Mandukya Karika, Avadhuta, Ribhu Gita notes

 from jan 2017

ref: http://www.swamij.com/upanishad-mandukya-karika.htm

86 The humility (vinaya) of the brahmins is natural. Their tranquility (sama) is also natural. Further, the control of the senses (dama) comes natural to them. He who has realized Brahman attains peace.

87 Vedanta recognizes the ordinary state of waking, in which duality, consisting of objects and the idea of coming in contact with them, is admitted.

 It also recognizes a purer ordinary state i.e. the dream state, in which is experienced duality consisting of objects and the idea of coming in contact with them, though such objects do not exist.

88 The wise recognize another state, in which there exist neither objects nor ideas regarding them. 

This state is beyond all empirical experiences. 

They describe the three: knowledge, the objects of knowledge i.e. the three states and the supremely knowable i.e. Ultimate Reality.

89 Having known knowledge and the threefold knowable, one after another, the knower, endowed with supreme intellect, attains in this very life and everywhere, the state of omniscience.

90 One should be conversant, at the very outset, with four things. These are as follows: the things to be avoided, the goal to be realized, the disciplines to be cultivated and the tendencies to be rendered ineffective. Of these four, all except the goal to be realized i.e. the Supreme Reality exist only as products of the imagination.

91 All Atmans (Dharmas) are to be known, by their very nature, to be beginningless and unattached like akasa. There is not the slightest variety in there in any way or at any time.

92 All jivas are, by their very nature, illumined from the very beginning. There can never be any doubt about their nature. He who,. having known this, rests without seeking further knowledge is alone capable of attaining Immortality.

93 The jivas, from the very beginning and by their very nature, are all peace, unborn and completely free. They are characterized

by sameness and non—separateness. The unborn Atman is always established in sameness and purity.

94 Those who always wander in the realm of separateness cannot realize the purity of Atman. Their minds are inclined to differentiation and they assert the separateness of the Atmans. Therefore they are called narrow—minded.

95 They alone in this world are endowed with the highest wisdom who are firm in their conviction of the sameness and birthlessness of Atman. 

The ordinary man does not understand their way.

96 Knowledge, which is the very essence of the unborn jivas, is itself called unborn and unrelated. This Knowledge is proclaimed to be unattached, since it is unrelated to any other object.

97 To those ignorant people who believe that Atman can deviate from Its true nature even in the slightest measure, Its eternally unrelated character is lost. In that case the destruction of the veil is out of the question.

98 All jivas are ever free from bondage and pure by nature. They are illumined and free from the very beginning. 

Yet the wise speak of the jivas as capable of knowing Ultimate Reality.

99 The Knowledge of the wise man, who is all light, is never related to any object. All the jivas, as well as Knowledge, are ever unrelated to objects. This is not the view of Buddha.

100 Having realized the Knowledge of the Supreme Reality, which is hard to grasp, profound, birthless, the same throughout, all light and free from multiplicity, we salute It as best we can.

Aum. Peace! Peace! Peace!

Final Salutation by Sri Sankaracharya [in the Mandukya Upanishad]

I salute Brahman, the destroyer of the fear of those who take refuge in It—which, though unborn, appears to be associated with birth through Its own majestic powers; which, though motionless, appears to be moving; and which, though non— dual, appears to have assumed many forms to those whose vision is deluded by the perception of diverse objects and their attributes.

I prostrate myself at the feet of the teacher of my teacher, the most adored among the adorable, who—out of sheer compassion for the beings drowned in the deep ocean of the world, infested by the terrible sharks of incessant births and deaths—rescued, for the benefit of all, this nectar, hardly attainable even by the immortals, from the inmost depths of the ocean of the Vedas by churning it with the rod of his illumined wisdom.

I make obeisance with my whole being to those holy feet—the dispellers of the fear of the chain of births and deaths—of my own great teacher, who, through the light of his illumined wisdom, destroyed the darkness of delusion enveloping my mind; who put an end, for ever, to my appearance and disappearance in this terrible ocean of innumerable births and deaths; and who enables all others, too, that take shelter at his feet, to attain unfailing knowledge of the scriptures, peace and the state of perfect non—differentiation.

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alatasanti prakarana chp 4 of gauapada karika

74 Atman is called birthless (aja) from the standpoint of false knowledge based upon imagination; in reality It is not even birthless. The unborn Atman is said to be born from the standpoint of the false knowledge cherished by other schools of thought.

75 People persistently hold to the idea of unreality i.e. duality. But such duality does not exist. 

One who has realized the absence of duality is not born again, since there remains no longer any cause for his birth.

76 When the mind finds no cause—superior, inferior, or middling—it becomes free from birth. 

How can there be an effect without a cause? 

77 The birthlesness of the mind, which is free from manifestation and causal relationship, is absolute and constant.

 For duality i.e. the perceiving mind and its objects is merely an objectification of the mind.

78 Realizing the absence of causality as ultimate truth and not finding any other reason for birth, one attains that state which is free from grief, desire and fear.

79 On account of attachment to unreal objects the mind pursues such objects.

 But it comes back to its pure state when it attains non—attachment, realizing their unreality.

80 The mind freed from attachment to all external objects and undistracted by fresh objects attains the state of immutability.

 The wise realize such a mind to be Brahman; 

It is undifferentiated, birthless and non—dual.

81 The birthless, dreamless and sleepless Reality reveals Itself by Itself; for this Atman by Its very nature is self— luminous.

82 The Lord (Atman) becomes easily hidden because of attachment to any single object and is revealed with great difficulty.

83 The ignorant, with their childish minds, verily cover Atman by predicating of It such attributes as existence, non—existence, existence and non—existence and total non—existence, 

deriving these characteristics from the notions of change, immovability, combination of change and immovability and absolute negation which they associate with Atman.

84 These are the four theories regarding Atman, through attachment to which It always remains hidden from one's view. 

He who knows the Lord to he ever untouched by them indeed knows all.

85 What else remains to be desired by him who has attained the state of the brahmin—a state of complete omniscience and non—duality, which is without beginning, middle, or end?

86 The humility (vinaya) of the brahmins is natural. 

Their tranquility (sama) is also natural. 

Further, the control of the senses (dama) comes natural to them.

 He who has realized Brahman attains peace.

cont above at the start 86-100

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avadhuta giya chp 7

1. When as a pilgrim, I began to journey towards You, then my little notions of all-pervasiveness of the Self died.

2. When my mind began to meditate on You, it lost all interest in objects. When my tongue began to praise You it lost the power of praising others. I forgot my three great sins.

3. He whose intellect is no longer attracted towards desires and pleasures, whose nature has become joyful and compassionate, he who, even in his heart, has no idea of possessions, who is ever peaceful and most temperate in all things and is not moved by any happenings and events – that great sage takes refuge in the Self. 

Ever watchful, solemn as the ocean and full of patience.

6. He bears patiently heat and cold, seeing the one Self enlightening all bodies. 

He walks solitary as a rhinoceros; detached, solemn and peaceful.

 He has become an ocean of Truth and is ever engaged in the work of mercy. 

Such is the Avadhut, free from birth and death.

8. 'A' stands for freedom from the snares of hopes and expectations, pure in the beginning, in the middle and the end, merged in Self-bliss.

9. 'V' stands for the rooting out of all desires after pleasure, subtle or material, and for life in the present as all-sufficient, the present being Eternity.

10. 'Dh' is the physical body, covered with dirt and dust, but with the mind ever pure, and the heart ever still, above contemplation and meditation.

11. 'T' is the unceasing contemplation of the Eternal Truth, and indifference to the activities of the mind and senses. It also bespeaks freedom from egoism and pride.

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ribhu gita

47. Everything is only a concoction of time, space and energy.

 All else is the trite talk of people who dislike the effort of sadhana which takes them to the Self. 

This talk is based on their dense ignorance of the Self.

 Only by persistent practice and experience of sadhana, can one arrive at the truth that all concepts of souls,

 world, 

and the cause thereof are just evanescent shadows on the screen of Siva-Self-Brahman. (Ch.24, v.31)

46. The illusion that one is the body and that the world is the basic reality has remained soaked over a long, long time,and cannot be got rid of by the casual reading and mere understanding of the truth. 

The basic illusion can be effaced only by a long and unremitting practice of the bhavana that all this is I-am-Brahman-Self" . (Ch.24, v.28)

39. The sadhaka practising meditation on the Self, should always think firmly that all diversities of soul, world and creator are the undifferentiated Brahman-Self only.

 By practice, his consciousness is freed from thoughts, after which he should give up the above thought also and abide always in the thought-free state of the Self (Ch.21, v.39)

35. Firmly established in the Self, undisturbed by the least ripple of thought, as still as an idol of stone or wood, dissolved completely in Brahman-Self, even as water is in milk, with awareness devoid of all impurities of thought and drowsiness, standing clear as the pure sky, the grandeur of the Jnani's nishta (firm stance in the Self) defies thought and expression. (Ch.19, v.21)

31. Abidance in Sahaja Samadhi is the hallmark of a Jivan Mukta. 

With progressive development towards this state, an intensity of blissful peace is attained, 

leading on to the four successive stages of perfection in samadhi.

 Nothing short of this Sahaja Samadhi will be of any avail in destroying the fearsome cycle of births and deaths. (Ch.18, v.41)

32. That realised person who abides in the Brahman-Self, and has lost all feelings of differentiation of self and non-self, is the Jnani or Mukta Purusha. 

Such a Jnani is rare to find even by searching among millions of people.

 If one has the lucky opportunity of getting his darshan (personal view and contact) one attains purification from all his sins, and what is more, such a person's ego gets liquidated at once. (Ch.19, v.10)

24. The total discarding of the mind is alone victory, achievement, bliss, yoga, wisdom and liberation. The sacrifice of the mind is, in fact, the totality of all sacred sacrifices. (Ch.15, v.7)


21. All objective knowledge, all thought forms, all visible objects, all things heard, all questions and answers, all the food consumed and all other illusions, not being apart from the Self, should be regarded as Brahman-Self only. (Ch.13, v.2)

 22. Therefore one should practise the habit of regarding everything as Brahman-Self only; 

until all thought of things other than the Self is lost.

 This condition once achieved, one should not give room for any thought and should ever abide in Maha-Mounam (peace of total stillness). (Ch.14, v.38)

The Jivan Mukta has his consciousness completely dissolved beyond recognition in his Brahman-Self. 

Eternally alone in his Self, he is ever lost in the enjoyment of the bliss of his Brahman-Self. (Ch.8, v.25).

Greatness of Videha Mukta12. 

With all objective knowledge banished,

 with no trace of thought or nescience, 

with all the three states of waking, dream and sleep wiped out,

 with all thought of death and birth abolished, 

and ever established in the spontaneous blissful state of Brahman-Self, 

the condition of the Videha Mukta cannot be conceived, and much less expressed in words. (Ch.5, v.39)13. 

The continued repetition of I am Self-Brahma constitutes the sole mantra-japa leading to Mukti (Liberation).

All other mantra-japas connected with diverse gods should be firmly eschewed, as they aim at mundane objectives other than the Self.

All other mantra-japas always entangle one inextricably in the bondage of worldly enjoyments. (Ch.6, v.37)

Some may argue that this universe of duality (multiple existences) is a factual second reality, clearly seen by the senses operated by the mind. 

But then, are the senses anything apart from the mind? 

Can they function without the support of the mind in which they are imbedded? 

What is this mind except a bundle of thoughts?

 What are thoughts except evanescent ripples in the still, limitless ocean of pure Being-Awareness-Self, which is the sole Existence without a second? (Ch. 2, v.34)

The universe was neither born, nor 

maintained, nor dissolved; this is the plain truth. 

The basic screen of pure Being-Awareness-Stillness devoid of all the moving shadow pictures of name and form of the universe is the sole, eternal Existence. (Ch.2, v.33)

http://bhagavan-ramana.org/essenceofribhugita.html

Enquiry should be made thus:
    
With the help of the sadguru, one should enquire "Who am I? What is this world? What is the reality behind all this?

    Sage Ribhu, Ribhu Gita [5] Ch.32, v21

Only by those strong willed persons who make earnest and persistent Self-enquiry, will the turbulent mind be controlled and fixed still, in the practice of firm bhavana.

 In due course all thoughts and nescience will disappear, yielding place to the effulgent Awareness-Self of mukti.

   Sage Ribhu, Ribhu Gita, Ch.32, v26