Author: Tom Das

Tejobindu Upanishad: what is Jivanmukti?

~ Tom Das ~ 2 Comments

CHAPTER – IV

The Kumara asked the great Lord: “Please explain to me the nature of Jivanmukti and Videhamukti.” To which the great Shiva replied:

1. “I am Chidatma. I am Para-Atma. I am the Nirguna, greater than the great. One who will simply stay in Atman is called a Jivanmukta.

2. He who realises: ‘I am beyond the three bodies, I am the pure consciousness and I am Brahman’, is said to be a Jivanmukta.

3. He is said to be a Jivanmukta, who realises: ‘I am of the nature of the blissful and of the supreme bliss, and I have neither body nor any other thing except the certitude ‘I am Brahman’ only.

4-6. He is said to be a Jivanmukta who has not at all got the ‘I’ in myself, but who stays in Chinmatra (absolute consciousness) alone, whose interior is consciousness alone, who is only of the nature of Chinmatra, whose Atman is of the nature of the all-full, who has Atman left over in all, who is devoted to bliss, who is undifferentiated, who is all-full of the nature of consciousness, whose Atman is of the nature of pure consciousness, who has given up all affinities (for objects), who has unconditioned bliss, whose Atman is tranquil, who has got no other thought (than Itself) and who is devoid of the thought of the existence of anything.

7-11(a). He is said to be a Jivanmukta who realises: ‘I have no Chitta [mind], no Buddhi [intellect], no Ahamkara [ego, sense of doership and enjoyership], no senses, no body at any time, no Pranas, no Maya, no passion and no anger, I am the great, I have nothing of these objects or of the world and I have no sin, no characteristics, no eye, no Manas [mind], no ear, no nose, no tongue, no hand, no waking, no dreaming, or causal state in the least or the fourth state.’

~ Tejobindu Upanishad

Tom: Tejo means radiant; Bindu means point (or drop)

2 Spiritual Secrets For Profound Transformation

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In this moment in satsang, Tom shares two simple yet revolutionary teachings — practical secrets that can be effortlessly woven into your daily life. Many who walk the path of devotion to Ramana Maharshi have found that these treasures spark profound transformation, bringing quiet but powerful shifts in both subtle and significant ways.

These practices can be embraced together or on their own, offering you a direct doorway into presence and devotion and sacred silence; they can guide you to your True Nature and longed for liberation.

If you feel moved, we invite you to share in the comments how these teachings resonate with you, or to tell us about your own experiences of devotional practice—whether with Ramana, or with an image of the Divine that speaks to your heart.

This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das on September 11th, 2025 and put together by volunteers. To download full unedited satsang recordings see here: https://payhip.com/tomdas

To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events

Mocking, judging and ridiculing others Vs Compassion and Empathy

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

Mocking, judging, or ridiculing others who have a different view to you – even when there is truth in your perspective – can point to a deeper lack of empathy and genuine understanding within yourself. It can reflect unprocessed emotions such as hurt, anger, frustration, or confusion, and it can also reflect a lack of understanding in what is actually going on in the world around you and in other people’s experiences.

This kind of ridicule also fosters ‘othering’, a subtle form of dehumanising those with different perspectives and different values to your own. Instead of opening space for dialogue or empathy, it widens divides and reinforces distance between people, keeping us more polarised rather than bringing us together. It escalates rather than de-escalates. It spews out more mess, rather than helping to clean up.

Rather than speaking and acting out of frustration and anger (or other negative emotions), it is often more healing and productive to pause, reflect, and process what is happening – both within yourself and also in trying to understand the experiences of others. If you want to help ‘clean up’ rather than ‘create more mess’, it is especially important to understand where other people are coming from in these situations: their experiences, their ideas, their values, their hurts, their frustrations, their grievances, etc, so take your time…

Be Still for a while. Be curious. Notice any resistance and rigidity/fixity in yourself. See if it helps you to replace condemnation and judgement with openness, curiosity, humility and emotional vulnerability. Learn about the other, listen, truly listen (and learn).

If you allow it, this process will eventually take you to LOVE and COMPASSION.

Others may still disagree with you, and you may disagree with them too! And some may ‘other’ you and even be rude towards you, but approaching interactions this way allows you to be clear in yourself. It allows you to go forth with empathy and compassion, peaceful and grounded; it allows you to be able to engage without fueling division and hatred, without adding to the mess in this already (apparently) messy world. It (hopefully) allows you to be able to respond more wisely rather than simply react.

Yes, there is a place for strength! Yes, there is also a place for limits and boundaries! But let us try to do this from a Place of Peace rather than of negativity, othering and frustration.

May peace be with you

❤🙏❤

This is a path of love: Advaita and Non-duality

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

This is a Path of Love.

Even the path of knowledge and the non-dual teachings are truly only a path of love.

That Love comes from within. It is a genuine Love, not just a concept of Love or Oneness. It is also called Peace or Bliss or the Heart ❤️

Be Still and Know.
Be Still and Receive.

🙏🙏🙏
❤️❤️❤️

2 Spiritual Secrets For Profound Transformation

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

In this moment in satsang, Tom shares two simple yet revolutionary teachings — practical secrets that can be effortlessly woven into your daily life. Many who walk the path of devotion to Ramana Maharshi have found that these treasures spark profound transformation, bringing quiet but powerful shifts in both subtle and significant ways.

These practices can be embraced together or on their own, offering you a direct doorway into presence and devotion and sacred silence; they can guide you to your True Nature and longed for liberation.

If you feel moved, we invite you to share in the comments how these teachings resonate with you, or to tell us about your own experiences of devotional practice—whether with Ramana, or with an image of the Divine that speaks to your heart.

This video was recorded live during a Satsang meeting with Tom Das on September 11th, 2025 and put together by volunteers.

To download full unedited satsang recordings see here: https://payhip.com/tomdas

To attend satsang, see here: https://tomdas.com/events

The music of the Self, which is always playing in your Heart

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

The music of the Self, which is always playing in your Heart, can only be heard with the inner ear when the mind is extremely still.

This music dissolves all suffering, all duality and all doubt.

This music reveals the infinite love that you are, beyond all words, concepts and descriptions.

By Bhagavan’s Grace may this great truth be revealed to you.

🙏🙏🙏

The Art of Spiritual Guidance

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Have you ever wondered if you’re really letting go and letting your higher power lead the way? What of spiritual guidance? In today’s conversation, we dive into how surrendering — really handing things over — can bring a surprising sense of happiness and ease. If you’ve ever struggled with wanting things to turn out a certain way, or found it hard to trust that things are truly being taken care of, this video is for you.

Discover directly in your Heart | I Am

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When the mind becomes very quiet, it can become possible to realise that all gross and subtle perceptions are actually illusory and only the substratum-self is real.

If you lovingly, happily, repeatedly and consistently go towards this sense I AM, eventually you will merge into that, destroying your illusory sense of individuality (ie. ego).

What is then discovered is so much more than ‘the background of consciousness’ or ‘awareness’ or ‘being’…

…it is beyond all words and concepts and cannot be described…

…to put it into words one could say it is total infinite love and fulfillment

…but actually it is more than this too…

It is your ever-shining Self. You are That, now and always, but this is not to be believed by the ego-mind, but to be discovered directly in the Heart

~ Tom Das

🙏🙏🙏

Spiritual Bypassing and Self-Enquiry | True Spirituality | Go within

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

It is certainly true that many people bypass and suppress their psychological issues and emotional issues through engaging with various forms of so-called spirituality.

It is also true that it is possible to overindulge in emotionality and sentimentality to the point that it adversely affects your ability to function on a day-to-day level, making you overly sensitive and reactive to your emotions.

Balance is obviously important here. It is possible to both feel too little and to feel too much.

Ultimately spiritual teachings do teach us to transcend emotional issues, but this is not the same as suppression and bypassing, both of which are generally unhelpful on our path.

If we do not actually transcend and go beyond our emotions (and our thoughts and sense perceptions), we have not really entered into the spiritual realm, and are just operating on the psychological level only. There is nothing wrong with this, it is just that this is not genuinely liberating in the truly spiritual sense of the word.

For liberation, that ever-blissful realm that is prior to birth of the body and which survives death must be discovered, otherwise suffering, duality and fear will continue, as will the illusion of the separate self. This can only be done by discovering the Truth of Oneself within.

In peace and love.

🙏🙏🙏

Q: Why is it necessary for the mind to die? | Lakshmana Swamy | Ramana Maharshi

~ Tom Das ~ 2 Comments

Q: Why is it necessary for the mind to die?

Lakshmana Swamy [a devotee of Ramana Maharshi]: The mind must die, there is no other way to realize the Self. Some people say that complete equanimity of mind is Self realization, but this is not true. This is only a stage one passes through on the way to Self-realization. Other people say that seeing the Self or God everywhere is Self-realization, but this idea is not true either. To see the Self everywhere there must be an “I” who sees, and while that “I” exists the mind will also exist. The jnani does not see anything because the seeing entity in him has died. In the Self there is no seeing, only being. When the mind still exists one can reach a stage where one can see the whole world as a manifestation of the Self, but when the mind dies, there is no one who sees the world and no world to be seen.

If you have a mind then the earth, the sky and the stars will exist and you will be able to see them. When the mind dies there will be no earth, no sky, no stars and no world. The world of objects, names and forms is only the mind, and when the mind dies, the world dies with it. Only the Self then remains.

Seeing everything as the Self gives the impression that the Self is equally distributed everywhere. This is also an idea in the mind. When the mind finally dies you realize that there is no distribution and no everywhere.