part 14-The state in which you are Not = Self Abidance.

 https://www.davidgodman.org/bhagavan-and-thayumanavar/7/

Bhagavan then cited some lines from Thayumanavar to illustrate his theme:

… those whose state of nishta [Self-abidance] is permanent
will not even entertain the thought that death exists. 

This is not a thing to be taught to those of little understanding. 

At the mere mention of it, numerous disputations will ensue. 

Are not the divine-natured Markandeya and Suka,
and the rest of the [great] sages immortals, their minds transcended?

Divine One, to whom

Indra and all the devas, Brahma and all the gods,
sages learned in the Rig and other Vedas,
the countless leaders of the celestial hosts,
the nine principal siddhas,
the Sun, the Moon and the rest of the planets,
the gandharvas, kinnaras and all the rest,

join their palms together in worship!

My Lord, compassion’s home, who dance your dance
beyond the reach of thought, in consciousness’s Hall! (‘Karunakarakkadavul’, verse 7)

........

Markandeya and Suka are deemed to be immortals, as are all the other sages who have permanently transcended the mind. Some of the commentators on this verse say that all the other beings who are listed after Markandeya and Suka are not immortal, and therefore have to continue to pay obeisance to forms of the divine.

It is worth noting that Devaraja Mudaliar noted in his reminiscences (My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, p. 91) that Bhagavan once quoted him a portion of this same verse 

(‘This is not a thing to be taught to those of little understanding. At the mere mention of it, numerous disputations will ensue.’) 

Mudaliar understood this to mean that Bhagavan was occasionally circumspect about giving out some aspects of his teaching to people who were not ready for them because to do so would merely provoke pointless arguments.

.....

The real ‘I’ and the spurious ‘I’

There was once a discussion in the hall about the true meaning of verse ten of Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham which states:

The body is like an earthen pot, inert. Because it has no consciousness of ‘I’, and because daily in bodiless sleep we touch our real nature, the body is not ‘I’. Then who is this ‘I’? Where is this ‘I’? In the Heart Cave of those that question thus, there shines forth as ‘I’, Himself, the Lord Siva of Arunachala. (The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi, p. 124)

Dr Srinivasa Rao asked whether [this stanza] does not teach us to affirm soham [repeating ‘I am He’ as a spiritual practice]. Bhagavan explained as follows.

It is said that the whole Vedanta can be compressed into the four words, deham [the body] 

 naham [I am not the body],

 koham [Who am I?],

 soham [I am He].

 

This stanza says the same. In the first two lines it is explained why deham is naham, i.e., why the body is not ‘I’ or na aham. 

The next two lines say, if one enquires ko aham, i.e., Who am I?, 

i.e., if one enquires whence this springs and realises it, then in the heart of such a one the omnipresent God Arunachala will shine as ‘I’, as sa aham or soham: i.e., he will know ‘That I am,’ i.e., ‘That is “I”‘.

In this connection Bhagavan also quoted two stanzas, one from Thayumanavar and the other from Nammalvar, the gist of both of which is: 

‘Though I have been thinking I was a separate entity and talking of “I” and “mine”, when I began to enquire about this “I”, I found you alone exist.’

 (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 23rd January, 1946) 

his is the Thayumanavar verse:

O Supreme of Supreme!
Searching without searching who this ‘I’ was,
soon I found You alone
standing as the heaven of bliss,

You alone, blessed Lord. (‘Paraparakkanni’, verse 225) 

....

 The following morning (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 24th January, 1946) Bhagavan showed Devaraja Mudaliar the written texts of both these verses, and he also added the following Thayumanavar verse which, in its middle portion, expounds the same theme:

Though you dwell as space and the other elements,
as all the worlds in their tens of millions,
as the mountains and the encircling ocean,
as the moon, and sun, and all else that is,
and as the flood of heaven’s grace;
and though, as I stand here as ‘I’,
you dwell united with myself,
still there is no cessation of this ‘I’.
And since I go blabbering ‘I’, ‘I’,
undergoing countless changes,
ignorant in spite of knowing all this,
will be it be easy to overcome the power of destiny?
Is there any means of awakening one,
who even before the day has ended,
remains, feigning sleep, his eyes tightly closed?
What, then, is the way that may be taught?
Yet, this vileness in unjust, so unjust.
Who is there to whom I might plead my cause?

Supreme One, whose form is bliss,
whose unique fullness encompasses
this universe and that which lies beyond! (‘Anandananaparam’, verse 7)

...

Mauna and the thought-free state

Mr Nanavati asked Bhagavan, ‘What is the heart referred to in the verse in Upadesa Saram where it is said, “Abiding in the heart is the best karma, yoga, bhakti and jnana?”‘

Bhagavan: That which is the source of all, that in which all live, and that into which all finally merge, is the heart referred to

Nanavati: How can we conceive such a heart?

Bhagavan: Why should you conceive of anything? You have only to see where from the ‘I’ springs.

Nanavati: I suppose mere mauna in speech is no good; but we must have mauna of the mind.

Bhagavan: Of course. If we have real mauna, that state in which the mind is merged into its source 

and has no more separate existence, 

then all other kinds of mauna will come of their own accord, 

i.e., mauna of words, of action and of the mind or chitta.

Bhagavan also quoted in this connection the following from Thayumanavar: 

(Day by Day with Bhagavan, 29th April 1946.)

O Supreme of Supreme!
If the pure silence [suddha mauna]
arises within me,
my mind will be silence,
my actions and words, all
will be silence. ( ‘Paraparakkanni’, verse 276)

.........

In Talks Bhagavan mentions that Thayumanavar mentions mauna in many places, but only defines it in one verse. The definition, given in Talks, is that ‘Mauna is said to be that state which spontaneously manifests after the annihilation of the ego’. (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 122)

The specific verse is not given, but in the Tamil edition of Talks, Viswanatha Swami identifies it as ‘Payappuli’, verse 14:

The unique source [tan], fullness [purnam],
prevailed within, in my Heart
so that the ‘I’ which deemed itself
an independent entity
bowed its head in shame.
Conferring matchless bliss,
consuming my whole consciousness and granting me the state of rapture,
it nurtured in me the condition of mauna.

This being so, what more is there to be said? 

......

This verse, a clear expression of the state that Thayumanavar finally reached, closely parallels the idea contained in Ulladu Narpadu, verse thirty, in which Bhagavan describes how the individual ‘I’ subsides into its source, 

the Heart,

 leaving only the perfection of the Self:

When the mind turns inwards seeking ‘Who am I?’ and merges in the Heart, 

then the ‘I’ hangs down his head in shame 

and the one ‘I’ appears as itself. 

Though it appears as ‘I-I’, it is not the ego. It is reality, perfection, the substance of the Self. 

(The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Ulladu Narpadu verse 30, tr. K. Swaminathan)

The similarities are so marked, it should come as no surprise that Bhagavan once commented that this was his favourite Thayumanavar verse (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 122.) It was included in the Tamil parayana at Ramanasramam, along with the nine verses from ‘Akarabuvanam-Chidambara Rahasyam’ that have already been given.

...........

Sri Bhagavan remarked how true the words were and emphasised each statement in the extract. Then he cited Thayumanavar in support of the state which is free from thoughts: (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 646)

The state in which you are not,
that is nishta [Self-abidance]. 

But, even in that state,
do you not remain?
You whose mouth is silent,
do not be perplexed!
Although [in that state] you are gone,
you are no longer there, yet you did not go.
You are eternally present. Do not suffer in vain.
Experience bliss all the time! (‘Udal Poyyuravu’, verse 53)

Two days after Bhagavan had cited Thayumanavar to illustrate Gandhi’s thought-free experiences, a visitor returned to the subject:

Devotee: Is not what Gandhi describes the state in which thoughts themselves become foreign?

Bhagavan: Yes, it is only after the rise of the ‘I’-thought that all other thoughts arise. The world is seen after you have felt ‘I am’. The ‘I’-thought and all other thoughts had vanished for him.

Devotee: Then the body sense must be absent in that state.

Bhagavan: The body sense is also a thought whereas he describes the state in which ‘thoughts do not come’.

Devotee: He also says, ‘It takes no effort to stop thinking’.

Bhagavan: Of course no effort is necessary to stop thoughts whereas one is necessary for bringing about thoughts.

Devotee: We are trying to stop thoughts. Gandhiji also says that thought is an obstacle to God’s guidance. So it is the natural state. Though natural, yet how difficult to realise. They say that sadhanas are necessary and also that they are obstacles. We get confused.

Bhagavan:  

Sadhanas are needed so long as one has not realised it. 

They are for putting an end to obstacles.

 Finally there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas. 

He is unable to pursue the much-cherished sadhana also.  

It is then that God’s power is realised. 

The Self reveals itself.

 Devotee: If the state is natural, why does it not overcome the unnatural phases and assert itself over the rest?

Bhagavan:  

Is there anything besides that? 

Does anyone see anything besides the Self? 

One is always aware of the Self. So it is always itself. 

(Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 647)

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

 

 

part 13- I does not exist separate from God

 https://www.davidgodman.org/bhagavan-and-thayumanavar/5/

In the final verse in this section Thayumanavar describes the moment of Self- realisation and some of the experiences that stem from it. Arthur Osborne wrote that this was a verse that Bhagavan particularly liked (Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge, p. 61, B. I. publications, 1979) but there are no recorded instances of Bhagavan quoting this verse in his replies to devotees.

When overpowered by the vast expanse
that has neither beginning, middle nor end,
the truth of non-dual bliss will arise in the mind.
Our entire clan will be redeemed.
Nothing will be lacking.
All our undertakings will prosper.
There will be sporting in the company
of those wise ones who,
like sunrise at the break of day,
have known the dawn of grace,
where there is neither abundance nor lack.
Our nature will become such,
that like babies, madmen or ghouls,
we should not rejoice,
though offered heaven and earth in their entirety. (‘Ninaivonru’, verse 7)

..

Then, turning to Khanna, Bhagavan said, ‘Why distress your mind by thinking that jnana has not come or that the vasanas have not disappeared? Don’t give room for thoughts. In the last stanza of ‘Sukavari’ in Thayumanavar the saint says much the same as is written on this paper.’

And Bhagavan made me read the stanza and translate it into English for the benefit of those who did not know Tamil. It goes: 

‘The mind mocks me, and though I tell you ten thousand times, you are indifferent, so how am I to attain peace and bliss?’ 

(Day by Day with Bhagavan, 26th June, 1946)

Mind, you who evolve from maya
as jewels are wrought from gold!
If you are freed from your defects

 so that blissful samadhi is attained

by meditating on [reality] within oneself

 as oneself, by melting within,

and by making [you] fall away,

I shall attain redemption.
No one is as kind to me as you are — no one.
When I ponder on this, you [the mind]
are equal to the grace of God.
Amongst those who have taken on bodies
to experience the [the world],
be they Brahma, or any of the gods,
it is true, is it not,
that for any of them to reject you [the mind],
and exist without you,
is impossible, quite impossible.
Without you, can anything be,
in this world or the next?
To vainly label you ‘unreal’ is unjust.
So I shall praise you as ‘real’ also.
In order that my wretched state may be ended,
you must return to the glorious land of your birth.

You who have been my companion
for many a day, were you to lie dead
through the enquiry [vichara]
that has separated you from me,
I should revere that ground with perfect devotion.
Through the mauna Guru who has ruled me
I will be free from ‘I’ and ‘mine’,
becoming one with his grace.
The eight siddhis, liberation itself,
which is a vision delightful to behold,
shall be mine upon the earth.
Through you my anxieties shall be ended.

All my interminable wrangling
with birth will end in this very birth.
For me, the state of jivanmukti,
which is difficult for anyone to experience,
will arise.
Oh, Sir [mind]! Will even a cloud
or a grove of karpaka trees
suffice as a comparison to you?
Can your greatness be described
in the seven worlds, beginning with earth? (‘Mandalattin’, verses 8-11)

 ........

To tame a rutting elephant, who has snapped his tethering-post,
and to walk him under our control — that is possible.
To muzzle a bear, or a fierce tiger — that is possible.
To ride upon the back of the incomparable lion — that is possible.
To charm snakes, and make them dance — that is possible.
To put mercury into a furnace, transform the five base metals,
sell them, and live from the proceeds — that is possible. 

To wander the earth, invisible to everyone else — that is possible.
To command the celestials in our own service — that is possible.
To remain forever young — that is possible.
To transmigrate into another physical body — that is possible.
To walk on water, or to sit amidst flames — that is possible.
To attain supernatural powers, that know no equal — that is possible. 

But the ability to control the mind, and remain still, is very difficult indeed.

God, whose nature is consciousness,
who as the reality, impossible to seek,
took up his abode within my understanding!
Refulgent light of bliss! (‘Tejomayanandam’, verse 8)

.........

Thayumanavar did not merely disapprove of the pursuit of siddhis. 

His criticism extended to extreme ascetic practices, attempts to prolong the lifespan of the body, and methods which aimed to raise the kundalini to the sahasrara. 

In the following verse, which Devaraja Mudaliar said Bhagavan occasionally referred to (My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, p. 55)  Thayumanavar asserts that none of these practices by themselves can lead to liberation.

Though we firmly stand upon devotion’s path,
though we perform pradakshina of the broad earth’s nine divisions,
though we bathe in the ocean, and in the rivers too,
though we place ourselves between the rising flames
without a thought of thirst or hunger,
stopping up the gnawing pangs with water, air and fallen leaves,
though we dwell in silence, retreat to lofty mountain caves,
though we purify the ten channels which ever endure,
though we contain within the sphere known as somavattam
the inner fire, along with the vital air which rises from the root,
tasting thus the nectar that no words can describe,
though we practise the acquisition of powerful siddhis,
to prolong this mere trifle of a body through every aeon of time,
other than through jnana can liberation be attained?

Siddhanta Mukti’s Primal Lord!
Dakshinamurti, enthroned in glory upon the lofty Siragiri!

Guru, you who are pure consciousness’s form! (‘Chinmayanandaguru’, verse 11)

The key line in this verse is the last one in which Thayumanavar asserts, ‘other than through jnana can liberation be attained?’, a rhetorical question whose answer is clearly ‘no’. 

This conclusion and the preceding comments about the pointlessness of pursuing siddhis can both be found in a remarkably similar answer that Bhagavan gave out when he was asked about the relationship between enlightenment and the attainment of siddhis.

Only jnana obtained through enquiry can bestow Liberation. 

Supernatural powers are all illusory appearances created by the power of maya.

 Self- realisation which is permanent is the only true accomplishment [siddhi].

 Accomplishments which appear and disappear, being the effect of maya, cannot be real.

 They are accomplished with the object of enjoying fame, pleasures, etc. They come unsought to some persons through their karma. Know that union with Brahman is the attainment of the sum total of all the siddhis. This is also the state of Liberation [aikya mukti] known as union [sayujya]. (Upadesa Manjari, section four, answer ten)

Thayumanavar and Bhagavan were in agreement that yogic practices alone will not directly result in liberation. 

Bhagavan has pointed out in several places that its practices can result in bliss, siddhis, and even nirvikalpa samadhi, 

but he also maintained that it is not until the ‘I’ dies in the Heart 

that jnana, true liberation occurs.

 In Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi talk nos. 398 and 474 Bhagavan expresses his negtive views on these yogic practices in great detail.

Question: What is the end of devotion [bhakti] and the path of Siddhanta [i.e., Saiva Siddhanta]?

Bhagavan: It is to learn the truth that all one’s actions performed with unselfish devotion, with the aid of the three purified instruments [body, speech and mind], in the capacity of the servant of the Lord, become the Lord’s actions, and to stand forth free from the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. 

This is also the truth of what the Saiva Siddhantins call para-bhakti [supreme devotion] or living in the service of God [irai pani nittral]. 

Question: What is the end of the path of knowledge [jnana] or Vedanta?

Bhagavan: 

It is to know the truth that the ‘I’ does not exist separately from the Lord [Ishwara]

 and to be free from the feeling of being the doer

[kartitva, ahankara]. 

(Spiritual Instruction, part one, questions nine and ten)

Death and Liberation

Question: Is liberation to be achieved before the dissolution of the body or can it be had after death?…

Bhagavan: Is there death for you? For whom is death? The body which dies, were you aware of it, did you have it, during sleep? The body was not, when you slept. But you existed even then. When you awoke you got the body and even in the waking state you exist. You existed both in sleep and waking. But the body did not exist in sleep and exists only in waking. That which does not exist always, but exists at one time and not at another, cannot be real. You exist always and you alone are therefore real.

Liberation is another name for you. It is always here and now with you. It is not to be won or reached hereafter. Christ has said, ‘The Kingdom of God is within you,’ here and now. You have no death. (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 9th March 1946)

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

Part 12 - Thayumanavar-Deliberate conscious effort = tapa for Mauna

https://www.davidgodman.org/bhagavan-and-thayumanavar/

… when touching songs were recited or read out before him, or when he himself was reading out to us poems or passages from the lives or works of famous saints, he would be moved to tears and find it impossible to restrain them. He would be reading out and explaining some passage and when he came to a very moving part he would get so choked with emotion that he could not continue but would lay aside the book. To quote a few instances, such a thing happened when he was reading and explaining some incidents in Sundaramurti Nayanar’s life in connection with the Tiruchuzhi Mahatmyam, and also when he was reading out ‘Akarabuvanam-Chidambara Rahasyam’ in Thayumanavar’s works, and came to the twenty-fourth verse:

Conceiving you as everything from earth to space,
I shall record my thoughts on the large page of my mind,
and looking at that image ever and again, I shall cry out: 

‘Lord of my life, will you not come?’ 

Repeatedly believing myself to be You,
I am unable to fix my attention on anything else. 

Lamenting in this way, like one whose heart is wounded,
dissolving inwardly, so that tears pour down in floods,
uttering deep sighs, unaware even of my body, I stand transfixed.

His [Bhagavan’s] eyes were so filled with tears and his throat so choked with emotion [as he read these words] that he had to put aside the book and break off his discourse.

 ( My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, Devaraja Mudaliar, pp. 45-6, 1992 ed.) 

.......

Question: What is satsang?

Bhagavan: 

Satsang = Atmasang

Satsang means only Atma sang [association with the Self].

 Only those who cannot practise that are to practise being in the company of realised beings or sadhus.

...

Question: When does one get the company of sadhus?

Bhagavan: The opportunity to be in the company of a Sadguru comes effortlessly to those who have performed worship of God, japa, tapas, pilgrimages etc for long periods in their previous births. There is a verse by Thayumanavar that points out the same thing:

For those who, in the prescribed manner,
have embarked upon the [pilgrim] path
of divine images, holy sites and holy tanks,
a Sadguru, too, will come to speak one unique word,
O Supreme of Supreme! ( ‘Paraparakkanni’, verse 156)

Only he who has done plenty of nishkamya punyas [austerities performed without any thought of a reward or consequence] in previous births will get abundant faith in the Guru. 

Having faith in the Guru’s words, such a man will follow the path and reach the goal of liberation. 

(Living by the Words of Bhagavan, 2nd ed., pp. 220-1.) 

........

The ‘unique word’, summa iru, uttered by a qualified Guru, has an immediate and liberating impact on those who are in a highly mature state. 

For the vast majority, though, hearing this word from the Guru’s lips is not enough. Bhagavan discussed this in the following dialogue, which he illustrated with more verses from Thayumanavar.

A young man from Colombo asked Bhagavan, ‘J. Krishnamurti teaches the method of effortless and choiceless awareness as distinct from that of deliberate concentration. Would Bhagavan be pleased to explain how best to practise meditation and what form the object of meditation should take?’

Bhagvan: 

Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real nature. 

If we can attain it or be in that state, it is all right.

 But one cannot reach it without effort, the effort of deliberate meditation.

 All the age-long vasanas carry the mind outward and turn it to external objects.

 All such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward.

 For that, effort is necessary for most people.

 Of course, every book says ‘Summa iru‘,

 i.e. ‘Be quiet or still’. 

But it is not easy. 

That is why all this effort is necessary.

 Even if we find one who has at once achieved the mauna or supreme state indicated by ‘Summa iru‘, you may take it that the effort necessary has already been finished in a previous life. 

So, that effortless and choiceless awareness is reached only after deliberate meditation. 

That meditation can take any form which appeals to you best. 

See what helps you to keep away all other thoughts and adopt that method for your meditation.

In this connection Bhagavan quoted verses 5 and 52 from ‘Udal Poyyuravu’ and 36 from ‘Payappuli’ of Saint Thayumanavar. Their gist is as follows. 

‘Bliss will follow if you are still. 

But however much you may tell your mind about the truth, the mind will not keep quiet.

 It is the mind that won’t keep quiet.

 It is the mind which tells the mind “Be quiet and you will attain bliss”.’

 Though all the scriptures have said it, though we hear about it every day from the great ones, and even though our Guru says it, 

we are never Quiet,

but stray into the world of maya and sense objects. 

That is why conscious deliberate effort is required to attain that mauna state or the state of being Quiet. 

( Day by Day with Bhagavan, 11th January, 1946)

Sam: That conscious, deliberate effort = Tapa.

What else?

......

In order to teach me to discern the truth
of how all these woes, impossible to measure –
which spontaneously accumulate, multiplying bundle by bundle –
were insubstantial, like the spectacle of a mountain of camphor
that disappears entirely at the touch of a flame,
he associated with food, sleep, joy, misery, name-and-place,
and wearing a bodily form similar to my own, he came as the grace-bestowing Mauna Guru
to free me from defilement, in just the same way that a deer
is employed to lure another deer. 

(‘Akarabuvanam-Chidambara Rahasyam’, vv. 15-17)

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

The Master appears to dispel … ignorance. As Thayumanavar puts it, he appears as a man to dispel the ignorance of a man, just as a deer is used as a decoy to capture the wild deer. He has to appear with a body in order to eradicate our ignorant ‘I am the body’ idea. 

(Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 398)

Coming thus, he claimed my body, my belongings, my very life
as his possessions, and teaching the path of rejection, he declared:
‘The five senses, the five elements, the organs of action, and all the rest,
you are not. You are none of these.
Nor are you any of the qualities that pertain to these.
You are not the body, nor are you knowledge and ignorance.
You are chit, the real, which is like a crystal,
reflecting the qualities of whatever is placed before it,
and yet having no connection with it.
It is my inherent nature to enlighten you
when I find that you are ripe for it.’

‘If you desire to gain the vast, supreme reality
that is the temple of refreshing grace,
inseparable from all that is, becoming pure consciousness
and obtaining the indestructible state whose nature is bliss,
listen as I explain to you the proper means:
May you live long, winning in your heart
the reality that is devoid of all qualities!

May you attain the state of bliss-consciousness,
so that all the dense accumulation of ignorance disappears!
May you liberate yourself from bondage!’

Through his grace, he imparted to me the state of mauna,
the true knowledge in which bondage is abolished:

‘For that state, there is no thought, 

no “I” sense,

no space, no time, no directions, no pairs of opposites,

nothing lost, no other, no words,
no phenomena of night and day,
no beginning, no end, no middle, no inner or outer.
Nothing is.’

‘When I say: “It is not, it is not”, this is not a state of nothingness.

It is pure identity.

 It is the nature that eternally endures.

A state that cannot be expressed in words.

It is the swarupa which engulfs everything.

So that neither ‘I’ nor anything else appears.

As the day consumes the night, it consumes ignorance entirely.

Easily overcoming and swallowing up your personal consciousness,

it transforms your very self, here and now, into its own Self.

It is the state that distinguishes itself as self–luminous silence.’

‘Other than the nature that is its own Self,

it allows nothing else to arise.

Because there is no other consciousness.

Should anything attempt to arise there it will, like a camphor flame, vanish.

The knower, devoid of both knowledge and objects known, falls away,
without falling, since it still remains.

But who can tell of its greatness, and to whom?

By dint of becoming That, one exists only as That.
That alone will speak for itself.’

‘If we call it “That”, then the question will arise, “What is That?”

Therefore did Janaka and the other kings
and the rishis, foremost among whom is Suka,
lived happily, like bees intoxicated with honey,
entirely avoiding any mention of “That”.

Remain in this state.

’Thus did he speak.
Grant me the abundance of your grace
so that, in the nirvikalpa state of total tranquillity,
I may know and attain the condition of supreme bliss,
in accordance with your rule.
I shall not sleep or take up any other work until I attain this state. 

(‘Akarabuvanam-Chidambara Rahasya’, vv. 18-23)

.........

‘Is it possible to gain knowledge without the blessings of a Guru?’ asked a devotee. Even Rama, who was like a dullard in his early life, became a realised soul only with the help of his Guru.’

‘Yes, said Bhagavan, ‘how can there be any doubts?’ The grace of the Guru is absolutely necessary. That is why Thayumanavar praised his Guru in his hymns. 

(Letters and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam, p. 26)

In January 1742 Thayamanuvar withdrew into his hut and left the following message pinned to the outside of the door:

Dear friends,

Withdraw the mind from the senses and fix it in meditation. 

Control the thought-current. Find out the thought-centre and fix yourself there. 

Then you will be conscious of the divine Self. 

You will see it dancing in ecstasy. Live in that delight. That delight-consciousness is the God in you. He is in every heart. 

You need not go anywhere to find Him. 

Find your own core and feel Him there. 

Peace, bliss, felicity, health – everything is in you. 

Trust in the divine in you. Entrust yourself to His Grace. 

Be as you are!

 Off with past impressions.

 He who lives from within an in-gathered soul is a real sage, even though he may be a householder. 

He who allows his mind to wander with the senses is an ignoramus, though he is learned. 

See as a witness, without the burden of seeing.

 See the world just as you see a drama.

 See without attachment. Look within. 

Look at the inner light unshaken by mental impressions. 

Then, floods of conscious bliss shall come pouring in and around you from all directions. This is the supreme Knowledge.

 Realise! Aum! Aum!

 (The Silent Sage, by Dr B. Natarajan, published by The Himalayan Academy, 1978)

....

The state of the Self

This first section begins with a discussion that centred on experiences that Tennyson, the famous 19th century English poet, induced in himself:

In continuation of yesterday’s conversation about Tennyson, the relevant passage was found in a footnote to the English translation of Upadesa Saram. 

It was not in a poem but in a letter to B. P. Blood.

 Bhagavan asked me to read it out, so I did: 

‘…a kind of waking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone. 

This has generally come upon me through repeating my own name two or three times to myself, silently, till all at once, as it were out of the intensity of consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being.  This is not a confused state. 

But the clearest of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest.

 Utterly beyond words, where death was a laughable impossibility. 

The loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction but the only true life.’

Reworded: The loss of individuality was realised to be the only true existence.

There was not the slightest trace of it being viewed as something that was dwindling away into extinction.

Bhagavan said: 

‘That state is called Abidance in the Self.

 It is described in a number of songs.’

.........

He took up Thayumanavar and it opened at the very page he was looking for… (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 17th June, 1946)

Mauna Guru, you who declared:
‘The state in which there is neither merging nor separation,
no pairs of opposites, no expansion or contraction,
no qualities, no coming or going,
that leaves no lasting trace;
that is free of the three defilements;
that cannot be conceived
in terms of having a top, bottom or sides;
that in which there is neither bindu nor nada,
and in which the five elements,
variously constituted, do not exist;
that in which the knower and his knowledge are not;
that which is without decay;
that which, moreover, it is not one and not two,
and is without voice and without mind;
that which is free, even, of the ecstatic seeking,
wherein the devotee tastes with his lips,
and drinks from the ocean of bliss
that is the eternally enduring
supreme and all-pervading reality –
that is the enduring state.’

Siddhanta Mukti’s Primal Lord!
Dakshinamurti, enthroned in glory upon the lofty Siragiri!

Guru, you who are pure consciousness’s form! (‘Chinmayanandaguru’, verse 8)  

 Bhagavan quoted two other Thayumanavar verses on this occasion, but they are not really expressions of what the Self is like. 

They are, instead, pleas from a disciple who wants to attain this state.

 Bhagavan mentioned them because he said that they both contained references or allusions to the sahaja nishta, the natural state of Abidance in the Self.

 (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 17th June, 1946)

Reality, pervading everywhere! 

Like a supplicant who seeks the favour of a benefactor
begging him, in a manner free of all reproach,
to show compassion and grant his petition
[I apply to You]. Hear my plea! O Transcendent Supreme! 

Listen to the petition of one
whose heart is of wood and show pity.
[My plea is] to dwell in mauna
in the fullness of your ethereal grace,
the state of sahaja nishta. 

( ‘Asaienum’, verse 2)

…Well indeed does your divine mind know
how my heart melted in tender love,
how I languished,
hoping that I might clearly apprehend this state.
If I try to abide in this state for a while,
then my ignorance, a foe posing as a friend, comes and makes my mind its home.
Shall defiling maya and karma return again?
Shall births, in unbroken succession, assault me? These thoughts fill my mind. 

Lend me the sword of true steadfastness [sraddha],
give me the strength of true jnana so that my bondage is abolished;
guard me, and grant me your grace!

Consummate perfection of bliss, whose abundant fullness reigns,
without exception, everywhere I look! 

(‘Paripurnanandam’, verse 5)

......

Question: How are the three states of consciousness inferior in degree of reality to the fourth? What is the actual relation between these three and the fourth?

Bhagavan: 

There is only one state, that of consciousness or awareness or existence.

 The three states of waking, dream and sleep cannot be real. 

They simply come and go. The real will always exist. 

The ‘I’ or existence that alone persists in all the three states is real. 

The other three are not real and so it is not possible to say that they have such and such a degree of reality.

 We may roughly put it like this.

 Existence or consciousness is the only reality.

 Consciousness plus waking we call waking. 

Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep. 

Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. 

Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. 

The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it.

 Because by long habit we have been regarding these three states as real, we call the state of mere awareness or consciousness as the fourth.

 There is, however, no fourth state, but only one state.

In this connection Bhagavan quoted verse 386 of ‘Paraparakkanni’ of Thayumanavar and said that this so-called fourth state is described as waking sleep or sleep in waking – meaning asleep to the world and awake in the Self.

Sam: Jagrit in Sushupti.

As also, Sushupti in Jagrit.

 (Day by Day with Bhagavan, 11th January, 1946)

O Supreme of Supreme!
To remain,
free of sleep,
beyond thoughts’ corruption, is this the pure state of grace? 

Pray, speak! 

( ‘Paraparakkanni’, verse 386) 

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