You Are Self-shining

Sri Tandavaraya Swami

Disciple:

When I dissociate myself from the five sheaths and look beyond, there remains only a blank. I see nothing more than that. Am I to take this blank for the supreme experience of the Self? Tell me this truly, Master.

Master:

In the ancedote of the tenth man, of deluded intellect, after counting only nine men and not recognizing himself as the tenth, was stupefied. Can such stupor be the tenth man? Good son! You are the seer of all.

You are the unchanging witness of the gross, subtle and causal ignornace, the waking, dream and sleep states and the passage of time - past, present and future, which endlessly rise and fall, like waves in the ocean of bliss.

Do not ask 'by what light shall I see myself who am the all-seeing witness?' Can there be a light to illumine the self-luminous Light? The tenth man knows himself as such among others - is there an eleventh man in him?

To argue that knowledge is necessary to make knowledge known, is foolish, and leads to interminable controversy. You are neither known nor unknown. Realize yourself as Self-shining Knowledge.