Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

The Goddess Continued..

Self-realization differs from all accomplishments in that the fear of death is destroyed once for all. Realization differs according to the antecedent practice and commensurate with the degree of purity of mind, may be perfect, middling or dull. You have seen great pandits well versed in the Vedas and capable of chanting them quite correctly amidst any amount of distractions. They are the best. Those who are capable business, repeat the Vedas quite correctly when they engage in chanting them without other distractions. These are the middle class. Whereas others are constantly chanting them and do it well. Such are of the lowest order among pandits. Similarly there are distinctions among the Sages also.

Some Sages abide as the Self even while engaged in complex duties, such as ruling a kingdom; others can do so in the intervals of work; still others can do so by constant practice alone. They are respectively of the highest, the middle and the lowest order. Of these, the highest order represents the utmost limit of realization. 

Unbroken supreme awareness even in the dream is the mark of the highest order. The person who is not involuntarily made the tool of his mental predispositions but who invokes them at will, is of the highest order. He who abides in the Self as 'I-I', as spontaneously and continuously as the ignorant man does in the body, is again of the highest order.

He who, though engaged in work, does not look upon anything as non-self is a perfect Sage. He who, even while doing his work remains as if asleep, is a perfect Sage. Thus the best among the Sages are never out of samadhi, be they working or idle.