#sat-chit

[shinymoonbird]

Photos by Guy Gonyea - Skandashram where Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi lived from 1916-1922, and where his mother attained Samadhi.

🕉️ 🔱 🕉️

The Paramount Importance of Self Attention, by Sri Sadhu Om, As recorded by Michael James

Part One - Mountain Path: April-June 2012 - Excerpt

Note of 10th December 1977

Sadhu Om: In verse 273 of Guru Vācaka Kovai (*) Bhagavan says that the self-awareness (satbōdha or being-consciousness) that exists and shines in all, as all, is the guru.

To be qualified for the fourth standard [in the school of bhakti] one must have wholehearted love for guru, and one must try to put his teachings into practice, at least insofar as one understands them. Unless one sincerely wants and tries to follow the guru’s teachings, one does not have the true guru-bhakti required to be in the fourth standard (**).

For example, although Devaraja Mudaliar said he had no brain for self-enquiry, Bhagavan was everything to him, so he followed the path of self-surrender as he understood it. One may be bottom of the class, but unquestioning faith in the guru can overcome all obstacles in a moment. Even if we do not succeed now in our attempts to abide as self, we should at least sincerely want and try to abide thus.

Progress can never be judged. Bhagavan knows exactly the right medicine required to mature each one of us, so he knows which vāsana (propensity) to release at each moment. Someone who is getting 5% today may get 100% tomorrow, whereas someone else who is getting 90% today may not seem to improve for years. A person may be always caught up in worldly affairs, but if he is always feeling, ‘This is all useless nonsense; when can I be quiet?” he may be doing better than someone who is always sitting in meditation.

A lady devotee who lived nearby complained to Bhagavan that she had not been able to come to his hall for fifteen days because she had to attend to relatives who had come to stay. He replied, ‘That is good. It is better that you were at home with your relatives and that your mind was here, than if you had been here and your mind had been thinking of them’.

Ramakrishna told the following story: A sādhu led a pure life and wanted to help a pious prostitute, so he counted the number of people who visited her house by placing stones in a pile, and after many years he told her that the pile of stones represented her sins, so in repentance she locked her door and starved to death. He also passed away, but she was taken to heaven because she was repentant, whereas he was taken to hell because his mind was always dwelling on her sins.

He also told a similar story of two friends, one of whom listened to the Bhāgavatam while the other went to a brothel. The first regretted his decision and envied his friend, who he thought was enjoying himself in the brothel, while the second felt disgusted with himself and would have preferred to be listening to the holy book. The first went to hell and the second went to heaven.

The moral of these stories is that our outward actions are not as important as our inner thoughts and attitude. Likewise, intense longing for self-abidance is essential, even if we fail in our efforts to abide as self.

In order to be free, we only need to experience our being as it really is for just one moment. When an aspirant is sufficiently matured through the school of bhakti, the guru will give the final tap, and thus he will be promoted to the fifth standard, which is liberation (mōkṣa). That may happen at any moment.

The love to abide as self is the real sign of guru-bhakti.

🕉️ 🔱 🕉️

(*)  Guru Vachaka Kovai - The Garland of Guru’s Sayings, by Sri Muruganar

(**)   Compare the final clause of the twelfth paragraph of Nāṉār? (Who am I?): ‘…nevertheless, it is necessary to proceed [behave or act] unfailingly according to the path that guru has shown’.

🕉️ 🔱 🕉️

[shinymoonbird]

That Self-Consciousness [Sat-Chit] which shines in all, as All, is the Guru.

Guru Vachaka Kovai, V. 273 The Garland of Guru’s Sayings, by Sri Muruganar 

Sadhu Om: Guru is That which exists and shines as ‘I’ in all, and is the one common factor in all

🕉️ 🔱 🕉️

[shinymoonbird]

Knowing that whatever is known objectively as ‘this’ or ‘that’ is [nothing but] an imagination of the mind, if one remains still [summa irukka] in that which is neutral [i.e. if one remains merely as ‘I am’, the neutral consciousness which does not objectively know any second or third person], that reality which [then] shines forth alone is existence-consciousness [sat-chit], the supreme and great Self.

Guru Vachaka Kovai - Reality in Forty Verses, by Sri Muruganar - Part Three, The Experience Of The Truth - Ch. 34: The Supremacy of Self - Verse 1075

ૐ

ૐ 

[shinymoonbird]

Sabendo que tudo o que é conhecido objetivamente como "isto" ou "aquilo" é [nada mais que] uma imaginação da mente, se uma pessoa permanecer quieta [summa irukka] naquilo que é neutro [ou seja, se uma pessoa permanecer apenas como 'eu sou', a consciência neutra que não conhece objetivamente nenhuma segunda ou terceira pessoa], aquela realidade que [então] brilha sozinha é existência-consciência [sat-chit], o supremo e grande Ser.

~  Guru Vachaka Kovai - A Realidade Em Quarenta Versículos, de Sri Muruganar - Parte Três, A Experiência da Verdade - Cap. 34: A Supremacia do Ser - Versículo 1075

ૐ

ૐ

[shinymoonbird]

THE WORLD

Devotee: The world may not be conscious of itself, yet it exists.

Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi replied famously thus:

Consciousness is always Self-consciousness. If you are conscious of anything you are essentially conscious of yourself. Unselfconscious existence is a contradiction in terms. It is no existence at all. It is merely attributed existence, whereas true existence, the SAT, is not an attribute, it is the substance itself. It is the Vastu (Reality). Reality is therefore known as SAT-CHIT, Being-Consciousness, and never merely the one to the exclusion of the other. The world neither exists by itself, nor is it conscious of its existence. How can you say that such a world is real? And what is the nature of the world? It is perpetual change, a continuous, interminable flux. A dependent, unselfconscious, ever-changing world cannot be real.

[shinymoonbird]

If the declaration of the Upanishads, that the world was created by Brahman and that Brahman became the world, is not true, the question arises will the Upanishads then proclaim so? The answer is that the world has neither an existence nor an effulgence of its own and that Brahman, the very form of Sat-Chit, is its substratum, is the esoteric and the inherent meaning of the Upanishads. And so do aver the sages who ever experience the state of being the Self. The truth that is revealed here is that the jiva who perceives, the perceived spectacle and others, being not other than Brahman - the Substratum - they are all verily “That”. The truth of the unreality of names and forms, by implication, is the result.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s Reality In Forty Verses Commentary by “Who” (K. Lakshmana Sarma) - extract from Commentary to Verse 1

This is further elaborated in the 4th verse

[shinymoonbird]

ॐ

Sat-Chit, Being-Consciousness  Itself is indeed the Self - The Self He is - “That is the Self”

It is most absurd to aver that Brahman, the Self, has in truth transformed itself into the world. This argument is analogous to saying that in the milk of Brahman, the buttermilk of nescience has got mixed resulting in the curd of the world. Nescience or ignorance is not an object. Can it effect a change in Brahman? Further just as milk once converted into curd cannot turn back into milk again, Brahman modified and transformed into world, cannot revert back as Brahman! If this be true it may justifiably be posed how can Brahman that cannot guard Its own Form from undergoing changes, then protect us?

If it is opined that an eternally changeless object is none, there will be no way of deliverance from samsara (*) for us. Lord Buddha has also proclaimed that there does exist an unchanging and unchangeable Reality and therefore there is a way for Release. As all sages have unequivocally declared with great clarity that Brahman is changeless, pure, unmodified Consciousness without ever swerving from Its natural state, the aforesaid argument can safely be ignored.

~  Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s Reality In Forty Verses; Commentary  by “Who” (K. Lakshmana Sarma) (extract from Commentary to Verse 1)

(*) Samsara: The repeating cycle of birth, life, and death (reincarnation)

[shinymoonbird]

Se a declaração das Upanishads, de que o mundo foi criado por Brahman e que Brahman se tornou o mundo, não é verdadeira, surge a pergunta: o que então proclamam as Upanishads? A resposta é que o mundo não tem nem uma existência nem um resplendor próprio, e que Brahman, a própria forma de Sat-Chit, é o seu substrato, sendo este o significado esotérico e inerente dos Upanishads. E assim afirmam os sábios que já experimentaram o estado de ser o Ser.

A verdade aqui revelada é que o jiva que percebe, o espectáculo percebido, e outros, não sendo diferentes de Brahman - o Substrato - todos eles são verdadeiramente "Aquilo". A verdade da irrealidade dos nomes e formas, por implicação, é o resultado.

Esta noção é mais elaborada no versículo 4 “Se o Ser tem forma...”.

~   Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi - A Realidade em Quarenta Versos - Comentário de “Who” (K. Lakshmana Sarma) (extrato do Comentário ao Versículo 1)

Sat-Chit: Existência-Consciência; Jiva: Alma individual