30
Question: When everything exists as Siva, why should one become Siva?
Answer: This is to enable the removal of all differences of ‘one’ and ‘two’ and to become perfect jnana.
Do not question, ‘What is the bliss of Siva? What is Siva-nature? What is Siva’s activity?’ It is only the fullness of consciousness that does not get divided, does not unite, and does not become different.
31
Question: What is to be rejected as asat [unreal], and what is to be accepted as sat [reality]?
Answer: Reject objects that are known as asat and accept consciousness as sat. This is tranquillity.
All the tattvas [principles] that one knows are foreign to oneself. While rejecting these objects as ‘not-Self’, realise the Self through the consciousness that remains as the one who rejects objects. This is tranquillity.
32
Question: If tranquillity is the one true thing, what is the witness?
Answer: Tranquillity is itself everything, beginning from the witness right down to svanubhava [one’s own experience]. It is Sivam, the state of realisation.
Tranquillity is itself the witness-Self. The witness-Self is itself Brahman. Brahman is fullness. The pure fullness realised by enquiry is itself the ever-present svanubhava. This is the state of realisation, which is itself Sivam.
33
Question: Even if the mind subsides, sayujya is attained only when maya is destroyed.
Answer: The destruction of the mind is itself the destruction of maya, and hence it is sayujyam.
I have seen the way of the birth of the mind that leads to the birth of the world and the birth of the doer, the ego ‘I’. The non-subsidence of the mind is itself maya. The firmness of those who destroy this maya is sayujyam.
34
Question: If this is sayujyam, where will the past karmas go?
Answer: In this experience they will disappear without leaving a trace.
I rid myself of the fear that arises from the misery of imagining ‘I took limitless births and died’. All of the ancient world has become the vast, empty expanse that is my own Self, since everything other than my Self is false.
35
Question: When there is such an experience, why perform karma?
Answer: When this experience has not arisen, actions are performed.
When I did not become the endless, blissful experience through the superior discrimination that regards all worship and similar things as the ‘not-Self’, I worshipped the gods at the prescribed times and observed all the vows.
36
Question: Who will attain this experience?
Answer: Only those who are pure and who have the prescribed qualifications will attain it.
The experience of reality – eternally abiding and shining as one, as blemishless, as fullness, and as truth – is attained only by those who are pure, who have a steady mind, who are noble, and who are undergoing their final birth.
37
Question: What are the marks of a pure one?
Answer: They are as follows:
[The answer is the content of verses 37-42]
They will not utter harsh words; they will not hate anyone; they will be of cheerful countenance; whatever things they relish, they will not use them for themselves but will offer them to the great ones; they will not associate with evil persons; they will not curse anyone; they will not become red with rage. They are the ones who will get rid of their birth.
38
They will not regard as real those things that get destroyed; they will never speak out, saying, ‘This is good and this is bad’; they will not grieve over events of the past; they will not condemn anything; they are the exalted ones.
39
They will not speak contemptuously of the ordinariness of the Vedas; they will not remain without chanting and melting with devotion as long as they live; they will not forget death; they will not get attached to this world through weakness of mind; they are the ones who will not be born again.
40
They will not experience at all sudden movements of the mind; they will only desire to know the path of salvation; their minds will not get immersed in attachments, saying greedily, ‘This is my wealth, my house, my wife and my children’. Such are the mature ones.
41
Will they care for things that are valued by others as desirable and not desirable? When one really looks, those who become tranquil and eternal, who experience truth and abide in the final state are few in number.
42
Those who do not see anything other than their Self here and in the hereafter, who are beyond both and without any division, will they degrade themselves by not regarding as trivial this phantom-like world appearance that is an illusory play of the sankalpas?
43
Question: Sastra vasana [a latent desire for scriptural knowledge], or the vasanas of knowledge and ignorance – will these too not arise even in those jnanis if they are forgetful?
Answer: As these are vasanas, they will not arise.
During every superimposing avastha the liberated one clearly knows that the illusion of sound and the illusion of real and unreal are only the illusion of the mind, because [he knows that] the superimposed avastha that appears and disappears is false.
44
Question: If this is so, for such ones what is the worship of God for?
Answer: Worship is only seeing the Self.
The great tapasvin devotedly worships with the flower of tranquil space and with the mantra of aloneness the deity [who abides as] the expanse of consciousness in the temple of the body. Who can equal those who live forever, revering such jnanis.
45
Question: Why does everyone not perform this worship?
Answer: Because of ignorance.
When the three prime fruits – mango, jackfruit and banana – along with milk pudding are right in front of them, they will long for the food vomited by the dog. Without knowing that we ourselves are the great substance, the basis of all things and all powers, they become slaves of the mighty.
46
This is about those who insult jnanis.
They do not know fairness and rectitude; they do not know the phantom-like nature of the world; they do not know themselves; they do not realise the disgrace that arises from their ignorance. They are dark within themselves and without any reason insult the good ones. Which way will these people go?
47
Question: Are all books, other than those that speak of supreme bliss, not true?
Answer: No, they are not true.
The five flowers are his arrows. The six-legged beetle is the bowstring. The soft sugarcane is his bow. This bodiless cupid is a valorous warrior. He will infect everyone with powerful lust. All this is false. Similarly, is all this barren world-appearance true? You yourself reply.
48
Question: Are time and so on false?
Answer: To those who are not attached to anything, they are certainly false.
Be it time, or god, or karma, or illusory disciplines, the working of the mind, the great enthusiasm that accomplishes things – to him who is not attached in any way, where is the question of taking them to be either good or bad?
49
Question: Are they [time and so on] at least necessary for the body?
Answer: Since the body is not-Self, they are not needed.
Why are those cunning ones, who do not seek their Self, born? What is this body that has come through food? Who is the ‘I’? How many were the bodies vacated before? Innumerable were the bodies that were taken with delight again and again.
50
Question: But are all these [jivas] reflected consciousness?
Answer: As there is no knowledge without the guru enabling one to know, they are only reflected consciousness.
To make the unreal unreal and to make the real real, truly a guru was needed. Alas! All the jivas flourishing and becoming like little children are only reflected consciousness.
51
Question: Why should the one Brahman appear differentiated as many, as reflected consciousness?
Answer: To those who do not see it as one, it appears as many.
What is the truth of the world reflection that appears in the one [Brahman] but does not appear as one? Like the scenes that appear to the vision of a bewildered person, the world appears as many only to those with defective knowledge and who therefore do not see it as the one reality.
52
Question: When all is one like this, what is the reason for not seeing it as one?
Answer: I do not know the reason for not knowing the Self that exists as one’s own Self.
What a wonder it is that one seeks the Self without knowing the Self! What can I say of this? Know that this is like a person standing [neck-deep] in water having his thirst unquenched. What else can we say?
53
Question: What is the way to see the Self?
Answer: By abiding still in the Self. This is the essence of enquiring into the scriptures.
You who, babbling the scriptures, become haughty! You who accumulate karma with your caste and lineage! Can you not become sattvic, know your Self through your Self, give up unceasing activity and remain still?
54
Question: Can devotion to God be jnana?
Answer: There can be no devotion apart from the devotee.
Those who are wallowing, identifying with the body, will perform puja, wave lights and bring their palms together in salutation before the idol with much longing, but they will not enquire whether the true God is the worshipper or the deity.
55
Question: Is it not necessary to go and see the car festival?
Answer: No. The one who sees the car festival should be seen.
They will go, see, and salute the car on the auspicious day of the car festival. Alas! Leaving their Self, whom are they going to worship? The god seen in the car is not fullness. Is this unknown to anyone?
56
Question: If so, is yoga good?
Answer: For knowing consciousness it is not necessary.
They will practise the highly respected yoga, remaining in a corner and controlling their breath and speech. For seeing and abiding as supreme consciousness, why this sadhana? They are attempting to eat and live here for a long time by making the body strong.
57
Question: In that case, can sannyasa be good?
Answer: True bliss, which is present in those who renounce the ego, is not there in sannyasa. How, then, can it be good?
Effortlessly they will take up a begging bowl in their hands; they will shave their heads and wear only a loincloth; and they will appear to be great ones. But will they also experience the bliss of sleeping without sleeping that is experienced by those who have renounced the ego.
58
Question: In that case, are scriptural study and spiritual practice not necessary?
Answer: To those who have seen their Self, what is the use of sastras and sadhana?
To see one’s Self, what sastra is needed? What sadhana is necessary? Is not all this a mad game? Those who regard as real the illusion that has arisen – like the imaginary imp created to scare simple-minded people – will not see the Self.
59
Question: Is not sadhana necessary to know the Self?
Answer: What use is a sadhana that does not enable one to see the sadhaka?
The objects, which are seen to be many, such as male, female and neuter, and the seer who remains as one – all this is only the manifestation of consciousness. Can they exist apart from consciousness? However much sadhana they practise, how will it be of use for those who do not know this clearly?
60
Question: Why do they suffer instead of enquiring and realising the Self?
Answer: They suffer because what they have known to be one by studying has not been experienced.
What does it matter to the realised one who lives and in what way? What does it matter to the realised one who goes where and in what manner? His state is like that of a bat in its nest. He will be detached in every way and will sleep experiencing the state that never leaves. He alone is in bliss.
61
Question: Is it not necessary to know the nature of God and creation?
Answer: Since the Siva-state is non-dual, it is not necessary.
They will say that Iswara is infinite and that jiva is finite. They will say that jiva is like the eye and that Iswara is like the sun. These two definitely cannot be one. Sivam is only pure consciousness, which is neither jiva nor Iswara.
62
Question: Then what is the way to attain Sivam?
Answer: The way to see one’s Self is by rejecting everything else as maya.
The inert semen became the foetus and then became alive by mixing with the conscious principle. It appears to be real. When this happens, he who contemplates his real nature, regarding all this as illusory, is Sivam.
63
Question: Will not those who know the past, present and future become Sivam?
Answer: Only those who have seen the Self, which is beyond time, are Sivam, not those who know the three periods of time.
The self-effulgent Self destroys both night and day, the two that determine yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence, he alone is Sivam who has become the Self and who consequently worships the auspicious day that remains perpetually as the one unique day.