Guest guest Posted October 4, 2002 Report Share Posted October 4, 2002 This one should identify with firmly, abandoning This one should be aware of with unbroken application, continually turning to it with a mind empty of everything else, knowing it to be one's own true nature. 381the sense of doership and so on, remaining indifferent to them, as one is to things like a cracked jar. 382 Turning one's purified awareness within on the witness as pure consciousness, one should gradually bring it to stillness and then become aware of the perfection of one's true nature. 383 One should become aware of oneself, indivisible and perfect like Space itself, when free from identification with such things as one's body, senses, functions, mind and sense of doership, which are all the products of one's own ignorance. 384 Space when freed from the hundreds of additional objects like pots and pans, receptacles and needles is one, and in the same way the supreme Reality becomes no longer multiple but one and pure when freed from the sense of doership and so on. 385 All additional objects from Brahma to the last clump of grass are simply unreal, so one should be aware of one's own perfect true nature abiding alone and by itself. 386 When rightly seen, what had been mistaken in error for something else is only what it always was and not something different. When the mistaken perception is removed the reality of the rope is seen for what it is, and the same is true for the way everything is really oneself. 387 One is oneself Brahma, one is Vishnu, one is Indra, one is Shiva, and one is oneself all this. Nothing else exists except oneself. 388 Oneself is what is within, oneself is without, oneself is in front and oneself is behind. Oneself is to the south, oneself is to the north, and oneself is also above and below. 389 Just as waves, foam, whirlpool and bubbles are all in reality just water, so consciousness is all this from the body to the sense of doership. Everything is just the one pure consciousness. 390 This whole world known to speech and mind is really the supreme Reality. Nothing else exists but the Reality situated beyond the limits of the natural world. Are pots, jars, tubs and so on different from clay? It is the man confused by the wine of Maya that talks of "you" and "me". 391 The scripture talks of the absence of duality in the expression "where there is nothing else" (Chandogya Upanishad 7.24.1) with several verbs to remove any idea of false attribution. 392 What else is there to know but one's true supreme nature, God himself, like space pure, imageless, unmoving, unchanging, free of within or without, without a second and non-dual. What more is to be said here? The individual is himself God. Scripture declares that this whole extended world is the indivisible God. Those who have been illuminated by the thought "I am God", themselves live steadfastly as God, abandoning external objects, as the eternal consciousness and bliss. 394 Destroy the desires arising from opinions about yourself in this impure body, and even more so those of the subtle mental level, and remain as yourself, the God within, the eternal body of bliss, celebrated by the scriptures. 395 So long as a man is concerned about the corpse-like body, he is impure and suffers from his enemies in the shape of birth, death and sickness. When however he thinks of himself as pure godlike and immovable, then he is freed from those enemies, as the scriptures proclaim. 396 Getting rid of all apparent realities within oneself, one is oneself the supreme God, perfect, non-dual and actionless. 397 When the mind waves are put to rest in one's true nature, the imageless God, then this false assumption exists no longer, but is recognised as just empty talk. 398 What we call "All this" is a false idea and mistaken assumption of in the one Reality. How can there be distinctions in something which is changeless, formless and without characteristics? 399 Seer, seeing and seen and so on have no existence in the one Reality. How can there be distinctions in something which is changeless, formless and without characteristics? 400 Verses 401-450 In the one Reality which is completely perfect like the primal ocean, how can there be distinctions in something which is changeless, formless and without characteristics? 401 When the cause of error has been annihilated like darkness in light, how can there be distinctions in something which is changeless, formless and without characteristics? 402 How can there be distinctions in a supreme reality which is by nature one? Who has noticed any distinctions in the pure joy of deep sleep? 403 After realisation of the supreme Truth, all this no longer exists in one's true nature of the imageless God. The snake is not to be found in time past, present or future, and not a drop of water is to be found in a mirage. 404 Scripture declares that this dualism is Maya-created and actually non- dual in the final analysis. It is experienced for oneself in deep sleep. 405 The identity of a projection with its underlying reality is recognised by the wise in the case of the rope and the snake, etc. The false assumption arises from a mistake. 406 This falsely imagined reality depends on thought, and in the absence of thought it no longer exists, so put thought to rest in samadhi in the inner reality of one's higher nature. 407 The wise man experiences the perfection of God in his heart in samadhi as something which is eternal consciousness, complete bliss, incomparable, transcendent, ever free, free from effort, and like infinite space indivisible and unimaginable. 408 The wise man experiences the perfection of God in his heart in samadhi as something which is free from natural causation, a reality beyond thought, uniform, unequalled, far from the associations of pride, vouched for by the pronouncements of scripture, eternal, and familiar to us as ourselves. 409 The wise man experiences the perfection of God in his heart in samadhi as something which is unaging, undying, the abiding reality among changing objects, formless, like a calm sea free from questions and answers, where the effects of natural attributes are at rest, eternal, peaceful and one. 410 With the mind pacified by samadhi within, recognise the infinite glory of yourself, sever the sweet-smelling bonds of samsara, and energetically become one who has achieved the goal of human existence. 411 Free from all false self-identification, meditate on yourself as the non-dual being-consciousness-bliss within yourself, and you will no longer be subject to samsara. 412 Seeing it as no more than a man's shadow, a mere reflection brought about by causality, the sage looks on his body as from a distance like a corpse, with no intention of taking it up again. 413 Come to the eternally pure reality of consciousness and bliss and reject afar identification with this dull and unclean body. Don't remember it any more, like something once vomited is fit only for contempt. 414 Burning this down along with its roots in the fire of his true nature, the imageless God, the wise man remains alone in his nature as eternally pure consciousness and bliss. 415 Let the body, spun on the thread of previous causation, fall or stay put, like a cows garland. The knower of the Truth takes no more notice of it, as his mental functions are merged in his true nature of God. 416 To satisfy what desire, or for what purpose should the knower of the Truth care for his body, when he knows himself in his own true nature of indivisible bliss. 417 The fruit gained by the successful man, liberated here and now, is the enjoyment in himself of the experience of being and bliss within and without. 418 The fruit of dispassion is understanding, the fruit of understanding is imperturbability, and the fruit of the experience of bliss within is peace. This is the fruit of imperturbability. 419 If the successive stages do not occur it means that the previous ones were ineffective. Tranquillity is the supreme satisfaction, leading to incomparable bliss. 420 The fruit of insight referred to is feeling no disquiet at the experience of suffering. How could a man who has done various disgusting actions in a time of aberration do the same again when he is in his right mind? 421 The fruit of knowledge should be the turning away from the unreal, while turning towards the unreal is seen to be the fruit of ignorance. This can be seen in the case of some-one who recognises or does not recognise things like a mirage. Otherwise what fruit would there be for seers? 422 When the knot of the heart, ignorance, has been thoroughly removed, how could the senses be the cause of the mind being directed outwards for some-one who does not want them? 423 When there is no upsurge of desire for goods, that is the summit of dispassion. When there is no longer any occurrence of the self- identification with the doer, that is the summit of understanding, and when there is no more arising of latent mental activity, that is the summit of equanimity. 424 He is the enjoyer of the fruit of infinite past good deeds, blessed and to be revered on earth, who free from external things by always been established in his awareness of God, regards objects which others look on as desirable like some-one half asleep, or like a child, and who looks at the world like a world seen in a dream, or like some mere chance encounter. 425 That ascetic is of established wisdom who enjoys the experience of being and bliss with his mind merged in God, beyond change and beyond action. 426 That function of the mind which is imageless pure awareness, and which is immersed in the essential oneness of oneself and God is known as wisdom, and he in whom this state is well established is called one of established wisdom. 427 He whose wisdom is well established, whose bliss is uninterrupted, and whose awareness of multiplicity is virtually forgotten, he is regarded as liberated here and now. 428 When a man's mind is at rest in God even when he is awake he does not share the usual condition of being awake. He whose awareness is free of desires is regarded as liberated here and now. 429 He whose worries in samsara have been put to rest, who though made up of parts does not identify himself with them, and whose mind is free from thoughts, he is regarded as liberated here and now. 430 The sign of a man liberated here and now is the absence of thoughts of "me" and "mine" in the body while it still exists, going along with him like his shadow. 431 The sign of a man liberated here and now is not running back to the past, not dwelling on the future, and being unconcerned about the present. 432 The sign of a man liberated here and now is to look with an equal eye on everything in this manifold existence with all its natural faults, knowing that in itself it is without characteristics. 433 The sign of a man liberated here and now is to remain unmoved in either direction, looking on things with an equal eye within, whether encountering the pleasant or the painful. 434 The sign of a man liberated here and now is to be unaware of internal or external, since the ascetic's mind is occupied with enjoying the experience of the bliss of God. 435 The sign of a man liberated here and now is that he remains unconcerned and free from the sene of "me" and "mine" in the things needing to be done by the body and the senses and so on. 436 The sign of a man liberated here and now is that he is free from the bonds of samsara, knowing his own identity with God with the help of the scriptures. 437 He is regarded as liberated here and now who has no sense of "this is me" in the body and senses, nor of "it exists" in anything else. 438 The sign of a man liberated here and now is that he knows by wisdom that there is never any distinction between God and what proceeds from God. 439 The sign of a man liberated here and now is that he remains the same whether he is revered by the good or tortured by the bad. 440 That ascetic is liberated into whom, because of his being pure reality, the sense object can flow and merge without leaving any alteration, like the water of a river's flow. 441 There is no more samsara for him who knows the Truth of God as there was before. If there is, then it is not the knowledge of God, since it is still outward turned. 442 If it is suggested that he still experiences samsara because of the strength of his previous desires, the answer is, No, desires become powerless through the knowledge of one's oneness with Reality. 443 The impulses of even an extremely passionate man are arrested in face of his mother, and in the same way those of the wise cease in face of the perfect bliss of the knowledge of God. 444 Some-one practising meditation is seen to have external functions still. Scripture declares that this is the effect of the fruits of previous conditioning. 445 So long as pleasure and the like occur, one acknowledges the effect of previous conditioning. A result occurs because of a previous cause. Nothing happens without a cause. 446 With the realisation that "I am God", all the actions accumulated over ages are wiped out, like actions in a dream on waking up. 447 How could the good or even dreadfully bad deeds done in the dreaming state lead a man to heaven or hell when he arises from sleep? 448 Recognising himself as unattached and impartial space, he never hold on to anything with the thought of actions yet to be done. 449 Space is not affected with the smell of wine by contact with the jar, and in the same way one's true nature is not affected by their qualities through contact with the things one identified oneself with. 450 The karma created before the arising of knowledge does not come to an end with knowledge without producing its effect, like an arrow shot at a target after being loosed. 451 An arrow released in the understanding that it was at a tiger does not stop when it is seen to be a cow, but pierces the target with the full force of its speed. 452 The effects of previous conditioning are too strong for even a wise man, and it is eliminated only by enduring it, but the effects of present and future conditioning are all destroyed by the fire of true understanding. Those who are always established in the knowledge of their oneness with God, as a result of that are not affected by these three aspects of conditioning since they share the unconditioned nature of God. 453 The question of the existence of past conditioning does not apply for the ascetic who, by getting rid of self-identification with anything else, is established within in the knowledge of the perfection of God as his true nature, just as questions concerned with things in a dream have no meaning when one has woken up. 454 He who has woken up makes no distinctions about his dream body and the multiplicity of things connected with it as being "me", "mine" or anything else, but simply remains himself by staying awake. 455 He has no desire to assert the reality of those illusions, and he has no need to hold on to the things he has woken up from. If he still chases these false realities he is certainly considered not awake yet. 456 In the same way he who lives in God remains in his own nature and seeks nothing else. Like the memory of things seen in a dream is the way the seer experiences eating, going to the toilet and so on. 457 The body has been formed by causation so past causality appropriately applies to it, but it does not apply to the beginningless self, since one's true nature has not been causally formed. 458 Scriptures which do not err affirm that one's true nature is "Unborn, eternal and abiding" (Katha Upanishad 1.2.18), so how could causality apply to someone established in such a self? 459 Causality applies only so long as one identifies oneself with the body, so he who does not consider himself the body has abolished causality for himself. 460 Even the opinion that causality applies to the body is a mistake. How can a false assumption be true, and how can something which does not exist have a beginning? How can something with no beginning have an end, and how can causality apply to something that does not exist? 461 The ignorant have the problem that if ignorance has been completely eliminated by knowledge, how does the body persist? To settle this doubt scripture talks about causality in accordance with conventional views, but not to teach the reality of the body and such things to the wise. 462, 463 Complete in himself, without beginning or end, infinite and unchanging, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 464 The essence of Truth, the essence of Consciousness, the eternal essence of Bliss and unchanging, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 465 The one reality within everything, complete, infinite, and limitless, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 466 He cannot be removed or grasped; he cannot be received from someone else, or held onto. God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 467 Without attributes, indivisible, subtle, inconceivable, and without blemish, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 468 His appearance is formless, beyond the realm of mind and speech. God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 469 Exuberant Reality, self-reliant, complete, pure, conscious and unique, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 470 Great ascetics who have abandoned desires and given up possessions, calm and disciplined, come to know this supreme Truth, and in the end attain the supreme peace by their self-realisation. 471 You too should recognise this supreme Truth about yourself, your true nature and the essence of bliss, and shaking off the illusion created by your own imagination, become liberated, fulfilled and enlightened. 472 See the Truth of yourself with the clear eye of understanding, after the mind has been made thoroughly unwavering by meditation. If the words of scripture you have heard are really received without doubting, you will experience no more mistaken perception. 473 When one has freed oneself from association with the bonds of ignorance by the realisation of the reality of Truth, Wisdom and Bliss, then scripture, traditional practices and the sayings of the wise remain proofs, but the inner experience of truth is proof too. 474 Bondage, freedom, contentment, worry, health, hunger and so on are matters of personal experience, and other people's knowledge of them can only be by inference. 475 Impartial gurus teach, as do the scriptures, that the wise man crosses over by means of wisdom alone through the grace of God. 476 Knowing his true indivisible nature by his own realisation the perfected man should remain in full possession of himself free from imaginations within. 477 The conclusion of all the scriptures and of experience is that God is the individual and the whole world too, and that liberation is to remain in the one indivisible Reality. The scriptures are also the authority for the non-duality of God. 478 Having thus attained the supreme reality by self discipline through the words of his guru and the testimony of the scriptures, his faculties at peace and his mind at peace, he becomes something self- poised and immovable. 479 Having established his mind for some time in the supreme God, he arose from supreme bliss and uttered these words. 480 My intellect has vanished and my mental activities have been swallowed up in the realisation of the oneness of myself and God. I no longer know this from that, nor what or how great this unsurpassed joy is. 481 Words cannot express nor the mind conceive the greatness of the ocean of the supreme God, full of the nectar of bliss. Like the state of a hail-stone fallen into the ocean, my mind has now melted away in the tiniest fraction of it, fulfilled by its essential nature of Bliss. 482 Where has the world gone? Who has removed it, or where has it disappeared to? I saw it only just now, and now it is not there. This a great wonder. 483 In the great ocean filled with the nectar of the indivisible bliss of God, what is to be got rid of, what is to be held onto, what is there apart from oneself and what has any characteristics of its own? 484 I can neither see, hear or experience anything else there, as it is I who exist there by myself with the characteristics of Being and Bliss. 485 Salutation upon salutation to you, great guru, free from attachment, the embodiment of absolute Truth, with the nature of ever non-dual bliss, the sea of eternal compassion on earth. 486 Your very glance has soothed like gentle moonlight the weariness produced by the great heat of samsara, and I have immediately attained my own true everlasting home, the abode of imperishable glory and bliss. 487 Through your grace I am blessed, I have achieved the goal, I am freed from the bonds of samsara, I am eternal bliss by nature, and fulfilled. 488 I am free, I am bodiless, I am without sex and indestructible. I am at peace, I am infinite, without blemish and eternal. 489 I am not the doer and I am not the reaper of the consequences. I am unchanging and without activity. I am pure awareness by nature, I am perfect and forever blessed. 490 I am distinct from the seer, hearer, speaker, doer and experiencer. I am eternal, undivided, actionless, limitless, unattached - perfect awareness by nature. 491 I am neither this nor that, but the pure supreme reality which illuminates them both. I am God, the indivisible, devoid of inside and outside, complete. 492 I am uncomparable, beginningless Reality. I am far from such thoughts as "you", "me", and "this". I am eternal bliss, the Truth, the non- dual God himself. 493 I am Narayana, I am the slayer of Naraka and of Pura. I am the supreme Person and the Lord. I am indivisible awareness, the witness of everything. I have no master and I am without any sense of "me" and "mine". 494 I abide in all creatures, being the very knowledge which is their inner and outer support. I myself am the ejoyer and all enjoyment, in fact whatever I experienced before now. 495 In me who am the ocean of infinite joy the manifold waves of the universe arise and come to an end, impelled by the winds of Maya. 496 Ideas like "material" are mistakenly imagined about me by people under the influence of their presuppositions, as are divisions of time like kalpas, years, half-years and seasons, dividing the indivisible and inconceivable.. 497 The presuppositions of the severely deluded can never affect the underlying reality, just as the great torrent of a mirage flood cannot wet a desert land. 498 Like space, I am beyond contamination. Like the sun, I am distinct from the things illuminated. Like a mountain, I am always immovable. Like the ocean, I am boundless. 499 I am no more bound to the body than the sky is to a cloud, so how can I be affected by its states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep? 500 Imagined attributes added to one's true nature come and go. They create karma and experience its effects. They grow old and die, but I always remain immovable like mount Kudrali. 501 There is no outward turning nor turning back for me, who am always the same and indivisible. How can that perform actions which is single, of one nature, without parts and complete, like space? 502 How can there be good and bad deeds for me who am organless, mindless, changeless and formless, and experience only indivisible joy? The scriptures themselves declare "he is not affected" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.22). 503 Heat or cold, the pleasant or the unpleasant coming into contact with a man's shadow in no way affect the man himself who is quite distinct from his shadow. 504 The qualities of things seen do not touch the seer, who is quite distinct from them, changeless and unaffected, just as household objects do not touch the lamp there. 505 Like the sun's mere witnessing of actions, like fire's non- involvement with the things it is burning, and like the relationship of a rope to the idea superimposed on it, so is the unchanging consciousness within me. 506 I neither do nor make things happen. I neither experience nor cause to experience. I neither see nor make others see. I am that supreme light without attributes. 507 When intervening factors (the water) move, the ignorant ascribe the movement of the reflection to the object itself, like the sun which is actually immovable. They think "I am the doer", "I am the reaper of the consequences", and "Alas, I am being killed." 508 Whether my physical body falls into water or onto dry land, I am not dirtied by their qualities, just as space is not affected by the qualities of a jar it is in. 509 Such states as thinking oneself the doer or the reaper of the consequences, being wicked, drunk, stupid, bound or free are false assumptions of the understanding, and do not apply in reality to one's true self, the supreme, perfect and non-dual God. 510 Let there be tens of changes on the natural level, hundreds of changes, thousands of changes. What is that to me, who am unattached consciousness? The clouds never touch the sky. 511 I am that non-dual God, who like space is subtle and without beginning or end, and in whom all this from the unmanifest down to the material is displayed as no more than an appearance. 512 I am that non-dual God who is eternal, pure, unmoving and imageless, the support of everything, the illuminator of all objects, manifest in all forms and all-pervading, and yet empty of everything. 513 I am that non-dual God who is infinite Truth, Knowledge and Bliss, who transcends the endless modifications of Maya, who is one's own reality and to be experienced within. 514 I am actionless, changeless, partless, formless, imageless, endless and supportless - one without a second. 515 I am the reality in everything. I am everything and I am the non-dual beyond everything. I am perfect indivisible awareness and I am infinite bliss. 516 I have received this glory of the sovereignty over myself and over the world by the compassion of your grace, noble and great-souled guru. Salutation upon salutation to you, and again salutation. 517 You, my teacher, have my supreme saviour, waking me up from sleep through your infinite compassion, lost in a vast dream as I was and afflicted every day by countless troubles in the Maya-created forest of birth, old age and death, and tormented by the tiger of this feeling myself the doer. 518 Salutation to you, King of gurus, who remain always the same in your greatness. Salutation to you who are manifest as all this that we see. 519 Seeing his noble disciple, who had achieved the joy of his true nature in samadhi, who had awaken to the Truth, and experienced deep inner contentment, kneeling thus before him, the best of teachers and supreme great soul spoke again and said these words. 520 The world is a sequence of experiences of God, so it is God that is everything, and one should see this in all circumstances with inner insight and a peaceful mind. What has ever been seen by sighted people but forms, and in the same way what other resort is there for a man of understanding but to know God? 521 What man of wisdom would abandon the experience of supreme bliss to take pleasure in things with no substance? When the beautiful moon iself is shining, who would want to look at just a painted moon? 522 There is no satisfaction or elimination of suffering through the experience of unreal things, so experience that non-dual bliss and remain happily content established in to your own true nature. 523 Pass your time, noble one, in being aware of your true nature everywhere, thinking of yourself as non-dual, and enjoying the bliss inherent in yourself. 524 Imagining things about the unimaginable and indivisible nature of awareness is building castles in the sky, so transcending this, experience the surpreme peace of silence through your true nature composed of that non-dual bliss. 525 The ultimate tranquillity is the return to silence of the intellect, since the intellect is the cause of false assumptions, and in this peace the great souled man who knows God and who has become God experiences the infinite joy of non-dual bliss. 526 For the man who has recognised his own nature and who is enjoying the experience of inner bliss, there is nothing that gives him greater satisfaction than the peace that comes from having no desires. 527 A wise and silent ascetic lives as he pleases finding his joy in himself at all times whether walking, standing, sitting, lying down or whatever. 528 The great soul who has come to know the Truth and whose mental functions are not constrained has no concerns about such things as his aims in matters of locality, time, posture, direction and discipline etc. There can be no dependence on things like discipline when one knows oneself. 529 What discipline is required to recognise that "This is a jar"? All that is necessary is for the means of perception to be in good condition, and if they are, one recognises the object. 530 In the same way this true nature of ours is obvious if the means of perception are present. It does not require a special place or time or purification. 531 There are no qualifications necessary to know one's own name, and the same is true for the knower of God's knowledge that "I am God. 532 How can something else, without substance, unreal and trivial, illuminate that by whose great radiance the whole world is illuminated? 533 What can illuminate that Knower by whom the Vedas, and other scriptures as well as all creatures themselves are given meaning? 534 This light is within us, infinite in power, our true nature, immeasurable and the comon experience of all. When a man free from bonds comes to know it, this knower of God stands out supreme among the supreme. 535 He is neither upset nor pleased by the senses, nor is he attached to or averse to them, but his sport is always within and his enjoyment is in himself, satisfied with the enjoyment of infinite bliss. 536 A child plays with a toy ignoring hunger and physical discomfort, and in the same way a man of realisation is happy and contented free from "me" and "mine". 537 Men of realisation live free from preoccupation, eating food begged without humiliation, drinking the water of streams, living freely and without constraint, sleeping in cemetery or forest, their clothing space itself, which needs no care such as washing and drying, the earth as their bed, following the paths of the scriptures, and their sport in the supreme nature of God. 538 He who knows himself, wears no distinguishing mark and is unattached to the senses, and treats his body as a vehicle, experiencing the various objects as they present themselves like a child dependent on the wishes of others. 539 He who is clothed in knowledge roams the earth freely, whether dressed in space itself, properly dressed, or perhaps dressed in skins, and whether in appearance a madman, a child or a ghost. 540 The wise man lives as the embodiment of dispassion even amid passions, he travels alone even in company, he is always satisfied with his own true nature and established in himself as the self of all. 541 The wise man who is always enjoying supreme bliss lives like this - sometimes appearing a fool, sometimes a clever man, sometimes regal, sometimes mad, sometimes gentle, sometimes venomous, sometimes respected, sometimes despised, and sometimes simply unnoticed. 542 Even when poor always contented, even without assistance always strong, always satisfied even without eating, without equal, but looking on everything with an equal eye. 543 This man is not acting even when acting, experiences the fruits of past actions but is not the reaper of the consequences, with a body and yet without a body, prescribed and yet present everywhere. 544 Thoughts of pleasant and unpleasant as well as thoughts of good and bad do not touch this knower of God who has no body and who is always at peace. 545 Pleasure and pain and good and bad exist for him who identifies himself with ideas of a physical body and so on. How can there be good or bad consequences for the wise man who has brokened his bonds and is one with Reality? 546 The sun appears to be swallowed up by the darkness in an eclipse and is mistakenly called swallowed up by people through misunderstanding of the nature of things. 547 In the same way the ignorant, see even the greatest knower of God, though free from the bonds of the body and so on, as having a body since they can see what is obviously still a body. 548 Such a man remains free of the body, and moves here and there as impelled by the winds of energy, like a snake that has cast its skin. 549 Just as a piece of wood is carried high and low by a stream, so the body is carried along by causality as the appropriate fruits of past actions present themselves. 550 The man free from identification with the body lives experiencing the causal effects of previously entertained desires, just like the man subject to samsara, but, being realised, he remains silently within himself as the witness there, empty of further mental imaginations - like the axle of a wheel. 551 He whose mind is intoxicated with the drink of the pure bliss of self- knowledge does not turn the senses towards their objects, nor does he turn them away from them, but remains as a simple spectator, and regards the results of actions without the least concern. 552 He who has given up choosing one goal from another, and who remains perfect in himself as the spectator of his own good fortune - he is the supreme knower of God. 553 Liberated forever here and now, having achieved his purpose, the perfect knower of God, being God himself by the destruction of all false indentifications, goes to the non-dual God. 554 Just as an actor, whatever his costume may or may not be, is still a man, so the best of men, the knower of God, is always God and nothing else. 555 Wherever the body may wither and fall like a tree leaf, that of the ascetic who has become God has already been cremated by the fire of the knowledge of Reality. 556 There are no considerations of place and time laid down with regard to relinquishing this mass of skin, flesh and filth for the wise man who is already forever established in God within himself as the perfect non-dual bliss of his own nature. 557 Liberation is not just getting rid of the body, nor of one's staff or bowl. Liberation is getting rid of all the knots of ignorance in the heart. 558 Whether a leaf falls into a gutter or a river, into a shrine or onto a crossroad, in what way is that good or bad for the tree? 559 The destruction of body, organs, vitality and intellect is like the destruction of a leaf, a flower or a fruit. It is not the destruction of oneself, but of something which is not the cause of happiness for one's true self. That remains like the tree. 560 The scriptures that teach the truth declare that the property of one's true nature is "a mass of intelligence" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.13), and they talk of the destruction of secondary additional attributes only. 561 The scripture declares of the true self that "This Self is truly imperishable" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.14), the indestructible reality in the midst of changing things subject to destruction. 562 In the same way that burnt stones, trees, grass, rice, straw, cloth and so on turn to earth, so what we see here in the form of body, organs, vitality, mind and so on when burned by the fire of knowledge take on the nature of God. 563 Just as darkness, though distinct from it, disappears in the light of the sun, so all that we can see disappears in God. 564 Just as when a jar is broken the space in it becomes manifest as space again, so the knower of God becomes the God in himself with the elimination of false identifications. 565 Like milk poured into milk, oil into oil and water into water, so the ascetic who knows himself becomes united with the One in himself. 566 The ascetic who has thus achieved the nature of God, perfectly free of the body and with the indivisible nature of Reality, does not come back again. 567 How could the brahmin come back again after becoming God when his external features of ignorance and so on have been burned by the recognition of his oneness with the Truth? 568 The Maya-produced alternatives of bondage and liberation do not really exist in one's true nature, just as the alternatives of there being a snake or not do not exist in the rope which is not affected by them. 569 Bondage and liberation can be referred to only in connection with the existence or absence of something covering what is really there, but there can be no covering of God as there is nothing else and no covering, since this would destroy the non-duality of God, and the scriptures do not admit duality. 570 Bondage and liberation are unreal. They are an effect of the intellect which the stupid identify with reality just like the covering of the sight caused by a cloud is applied to the sun. For this imperishable Reality is non-dual, unattached and consciousness. 571 The opinion that this covering exists or does not exist in the underlying reality is an attribute of the intellect and not of the eternal reality underneath. 572 So these alternatives of bondage and liberation are produced by Maya and not in one's true nature. How can there be the idea of them in the non-dual supreme Truth which is without parts, actionless, peaceful, indestructible, and without blemish, like space? 573 There is neither end nor beginning, no one in bondage and no aspirant, no one seeking liberation and no one free. (Amritabindu Upanishad 10). This is the supreme truth. 574 I have shown you today repeatedly, as my own son, this ultimate secret, the supreme crest of the scriptures and of the complete Vedanta, considering you one seeking liberation, free from the stains of this dark time, and with a mind free from sensuality. 575 On hearing these words of his guru the disciple prostrated himself before him and with his permission went away free from bondage. 576 The guru too with his mind immersed in the ocean of Truth and Bliss, and with his mind free of discriminations went on his way purifying the whole world. 577 In this way, in the form of a dialogue between teacher and pupil, the nature of one's true self has been taught for easy attainment of the joy of Realisation by those seeking liberation. 578 May those ascetics who have removed all defilements of mind by the designated methods, whose minds are at peace and free from the pleasures of the world, and who delight in the scriptures, reverence this teaching. 579 For those who are suffering in samsara from the heat of the threefold forms of pain, and wandering in delusion in a desert thirsting for water, may these words of Shankara which secure nirvana and excel all others, procure for them the ocean of nectar close by in the form of the non-dual God. 580 THE END Appendix The following verse is found in some editions, following verse 327, which also then omit verses 328 and 329. There are also other minor differences, above all in the division of the verses, but these make little difference in practice to the meaning. He who has achieved perfection while still alive, is perfect when free from the body too. The Yajur Veda declares that he who sees duality experiences fear. 328 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.