Yoga Vashishtha important verses-2

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chp 6

As long as one considers the body as the ‘I’ 

and as long as the Self is related to what is seen,

 as long as there is hope in objects 

with the feeling ‘this is mine’

—so long there will be delusion concerning mind, etc.

....

You are like the infinite space.

.

Again and again I repeat all this, O Rāma, for the sake of your spiritual awakening. 

The realization of the Self does not happen without such repetition or, spiritual practice.

Therefore, behold that place and that moment at which prāṇa is consumed by apāna and apāna is consumed by prāṇa—inside and outside the body

One should restrain the hub or the thoughts and notions—having resort to supreme self-effort, strength, wisdom and commonsense.

Neither scriptures nor relations nor even the gurus or preceptors can protect the man who is utterly overpowered by the ghost known as the mind.

That alone is regarded as worship which is performed when one is in a state of equanimity like that of space, 

when the mind has become utterly quiescent without the least movement of thought 

and when there is effortless absence of perversity.

Such a state of purity of the self, the true nature of infinite consciousness—is not a vision, which is an experience of the mind and the senses.

 It is incapable of being taught.

 It is not very easy nor difficult or impossible. 

It is attained by direct experience alone.

........

This fullness is filled with fullness. Fullness is born from fullness. Fullness fills fullness. In fullness, fullness is ever established.

That state in which one knows “There is no ‘I’, nor another, no mind nor anything derived from the mind”, 

in which one knows ‘I’ is but an idea in this universe,

 and it is really pure existence”—

that is known as the silence of deep sleep.

...

That is known as mokṣa or liberation when ignorance ceases through self-inquiry, 

when the jīva becomes no-jīva instantly and 

when the mind becomes no-mind.

.......

If the self which is the reality and which is pure, is forgotten even for a moment— the object of experience attains expansion.

100

When thus one is freed from psychological conditioning and the impurities have been removed or purified—

the words of the guru enter directly into the innermost core of one’s being, just as an arrow enters the stalk of the lotus.

......

104

Rest in nirvāṇa without movement of thought, 

with the mind greatly ‘weakened’ and the intelligence at peace

—rest in the Self as if you are deaf, dumb and blind.

.....

When thus one realizes the supreme—which is the only essence or truth beyond this ocean of saṁsāra, he realizes— ‘I am not the doer but god alone is the doer; not even in the past did I do anything

....

This alone is saṁsāra—the feeling ‘This is’. Its cessation is liberation or mokṣa. This is the essence of jñāna or wisdom.

The individual personality is vāsanā or 

mental conditioning which disappears on investigation.

 However, in a state of ignorance when one fails to observe it—this world-appearance arises.

When one is spiritually awakened and when one lives with his wakeful state resembling deep sleep—the state is known as svabhāva or self-nature and this state leads one to liberation

The self which is the Lord immediately confers mokṣa or final liberation when worshipped with inquiry into the nature of the self, 

with self-control and satsaṅga or company of the wise.

On this field known as the mind, the seed known as samādhi, which is turning away from the world—falls of its own accord when one is alone in the forest known as wisdom.

The yogi is then seen to be in a state of continuous and unbroken meditation, firmly established in adamantine meditation, samādhi or vajra-samādhāna—like a mountain.

If one knows that the self is pure consciousness and not the physical body, then when he dies there is no saṁsāra or world-appearance in his consciousness. 

If one’s understanding is not thus purified by right understanding or wisdom—it does not remain without the support of saṁsāra

May my limbs be pulverized or may they become as powerful as Mount Meru. What is lost and what is gained or increased—when it is realized that I am pure consciousness?

......132.......

However well I realize ‘This is not real’, ‘This is not real’ after intense inquiry, the feeling ‘This is’ does not cease.

137

To those who know the truth or the supreme state—the states of waking, dream and sleep do not exist at all. Whatever is—is as it is.  

However, one who has realized that everything is the pure, infinite consciousness—is not affected by the apparent duality. He remains free, alone and unaffected.

The wisdom that I imparted to you has remained weak in your heart like a dull fire which lies dormant in an old tree-trunk. It has not been able to burn and destroy ignorance.

She bestows immediately

 on all whatever is prayed for, for she is the self of all. Hence, one experiences the fruition of one’s own prayers.

The many abandons its diversity when it attains enlightenment. However, when the many is described as the one—it has not become something other than it was before.

‘This is the self’ and ‘This is knowledge’—these are surely false notions that arise within, but they are not real. Abandon the words but remain established in the experience of the truth they indicate. 

When there is the notion of reality in unreal phenomena, there is bondage. When many such notions arise—diversity is brought into being.

...

Knowledge does not have an object to know. 

Knowledge is independent and eternal; it is beyond description and definition. 

When this truth is directly realized—there is perfect knowledge.

.....

By awakening, awakening is attained; and the concept of ‘awakening’ is clearly understood. Of course, all this is comprehensible only to people like you, not to us.

By the realization of the truth that all objects and substances exist in the self or the infinite consciousness, as perverted notions, his hold on those substances and vice versa, comes to an end. The wheel of saṁsāra stops by and by.

..................................end..................................

Yoga Vashishtha important verses-1

 http://whatcomwebsite-inflightstudio.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/08/Important-Verses-from-the-Yoga-Vasistha-eBook.pdf

154 pgs pdf

.......

11

That alone is self-effort which springs from right understanding, 

which manifests in one’s heart, 

which has been exposed to the teachings of the scriptures and the conduct of holy ones.

...

There are four gate-keepers at the entrance to the Realm of Freedom or mokṣa. 

They are self-control, spirit of inquiry, contentment and good company.

When the mind is at peace and the heart leaps to the supreme truth. 

When all the disturbing thought-waves in the mind-stuff have subsided and there is unbroken flow of peace and the heart is filled with the bliss of the absolute—when thus the truth has been seen in the heart, then this very world becomes an abode of bliss.

17

Only knowledge based on ignorance clings to the notion of a world. 

In reality, there is no difference in the meaning of the words ‘world’, ‘Brahman or the infinite’ and ‘Self’.

Thinking of that alone, speaking of that, conversing of that with one another, utter dedication to that one alone—this is called abhyāsa or practice by the wise.

If one’s intelligence is established in this truth concerning the infinite consciousness—it reaches the supreme state of liberation.

3.61.31

Nothing has ever been created anywhere, at any time; and nothing comes to an end either. The absolute Brahman is all, the supreme peace, unborn, pure consciousness and permanent.

When one is firmly established in the oneness of the infinite consciousness, whether one is quiet or actively engaged in work—then, he is considered to be at peace with himself.

The mind that is heading towards calamity first creates delusion and wickedness—and these themselves later expand into misfortune and sorrow.

This self can be attained by a hundred ways and means; yet, when it is attained, nothing has been attained. It is the supreme self; yet it is nothing.

30

When deeply observed, 

the mind is absorbed into its substratum, 

and when it is thus absorbed—there is supreme felicity.

Only when one severs the very root of the mind with the weapon of non conceptualization, can one reach the absolute Brahman which is omnipresent, supreme peace

32

When the mind is deprived of its restlessness, it is referred to as the dead mind; 

and that itself is penance or tapas, 

as also the verification of the scriptures and liberation.

Sam: What is tapa?

A: A dead mind

....

Do not become inactive, either; for what is gained by doing nothing? What has to be done has to be done. Therefore, rest in the self.

.....

33

3/114/23

The firm conviction that ‘I am not the absolute Brahman’ binds the mind.  

The mind is liberated by the firm conviction that ‘everything is the absolute Brahman’

...

Therefore, he who does not let his mind dwell on such thoughts and ideas, by striving to be conscious of the self—enjoys peace.

.....

chp 4 

37

Hence, O Rāma, in the eyes of both the enlightened and the ignorant, the vision does not vanish:

 To the enlightened this is Brahman at all times. 

 To the ignorant it is always the world.

Rāma, mind alone is all 'this'. 

And when that is healed, this jugglery of world appearance is also healed

39

When the self is seen as an object, the seer is not seen or realized; as long as the objective universe is perceived, one does not realize the self.

A painted pot of nectar is not nectar, nor a painted flame fire, and a painting of a woman is not a woman: wise words are mere words or ignorance, not wisdom— unless they are substantiated by the absence of desire and anger.

He sees the truth who sees that all things are strung in the self as beads are strung on a thread and who knows—‘I am not the mind’.

He who is bound by the ego-sense or ‘me’ and by the conditioning of the mind, even if he is regarded as a great man or a man of great learning—can be defeated even by a child.

O Rāma, abandon this ego-sense with all the strength that lies within; and by being established in the conviction: ‘I is nothing’—be happy.

It is the pure consciousness that entertains the impure notion of ‘I am’, playfully as it were; and without ever renouncing its essential nature as consciousness, experiences the distorted image of itself within itself.

Life, honor and noble qualities blossom and attain fruition to one whose conduct and behavior are good and pleasant, who is devoted to seclusion and who does not crave for the pleasures of the world, which lead to suffering. 

When it is not rightly understood, the ‘I’ appears to be an impure notion in the infinite consciousness; but, when the ‘I’ is rightly understood, its meaning is seen as the infinite consciousness.

Every zealous effort is always crowned with fruition. Hence, do not abandon right effort.

The conditioning of the mind drops away when the truth is clearly seen and realized; and when the conditioning has ceased, one’s consciousness is made supremely peaceful, as when the flame of a lamp is put out.

He who has an intelligence that has been rendered pure, by the destruction of all inner impurities, has his heart illumined by the light of the self—obtained through inquiry into the self; seeing the worthlessness of birth and death—he dwells without fear or anxiety in the city which is the body.

Consciousness reflecting in consciousness shines as consciousness and exists as consciousness; yet, to one who is ignorant, though considering oneself as wise and rational, there arises the notion that there has come into being and there exists something other than this consciousness.

O Rāma, do not inquire into, “How has this ignorance arisen”—but inquire into, “How shall I get rid of it”.

If you seek your self with the self by your own self-effort, then you will clearly find the answer to your question.

.....

KACA sang: What shall I do? Where shall I go? What shall I try to hold? What shall I renounce? This entire universe is permeated by the one self. Unhappiness or sorrow is the self. Happiness is the self, too. For, all desires are but empty void. Having known that all this is the self, I am freed from all travail. In this body, within and without, above and below, everywhere—here and there—is only the self and self alone and there is no non-self. The self alone is everywhere; everything exists as the self. All this, is truly the self. I exist in the self as the self. I exist as all this, as the reality in all, everywhere. I am the fullness. I am the self-bliss. I fill the entire universe like the cosmic ocean.

This unreal world has acquired substantiality on account of the persistence of the notion of its existence.

48 chp 4 ends

.....

chp 5

49

Ignorance of the self is the cause of your sorrow; knowledge of the self leads to delight and tranquility.

O unsteady mind, this worldly life is not conducive to your true happiness. Hence, reach the state of equanimity. It is in such equanimity that you will experience peace, bliss and the truth.

Consciousness minus conceptualization is the eternal Brahman the absolute; consciousness plus conceptualization is thought.

Though appearing to be intelligent, thought is unable to comprehend anything really, even as the granite figure of a dancer does not dance even when requested to do so.

In the middle between the self as the seer and the world as the seen, you are the seeing or sight—always remain in this realization.

The very best intelligent means by which the mind can be subdued is: complete freedom from desire, hope or expectation—in regard to all objects at all times

In whatever the mind tends to sink, retrieve it from it and direct it towards the truth.

I now recollect the truth that I am the self which is omnipresent, in which there is no conceptualization.

 Just as butter exists in milk and just as liquidity exists in water, even so—as the energy of consciousness, I exist in all that exists.

57

5/34/69

I salute my own self which is the in-dweller in all beings, 

which is the consciousness freed from objectivity 

or conceptualization 

and which is the intelligence in all beings.

....

‘This is you’, ‘This is I’—such expressions are used when you yourself adore yourself or describe yourself for your own delight.

Adore the self by the self, worship the self by the self, behold the self by the self, and be firmly established by the self in the self.

O Rāma, this cycle of birth and death is an interminable one; this māyā ceases only by the mastery of one’s own heart or mind—not otherwise.

.......

Consciousness free from the limitations of the mind is known as the inner intelligence. 

It is the essential nature of no-mind. 

 Therefore, it is not tainted by the impurities of concepts and precepts.

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

Even as a terrible weapon is encountered and destroyed by a more powerful weapon, tranquillize the mind with the help of the mind itself. 

Forever abandon every form of mental agitation. 

Remain at peace within yourself like a tree, freed from the disturbance caused by monkeys.

......

52

When will I, living in a cave with a mind in utter tranquility, remain like a rock in a state in which there is no movement of thought at all?

O foolish mind, all these perish being subject to just one sense-craving… (the deer by the sense of hearing, the bee by the sense of smell, the moth by the sense of sight, the elephant by the sense of touch, and the fish by the sense of taste) …but you, you are victim to all the five temptations—how can you have happiness?

I have carefully investigated, I have observed everything from the tips of my toes to the top of my head: and I have not found anything of which I could say ‘This I am’. Who is ‘I’?

There is thus nothing which can be called ‘I’ and which undergoes being and non being: when there is no ego-sense in truth—how can that ego-sense be related and to whom?

The delusion known as ego-sense is like the blueness of the sky—it is better not to entertain that notion once again, but to abandon it.

....

That is known as samādhi—in which all the desires and hopes concerning the world have ceased and which is free from sorrow, fear and desire, and by which the self rests in itself. 

...

Not till one renounces everything is self-knowledge gained—when all points of view are abandoned, what remains is the self.

Knowledge of truth, Lord, is the fire that burns up all hopes and desires as if they are dried blades of grass: and that, is known by the word samādhi—not simply remaining silent.

They alone are friends, scriptures and days that generate in one’s heart true dispassion and also self-knowledge.

.

I remained in a conditioned state as long as I was foolishly engaged in this inquiry. Now that through this inquiry, I have reached the unconditioned being—who is the inquirer?

Having been nourished by the senses, the mind grasps the very objects it has given up; and like a demented person, it runs after the very things from which it has been restrained.

.....

Your existence as identical with the self and non-different from it is conducive to happiness, O mind. Hence, be firmly rooted in the realization of your nonexistence. Surely it is foolish to neglect happiness.

.............69..........................................................

The very nature of the mind is stupidity. 

Hence, when it dies—purity and noble qualities arise.

72

Knowledge of the self, company of holy men, abandonment of conditioning and the restraint of prāṇa—these are the means to overcome the mind.

.....

  .......5th chp ends ..72................................................cont........

Annamalai Swami -2

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34/60

Annamalai Swami: If the intensity to know yourself is strong enough, the intensity of your yearning will take you to the Self.

Question: But still, I must keep up with the enquiry.

Annamalai Swami: If you remain in the Self, enquiry will not be necessary. 

If you move away from the Self and go back to the mind, you then have to enquire again and go back to your Self

Question: To whom does this intensity to realise the Self arise? It has to arise to the T that ultimately has to disappear.

Annamalai Swami: Who is this T? It is neither the body nor the mind. If you remain as the Self, there is neither body nor mind. So what is this T ? Enquire into it and find out for yourself.

When you see the rope, what happens to the snake? Nothing happens to it because there never was a snake. Similarly, when you remain as the Self, there is a knowing that this T never had any existence.

All is the Self. You are not separate from the Self. All is you. 

Your real state is the Self, and in that Self there is no body and no mind. 

This is the truth, and you know it by being it. 

This ‘I am the body’ idea is wrong. 

This false idea must go and the conviction ‘I am the Self’ should come to the extent that it becomes constant.

At the moment this ‘I am the body’ idea seems very natural for you. 

You should work towards the point where ‘I am the Self’ becomes natural to you. 

It happens when the wrong idea of being the body goes, 

and when you stop believing it to be true, 

it vanishes as darkness vanishes when the sun appears.

This life is all a dream, a dream within a dream within a dream. We dream this world, we dream that we die and take birth in another body. And in this birth we dream that we have dreams. 

All kinds of pleasures and suffering alternate in these dreams, but a moment comes when waking up happens.

 In this moment, which we call realising the Self, there is the understanding that all the births, all the deaths, all the sufferings and all the pleasures were unreal dreams that have finally come to an end.

Everyone has experienced dreams within dreams. 

One may dream that one has woken up from a dream, but that waking up is still happening within a dream. Our whole lives are dreams. When this dream life ends and a new one begins, there is no knowledge that both dreams are happening in the underlying dream of samsara.

Bhagavan has instructed us in Who Am I? to see the whole world as a dream.

 When realisation comes, nothing will affect you because you will have the firm knowledge that all manifestation is an unreal dream.

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

...had a peaceful experience.......No matter how much I try, I never feel that I am getting any closer to it. How can I get this experience back?

Annamalai Swami: 

By constant self-enquiry. 

‘Who had the experience, and who lost it? 

Who has the yearning to regain it?

 Who has all these thoughts about it?’ 

If you follow this approach, you will ultimately realise who you really are.

The experience you had didn’t come from somewhere else. It is already within you. Find out who had the experience.

.....

........He told me to read Sivananda Lahari, Ellam Ondre, Upadesa Saram and his other writings. He also told me to do parayana [chanting of scriptural works]. All this was very helpful in keeping my mind on the Self during work......

....

38

Then, one day in the hall, Bhagavan turned to me and said, ‘Your karmas are over’.

I had this great opportunity to surrender to a Guru like Bhagavan, to trust him and to serve him. It didn’t happen through my own efforts. This kind of thing happens very rarely, for beings such as Bhagavan don’t appear very often. If you want to learn, you have to go to school. If you want jnana, you have to go to a jnani.

I want to speak some more about the grace of the Guru. Bhagavan told me that the Guru is the Self who is within. The Self manifests in a form and pushes the minds of devotees towards the Self. At the same time the Guru resides within us as the unmanifest Self. From the inside, he is pulling us towards him. This pushing and pulling is the Guru’s grace.

For the Guru’s grace to work on us, we have to surrender. 

We have to give up all the things of this world, and all other worlds, and direct all our attention towards the Self. 

If we want anything in this world or the next, our energy will be dispersed in these desires, and to fulfil these desires we shall have to reborn again and again.

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

Bhagavan says, ‘You are always the Self. It is just your notion that you are not the Self that has to be got rid of.’ How does this happen?

Annamalai Swami: The Self is peace and happiness. Realising peace and happiness within you is the true realisation of the Self. You cannot distinguish between peace, happiness and the Self. They are not separate aspects. 

You have this idea that peace and happiness is within you, so you make some effort to find it there, but at the moment it is still only an idea for you.

To replace this 'idea' by 'experience.':

So, ask yourself, ‘To whom does this idea come? Who has this idea?’

You must pursue this line if you want to have the idea replaced by the experience. 

Peace is not an idea, nor is it something that comes and goes. 

We are always That. 

So, remain as That. 

You have no birth and no death, no bondage and no freedom. 

It is perpetual peace, and it is free from all ideas. 

The ‘I am the body’ idea is what is concealing it. This is what has to go.

......

Question: So the notion of being the body and the mind comes back and covers the experience?

Annamalai Swami: Yes, yes. 

This idea, ‘I am the body’, is not there during sleep. Everyone enjoys sleeping, and the reason we enjoy it is because there are no thoughts there. It is the thoughts that arise subsequently that cause us all our trouble. There is no separate entity during sleep because no thought has arisen to create the image of one.

 When waking comes, this first rising thought, ‘I am the body’, brings separation, doubts and confusion. If you can be without it in the waking state there will be the knowledge, ‘I am Ramana, I am Arunachala. Everything is myself.’ Ram, Krishna, etc., are all you. It is just this limiting ‘I am the body’ thought that keeps this knowledge, this awareness from you.

In the waking state, the jnani has no limiting thoughts, no ego that identifies with a name and a form. His state is crystal clear. Ramana Bhagavan had no ego, no limiting thoughts, which is why he knew himself to be this peace, this happiness.

.......

Annamalai Swami: Bhagavan watched me very closely in the years that I served him in the ashram. One time I went to the Mother’s temple where many people were talking about worldly matters.

Bhagavan called me back, saying, ‘Why should you go to that crowd? Don’t go to crowded places. If you move with the crowd, their vasanas will infect you.’

Bhagavan always encouraged me to live a solitary life and not mix with other people. 

That was the path he picked for me. 

Other people got different advice that was equally good for them. But while he actively discouraged me from socialising, he also discouraged me from sitting quietly and meditating during the years that I was working in the ashram. In this period of my life, if Bhagavan saw me sitting with my eyes closed he would call out to me and give me some work to do.

On one of these occasions he told me, ‘Don’t sit and meditate. It will be enough if you don’t forget that you are the Self.

 Keep this in your mind all the time while you are working. 

This sadhana will be enough for you.

 The real sadhana is not to forget the Self.

 It is not sitting quietly with one’s eyes closed.

You are always the Self.

 Just don’t forget it.’

Bhagavan’s way does not create a war between the mind and the body. He does not make people sit down and fight the mind with closed eyes. Usually, when you sit in meditation, you are struggling to achieve something, fighting to gain control over the mind. 

Bhagavan did not advise us to engage in this kind of fight. 

He told us that there is no need to engage in a war against the mind, because mind does not have any real, fundamental existence.

 This mind, he said, is nothing but a shadow. He advised me to be continuously aware of the Self while I did the ordinary things of everyday life, and in my case, this was enough.

If you understand the Self and be that Self, 

everything will appear to you as your own Self. 

No problems will ever come to you while you have this vision. 

Because you are all and all is the Self, choices about liking or disliking will not arise. If you put on green-tinted glasses, everything you see will appear to be green. 

If you adopt the vision of the Self, everything that is seen will be Self and Self alone.

So these were Bhagavan’s teachings for me: 

‘If you want to understand the Self, no formal sadhana is required.

 You are always the Self. 

Be aware of the Self while you are working. 

Convince yourself that you are the Self. Not the body or the mind. 

Always avoid the thought, “I am not the Self’.’

Avoid thoughts that limit you, thoughts that make you believe that you are not the Self.

I once asked Bhagavan: ‘You are at the top of the hill. You have reached the summit of spiritual life, whereas I am still at the bottom of the hill. Please help me to reach the summit.’

Bhagavan answered, ‘It will be enough if you give up the thought, “I am at the bottom of the hill”. If you can do this, there will be no difference between us. It is just your thoughts that are convincing you that I am at the top and you are at the bottom. If you can give up this difference, you will be fine.’

Don t adopt attitudes such as these that automatically assume that you are limited or inferior in any way.

On another occasion I asked Bhagavan: ‘Nowadays, many people are crossing big oceans by plane in very short periods of time. I would like Bhagavan to find us a good device, a jnana airplane that can speedily transport us all to moksha.'

This time Bhagavan replied, ‘We are both travelling in a jnana airplane, but you don’t understand this.’

In his answers to me Bhagavan would never let me fall into the false belief that I was separate or different from him,

or that I was a person with a mind and a body who needed to do something to reach some exalted spiritual state. 

Whenever I asked him questions that were based on assumptions such as these, he would show me the error that was implicit in the question and gently point me back to the truth, the Self. 

He would never allow me to entertain wrong ideas.

...

...This is the teaching of Bhagavan, my Guru. I am passing it on to you.

You must understand who you are and what you are, and then you must remain as that. 

If you can manage this, this itself will suffice.

 Right now you are under the impression that you are your body and your mind, but the truth is, you are the Self.

 Let go of the T that you imagine yourself to be and catch hold of the real ‘I’, the Self.

What do you hope to gain from your pilgrimage, from going here and there in an external journey? You are holding onto the idea that you are your body and your mind. 

Having assumed this, you are now looking for an external God so that you can worship him.

 Though such worship may be beneficial, it will not take you beyond the realm of the mind. 

While you hold onto the idea that you are a person inside a body, whatever you see will be a manifestation of your own mind. 

You cannot transcend the mind by worshipping your own external projections. 

All these external appearances that you see in front of you are maya. 

They have no fundamental abiding reality. 

To find the Self, to find what is true and real, you have to look inside yourself.

 You have to find the source, the place where all these mental projections arise.

You are looking for satisfaction in the outside world because you think that all these objects you see in front of you are real. 

They are not. 

The reality is the substratum in which they all appear.

 This is what you should be seeking, 

instead of looking for external gods in different pilgrimage places.

An elephant is made out of wood. If we see it as wood, it is wood. But if we get caught up in the name and form, we will see only an elephant and forget that its underlying nature is wood.

All is your own Self. 

This form is different; that form is different. 

This is more powerful; this is worse.

 These are all judgements you make when you see separate objects instead of having the true vision that all is an undifferentiated oneness. 

There may be different varieties of light bulbs, but the current that activates and sustains them is the same.

  You must learn to become one with this activating current, the unmanifest Self,

 and not get caught up in all the names and forms that appear in it.

Here is another verse from one of the Siddhas:

‘Because of your ego you are going to the forest to look for spiritual light. You are looking for this darshan of light in Badrinath and other Himalayan pilgrimage places. These things are the illusion of the mind. They depend on the states of the mind and the functioning of the mind. That which you are searching for is within yourself.’

Bhagavan wrote in Ulladu Narpadu, verse eleven: 

‘Knowing all else without knowing oneself, the knower of objects known, is nothing but ignorance. How instead can it be knowledge?’

All the information the mind accumulates and all the experiences it collects are ignorance, false knowledge. Real knowledge cannot be found in the mind or in any external location. The mind sees through coloured glasses, and what it sees is tinted and tainted by that colour. If your mind is in a spoiled and disturbed condition, the entire world will appear to be in a spoiled and disturbed condition. If your mind is crystal clear, everything will appear to you to be clear and peaceful.

......

Your most important objective must be realising the Self. 

If you have not done this, you will spend your time in ignorance and illusion.

 You, your mind, this world - they are all maya. Don’t become a slave to this maya. Instead, realise the Self and let maya become your servant.

I have just remembered another verse from the Siddhas:

‘Many people have struggled years together to realise the Self. Millions and millions of people have struggled, looking for the light outside themselves. If these millions and millions of people have 

died without understanding the Self that is within them, it is because they didn’t understand the real path.’

You must find someone who has followed the right path, someone who has discovered this inner truth for himself, and who stabilised himself there.

 Such a one will give you good advice. 

He will not send you out on unproductive adventures in the outside world. 

Following the advice of someone who has not reached this state is simply a case of the blind leading the blind. 

Neither knows the right path and both will eventually fall into a big hole.

You may find a fruit that is very bitter and decide to improve its flavour. You could take it to all the holy rivers in the country and wash it in each one, but when you come home, the fruit will not be any less bitter than the day you started. You can carry your mind to every comer of the country, visiting all the famous pilgrimage places on the way, bathing in all the holy rivers, doing pujas at all the sacred shrines, but when you return your mind will be in the same state as the day you started. 

Mind is not improved by long journeys to far-flung places. 

Instead, make an internal pilgrimage. 

Take the mind back to its source and plunge it into the peace-giving waters of the Self. 

If you once make this pilgrimage, you will never need to go looking for happiness or peace in any other place.

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

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Question: Is it not good to remember God and to repeat his name?

Annamalai Swami: 

The Ribhu Gita advises us to remember at all times, ‘I am the Self; all is the Self’. 

The entire universe is ‘I’. 

If you can keep this permanently in your mind, millions and millions of punyas will come to you.

 There were many books that Bhagavan liked, but Ribhu Gita was definitely one of the best. He once said that Ribhu Gita is a book for one’s last life.

You must have read Hanuman’s story in the Ramayana. Hanuman’s mind was completely lost in the name of Ram, and because of this he accumulated great powers. He was able to jump across the ocean because of his full and complete devotion. I advise doing japa to the Self, either by repeatedly thinking about it or by repeating affirmations such as ‘I am the Self’. This affirmation is the greatest mantra of all. If you can do it continuously, without interruption, you will get results very quickly. There is no greater japa, no greater sadhana than this.

The one who is seeking is also that which is sought. 

The seeker and the sought are both Self..

 If you are not able to find this Self within yourself, you will not find it anywhere else. 

Searching on the outside and visiting holy places will not help you.

Many people are visiting swamis, temples and holy places. Doing these things will not yield any good fruit. For real and lasting results you have to look inside yourself and discover the Self within. You can do that anywhere.

........

Try to avoid unnecessary activities. Less work is good. 

Devote yourself to your sadhana all the time.

 You dissipate your desire for the Self by undertaking all kinds of useless activities that waste your time and lead to attachments. 

You think that your life is endless and that you can put off meditation till a later date. With this kind of attitude, you will die filled with regrets, not filled with peace.

.......

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Whatever kind of thought arises, have the same reaction: ‘Not me; not my business.’ It can be a good thought or a bad thought. Treat them all the same way. To whom are these thoughts arising? To you. That means that you are not the thought.

You are the Self. 

Remain as the Self.  Don’t latch onto anything that is not the Self.

......

If you remain as the Self, no vasanas and no karma will touch or affect you. If you remain in the mind, thoughts of one sort or another will bother you all the time.

........

52

If the thoughts ‘I should meditate’ or ‘I should realise’ arise, ask yourself, ‘To whom are these thoughts arising?’ Why do you need to think about your body and your mind so much? If you are the light, there is no darkness. If you are the Self, there is no thought, no body, and no mind to give you any trouble. Any number of thoughts may come. Let them. 

But remember all the time, ‘I am the Self’. 

You are not the vasanas, you are not the thoughts, you are the Self. 

Keep that awareness and don’t worry too much about what is going on in your mind, and what it means.

Don’t allow any identifications to settle on you. 

Don’t think, ‘I am sitting in Bhagavan’s shrine’. Don’t think, ‘I am doing, I am acting, I am sitting’.

You are the Self, not the body. Even your vasanas are the Self. All is your Self. There are no distinctions, no differences in the Self. Nothing is separate from the Self. You cannot find a single atom, a single thought that is apart from the Self. All is the Self.

.....

All these doubts that are troubling you arise simply because you are enmeshed in the ‘I am the body’ thought and all the confusing consequences that it brings. 

It is more productive to keep the awareness ‘I am the Self’ than to be analysing the usefulness of effort. 

Sadhana, effort and practice, and any ideas you may have about them, are concepts that can only arise when you believe that you are not the Self, and when you believe that you have to do something to reach the Self.

Even the sequence, ‘To whom has this thought come? To me,’ is based on ignorance of the truth. 

Why? Because it is verbalising a state of ignorance; it is perpetuating an erroneous assumption that there is a person who is having troublesome thoughts.

 You are the Self, not some make-believe person who is having thoughts.

If you remain in the Self, as the Self, no harm can come to you.

 In that state, whatever comes to you will not be a problem. 

There is no duality when you remain as the Self. No thoughts about what you should or should not do, and no thoughts about what can be done or what can’t be done. 

The main thing is not to go out of the Self

 When you have switched on the light, darkness cannot come, not even if you desire it.

........

If you abide as the Self, you will see the world as the Self. 

In fact, there will be no world at all. 

No world, no maya, no mind, no distinctions of any kind. It is like the state of seeing only wood in the carved elephant, only threads in the dyed cloth. In that state of being and knowing the Self, ideas of right and wrong, things to do and things to avoid doing, will vanish. 

You will know that they were just mental concepts. In that state you will know that mind is the Self, bondage is the Self, everything is the Self. With that vision, nothing will bind you; nothing will cause you misery.

.....

If you go to a physical Guru and ask him how to realise the Self, 

he will probably tell you that you are already the Self, and that you should just hold onto the Self that you already are. 

If you can manage that you will be with the true Guru all the time.  You will not need the physical form of the Guru to keep reminding you of who you are. 

In that state you will be living with Bhagavan, staying as the Self, holding onto the real ‘I’ at all times.

If you go to the physical form of the Guru and ask about Self- realisation, you will not be told about the importance of the physical form of the Guru. 

You will be told to hold onto the real ‘I’.

 You will be told that you should not fall into the trap of believing that the Guru is just a body. 

The Guru is inside you as the Self and outside you as a physical form that has manifested in the Self. 

If you follow the advice that the physical Guru gives, you will discover that the inner and outer Gurus are one and the same.

However, very few people can manage this by themselves.

....

Initially, abidance in the Self may not be firm and irreversible. Vigilance may be needed at first to maintain it.

There is a verse from Kaivalya Navaneeta that Bhagavan often quoted. 

It speaks of the need for vigilance even after the Self has been experienced for the first time. In the verse the disciple is speaking to his Guru:

‘Lord, you are the reality remaining as my inmost Self, ruling me during all my countless incarnations! Glory to you who have put on an external form in order to instruct me. I do not see how I can repay your grace for having liberated me. Glory! Glory to your holy feet!’

The Guru replies:

‘To stay fixed in the Self without the three kinds of obstacles [ignorance, uncertainty and wrong knowledge] obstructing your experience, is the highest return you can render me.’

The Guru knows that without vigilance, an initial experience of the Self may slip away.

......

Grace is always present, always available, but for it to be effective, one must be in a state to receive it and make full use of it. If you want to take a full cup of water from a lake, you have to fully immerse the cup first. If you want to fill your mind with grace, submerge it fully in the Self. In that place the grace will manifest in you as peace and happiness.

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

Annamalai Swami -Additional notes-1

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Don’t be discouraged by the length of the journey, and don’t slacken in your efforts to get home. 

Turn 180° to face the source of your outward journey, and keep moving back to where you started. Ignore the pain, the discomfort, and the frustration of seeming not to get anywhere. 

Keep moving back to your source, and don’t let anything distract you on the way.

 Be like the river on its journey back to the sea. 

It doesn’t stop, take diversions, or decide to flow uphill for a while. It doesn’t become distracted. 

It just moves slowly and steadily back to the place its water originated from.

 And when the river dissolves in the ocean, river is no more. 

Only ocean remains.

18

Jnanis remain absorbed in the Self at all times and their apparent behaviour is just a reflection of the circumstances they find themselves in.

......

19

Disciples who are spiritually very advanced can realise the Self as soon as they hear the truth from an enlightened Guru,

because the words of such a being have great power.

 If you are in this advanced state, they will reach your inner core and reveal to you the peace that is your real nature. 

When the Guru tells you that you are the Self, there is a power and an authority in those words that can make them become your own reality. 

If you are pure and ready, no practice will be required. 

One word from a jnani and his state will become yours too.

....

30 

Ramana's advice to one who wanted to hold his feet.

Only the Supreme Self which is ever shining in your Heart as the reality, is the Sadguru. The pure awareness, which is shining as the inward illumination “I”, is His gracious feet. The contact with these [inner holy feet] alone can give you true redemption.

 Joining the eye of reflected consciousness /chitabhasa/, which is your sense of individuality, to these holy feet, which are the real consciousness, is the union of the feet and the head which is the real significance of the word asi [the verb in tat tvam asi, “that thou art”]. As these inner holy feet can be held naturally and unceasingly, hereafter, with an inward- turned mind, cling to that inner awareness which is your own real nature. This alone is the proper way for the removal of bondage and the attainment of the supreme truth. ’

.......

Most people cannot hear or be aware of the subtle inner vibration because it is drowned out by the physical noise of the outer world and by the persistent mental noise of the mind. The only people who can hear this sound are those in whom thoughts have mostly disappeared. One needs to be in a deep level of mental peace in order to be aware of this sound.

.....

Enquire ‘Who am I?’ or ‘What is my real nature?’ The nature of the Self is nothing but peace.

 If you are not aware of that peace, it means that you are identifying with something that is not the Self. 

As long as you hear, taste and smell things, you identify with the body. When the perceptions and the perceiver of them vanish, you become aware of the peace that is there all the time.

.........

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You need not hold on to That because you are That all the time. That is enough. You are That. How can you hold on to That, or feel separate from it, or try to get it back, or lose it?

 If That is your real nature, how can you pretend that you are nearer to it in two places and separate from it when you are somewhere else?

.....

Sadhana is a battlefield. You have to be vigilant. Don’t take delivery of wrong beliefs and don’t identify with the incoming thoughts that will give you pain and suffering. But if these things start to happen to you, fight back by affirming, ‘I am the Self; I am the Self; I am the Self’.

These affirmations will lessen the power of the ‘I am the body’ arrows. 

And eventually they will armour-plate you so successfully, the ‘I am the body’ thoughts that come your way will no longer have the power to touch you, affect you or make you suffer.

....

If it is constant, it will be enough.

 If you don’t forget your real Self, that will be enough. 

Your real Self is everything. Not an atom exists apart from the Self. 

You, the real you, the Self, are all inclusive. When I say give up your identification with the ‘I am the body’ idea, I don’t mean that you are not the body. I mean that you should give up the idea that you are only the body. 

You are all bodies, all things, all creation, but paradoxically, this knowledge will not come to you unless you give up identifying with particular objects, 

such as 1 am the body’, and limiting thoughts such as ‘I am so-and- so’. 

When you have given up all thoughts, all identifications, the true knowledge suddenly dawns on you: 

T am the unmanifest Self and I am also the whole of manifestation.’

So I tell people: ‘This physical body is not you; the mind is not you. Go beyond them to see what is really behind them.’ 

This is done to make people give up their incorrect, limiting ideas, so they can have a direct experience of what is truly real.

 I am asking people to be aware of the rope of reality instead of being confounded and led astray by the mental illusion of the snake.

.......

Since you forget your real Self, the only way is to go back to your real Self. 

If you keep the light on all the time, darkness cannot enter your room. Even if you open the door and invite it to come in, it cannot enter. Darkness is just an absence of light. In the same way, mind is just a self- inflicted area of darkness in which the light of the Self has been deliberately shut out. You live in the darkness by insisting on believing ideas that have no validity, and you live in the light of the Self when you have given up all ideas, both good and bad.

......

Question: So you are saying that believing that I am a body and a particular person is purely imagination. Or better still, a bad habit that I should try to get rid of?

Annamalai Swami: 

Correct. 

This habit has become very strong because you have reinforced and strengthened it over many lifetimes. 

This will go if you meditate on your real Self.

 The habit will melt away, like ice becoming water.

.........

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Forgetfulness of the Self happens because of non-enquiry. 

So I say, ‘Remove the forgetfulness through enquiry’. Forgetfulness or non-forgetfulness is not apart of your destiny.

  It is something you can choose from moment to moment. 

That is what Bhagavan said. 

He said that you have the freedom either to identify with the body and its activities, and in doing so forget the Self, 

or you can identify with the Self 

and have the understanding that the body is performing its predestined activities, animated and sustained by the power of the Self.

If you have an oil lamp and you forget to put oil in it, the light goes out. It was your forgetfulness and your lack of vigilance that caused the light to go out. Your thoughts were elsewhere. They were not on tending the lamp.

In every moment you only have one real choice: to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind. 

If you choose the latter course, don’t blame God or God’s will, or predestination. 

God did not make you forget the Self. 

You yourself are making that choice every second of your life.

.......

The Self is always present. 

Nothing obstructs your awareness of it except your self-inflicted ignorance. 

Our efforts, our sadhana, are directed towards removing this ignorance. If this ignorance is removed, the real Self is revealed. 

This revelation is not part of destiny. Only the outer bodily activities are destined.

......

Question: So my inner life is my own responsibility. I cannot blame Bhagavan if I am not remembering myself.

Annamalai Swami: 

Bhagavan is always present, inside you and in front of you. 

If you don’t cover the vision of Bhagavan with your ego, that will be enough. 

The ego is the ‘I am the body’ idea. 

Remove this idea and you shine as the Self. 

That is the only thing you need to do in this life.

 The various events of your life - all the things that are going to happen to you - they are all destined. 

If you don’t want them to happen, they will still occur, even if you try to avoid them.

 And if you want things that are not in your destiny, they won’t come to you.

There is no point worrying about the outer events of your life because you can exercise no control over these destined activities. 

Your responsibility in this life is to see who you are, not to rewrite your life script.

.......

This Bhagavan you speak of is not a body, a person who existed at some time. 

All is Bhagavan.

All is Ramana. 

There can be no mistakes in following Bhagavan’s path because Bhagavan is like an eternal light that is always burning, a grace that is always giving. 

To be aware of Bhagavan is to be aware of this inner truth. 

If you are not aware of this Bhagavan, it is your responsibility, not his. 

He is not hiding from you; you are hiding from him. 

He does not think that he is separate from you. It is you who believe that you are separate from him.

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

Q...................I am either hearing or feeling the aham sphurana. But always there is this desire to go deeper, to be feeling more peace, more bliss. I am not satisfied with the experience I am having. Is this desire to do more sadhana a good desire, or is it interfering with Self-awareness?

Annamalai Swami: Your ultimate need is to get established in the changeless peace of the Self. 

For this you have to give up all thoughts. 

If this has happened to you, nothing more is needed. 

If you are in the real state, there will be no wants, no desire to push on to some other state. 

In realisation there will be no desire for anything else, and no doubt about whether anything is needed.

 This final state is just peace. 

There are no desires and doubts there.

......

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Question: So there is no special method for diving within. It happens by itself. Is this true?

Annamalai Swami: It doesn’t happen by itself. 

You have to go on making an effort until the point where you become totally effortless. 

Up till that moment your effort is needed. 

The mind only gets dissolved in the Self by constant practice.

 At that moment the ‘I am the body’ idea disappears, just as darkness disappears when the sun rises.

......

Ramana and other Gurus only show us the way. We have to walk on the path ourselves to realise the truth. If you want to go to America, having someone tell you where it is and how to get there will not magically transport you to that place. You have to go to the airport and get on the plane yourself. You have to carry out the instructions the Guru has given you until you realise the truth for yourself. Grace takes us to the Guru. Grace shows us the way home by guiding us in the right direction, but we still have to do the work ourselves.

.......

This current, this ‘I am’ consciousness, is present within all of us. It is not something special that devotees of one particular Guru have. It is our nature, and as such it is common to all. 

But only a few souls are mature enough or ripe enough to be aware of it. 

Though it is present within all of us, grace puts us in touch with it and gives us a taste of what it is like. And once that taste is there, the thirst to realise the Self follows.

Tayumanvar:

‘My Guru merely told me that I am consciousness.

 Having heard this, I held onto consciousness.

What he told me was just one sentence, but I cannot describe the bliss I attained from holding onto that one simple sentence. Through that one sentence I attained a peace and a happiness that can never be explained in words.’

.......

Question: Why should I ask? Asking has not produced the right answer so far.

Annamalai Swami: 

You should persist and not give up so easily. 

When you intensely enquire ‘Who am I?’ the intensity of your enquiry takes you to the real Self.

It is not that you are asking the wrong question. 

You seem to be lacking intensity in your enquiry. 

You need a one-pointed determination to complete this enquiry properly. 

Your real Self is not the body or the mind. 

You will not reach the Self while thoughts are dwelling on anything that is connected with the body or the mind.

......

Question: So it is the intensity of the enquiry that determines whether I succeed or not.

Annamalai Swami: Yes.

 If enquiry into the Self is not taking place, thoughts will be on the body and the mind. 

And while those thoughts are habitually there, there will be an underlying identification: ‘I am the body. I am the mind.’ 

This identification is something that happened at a particular point in time. It is not something that has always been there. And what comes in time also goes eventually, for nothing that exists in time is permanent. The Self, on the other hand, has always been there. It existed before the ideas about the body and the mind arose, and it will be there when they finally vanish. The Self always remains as it is: as peace, without birth, without death. Through the intensity of your enquiry you can claim that state as your own.

Enquire into the nature of the mind by asking, with one- pointed determination, ‘Who am I?’ Mind is illusory and non-existent, just as the snake that appears on the rope is illusory and non-existent. Dispel the illusion of the mind by intense enquiry and merge in the peace of the Self. That is what you are, and that is what you always have been.

Question: Has Swamiji realised the Self?

Annamalai Swami: Yes. 

But this is sometimes a strange question to answer. It is like having somebody ask you if you have become a human being. You are always a human being. You didn’t have to do anything to accomplish it. You are self- evidently a human being, so much so, it is strange to field questions about it.

Question: It is not self-evident to me.

Annamalai Swami: Then find out who you are.

Question: How does one find out who one is?

Annamalai Swami: You will find out by constantly doing self¬ enquiry. Ask yourself, ‘Am I the body? Am I the mind?’ When self-enquiry is deepened, you understand who you are.

Question: How long did it take for Swamiji to find out?

Annamalai Swami: If one is mature, one can realise it in this moment.

If one is not mature one has to take up sadhana to make oneself receptive to the truth.

.....

Question: What happens in your deep sleep state? Is it the same as when you are awake?

Annamalai Swami: Yes.

......

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...............I feel a little confusion about the process and the technique of self-enquiry, so much so I have to go back to reading Ramana’s teachings on the subject again and again until the confusion leaves me. I would like Swami’s comments on this. I know that there is nothing new that he can say about it. I know that I have to continue with self-enquiry.

Annamalai Swami: Constant meditation is the only way.

 If you bring the light into your room, the darkness immediately goes away. You have to see that the light is not put out. It has to be continuously burning so that there is no darkness. 

Until you get firmly established in the Self, you have to continue with your meditation. 

Doubts take possession of you only if you forget yourself.

.........

Question: My doubts are not my only problem. I find that my yearning for the Self is not very strong. This bothers me quite a lot.

Annamalai Swami: When you forget the state of being yourself, then is the time to enquire, ‘Who forgets the Self? Who is in doubt? Who is having the confusion?’ Enquire in this way. Discard all that is not you and come back to yourself.

.......

Annamalai Swami: If the intensity to know yourself is strong enough, the intensity of your yearning will take you to the Self.

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Path of Ramana Part 2 -2

 https://www.happinessofbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_Two-4.pdf

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When a Jnani thus feels everything as the one undivided Self, will not His body also be included in that experience as ‘I’ ?* The experience of the ignorant is ‘I am this body alone’ while that of a Jnani is ‘I am the body as well’, This is explained by Sri Bhagavan Ramana in verse 17 of ‘Ulladu Narpadu’:

“For those who have not realised the Self and as well for those who have realised the Self, this body is ‘I’; but, for those who have not realised the Self, the ‘I’ is confined only to the limit of the body; 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. Know that this is the only difference between these two.”

65

Out of the many different kinds of disinterested worship (Nishkama Pooja) the worship of the universe as the form of God is also recommended. Viewing the universe as God and worshipping it can only be done through the imaginative process of the mind. So it will be only the worship of a mental God and not that of Reality. 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. 

“In the heart at first you see Him who is everywhere; Only then that all exists as Him you’ll be aware.” - Dhyanappattu - Sadanai Saram.

......

68

If these impurities which form the ‘tam’ in ‘Chittam’ are removed,‘Chittam’ will remain as ‘Chit’ (Pure Consciousness) which it really ever IS.

.......

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.

The fully purified love will shine as Shiva!

5 levels

......

“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?’ – 

...

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

.....

. So also, as the discrimination of our Man has now matured, his decision not to pray for anything worldly objects has been brought about by the correct knowledge that God is All-knowing, All-powerful and All-love.

“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!

Ramalinga swami

......

“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.

..........

“For Thee I am longing, but without the true knowledge, and I am weary! Do Thou grant me the Supreme Knowledge of Thee, so That my weariness may go, O Arunachala.”

– ‘Arunachala Aksharamanamalai’ – Verse 40

reworded: I am longing for you without really knowing you. Give me the power to know you. So my wearines shall fade.

....

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.

reworded: As long as man cherishes name and form, his Love for God can never be steady. 

When grace dawns, God removes the maya of names and forms. He gives him a clear vision of who He is.

The seeker revels in that Reality.

...........

“… realizing one’s own truth in the truth of that True Thing (the Supreme) and being one with It, having been resolved into It, is the true Seeing (realization). Thus should you know”. 

– ‘Ulladu Narpadu’ – Verse 8

..

Realising the oneness of one’s own Self as the true nature of God and to merge into It without any residue of individuality, alone is the true seeing and the true attainment of God.

..

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.

..

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 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 

......

“It is only to those who are not able to know themselves as the witness, to whatever is cognized in the waking state as well as to the ignorance in sleep, that are deluded in thinking that God appeared to them and afterwards disappeared.” 

– ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ - Verse 1072 

“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

.......

If you want to be free from fear (the state of fearlessness) be in the state of otherlessness, Self.

......

“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

.....

“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

.........

Bhakti and Jnana pave the way to the Self. To be as the Self is Jnana; and without loving the Self how to be It? So, if one is as Self, it is the state of fullness of Love. 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.

.................162  bhakti ends.................

190 chp 3 ends  karma

........

Appendix 190

Thus through self-effort in the form of generating karmas there is no possibility of Awakening or Liberation.

...

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Path of Ramana Part 2 -1

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appendix

atma vichar patikam, 

sadhana and work pg 222

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Unconditional Self surrender  =  Self abidance

We are finally brought to the conclusion that unconditional Self-surrender in which no room is given even to any kind of prayers, is the best karma (action). This is nothing but Self-abidance.

“This – permanently remaining absorbed into its source whence it had its rising – is Karma and Bhakti; this is Yoga and Jnana.” 

– Upadesha Undiyar -Verse 10.

“The enquiry to whom is action (karma), non devotion, dis-union and ignorance is itself Karma, Bhakti, Yoga and Jnana... The abidance as the Self is verily the truth”.

 – Ulladu Narpadhu - Anubandham - Verse 14.

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.

26

.......In this manner, from the moment of waking up till the moment of going to sleep, from birth till death, from creation till dissolution, all people - indeed all living beings - direct their power of attention only towards second and third person objects, and 

no one ever directs it towards the first person! 

This great error is what is called the ‘original sin’.

27

........namely that ‘I’ alone is the absolute truth, and if they have not thereby attained the true experience of Self, we will have to conclude that their research was not a scrutiny of the correct first person. 

All that they have done was to attend to a second person object called ‘mind’.

...

Turning one’s attention towards oneself in order to find out ‘Who am I, who knows the mind?’ alone is the correct first person attention. Anyone who attends to himself in this manner, whoever he may be, will certainly attain the true Knowledge of Self.

.........

Since the eternal Self is non-dual and since there is no other path (to attain it) except (to attend to and thereby to abide as) Self, the goal to be attained is only Self and the path is only Self. Know them (the goal and the path) to be non different.

 – Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 579

.....

38

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.

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).

...

Similarly, if the light of self were not present, the creation, sustenance of this world could not take place. The light of Self is that which is commonly known by the name ‘God’, and without its presence the acts of creation and sustenance could not take place. For the sake of people who lack sufficient maturity of understanding, this truth is expressed metaphorically in the theory of gradual creation by saying that it is God who creates and sustains this world.

Drishtim jnanamayin kritva pasyet brahmamayamjagat which means, 

“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.

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

........

If we turn our power of attention towards “our own” Self, our limited sense of individuality will cease to exist, and hence the appearances of the world and God will come to an end. 

.........

48

And just as when one single ray of white light from the sun passes through a prism, it is diffracted and seen as various colours, so 

when we imagine ourselves  to be a petty individual soul on account of our slackness in Self-attention, 

our own single and undivided Self is seemingly diffracted and experienced by us, the individual soul, as the triad consisting of the knowing mind, its act of knowing and the many objects of the world which are known by it.*

.......

Sri Bhagavan has emphatically declared in verse 26 of Ulladu Narpadu, 

“If the ego comes into existence, everything (the world, God, bondage and liberation, pleasure and pain, and so on) will come into existence. If the ego does not exist, everything will not exist. (Hence) the ego itself is everything...”, and in verse 7 of Sri Arunachala Ashtakam, “If the thought ‘I’ does not exist, no other thing will exist...”

........

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. 

Because of the speed of forgetfulness or pramada by which he swerve from the state of Self-attention, it may be difficult in the beginning for an aspirant to notice exactly when he loses his hold on Self-attention.

 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, 

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. 

So long as he continues to give importance to these two states, which are nothing but mere appearances, he will be liable to build castles in the air by imagining that he can eliminate pain from this mixture of pleasure and pain, which is one of the many dyads, and that he can thereby make pleasure alone prevail in two states of creation and sustenance.

 Though such a person may be very broad-minded, generous-hearted and compassionate, since he may even be deluded to the extent of believing that the miseries which we now see in the world would not have existed if, the functions of creations and sustenance had been performed in accordance with his own visionary ideas.

Thus he will find fault even with God, who is now performing those functions. 

He will wistfully imagine that he must take responsibility for carrying out a reform in the present manner in which God is governing the world. He will then proceed to draw up wonderful plans whereby he hopes to transform this world into a blissful heaven and remove all the miseries seen in it, even hoping to make the body of man immortal. 

Such a well-intentioned but deluded person will then begin to ponder how and from where he can acquire the divine power or sakti which is necessary in order for him to carry out this wonderful unselfish plan of his, and he will begin to devise and practice many new kinds of yoga in the hopes of achieving such power.

 Finally, however, he will have to come to the conclusion that he can obtain such power only from God, the almighty Supreme Lord who is at present creating and sustaining this whole world, and so he will then select the method of complete self-surrender as a means of begging and acquiring such power from Him.

 Being confident that the unlimited power of God will surely be showered upon him if he adopts this method, and believing that with that power he can fulfil all the wonderful plans which he has drawn up, he will be waiting in eager expectation for the day when that power will descend from above. 

Knowing that there were people who were actually so deluded as to imagine, like the man described above, that it was both necessary and possible for them to bring about a radical reformation in the manner in which the world had been created and was being governed by God, Sri Bhagavan composed the following two verses :

 The buffonery of the madmen who, not knowing the manner in which they function by sakti (that is, not knowing the truth that it is only by the atmasakti or power of Self that they are enabled to function and perform activities), engage in activities saying, 

“We shall obtain all occult powers (siddhis)”, is like the story of the cripple who said, “If someone helps me to stand, what are these enemies (that is, how powerless they will be in front of me)?” 

See, when God is bearing the burden of the world, the pseudo soul (imagining as if it were) bearing (that burden) is a mockery like the form of a gopuram-tangi (a sculptured figure which seems to support the top of a temple 

tower with great strain, but which in fact is itself supported by the tower). 

Whose fault is it if someone who is travelling in a train, which is bearing a great burden, undergoes suffering by bearing (his small) burden on (his own) head instead of placing it on the train? – Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham verse 15 & 17 

But if the man described above really takes to the path of complete self-surrender in order to acquire from God the power which is necessary for him to bring about such a radical reformation in the creation, what will actually happen in the end? 

If and when the surrender becomes complete, the mind or ego which had risen as ‘I am so-and-so’ and which had cherished all the wonderful notions mentioned above, will surely drown and perish in Self, the source from which it had risen, thereby losing its separate individuality. 

Until and unless the ego is thus annihilated, the surrender cannot be said to be complete. 

Since a person therefore cannot remain as a separate individual entity after he has completely surrendered himself to God, upon whom is the divine power to descend, and who is to make use of that power to reform the world? Thus in the end all the hopes and ambitions cherished by this poor man will turn out to be completely meaningless and absurd, just like the patently ficticious story told in Kaivalya Navanitam, chapter 2, verse 89. The son of a barren woman and the man seen superimposed on a post, wearing wreaths of flowers imagined in the sky, haggled about the price of the silver in the mother-of-pearl, began to fight in the city shining in the clouds, stabbed each other with the horns of a hare, became exhausted and died, after which they both became ghosts: on hearing such a story, no wise man will be deceived. Why should any man unnecessarily tax his brain and confuse himself by cherishing such ideas and ambitions? When 

Sri Bhagavan was once asked about the beliefs of a certain philosopher who cherished the strange notions mentioned above, 

He briefly replied, ‘Let the surrender first become complete; we can see about everything else afterwards’.

 Why did He reply in this way? Transforming this world into a heaven devoid of misery and making man immortal are not things which have to be newly done. 

Even now the world is truly nothing other than Brahman, the blissful Supreme Reality, and man is in his true nature nothing other than Self, the immortal spirit.

 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).

 The defects which we now see in the world and in man are not defects in God’s creation but are only defects in our own outlook. Therefore there is no use in trying to rectify God’s creation by usurping His power; if we wish to rectify all the defects which we see, we must rectify our own outlook; there is no other way. 

Those who know the reality will declare that there is no defect in creation (srishti), but that there is a defect only in outlook (drishti). – Sri Ramana Jnana Bodham, vol. 1, verse 1696.

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

58

. Be they gross, subtle or causal, they are after all “a body” only! So long as one identifies oneself with anyone of these three bodies as ‘I’, it is only ignorance.

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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.

What really exists is Self (atma-swarupam) alone. 

The world, soul and God are super impositions in it like the silver in the mother-of-pearl; these three appear simultaneously and disappear simultaneously. 

Self itself is the world: Self itself is ‘I’ (the soul); Self itself is God; all is the Supreme Self (siva-swarupam) . 

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. Even by breath control (pranayama) the mind will subside; however, the mind will remain subsided only so long as the breath (prana) remains subsided, and when the prana comes out the mind will also come out and wander under the sway of tendencies (vasanas). The source of the mind and of the prana is one and the same. Thought itself is the nature of the mind. The thought ‘I’ is indeed the first thought of the mind; that itself is the ego (ahankara). From where the ego originates, from there alone the breath also rises. Therefore, when the mind subsides the prana will also subside, and when the prana subsides the mind will also subside. But in deep sleep (sushupti), although the mind subsides, the prana does not subside. It is arranged thus by God’s plan for the protection of the body and so that others may not mistake the body to be dead. When the mind subsides in the waking state and in Self-absorption (samadhi), the prana subsides. The prana is the gross form of the mind. Till the time of death, the mind keeps the prana in the body, and when the body dies, the mind forcibly carries away the prana. 

Therefore, pranayama is a mere aid for controlling the mind, but will not bring about the destruction of the mind (mano-nasa)*. 

Just like pranayama, meditation upon a form of God (murti-dhyana), repetition of sacred words (mantra-japa) and regulation of diet (ahara-niyama) are mere aids for controlling the mind (but will never by themselves bring about its destruction). 

Through murti-dhyana and through mantra-japa, the mind gains one-pointedness (ekagram). 

Just as when a chain is given to an elephant to hold in its trunk, which is always wandering (here and there trying to catch hold of things), that elephant will go along holding only the chain instead of trying to catch any other thing, so also when the mind, which is always wandering, is trained to hold on to anyone name or form (of God), it will cling only to that. 

Because the mind branches out into innumerable thoughts, each thought becomes very weak. 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 Self attention, 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. 

As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin.

 Not attending to what-is-other (anya, that is, to any second or third person object) is non attachment (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-smaran, 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. God and Guru are in truth not different. Just as the prey that has fallen into the jaws of a tiger cannot escape, so those who have come under the glance of the Guru’s Grace will surely be saved and will never be forsaken; yet, one should follow without fail the path shown by the Guru. 

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. 

However much burden we throw on God, He bears all of it. Since the one Supreme Ruling Power (parameswara sakti) is performing all activities, why should we, instead of yielding ourself to it, constantly think. ‘I should act in this way; I should act in that way’? 

When we know that the train is bearing all the burdens, why should we who travel in it, instead of placing even our small luggage in it and being happily at ease, suffer by bearing it (our luggage) on our own head?

 What is called happiness (sukham) is but the nature of Self. Happiness and Self are not different.

 Self-happiness (atma-sukham) alone exists; that alone is real. 

There is no happiness at all in even a single one of the things of the world. 

We think that we derive happiness from them on account of our wrong discrimination (aviveka). 

When the mind comes out, it experiences misery (duhkham). 

In truth, whenever our thoughts desires) are fulfilled, the mind, turning back to its source- (Self), experiences Self-happiness alone.

 Similarly, during the time of sleep, Self-absorption (samadhi) and swoon, and when the things that we like are obtained and when evil befalls the things that we dislike, the mind becomes introverted and experiences Self happiness alone. 

In this way the mind wanders without rest, going out leaving Self, and (then again) returning within. Under the tree, the shade is delightful. Outside, the sun’s heat is scorching. A person who is wandering outside reaches the shade and is cooled. After a while he starts out, but, unable to bear the scorching of the heat, comes again under the tree. In this way, he is engaged in going from the shade into the hot sunshine, and coming back from the hot sunshine into the shade. He who acts in this manner is a person lacking discrimination (aviveki). 

But a person of discrimination (viveki) will never leave the shade. 

Similarly, the mind of the Sage (jnana) never leaves Brahman (that is, Self). But the mind of the ignorant one (ajnani) is such that wandering in the world it suffers; and turning back to Brahman for a while enjoys happiness. 

What is called the world is nothing but thought. When the world disappears, that is, when there is no thought, the mind experiences bliss (ananda). When the world appears. it experiences misery. 

Just as in the mere presence of the sun, which rises without desire (ichcha), intention (sankalpa) or effort (yatnam), the sun-stone (the magnifying lens) emits fire, the lotus blossoms, water evaporates and people begin, perform and stop their work, and just as in front of a magnet the needle moves, so it is through the mere influence of the presence of God, who is without intention (sankalpa), that the souls (jivas), who are governed by the three divine functions (muttozhil) or five divine functions (panchakrityas), perform and stop their activities in accordance with their respective karmas (that is, in accordance not only with their prarabdha karma or destiny, but also with their purva karma-vasanas or former tendencies towards action). Nevertheless, He (God) is not one who has intention (sankalp). 

Not even a single action (karma) will affect (literally, touch) Him. That is like the actions in the world not affecting the sun, and like the good and bad qualities of the other four elements (namely earth, water, air and fire) not affecting the all-pervading space (the fifth element). 

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. 

Just as it is fruitless for one to scrutinize the garbage which is to be collectively thrown away, so it is fruitless for one who is to know himself to count the number and scrutinize the properties of the tattvas (the principles that constitute world, soul and God) which are veiling oneself, instead of collectively casting all of them aside*, One should consider the universe (one’s whole life in this world) to be like a dream. Except that waking is long and dream is short**, there is no difference (between the two). 

To the extent to which all the events which happen in walking appear to be real, to that same extent even the events which happen in dream appear at that time to be real. In dream, the mind assumes another body. In both waking and dream, thoughts and names-and-forms (objects) come into existence simultaneously (and hence there is no difference between these two states). There are not two minds, a good mind and a bad mind. The mind is only one. Tendencies (vasanas) alone are of two kinds, auspicious (subha) and inauspicious (asubha). 

When the mind is under the influence of auspicious tendencies it is called a good mind, and when it is under the influence of inauspicious tendencies, a bad mind. However bad others may appear to be, one should not dislike them. Likes and dislikes are both to be disliked. One should not allow the mind to dwell much upon worldly matters. As far as possible, one should not interfere in the affairs of others. All that one gives to others, one gives only to oneself. If this truth is known, who indeed will not give to others? If oneself (the ego) rises, all will rise; if oneself subsides, all will subside. To the extent to which we behave humbly, to that extent (and that extent only) will good result. If one can remain controlling the mind (keeping the mind subsided), one can live anywhere.

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