There are several verses in the Bhagavad Gita (one of my favourite texts) which teach the higher advaita teaching of ajata vada. Here we will look at a few of them.
Ajata literally means ‘no birth’, ‘no creation’ or ‘no origination’, and vada means doctrine or view or teaching. Many misunderstand what ajata actually means, and even many prominent teachers of vedanta misunderstand this teaching, as fundamentally it cannot be truly understood by the mind.
Ajata is the notion that there was never any creation, and that the world, including the body and mind, never actually were created, and never even appeared in consciousness at all, not even as an illusory dream-like appearance. On the face of it this sounds ludicrous, but if you take on board this understanding of the scriptures, you will find that the deeper teachings of Advaita will be revealed to you, and parts of the teaching that would otherwise not make sense will start to make sense.
See here for Sri Ramana Maharshi explaining the ajata teachings in more detail and giving us the true meaning of these wonderful but radical teachings.
Perhaps the most famous of the verses from the Bhagavad Gita that give the Ajata teaching is 2.16:
‘The unreal has no being; the real never not-is [never is non-existent, ie. the real always IS]; The seers of ultimate reality have thus perceived the final truth about them both‘
We can see here the definitive statement at the start of the Bhagavad Gita which states the unreal never came to be, never had any being, and never actually existed. Unreal refers to that which comes and goes, that which is perceived, ie. the body, the mind and the world. Some misinterpret the verse to say that the unreal appears to exist, but actually doesn’t exist, like a dream or an illusion, but this is not the deeper meaning at all. The deeper, seeminlgy paradoxical meaning is that the unreal never came to be, as the verse clearly states, not even as an appearance.
Sri Ramana Maharshi, in Sri Ramana Paravidyopanishad, gives this teaching to us in verses 147 and 330, where he explains that creation and appearance are the same. Therefore ‘no-creation’ or ‘ajata’ means no appearance:
147. Creation is not other than seeing; seeing and creating are one and the same process. Annihilation is only the cessation of seeing and nothing else, for the world comes to an end by the right awareness of oneself.
330. There is no creation apart from seeing; seeing and creation are one and the same. And because that seeing is due to ignorance, to cease seeing is the truth of the dissolution (of the world).
And Sri Ramana also gives us a teaching from Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 87:
87. Self appearing as the world is just like a rope seeing itself as a snake; just as the snake is, on scrutiny, found to be ever non-existent, so is the world found to be ever non-existent, even as an appearance.
More verses like the one above from Sri Ramana Maharshi can be found here.
Another verse from the Bhagavad gita that teaches Ajata Vada is Chapter 7, Verse 24:
‘The unwise, lacking in discrimination, think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, knowing not My higher, immutable and most excellent nature.’
For the ignorant, the world is considered to be a manifestation of the divine. This verse clearly states that in Truth, Brahman never has any manifestation. It is only through ignorance that Brahman seems to manifest, but the wise (the sage), with ignorance eradicated, see the truth – there is only Brahman, and He/That is without manifestation. To the Jnani (liberated sage), Brahman is unmanifest and immutable, while the world of manifestation is a distorted perception of the Unmanifest seen through the lens of ignorance.
We see Sri Ramana explain this too, in Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 35:
35. Since this world of dyads [eg. knower/known] and triads [eg. knower/knowing/known] appears only in the mind, like the illusory ring of fire formed [in the darkness of ignorance] by whirling the single point of a glowing rope-end, it is false, and it does not exist in the clear sight of Self.
Here is the last verse in this post from the Bhagavad Gita where Ajata is taught. It is from Chapter 9, Verse 4:
‘By Me, in My unmanifest form, is this entire universe pervaded. All beings have their existence in Me, but I do not have My existence in them.’
For the ignorant, the world is considered to be a manifestation of the divine, but in Truth, there has never been any manifestation, there has never been any duality, there has never been any multiplicity, there has never been any appearance, there has never been any ignorance (indeed this is another ramification of the ajata teachings – that there never was really any ignorance at all, that the apparent evils and injustices of the world never actually occurred, and there has only ever been liberation or heaven). These have never ever come to be. But, whilst we consider the manifestation (of the world/universe) to be real, we can say all is Brahman, but in truth, Brahman is not to be found in the world. This is why Lord Krishna says ‘I do not have My existience in them [the manifestation])
We see a similar teaching given by Sri Ramana Maharshi in one of the first few verses of Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 21. This verse does not give the highest ajata teaching, but does clarify that the lower teaching is to consider the world to be a manifestation of the divine, but that the higher teaching is that the world does not in Reality exist:
21. For those who take the world appearance as real and enjoy it, it is the Lord’s creation. But for those who, free from fear, have known the Truth, the undeluded Self, it is no more than a mere mental image projected by desire.
Let us now go back, full circle, to the first verse quoted, and enjoy both its poetry and its clarity of expression:
“The unreal has no being; the real never not-is; The seers of ultimate reality have thus perceived the final truth about them both.”
‘All that is necessary is to be rid of the thought: “I have not realised.”’
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 245
This teaching sounds so simple, but let us see what this teaching actually means. To do this, we have to take a look at the context in which this teaching was given, and not merely cling to a single quote taken out of context. The quote was taken from talk 245 from the book ‘Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi’. Let us look at the talk in its entirely. We will see there are many wonderful and revealing teachings packed into this short talk. As usual my comments will be in italicised red and the text itself will be in black:
Devotee (D):“I understand that the Self is beyond the ego. My knowledge is theoretical and not practical. How shall I gain practical realisation of the Self?”
Sri Ramana Maharshi (M).: Realisation is nothing to be got afresh. It is already there. All that is necessary is to be rid of the thought: “I have not realised.”
Tom’s comments: we can see that the questioner is asking a very relevant question, namely how to covert their intellectual knowledge into genuine realisation. Bhagavan Sri Ramana is essentially pointing out that you are the Self already and that you simply have to remove any ideas of non-realisation. We will see below, based on the text itself, that this actually means removing the entirely of non-self, for any residue of non-self is synonymous with the idea ‘I have not realised’ or ‘the feeling of non-realisation’ (this term is used next below).
D.: Then one need not attempt it.
M.: No. Stillness of mind or peace is realisation. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realisation, attempt must be made to rid oneself of these thoughts.
Tom: As Sri Ramana has said that you are already the Self, the questioner naturally follows up by asking – if that is the case, then there is no need to seek, no need to search, and by extension, no need to practice, correct? Bhagavan replies by stating ‘No’, this is not the case. As long as there is ‘the feeling of non-realisation’, one must attempt to remove or ‘rid oneself’ of these thought. He goes on to define realisation as ‘stillness of mind’. We will see later that this means cessation of mind, or pure mind, which is Self. But what is this ‘feeling of non-realisation’? What thoughts do we have to remove, and how? Do we have to remove some thoughts or all thoughts? Sri Ramana continues:
The thoughts are due to identification of the Self with the non-self. When the non-self disappears the Self alone remains. To make room anywhere it is enough that things are removed from there. Room is not brought in afresh. Nay, more – room is there even in cramping.
Absence of thoughts does not mean a blank. There must be one to know the blank. Knowledge and ignorance are of the mind. They are born of duality. But the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. It is light itself. There is no necessity to see the Self with another Self. There are no two selves. What is not Self is non-self. The non-self cannot see the Self. The Self has no sight or hearing. It lies beyond these – all alone, as pure consciousness.
Tom: there are a large number of points Sri Bhagavan makes in the above paragraph. Let us briefly go through them -each of the following can be derived from the above 2 paragraphs: -Thoughts appears due to identification with the non-self (ie. the body, the mind, the world) -Self alone remains when non-self disappears – Bhagavan gives the metaphor of clearing the rubbish from a room to make space. The idea is that we do not need to find the self or bring the self in from elsewhere, we just need to clear space and the self or room will remain over, self-shining. The junk we need to clear out is the non-self -The absence of thoughts is not a mere blank, but instead we are to know the One who knows the ‘blank, that is we must know the Self. -Knowledge and ignorance are both of the mind, whereas the Self is beyond the mind, Self is the Light that lights up knowledge and ignorance. -Knowledge and ignorance are born of duality, ie. they are false, non-self, born of primal ignorance or ego. They too must disappear, like all non-self, is the implication, for liberation to ensue. -The non-self (ie. body or mind in this case), cannot see the Self. It is the Self that ‘sees’ the Self by simply being the Self -The self has no sight and no hearing (because it has no body or mind, both of which are non-self, both of which must disappear for realisation to occur). -The Self is beyond all phenomena, it is Pure Consciousness. If we read carefully we will see that the word ‘Pure’ means without any objects or thoughts appearing in it. Bhagavan continues:
A woman, with her necklace round her neck, imagines that it has been lost and goes about searching for it, until she is reminded of it by a friend; she has created her own sense of loss, her own anxiety of search and then her own pleasure of recovery. Similarly the Self is all along there, whether you search for it or not. Again just as the woman feels as if the lost necklace has been regained, so also the removal of ignorance and the cessation of false identification reveal the Self which is always present – here and now. This is called realisation. It is not new. It amounts to elimination of ignorance and nothing more.
Tom: Here Bhagavan makes it very clear, using the traditional story of the woman and her necklace, that the Self is ever present. All we need to do is remove ignorance. This is the same as removal of the cessation of the false identification with non-self. Earlier Bhagavan said all we have to do is ‘be rid of the thought ‘I have not realised” and that we have to be rid of the ‘feelings of non-realisation’. It therefore follows that ignorance, identification with non-self, feelings or non-realisation and the thought ‘I have not realised’ are all the same thing.In each case, Bhagavan is simply saying ignorance must be removed. What does this actually mean? Bhagavan will explain further:
Blankness is the evil result of searching the mind. The mind must be cut off, root and branch. See who the thinker is, who the seeker is. Abide as the thinker, the seeker. All thoughts will disappear.
Tom: Bhagavan makes it clear: ‘The mind must be cut off, root and branch’. This is what Bhagavan means by removing the thought ‘I have not realised’. This is what it means to remove ignorance. This is what it means to remove identification with non-self and rid one of ‘feelings of non-realisation’. This is what he means when he says ‘realisation is stillness of mind’. He is speaking of manonasa. It is not just the peripheral thoughts (branches) that must go, but the root thought too, the thought ‘I am the body-mind’ – ‘The mind must be cut off, root and branch‘.
How to do this? Bhagavan says ‘See who the thinker is, who the seeker is’, meaning find out the Subject, the Self, know your Self, ie. Self-enquiry is the way. Bhagavan says then ‘All thoughts will disappear’. Not some thoughts will disappear, but all thoughts will disappear.
D.: Then there will be the ego – the thinker.
M.: That ego is pure Ego purged of thoughts. It is the same as the Self. So long as false identification persists doubts will persist, questions will arise, there will be no end of them. Doubts will cease only when the non-self is put an end to. That will result in realisation of the Self. There will remain no other there to doubt or ask. All these doubts should be solved within oneself. No amount of words will satisfy. Hold the thinker. Only when the thinker is not held do objects appear outside or doubts arise in the mind.
Tom: Does Bhagavan want us to hold onto thoughts or the thinker? Does he want us to hold onto the mind or the Self? Clearly when Bhagavan says ‘only when the thinker is held’, he is not speaking of the mind, but of the Self. Especially as he has already said ‘The mind must be cut off, root and branch’ and ‘all thoughts will disappear’ a few moments earlier. Self knowledge is the way. Self Enquiry is the way.
The questioner asks this very question – are we to hold onto the ego then? The thinker? Bhagavan gives us another wonderful and revealing answer: the ego purified or ‘purged of thoughts’ – that purified ‘ego’ or ‘I’ is Self. The Jiva (purified, purged of thoughts) is Siva.
In the Skanda Upanishad it is stated:
‘Jiva is Siva. Siva is Jiva. That Jiva is Siva alone. Bound by husk [non-self], it is paddy [jiva]. Freed from husk, it is rice [Self]‘
Shankara also wrote in verse 20 of Brahma Jnanavali Mala ‘Brahma satyam, jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah’ which means ‘Brahman is Truth/Reality, the world is illusion, the Jiva [when enquired into] is nothing but Brahman’
Concluding points
We have seen that Bhagavan has said ‘When the non-self disappears self alone remains‘ and ‘the mind must be cut off, root and branch‘ and ‘it amounts to elimination of ignorance, nothing more‘ and ‘the self has no sight or hearing‘.
We can therefore deduce that ‘the mind’, ‘non-self’ and ‘ignorance’ are essentially synonyms, as in each case Bhagavan has said only these have to be removed. Sure, these words may be used in different ways in different contexts, but essentially they are one, one ignorance, one maya (illusion).
How to do this? How to remove ignorance? How to end Maya? How to still the mind? How to remove non-self and clear ‘space in the room’? And to come back to our original question, How to be rid of the thought ‘I am not realised’? By going back to the Subject, all thoughts and objects disappear and only Self remains. This is known as Self-Enquiry and it results in liberation.
Tom: Many people say ‘I know that I am not the body-mind’, not realising that:
1) if that were truly known, genuinely known, then that is full liberation, and there would be no more questions (or answers) possible, and that is the end of the spiritual journey/search, that is unending bliss and the end of all suffering forever*, transcendence of time and space and the sense of individuality.
2) when someone says ‘I know I am not the body-mind BUT…’ (and then goes on to ask a question/express some kind of doubt or dissatisfaction), this means the entity that (thinks it) knows it is not the body-mind is in fact the mind. ie. it is the mind that is stating ‘I know I am not the body-mind’. This is essentially conceptual knowledge for the mind, even if it is based in some deeper intuitive knowing. This means the basic reference point for knowledge is still the mind, ie. we are still looking to our mind/thoughts for knowledge, and this indicates ongoing identification with the (body-)mind.
3) it is not truly or actually possible for the mind to understand ‘I am not the body-mind’. It is not something the mind can ever understand or know. The mind can repeat the phrase ‘I know I am not the body-mind’ and convince itself it knows something but this is not the true understanding at all.
TRUE UNDERSTANDING
The true understanding is not of the mind at all. It is beyond the mind. The true understanding is not of the mind at all. The true understanding is simply being the Self, also known as Silence.
HOW TO KNOW TRUTH?
How to know or be the Self? And are we not already always the self?
Yes, we are already the self. We are always the self. This self-knowledge we are looking for is always and already here. We already know, in our hearts, not in our minds, all we need for the spiritual journey. Self-knowledge is always and already here with us. There is never a need to discover anything new. Never.
THE PROBLEM
So what is the problem, and why does it appear that ‘I am not liberated’?
The issue is we ignore our self knowledge, and instead we pay attention to our thoughts, our mind, and we believe the contents of our thoughts. All we have to do is come back to our own inner self knowing.
Again, the issue is that we pay attention to our thoughts and we believe the contents of our thoughts.
**READ THIS PART CAREFULLY**
Now here is an important point that many people miss: it is not possible to pay attention to thoughts and not eventually start to believe the contents of the thoughts. I repeat, it is not possible to pay attention to thoughts and not eventually get involved in the contents of the thoughts.
This is an important point which many people miss. Try this for yourself and see.
You may feel you can dispassionately observe or witness your thoughts for a short time, but they will always draw you back in again. For placing attention to thoughts is ALREADY believing their content at the root level. Placing attention to thoughts means the root thought, ‘I am the body-mind’ is ALREADY there.
For it is not possible to dispassionately pay attention to thoughts and not believe already in the concept ‘I am the body mind’.
AS SOON AS YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THOUGHTS, THE ROOT THOUGHT, THE ROOT IGNORANCE ‘I AM THE BODY-MIND’ IS ALREADY THERE.
Yes, the root thought is the thought ‘I am the body mind’. It is this root concept or thought that gives rise to all other thoughts. This root thought, also known as ignorance, also gives rise to all perception of all objects, but more on this another time perhaps.**
As soon as we pay attention to thought, this root thought ‘I am’ or ‘I am the body mind’ is already fully there.
The same goes for gross and subtle objects. As soon as we are aware of objects, even gross objects such as cars and trees or the body, the root thought ‘I am the body mind’ is ALREADY fully there. Ignorance is ALREADY fully there.
If you are not sure about this, you can try it for yourself. You can try to remain aware of objects without the idea that you are a person and see how that goes!
AS SOON AS YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THOUGHTS, OR ANY OBJECT, INCLUDING GROSS OBJECTS SUCH AS A CAR OR A TREE, THE ROOT THOUGHT, THE ROOT IGNORANCE ‘I AM THE BODY-MIND’ IS ALREADY THERE.
If this is not understood, then the solution to this ignorance, which is outlined below, may not be accepted by the mind, and liberation may not ensue.
To remove ignorance we must turn away from all gross and subtle objects, meaning all names and forms and external objects, as well as all internal objects such as thoughts and feelings.
The only way to do this is to attend to the subject, your very own self, your own inner self knowing, that which always is, and that which is always known. The clear way to do this becomes clear through the practice, which I explain more about below.
See Sri Ramana’s teaching in Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 291. Note he says that this is the ‘essential’ advice. Notice also the use of the word ‘alone’:
291. ‘If one wants to be saved, one is given the following true and essential advice: just as the tortoise draws all its five limbs within its shell, so one should draw the five senses within and turn one’s mind Selfward. This alone is happiness.’
Compare with Bhagavad Gita 2.58:
2.58 ‘One who is able to fully withdraw the senses from their objects, just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its shell, is established in Divine Knowledge’.
Many people try to distort the meaning of these verses, but the imagery of the tortoise is used to make the meaning clear. There are many more verses like this I could cite, and with these other verses, again the true meaning of these verses is very clear (see here for many more of these verses, and follow the links within that post for even more).
Please note THIS IS NOT A PATH OF SUPPRESSION OR REPRESSION OR AVOIDANCE. THIS IS NOT A PATH OF SPIRITUAL BYPASSING. It is actually a path of love, a flowering of love and self-knowledge. I touch upon this further below, and have written on this topic on tomdas.com (use the search bar). there are also many videos on this on my YouTube channel, explaining how this can be the case.
This is why all genuine spiritual traditions and teachings (ie. teachings that genuinely lead to liberation) tend towards introversion, meditation and silence in some way shape or form.
This is why, historically, many traditions across geography and time all end up in some form of silent contemplation or meditation.
It is also why, if we look inwards to our own hearts, we already intuitively know that the Truth (of ourselves) arises only in Silence, deep within our very own selves, and NOT through words, concepts or the mind.
This self-attention is also known as devotion or bhakti, for the true form of your self is God absolute, it is pure holiness, pure divinity, pure oneness devoid of ignorance and duality.
A PRACTICAL WAY FORWARD
How to practically put these teachings into practice? My suggestion, as this is what worked for me (you will need to find out what works for you!), is to listen to the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Personally I have not found another teacher or teaching that comes close, even though some other teachers and teachings sound very similar, as you go deeper you will start to see the differences more and more.**** At least this is my experience.
If you are lucky, you will feel some love and devotion and connection with Him. If this love, devotion and connection occurs, it is very wonderful and in my opinion this is something you should nurture and treasure. This connection and love and devotion is a very important part of the teaching in my experience. Unfortunately this aspect of the teaching cannot be taught and spontaneously arises when the time is right.
For most of my ‘seeking career’, not only did I NOT feel love and devotion for Ramana, but this is something I was not actively looking for, and something I actively looked down upon in fact. I never wanted a guru, I never wanted to follow another human being, I wanted to figure out for myself, like the Buddha or like J Krishnamurti. I share this as if you do not feel love or devotion in your hearts, please do not be deterred or discouraged, as this is how it was for me for many years.
But as the fates would have it, this was not to be my path, and the teachings I share are coloured by my own personal experience, so this is what I will share with you:
1) Allow the love and connection with Bhagavan Sri Ramana to develop and grow. Think about him, perhaps learn a little about his life, pray to him, praise him, adore him, prostrate yourself to him, bow to him, etc etc, as you please, find your way in this regard to connect with him and love him and, very importantly, surrender to him. This surrender is very important and often missed by some devotees. This is my view at least. At the same time know in your heart that He is You, meaning your true self. You are He, You are That, connect with that inner knowing that is your Self and that is also He.
2) regularly listen to his teachings (sravana, listening/being exposed to the teachings), regularly read his teachings, become familiar with his deeper teachings, not just the teachings he gave to the masses, many of whom were not truly interested in liberation***. See my recommended reading list for my suggestions of what to expose your mind to in terms of truly liberating teachings, and also read the introductory articles on the homepage of this site, which give a broad but thorough introduction to all aspects of the teaching. Everything you need for step two is available free of charge on tomdas.com and my YouTube channel. You will find the answer to almost any question you have somewhere on this website! There is enough content for about 20+ books on tomdas.com, all of it freely available, so use the search bar and explore the introductory articles too. Similarly my YouTube channel has hundreds of videos on it covering all aspects of the journey. Most of these videos were put together by volunteers, so hopefully the videos are particularly relevant to seekers as they have been selected and created by seekers. Do let me know if there are any areas that are not covered.
3) you will find that the more you do (1) and (2) above, the more your mind will be pulled inwards towards the self (nididhyasana, going towards or abiding as the self). When this happens, allow yourself to naturally go back to yourself. If you are unclear what this means, the more you do (1) and (2) above, the clearer it will become to you. Do not force this, allow it to happen naturally through exposure to Bhagavan Ramana’s Presence and His Teachings. (ie. nididhyasana naturally follows from sravana and manana) If you force this, it is just ego perpetuating itself. Everything should be allowed to happen naturally. THIS IS NOT A PATH OF SUPPRESSION OR REPRESSION (NO ‘SPIRITUAL BYPASSING‘ HERE PLEASE), but a natural outcome, a flowering of self-knowledge and love and bliss. 🙏❤️
4) consider attending a group, such as the satsang group I hold twice a week online, which supports both devotion (bhakti) to Sri Ramana and a knowledge and exploration of his deeper teachings (sravana and manana, manana means thinking about and reflecting upon the teachings), as well as allows time for meditation, silence and deep self attention (nididhyasana), ie. a group that supports (1), (2) and (3) above. Contact with a teacher can be very helpful, both for motivation, regular reminders and for clarification of the true way. This can supercharge and cut years off your spiritual path, as a teacher can often point something out in a few seconds that may have taken you years to realise yourself. If you don’t have access to a teacher, please don’t worry, as Devotion/Surrender and Connection will bring to you/attract to you all you need. See here for what Sri Ramana Maharshi said about satsang.
The above can be summarised as Intuitive Connection/Surrender/Bhakti, Satsang, Sravana, Manana and Nididhyasana, to use some of the traditional Sanskrit words. The term Self-Enquiry can be used to mean just Nididhyasana or alternatively it can mean the trio of sravana, manana and nididhyasana, depending on context. So we can summarise the above further as Bhakti, Satsang and Self-Enquiry being the essence of the path. Going further we will actually find that the true Satsang is to be with the Guru in our Heart, namely be with our Self as our Self, and that this is also the highest form of Bhakti, so all of these are actually One.
These are just my suggestions, and of course it is for you to decide if this is for you. My suggestion here is that if you resonate even slightly with this, then you should go with it, at least for a bit, give it a go. Of course if you do not resonate, there is likely a different way for you, at least for now… We all have our own path, at least superficially this is the way it seems. Eventually we have to come back to our self.
I hope this has been of help
Namaste and best wishes
Tom
❤️🙏 Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya Om 🙏❤️
❤️🙏❤️
*Forever is used figuratively as it is beyond time, not infinite time
**Bhagavan Sri Ramana explains this clearly in the first few paragraphs of his short text, ‘Who am I?’ Which explains all the teachings you need to know for liberation. The book I recommend to understand this is a book called The Path of Sri Ramana (click here to download for free) which fully explains the teachings found in the small booklet, ‘Who am I?’. This book also has a very good translation of ‘Who am I?’ in the appendix of the book, as many other translations of ‘Who am I?’ contain distortions added by the translator that are not present in the original Tamil.
***When somebody asks a question, and that seeker is not truly interested in liberation, the sage, who is like a mirror, merely reflects a superficial teaching back at them. This is spontaneous response, and not a deliberate attempt to give a superficial teaching. The teaching is given spontaneously by the true teacher according to the earnestness and sincerity and degree of desire for liberation in the seeker who is asking the question. Therefore the deeper teaching is usually only given when a seeker who has a deep and genuine desire for liberation asks a question or approaches the teacher.
****Some people think I am being partial towards my own guru (and maybe I am, despite my best efforts to be objective) but this is my personal experience, so this is what I share. If there were other teachers whose writings and teachings were as clear, I would happily say so! See my recommended reading list for the teachers that I think are equally as clear. Note I am not saying that Sri Ramana Maharshi is the only truly liberated sage, but I am merely commenting here on the quality and fidelity of the teachings that have come down to us. There may be other realised teachers, but the verbal/written teachings that have come to us may be less clear. Because we are relatively close in time to Sri Ramana, because we have his written works in his own handwriting, and because of the clarity and simplicity in which he explained the teachings, this is a huge advantage for those who are interested in these written/verbal formulations of his teaching. Of course, if you have another Guru, then by all means stick with your Guru. Ultimately, all is One and there is only truly One Guru anyway.
For those seekers who are attached to the world, the world is considered to be a divine manifestation. For the more advanced seeker, the world is considered to be an illusion. Many teachers teach this the wrong way around – this, of course, is itself due to their attachment to the world, ie. this wrong teaching is due to ignorance.
This is why Sri Ramana says, right at the start in the beginning few verses of The Garland of Gurus Sayings (Guru Vachaka Kovai), in verse 21:
21. For those who take the world appearance as real and enjoy it, it is the Lord’s creation. But for those who, free from fear, have known the Truth, the undeluded Self, it is no more than a mere mental image projected by desire.
For those who are fearful of the world, Sri Ramana gives the following even more radical advice in the same text, verse 28:
28. Ye who in fear shrink from the world, know that the place has no existence. Fear of this phenomenal world is like being frightened by a rope mistaken by you for a snake.
In verse 35 he uses the same analogy as Gaudapada (in his commentary on Mandukya Upanishad, Mandukya Karika), of a glowing flame whirled in a circle:
35. The empirical world of jostling names and forms is false and has no real existence in bright, full Awareness. Like a ring of fire formed in the dark when one whirls fast a glowing joss-stick, ’tis an illusion, mind-created.
The idea here is that in the dark (ie. in ignorance), a whirling flame appears as a world (that is a body, a mind and a world), but in the light (ie. in self-knowledge or self-realisation, also known as liberation), it is not seen at all.
Sri Ramana explains this in page 193 of Day by Day with Bhagavan when he states:
‘In reality, saying ‘We must see Brahman in everything and everywhere’ is also not quite correct. Only that state is final, where there is no seeing, where there is no time or space. There will be no seer, seeing and an object to see. What exists then is only the infinite eye.’
Similarly, Sri Ramana says in Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 87:
‘…just as the snake is, on scrutiny, found to be ever non-existent, so is the world found to be ever non-existent, even as an appearance‘
And in Guru Ramana Vachana Mala, verse 21, Sri Ramana gives us the Ajata teaching, that no-thing ever really came into existence at all:
‘There is no mind, nor body, nor world, nor anyone called a soul; the One pure Reality alone exists, without a second, unborn and unchanging, abiding in utter Peace’
The following is written by Sri Sadhu Om, a direct devotee of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s, and is taken from the text ‘The Path of Sri Ramana – Part 1’, from one of the footnotes in Chapter 7. You can download the entire text for free here – it is a wonderful and rare text that explains the entire path to liberation. Please also see recommended reading for liberation here as well as the introductory articles on the homepage for more.
The practice of witnessing thoughts and events, which is much recommended nowadays by lecturers and writers, was never even in the least recommended by Sri Bhagavan, Indeed, whenever He was asked what should be done when thoughts rise (that is, when attention is diverted towards second or third persons) during sadhana, He always replied in the same manner as He had done to Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai in ‘Who am I?’, where He says:
“If other thoughts rise, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire ‘To whom did they rise?’. What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires ‘To whom did this rise ?’, it will be known ‘To me’. If one then enquires ‘Who am I?’, the mind (our power of attention) will turn back (from the thought) to its source (Self)”.
Moreover, when He says later in the same work, “Not attending to what-is-other (that is, to any second or third person) is non-attachment (vairagya) or desirelessness (nirasa)”, we should clearly understand that attending to (witnessing, watching, observing or seeing) anything other than Self is itself attachment, and when we understand thus we will realize how meaningless and impractical are such instructions as ‘Watch all thoughts and events with detachment’ or ‘Witness your thoughts, but be not attached to them’, which are taught by the so-called gurus of the present day.
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Tom: The following excerpt is also taken from the same chapter, chapter 7, of The Path of Sri Ramana – Part 1:
Since, whether we know it or not, Self, which is now wrongly considered by us to be unknown, is verily our reality, the very nature of our (the Supreme Self’s) attention itself is Grace (anugraha). This means that whatever thing we attend to, witness*, observe or look at, that thing is nourished and will flourish, being blessed by Grace…
…Hence, when the power of attention of the mind is directed more and more towards second and third person objects, both the strength (kriya-bala) to attend to those objects and the ignorance – the five sense-knowledges in the form of thoughts about them – will grow more and more, and will never subside! Have we not already said that all our thoughts are nothing but attention paid to second and third person objects? Accordingly, the more we attend to the mind, the thoughts which are the forms (the second and third person objects) of the world, the more they will multiply and be nourished. This is indeed an obstacle. The more our attention – the glance of Grace (anugraha-drishti) – falls on it, the more the mind’s wavering nature and its ascendancy will increase. That is why it is impossible for the mind to negate anything by thinking ‘I am not this, I am not this’ (neti, neti). (Footnote to text here: This is why aspirants who, in order to destroy evil thoughts like lust, anger and so on, fight against them and thereby think about them fail in their attempts, while aspirants practising Self-enquiry, who pay their full attention to Self with an indifference towards their thoughts, bypass them easily)
On the other hand, if our (Self’s) attention is directed only towards ourself, our knowledge of our existence alone is nourished, and since the mind is not attended to, it is deprived of its strength, the support of our Grace. “Without use when left to stay, iron and mischief rust away” – in accordance with this Tamil proverb, since they are not attended to, all the ‘vasana-seeds, whose nature is to rise stealthily and mischievously, have to stay quiet, and thus they dry up like seeds deprived of water and become too weak to sprout out into thought-plants. Then, when the fire of Self-knowledge (jnana) blazes forth, these tendencies (vasanas), like well-dried firewood, become a prey to it.
This alone is how the total destruction of all tendencies (vasanakshaya) is effected.
Q. Tom, do you believe that the neo advaita teachings do point to the same realisation as Sri Ramana’s teachings? Because from what I have read of the neo advaita teachings, they do not even point to the Absolute Self in a clear way and are not even talking about the same realisation. They don’t speak of the Absolute Self but “the absolute appearing as the relative” in their words, so I think that following those teachings do not lead to the same realisation.
Tom: I agree, the neo-advaita teachings do not lead to the same genuine realisation in my view. They do not lead to genuine absolute love, non-duality and cessation of suffering. Please see the introductory articles on the tomdas.com homepage and my recommended reading list for more on this.
Tom: it varies. Here in the UK there are quite a lot of neo-advaita teachers and being UK based myself, over the years I have dealt with many people who have been very traumatised by these teachings and I have guided them through the process of undoing many of the false concepts and beliefs present in neo-advaita teachings.
The neo-advaita ‘non-teachings’ can be very abrupt and triggering and not leave (apparent) people with any sense of agency or empowerment to deal with the consequences.
I have seen near psychotic breakdowns, severe anxiety and panic disorder, depersonalisation and derealisation, relationships fall apart, people losing their jobs, lots of confusion and disorientation, depression…
In my experience Neo-advaita tends to be a feel-good teaching in the moment for those it helps, and mainly is for the intellect.
It feels good in the moment but the sense of duality and confusion keeps on returning, and it doesn’t lead to a genuine realisation of truth or love. When one engages with genuine self-enquiry we come to see just how superficial the neo-advaita teachings are
Neo-Advaita is actually far away from the true teachings even though some of the words sound similar. In some ways neo-advaita is more intellectually coherent than true Advaita teachings, but that doesn’t make it true or effective.
In my experience the true teachings, such as the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, guide us directly and unfailingly to realisation, the shortest route so to speak, with the minimal amount of suffering along the way.
Tom: Neo Advaita says all is already one, there is already no ego-self, and no need for any practice. In fact, any practice just perpetuates and strengthens the illusory notion of an ego-self. Suffering and worldly happenings are just things that occur to ‘nobody’.
Advaita says all is already one, there is already no ego-self, but due to ignorance there appears to be a world consisting of many people and things, of which you are one. Through self-enquiry, in which one places ones attention onto ones own self, the Subject, and ignores/turns away from objective phenomena, one can destroy this ignorance and realise that the apparent mutiplicity is an unreal illusion and there is only the formless self which is devoid of suffering. It is then seen that ignorance never actually occurred and there were never any actual people or things at all.
My own experience is that neo-advaita, whilst sounding intellectually coherent, does not lead to liberation at all and suffering, duality and egotism all actually continue, whereas Advaita, whilst appearing to be dualistic in some ways, is totally liberating and ends suffering and duality completely. They are actually quite distinct teachings that both claim to be ‘non-duality’.
Note that in my experience many prominent Advaita and Advaita Vedanta teachers actually teach distorted teachings, and that the genuine teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi are the best teachings I have come across to point the way to liberation.
The following is a teaching excerpt from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’.
Aham Sphurana [‘I Shining’ or ‘I vibration’ or ‘I Am shining’ or ‘Shining of the I AM’] claims to contain a collection of previously unpublished talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi as apparently recorded by a visitor to Sri Ramana Ashrama, Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer, in 1936.
The authenticity of the teachings as being genuinely from Sri Ramana Maharshi cannot be confirmed, a fact acknowledged in the manuscript preamble itself, but I share these teachings here in case they are of interest to you.
17th July 1936
Questioner: Is it really true that I am not this body?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes.
Questioner: If so, when some damage is suffered by the body, why do I feel pain? If, say, a piece of burning coal falls on somebody near me, I do not feel anything, but that person alone feels the pain. Likewise if a thorn pricks my foot I alone feel the pain, but not the one walking by my side.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Does the body cry out, saying, ‘I am feeling pain!’? You associate yourself with your body and speak of it as your “I”. The body is only in the mind. All pain apparently suffered by the body is as imaginary as the body itself. The body cannot know anything. It is insentient flesh and bone. Notions of pain spring from our own imagination only. Thus, in deep slumber, the mind being inactive, there is no pain.
Questioner: Suppose I have a piece of metal wire in my hand. If I cut it into pieces, the metal cannot be aware that it is being cut, because it is insentient. Whereas, if a living body were to so much as be scratched, it explodes with agony. In what sense, therefore, does Bhagavan mean that the body is insentient?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: True, the body experiences the physical stimulus of pain if it is injured, but why should that fact create a thought in the mind, “I am feeling pain.”?
Physical pain creates mental agony because of the following reason – the mind assumes itself to be the body and appropriates to itself the bodily identity, because in the absence of such false self-objectification it cannot survive or thrive. If the idea “I am the body” is abandoned, everything, including pain suffered by the body, is only Bliss.
Questioner: But I am aware of the pain if the body is injured!
Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the body is injured, in the case of the unenlightened one, the following happens – his body feels the physical stimulus of pain, and his mind spontaneously manifests the thought, “I am injured”, causing him to become mentally agitated; the reason for the manifestation of such thought is the underlying erroneous idea “I am the body”. In one who is free from the mistaken idea of accepting the body for the Self, injury of the body causes no disturbance to his peace. Each one is indeed the Self, but absurdly confounds himself with the not-Self and so needlessly suffers on account of such dehatma-buddhi.
Questioner: The question still remains – if, as postulated by Sri Bhagawan, the body is insentient, how can it and why does it feel pain at all?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The word “pain” is employed because there is a prejudice in the mind against such stimuli. When the mind is dissolved in Pure Consciousness, its prejudices also disappear. For the enlightened one, therefore, pain and pleasure are physical stimuli that stand on an equal footing. He does not covet the one and abhor the other; nor does he abhor the one and covet the other. Mind gone, there remains no yardstick by means of which one sensation is to be regarded as pain and another as pleasure.
Questioner: Sri Bhagavan seriously means to say he is unable to tell the difference between the sensation that ensues when an insect bites his leg and the one that ensues when someone is massaging it?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: That they are different sensations is self-evident; that the one is abhorrent and the other agreeable is mere mental judgement from which the Jnani is quite free. He himself seeks out neither pain nor pleasure, but accepts what comes his way without resisting; in Jnana only automatic acceptance remains.
Questioner: For Jnanis it is different; what of the common man?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You also are a Jnani; only, you think otherwise!
Questioner: How could that be?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The option of turning inwards and quietly allowing the mind to plunge and dissolve in the Self is equally available for all. It is not the fiefdom of a select few. All are verily only the Self.
Questioner: That does not satisfy me. I am unable to Realise it for myself.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: So long as worldly attachments are present the mind cannot be succesfully turned inwards.
Questioner: How to eliminate worldly attchment?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: By turning the mind inwards.
Questioner: Really!
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The more you hold on to the Self or retain the mind in its native state of subjective-awareness-sustained-effortlessly-and-volitionlessly, the more the mental tendancies and worldly attachments wither off; the lesser the mental tendancies and worldly attachments, the easier does become retention of the mind in its native state of subjective-awareness-sustained-effortlessly-andvolitionlessly.
Questioner: Which comes first?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The sadhaka recognises and reflects upon the ephemeral nature of the objective world and the transient nature of his own body. He gets fed up with material pleasures, because they eventually lead only to sorrow, when their enjoyment becomes, for any reason, impossible. He asks himself if a more permanent experience of life might not be possible. Then he discovers the Ajata-advaita doctrine. Initially he is not convinced, and argues that if it were a dream there would be no possibility of corroboration, but that here his relatives and friends are able to confirm the evidence provided by his senses; he also asks why the same dream should be repeated everyday, were it all only a dream – according to him, here he sees the same sun, moon and earth everyday, whereas in his dreams he finds himself in new worlds moment to moment. Eventually it dawns upon him that everything he thinks he knows, including an understanding of the apparent permanency of the world he believes himself to live in, is only thought or imagination.
Then at the intellectual level he understands the truth – that the names and forms constituting the world are fictitious. This sparks a search for the substratum said to be underlying them, which alone is said to be Real by the wise.
He hears the teaching that the source of the mind, Beingness, is the gateway to the Real Self. Then he begins the practice of quietening the mind by vichara or any other method, tackling various distractions as and when they arise, by withdrawing attention from them and fixing it on Beingness or the Self. The beginning is only becoming fed-up with the evanescent nature of the world and the fugacious attractions it has to offer.
Questioner: The boubts Bhagavan mentioned – they are my doubts also. Why is everyone witnessing the same dream? The sun moon etc. are seen by all.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: In turn those “all” are seen by you only. In deep slumber when there is no mind, nothing is available to be seen, but your existence is a constant.
Questioner: Why do I dream the same dream everyday? For instance yesterday I came to the ashram and had darshan of Bhagawan; he was sitting on the same sofa in exactly the same manner. Today I am seeing Bhagawan and tomorrow also it is going to be the same Bhagawan.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The future is a mere mental projection. The past is a mere memory. Have you not had dreams where the places you visit look extremely familiar?
Questioner: At least is the present real?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Anything seen cannot be Real. What is seen is not Pratyaksha. It is not self-evident, because there is a subject-object relationship involved. It is merely sensory information that is fed into the mind by the strength of its own evil faculty of avidya maya. That alone is Real which shines by its own light.
You are asking about the objects of the world. Can such objects exist without a YOU, a perceiver? When there is no perceiver, as in swoon or deep slumber, is there anything to be perceived? No. What is the inference? The objects owe the appearance of their apparent existence to you only. They are merely mental creations. The appearance of this enormous cosmos around you is merely a mental information. The mind is fiction. Therefore the ‘objects’ manufactured by it are also fictitious. Have not the least doubt about it.
Questioner: If everything is unreal, can we conclude that bondage and liberation are also unreal?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes.
Questioner: Then why should I try to obtain Liberation? Let me remain as I am.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Exactly!
Questioner: I do not understand.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Remaining as you are is the loftiest Sadhana.
Questioner: How can remaining in ignorance be sadhana?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You think that you are in ignorance. When you do not think at all, what remains is only wisdom. Removal of the screen of thought is all that is required for Reality to be revealed. Since you want a sadhana by means of which you may reach this thought-free state, vichara is suggested. Actually there is no need for any sadhana for one who has mastered the art of remaining as he is – the art of Being. That is the import of the advice Summa Iru [Tom: ‘Be Still’]. People generally misunderstand it. It does not mean keeping the body idle. It means keeping the mind still or free from thought. Remain perpetually absorbed in the thought-free I-Current. This will automatically lead you to the Sahaja-stithi [Tom: the natural state, ie. liberation or self-realisation] without requirement for further effort.
Questioner: Is even desire for Liberation an obstacle to Liberation?
Tom Das 