and without any vices then it can unify with the universal mind and become knowledgeable.



By constantly remembering the God,

one gives an impetus to the hidden powers of our mind,

 which make it easy for us to unify with the universal mind.


What happens when you see God?  :




 At this point of time, the life of the live form vanishes without death

 and he becomes a God himself! 


One experiences that he is Parabramha occupying the whole of the universe!

 This and nothing else is what happens when one sees the God!

..............


The common man is deeply drowned in the worries of the family life. Even if he succeeds in being happy with it he is confronted with another problem and an increasing worry. This cycle continues.

 It is difficult for him to get into spiritualism easily.

He has to really put in yeoman efforts to pursue the path of spiritualism. It is almost impossible for him to remember the God while he is leading the family life. He therefore has to, with great effort create an atmosphere wherein he can remember the God for some time and try to increase that time to an extent that he remembers the God always.


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THE FIFTH SAMAS – SANTSTAVAN (IN PRAISE OF THE SAINTS)

 I now salute the Sages and the Saints who are the pillars of the spiritualism.



The ultimate knowledge about the self is in micro (ati sulkshama) form and very difficult for the common man to even have a view of it,

 it reveals itself on account of these Saints.




 Parabramha is the utmost difficult thing to acquire.


It is the greatest acquisition.

It is made possible only with the companionship of the Saints.



In reality,  the real self or the Atman is very evident.


It is yet invisible because we try to see it by the eyes using our so called power of senses.


However hard you may try, it still eludes you.

No light source can illuminate it for it to be visible. 

There is no need for  it. It has a luminosity of its own.

The only clause is you must be capable of recognizing it through not your senses but by your whole being, your Atman, by everything that is yours.


There are only two types of people available on this earth who can enable you to accomplish this and those are the Guru and the Saints.


Spiritualism metamorphoses the human life and gives real meaning to the life. It helps in completing all your so called duties. It is the final place for peace for not only the common but also for the highly knowledgeable and the Sadhak. One who gets the cream of it is the real King. Those who don’t get it are beggars notwithstanding their so called wealth as there is nothing which can even remotely match the spiritualism and its fruit, the Parbrahma.

 Only those who have performed  selfless service in the past,  get going on this path.

Human life gets the final contentment only when one knows the spiritualism and follows it to the hilt.

Others are sinners who have to revolve in the endless vicious cycle of birth and death.

 I would go the extent to say that those who don’t live their lives for the acquisition of the Parbrahma, and remain contented with their family and material pleasures are utter fools

 and the wise shouldn't  even look at them.


 Therefore my request to everyone is to seek the spiritualism by worshiping the God and give meaning to their life. It not only takes care of you, but your ancestors too!

shandilya bhakti sutra

https://archive.org/stream/ShandilyaBhaktiSutra/shandilya_bhakti_sutras_djvu.txt

. The path of Jnana or Knowledge and path 
of Karma viz. Rituals are to be followed till 
one's heart becomes untinted at the dawn of 
Shraddha as threshing the paddy is to be 
continued till grains are husked. 

Without taking recourse to 
Bhakti, Jnana cannot be purified. Therefore so 
long one does not follow the path of unalloyed 
devotion, due to eclipsed knowledge one may 
take oneself to either path of Karma-yoga Or 
path of Jnana-yoga, but without Bhakti, no purifi- 
cation of heart is possible. Bhakti is the sine- 
qua-non of the cognised soul, totally free from 
quagmire of maya.

In the previous aphorism we come to know 
that neither Karma-yoga nor jnana-yoga can 
make the soul cognised with intuitive wisdom to 
the subjective Realisation of Supreme Godhead 

Bhakti has got nothing with mental or 
physical exercise. Bhakti Is the very nature of the 
soul. Soul at Its unconditional state, free from 
mayic bondage naturally becomes dovetailed In 
the unalloyed service to Supreme Godhead. 


'Those who, abandoning the path of 
unalloyed devotion to the Lotus Feet of God- 
head the Source of true-well-being, labour for 
dry abstract knowledge for its own sake, 
toil 
in vain like those who pound empty husks 
of paddy.

Why Karma*yoga and Jnana-yoga are prescribed? 
Because at the initial stage before the 
dawn of Bhakti they may result in purifying 
the mind but not absolutely defacto to enhance 
Bhakti. 

By this means, their heart is very soon freed 
from every spot of scrapes and becomes pure 
and stainless; and with the morning-twilight of 
Name, as 
the heart is purified by constant 
remembrance

That Name wipes out all offences 

Forthwith gives the relish and taste of 

Krishnanama 

Cuts asunder the very knot of Samsara- 
(How I enjoy the sweetness of Krishna- 
nama) 

Summum bonum of life is attained there- 



.....

atmanam satatam janam

The path of Ramana

https://www.happinessofbeing.com/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_One.pdf



233 pdf pages

“The state of one who abides unshaken in SeIf has more grandeur than the mightiest mountain:” “Tirukkural”, verse 124

“Silence is the unequalled eloquence – the state of Grace that rises within.”

“I have learnt all the Vedas, performed millions of mantra-japas, undergone fasting and other austerities, yet I still do not know what tapas really is. Please instruct me.” Sri Bhagavan replied: “If watched wherefrom the ‘I’ starts, there the mind merges; that is tapas.” However, when Ganapati Sastri further asked, “Is it possible to attain the same state through japa?”, Sri Ramana replied: “When a mantram is pronounced, if watched wherefrom the sound starts, there the mind will merge; that is tapas.”

.............“He is no ordinary soul. He is the perfect Jnana-Guru. Since He ever remains in natural Self-abidance,

Some days later the police caught the thieves and brought them before Sri Bhagavan, and an officer asked Him to identify the one who had beaten Him on that night. Sri Bhagavan at once replied with a smile, “Find out whom I beat [in a previous birth], for it is he who has beaten me now!”. He never denounced the criminal! “Conquer the foe by your worthy patience and for ever forget the wrong done to you on account of ignorance.” ‘Tirukkural’, verse 157 “The right way of punishing the wrong-doer is to do good to him and to forget his wrong.” ‘Tirukkural’, verse 314

 The knowledge ‘I am the body’ (which is the ego) is a false knowledge of ourself. The true knowledge of ourself is that in which we know that we are the unlimited Self (atman).

What is the benefit of thus attaining true Self-knowledge? It is only when one knows oneself as Self that real good can be done to all creatures on earth. How? Only when Self- knowledge dawns will the truth be known that we alone are the reality of all living beings, and only then will the true love towards all blossom in our heart. Until this Self-knowledge is obtained, one cannot truly love all creatures merely by talking and propagating on platforms. “Love thy neighbour as thyself”.

 It is only when one experiences the whole world and all the souls in it as the first person singular that the real love, a love for ‘not another’ (ananya-bhakti), will be achieved.

.......Therefore the sole and immediate need of the world is Self-enquiry, the medicine that destroys the evil ego. Only a true Knower of Self (atma-jnani) can really serve the world perfectly!

The mere existence on earth of such a Jnani is sufficient to ensure the spiritual and moral welfare of the whole world..

. Self-surrender and Self-enquiry are in fact one and the same, both in their result – the extinction of the ego –,.


‘I’ and ‘mine’ is the great sin of stealing the property of God.

...This state devoid of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ is the state of Self

...If he again thinks ‘I am the body’ or ‘this body is mine’, he is committing the sin of dattapaharam, that is, taking back what has already been offered to God.

 Since God ever shines as the reality of the first person, attending to the first person is the right attention to God and this is the true path of devotion

 Sri Bhagavan still refused to be given chloroform. When asked by a devotee whether there was any pain, Sri Bhagavan replied, “Even the pain is not apart from us!” Just as the teeth which bite our tongue are not other than us, and just as the thief who beat Sri Bhagavan was not viewed by Him as other than Himself, so also, even the disease which was ravaging His body was net other than He (Self). So wonder inspiring was His Jnana!

 “The body itself is a disease that has come upon us. If a disease attacks that original disease, is it not good for us?”

 “Just as the cow does not know whether the garland tied to its horns is still there or has been lost, and just as a drunken man does not know whether his dhoti is on his body or not, so also, a Jnani does not even know whether His body is still alive or dead.”

65/223

The mind runs outwards because of the ignorant outlook that happiness is derived from external objects.

If the mind is thoroughly and firmly convinced, through the above scrutiny, that happiness is within and that one’s real nature is itself happiness, it will not then run outwards but towards oneself; in other words, it will remain still in Self.

This knowledge is sine-qua-non for effectively controlling the mind.

Where thoughts cease, happiness reigns supreme; such is the truth about happiness.

..Therefore, the happiness obtained through the second kind of absorption, the destruction of the mind, is eternal. It is the supreme bliss.

Temporary quiescence (laya) of the mind is temporary quiescence of misery, and permanent destruction (nasa) of the mind is permanent destruction of misery; that is, the mind itself is misery!

Hence, let us find out what is to be done to destroy the mind. What is mind? The verdict given by Sri Bhagavan is: “The mind is only thoughts...” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar,’ verse 18

If we give up all thoughts and observe what is mind, we will find that there is no such thing as ‘mind’ at all.

“If one enquires–without inadvertence (pramada) – into the form of the mind, it will be found that there is no such thing as mind! This is the direct path for all!” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 17

"If there is no ‘I'-thought, no other thing will exist...” 'Sri Arunachala Ashtakam', verse 7


.. if a man has no clear knowledge of what he really is, all his learning, greatness and power are merely fictitious! 

Hence, the first lesson to be learnt is about one’s own self.

On the other hand. some, who had discrimination and a sharp, clear intellect, not already confused by a mere study of the sastras without any practice, were fully convinced as soon as they heard Sri Bhagavan’s exposition (that the body and world do not exist in deep sleep) that it alone is right; therefore, they were able to proceed along the path of enquiry, But, those who did not have the maturity of intellect to be able to accept the nonexistence of the body and world in deep sleep were stopped and could progress no further on the path.

“Since the sastras proclaim, ‘Thou art That which is called the Supreme’, and since That itself always shines as Self, for one to meditate ‘I am That and not this (the body and so on)’, instead of knowing oneself through the enquiry ‘What am I?’ and abiding as Self, is indeed due to lack of strength (of mind) !” Ulladhu Narpadhu verase 32

reworded above:

'you are that'. that is supreme.

'One cannot abide in the Self', due to weakness of M.






 All these complaints are made only by those who do not earnestly like to do any sadhana, that’s all. 



What is essential in any sadhana is to try to bring back the running mind and fix it on one thing only’. 

Why then should it not be brought back and fixed in Self-attention?

That alone is Self-enquiry (alma-vichara).

That is all that is to be done!

Even in the Bhagavad Gita it is said: Sanais sanai rupa ramed buddhya dhriti grihi taya Atma samstham manah kritva nakim chidapi chinta yet which means,

‘By means of an extremely courageous intellect (power of discrimination), make the mind motionless little by little; fix the mind firmly in Self (atman) and never think of any other thing’ (chapter 6, verse 25)


and: Yato yato nis charati manas chanchalam asthi ram Tatas tato niyam yaitad atman yeva vasam nayet which means,

‘Towards whatever thing the unsteady mind wanders, from each thing pull it back, fix it always in Self and make it firmly abide there’ (chapter 6, verse 26)


Only that practice of Self-attention which Sri Bhagavan referred to in ‘Who am I?’ when He wrote, “By repeatedly practising thus, the strength of the mind to abide in its source increases”, is the right sadhana which will give the mind the real requisite strength!


reworded above:

by repeated practise, the strenth of M to abide in it's source increases.






............“Ah! Knowing Self is the easiest thing! Indeed, it is the easiest!”

“To unfasten the bonds of karma and so on, end to achieve the destruction of birth and so on, of all paths, this path is the easiest ! If we remain still (that is, if we merely ‘be’), without the least action of mind, speech and body, oh what a wonder it will be I The Self-effulgence in the heart will be (known as) the ever-present experience, all fear will cease and the ocean of bliss (will surge) !” ‘Atmavidya Kirtanam’, verse 4


125/233

51 The six virtues:

(a) Tranquility (shama):

means fixing the mind upon its target, with the help of the desirelessnes arising out of repeated reflection upon the defects of worldly objects.

b) Restraint of the senses (dama) :

means controlling the sense-organs end organs of action and thereby preventing them from leaving their respective places.

(c) Withdrawal from activities (uparati) :

means fixing the mind on its target so firmly that it is not led by previous tendencies to dwell upon objects, end thereby giving up all unnecessary activities.

 (d) Forebearance (titiksha):

means courageously enduring any amount of misery that may befell one, without trying to avoid it or grieving over it.

(e) Faith (shraddha) :

means an unshakable conviction that only the words of Vedanta shastras and those of the Guru are true.

(f) samadhi :

means preventing the mind by all efforts from wandering according to its nature, and fixing it only on Brahman.

129

 The mind is destroyed only when it turns towards the first person

Only such a firm fixing of our attention on Self is ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara). 


He has confirmed the same idea in the work’ Who am I’?”, where He says:

“Always keeping the mind (the attention) fixed In Self (in the feeling ‘I’) alone is called Selfenquiry’...


 Remaining firmly in Self-abidance, without giving even the least room to the rising of any thought other than the thought of Self (that is, without giving even the least attention to any second or third person, but only to Self), is surrendering oneself to God (which alone is called para bhakti, the supreme devotion.

159

“Self (atman) is that which is self-shining in the form ‘I am that I am’. One should not imagine it to be anything such as this or that (light or sound). Imagining’ or thinking thus is itself bondage. Since Self is the consciousness which is neither light nor darkness, let it not be imagined as a light of any kind. That thought itself would be a bondage.

.. but completely giving up even the thought that one is a sinner, one is steadfast in Self-attention, one will surely be saved. Therefore everyone, diving deep within himself with desirelessness (vairagya), can attain the pearl of Self.

When the mind, with a tremendous longing to find the source which gives it light, turns inwards, the breath stops automatically

Sri Bhagavan advised, ‘Control breath and speech with a keen (introverted) mind’. It would be wise to understand this verse thus, by adding ‘with a keen mind’ (kurnda matiyal) in all the three places, ‘Control the breath with a keen mind dive within with a keen mind, and know the rising-place with a keen mind’,


Similarly, when the aspirant, on account of his diving deeper and deeper within by an intense effort of Self-attention, is so close to his source that not even an iota of rising of the ego is possible, he remains absorbed in the great dissolution of the ‘I am the body’ – feeling (dehatmabuddhi), which he had hitherto had as a target of attention,

This dissolution is what Sri Bhagavan refers to when He says, ‘I’ will die”, in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 19.


“… When the attention goes deeper and deeper within along the (reflected) ray ‘I’, its length decrease more and more, and when the ray ‘I’ dies, that which shines as ‘I’ is Jnana, “ ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 9

...............
ns

whatever can be witnessed cannot be your tue Self

.............   .........................


http://www.sriramanakendram.org/pdf/2009.pdf



GITA’S STHITA PRAJNA* By Swami Shantananda Puri**

The ultimate purpose of all spiritual sadhanas is to control and still the mind. Only a person whose prajna is still is sthita can be free of the shackles of the vasanas and attain liberation. The qualities or characteristics of a sthita prajna have been described in second chapter of the Gita. According to scholars, the terms sthita prajna and gunatita are synonymous.

The qualities of a gunatita described in chapter 14 of the Gita are identical to those of a sthita prajna. They can also be called jivanmuktas.

According to Shankara sthita prajana is one whose mind is rooted in the conviction that ‘I am the Supreme Being, Brahaman.’ Factors necessary for becoming a sthita prajna are – renouncing all desires and remaining always content in oneself without depending on external objects for satisfaction. Further, whose mind remains unperturbed by any sorrow or suffering, whose attachment to pleasure is completely gone and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage with stable wisdom. Both joy and sorrow are only psychological states of the mind. It is thus possible to reason with one’s own mind and make it impervious to the reactions of joy and sorrow so that the mind could remain undisturbed and stable. According to the Gita, the wisdom of that person is stable who wholly withdraws his senses from their objects just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs from all sides. Attachment must be removed by our own efforts, by the grace of the Lord and the guru. Satsang, mantra japa and prayers are definitely of positive help. Once the mind is concentrated on the Self as a result of severe sadhana, all vasanas will begin to wane away without our being aware of them. The mind of a person who keeps his senses under control by withdrawing and subduing them by means of uniting his mind at all times with the Lord and being completely engaged in him with devotion (yukta) is considered as stable or wellestablished. At no time of sadhana can a seeker be complacent that his attractions to the objects have ceased. The senses bid their time. Never for a moment relax your reins over them, but continue doing the sadhana till the attitude of ‘I’, the seeker, disappears so that there is no need to think, ‘I am keeping my senses under control.’ The senses are so powerful that they definitely drag down even a man of knowledge. The way to fight it down is constant remembrance of God. Let your mind be totally engaged in the Lord with sincere love and devotion, so that you are yukta – integrated in Him. Desires, especially lust and passion, are the last things to leave a sadhaka in spite of all the sadhanas. Even when a person becomes very old, the vasana of kama expresses itself in apparently innocuous ways.

Prayers are extremely effective. Engage yourself in the reading of the biographies of saints so that the intensity of longing they had, the austerities they performed, will inspire you to emulate them. 

...............................  .........



When the man finally reaches very near to the piece of mirror, he can be said to have reached the very source of the reflected ray. This is similar to the aspirant diving within and reaching the source (Heart) whence he had risen. Does not the man now attain a state where the length of the reflected ray is reduced to nothing – a state where no reflection is possible because he is so close to the mirror? Similarly, when the aspirant, on account of his diving deeper and deeper within by an intense effort of Self-attention, is so close to his source that not even an iota of rising of the ego is possible, he remains absorbed in the great dissolution of the ‘I am the body’ – feeling (dehatmabuddhi), which he had hitherto had as a target of attention, This dissolution is what Sri Bhagavan refers to when He says, ‘I’ will die”, in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 19.

..........................

mountain path..


Sri Bhagavan teaches us that the practice of Self-enquiry of ‘Who am I?’ is not a subject-object method of meditation. The moment the ego-self tries to know itself it begins to partake less and less of the body in which it is immersed and more and more of the consciousness of Self. There are not two ‘I’s, one to realize the other. There is only one Self. Self-enquiry is holding onto the subject ‘I’ by the ‘I’, thus preventing thoughts to rise. Without thoughts, the individual ‘I’ cannot remain and will resolve itself into its Source. This is the ‘I’ underlying the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states. It is our true and natural state and is ever-present.

If the ego ‘I’ turns inwards and simply holds onto itself, without letting other thoughts arise, the individual ‘I’ becomes absorbed into its Source, the Self. Just hold onto the ‘I’ thought and go on searching for its source. Then you will find there is really no such thing as the ego ‘I’. On its source being sought, it disappears.

......The mind has long been in the habit of going outwards, towards the objects of the world. It doesn’t easily turn inwards for any length of time. Only by the steady practice of Self-enquiry or meditation does the mind gradually come under control.


...........................................

“...Attending to the first person is equal to committing suicide...” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 7

 “Yes, yes! To stay fixed thus in the Self, is the highest return you can render me.” (Arunachala’s Ramana, Vol. II)


A small portion of his advice as contained in letters to his friends is as follows: Our own mind is the greatest cheater in the world. It will have thousands of reasons to go its own way. Three ways to handle this cheat are: (1) Treat him as a friend and give him full satisfaction. This is a very long and tiresome way as he is never satisfied. (2) Treat him as an enemy and with all force try to get rid of him. This is only possible by the grace of divine because the mind has got two very powerful weapons – the discriminating intellect and the imaginative faculty. These two can convince even God himself that black is white. (3) It is the way taught by Sri Ramana – treat the mind as thought- patients, who are coming to a doctor to complain about their ailments. Just as a doctor sits in his room receiving different kinds of patients, ‘this fool’ [the term he uses for himself] imagines himself sitting in the sacred cave of the Heart and receiving the thought-patients. You know a sick person likes to babble for hours about his complaint. In the same way, a thought likes to multiply itself, but the doctor will cut it short saying, “Very good. Take this medicine. Thank you very much.’ And then he calls another patient. This is how ‘this fool’ decided to meditate. First ‘this fool’ slows down his breath as much as possible, but only to the point where there is no discomfort. To ‘this fool’ two breaths per minute is the proper speed, but that may not be possible for you, without very long and sustained practice. You may be able to decrease your breathing to 8-10 per minute in the beginning. Don’t get to a level where you are uncomfortable. ‘This fool’ asks himself, “To whom have all these thoughts come?” Three times he slowly repeats this question. Then in the same slow manner he answers to himself, “To me, to me, to me.” “Then who am I” , “Then who am I” , “Then who am I? All questions and answers are repeated three times, very slowly. “This ‘I’ is not a thought. This ‘I’ is not a thought. This ‘I’ is not a thought. Then who is the receiver of the thought? Then who is the receiver of the thought? Then who is the receiver of the thought? “I” – “I’ – “I”. Now the mind is centralized in the source itself. ‘Then who am I?’ ‘Then who am I?’ ‘Then who am I?’ Now the breath comes to an end and the attention is concentrated 100% on the sound caused by the palpitation of the heart, as if the sound would give answer to our questions.

This is nothing but the pranava itself.

If, during this time, the sakti which was static is converted to movements or becomes dynamic, trance will occur.

If the primal energy reaches the space between the eyebrows, savikalpa samadhi will occur. 

If the energy rises up to the top of the head, nirvikalpa samadhi will occur, which is nothing but the Self itself.  



Some thoughts of Swami Ramanagiri as contained in his notebook entitled ‘Cold Fire’, are as follows:

1. His Name taken once with whole-hearted love and one-pointed mind, is worth more than the knowledge collected from every book all over the world.

2. Learning is learned ignorance. Unlearning is learning.

 3. What you speak about others doesn’t reveal anything about them, but about you.

4. The power of listening attracts more than the power of speaking.

 5. Jnana and bhakti are not separate from each other. One cannot know Him without loving Him, and one cannot love Him without knowing Him.

6. Shut the doors and the door will be opened.

7. Religion is experience. It should be practiced, not studied or discussed, and at the very least not preached. Those who preach don’t know; those who know don’t preach.

 8. It is a good policy to keep away from other’s plates, however sweet and inviting they look. Both sugar and arsenic are white.

9. When the asuric forces see a sadhaka progressing, they will put every possible obstacle in the form of worldly troubles, mental botherations and sex urges.

10. Selfless activity will give the power of introversion.

11. The disciple’s love for the Guru is more important than the Guru’s power.

 12. We are imprisoned within the walls of our thoughts.

13. Meditation is for the strong, not for the weak.

14. It is not a question of balancing, but balancing without effort.


The world does not exist in the state of ultimate truth [paramartha]. Its appearance, its [apparently] existing nature in maya, is like the imagined appearance of a snake in a rope, a thief in a wooden post, and water in a mirage. Their essential nature is delusion. – Sri Ramana Maharshi


 A keen effort of the mind, complete introversion of all the faculties, total absorption in the quest wherefrom the ‘I’ springs – all this is needed for success.


To one who is established in what is infinite, pure consciousness, bliss and unqualified non-duality, where is the question of bondage or liberation, seeing that there is no second reality? O Rama, the mind has, by its own activity, bound itself; when it is calm, it is free. – Sage Vasishta’s

Just as a rubber ball gains greater and greater momentum while bouncing down the staircase, the more the concentration in clinging to the first person consciousness is intensified the faster is the contraction of the first thought (the ego), till finally it merges in its source.

That which now merges thus is only the adjunct (upadhi), the feeling ‘so-and-so’ which, at the moment of waking, came and mixed with the pure existence-consciousness, which was shining in sleep as ‘I am’, to constitute the form of the ego, ‘I am so-and-so’, ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’. That is, what has come and mixed now slips away. All that an aspirant can experience in the beginning of his practice is only the slipping away (subsidence) of the ego.

 Since the aspirant tracks down the ego from the waking state, where it is in full play, in the beginning it is possible for him to cognize only its removal. But to cognize its rising (how it rises and holds on to ‘I am’) from sleep will be more difficult for him at this stage

“As you practise more and more abiding in this existence-consciousness (that is, remaining in the state between sleep and waking), the ordinary sleep which had previously been taking possession of you will melt away. 

The waking which was full of sense-knowledges (vishayas) will not creep
in again,

Therefore repeatedly and untiringly abide in it,” ‘Sadhanai Saram’

“Why has it been said (in the above two verses of ‘Sadhana Saram’) that one ought to make effort repeatedly to be in that state (our existence-consciousness) and ought to abide in it with more and more love? Because, until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive one out of it are completely exhausted, this state will seem to come and go. Hence the need for continued effort and love to abide in Self.”

“For those who are well established in the unending Self-consciousness, which pervades and transcends all these three so-called states (waking, dream and sleep), there is but one state, the Whole, the All, and that alone is real! This state, which is devoid even of the feeling ‘I am making effort’, is your natural state of being! Be!!” ‘Sadhanai Saram’

 Heart), when the knot of attachment (abhimana-granthi) is severed by the annihilation of the mind through Self-enquiry, the knot of bondage to the nerves (nadi bandha-granthi) is also severed. In raja yoga, after removing the knot of bondage to the nerves by means of breathcontrol, if the mind which is thus controlled is made to enter the Heart from the brain (sahasrara), since it reaches its source, then the knot of attachment is also severed. “When the mind which has been subdued by breath control is led (to the Heart) through the only path (the path of knowing Self), its form will die.” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 14

Knot of attachment of vasnas remain intact..Hence, rebirth inescapable...implies tapa to eradicate vasanas? :

However, since the knot of attachment is the basic one, until and unless the destruction of attachment (abhimana) is effected, by knowing self, even when the knot of bondage to the nerves is temporarily removed in sleep, swoon, death or by the use of anesthetics, the knot of attachment remains unaffected in the form of tendencies (vasanas), which constitute the causal body, and, hence rebirths are inescapable.


181/233

This is why Sri Bhagavan insists that one reaching kashta-nirvikalpa-samadhi 77 through raja yoga should not stop there (since it is only mano-laya, a temporary absorption of the mind), but that the mind so absorbed should be led to the Heart in order to attain sahaja-nirvikalpa-samildhi, which is the destruction of the mind (mano-nasa), the destruction of the attachment to the body (dehabhimana-nasa). In the body of such a Self-realized One (sahaja jnani), the coursing of the ‘I’ - consciousness along the nerves, even after the destruction of the knot of attachment, is like the water on a lotus leaf or like a burnt rope, and thus it cannot cause bondage. Therefore the destruction of the knot of attachment is anyway indispensible for the attainment of the natural state (Sahaja Sthiti), the state of the destruction of the tendencies (vasanakshaya).

Disconnecting the knot in such a way that it will never again come into being is called by many names such as ‘the cutting of the knot’ (granthi-bheda). ‘the destruction of the mind’ (mano-nasa) and so on. ‘In such a way that it will never again come into being’ means this: by attending to it (the ego) through the enquiry ‘Does it in truth exist at present?’ in order to find out whether it had ever really come into being, there takes place the dawn of knowledge (jnana), the real waking, where it is clearly and firmly known that no such knot has ever come into being, that no such ego has ever risen, that ‘that which exists’ alone ever exists, and that which was existing as ‘I am’ is ever existing as ‘I am’! The attainment of this knowledge (Self-knowledge or atma-jnana), the knowledge that the knot or bondage is at all times non-existent and has never risen, is the permanent disconnecting of the knot.

“Only the first place or the present time is advised to be attended to. If you keenly do so, you will enjoy the bliss of Self, having completed all yogas and having achieved the supreme accomplishment. Know and feast on it!” ‘Sadhanai Saram’


Let us now again take up our original point. When the attention of an aspirant is turned towards second and third persons, the ‘I’-consciousness spreads from the brain all over the body through the nerves (nadis) in the form of the power of spreading; but when the same attention is focused on the first person, since it is used in an opposite direction, the ‘I’ -consciousness, instead of functioning in the form of the power of spreading, takes the form of the power of Selfattention (that is, the power of ‘doing’ is transformed into the power of ‘being’). This is what is called ‘the churning of the nadis’ (nadi-mathana).


By the churning thus taking place in the nadis, the ‘I’-consciousness scattered throughout the nadis turns back, withdraws and collects in the brain, the starting point of its spreading, and from there it reaches, drowns and is established in the Heart, the pure consciousness, the source of its rising


In raja-yoga, the ‘I’-consciousness pervading all the nadis is forcibly pushed back to the starting point of its spreading by the power generated through the pressure of breath-retention (prana-kumbhaka). But this is a violent method. The following is what Sri Bhagavan used to say: “Forcibly pushing back the ‘I’ – consciousness by breathretention, as is done in raja yoga, is a violent method, like chasing a run-away cow, beating it, catching hold of it, dragging it forcibly to the shed and finally tying it there; on the other hand, bringing back the ‘I’-consciousness to its source by enquiry is a gentle and peaceful method, like tempting the cow by showing it a handful of green grass, cajoling and fondling it, making it follow us of its own accord to the shed and finally tying it there”.


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This is a safe and pleasant path, To bear the churning of the nadis effected through the method of breath-retention in raja yoga, the body must be young and strong. If such a churning is made to happen in a body which is weak or old, since the body does not have the strength to bear it, many troubles may occur such as nervous disorders, physical diseases, insanity and so on. But there is no room for any such dangers if the churning is made to take place through enquiry.

 Not taking into consideration the legs and arms, since they are only subsidiary limbs, the channel through which the ‘I’ -consciousness is experienced in the trunk of the body from the base of the spine (muladhara) to the top of the head (sahasrara) is alone the sushumna.


visions ..not a requisite

While the ‘I’ – consciousness is withdrawing through the sushumna, an aspirant may have experiences of the places of the six yogic centres (shadchakras) on the way, or even without having them may reach the Heart directly. While travelling in a train to Delhi, It is not necessary that a man should see the stations and scenes on the way. Can he not reach Delhi unmindful of them, sleeping happily? However, due to the past devotional tendencies towards the different names and forms of God, which are bound by time and place, some aspirants may have experiences of the six yogic centres and of divine visions, sounds and so on therein. But for those who do not have such obstacles in the form of tendencies, the journey will be pleasant and without any distinguishing feature

(visesha). In the former case, these experiences are due to non-vigilance (pramada) in Self-attention, for they are nothing but a second person attention taking place there! This itself betrays that the attention to Self is lost! For those tremendously earnest aspirants who do not at all give room to non-vigilance in Self-attention, these objective experiences will never occur!


The following replies of Sri Ramakrishna are worth being noted in this context: When Swami Vivekananda reported to Him, “All say that they have had visions, but I have not seen any !” the Guru said, “That is good !” On another occasion, when Swami Vivekananda reported that some occult powers (siddhis) such as clairvoyance seemed to have been gained by him in the course of his sadhana, his Guru warned him “Stop your sadhana for some time, Let them leave you!” It is therefore clear from this that such experiences can be had only by those who delay by often stopping on the way on account of their Self-attention being obstructed by lack of vigilance (pramada).

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Even though the ‘I’-consciousness while being withdrawn courses only along the sushumna nadi, on account of its extreme brilliance it illumines the five sense organs (jnanendriyas), which are near the sushumna, and hence the above–mentioned experiences happen.

How? When the light of ‘I’-consciousness stationed in the sushumna illumines the eye, the organ of sight, there will be visions of Gods and many celestial worlds; when it illumines the ear, the organ of hearing, celestial sounds will be heard such as the playing of divine instruments (deva dundubhi), the ringing of divine bells, Omkara and so on; when it illumines the organ of smell, delightful divine fragrances will be smelt; when it illumines the organ of taste, delicious celestial nectar will be tasted; and when it illumines the organ of touch, a feeling of extreme pleasure will permeate the entire body or a feeling of floating in an ocean of pleasantness will be experienced.

There is no wonder that these experiences appear to be clearer and of greater reality than the sense-experiences in the ordinary waking state, because the experiences of the present waking world are gained through the gross five senses, which are functioning by the impure ‘I’ – consciousness scattered all over the body, whereas these experiences of celestial worlds are gained through the subtle five senses, which are functioning by the pure, focused ‘I’ – consciousness.


Yet all these are only qualified mental experiences (visesha-manaanubhavas) and not the unqualified Self-experience (nirvisesha-ekatma-anubhava). 

Since the mind is now very subtle and brilliant because it is withdrawn from all the other nadis into the sushumna, and since it is extremely pure because it is free from worldly desires, it is now able to project through the subtle five senses only the past auspicious tendencies (purva subha vasanas) as described above. However, just because of these visions and the like, one should not conclude that the mind has been transformed into Self (atman). Even now there has not been destruction of the mind (mono-nasa).


yoga  brhashtha

Being still alive with auspicious tendencies, it creates and perceives subtler and more lustrous second and third person objects, and finds enjoyment in them. So this is not at all the unqualified experience of true knowledge (nirvisesha-jnana-anubhava), which is the destruction of the tendencies (vasanakshaya). Whatever appears and is experienced is only a second person knowledge, which means that sadhana, the first person attention, is lost at that time! Many are those who take these qualified experiences (visesha-anubhavas) of taste, light, sound and so on to be the final attainment of Self-knowledge (brahma-jnana), and because they have had these experiences they think that they have attained liberation and they become more and more entangled in attention to second and third persons, thus losing their foothold on Self-attention. Such aspirants are called ‘those fallen from yoga’ (yoga-bhrashtas).


This is similar to a man bound for Delhi getting down from the train at some intermediate station, thinking ‘Verily, this is Delhi’, being deluded by its attractive grandeur! Even siddhis, the superhuman powers that may come during the course of sadhana are only our illusion, barring our progress to liberation and landing us in some unknown place.

What are we to do to escape from falling into such dangers? Even in this difficult situation, the clue given by Bhagavan Sri Ramana alone serves as the proper medicine! How? Whenever one is overtaken by such qualified experiences, the weapon of Ramana (Ramanastram), ‘To whom are these experiences ?’, is to be used! The feeling ‘To me’ will be the response! From this, by the enquiry ‘Who am I?’, one can immediately regain the thread of Self-attention. When Self-attention is thus regained, those qualified experiences of second and third persons will disappear of their own accord because there is no one to attend to them (just as a spirit possessing a man jumps and dances more and more so long as others attend to and try to hold the man, but leaves him if there is nobody to attend to him). When the mind, giving up knowing those qualified external sense-objects, again turns towards its form of light 80 (consciousness), it will sink into its source, the Heart, and lose its form for ever. Therefore, the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ alone is the best sadhana even for aspirants on the path of raja yoga), which will guard and guide us to the end and save us. It is the invincible supreme weapon (brahmastram) which is bestowed only by the Grace of Sri Ramana Sadguru! It is the beacon-light which safeguards us lest we should stray away from the path to eternal happiness, which is the aim of the whole world! It is the path of Sri Ramana, which alone transforms us into Self, ‘I am that I am’!

During the course of sadhana, an aspirant will now be able, by the strength of practice, to cognize tangibly what is the state of the absorption of the ego and what exactly is Self-consciousness, at which he has been aiming till now.

Although his pure Self-existence, devoid of bodyconsciousness or any other adjunct, will often be experienced by him, this is still the stage of practice and not the final attainment! Why? Since there are still the two alternating feelings, one of being sometimes extroverted and the other of being sometimes introverted, and since there is the feeling of making effort to become introverted and of losing such effort while becoming extroverted, this stage is said to be ‘not the final attainment’,

What Sri Bhagavan reveals in this connection is :

“If the mind (the attention) is thus well fixed in sadhana (attending to Self), a power of divine Grace will then rise from within of its own accord and, Subjugating the mind, will take it to the Heart”. 

What is this power of divine Grace ?

It is nothing but the perfect clarity of our existence the form of the Supreme Self (paramatman), ever shining with abundant Grace in the heart as ‘I-I’ !

The nature of a needle lying within a magnetic field is to be attracted and pulled only when its rust has been removed. But we should not conclude from this that the magnetic power comes into existence only after the rust is removed from the needle. Is not the magnetic power always naturally existing in that field?

Although the needle was all the while lying in the magnetic field, it is affected by the attraction of the magnet only to the extent that it loses its rust.

All that we try to do by way of giving up second and third attention and clinging to Self-attention is similar to scraping off the rust.

So the result of all our endeavours is to make ourself it to become a prey to the attraction of the magnetic field of pure consciousness the Heart, which is ever shining engulfing all (that is reducing the whole universe to non-existence) with spreading rays of Selfeffulgence.


imp

Mature aspirants will willingly and without rebelling submit themselves to this magnetic power of the Grace of Self-effulgence.

Others, on the other hand, will become extroverted (that is, will turn their attention outwards) fearing the attraction of this power


Therefore, we should first make ourself fit by the intense love (bhakthi) to know Self and by the tremendous detachment (vairagya) of having no desire to attend to any second or third person.

Then, since our very individuality (as an aspirant) itself is devoured by that power, even the so-called ‘effort of ours’ becomes nil.

Thus, when the ‘I’ – consciousness that was spread all over the body is made to sink into the Heart, the real waking, the dawn of knowledge (jnana), takes place. This happens in a split second !

“Death is a matter of a split second! The leaving off of sleep is a matter of a split second! Likewise, the removal of the delusion ‘I am an individual soul (jiva)’ is also a matter of a split second!

The dawn of true knowledge is not such that glimpses of it will be gained once and then lost! If an aspirant feels that it appears and disappears, it is only the stage of practice (sadhana); he cannot be said to have attained true knowledge (jnana).


The perfect dawn of knowledge is a happening of a split second; its attainment is not a prolonged process.


All the age long practices are meant only for attaining maturity


Let us give an example it takes a long lime to prepare a temple cannon-blast, first putting the gunpowder into the barrel, giving the wick, adding some stones and then ramming it, but when ignited it explodes as a thunder in a split second.

 Similarly, after an age long period of listening and reading (sravana), reflecting (manana), practising (h-dhyasana) and weeping put in prayer (because of the inability to put what is heard into practice), when the mind is thus perfectly purified, then and then only does the dawn of self-knowledge suddenly break forth in a split second as ‘I am that I am’!

Since, as soon as this dawn breaks, the space of Self-consciousness is found, through the clear knowledge of the Reality, to be beginningless, natural and eternal, even the effort of attending to Self ceases then! To abide thus, having nothing more to do and nothing further to achieve, is alone the real and supreme state.” ‘Sadhanai Saram’

That which we are now experiencing as the waking state is not the real waking state. This waking state is also a dream! There is no difference at all between this waking and dream. In both these states, the feeling ‘I am’ catches hold of a body as ‘I am this’ and, seeing external objects, involves itself in activities. To awaken as described above from the dream of this waking state is the dawn of knowledge, our real state, or the real waking.

 How are we to determine, ‘Another awakening is no longer necessary; this is the real waking’?” Whatever state it may be which we feel to be waking, so long as there is an experience of the existence of any second or third persons, which are other than oneself, it is not at all the real waking state; it is only a dream! Verify, our real waking (our real state) is that in which our existence alone (not attached to any kind of body) shines unaided and without cognizing anything other than ‘we’. The definition of the correct waking is that state in which there is perfect Self-consciousness and singleness of Self- existence, without the knowledge of the existence of anything apart from Self! From this one can determine the real waking.

“Forgetting Self, mistaking the body for Self, taking innumerable births, and at last knowing Self and being Self is just like waking from a dream of wandering all over the world. Know thus.”

 ‘Ekatma Panchakam’, verse 1


“To remain in the state (of Self), having attained the supreme bliss, which is devoid of both bondage end liberation, is truly to be in the service of the Lord.” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 29


The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry Who am I?’. The thought ‘Who am I?’ (which is but a means for turning our attention Self -wards), destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.

....By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

When the mind (the attention), which is subtle, goes out through the brain and sense-organs (which are gross), the names-and-forms (the objects of the world), which are gross, appear; when it abides in the heart (its source, Self), the names-and-forms disappear

Keeping the mind in the heart (through the above-described means of fixing our attention in Self), not allowing it to go out, alone is called ‘Self-wardness’ (ahamukham) or ‘introversion’ (antarmukham).

Allowing it to go out from the heart alone is called ‘extroversion’ (bahirmukham). When the mind thus abides in the heart, the ‘I’ (the thought ‘I’, the ego), which is the root of all thoughts, having vanished, the ever-existing Self alone will shine. The place (or state) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ does not exist, alone is Self (swarupam). That alone is called ‘Silence’ (maunam). To be still (summa iruppadu) in this manner alone is called ‘seeing through (the eye of) knowledge’ (jnana-drishti). To be still is to make the mind subside in Self (through Self-attention). Other than this, knowing the thoughts of others, knowing the three times (past, present and future), knowing events in distant places – all these can never be jnana-drishti.


To make the mind subside, there is no adequate means other than enquiry (vichara). If controlled by other means, the mind will remain as if subsided, but will rise again.


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 As thoughts subside more and more, one-pointedness is gained, and for the mind which has thereby gained strength, Self-enquiry (atma-vichara) will easily be attained*

Although tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-- vasanas), which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as Self-attention (swarupa-dhyana) becomes more and more intense.

Without giving room even to the doubting thought, ‘Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies (vasanas) and to remain as Self alone ?’, one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention,


However great a sinner one may be, it, not lamenting Oh, I am a sinner ! How can I attain salvation ?’ but completely giving up even the thought that one is, a sinner, one is steadfast in Selfattention, one will surely be saved

As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-vasanas) in the mind, so long the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is necessary.

Not attending to what-is-other (anya, that is, to any second or third person object) is nonattachment (vairagya) or desirelessness (nirasa);

 not leaving Self is knowledge (jnana). 

In truth, these two (desirelessness and knowledge) are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment (vairagya), can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to Self-remembrance (swarupa-smaranai, that is, remembrance of or attention to the mere feeling ‘I’) until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient. As long as there are enemies within the fort, they will continue to come out. If one continues to cut all of them down as and when they come, the fort will fall into our hands

Remaining firmly in Self-abidance (atma-nishtha), without giving even the least room to the rising of any thought other than the thought of Self (atma-chintan), is surrendering oneself to God


Since it is said in all the scriptures that in order to attain liberation (mukti) one should control** the mind, after coming to know that mind-control (mano-nigraha) alone is the final decision (injunction) of the scriptures, to read scriptures unlimitedly is fruitless,

In order to control the mind, it is necessary to enquire who one is, (then) how, instead (of enquiring thus within oneself) to enquire (and know who one is) in scriptures?

 One should know oneself through one’s own eye of knowledge (jnana-kan). For Rama to know himself to be Rama, is a mirror necessary?

‘Oneself’ is within the five sheaths (pancho kosas); whereas the scriptures are outside them. Therefore, enquiring in scriptures about oneself, who is to be enquired into (attended to) setting aside even the five sheaths, is futile,
Enquiring ‘Who am I that am in bondage?’ and knowing one’s real nature (swarupam) alone is liberation (mukti), Always keeping the mind (the attention) fixed in Self (in the feeling ‘I’) alone is called ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara); whereas meditation (dhyana) is thinking oneself to be the Absolute (brahman), which is existence-consciousness-bliss (sat-chit-ananda). All that one has learnt will at one time have to be forgotten.

Remembering once the name of God with an unwavering (one-pointed) mind is more valuable than doing a thousand crores of Japa with a wandering mind.

6. The mind that attends to the true import of the word ‘I’ through jnana japa dies in Self, losing its individuality. The mind that embraces the name of God, who is pure consciousness (chit), with melting love (through bhakti japa) transforms itself into the unbroken form of bliss (ananda); it cannot remain as a separate entity.

In order to qualify as an aspirant, one must have the absolute conviction that happiness, the sole aim of all living beings, can be obtained not from external objects but only from one’s own inmost Self. When one has this qualification, an intense yearning will arise in one’s heart to try to attend to and know Self. Indeed’, for a true aspirant the desire and effort to know Self will become the most important part of his life, and all other things will be regarded as being only of secondary importance. When such an intense yearning arises in one, success is assured, for ‘where there is a will there is a way’.

Moreover, since prarabdha determines only the outward activities of the body and mind, it can in no way obstruct the inward desire and yearning for Self-knowledge. If one has an intense yearning for Self-knowledge, the Guru’s Grace will certainly help one in all ways, both from within and without, to enable one to attend to Self.

At first one may not be able to maintain unbroken Self-attention even for a few minutes. Due to long habit, it is only natural that the mind will start to think of some second or third person objects. Each time the attention thus turns outwards, the aspirant again tries to turn it back towards the first person. This process of slackening of Self-attention and then trying to regain it, will repeat itself again and again. If the aspirant’s mind is weak due to deficiency in the love to know Self, the slackening of Self-attention will happen frequently, in which case a struggle will ensue and the mind will soon become tired. Instead of thus repeatedly struggling to regain Self-attention, one should relax the mind for a while as soon as the initial attempt to fix the attention on the first person becomes un-steady, and then again make a fresh attempt. If one thus makes intermittent attempts, each attempt will be found to have a fresh force and a more precise clarity of attention.

 If one presses one’s thumb on a pressure scale, the dial may at first indicate a pressure of ten kilograms. But if one tries to maintain that pressure for a long period of time, the dial will show that it is gradually slackening and decreasing. On the other hand, if one releases the pressure and after a brief rest presses again with fresh vigour, the dial will show a little more than ten kilograms. Similar is the case with Self-attention. If one struggles for a long time to maintain Self-attention, the intensity and clarity of one’s attention will gradually slacken and decrease. But if instead one relaxes as soon as one finds that one’s Self-attention is slackening, and if after a brief rest one makes a fresh attempt to fix one’s attention on Self, that fresh attempt will have a greater intensity and clarity. Therefore, what is important is not so much the length of time one spends trying to attend to Self, but the earnestness and intensity with which one makes each fresh attempt.

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During the time of practice (sadhana) our attention, which is now focused on second and third person objects, has to turn back 180 degrees, so to speak to focus itself on the first person. In the beginning, however, one’s attention may be able to turn only 5, 10 or 15 degrees. This is because one’s turning is resisted by a powerful spring – the spring of one’s tendencies (vasanas) or subtle desires towards worldly objects. Every time one tries to turn towards the first person, this spring of one’s worldly
tendencies will tend to pull one’s mind back again towards second and third persons. Therefore the number of degrees one is able to turn will depend upon the firmness of one’s desirelessness (vairagya) towards worldly objects and upon the strength of one’s longing (bhakti) to know Self. Such vairagya and bhakti will be increased in one by regularly practising Self-attention, by earnestly praying to Sri Bhagavan and by constantly associating with such persons or books as will repeatedly remind one, “Only by knowing Self can we attain. real and enduring happiness; so long as we do not know Self we will be endlessly courting and experiencing misery; therefore our first and foremost duty in life is to know Self; all other efforts will only end in vain.”

As one’s desirelessness and longing to know Self thus increase by prayer to the Guru, by study (sravana) of and reflection (manana) upon His teachings, and by practice (nididhyasana) of Self-attention, one’s ability to turn one’s attention towards the first person will also increase, until one will be able to turn it 90, 120 or even 150 degrees at each fresh attempt.

When one’s ability to turn one’s attention Self-wards thus increases, one will be able to experience a tenuous current of Self-awareness even while engaged in activity; that is, one will be able to experience an awareness of one’s being which will not be disturbed by whatever one’s mind, speech or body may be doing, in other words, one will be able to remember the feeling ‘I am’ which always underlies all one’s activities.

However, this tenuous current of Self-awareness should not be taken to be the state of unceasing Self-attention,. because one will experience it only when one feels inclined to do so.

How then can one experience the state of unceasing Self-attention, the state of unswerving Self-abidance? The Guru’s Grace will more and more help those aspirants who thus repeatedlY practise Self-attention with great love (bhaktl) to know Self. When a glowing fire and a blowing wind join together, they play wonders. Likewise, when the glowing fire of love for Self-knowledge and the blowing wind of the Guru’s Grace join together, a great wonder takes place. During one of his fresh attempts, the aspirant will be able to turn his attention a complete 180 degrees towards Self (that is, he will be able to achieve a perfect clarity of Self-awareness, completely uncontaminated by even the least awareness of any second or third person), whereupon he will feel a great change taking place spontaneously and without his effort.

His power of attention, which he had previously tried so many times to turn towards Self and which had always slipped back towards second and third persons, will now be caught under the grip of a powerful clutch which will not allow it to turn again towards any second or third person.

 This clutch is the clutch of Grace. Though Grace has always been helping and guiding one, it is only when one is thus caught by its clutch that one becomes totally a prey to it. If one once turns one’s attention a full 180 degrees towards Self, one is sure to be caught by this clutch of Grace, which will then take one as its own and will forever protect one from again turning towards second and third person objects.

This state in which the mind is thus caught by the clutch of Grace and is thereby drowned forever in its source, is known as the experience of true.knowledge (jnananubhutl), Self-realization (atmasakshatkaram), liberation (moksha) and so on.

This alone can be called the state of unceasing Self-attention.

Some people doubt, “If it is so, will the mind then remain drowned forever in samadhi? Will it not be able to come out again and know all the second and third person objects of this world? Is it not a fact that even Bhagavan Sri Ramana spent nearly fifty-four years in the state of Self-realization and that most of that time He was seen to be attending to second and third persons ?” Yes, it is true that though Sri Bhagavan always remained in the state of Self-realization, yet in the outlook of others He was seen to be knowing the world. How can this be accounted for?

To remain with the body and mind completely inert is not the only sign of samadhi. Though after Selfrealization some Jnanis spend their entire lifetime completely oblivious of the body and world, not all Jnanis will necessarily remain thus. The return of body consciousness (and consequently world-consciousness) after the attainment of Self-realization is according to the prarabdha of that body; in the case of some it might never return, while in the case of others it might return within a second or after a few hours or days. But even in such cases where it does return, it will not be experienced as a knowledge of second or third persons! That is to say, the body and world are not experienced by the Jnani as second and third persons – objects other than Himself-but as His own unlimited and undivided Self.

So long as one is an aspirant one mistakes the limited form of one’s body to be oneself, and consequently the remaining portion of one’s unlimited real Self is experienced by one as the world-a collection of second and third person, objects. But after attaining Self-realization, since one experiences oneself to be the unlimited Whole, one discovers that all the second and third persons which one was previously feeling to be other than oneself, are truly nothing but one’s own Self. Therefore, even while a Jnani is (in the view of onlookers) attending to second and third person objects, He is (in His own view) attending only to Self. Hence, even though He may appear to be engaged in so many activities, both physical and mental, He is in fact ever abiding in the natural state of unceasing Self--attention.

Therefore, unceasing Self-attention is possible only in the state of Self-realization and not in the state of practice (sadhana). What one has to do during the period of sadhana is to cultivate ever-increasing love to attain Self-knowledge and to make intermittent but repeated attempts to turn one’s attention a full 180 degrees towards Self. If one once succeeds in doing this, then unceasing Self-attention will be found to be natural and effortless.



...the path of Ramana part 1 ends.....................

.......................................


sadhanai saram


31. When the true knowledge dawns that everything is only “I”, then the extroverted love which desirously springs towards other objects, will remain pervading everywhere in the form of mere Being and will no longer spring towards anything else. The love that thus remains as mere Being, having ceased to move in the form of thoughts, alone is Siva, who is Self.




......

In this connection, some raise the following doubt: “If it is said that we have awakened from one dream and have come to another dream, the present waking state, why, after we awaken from this waking state, will even that not be another dream like this? How are we to determine, ‘Another awakening is no longer necessary; this is the real waking’?” Whatever state it may be which we feel to be waking, so long as there is an experience of the existence of any second or third persons, which are other than oneself, it is not at all the real waking state; it is only a dream! Verify, our real waking (our real state) is that in which our existence alone (not attached to any kind of body) shines unaided and without cognizing anything other than ‘we’.

The definition of the correct waking is that state in which there is perfect Self-consciousness and singleness of Self- existence, without the knowledge of the existence of anything apart from Self! From this one can determine the real waking.

............
ns

bc is denial of Self




........

32. Since Self is happiness itself, so long as one sees other things, which are in truth only Self (but whose names and forms are a mere appearance), how can one not think that those other things are pleasurable? This alone is the reason why all living beings, beginning with celestial beings and including men and all other creatures, are drowning and burning in the great fire of desires for external objects.

35. When we limit our true nature of undivided existence-consciousness-bliss by wrongly accepting an insignificant body to be “I”, desire arises for those objects of the world that are favorable to this limited “I”, and aversion arises for those objects which are not favorable to it. This desire and aversion are a twofold reflected shadow of our real nature, which is bliss (ananda) or love (priya).

37. Only by the experience of Self-knowledge will all desires be burnt and destroyed in such a manner that they can never again revive. Nobody has ever overcome the power of desires merely by fighting and struggling for any number of years against the wandering nature of the five senses.

.................

non grasping mind ..agraham....= No mind

Atma satyane bodhena

then sansara disappears...agrahena ..you are not grasping


anitya drusheshu vivichya (viveka) nityam
tasmin samaddhatta (samadhistha ) leela

viveka vairagya visshuddha chittam

...This understanding not difficult....but letting go mentally..is difficult.


atma satya..anatma mithya

...mind becomes with no sankalpa. fear lost.

.....................      ................
ns   no 8 isarga medn playlist 1:12:00

those who have realised that c is devoid of gunas become tired of living in this world. They go to lonely places like the himalayas

ll chaos due to concept ..im the body..
.....................


41....Know that the non-rising of the ego, which rises either with the feeling “I am having this particular desire” or with the feeling “I have renounced this particular desire,” is alone true renunciation.

42....Hence, the state that is devoid of the ego, which feels “I” and “me,” is alone the state that is acceptable to Sages.

50a. Those fortunate people who have attained a perfect Guru will not toil in vain to cultivate good qualities in the mind.

They will only cultivate the practice of Self-inquiry, which will draw the mind within and destroy it, and thereby they will not allow the mind to rise in the form of thoughts.

To attain the unequaled and unsurpassed nature (of abiding eternally as Self), there is no way other than the practice of making the mind humbly subside through devotion and inquiry.


51. Our association (sanga) with the reality (sat) alone is true sat-sanga. Since Self-alone is the reality, abiding in the Self-alone is the best sat-sanga (conscious company or association). Moreover, since those great aspirants (Sadhus) who have realized Self, the reality, cannot be other than Self, they too are the reality itself. Therefore, approach such Self-realized Ones (Sadhus) and remain with them as their devoted slave.

52. If you do not have the power to abide in Self, the reality, remain with love in the constant company of Sadhus who have known the reality.

 If you do not have even the good fortune to be in their company, have contact at least with the teachings of such Sadhus by constantly studying those books that contain the words (works) they have spoken. Studying such books is also sat-sanga (conscious association).

53. What are those books, the study of which is to be considered as sat-sanga? They are only those books that will clearly impress upon you, “Self alone is the reality, so always abide in Self.” “In order to abide in Self, practice only Self-inquiry and do not follow any other path.” “Practice Self-inquiry now, itself; turn and dive within.”

54. If, in the name of conscious association (satsanga), you gather together all kinds of people, said “holy gathering” will consist only of a crowd of people who are skilled in oratory, or who have studied innumerable books, or who have mastered the sixty-four mundane arts (apara-vidyas); all of which are unreal products of the mind’s power of imagination. Reject all such gatherings, knowing that they are not at all true conscious company (sat-sanga).

55. Rather than associating with such people, thinking their company to be sat-sanga, it is better for you to remain alone without associating with anyone; because such solitude or non-association will help you at least gradually to gain more and more detachment.

56. For those who have been blessed with the rare and great good fortune of gaining true satsanga, all the heaps of gold in the seven worlds cannot be compared with that treasure called satsanga, because by such sat-sanga they will cross the ocean of ignorance (ajnana), which is so difficult to cross, and thus they will attain in this very life the unequaled state of liberation, which is so difficult to attain.

Note: Compare verse 2 of Supplement to Reality in Forty Verses, in which Sri Bhagavan says, “that supreme state (of liberation) that is praised (by all the scriptures) and that is attained here (in this very life) by the clear Inquiry (vichara) that arises in the heart when one gains association with a sage (Sadhu), is impossible to attain by (listening to) preachers, by (studying and learning) the meaning of the scriptures, by (doing) virtuous deeds or by any other means”.

57. Though your mind lacks the strength of discrimination or dispassion (viveka and vairagya) required to withdraw itself from the false attraction of the pleasures of this unreal world, your mind will naturally and spontaneously become mature to the extent to which you humbly and lovingly come very close and associate with enlightened sages (Jnanis), who abide as the reality (sat).


58. If you ask how, just as even a fresh plantain tree will become dry and catch fire when it comes in close proximity to a raging forest fire, so the minds of those who associate with Jnanis will, unknown to themselves, be made by that association to attain great love to attend to and abide in Self.

60. We should not believe that we have by our own efforts and practice (sadhana) brought about the rising of such pure devotion and clear discrimination that we are thus able to experience in our hearts. This true devotion and discrimination are spontaneously and naturally kindled in our hearts, not by our own efforts, but only by the power of the Grace of that Sat-purusha who is living close to us, and who appears as if he is someone other than us.

61. Just like a mother who feeds her sleeping child even without the child knowing that he is being fed, the Grace of the Sat-purusha enters our hearts in a manner that cannot be known by us even if we have the most subtle and powerful of intellects, and thereby His Grace reforms us and brings about the destruction of our mind. Ah! His Grace is beyond all limits and cannot be gauged by anyone.

63. Only those who abide firmly in the reality (sat) are Sages (Sadhus); those pure Sages are not other than Self, whose nature is realityconsciousness-bliss (sat-chit-ananda). Knowing the truth, that Arunachala is manifest here as the peerless gross form of the reality, remain here in order to associate with the reality. Note: There is no form of external conscious company (sat-sanga) superior to that of residing near and doing pradakshina (circumambulation) around Arunachala.

64. If due to its wavering nature one’s mind is confounded and bewildered, being unable to cling fast to the practice of Self-abidance,

or to the path of devotion, or to the eightfold path of raja yoga, and if one is therefore seeking some good form of austere spiritual practice (tapas) as an effective and easy path along which he can make further effort, let him repeatedly and perseveringly come round this divine Hill Arunachala.


65. Any kind of action (karma) is a dual activity (dvaita vritti) that casts one further and further away from Self, the center of all.

But unlike all other actions (karmas), doing pradakshina, or circumambulating around Arunachala is a dual activity that does not cast one away from Self, the sun of true knowledge. Therefore, do this.
...

ns
renunciation happens through self knowledge
...


71. The benefit in repeating a holy name of God is not only to gain one-pointedness of mind, but is to surrender oneself to God to such an extent that one’s heart melts and dissolves with ever-brimming love for Him while repeating His name.

72. Thinking once of the name of God with a steady one-pointed mind is more valuable than doing a thousand, thousand (or crores) of repetitions (japa) with a wandering mind. But calling intently upon God even once, with a mind surging with love for Him, is far superior even to doing a million (crore) of japa with a one-pointed mind.

73. While doing repetition (japa) of the name of God, there is one thing, called “love,” which is to be mingled with it. If one knows correctly the way to do japa uniting love with the name of God, the result attained by that japa will be not only one-pointedness of mind, that japa will bestow upon one the deathless state of union with God. 

  74. Uniting love with the name of God is giving of oneself, the ego “I,” as an offering to His feet. Love is we, and the name is He. Thus, uniting love with His name is offering our self to Him, which is the principle of self-surrender (saranagati-tattva). By such self-surrender, the state of Self-abidance is attained.

75. Japa (repetition of mantra) can be classified as being of two kinds, namely knowledge (jnana japa) and devotion (bhakti japa). Repeating mentally “I, I” is knowledge, or jnana japa; repeating the name of God with love is devotion, or bhakti japa. The mind of one who has liking for jnana japa seeks to know the true import of the word “I” and merges in that. One who is earnest in doing bhakti japa loses his separate individuality, melting with love in the name of his Lord.

76. The mind, which seeks the true import of the word “I” while doing natural or swarupa japa, will lose itself and die in Self, the reality. Those who depend upon God, the embodiment of pure consciousness, and who melt with love while repeating His name, become the supreme bliss which is devoid of the ego “I”, and thus they cease to exist as an entity separate from Him. 

77. For those who follow the path of Self-inquiry, or jnana japa, renders all the help required to attain Self-knowledge. For those who follow the path of devotion, bhakti japa makes them unite with God. For which ever one of these two kinds of japa a lik-ing naturally arises in a person, that kind of japa is suitable for him.

...................

unless vasana kshaya and manonasha...reality sat will be difficult to manifest in life.

.......................

imp

79. To the extent to which love for God arises in one’s heart, to that extent will one acquire knowledge about Him. And to the extent to which one knows the nature of God, to that extent will the mind gain steadfast love for Him. Thus, knowledge (jnana) will be increased by devotion (bhakti), and devotion (bhakti) will be increased by knowledge (jnana). 

80. By means of our love for God, He will give us more knowledge of Him, and by means of our knowledge of Him, He will give us more love for Him. Therefore, of these two paths, bhakti and jnana, follow that one for which you first gain a liking, because that one path will lead you to follow the other one into the heart. 

81. In the life of an aspirant who is seeking liberation, bhakti and jnana will be experienced as inseparable, like the two sides of one sheet of paper. Hence, each one is equal to the other. They are not two different things, for the true nature of both of them is one and the same; know that bhakti and jnana are merely two names for that one thing


82. The state of abiding firmly in Self-alone is wisdom (jnana). Would it be possible to abide thus in Self if one did not have love for Self? Love for Self-alone is bhakti; abiding firmly in Self on account of that love alone is jnana. What difference is there between these two? Discriminate and know this truth. (Maharshi’s Gospel p.24)

84. An aspirant who practices Self-inquiry, which is the path of jnana, denies his own individuality by knowing, “I, this insignificant ego, am not the doer of any action”; while a devotee denies his own individuality by knowing, “God alone is the doer of all actions.” Thus, since an aspirant who follows either of these two paths refrains from assuming the sense of doership, understand that these two paths are not different even during the time of practice, and follow either of them


20. Inquiry Becoming Easy Due to Devotion


imp-

87. When, having wept and wept with intense yearning for a long time, unceasingly thinking of and adoring the Gracious Feet (of the Lord), the mind which rises (as “I am so-and-so”) dissolves and becomes pure, the blemishless Self-inquiry (jnana-atmavichara) will become firmly settled (in the heart) and the experience of Self (swarupa-anubhava) will of its own accord arise very easily indeed. – Sri Muruganar

89. Since the ego itself is everything (as revealed by Sri Bhagavan in verse 26 of Reality in Forth Verses), giving up the ego, the feeling “I am this body,” by surrendering it to God, is lovingly surrendering everything to Him. Having once surrendered the ego to God, abiding in Self without taking it back again (that is, without again identifying the body as “I” or “mine”) is true tapas.

90. Having surrendered the ego to God, if one takes it back again, that is the sin of stealing back what has once been given. Therefore, in order to avoid committing such a sin, practice Self-attention unfailingly, because only if one attends to the ego vigilantly and unceasingly will it drown in the heart so as never to rise again. Garland of Guru’s Sayings verse 317)


91. Destroying the ego through Self-attention is alone the excellent path of self-surrender. Therefore, scrutinizing and knowing one’s own Self is alone the proper method of practicing both self surrender, the path of devotion, and Self-inquiry, the path of knowledge.

Note: Compare with Who am I?; thirteenth paragraph, where Sri Bhagavan says, “Remaining firmly….surrendering oneself to God.”

92. The path of knowledge, in which we scrutinize “Who am I?”, is itself the path of devotion in which we have true love for God. Knowing thus, that Self-inquiry and self-surrender are one and the same, not only in their goal but also in their method of practice, follow the practice of Self-attention.

105. Until the root-tendency (mula-vasana) to identify a body as “I” ceases to exist, the appearances of the waking and dream states that arise due to delusion (maya) will not come to an end.

 If you, with a one-pointed mind keenly and incessantly attend to the consciousness of your existence, which shines as pure “I am,” the root-tendency “I am the body,” and all its products and other tendencies, will cease to exist. 


111...You will not take birth again only if you awaken into the true state of Self-knowledge. Awaken thus.

 115. Even before the experience of the current destiny (prarabdha karma) which caused the appearance of a dream has come to an end, if the mind is struck by intense fear, joy or suffering, its power of attention will be driven Self-wards and return to the heart, whereupon waking will result.

116. Similarly, even before all the accumulated sanchita karmas have been exhausted by being experienced in the form of prarabdha, if in this present life, which was started by prarabdha, the mind either gains firm dispassion (vairagya), being unable to bear the severe sufferings of life, or experiences intense fear of death, it will turn Self-wards and merge in the heart; whereupon the true awakening of Self-knowledge will result.

117. When such intense fear or suffering are experienced, if the mind with mature discrimination (viveka) at once earnestly scrutinizes, “To whom does this fear or suffering arise?” then the extroverted power of attention, which was till then being dragged out towards objects other than itself, will turn inwards to face itself, whereupon the truly awakened life of Self-abidance will immediately be attained.

121. The pure consciousness “I,” which exists in sleep devoid of all adjuncts, is the Supreme Reality (Brahman). If we do not slip down from that state of pure consciousness due to attachment to the body (dehabhimana), that itself is the Supreme Abode (parandhama). If we remain, without leaving Self, that itself is liberation.

136. A human body is necessary (in order for us to attain Self-knowledge); all right, it has now come to us. But if we still have a liking for this human body (and if we desire to make it healthy and strong), the attachment to it in the form “I” and “mine” will increase, and it will not help us in the least to destroy the feeling “I am this body” (dehatma-bhava). That (desire to protect the body and to make it healthy and strong) is indeed an obstacle (to the attainment of Self-knowledge).

137...“Trying to know the (real) Self and at the same time cherishing the (unreal and) perishable body, is like taking hold of a crocodile as a raft in order to cross a river.”

143. Having understood, “If death is only the destruction of the body, then it is merely the state in which I, the soul, am separated from the insentient body,” the mind of the aspirant will come to a bold determination, accepting thus, “Let me remain in the same manner as I would be when death occurs in practice.”

144. This bold determination is dispassion (vairagya). Only when it arises will true renunciation be attained. When true renunciation is thus attained as a result of the fear of death, then and there the divine Grace of the Guru will arise and function so as to separate us as other than this body – as Self, the nature of existence-consciousness (sat-chitswarupa). Thus, the attachment to the body as “I” (dehabhimana) will perish.

145. When the power of divine Grace functions thus, the true light of Self-consciousness, the one peerless reality, will shine forth, expanding and blossoming in the heart, whereupon in front of that brilliant light this world and our life as an individual in this world will disappear, being found to be a mere false appearance, just as in front of the sun the yellow stain of turmeric disappears from a white cloth.

146. Since the truth, “The death which comes is only for this filthy body, and is not in any way for us,” will thus shine forth as one’s own experience, the fear of death will thereafter never rise again

147. Then patient forbearance (udasina) or indifference to mundane happenings, absence of all base qualities, fearlessness, the steadfast power of true love, and all the six exalted divine qualities (bhagavat-gunas) divine splendor, valor, glory, pure knowledge, divine prosperity and desirelessness, will shine in one clearly and harmoniously.


151. Thinking of anything other than “I” is alone birth; not thinking of anything other than “I” is liberation (mukti).

Will those who have learnt well the art of not thinking, and who thereby abide firmly in the thought-free state, come again under the sway of thought?  

The practice of refraining from seeing oneself as the many objects of this world is alone perfect practice (sadhana).

If one achieves success in this sadhana, then there will be no more birth or death.

152. In order not to experience either birth or death, let us arrive at the exalted practice (sadhana) of abiding in the natural state, which is devoid of thinking and forgetting.

 If we learn correctly how to abide thus, then for what reason will we take birth or die?

 The art of abiding without doubt in the state of Self is alone worthy for us to learn.


154. Since they are known only when thoughts exist, and since they do not shine when one abides firmly in Self, the creator of the soul, God and world is only the mind, which is the aggregate of all thoughts. Is this creation a work done by Self? No.

29. Pramada

156. Know that the world, soul and God have all seemingly come into existence only because of our pramada or slackness in Self-attention.

 30. The Disappearance of Otherness

157. The entire universe composed of the five elements, earth, water, fire, air and space, appears only due to our error of mistaking as “I,” the ego that rises from Self like a spark rising from fire, and which appears as different from Self whose nature is Being, and as identical with the mind, whose nature is rising.

159. If we attain the otherness-free knowledge (ananya jnana), that this world is nothing but our own Self, seen wrongly in our self by our self through our power of imagination, then the delusion of desire for or fear of the world (the objects we see in front of us), will never rise again; and we will merge in and become one with Self. This alone is our natural state.


163. If this “I,” the self-rising ego-appearance, is destroyed by the inquiry “Who am I?”, then everything else, which till then appeared only in him (in the mind) but which was seen as if existing outside of him, will cease to exist. The ever-existing Whole or purna, which then shines forth as “I-I,” the blissful existence which neither appears nor disappears, is the real Self, the true import of the word “I.”

164. The “I” which is the Whole, which is the true import of “I”, which shines by its own light without appearing due to the functioning of the five sense-knowledge (and disappearing when they cease to function); which is the exalted and everunleaving experience of Self, and which is the true nature of everyone, alone is the one non-dual reality; it alone is true knowledge.

165. This true knowledge is not anything other than oneself; it is our own existence-consciousness “I am.” Why should we suffer by imagining and seeing the soul, world and God in this knowledge? Abiding firmly as mere Being, experience this knowledge correctly; then what thing other than oneself will appear there?

.........the mind merging and abiding firmly in Self is alone the true state of supreme power.

170. If one has the ability to deny oneself and thereby to destroy the rising of the ego in its very source, what other tapas need one perform? The real Self, the source in which the ego thus subsides and dies, alone is the state which is worth to purchase and attain by selling (or renouncing) all the three worlds.

173. If you first attend to yourself, by investigating within yourself “To whom has this illusory appearance of the world (maya) come? To whom does it exist?” then in the mind that has merged in the state of Silence due to such Self-attention, the truth that you exist as the mere consciousness “I am,” devoid of any differentiation, diversity or imagi-nation (vikalpa), will spontaneously reveal itself to you.


imp 

174. When the truth is known that you, the person who identifies the body as “I,” and who raises doubts and asks questions about phenomenal existence (maya), do not exist even in the least, then you will know as a matter of direct experience that in no place, at no time and in no way did phenomenal existence (maya) ever come or exist, and that the existence of the illusory world (maya) cannot be accepted even as a false appearance.

175. He (the mind) who says that the illusion of phenomenal existence (maya) has come into existence is himself an illusion (maya). Therefore, the one path of Self-attention, which puts an end to the mind, is alone the means that the pure Jnana-Guru, Sri Ramana Bhagavan, has bestowed upon us as the apt medicine to put an end to all the arguments that arise about phenomenal existence (maya).

176. Even though our Guru has instructed us, “See ‘Who am I'?”, people of dull intellect ask, “Why has this world and the pleasures and pains herein come into existence?”
instead of investigating “Who am I?” within themselves;

only for such dull-minded people who ask thus, the Guru and the scriptures say, “Ah! That is all illusion (maya).”

177. But since people of pure faith who sincerely engage in the practice of Self-attention as instructed by the Guru, drown in the true consciousness “I” by turning their attention again and again towards the false self (the mind) whenever it rises, to raise any kind of further questions, this talk of maya is not intended for them.


34. Doubt Who is the Doubter

178. Do you merely want an apt reply to the doubt that has come to you? Or do you wish to attain the state in which no doubt can ever rise again? Know that to become pure consciousness, in which there is no place for any doubt to rise, is alone the state that is acceptable to wise people.


35. The Learning That Should be Learnt

189. One’s learning to abide as the indestructible existence-consciousness “I am,” having known it to be different from the existence of the body, is alone true learning, (the supreme science or paravidya). Abiding thus, having clearly known this existence-consciousness, and having thereby subsided in Self, is alone the state of true knowledge (jnana).

....but it cannot be an obstacle to one’s enjoying the true happiness of Self, because) to abide permanently in Self is easy

imp 

194. Know that making effort to achieve an inward-facing attention, which will increase the clarity of Self-awareness, 

instead of driving the mind outwards with great force in order to acquire the useless learning (of mundane knowledge or aparavidya), which will cloud and destroy that clarity, is the truest and highest learning (para-vidya).


196. Self-knowledge will shine forth spontaneously only when the mind subsides. 

But if the mind that subsides is full of wicked and inauspicious tendencies (asubha vasanas), Self-knowledge will not shine forth, and hence the mind will once again rise and become extroverted. If on the other hand the mind that subsides is pure, being endowed with good qualities (sattva gunas) and the tendency to simply be (sat-vasana), it will merge within with onepointed Self-attention and unsleeping vigilance, and hence it will not rise again; but will attain unwavering abidance in the state of Self-knowledge.


197. If the mind, having subsided and becoming one with Self, clearly knows that Being (as it really is) is alone real happiness,
 and that rising as “I” (a separate individual or ego) is nothing but misery,
 it will gain the fondness to subside in Self
 without ever rising again, having completely destroyed the duality of likes and dislikes.

.....and whose minds have not therefore completely withdrawn from all such extroverted desires and efforts, it will not be easy to inquire, “Who am I?”, and to know the true state of Self, just as a reflection of one’s face will not be formed clearly in swiftly running water

200. If the liking to attain true knowledge really rises with one, it will be easy for one to experience Self-knowledge, the state of perfect emancipation, as clearly as an amalaka (crystal, or goose berry) fruit in the hand. 

But so long as even an iota of the liking to enjoy the pleasures of this unreal world remains unsubsided in one’s heart, the real thirst to know Self will not rise within one. 

201. To the extent in which the conviction grows stronger in us that all the extroverted activity of the mind is only misery, to that extent the desire and love to turn within will also increase.

 And to the extent to which the strength to attend to Self alone increases in us, to that extent the conviction will grow that attending to anything other than Self is useless. 

Thus, each one of these two (namely vairagya or desirelessness towards external objects and bhakti or the love to attend to Self) is an aid to increase the other.

202. Know that he who likes to remain steadfastly attending to Self, knowing that Self-attention is far more important than any action that he has to do, than any word that he has to speak, or than any thought that he has to think, alone is a true mature spiritual aspirant (pakvi). 

203. Though many crores (millions) of very important thoughts rise in one’s heart, bliss can be enjoyed only when one rejects all of them and remains still, knowing that to be still is far more important than to continue attending to any thought whatsoever. 

Only by those earnest aspirants who have clearly understood this truth, can real austere practice (tapas) be possible. 


38. Intense Earnestness is Required

205. If a pearl-diver remains on the shore of the ocean waiting for the roaring waves to subside, will he ever succeed in gathering pearls? If he plunges through the waves on the surface and dives deep into the ocean with a heavy stone tied to his waist, what waves will he find there in the depths? (Similarly, if we steadfastly dive beneath the waves of thoughts into the depths of our heart, by keenly attending to the consciousness “I”, we will find that there are no thoughts there to disturb us).

206. Since a life of great peace exists deep within the ocean of our heart, we should be completely indifferent towards the many tendencies (vasanas) which are tossing like heavy waves on the surface of that ocean, and with intense desirelessness (vairagya) we should dive deep into Self, the primal consciousness of our existence.

207. Having dived deep into the heart, which is the consciousness “I”, and having thereby rectified all kinds of sense-knowledge, which are distortions of the one real consciousness, and which rise like bubbles on the surface of the ocean, we should abide only as this existence-consciousness, which shines as “I am”, without knowing anything through the senses.

208. When we thus abide more and more in the natural state of Self, all the innumerable tendencies (vasanas) will be destroyed. Other than this practice of Self-abidance, there is no effective means that will destroy the tendencies so easily and so quickly.

209. Even before all the tendencies have been completely destroyed, by one’s own desirelessness (vairagya) and by the Grace of God, it is possible for one to attain the blemishless light of Self-knowledge.

Then by the power and clarity of that Self knowledge, the delusion of attachment to the body and mind will automatically be destroyed.

210. Those aspirants who have attained purity of mind due to the strength of the good qualities that they have gradually cultivated, and acquired through so many births, will easily learn how to abide in this state of Self-knowledge as soon as they come into the presence of the Sadguru who has manifested Himself in human form.

213. Other than knowing the ever-existing Self, all the aims and paths that the deceptive mind shows to be so lofty, are not worthy to be accepted even in the least by real aspirants, but are only worthy to be rejected. Therefore, without any fear or hesitation, reject all of them.

214. We should not give even the least room in our heart to the demonic ghost of forgetfulness (pramada), which deludes the mind by diverting it from Self-attention. Instead, with unhesitating and irresistible courage, we should victoriously attain Self-knowledge.

216. The tendencies (vasanas) are the seeds, and the thoughts that rise are the plants. The Grace of God or Guru is the water that makes the vasanas sprout in the form of thoughts. Then in order to destroy those thoughts, which exist in the form of desires, that same Grace crushes them by the power of the clear discrimination that it bestows upon us. Therefore, until you achieve victory in this war of Grace, do not become disheartened and give up your meditation.

40. How to Make Thoughts Subside

218. All thoughts (vrittis) arise only because the unreal feeling “I am this body” has become well soaked and firmly established in us. All these thoughts will be destroyed only if we vigilantly practice Self-inquiry, and thereby root out the unreal feeling “I am this body.”

Sri Bhagavan says, “The thought ‘This fleshy body alone is I’ is indeed the one thread on which the various thoughts are strung. Therefore, if one goes within (by keenly scrutinizing) ‘Who am I and what is the place (from which I rise)?’ the thoughts will perish and Self-knowledge will spontaneously shine forth within the cave (of the Heart) as ‘I-I’ ”

221. The tendency to identify this gross body as “I” (in the waking state) alone is the root which paves the path for ignorance to subsist as the subtle body (in dream) and to hide as the casual body (in sleep). Therefore, if we abide as Self, having repeatedly practiced Self-attention and having thereby put an end to this root-tendency to identify the gross body as “I,” the tendency to identify with the other two bodies will also be destroyed automatically.


Tapa defined

223. The state in which our power of attention, which now sees the objects that exist in front of our eyes, sees its own existence “I am”, having suddenly become introverted by giving up all objective attention and turning towards “I,” is alone the state of true austerity (tapas) or yoga.

If our power of attention is used in any other way, that is only an objective attention that is opposed to true tapas or yoga.

224. Know that a vichari (a person practicing Self-inquiry) who makes effort with the liking always to turn inwards to see the “I” with the inner eye, will not be able to experience the pure Selfconsciousness merely by the process of sitting majestically with closed eyes for a long period of time at one stretch.

225. If at one single attempt you strive persistently for long hours without limit, to pull Self -wards and restrain the running mind without leaving your hold on Self-attention, you will find that you are not able to maintain a steady intensity of Self-attention.

Therefore, after making one attempt for a few minutes, relax your effort for a while, and then again make a fresh attempt with renewed effort. 

226. If you continue incessantly to struggle for many hours at a stretch to turn your power of attention towards Self, your effort will become slack and the intensity of your Self-attention will decrease. On the other hand, if you take rest as and when each attempt becomes slack, and then if you repeatedly make fresh efforts to turn Self-wards, with each fresh attempt your Self-attention will gain an increased vigor and intensity.

227. When the mind, our power of attention, having little by little gained the strength to turn Self-wards, finally at one time reaches the heart due to the intensity and clarity of its Self-attention, it will drown in Self, having been caught in the clutch of the Grace of God who has ever been waiting without the least forgetfulness to catch it, and hence it will never again turn outwards to know objects other than “I”.

228. Knowing that this is indeed the peerless divine marriage of Grace, the power of attention will become settled and will attain firm abidance in Self. To remain steadily established in Self-abidance, be-ing firmly bound by Self in Self, having known oneself to be that Self, is alone the state of supreme bliss.

42. Watching the Breath

229. If one takes to Self-attention, the practice of keenly observing only the consciousness “I,” then one need not perform any other practice (sadhana). But let those who cannot take to this practice of Selfattention from the very outset, practice for a short while either repetition of mantras (japa) or watching of the movement of the breath, and then let them give up all such practices and cling only to Selfattention.

232. If you fix your attention upon the one power within you, which is experienced in the form of the effort that draws the breath within and then pushes it out, then retention of the breath (kumbhaka) will be attained without difficulty or strain.

233. But if you think that effort of yours to be something other than “I,” no benefit will be gained from the retention kumbhaka. And even though you understand this effort of yours to be only yourself, if your attention does not cling to that first person consciousness “I,” know that even this practice will only be a buffoonery.

43. Self-Inquiry and Other Methods of Practice (Sadhana)

236. For those who listen and pay heed to what Sri Ramana Bhagavan has said, the path of Selfinquiry is very easy. Only to those who ask, “What is this path? What is that path?”, having already confused their mind by learning so much, does it become necessary to teach all the other superficial and extroverted methods of sadhana saying, “First subdue the breath (by practicing pranayama), subdue the tongue (by observing silence), and subdue the mischief of the mind (by practicing meditation).”

238. If the mind practices any one thing incessantly, it will naturally gain one-pointedness in that one thing....


However, rather than any external object, the first person consciousness “I” is alone the most worthy thing for the mind to have as the target of its attention, is it not?

By taking any second person object, such as the movement of the breath, or the right side of the chest, as the target of its attention,
the mind will attain only a state of temporary absorption in that object.

Mano -nasha  vs Mano-laya

239. The state in which the mind, by the strength of practice (abhyasa-bala), abides or immerses itself in the attention to any second person object, however exalted that object may be, is only a state of temporary absorption of the mind (manolaya). On the other hand, by abiding in the state of Self-attention, the natural state of true awakening, the state of destruction of the mind (mano-nasa) will be attained. Since this natural state of Selfknowledge alone is our goal, cling firmly only to this flawless practice (sadhana), or incessantly thinking “I, I”.

240. The one-pointedness of mind, which is gained by the practice of repetition of a mantra (japa) or meditation (dhyana), will also be gained by practicing Self-inquiry; but in a very easy manner without the need of any restriction or restraint, such as those that are to be observed while practicing other methods of practice (sadhana). Rather than the common existence-consciousness “I am,” which is always experienced by all people, what more worthy and easy target of attention (dhyana-lakshana) is now needed?


241. Whatever kind of person they may be, everyone says, “I am”; so what obstacle can there be for anyone to attend unceasingly to that -“I am?” Therefore, without giving room for even an iota of doubt, attend with love and joy only to your own being.

44. Why is Practice (Sadhana) Difficult?

242. When we are lacking in earnestness or faith (shraddha), whatever practice (sadhana) we may take to will appear to be equally difficult. But if our earnestness is firm and one-pointed, no sadhana will be felt to be difficult, and without any aid we will be able to remain firmly established in the state of Self-abidance.

243. Where there is a will, there is a way. That is, if a sincere liking to attain something arises in one’s heart, a path whereby one can attain it will also be found, and because of that liking one’s mind will unceasingly seek the goal until it is attained. Only when the liking to attain that goal does not truly arise in one’s heart, will one experience difficulty in the practice (sadhana) or means adopted to attain it. Know that this is the secret underlying all methods of practice.

244. To the extent to which one approaches and lives close to true devotees, to that extent will the liking arise in one’s heart to attain salvation, the real goal of human life. By having more and more association with such true devotees, that liking will gradually increase until finally one will attain salvation by abiding firmly in Self.

45. Love for the State of Self

245. By great love for the fourth (the state of mere being, the natural state of Self, which is known as turiya or the fourth state), we can go above (transcending the three states of waking, dream and sleep). By means of breath-control and so on, it (the transcending of the three states) will not happen. Is it proper to investigate illusion? (That is, is it proper to seek to attain the state of Self by breath-control, or by any other such effort involving an attention to second or third person objects, which are products of illusion [maya]?)

46. Gaining One-Pointedness in Self

246. For whatever thing a liking or love arises in you, upon that thing your mind will certainly gain one-pointedness, because such is the nature of the mind. Unless a real love for Self arises in you, you will not turn within and attend to it one-pointedly; instead you will always be telling some excuse or other for not doing so.

247. (When will a real love for Self arise in you?) Whatever your intellect decides to be the greatest and most worthy thing, for that thing alone will a love arise in you.

 The intellect of a mature spiritual aspirant will decide that Self-alone is the greatest and most worthy thing, and hence he will have real love for Self.

But to the intellects of immature people, the objects of this world alone will appear to be great and worthy to be attained, and hence their desire for those objects will constantly be increasing.


nitya-anitya viveka...kshanikam

248. (When will the intellect decide that Self alone is the greatest thing?)

The intellect will esteem something as the greatest according to its decision as to what is eternal and what is ephemeral. What can be correctly decided by the intellect to be eternal? Only that thing, which can be decided to be real, is unquestionably eternal; other things are only ephemeral objects that are fit to be discarded.

249. (How to decide what is real?) Whatever exists always and unceasingly, whatever exists without ever undergoing any change, and whatever shines by its own light of consciousness without depending upon the aid of any other thing, either to know it or to make it known – that alone is to be decided as real, is it not?


Sri Bhagavan says, “What is the standard of reality? That alone is real which exists by itself, which reveals itself by itself, and which is eternal and unchanging.”


...................

liberation is nothing but a Mind stilled...ADB

m gone ..sansara gone
m stilled by sankhya
m root in  non enquiry..disappears with enquiry

alternative yoga ..medn on being free from qualities

...........

257. Therefore, knowing that you, the Self, alone are real, drown in your own non-dual blissful existence-consciousness and experience the state of Self-abidance, which is completely devoid of the unreal body and mind. To experience this state is alone the real duty of all good and cultured people.

258. Know that those people who have discriminated and clearly understood that Self is thus greater and more real than any other thing, will surely gain true love for Self, and even through forgetfulness they will never have desire for any other thing.

259. Those people who have a clear and unshakable understanding of their own reality, having thus discriminated and concluded that Self, the existence-consciousness “I am,” alone is real and eternal, will gain unlimited love to abide as Self and will thus attain the state of one-pointed Self-attention.


260. When you attain the non-dual state of Self-abidance, by gaining such one-pointedness and such unequaled love for Self, you will experience the state of true spiritual discipline (tapas)

 in which you alone blissfully exist as the direct knowledge of Self. 


261. Being worried on seeing that sleep is brought about during the practice of Self-inquiry, do not give up Self-inquiry. This sleep is one among the experiences that will arise during the initial stages of Self-inquiry. Have no doubt about this.

262. If sleep comes, sleep well. After sleeping thus, as soon as you wake up, fix your attention with earnest love upon the self-consciousness “I am.” When the mind again subsides in that sleep-like state, and when waking returns once again, try gradually to experience the one existence-consciousness that shines in between these two states.

263. When you practice abiding more and more in the experience of this existence-consciousness, which shines between sleep and waking, the sleep that formerly appeared to overcome you will be dispersed, and the waking state in which you identify with the body and cognize external objects will not arise and engulf you again. Therefore, abide in this existence-consciousness repeatedly and untiringly.

264. Since there is the consciousness “I am,” this state is not sleep. Since there is a complete absence of thoughts, this state is not waking. It is the state of existence-consciousness, or sat-chit, which is the undivided nature of God, or akhanda-sivaswarupa. Therefore, unceasingly abide in this state with great love.

265. Why is it said, “Abide in this existenceconsciousness repeatedly” and “Abide in this state with great love?” Because until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive us out of this state have ceased to exist, this state will seem to come and go. Therefore, until those vasanas have been completely destroyed, it is necessary to have love and to make repeated efforts to abide in this state.

Note: Just as the moving of clouds creates the illusion that the moon itself is moving in the opposite direction, the coming and going of the mind’s tendencies (vasanas) creates the illusion that our natural state of existence-consciousness is often coming and going of its own accord.

266. When by this practice of abiding in the state of existence-consciousness, this existence-consciousness is always experienced to be effortless and inescapably natural, then no harm will result even if sleep, dream and waking appear to come and go.


267. For those who firmly abide in the unending state of Self-consciousness, which pervades and transcends the three states of waking, dream and sleep, that state of existence-consciousness is the only real state. It is the unlimited Whole (or purna). That state, in which even the feeling “I am making effort to abide” does not at all rise, alone is your natural state of Being. Be thus.

48. The Manner of the Dawn of Knowledge (Janodaya Vidham)

 268. Death happens in a split second. Awakening from sleep happens in a split second. Similarly, the destruction of the delusion of individuality happens in just a split second. True knowledge is not something that can be gained and then lost. If a person feels that true knowledge is coming and going, he is still only in the state of practice (or abhyasa). It cannot be said that such a person has attained true Self-knowledge.

 The perfect awakening into the state of Self-knowledge happens in just a split second. That state is not attained gradually over a long period of time. All the sadhanas that are practiced over a period of many years are meant only for attaining blemishless maturity. Listen to an apt illustration. After people have placed gunpowder in the iron barrel of a temple-cannon, after they have added broken pieces of brick, after they have packed it tight with a ramrod, after they have placed a wick in contact with the powder, and after they have plastered the open end of the barrel with clay, as soon as the charge is ignited it will explode in a split second with a blast that sounds like thunder.

Similarly, after one has learnt the truth about the real Self through hearing and reading, after one has practiced sadhana for a long time, after one has wept and prayed with heart-melting devotion, and after one has thereby attained purity of mind, the knowledge of the reality will instantaneously shine forth in a split second as “I am I”. As soon as the dawn of Self-knowledge thus takes place, due to the clear shining of the reality of this state, which is an empty space devoid of objective knowledge, will be spontaneously realized to be the state of true knowledge, which is our beginningless real nature. When even the effort of attending to Self thereby merges in Silence, that state of mere Being, in which there is nothing further to do and nothing further to attain at any time, alone is the real state.

49. Self-Knowledge

269. One’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is sleep.

One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am this body,” is dream;

which is of two kinds, known as the waking state and the dream state.

One’s experiencing one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” without any forgetfulness (pramada), is the true waking.

The former two are unreal, the latter alone is real.

271. One’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is tamo-guna. One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am this body,” is rajo-guna. The power of clear discernment (sphurana-sakti), which experiences one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” is sattva-guna. Such is the nature of our illusion (maya); (that is, the concealing of our true nature by the former two gunas is ignorance or deception (avidya-maya), while the revealing of our true nature by the latter guna is true knowledge (vidya-maya).

272. Even when one drooped (as in sleep), having forgotten oneself, the consciousness “I am” was nonetheless existing and shining. Even when one was confused, mistaking oneself to be the body (as in waking and dream), the consciousness “I am” was still existing and shining (as the base and support of the perverted consciousness “I am the body”). Therefore, when I thus exist and know myself as the one who existed and shone (in the above two states), what obstacle can ever arise to impede me from existing and knowing my existence?


273. Therefore, one’s lying, having forgotten one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” and having drooped, is not (something which ever truly happened). One’s being confused, mistaking one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” to be the alien feeling “I am the body,” is not (something which ever truly happened). One’s newly experiencing one’s existence-consciousness, “I am,” is not (something which ever truly happens).

 Such is the nature of the experience of true knowledge (jnana).


274. Only so long as it falsely appears as if we have forgotten our existence-consciousness, “I am,” can an effort arise as an effort (tapas) or practice (sadhana) to know and attain Self. After we have clearly known that we have never forgotten Self, and that the feeling as if we have forgotten Self is a mere imagination (kalpana), there will be no practice (sadhana) for us to do. The truth is that we ever exist only as mere Being.

277. This existing reality is not something that can be reached and attained like an object other than “I.” All that is to be done is only to abide as it is, having set aside the empty imagination that has risen within us that we have lost that state. Setting aside that imagination is to abide in Self, having turned our attention within, withdrawing it from all other objects. The true state is nothing other than this.

284. Even though you may visit any number of Mahatmas, and even though they may exhibit all the eightfold occult powers (ashta siddhis), know that he who turns your attention towards Self saying, “Without allowing your mind to go after these juggleries, turn within,” is alone the true pure soul (Mahatma).

285. Let the individual (jivatma) who enters the lofty Himalayas and forests seeking Mahatmas, enter instead the heart, by turning within seeking “Where am I?” and thereby become the blissful Self (sukhatma-swarupa). Thereafter, all who were seen externally as pure souls (Mahatmas) will be experienced by him to be his own Self (atma-swarupa). This is the teaching given by Sri Ramana Bhagavan.


286. Before one knows oneself, in whatever way one may try, it is not possible for one to know the real tapasvis (the Jnanis, who ever remain in the egoless state of Self-abidance, the true state of tapas). Therefore, giving up all the futile efforts to seek externally to know pure souls (Mahatmas), cling firmly to the great and worthwhile effort of attending to Self, which will destroy the unreal feeling “I am an individual jiva.”

287. Therefore, if any thought arises in you hereafter to seek to determine whether someone is a Jnani or an ajnani, reject that thought immediately by inquiring “Who am I who rise to determine about the state of others?” and thus merge your mind in the heart, the source from which that thought arose, by turning within and keenly fixing your attention in that source.

289. If someone is a Jnani, what is that to us? So long as we do not know ourself, that will be of no benefit to us. On scrutiny, Jnana alone is the Jnani; the Jnani is not a human form; he is only the supreme space of pure consciousness. That supreme space is our true nature.


52. The Ultimate Secret of Spiritual Practice (Sadhanottava Rahasya)

291. (Among the three places or persons [the first, second and third persons], and among the three times, the present, past and future) the first person (known in Tamil as tanmai-idam or the “selfness-place”) and the present time, are the place and the time that Sadguru Sri Ramana told us to scrutinize (as our dhyana-laksha, or target for attention). If you abide, attending with subtle vigilance to either of these, investigating “Who is this first person, who shines as I?” or “What is this present time that shines as the consciousness am?“ you will experience the supreme joy of Self (atma-parabhoga) – having accomplished yoga and having become one who has attained siddhi (the state of final liberation). See and feast upon Self, thus.

................................end sadhana sarai...............



11 verses on atma vichar patikam...and then:



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40 verses on renunciation

30. The path of karma yoga (selfless service), which is practiced by anyone other than such a Jivanmukta (see previous verse), will gradually remove the impurities from the mind, and it will stop with thus imparting complete purity of mind.

After thus attaining purity of mind, it is proper that a person should give up the path of karma yoga and should follow either the path of devotion (bhakti) or the path of Self-inquiry and thereby attain the egoless state of Self.


31. The fruit to be attained from selfless service (karma yoga), which bestows purity of mind (chitta shuddhi), is only to make one mature and fit to follow the paths of devotion (bhakti) or Self-inquiry (vichara).

But unless a true renunciate (sannyasi) is already fit to follow either of these two paths, know that he will not gain the real fruit of the renunciation (sannyasa), which he has taken.

32. For a person who has taken renunciation (sannyasa) in order to attain God, the supreme real-ity, it is not proper to go outwards seeking worldly people and climbing on platforms to give lectures. Instead of turning within towards God and becoming established in Self-abidance, if a renunciate (sannyasi) turns towards the alluring and deceptive world, diverting his mind to the habit of giving lectures, he will be doing great harm to himself.

33. You have taken this renunciation (sannyasa) not for the sake of giving spiritual instructions (upadesa) to the people of this world, but only to attain the infinite Self, and to remain firmly established in Self-abidance. Why do you forget this truth and wander about in the world giving lectures?

34. Only the real renunciate (sannyasi), who never deviates from the state of firm Self-abidance is a person who is correctly teaching true knowledge to all other people. Rather than by climbing on platforms to give lectures by mouth, if one turns the mind within away from the world and abides in Self, then the entire world, which seems to exist externally, will be awakened into the state of true knowledge.