The Amritopanishad

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Here and now, liberation for me from the shackles of my body:

 

1. My awareness is a mirror. It reflects me to myself. So I see

myself only. All that I see, all that I experience, is my own self.

This whole world is me, a reflection of myself. I contain this

world, which has arisen in me as an experience. Space and time are

thoughts in me. I am not delimited by a subset of my thoughts. So I

exist beyond space and time. I am immortal. I am free.

 

2. Since I am the whole world and beyond it too, I cannot die. I

exist, my awareness exists, when time itself is not there. So I was

never born, I can never die.

 

3. Since I am the whole world, I am not a part of it, particularly,

the part which appears to me as my body. When others say I am dead,

no more, and my body is burning, I see myself through the millions

of others' eyes I have. When I am seeing my body burn, how could I

have died?

 

4. What is death? Moving awareness away from a particular time or

place makes that particular time or place die. Lack of awareness is

death. It's like sleeping. But, I wake up in a different body,

casting away all my previous ideas into the waste paper basket of

the past. Some times, I may pick up a discarded paper from the

basket. That's when I remember a past life experience.

 

5. The process of death is not unfamiliar to me. I can be aware of

my foot. Now, I can be aware of my hand. When I am aware of my foot,

I am not aware of my hand; I don't know if it was there. The next

moment when I become aware of it, it comes into being. Birth and

death, these are continuously happening every moment. They are

painless. I cannot be afraid of birth, I cannot be afraid of death,

since I am not afraid of passage of time. Then why and how can I be

afraid of death? Of stoppage of time? Death is my friend, not to be

afraid of, nor wept for. Death is a celebration, to be enjoyed, like

throwing away useless torn clothes.

 

6. Death does not exist. Nor does birth. Nor does growth. The world

is a constant invariant. That contains all experiences which flow in

time. It is full when time flows. It is empty when time does not

flow.

 

7. Whatever I see is myself. This is a fundamental truth. From this

all possible interpretations of truth flow. What is truth? Truth is

that which is not limited by space, time or matter. It exists

everywhere, always, in every thing. So it is called pervasive

(Vishnu), immortal (Kaala), and matter (Brahma). Truth is also

called existence (Brahma), consciousness (Shiva), and bliss

(vishnu).

 

8. Each aspect of truth implies the other two; so there is only one,

the unity of the three. How is that? Deny existence. Can anything

that does not exist be conscious or bliss? Deny consciousness. Can

anything exist or be blissful? Deny bliss. Can any consciousness or

existence be without pain or pleasure or peace (all three aspects of

bliss)? So each implies the other two. They are all one.

 

9. I love myself. I am the world. Put these two together. I get: I

love the world, the whole of it, because it is a part of me. I love

this world as it is; all its vices, all its virtues. If I see

something I don't like, it is like a bad thought in me. I do not

hate it, I love it still, because it is also me. Now I get the idea:

love overcomes hate, it is the answer to hate.

 

10. I believe in myself. What else is there to believe in, when the

whole world is myself? My belief in myself means that I believe in

the world.

 

11. I have a choice. To be morose and depressed. To be happy and

joyful. No matter what happens to me, or to my kith and kin. I

choose to be happy and joyful. No matter what happens.

 

12. Sometimes things do go wrong. Like sometimes, I get bad thoughts

in me. Let them go wrong. It's all right to let go of things. To

happen the way they want to. This is the formula for peace. To let

go of control. This is sometimes called surrender.

 

13. Suppose a part of me, say my little finger of my leg is hurting.

I don't take a stone and hurt it more, because it is hurting me. On

the contrary, I take pains to nurture it, to relieve the pain.

 

14. Suppose someone hurts me badly. That one is a part of me. It is

my duty to nourish that one, to remove the ignorance there. All I

have to do to remove my hurt, my injury is to take away my awareness

from that experience. That gives me an idea; my awareness gives

energy to a thought.

 

15. My awareness is like a magnifying glass. It amplifies what I

focus it on. It manifests that, by not lending my awareness. I will

not afford the luxury of allowing negative thoughts. Because they

are nourished by awareness, they grow on it, they manifest it, they

attract everything that increases that particular brand of

negativity.

 

16. The answer to violence is love and reconstruction of the lost

links of communication. The answer to violence is never fresh

violence. In this lies the art of survival, in the mundane sense.

 

17. I will lend my thoughts to harmony. My whole existence is

devoted to that single cause. Harmony allows different notes to play

without interfering with each other. Harmony allows freedom and

discipline. Harmony is an aesthetic combination of liberty and

bondage. I love it. It pleases me. It pleases everyone.

 

18. Knowing that poison cannot kill me (the whole world), I choose

still to eat food, not poison. That is my choice. I take what

nourishes me. I am nourished by love. Love that I can give to other

parts of me. And the love other parts of me give to me. If I can be

of any use to anyone, I will let them use it. If this particular

body, mind or intellect are any use to some 'others', what better

pleasure is there for me than offer it in service? Is it not like my

hand taking a soap and washing other parts of my body to help them

become fresh?

 

19. I love to see beauty all around me. I love to see people's

happiness. It is my commitment to see every living being happy. I

nourish my love by expressing it, not containing it. The more I give

love, the more I get it. So the more I give. It is my nature to

give, to share my love, peace, happiness with everyone. Not silently

in my mind, but by and through actions.

 

20. I nourish my negatives, such as fears, lust, anger, greed,

possessiveness, pride, jealousy and hatred by containing them, not

expressing them. I transform them into fearlessness, love, calm,

sharing, letting go, humility, fun and regard respectively by not

lending my awareness or thinking to them.

 

Source: http://www.vi1.org/amrita/writings/amritopanishad.shtml