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In Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is the sole, unchanging, and absolute reality—the non-dual, infinite, and formless consciousness underlying all existence. It is defined as Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) and is fundamentally identical to the true self (Atman), with individual souls appearing separate only due to Maya (ignorance).
The Unfathomable Brahman
Exploring the Indivisible Reality from Multiple PerspectivesThe quest to understand Brahman is a journey into the heart of existence itself, a pursuit that has intrigued philosophers, sages, and seekers for millennia. In the vast expanse of Hindu philosophy, Brahman is the ultimate reality, the fabric of all that exists and beyond. It is both immanent and transcendent, the core of our being and…
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“The one imperishable which is in the Heart at all times is self-luminous. How to write it?”
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EKAM AKSHARAM - THE ONE LETTER AND THE ONE IMPERISHABLE
Letter 62, 18th August, 1946
A few days ago some Gujaratis who had come from Bombay purchased some Ashram books and Bhagavan’s photos and showing them to Bhagavan, requested him to write his name on the books. “What name should I write?” asked Bhagavan. “Your name,” said they. “What name have I?” said Bhagavan. When they said, “Your name is Ramana Maharshi, is it not?” Bhagavan said smilingly, “Somebody said so. Really what is a name or a native place for me? I could write only if I had a name.” The Gujaratis went away quietly without saying anything further.
In January 1945, you remember that you sent your book on Banking with a request that Bhagavan might be pleased to write in it the word ‘OM’ or ‘SRI’ and return it to you, and Bhagavan declined to do so. Instead, he gave me a piece of paper, on which he wrote a Telugu translation of a verse that he had written long back in Tamil when Somasundaraswami made a similar request. When I sent that slip of paper to you, you took it as an upadesa, a precept from Bhagavan, and were overjoyed. Subsequently, he made some slight alterations therein. Later on Bhagavan translated it into Sanskrit as a sloka at the request of Muruganar [...]. It means:
“The one imperishable which is in the Heart at all times is self-luminous. How to write it?”
I was reminded of all this when the Gujaratis made a similar request today and got a refusal.
About ten months ago, Pantu Lakshminarayana Sastri, Telugu Pandit, Maharajah’s College, Vizianagaram, came here. After praising Bhagavan with verses composed extempore, he appealed to Bhagavan thus: “Please let me have something to commemorate this event and bless this poor soul.” “What shall I give?” asked Bhagavan. “Anything you please; just an aksharam (letter) by way of upadesa,” he said. Bhagavan said, “How can I give that which is ‘akshara’?” and so saying he looked at me. I said, “It will perhaps do if you tell him about the sloka Ekamaksharam.” Sastri asked, “What is that sloka?” I read out that sloka. “Where is that dwipada?” asked Bhagavan [1]. I read out that too. Sastri was overjoyed as if he had got a great treasure, and copied both the sloka and the dwipada. When I told him about the circumstances under which those two were written, he felt very happy and went away after bowing before Bhagavan. I remembered all this when Bhagavan was saying to the Gujaratis, “What is a name or a native place for me?” Not only this. I was reminded of a song which mother used to sing while engaged in her domestic work, the meaning of which is somewhat as follows:
“Ramanamam is the wide universe which has no name or body or work. It has a lustre surpassing the moon, the sun and the fire.”
Ramana’s name also is just like that!
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Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma (pdf)
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[1] Dwipada: Bhagavan is meaning the Telugu version of the couplet
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🕉️ Refer also to Letter 28 and Letter 79
“Ramanamam is the wide universe which has no name or body or work. It has a lustre surpassing the moon, the sun and the fire.”
Image source: Sri Ramanasramam
The Virupaksha Cave on Arunachala Mountain
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“Significance of Om, unrivalled — unsurpassed! Who can comprehend Thee, Oh Arunachala?”
~ The Marital Garland of Letters - Akshara Mana Malai, V. 13
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OMKARAM–AKSHARAM
Letter 79, 22nd January, 1946
Recently, as I was returning home from the Ashram one evening at about 5 p.m., I heard two young men having some discussion between themselves. One of them said, “I questioned Ramana Maharshi very boldly as to what remains after the Omkaram is crossed. He was unable to reply and so closed his eyes and slept. It is all a pose with him.”
Though, at the outset, I got angry at their speaking disparagingly about my Guru, I subsequently felt amused at their foolishness and said in a mild tone: “Sir, why do you decry your elders? Do we know, first of all, what Omkaram is, that we should venture to ask what remains after Omkaram?” The young man replied, “I asked him only because I do not know. Why should he not reply suitably?” I said, “Please do not be impatient. If you ask him once again, with patience, you will know.” They went away that day, but were present in the hall the next day. Unexpectedly, some one else questioned Bhagavan thus: “Swamiji, it is said that Akara, Ukara, Makaras make up Omkaram. What is the meaning of these three letters? What is the embodiment of Omkaram?”
Bhagavan replied:
“Omkaram itself is Brahman. That Brahman is the nameless and formless pure SAT. It is that that is called Omkaram. Akara, Ukara, Makara or Sat, Chit, Ananda — any three of these two groups is Brahman. Omkaram which is beyond the speech or the mind and which can only be experienced, cannot be described by word of mouth — one cannot say what its swarupa (shape) is.”
This reply also served to clear the doubts of the two youths who questioned him yesterday evening.
Similarly, someone or other used to ask Bhagavan, now and then, “What is the form of Akshara? What does it look like? How can we know it?” Bhagavan’s reply to all such questions was:
“In accordance with the saying in the Gita [1], ‘aksharam brahma paramam’, ‘that which is supreme and permanent is the form of Akshara’. As for the question how we can know it, the SELF is Akshara. That which is indestructible is Aksharam. How to know it? That question should arise only if Akshara were different from the Self. But the two are not different, but only one. That which is, is only one. That is SAT. That SAT is SELF; there is nothing else other than the Self. The proper thing to do is to enquire and know who the Self is and to remain in the Self.“
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Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma (pdf)
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[1] Bhagavad Gita - Ch. VIII, V. 3 - The Imperishable Absolute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksara
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🕉️ Refer also to Letter 62 and Letter 28
”Sri Ramana Maharshi” photo - Sri Ramanasramam
BRAHMASTHRAM (DIVINE WEAPON)
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Letter 28, 22nd January, 1946
Yesterday or the day before, a boy of about 18 years of age came here on a cycle from some place. After sitting in the hall for a quarter of an hour, he went to Bhagavan and asked, “After crossing Omkar, where to merge?” With a smile Bhagavan said, “Oh, is that so? Wherefrom did you come now? Where will you go? What is it you want to know? Who really are you? If you first tell me who you are, you can then question me about Omkar.” “I do not know that even,” said the boy. Then Bhagavan said, “You know for certain that you are existent. How are you existent? Where really were you before? What exactly is your body? First find that out. When you know all that, you can ask me questions if you still have any doubts. Why should we worry where Omkar merges, and after it merges why worry about what comes next, when it ceases to exist? Where do you merge ultimately? How do you come back? If you first find out your state and your movements, we can think of the rest.” When Bhagavan said all this, the boy could not give any reply and so went away after bowing before Bhagavan. What other brahmasthram (divine weapon) is there against a questioner? If only that weapon is used, the questioner is silenced.
You may ask, “Who gave the name of ‘brahmasthram’ to the stock reply of Bhagavan, ‘Find out who you are?’.” Two or three years back, when a sannyasi boasted about having read all books on religious matters and began asking Bhagavan all sorts of questions, he repeatedly gave the same answer, “Find out who you are”. When the sannyasi persisted in his meaningless questions and arguments, Bhagavan in a firm tone asked him, “You have been asking me so many questions and entering into so many arguments. Why don’t you reply to my questions and then argue? Who you are? First answer my question. Then I will give you a suitable reply. Tell me first who it is that is arguing.” He could not reply, and so went away.
Some time later, I developed this idea and wrote five verses on ‘Divya Asthram’ and showed them to Bhagavan, when he said, “Long ago when Nayana (Ganapati Muni) was here, Kapali also used to be here. If they wanted to ask me anything, they would fold their hands first and say, ‘Swami, Swami, if you will promise not to brandish your brahmasthram, I will ask a question.’ If during conversation the words ‘Who are you?’ escaped my lips, he used to say, ‘So you have fired your brahmasthram. What more can I say?’ They called it brahmasthram and you are calling it ‘Divya Asthram’.” After that, I too started using the word brahmasthram. Really, who is not humbled by that asthram?
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Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma (pdf)
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🕉️ Refer also to Letter 62 and Letter 79
Only when Self, the truth of love, is known, will the knot of all the severe problems in life be severed. Only when the pinnacle of love [the supreme love or para-bhakti] is attained can even liberation be said to be attained. Love is verily the heart of all religions.
Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru’s Sayings) by Sri Muruganar - V. 652, Ch. 32 - The Truth of Love
Sadhu Om:
When the true nature of love is realized, it will completely cease to take the form of desire, which is its ‘vritti rupa’ [that is, which love is in the form of a vritti or movement]. When desire is thus removed, all its five offshoots, namely anger, miserliness, delusion (i.e. the inability to discern the truth), arrogance and jealousy, will also cease to exist [refer to verse 375 (*)]. Since all the problems of life are based upon only these six vices, it is said that the knot of all problems in life will be severed by realizing the true nature of love. The truth of love is nothing but Self. How? Since the real nature of Self is asti-bhati-priya or sat-chit-ananda, love [priya] or ananda cannot be different form Self. This is why the Sages declare that love is God.
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(*) Verse 375: Those who have desire are afflicted by the wretched anger when their desire is obstructed, and so it is certain that desire is inherent in anger. Therefore, when all the [six] vices are dying, desire dies last.
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2021-07-26b Kensington Gardens: Michael James discusses
Śrī Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai - The Necklace of Nine Gems for Arunachala, Verse 2
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This video begins with Sadhu Om singing verse 2 of ஸ்ரீ அருணாசல நவமணிமாலை ( Śrī Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai), ‘The Necklace of Nine Gems for Arunachala’, and then Michael James explains and discusses the meaning and implications of it:
சத்திய சிற்சுக மன்றிப் பரவுயிர் சாரயிக்க மர்த்தவத் தத்வ மசியரு ணப்பொரு ளாமசலத் தர்த்தங் கனமது வாகுஞ்செவ் வாடக வாரொளியா முத்தி நினைக்க வருளரு ணாசல முன்னிடவே.
sattiya ciṯsukha maṉḏṟip paravuyir sārayikka martthavat tatva maciyaru ṇapporu ḷāmacalat tartthaṅ ghaṉamadu vāhuñcev vāṭaka vāroḷiyā mutti niṉaikka varuḷaru ṇācala muṉṉiḍavē.
பதச்சேதம்: சத்திய சித் சுகம் அன்றி பர உயிர் சார் அயிக்கம் அர்த்த அத் ‘தத் த்வம் அசி’ அருண பொருள் ஆம்; அசலத்து அர்த்தம் கனம் அது ஆகும்; செவ் ஆடக ஆர் ஒளி ஆம் முத்தி நினைக்க அருள் அருணாசலம் உன்னிடவே.
Padacchēdam (word-separation): sattiya-cit-sukham aṉḏṟi para-uyir-sār-ayikkam arttha a-t-‘tat tvam asi’ aruṇa poruḷ ām; acalattu arttham ghaṉam adu āhum; cev āṭaka ār oḷi ām mutti niṉaikka aruḷ aruṇācalam uṉṉiḍavē.
அன்வயம்: செவ் ஆடக ஆர் ஒளி ஆம் முத்தி நினைக்க அருள் அருணாசலம் உன்னிடவே, அருண பொருள் சத்திய சித் சுகம் அன்றி பர உயிர் சார் அயிக்கம் அர்த்த அத் ‘தத் த்வம் அசி’ ஆம்; அசலத்து அர்த்தம் கனம் அது ஆகும்.
Anvayam (words rearranged in natural prose order): cev āṭaka ār oḷi ām mutti niṉaikka aruḷ aruṇācalam uṉṉiḍavē, aruṇa poruḷ sattiya-cit-sukham aṉḏṟi para-uyir-sār-ayikkam arttha a-t-‘tat tvam asi’ ām; acalattu arttham ghaṉam adu āhum.
English translation:
When one carefully considers Aruṇācalam, which is red gold pervading light, and which bestows liberation when one thinks, besides existence-awareness-happiness, that ‘That you are’, the meaning of which is the intimate oneness of the Supreme and the soul, is the meaning of aruṇa; the meaning of acalam is completeness.
Explanatory paraphrase:
When one carefully considers [the meaning of the name] Aruṇācalam, which is the all-pervading light [of pure awareness], [whose bright lustre is like] red gold, and which bestows mukti [liberation] when one thinks [of it], (it is revealed that) the meaning of aruṇa [which consists of three syllables, namely a-ru-ṇa] is not only satya-cit-sukham [Existence-Awareness-Happiness] but also that [mahāvākya (great declaration)] ‘tat tvam asi’ [That you are], the meaning of which is para-uyir-sār-ayikkam [the intimate oneness of the Supreme and the soul, also known as jīva-brahma-aikya]; and the meaning of acalam is ghanam [completeness, density, firmness or abundance].
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While discussing the meaning, significance and implication of this verse Michael also refers to and discusses two other passages from Bhagavan’s writings, namely:
Upadēśa Undiyār:
Verse 24: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2017/09/upadesa-undiyar-tamil-text.html#uu24
Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai:
Verse 1: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2017/03/what-is-remembering-lord-or-remembrance.html#aamm001
An MP3 audio copy of this video can be listened to or downloaded from Sri Ramana Teachings podcast (https://ramanahou.podbean.com ): https://ramanahou.podbean.com/e/sri-arunachala-navamanimalai-verse-2
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In: The Path of Sri Rarnana - Part Two, by Sri Sadhu Om
[ https://sageramana.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/The-Path-of-Sri-Ramana-Part-Two.pdf ]
Appendix - 4b: Explanatory Notes on verse 8 of
“ULLADU NARPADU” - REALITY IN FORTY VERSES :
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"If one worships the Supreme in whatever form, giving Him whatever name, it is the way to see the Supreme in that name and form; yet, realizing one's own truth in the truth of that True Thing (the Supreme) and being one with It, having been resolved into It, is the True Seeing (Realization). Thus should you know!"
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Notes:
The Supreme Brahman has no name and form of Its own. Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda) are the three real aspects of Brahman, whereas name and form are Its unreal aspects.
Therefore, if one worships the Supreme in any name and form, one can see the Supreme in that name and form: - Here, some give the meaning of the verse as, "Worshipping the Supreme in a name and form is a means to see Him in His formless and nameless nature". This interpretation is wrong. As the Tamil words 'Per uruvil' have two meanings:
(1) (to see It) in name and form, (qualifying the nature of the seeing) (2) (to see It) without name and form (qualifying the nature of the Reality), which would mean that through the worship of a name and form of the Supreme, one can realize the nameless and formless truth of the Supreme;
one should know which meaning is to be taken according to the context.
If Shri Bhagavan means that the worship of a name and form of the Supreme leads to realize the Supreme in Its formless and nameless Nature (which is the True Seeing), there would have been no need for Him to define the True Seeing of the Supreme in the following lines of the same verse beginning with the word 'yet'.
As Shri Bhagavan emphatically defines what is the True Seeing in the last two lines of the same verse, we should understand that the second meaning should not be given to the Tamil words ('Per uru + il') in this context.
Further, we should understand what Shri Bhagavan means in this verse from what He has said in verse 3 of 'Arunachala Ashtakam' also, that the Supreme can be seen only in name and form, if one worships Him in name and form; trying to worship the nameless and formless Supreme is in vain; to realize the nameless and formless Supreme the only way is to dissolve the individuality into the Supreme, through Self-enquiry. In the last two lines of this verse (verse 3) Shri Bhagavan gives His own experience that the individuality does not exist when the Knowledge of the Supreme-Self, dawns.
If at all we want to know how the worship of a name and form of the Supreme will be an aid to realize the nameless and formless Supreme, it is described in the second chapter 'Bhakti', how the Beloved God worshipped through name and form will incarnate Himself in the form of a Guru. The same Beloved God - has to come again in the name and form of a Sadguru to teach the worshipper the Paths of Self-surrender or Self-enquiry, that leads to the Non-dual Awareness - the True Seeing of the Supreme.
Ulladu Narpadu V.8: https://shinymoonbird.tumblr.com/search/UN%20v.8
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