Sat-Darshana Bhashya
Commentary on Ulladu Narpadu

By K.
(Kapali Sastry)

Editor’s note

The document on this page is a commentary on Ramana Maharshi’s great philosophical poem Ulladu Narpadu. “Bhashya” means commentary and “Sat-Darshana” is the name of Ganapati Muni’s Sanskrit translation of Ramana’s poem.

Over the years Ramana’s ashram published numerous editions of this work as part of a combination volume called Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi. The two works are unrelated so I’ve printed them on separate pages on this site. You can find the Talks here. It’s different from the better-known book Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.

—Editor, Realization.org

Foreword

THE TRANSLATION OF THE Sat-Darshana slokas is in free verse. The English rendering of the Bhoomika (introduction) as well as the Bhashya (commentary in Sanskrit) is faithful to the spirit of the original. But in some places it is interpretative and amplified in order to make the English appear not a translation but a work readable without reference to the Sanskrit original. The English translation of the commentary on the 44th, the last verse, is not given as the one important subject dealt with therein, namely, the higher value of the revealed word or scripture is to be found substantially in the closing pages of the Bhoomika.

The rules of transliteration of Sanskrit words, in Roman script had to be overlooked because of printing inconvenience: but wherever a Sanskrit word occurs it is preceded by its English equivalent.

In the closing part of the book is printed the original Tamil Ulladu Narpadu of Sri Maharshi, of which Sat-Darshan is the Sanskrit version, in order to be of use to the Tamil knowing reader.

K.

Introduction

1
Of Non-duality

“Existence alone was in the beginning.”⁠1 “All this verily is Brahman.”⁠2 “Purusha is all this, what has been and what has to be.”⁠3 These well known passages of the Upanishads and similar scriptural texts point to the material cause of ‘all this’, the universe, as the sole self-existent conscient Purusha, who as pure Existence is termed Sat, and as world-existence Brahman

[Note: The world is a formation of the substance which is termed pure Existence, pure in the sense of its absolute independence of the particular forms in which it finds a certain expression. ‘All this’ therefore is Brahman, the one Existence-in-Substance; and this Existence, the substantial truth Brahman, is not without relation to its own forms of expression. It is Purusha, the Spirit, the Conscient, that is all this, what has become and what has yet to become.]

Again: “It (Sat, Brahman) saw, and there was force of consciousness in the gaze, tapas.”⁠4 “He desired (willed) to become the many.”⁠5 Texts of this import refer to the sole Purusha as the efficient cause of creation. The power to formulate world-existence is inherent in the Purusha, the Spirit, the one Existent. He is consciousness and the conscious force ever inherent in him issues out of him and formulates the one existence into a manifold world-movement.

So then, the sole Purusha being the efficient source and substance of all that is and can be, there can be no real opposition between the two forms of existence, variously designated by the pairs, the Outer and the Inner, World and Soul, Matter and Spirit, This-ness and I-ness. In fact, this biune existence termed duality (dvandva) interrelated, interdependent, and co-existent, is the presentation of an inseparable two-fold aspect of the Supreme Truth, the thing as it is and as it becomes, the One Reality in being and in becoming. The Upanishads tell us that the One is expressed in a manifold form and the two-fold existence, world and soul, Jagat and Jeeva, is formed by the boundless energy of the dividing and differentiating conscious force variously called tapas, creative incubation, Chit-Shakti, conscious force, Kāma desire to become many, Iksha, the gaze of the eternal wide-awake self-awareness of the Indivisible Limitless Sat, Purusha. Therefore, world and soul, Idam Bhāva and Aham-Bhāva (This-ness and I-ness), form an inseparable two-fold aspect, a biune presentation of the Supreme Reality and are the primal modification (Pariņāma) implied in the ceaseless change of the forms of consciousness which sees in its unlimited being a movement of limitations, a becoming of its own substance, a formation of its own eternal movement. This original substance which is of the nature of a supreme consciousness, intense and infinite, does not lose itself in its own self-becoming, in its own modifications into a variety of forms effected JOIN by its inherent conscious force. It is to be noted that this modification is not—as is thought in scholastic circles—of the nature of milk becoming curd, in which the former is lost and irrecoverable, but is of the character of gold formed into ornaments, in which gold the substance not merely persists but reveals its potentiality for formation into an endless variety. The forms change but the substance endures and it is the identity of the persisting substance that is stressed as the central truth by the Chandogya Upanishad analogy of gold in ornamental forms. The Purusha, Sat, is not affected in his character as substance, the material for all this formation of endless worlds and numberless souls which are but his countless parts, thus manifest in virtue of his conscious force tapas. It is clear then that Brahman is one substance, Swaroopa in all its forms and conditions. Hence texts such as “The Self is all this”, “All this is That Truth—He, Self”, “The Self has become all this”,⁠6 reveal to us the truth that it is the one Self, Purusha, infinite by nature, that is meant in all his modes of soul-formation and world-expression.

The truth of the one substance, the Reality, revealed in experience to the supra-sensual consciousness as one-without-a-second, becomes to the sense-mind in experience the many, full of duality. And finding opposition between the One and the Many, certain schools of philosophic thought, by way of recognising the higher sanction of the superconscious experience in which the One alone is felt, have hastened to affirm the One by a denial of the Many, as this latter is manifest only to sense experience which is indeed not to be relied JOIN upon for getting at the Reality, for realising the truth that transcends the sphere of the senses. But, since we find in the scriptures oft-repeated passages that the One has become the Many and is expressed or veiled in the Many, it is reasonable to conclude that the One and the Many are not really opposed to each other, and the contradiction has no place in the Reality but is a figment of the enquiring mind. Hence, it is preferable to solve the problem of the Many by reducing the contradiction, if at all there is any, to a reconciliation in the Truth itself.

Let us take the instance of a pot. When the form of the pot is perceived without the knowledge that the pot is made of clay, no one denies the truth of this form or the validity of its perception on the ground that he has no knowledge of the substance of which it is made, and thus of the true character of the pot. Similarly, we do not deny the form or its perception when we gain knowledge of the true nature of the pot, viz., that it is made of clay. Both the statements that the material of the pot is clay and that it is of a particular shape, can be truly made of the pot. The knowledge that the pot is of clay neither contradicts nor is incompatible with the knowledge that it has a particular shape. Nor does the predication that the pot has a particular form negate the substantial truth that the pot is of clay. Therefore, it has to be admitted that the truth of the thing is two-fold according to the view-point and understanding capacity of the enquiring mind. That the pot is made of clay may be termed the substantial truth of the pot and that it has a particular shape, its formal truth. Both are true and together give the whole truth of the pot. That clay is the substance of the pot is the substantial or the primal truth. The form assumed by the substance is the formal truth. Since form depends upon JOIN substance and substance refers to the essential character of the thing, the one is the substantial and primary truth, ard the other is the formal or attributive and secondary truth of the same, especially in view of the fact that the same thing is apprehended differently by the different sense-crgans. But, the understanding of the form and other aspects of substance as distinct and apart from substance itself is entirely dependent on sense-mind and intelligence and its development. Thus, the distinct apprehension of these two aspects, the substantial and the formal, not only does not lead to error, but there is a great gain in it, for then the synthetic truth is apprehended in its integrality.

Similarly, dealing with the subject of the triune existence, God, World and Soul, we are to recognize that the sole Reality, Brahman, presents two aspects, the substanital and the formal. Brahman, the one existence, becomes the Lord (Ishwara), in relation to its own modes of being as world and soul, as it is the substance and support and directing intelligence of its own formation in the shape of World and Soul. It is the Brahman that is really present in and signified by the various modes of its own existence, by the numberless selves and the countless worlds; these are the signifying factors and their Lord is the One signified in all of them. So then, it is as a relation of substance to form that we are to understand the relation of God to world and soul, the world with all that is included in it and the soul with all its limitations and development. These modes of Brahman are formed and constituted in Brahman itself and are variously termed in philosophic parlance, according to the type and temperament of the enquiring mind or the view-point of the vision that gave birth to the religio-philosophic system. Thus, they are called modes (prakāras) particulars (Viseshas), parts JOIN or aspects (kalās), qualities or attributes (gunās); all these refer to the formulated existence presented to the intutitive philosophic mind as an intellectual translation of supra-intellectual truth.

Like a particular form of substance, say the pot-shape assumed by clay, this world in which we live and move and have our being is really a mode of Brahman, an aspect of it expressive of its omnipotence, a quality of the Unqualified, a form of the supreme Substance which in itself is formless and beyond forms. And for this reason, this world of name and form as we understand it is the qualitative and formal truth, a partial truth, of Brahman, the one Reality. But, like the clay of the pot it is the Divine Existence, nameless and formless in itself, that is the material, the root-substance, of which all this (idam sarvam) is a form, and hence that is the substantial and primal truth of ‘all this’. Thus, there is no real opposition between these two aspects, the substantial and the formal, of the same truth. It is evident then that it is both futile and false to affirm that the substantial truth alone of the world-being, Brahman, is real and that the formal aspect of Brahman as the world is unreal. Both the aspects Nirguna and Saguna, the formless Brahman and the Brahman of forms, are not only not contradictory but together give a complete understanding of the truth of existence as it is.

By the terms Nirguna and Nishkala, “absolved of qualities and parts”, it is meant that Brahman is beyond qualities and parts or aspects and not that it is devoid or incapable of qualities and parts. Besides, when Brahman is described as greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest, it is clear that Brahman as a quantitative existence is transcendental in either direction. It follows that the JOIN Infinite Brahman, while manifesting countless finite parts in definite qualities and quantities, transcends these and thus continues to be infinite. It must be borne in mind that though it is the Infinite, the omnipotent Brahman, that by its creative gaze brings these myriads of worlds into existence out of a part of its own being, and having created these enters into them for their sustenance, yet it does not lose itself in them. Hence, the wise hold that while Brahman is beyond and not limited by space and time, it is pervasive of all space and enduring in all time. Everywhere, in every one of its parts, great or small, Brahman is full. This is the profound significance of the comprehensive Advaitha revealed in the scripture, “This is full and that is full; out of fullness, fullness is lifted up. Fullness being taken from fullness, fullness alone remains.”⁠7

To sum up: To know the world as it appears to my imperfect understanding is a partial knowledge which ignores the substance. A knowledge of the world of name and form without knowing its substantial reality is imperfect knowledge. Partial knowledge, as such and in itself, is only imperfect but not false. It is the mistaking of the partial truth for the whole that is false knowledge. As this partial knowledge is an imperfect understanding, too gross to penetrate to subtler truths, it is almost like ignorance. Since it moves in a futile circle, apprehending only the formal without getting at the substantial truth, and often leads to error and mischief, it is referred to by the disparaging term ajnana (ignorance). It is when Brahman, the root-substance of all existence, is realised that there is clear realisation of the whole truth that Brahman, JOIN the Self of all existence, is not different from its own formation as world-existence and soul-existence. That alone is complete knowledge, that alone is integral truth.

2
Of Creation

We have said, and the truth cannot be too often repeated or too much stressed, that the Original Substance, the source and support of all the worlds with all their beings, is the one Existence-consciousness, the Infinite Self whose gaze (Iksha) or creative fervour (Tapas) or force or consciousness involves an eternal movement of activity forming this world, and that this in its turn, by an ordered difference in development. brings into existence all these beings or rather becomings, in a variety of species, with striking differences in the nature of their embodiments such as physical, vital and mental and with remarkable variations in their capacity to develop the organs of vital, mental and spiritual or divine functions.

Really, Brahman is equal in all these beings. Still, there is a vast difference in their capacities for vital activity, sense perception and general experience. They do not come into being simultaneously and at the same place. Differences among the created are the result of the functioning of the creative power in terms of space and time. Conditioned in space, which is full, intense and immobile, in the Self as Extension, there arise and endure the endless distinctions among perceptible objects. The endless distinctions among internal processes, ceaselessly arising in the one continuous flow of activity, the phenomena of remembrance and expectation, and all the differences in condition everywhere even outside, these exist conditioned to Time, which like an intangible void is only the Self as eternal change and ceaseless movement.

Thus, there is no creation without the all-powerful Consciousness of the Self assuming spartial and temporal terms of existence. In the absence of created existence, the question of my existence and of other existences does not arise. It is in creation, whose reality is established to our experience, that our own individual existence is founded. It is to be noted then that all these objects, sentient or otherwise, are subject to space and time which are the terms of Existence-Consciousness assumed by the eternal force-movement inherent in it for the sustenance of creation. Therefore, in the all-pervading Existence-Consciousness thus formulated into spatial and temporal existence making countless distractions possible, there manifest various species, and in each, innumerable forms. And, in each of the numberless kinds thus manifest in this physical world of ours, there are countless individual objects. Among rocks and rivers, among trees and plants, among birds beasts and other creatures, while there are common features binding each to its kind, there are endless differences characterising the particular appearances in each kind or species. Thus, in the human kind also numberless are the individual forms, each distinct from every other.

Therefore X is different from Y in form or character. Individual variations in mankind can be seen in general capacity and experience, in assimilation, action and the instruments of these, in receptivity and application. This indeed is the wonder of creation that countless divisions and finites are formed from and in the One Indivisible Infinite.

In this unending differentiation into numberless finites and divisions of the undifferentiated Infinite Self, the abode and support of all, the question occurs to man: ‘What is the character of the world in which this body lives? Whence are these creatures whose appearance and disappearance are common phenomena? Who again am I, to whom occurs this enquiry?’ The man with the spirit of enquiry awakened becomes gradually possessed of a sense of bondage and a keen sense of bondage develops a desire for liberation. Therefore, it is they say that whoever has a straightforward desire for freedom is an advanced being. Such a development is sufficient qualification for the knowledge of the Self (Adhyātma Vidya).

Here, the intelligent critic is struck with a doubt: “If it is established that the Infinite Self, eternally free and conscious, is also the Self of all that it has become, who is it that is in bondage from which release is desired? What is the true character of this bondage? What again is the nature of the development by which one becomes competent for freedom?”

Let us pause for a moment and consider. The birth of the worlds from the all-powerful Supreme Brahman reveals a principle of bifurcation in the Infinite Consciousness itself. The created world called the inconscient (Jada) and the creating Consciousness (Ishwara) are the two bifurcated parts of the really indivisible. The one Infinite Self is absolute, absolved of all the finites or relatives that are derived from it. Hence, while remaining free and absolute, the Infinite Consciousness assumes in relation to the creative movement the double form or aspect of the knower and the known, the conscient and the inconscient, (Chetana and Jada). It must be JOIN borne in mind that it is the limitless Indivisible itself that is thus limited in the form of Subject and Object. Though it is the One Existence-Consciousness which is the substantial truth in both the created world and the Creator-Lord, in both the Object and the Subject, yet the Creator-Lord being the illuminator is termed the Self, the knower and the created world being the illuminated is termed the not-self, the known as distinguished from the knower.

Through a subtle activity or movement of its own light, the illuminating consciousness with its unlimited capacity for infinite divisibility throws out particular forms of itself, which in the subtler states are of the character of knowledge and activity and are termed mind-stuff and life-force, Chitta and Prana, and which in the grosser state becomes modified into what is called the inconscient world (Jada).

Therefore, the wise state that in ultimate truth there is no real difference between the Subject and the Object, between the Lord and His creation, as both are of the same substance and endure in a relation of identity (tadatmya).⁠8 And for this reason, the text “All this is Brahman” is acceptable.

Therefore, consciousness in the subjective being is the illuminating cause (Karana) and the gross world which forms the objective existence is the illuminated effect. Between these two, between the world, characterised as objective existence, gross (Sthoola) and inconscient (Jada) on one side and JOIN the conscient subjective being, the causal (Kārana), the Supreme self on the other, there is ever active a play of the conscious force, manifested as a movement of knowledge and activity and called mind and life-force (Chitta and Prāna) and this is termed the subtle (Sukshma).

This subtle movement of knowledge and activity, of mind and life force, at once divides and links the world and its Lord, the inconscient and the conscient. In the macrocosm it is called the world of life-force (Prana-l ka) and other worlds still subtler. In the microcosm, the same is termed the subtle body (the Sukshma-deha), including the sheaths of life-force and mind (prānamaya manomaya-koshas).

The relation of the inconscient and the conscient is that of the illuminator and the illuminated, and the same in terms of action becomes that of the developer and the developed, the force that works up and the thing that is worked up. When the created world is illuminated by the Conscient, the inconscient is stirred to change and development; and in the course of its development, it manifests an individuation of ‘life and mind’ resulting in the appearance of human beings. What are called ‘life and mind’, though differing in their functionings, are really a twofold branch from the same root, viz., the conscious force which forms into a dual movement of knowledge and action, represented by mind and life. In the words of Upadesha Sara “The mind-stuff and life force functioning as knowledge and action are twin branches from one root-source (Shakti).”⁠9

3
Of Bondage

Because of the difference in development among human beings who are all alike subject to conditions of space, time and causation, some are stung by a sense of bondage while others are not. The man with a sense of bondage is already on the way to freedom. Such a man is better developed than he who like a brute is unaware of his bondage, and he that has release fron bondage is still better developed than one with a mere sense of bondage. The course of all this development through a gradation of stages is all a play of the Conscious inconscient objective existence as well as in the subtle movement called ‘knowledge and action’ (Vritti), both being illuminated and thereby acted upon by the illuminating Conscient, the cause of all differentiated existence. Therefore, development (Paripāka) refers to both the subtle (Sukshma) and the gross (Sthula), the subtle movement of mind and life (Vritti) and the gross objective existence (Vishaya).

Now the nature of the bondage (Bandha) is quite clear. The link between the subject and the object, between spirit and matter, is itself the binding element denoted by the term Sukshma Sharira, (the subtle body). Though this subtle body presenting the principle of knowledge and action is a composite of both mind and life, yet since the mind with its greater subtlety is closer to and more easily receptive of the light of Consciousness, the mind alone is sometimes called the Sukshma Sharira (the subtle body).

This subtle body is the link between matter and spirit and it binds the soul or self to the body. The self or soul then becomes lost in the bodily consciousness and hence JOIN arises the feeling and sense that the body is the self, and conversely the self is thought to have the bodily attributes of birth, etc.

Now then, let us see who is in bondage. The indwelling consciousness in all (Sarvāntaryūmi) which is the support of all existences presides over all that exists, over the universal and the individual, over the great and the small; therefore, there is room everywhere for the subtle movement of knowledge and action, covert and overt. It must not be forgotten that there is an inexhaustible power inherent in this intra-cosmic spirit that presides over the resides⁠10 in everything. Shakti and Shakta, the power and the powerful, are inseparable and can be separated only in mind and speech, never in fact or in experience. And this power is of the nature of a Supreme Capacity.

On the smallest as on the biggest, on the collective as on the individual, the presiding and directing consciousness confers by a natural poise the capacity needed for their formation, sustenance and dissolution. It is the wonderful Shakti of the All-Conscious Supreme Lord of Creation that by its very nature constitutes the capacity of the presiding veiled Intelligence to enter, hold and direct the formation, endurance and disappearance of countless finite objects. These finite objects are of endless variety, the objects of the material world having embodiment purely physical, the objects of the vegetable kingdom with an embodiment physical-vital, and the beings of the human kind possessed of an embodiment physical-vital-mental.

But, on the ground that the self is limited to the body, or the spirit is bound to matter through the link of what is called the Sukshma Sharira (the subtle movement of mind and life), JOIN it should not be mistaken that the presiding spirit is in bondage. The spirit is self-existent and eternally free and can never be in chains. Nor can it be said that because it presides, to that extent it is affected and bound. The presiding poise of the Supreme Self or Spirit is eternal and inherent in its very being, since it relates to its own becomings. The Self or the free Spirit is not fettered, nor is there any bondage for the body which has no sense or feeling. Who then is it that is bound and teels chained? There must be in the bondage itself, in the Sukshma Sharira, some element that experiences the bondage, something by which the presiding Spirit is signified. That element is called the ego, (Ahamkāra). It is a persistent though impermanent form of Atman, the Self, formed and centred in the vital-mental subtle body with which it identifies itself. By drawing upon the power of becoming, inherent in the gaze of the self-aware Atman, it imposes itself upon thoughts and things and makes them its own; ever dependent for support, it yet poses itself as free and figures as the spirit itself. This apparent self, born in forms, ever shifting from form to form, finding its mainstay in forms, itself without form, this is termed Jeeva or soul, in the sense that it is born and perishes, and not the real self (Atman). By the identification of the bondage with the bound, of the support with the supported, of the ego with the bondage which it has woven round itself, this apparent self with its central principle of Ahamkāra is both the bondage and the bound.

This ego, which is the apparent self, a reflection of the Real Self in the vital-mental stuff called the subtle body, appropriates the later to itself, becomes it as it were, and as a consequence the subtle body is subjected to the sanction of the ego which is its immediate centre, so to speak. Like the light of the lamp, the activity of the ego extending out from JOIN this centre is imposed primarily on the subtle body which is its main domain. For the reasons thus briefly stated, a number of terms with varying connotations emphasising different aspects are used to denote this ego. It is the subtle body itself, the Jeeva or soul in the making, the apparent self, the mind, the link between the self and the body. It is clear then that it is this apparent self or soul-formation in the subtle body, that is stung by a sense of bondage and is actually in chains. Therefore, liberation and bondage are used with reference to the ego, with its pose as self. In the undeveloped condition, it becomes active in the subtle or the gross and is then absorbed in the world of forms. That is bondage. In a developed state, it gets into a single movement of search for its source, the real Self in the depths and thus becomes withdrawn or released from all subjective movements (Vritti) and all objects (Vishaya) which constitute the not-self. This is release. Both the power that binds and the power that releases lie latent in a germinal state in this very subtle body dominated by the ego or the apparent self. The Conscious Force directed to the creative movement brings about in the indivisible infinite Self distinct forces and finite forms, separates them from their root-source so as to produce in consciousness an experience of their distinctness, and throws them into an out-going movement directed to grosser forms. This differentiating movement proceeding from the creative Concious Force throws a veil of self-forgetfulness over the innumerable finite forms of Existence-Consciousness (Sat-Chit) for their definite formation. This veil of self-forgetfulness, cast over all that is formed, limited and distinct, is a function of what is called the Tirodhāna Shakti, the screening power over all formations in the free, eternal and infinite self. It is this power of veiling that creates the knot between matter and spirit, causes the subtle stuff of mind and life to assume JOIN and be absorbed in grosser forms and constitutes itself as the Sukshma Sharira, which is at once the power and property of the ego as well as its bondage.

Again in this subtle body of bondage itself, there is another movement succeeding and superseding the power of self-veiling or Tirodhāna. This is the self-revealing power (Anugraha) which is but the reverse of Tirodhāna. By a covert and close following it holds and educates the ego which, covering up the light of the conscious self, poses as its figure and impels it to further development. Thus propelled, the apparent self is forced to advance through experience of pain and pleasure, through wandering about in a seemingly unending and apparently ever repeating movement of mind and life or by getting absorbed in grosser forms, only to fird at the end the futility of its endless revolution in its own prison-house. Then it is the Anugraha Shakti that directs the ego-idea to a single movement leading to the deeper and real Self, and thus cuts asunder the knot of ego and dissolves the bond of the Jeeva or the apparent self.

Thus, there are two movements of the Supreme Conscious force in creation, the one preceding and throwing a veil over the finite formations in the infinite Self, the other succeeding, with an intimate hold on them for the unfolding of the infinite in them. The self-veiling power (Tirodhāna) first envelops the ego with the covering of the subtle movement of mind and life called Vritti, and then develops it to a diffusion and loss in the objective world of forms. The Tirodhāna Shakti, this power for bondage, is reversed and transformed into a power for release by the Anugraha, which succeeds, and gets a close grip on the ego or the apparent self. Then the outstreaming activity of the subtle body, ‘mind and life’, is JOIN relaxed or withdrawn from the external and the gross, all its widespread, diffused and disorderly movenient is gathered up and fixed in a single movement on the ego-sense to find its source in the self, thus involving correction or transformation of the ego which is but an impermanent and distorted figure of the eternal self. Therefore, this twofold power in the creative movement of the conscious force is ever active in the ego as well as in the subtle body which is here called the cord binding spirit to matter, the knot linking the self to the body.

Such in brief outline is the true character of bondage and the bound, and of the development leading to release.

4
The ‘I’-Sense

The Upanishads use the third person in stating the nature of Brahman as the Supreme Sole Reality, as for instance in texts like “All this is verily Brahman”,⁠11 “The Brahman is one without a second”,⁠12 “Brahman is truth, knowledge, endless”,⁠13 “Brahman is consciousness”.⁠14 But, we find the first person used with reference to creation as in passages like “By this my living self, may I define it in name and form; He said at the outset ‘I am’ (Asmi); therefore ‘I’ (Aham),is His name”.⁠15 The underlying idea is that the supreme Truth the One Existence mentioned in the third person becomes the self of all the created world and hence it is the Supreme ‘I’, the Purusha. The Supreme Truth as it exists in and to itself cannot be referred to as either ‘I’ or ‘this’ as there can arise no question of I-ness’ and ‘this-ness’ when the Absolute is viewed as it is in itself, unrelated to created or formed existence. But, viewed as the supreme sole source of all that is created, it is the Purusha, the Supreme Self, the ‘I’ of the whole movement. Hence, everywhere in creation, Purusha, the Lord of all, is the Supreme Self that has become the in-dwelling self of all his becomings and persists as the basis and support of the notion of ‘I’ in every being. Therefore, he is the first and final ‘I’, the ultimate reference and supreme significance (Paramārtha) of the word ‘I’.

When like sparks from the flaming fire the innumerable soul-forms or Jeevas get differentiated from the Brahman, it is the sole Self, the basis of the notion of ‘I’ that is signified in the various individuals. For Brahman is the Self that has become the self in and of all created beings. And this self is really the Supreme Self (Parama Atman), the Lord of all, one without a second. It is the Self, the basis of ‘I notion’ that is really signified in the various individuals, in X and in Y. Free and Supreme in itself, it becomes the basis and support of the distinct experience of the separate egos formed in the different individuals. As it is the one unmanifest Infinite that becomes the support of all manifested beings, the self in them is not different from but is the same as the One Infinite Self. And, this is the essential sense as the philosophic teaching that there are not many selves but only one Self.

Now then, the Paramārtha, the supreme sense of ‘I’, is the Supreme Self, unmanifest and infinite, the Purusha. At the same time, as the inner self and support of all individual manifestatons, He is the real significance of ‘I’ its Lakshyārtha (implied meaning) the ‘I’ really signified in the individuals. The immediate and apparent sense of ‘I’ is the ego, as even this is a derivation from and figure of the surface, identifying itself with, and appropriating to itself, the subtle stuff of ‘mind and life’ that links the spirit with matter, the self with the body.

As the ego, which is the direct and immediate sense of ‘I’, is centered and figured in each of the distinct and separate individuals in a subtle movement of life-force and mind-stuff, it is termed Jeeva here. This sense of ‘I’ is separate in each individual being and preserving the distinctness of the individual, behaves in a manner that would strengthen the individual’s distinct character. But, such a movement of the ego or the apparent self has its root and support in something that is the real basis of individuality and that does not move with or lose itself in the movement of the apparent self, a something that is a continuous conscious principle related to the past, present and future; that is the Real Self signified, the Lakshyārtha, in the individual, of which the ego is the apparent self. This latter is different in different individuals and is loosely called the Jeeva Atman. But, Atman the self is really one; the self of all individuals as of all existence is one. But, Jeevas or living beings are many, as many as the individuals that are formed. These are soul-formations that are dissoluble in time, unlike their supporting self which is eternal, being identical with the Infinite Eternal which maintains its many-centered existence in an endless movement of formation and dissolution.

Thus, we see that there are three distinct senses in which ‘I’ is used. The supreme meaning of ‘I’, its Paramārtha, is the Purusha who becomes the Lakshyārtha (the signified sense) in the individual, as it is the same self that presides over individual existence and the immediate or apparent sense of ‘I’ (Vāchyartra) is the ego or the apparent self formed temporarily for purposes of individuation. Threefold then is the sense of the Self, the ‘I’ and in its threefold sense it is to be undertood.

5
Of Release

Release is said to be a liberation of the soul or Jeeva from the bondage in which it is lost. This bondage has been described as a knot tying spirit to matter. It has been also stated that the real nature of this bondage consists in the play of the ego or the apparent consciousness. Hence, the Shastras lay down that liberation is nothing but the dissolution of the ego, and show the means of such dissolution. Elsewhere is discussed the difference between the bound man and the liberated. It is sufficient here to note what is common to both in order to clear a possible misapprehension that with the dissolution of the ego individuality also is dissolved. When the ego is dissolved or reformed, individuality is not destroyed. The self that supports the individuality is a continuous conscious principle that survives the appearance and disappearance of the ego and does not depend upon the ego for the preservation of its individuality. This self, as has been already noted, is none other than the infinite self which, in maintaining a manifold individuality in its own movement JOIN of all-becoming, becomes the self of each individual, in which however, there is a play on the surface of a figure of the self, called the ego or the apparent self. This latter is a temporary formation and like every formation is dissoluble in time. The individual in whom the bondage is shattered and the ego is dissolved retains his individuality even after the release, Mukti. He can recall in his liberated state the experiences of his former life in bondage and thus connect the past of his distinct individuality in an unbroken continuity with the present. The individuality persists in spite of the withdrawal of the ego, and it is a mistaken notion that the ego is a permanent mark or eternal expression of individuality. Perhaps, a real and more enduring individuality commences only from liberation, in the absence of the disfiguring ego and its interference. Therefore, the liberated life of the Jeevan-Mukta is an ideal realised in the individual. So then, whether a soul is in bondage or released from it, the individuality persists, because it is the direct concern of the Infinite and not at all of the ego. Certain truths about the Mukta or the liberated soul are stated in the Ramana Gita (Ch. VII, IX, XIV) to which we shall later make reference. Though experience alone can verify their truth and one must have taken to spiritual life and have had some kind of personal experience before one can understand and appreciate them, the true state of the liberated man, Mukta Purusha, is described there with many details regarding the wonderful development that comes upon his body, life and mind, in order to strengthen the faith of the intelligent critic of earnest enquiry, and to infuse interest and spirit into him.

As bondage and release refer to the Jeeva or the apparent self, the doubt arises if the means of release lies with the Jeeva or not. An answer is possible either way. It may be argued JOIN that if the Jeeva be the cause of bondage then the means of liberation also lies with him. In that case, since the Jeeva is a formation in the Sukshma Deha, the subtle stuff between the self and the body, he is bound in matter and freed in spirit. The element of Jada, the inconscient in him, causes the bondage and that of consciousness works for release. On the other hand, it may be urged that since in reality the Jeeva himself is said to be a formation identified with bondage he is not the cause of his own imprisonment. He finds himself there as the apparent self bound to a movement of the subltle body which he has made his own by a sort of identity. So then, if we remember that this bondage is the work of the self-veiling power (Tirodhāna) in the creative movement itself and that release is the result of a succeeding movement of the conscious force called Anugraha, the Grace, we are led to conclude that Mukti or liberation is a matter of development. The power of grace of the supreme Lord of all existence, the Infinite Self, chooses the developed Jeeva, the Pakva, removes the deflection of the apparent self in him, and transforms the ego into a true reflection of himself, ever signified as the free and the real ‘I’ in the individual. The Upanishad is clear upon this point and will bear quotation. “The self is attainable to him alone whom it chooses and to him the chosen, it reveals itself.”⁠16

We have already stated that it is double movement of the creative conscious force which by the play of her Māyā manifests as a self-veiling power constituting itself as bondage and also as a revealing power moving towards release. As we have seen that it is the Jeeva or the apparent self that is JOIN chained and released, it is clear that the Jeeva in the individual is born and disappears. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the self of the individual Jeeva is free from the temporary character of the Jeeva and is not subject to the changes attendant on the formation of the soul called Jeeva.

6
Of Sadhana and Siddhi

If it is the Grace that causes the dissolution of the ego and forms in the Jeeva a true reflection of the self, a consummation which is called self-attainment (Atmalābha), the doubt may arise that human effort can be safely omitted and that the Shastras that point out to the Jeeva the means and methods for his liberation are purposeless and futile. But the doubt is groundless. The ego-struck Jeeva, as the apparent self posing himself as free, cannot stand still and refrain from effort until he realises his freedom in the self. Human effort is inevitable and has its purpose so long as one experiences the sense of bondage and dependence. The Grace of the Conscious Light upon the apparent self (Jeeva) fulfils itself in an impulsion from within or compulsion from without for human effort. And effort takes various forms, such as meditation and concentration upon the true nature of the Self, absolute submission to a Higher will and surrender to Him of all that one is and all that one has, as the only proper course for human soul to take, and other disciplines or Sadhanas, well-known or ill-known, enjoined or unenjoined by the Shastras, JOIN or it may adopt any other method such as Rāja yoga, Mantra yoga, Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, Karma yoga, the last three constituting the triple path of devotion, knowledge and disinterested action. Human effort adopts any or all of these means either for the Realisation of the Self, or for the attainment of the Nishkala, (Impersonal), or of the Sakala (personal) God, the goal of all religions. Therefore, human effort is not opposed to Divine Grace; on the other hand, it is an instrument of the latter.

The great Advaita Acharya Shri Shankara and Shri Maharshi Ramana agree upon the central teaching of the Upanishads, the oneness of the self with Brahman. But there are certain points of difference between them. The passages stating the world as false, unreal or illusory do not leap to the eye in the Upanishads but are discoverable only by a close search and they are taken as affirming the illusory character of the world by some sort of interpretation; after all, they do not affirm the illusoriness of the world in clear categorical terms. Maharshi holds that the statement of the illusory nature of the world is but a means of creating disgust for what is impermanent in the world, thus driving you home to search for thy Self, for what is permanent in you. Against the authoritative works of Acharya Shankara’s school certain truths are either omitted or slightly touched, and if mentioned at all, they are expounded in such a way as to give room to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. In the works⁠17 of Shri Maharshi we find these dealt with in clear and unmistakable language.

One of such truths is the necessity of Upasana.⁠18 Maharshi teaches that Upasana or practice of some kind to build an inner life for spiritual advancement is absolutely indispensable. Enquiry into or search for the Self is something different from and subtler than Shastraic discussion. The latter which is intellectual in character can never be a real search for the self or a serious enquiry into it. Knowledge (Jnāna) being of the nature of experience or realisation, Jijnāsā or the desire for realisation is an earnest attempt to attain the Self. This earnest désire for realisation is the real enquiry into the self, the real search for Atman, (Atma Swaroopa-Prepsā or Jijnāsā). It is not at all of a static charactr, a stagnant peace or a negative calm. It throws the whole being into a consuming fire as it were, takes hold of the life-breath which is lost in the bodily feeling, and separating it from the bodily grip, enters it into the Heart, which is the real self and the centre of Purusha, and withdrawing the mind from the world of form in which it is absorbed, imparts to it an inward turn towards the realisation of the Self. Such is real Jijnāsā, the genuine and earnest desire and search for the Self. Any one with this Jijnāsā is qualified for knowledge of the Self, for Adhyātma Vidyā. Vedic and Vedantic learning, Upanayan or conventional initiation into Vedic learning, Varna or caste, Ashrama or prescribed vocation in life— these are not the deciding factors here. Irrespective of these, one is supremely qualified for Atma Vidya provided he has Jināsā, this earnest desire for knowledge.

Such is the unconventional and rational attitude revealed in the works as well as in the life of Shri Maharshi.

Again just as there are Vidyas⁠19 (methods of spiritual practice) laid down in the Chandogya Upanishad for the attainment of Brahman, so also in the work here commented upon there are many methods suggested for the realisation of Brahman in one’s own Heart as one’s own self. For instance, it prescribes Vichāra or enquiry in the form of meditation upon various subtle truths relating to the self. Again, it points out methods such as a steady quest or a deep dive for the self by restraint of speech, life-breath and mind. And, various means are mentioned for bringing the wandering mind under control. Concentrated enquiry into the truth regarding dualities like that of seer and seen, trinities like knower, known and knowledge, the categories of space and time, and the notions of That, Thou and I. The effect of such meditations is to refine and stabilise the nerves and thus train them to respond to the demands of a higher life of spiritual realisation and ultimately to loosen the numberless tangles of ignorance (Granthis,) in mind, life and body, thereby leading to the experience of Brahman as one’s own deep self in the centre named ‘Heart’. But, the one Upasana that is emphasised is Sad-Vidya, otherwise called Hridaya Vidya, the realisation of the Self in the Heart. This is different from the traditional Dahara-Vidya as conventionally interpreted by scholasticism.

The conventional interpretation of Dahara Vidya is this: Since the Supreme Brahman is impersonal (Nirguna) and beyond mind and speech, for purposes of meditation one has to form by the imaginative mind a concept of the Saguna Brahman or Personal God, and fixing it in the space JOIN called Hrid Guha, the cavity of the Heart, meditate upon it. Of course, this Saguna Brahman is meant for the weak (Manda Adhikarin) who cannot realise the Supreme Brahman who is Nirguna, Impersonal. The Hridaya Vidya that Shri Maharshi teaches is different from the Dahara Vidya thus understood. Here is not indispensable an intellectual knowledge either of the Personal or of the Impersonal Brahman. Nor is it necessary to conceive a spatial symbol of the Purusha, or any cavity as the dwelling place of the Purusha. Nor is it suggested that the Saguna Brahman should be fixed in the imagined Dahara Akasha, the cavity of the Heart-centre and there meditated upon. As Brahman, the All Existence has become the Self in every one’s being in the centre called Hridaya (Heart), and is there effulgent as the imperishable I-consciousness, a serious quest for the origin and support of one’s own being naturally impels the life-breath or inspires the mind to move towards the origin of its own movement. And in this deeper movement of search for the self, the root-knot of ignorance in the heart (Hridaya Granthi), is automatically loosened, if not cut asunder; the soul is liberated from the bodily tangle and restored to the Self in the Heart; and the origin and support of the I-thought or the ego-sense is realised in the Heart as one’s own real Self. This Self-attainment leads to the realisation of the truth that it is Brahman, the Self of All-Existence, that is ablaze in one’s heart as the Self of the Jeeva and thus results in the experience of conscious union of the Jeeva with Brahman. Hence, the secret of this Sad-Vidya or Hridaya Upāsana is the truth that self-realisation culminates in the conscious union of Jeeva with Brahman.

Great are the results of success or perfection in this Upāsana. The knot of ignorance in the heart is untied, the JOIN soul is released from the hold of the body, there is a settled state, natural and unstrained, of the equipoised mind in the self, and there is an intimate realisation in the heart of the oneness of Jeeva and Ishvara. Therefore, it is that in the exposition of the nature of Sat-Darshan we find it stated “To live settled in the Reality (Existence as it is) by realising one’s identity with it is Sat-Darshan, Realisation of Truth or Perception of Reality”. Again, describing the nature of Atma-Darshan or Perception of Self this Shastra states that the finite self or Jeeva must become the food⁠20 (enjoyment or experience) of the Supreme Ishwara, and that it is in this that Atma-Darshan consists. Thus we have two statements descriptive of the exalted condition in Realisation, Sat-Darshan and Atma-Darshan. The former phrase describes that state which is one without difference in the Ishwara as well as in the Jeeva. It is called Kaivalya Nishtha, settled poise in Truth as Existence. The latter, Atma-Darshan, is a description having special reference to the relation between Jeeva and its source and support Ishwara, who is variously termed according to the view point as the infinite (Akhanda), the ever unmanifest (Nitya Avyaktha), the Self (Atman) and so on. And this relation is called Sayujya or conscious union in which the Darshan, Realisation or Perception consists in being food or enjoyment to the Supreme Lord.

Thus the state of Realisation, the fruit of success in Hridaya Vidya, can be viewed from two different standpoints as Kaivalya and as Sayujya, settling in the Self as the sole Reality and the attainment of conscious union with Brahman. And because of this dual aspect of Truth-Realisation, we find JOIN Sat-Darshan explained in one place and Atma-Darshan explained in another.

Since the state of the Jeevan-Mukta, of one who lives released from bondage, can thus be understood and described in two ways, in the two opening verses of benediction (Mangala-Slokas) Shri Maharshi mentions the Nishkala Brahman for Nishtha and the Sakala Brahman as the sole refuge and subject of conscious union, Sayujya.

Again, in the account of the difference between the bound man and the liberated, there is a remarkable verse revealing profound truths about the liberated life in the bodily existence. Referring to the Siddha, the perfected man who has his life and being in the Heart and who has learnt to live normally in and move and act from it, the verse says, “In this body the self is awake and aglow in the Heart; by its own light it pervades, possesses, and overpowers the body, the environment and the world at large, and lives full.” When development comes upon the man in bondage and under its stress his bonds are shattered, the effulgence of consciousness of the supreme essential life-breath (Sreshtha or Mukhya Prāna) which moves covertly in the body like salt dissolved in water withdraws from the body and the bodily consciousness, and turns to the source of its own movement, the Hridaya, which is the seat of the ‘I’-consciousness. Entering and retiring into the Heart, it is caught up in the grip of its Lord, the Lord of all existence, seated there as one’s own deepest being, the Self; and directed thence by Him it takes a different course in its movement and abandoning the habitual passage for bondage takes the path for freedom. As the light of the lamp pierces through the enclosure of the chimney, this conscious light of life streams out from the Heart through what in yogic parlance is called Amrita Nadi, Atma Nadi, Brahma Nadi or Mukhya Prana Nadi, and sweeping aside all obstruction, overpowers the body and permeates the environment and the world. In lucid and unmistakable language, it is stated in the Ramana Gita that though the Self has no motion, with the splendour of its light is in eternal active movement; itself the nature of development, it hastens the development of others and it is not at all a stone-like inertness like the apparently static Inconscient.

“No torpor in the natural poise of the Self is Sahaja Sthiti”.

“Settled state in the self, that alone is Tapas unshakable”.

“By that unremitting Tapas (the ardour of creative energy) development takes place moment after moment”.

“Whoever sees knowledge (Jnana), as divorced from power (Shakti), such an one knows not”.

“Sahaja Nishtha (natural settled state in Self), yields a development by which powers (Shaktis) manifest”.

“That state is the Supreme Power, that peace is the Supreme Calm.”

“He is a Jeevan-Mukta who in embodied existence lives liberated”.

“By the development in Tapas, the Jeevan-Mukta in course of time becomes intangible even while embodied and in the course of still further development he becomes invisible, and that perfected one (Siddha) now but a sublime centre of consciousness, goes about free in his movements”.

Passages such as these from the teachings of Shri Maharshi throw light upon the greatness of the soul liberated alive (Jeevan-Mukta).

7
The Grace

There is a great secret mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad⁠21 about Mukti (liberation). The soul of sufficient development discovers the limit to ignorance or in the words of the Upanishad is taken ashore across the Ignorance by Sanathkumara, Skanda, the eternal youth, the great spiritual teacher of mankind. When by meditation on the subtle truths of the Self and by other spiritual practices (Sadhanas) yielding nourishment to the inner stuff (Sattwa) it becomes pure and strong for a steady and constant awareness (Dhruvā Smruti) and the various ties of ignorance (Granthis) are loosened in him, then the Divine Grace functioning through Skanda, Sanatkumara, gives the overt and immediate finishing touch to lead him beyond Ignorance by cutting asunder the Guka Granthi or the root-knot of ego-sense in the Heart cavity. He is the original Guru, the Great Teacher of mankind, in whom the Divine Grace functions for the individual and collective uplift of mankind. In the Purānas, the supreme Guru is described as Sanathkumara, the eternal youth, a mental offspring of the Creative Spirit Brahma, and also as JOIN Skanda and Kumara, an issue of the effulgence of Lord Shiva. It is this Kumara Spirit, the Supreme Teacher, that presides over the spiritual destiny—and that is the only real destiny—of mankind and maintains the continuity of self-knowledge (Adhyatma Vidyā) in humanity, by entering into and possessing the developed, fit and chosen soul, or otherwise effecting a substantial union with him. Therefore, the Mukta or the liberated soul is said to incarnate the Grace, to represent the influence of Skanda, or even to be taken in and appropriated as a part and parcel of the Divine itself. And many are such liberated souls; notwithstanding their common experience of the Self’s oneness with Brahman there is to be seen a vast difference in their human conduct in life and in their understanding and interpretation of the supreme experience. This is due to the difference in their general capacity and their individual type and temperament, and also to the state of development of mankind in their age, to whose requirements their attitude is specially directed.

Hence this Shastra (‘Sat-Darshan’) represents the teaching of the Supreme and Original Teacher of mankind who has given it to the world through Shri Maharshi Ramana in whom he is verily incarnate with one of His parts (Nijakala).

8
‘Sat-Darshan’

(How the work was given to the world.)

This work was first written by Shri Maharshi in Tamil stanzas, forty-two in number including the first two benedictory verses, to give intellectual satisfaction to the earnest JOIN devotee of a metaphysical bent. It was rendered into Sanskrit, verse for verse, by his great disciple, the well-known scholar and genius Vasishtha Ganapathi Muni. As the title of the work shows, it is a discourse on the perception or realisation of Truth. Sat-Darshan is a compound word formed of Sat and Darshan, Sat meaning primarily existence and secondarily the real and the true, and Darshan meaning perception. It is direct perception of Truth that is here meant by the term. Indeed this work is based upon the Maharshi’s perception of Truth, and from this it derives its title ‘Truth-Perception’. But, ‘Darshan’ also means a system of philosophy, such as the Nyaya and other Darshanas of the post-shruti period. Even in this sense, the work is a Darshan, a philosophy of the Real. For the epigrammatic verses packed with profound thoughts yield a wealth of philosophic concepts furnishing sufficient material for the metaphysical basis of a philosophy that is involved in an intellectual statement of the Maharshi’s attitude to life and earthly existence. As there is nothing that is really unreal, a fact that is often stressed by Shri Maharshi, this system may be appropriately called a ‘True Realism’ or ‘Ideal Realism’.

It is needless to say that this Shastra is not intended either to refute or to support the current systems, such as the Saivite and the Vaishnavite, the Dwaita and the Adwaitha. It does not follow the method of metaphysical speculation, such as characterises the Nyaya and other systems of the Sutra period. Nor does it purport, like the two mimamsas of Jaimini and Bādarāyana to harmonise and to remove doubts or misconceptions in scriptural texts or other authoritative utterances of great souls. Like the sacred words of the Tamil Veda of Saint Nammālvar or of Mānikya Vāchaka, and like the texts of the Upanishads, the words of the Maharshi are an original JOIN and independent utterance based upon personal experience, and though they support and elucidate authoritative pronouncements both of the scriptures and of exalted souls, they have really an independent origin and validity coming as they do directly from himself.

9
The Great Soul

In his sixteenth year, the great Acharya Shankara, according to tradition, completed his matchless Bhashya on the Brahma Sutras, and by fulfilling the work of the Supreme Teacher, the Kārana Guru, by establishing the identity of Atman with Brahman, rose to the position of Jagad-guru as world-teacher.

In his sixteenth year, the great devotee, Saint Jnana Sambandha, an ornament to the famous quartette of Acharyas of Shaivaism, completed his earthly career and reached the abode of the Lord whom he worshipped and recognised as his own Father and whose commission he carried out in his earthly life.

Just on the completion of his sixteenth year, the great seer and sage, Sri Ramana Maharshi, from fear of death, sought in himself the protection of the Conqueror of Death, experiencing his inner being the Self in the Heart, as something distinct from the body; and feeling the urge of a supreme impulse recognised the Father of the universe as his own Father, and by His command quitted the post of his ego-self and reached, here and now in this earthly life, the Abode of his Father, which he describes in his hymns as the immutable rock of Peace, the ambrosial ocean of Grace, the supreme Love, the ineffable Delight, the Ananda of the Real.

His life throws a flood of illumination on the great mystic teaching of the Upanishad, “Great is your loss if you do not realise; but if you realise it here, then there is Truth for you.” Ever gracious to come down to those in need of help in ways best suited to them, scattering ennobling ideas and radiating uplifting influence, constantly shedding all around in external life the splendour and glory of the inner life, here indeed is a divine life incarnate on earth, a Shankara in giving by precept and practice the gift of Self-knowledge to the world of earnest souls aspiring for liberation, a Sambandha in the spirit of devotion to the Father of the universe, a life-celibate unseized by the lure of sex and worldly possession, soul liberated from Māyā (illusion), a son of Māyā, the Divine Mother, — such is the great seer and sage, Shri Ramana Maharshi.

A Note on the Individual Soul

The subject of the ‘individual soul’ (Jeeva-vyakti), has been given here quite an unconventional treatment. In some places, the Jeeva is mentioned as the ego; in others, it refers to a fixed form of consciousness and action; in still others it is taken as signifying individuality. In the commentary on the second half of the 26th verse, it is stated that the terms ahamkāra (ego) granthi (knot), vibandha (bondage), sukshma sharira (subtle body), chetas (mind), bhava or samsara (the cycle of birth and death) and Jeeva (living being), though referring in a way to the same things are not synonymous and interchangeable but signify the different function of the something that is formed between spirit and matter, between the self and the body. It is also stated that with the destruction of the ego there is no dissolution of individuality.

In order that these terms might be understood in their right sense and true relation to one another, and not confounded one with another, reasoned explanations are adduced in the Bhāshya as well as in the Introduction to elucidate them then and there, helping the earnest mind in search of truth to find harmony amidst the differing conclusions of the different philosophic systems. To set all doubts at rest, it is proposed to recapitulate here briefly the essence of the discussions on the individual soul (Jeeva-vyakti).

In the Upadesha Sara of Shri Maharshi, mind-stuff, and life-breath are mentioned together as a twin branch growing out of the same root, the conscious force suggesting that this is the Jeeva or the living being, with the ego formed in it for its centre of activity. And this stuff of mind and life is termed the subtle body in this Shastra. As long as there is this subtle body there is individuality, as the latter requires a form of some kind, subtle or gross, for its manifestation. Since this subtle body is a formation, and, as such, subject to space and time, it is dissoluble. But the dissolution of individuality into the unmanifest, like its emergence (manifestation) from it, is not determined by its own choice but is absolutely dependent on the Unmanifest Infinite (Avyakta Akhanda).

This subtle body, called Upādhi by some, is the basis for mental and vital activity in the mundane life of the man in bondage as well as of the liberated soul. When this Sukshma Sharira is not sufficiently developed, it remains a factor of bondage, a knot between matter and spirit, a prison house of the self in the body. By the force of the inconscient, which is the preponderant element in it, the subtle body is partly absorbed or submerged in matter (Jada), directed of course JOIN by a distorted reflection of the self, a posing figure, formed in it as the ego (Ahamkara). In an advanced state of development, this individual living being gets freed from the bondage of the body, by the preponderance of the element of conscious force which releases it from the hold of matter.

Thus, as the subtle body develops, it absorbs in a larger measure the conscious force which eliminates or transforms the element of the inconscient (jada) in the subtle body, and the ego yields to the pressure of the force of Self-consciousness. As the ego thus dissolves, being but the apparent self, the immediate sense of ‘I’, it is reborn as it were into the Real ‘I’ that has been all along signified by it. What really happens in this process of liberation is this. When, through the development of the subtle body in which it is firmly rooted posing as the Real self, this ego is stung by a sense of its own weakness and falsity, the wide-awake self-awareness of the Purusha, the spirit seated in the Heart, finds a true reflection in the subtle body, thus displacing the ego or transforming it into the pure ‘I’ (Shuddha Ahambhāva). And in consequence of the birth of the pure ‘I’, the real soul, the subtle body undergoes a remarkable change making it a true vehicle of the soul so formed. Thus freed from the hold of the material body this subtle stuff becomes a true expression of individuality faithful to the Original Self, and an individual centre to its supreme consciousness. Hence we find such statements as:

“Then flashes forth another ‘I’; ego that is not; perfect is that, the Supreme itself.”

“The Supreme is not different from the Heart, from the Self in the Heart.”

“He shines having devoured the ego… Whatever he sees, he sees not separate from his self.”

Therefore the person liberated alive from bodily bondage does not fall into the separative movement nor yields to the allurement of the apparent diversity, but perceives diversity in unity and experiences unity in diversity. And though he is well aware of the divergent way taken by the intelligence of others living in ignorance, his own individual life on earth is guided by the Supreme Lord of all, by the Self, all-controlling and independent, eternal and ever unmanifest, and thus it is an effulgent manifestation of the Heart, the secret centre of the Spirit in man. Such a liberated soul, whether here or there, and regardless of the possession of the material body, is firmly settled in the Infinite Self.

Notes

Copyright claimed by Sri Ramanasramam. Reprinted from K., Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi, 8th edition, 1993, published by Sri Ramanasramam.

Kapali Sastry (1886–1953) was a Sanskrit scholar and disciple of Ganapati Muni, Ramana Maharshi, and Sri Aurobindo. His Wikipedia page is here.

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This page was first published on March 6, 2025 and last revised on March 6, 2025.