Bhagavan Vasishta has said: ‘If one separates the body [from oneself] and remains at rest in one’s own Self, which is consciousness, then one’s ego-sense perishes.’ That is, he attains the egoless state.
What happens when the quest is thus persisted in long enough?
The mind, seeking the Self, gets captured by some mysterious inner power and dives into the Heart. There the mind, being consumed by the consciousness-light of the Self, ceases to exist, along with the ego.
What is this power?
That power is indeed the grace of God, who is the real Self in the Heart. It is of the nature of right awareness. By yielding up oneself to it, the aspirant becomes blessed.
In that great burning state, the sky of pure consciousness, the ever-real and auspicious real Self dances in the form of ‘I’, ‘I’. In the fire of this right awareness, which is the sole reality, the universe, along with the ego, is destroyed.
This fire consumes the whole of creation with its root, the ego, leaving not even ashes. The real Self is said to be dancing, to indicate the bliss of that state.
So, there is no dance in the literal sense.
However, since that same sky of consciousness is his real nature, how can he, being formless, dance there? This metaphor shows that his form is bliss, and that the dance is motionless.
In that state there is no maya, no avidya [ignorance], no space, no time, and no individual called the soul. There, only the real Self, having the form of pure consciousness, exists, and nothing else.
This state of aloneness is called kaivalya.
Maya and avidya are mutually dependent. Neither can exist without the other. So both are lost in this conflagration. This has been definitely stated in one of the hymns to Sri Arunachala by Bhagavan.
In that transcendental state the power of God, named maya, whose expanded form is the whole world, is wholly lost in that motionless supreme one, along with the whole of her creation.
For him that dwells eternally in that supreme state, there is neither maya nor avidya, nor the world.
Therefore, in that supreme state of peace there shines, unhindered, the true form of the real Self. The one that survives in that state, abiding as his own real Self, is designated by the sages as the free one.
Bondage being due to the false identification of the body as the Self, it is lost when the ego-sense is lost. There is no more any false identification.
The mind is lost. But at the same time the pair of pleasure and pain is also lost. This is illustrated as follows:
Just as a woman, suffering intolerably in her father-in-law’s house, obtains peace in her mother’s house, so the mind, harried by samsaric suffering, wins peace by returning to its source, the real Self.
What about the unfree souls in the world? Does the free one see them, and is he anxious for them?
As a man awakening from a dream no longer sees any of the dream persons, so the one who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance, and who is therefore alone as the sole reality, does not see anyone as other than his own real Self.
In all persons alike, the real Self is unaffected. Ignorance and bondage are not for him, but for the mind or the ego, the imaginary individual soul, who never had any real existence.
How can that state, the natural state of peace, become knowable by the intellect – that state of him who dwells engrossed in the bliss of that Self, having no knowledge of others as different from himself?
Just as that state is unthinkable by the intellect, so too is the one who has won that state and dwells eternally there.
How can any man understand, by the unaided power of his own intellect, one who is mind-free, bodiless and worldless?
The one who is established in that state of deliverance is called a sage, or ‘Prabuddha’ or Buddha. He cannot be known because he has none of the attributes of an individual.
He is one with the eternal subject, the supreme reality, and so cannot be made an object for anyone to know.
Because that one has no particular marks or features, the mind cannot think of it, nor words describe it. The words of the Vedanta teach its real nature only by negating everything as ‘not That’.
The Vedantas never try to give a positive description. Even those sentences that seem to give such a description are interpreted as distinguishing it from things that can be visualised or thought of.
That unthinkable one is for that reason infinite, unlimited.
Whatever is describable in words or thinkable by the mind is, for that reason alone, finite. Because the real Self is beyond the reach of the mind and the intellect, those who are established in the Self call it ‘the infinite’.
Only the infinite is blissful, not the finite, says the Chandogya Upanishad.
Whatever is said concerning the supreme reality by the sages or by Vedanta has for its purpose only the removal of the mistaken notions of the disciple.
No positive statements can be made. The ultimate teaching is by silence.
Just as Sita indicated Rama by negating all the other princes, so the Vedantas indicate the truth of the Self by negating all else [that could be mistakenly believed to be the Self].
Since the Self, shining alone as the sole existing reality, can neither be known nor taught, the teachings of the Guru do nothing for the aspirant except free him of his ignorance.
Ignorance causes him to identify something as the Self, which is not That.
Since the Self shines by its own consciousness-light, there is no need to do anything more. In the egoless state, the real Self cannot be mistaken, because there it survives alone.
The darkness (ignorance) that conceals the Self is just the visible and tangible world seen by the outward-going mind, as is shown next.
Since the Self, consciousness itself, is concealed by the darkness, which consists of worldly knowledge, the teachings of the Guru bless the aspirant by removing that ignorant knowledge.
To create an empty space in a room one only has to remove the encumbering, unwanted lumber. In the same way, to realise the Self nothing more is needed than the removal of false knowledge.
Nothing more need be done when the false notion of a serpent is removed. The real rope reveals itself. So too, when the veiling, false knowledge is removed, the Self shines by its own light of consciousness.
Another simile, given by Bhagavan, is given here.
How can the Self be something to be obtained? From the point of view of truth, it was never lost.The gaining of the Self that is spoken of is only the death of the ego, the appearance of which makes the Self as good as lost.
It is also said by Bhagavan that the truth is rightly taught only by silence. This is explained next.
Speech is fourfold, as transcendent, seeing, medium and articulate speech.That transcendent speech is only silence. And that silence is itself the true nature of the supreme reality.
The articulate form of speech was born of the medium speech; its mother is the seeing speech; that its mother is the transcendent speech, is well known. That same supreme speech is silence, the form of the supreme consciousness.
So, the grossest form of speech, being the great-grand daughter of the silence, cannot reach the real Self.
Again, how does speech arise? There is abstract knowledge, whence arises the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken word. So the word is the great grandson of the original source. If the word can produce effect, judge for yourself how much more powerful must be the preaching through silence!
True speech is only the silence of the sage, who is the eternal dweller in the transcendental state. How can gross speech, born of the belief in differences, speak of the supreme one, in which differences are lost?
Therefore the most ancient Guru [Dakshinamurti] taught the truth of the Self by silence. And by achieving silence of speech and mind, those ancient disciples became aware of that truth.
Here the reference is to the incarnation of God as Dakshinamurti, the God of right awareness, dwelling in that state of awareness. The disciples, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanatkumara attained the supreme state by being silent, just like their Guru.
Well-qualified disciples became themselves sages through the silent teaching of their Guru. Teaching by words does not work in imparting true knowledge of the real Self.
What happens when the quest is thus persisted in long enough?
The mind, seeking the Self, gets captured by some mysterious inner power and dives into the Heart. There the mind, being consumed by the consciousness-light of the Self, ceases to exist, along with the ego.
What is this power?
That power is indeed the grace of God, who is the real Self in the Heart. It is of the nature of right awareness. By yielding up oneself to it, the aspirant becomes blessed.
In that great burning state, the sky of pure consciousness, the ever-real and auspicious real Self dances in the form of ‘I’, ‘I’. In the fire of this right awareness, which is the sole reality, the universe, along with the ego, is destroyed.
This fire consumes the whole of creation with its root, the ego, leaving not even ashes. The real Self is said to be dancing, to indicate the bliss of that state.
So, there is no dance in the literal sense.
However, since that same sky of consciousness is his real nature, how can he, being formless, dance there? This metaphor shows that his form is bliss, and that the dance is motionless.
In that state there is no maya, no avidya [ignorance], no space, no time, and no individual called the soul. There, only the real Self, having the form of pure consciousness, exists, and nothing else.
This state of aloneness is called kaivalya.
Maya and avidya are mutually dependent. Neither can exist without the other. So both are lost in this conflagration. This has been definitely stated in one of the hymns to Sri Arunachala by Bhagavan.
In that transcendental state the power of God, named maya, whose expanded form is the whole world, is wholly lost in that motionless supreme one, along with the whole of her creation.
For him that dwells eternally in that supreme state, there is neither maya nor avidya, nor the world.
Therefore, in that supreme state of peace there shines, unhindered, the true form of the real Self. The one that survives in that state, abiding as his own real Self, is designated by the sages as the free one.
Bondage being due to the false identification of the body as the Self, it is lost when the ego-sense is lost. There is no more any false identification.
The mind is lost. But at the same time the pair of pleasure and pain is also lost. This is illustrated as follows:
Just as a woman, suffering intolerably in her father-in-law’s house, obtains peace in her mother’s house, so the mind, harried by samsaric suffering, wins peace by returning to its source, the real Self.
What about the unfree souls in the world? Does the free one see them, and is he anxious for them?
As a man awakening from a dream no longer sees any of the dream persons, so the one who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance, and who is therefore alone as the sole reality, does not see anyone as other than his own real Self.
In all persons alike, the real Self is unaffected. Ignorance and bondage are not for him, but for the mind or the ego, the imaginary individual soul, who never had any real existence.
How can that state, the natural state of peace, become knowable by the intellect – that state of him who dwells engrossed in the bliss of that Self, having no knowledge of others as different from himself?
Just as that state is unthinkable by the intellect, so too is the one who has won that state and dwells eternally there.
How can any man understand, by the unaided power of his own intellect, one who is mind-free, bodiless and worldless?
The one who is established in that state of deliverance is called a sage, or ‘Prabuddha’ or Buddha. He cannot be known because he has none of the attributes of an individual.
He is one with the eternal subject, the supreme reality, and so cannot be made an object for anyone to know.
Because that one has no particular marks or features, the mind cannot think of it, nor words describe it. The words of the Vedanta teach its real nature only by negating everything as ‘not That’.
The Vedantas never try to give a positive description. Even those sentences that seem to give such a description are interpreted as distinguishing it from things that can be visualised or thought of.
That unthinkable one is for that reason infinite, unlimited.
Whatever is describable in words or thinkable by the mind is, for that reason alone, finite. Because the real Self is beyond the reach of the mind and the intellect, those who are established in the Self call it ‘the infinite’.
Only the infinite is blissful, not the finite, says the Chandogya Upanishad.
Whatever is said concerning the supreme reality by the sages or by Vedanta has for its purpose only the removal of the mistaken notions of the disciple.
No positive statements can be made. The ultimate teaching is by silence.
Just as Sita indicated Rama by negating all the other princes, so the Vedantas indicate the truth of the Self by negating all else [that could be mistakenly believed to be the Self].
Since the Self, shining alone as the sole existing reality, can neither be known nor taught, the teachings of the Guru do nothing for the aspirant except free him of his ignorance.
Ignorance causes him to identify something as the Self, which is not That.
Since the Self shines by its own consciousness-light, there is no need to do anything more. In the egoless state, the real Self cannot be mistaken, because there it survives alone.
The darkness (ignorance) that conceals the Self is just the visible and tangible world seen by the outward-going mind, as is shown next.
Since the Self, consciousness itself, is concealed by the darkness, which consists of worldly knowledge, the teachings of the Guru bless the aspirant by removing that ignorant knowledge.
To create an empty space in a room one only has to remove the encumbering, unwanted lumber. In the same way, to realise the Self nothing more is needed than the removal of false knowledge.
Nothing more need be done when the false notion of a serpent is removed. The real rope reveals itself. So too, when the veiling, false knowledge is removed, the Self shines by its own light of consciousness.
Another simile, given by Bhagavan, is given here.
How can the Self be something to be obtained? From the point of view of truth, it was never lost.The gaining of the Self that is spoken of is only the death of the ego, the appearance of which makes the Self as good as lost.
It is also said by Bhagavan that the truth is rightly taught only by silence. This is explained next.
Speech is fourfold, as transcendent, seeing, medium and articulate speech.That transcendent speech is only silence. And that silence is itself the true nature of the supreme reality.
The articulate form of speech was born of the medium speech; its mother is the seeing speech; that its mother is the transcendent speech, is well known. That same supreme speech is silence, the form of the supreme consciousness.
So, the grossest form of speech, being the great-grand daughter of the silence, cannot reach the real Self.
Again, how does speech arise? There is abstract knowledge, whence arises the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken word. So the word is the great grandson of the original source. If the word can produce effect, judge for yourself how much more powerful must be the preaching through silence!
True speech is only the silence of the sage, who is the eternal dweller in the transcendental state. How can gross speech, born of the belief in differences, speak of the supreme one, in which differences are lost?
Therefore the most ancient Guru [Dakshinamurti] taught the truth of the Self by silence. And by achieving silence of speech and mind, those ancient disciples became aware of that truth.
Here the reference is to the incarnation of God as Dakshinamurti, the God of right awareness, dwelling in that state of awareness. The disciples, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanatkumara attained the supreme state by being silent, just like their Guru.
Well-qualified disciples became themselves sages through the silent teaching of their Guru. Teaching by words does not work in imparting true knowledge of the real Self.
by achieving silence of speech and mind, those ancient disciples became aware of that truth.
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