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by Ramana Maharshi
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
38. 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.
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1 - This refers to a traditional story of a party of ten fools who were
traveling 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 traveler 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.
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