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The Mountain Path

Vol. 1 - October 1964 - No. 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Forty Verses On Reality

 

 

 

Advaita, non-duality, Identity, is the supreme doctrine. Jnana marga, the path

of knowledge, is the approach to it: Self-enquiry, 'Who am I?', is the technique

Bhagavan taught for this path. There is no more profound and comprehensive

statement of it than his 'Forty Verses on Reality' which are here given.

 

Invocatory

 

i. If Reality did not exist, could there be any knowledge of existence? Free

from all thoughts, Reality abides in the Heart, the Source of all thoughts. It

is, therefore, called the Heart. How then is one to contemplate it? To be as it

is in the Heart, is Its contemplation.

 

ii. Those who know intense fear of death seek refuge only at the feet of the

Lord Who has neither death nor birth. Dead to themselves and their possessions,

can the thought of death occur to them again? Deathless are they.

 

 

--

 

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.

 

11. Is it not, rather, ignorance to know all else without knowing oneself, the

knower? As soon as one knows the Self, which is the substratum of knowledge and

ignorance, knowledge and ignorance perish.

 

12. That alone is true Knowledge which is neither knowledge nor ignorance. What

is known is not true Knowledge. Since the Self shines with nothing else to know

or to make known, It alone is Knowledge. It is not a void.

 

13. The Self, which is Knowledge, is the only Reality. Knowledge of multiplicity

is false knowledge. This false knowledge, which is really ignorance, cannot

exist apart from the Self, which is Knowledge-Reality. The variety of gold

ornaments is unreal, since none of them can exist without the gold of which they

are all made.

 

14. If the first person, I, exists, then the second and third persons, you and

he, will also exist. By enquiring into the nature of the I, the I perishes. With

it 'you' and 'he' also perish. The resultant state, which shines as Absolute

Being, is one's own natural state, the Self.

 

15. Only with reference to the present can the past and the future exist. They

too, while current, are the present. To try to determine the nature of the past

and the future while ignoring the present is like trying to count without the

unit.

 

16. Apart, from us where is time and where is space? If we are bodies, we are

involved in time and space, but are we? We are one and identical now, then, and

forever, here, and everywhere. Therefore we, timeless, and spaceless Being,

alone are.

 

17. To those who have not realized the Self, as well as to those who have, the

word 'I' refers to the body, but with this difference, that for those who have

not realized, the 'I' is confined to the body whereas for those who have

realized the Self within the body the 'I' shines as the limitless Self.

 

18. To those who have not realized (the Self) as well as to those who have the

world is real. But to those who have not realized, Truth is adapted to the

measure of the world, whereas to those that have, Truth shines as the Formless

Perfection, and as the Substratum of the world. This is all the difference

between them.

 

19. Only those who have no knowledge of the Source of destiny and free-will

dispute as to which of them prevails. They that know the Self as the one Source

of destiny and free-will are free from both. Will they again get entangled in

them?

 

20. He who sees God without seeing the Self sees only a mental image. They say

that he who sees the Self sees God. He who, having completely lost the ego, sees

the Self, has found God, because the Self does not exist apart from God.

 

21. What is the Truth of the scriptures which declare that if one sees the Self

one sees God? How can one see one's Self? If, since one is a single being, one

cannot see one's Self, how can one see God? Only by becoming a prey to Him.

 

22. The Divine gives light to the mind and shines within it. Except by turning

the mind inward and fixing it in the Divine, there is no other way to know Him

through the mind.

 

23. The body does not say 'I'. No one will argue that even in deep sleep the 'I'

ceases to exist. Once the 'I' emerges, all else emerges. With a keen mind

enquire whence this 'I' emerges.

 

24. This inert body does not say 'I'. Reality-Consciousness does not emerge.

Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as

'I'. It is this that is known as Chit-jada-granthi (the knot between the

Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara,

mind, and so forth.

 

25. It. comes into being equipped with a form, and as long as it retains a form

it endures. Having a form, it feeds and grows big. But if you investigate it

this evil spirit, which has no form of its own, relinquishes its grip on form

and takes to flight.

 

26. If the ego is, everything else also is. If the ego is not, nothing else is.

Indeed, the ego is all. Therefore the enquiry as to what this ego is, is the

only way of giving up everything.

 

27. The State of non-emergence of 'I' is the state of being THAT. Without

questing for that State of the non-emergence of 'I' and attaining It, how can

one accomplish one's own extinction, from which the 'I' does not revive? Without

that attainment how is it possible to abide in one's true State, where one is

THAT?

 

28. Just as a man would dive in order to get something that had fallen into the

water, so one should dive into oneself, with a keen one-pointed mind,

controlling speech and breath, and find the place whence the 'I' originates.

 

29. The only enquiry leading to Self-realization is seeking the Source of the

'I' with in-turned mind and without uttering the word 'I'. Meditation on 'I am

not this; I am That' may be an aid to the enquiry but it cannot be the enquiry.

 

30. If one enquires 'Who am I?' within the mind, the individual 'I' falls down

abashed as soon as one reaches the Heart and immediately Reality manifests

itself spontaneously as 'I-I'. Although it reveals itself as 'I', it is not the

ego but the Perfect Being, the Absolute Self.

 

31. For Him who is immersed in the bliss of the Self, arising from the

extinction of the ego, what remains to be accomplished? He is not aware of

anything (as) other than the Self. Who can apprehend his State?

 

32. Although the scriptures proclaim 'Thou art That', it is only a sign of

weakness of mind to meditate 'I am That, not this', because you are eternally

That. What has to be done is to investigate what one really is and remain That.

 

33. It is ridiculous to say either 'I have not realized the Self' or 'I have

realized the Self'; are there two selves, for one to be the object of the

other's realization? It is a truth within the experience of everyone that there

is only one Self.

 

34. It is due to illusion born of ignorance that men fail to recognise That

which is always and for everybody the inherent Reality dwelling in its natural

Heart-centre and to abide in it, and that instead they argue that it exists or

does not exist, that it has form or has not form, or is non-dual or dual.

 

35. To seek and abide in the Reality that is always attained, is the only

Attainment. All other attainments (siddhis) are such as are acquired in dreams.

Can they appear real to someone who has woken up from sleep? Can they that are

established in the Reality and are free from maya, be deluded by them?

 

36. Only if the thought 'I am the body' occurs will the meditation 'I am not

this, I am That', help one to abide as That. Why should we for ever be thinking,

'I am That'? Is it necessary for man to go on thinking 'I am a man'? Are we not

always That?

 

37. The contention, 'Dualism during practice, non-dualism on Attainment', is

also false. While one is anxiously searching, as well as when one has found

one's Self, who else is one but the tenth man?1

 

20. As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruit of his deeds, but, as

soon as he realizes the Self through enquiry as to who is the doer his sense of

being the doer falls away and the triple karma2 is ended. This is the state of

eternal Liberation.

 

39. Only so long as one considers oneself bound, do thoughts of bondage and

Liberation continue. When one enquires who is bound the Self is realized,

eternally attained, and eternally free. When thought of bondage comes to an end,

can thought of Liberation survive?

 

40. If it is said, that Liberation is of three kinds, with form or without form

or with and without form, then let me tell you that the extinction of three

forms of Liberation is the only true Liberation.

____________________

1 - This refers to a traditional story of a party of ten fools who were

travelling together. They had to cross a river and on reaching the other shore

wanted to check up whether all of them had got safely across. Each one counted

in turn, but each one counted the nine others and forgot himself. So they

thought the tenth man had been drowned and began to mourn him. Just then a

traveller came past and asked them what was the matter. He at once saw the cause

of their mistake and in order to convince them he made them walk past him one by

one, giving each one a blow as he passed and telling them to count the strokes.

2 - Sanchita, Agami and Prarabdha.