Important Couplets From Tripura Rahasya - Part3

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The difference between dreams and the wakeful state lies in the fact that in the waking state the dream is determined to be false, whereas in the dream the waking state is not so determined. Therefore the waking state is universally taken to be real. But this is wrong. For do you not experience the same extent of permanency and purposefulness in dreams as in the wakeful state? 

Wakeful consciousness does not intervene in dreams nor does dream-consciousness intervene in the wakeful state, while the two factors — enduring nature and purposefulness — are common to both.Examine your past dreams and past waking experiences in the light of these facts and see for yourself.

Again, note the appearance of reality in magical phenomena and the seemingly purposeful actions of magical creations. Does reality rest on the slender basis of such appearances?The confusion is due to want of discrimination between the real and the unreal among ignorant folk. Ignorantly indeed do they say that the wakeful universe is real.

The existence of Reality is self-evident and does not require other aids to reveal it. Unreality is the contrary.If you say, however, that a thing is real until and unless its existence is contradicted, consider the example of a coil of rope being mistaken for a snake. The fancied snake would according to you be real in the interval antecedent to correct knowledge, but that is absurd.

The most important of the qualifications is the desire for emancipation. Nothing can be achieved without it. Study of philosophy and discussion on the subject with others are thoroughly useless, being no better than the study of arts. For the matter of that, one might as well hope for salvation by a study of sculpture and the practice of that art. The study of philosophy in the absence of a longing for salvation, is like dressing up a corpse.

The fruit of Self-realisation is the end of all misery here and hereafter and absolute fearlessness. That is called Emancipation.[Note: There is an end of misery in sleep; but the potentiality of misery is not ended. Realisation destroys the cause of misery and sets the man free forever.]

What is perceived in the world as being apart from the Self is also clearly seen to be perishable. What is perishable must certainly involve fear of loss.What is the use of hundreds of efforts in the absence of a real and unswerving desire for emancipation? That is the sole requisite and nothing else.

The intellect is ordinarily befouled by evil propensities and so nothing good flourishes there. Consequently,people are boiled in the seething cauldron of births and deaths. Of these evil propensities, the first is want of faith in the revelations made by the Guru and in the sastras; the second is addiction to desires; and the third is dullness (i.e., inability to understand the revealed truth). This is a brief statement of them.

Of these, want of faith is betrayed by one’s doubts regarding the truth of the statements and by failure to understand them. The doubt arises whether there is moksha; and later misunderstanding leads to its denial. These two are sure obstacles to any sincere efforts being made for realisation.

The second propensity, namely desire,prevents the intellect from following the right pursuit.For the mind engrossed in desire cannot engage in a spiritual pursuit. The abstraction of a lover is well known to all; he can hear or see nothing in front of him. Anything said in his hearing is as good as not said. Desire must therefore be first overcome before aspiring for spiritual attainment. That can be done only by dispassion. This propensity is manifold, being in the forms of love, anger,greed, pride, jealousy, etc. The worst of them is pursuit of pleasure which, if destroyed, destroys all else. Pleasure may be subtle or gross. Neither of these must be indulged in, even in thought. As soon as the thought of pleasure arises, it must be dismissed by the willpower developed by dispassion.

There is no accomplishment equal to Self-realisation,which is alone capable of ending all misery, because it is the state of eternal Bliss.He who is, from his own experience, capable of appreciating the states of other Jnanis, including the best among them, is certainly a perfect Sage. He who is not influenced by happiness or misery, by pleasure or pain,by desires, doubts or fear, is a perfect Sage. He who realises pleasure, pain and every other phenomenon to be in and of the Self, is a perfect Sage. He who feels himself pervading all — be they ignorant or emancipated — is a perfect Sage. He who, knowing the trammels of bondage, does not seek release from them and remains in peace, is a perfect Sage.

An intense devotee, though endowed with only a little discipline of other kinds (e.g., dispassion), can readily understand the truth though only theoretically, and expound it to others. Such exposition helps him to imbue those ideas and so he absorbs the truth. This ultimately leads him to identify all individuals with Siva and he is no longer affected by pleasure or pain. All-round identification with Siva makes him the best of Jnanis and a Jivanmukta (emancipated here and now). Therefore bhakti yoga (the way of devotion) is the best of all and excels all else.

Investigation cuts at the root of ignorance.Dispassion develops investigation. Disgust for the pleasures of life generates dispassion towards them.Investigation is analysis conducted within oneself, discriminating the non-self from the Self, stimulated by a stern, strong and sincere desire to realise the Self. Dispassion is non-attachment to surroundings. This results if the misery consequent on attachment is kept in mind.

Fear holds a man possessed of enormous wealth; misery, of a large family; and poverty, of insatiable desires.The man with no attachments is free from fear; the one with controlled mind is free from misery;the Self-realised man is never needy.

Just as an actor is not really affected by the passions which he displays on the stage, so also this Jnani, always aware of his perfection, is not affected by the seeming pleasures and pains which he regards as a mere illusion, like the horns of a hare.

The highest Jnani makes no difference between samadhi and worldly transactions. He never finds anything apart from the Self and so there is no lapse for him.The state of the Jnani is said to be identical with that of Siva. There is not the least difference between them. Therefore karma cannot besmear a Jnani.

Source: TRIPURA RAHASYA OR THE MYSTERY BEYOND THE TRINITY Translated by SWAMI SRI RAMANANANDA SARASWATHI (Munagala S. Venkataramaiah)Tripura Rahasya is an ancient prime text on Advaita in Sanskrit and was highly commended by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi for study by seekers. There was no English translation of this scripture until the present one was made by Munagala Venkataramiah (Swami Ramanananda Saraswathi) in 1938.

-- Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth JalasutramLove And Love Alone