Fwd: Forty Verses on Reality By Sri Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

Verses 1-10

 

1. From our perception of the world there follows acceptance of a unique

First Principle possessing various powers. Pictures of name and form, the

person who sees, the screen on which he sees, and the light by which he

sees: he himself is all of these.

 

2. All religions postulate the three fundamentals, the world, the soul, and

God, but it is only the one Reality that manifests Itself as these three.

One can say, 'The three are really three' only so long as the ego lasts.

Therefore, to inhere in one's own Being, where the 'I', or ego, is dead, is

the perfect State.

 

3. 'The world is real.' 'No, it, is a mere illusory appearance.' 'The world

is conscious.' 'No.' 'The world is happiness.' 'No.' What use is it to argue

thus? That State is agreeable to all, wherein, having given up the objective

outlook, one knows one's Self and loses all notions either of unity or

duality, of oneself and the ego.

 

4. If one has form oneself, the world and God also will appear to have form,

but if one is formless, who is it that sees those forms, and how? Without

the eye can any object be seen? The seeing Self is the Eye, and that Eye is

the Eye of Infinity.

 

5. The body is a form composed of the five-fold sheath; therefore, all the

five sheaths are implied in the term, body. Apart from the body does the

world exist? Has anyone seen the world without the body?

 

6. The world is nothing more than an embodiment of the objects perceived by

the five sense-organs. Since, through these five sense-organs, a single mind

perceives the world, the world is nothing but the mind. Apart from the mind

can there be a world?

 

7. Although the world and knowledge thereof rise and set together it is by

knowledge alone that the world is made apparent. That Perfection wherein the

world and knowledge thereof rise and set, and which shines without rising

and setting, is alone the Reality.

 

8. Under whatever name and form one may worship the Absolute Reality, it is

only a means for realizing It without name and form. That alone is true

realization, wherein one knows oneself in relation to that Reality, attains

peace and realizes one's identity with it.

 

9. The duality of subject and object and trinity of seer, sight, and seen

can exist only if supported by the One. If one turns inward in search of

that One Reality they fall away. Those who see this are those who see

Wisdom. They are never in doubt.

 

10. Ordinary knowledge is always accompanied by ignorance, and ignorance by

knowledge; the only true Knowledge is that by which one knows the Self

through enquiring whose is the knowledge and ignorance.

 

.... To Be Contined

 

Source: http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/40_verses/40_verses_1.htm