"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

Worthy Rama! You are indeed fit to reach that goal because you have now turned towards the right way of investigation. This is due to God's grace which puts you in the right way of investigation. Who can attain anything worthy, without divine grace?

The beneficent work of the self-inhering divine grace is finished when the inward turning of one's mind increases in strength day by day. What you have said so far is quite true; you have rightly understood the nature of consciousness but have now realized it. A knowledge of the property of a thing without actual experience of the thing itself is as useless as no knowledge.

True experience of the Self is the unawareness of even 'I am'. Can the world persist after such awareness? Second-hand knowledge is no better than the recollection of a dream. Just as the accession of treasure in a dream is useless, so also is second-hand knowledge. I shall illustrate it with a very ancient story.

There was an extremely vituous king ruling over Videha. He was Janaka by name, very wise and conversant with both this world and beyond. At one time he worshipped sacrificial rites the Goddess, inhering as the Self. There came for the occasion all the Brahmins, pandits, hermits, critics, those versed in the Vedas, those accustomed to share in sacrificial rites and sacrifices etc. 
(To be continued)

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad