The experience of our own existence, which is the Supreme Reality, Jnana itself — shines as the mystic silence, and is the true Self behind the fictious first-person ‘I.’ May that absolute supreme Self, known as The Feet, be upon our heads.
For those who turn within, the perfect asset is the grace of guru Ramana, whose true form is the sleepless sleep. It is the sweet fruit whose juice is the supremely pure bliss that creates in the aspirant an ever-increasing taste, free from aversion. And it is the beautiful lamp, which, without need of kindling, leads one to the heart.
This world of empty names and forms, which are the imagination of the five senses, and an appearance in the pure Self, should be understood to be the mysterious play of Maya, the mind, which rises as if real, from Self: Sat-Cit.
The realized, who do not know anything as being other than Self, which is absolute consciousness, will not say that the world, which has no existence in the view of the supereme Brahman, is real.
Oh man, like a parrot waiting expectantly for the silk cotton fruit to ripen, you persist in your sufferings, believing this world appearance to be real and enjoyable.
If the world is real, simply because it appears to your senses, then a mirage would be water.
Forgetting Self, which gives you, the seer, light to see, and being confused — do not run after this appearance, The World which you see: the appearance will disappear, and is hence, not real. But Self, the Source of you, the seer, can never disappear. So know that that alone is real.
Fear not on seeing this empty world, which appears as a dream, in the sleep of Self-forgetfulness. This imaginary and bondage-causing world picture, projected on the background of the dark-dense mind, will not stand in the light of supreme knowledge of Sat-Cit-Ananda.
Oh aspirants who hide yourselves away, fearing this world, nothing such as a world exists! Fearing this false world, which appears to exist, is like fearing the false snake, which appears in a rope. This world is only seen without doubts in the waking and dream states, where thoughts have risen and are at play. Can it be seen in sleep, where not even a single thought rises? Thoughts alone, therefore, are the substratum of this world.
If it is thus said that this world is a mere play of thoughts… why, even when the mind is quiet, does the world scene, like a dream, suddenly appear in front of us? That is due to the stored momentum of past imaginations.
The deceptive “I am the body” idea, alone makes the world, which is an appearance of names and forms, seem real. And thereby it at once binds itself with desires for the world.
Oh worldly-minded one, who is unable to understand the wise reasoning, and the teachings of sages about the supreme knowledge; If properly scrutinized, this big universe of delusion is seen to be nothing but the illusive play of the vasanas, the mental tendencies within you.
How does this false and villainous vast world, that cheats and ravages the minds of all people, except the wise, come into existence? Because of no reason other than our own mistake in falling away from, instead of clinging to, Self attention.
This life, an illusion based upon our likes and dislikes, is an empty dream, which appears as if real, during the sleep of ignorance; but which is found to be false when one wakes up into Self-knowledge.
When the mind is leashed in pure Supreme Self-Consciousness, all the powers which seems to function through the mind, such as Willpower, the Power of Action, and the Power of Knowing — will cease, being found to be imaginary…
As the fire shines hidden within the smoke, the light of knowledge shines hidden within the names and forms of this world. When the mind is made clear by Supreme Grace, the nature of the world is found to be real as Self — and it will appear no more as the illusory names and forms.
If one’s outlook is changed into jnana, seen through that, this same world, seen previously as a hell of misery, will be found to be a heaven of bliss. The appearance of this world, like the illusory appearance of a dream, is merely mental, and its truth, therefore, can be known correctly, only by the Supreme Consciousness that transcends Maya, the mind. By turning Selfward, you destroy your delusion: this world. What then remains as “this is void” is known by you, Self: so to destroy this apparent void also, drown it in the ocean of Self-knowledge. If you abide in the heart as Sat-Cit, “I Am” — by which the whole universe exists and shines, then this world will also become one with you, losing its false, frightening, dualities.
One who knows this world appearance to be their own form, Supreme Consciousness, experiences the same consciousness, even through their five senses.
Though Self, which is ever still, because of its wholeness, seems to move with the movements of the unsteady mirror, the mind… it is never the real Self that moves, but only its reflection, the mind. Individual gods and godesses, and their particular powers, will appear to be real, only in the imagination of those minds which admire them. Such mental delusion is at all times completely non-existent for Self, which transcends the mind.
It is only due to the false sense-bound knowledge of the ignorant, that they say that muktas, who have realized the truth, have individuality. Truly, universality is the real state of a jnani, whose nature is the expanse of consiousness. The individuality seen in them by devotees is a reflection of their own individuality.
With great eagerness and wonder, you fly to see one mahatma here, and one mahatma there: if you inquire, attain, and know the Maha-Atma, the Great Self, within your own Heart, then every Mahatma is none other than that One within you.
Whatever high and wonderful state of austerities one may have attained, if one still identifies oneself with an individuality, one cannot be a sahaja-jnani — one in the state of effortlessness. One is only an aspirant of, perhaps, an advanced stage. Leaving aside that true Self-consciousness, which is devoid of the least feeling of individuality, and displaying any number of siddhis, of powers, is a sheer waste. Who but those fools who are incapable of knowing Self will desire these senseless siddhis?
For the jiva’s weak and unsteady mind, which is ever wavering like the wind, there is no place to enjoy bliss, except the heart, its Source. The study of scriptures is, for It, like a noisy cattle-fair.
One’s fear and quaking of one’s body, while one is entering Samadhi, is due to the slight ego-consciousness still remaining. But when this dies completely without leaving even a trace, one abides as the vast space of mere consciousness, where bliss alone prevails, and the quaking stops. The only worthy occupation is to thoroughly absorb the ego by turning Selfward, and without allowing it to rise, to thus abide quietly, like a waveless ocean, in self-knowledge. Having annihilated the delusive mind-ghost, which had been wandering about, unobstructed.
The truly powerful self-denial is that state in which, having lost the sense of doership, and knowing well that all is the Divine Will, one is relieved from the delusion of the foolish ego. Thus should you know.