From The Garland :- 126-131

[Guest guest]

om namo bhagavate sri ramanaya

126

Forgetting Being-Awareness-Bliss, the Self

Which is too subtle for speech and thought,

And toiling hard for the body of flesh

Is like treading up and down a tall

Steep sweep in order to water some coarse

And worthless weed.

[The body is to be maintained as an instrument for a higher purpose, not as an end in itself.]

127

Those who desire and like and live

The trivial life the ego knows

Reject as if it were unreal

The natural life of infinite bliss

Within their own hearts ever present

For their enjoyment.

128

Those who forget the harm the false

World there before us does, and cling

To it as real and comfortable,

Mistake, alas, a floating bear

For a boat only to be crushed and drowned

In the sea of births.

129

As one mistakes the goings and comings

Of the vehicle as one's own,

The fool, not knowing his true Being

As the Self, suffers the shocks

Of the jiva's poor samsara life.

130

When will the fool who thinks the body

And the world are permanent and clings

To them, find peace? Only when this

Folly leaves him and he trusts

And like a limpet clings to that

The Self within. Thenceforward he

Shall never more know pain.

131

Those who enjoy the ego's life

Of false phenomena perish and die.

The state of grace, supreme Awareness,

The life lived in Self-Being, this

Alone is bliss worth seeking.

(Sri Muruganar's The Garland of Guru's Sayings - Trans. Prof. K. Swaminathan, Tiruvannamalai; 1996)