"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Saturday, April 25, 2026

The Five States

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Sri Bhagavan has a bandage on his finger. Someone asked, “What is that?” Bhagavan replied: “The finger came upon a knife”. (The Knife is inert, and relative to it the finger is a conscious agent).

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Sri Bhagavan said to another devotee that there are five states:

(1) Sleep, (2) Before waking, a state free from thoughts, (3) Sense of happiness of that freedom from thoughts (rasasvada), (4) The internal movement of the vasanas (kashaya) and (5) Complete waking with (distraction) vikshepa. 

The second of those should be made permanent.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad