Important Verses From Upadesa Undiyar

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Like Ulladu Narpadu (The Forty Verses on Reality) and some of the other

important Tamil works of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, Upadesa Undiyar was composed

at the request of Sri Muruganar.

 

Know that Upadesa Undiyar is a light of knowledge [jnana] which our Father

Ramana composed and bestowed upon Muruganar, who entreated, ‘[Graciously]

reveal the secret of spiritual practice [sadhana] so that [the people of]

the world may attain liberation and be saved by giving up the delusion of

action [karma]’.

 

Introductory Verses

 

a) Those who were performing austerities [tapas] in the Daruka Forest, were

heading for their ruin by [following the path of ]

Purva-karma.(‘Tiruvundiyar’ 1.70)

 

Note: Purva-karma here means the path of kamya-karmas (actions performed for

the fulfillment of temporal desires), which is the path prescribed by the

Purva Mimamsa, a traditional school of thought which interprets the Vedas in

its own way, emphasizing only the Karma Kanda (the portion of the Vedas

which teaches the path of ritualistic action).

 

b) Because of their deceptive self conceit they became intoxicated with

excessive pride, saying, ‘There is no God except karma. (‘Tiruvundiyar’

1.71)

 

Actual Verses

 

2) The fruit of action having perished [by being experienced in the form of

pleasure or pain], will as seeds make one fall into the ocean of action and

[hence] will not give liberation.

 

Note: When a seed is planted, it grows into a tree, and the tree in turn

yields fruit. But the fruit consists of two parts, namely the edible part

and the seeds. Though the edible part of the fruit is eaten, the seeds

remain to develop into new trees and to yield more fruit.

 

Similar is the case with the fruit of actions or karma-phala. If we do a

good action, its fruit will in due course be experienced by us in the form

of some pleasure, while if we do a bad action, its fruit will in due course

be experienced by us in the form of some pain. By thus being experienced in

the form of pleasure or pain, the fruit of an action will perish, like the

edible part of a fruit when it is eaten. But having perished thus, the fruit

of that action will still remain in the form of a seed, that is, in the form

of a tendency (vasana) or the liking to do such an action again. Such seeds

or tendencies make one fall into the ocean of performing more and more

actions. Hence the fruit of actions of any kind cannot give liberation

(moksha).

 

3) Desireless action [nishkamya karma] dedicated to God will purify the mind

and it will show the path to liberation.

 

Note: No action (karma), whether done by the body, speech or mind, can give

one liberation. But if action is done without any desire for its fruit and

with the devotional attitude of offering the fruit to God, it will purify

the mind and thereby make the mind fit to understand that Self-enquiry –

which is not an action but a stillness of the mind – alone is the direct

path to liberation.

 

4) This is certain, puja, japa and dhyana are actions of the body, speech

and mind [respectively]; rather than [each preceding] one, [the succeeding]

one is superior.

 

Note: Puja means ritual worship, japa means repetition of a mantra or a name

of God, and dhyana means meditation.

 

10) Abiding, having subsided in the place of rising [in one’s source, the

real Self] – that is karma [desireless action] and bhakti [devotion], that

is yoga [union with God] and jnana [true knowledge].

 

15) For the great yogi who is established as the reality due to the death of

the mind form, there is not any action [to do], [because] He has attained

His nature [His natural state of Self abidance].

 

16) The mind knowing its own form of light [its true form of mere

consciousness, the real Self], having given up [knowing] external objects,

alone is true knowledge.

 

18) The mind is only [the multitude of] thoughts. Of all [these thoughts],

the thought ‘I’ [the feeling ‘I am the body’] alone is the root.

[Therefore]what is called mind is [this root-thought] ‘I’.

 

19) When one scrutinizes within thus, ‘What is the rising-place of ‘I’?’,

the ‘I’ will die. This is Self-enquiry [jnana-vichara].

 

27) The knowledge which is devoid of both knowledge and ignorance [about

objects], alone is [real] knowledge. This is the truth, [because in the

state of Self-experience] there is nothing to know [other than oneself].

 

 

Note: The mere consciousness of one’s own existence, ‘I am’, which is devoid

both of the feeling ‘I know’ and of the feeling ‘I do not know’, alone is

true knowledge.

 

30) ‘What [is experienced] if one knows that which remains after ‘I’ has

ceased to exist, that alone is excellent tapas’ – thus said Lord Ramana, who

is Self.

 

Source: Upadesa Undiyar Book

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram