Sorupananda and Tattuvaraya - Page 3 of 7

Sorupa Saram

This is the only known work of Sorupananda. Its title can be translated as ‘The Essence of One’s True Nature’. ‘Sorupa’ is the Tamil equivalent of the Sanskrit ‘swarupa’, meaning ‘true nature’ or ‘true form’. The translation is by Robert Butler, T. V. Venkatasubramanian and David Godman.

Most of the verses take the form of a doctrinal question and answer which is followed by a brief commentary or expansion of the idea that has been presented. It is thought that the questions and answers were composed by Sorupananda or Tattuvaraya and that the subsequent expansions were written later. However, these later comments have always been associated with the text and they are now accepted as being an integral part of it, rather than a subsequent interpolation.

The explanatory material inside square brackets has been added by the David Godman.

May the unique Self, which appears as various objects in the same way that gold takes the shape of the mould into which it is cast, be our support and guide for composing this work, Sorupa Saram, which proclaims that the nature of the world is only consciousness.

Since the three kinds of differences do not exist, everything is only consciousness. The certainty of the existence of consciousness is stated in this way.

Since there is nothing at all that is different from consciousness, the five elements, the five sensory organs and the five types of perception are only consciousness. Whatever is in the beginning, in the middle and in the end – all these are also consciousness. The indescribable illusion is also consciousness. The one who perceives everything and the act of perceiving are also consciousness.

Question: Is there a logical way of concluding that everything is consciousness alone?

Answer: Yes, there is.

The many differences of the world that are experienced by the distorted mind, and which appear to be real – are they all not the witness [consciousness]? Hence, everything – beginning with liberation and including purity and impurity, joy and misery, and that which is and that which is not – is only being.

Question: If all is being, do objects appear as one’s own Self, which is being-consciousness-bliss.

Answer: Yes, they do.

Whichever direction I look in, it is absolute perfection. The real nature of all the holy waters is blissful consciousness. The real nature of all the verses praising the Lord is bliss. Apart from me, what other form can exist?

Question: Is the above statement merely verbal or is it experienced?

Answer: It is experienced as well.

My Guru instructed: ‘Sir, there is no one who does not say “I”. The world appearance and its substratum – all these are you. Therefore enquire thoroughly into the “I”.’ If this is known intently and thoroughly [one can say] ‘I myself am pure consciousness’. Hence, I am the primal entity.

Question: Which entity had this experience of the Self, and when did the experience arise?

Answer: It is experienced by myself and the experience is ever-present.

I saw my real nature as pure consciousness. I see only myself, and not the great multitude of the world. I did not look intently at myself before, but, for that reason, did I ever cease to be?

Question: If everything is only the Self, why are the names many?

Answer: The many names do not make the Self multiple.

Since everyone abides as ‘I’ and declares himself to be ‘I’, right up to Iswara there is nothing other than ‘me’. The same person is addressed differently as son, brother and father; but for that reason will the body of the person become different?

Question: If so, the known and the knower will be different.

Answer: No, they won’t be different.

It is my Self who remained as the [seer] ‘I’. Those objects that were rejected as ‘not I’ – these too are my Self. Someone who goes to sleep at night manifests himself in the dream as the seer and the world; then he wakes up as one person. It is just like that person.

Question: What is the inherent nature of the Self that shone as everything?

Answer: It is ‘shining by itself as itself’.

The Self that shines as the body, as the beloved soul, as all the actions, as ignorance, as knowledge-enjoyment, as the blissful substance and as the one consciousness – that indeed is my own real nature.

Question: Is it possible to give a true name to the Self that shines by itself.

Answer: As it is a transcendental experience, it is not possible to give it a name.

They will describe it as bliss, as transcendence, and as the witness of all that remains at the end-point of the four Vedas. What name can I give to my real nature, which is not traced by any of the descriptions in the jnana-scriptures.

Question: If it is transcendent, there is no scope for enquiry. It is therefore necessary to indicate and signify it in some way.

Answer: As it is everything and as it is nothing, it is beyond description.

Is it ‘I’? Is it That? Am I That? Is That ‘I’? Is it shining knowledge? Is it the end of the source of sound? Is it silence? Is it the pure state? Is it a void? The shining, natural state is all these and none of them.

Question: If it is said like this, none can realise the Self, and so there can be no realisation. Hence, a name should be given.

Answer: The following are the names given by the Vedas.

Abundance of knowledge; abundance of love; abundance of perfect bliss; abundance of being; abundance of consciousness; abundance of tranquillity; abundance of purity; the wonderful abundance beyond the scope of the Vedas; the abundance of pure consciousness that is the source of all.

Question: Are all these descriptions experienced?

Answer: They are experienced and also transcended.

My son! I became and dwelt as the indescribable experience, transcendental joy, and everything else. I felt no need to declare, ‘I have rid myself of the misery-causing karma’. I recovered my Self and have been freed.

Question: What is the benefit arising from this experience?

Answer: It is becoming the ruler of the kingdom of liberation.

I obtained the supreme lordship that is never lost. I scorched the pair – happiness and misery. I gave up the life of the body-forest, which tormented the mind. I entered and occupied the house of liberation.

Question: What play will this king witness on his stage?

Answer: He will witness the dance of the three avasthas [waking, dreaming and sleeping].

In the waking state I will witness the dance of the five senses of action and the five senses of perception. In dream I will witness the dance of the mind. In thought-free sleep I will dance the object-free void-dance. However, I will [always] remain as the exalted substance [the Self].

Question: Where was this experience when you were regarding happiness and misery as ‘I’?

Answer: Then, too, I was remaining as the Self. I was nothing else.

Who was the one who remained as [the ego] ‘I’? If I see him, I will not allow him to take up the form of the body. Only the ‘I’ whose form is consciousness is the real ‘I’. All other ‘I’s will get bound to a form and go through birth and death.

Question: The Self is immutable. Will it not get bound if it gets involved in activities?

Answer: As the Self remains a witness, like the sun, it will not get bound.

Even if I bear the burdens of the family and have them follow me like a shadow, or even if the cloud called ‘maya’ veils, I am, without doubt, the sun of knowledge, self-shining as pure light and remaining as the witness [of the world].

Question: But the jnani is not remaining motionless like the sun.

Answer: He also remains actionless.

Whatever comes, whatever actions are performed, in whatever I may delight, I am only pure consciousness, remaining aloof and aware, without becoming any of them.

Question: All things move because the Self makes them move. Hence, is there bondage for the Self?

Answer: Like the rope that makes the top spin, there is no bondage for it.

In the same way that a top is made to spin by a rope, desires and senses fructify in my presence. But, like the rope that is used to spin the top, I will not merge with desires and the senses. I have rid myself of their connection. I became my own Self. My bondage is indeed gone.

Question: But what is the way by which knowledge and ignorance was destroyed?

Answer: In one’s own experience of the Self neither attainment of knowledge nor removal of ignorance is seen.

By what did ignorance get destroyed? Through what did knowledge of enquiry arise? How was the clarity, known as the experience of true knowledge, obtained? Other than my Self, what do I know?

Question: If the dawn of knowledge and the removal of ignorance are not known, how can we call such a one a jnani?

Answer: With ignorance removed from knowledge, like unreal from real, becoming both and becoming neither – this indeed is the nature of the jnani.

When, ultimately, the real shone as ‘I’, did the unreal, which became ‘I’, go anywhere? I myself became the base of both the real and the unreal, but remained beyond the reach of the conflicting pair of real and unreal.

Question: Previously it was stated, ‘I am the possessor of the body, but not the body’. Now it is said, ‘I will remain different from the body and also be the body’. Which is true?

Answer: The truth is remaining in but aloof from the body, like the kernel in the mango seed that remains within the seed shell, but aloof from it.

Oh, I said, ‘I am the body!’ I regarded wealth as mine! I felt, ‘I am the enjoyer!’ Are all these not false? Though I remained as everything, beginning with the body, the real ‘I’ always remained aloof without associating with anything, like the mango kernel in the seed of the sweet mango.

Question: Is remaining like this [attached and detached] only in the period of ignorance, or also in the period of knowledge?

Answer: It is in both.

The periods of jnana and ajnana were seen and passed like the periods of undeveloped and developed intellect. Everything that was a superimposition during practice has now become false.

Question: Is there birth and death during the period of ignorance that exists prior to this experience?

Answer: As these are illusory, they do not exist.

Oh, where was I born? What did I worship as God? Where did I reach? When I became the blissful substance, the reality, experiencing unbroken bliss, were not all these [known to be] false?

Question: In what condition was the Self before the dawning of this experience?

Answer: When I am redeemed by realisation of the truth, I am not confused any more.

I lived becoming ‘someone’. I laboured in vain for ‘somebody’. I became different, taking a thousand names. Now, enough of this! I have seen my Self, that which is difficult for me to trace. Oh, now I am free!

Question: What is obtained and experienced if one sees the Self?

Answer: The mind dissolves in love and one becomes sat-chit-ananda.

I made the deceitful mind melt and dissolve. I knew myself as I really am. I became and dwelt as the clear ambrosia of sat-chit-ananda. I became all that there is.

Question: Is the statement ‘The world is only the Self’ figuratively true and not literally true?

Answer: Anything seen cannot exist apart from the eye. Similarly, the world does not exist apart from the Self.

Can there be anything seen that is apart from the eye? Can there be anything heard that is apart from the ear? Did any of the other four elements manifest independently of space? Though the world may appear like a flowing mirage-river, when thoroughly examined, can the world exist apart from the Self?

Question: Seer and seen appear different.

Answer: This is just like seeing gold as various ornaments. They are not different.

Here, other than myself, nothing else exists. I swear to this. A gold ornament does not exist separate from the gold. In the same way that one can change the shape of gold and give it different names, I described myself in various ways.

Question: What is the nature of this experience?

Answer: It is the transcendence that arises, dissolving thoughts, and in which everything shines as the Self.

It is beyond the reach of speech and it is beyond the reach of the mind. It is the clear ambrosia with which one does not get satiated, even when it overflows. Like saliva that secretes on the tongue, it springs forth from within me. Like a dumb pot it remained as ‘I’, without being another.

[A dumb pot may be any of the following three: (a) A pot that is full and cannot receive any more (b) A baked mud pot without a mouth that absorbs water through its porous sides (c) an empty pot.]

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