#the jnani and the world

[4dkellysworld]

Self-realisation and life duties

For those wondering how to reconcile a life of work, studies or obligations with self-realisation, you don't have to stop those activities (Robert said the same thing, you give it up mentally). I compiled a bunch of Q&As with Ramana Maharshi on the topic which may be helpful guidance.

Q: Is solitude necessary for a Jnani? M: Solitude is in the mind of man. One might be in the thick of the world and maintain serenity of mind; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in a forest, but still be unable to control his mind. He cannot be said to be in solitude. Solitude is a function of the mind. A man attached to desire cannot get solitude wherever he may be; a detached man is always in solitude. Q: So then, one might be engaged in work and be free from desire and keep up solitude. Is it so? M: Yes. Work performed with attachment is a shackle, whereas work performed with detachment does not affect the doer. He is, even while working, in solitude.

Q: Is work an obstruction to Self-realisation? M: No. For a realised being, the Self alone is the Reality and actions are only phenomenal; not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment. There is no aim for this action. Even one who is still practising the path of Wisdom (jnana) can practise while engaged in work. It may be difficult in the earlier stages for a beginner, but after some practice it will soon be effective and the work will not be found a hindrance to meditation. Q: My work hinders me. M: If you have the right attitude, the kind of life you lead does not matter very much.

Q: Our work-a-day life is not compatible with such efforts. M: Why do you think that you are active? Take the gross example of your arrival here. You left home in a cart, took train, alighted at the Railway Station here, got into a cart there and found yourself in this Asramam. When asked, you say that you travelled here all the way from your town. Is it true? Is it not a fact that you remained as you were and there were movements of conveyances all along the way. Just as those movements are confounded with your own, so also the other activities. They are not your own. They are God's activities.

Q: My work demands the best part of my time and energy; often I am too tired to devote myself to Atmachintana (Contemplation on the Self). M: The feeling "l work" is the hindrance. Enquire, "Who works?" Remember, "Who am l?" The work will not bind you. It will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce work. Your effort is the bondage. What is bound to happen will happen. If you are destined to cease working, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work you cannot leave it; you will be forced to engage in it. So leave it to the Higher Power. You cannot renounce or hold as you choose.

Q: Should we do our duty or not? M: Yes - certainly. Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it - the share which is allotted to you. Q: How is work to be done? M: Like an actor playing his part in a drama - free from love or hatred.

Q: How to practice meditation? M: Keep off thoughts. Q: How to reconcile work with meditation? M: Who is the worker? Let him who works ask the question. You are always the Self. You are not the mind. It is the mind which raises these questions. Work proceeds, always in the presence of the Self only. Work is no hindrance to self-realisation. It is the mistaken identity of the worker that troubles one. Get rid of the false identity.

Q: I have my professional work and yet I want to be in perpetual dhyana. Will they conflict with each other? M: There will be no conflict. As you practise both and develop your powers you will be able to attend to both. You will begin to look on business as a dream. The Bhagavad—Gita says: "That which is the night of all beings, for the disciplined man is the time of waking; when other beings are waking, then is it night for the Sage who Sees."

Q (a professor): How can I do my duties without attachment? There is my wife, there are my children. I must do my duty towards them. Affection is necessary. Am I right? M: How do you do your work in the College? D: (laughing) For wages. M: Not because you are attached, simply as doing your duty. D: But my pupils expect me to love them. M: "Detachment in the interior and attachment in appearance" says Yoga Vasishta.

[kingmabry]

FREEDOM OF JNANA

D: For the jnani, then, there is no distinction between the three states of mind?

M: How can there be, when the mind itself is dissolved and lost in the light of Consciousness?

For the jnani all the three states are equally unreal.

But the ajnani is unable to comprehend this, because for him the standard of reality is the waking state, whereas for the jnani the standard of Reality is Reality itself.

This Reality of Pure Consciousness is eternal by its nature and therefore subsists equally during what you call waking, dreaming and sleep. To him who is one with that Reality, there is neither the mind nor its three states, and therefore, neither introversion nor extroversion.

His is the ever-waking state because he is awake to the eternal Self; his is the ever dreaming state because to him the world is no better than a repeatedly presented phenomenon of dream; his is the ever- sleeping state because he is at all times without the ‘body-am-I’ consciousness.

- Maharshi's Gospel

[radical-revolution]

QUESTION : While sitting near you, what sort of mental state should I have so as to receive the transmission from the Self?

Ramana: Keep your mind still. That is enough. You will get spiritual help sitting in this hall if you keep yourself still. The aim of all practices is to give up all practices. When the mind becomes still, the power of the Self will be experienced. The waves of the Self are pervading everywhere. If the mind is in peace, one begins to experience them.

Question: Which is better for me, to gaze at your eyes or your face? Or should I sit with closed eyes and concentrate my mind on a particular thing?

Ramana: Gaze at your own real nature. It is immaterial whether the eyes are open or closed. Everywhere there is only the one, so it is all the same whether you keep your eyes open or closed. If you wish to meditate, do so on the "I" that is within you. It is the Self. Because it has no eyes, there is no need either to open or close the eyes. When you attain Self-knowledge, there will no longer be any ideas about the world. When you are sitting in a room, whether the windows are open or closed, you are the same person, in the same state. In the same way, if you abide in the Reality, it is all the same whether the eyes are open or closed. It matters little whether external activities go on or not.

Question: In my present state, is there sufficient faith, humility and surrender in me? If not, how to make them complete?

Ramana: You are perfect and complete, so abandon the idea of incompleteness. There is nothing to be destroyed. Ahankara, the individual "I", is not a real thing. It is the mind that makes the effort and the mind is not real. Just as it is not necessary to kill a rope that one imagines to be a snake, so also there is no need to kill the mind. Knowing the form of the mind makes the mind disappear. That which is forever non-existent is already removed.

Question: What books should I read for personal study?

Ramana: The Self is the real book. You can glance anywhere in that book; nobody can take it away from you. Whenever you are free, turn towards the Self. Thereafter you may read whatever you like.

Question: How to uproot the weariness, fear and anxiety that arise during meditation?

Ramana: Find out to whom these questions occur. By conducting this inquiry these things will disappear. These things are impermanent. Do not pay attention to them. When there is knowledge of duality, fear arises. Fear only comes when you think that there are others apart from you. If you direct your mind towards the Self, fear and anxiety will go away. In your present state, when your mind is agitated, if you remove one kind of fear, another will rise up and there will be no end of them. It is a laborious task to pluck the leaves off a tree one by one. The "I" feeling is the root of all thoughts. If you destroy the root, the leaves and branches will wither away. Instead of forming bad habits and taking medicine for them, it is better to see that such bad habits are not formed.

Question: During and after meditation, I get many thoughts about the unhappy people of the world. What will happen to the world?

Ramana: First find out whether there is an "I" in you or not. It is this ego "I" that gets these thoughts and, as a result, you feel weakness. Therefore find out how identification with the body takes place. Body consciousness is the cause of all misery. When you conduct the inquiry into the ego "I", you will find out its Source and you will be able to remove it. After that there will be no more questions of the type you are asking.

The body itself is a disease. To wish for a long stay of that disease is not the aim of the jnani [one who has realized the Self]. Anyhow, one has to give up identification with the body. Just as the "I am the body" consciousness prevents one from attaining Self-knowledge, in the same way, one who has got the conviction that he is not the body will become liberated even if he doesn't desire it.

[ndbookstudy]

i am that, nisargardatta maharaj, ch. 61.

Questioner: I was lucky to have holy company all my life. Is it enough for self-realisation?

Maharaj: It depends what you make of it.

Q: I was told that the liberating action of satsang is automatic. Just like a river carries one to the estuary, so the subtle and silent influence of good people will take me to reality.

M: It will take you to the river, but the crossing is your own. Freedom cannot be gained nor kept without will-to-freedom. You must strive for liberation; the least you can do is uncover and remove the obstacles diligently. If you want peace you must strive for it. You will not get peace just by keeping quiet.

Q: A child just grows. He does not make plans for growth, nor has he a pattern; nor does he grow by fragments, a hand here a leg there; he grows integrally and unconsciously.

M: Because he is free of imagination. You can also grow like this, but you must not indulge in forecasts and plans, born of memory and anticipation. It is one of the peculiarities of a jnani that he is not concerned with the future. Your concern with future is due to fear of pain and desire for pleasure, to the jnani all is bliss: he is happy with whatever comes.

Q: Surely, there are many things that would make even a jnani miserable

M: A jnani may meet with difficulties, but they do not make him suffer. Bringing up a child from birth to maturity may seem a hard task, but to a mother the memories of hardships are a joy. There is nothing wrong with the world. What is wrong is in the way you look at it. It is your own imagination that misleads you. Without imagination there is no world. Your conviction that you are conscious of a world is the world. The world you perceive is made of consciousness; what you call matter is consciousness Itself. You are the space (akash) in which it moves, the time in which it lasts, the love that gives it life. Cut off imagination and attachment and what remains?

Q: The world remains. I remain.

M: Yes. But how different it is when you can see it as it is, not through the screen of desire and fear.

Q: What for are all these distinctions -- reality and illusion, wisdom and ignorance, saint and sinner? Everyone is in search of happiness, everyone strives desperately; everyone is a Yogi and his life a school of wisdom. Each learns his own way the lessons he needs. Society approves of some, disapproves of others; there are no rules that apply everywhere and for all time.

M: In my world love is the only law. I do not ask for love, I give it. Such is my nature.

Q: I see you living your life according to a pattern. You run a meditation class in the morning, lecture and have discussions regularly; twice daily there is worship (puja) and religious singing (bhajan) in the evening. You seem to adhere to the routine scrupulously.

M: The worship and the singing are as I found them and I saw no reason to interfere. The general routine is according to the wishes of the people with whom I happen to live or who come to listen. They are working people, with many obligations and the timings are for their convenience. Some repetitive routine is inevitable. Even animals and plants have their time-tables.

Q: Yes, we see a regular sequence in all life. Who maintains the order? Is there an inner ruler, who lays down laws and enforces order?

M: Everything moves according to its nature. Where is the need of a policeman? Every action creates a reaction, which balances and neutralises the action. Everything happens, but there is a continuous cancelling out, and in the end it is as if nothing happened.

Q: Do not console me with final harmonies. The accounts tally, but the loss is mine.

M: Wait and see. You may end up with a profit good enough to justify the outlays.

Q: There is a long life behind me and I often wonder whether its many events took place by accident, or there was a plan. Was there a pattern laid down before I was born by which I had to live my life? If yes, who made the plans and who enforced them? Could there be deviations and mistakes? Some say destiny is immutable and every second of life is predetermined; others say that pure accident decides everything.

M: You can have it as you like. You can distinguish in your life a pattern or see merely a chain of accidents. Explanations are meant to please the mind. They need not be true. Reality is indefinable and indescribable.

Q: Sir, you are escaping my question! I want to know how you look at it. Wherever we look we find structure of unbelievable intelligence and beauty. How can I believe that the universe is formless and chaotic? Your world, the world in which you live, may be formless, but it need not be chaotic.

M: The objective universe has structure, is orderly and beautiful. Nobody can deny it. But structure and pattern, imply constraint and compulsion. My world is absolutely free; everything in it is self- determined. Therefore I keep on saying that all happens by itself. There is order in my world too, but it is not Imposed from outside. It comes spontaneously and immediately, because of its timelessness. Perfection is not in the future. It is now.

Q: Does your world affect mine?

M: At one point only -- at the point of the now. It gives it momentary being, a fleeting sense of reality. In full awareness the contact is established. It needs effortless, un-self-conscious attention.

Q: Is not attention an attitude of mind?

M: Yes, when the mind is eager for reality, it gives attention. There is nothing wrong with your world, it is your thinking yourself to be separate from it that creates disorder. Selfishness is the source of all evil.

Q: I am coming back to my question. Before I was born, did my inner self decide the details of my life, or was it entirely accidental and at the mercy of heredity and circumstances?

M: Those who claim to have selected their father and mother and decided how they are going to live their next life may know for themselves. I know for myself. I was never born.

Q: I see you sitting in front of me and replying my questions.

M: You see the body only which, of course, was born and will die.

Q: It is the life-story of thus body-mind that I am interested in. Was it laid down by you or somebody else, or did it happen accidentally?

M: There is a catch in your very question. I make no distinction between the body and the universe. Each is the cause of the other; each is the other, in truth. But I am out of it all. When I am telling you that I was never born, why go on asking me what were my preparations for the next birth? The moment you allow your imagination to spin, it at once spins out a universe. It is not at all as you imagine and I am not bound by your imaginings.

Q: It requires intelligence and energy to build and maintain a living body. Where do they come from?

M: There is only imagination. The intelligence and power are all used up in your imagination. It has absorbed you so completely that you just cannot grasp how far from reality you have wandered. No doubt imagination is richly creative. Universe within universe are built on it. Yet they are all in space and time, past and future, which just do not exist.

Q: I have read recently a report about a little girl who was very cruelly handled in her early childhood. She was badly mutilated and disfigured and grew up in an orphanage, completely estranged from its surroundings. This little girl was quiet and obedient, but completely indifferent. One of the nuns who were looking after the children, was convinced that the girl was not mentally retarded, but merely withdrawn, irresponsive. A psychoanalyst was asked to take up the case and for full two years he would see the child once a week and try to break the wall of isolation. She was docile and well-behaved, but would give no attention to her doctor. He brought her a toy house, with rooms and movable furniture and dolls representing father, mother and their children. It brought out a response, the girl got interested. One day the old hurts revived and came to the surface. Gradually she recovered, a number of operations brought back her face and body to normal and she grew into an efficient and attractive young woman. It took the doctor more than five years, but the work was done. He was a real Guru! He did not put down conditions nor talk about readiness and eligibility. Without faith, without hope, out of love only he tried and tried again.

M: Yes, that is the nature of a Guru. He will never give up. But, to succeed, he must not be met with too much resistance. Doubt and disobedience necessarily delay. Given confidence and pliability, he can bring about a radical change in the disciple speedily. Deep insight in the Guru and earnestness in the disciple, both are needed. Whatever was her condition, the girl in your story suffered for lack of earnestness in people. The most difficult are the intellectuals. They talk a lot, but are not serious. What you call realisation is a natural thing. When you are ready, your Guru will be waiting. Sadhana is effortless. When the relationship with your teacher is right you grow. Above all, trust him. He cannot mislead you.

Q: Even when he asks me to do something patently wrong?

M: Do it. A Sanyasi had been asked by his Guru to marry. He obeyed and suffered bitterly. But his four children were all saints and seers, the greatest in Maharashtra. Be happy with whatever comes from your Guru and you will grow to perfection without striving.

Q: Sir, have you any wants or wishes. Can I do anything for you?

M: What can you give me that I do not have? Material things are needed for contentment. But I am contented with myself. What else do I need?

Q: Surely, when you are hungry you need food and when sick you need medicine.

M: Hunger brings the food and illness brings the medicine. It is all nature's work.

Q: lf I bring something I believe you need, will you accept it?

M: The love that made you offer will make me accept.

Q: If somebody offers to build you a beautiful Ashram?

M: Let him, by all means. Let him spend a fortune, employ hundreds, feed thousands.

Q: Is it not a desire?

M: Not at all. I am only asking him to do it properly, not stingily, half-heartedly. He is fulfilling his own desire, not mine. Let him do it well and be famous among men and gods.

Q: But do you want it?

M: I do not want it.

Q: Will you accept it?

M: I don't need it.

Q: Will you stay in it?

M: If I am compelled.

Q: What can compel you?

M: Love of those who are in search of light.

Q: Yes, I see your point. Now, how am I to go into samadhi?

M: If you are in the right state, whatever you see will put you into samadhi. After all, samadhi is nothing unusual. When the mind is intensely interested, it becomes one with the object of interest -- the seer and the seen become one in seeing, the hearer and the heard become one in hearing, the lover and the loved become one in loving. Every experience can be the ground for samadhi.

Q: Are you always in a state of samadhi?

M: Of course not Samadhi is a state of mind, after all. I am beyond all experience, even of samadhi. I am the great devourer and destroyer: whatever I touch dissolves into void (akash).

Q: I need samadhis for self-realisation.

M: You have all the self-realisation you need, but you do not trust it. Have courage, trust yourself, go, talk, act; give it a chance to prove itself. With some, realisation comes imperceptibly, but somehow they need convincing. They have changed, but they do not notice it. Such non-spectacular cases are often the most reliable.

Q: Can one believe himself to be realised and be mistaken?

M: Of course. The very idea 'I am self-realised' is a mistake. There is no 'I am this'. 'I am that' in the Natural State.

[mountain-sage]

THE WORLD VISION WHICH APPEARS IN THE WAKING STATE & THE DREAM STATE BOTH ARE SAME, BOTH ARE EQUALLY INSUBSTANTIAL & EQUALLY UNREAL; EVERY INDIVIDUAL (JIVA) IS SEEING A SEPARATE WORLD BUT A JNANI DOES NOT SEE ANYTHING OTHER THAN HIMSELF. THIS IS THE STATE OF TRUTH~

Bhagavan once made the following remarks about the waking and dream states.

'The world vision which appears in the waking state and the world vision which appears in the dream state are both the same.

There is not even a trace of a difference. The dream state happens merely to prove the unreality of the world which we see in the waking state. This is one of the operations of God's grace.

'The world of the waking state changes in the same way as the world of the dream state. Both are equally insubstantial and equally unreal.

'Some people dispute this by saying, "But the same world which we saw yesterday is existing today. Dream worlds are never the same from one night to the next.

Therefore how can we believe that the world of the waking state is unreal? History tells us that this world has existed for thousands of years."

We take the evidence that this changing world has been existing for a long time and decide that this constitutes a proof that the world is real. This is an unjustified conclusion.

'The world is changing every minute. How? Our body is not the same as it was when we were young. A lamp which we light at night may seem to be the same in the morning but all the oil in the flame has changed. Is this not so? Water flows in a river. If we see the river on two successive days we say it is the same river, but it is not the same; the water has completely changed.

'The world is always changing. It is not permanent. But we exist unchanged in all the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping. Nobody can truthfully say, "! did not exist during these three states". Therefore we must conclude that this "|" is the permanent substance because everything else is in a state of perpetual flux.

If you never forget this, this is liberation!

Since this view of the world is so contrary to what we regard as common sense, Bhagavan was frequently questioned about it.

Even his long-term devotees sometimes tried to get him to modify his views a little. I remember, for instance, one evening in the hall when Major Chadwick tried to persuade Bhagavan that the world did have some reality and permanence.

'If the world exists only when my mind exists, he began, 'when my mind subsides in meditation or sleep, does the outside world disappear also? I think not. If one considers the experiences of others who were aware of the world while I slept, one must conclude that the world existed then.

Is it not more correct to say that the world got created and is ever existing in some huge collective mind? If this is true how can one say that there is no world and that it is only a dream?' Bhagavan refused to modify his position.

'The world does not say that it was created in the collective mind or that it was created in the individual mind. It only appears in your small mind. If your mind gets destroyed, there will be no world!

Ramana Maharishi

[blessed1neha]

What did Sri Ramana Maharshi say about the world?

To understand what Sri Ramana Maharshi said about the world, his utterances regarding this can be divided into four categories

The Unreality of the World

The Enticement of the World

The Barrenness of the World

Conduct in the World

All these four categories and the verses that come under it have been taken from the English translation of Guru Vachaka Kovai by Dr. T. V. Venkatasubrahmaniam, Robert Butler and David Godman. Edited and annotated by David Godman.

1) The Unreality of the World :

'Though this world that manifests before your eyes, appearing and disappearing, does not exist all the time, it is still real [when it appears].’ So insist some people with great confidence. We refute their assertion by questioning, 'Is not an eternally existing nature one of the hallmarks of reality?’ {Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 63}

'Though this world seems fragmented to the senses, it's fragmentary nature does not invalidate it's reality.’ So argue some people. We refute their assertion by questioning, 'Is not indivisible wholeness [ paripuranam ] also a characteristic of reality?’ {Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 64}

Those who have known the truth as it really is will not declare this world, which is forever undergoing destruction by the wheel of time, to be real. Only the plenitude that shines uninterruptedly at all times and in all places, transcending time and space, is the nature of reality. {Ibid. 65}

2) The Enticement of the World :

For the sake of impermanent worldly prosperity, people will gleefully wander in vain, like the pointless swinging of a goat's dewlap, but they will look contemptuously upon the conduct that leads to liberation, the eternal Self. Alas! The conduct of such ignorant people is so pitiable, the wise cannot even bear to see it. {Ibid. 71}

People of the world will pine for the thoroughly dubious pleasures, tiny as sesame seeds, obtained laboriously ploughing with their minds the brackish land of sense objects, which are a creation of maya. They will not desire the unlimited bliss that is produced by easily ploughing, through consciousness, the truly fertile field of the Heart, the source of the mind. What can one say about the wonder of maya? {Ibid. 72}

Even at the very moment that the 'I’ rises, this lady, the moonlike sense of individuality, is duty bound to carefully conduct herself in a chaste way in the Heart — the space of consciousness — as the legitimate wife of the Lord, the Self that is the sun of jnana. If she forsakes the bliss of the Self, which is in harmony with her Dharma, and slips from that chaste conduct through infidelity, hankering after worldly enjoyment and wallowing in it, this is just frenzied act of stupidity caused by beginningless, past karma. {Ibid. 73}

3) The Barrenness of the World

Unlike those crazy people who are deluded into believing that this false world is real, jnanis who have realised the truth will not consider anything other than Brahman, which is wholly consciousness, to be worth attaining and enjoying. {Ibid. 75}

Will those whose consciousness goes to and rests in reality stray towards the despicable ways of the world? To plunge headling into and merge with that unreal world — is this not the activity of a base animal that, operating exclusively through the senses, has no stability in consciousness? {Ibid. 76}

There is no happiness that exists in its own right in any single one of the objects of the inert world. When this is the case, why does the stupid mind delude itself, imagining that happiness arises from the objects of the world? {Ibid. 78}

Wealth will pass away, leaving in want and suffering those foolish ones who once exulted in and felt pride in the wealth they formerly possessed. {Ibid. 79}

4) Conduct in the World

Reach the Heart by clearly knowing your true nature and abide there permanently as that unattached Supreme Self, without slipping from the state of knowledge. Then, act according to the human role you have assumed, outwardly behaving as if, like all others in the world, you are experiencing joy and misery. {Ibid. 81}

Sage Vasishta also gave similar advice to Sri Rama. This advice, which originally appeared in Yoga Vasishta, was translated into the following Tamil verses by Bhagavan (which the editor David Godman has produced in support of the verse 81 of the Guru Vachaka Kovai) :

Having investigated the various states of being, and seizing firmly by the mind that state of supreme reality, play your part, O hero, ever in the world. You have known the truth which is at the heart of all kinds of appearances. Without ever turning away from that reality, play in the world, O hero, as if in love with it. Seeming to have enthusiasm and delight, seeming to have excitement and aversion, seeming to exercise initiative and perseverance, and yet without attachment, play, O hero, in the world. Released from all bonds of attachment and with equanimity of mind, acting outwardly in all situations in accordance with the part you have assumed, play as you please, O hero, in the world.

Guru Vachaka Kovai, containing the sayings of Sri Ramana Maharshi was composed in verse form by his foremost disciple Sri Muruganar.

All the verses in this book were read and verified by Sri Ramana Maharshi himself. And wherever necessary, Sri Ramana Maharshi himself composed additional verses and added them along with the original verses composed by Sri Muruganar.

[tamatarkha]

“I wept before the Mother and prayed. “O Mother, please tell me, please reveal to me what the yogis have realized through yoga and the jnanis through discimination.” And the Mother has revealed everything to me. She reveals everything if the devotee cries to Her with a yearning heart. She has shown me everything that is in the Vedas, the Vedanta, the Puranas, and the Tantra.” “My Mother! Who is my Mother? Ah, She is the Mother of the Universe. It is She who creates and preserves the world, who always protects Her children, and who grants whatever they desire : dharma, artha, kama, moksha. A true son cannot live away from his mother. The mother knows everything. The child only eats, drinks, and makes merry, he doesn’t worry himself about the things of the world.” “The divine Mother is always playful and sportive. This universe is Her play. She is self-willed and must always have Her own way. She is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand…”

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

[oshri]

Radhe Radhe 💕 

oshriRadhekrishnaBole 💕 

[the-hem]

"Higher and Lower." From the Varaha Upanishad, "The Exploration of the Mysteries of the Wild Boar."

Only the one who self-corrects will touch the Sleeve of God and walk with Him. Even still the ability to reject sin and embrace Grace is not the very best we can do:

26. O Lord of Munis, Lord of Sages, only he who has not Atma-Jnana “knowledge of the essence of Self” and who is not an emancipated person, longs after Siddhis “proofs”. He attains such Siddhis through medicine, (or wealth), Mantras, religious works, time and skill.

27. In the eyes of an Atma-Jnani, these Siddhis are of no importance. One who has become an Atma-Jnani, one who has his sight solely on Atman, and one who is content with Atman (the higher Self) through (his) Atman (or the lower self), never follows (the dictates of) Avidya.

-> You can perform works that are of benefit, that end the debt to sin and improve one's way of life, even still this will not proof of what is called "emancipation".

Emancipation requires the direct experience of God's Stark Existence where after it is obtained not one stray bit of ignorance or delusion will be possible.

As we learned in the Exodus and the Book of Numbers, God had to beat the shit out of the Israelites to get them to accept the proof and acknowledge He was the real thing, but all they wanted to the all you can eat steak and salad bar at the Sizzler.

From Beschalach:

16 They set out from Elim “place of rams, of strength”, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin “to miss, to overshoot” which is between Elim and Sinai “The end of missing out”, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”

28. Whatever exists in this world, he knows to be of the nature of Avidya. How then will an Atma-Jnani who has relinquished Avidya be immersed in (or affected by) it.

29. Though medicine, Mantras, religious work, time and skill (or mystical expressions) lead to the development of Siddhis, yet they cannot in any way help one to attain the seat of Paramatman. 30. How then can one who is an Atma-Jnani and who is without his mind be said to long after Siddhis, while all the actions of his desires are controlled ?”

Even if one leave's Egypt in search of the real God without proof-- in the conduct of others (eating meat) and through the product of intense study in the temple and at home, one is subject to ignorance and slavery to a man who thinks he is a god, the worst predicament there is.

There simply cannot be a Higher and a lower. There is just the One. Remember this and relinquish any traces of what it feels like to be enslaved and the proof of His Glory shall come to be thine.

Thus ends the third Chapter of Varaha Upanishad.

[dimensional-tourist]

Everyone is searching for happiness.

Everyone wants happiness. 

Even the bank robber robs a bank because he believes that 

the results will bring him happiness. 

People get married, get divorced, have children, find certain jobs, 

believing this will bring them happiness. 

We have learned, as we go through the vicissitudes of life, 

that these things bring partial happiness.

Everything you do in this world is subject to the law of change. 

The wise person begins to see this at an early age and 

does not pursue the things of this world, 

but rather begins to try to understand him or her Self. 

"Who am I? Why was I born? What is the purpose of life?"

As one begins to dwell on these things, the inner guru, the Self, 

will give you a push and you will find that you go towards a spiritual path. 

If you're inclined by action, you will follow the Karma Yoga path. (service)

If your disposition is towards emotion, you will follow the bhakti path. (devotion)

If you lean towards intellectualism, you will follow the Jnani path. (knowledge)

~ Robert Adams

[kingmabry]

GURU VACHAKA KOVAI

296 Destroy maya, the rebellious mind that unceasingly wallows in the sense objects of the world, and then, with the malevolent ego dead, the world vasana gone and yourself wholly consummated as Sivam, shine as pure consciousness.

297 Do not suffer, wandering in the scorching heat, eating the bare earth of sense objects that are the non-Self. Feed on the bliss of the Self that exists in the home of the Heart, that immense and never-ending canopy of cool shade where perfect peace shines.

298 You who have taken up the performance of tapas with devotion surging in your heart, and with your mind surrendered to the feet of the Supreme One! Having totally extinguished the avaricious desire for the siddhis that bestow powers attain the supreme bliss of liberation, eternal Sivam.

- Guru Vachaka Kovai consists of quotes from Bhagavan, set into masterly verses by Muruganar, a jnani himself, all edited by Bhagavan

[alivingstillness]

Divine desire - a non-dual view

“There is no doubt that I am that God who is the Self of all; Pure, indivisible, like the sky. Naturally stainless.” - The Avadhoota Gita.

From un-manifest to manifest. Unity without union. All is sprung from the same source, that is Brahman with his ever shining formless and all-pervasive grace. Everything that is contained inside and outside of our universe also lies as latent forces of infinite possibility within the God-Self. When we experience ourselves as the eternal witnessing awareness behind superimposition of the senses, we drop engagements with changing surroundings and bring ourselves closer to the realization of our infinite divinity abiding as Self.

Like the jewel in the lotus, the Self is found in the path of wisdom and as Vilāya (dissolution) of it. It is untainted consciousness that contains everyone, every being and non-being, everywhere, anywhere. It is pure beingness holding within itself all our individual sorrow, happiness, pain and love.

There is no experience for anyone or anything that is not contained within the Self-consciousness, meaning that all that is created within and from it is also itself, pure Self-consciousness. God as God - Self as Self. In it there can ultimately be no contact or relationship between one and the other because it is to its very core one and the same. It is a union without divisions to unite, for it contains all.

If there were to be a comparison to this divine union, it would be that of the boundaryless love between two beings where the one is dissolved in the two as the none. Let us say then that love lies behind and within all of life, form, experience etc. that we may perceive.

Now for this consciousness that is always resting as infinite aware Self, to simultaneously be having dual experiences as; me, you, dog, anger, stone, water, ..well anything that is, it must be so, that within all possibilities that are contained within human perception, they are also perceived within pure eternal Self.

“Desire is a root cause for suffering.” -The Buddha

Desire, however it may or may not play out, is an indication that something can be fulfilled by something else. In the same way as a girl might desire approval and recognition from her parents, a man who feels unfulfilled in his relationship might desire another lover. We may for example desire for pain to disappear or for food to give us bliss. Desire implies wanting to change. And change implies that there is something that can be changed. In a similar way creation itself contains opposites or polarities. We can think of atoms, magnetic fields, men and women. In creation there is movement and exchange between negative and positive forces that together create a new intertwined field of existence. But let us not lose ourselves completely in this concept of creation for we have to keep in mind that there is something that not only underlies positive and negative force, but that is the very content of both. Again, all is both within and acting as one and the same love-consciousness-Self. But there is also the perceived reality that Self, when veiling itself with itself, (even though it is still pure undivided and untainted consciousness), also contains that which is unconscious and unconsciousness does not seem to be conscious.

Remember that the Self-consciousness is the witness that is stillness itself, in and beyond the change or movement. Resting as pure being like a mind that is perfectly still and free from sense-expression or invested in perceived feelings. When experience just IS as it is with no judging whatsoever, just as pure beingness-awareness, in the background to what is occurring in non-aware perception, then we are no longer in what can be experienced as a state of meditation. For this witnessing background is the only state, therefore it is not something we are coming in or out of. It is always isness and it is not separate from anything else. It is Us untainted by change or memory, beyond mental engagement. It is the “I am” and it is also prior to I am. Then experience cannot be experiential because there is nothing to compare with if you are abiding as and in the being (here) right now. Rest in that pure being. 

Trust is acceptance

It is necessary to mention that while we can investigate the meaning of desire and our natural state of no desire, it is important to be present and accepting of all that is worldly. While recognizing what makes us uncomfortable or longing for change, one has to be careful in noticing the subtle but grand difference between wanting to surrender and surrender itself acting effortlessly on its own accord. Paths towards true yoga (union), and the effort that is invested towards it, are not to be disregarded. Quite the opposite, since we are looking out from our personal windows of perception, some will benefit greatly from being a jnani and some need the path of the Raja yogi. There are many paths towards realization and none of them are incorrect, for even though there exist many, they all in some way or another lead to surrendering to the Self. In the end of our searching all effort and the path itself dissolves. But as a child learns to crawl before it walks, the creation of the abyss and the crossing of it is as true and of God as God himself. 

Though you might not be able to drop everything at once and live in full acceptance immediately, there is the possibility to notice your mechanism and trust the present. At any moment when there is a desire to change, look at its content and its nature. As if you were zooming out the lens of a camera, remember your true Self, who at any given moment is here and beyond. Notice the eternal witness to be yourself and you will soon have gone straight to source, simply and effortlessly. When you have found yourself in the housing of your own being, there is only love. And the doer in your life-experience is no longer personal, there is no more gain or loss that can change who you truly are. You simply are.

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up. -Lao Tzu

When abiding in love, any act of will is an act of love. When the mind resides in heart, our personal orbit will take new shapes that resonate with and through our stateless state. An alchemical marriage that shatters the inherent concepts of duality. Within our dual perception there is comparison, it is a natural effect of it, but when you let go of comparing, there is just the experience, untainted by good or bad. This is acceptance and it is what makes acceptance effortless. Comparison also lies within desire and desire lies within comparison. It is not necessary to never want or need but there lies magic in acceptance and the knowing of who is needing. Think not of tomorrow or yesterday, if they appear, accept them now. Do not desire to stop you from desiring, simply dissolve it with the love that is its very source.

“What is imagined and willed becomes actuality -

here lies the danger as well as the way out.” 

- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Desire itself causes our very true state-less self to experience itself as a separate being in a world of change and duality, driven by our own nature of creation. If you are to notice what liberation or awakening to oneself might mean, then do not desire in search of an outcome imagined by the construct of a finite mind. Do not try to change the changeless, look at your pain, feel your sorrow and your love, but do not judge. Things will naturally become more still and acceptance will lead to surrender. You do not need anything.

If you know the divine that you are and will always be, then there are no others and nothing that is not you. If you know this, desire itself will cease and you will be to all and every experience as you truly are - whole and loving infinity, with the possible play of a child, curious and accepting to all experience as the non-experience.

“Only now are you going your way to greatness. Peak and abyss, they are now joined together, for all things are baptized in a well of eternity, and lie beyond good and evil” -Friedrich Nietzsche

OM Brahma OM

/ Alexandra.

[ndbookstudy]

i am that, nisargardatta maharaj, ch. 96.

Questioner: I am an American by birth and for the last one year I was staying in an Ashram in Madhya Pradesh, studying Yoga in its many aspects. We had a teacher, whose Guru, a disciple of the great Sivananda Saraswati, stays in Monghyr. I stayed at Ramanashram also. While in Bombay I went through an intensive course of Burmese meditation managed by one Goenka. Yet I have not found peace. There is an improvement in self-control and day-to-day discipline, but that is all. I cannot say exactly what caused what. I visited many holy places. How each acted on me, I cannot say.

Maharaj: Good results will come, sooner or later. At Sri Ramanashram did you get some instructions?

Q: Yes, some English people were teaching me and also an Indian follower of jnana yoga, residing there permanently, was giving me lessons.

M: What are your plans?

Q: I have to return to the States because of visa difficulties. I intend to complete my B.Sc., study Nature Cure and make it my profession.

M: A good profession, no doubt.

Q: Is there any danger in pursuing the path of Yoga at all cost?

M: Is a match-stick dangerous when the house is on fire? The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it will destroy the world in which you live. But if your motive is love of truth and life, you need not be afraid.

Q: I am afraid of my own mind. It is so unsteady!

M: In the mirror of your mind images appear and disappear. The mirror remains. Learn to distinguish the immovable in the movable, the unchanging in the changing, till you realise that all differences are in appearance only and oneness is a fact. This basic identity -- you may call God, or Brahman, or the matrix (Prakriti), the words matters little -- is only the realisation that all is one. Once you can say with confidence born from direct experience: 'I am the world, the world is myself', you are free from desire and fear on one hand and become totally responsible for the world on the other. The senseless sorrow of mankind becomes your sole concern.

Q: So even a jnani has his problems!

M: Yes, but they are no longer of his own creation. His suffering is not poisoned by a sense of guilt. There is nothing wrong with suffering for the sins of others. Your Christianity is based on this.

Q: Is not all suffering self-created?

M: Yes, as long as there is a separate self to create it. In the end you know that there is no sin, no guilt, no retribution, only life in its endless transformations. With the dissolution of the personal 'I' personal suffering disappears. What remains is the great sadness of compassion, the horror of the unnecessary pain.

Q: Is there anything unnecessary in the scheme of things?

M: Nothing is necessary, nothing is inevitable. Habit and passion blind and mislead. Compassionate awareness heals and redeems. There is nothing we can do, we can only let things happen according to their nature.

Q: Do you advocate complete passivity?

M: Clarity and charity is action. Love is not lazy and clarity directs. You need not worry about action, look after your mind and heart. Stupidity and selfishness are the only evil.

Q: What is better -- repetition of God's name, or meditation?

M: Repetition will stabilise your breath. With deep and quiet breathing vitality will improve, which will influence the brain and help the mind to grow pure and stable and fit for meditation. Without vitality little can be done, hence the importance of its protection and increase. Posture and breathing are a part of Yoga, for the body must be healthy and well under control, but too much concentration on the body defeats its own purpose, for it is the mind that is primary in the beginning. When the mind has been put to rest and disturbs no longer the inner space (chidakash), the body acquires a new meaning and its transformation becomes both necessary and possible.

Q: I have been wandering all over India, meeting many Gurus and learning in driblets several Yogas. Is it all right to have a taste of everything?

M: No, this is but an introduction. You will meet a man who will help you find your own way.

Q: I feel that the Guru of my own choice can not be my real Guru. To be real he must come unexpected and be irresistible.

M: Not to anticipate is best. The way you respond is decisive.

Q: Am I the master of my responses?

M: Discrimination and dispassion practised now will yield their fruits at the proper time. If the roots are healthy and well-watered, the fruits are sure to be sweet. Be pure, be alert, keep ready.

Q: Are austerities and penances of any use?

M: To meet all the vicissitudes of life is penance enough! You need not invent trouble. To meet cheerfully whatever life brings is all the austerity you need.

Q: What about sacrifice?

M: Share willingly and gladly all you have with whoever needs -- don't invent self-inflicted cruelties.

Q: What is self-surrender?

M: Accept what comes.

Q: I feel I am too weak to stand on my own legs. I need the holy company of a Guru and of good people. Equanimity is beyond me. To accept what comes as it comes, frightens me. I think of my returning to the States with horror.

M: Go back and make the best use of your opportunities. Get your B.Sc. degree first. You can always return to India for your Nature Cure studies.

Q: I am quite aware of the opportunities in the States. It is the loneliness that frightens me.

M: You have always the company of your own self -- you need not feel alone. Estranged from it even in India you will feel lonely. All happiness comes from pleasing the self. Please it, after return to the States, do nothing that may be unworthy of the glorious reality within your heart and you shall be happy and remain happy. But you must seek the self and, having found it, stay with it.

Q: Will compete solitude be of any benefit?

M: It depends on your temperament. You may work with others and for others, alert and friendly, and grow more fully than in solitude, which may make you dull or leave you at the mercy of your mind's endless chatter. Do not imagine that you can change through effort. Violence, even turned against yourself, as in austerities and penance, will remain fruitless.

Q: Is there no way of making out who is realised and who is not?

M: Your only proof is in yourself. If you find that you turn to gold, it will be a sign that you have touched the philosopher's stone. Stay with the person and watch what happens to you. Don't ask others. Their man may not be your Guru. A Guru may be universal in his essence, but not in his expressions. He may appear to be angry or greedy or over-anxious about his Ashram or his family, and you may be misled by appearances, while others are not.

Q: Have I not the right to expect all-round perfection, both inner and outer?

M: Inner --- yes. But outer perfection depends on circumstances, on the state of the body, personal and social, and other innumerable factors.

Q: I was told to find a jnani so that I may learn from him the art of achieving jnana and now I am told that the entire approach is false, that I cannot make out a jnani, nor can jnana be conquered by appropriate means. It is all so confusing!

M: It is all due to your complete misunderstanding of reality. Your mind is steeped in the habits of evaluation and acquisition and will not admit that the incomparable and unobtainable are waiting timelessly within your own heart for recognition. All you have to do is to abandon all memories and expectations. Just keep yourself ready in utter nakedness and nothingness.

Q: Who is to do the abandoning?

M: God will do it. Just see the need of being abandoned. Don't resist, don't hold on to the person you take yourself to be. Because you imagine yourself to be a person you take the jnani to be a person too, only somewhat different, better informed and more powerful. You may say that he is eternally conscious and happy, but it is far from expressing the whole truth. Don't trust definitions and descriptions -- they are grossly misleading.

Q: Unless I am told what to do and how to do it, I feel lost.

M: By all means do feel lost! As long as you feel competent and confident, reality is beyond your reach. Unless you accept inner adventure as a way of life, discovery will not come to you.

Q: Discovery of what?

M: Of the centre of your being, which is free of all directions, all means and ends.

Q: Be all, know all, have all?

M: Be nothing, know nothing, have nothing. This is the only life worth living, the only happiness worth having.

Q: I may admit that the goal is beyond my comprehension. Let me know the way at least.

M: You must find your own way. Unless you find it yourself it will not be your own way and will take you nowhere. Earnestly live your truth as you have found it -- act on the little you have understood. It is earnestness that will take you through, not cleverness -- your own or another's.

Q: I am afraid of mistakes. So many things I tried -- nothing came out of them.

M: You gave too little of yourself, you were merely curious, not earnest.

Q: I don't know any better.

M: At least that much you know. Knowing them to be superficial, give no value to your experiences, forget them as soon as they are over. Live a clean, selfless life, that is all.

Q: Is morality so important?

M: Don't cheat, don't hurt -- is it not important? Above all you need inner peace -- which demands harmony between the inner and the outer. Do what you believe in and believe in what you do. All else is a waste of energy and time.

[bhagavanbhakthi]

Answer to Q53. What are the 14 lokas names as per Hinduism?

Answer: As humans doing the right Dharma is the only cure. If we do the right Karma, we may again born as humans. If we do better Karmas, we may get the higher planets like:

Satya loka – This is the place of Sri Chatur Mukha Brahma, where each person’s atman is released from the inevitability of rebirth (but still moksha might not yet received).

Tapa loka – Ayohnija devadasis live here.

Jana loka – The sons of the god Brahma live here.

Mahar loka – Enlightened and 'jnani' (knowledgeable) people such as Markandeya live here.

Svar loka (Svarga Loka) – This is the place between the Sun and the Polar Star, the Heaven (Svarga Loka) of the Sri Indra Deva. In English it can be called as Heaven or Paradise, where all the 330 million Hindu Devatas / Demigods live here.

Bhuvar loka (or Pitru loka) – It is the place between Earth and the Sun. Semi-divine beings live here. Sri Surya Deva also live here.

Bhur loka – This is the Mother Earth place.

We the Hindus teach that it is one of billions of inhabited worlds in the universe. This shows the Hindu belief in the multiverses. This is the middle loka of all the 14 lokas.

Similarly if we do Adharma, we may get some other life in our next life, may be an animal or a tree or an insect or we may get to go to lower planets like:

Atala loka – Atala is ruled by Bala, who is a son of Maya. Maya possesses mystical powers.

Vitala loka – Vitala is ruled by the god Hara-Bhava, who is a form of Lord Shiva.

Sutala loka – Sutala is the kingdom of the demon king Bali. After Lord Vamana pushed Bali into deep ground, he was informed to stay in this loka by Lord Vamana.

Talatala loka – Talatala is the realm of Maya. Lord Shiva is also here under the protection of Maya.

Mahatala loka – Mahatala is where many nagas (sarpas / serpents) live.

Rasatala loka – Rasatala is the home of the demons called Danavas and Daityas.

Patala loka (or Naga-loka) – This is the lowest realm. It is the region of the nagas, ruled by Vasuki a King serpent. This is the same serpent which is place around the neck of Lord Shiva.

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[calloftheancestors]

“Durga is the Divine Goddess. She is the Shakti, the prana, that flows through the universe. There is no one to one correspondence between men and Shiva on one hand; and women and Shakti on the other. As the energy of the universe the Divine Goddess is present in both male and female, as well as both animate and inanimate objects. Nothing is beyond her, like nothing is beyond Shiva. To say that women represent the Divine Goddess exclusively would be the folly of the highest order.

Having said that, there are various things in the feminine nature that can be mapped more on the Divine Goddess. That is why our sages chose to represent the Shakti principle through the anthropomorphic form of a woman. The Shiva is the principle of the universe, and the Shakti is the energy which animates it. Shiva has no desire to create the universe, Shakti does. That is why the game of the Universe is called ‘Chitta-shakti-vilasa’, that is the play of consciousness.

In human society too we can see that men are more given to abstract principles while women are more interested in the manifestations of the principle. While Purusha is siddhanta, and Purusha in human society is interested more in siddhanta, Prakruti (Shakti) is the manifestation of the same siddhanta, or Purusha and similarly women make the world. Men would just live in the dorms, eat some hunger assuaging pills and be done with it. It is the women who make the home and the world for they find it interesting, they find it enjoying to play the game, just like the Shakti finds it entertaining to play the divine game.

There are of course exceptions to this in both males and females but I am talking of the principle. Both the genders have both the urges in varying degrees. The Divine Goddess is present everywhere.

Meditating upon Shiva the world of Maya dissolves and the Truth appears. But Shakti is the principle which also keeps the Universe afloat through Maya, for if everyone were to know the true nature of Shakti, the Divine Goddess, then the world would disappear. To keep playing the Divine Game, the Goddess keeps the Maya afloat, and keeps people doubting whether Mithya is Sat or Asat.

That does not mean that she is the principle of obfuscation of the truth, actually quite the opposite is true. Meditating upon her, we first realize the activity of our own prana, and then the cosmic prana, the Divine Pulsation. And by the sheer act of meditating upon Shakti, the Play of Consciousness, we arrive upon the Principle, that is, Shiva, also known as the Ultimate Truth.

For the Shakti does not exist in separation of Shiva. Their relation is that of Divine interdependence and thus of the assertion that they are not separate but two aspects of the same ultimate reality. In Shaivism the division of Shiva into Shiva and Shakti is the first Samkocha, or the coming down of Shakti from One to Many. After that, the divine dance continues in myriad differentiations.

Hindu mythology treats the issue in various different ways through hundreds of different stories. This principle and its manifestation is what we worship during the Navratras.

To bring it down to the level of ‘social justice’ is to abhorrently vulgarize the celebration of Divine Play of Consciousness.

Many claim that ‘Hindus have the right to reinterpret their own myths’. Yes, but you need to be an adhikari to be able to do so and there are only two ways in which you can become an adhikari of that:

1. First case is that if you have attained moksha and you are a Jnani. No rules apply on you and you are free to interpret the Goddess in any way that suits you.

2. Second case is when you are a Great Acharya like Adi Shankara who has summed up the entire knowledge tradition of Hindu dharma that came before him and thus has gained the unanimous adhikara to interpret the tradition or the goddess differently.

Apart from these two cases there is simply no way to ‘reinterpret the myths’. Any Tom, Dick and Harry cannot fantasize any theme and project it on the Divine Goddess even if it is a cause for ‘social justice’. For those who are not Jnani and not a great Acharya, the traditional depiction of the goddess on the right is the way to approach her divinity.

You want to work for the migrant women? Then help them directly. Do what well-meaning people do by creating social support systems for those who are vulnerable. Don’t project your social justice fashions on the Divine Goddess.”

—Pankaj Saxena

[nurtureoneslife]

From ~~~ Guru Ramana, Part II, Ch.II.

Q.:

Theosophy speaks of 50 to 10,000-year

intervals between death and rebirth.

Why is this so?

Sri Ramana Maharshi.:

There is no relation between

the standard of measurements

of one state of consciousness and another.

All such measurements are hypothetical.

It is true that some individuals

take more time and some less.

But it must be distinctly understood

that it is not the soul that comes and goes,

but the thinking mind of the individual,

which makes it appear to do so.

On whatever plane the mind happens to act,

it creates a body for itself:

in the physical world a physical body,

in the dream world a dream body,

which becomes wet with dream rain

and sick with dream diseases.

After the death of the physical body,

the mind remains inactive for some time,

as in dreamless sleep,

when it remains worldless

and therefore bodiless.

But soon it becomes active again

in a new world and a new body

– the astral, –

till it assumes another body

in what is called a “rebirth”.

But the Jnani, the Self-Realised man,

whose mind has already ceased to act,

remains unaffected by death:

it has dropped never to rise again

to cause births and deaths.

The chain of illusions

has snapped forever for him.

It is now clear that there is neither

real birth, nor real death.

It is the mind which creates and maintains

the illusion of reality in this process,

till it is destroyed by Self-Realisation.

~~~~~~~~~~