Ramana Vachana

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Chapter 1: Discrimination

 

4. THE TRUTH ABOUT BOBDAGE

 

Part 1

 

59. The so-called jiva, who is nothing more than the knot (nexus)

between Pure Consciousness and the insentient (body), and who arises

in the body as " I " , is himself bondage and the bound one, both in

one.

 

60. These mad actors that wallow in the misery of relative existence

are merely hallucinations that are variously projected by

imagination in the sky of Pure Consciousness, namely the Real Self.

(29)

 

(29) The multiplicity of selves is a necessary consequence of the

ego-sense being limited to one out of the numerous bodies seen by

the mind; it is no more real than the bodies.

 

61. Man becomes an insignificant jiva and suffers endless misery,

because of his fall from his original fearless nature, like hair

fallen from (its place on) the head. (30)

 

(30) The fall mentioned here is not real; the truth is confirmed by

the experience of the sages is that there was never a fall; these

statements are intended to be the last word on the Truth. Hence

questions such as: How came the Self to fall from his natural State,

or the like, are inadmissible; when such questions are asked, the

Sage as a rule replies: " Find who you are,- you who propound these

questions. "

 

62. This ego is (to be regarded as) a ghost appointed by the

Overself (God) to keep the body intact so long as (the current)

karma is not spent by their fruits being experienced.

 

63. Forgetting one's real nature and getting exiled from the world

(31) of the Real Self, the world-bound one becomes a prisoner in the

body and is swallowed up by the serpent Moha. (32)

 

(31) The use of the word " world " in connection with the Self is

always figurative, not literal, since the Self transcends all the

worlds.

 

(32) The term Moha here means the delusion that happiness is to be

had from sense-objects.

 

64. Strange indeed is this: This Maya, namely the mind, is not real;

but those that are bitten by this (unreal) serpent are losing their

lives. (33)

 

(33) The loss of the natural state is the real loss of life; the so-

called loss of life by the death of the body is not real.

 

Note: Taken from Guru-Ramana-Vachana-Mala by " Who " , pages 15 and 16