Part 1- Reality In Forty Verses (Ulladu Narpadu) : Supplement

Reality in Forty Verses: Supplement

Invocation

That which is the Support, the Soul, the Source, the Purpose and the Power of all this world, the Reality behind all this Appearance, That indeed exists. Let That, the Truth, abide in our Heart. (Yoga Vasishta, 8, v.12)

The Text

1. 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. (from Bhajagovindam, the “Mohamudagaram Hymn,” by Shankaracharya)

2. Not by listening to preachers, nor by study of books,not 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.(a verse from the Yoga Vasishta, 5 - 12 - v.17)

3. When one has learned to love the company of sages,wherefore all these rules of discipline? When a pleasant, cool southern breeze is blowing, what need is there for a fan? (a verse from the Yoga Vasishta)

4. Fever is overcome by the cool light of the moon;want, by the good 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. (Subhashita Ratna Bhandargara, chapt. 3, v. 6)

5. Holy rivers, which are only water, and idols, which are made of stone and clay, are not as mighty as the sages.For while they make one pure in course of countless days, the sage’s eyes by a mere glance purify at once. (from Srimad Bhagavatam, chapt. 48, v. 31, tenth canto)

6. Disciple: Who is God?
Master: He who knows the mind.
D: My Self, the Spirit, knows my mind.
M: Therefore you are God; and also the sruti declares
that there is only one God, the Knower.

7. M: By what light do you see?
D: The sun by day, the lamp by night.
M: By what light do you see these lights?
D: The eye.
M: By what light do you see the eye?
D: The mind.
M: By what light do you know the mind?
D: My Self.
M: You then are the Light of Lights.
D: Yes, That I am.
(from Ekasloki, by Shankaracharya)

8. In the centre of the Heart-Cave there shines alone the one Brahman as the ‘I, I’, the Atman. Reach the Heart by diving deep in quest of the Self, or by controlling the mind with the breath, and stay established in the Atman.

9. In the lotus of the Heart is pure and changeless Consciousness in the form of the Self. When the ego is removed, this Consciousness of Self bestows liberation
of soul. (Devikalottaram, v. 46)

10. The body is like an earthen pot, inert. Because it has no consciousness of ‘I’, and because daily in bodiless sleep we touch our real nature, the body is not ‘I’. Then who is this ‘I’? Where is this ‘I’? In the Heart-cave of those that question thus,there shineth forth as ‘I’, Himself, the Lord Siva of Arunachala.

11. Who is born? It is only he who asks ‘Whence am I born?’ that is truly born in Brahman, the Prime Source. He indeed is born eternally; He is the Lord of saints; He is the ever-new. (On celebrating Sri Bhagavan’s jayanti))

12. Cast off the notion, ‘This vile flesh am I,’ and seek the ceaseless bliss of Self. To seek the Self while cherishing this perishing flesh is like trying to cross a stream by clinging to a crocodile.

13. The way of charity, penance, sacrifice, dharma, yoga and bhakti; and the Goal of Heaven, Reality, Peace, Truth,Grace, Silence, Stability, Deathless Death, Knowledge,
Renunciation, Liberation, Bliss — all this is only ceasing to think that the body is the Self.

14. What is action, or devotion, or union, or knowledge? It is to inquire, ‘Whose is this action, or indifference, or separateness, or ignorance?’ Inquiring thus, the ego vanishes.To abide as the Self, wherein these eight have never been, this is True existence.

15. Not realizing that they themselves are moved by an energy not their own, some fools are busy seeking miraculous powers. Their antics are like the boasting of a cripple who says to his friends: ‘If you raise me to my feet, these enemies are nothing before me.’

16. Since the stilling of the mind is true liberation and miraculous powers are unattainable without an act of the mind,how can they whose mind is set on such powers enter the bliss of liberation which is the ending of all activity of the mind?

17. While God sustains the burden of the world, the spurious ego assumes its burden, grimacing like an image on a tower, seeming to support it. If the traveller in a carriage,which can carry any weight, does not lay his luggage down but carries it painfully on his head, whose is the fault?

18. Between the two paps, below the chest, above the stomach, there are six organs of various colours. Of these,one, looking like a lily bud, is the Heart, at two digits’ distance to the right of the centre. (from Ashtanga Hridayam,Malayalam)

19. Its mouth is closed. Within its cavity is seated a heavy darkness, filled with all desires; all the great nerves are centred there; the home it is of breath, mind, light of knowledge. (from Ashtanga Hridayam, Malayalam)