Guru Ramana Vachana Mala
Selected Chapters

12. CONSCIOUSNESS

261. That transcendental state, which is Liberation is called Self-Consciousness Is the Self the object of Consciousness, or is Consciousness identical with the Self?
262. Since it is conclusively proved by the experience of all alike, that the Self is one, the Self never becomes an object of Consciousness; therefore, the first interpretation does not fit in here.
263. The triad of knower, knowing and known does not exist in the Transcendental State; Consciousness is the very nature of the Self.
264. The act of knowing (or becoming conscious) is denied here, because in that supreme State there is no object for knowing; ignorance also is denied, because there is no other being other than the Knower.
265. By the denial of ignorance it is declared that the Self is not insentient; whatever is insentient shines by the Consciousness of another; the Self shines by His own light, being of the nature of Consciousness.
266. For one who looks outwards (at objects) both ignorance and knowledge exist; Consciousness in the case of the ‘Knower of the Self’ is free from both, always of the same nature.
267. To be is the only nature of the Self, which is ever experienced in the form of ‘I am’; this is the Pure Consciousness spoken of as existing in the State of Mukti.
268. The State of Pure Consciousness is the moveless state of the mind, freed from thoughts, and therefore calm like a waveless sea.
269. The ignorant, whose minds are turned outwards seek to know all things one by one; they know not that Consciousness, on knowing which all things will become known.
270. If one knows not the Self, but knows all things else, what is the use? But if he knows the Self, what else is there for him to know?
271. Even if one knows subtle things not easy to be known, he does not become wise thereby, so long as he knows not that Pure Consciousness by which he knows all that.
272. Knowledge relating to objects, which comes to him that knows not the Self, should be understood as ignorance; Self-knowledge – which is known as Liberation – is alone (true) Knowledge.
273. What is wrongly called knowledge is manifold, having the forms of objects, like jewels (made of gold); knowledge rightly so named is one, pure and unchanging, like the gold of which the jewels are made.
274. Would the Enlightened one who has attained his own real nature as Pure Consciousness, consider as knowledge that which takes the forms of objects, and which springs out of the sense of ‘I am the body’, and is without savour?
275. This Pure Consciousness, which is the nature of the Real Self, is uncaused, eternal, transcendental, the unmoving basis of the bits of objective knowledge coming to living beings.
276. Aside from this Consciousness, uncaused by objects, what other basis can there be, say, for the manifestation of this universe of moving and unmoving objects?
277. True Knowledge is just the practical experience to the effect that, that which seems unreal, being concealed (by false appearances), is alone real, and that the seemingly real ego, called jiva, is unreal.
278. It is said that the Enlightened One “knows everything”. How is it? In the State of being the Self, which is called Liberation, what is there to be known?
279. That delusion which is caused by knowing even a little, when the mind is unpacified, will become very much stronger if all-knowledge be gained!
280. To him that believes himself to be knowing little, Revelation says, that God knows all; but in truth, God who is the one infinite Reality does not know anything (because in fact there is nothing for Him to know).
281. What is (loosely) called all-knowledge is just that Pure Consciousness in which nothing other than the Self is known, not the specific knowledge of (objects or events in) space and time.
282. By meditating on the teachings of the Guru, it is known that what was looked upon (in ignorance) as the forest of bondage, is all nothing but the sky of the Silence of Pure Consciousness, and that all else is mere dream.

13. THE REAL SELF

283. There is in the heart of everyone an Akshara which is alone real, the original of all aksharas, pure and self-luminous and the giver of Illumination. Who is there to write it?
284. That Silence which was taught by God as Guru (Dakshinamurti seated) at the foot of the banyan tree is the original Source of all words, the Sacred Word, which is never falsified.
285. That Pure Consciousness which has the form ‘I AM’ is the truth of the Self; this is not a thought in the mind, because the mind is dead when the ego is dead.
286. This Pure Consciousness which has the form ‘I AM’ and which transcends (the three known states of life in ignorance), has no rising, nor setting, unlike the insignificant ego. It is shining eternally without a break, blissful and beyond all relativity.
287. That Pure Consciousness which is the Reality, and which shines without a break as ‘I am I’ when the mind becomes calm, is the Supreme Bliss.
288. The three categories of the creator, the creature and the world, Maya the creative Consciousness who plays with them, and the place where she plays; all these are the Pure Reality only.
289. The Infinite Reality is motionless like the screen on which the moving pictures appear; the soul, the world and God are like the moving pictures; the Infinite alone is real.
290. Though these (three) are unreal, they are not different from the Supreme Reality (Brahman); but the Supreme Reality is different (from these), because It exists without these in the State of Self-Realisation.
291. He that sees the changing objects (namely the soul, world and God) does not see the unchanging Supreme Reality, namely Brahman; he that sees (that) Supreme Reality does not at all see the changing spectacle.
292. The mind (in the case of the ignorant) is greatly confounded, ignoring the Self – which is (like) the unchanging screen – and looking upon one of the moving pictures as the individual self, and other pictures as other selves, and as the world.
293. As the sky is in no way affected by the formation and dispersion of clouds, so the Real Self is in no way affected by the birth and death of the body.
294. Since there is no chance of the thought ‘I am happy’ arising in that State of Non-Duality, the Self transcends happiness; It is not something having the form of happiness.
295. The truth of the Real Self is that unborn and deathless Supreme Reality, which is the basic substance by virtue of which all this, which is unreal, seems real.
296. As the screen is to the moving pictures (of the cinema-show), and as the keynote is to the changing musical notes, so is the Real Self – the eternal, changeless Brahman – to the world, being its basic substance.
297. If it be said that the (individual) soul who identifies himself with the body, is a body of another Soul, then the latter is the real Self; the former is certainly unreal, because he is but a body.
298. This (so-called) Jiva, who is unsteady, moving up and down like the rim of a wheel, is not the Self; he that is eternal and fixed like the axle of the wheel is alone the Real Self.
299. That sleepless, unwinking Deity, who directs the intellects from within, unknown to them, is the Self.
300. The Real Self alone is infinite; all else is trivial; we do not see anything other than the Self which is worthy to be won by selling the self.
301. Every deity that is worshipped appears (in a vision) and then disappears; the Self is eternally present; hence, He alone is the real Deity.