Ellam Ondre - All is One : Chapter 2

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Chapter II - YOU

 

1. Who are you? Are you this body? If so, why are you not aware of a serpent

crawling on it when you are in deep sleep? So then can you be this body? No,

certainly not. You must be other than this body.

 

2. Sometimes in sleep you dream. There you identify yourself with someone.

Can you be that one? You cannot be. Otherwise, what becomes of that

individual on your waking? You are not he. Furthermore, you are ashamed of

having identified yourself with him. Clearly, you are not that particular

person. You are the one that stands apart from him.

 

3. Recall the state of dreamless slumber. What is your state then? Can that

be your true nature? Surely you will not to this belief. Why?

Because you are not so foolish as to identify yourself with the massive

darkness which obstructs you from knowing the state you are in. Discerned by

the intellect from the things around, how can you admit yourself to be the

same as ignorance or blank? Or, how can it truly be your real nature? It

cannot be. You are the knower who knows that this state remains one of dense

darkness veiling your true nature. How can you be that which you have

experienced and condemned? Therefore you are not the dark ignorance of deep

sleep. You stand apart from this too.

 

4. When it is said that even this gross body is not you, can you be any

other thing which is yet farther away from you? In the same way that you are

not this gross body, you are not anything farther from the body, nor the

dream person, nor the ignorance of deep sleep. You are distinct from these

three states and this world.

 

5. These three states can be reduced to two conditions only-namely, the one

of the subject and object, and the other is the unawareness of the subject

itself. The former includes the waking and dream states, whereas the latter

represents deep slumber. All your experiences are comprised in these two

conditions only. Both of them are foreign to you. Your true nature remains

distinct from them.

 

6. If you ask what that is, it is called turiya, which means the fourth

state. Why is this name used? This name is proper because it seems to say

the three states of your experience-waking, dream and deep sleep-are foreign

to you and your true state is the fourth, which is different from these

three. Should the three states, waking, dream and deep sleep, be taken to

form one long dream, the fourth state represents the waking from this dream.

Thus it is more withdrawn than deep sleep, also more wakeful than the waking

state.

Therefore your true state is that fourth one which is distinguished from the

waking, dream and deep sleep states. You are that only. What is this fourth

state? It is knowledge which does not particularize anything. It is not

unaware of itself. That is to say, the fourth state is Pure Knowledge which

is not conscious of any object, but not unconscious itself. Only he who has

realized it even for a trice, has realized the Truth. You are that only.

 

8. What is there more for him who has gained the fourth state? Practically,

it is not possible for anyone to remain forever in that state, that is, the

state of no particular knowledge. He who has realized the fourth state later

wakes up in this world, but for him this world is not as before. He sees

that what he realized as the fourth state, shines forth as all this. He will

not imagine this world as distinct from that Pure Knowledge. Thus what he

saw within, he now sees without in a different form. In the place of the

differentiation of old, he is now established in the state of

non-differentiation everywhere. Now, he is all. There is nothing distinct

from himself. His eyes closed or open, howsoever the things may change, his

state remains unchanged. This is the state of Brahman. This is the natural

eternal state. You are that ever-true state.

 

9. There is nothing beyond this state. The words, 'inward' and 'outward'

have no meaning for him. All is one. His body, speech and mind cannot

function selfishly. Their workings will be grace for the good of all. The

fragmentary " I " is lost forever. His ego can never revive. Therefore he is

said to be liberated here and now. He does not live because his body lives,

nor does he die because his body dies. He is eternal. There is nothing other

than he. You are He.

 

10. Who is God? He is grace. What is Grace? Awareness without the

fragmentary ego. How can one know that there is such a state? Only if one

realizes it. The Vedas laud such a one as having realized God and become one

with Him. Therefore the greatest good that one can derive from the world and

the greatest good which one can render unto it, is to realize this state. In

fact, there are no states besides this. They appear in the state of

ignorance. For him who knows, there is one state only. You are that.

 

 

 

Swami