Salutations to the Infinite Self.

Sage Vasishtha

When Sage Mandavya had departed after saying this, SURAGHU contemplated thus:

What is it that is known as 'I'? I am not the Meru, the Meru is not mine. I am not the hill tribe, nor the hill tribe mine. This is merely called my kingdom: I abandon that nation. Now, the capital city is left. I am not this city nor is it mine. That notion too, is abandoned. Even so I abandon the notions of family relationships - wife, sons etc.

Let me enquire into this body. I am not the inert substances like flesh and bones - nor am I the blood, nor the organs of action. All these are inert substances, but I am sentient. I am not the enjoyments, nor do they belong to me; this intellect and the sense-organs are not me, nor are they mine - they are inert and I am sentient. I am not the mind which is the root-cause of this ignorant cycle of birth and death. I am not the faculty of discrimination nor am I the ego-sense, these being notions that arise in the mind.

Now, what is left? What remains is the sentient jiva. But, it is involved in subject-object relationship. That which is the object of knowledge or comprehension is not the self. Thus do I abandon that which is knowable - or the object. What now remains is the pure consciousness which is free from the shadow of doubt. I am the infinite self, for there is no limit to this self. Even the gods like Brahma the Creator, Indra the king of gods, Yama the god of death, Vayu the god of wind and all the countless beings are strung on this infinite consciousness.

This chit-shakti is free from the defect of objectivity. It is beyond being and non-being, though, it is the reality in all being. It pervades all beings in the universe. It is the beauty in all, it is the light of all. It is the essence of all forms and all modifications yet it is beyond all these. At all times it is all in all. It is itself spread out as these fourteen planes of existence: even the notion concerning this universe is nothing but this omnipotent consciousness.

False are the fragmented notions of pain an pleasure, for this omnipotent consciousness is omnipresent and infinite. That is the self, when I am awakened; when I am deluded that itself becomes the king. It is by its grace that the body, the mind etc. function. It is by its power that everything in the whole universe dances to its tunes. How foolish of me to have experienced distress at having to bless and punish! I have been awakened, I have see all that there is to be seen, I have attained all that is worth attainment. What are all these: pain and pleasure, happiness and sorrow, blessing and punishment? All this is pervaded by Brahman. Where is the justification for grief and delusion; who does what? It is but the infinite consciousness that exists. Salutations to you, O beautiful God, Salutations to the Infinite Self.