Unto that transcendental Being, the unborn (Self) shining in the Heart, in every creature, as the limitless ‘I’, the Guru of all gurus, my real Self and Lord, who has lovingly assumed human form with intent to unfold His own true Nature to His devotees, namely Sri Ramana, I render obeisance.
Translating into Sanskrit the work which Ramana the Sage composed in Tamiḷ for His devotees’ delight, one of His humble devotees, sustained by His grace, composed this work named Ramana Hridayam in easy style, for the peace of his own mind.
The Sun of Pure Consciousness, namely this work of the Great Sage, which aspirants to the state of Deliverance should study constantly, is most excellent, conferring Beatitude in the State of Pure Consciousness — the State transcending speech and mind, without mental taints, attaining which the Sage no more returns (to bondage) — and also giving present delight (to those that study it).
Can there be sense of existence without something that is? Is Real Consciousness a thing other than That? Since that (Reality) dwells, thought-free, in the Heart; how can It — Itself named the Heart — be meditated on? And who is there, distinct from It, to meditate on It, the Self whose nature is Reality Consciousness? Know that to meditate on It is just to be at one with It within the Heart.B1
Men of pure minds who intensely fear death surrender themselves unto the Lord of all, the blissful One, the indwelling Self, who has no death nor birth. By that (surrender) their ego, along with their attachments, becomes extinguished. How can they who (thus) have won abode in Immortality, have any thought of death?B2
Since we see the world, (it follows that) there does exist a source of it, a sole Reality transcending (world and mind), of whose power all this is a becoming; this is beyond dispute. This cinema-show of names and forms, their sustaining screen, the light (of Consciousness), and the spectator — all these four are only that Supreme Being, who is the Real Self within the Heart.1
All the faiths that prevail in the world affirm, to begin with, (the existence of) the world, the soul and God. The two contentions, namely that One Reality is sensed as threefold, and that they are three distinct entities, are upheld (as intellectual convictions) while the sense ‘I am the body’ persists. But the highest state is being firmly established in one’s own real Nature (as the Real Self), by giving up that delusion.2
Of what use is it to affirm “The world is real”, “It is an illusory appearance,” “It is embued with consciousness,” “It is inert,” “It is happy,” “It is surely miserable?” That state of egolessness, transcending the creeds of duality and unity, which is our own by nature, and which is to be won by turning away from the world and experiencing the Real Self, is dear to all alike.3
If the Self have form, then the world and God also would have form. But since the Self is formless, by whom and how are forms to be seen? Can what is seen be of a different nature from the seeing eye? The (real) Eye is just the Real Self, and that Eye is infinite, unconditioned worldless, without a second.4
Since every body in the world comprises five sheaths, all the five sheaths together answer to the name of ‘body’. Such being the case, say, does the world really exist apart from the body? Say, is the world seen by anyone without a body?5
The world has no form apart from the objects of sense, namely sounds and the rest; thus the whole universe is just sensations of the five sense-organs; through these five sense-organs the one mind knows the world. That being so, say, is the world other than the mind?6
The two, the universe and the mind, arise and set as one; yet this inert universe is lighted up by the mind alone; know that that sole, unborn, infinite Being whose nature is Pure Consciousness, and in which the two (the universe and the mind) arise and set, but which Itself neither rises nor sets, is alone Real.7
Even though to worship Him in any form and by any name is a means towards the right vision of Him, who (really) is without form and name, true vision of Him consists in being at one with Him by merging in Him the Transcendental Being, through the realization of the identity of the Real Self with His real essence8
The triads all arise depending on the ego-sense; so too arise the duads; if one enters the Heart by the Quest of ‘Who is the I’ and sees the truth of it (the Real Self), all of them vanish utterly; such a one is the Sage; He is not deluded (by them).9
Knowledge is never and nowhere in the world separate from ignorance; neither is ignorance at any time and for anyone separate from knowledge: true knowledge is the Awareness of the original Self, which becomes manifest by the Quest ‘Who is this I to whom belong both of these’, nothing else.10
How can the knowledge of objects arising in relative existence, to one that knows not the truth of (himself) the knower, be true knowledge? If one rightly knows (the truth of) him in whom both knowledge and its opposite subsist, then along with ignorance (relative) knowledge also will cease once for all.11
Know that that alone is true knowledge, in which there is neither knowledge nor ignorance: the (so-called) knowledge of objects, understand, is not at all true knowledge. The Real Self shines always alone, with neither things for Him to know, nor persons to know Him; therefore He is only Consciousness; do not think that He is non-being.12
This Self, (here) declared to be Consciousness, is alone real, without a second; all knowledge which is manifold is only ignorance: this ignorance — which (being a negation) is non-existent — has no existence apart from the Self who is Consciousness. Say, do the unreal jewels exist apart from the gold which (alone) exists?13
The two, namely ‘you’ and ‘he’, appear when the sense of ‘I’ has risen in respect of a body; if by the Quest of the Self by oneself, by the question ‘What is the truth behind this I’, the ego be extinguished, therewith are also lost the other two notions; that which then shines alone, understand, is the Real Self.14
Both past and future exist only in dependence on the present; each in its own time is only present; therefore all the three are present. That being so, research into the past and the future, without experience of the Reality in the present time won by the Quest, is (absurd) like counting without the number ‘one’.15
Do time and space exist apart from the ego? If we were bodies, then we would be subject to them. (But) say, are we bodies? Because the True Self is the same everywhere and at all times, therefore learn that He is the sole Reality, consuming both (time and space).16
The body is the Self, both to him that does not know the Self and to him that knows. The one that knows not believes himself to be limited to the body and distinct from God the All. To the knower of the Real Self within, He shines as the infinite Being, not other than God. Great indeed is the difference between the knower of the Self and the non-knower!17
The world is real both to the non-knower and to the knower of the Real. He that lacks knowledge of the Real believes the Real to be coextensive with the world. To the knower the Real shines as the formless One, the basic substance of the world. Great indeed is the difference between the knower of That and the non-knower.18
Only those love to dispute which of the two, fate and free will, will prevail, who have no experience of (the truth of) him, named ‘I’, who is the one root of both. Can that Sage that has become free of both, knowing the truth of the ego by the Quest, ever again become entangled in these, like one that knows not the Self?19
When one sees a form of God, neglecting himself the seer, that vision is vision of a mental form; it is not a true vision of God. Does the Sage, that has direct vision of the Self, see that Supreme Being, who is (that) Real Self? Having lost the ego, he (the Sage) is not at all distinct from Him.20
Two visions are mentioned in the sacred lore, namely vision of the Self and vision of God; I shall state what they really mean. How can there be vision of the Self? Since He cannot be seen, for the reason that He is one (with the would-be seer), who is to see God, (who is just the Real Self), and how? Know that the vision of the Self and the vision of God (alike) consist in the soul (that is, the ego) becoming the food of God.21
This blissful and transcendental Being, who is Pure Consciousness, is ever shining within the mind as Himself the Real Self, imparting to the mind (whatever) light of consciousness (it has). Such being the case, how can a man know Him by the mind alone, failing to merge the mind in Him by turning it inwards?22
The body, being devoid of consciousness, has no egoism of its own; no one ever says ‘I did not exist in dreamless sleep’; all things come into being when this ‘I’ is risen; therefore search with concentrated mind for the source wherefrom this ego-sense arises.23
The inert body cannot say ‘I’; the real Consciousness has no beginning; between them comes to birth an ‘I’ limited to the body; this is the mind, the knot between Consciousness and the inert (body), conditioned existence, the ego, bondage and the subtle body; this is the true nature of the (so-called) soul.24
This phantom without a form, the ego, comes into being taking hold of a form (a body); keeping hold of the form it continues to exist; keeping hold of the form and enjoying sense-objects it greatly waxes in strength; giving up a form (at death) it takes hold of a new one; when the (truth of) it is sought, it will surely run away.25
When this thing known as ‘I’ is risen, then rises all this world; when the ‘I’ is not, neither does the world exist; therefore this ‘I’ is itself all the world: therefore (extinction of the ‘I’ by) the Quest of ‘Who is this I?’ or ‘Whence is he?’ is to get rid of the whole (world).26
We are that one Reality only in that State in which there is no rising of the ego-sense. But how can the ego-sense be finally extinguished, if the mind does not enter the Source of the ego-sense? And if the ego-sense be not so extinguished, how can that State be won which is our own by nature and in which we are That?27
As one dives into a lake seeking something fallen into it, so should one dive into the Heart with the one-pointed mind, restraining speech and the breath, giving up all thought about the world and seeking ‘Whence does arise the ego-sense?’ and thus should become aware of the Real Self, the Transcendental Being.28
Diving into the Heart — restraining both speech and mind and seeking ‘where shines the (original) I-Consciousness — is the direct means of winning the Awareness of the Self. The meditation ‘I am not this body, I am myself That’ is (useful only as) a preliminary to the Quest. Is it itself the Quest of the Self?29
When the mind, introverted by being engaged in the Quest of ‘Who am I?’ is lost in the Heart, and the ego bows his head in shame, there shines by Its own light a Pure Consciousness as the limitless ‘I’; that (Consciousness) is not the spurious ego; It is the Transcendental, Infinite Reality: It is the blissful Real Self.30
Does there remain anything needing to be done by Him that is happy in unity with That — the unity which becomes manifest by consuming the ego-sense, the State of Peace and Bliss beyond relativity? Since He knows nothing other than the Self, how can anyone (not so delivered) imagine what that mindless State is like?31
Instead of winning one’s own natural state — the state which is taught by Revelation by the words ‘Thou art That’ — by entering the Heart by the Quest of ‘Who am I?’ man goes on meditating ‘I am That, I am not the body’, because of mental weakness, That Reality is Itself ever shining as the Self!32
The two statements, ‘I do not know myself’ and ‘I know myself’, are equally ridiculous. Has anyone, anywhere, two selves, so that the self can become an object of knowledge to himself? Know from the common experience of all men alike that the real Self is only one.33
The man blinded by the ego, who by seeking that Reality, which is ever shining in the hearts of all creatures as the real Self, has not become aware of It and thereby attained his own natural state of oneness with it, disputes saying “There is something real”, “No,” “That something has form,” “No,” “It is One,” “It is twofold,” “It is neither.”34
To be the Real Self in the Heart by winning the actual Experience of that Self, which is already won, is the real gain, all other gains are like those that are won in a dream. Does anything gained in a dream remain true on waking? Is the one that has cast off falsehood by dwelling in the Real ever again deluded by these?35
So long as the notion ‘I am the body’ prevails, the meditation ‘I am That’ is helpful to the winning of Self-Awareness (by the Quest). (But) why should this meditation be kept up endlessly? Does any man meditate ‘I am a man’? We are always that Reality!36
Even the statement that duality is real so long as one is striving to reach the goal, but that in the goal there is non-duality, is not at all correct. What else but the tenth man was the man in the parable, both when he himself was anxiously seeking for the tenth man as one that was missing, and when he had found himself (to be that missing tenth man)?37
If the Self were ever himself the doer (of actions), then He himself would reap their consequences. But when the sense of doership drops away on the realization of the infinite Self as a result of the Quest ‘Who am I that is a doer (of actions)?’ with it (namely the sense of doership) will drop away all the three kinds of actions; (the wise) know this State to be eternal.38
If there be the thought ‘I am bound’, then will arise also the thought of deliverance. When, by the Quest of ‘Who am I that is bound?’ the Ever-Free Real Self alone remains, ageless and deathless, to whom can the thought of bondage come? If that thought cannot arise, then how can the thought of deliverance arise to the Sage who has done with actions?39
I shall (here) state clearly the truth among the three contentions, that Deliverance is with form, that It is without form, and that It is both ways; True Deliverance is just the utter extinction of him, named ‘I’, who thus investigates the truth among these contentions.40
B1 The meaning of the first benedictory verse is briefly this: The mind is itself bondage; by liquidating the mind in its source — the Real Self — one attains ones own Natural State of being, as the Real Self; and that is Deliverance.
The first sentence was explained by the Master himself as follows: “Everyone is aware of two things, namely himself the seer and the world which he sees; and he assumes also that they are both real. But that alone is real, which has a continuous existence : judged by this test the two, the seer and his spectacle, are both unreal. These two, appear intermittently; they are apparent in the waking and dream states alone; in the state of deep sleep they cease to appear; that is they appear whenever the mind is active, and disappear as soon as the mind ceases to function. Therefore the two are but thoughts of the mind. There must be something from which the mind arises, and into which it subsides. That something must have a continuous, uninterrupted existence; that is, It must be the Reality."
The Master conveys in the above the essential teaching of Revelation, namely that both the world and the individual soul are unreal appearances arising from a Source, the Reality; they are like the imaginary snake seen in a rope. This is the meaning of the first sentence of the translation: “Can there be sense of existence without something that is?"
Then the question arises: ‘Is This Reality self-manifest, or otherwise?’ Things which are without consciousness are not self-manifest; they become manifest by something else; consciousness alone is self-manifest. Thus the question is whether the Reality established above is consciousness or otherwise. The answer is given by the second sentence; ‘Is Real Consciousness a thing other than That?’ The implication is that the Reality is itself Consciousness.
A question may be put — Why should the Reality be described as Consciousness, and not as conscious? The answer is as follows; the mind is conscious; but its consciousness is discontinuous; in deep sleep it loses Consciousness; if the Reality also were only Conscious, and not consciousness as here taught, then It would be discontinuously conscious, just like the mind; that would compel us to imagine another conscious being, into which its consciousness subsides, and so on endlessly; there can be finality only in a being whose very nature is consciousness. Therefore It is consciousness; in fact, Its being consciousness constitutes Its reality.
This teaching is confirmed as follows. The world and its seer are but thoughts in the mind; the mind is unreal, because it has no continuity of existence; but though unreal, it is conscious; that which gives to the mind its appearance of reality is its consciousness; but this consciousness is not its own, but belongs to its source; this source must necessarily be consciousness, as otherwise it cannot be the source of the mind’s consciousness; since the mind includes the world, the world cannot have a separate source. To distinguish this Consciousness which is the sole Reality, It is called Pure Consciousness. The term ‘Real Consciousness’ also conveys a more intimate revelation than would appear at first sight. What we call the ‘soul’ is just the seer of the world, who is unreal, being but a thought of the mind. The Self, on the other hand, is an indisputable reality. Therefore, this so-called soul is not the Self. What than is the Self? It must be the Real Consciousness — the Pure Consciousness — which is the source of both the world and its seer, Revelation tells us that this is so; the Real Self — as distinguished from the false self, the personal soul — is this Pure Consciousness, which alone is real; therefore in our real nature we are not finite and bound; we are that transcendental Reality; bondage and suffering are delusions arising in the mind.
The question then arises; Why are we not aware of ourselves as this Pure Consciousness, mindless and worldless? Why do we falsely imagine ourselves to be finite selves in this manifold world? The answer is given in the first part of the third sentence, ‘Since that (Reality) dwells, thought-free, in the Heart.'
In our present state of being, as finite selves associated with minds, the Light of Consciousness which is the Reality is obscured by the clouds of thoughts that pass in the mind; it may be said that the mind itself veils the Reality, because the mind is nothing but thoughts. Unreal as the mind is, it has the power to conceal effectually the Reality from which it derives existence and consciousness, just as the unreal snake conceals the rope in which the snake is seen. Just as the rope cannot be seen as rope so long as it is being seen as a snake, so too the Reality cannot appear as it really is, so long as it is mistakenly seen as the world of selves and objects. But when this false appearance ceases finally — not as in deep sleep, but as it does on the extinction of the mind in the State of Deliverance — then the Reality is manifest in its true nature, as the Pure Consciousness which is the Real Self, The mind becomes extinct once for all when it returns to its Source, the Real Self, by the Quest taught here. A hypothetical place, called the Heart, is tentatively mentioned as the source of the mind, in order to help the novice in the Quest; the Heart is also tentatively described as the dwelling place of the Reality; but it is presently explained that the Reality is itself the Heart — that It is placeless, just as It is timeless.
Cannot the mind, without losing itself in the Reality, get admission to Its presence in some way? The answer is given by the remainder of the third sentence.
It is the very nature of the mind to go on creating multiplicity; as mind it differentiates between the seer and the seen; that is, it will be forever creating, by its power of self-delusion, this world-appearance, which veils the Reality. The mind, therefore, falsifies the Reality in its efforts to conceive It; it cannot but do so; the utmost the mind can do is to imagine the Reality as a personal God, a Being supposed to be not the self. This God is to be possessed and enjoyed just as sense-objects are here enjoyed! But Revelation tells us that the Reality is the Self hence He, the Reality, cannot become an object of thought, of meditation, as He really is.
It follows that the mind must lose itself in the Heart, the Reality, in order that It may shine as It really is. This state of mindlessness is here described as the true meditation of the Reality, because in it that Reality is manifest in Its true nature, that is, as the Self. This state is called Deliverance, because when once it is reached, there can be no revival of the cause of bondage and suffering. This state and the path of its attainment are the subject of this Revelation.
B2 The Master has told us that there are only two ways of reaching the State of Deliverance, namely the Quest of the Self and self-surrender. The first method is the subject of the first benedictory verse, the second method is the subject of the second benedictory verse. By the grace of God — who is really no other than the Self, but can be imagined only as God by the ignorant — the seeker of Deliverance finds that this worldly existence is evil and also that his own personal efforts are wholly unequal to the task of transcending it; he, therefore, surrenders himself to God, trusting himself entirely to His grace; this surrender leads surely, though slowly, to the extinction of the ego and the mind in the true nature of God, the Real Self, thus the aspirant transcends the limitations of worldly existence.
1 This verse starts the process of discrimination of the Real from the unreal: the Real self is here likened to the moveless lighted screen of a cinema show, on which the pictures come and go. Note that the spectator — he that sees the world — is himself one of the pictures, unlike the spectator of a cinema show.
2 The Self is obscured by the ego-sense; while the ego is taken at its face-value, as the Self, the Self cannot be realized as He really is; hence egolessness must be achieved; metaphysical speculations about the Self are vain.
3 At heart everyone is in love with the egoless state where the Self is what He really is; that state is to be won by turning away from the world; to one who is in earnest to win that state, discussions about the reality of the world and the like are irrelevant; but in the following verses the subject is dealt with for the sake of aspirants who are unable to avoid these questions.
4 Apart from forms there is no world; but forms appear only because of the ego-sense; forms are unreal, because the true Self is infinite and therefore formless.
5 The world cannot be seen but for the identification of the Self with a body, gross or subtle.
6 The world appears by the mind alone; hence it is nothing but thoughts.
7 Both world and mind are unreal, being discontinuous; their substratum, the Self is alone real.
8 Worship of the Real Self as God is legitimate; but He, being formless, never becomes an object of vision; He can only be experienced as the Self.
9 Vision implies the triad of the seer, the seen and the act of seeing; but all triads, as well as all the duads, are unreal, being in the realm of ignorance.
10 11 12 13 It follows that the duad of knowledge and ignorance is also unreal, and does not exist in the Natural State, called Deliverance. This state is one of pure, undifferentiated Consciousness, which is the sole Reality; on it the manifold false knowledge, namely the knowledge of objects, is superimposed by ignorance; as the world is nothing but this false knowledge, it is unreal as such.
14 The unreality of the manifold extends also to the plurality of selves imagined by the ego-mind.
15 Researches into the past, as well as speculations concerning the future are doomed to failure, conducted as they are by men who neither know, nor care to know, the Self, who is ever present.
16 Time and space are unreal.
17 18 The Reality (the Self) is infinite and formless; the body and the world have no existence apart from that; this does not mean that the body is the Self, or that the world is real, in the sense in which they are taken to be so by the ignorant.
19 The conflict between fate and free will exists only for the ignorant, not for the Sage who has transcended both.
22 Neither can He be rightly known, as an object different from oneself.
23 There is a Real Self, the Source or Origin of the ego, which is the starting point of the world appearance; this Source of the ego must therefore be sought and found.
24 There is no individual soul, other than the ego.
25 The ego is unreal.
26 If the ego be put an end to by the Quest, the world appearance will cease of itself.
27 The Quest of the ego’s Source is the only direct means of realising our true nature as the Soul.
28 The Quest consists in diving into the Heart with the Resolve to find the Source or Origin of the ego.
29 The meditation ‘I am That’ is not the direct method.
30 How the Quest leads up to that State.
31 The Sage that is in that State has no duties to fulfill.
32 This State is quite other than that of the aspirant who, instead of diving into the Heart by the Quest, goes on meditating ‘I am That’.
33 The Sage does not say ‘I know my Self’.
34 He is creedless and does not dispute about them; only ignorant ones are attached to creeds and love disputation.
35 His state is the only real Siddhi there is.
36 Being actually one with the Real, He does meditate on that oneness.
37 This Unity does not date from the Quest; It is beginningless, as well as endless.
38 The Sage does not really enjoy or suffer the consequences of actions done or being done.
39 The Sage is not aware of having been bound, and hence he is not aware of having become free.
40 There is no sense in the question whether or not the Sage is a person — with form — since His State, the Egoless State, is beyond the power of understanding of the ego-mind.
Introductory verses, translation, and comments copyright K. Lakshmana Sarma. Reprinted from Revelation.
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