Gajanana: Again, Revered Sir, what briefly are the means to attain this Self-realization; and as for the means already suggested, namely the inward inquiry, or the grand pratyagdrishti, how are we to attain that?
Maharshi: Well, briefly put, the means to attain Self-realization are these:
First, the mind should be withdrawn from its objects; the objective vision of the world must cease.
Secondly, the mind's internal operations also must be put an end to.
Thirdly, the mind must thereby be rendered characterless (nirupadhika) and must continue characterless firmly; and
lastly, it must rest in pure vichara, contemplation or realization of its nature, i.e. itself. This is the means for pratyagdrishti or darsana, also termed antarmukham, the inward vision or inquiry.
Kavyakantha: What is the "State of Jnana"? Is it the mental process 
[1] (I am Brahman), or the idea 
(Brahman is myself), or the idea 
(I am everything), or the idea 
(Everything is Brahman); or is Jnana different from all these four ideas?
Maharshi: All these mental states, processes or ideas are certainly only the operations of the mind. But that which is termed Jnana is not a mental state or process. It is 
, i.e., Being, remaining or existence in the Self as such.
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chp 23 24:00 nis i am that excerpts 389 to 404
spiritual maturity lies in the readiness to give up everything. but knowing that nothing remains to be given up.
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Kavyakantha: Then, Sir, is not the Self – Atman or Brahman (God) – reached by the mind? In fact, while the Mundaka Upanishad, III, i. says [sanskrit, to be transliterated shortly] (This subtle Self has to be known by the mind), [transliteration needed] (It is to be seen by the sharp eye of the seers of the subtle), and the Katha Upanishad IV.ii. says of Brahmana: [transliteration coming] (By the mind alone is this to be attained), while Taittiriya Upanishad, II.9. says [tranlsiteration coming] (Whence words retire baffled, as also the mind); and Brahman is repeatedly styled as [translit coming] (Not to be reached by speech or mind). How is this conflict to be reconciled and which is the truth?
Maharshi: All sets of texts are true. It is the mind that sets out on the enquiry into the nature of the Self. But in the course of its efforts to reach Brahman, it gets transformed and is seen to be Brahman. It ceases to have any separate existence.
(Requested later to elucidate this matter further, Maharshi said):
"In a sense, it is by the mind you reach Brahman.
But perhaps it will be better to stick to the more accurate expression that it is Brahman alone that realises itself,
and that the mind as such does not. What realises is not the mind as such, but the mind transformed into Purna Prajna or "Cosmic Consciousness".
By way of analogy, we may take the case of a mighty river that flows into the ocean. The waters which formerly took the name of the "river", later take the name of "Ocean". One would not refer to the river as samudrakara nadi, i.e., the "river in the form of the ocean." The mind is the separate, broken (khanda) entity which starts the enquiry; but as it progresses, it develops, alters its nature and form, and finally loses these and itself in the limitless, infinite, and undifferentiated (akhanda) ocean of Brahman. The mind may thereafter be referred to as brahmakara manas, i.e., the mind in the guise of the Absolute.
But perhaps it will be conducive to clarity if we briefly say, in popular language, that there has been manonasa, or the disappearance of the limited, finite mind and that Brahman is realized not by chitta vriti, i.e., mental operation, but by Purnattva or Swabhava Samsthiti, the perfection of Self -realization.
refer Arunachala
Thinking of Thee without thinking (i.e., play of intellect), one's form melts away as that of a sugar doll entering the sea.
The above comparison of the Heart to the plantain bud or lotus bud and various other physical descriptions 1 are given to assist the yogi's practice of meditation.
How do we proceed to trace all thoughts to their source, you may ask. Well, let us discover if all thoughts could in the first place be traced to some one thought as their base of operations, and let us then go deeper and find the source of the basic thought. Is there then any such basic or fundamental thought underlying all other thoughts? Do you not see that the thought or idea 'I' – the idea of personality – is such a root thought?
For us, Maharshi explained later, whenever any thought arises, these questions arise and should be raised by the aspirant aiming at Realisation: 'Does this thought exist independently of any person thinking, or does it exist only as the thought of a person, and if the latter is the case, to whom does it arise?' The answer is: 'This thought arises only as a person's thought and this thought arises in me.' So the 'I' idea may be regarded as a stem from which other thoughts branch forth.
Next let us see the root source of this (stem). But how?
Dive deep in ecstatic concentration within yourself (i.e. within the 'I' thought) and perceive its source.
There is nothing there to perceive in or through the senses.
You have no guidance from sensation and rationalization for this search.
But if you have the right intuition, the Centre '
' is immediately felt
and the above or former 'I' which inquired disappears into this 'the Centre.'
Thus, '' or the heart centre is the source of the 'I. thought and of everything else.
The term '' (Heart) is however persistently identified by some who practice yoga with one of their six centres 2 
(chakram), i.e., their fourth centre called the 
(anahata chakram) situated in the chest.
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chp 11
Such freedom or Mukti is attained by the wise one who passes from his Sushumna-nadi in the upward path by the Archinathi Margam; by the light of wisdom emanating there, Mukti is attained.
By the Grace of the Lord, the upasaka whose mind is matured by yoga, attains this excellent Nadi-dwara Gati.
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tulsi
In whom longing for the Beloved hath taken abode,
Every moment his body becometh feeble and enervated.
A stream of tears constantly flows from his eyes;
The pangs of pain ceaselessly smart his body and mind.
Day and night I long for Him and tears fall like incessant rain.
The pain for my Beloved increasingly
My attention can be transfixed on nought but him,
And no one understands my plight.
Only the wounded
Understand the agonies of the wounded,
When the fire rages in the heart.
Only the jeweller knows the value of the jewel,
Strange Is The Path When You Offer Love
O my simple-minded companion.
Strange is the path
When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step.
If you want to offer love
Be prepared to cut off your head
And sit on it.
Be like the moth,
Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn,
Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge,
Which swallows burning coals
In love of the moon.
Be like the fish
Which yields up its life
When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee,
Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.
Mira's lord is the courtly Giridhara.
She says: Offer your mind
To those lotus feet.
But do not penetrate to the secret,
Are caught again in the net of rebirth.
I have lost my senses and gone mad,
But the Lord knows my secret.
He who deals out life and death
knows the secret of Mira's pain
I simply follow my incomprehensible road.
A razor-thin path
but you meet some good people,
a terrible path but you hear a true word.
Turn back?
Because the wretched stare and see nothing?
Mira says: My whole world is Shri Krishna;
Now that my gaze is turned inward, I see it clearly
Ever since this yearning for the Lord has taken hold of me,
I have severed all connections with the world.
who know the body's heart
have attained the Ultimate, O Tulsi.
Realize this, and you've found your freedom
What 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’ !
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 Self-effulgence.
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 (nidi-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
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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.
....
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!
..
“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
...
ekatma panchakam
https://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/resource_centre/audio/ekanma-panchakam/
1. When, forgetting the Self, one thinks
That the body is oneself and goes
Through innumerable births
And in the end remembers and becomes
The Self, know this is only like
Awaking from a dream wherein
One has wandered over all the world.
2. One ever is the Self. To ask oneself
“Who and whereabouts am I?”
Is like the drunken man’s enquiring
“Who am I?” and “Where am I?”
One thinks one is inside the inert body,
Like some spectator who supposes
That the screen on which the picture is thrown
Is within the picture.
Apart from the gold? Can the body exist
Apart from the Self?
The ignorant one thinks ‘I am the body’;
The enlightened knows ‘I am the Self’.
Exists for ever.
If of yore the First of Teachers
Revealed it through unbroken silence
Say who can reveal it in spoken words?
“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
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.
So long as a man experiences himself and the world as two separate entities,
each having a distinct individual existence,
he cannot in practice conceive even the mind transcending state of Parinirvana
to be anything but a third which is distinct from himself and the world.
....
What exactly happens to the power of attention in sleep is not correctly known to anyone except to those who have attained Self Knowledge.
50
If an aspirant truly engages himself in the practice of Self-attention, he will often feel as if the state of Self-consciousness, which is his own true nature, is clearly known for some time and as if it is afterwards obscured.
On such occasion he will be able to understand very clearly from his own experience how the world-appearance vanishes and how it again comes into existence.
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.
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.
Hence, the attributes appended to ‘I AM’ alone, are the ‘root-impurity’.
Till this impurities are removed, Self, Existence-Consciousness (Sat-Chit) is called ego.
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.
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.
That state of Being in which all (I, II and III persons) shine as one, is the true nature of the Self”
–Ulladu Narpadu, - Verse 14.
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.
He alone who has love, but ‘Not for another’ (Ananya Bhakti) is one who has the Full Love (Sampoorna Bhakti).
...
“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
, aparokshaanubhuuti).
