Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya 

KING JANAKA said:

Only those transcend Maya with whose devotion the Goddess of the Self is pleased; such can discern well and happily. Being by the grace of God endowed with proper discernment and right earnestness, they get established in transcendental Oneness and become absorbed. I shall now tell you the scheme of liberation.

One learns true devotion to God after a meritorious life continued in several births, and then worships Him for a long time with intense devotion. Dispassion for the pleasures of life arises in a devotee who gradually begins to long for knowledge of the truth and becomes absorbed in the search for it. He then finds his gracious Master and learns from him all about the transcendental state. He has now gained theoretical knowledge (Sravana). After this he is impelled to revolve the whole matter in his mind until he is satisfied from his own practical knowledge with the harmony of the scriptural injunctions and the teachings of his Master. He is able to ascertain the highest truth with clearness and certitude (Manana). The ascertained knowledge of the Oneness of the Self must afterwards be brought into practice, even forcibly if necessary, until the experience of the truth occurs to him (Nidhidhyasana).

After experiencing the inner Self, he will be able to identify the Self with the Supreme and thus destroy the root of ignorance. There is no doubt of it. The inner Self is realized in advanced contemplation and that state of realization is called nirvikalpa samadhi. Memory of that realization enables one to identify the inner Self with the Universal Self (as I am That). (pratyabhijna jnana).

[Commentary: Contemplation is designated in its progressive stages, as savikalpa samadhi (qualified samadhi) and nirvikalpa samadhi (unqualified samadhi). Dhyana (contemplation) leads to the repose consequent on the resolve that the mind in its absolute purity is only the Self. There are interruptions by thought obtruding in the earlier stages. Then the practice goes by the name of Dhyana. When the repose remains smooth and uninterrupted for some appreciable time, it is called savikalpa samadhi. If by its constant practice, the repose ensues without any previous resolve (i.e., effortlessly) and continues uninterrupted for some time, it is called nirvikalpa samadhi. The Inner Self glows in all its purity, in the last stage. After rising from it, the memory of the uncommon experience of the Self remains; it enables him to identify the transcendence of the one with that same One which is in all.] (This is the Sahaja State, as is often said by Sri Ramana. Tr.)