Photo by Dev Gogoi - 28.11.2021 - Arunachala “Aprés Kartikai Deepam, 10th night 🙏”
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O Arunesa who shine! Having given up external objects and having meditated upon you in the heart by a mind which stands when restraining the breath, the yogi sees the light. He attains exaltation in you. Know this.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi - Sri Arunachala Pancharatnam, V.4
Explanatory paraphrase:
O self-shining Arunesa! Having given up attending to external (second and third person) objects and having meditated upon you (the real self who shine as 'I') in the heart with a mind which has become still by restraining the breath, the yogi sees the light of self-knowledge and attains greatness in you (by thus uniting with you, the embodiment of all greatness). Know this.
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“Seeing the light” is the same as “knowing clearly the form of ‘I’”. What is the light which is to be seen? It is the light of self-consciousness, which shines as ‘I, I’. Thus seeing this light which shines as ‘I’ is the same as clearly knowing the form of ‘I’.
The means he prescribed to see this light is meditating upon Arunesa. What is that Arunesa which is thus to be meditated upon? Sri Bhagavan begins this verse by saying: “O Arunesa who shine, [the mind] having given up external objects”. Therefore, since the name and form of Arunachala is an external object, it is not the dhyana-lakshya or object of meditation meant by Sri Bhagavan in this verse. He is referring to that which shines when all external objects have been given up. 'External objects' mean all second and third person objects. That which shines when all second and third person objects have been given up is only the first person. But though we call it the first person, the ‘I’ which then shines is truly not a person but the impersonal reality of the false first person, the ego. Therefore the real self, which shines as ‘I’, is alone the Arunesa who can shine in the absence of external objects. Thus meditating upon Arunesa, who ever shines self-luminously as ‘I’, is the same as scrutinizing “where does this ‘I’ rise?” Only by the effort to attend to self will the “mind which has become still by restraining the breath” be transformed into “that pure mind which is facing selfward”. Only such a pure mind will be able to see the light of self-knowledge by meditating upon Arunesa, who shines in the heart as ‘I’.
“Having meditated upon you, O Arunesa, the yogi will see the light”, ‘will attain greatness equal to you’ or that yogi will become you.
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Photo by Dev Gogoi