Ramana Maharshi About His Brahmasthram (Divine Weapon)

A boy of about 18 years of age came here on a cycle from some place. After sitting in
the hall for a quarter of an hour, he went to Bhagavan and asked, “After crossing Omkar, where to merge?”

With a smile Bhagavan said, “Oh, is that so? Wherefrom did you come now? Where will you go? What is it you want to know? Who really are you? If you first tell me who you are, you can then question me about Omkar.” “I do not know that even,” said the boy. Then Bhagavan said, “You know for certain that you are existent. How are you existent? Where really were you before? What exactly is your body? First find that out. When you know all that, you can ask me questions if you still have any doubts.

Why should we worry where Omkar merges, and after it merges why worry about
what comes next, when it ceases to exist? Where do you merge ultimately? How do you come back? If you first find out your state and your movements, we can think of the
rest.”

When Bhagavan said all this, the boy could not give any reply and so went away after bowing before Bhagavan.What other brahmasthram (divine weapon) is there against a
questioner? If only that weapon is used, the questioner is silenced.

Two or three years back, when a sannyasi boasted about having read all books on religious matters and began asking Bhagavan all sorts of questions, he repeatedly gave the same answer, “Find out who you are.” When the sannyasi persisted in his meaningless questions and arguments, Bhagavan in a firm tone asked him, “You have been asking me so many questions and entering into so many arguments. Why don’t you reply to my questions and then argue? Who you are? First answer my question. Then I will give you a suitable reply. Tell me first who it is that is arguing.” He could not reply, and so went away.

Some time later, I developed this idea and wrote five verses on ‘Divya Asthram’ and showed them to Bhagavan,when he said, “Long ago when Nayana (Ganapati Muni) was here, Kapali also used to be here. If they wanted to ask me anything, they would fold their hands first and say, ‘Swami,Swami, if you will promise not to brandish your brahmasthram,I will ask a question.’ If during conversation the words ‘Who are you?’ escaped my lips, he used to say, ‘So you have fired your brahmasthram. What more can I say?’ They called it brahmasthram and you are calling it ‘Divya Asthram’.” After that, I too started using the word brahmasthram. Really, who is not humbled by that asthram?

Source: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam VOLUMES I, II & Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam By SURI NAGAMMA Translated by D. S. SASTRI

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Ramana Maharshi says If a Practice Is Natural We Feel Uncomfortable At Changing It

12th December, 1945

One morning, during the usual conversations the topic turned on Bhagavan’s mother coming away to live with him and on her manner of life, and Bhagavan spoke to us as
follows:

“Mother began coming here frequently and staying with me for long periods. You know I always address even beasts and birds in a respectful manner. In the same way, I used to address Mother also with the respectful form of speech. It then occurred to me that I was doing something hurtful. So I gave up the practice and began addressing her in the familiar way. If a practice is natural and has become habitual you feel uncomfortable at changing it. But anyway what do these bodily things matter?” He spoke with deep feeling and my eyes filled with tears.

Before the dawn of youth appeared on his face he had relinquished all worldly desires, and with Divine desire he hastened to the holy Arunachala where he reigns
in the Kingdom of Eternal Bliss. How can one speak of the enormous fortune of that mother, in having had the privilege of being called ‘Amma’ (mother) by such a son?

In the Vedas, the mother holds the first claim for worship: “Mathru devo bhava” (Let mother be your God). Even so,the beauty of it is that Bhagavan felt it unnatural for him to address her in the respectful form. If he addressed her so, would she not feel hurt? She felt satisfied only if he addressed her as “Mother.” Perhaps Bhagavan felt that he ought not to wound her feelings in so small a matter.

“When my Mother passed away I thought I had escaped bondage and could freely move from place to place and live in solitude in some cave or other, but in fact I have now an even greater bondage; I cannot even move out.” Bhagavan often speaks in this way. Mother he had only one, but children he has in thousands, so is not this greater bondage?

Source: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam VOLUMES I, II & Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam By SURI NAGAMMA Translated by D. S. SASTRI

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Sri Ramakrishna Quotes on Truth

Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a mixture of truth and untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant and take the sugar.

Even those engaged in worldly activities, such as office work or business, should hold to the truth. Truthfulness alone is the spiritual discipline in the Kaliyuga.

If a man holds to truth he will certainly realize God.

The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the makebelieve and take the truth.

The feeling of ego has covered the Truth. Narendra once said, 'As the "I" of man recedes, the "I" of God approaches.' Kedar says, 'The more clay there is in the jar, the less water it holds.'.

The path of knowledge leads to Truth, as does the path that combines knowledge and love. The path of love, too, leads to this goal. The way of love is as true as the way of knowledge. All paths ultimately lead to the same Truth.But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love.

The Truth established in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras is but one Satchidananda. In the Vedas It is called Brahman, in the Puranas It is called Krishna, Rama, and so on, and in the Tantras It is called Siva. The one Satchidananda is called Brahman, Krishna, and Siva.

If a man leads a householder's life he must have unflagging devotion to truth. God can be realized through truth alone.

The feeling of 'I and mine' has covered the Reality. Because of this we do not see Truth. Attainment of Chaitanya, Divine Consciousness, is not possible without the knowledge of Advaita, Non-duality. After realizing Chaitanya one enjoys Nityananda, Eternal Bliss. One enjoys this Bliss after attaining the state of a paramahamsa.

It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga. If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. Without this regard for truth, one gradually loses everything. If by chance I say that I will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of it, lest I lose my attachment to truth.

Truthfulness in speech is the tapasya of the Kaliyuga. It is difficult to practise other austerities in this cycle. By adhering to truth one attains God.

Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name.

A lake has many ghats. From one ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it 'jal'. From another ghat the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it 'pani'. From a third the Christians take the same thing and call it 'water'.

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Ramana Maharshi About Ahalya's Curse

INDRA APPROACHED AHALYA (wife of Gautama) taking the form of Gautama and she yielded without knowing that he was not her husband. Without ascertaining the truth, Gautama cursed her to become a stone. Angered thereby Ahalya said, “Oh,you fool of a Muni! Without enquiring into the truth, you have cursed me and have not even stated when I shall be free from the curse. Tell me, when will the curse end and how? Why not have some consideration for me and tell me at least that?”

Gautama thereupon told her that she would be released from the curse at the time of Rama avatar when the dust from Rama’s feet fell on her. Immediately thereafter she became a stone.

Gautama left that place and tried to get into his daily rituals but he could not, for he had no peace of mind. He tried his level best but could not control his mind and became more and more troubled. On thinking deeply over the matter, he realised that he had cursed his wife Ahalya without proper enquiry and also recollected that she had in turn cursed him by saying, “You fool of a Muni!” After all, she was also a great tapasvini (a female ascetic). Hence those words which were unusual must have resulted in an irrevocable curse on himself.

He therefore decided to seek the help of Iswara, by seeing his “Nataraja Dance”, in order to get relieved of the curse.He therefore went to Chidambaram. At that place he heard an ethereal voice saying, “I shall be pleased to give you darsan of my Thandava dance in Trisulapura.” Gautama immediately left that place and went on foot towards Trisulapura.

On nearing the place, and at the mere sight of it, even from a distance, his mind began to get clear. He stayed there for a very long time doing tapas. At last Iswara was pleased and gave him darsan of his “Nataraja Dance” in the month of Dhanus when the Ardra star was predominant. It was at that time Gautama is reported to have lived under the tree and performed tapas. After seeing the dance of Iswara, Gautama worshipped Iswara, went to his original place and began to perform his rituals as usual.

Later on Ahalya became purified by the dust of the feet of Sri Rama and regained her normal form.

Devotee: “The statement that Ahalya turned into a stone applies only to her mind and not to her body. Is that not so?”

Bhagavan: “That is so. If it is not for the mind, could it be for the body? It is only ordinary people that say her body turned into a stone and that Rama restored her to her original form by putting his foot on the stone. How is that possible? It only means that the mind lost its awareness of the Self, and unable to think of anything else, she became dull like a stone.

That dullness got relieved by the darsan of a great personage.As she herself was a great tapasvini she could immediately become aware of the Self. She worshipped Sri Rama as the embodiment of the Self. This inner meaning could be found in the Ramayana. The moment Rama set his foot in Gautamasrama, the mind of Ahalya was restored to its original state, like the blossoming of a flower.”

Source: SPIRITUAL STORIES AS TOLD BY RAMANA MAHARSHI

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Ramana Maharshi Suggests To Do Quite Piety

THERE WAS A king with a devoted queen. She was a devotee of Sri Rama and yearned that her husband should similarly be a devotee. One night she found that the king mumbled something in his sleep. She kept her ears close to his lips and heard the word ‘Rama’ repeated continually as in japa. She was delighted and the next day ordered the minister to hold a feast. The king having partaken of the feast asked his wife for an explanation.She related the whole occurrence and said that the feast was in
gratitude to God for the fulfilment of a long cherished wish.

The king was however annoyed that his devotion should have been found out. Some say that having thus betrayed God he considered himself unworthy of God and so committed suicide.It means that one should not openly display one’s piety.

We may take it that the king told the queen not to make a fuss over his piety and they then lived happily together.

Source: SPIRITUAL STORIES AS TOLD BY RAMANA MAHARSHI

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Ramana Maharshi Says Jivanmukta Does Not See Anything Separate From The Self

SRI BHAGAVAN WARNED the hearers against the mistake of disparaging a jnani for his apparent conduct and again cited the story of Parikshit.

He was a still born child. The ladies cried and appealed to Sri Krishna to save the child. The sages round about wondered how Krishna was going to save the child from the effects of the arrows (apandavastra) of Asvattama. Krishna said,“If the child be touched by one eternally celibate (nityabramachari) the child would be brought to life.” Even Suka dared not touch the child. Finding no one among the reputed saints bold enough to touch the child, Krishna went and touched it, saying, “If I am eternally celibate (nityabramachari) may the child be brought to life.” The child began to breathe and later grew up to be Parikshit.

Just consider how Krishna surrounded by 16,000 gopis is a brahmachari! Such is the mystery of jivanmukti! A jivanmukta is one who does not see anything separate from the Self.

Source: SPIRITUAL STORIES AS TOLD BY RAMANA MAHARSHI

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Ramana Maharshi About Maratha Saint Bhakta Ekanath

A discussion in the hall centred on the story of Kulasekhara Alwar, which had appeared in the Vision magazine. During a Harikatha, Kulasekhara identifying
himself so completely with the situation of the story, felt it his duty as a worshipper of Rama to at once hasten to Lanka and release Sita. He ran to the sea and entered it to cross over to Lanka, when Rama appeared with Sita and Lakshmana and showered His grace on him.

This led others in the hall to remark, “Some Maratha saint also did a similar thing. He leaped up to the roof, I think.”

Thereupon Sri Bhagavan related the story.

EKANATH WAS WRITING the Ramayana, and when he came to the portion in which he was graphically describing that Hanuman jumped across the ocean to Lanka, he so identified himself with his hero Hanuman that unconsciously he leaped into the air and landed on the roof of his neighbour’s house.This neighbour had always had a poor opinion of Ekanath,taking him for a humbug and religious hypocrite. He heard a
thud on his roof, and coming out to see what it was, discovered Ekanath lying down on the roof with a cadjan leaf in one hand and his iron stile in the other. The cadjan leaf had verses describing how Hanuman leapt across the sea. This incident proved to the neighbour what a genuine bhakta Ekanath was and he became his disciple.

After a pause Bhagavan also related:

“God appeared in a dream to Ekanath and asked him to go and repair the tomb of Jnaneswar. When Ekanath went there accordingly, he found a contractor ready to do all the work and take payment at the end. The contractor opened a big account in which all expenses were entered, with the names of all the workmen and wages paid. Everything went on systematically. When the work of repairs was completed, the accounts were looked into and the contractor paid his dues. Then the contractor and his big account book totally disappeared. Then alone Ekanath came to know that God was his contractor and did the work. Such things have happened.”

Source: SPIRITUAL STORIES AS TOLD BY RAMANA MAHARSHI

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Ramana Maharshi About Saint Dattatreya

A KING WAS passing through a forest in all pomp and pageantry, with his army and retinue behind him. He came across a man with not even a cod-piece on, lying on the ground,with one leg cocked over the other. He was laughing away,apparently supremely happy, contented with himself and all the world.

The king was struck with the man’s happy state and sent for him. But when the king’s men approached the nude ascetic and delivered the king’s message, he took absolutely
no notice and continued in his ascetic bliss. On being told of this, the king himself went to the man and even then the man took no notice.

Thereupon it struck the king that this must be no common man, and said, ‘Swami, you are evidently supremely happy. May we know what is the secret of such happiness and from which guru you learnt it?’

Thereupon the ascetic told the king, ‘I have had twentyfour gurus. Everything,this body, the earth, the birds, some instruments, some persons,all have taught me’. All the things in the world may be classed as either good or bad. The good taught him what he must seek. Similarly, the bad taught him what he must avoid. The ascetic was Dattatreya, the avadhuta.

Source: SPIRITUAL STORIES AS TOLD BY RAMANA MAHARSHI

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Tripura Rahasya Discusses About Jnanis Of The Lowest,Middle Class And Highest Order

Jnanis of the lowest order also enjoy pleasure and pain like the ignorant, but their remembrance of such experiences is frequently broken up by intervals of realisation. Thus worldly experiences do not leave an impression on their minds.

Jnanis of the middle class, accustomed to control their minds by long-continued austerities, keep their minds in check even while experiencing pleasure and pain, and thus their response to the world is as indistinct as that of a man in sleep, to a gentle breeze playing on him or an ant creeping over his body.

Jnanis of the highest order are left untouched,for they always remain as the burnt skeleton of a cloth (retaining its old shape but useless) after their realisation.Just as an actor is not really affected by the passions which he displays on the stage, so also this Jnani, always aware of his perfection, is not affected by the seeming pleasures and pains which he regards as a mere illusion, like the horns of a hare.

Source: TRIPURA RAHASYA OR THE MYSTERY BEYOND THE TRINITY Translated by SWAMI SRI RAMANANANDA SARASWATHI(Munagala S. Venkataramaiah)

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Tripura Rahasya Tells Distinction Between Deep Sleep And Samadhi

There are two states of mind:

(1) Illumination and (2) Consideration.

The first of them is association of the mind with external objects and the second is deliberation(Careful consideration) on the object seen.

Illumination is unqualified by the limitations of objects: deliberation is qualified by the limitations pertaining to the objects seen, and it is the forerunner of
their clear definition.

[Note: The mind first notes a thing in its extended vision. The impression is received only after noting the thing in its non-extensive nature, and becomes deeper
on musing over the first impression.]

There is no distinction noted in the preliminary stage of simple illumination. The thing itself is not yet defined, so illumination is said to be unqualified.

The thing becomes defined later on and is said to be such and such, and so and so. That is the perception of the thing after deliberation.

Deliberation is again of two kinds: the one is the actual experience and is said to be fresh, whereas the other is cogitation over the former and is called memory.The mind always functions in these two ways.

Dreamless slumber is characterised by the illumination of sleep alone, and the experience continues unbroken for a time, whereas the wakeful state is characterised by deliberation repeatedly broken up by thoughts and therefore it is said not to be ignorance.

Sleep is a state of nescience, though it consists of illumination alone, yet it is said to be ignorance for the same reason as a light though luminous is said to be
insentient.

[Note: Pure intelligence is made up of luminosity,but is not insentient like a flame. It is gleaming with consciousness, thus differing from the flame. For intellect
is evidence as thinking principle. Therefore it is called Absolute Consciousness, active principle, vibratory movement, all-embracing Self, or God. Because of these
potentialities it creates the universe.

Sri Sankara has said in Soundarya Lahari: Siva owes his prowess to Sakti; He cannot even stir in Her absence.Siva should not therefore be considered to be a mere inexpressible entity depending for His movements upon Maya (like a man on his car).

Sri Sankara continues: Siva is yoked by Thee, Oh Sakti, to His true being. Therefore
a blessed few worship Thee as the endless series of waves of bliss, as the underlying basis of all that is, as the Supreme Force, maintaining the universe, and as the Consort of Transcendence. Thus the identity of Siva and Sakti with each other or with Transcendence is evident.

Their true significance lies in the fact that the universe exists, but not separately from the primal Reality — God.Wisdom lies in realising everything as Siva and not in treating it as void.

The truth is that there is one Reality which is consciousness in the abstract and also transcendental, irradiating the whole universe in all its diversity from its own being, by virtue of its self-sufficiency, which we call Maya or Sakti or Energy. Ignorance lies in the feeling of differentiation of the creatures from the Creator. The individuals are only details in the same Reality.

In sleep, the insentient phase of stupor overpowers the sentient phase of deliberation. But the factor of illumination is ever present and that alone cannot become apparent to men, in the absence of deliberation. Therefore,sleep is said to be the state of ignorance, as distinguished from wakefulness which is conceded to be knowledge.]

This conclusion is admitted by the wise also. Sleep is the first born from Transcendence (vide Ch. XIV, sloka 59),and also called the unmanifest, the exterior, or the great void.

The state prevailing in sleep is the feeling ‘There is naught’. This also prevails in wakefulness,although things are visible. But this ignorance is shattered by the repeated upspringing of thoughts. The wise say that the mind is submerged in sleep because it is illumining the unmanifest condition. The submersion of mind is not, however, peculiar to sleep for it happens also at the instant of cognition of things.

All these three states, namely, samadhi, sleep and the instant of cognition of objects, are characterised by absence of perturbation.

Their difference lies in the later recapitulation of the respective states which illumine different perceptions.

Absolute Reality is manifest in samadhi; a void or unmanifest condition distinguishes sleep and diversity is the characteristic of cognition in wakefulness.

The illuminant is however the same all through and is always unblemished. Therefore it is said to be Abstract Intelligence.

Samadhi and sleep are obvious because their experience remains unbroken for some appreciable period and can be recapitulated after waking up.

That of cognition remains unrecognised because of its fleeting nature. But samadhi and sleep cannot be recognised when they are only fleeting.

The wakeful state is iridescent with fleeting samadhi and sleep. Men when they are awake can detect fleeting sleep because they are already conversant with its nature.

But fleeting samadhi goes undetected because people are not so conversant with it. O Brahmin! Fleeting samadhi is indeed being experienced by all, even in their busy moments; but it passes unnoticed by them, for want of acquaintance with it.Every instant free from thoughts and musings in the wakeful state is the condition of samadhi.

Samadhi is simply absence of thoughts. Such a state prevails in sleep and at odd moments of wakefulness.

Yet, it is not called samadhi proper, because all the proclivities of the mind are still there latent, ready to manifest the next instant.

The infinitesimal moment of seeing an object is not tainted by deliberation on its qualities and is exactly like samadhi.

The unmanifest state, the first-born of abstract Intelligence revealing ‘There is not anything’, is the state of abstraction full of light; it is, however, called sleep because it is the insentient phase of consciousness. Nothing is revealed because there is nothing to be revealed. Sleep is therefore the manifestation of the insentient state.

But in samadhi, Brahman, the Supreme Consciousness,is continuously glowing. She is the engulfer of time and space, the destroyer of void, and the pure being (Jehovah – I am). How can She be the ignorance of sleep?

Therefore sleep is not the end-all and the be-all.Thus did Janaka teach Ashtavakra.

Source: TRIPURA RAHASYA OR THE MYSTERY BEYOND THE TRINITY Translated by SWAMI SRI RAMANANANDA SARASWATHI(Munagala S. Venkataramaiah)

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Final Part - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

677 When one has learned to love the company of sages, why all these rules of discipline? When a pleasant cool southern breeze is blowing, what need is there for a fan?

678 Fever is overcome by the cool light of the moon; want by the wish-yielding tree; and sin by the holy Ganges. Those three – fever and want and sin – all flee at the august sight of the peerless sage.

679 Holy rivers, which are only water, and idols, which are made of stone and clay, are not as mighty as the sages are. For while they make one pure in the course of countless days, the sage’s eye by a mere glance purifies at once.

680 Bathing in the Ganges removes the sins of man, not the sinner in him. But association with a sage destroys the sinner also. There is nothing so powerful to purify the mind as association with a sage.

The sage’s greatness is further set forth as follows.

681 He is the conqueror of death, of the demon of three cities, of cupid, and of the demon Naraka. He is the Self of all the great gods, and all alike worship only him.

How he is the killer of the demon Tripura and of the demon Naraka is explained next.

682 Since it is through him that the three bodies [encompassing the Self] exist, he is therefore the killer of Tripura. Because he has put an end to the ego, he is therefore also the killer of Naraka.

The three bodies are the gross, subtle and causal, already stated. Naraka is the personification of the ego.

683 Since in the Gita Bhagavan Krishna himself says, ‘I myself am the sage,’ it therefore follows that there is none equal to or greater than he. His greatness is immeasurable.

684 Since the sage is God himself, his teachings are of the highest authority. Thereafter, and by his words alone, the Upanishads also have authority.

685 Since the Guru, if he is a sage, is the second form of God’s grace, the aspirant practising devotion to him [as to God], will reach his goal.

Divine grace has three forms in three stages: first as God, then as Guru and finally as the real Self. The above verse is based upon this ancient teaching, and was repeated by Bhagavan.

686 In the sage’s presence and even far away from him there is a mysterious power. Whoever is caught hold of by it will not be let go, but will surely be taken to the state of deliverance.

Therefore, those that are positively determined not to obtain deliverance, being greatly in love with samsara, should beware of sages!

687 The Guru has said, ‘Just as a fawn caught by a tiger becomes its food, so, if a good man is caught by the gracious look of the sage, he will surely attain the state in which the sage dwells.’

688 Being outside he [the Guru] turns the mind of the sadhaka inwards and from inside he pulls the mind into the Heart and then fixes him, by his power, in the supreme state.

689 That supreme state of the sage transcends both words and intellect. What has been set forth here is just a little, which has been vouchsafed by the sages for the sadhaka.

690 Thus has been expounded the natural state of the Self, along with the means of attainment [sadhana]. Hereafter is set forth the essence of the teachings for reflection by sadhakas.

The remainder of the work sets forth Bhagavan’s own commentary on the first benedictory verse of the Forty Verses.

691 Every creature is aware of its own spectacle, the world, and its seer, himself. He understands these two as real in their own right. This delusion is the cause for its samsara.

692 If the two were real in their own right, they would appear continuously. How can something that appears at some times and does not appear at other times be real?

693 This pair [the world appearance and the one who sees it] shines in dream and waking only by the functioning of the mind. In deep sleep both of them fail to shine. Therefore both of them are mental.

694 That into which the mind goes into latency and wherefrom it rises again is alone real. That one, being without settings and risings, is real in its own right, and is the home of deliverance for the aspirant.

695 That reality named Brahman, which is only one without a second and complete in itself, is the giver of existence to the whole world. It also gives the light of consciousness to the whole mind, which in itself lacks consciousness.

696 That itself dwells in the Heart of all creatures as one’s own Self, like a witness without thoughts, unrelated to anything. But that one is concealed during the outward-turned state of the mind by the false appearance of the world, which is a manifestation of the mind.

697 Therefore, due to illusion, no one in the world knows this real Self. Being persuaded that the gross body is itself the Self, one wanders through innumerable lives, suffering unhappiness.

698 This world must be discovered to be the supreme, who is the real Self, by extinction of the mind. Then the pure real Self will shine unhindered, as he really is, as the sole reality, Brahman.

699 If and when one makes efforts for deliverance, equipped with discrimination and detachment, following the means taught by the holy Guru, one becomes free from the bondage of samsara by attaining birth in one’s own source, Brahman.

700 By turning one’s thought-free mind inwards and diving into the Heart in the quest of one’s own real Self, by becoming free from delusion by the extinction of the ego-mind, one attains the state of deliverance. Such a one is a sage.

The following is the concluding verse.

701 To that supreme one, the Self in all creatures, which became our Guru, Sri Ramana, let there be thousands of namaskarams until there comes about the extinction of the ego.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part24 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

645 The statement in revelation that prarabdha karma survives is only in conformity with the view of the ignorant. From their point of view, those actions have results, because in their view the sage is embodied.

But this is only in some stray contexts. More emphatically in many places the Vedantas support the teaching of the sages.

646 The vedantic text, ‘The pleasant and unpleasant effects [of actions] do not affect the sage, who dwells bodiless as the Self,’ shows the unfruitfulness of the actions of the sage.

This is also confirmed by the following from the Yoga Vasishtam.

647 Even when a sage’s body is cut or burnt, there is no swerving from his real nature, just as jaggery [raw, brown sugar] does not lose its natural sweetness even when powdered or boiled over fire.

A practical instance of this occurred when Bhagavan, who had cancer of the left arm, finally submitted to an extensive operation, which was insisted upon by the surgeons and doctors sent for by the ashram authorities. Bhagavan did not have any anaesthetic, and the operation lasted for nearly three hours.If he felt the pain, he did not show it.

Later, when asked about the pain, he quoted the verse from the Yoga Vasishtam whose meaning has been given above.

There were other instances in his life which showed his unlimited power of endurance of pain. The Bhagavad Gita has this line: ‘Remaining wherein, he is not shaken [from his natural state] even by great pain.’

All this would suffice to show that the sage is really bodiless, that he is thus truly asanga, unattached, as the Self is said to be in the Upanishads.

This raises the question of the apparent distinction between the two kinds of deliverance spoken of: deliverance with the body and deliverance without the body, the former being supposed to be the state in which the body continues to live, and the latter after the body’s death. To this Bhagavan’s answer is given in the following verse.

648 In conformity with the beliefs of the ignorant, two kinds of deliverance are stated, one with the body [jivanmukti] and another without the body [videhamukti]. Really, no free one has a body. All deliverance is bodiless.

What is meant is that though the body remains alive, the sage is unattached, because his causal body, which is ignorance, has been destroyed. Without this, there is nothing to connect the real Self, which the sage is, with the subtle and the gross bodies.

Now the question of the prarabdha karma is resumed.

649 The power of the prarabdha karma extends only to the body; it does not affect the Self. Since his body has been surrendered to prarabdha by the sage, how can he be affected by the karma?

650 ‘The sage, having given over his body to prarabdha karma, remains in his own state without the sense of “mineness” in the body.’ Thus, the great Guru Sankara has shown the truth of this in his Manisha Panchakam.

The truth that the real Self is unattached is further elucidated.

651 If it is said that the subtle body of the sage survives, [the answer is that] since the causal body consisting of ignorance has been extinguished, how can there be attachment of the sage [the Self] to the subtle body?

652 Since Brahman is unattached, so is the sage, who also appears to be in samsara, like the sky. Hence, the changes in the body and in the mind do not touch the sage.

653 The sage, who is wide-awake in his own natural state [as the Self], is said to be like one soundly asleep in a carriage. The body is likened to a carriage, and the ten sense organs are likened to the horses [of the carriage].

654 The sleeper in the carriage does not know anything about the going, the stopping and the unyoking of the horses [of the carriage]. Just so, the sage who is asleep [to the world] in the carriage, the body, does not know its changing conditions.

655 But the sage, being immersed in his natural samadhi, is seen by the ignorant as if he were doing actions and going through various [bodily or mental] conditions. Seeing these, the undiscriminating ones are confused.

656 It appears to the ignorant that he has three distinct states, sleep, samadhi and bodily activities, and the ignorant one thinks that these are distinct from one another.

657 But the sage is always the same. His state is one of eternal samadhi. This samadhi [of his] is not in any way hindered in the least by actions, nor are actions hindered in the least by the samadhi.

Samadhi is the state of awareness of the Self alone.

If the sage remains in samadhi all the time, how can actions be performed? The answer is given in the verses that follow:

658 There are two thought-free samadhis. One is called kevala, the other is called sahaja [natural]. By attaining kevala one does not become a sage. He alone is a sage who is firmly established in sahaja.

These two are further distinguished and explained in the verses that follow.

659 The kevala samadhi mentioned here is one that comes to a yogi by the mind going into latency. For him, it is well known that there are two distinct states, samadhi [introvertedness] and coming back [to the common waking of samsara].

It has been shown before that mental quiescence is of two kinds: latency and complete and final extinction, and that the latter alone leads to sagehood. This makes all the difference, as shown below.

660 The yogi’s mind, in his samadhi, remains latent with all its vasanas. After remaining for a very long time, it is brought out to samsara by a vasana.

661 When he is thrown out from the samadhi, he resumes samsara just where he left it, just as an anaesthetised person [on recovering consciousness] resumes an activity left unfinished before.

This was illustrated by Bhagavan by the story of a yogi. He had awakened from samadhi and being thirsty asked his disciple to bring water to drink. But before the water was brought he again went into samadhi and remained in it for about three centuries, during which the Muslim raj came and went and was superseded by the British raj. When he awoke, he called out, addressing his disciple who had long since died, ‘Have you brought water?’

662 The yogi, returning in this way to samsara, again enters samadhi with effort. But the sage, being established in the natural state [sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi] neither loses it nor gets it back [but remains in it uninterruptedly].

663 The sage never comes back to samsara. Samadhi is his natural state. There is no moment when he is without samadhi. Hence it is called sahaja [natural].

This samadhi is different from the kevala of the yogi in that it does not prevent the sage being seemingly active in the world while remaining in his samadhi.

664 The sage, remaining uninterruptedly in his natural state of samadhi, never swerving from it as a jivan mukta, is able to be active in the world, just as the sages of old such as Sri Sankaracharya did.

665 The yogi, while he is immersed in his kevala samadhi, is unable to do any work. When he comes out of the samadhi, then he does work, and is subject to ignorance.

666 The yogi is not equal to the task of teaching the truth of the real Self [and the sadhana for realising it] to disciples. The sage alone, remaining always, unswervingly, in the supreme state, is perfectly competent to teach and guide disciples.

667 If this sahaja samadhi is not accepted, it will follow that the sacred books, such as the Gita etc. are false. Sacred books are authoritative for the aspirants to deliverance, since they are filled with the teachings of sages.

668 It is the succession of sages that preserves the correct tradition of the science of right awareness of the real Self for the benefit of the aspirants to deliverance.

669 The final proof is one’s own experience of the truth, wherein doubts can no more arise. Until such experience is attained, the utterances of the sages are authority for the aspirants.

The difference between the two kinds of nirvikalpa [thought-free] samadhis was explained by Bhagavan as follows.

670 The sage [who is in sahaja samadhi] is like the river that has joined the ocean and become merged in it. The yogi in the kevala state is like a bucket let down into a well by means of a rope tied to it.

671 The bucket, when drawn up by the rope, comes out of the well. Just so the mind immersed in kevala samadhi is pulled out of it by vasanas back to samsara.

672 Thus it has been shown by the most holy one that the sage in the natural samadhi has no activity. But though by nature the sage is no actor, yet he is also a great actor, without being attached [or bound].

The sage has the whole potency of God in doing his appointed work, and hence there is no limit to his power, because, being egoless, the divine power works through his subtle and gross bodies.

The great blessing that disciples and devotees of the sage derive from associating with him is next expounded.

673 What is called association with the holy [satsang] is association with a sage. The term sat [truth, reality] means Brahman, and the sage is identical with that.

674 It must not be doubted, ‘Since all alike are Brahman, what is there special in the sage?’ In others, the real [Brahman] is eclipsed by the ego, but in the sage Brahman shines in its fullest effulgence.

675 In the company of sages, attachment vanishes, and with attachment, illusion. Freed from illusion, one attains stability, and thence liberation while yet alive. Seek therefore the company of sages.

676 Not by listening to preachers, nor by study of books, nor by meritorious deeds nor by any other means can one attain that supreme state, which is attainable only through association with the sages and the clear quest of the Self.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part23 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

621 In the course of life the sage, who has transcended all the yogas, being established in the supreme state, may live like a yogi, or even like a bhogi, but that yoga and that bhoga are not real.

‘Bhoga’ means enjoyment, and a bhogi is one, such as a householder, who lives for enjoyment. Some sages, like Ribhu, have been without any ashrama, which is a particular, prescribed mode of life. Such a one is called an atiasrami. The next topic concerns the pair of opposites, bondage and freedom.

622 The pair of bondage and freedom, which are spoken of in the course of instruction to disciples, does not really exist. Since it is settled that all pairs of opposites are unreal, how can this pair be real?

623 The real Self is ever free. The bound one is only the soul, the consequence of ignorance. Therefore, in truth, there is no deliverance. The thought of deliverance is due only to the belief in bondage.

How to verify this unreality?

624 ‘If one makes the quest, “Who is he for whom there is bondage?”, at the end of the quest the ever-free Self will be experienced.’ This is what the most holy one [Sri Ramana] has said.

625 Since the non-becoming of the supreme reality has been made clear by both revelation and the sages, and since it is that reality which is the real Self, how can it be said that that one became bound?

Whoever does not accept the perfect supremacy of the reality is unfit to be a disciple. He disqualifies himself by not accepting this as true.

626 If bondage were real, it would be without end. Also, having a beginning, deliverance would have an end. Thus, the unreality of bondage is irresistible.
It is an axiom of advaita Vedanta that whatever is real has neither beginning nor an end, and that what has a beginning must have an end, and is therefore unreal, as set forth already.

627 We do not hear from the sage the saying, ‘I was bound before but now I am free’. That supreme state is beyond time. How can its beginning be imagined?

What Bhagavan did say is next recorded.

628 Bhagavan, when asked, ‘When did your holiness attain deliverance?’, replied, ‘Nothing has happened to me. I am the same always, unchanged.’

To make this teaching intelligible Bhagavan used the following two similes.

629 This talk of deliverance is just like the singing, by dwellers in Pandharpur, of songs to the effect, ‘When shall we go to that place?’ and finally singing, ‘We have reached that place’.

630 ‘Just as someone in his dream, after wandering abroad and returning home, goes to sleep there and, waking, finds himself in his own home, so is deliverance.’ This is what our Guru has said.

So, deliverance is only a change in the understanding, as shown below.

631 Deliverance is just the clarification of the mind, the understanding: ‘I am ever in my own real nature; all other experiences are illusory.’ It is not something that has newly come about.

Another very notable feature of the sage’s being is next taken up.

632 The eternal greatness of the sage consists in this: that he neither waxes nor wanes by actions done or not done. For him there will never accrue any result from actions, whether unpleasant or pleasant.

This is a necessary corollary from the teaching that the sage, being only the real Self, is egoless, and therefore not an actor, but at the most only a witness, or not even a witness.

Some sectarians identify the real Self with the sheath of the intellect, the vijnanamaya kosha. But they are not advaitins.

Pandharpur is a famous Krishna temple in Maharashtra. The verse refers to a song and ritual that is performed by devotees of this shrine. Bhagavan referred to it in the following exchange, which is taken from Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, letter 82, dated 27th January 1947:

Question: Where can we see the soul? How can we know it?

Bhagavan: Where can we see the soul? This question is like staying in Ramanasramam and asking ‘Where is Ramanasramam?’ The soul is at all times in you and everywhere, and to imagine that it is somewhere far off and to search for it is like performing Panduranga bhajan. This bhajan commences in the first quarter of the night with tinkling bells tied to the feet of the devotees, and with a brass lamp-stand placed in the centre of the house. The devotees go round and round the lamp-stand, dancing rhythmically to the tune, ‘Pandharpur is thus far! Pandharpur is thus far! Come on, proceed!’, but as they go round and round, they actually do not proceed even half a yard further. By the time the third quarter of the night is reached, they will begin to sing, ‘See! See! There is Pandharpur! Here is Pandharpur! See, See!’

During the first quarter of the night they were going round the same lamp as they were in the third quarter. It dawns and they sing, ‘We have arrived in Pandharpur. This is Pandharpur.’ So saying, they salute the lamp-stand and end the bhajan. It is the same with this also. We go round and round in search of Atma, saying, ‘Where is Atma? Where is Atma?’ till at last the dawn of jnana drishti [the vision of knowledge] is reached and we say, ‘This is Atma. This is me.’

This is explained further by Bhagavan himself.

633 Just as one engaged in listening to a story does not really hear it, on account of his mind having wandered far away, so the sage, though apparently doing actions, is not really an actor with a mind full of previous habitual modes of functioning.

It has been shown before that the mind is just a bundle of habits of activity, which means that when those habits have been extinguished, it ceases to bind. The actions of the sage are not due to his personal will, as will be shown later.

But the condition of one whose mental vasanas are active is different, as shown below.

634 But the ignorant man, because his mind is subject to vasanas, becomes an actor, even without actively doing any action, just as a man in his dream may fall from the cliff of a mountain, though his body is lying motionless in his bed.

The fact is, the mind is the real agent in action, not the body, which by itself is inert and actionless.

The following is from the Vasishtam:

635 Action is not what is done by the body alone. That alone is action which is done by the mind. The body, being insentient, cannot be an actor. The mind being sentient, can be an actor.

636 ‘Whatever the body, the senses, life and the mind do by the force of prarabdha karma, the sage is not affected by it.’ So said Bhagavan, our Guru.

This is further sustained by comparison of the sage with God in his personal aspect.

637 God is unaffected by his activities of creation, protection, etc. In just the same way the sage remains unaffected by his actions, since, from the standpoint of the truth, there is no real difference between them [God and the sage].

It is taught that God is not Himself the doer of all that work, the work being done in His presence by His power, called maya, as said before.

638 He appears to the ignorant as acting – eating, walking, talking and remembering – but in truth he is neither an actor nor a recipient of the fruits of action, because all his activity is entirely subject to God.

The following is what Bhagavan says on this topic.

639 If the Self were the actor, then the sage would receive the fruits of action. But when, by the quest of the real Self, the sense of doership is lost, at the same time all the three kinds of karma will be lost. Understand that this deliverance is eternal.

The following also was said by Bhagavan.

640 Just as a sleepy child eats the food given by his mother, but does not know it is eating, in the same way the sage receives the fruits of actions, without being an enjoyer or sufferer.

But that is not all.

641 In truth, no one is performing actions. The difference between the knower and the non-knower of the Self is only this: the ignorant man believes himself to be the performer of actions, but to the sage the thought of being an actor does not arise at all.

Here is an incidental problem, due to a difference of views.

642 The saying, ‘The agami karma and sanchita karma are lost for the sage, so he is not reborn again; but the prarabdha karma remains over’ is not true from the standpoint of the supreme truth.

This Bhagavan illustrates with a simile from life.

643 Just as, when a husband dies, none of his wives remain unwidowed, so when the actor [the ego] dies, no actions remain over, which would yield result [to the sage].

Another simile is also available.

644 Just as actions done in dream do not survive on waking, so actions done during the prevalence of ignorance do not survive when the true nature of the Self is experienced.

When ignorance dies, all its products also cease to be.

But the survival of prarabdha karma is stated in the vedantic lore. The answer to this is given.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part22 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

595 The first Guru [Dakshinamurti], who taught those great munis by silence the truth of his own supreme state, and who afterwards appeared as the great Guru, Sri Sankaracharya, is himself our Guru, Sri Ramana [Bhagavan].

This should be self-evident.

A notion prevails among the people that a sage or a perfected man must be able to perform miracles. These miracle-working powers are called siddhis. The word literally means ‘gain’ of something. The sages make a difference between these so-called siddhis and the real siddhi, whereby the whole of samsara is transcended, and the highest state, egolessness, is reached.

596 Our Guru, Sri Ramana, tells us that the real siddhi [to be striven for] is to be firmly established in the natural state of the real Self, which is ever-present in the Heart; nothing else.

And since it is in the Heart, the only thing needed is to seek it there and enjoy its bliss.

597 The notion that the Self has to be won is untrue, because really, from the point of view of truth, it was never lost. The sages therefore say that the real Self is ever-present.

This fact is illustrated by the simile of the forgotten necklace, which was diligently sought while all the time it was on the neck of the seeker.
Those that go after the vanities of the world are enamoured of the false siddhis because they do not know that the Self is the summum bonum, the greatest good.

598 Revelation teaches this truth by saying that the Self is infinite, and all else finite and trivial. He that buys the whole world by selling the real Self is just a pauper, and is to be pitied.

The so-called siddhis are of no value because they are in samsara and are therefore mere vanities, unreal, like the world. A saying of the same import is attributed to Jesus, who was a sage.

599 Therefore, says the revelation, that supreme state is freedom from poverty, and all else is only poverty. Like an emperor, the sage is above all wants [in a different way].

Even when going about begging [his daily meal] he is not cast down.

600 It is the deluded men with outward-turned minds, hankering for worldly enjoyments, who talk of these siddhis, namely becoming minute, etc. Revelation
mentions these siddhis for attracting the dull-witted ones also to the path for deliverance.

601 Since these are in the realm of ignorance, and therefore unreal like dream-gains, no discriminating person will be deluded by them. [Of course,] the sage is not deluded by these unrealities, as he has attained the supreme state, which is the state of reality.

602 Though thus it has been made clear that there is no gain equal to the gain of the Self, undiscriminating ones are afraid of the supreme state, believing that in it the Self will be lost.

That the Self is not lost there is next demonstrated by a summary of a verse from Yoga Vasishtam.

603 ‘Just as, by the oncoming of spring, great qualities such as beauty and so on come to trees, so to the sage who abides in the supreme state, come lustre, keen intelligence and strength [of all kinds].

Even a common man, without education, if he becomes somehow aware of the real Self, becomes a centre of attraction for others and is worshipped as a perfected one.

Also, other perfections are seen in the sage.

604 Peace of mind and other good qualities, which aspirants to deliverance have to acquire and retain with effort, are natural to the sage. He is beyond the [three] qualities [sattva, rajas and tamas] and at the same time is the abode of all good qualities.

So the conclusion is as follows.

605 So, when the ego is lost, there is no real loss. The supreme state [attained on by the loss of the ego] is not one in which the Self is lost. But the Self is as good as lost due to the ego sense, and when this [ego sense] is lost, there is a loss of this loss.

It is like a creditor unexpectedly receiving payment of a debt, which he had written off as irrecoverable.

This loss of the ego is indeed an enormous gain, as shown below.

606 This complete and final loss of the ego is itself all these things [and more]: righteousness, wealth, enjoyment [of all pleasures at once], truthfulness, true renunciation, silence, tapas, union with God and true surrender of oneself to Him.

Innumerable gains and all manner of goodness are comprised in egolessness.

The things that have the same names as the items on this list are next shown to be worthless because they are usually associated with the ego.

607 Those having the same names [which are prized greatly] are tainted and of little worth, because of association with the ego. But these are natural to the sage, who [always] dwells in the supreme state.

Another unique feature of the sage is next dealt with.

608 Two excellent qualities are stated as belonging to the sage, freedom from obligation to perform prescribed actions and at the same time being contented and happy. For the common man the absence of these is due to his ignorance.

The latter is bound by duties and never reaches the goal of action. In the sage these two rare good features are united and inseparable. Bhagavat Pada Sankaracharya has given prominence to these two unique features of the sage at the end of a long discourse that establishes the truth that illumination, unaided, confers deliverance.

609 The sage is not bound to perform actions because for him there is nothing to be gained by means of action. He for whom there is an obligation to perform actions is not free, but is bound by the fetters of delusion.

This shows up well the vast difference there is between the bound and the free.

Incidentally, a question is dealt with next that shows the ignorance of the questioners.

610 Some, not knowing the truth [about sages] ask whether the sage does not need to practise meditation. By others the question is raised: ‘Should not the sage go to foreign countries and teach the people there?’7

611 He that practises the meditation, ‘I am That’ is not a sage, but only a sadhaka. If the sage meditates ‘I am That’, it would be like a man meditating ‘I am a man’.

612 It is proper for one to remember something he has forgotten. In the world, remembrance of something not forgotten cannot occur. Since the truth of the Self is never once forgotten by the sage, how can he meditate on it?

613 The true meditation on the supreme reality [the Self] is only to remain as the Self in the thought-free state. This ‘meditation’ can neither be given up, nor taken up by the sage.

This is the sense of the latter half of the first benedictory verse in Bhagavan’s ‘Forty Verses on the Real’. The experience of the Self by the sage in his natural state is not knowing, but being the Self. From this state of Being there can never be a relapse to the thought ‘I am the body’.

The answer to the question about going about lecturing or teaching the people all over the world is as follows.

614 Even though apparently dwelling in some corner of the world, he is really like the sky. While remaining always [uninterruptedly] in his own natural state [samadhi], by his power he pervades the whole world.

This power of the sage is ‘grace’, the power to bless.

615 The sage, remaining all the time continuously in the natural state, with his mind utterly stilled, protects his own people even from a very great distance by his unthinkable power of grace.

But this protection is automatic, without effort, or even conscious knowledge of doing this work of grace.

616 Does anyone worry, after awakening, about men seen in a dream? So too, the sage who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance is not anxious about those who are still in ignorance.

From his point of view no one is really ignorant.

The actions of a sage ought not to be judged from the ordinary, human standpoint.

617 Since the sage has transcended the three grades of character, there can be no faults in him. Whatever he does in the world is surely blameless.

618 For this reason the sage transcends the sacred books that deal with human conduct, because the mind-free one is not bound by them. Those books are concerned with ignorant ones; they are subject to regulation by them because they have the sense of being performers of activities.

The conventions of samsara have no place in the state of the sage.

619 By revelation the sage’s state is described as one in which the Vedas are not Vedas, and the devas [the gods] are not devas.

Incidentally, a warning is given to disciples and sadhakas.

620 Though one should act upon the teachings of the sages, one must not imitate any act done by a sage.

The teachings of a sage are the highest authority, not their actions.

A noteworthy passage in the Gita in this context is the following: ‘Even if he kills all these people, he is not a killer, nor is he bound.’

Nor is the sage bound to conform to any particular mode of life.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part21 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

567 In those who are ignorant,the real Self appears to have become circumscribed and made finite by the sheaths.The real Self, infinite like the sky and completely free from all limiting factors, is the state in which none of the sheaths remain.

It is the sheaths that create the false sense of finiteness for the soul.

The Buddhist teaching of nirvana is next compared with this state.

568 Guru [Ramana] has said that the state of nirvana that was taught by Buddha to be the state in which samsara and suffering are ended is the same as remaining in the supreme state, having discarded all the sheaths.

So the Buddhist goal is the same as the state of deliverance taught in the Vedantas.

It is next shown that by the experience of the true nature of the Self, doubts become impossible.

569 In that state doubts do not arise since the sage is ever firm in his awareness of the true Self. There he remains without affirmations and vacillations, immersed in the depths of peace, the mind having become extinct.

It is next shown that in that state death is transcended.

570 Becoming aware of the real Self, which has neither beginning nor end, the sage transcends death. Surely no one in the world transcends death without experiencing the truth of the Self as deathless.

571 That exalted one who has attained, by enquiring ‘Whence am I?’, birth in his own source, the supreme one – only he can be said to be truly born. He has been born once and for all time, and is eternally new. He is the Lord of the Munis [a title reserved for God].

572 He that is established in his own natural state, in perfect identity with Brahman, is free from disease and beyond time and space. This is the supreme state that has been taught to us by the great Guru.

The body itself is disease, says Bhagavan. So true health is to be aware that the body is not the Self. Bodily disease does not detract from the perfectly healthy state of the sage, as we all know.

The truth about birth and death is next discussed.

573 For the ignorant one in the world, birth is for dying and his death is for being reborn again. Consequently, the most holy one [Sri Ramana] has told us that this birth and this death are unreal.

The kosas, usually translated as ‘sheaths’, are the five forms through which the ego functions, and by doing so, cover the Self.

Each cancels the other and so samsara is without end.

574 Real death is death of the ego. Real birth is to dwell in one’s natural state. In that state, in which pairs of opposites have no existence, birth and death have never become one.

Another aspect of the supreme state is next discussed.

575 How can the sage, who is forever established in the state of non-duality, become aware of differences? The world that appears to the ignorant as riddled with differences is to the sage only the undifferentiated Self.

576 Some speak of the sage as having two attributes: ‘equal vision’ and ‘not seeing differences’. This amounts to saying that he is free from the state in which differences are seen. In the state in which one knows that the Self alone exists, nothing is seen.

577 In all persons the sage sees only that real Self who is eternally aware of the truth. He does not see anyone as separate from himself, nor does he look upon anyone as ignorant. In his sight all are sages.

This was exactly what Bhagavan was heard to say. This brings out the uniqueness of the sage. He does not look down upon anyone or anything as inferior to himself.

Now the question of the actions of sages is taken up.

578 The sage in his worldly activities may appear to be aware of worldly differences, but he is really no more aware of them than a sleepwalker who moves about, performing actions.

This point will become clear later on while dealing with the distinction between the yogic (kevala) samadhi and the natural (sahaja) samadhi of the sage.

The crucial test of the sage, by which he is distinguished from the ignorant, is next given.

579 The difference between a sage and an ignorant one can be plainly seen in respect to censure and praise. The sage does not know the difference between the two since, for him, this pair of opposites, like all others, is unreal.

580-1 There are those who have not attained the permanent abode of the natural state of the Self by following the quest for the truth. These people, who have not freed themselves from the feeling that identifies the body with the Self, are still subject to the delusion that jivas are different from one another. Though these people may have understood well the subtle meanings of Vedanta, even if they may have renounced the whole world as mere trash, they inevitably become a slave to the harlot named ‘praise’.

This refers to an incident in the life of Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra, who for long lived in the woods, practising sadhana. Once a co-pupil of his met him in a forest and began praising him for a long time. At last Sadasiva became so elated by it that he exhibited horripilation. Noticing this, the other questioned Sadasiva how such an exalted person could be so affected. Sadasiva replied by a verse in Sanskrit to the effect that even such a one, if he had not reached the experience of the real Self, cannot help feeling pleasure from praise. This verse has been translated by Bhagavan and placed in the Supplement (Anubandham) of Ulladu Narpadu. That the sage is not so affected is shown next.

582 The sage, who does not know anyone as other than himself, and hence never swerves from his own true state, is unaffected by censure, or praise, because for him censure or praise appear to be made by himself.

This is the uniqueness of egolessness. The sage is really bodiless. Those that see his body judge him as if he were like them.

583 Though he appears as embodied, he is really bodiless, being egoless. His subtle body does not survive and go forth somewhere when the gross body falls, but undergoes disintegration here.

Adherents of sects, whose doctrines are different, have raised controversy, stating that the soul remains an individual after enlightenment, being endowed with a sort of body.

On this point there are two views: one that the liberated soul has a body always, and another that he has no body, but can assume a body when he pleases. Bhagavan’s teaching is that all forms are unreal, and hence neither of these two is acceptable. This is dealt with below.

584 Some believers in the reality of the world say that the sage has a body. Others say that the sage, being bodiless, can assume a body if he so pleases.

585 By the dawn of right awareness of the real Self, the ego, the root cause of the appearance of forms, has been lost. Therefore for the sage, all forms are unreal, and hence this talk of forms is foolishness.

Bhagavan has made it clear, by adopting the simile of the river mingling with the ocean, that the soul as such does not survive the dawn of right awareness. The soul has been declared to be a false appearance due to confusion of the body with the Self, which cannot survive the extinction of ignorance, its parent.

586 Since it is not proper to say that this [world] existed before [enlightenment], but was lost afterwards, and since [even in ignorance] no one has a form from the point of view of the reality, how can the sage have a form?

Forms belong to duality, but duality, it has been declared, is never real. Non-duality is true always, being unaffected by time.

587 In the case of the sage who is established in his own natural state, free of all the three bodies, how can a desire arise to have a body? This talk of forms is in vain, being merely a concession to the unenlightened.

Even in the Upanishads there are passages suggesting that in salvation there are forms, but they are interpreted as a means of enabling unripe souls to take to sadhana for salvation. The real teaching of the Upanishads appears in texts such as the following.

588 As a river reaching the ocean loses its river-form and becomes indistinguishable from it, so too the sage, losing his form as a soul, becomes non-different from that Supreme Being, to whom all else is inferior.

589 Thus revelation says that the sage in that supreme state becomes one with the Supreme Being. Even when alive, the liberated one is bodiless because he does not think of himself as having a body.

Bhagavan defines liberation as follows.

590 Bhagavan our Guru says that liberation is just the extinction of the ego, who becomes a disputant concerning the form of the sage. So, this dispute about forms is meaningless.

It is to be noted that those who raise this controversy, do so without losing their ego-sense. Can they raise this question after getting rid of their ego?

591 Therefore, on the fall of the body his subtle form does not go forth, as in the case of the ignorant; it goes back and merges into its cause, and nothing survives for going forth.

The cause of the subtle body is the unquintuplicated five bhutas (materials of creation).

There is an incidental misconception which is next dispelled.

592 The popular notion that there are many sages is also not true. All differences belong to the world. In the worldless state they do not exist.

The controversy about the plurality of selves, which has been discussed and settled before, is relevant here also.

593 He who says, ‘I have today seen this sage; I shall see others also,’ does not know the true nature of sages, which is reality-consciousness-bliss. This is what Bhagavan has told us on this point.

594 For him who knows not the sage who is within himself there appear many sages. For him who knows that one, which is his own Self, this plurality [of sages] is non-existent.

The absurdity of these questions is thus pointed out by Bhagavan. Questions about the egoless state cannot be decided by the ego-ridden ones.

The following is the corollary from the above discussion.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part20 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

537 The power there is in the silence of the Guru is immeasurable. Hence, teaching by silence is the highest there is. In this way alone does the aspirant’s mind obtain peace.

There is the question about initiation. What is true initiation?

538 It is said that initiation is of three forms, namely, looking, thinking and touching with the hand. But the highest initiation consists of the Guru remaining in the supreme silence. So says our Guru.

The supreme state is called silence.

539 Because that state is taught by silence, and also because it is attained by remaining in silence, it is called silence. The sage is in silence always, even when he speaks.

The last statement is difficult to understand. It will be better understood when Bhagavan’s teaching about the natural state (sahaja samadhi) is explained.
This enlightenment is the subject of many questions. One of these is, ‘Will it remain permanent, or will it be lost later?’

540 That eternal state is ever shining by the light of the sun of consciousness, the real Self. After realising it, there is no possibility of swerving from that natural state of the Self due to forgetfulness.

The reason is that when right awareness dawns by following the direct path, the ego and mind merge and are once and for all lost in that Self. It is otherwise when some sort of bliss is experienced as a result of yoga. Yoga by itself does not lead up to egolessness.

Does the world survive after the egolessness is established?

541 The statement of the vedantic text that the Self swallows up the moving and the unmoving, means that the world, which is only darkness, is consumed by the effulgence of that Self.

The Upanishads thus clearly state that the world, being only darkness, cannot possibly survive in the presence of the light of right awareness.

The very same truth has been expressed by Bhagavan in the first verse of his Arunachala Pancharatnam, which is paraphrased here.

542 The essential nature of the Self has been sung by Guru Bhagavan in the following words: ‘The Supreme Self, named Arunachalesa [The Lord of Arunachala], shines alone without a second, having swallowed this solid-seeming universe by his own consciousness-light.’

This confirms the statement that creation is composed of darkness (ignorance) alone, and has no substantial reality even now, when ignorance and ego are rampant.

An inaccuracy of statement that is unavoidably made is corrected.

543 The statement that the Self, by attaining oneness with Brahman, becomes freed from the bondage of samsara is not true, because the Self never fell from its true state.

544 Just as white cloth does not acquire a new whiteness, whiteness being its nature, so the Self does not become Brahman because the Self is eternally Brahman by nature.

It is said that for creating the world Brahman itself became the Self when entering the created bodies. This only means that the Self is never other than Brahman.
Certain expressions, freely used to designate the sage, are next critically viewed.

545 Two names are commonly in use to designate the sage, namely ‘Knower of Brahman’ and ‘Knower of the Self’. Since the sage is himself Brahman, as well as the Self, how can they become known to the sage?

Neither of the two, which are identical with each other, can become the object of knowledge. The Self, as the eternal subject, is not an object to be known, and Brahman is therefore not an object. The unknowability of Brahman is due to its being the Self. So the terms, taken literally, are inapplicable. What then are their proper meanings?

546 To be free of the notion ‘I am not Brahman’ is itself the knowing of Brahman. Freedom from the notion that anything not the Self is the Self is the correct knowing of the Self.

The reason is given next.

547 When, by making the quest of one’s Self, one becomes consumed, like food, by that supreme one, how can anyone survive as separate from it and still be called a sage.
The use of some word or other to designate one that has found the Self after sadhana is necessary and inevitable. But since in this case the success of the quest involves the loss of the unreal individuality of the seeker, practically all the words available are objectionable as implying something not true.

Another reason, shown next, is that the state is advaitic.

548 How can one, after experiencing the truth of non-duality [in that supreme state], remain separate from the Supreme Being? For that state has been styled, by Sri Krishna, himself, the supreme one, as merger into Brahman.

By this merger there is the loss of individuality.

549 In the sacred lore the sage is described in the same terms that Brahman itself is described. Since the true nature of Brahman is pure, supreme consciousness, the true nature of the sage is not different.

This is what Bhagavan has to say on this point:

550 ‘Since no one has two selves, it follows that the sayings “I know myself” and “I do not know myself” are both ridiculously nonsensical. The Self never becomes an object to be known.’ Such is the statement made by the most holy one [Sri Ramana].

It may be asked why that state is one of non-duality. The answer is the following.

551 This state of being one’s own true Self, freed from all limiting superimpositions, is called the state of non-duality, because in that state the supreme sole reality, the infinite Brahman, is not other than that Self.

An incidental question is whether the state of non-duality came into existence for the first time at the end of the quest, or had been existing all along?

552 The state of the non-dual, real Self, experienced by the sage who attains the supreme state, is not the fruit of the practice of sadhana. It is the eternal nature of that Self.

The following view, held by some, is next stated and discussed.

553 Some say that this duality will remain real as long as one is engaged in practising sadhana, but that when the goal is reached, non-duality will come into being by the extinction of the duality.

These thinkers seek to reconcile the dvaitic and advaitic teachings.

554 These men do not know the truth of the transcendental state beyond time, in which the world has not come into being. Non-duality has neither beginning nor end. Duality, with space and time, is unreal, always.

Here, the whole discussion about the world and the teaching of non-becoming are relevant, and also the discussion whether bondage is real, which comes later.

What then is the use of the sadhana?

555 In the sacred lore it is said, ‘By the extinction of ego there is, for the aspirant to deliverance, cessation of his delusion’. What is real cannot be destroyed by right awareness, nor will anything unreal shine as real in the supreme state.
The extreme doctrine of the dvaitins is next stated and refuted.

556 The conclusion [of the dvaitins] that this duality is always real, that it will not cease to exist even when right awareness dawns, and that non-duality will never be achieved, is much farther away for the aspirant [than the one stated before].

What Bhagavan says on this point is next set forth.

557 Both when it is being sought by the quest ‘Who am I?’ and when it is realised, the Self is non-dual and ever real, just as the tenth man was there all along, even when he was being sought.

The reference here is to a parable of the loss and the finding of the tenth man in a party of ten. The ten, while travelling, crossed a river and then, one by one, they counted the members to see whether all had safely crossed over. But as each one counted only the others, leaving himself out, they believed that one, the tenth man, was lost. They were bewailing the loss when a passer-by saw them and asked them the cause of their sorrow. When he was told, he counted them and found all the ten were there. He convinced them of this truth by making them count the blows he would give all of them. There were ten blows and this convinced the men.

558 Those who have understood, as taught in Mandukya, the truth of the non-becoming of the supreme reality, will not be perplexed by these theories of the ignorant, because they are firmly convinced of the true nature of the Supreme Being.
563 Since the real Self is all that is, when that Self is won, nothing remains for the sage to be won. Hence, in the sacred lore the sage is as one who has attained and enjoyed all objects of desire and is, therefore, desireless, just like God Himself.
It must be remembered that God is really impersonal, as Brahman, so that the personal God is only a modification of it.

564 Viveka Chudamani asks, ‘How can one who has experienced the truth of his own Self identify with his body and suffer from desiring objects? Who is there left to desire?’ This revelation shows that for the sage desires do not arise.

565 Only that man has desires who identifies himself with the body. But the sage has become free from the thought ‘I am the body’. The sage looks upon his own body as if it were the body of another.

The first sentence in the above is a quotation from the Viveka Chudamani.
Another powerful reason is that the sage is by nature eternally happy with the bliss of the real Self. This has been stated and explained before.

But the bliss of the sage does not cause bondage, as is shown next.

566 In the supreme state there is no tasting of bliss, for there the sense of being happy or miserable cannot arise. Since in that state there are no pairs of opposites, the bliss of the sage has no similarities to the pleasures and miseries of samsara.

The explanation is that while, in samsara, pleasures are from external objects, in the natural state the bliss is the very nature of the Self, who is identical with Parabrahman.

This difference is related to another, which is dealt with next.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part19 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

The imperfections that beset life in samsara are transcended. It is shown in the supreme state reached by the sages.

559 For the sage who dwells in the state of non-duality, fear and desire do not arise as they do in an ignorant one. Desire and fear are unavoidable for those who are deluded by seeing differences.

560 The sentence, ‘Fear arises from a second entity’, shows that seeing duality is the cause of fear. No creature whose Self has been apparently stolen by the belief in the reality of differences is ever free from fear.

561 ‘The sage who is immersed in the ecstasy of the blissful real Self, who is beyond the scope of mind and speech, is not afraid of anything whatsoever.’ In this way revelation teaches us that nothing moves the sage from his supreme state.

562 For him that is established in the supreme state, desires do not arise, because the desirer, the ego, has ceased to exist. The sage in that state is ever contented, as if he had obtained simultaneously enjoyment of all possible desires at a stroke.

This is from the Taittiriya Upanishad. What is meant is that all the happiness that is possible in the worldly life is contained in a minute fraction of that bliss of Brahman.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part18 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

512 Bhagavan Vasishta has said: ‘If one separates the body [from oneself] and remains at rest in one’s own Self, which is consciousness, then one’s ego-sense perishes.’ That is, he attains the egoless state.

What happens when the quest is thus persisted in long enough?

513 The mind, seeking the Self, gets captured by some mysterious inner power and dives into the Heart. There the mind, being consumed by the consciousness-light of the Self, ceases to exist, along with the ego.

What is this power?

514 That power is indeed the grace of God, who is the real Self in the Heart. It is of the nature of right awareness. By yielding up oneself to it, the aspirant becomes blessed.

515 In that great burning state, the sky of pure consciousness, the ever-real and auspicious real Self dances in the form of ‘I’, ‘I’. In the fire of this right awareness, which is the sole reality, the universe, along with the ego, is destroyed.

This fire consumes the whole of creation with its root, the ego, leaving not even ashes. The real Self is said to be dancing, to indicate the bliss of that state.

So, there is no dance in the literal sense.

516 However, since that same sky of consciousness is his real nature, how can he, being formless, dance there? This metaphor shows that his form is bliss, and that the dance is motionless.

517 In that state there is no maya, no avidya [ignorance], no space, no time, and no individual called the soul. There, only the real Self, having the form of pure consciousness, exists, and nothing else.

This state of aloneness is called kaivalya.

Maya and avidya are mutually dependent. Neither can exist without the other. So both are lost in this conflagration. This has been definitely stated in one of the hymns to Sri Arunachala by Bhagavan.

518 In that transcendental state the power of God, named maya, whose expanded form is the whole world, is wholly lost in that motionless supreme one, along with the whole of her creation.

For him that dwells eternally in that supreme state, there is neither maya nor avidya, nor the world.

519 Therefore, in that supreme state of peace there shines, unhindered, the true form of the real Self. The one that survives in that state, abiding as his own real Self, is designated by the sages as the free one.

Bondage being due to the false identification of the body as the Self, it is lost when the ego-sense is lost. There is no more any false identification.

The mind is lost. But at the same time the pair of pleasure and pain is also lost. This is illustrated as follows:

520 Just as a woman, suffering intolerably in her father-in-law’s house, obtains peace in her mother’s house, so the mind, harried by samsaric suffering, wins peace by returning to its source, the real Self.

What about the unfree souls in the world? Does the free one see them, and is he anxious for them?

521 As a man awakening from a dream no longer sees any of the dream persons, so the one who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance, and who is therefore alone as the sole reality, does not see anyone as other than his own real Self.

In all persons alike, the real Self is unaffected. Ignorance and bondage are not for him, but for the mind or the ego, the imaginary individual soul, who never had any real existence.

522 How can that state, the natural state of peace, become knowable by the intellect – that state of him who dwells engrossed in the bliss of that Self, having no knowledge of others as different from himself?

Just as that state is unthinkable by the intellect, so too is the one who has won that state and dwells eternally there.

523 How can any man understand, by the unaided power of his own intellect, one who is mind-free, bodiless and worldless?

The one who is established in that state of deliverance is called a sage, or ‘Prabuddha’ or Buddha. He cannot be known because he has none of the attributes of an individual.

He is one with the eternal subject, the supreme reality, and so cannot be made an object for anyone to know.

524 Because that one has no particular marks or features, the mind cannot think of it, nor words describe it. The words of the Vedanta teach its real nature only by negating everything as ‘not That’.

The Vedantas never try to give a positive description. Even those sentences that seem to give such a description are interpreted as distinguishing it from things that can be visualised or thought of.

That unthinkable one is for that reason infinite, unlimited.

525 Whatever is describable in words or thinkable by the mind is, for that reason alone, finite. Because the real Self is beyond the reach of the mind and the intellect, those who are established in the Self call it ‘the infinite’.

Only the infinite is blissful, not the finite, says the Chandogya Upanishad.

526 Whatever is said concerning the supreme reality by the sages or by Vedanta has for its purpose only the removal of the mistaken notions of the disciple.
No positive statements can be made. The ultimate teaching is by silence.

527 Just as Sita indicated Rama by negating all the other princes, so the Vedantas indicate the truth of the Self by negating all else [that could be mistakenly believed to be the Self].

528 Since the Self, shining alone as the sole existing reality, can neither be known nor taught, the teachings of the Guru do nothing for the aspirant except free him of his ignorance.

Ignorance causes him to identify something as the Self, which is not That.

Since the Self shines by its own consciousness-light, there is no need to do anything more. In the egoless state, the real Self cannot be mistaken, because there it survives alone.

The darkness (ignorance) that conceals the Self is just the visible and tangible world seen by the outward-going mind, as is shown next.

529 Since the Self, consciousness itself, is concealed by the darkness, which consists of worldly knowledge, the teachings of the Guru bless the aspirant by removing that ignorant knowledge.

530 To create an empty space in a room one only has to remove the encumbering, unwanted lumber. In the same way, to realise the Self nothing more is needed than the removal of false knowledge.

Nothing more need be done when the false notion of a serpent is removed. The real rope reveals itself. So too, when the veiling, false knowledge is removed, the Self shines by its own light of consciousness.

Another simile, given by Bhagavan, is given here.

531 How can the Self be something to be obtained? From the point of view of truth, it was never lost.The gaining of the Self that is spoken of is only the death of the ego, the appearance of which makes the Self as good as lost.

It is also said by Bhagavan that the truth is rightly taught only by silence. This is explained next.

532 Speech is fourfold, as transcendent, seeing, medium and articulate speech.That transcendent speech is only silence. And that silence is itself the true nature of the supreme reality.

533 The articulate form of speech was born of the medium speech; its mother is the seeing speech; that its mother is the transcendent speech, is well known. That same supreme speech is silence, the form of the supreme consciousness.

So, the grossest form of speech, being the great-grand daughter of the silence, cannot reach the real Self.

Again, how does speech arise? There is abstract knowledge, whence arises the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken word. So the word is the great grandson of the original source. If the word can produce effect, judge for yourself how much more powerful must be the preaching through silence!

534 True speech is only the silence of the sage, who is the eternal dweller in the transcendental state. How can gross speech, born of the belief in differences, speak of the supreme one, in which differences are lost?

535 Therefore the most ancient Guru [Dakshinamurti] taught the truth of the Self by silence. And by achieving silence of speech and mind, those ancient disciples became aware of that truth.

Here the reference is to the incarnation of God as Dakshinamurti, the God of right awareness, dwelling in that state of awareness. The disciples, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanatkumara attained the supreme state by being silent, just like their Guru.

536 Well-qualified disciples became themselves sages through the silent teaching of their Guru. Teaching by words does not work in imparting true knowledge of the real Self.

The greatness of the Guru’s silence is next indicated.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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Part17 - Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad By Lakshman Sarma

481 The devotee or the seeker of the Self who becomes discouraged by the thought ‘When shall I attain the natural state?’ hinders progress on the path of deliverance by having such a thought.

482 The aspirant for deliverance must be full of enthusiasm, with his mind in the sattvic mood. He should engage in this quest, remembering the teaching that time is unreal.

483 Always and everywhere there are doorways for getting at the question ‘Who am I?’ By any one of these the seeker must again and again engage his mind in this quest.

The nature of the answer to this question is next indicated.

484 The answer to this question is not an intellectual conclusion. The correct answer to it is only the experience of the real Self. The supreme state arises on the death of the ego, the questioner who calls himself the individual self.

485 The real Self will shine as it really is only in the natural, thought-free state of the Self. In other states the real Self will not shine as it really is due to its being mixed up with intellectual views.

Another hindrance to success in the quest is now stated.

486 If the mind thus engaged in the quest becomes unconscious [as in deep sleep], the effort so far made becomes unfruitful. [So,] the seeker should awaken the mind from this unconsciousness and again engage it in the quest.

What is needed is not unconsciousness of the mind, but its complete extinction. This is clearly stated next, and it was also pointed out in Bhagavan’s Upadesa Saram.

487 Mental quiescence has been explained by the Guru as being of two kinds, as latency in unconsciousness and final extinction. In hatha yoga there are many methods of attaining unconsciousness, such as suspension of the breath.

The difference between these two is then explained.

488 The mind, when it has gone into latency together with its habits of activity, will later become active again to produce the worldly life. The mind that has been extinguished will lose its habits of action and thus becomes like a seed that has been roasted.

As roasted seed does not sprout, so the mind that has become extinct cannot be reborn again.

489 Ignorance binds the ignorant one by means of [these] habits. If the mind remains wide-awake in the quest, then the destruction of these habits will ensue.

490 Right awareness dawns on the complete extinction of the mind, whereby all the mental habits also are lost. Deliverance is affirmed by all sages to be none other than the final and complete destruction of the mental habits.

Apart from latency there is another obstacle, craving for sense-pleasures. This is pointed out next.

491 One should overcome both desire and latency and keep the mind concentrated in the quest. In the quest for the real Self, this is like balancing on the keen edge of the razor.

The uniqueness of this method, the quest, is next explained.

492 In all the other yogas it is assumed that there is an entity called the ‘soul’, having defects, namely action and the rest, and the yogi makes efforts to make himself free from those defects.

493 For eradicating the defect of being an actor, there is the yoga of action; for getting rid of separateness [from God] there is the yoga of devotion; for the cure of the defect of [seeing] differences there is the yoga of mind-control; and for the eradication of ignorance there is the yoga of right awareness.

These yogas are ridiculed by pointing out the truth of the real Self.

494 While being himself the same as the Supreme Being, the ignorant man, thinking himself to be someone other than He, through delusion tries to become one with Him by various yogas! What else is there more absurd than this?

The superiority of the quest is then shown.

495 When, by taking hold of the consciousness-element of the soul, the quest is made for the Self, the root of the soul, the Self, who is free from all defects, shines alone; there the soul does not survive.

496 Hence this [quest] is named ‘the great yoga’. There is no other yoga equal to this, or greater. All the yogas are included in it, and may be used as auxiliaries to this one, as may be found suitable.

497 This yoga, the quest of the source of the soul, is itself all the yogas. It is the yoga of action, the yoga of devotion, the yoga of restraining the mind and also the yoga of right awareness.

This quest of the real Self, it is next pointed out, is not to be practised as a meditation.

498 Since this quest takes the form of a question, it is not to be practised as a mode of meditation. By this question, the mind dives into the Heart, which it does not do by any series of meditations.

499 Some practise continuous meditation on the truth of one’s own Self, after listening to and reflecting upon that truth. This method is different from the quest for the Self that is taught by Ramana.

The method taught by Bhagavan is not an affirmation, but a question. The threefold process is further explained.

500 In the Chandogya Upanishad the identity of the Supreme Being and the real Self is taught by the sentence, ‘Thou art That’. This identity is confirmed by distinguishing between the literal and the intended meanings [of the terms used].

The terms ‘Thou’ and ‘That’, if taken in the literal sense, tend to show that there can be no such identity. Hence, the intended meanings are sought, so that the identity may be accepted as true. The identity is not of the apparent self, but of the real Self, with the Supreme Being. At the same time the Supreme Being is not the personal God but the impersonal being of the Upanishads. Both are of the nature of consciousness, and it is this consciousness that is the real essence of both. Thus, the identity is true.

It has been assumed by the traditional schools of Advaita Vedanta that this sentence conveys an injunction to meditate on the teaching. Actually, as Bhagavan says, the sentence states only a fact. The acceptance of it as a fact is not enough. And meditation is no better. What is needed is to verify the fact by reaching and remaining in the mind-free state, called also the natural state. What he has said is as follows:

501 Sri Ramana says that, without an enquiry into the intended meaning of the term ‘That’ in the sentence, one should make a quest for the truth of the real Self, who is indicated by the term ‘thou’.

This quest leads up to the mind-free state in which the real Self shines unhindered by the veil of ignorance, which is the ego, the false self. Then it will be realised that there is only one entity, which is the real Self and also the impersonal Supreme Being of the Upanishads.

Bhagavan calls the quest the direct path. It bypasses the meditation mentioned before.

502 By this quest the aspirant obtains the direct experience of the real Self in the transcendental state. For him that has thus succeeded in this quest, there is no need for continuous meditation or prolonged reflection.

It is here taken for granted that the aspirant accepts the teaching of the identity as true. This acceptance arises through his faith in the Guru who has that experience, and who is therefore a competent witness of that truth.

So, there is no injunction to meditate in the sentence cited.

503 In the sentence of the ancient revelation ‘You are That’, no meditation has been enjoined. What is said by implication is that in the egoless state the sage has the experience that the impersonal is identical with his own real Self.

504 Since it is settled by the sentence of the Vedanta that one’s own real Self, disentangled from the veiling sheaths, is the supreme reality, to attain the experience of identity between that reality and the Self, what else will work except the quest of that Self?

This is obvious, says Bhagavan. The real meaning of the text, ‘Thou art That,’ is next set forth according to the spirit of Bhagavan’s teachings.

505 The meaning of that vedantic text [You are That] is this: the Supreme Being himself shines as the real Self. If, seeking that Self, one gives up the notion ‘I am the body’ and becomes aware of one’s true nature, one becomes firmly fixed in the Heart and shines as That.

Has the meditation on the truth any use at all?

506 The quest of the truth of the Self is alone the direct path to the right awareness of the Self. The meditation spoken of is a preliminary aid to this quest. It is for breaking up the idea of the body as the Self.

This is what Bhagavan has said. In the way shown the meditation is useful for those who are not able to free themselves from their ego-sense, by which the body is identified as the Self.

The obstacles that may lie on the path are next dealt with.

507 Diving into the Heart in this quest of the Self does not occur in those who have weak minds. For them, the mind’s strength, being subdivided among innumerable thoughts, is insignificant.

One-pointedness of the mind is needed. A mind that is one-pointed will be strong enough for this purpose. Curbing of the variety of thoughts is the expedient to be adopted.

508 The one-pointedness of the mind in the quest is itself the strength of mind that is needed, and nothing else. He who has this strength of mind is called ‘valiant’ because he has the skill to protect his intellect from being frittered away.

509 By the practice of meditation mental strength will be intensified. Therefore meditation is an aid to the quest. After first achieving stillness of mind by meditation, the valiant aspirant must seek the truth of his own Self.

Then the question arises, ‘What is to be taken as the object of meditation?’

510 For the seeker of deliverance the best of all possible objects for meditation is the consciousness that has the form ‘I’, since this is the essence of the real Self. By this meditation alone, the mind will naturally dive into the Heart. Such is the teaching of our great Guru.

‘I’, he has pointed out, is the name of that impersonal being, the subject matter of the Vedantas. He has said that this name is even holier than the pranava [Om].

An alternative method for stilling the mind’s thoughts, as recommended by Bhagavan, is stated next.

511 Alternatively, if the aspirant for deliverance stills the mind by pure kumbhaka [retention of breath], without puraka and rechaka [inhalation and exhalation], and thus engages in the quest, then his mind will dive into the Heart.

Ordinary pranayama consists of the three parts, breathing in (puraka), retaining the breath within (kumbhaka), and breathing out (rechaka). But here the middle part (kumbhaka) alone is recommended as a means of stilling the mind. This may be mastered by steady practice. This is called kevala kumbhaka.

The same process is prescribed in the Yoga Vasishta, as quoted below.

Source: http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/rpv_intro.shtml

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