Atma Bodha- By Shankaracharya

Atma Bodha

By Adi Sankaracharya,  Translated by Swami Chinmayananda
Published by Chinmaya Mission, Mumbai 

1. I am composing the ATMA-BODHA, this treatise of the Knowledge of the Self, for those who have purified themselves by austerities and are peaceful in heart and calm, who are free from cravings and are desirous of liberation.

2. Just as the fire is the direct cause for cooking, so without Knowledge no emancipation can be had. Compared with all other forms of discipline Knowledge of the Self is the one direct means for liberation.

3. Action cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness.

4. The Soul appears to be finite because of ignorance. When ignorance is destroyed the Self which does not admit of any multiplicity truly reveals itself by itself: like the Sun when the clouds pass away.

5. Constant practice of knowledge purifies the Self (‘Jivatman’), stained by ignorance and then disappears itself – as the powder of the ‘Kataka-nut’ settles down after it has cleansed the muddy water.

6. The world which is full of attachments, aversions, etc., is like a dream. It appears to be real, as long as it continues but appears to be unreal when one is awake (i.e., when true wisdom dawns).

7. The Jagat appears to be true (Satyam) so long as Brahman, the substratum, the basis of all this creation, is not realised. It is like the illusion of silver in the mother-of pearl.

8. Like bubbles in the water, the worlds rise, exist and dissolve in the Supreme Self, which is the material cause and the prop of everything.

9. All the manifested world of things and beings are projected by imagination upon the substratum which is the Eternal All-pervading Vishnu, whose nature is Existence-Intelligence; just as the different ornaments are all made out of the same gold.

10. The All-pervading Akasa appears to be diverse on account of its association with various conditionings (Upadhis) which are different from each other. Space becomes one on the destruction of these limiting adjuncts: So also the Omnipresent Truth appears to be diverse on account of Its association with the various Upadhis and becomes one on the destruction of these Upadhis.

Ramana Maharshi

Place your burden

at the feet of the Lord of the Universe

who accomplishes everything.

Remain all the time steadfast in the heart,

in the Transcendental Absolute.

God knows the past, present and future.

He will determine the future for you

and accomplish the work.

What is to be done will be done

at the proper time. Don’t worry.

Abide in the heart and surrender your acts

to the divine.

– Ramana Maharshi

 

Doughlas harding- A man with no head

.The best day of my life—my rebirthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.
It was eighteen years ago, when I was thirty-three, that I made the discovery. Though it certainly came out of the blue, it did so in response to an urgent enquiry; I had for several months been absorbed in the question: what am I? The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. However that may be, a very still clear day, and a view from the ridge where I stood, over misty blue valleys to the highest mountain range in the world, with Kangchenjunga and Everest unprominent among its snow-peaks, made a setting worthy of the grandest vision.

What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: I stopped thinking. A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animalhood, all that could be called mine. It was as if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment and what was clearly given in it. To look was enough. And what I found was khaki trouserlegs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in—absolutely nothing whatever! Certainly not in a head.

It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything—room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snowpeaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and gained a world.

It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of “me”, unstained by any observer. Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul. Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.

Yet in spite of the magical and uncanny quality of this vision, it was no dream, no esoteric revelation. Quite the reverse: it felt like a sudden waking from the sleep of ordinary life, an end to dreaming. It was self-luminous reality for once swept clean of all obscuring mind. It was the revelation, at long last, of the perfectly obvious. It was a lucid moment in a confused life-history. It was a ceasing to ignore something which (since early childhood at any rate) I had always been too busy or too clever to see. It was naked, uncritical attention to what had all along been staring me in the face – my utter facelessness. In short, it was all perfectly simple and plain and straightforward, beyond argument, thought, and words. There arose no questions, no reference beyond the experience itself, but only peace and a quiet joy, and the sensation of having dropped an intolerable burden.

Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

(this is an excerpts from Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, where Avalokiteshvara talks to Sariputra about the nature of form and formlessness, about buddhahood)

O Shariputra, a son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are emptiness.

Thus, Shariputra, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth and no cessation. There is no impurity and no purity. There is no decrease and no increase. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas, no eye dhatu up to no mind dhatu, no dhatu of dharmas, no mind consciousness dhatu; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no non-attainment.

Therefore, Shariputra, since the bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of prajnaparamita.

Since there is no obscuration of mind, there is no fear. They transcend falsity and attain complete nirvana. All the buddhas of the three times, by means of prajnaparamita, fully awaken to unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment. Therefore, the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequaled mantra, the mantra that calms all suffering, should be known as truth, since there is no deception. The prajnaparamita mantra is said in this way:

Swami Vivekananda

It is said that when Swami Vivekananda toured the US, his friends and co-disciples of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa were very unhappy with his teachings, as he taught only advaita and he never mentioned his Guru, much to the displeasure of those in India.

As we all know Ramakrishna paramahamsa was a great devotee of mother Kai and a great Bhakta. Where as Vivekananda taught the Jnana Marga and not Bhakti Marga.

Once he was asked by a disciple why he never spoke about his Guru, it is said that Swami choked up unable to answer the question as he was on the verge of shedding tears. Once he got back to his normal self he said that just hearing the name “ramakrishna” would make his body shiver and eyes well up.

Though he taught advaita and Jnana Yoga to the west, Young Vivekananda himself was a great Bhakta.

Though Outwardly he was a jnani, within he was a great Bhakta and Paramahamsa though all his life he lived at the feet of Kali and lived like a bhakta, he was a true jnani.

This was a great demonstration by both Guru-disciple about the oneness of all paths. That truth is one, regardless of your method of teaching or being.

Heart Sutra

“When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.”

“Was Coursing in the Deep Prajna Paramita.”

“He Perceived That All Five Skandhas Are Empty.”

“Thus He Overcame All Ills and Suffering.”

“Oh, Sariputra, Form Does not Differ From the Void, And the Void Does Not Differ From Form. Form is Void and Void is Form; The Same is True For Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness.” 

 ”Sariputra, the Characteristics of the Voidness of All Dharmas Are Non-Arising, Non-Ceasing, Non-Defiled, Non-Pure, Non-Increasing, Non-Decreasing.”

“Therefore, in the Void There Are No Forms, No Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions or Consciousness.”

“No Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body or Mind; No Form, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch or Mind Object; No Realm of the Eye, Until We Come to No realm of Consciousness.”

“No ignorance and Also No Ending of Ignorance, Until We Come to No Old Age and Death and No Ending of Old Age and Death.”

 ”Also, There is No Truth of Suffering, Of the Cause of Suffering, Of the Cessation of Suffering, Nor of the Path.”

 ”There is No Wisdom, and There is No Attainment Whatsoever.”

“Because There is Nothing to Be Attained, The Bodhisattva Relying On Prajna Paramita Has No Obstruction in His Mind.” [Commentary on above text] “Because There is No Obstruction, He Has no Fear,”

“And He passes Far Beyond Confused Imagination.” 

“And Reaches Ultimate Nirvana.”

“The Buddhas of the Past, Present and Future, By Relying on Prajna Paramita Have Attained Supreme Enlightenment.”

“Therefore, the Prajna Paramita is the Great Magic Spell, The Spell of Illumination, the Supreme Spell, Which Can Truly Protect One From All Suffering Without Fail.”

“Therefore He Uttered the Spell of Prajnaparmita, Saying Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.”

Sutra by dogen

.

A flower falls, even though we love it;

and a weed grows, even though we do not love it 

Dogen

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

 

 

 Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born Gadadhar in the village of Kamarpukur, in what is now the Hooghly district of West Bengal on 18th February 1836. Gadadhar’s parents, Khudiram and Chandramani, were poor and made ends meet with great difficulty. Gadadhar was extremely popular in his village. He was considered handsome and had a natural gift for the fine arts. He, however, disliked going to school, and was not interested in the pursuit of money. He loved nature and spent his time in fields and fruit gardens outside the village with his friends. He was seen visiting monks who stopped at his village.  He would serve them and listen with rapt attention to the religious debates they often had.

 

            When arrangements for Gadadhar to be invested with the sacred thread were nearly complete, he declared that he would have his first alms as a Brahmin from a certain low-caste woman of the village. This was a shock in the days when tradition required that the first alms be from a brahmin, but he was adamant.

            The family’s financial position worsened every day. Ramkumar, his elder brother ran a Sanskrit school in Calcutta and also served as priest in some families. About this time, a rich woman of Calcutta, Rani Rashmoni, founded a temple at Dakshineswar. She approached Ramkumar to serve as priest at the temple of Kali and Ramkumar agreed. After some persuasion, Gadadhar agreed to decorate the deity. When Ramkumar retired, Gadadhar took his place as priest.

            Ramakrishna became a full-time devotee to the goddess spending increasing amounts of time giving offerings and meditating on her. He began to question if he was worshipping a piece of stone or a living Goddess. If he was worshipping a living Goddess, why should she not respond to his worship? At one point he became frustrated, feeling he could not live any longer without seeing Kali. He demanded that the goddess appear to him. He threatened to take his own life with a ritual dagger (normally held in the hand of the Kali statue). At this point, 
he is reported to have seen light issuing from the deity in waves. He is said to have been soon overwhelmed by the waves and fell unconscious on the floor. Gadadhar, however, unsatisfied, prayed to Mother Kali for more religious experiences. He especially wanted to know the truths that other religions taught.

Ramakrishna was initiated in Advaita Vedanta by a wandering monk named Totapuri

Ramakrishna married Sarada, who became his first disciple. He attempted to teach her everything he had learned from his various gurus. She mastered every religious secret as quickly as Ramakrishna had. Impressed by her religious potential, he began to treat her as the Universal Mother Herself.
One extraordinary quality of Ramakrishna’s message was its universality of religion. 

 He developed throat cancer and attained Mahasamadhi at a garden house in Cossipore on 16 August, 1886, leaving behind a devoted band of 16 young disciples headed by Swami Vivekananda

The dreamer

The world is a dream

The waking state is a dream

The deep sleep state is a dream

The dream state is a dream

The dreamer is a dream

dream has no real substance.

Om Namah Shivaya

Om Namah Shivaya
(Panchakshara Mantra)

Om Namah Shivaya (Panchakshara Mantra, five syllables) is a most potent and popular mantra, which is at the heart of the Vedas and Tantra, and is widely used in this and other variations in the Himalayan tradition, as well as by others. While there are other descriptions of the mantra, the following focuses on meanings for mantra meditation leading to Self-Realization.

 

OM/AUM: The three parts of Om (A-U-M) encompass the three states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, the three levels of gross, subtle, causal, and the three levels of conscious, unconscious, subconscious, as well as the three universal processes of coming, being, and going. Absolute silence beyond the three levels is the silence after AUM. It also refers to Tripura, the one who live in the “three cities” as in Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, as well as the light referred to in Gayatri Mantra.

Namah/Namaha: Adoration, homage, respect. Nothing is mine (as an individual person); everything is thine (as the Absolute Reality). The three levels of Om, the three worlds of gross, subtle, and causal, along with the three states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states of consciousness, as well as the three levels of conscious, unconscious, and subconscious themselves are “not mine” as the true properties of who I really am. Truly, “nothing is mine.” Rather, everything, all of these triads is “thine” or the “other” as the Absolute Reality.

Shivaya/Shiva: That Absolute Reality that is the ground out of which the others emerge. It is that “ink,” so to speak, that is not separate from the many forms which may appear to manifest or be created from that ink. In the Realization of this, one comes to see that he or she is one and the same with the Absolute Reality. The Mahavakyas, the great utterances, are seen to be true. Shiva (the static or ground) and Shakti (the active or creative) are seen to be one and the same. She (Shakti), while one with Shiva is realized in direct experience as the one in the three worlds (Tripura) outlined in Om.

The Five Sacred Syllables: The Om Namah Shivaya mantra has five syllables: na-mah-shi-va-ya (sometimes called six syllable mantra by including Om). Thus, Om Namah Shivaya mantra is called five-syllable mantra, or Panchakshara Mantra (panch means five). Among other things, these five represent the five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space. Thus, the Om Namah Shivaya mantra leads awareness in the reverse order from manifestation back to the source from which manifestation arose.

 

40 day practice

The period of 40 days has been widely recognized as an auspicious period both in the East and the West since ancient times. A traditional way to do an extended practice of Om Namah Shivaya mantra is to choose a number of repetitions per day, and to do that for 40 days. The mind likes to have a beginning and end to a practice, a sense of completion, such as comes with a 40 day (or longer) practice.

1. Fixed time per practice session: Mind finds comfort in knowing that it will do the practice of one round of 108 repetitions (or some other number of rounds), and that each round will take a predictable amount of time.
    

2. Same number of rounds: Mind also likes the predictability of doing a certain number of rounds done per day. Mind may resist at times, but once it gets started in the practice, mind likes the habit. 
    

3. Specific number of days: Mind also likes the plan of knowing how many days or months a practice will take to complete. This can be very beneficial in stabilizing a noisy mind, which is a common complaint.

A mala is a set of counting beads with 108 beads. Only 100 are counted, with the other 8 considered an offering to the divine, however you personally hold that. You might choose to do 1, 2, 3, 4, or more rounds of 108 mantras per day, counting with a set of mala beads.

It has been said that there is freedom in discipline; choosing to do a regular practice frees the mind from wondering what practice will be done that day. It is also important not to do the mantra practice with rote repetition, but rather, with feeling and awareness.

By running your own experiment for 40 days, you can decide for yourself whether or not the practice of Om Namah Shivaya mantra is beneficial.

 

Extended practice  

A noticeable level of mantra siddhi (power of the mantra) is said to come with 125,000 repetitions of a mantra (Such an extended practice is called apurascharna). This is equivalent to 1250 rounds of a mala.

Such an extended practice with Om Namah Shivaya mantra can have a tremendous effect in stabilizing the mind in preparation for advancing in meditation. Such a practice simply must be done personally to understand the benefits. It does take quite a commitment to do this practice every day for such a long period, but it is well worth the effort.

In choosing the level of practice per day, it is important to have stability from one day to the next, and to not skip any days. It is best to choose the level that works for you consistently, rather than changing the number from day to day. For example, if two rounds per day is a good number, then it’s better to stay with that amount each and every day, not to do none on one day, but four on the next day.

Bhakti Marga- Hare Rama Hare krishna

Bhakti Marga- The path of Bhakti or Devotion. 

The following conversation between Sri Nãrada Maharishi and Lord Brahma is found in Kali Santarana Upanishad.

At the end of Dwãpara Yuga, Nãrada, after traveling around the world, approached Lord Brahma and asked him, “How may I overcome (the evil effects of) Kali Yuga?”

Lord Brahma said: “You have asked me an excellent question. I shall reveal to you the secret of all the Vedas by which you will cross over the ‘samsãra’ (ocean of life) filled with the bad effects of the Kali Yuga. This secret must be preserved and protected.”

“Bhagavata ãdipurushasya nãrãyanasya nãmoccãranamãtrena nirdhrtakalir bhavati |

 nãradah punah papraccha tannãma kimiti,”   said Lord Brahma

—-By merely uttering the names of the Primeval ‘Purusha’, who is Bhagavan Narayana, one is freed from the clutches of Kali.

 Nãrada asked further, “sa hovaca hiranyagarbhah” |

—-What are those names of Narayana?”

 “HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE |

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE”

—-“O Hari, O Rama, O Hari, O Rama, O Rama O Rama, O Hari, O Hari!

O Hari, O Krishna, O Hari, O Krishna, O Krishna O Krishna, O Hari, O Hari!”

 “iti shodashakam nãmnãm kalikalmashanãshanam |

natah parataropãyah sarvavedeshu drushyate” ||

—Lord Brahma said, “This collection of the sixteen Names (of Narayana) destroys the evils of the Kali Yuga. I don’t see any other effective means (of liberation) in the Vedas.

Jiddu Krishnamurti at 25

 

 

 

A young Jiddu Krishnamurti. An enlightened teacher, who taught what many consider “Advaita”, or the jnana Marga, The way of the mind.

He followed no rituals, taught no mantras or ceremonies, accepted no dietiefied God. 

His main teaching was about the workings of the mind, “The observer is the observed”. That there is no differentiation in consciousness. That all was one. The perciever , the percieving and the perrcieved. 

He was found by the Theospohical society who hailed him as the Maitreya Buddha and groomed him during his childhood. However he lost his brother Nityananda as a kid while with the theosophical society, which made him go through a serious re-thinking about the supposed  Buddhahood. 

Coming into his own in his youth, he dismissed the Maitreya and taking charge of the new order. He travelled the world teaching Awareness.

Narada Bhakti Sutra 76-79(chapter 8, section 2)

Bhakti Doctrines should be contemplated upon

& their wisdom should be practised

Waiting for a propitious time

when pleasure, profits and the likes

dont trouble you

even half a moment should not be wasted

non-violence, truthfullness, cleanliness

faith & such virtues should be cultivated

always in all aspects free from anxiety

God alone is to be invoked

No wisdom- from the Heart Sutra

“THERE IS NO WISDOM AND THERE IS NO ATTAINMENT WHATSOEVER“

There is nothing in this world that can be said to be permanent. Not the world itself, not the body and not even the mind. Wisdom or knowledge is in the terrain of the mind. If the mind itself is said to be temporary than it cannot be in the domain of the truth. As truth cannot be admitted to be temporary. Only that which is permanent can be said to be the truth.

The body cannot attain the truth, the mind cannot grasp the truth by it’s very nature of impermanance, how can a transitory entity touch that which is permanent. The clouds appear to be in the sky, But can the clouds affect the sky or touch the sky. The clouds gather and disperse But the sky remains, unaffected. Such is the nature of truth. There can be knowledge of this truth, as knowledge is a tool of the mind. 

Mind is dismissed, hence knowledge is dismissed, the concept of attainment is dismissed. What remains Is.

Narada Bhakti Sutra 74-75 (chapter 8 section 1)

Debate & Arguments should not be entered into

As there are chances for many diverse views

& are inconclusive & futile

 

Bholenath

Shiva is not called Bhole nath for nothing. Bhole means Innocent and Nath means king. So he’s the primary amongst the innocents or the king of innocents.

Well at first sight shiva looks like a great tapasvi which he is. A lot of people more than reverance and love, fear Shiva, as he’s often taken to be the God of Destruction etc etc Then this funny name for such as man who wanders in graveyards and rubs his body with ashes and has ghouls & ghosts for company. For such a man how can the name bholenath fit in.

But it does, as it’s said none in the world is more innocent than the lord, He’s childlike with no sense of malice or cunningness, no sense of ego & no sense of power or arrogance. Hence BHOLENATH.

There is a story that once there was a Asura or a Demon who was praying for thousands of years, doing intense Penance and chanting Shiva’s name. Shiva the simpleton appeared before him knowing that he was a demon and is upto no good. Still he appeared and asked the Asura to pray for any boon and he shall be rewarded.

The asura by name “bhasmaSura” asked that whatsoever he touched should burn to ashes, without battling an eyelid, shiva granted the boon. Nw since The asura was in the himalayan region where there was only snow, he wanted to test the effects of the boon & knew that if he burnt shiva to ashes there’d be none superior ro defeat.

so he told shiva he wanted to test it on shiva himself. the story goes that since shiva cannot refuse a devotee, and since he cannot himself die since that will bring an end to the world shiva is supposed to have run.

Till vishnu came about disguised as a beautiful woman called “mohini” and danced in front of the demon and tricked him into touching his own head hence bringing an end to his tyranny.

The story is funny and is used only to describe shiva as Bholenath, he’s supposed to be easiest to beget boons from amongst the gods, and also the most gracious. He’s the easiest to pacify. yet all this is just once facet of the lord Shiva.

Narada Bhakti Sutra 70-73 (chapter 7 section 2)

They are dissolved.

The ancestors rejoice

The gods dance in joy

this earth is endowed with a savior.

Amongst them there are no distinctions

based upon caste, culture, bodily, family,

wealth, or of actions.

because they are of his own nature.

Narada Bhakti Sutra 67-69 (chapter 7 section 1)

Devotees with single-mindedness are supreme

even though emotion choking their voice,

their body in horripilation

 &speaking incoherently,

they not only sanctify their family

but also verily the earth.

They sanctify the sacred places,

bring joy to all

& lend authority over the scriptures.

cloud & water

The cloud gathers and the cloud dissolve.

The cloud is reflected in the water.

The water flows.

Brahmotsav Celebrations-Nithyananda

Paramahamsa Swami Nithyananda

to light up your day