safe

Atma Vidya

Self-Knowledge

 

 

Lo, very easy is Self-Knowledge,

Lo, very easy indeed.

 

Even for the most infirm

So real is the Self

That compared with it the amlak (West India gooseberry) In one's hand appears a mere illusion.

True, strong, fresh for ever stands

The Self. From this in truth spring forth

The phantom body and phantom world.

When this delusion is destroyed

And not a speck remains,

The Sun of Self shines bright and real

In the vast heart-expanse.

Darkness dies; afflictions end;

And Bliss wells up.

The thought 'I am the body' is the thread

On which are strung together various thoughts.

Questing within enquiring 'Who am I?

And whence this thought?' all other thoughts

Vanish. And as I, I within the Heart-cave

The Self shines of its own accord.

Such Self-awareness is the only Heaven,

This stillness, this abode of Bliss.

Of what avail is knowing things

Other than the Self? And the Self being known,

What other thing is there to know?

That one light that shines as many selves,

Seeing this Self within

As Awareness' lighting flash;

The play of Grace; the ego's death;

The blossoming of Bliss.

For loosening Karma's bonds and ending births,

This path is easier than all other paths.

Abide in stillness, without any stir

Of tongue, mind, body. And behold

The effulgence of the Self within;

The experience of Eternity; absence

Of all fear; the ocean vast of Bliss.

Annamalai the Self, the Eye

Behind the Eye of mind which sees

The eye and all the other senses

Which know the sky and other elements,

The Being which contains, reveals, perceives

The inner sky that shines within the Heart

When the mind free of thought turns inward,

Annamalai appears as my own Self,

True, Grace is needed; Love is added.

Bliss wells up.

 

 

view from Virupaksha cave towards the great Annamalaiyar temple of Tiruvannamalai

 

day 7/5

Done