Ulladu Naarpadu - Verse No.18

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ULLADU NAARPADU

(Reality in Forty

Verses)

 

The famous Vedantic poem in Tamil by

Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi

(consisting of two preliminary verses

called Mangalam,

40 verses which form the main text ,

and another 40 verses called the

Appendix)

Detailed Commentary in Tamil by

Lakshmana Sharma,

adapted into English by Profvk

 

(Continued from ULLADU NAARPADU – Verse

No.17

See Post#48692 Of satsangh

This series

started with Post #47923)

 

Lakshmana

Sharma's Introduction to Verse No.18

 

Bhagavan

explains here how, though both the jnAni and the ajnani may say the same

statement "The world is real", each of them take its meaning differently. The

ajnAni takes the superposed world as absolute truth, without knowing the truth

of the substratum; whereas the jnAni ignores the superposed world and takes the

substratum as the absolute truth.

 

Verse #18

 

ulagu uNmai Ahum, uNarvu illArkku, uLLArkku;

ulagaLavAm uNmai uNarArkku;

ulaginukku AdhAramAy uru aRRu Arum uNarnthAr uNmai;

Idu Ahum bEdam ivarkku; eN.

 

Sanskrit Version

 

satyaM hyeva

jagadvayoH avidushho vijnAta-tatvasya ca

satyaM

yAvad-idaM jagat tu manute sajnAna-hIno janaH /

jnasy-AkAra-vihInam-asya

nikhilasy-AdhArabhUtaM hi sat

bhAtyevaM

mahatI bhidAsti hi tayos-sajnasya cAjnasya ca //

 

Translation

(Lakshmana Sharma)

 

The world is

real both to the non-knower and to the knower of the Real. He that lacks

knowledge of the Real believes the Real to be coextensive with the world. To

the Knower the Real shines as the formless One, the basic substance of the

world. Great indeed is the difference between the Knower of That and the

non-knower.

 

Translation

(Prof. K. Swaminathan)

 

To those who do not know and to those who do, the world is real.

But to those who do not know, Reality is bounded by the world; while to those

who know, Reality shines formless as the ground of the world. Such is the

difference between them.

 

Translation

(Osborne)

 

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.

 

 

 

Word by Word

(of the Tamil Verse)

 

ulagu : The world

uNmai Ahum, will be real

uNarvu illArkku, to those who do not know (the Self)

uLLArkku; and to those who know.

uNarArkku To those who have not realized

uNmai : Truth

ulagaLavAm : is up to the measure of the world.

uNarnthAr : (For) those who know (the Self)

uNmai Truth

AdhAramAy as support

ulaginukku for the world

uru aRRu (is) without form

Arum : ?

Idu Ahum bEdam : This is the diffcerence

Ivarkku : between these two

eN. Know (it)

thus.

 

Commentary

in Tamil by Lakshmana Sharma

 

When the

ajnAni says `The world is real', for him the world is real as world, along with

its names and forms and all the consequent multiple differences.

 

From what

the Bhagavan has said so far, it is clear that, for the jnani, all these

different names and forms are all a mithyA.

 

Because of the

above, the truth of the ajnAni does not go beyond the world; for the true

Brahman has been hidden for him by the world. Names and forms have become the

truth for him, and so the Existence-Knowledge Atman, which is nameless and

formless, and which is inaccessible by the mind and speech, has become a void

for him. Thus he is a nAstika (atheist); the Upanishads fault him by saying

that he has killed the Atman by making it consist of the world.

 

[Note by VK: Recall Ishopanishad (Mantra 3) here:

asurya nAma te lokAH andhena tamasAvRtAH;

tAnste pretyAbhigacchanti ye ke cAtma-hano janAH

meaning, Those worlds of devils are covered by blinding darkness;

those people that kill the Self go to them after giving up this body.

Each object in the world has a nature of its own.

This is called its svabhAva.

Our use of it has to be

concordant with it.

Otherwise we are supposed to have killed it.

Having an attachment to things external to the Atman

is equivalent to the killing of

the Atman.

Those who have not understood the real nature of the Self

are classified as murderers of the soul, killers of the Self.

They are discordant with the svadharma of the Self

and so they involute after death, to dark blind worlds, having

lived their life in spiritual darkness and blindness, totally

unillumined.]

 

Bhagavan

used to emphasize this often. This

applies not only to ordinary laymen but to those Pandits who proclaim advaita

Vedanta. They are also only nAsthikas.

They speak of Brahman as the only absolute Truth but behave in the world, like

every one else, as if that statement is not true. Only the jnAni is the

Asthika; he never behaves as if there is no Self.

 

When the

jnAni says that the world is real, he actually means `Whatever that appears as

the world is all nothing but the Existence-Knowledge substratum; it is not

distinct from It. This is what the third line of the verse says. The words

`uruvaRRu Arum' mean the jnAni does not

see the forms or the differences. When

the forms are not seen, it also means the world is not seen. How can he say

whether the unseen world is true or false? Therefore the words `The world is

real' mean something different for the jnAni. The meaning is: `The

base-substratum of the world is the Truth'.

 

When the

difference between a jnAni and ajnAni is so much, some people, who do not know

and are unable to know this, try to measure the jnAni by their limited

intellect and come to absurd conclusions. `The jnAni sees difference in

non-difference, and non-difference in difference' is a description of this

kind. In truth, the jnAni neither sees difference nor non-difference.

Non-difference is not something that is observed. Then what does it mean to say that the jnAni

has a sight of unity? Bhagavan says that

the very fact he has no awareness of difference is mentioned as the sight of

unity.

 

That the

jnAni does not see the world-forms was already mentioned in Verse #4. In third

and fifth verses of his Arunachalaashtakam he mentions the same idea lucidly.

 

Further, by

the logic that the substratum (`adhishhTAnaM') and the superpositions (Aropitam)

hide each other, it is clear that they cannot be seen simultaneously – just as

the rope and the snake cannot be seen together ever.

 

The ajnAni

who has not known his Self sees the world; for him the Self is hidden. For the

jnAni who has known his Self, obviously the Self shines for him, it actually

means that the world-appearance is destroyed for him. Only the Self shines for

him.

 

In the phenomenal world a Jivanmukta

appears to see the world and act accordingly. This is only in the view of the rest of the

world. For him they are not true. We shall enquire into this later. We shall

say only this much here. In other's view he has a body and mind; however, there

is no doubt that the kAraNa-sharIra which is Ignorance – Anandamaya-kosha – is

not there for him. [Note by VK: For the explanation of the five koshas see Verse #5]He (the JIvan-mukta) exists as the pure Self without any contact with the

physical or the subtle body. Whatever he does in the world is like what God

Himself as the resident of every one's body keeps doing. Since there is no Ego

there, the power of God works wonderfully without any obstacle. That this is

the way of the goings-on of a JIvanmukta will be explained in the appendix to

this work.

 

Tirumoolar's Tirumandiram verse, `Marattai

maRaittadu mAmada yAnai' quoted

under the commentary on Verse #13, is of relevance here. The wooden elephant

shines as a real elephant for a child. The child revels in the form of the

elephant. The child will not agree that

it is all wood; in fact it will resent the comment. In the same manner an ajnAni

takes pleasure in seeing the forms of the world. If you tell him that all this

is only the nameless formless brahman, he does not like it.

 

The five elements earth, water, fire, air and space

hide the Absolute. In the state of jnAna

the Absolute shines, all others vanish.

 

In the viewpoint of an the existence aspect of

the things of the world appears as a `quality'.

But in reality existence is not a quality of the thing. Existence is the

thing. That thing itself is existence. For the existing reality, existence is not a

quality. Existence itself is its svarUpa (nature). In that nature, by the mAyA

of the mind the world forms appear. By right

knowledge they all vanish and it becomes pure.

Thus we have seen the meanings of the statements

`The world is real' and `The world is unreal'.

Of these, the meaning of `The world is real' is not understood by the

ajnAni. In the way in which the ajnAni

understands the world as real, in that way it is not real; it is only unreal.

The true meaning of `The world is real' cannot be easily understood by ajnAnis

without the Grace of a JIvan-mukta Guru. Therefore, it is better to think of

the world as unreal, turn the mind away from it and do one's sAdhanA.

 

Here ends the analysis of the dualities and triads

of jnAna and ajnAna. The sum and substance of what we have said so far is:

"Knowledge or jnAna is `being' the Atman, -- not `knowing' the Atman --.

Ignorance is seeing the same Atman as this false body and world".

 

(To be continued in Verse#19)