UPADESA SAARAM OF RAMANA MAHARSHI – AN APPRECIATION (Verses 26 & 27)

[Guest guest]

prof laxmi narain (prof_narain)

 

Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad

This article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi,

monthly magazine of the Kendram.

 

UPADESA SAARAM OF RAMANA MAHARSHI – AN APPRECIATION (Verses 26 & 27)

 

Verse – 26

 

Aatma samsthitih swaatmadarsanam

Aatma nirdwayaat atmanishthathaa

 

 

 

 

Aatma samsthitih ( ): To be

settled in the Self(is)

Swaatma darsanam( ): the

vision of the Self; (since)

Aatma nirdwaytaat ( ):

the Self is non-dual; (this is known as)

Aatma nishthathaa

( ): firm abidance

in the Self.

 

Since the Self is non-dual, the abidance or settled state in the Self

is the vision of the Self. That alone is known as aatman nishthaa or

firm abidance in the Self.

 

Without the participation of the mind-intellect and the senses of

perception, no knowledge is possible. But so far as knowing the Self

is concerned, the experience is direct, intuitive and free from the

intervention of the usual instruments of knowing. It is an

effortless, natural revelation consequent upon the destruction

of `ego' with all its roots of ignorance or avidya. This is called

swaatma darsanam, revelation of the Self, happening in consequence

of aatma samsthitih, a settled state without any ripple of thought

at the conscious, sub-conscious or unconscious levels.

 

We feel that Self-knowledge is the knowledge of the Self as an object

known by our intellect. But we are told that the Self can never

become an object of our intellect, that is, it is beyond the

intellect. How then are we to know it? By what means is the Self-

knowledge is gained? The next verse provides the answer.

 

Verse – 27

Jnaana varjitaajnaana heenachit

Jnaanamastikim jnatumantaram

 

 

Chit ( ): Consciousness

Jnaana (vritti) varjita, ajnaana (vritti)heena(

 

): is devoid of (the thoughts of ) knowledge and free from (the

notions of) ignorance.

Jnaanam asti kim( ): Is there

a knowledge

Jnatum( ): to know (the Self)

Antaram( ): other than (Consciousness)?

 

Consciousness is devoid of the thoughts of both knowledge and

ignorance of objects. Is there then knowledge other than

Consciousness to know the Self? (There is none.)

 

The seeker should understand the utter incapacity and futility of the

intellect to probe beyond its limited frontiers of knowledge. One

need not bother as to how he would know the Self when the knowing

instrument is silenced completely? The nature of the Self is such

that Being is at once Knowing. It is the state which one comes upon

spontaneously on the extinction of the mind. The verse says that

Consciousness (chit) is free of the thoughts of knowledge.

Similarly, it also says that Consciousness is free of all notions of

ignorance. Absolute Knowledge transcends the domain of knowledge

which is based on subject-object relationship and instrument-oriented

experience.

 

The Self being the singular light of Supreme Intelligence, how can

there be any other source to illumne it? In our daily experience,

knowledge presumes the presence of a triads (set of three connecting

things) such as the thinker-thinking-thought, knower-knowledge-known,

experiencer-experience-experienced, etc. But when we come to Self-

knowledge, all triads disappear. And in the light of a rare silence,

one comes upon a different order of insight, in a flash. One realizes

one's nature to be pure Being-Consciousness beyond all conditioning

factors of Time, Space and Causation.

 

Thus, beyond the pale of knowledge and ignorance lies the Self, which

is realized intuitively, independent of any extraneous light to

illumine it. (Source: Same as in the earlier

month.)