Thinking about the Supreme self
Prahlada
All that is in this world is Self alone. Om is its unique and proper form. It is devoid of all modifications
This consciousness (self) is immanent in brain, bones, flesh and marrow. It illumines these and the sun and such by abiding inside of these like a lamp.
This Self makes Fire hot; makes nectar tasty. Like a King, it enjoys (everything) through the senses.
Sitting it is not seated. Moving, it is not moving. Though calm, it is engaged in worldly activities. Though active, it is not touched (by actions)
It is now as it was. It is the same in both the worlds (earth and heaven). It is the same in ordained and non-ordained activities.
It generates a feeling of security everywhere with worlds. It keeps the world wheeling and turning (from Brahma to the a leaf of grass).
It is always vibrating. It can move like the god of air. Yet it is static and immobile. It is purer than sky.
It disturbs and agitates the people like wind which shakes the leaves. It steers and drives the senses like a charioteer who steers the horses.
It is always engaged in action situated in the body-house. Abiding like an emperor in itself, it (the Self) stays as the lord of all enjoyment.
This self is to be searched for. It should be praised and worshipped. It should be contemplated upon. It is only thus one can get over the delusion of old age and death.
He is easily attainable. He is like a confidant and close friend. He is like a bee in lotus in the hearts of all people.
He can be attained in one's own body. A little call to him will bring him to one's fore.
If one serves and worships the most opulent and rich Self, one does not feel the arrogance that an an ordinary man of wealth feels.
God abides in all bodies the way fragrance resides in flowers, the way oil stays in oilseeds.
When a person relative is away (from sight) for a long time, it becomes difficult to recognise him when he is in front of us. Similarly Self is forgotten due to lack of inquiry.
-18 . When we meet the Lord as a result of inquiry. it gives great pleasure like meeting dear ones. Then because of discovery of Self, even death and birth will pass away (for mind). All desires will subside. All enemies will decline. Intense desires will not devour mind like house rats (devouring house things)
When Self is seen, the whole world is seen. When it is heard all is heard. When it is touched, the entire creation is touched. Because of the existence of Self, the entire world is existing.
This self is awake and will shake foolish, unintelligent people from their sleep - It will pull people out of their miseries - It will be charitable towards ordinary people.
This Self moves around in the world as 'Siva'. It delights itself abiding in the world. It sparkles things as enjoyable.
This Self enjoys peace within itself and abides in all like pungency in pepper.
This Self is the support of inside and outside of things as sentient consciousness and its varying comprehensions.
-28 . This Self is the void of the sky. It is the vibratious of all movement. It is the luminosity of all light. It is the fluidity of water. It is the solidity of earth. It is the heat in fire. It is the coolness of moon. It is the existence of all worlds. It is the blackness of soot.It is the coolness of snow flakes. It is the fragrance of flowers. It is the lord of all bodies. Just like time is in all movement and existence in all things, this Lord of power is in all bodies. It is in all forms and appearances. It is united with mind. This eternal Self is the supreme Lord, the teacher of Gods.
I 'am'. I have nothing to do with any apprehension or comprehensions. It is like a water drop which has nothing do with the lotus leaf on which it stays.
A stone is not shaken by any perplexities. Like so, all sorrows and joys are for body, not for me.
-34 . When water falls on 'tumhara' fruit, the fruit does not get hurt. How can a rope tie up the illumination from a lamp? Similarly I, the Self, am and can not be, not bound by anything. I have no relationship with any states of mind, existence or nonexistence or any senses. Who can bind sky? Who can bind the mind? Even if body is broken to pieces, how can Self be cut? When a pot breaks, nothing happend to the sky inside of it. Only mind is getting deluded unnecessarly.
-37 . What is the harm if due to self-knowledge, this stupid mind comes to naught? My vasana - ridden mind was full of joys and sorrows. That was before I attained the unity of Self. I am now in a state of beatitude. What is seeing is other than me. What is enjoying is other than me. What is suffering is something other than me. Oh what stupudity! Whose magic is this? The enjoyer is 'prakriti'. The affections of body are honoured by mind!
Stupidity and ignorance lie in a depraved self. By this, he Alone does not come to any hurt. There is no desire in me for pleasures nor have I renounced joys and pleasures.
Whatever comes, let it come. Whatever goes off, let it go. I have no expectation for comforts and pleasures, Neither have I any desire for sorrows.
-41 . Let joys and pleasures, sorrows and griefs come and go. What have I got to do with them? Many many vassanas arise and perish in my body. I have nothing to do with them. All the while I am hurt by the enemy of ignorance.
-44 . This ignorance has stolen all my discrimination. Due to the grace of Lord Vishnu, I have recovered all of it. Having known the Truth, I have driven out the demon of ego from my body. The tree, called my body, is now purified by this supreme knowledge.
I am now abiding as Lord of lords, having annihilated the blemish of wild desires and having acquired the wealth of discrimination and thus removing the poverty, called delusion.
I know what is to be known. I have seen what is to be seen. Having obtained these, nothing else remains to be achieved or attained.
-49 . I have ascended the supreme space on the high lands spread with trees which are free of serpents, called affilctious, which are cool with subsided delusions. This land has no mirages, called hopes and desires. I have attained this land by worship, prayer, adoration and control of senses.
With these the Lord has appeared before in clean form. I now recall the eternal, the great Vishnu who is beyond all ego.
-56 . I have been harassed for long by enemies like - ego, serpent like senses in the chasms and holes, called death; by throny bushes called intense desires; loud and confusing noises of sex; the weeds, called vasanas, in the deep wells called births; the intense heat of sorrows; swing and sinkings millions of times in (the sea of) calamities; bound and being unbound by ropes of deisres. I have suffered from all these little demons and ghouls of little power. However I have gained my own power of action and by the grace of Lord Vishnu the opulence of discrimination. The Rakshasa of ego has been vanquished by the lord called awakening and enlightenment.
I do not see the Yaksha of ego, who takes refuge in the hole of mind. When light shines, darkness flees.
-59 . O Lord, a thief takes to his flight on the arrival of morning sun. Similarly my ego has fled on your direct vision by me.
I am established firmly like a tree free of a python. I am rested and quiet. I am perfectly egoless due to the enlightenment about the world.
I am now liberated from the thieves. I am peaceful without desires. Coolness has arrived in me now. The mirages of desires are erased.
When ego is washed out with self -inquiry, where is delusion? Where are sorrows? Where is mental distress?
The perplexities of hell and heaven exist because of ego. It is like a wall (on which these are painted). How can there be pictures in sky (which is void)?
As long as ego persists, skillful inquiry into Truth and (consequent) depth of Self-knowledge will not be lustrously evident. Vermilioin shade does not show up on a stained cloth.
When the cloud of ego and fog of desire are blown off, mind will shine, like the sky in autumn, pure and luminous.
My salutations to you O Self, Who is free of the mire of ego, who is blissful inside, and who is swinging in a sea of bliss.
O Self, you are like a lake of bliss which is free of wild crocodiles, and in which the fire of mind is quenched.
Clouds of ego are dissipated. The forest fire of desires is quenched. My salutations to such a mountain of bliss.
My salutations to that pure lake - like Self, which is full of lotus blooms and is free of ripples of sorrow.
Salutations to Self which is luminous with truth and which is the swan of mind of all beings.
O infinite Self, my salutations to you. You are the embodiment of all digits (kalas). You are the self of nector. You are ever born.
O self, salutations to you. You are everborn and peaceful. You are the dispeller of all darkness of igorance. You are all pervading and yet unseen. You are the consciousness - sun.
My solutations to the consciousness - flame / light which is luminous with love and blazes without oil, which is active without action, which is the support of all self-becomings and states of existence and which is strong and steadfast.
I have demolisehd that (part of) mind which is burning with sensuous passion with the strength of a cool mind.
I have emerged victorious by cutting senses with (the same) senses and mind with mind. I have cut through the separative ego sense (ahamkara) to render it into the I-consciousness of Self (Aham) (and thus became victorious).
You have put a lid of becoming on your non-becoming. You have removed desire though desirelessness. You have driven away stupidity through all wise intelligence. You have driven away ignorance though knowledge. O, such you, the Self, I salute you.
I am abiding as that Alone and Absolute by shattering mind with mind leading to egolessness, vanquishing feelings with all feelings and thus becoming pure.
Without any passion or feeling, without any sense of ego, with a desire-free mind, my body is now in the pure and active Self.
I have obtained that happiness which is greater than the great lords of the infinite universe. It is moved by compassion. It is full of great tranquility.
I am now free of any anguish or fever with the departure of demon of ego and with the 'vetala' of delusion completely silenced.
The bird of egotism has fled somewhere from the case of my body after shaking off the rope of desire.
I do not know where the bird of ego has fled from the hollow of ignorance in the tree of my body, whisked far by the cultivation of jnana.
Due to my good luck, all the vasanas which are beneficial to the serpents of fear - have declined. They are dirty, covered with the ash of pleasures and vily desires.
Oh! How strange that I remained all this time embedded in this untruth of egotistic existence.
I am now my Self. I am now the most intelligent one. I am now free from the (dark) thick cloud of ego after casting away all vily desires.
Bhagwan, I have seen my Self. I have commissioned it to work for the self- experience of that which is beyond itself.
My mind is free from desiring. Thinking has gone. Its support is gone. The delusion of ego has been skillfully rejected. It has no wishing or willing. All stain of attachment is gone There is no curiosity. With the mind gone, I am now completely peaceful.
All the calamitous unbearable defects and blemishes have been decimated. O supreme Lord my internal consciousness is devoid of duality. I have now the state of equilibruim.
