The self-surrender is truly made by him who always has the feeling, ‘Let all things happen according to your will. In all respects, I am bound to you.’
That is, after self-surrender, he must resign himself to the divine will, without any reservations.
He that has surrendered himself will be at peace, remembering that He [God] is the bearer of the world’s burden. The one that bears the burden himself will be
ridiculous, like the figure on the temple-tower appearing to bear the tower on its own shoulders.
As one travelling in a carriage puts down his luggage in the carriage itself and completes his journey, so should he resign his own [samsaric] burden to God and complete his life in the world.
Those who take on themselves the task of reforming the world or of alleviating the sufferings of others are dealt with next.
The wise one should resign to God his cares concerning the good of the world, just as he resigns to Him his cares about his own body and family.
The ripe devotee must pass his time, patiently enduring whatever happens to him, whether pleasant or unpleasant or otherwise, without yielding to sorrow or joy, with his heart absorbed in Him.
When the ego dies, having been swallowed by divine grace, the devotee’s self-surrender becomes true and complete.
This has been said in the language of the intellect. But the actual truth of this consummation transcends the intellect and is hence not easy to convey in words. Indeed, the notion of self-surrender is absorbed from the standpoint of the absolute truth.
As would be the offering [to Ganesa] of a portion, taken from an image of Ganesa made of jaggery, so is the surrender of one’s self to God, since there is no self apart from Him.
Since the Self is the Supreme Being Himself, by whom, how and to whom is the surrender to be made? True self-surrender is only the extinction of the ego, by which the sense of being different from Him arises.
‘If you desire to give yourself to God, then first seek out and know your Self. The gift of oneself to God will be accomplished in this way.’ So said the most holy one.
The truth about namaskara (prostration) is the same as self-surrender. This is explained next.
The truth of namaskara also is only the perfect giving up of the ego-sense. Right awareness, self-surrender and namaskara, all these three are one and the same.
Thus it is shown that God does not become an object of vision. Neither does He become an object of knowledge. This is shown next.
As God does not become an object of vision, neither does He become an object of knowledge. Since He transcends the mind, the mind will know Him [if at all] only wrongly.
Since the real Self, which is consciousness, is the same as God, and since there is no consciousness apart from Him, [it follows that] there is no one to know Him, other than He, nor does He become an object of knowledge.
The real Self is the eternal subject, and hence He can never become an object, says Bhagavan.
The source of the light of consciousness that exists in the mind is just the real Self. Hence, apart from Him, there is no such thing as mind existing as something real.
Like the sun, the consciousness that is the Self shines in the Heart by its own light. By its light the mind – which by itself is insentient – appears as sentient, like the moon.
Since [mind-] consciousness is not the true nature of the mind, it goes into latency in deep sleep. [But] the real Self never goes into latency since consciousness is its very nature.
But the mind has the power of veiling the Self.
The mind always veils [for itself] the real nature of the Self, both in dream and in waking. Becoming latent in deep sleep and wholly extinguished in the supreme state, how can it ever know Him, who is the sole reality?
What then is ‘knowing God’?
There is the pronouncement of the most holy one that the true knowing of God is simply the mind becoming one with Him in the natural state by seeking the source wherefrom it has come into being.
Thus the pair of God and the individual soul is resolved. The conclusion is as follows.
What one has to do is obtain perfect poise in unity with the Supreme Being, whether by devotion or by the quest of the real Self, with the clear understanding that God and the soul are not distinct entities in reality.
The next pair to be discussed is that of knowledge and ignorance.
There is a two-fold ignorance, named as knowledge and ignorance, which is experienced by those not aware of the real Self. This pair is unreal just like all else.
The two are inseparable. Neither exists without the other, and because both arise from ignorance of the Self, both are equally ignorance.
Worldly knowledge and worldly ignorance are both ignorance for the reason stated here. This is explained further.
Everyone, being ignorant of his own real Self, seeks to know what is not-Self. The relative knowledge [acquired in this way] is an outcome of this ignorance. Hence, says our Guru, it is only ignorance.
Whatever knowledge one acquires by the intellect and the senses, if it is acquired without first knowing the truth of the one that arises, saying ‘I am the knower’, is all wrong knowledge.
He that does not know the Self might consider the world, which is unreal, to be real, and he will look upon his own real Self, which transcends the world, as an individual soul contained in the world.
The intellect, the senses and the mind are only the servants of the primary ignorance. Hence, the worldly modes of ‘proof’ serve only to delude the creature.
If the ego dies by the quest, ‘Whence arises the ego, the experiencer of the two, knowledge and ignorance?’ with it will be extinguished this pair [knowledge and ignorance].
Right awareness is only dwelling in the natural state of the Self, after the extinction of the ego. In that state, which is free from duality, these two manifestations of ignorance, which belong to the worldly life, do not survive.
The sages [Buddhas] call that the state of right awareness. In it there is neither knowledge nor ignorance. That is the highest state, in which there is nothing, whether sentient or insentient, other than the Self.
The illiterate, the literate and the ‘knower of the Self’ are all three equally ignorant. The third one also is ignorant, because for him there is nothing knowable other than the Self.
This was what Bhagavan said. The first two are ignorant because they do not know the Self. The sage is ignorant for a different reason, which is here stated. He also said:
That one who has become established in his own natural state is adorable by all, whether men or angels. As he is not distinct from the Supreme Being, he is also fit to be adored [as God] by the seekers of deliverance.
A doubt raised by some disciples is next answered.
Not knowing that this worldly knowledge is only ignorance, some ask: ‘Let ignorance come to an end in the supreme state, but why should knowledge also cease?’
In the supreme state there is nothing to be known, neither a knower, nor knowledge [of objects]. Just as pairs are absent in that state, so the triads also are absent.
In the supreme state that Self shines alone, free from both knowledge and ignorance. Since it is there as pure consciousness, without change, how can that state be a void?
That the state is not a void is mentioned here because some believe that there is no reality beyond the world.
There the Self shines by its own light of consciousness, as the sole reality, which is bliss. In that supreme state there is no reality to shed light on it, nor anything ‘other’ that could shine by its light.
That consciousness light, which is its nature, neither rises nor sets, but is ever the same [without change]. It is by borrowing a minute particle of its consciousness that the mind appears conscious.
Disciples of non-sages, fearing that in the supreme state the Self will cease to be, wish to go to some other celestial world for the sake of eternal happiness.
As this world is unreal, so the other worlds also are unreal. For the sage [who is in the supreme state] the Self is itself the world, and hence that world is real in its own right.
Hence, sages are free from all worldly attractions.
‘What do we need wealth or offspring for when the Self is itself the world?’ So thinking, the sages, whose desires have all subsided, care not for action, nor for inaction.
That Self, which is consciousness, is alone real. The consciousness that has the world-form is ignorance [not true knowledge]. Since the world does not exist apart from that world-consciousness, it is unreal.
That is, after self-surrender, he must resign himself to the divine will, without any reservations.
He that has surrendered himself will be at peace, remembering that He [God] is the bearer of the world’s burden. The one that bears the burden himself will be
ridiculous, like the figure on the temple-tower appearing to bear the tower on its own shoulders.
As one travelling in a carriage puts down his luggage in the carriage itself and completes his journey, so should he resign his own [samsaric] burden to God and complete his life in the world.
Those who take on themselves the task of reforming the world or of alleviating the sufferings of others are dealt with next.
The wise one should resign to God his cares concerning the good of the world, just as he resigns to Him his cares about his own body and family.
The ripe devotee must pass his time, patiently enduring whatever happens to him, whether pleasant or unpleasant or otherwise, without yielding to sorrow or joy, with his heart absorbed in Him.
When the ego dies, having been swallowed by divine grace, the devotee’s self-surrender becomes true and complete.
This has been said in the language of the intellect. But the actual truth of this consummation transcends the intellect and is hence not easy to convey in words. Indeed, the notion of self-surrender is absorbed from the standpoint of the absolute truth.
As would be the offering [to Ganesa] of a portion, taken from an image of Ganesa made of jaggery, so is the surrender of one’s self to God, since there is no self apart from Him.
Since the Self is the Supreme Being Himself, by whom, how and to whom is the surrender to be made? True self-surrender is only the extinction of the ego, by which the sense of being different from Him arises.
‘If you desire to give yourself to God, then first seek out and know your Self. The gift of oneself to God will be accomplished in this way.’ So said the most holy one.
The truth about namaskara (prostration) is the same as self-surrender. This is explained next.
The truth of namaskara also is only the perfect giving up of the ego-sense. Right awareness, self-surrender and namaskara, all these three are one and the same.
Thus it is shown that God does not become an object of vision. Neither does He become an object of knowledge. This is shown next.
As God does not become an object of vision, neither does He become an object of knowledge. Since He transcends the mind, the mind will know Him [if at all] only wrongly.
Since the real Self, which is consciousness, is the same as God, and since there is no consciousness apart from Him, [it follows that] there is no one to know Him, other than He, nor does He become an object of knowledge.
The real Self is the eternal subject, and hence He can never become an object, says Bhagavan.
The source of the light of consciousness that exists in the mind is just the real Self. Hence, apart from Him, there is no such thing as mind existing as something real.
Like the sun, the consciousness that is the Self shines in the Heart by its own light. By its light the mind – which by itself is insentient – appears as sentient, like the moon.
Since [mind-] consciousness is not the true nature of the mind, it goes into latency in deep sleep. [But] the real Self never goes into latency since consciousness is its very nature.
But the mind has the power of veiling the Self.
The mind always veils [for itself] the real nature of the Self, both in dream and in waking. Becoming latent in deep sleep and wholly extinguished in the supreme state, how can it ever know Him, who is the sole reality?
What then is ‘knowing God’?
There is the pronouncement of the most holy one that the true knowing of God is simply the mind becoming one with Him in the natural state by seeking the source wherefrom it has come into being.
Thus the pair of God and the individual soul is resolved. The conclusion is as follows.
What one has to do is obtain perfect poise in unity with the Supreme Being, whether by devotion or by the quest of the real Self, with the clear understanding that God and the soul are not distinct entities in reality.
The next pair to be discussed is that of knowledge and ignorance.
There is a two-fold ignorance, named as knowledge and ignorance, which is experienced by those not aware of the real Self. This pair is unreal just like all else.
The two are inseparable. Neither exists without the other, and because both arise from ignorance of the Self, both are equally ignorance.
Worldly knowledge and worldly ignorance are both ignorance for the reason stated here. This is explained further.
Everyone, being ignorant of his own real Self, seeks to know what is not-Self. The relative knowledge [acquired in this way] is an outcome of this ignorance. Hence, says our Guru, it is only ignorance.
Whatever knowledge one acquires by the intellect and the senses, if it is acquired without first knowing the truth of the one that arises, saying ‘I am the knower’, is all wrong knowledge.
He that does not know the Self might consider the world, which is unreal, to be real, and he will look upon his own real Self, which transcends the world, as an individual soul contained in the world.
The intellect, the senses and the mind are only the servants of the primary ignorance. Hence, the worldly modes of ‘proof’ serve only to delude the creature.
If the ego dies by the quest, ‘Whence arises the ego, the experiencer of the two, knowledge and ignorance?’ with it will be extinguished this pair [knowledge and ignorance].
Right awareness is only dwelling in the natural state of the Self, after the extinction of the ego. In that state, which is free from duality, these two manifestations of ignorance, which belong to the worldly life, do not survive.
The sages [Buddhas] call that the state of right awareness. In it there is neither knowledge nor ignorance. That is the highest state, in which there is nothing, whether sentient or insentient, other than the Self.
The illiterate, the literate and the ‘knower of the Self’ are all three equally ignorant. The third one also is ignorant, because for him there is nothing knowable other than the Self.
This was what Bhagavan said. The first two are ignorant because they do not know the Self. The sage is ignorant for a different reason, which is here stated. He also said:
That one who has become established in his own natural state is adorable by all, whether men or angels. As he is not distinct from the Supreme Being, he is also fit to be adored [as God] by the seekers of deliverance.
A doubt raised by some disciples is next answered.
Not knowing that this worldly knowledge is only ignorance, some ask: ‘Let ignorance come to an end in the supreme state, but why should knowledge also cease?’
In the supreme state there is nothing to be known, neither a knower, nor knowledge [of objects]. Just as pairs are absent in that state, so the triads also are absent.
In the supreme state that Self shines alone, free from both knowledge and ignorance. Since it is there as pure consciousness, without change, how can that state be a void?
That the state is not a void is mentioned here because some believe that there is no reality beyond the world.
There the Self shines by its own light of consciousness, as the sole reality, which is bliss. In that supreme state there is no reality to shed light on it, nor anything ‘other’ that could shine by its light.
That consciousness light, which is its nature, neither rises nor sets, but is ever the same [without change]. It is by borrowing a minute particle of its consciousness that the mind appears conscious.
Disciples of non-sages, fearing that in the supreme state the Self will cease to be, wish to go to some other celestial world for the sake of eternal happiness.
As this world is unreal, so the other worlds also are unreal. For the sage [who is in the supreme state] the Self is itself the world, and hence that world is real in its own right.
Hence, sages are free from all worldly attractions.
‘What do we need wealth or offspring for when the Self is itself the world?’ So thinking, the sages, whose desires have all subsided, care not for action, nor for inaction.
That Self, which is consciousness, is alone real. The consciousness that has the world-form is ignorance [not true knowledge]. Since the world does not exist apart from that world-consciousness, it is unreal.
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