Bhagavan: Instruction in Thirty Verses

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Instruction in Thirty Verses

 

One of the Puranas, those ancient jumbles of history and myth, tells of a group

of rishis who lived in the forest together, practicing rites and incantations by

which they acquired supernatural powers. They hoped by the same means to acquire

final Liberation, but in this they were mistaken, for action can only produce

action, not the cessation of action; rites can only produce powers, not the

Peace of Liberation which is beyond all powers.

 

In order to convince them of their error, Siva appeared before them as a

wandering sadhu. Together with him came Vishnu in the form of a fascinating

lady. All the rishis were smitten with love for her and thereby their

equilibrium was disturbed and their powers adversely affected. Moreover their

wives, who were also living with them in the forest, all fell in love with the

strange sadhu.

 

Incensed at this, the rishis conjured up a wild elephant by their occult powers

and sent it against Siva to destroy him, but he killed it and stripped off its

skin to wear as a cloak. Next they sent a tiger and he treated it the same way,

using its skin as a wrap. Realizing at last that they were up against one more

powerful than themselves, they bowed down before him and besought him for

instruction.

 

What meaning informs the exuberance of this myth? The rishis were concerned with

outer manifestation, with powers and the use of them, and this corresponds to

the married state; therefore they had their wives with them. Nevertheless, they

were seeking God; therefore God appeared to guide them, but in a form which, on

account of their obsession, they could not recognise. They fell in love rather

with the beauty of nature, which was also God, though they did not recognise it.

Their wives, that is their powers of expression, their shaktis, were fascinated

by formal manifestation of Siva who is the Formless Spirit, but they resented

this, regarding it as a threat to their ego-expression. They even aspired to

hurl their creations against the Formless but saw themselves mocked and their

forms of power made limp and used as a garment. Then only they felt the power of

the Spirit and bowed down, seeking guidance.

 

Nearly everything the Maharshi wrote was in response to some request. A disciple

of his, the eminent Tamil poet Muruganar,1 was writing this myth in Tamil verse,

but on coming to the actual upadesa or instruction which Siva gave to the

rishis, he asked Bhagavan, who was Siva Incarnate, to write it. Bhagavan

thereupon wrote his Upadesa Saram or 'Essence of Instruction' in thirty verses,

grading the methods of training from the outer to the inner, declaring speech or

incantation more efficacious than action or ritual, silent repetition more than

vocal, meditation more than that, and most potent of all pure abidance in the

Self undisturbed by thought.

 

_____________________________1 - For an introduction to whom see 'The Mountain

Path' of Oct. 1964, p. 244-5.

 

1. Action (karma) bears fruit (in action), for so the Creator ordains. But is it

God? (It cannot be for) it is not sentient.

 

2. The results of action pass away, and yet leave seeds that cast the agent into

an mean of action. Action (therefore) does not bring Liberation.

 

3. But acts performed without any attachment, in the spirit of service to God,

cleanse the mind and point the way to Liberation.

 

4. This is certain: worship, incantations, and meditation are performed

respectively with the body, the voice, and the mind and are in this ascending

order of value.

 

5. One can regard this eight-fold2 universe as a manifestation of God; and

whatever worship is performed in it is excellent as the worship of God.

 

6. The repetition aloud of His name is better than praise. Better still is its

faint murmur. But the best is repetition within the mind - and that is

meditation, above referred to.

 

7. Better than such broken thought (meditation) is its steady and continuous

flow like the flow of oil or of a perennial stream.

 

8. The lofty attitude 'He am I' is preferable to the attitude 'He is not me'.

 

9. Remaining in the Real Being, transcending all thought through intense

devotion, is the very essence of Supreme Bhakti.

 

10. 'Absorption into the source' or core of Existence (or the Heart) is what the

paths of karma, bhakti, yoga and jnana teach.

 

11. As birds are caught with nets, so by holding the breath, the mind is

restrained and absorbed. This (breath-regulation) is a device for effecting

absorption.

 

2 - Eight-fold in that it is composed of the five elements, the sun and moon and

the individual being.

 

12. For mind and life-breath (prana), expressed in thought and action, diverge

and branch out, but they spring from a single root.

 

13. Absorption has two forms, laya and nasha. That which is merely absorbed in

laya revives; if it is dead, it does not revive.

 

14. When the mind gets absorbed by breath-restraint, then it will 'die', (i.e.

its form will perish) if fixed to a single point.

 

15. The great yogi whose mind is extinguished and who rests in Brahman, has no

karma, as he has attained his true nature (Brahman).

 

16. When the mind withdraws from external objects of sense and beholds (i.e.

engages in mystic introspection of) its own effulgent form, that is true wisdom.

 

17. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that

there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all.

 

18. The mind is merely thoughts. Of all thoughts, the thought 'I' is the root.

(Therefore) the mind is only the thought 'I'.

 

19. 'Whence does this 'I' arise?' Seek for it within; it then vanishes. This is

the pursuit of Wisdom.

 

20. Where the 'I' vanished, there appears an 'I-I' by itself. This is the

Infinite (Purnam).

 

21. This is always the true import of the term 'I'. For we do not cease to exist

even in the deepest sleep, where there is no waking.

 

22. The body, senses, mind, life-breath (prana), and ignorance (avidya or

sushupti) are all insentient and not the Real. I am the Real (Sat). These

(sheaths) I am not.

 

23. As there is no second being to know that which is, 'that which is' is

conscious. We are that.

 

24. Creatures and Creator both exist. They are One in Being. Their differences

are the degrees of their knowledge and other attributes.

 

25. When the creature sees and knows himself without attributes, that is

knowledge of the Creator, for the Creator appears as no other than the Self.

 

26. To know the Self is to be the Self - as there are not two separate selves.

This (state) is thanmaya nishta (abiding as That).

 

27. That is real knowledge which transcends both knowledge and ignorance. There

is no object to be known There.

 

28. When one's true nature is known, then there is Being without beginning and

end; It is unbroken Awareness-Bliss.

 

29. Remaining in this state of Supreme Bliss, past all thoughts of bondage and

release, is abiding in the service of the Supreme.

 

30. The Realization of That which subsists when all trace of 'I' is gone, is

good tapas. So sings Ramana the Self of all.

 

 

 

Loving Sri Ramana AKA Alton