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With
all objective knowledge banished, with no trace of
thought or nescience, with all the three states of
waking, dream and sleep wiped out, with all thought
of death and birth abolished, and ever established
in the spontaneous blissful state of Brahman-Self,
the condition of the videhamukta [liberation at
death] cannot be conceived, and much less
expressed in words.
The continued repetition of "I am Brahman-Self"
constitutes the sole mantra leading to liberation.
All other mantras connected with diverse gods
should be firmly eschewed, as they aim at mundane
objectives other than the Self. All other mantras
always entangle one inextricably in the bondage of
worldly enjoyments.
Lord Shiva must be meditated upon and realised to
be the Self, by making the restless mind stay still
and alert after it has been adequately restrained,
and completely prevented from the pursuit of sense
objects, namely, the shadow pictures on the screen
of the Self. All shadow pictures removed, what
remains is pure awareness, the spotlessly effulgent
screen. Thus, Shiva reveals Himself spontaneously
as the sole eternal being-consciousness-bliss-Self,
the very essence of the nature of the
worshipper.
The jivanmukti is a being liberated during his
lifetime, who continues to have consciousness of
the body and the world [as Reality] along
with his firm abidance in his Self. He ever abides
in the blissful peace of being-consciousness-bliss.
He is poised rock-firm in the conviction that he is
not the body, and that his being is the sole
existence, the sole alert-awareness-bliss of Self
Supreme.
The liberated being has his consciousness
completely dissolved beyond recognition in his
Brahman-Self. Eternally alone in his Self, he is
ever lost in the enjoyment of the bliss of his
Brahman-Self.
The videhamukta [one who is liberated at
death] is free from the least trace of thought;
he abides all alone in his effulgent, pure
awareness-Self in intense unbroken bliss, totally
oblivious of limited forms, in a state of stillness
of body, speech and mind.
He is the pure embodiment of
being-consciousness-bliss, all-pervasive as ether,
infinite as the sky, all alert with awareness,
spontaneously abiding as the perfect Brahman-Self
in a state of still, unbroken, peaceful bliss.
There is not an atom apart from the Self, which is
the integral undifferentiated perfection of Whole
being. Soul, world and creator are inseparable from
the Self. The reality of these is the reality of
the Self only.
All ignorance and illusion, all objects inert and
living, all beings and non-beings, all the five
elements, all the diverse worlds, all bodies and
the lives that arise in them, not being apart from
Brahman-Self, are Brahman-Self only. Existence
alone is, for even non-existence acquires meaning
only in existence. Simply put, everything exists
always as Brahman-Self only.
All objective knowledge, all thought forms, all
visible objects, all things heard, all questions
and answers, all the food consumed and all other
illusions, not being apart from the Self, should be
regarded as Brahman-Self only.
Therefore one should practise the habit of
regarding everything as Brahman-Self only; until
all thought of things other than the Self is lost.
This condition once achieved, one should not give
room for any thought and should ever abide in the
peace of total stillness.
Anything seen as other than Brahman-Self is bound
to cause fear and trouble. Therefore, it behoves
one to stick to the single attitude that everything
sensed is Brahman-Self alone. In due course even
this one thought must be given up, in order to
abide firmly in the free undisturbed blissful state
of the sole Brahman-Self.
The total discarding of the mind is alone victory,
achievement, bliss, yoga, wisdom and liberation.
The sacrifice of the mind is, in fact, the totality
of all sacred sacrifices.
The firm denial of the existence of the mind and
the firm belief in the existence of Brahman-Self,
is the sure way to the conquest of mind, leading to
the experience of the sole effulgent Self.
If one gives the slightest room for the thought
that the mind exists, pure awareness itself will
vibrate as the ruffled mind, which is the parent of
all trouble and illusions. Therefore, one should
ever abide in the true knowledge that there is no
mind, and that the pure awareness-Self is the sole
existence. This is the easy way to conquer the mind
with all its vagaries.
There is no such thing as the troublesome mind, no
world of names and forms, not the least bit of ego.
All these are nothing but the perfect Brahman-Self,
which I am. In this faith one should abide firmly,
until one achieves the state of sleepless-sleep
which is alert-peace-eternal.
To hold on to the faith born of Self-enquiry that
"I am no doubt the screen-Brahman-Self, and the
world picture thereon, though evanescent, is no
doubt I am Self only", and to abide still and
blissful in that faith is the acme of all spiritual
disciplines, like divine worship, charitable gifts,
spiritual austerities, repetition of mantras and
transcendental awareness.
The Self alone is the spontaneous self effulgent
awareness; that alone is eternal bliss; that alone
is existence everlasting; that alone is all
embracing perfection, the sole Godhead without a
rival and the sole primordial substratum of the
universe. In the the conviction born of this
experience, one should ever abide, as the sole "I
am", the Supreme Self.
Remaining alertly aware and thought-free, with a
still mind devoid of differentiation of Self and
non-Self even while being engaged in the activities
of worldly life, is called the natural state.
Functioning naturally from the Self is the hallmark
of a liberated being. With progressive development
towards this state, an intensity of blissful peace
is attained, leading on to the four successive
stages of perfection in transcendental awareness.
Nothing short of abiding in the natural state will
be of any avail in destroying the fearsome cycle of
births and deaths.
That realised being who abides in the Brahman-Self,
and has lost all feelings of differentiation of
Self and non-Self, is the enlightened sage
[jnani]. Such a one is rare to find even by
searching among millions of people. If one has the
lucky opportunity of getting his darshan
[seeing or be seen by a holy being] one
attains purification from all his sins, and what is
more, such a person's ego gets liquidated at
once.
Darshan of the matured jnani constitutes the acme
of purification of baths taken in sacred waters,
divine worship, repeating mantras, spiritual
austerities, charitable acts and devotional worship
of Lord Shiva. To find and to gain access to the
sacred presence of such a jnani is the luckiest of
opportunities that one could ever obtain in this
world.
Worshipful service rendered unto such a jnani
Satguru quickens one's spiritual wisdom to attain
the bliss of total liberation. If continued
further, it bestows on the disciple even the status
of videhamukti. Therefore, if one is keen on being
released from bondage into the freedom of spiritual
liberation, the one infallible means of achieving
that aim is the loving and worshipful service of
the jnani Satguru.
Firmly established in the Self, undisturbed by the
least ripple of thought, as still as an idol of
stone or wood, dissolved completely in
Brahman-Self, even as water is in milk, with
awareness devoid of all impurities of thought and
drowsiness, standing clear as the pure sky, the
grandeur of the jnani's firm stance in the Self
defies thought and expression.
That in which the whole universe is born and into
which it is absorbed in dissolution, is the
Shiva-Self. Devoted worship of and meditation on
that Shiva-Self of pure consciousness alone will
attract Shiva's Grace, which is indispensable for
liberation.
Those engaged in the pursuit of knowledge of the
Brahman-Self, happening to get involved in the
mundane pleasures of sex, should regard such
pleasures as merely faint shadows of the bliss of
the Self. They should never even dream of worldly
pleasures.
The disciple practising meditation on the Self,
should always think firmly that all diversities of
soul, world and creator are the undifferentiated
Brahman-Self only. By practice, his consciousness
is freed from thoughts, after which he should give
up the above thought also and abide always in the
thought-free state of the Self.
Abidance in the state of thought-free, alert
awareness-Self is the state of liberation beyond
thought and expression. The emergence of thought is
the bondage of untold suffering. Abidance in the
Self is the true non-dual awareness, and that alone
leads one to the eternal bliss of liberation.
The great illusions: mind and individual souls,
world and its creator, all names and forms, and all
mental conceptions are nothing but the Self. One
should ever abide firmly in the peace of the
Self.
All worlds and creatures are only thought forms.
They are nothing but the mind, which is a bundle of
thoughts, which again are nothing more than ripples
in the still ocean of awareness-Self, and certainly
nothing apart from that Self. Therefore, one should
abide in the firm faith that all objects are only
"I am Brahman-Self".
There are no such things as achieved objectives and
the efforts leading to them, association with the
wise or the ignorant, efforts of learning and
knowledge acquired, acts of enquiry and practice,
the learner or the learned, and any goals achieved.
What exists is only Brahman, the effulgent
awareness-Self.
One should be firm in the understanding that there
are no charitable acts, sacred waters and pilgrim
centres, no loss or gain and no loser or gainer, no
karma, devotion and wisdom, and no knower or known.
All these thought-forms are bound to be dissolved
and lost in the Brahman-Self, which is the sole
existence.
The steady faith in "I am Brahman-Self" swiftly
takes one to liberation. As the continued reading
of the texts generating that faith, takes the
aspirant unerringly to the goal, he should always
dwell on the written words dealing with the
Brahman-Self.
The illusion that one is the body and that the
world is the basic Reality has remained soaked over
a long, long time, and cannot be got rid of by the
casual reading and mere understanding of the Truth.
The basic illusion can be effaced only by the firm
conviction that "All this is Brahman-Self and I am
Brahman-Self".
Everything is only a concoction of time, space and
energy. All else is the trite talk of people who
dislike the effort of spiritual discipline which
takes them to the Self. This talk is based on their
dense ignorance of the Self. Only by persistent
practice and direct experience can one arrive at
the Truth that all concepts of souls, world, and
the cause thereof are just evanescent shadows on
the screen of Shiva-Brahman-Self.
There is never such a thing as conception of names
and forms, no such thing as the conceiving mind, no
such thing as a person lost in repetitive history,
and no such things as the world and its creator.
Everything that is seen to exist must be realised
to be no other than the sole, pure
awareness-being-Brahman-Self.
Whatever is found to exist is existence only.
Whatever is pleasurable is bliss only. One should
ever abide in the bedrock awareness of
being-consciousness-bliss-Self. Never for once
should one slip, even inadvertently, into the
disastrous conviction that one is the body and that
the world is real.
One should abide in the rock-firm Truth that,
"Everything is only Brahman-Self and I am that
Brahman-Self." By fixing the mind on this Truth,
all thought movements and nescience will disappear,
resulting in the eternal abidance in the sole
natural state of
being-consciousness-bliss-Self.
By abiding in the Self, the wandering mind is
reduced to perfect stillness after being freed from
all nescience and thought currents. It gets lost in
the being-consciousness-bliss-Self in the same way
that water is lost when mixed with milk.
Having realised that the world picture on the
screen-Self is evanescent and essentially
non-existent, one should ever remain still and
blissful in the firm knowledge of ever being the
sole Brahman-Self only. This matured, natural state
of abidance in the Self should be maintained even
while functioning as an individual in the world of
name and form.
In that blissful Self wherein there is no action of
body, speech and mind, no virtuous or sinful action
and the fruits thereof, one should remain still,
eschewing the least trace of thought.
In that Self wherein there is neither conceiver nor
conception of the world of names and forms, one
should remain blissfully still, eschewing the least
trace of thought.
In that Self wherein desire, anger, covetousness,
confusion, bigotry and envy are all absent; in that
Self wherein there is no thought of bondage or
release, one should abide blissfully still,
eschewing the least ripple of thought.
Firmly abiding in the Self one acquires the
totality of all knowledge and achieves the
successful completion of all endeavours and duties.
In that state one should abide blissful and still,
eschewing the least ripple of thought.
Mind merged completely in the Self, one becomes a
lord without rival-steeped in bliss beyond compare.
In that state one should abide still, free from the
least trace of thought.
I am that Self which is integral
existence-awareness-bliss, the sole Brahman-Self.
Firm in the conviction born of this experience, one
should abide still, free from the least trace of
thought.
In the conviction that "I am the Self in which no
thought, ego, desire, mind or confusion can exist",
one should abide still, free from trace of thought.
The firm conviction of being the Self is sufficient
to dispel all thought and establish one in
Brahman-Self.
There is certainly no such thing as mind with its
constituents of thought and thought forms of
objects. In this conviction one should ever abide
still and at peace, in the state of thought-free,
alert awareness-Self which endures after all
spiritual disciplines and its rigours have
exhausted themselves in Brahman-Self.
Having gained the experience that there is no
creator, no illusion, no duality, and no objects at
all, and that pure awareness-Self alone exists, one
should ever remain still and peaceful in that state
of Selfhood.
If a person gives heed to these teachings he would
certainly gain the Grace of Lord Shiva and attain
the state of Selfhood even though he is immersed in
the dense darkness of nescience which could not be
banished by the glare of a million suns.
Why waste words? This is the Truth in a nutshell.
Only those who have earned the Grace of our Lord
Shiva by long devotional worship will get the rare
opportunity of reading this scriptural text which
leads to the bliss of peace everlasting in
Brahman-Self.
Only that sage who teaches that "Thou art the
thought-free, alertly aware, absolutely still, ever
blissful, intensely peaceful, unqualified
Brahman-Self", is the true Satguru, and others are
not.
Unbroken abidance in the state of alert awareness,
unruffled by thoughts, is Self-realisation. This
state is easily attainable only for those who have
earned the divine Grace of Shiva by deep devotion
to Him, and not for others. What is stated here is
the import in a nutshell of the message of that
charming crest jewel of the Vedas known as
the Upanishads.
Those who give heed to this message and abide in
accordance with it will forthwith attain
liberation. They will not suffer from the least
particle of affliction; they will enjoy a bliss far
greater than the bliss attained from this and all
other worlds; they and their environments will be
filled with the plenitude of auspicious events.
Totally free from all trace of fear, they will
never again enter the cycle of births and deaths.
They will become the immutable Brahman-Self. All
this we swear is the Truth beyond doubt, the
fundamental Truth.
That state of still, pure, effulgent awareness is
liberation, the state beyond compare. Those who
maintain an unbroken abidance in that supreme state
will never more be touched by suffering or
confusion, and will be absolved from all duties.
Such duties, if any, will somehow be completed
without any volition on their part. They will
eternally abide as the sole Supreme Self.
By the persistent and continued conviction that "I
am the Brahman-Self", all thoughts and feelings of
differentiation of Self and non-Self will drop off
and permanent abidance in Brahman-Self will be
achieved. This is possible only for those with a
keen enquiring mind intent on knowing the Self and
not for those who are indifferent about
Self-knowledge.
Ignorance and indifference in regard to the enquiry
of the truth about one's Self is the store house of
nescience and trouble, blocking the view of the
Self, and creating in a split second all sorts of
illusions and harassment of mental worry.
Non-enquiry renders liberation impossible.
In short, non-enquiry will steep one forever in the
ocean of earthly suffering. There is no greater
enemy for one than non-enquiry. With the kind help
of the Satguru, one should enquire, "Who am I? What
is this world? What is the Reality behind all
these?"
Staying in the company of a Satguru and
respectfully questioning him, one should first make
oneself clear about the objective to be obtained.
This is an important aspect of the enquiry. After
thus making sure of the objective, one must firmly
abide in that objective of sole Brahman-Self until
the Self is unmistakably experienced.
The conscious introspective concentration of
Self-enquiry kills all thoughts and destroys the
dense darkness of nescience; it effaces all worry;
it illuminates the intellect with the radiance of
pure awareness; it wipes out all conceptual
confusions; it fixes one in Brahman-Self; it
transforms a host of impending disasters into
auspicious events; and lastly, it destroys the
ego-mind utterly with all its afflictions.
Only by those strong willed persons who make
earnest and persistent Self-enquiry will the
turbulent mind be calmed and firmly established in
the awareness-Self.
One should relentlessly pursue Self-enquiry until
all conceptual forms of creature, world and creator
merge and disappear in the pure, thought-free,
alert awareness-Self, enabling one to abide in the
faith that "I am the Brahman-Self".
It is only the mind which appears as the world and
bondage; there is no world other than the mind. On
enquiry, this mind turns out to be nothing more
than a group of ripple-thoughts in the still ocean
of pure awareness-Shiva-Self. I am that Shiva-Self
only and there is nothing apart from me. In this
firm experience one should ever abide.
There is no world apart from the mind. What appears
as the world is only the mind. If this mind is
investigated, it turns out to be nothing more than
a bundle of thoughts based on the primary thought
of "I am the body", called the ego. If this ego-I
is enquired into and its identity searched out, it
gets swallowed up without a trace in the pure
awareness-being-Shiva-Self. One should maintain
this firm conviction that "I am Self-Shiva" until
that state of being the Shiva-Self becomes the
spontaneous experience free from any effort.
In me, the pure awareness-Self, the universe is
born, maintained and dissolved as the mind.
Therefore, there are no mind and thought forms of
objects apart from me, the Self. In this firm
experience one should ever abide.
One should ever abide as pure Shiva-Self by the
firm experience that there are no thought forms of
creature, world and creator apart from the mind
which is just an array of ripples in me the still
ocean of pure awareness-Self and therefore I am the
sole being Shiva-Self only.
Even as the world, seen in my dream, is not apart
from me but only my creation, even so, the world of
the waking state is only a creation made by me and
seen by me in the medium of my pure awareness-Self.
In this experience one should firmly abide.
The rock-firm conviction that "I am the Self" is
the sure mark of firm abidance in the Self.
Abidance in that conviction under all conditions
is, true divine worship, meditation on God,
incantation of mantras, practice of right conduct
in life, contemplation, integral yoga, wisdom of
the Self and final liberation.
Whatever appears as illusion, creator, creature,
mind, world, names and forms are the pure
Brahman-Self only and not apart from that Self.
Steady abidance in the rock-firm conviction born of
the experience that "I am the Self", is the
greatest yoga, total dissolution of the mind, true
renunciation, true wisdom and final liberation.
Whatever names and forms are seen by me in my dream
are not anything apart from me. Even so, this world
seen by me in my waking state is not anything apart
from me, the awareness-Self that I am. The wise one
should give up all differentiation of Self and
non-Self, and abide as pure Self only.
If this world of the waking state is not evanescent
in its nature, whatever is seen in the waking state
must be seen during sleep also. Since I, as pure
Self, exist alone and always, there is no room for
thought of a non-Self world. I-Brahman-Self is the
sole existence.
No world exists during the absence of the mind, and
there is no mind apart from my awareness-Self. So,
mind and world are nothing apart from the Self, and
I am ever that sole
existence-awareness-Brahman-Self. The wise one
should abolish all thought of differentiation of
Self and non-Self.
I see neither mind nor world during my sleep. In my
dream there is mind with its creation, the dream
world. The dream world is falsified in my waking
state. But I-Self exist always. Arguing thus, one
must give up all differentiation of Self and
non-Self, and ever abide firmly as the
thought-free, alert awareness-Brahman-Self.
All diversities of world, mind, wakefulness, dream,
sleep, talk of you and me are evanescent, and yet,
not apart from the Self. Thus, a wise one should
give up all thought of Self and non-Self and abide
as Self only.
In dim light the illusion of a serpent is seen in a
rope, and this serpent is nothing but the rope.
Even so all illusion of non-Self exists in the Self
only. Thus wise one should give up all thought of
Self and non-Self and ever abide firmly in the
peace of the Self.
In the wisdom of integral experience, I am the
non-dual, transcendental, motionless, peaceful,
bondage-free, notion-free, sky of pure
consciousness only. With this experience one should
reject all differentiation of Self and non-Self and
ever abide firmly in the peace of Brahman-Self.
One should give up all yogic practices like breath
control, all religious dogmas and their diverse
disciplines and be ever satisfied in simple
abidance as the Self only.
Only those who contemplate on Lord Shiva, the pure
supporting screen of all manifestation, gain the
pure experience of continued Self abidance. Apart
from this devotion to Lord Shiva, the pure, alert
awareness-Self, there are no other means leading to
liberation.
The non-dual sole being existing in deep sleep
conjures up a world in the dream state. Even so,
the shadow world conjured up in the waking state is
the work of the power, inherent in one's own
Brahman-Self. Abiding firmly in the experience of
pure Brahman-Self, one finds that the mind and all
its confabulations are lost forever.
One should remain firm in the conviction "I am the
Self" and reject all thoughts like "I am this body"
and "This world is real". If one maintains this
habit unremittingly, this false belief will drop
away even as a flower held in the hand slips away
when one falls into deep slumber.
One is solely responsible for one's own liberation
or bondage, since the choice of destroying the
restless mind or allowing it to roam at large rests
with that one only. Therefore, one should conquer
the restless mind by steady abidance in the pure,
thought-free, alert-awareness-Self only.
You are the sole Supreme Godhead, the Self. There
is nothing apart from you. This, we declare to be
the ultimate Truth after a complete analysis of all
the scriptures. By the holy feet of Shiva, we swear
this to be the truth beyond all doubt. By the feet
of the Satguru, we swear again that this is the
truth declared by the Upanishads.
By the sole practice of the teachings of this book,
all confusion and ignorance will be destroyed. Firm
abidance in the Self will be the positive result.
With the fusion of the wisdom and peaceful bliss in
the Self, liberation will be attained.
Only when all sins are washed off by the practice
of virtues running through many lives, one gets the
rare opportunity of securing this treatise and
practising its tenets.
By the feet of Lord Shiva we declare that only
those whose cycle of births and deaths has come to
an end with this life will ever get this treatise
in their hands and practise its teachings.
O My Lord Satguru! By Thy Grace I have, in a split
second, shed all sense of differentiation of Self
and non-Self; I have attained the certainty that
"All is Brahman and I am that Brahman-Self"; I have
become settled in the eternal bliss of
Brahman-Self.
I am verily the
being-consciousness-bliss-Brahman-Self. I am the
eternal undisturbed peace devoid of name and form.
I am the flawless integral whole of all existence.
Firmly I am settled in my sole Brahman-Self.
I have become the five elements, multitudinous
worlds scattered in the skies, all existing things
and their histories, all the Vedas, and all the
diversities of name and form.
At one stroke I have become the bodies, senses, and
souls owning them, the mind, intellect, intuition,
ego, the primal nescience and the restless
commotion of spirit, and in short all that is seen
and known.
That mature jnani who is lost in the total
stillness of the pure, effulgent
awareness-Brahman-Self, devoid of the least trace
of nescience, fully devoid of all consciousness of
the body and its three states of waking, dream and
sleep, devoid of all distinctions of name and form
and devoid of any thought of bondage or freedom is
a videhamukta.
Thou hast, O Lord Satguru, taken me across the
boundless ocean of samsara in the boat of
Self-knowledge. To me, floundering in the misery of
the belief that "I am the body" thou hast taught
that "I am the Brahman-Self" and vouchsafed to me
the bliss of all embracing awareness-being. To
thee, I render these devout salutations.
Salutations to thee, my Lord Satguru! Thou hast
destroyed my illusion that I am the body and that
the world is apart from me and is real. Thou hast
given me the experience of my own Brahman-Self.
Thou hast destroyed my wrong belief that action is
the road to salvation, and showing that knowledge
alone could make one free. Thou hast given me my
salvation in the Self .
To that Satguru who is the core of my Self, who
destroyed my nescience by the gift of
awareness-Self, to that embodiment of
Self-knowledge, do I offer these salutations.
Salutations to the Satguru who is the embodiment of
undisturbed peace, without attributes, eternal
purity, all-pervasive infinite sky of consciousness
and integral perfection.
Salutations to
being-consciousness-bliss-Shiva-Self!
Salutations to that peace undisturbed, the
Self!
Salutations to that integral perfection, the
Self!
Salutations to that effulgent-awareness, the
Self!
Salutations to that blemish-free Self without
attributes!
Salutations to that indivisible unity, the
Self!
Salutations to that pure sky of consciousness, the
Self!
Salutations to that goal integral existence, the
Self!
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