How is knowledge to be acquired?
How is liberation to be attained?
And how is dispassion to be reached?
Tell me this, sir.
If you are seeking liberation,
my dearest one,
shun the objects of the senses like poison.
Draught the nectar of tolerance,
sincerity, compassion, contentment and truthfulness.
You are neither earth, water, fire, air or even ether.
For liberation know yourself
as consisting of consciousness,
the witness of these five.
If only you will remain resting in consciousness,
seeing yourself as distinct from the body,
then even now you will become happy,
peaceful and free from bonds.
You do not belong to the brahmin or warrior or any other caste,
you are not at any stage,
nor are you anything that the eye can see.
You are unattached and formless,
the witness of everything -
now be happy.
Righteousness and unrighteousness,
pleasure and pain are purely of the mind
and are no concern of yours.
You are neither the doer
nor the reaper of the consequences;
you are always free.
You are the one witness of everything,
and are always totally free.
The cause of bondage is that one sees the witness
as something other than this.
Since you have been bitten by that black snake of self-opinion-
thinking foolishly that `I am the doer,',
now drink the nectar in the fact that
"I am not the doer",
and now be happy.
Burn down the forest of ignorance
with the fire of understanding.
Know `I am the one pure awareness.'
With such ashes now be happy,
free from distress.
That in which all this appears
is but imagined like the snake in a rope;
that joy, supreme knowledge and awareness
is what you are;
now be happy.
If one thinks of oneself as free,
one is free,
and if one thinks of oneself as bound,
one is bound.
Here this saying `Thinking makes it so' is true .
Your real nature is one perfect, free,
and actionless consciousness,
the all-pervading witness -
unattached to anything, desireless, at peace.
It is illusion
that you seem to be involved in any other matter.
Meditate on yourself as motionless awareness,
free from any dualism,
giving up the mistaken idea
that you are just a derivative consciousness;
anything external or internal is false.
You have long been trapped
in the snare of identification with the body.
Sever it with the knife of knowledge that
"I am awareness",
and be happy, my dearest.
You are really unbound and actionless,
self-illuminating and spotless already.
The cause of your bondage is that
you are still resorting to stilling the mind.
All of this is really filled by you
and strung out in you,
for what you consist of is pure awareness -
so don't be small-minded.
You are unconditioned and changeless,
formless and immovable, unfathomable awareness,
imperturbable- such consciousness is unclinging.
Recognise that the apparent is unreal,
while the unmanifest is abiding.
Through this initiation into truth
you will escape falling into unreality again.
Just as a mirror exists
as part and apart from its reflected images,
so the Supreme Lord exists
as part and apart from this body.
Just as one and the same all-pervading space exists
within and without a jar,
so the eternal, everlasting Being exists
in the totality of things.
Truly I am spotless and at peace,
the awareness beyond natural causality.
All this time I have been afflicted by delusion.
As I alone give light to this body,
so do I enlighten the world.
As a result the whole world is mine,
and, alternatively, nothing is.
So now abandoning the body
and everything else,
suddenly somehow my true self becomes apparent.
Just as waves, foam and bubbles are not different from water,
so all this which has emanated from oneself,
is no other than oneself.
Just as cloth when examined is found to be just thread,
so when all this is analysed
it is found to be no other than oneself.
Just as the sugar produced from the juice of the sugarcane
is permeated with the same taste,
so all this, produced out of me,
is completely permeated with me.
From ignorance of oneself,
the world appears,
and by knowledge of oneself it appears no longer.
From ignorance of the rope a snake appears,
and by knowledge of the rope the snake appears no longer.
Shining is my essential nature,
and I am nothing over and beyond that.
When the world shines forth,
it is simply me that is shining forth.
All this appears in me, imagined,
due to ignorance,
just as a snake appears in the rope,
just as the mirage of water in the sunlight,
and just as silver in mother of pearl.
All this, which has originated out of me,
is resolved back into me too,
like a gourd back into soil,
a wave into water,
and a bracelet into gold.
How wonderful I am!
Glory to me,
for whom there is no destruction,
remaining even beyond the destruction of the world
from Brahma down to the last blade of grass.
How wonderful I am!
Glory to me, solitary!
Even though with a body,
I am neither going or coming anywhere;
I abide forever,
filling all that is.
How wonderful I am!
Glory to me!
There is no one so clever as me!
I have borne all that is,
forever, without even touching it with my body!
How wonderful I am!
Glory to me!
I possess nothing at all,
and alternatively possess everything
to which speech and mind can refer.
Knowledge, what is to be known,
and the knower - these three do not exist in reality.
I am the spotless reality
in which they appear,
spotted by ignorance.
Truly dualism is the root of suffering.
There is no other remedy for it
than the realisation that all this that one sees is unreal,
and that I am the one stainless reality,
consisting of consciousness.
I am pure awareness
although through ignorance
I have imagined myself to have additional attributes.
By continually reflecting like this,
my dwelling place is the Unimagined.
For me,
here is neither bondage nor liberation.
The illusion has lost its basis and ceased.
Truly all this exists in me,
though ultimately it does not even exist in me.
I have recognised
that all this and my body are nothing,
while my true self is nothing but pure consciousness-
so what can the imagination work on now?
The body, heaven and hell, bondage and liberation, and fear too,
all this is active imagination.
What is there left to do for one
whose very nature is consciousness?
Truly I do not see dualism
even in a crowd of people.
What pleasure should I have
when it has turned into a wilderness?
I am not the body,
nor is the body mine.
I am not a living being.
I am consciousness.
It was my thirst for living that was my bondage.
Truly it is in the limitless ocean of myself,
stimulated by the colourful waves of the worlds,
that everything suddenly arises in the wind of consciousness.
It is in the limitless ocean of myself,
that the wind of thought subsides;
the trader-like living creatures' world ark
is now drydocked by lack of goods.
How wonderful it is that in the limitless ocean of myself
the waves of living beings arise, collide, play and disappear,
according to their natures.
Knowing yourself as truly one and indestructible,
how could a wise man like you-
one possessing self-knowledge-
feel any pleasure in acquiring wealth?
Truly, when one does not know oneself,
one takes pleasure in the objects
of mistaken perception,
just as greed for its seeming silver arises
in one who does not know mother-of-pearl for what it is.
All this wells up like waves in the sea.
Recognising, I am That,
why run around like someone in need?
After hearing of oneself as pure consciousness
and the supremely beautiful,
is one to go on lusting after sordid sensual objects?
When the sage has realised
that one is oneself is in all beings,
and all beings are in oneself,
it is astonishing that the sense of individuality
should be able to continue.
It is astonishing
that a person who has reached the supreme non-dual state
and is intent on the benefits of liberation
should still be subject to lust
and be held back by the desire to copulate.
It is astonishing that one already very debilitated,
and knowing very well that sensual arousal is the enemy of knowledge
should still eagerly hanker after concupiscence,
even when approaching one's last days.
It is astonishing that one who is
unattached to the things of this world or the next,
who discriminates between the permanent and the impermanent,
and who longs for liberation,
should still feel fear for liberation.
Whether feted or tormented,
the wise person is always aware of the supreme self-nature
and is neither expectant
nor disappointed.
The great souled person
sees even one's own body in action
as if it were someone else's,
so how then be disturbed
by praise or blame?
Seeing this world as pure illusion,
and devoid of any interest in it,
how should the strong-minded person feel fear,
even at the approach of death?
Who is to be compared to the great-souled person
whose mind is free of desire,
free of expectation and disappointment,
and who has found satisfaction in self-knowledge?
How should a strong-minded person
who knows that whatever is seen
is by its very nature nothing,
how then consider one thing to be grasped
and another to be rejected?
For someone who has eliminated attachment,
and who is free from dualism
and from desire and from repulsion,
for such a one an object that comes of itself
is neither painful nor pleasurable.
Certainly the wise person of self-knowledge,
playing the game of worldly life,
bears no resemblance whatever
to the world's bewildered beasts of burden.
Truly the one centered in mystic union
feels no excitement even at being established in that state
which all the gods from Indra down
yearn for disconsolately.
He who has known That
is untouched within by good deeds or bad,
just as the sky is not touched by smoke,
however much it may appear to be.
Who can prevent the great-souled person
who has known this whole world as oneself
from living as one pleases?
Of all the four categories of beings,
from Brahma down to the dryest clump of grass,
only the person of knowledge is capable
of eliminating desire and aversion.
Rare is the person who knows oneself
as the undivided Lord of the world;
no fear occurs to one
who lives the truth.
You are not bound by anything.
What does a pure person like you
need to renounce?
Putting the complex organism to rest,
you can go to your rest.
All this arises out of you,
like a bubble out of the sea.
Knowing yourself like this
to be but one,
you can go to your rest.
In spite of being in front of your eyes,
all this, being insubstantial,
does not exist in you,
spotless as you are.
It is an appearance
like the snake in a rope,
so you can go to your rest.
Equal in pain and in pleasure,
equal in hope and in disappointment,
equal in life and in death,
and complete as you are,
you can go to your rest.
I am infinite like space,
and the natural world is like a jar.
To know this is knowledge,
and then there is neither
renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
I am like the ocean,
and the multiplicity of objects is comparable to a wave.
To know this is knowledge,
and here there is neither
renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
I am like the mother of pearl,
and the imagined world is like the silver.
To know this is knowledge,
and here there is neither
renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
Alternatively,
I am in all beings,
and all beings are in me.
To know this is knowledge,
and here there is neither
renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
It is in the infinite ocean of myself
that the world ark wanders here and there,
driven by its own wind.
I am not upset by that.
Let the world wave of its own nature
rise or vanish in the infinite ocean of myself.
There is no increase or diminution to me from it.
It is in the infinite ocean of myself
that the imagination called the world takes place.
I am supremely peaceful and formless,
and as such I remain.
My true nature is not contained in objects,
nor does any object exist in it,
for it is infinite and spotless.
So it is unattached, desireless and at peace,
and as such I remain.
Truly I am but pure consciousness,
and the world is like a conjuror's show,
so how could I imagine
there is anything here to take up or reject ?
Bondage is when the mind longs for something,
grieves about something,
rejects something,
holds on to something,
is pleased about something
or displeased about something.
Liberation is when the mind
does not long for anything,
grieve about anything,
reject anything,
or hold on to anything,
and is not pleased about anything
or displeased about anything.
Bondage is when the mind is tangled
in one of the senses,
and liberation is when the mind
is not tangled in any of the senses.
When there is no `me',
that is liberation,
and when there is me there is bondage.
Considering this earnestly,
I do not hold on and do not reject.
Knowing when the dualism of things done and undone has been put to rest,
or the person for whom they occur has been cognized,
then you can here and now
go beyond renunciation and obligations
by indifference to such things.
Rare indeed, my dearest,
is the lucky person
whose observation of the world's behaviour
has led to the extinction
of the thirst for living,
for pleasure and for knowledge.
All this is impermanent
and spoilt by the three sorts of pain.
Recognising it to be insubstantial,
comtemptible and only fit for indifference,
one attains peace.
When was that age or time of life
when the dualism of extremes did not exist for people?
Abandoning them,
a person happy to take whatever comes
suddenly realizes perfection.
Who does not end up with indifference to such things
and attain peace when he has seen the differences of opinions
among the great sages, saints and yogis?
Is he not a guru who,
endowed with dispassion and equanimity,
achieves full knowledge of the nature of consciousness,
and so leads others out of samsara?
If you would just see the transformations of the elements
as nothing more than the elements,
then you would immediately be freed
from all bonds and established in your own nature.
One's inclinations are samsara.
Knowing this, abandon them.
The renunciation of them is the renunciation of it.
Now you can remain as you are.
Abandoning desire,
the enemy, along with gain, itself so full of loss,
and the good deeds
which are the cause of the other two -
I practice indifference to everything.
I look on such things as friends, land, money, property, wife,
and bequests as nothing
but as a dream or a three or five-day conjuror's show.
Wherever a desire occurs,
I see samsara in it.
Establishing myself in firm dispassion,
I be free of passion and happy.
The essential nature of bondage
is nothing other than desire,
and its elimination
is known as liberation.
It is simply by not being attached to changing things
that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached.
You are one,
conscious and pure,
while all this is just inert non-being.
Ignorance itself is nothing,
so what need have you of desire to understand?
Kingdoms, children, wives, bodies, pleasures -
these have all been lost to you
life after life,
attached to them though you were.
Enough of wealth, sensuality and good deeds.
In the forest of samsara
the mind has never found satisfaction in these.
How many births
have you not done hard and painful labour
with body, mind and speech.
Now at last stop!