Effort Needed Until Realization

Sri Tandavaraya Swami

Master said:

Ignorance veils the Truth that the Self is Brahman and shows forth multiplicity instead; uncertainty is the confusion resulting from lack of faith in the words of the Master; the illusion that the evanescent world is a reality and that the body is the self is wrong knowledge. So say the sages.

Hearing the Truth is to revert the mind repeatedly to the teaching 'That Thou Art'. Reasoning is rational investigation of the meaning of the text, as already heard. Meditation is one pointedness of mind. If everyday you do these, you will gain liberation.

The practice must be kept up so long as the sense of knower and knowledge persists. No effort is necessary thereafter. Remaining as pure, eternal Consciousness, untainted like the ether; and thus liberated while alive one will like forever as That - after being disembodied also.

The wise, remaining like ether and liberated even here, are of four classes - brahmavid (knower of brahman), vara, varya and varishta, in order of merit.

The brahmavids who by steadfast practice have gained clear realization of brahman, continue to perform even the hard duties of their caste and stage in life, exactly as prescribed by the shastras, for the benefit of others, without themselves swerving from their supreme state. 

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They would not think of the past or future; would partake of what comes unsolicited; would not wonder if the sun turned into the moon or at any marvel; whether the sky were to spread its shoots down like a banyan tree or a corpse were to be revived; nor would they distinguish good and bad, for they always remain as the unchanging witness of all.

Among the other classes, the vara and the varya remain settled in samadhi. The vara feels concern for the maintenance of the body; the varya is reminded of it by others; the varishta never becomes aware of the body either by himself or through others.