Illusion

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: in self-realisation there is no perception of a body, mind or world | Ajata | Advaita Vedanta | Maya and illusion

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The following quotes are all from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (NM), taken from the book ‘I Am That’ by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

NM gave many different teachings, depending on the level of the seeker and the context. The ego-mind often clings to the lower teachings for safety and security – here only the higher teachings are included, so please only read the following if you have a deep and sincere interest in liberation.

If you read carefully, you will see the following themes stated and expounded by NM:

  1. The self-realised jnani has no consciousness of having a body.
  2. The self-realised jnani has no consciousness of a world or phenomena arising.
  3. The apparent consciousness of the world is only due to ignorance, also known as the ‘I thought’ or the ‘I am the body sense’. This ignorance is also known as ‘imagination’, ‘illusion’, ‘ego’ or ‘the mind’.
  4. Ignorance of what you truly are projects the (false) appearance of a world, which includes the appearance of the body-mind and world. These do not appear to a jnani.
  5. All conversation, teachings, words and thoughts are in illusion only, as are all teachers. Similarly, birth and death only (appear to) exist for the ignorant.

These are of course the Ajata teachings, and you can read about them here in this article and also in the introductory articles on the tomdas.com homepage.

Some may say that this notion of liberation is not appealing at all (for the ego-mind), but of course it is actually everything you are looking for and more. It is the treasure found within, this is the ‘kingdom of God’ within us. Anything less and the seeking, the doubts and the sense of ego will not end, and so suffering and duality will continue; hence the value of these teachings in reminding us to continue to go further with our sadhana until all objective phenomena have dissolved rather than stop prematurely.

Many of these quotes below are also found in the wonderful book The Seven Steps to Awakening, one of the best books ever written on self-realisation and liberation. This book goes much further than this article and clearly describes other aspects of the teaching including the method by which self-realisation can be attained.

Here are the quotes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

The body and mind are only symptoms of ignorance, of misapprehension.

——-

He who knows the state in which there is neither the world nor the thought of it, he is the Supreme Teacher.

——-

What do you know of me, when even my talk with you is in your world only?

——-

NM: The body appears in your mind; in my mind nothing is.
Q: Do you mean to say you are quite unconscious of having a body?
NM: On the contrary, I am conscious of not having a body.
Q: I see you smoking!
NM: Exactly so. You see me smoking. Find out for yourself how did you come to see me smoking, and you will easily realize that it is your ‘I am the body’ state of mind that is responsible for this ‘I see you smoking’ idea.

——-

Nothing dies. The body is just imagined. There is no such thing.

——-

In my world nothing happens

——-

Without imagination there is no world.

——-

If you seek real happiness, unassailable and unchangeable, you must leave the world with its pains and pleasures behind you.

——-

You are neither the body nor in the body – there is no such thing as body

——-

NM: My world is real, while yours is made of dreams
Q: Yet we are talking.
NM: The talk is in your world. In mine – there is eternal silence. My silence sings, my emptiness is full, I lack nothing. You cannot know my world until you are there.

——-

It is not at all as you imagine and I am not bound by your imaginings.

——-

Q. If all that passes has no being, then the universe has no being either
NM: Who ever denies it? Of course the universe has no being.

——-

In reality, nothing ever happens.

——-

No doubt imagination is richly creative. Universe within universe are built on it. Yet they are all in space and time, past and future, which just do not exist.

——-

In pure consciousness nothing ever happens

——-

The moment you allow your imagination to spin, it at once spins out a universe.

——-

There is no body, nor a world to contain it; there is only a mental condition, a dreamlike state, easy to dispel by questioning its reality.

——-

All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so no birth or death happens to me.

——-

To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause of all calamities

——-

It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream.

——-

What is real is nameless and formless.

——-

Do understand that what you think to be the world is your own mind

——-

I take my stand where no difference exists, where things are not, nor the minds that create them. There I am at home.

——-

All thinking is in duality. In identity [Tom: ie. self realisation] no thought surives

——-

Now go within, into a state in which you may compare to a state of waking sleep, in which you are aware of yourself, but not of the world. In that state you will know, without the least trace of doubt, that at the root of your being you are free and happy.

——-

To know yourself, turn your attention away from the world and turn it within.

——-

The world appears to you so overwhelmingly real, because you think of it all the time; cease thinking of it and it will dissolve into thin mist.

——-

To see what Sri Ramana Maharshi thought of the same Ajata teachings please see this article here.

This article here also goes into what Shankara wrote on these Ajata teachings.

THE POWER AND NATURE OF THOUGHT | Law of Attraction | Advaita | Non-Duality

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

It is open for everybody to discover, when the mind is very still and turned inwards towards the sense ‘I’, which is not a thought, that it is thought that gives rise to the body and is there prior to the body and what we usually call the mind.

The first thought is the ‘I thought’, and it precedes the creation of the body.

Just as we commonly conceive that the mind projects a dream, it is actually the ‘I thought’ that gives rise to or projects the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. These three states together with the ‘I thought’ are all unreal and illusory, and these must all go for liberation to occur and our true nature to be intuited or realised.

The ‘I thought’ is also known by various other names, such as ignorance, ego, original sin, Maya, the devil, delusion, Brahma, Isvara, ‘the first act of creation’ and the mind to name a few.

This is what is being shared here.

🙏❤️

If told ‘Everything is an illusion’ people may find it disturbing | The analogy of ‘toxic gas’ | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Gajapathi Aiyyer: If told, ‘Everything is an illusion’, people may find it disturbing…

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Thus they are told, ‘Find your Self’ or ‘Gnothi seauton’ [Tom: Greek for ‘Know thyself’], leaving them to make the discovery themselves that there is no world to see, but only the Self. Actually saying ‘Everything is an illusion’ or ‘There is no anything’ is more meaningful.

Strictly speaking, ‘Know thyself’ is absurd. The Self has nothing to know. It cannot be known by anything. People may say, ‘Bhagavan teaches that the Self is Self-aware, or that the Self knows Itself.’ It is not correct. Knowledge implies vritti [Tom: thoughts]. There are no vrittis in the Self. It is Purity Itself. The Self does not need to know Itself, because it is Knowledge Itself.

It cannot know Itself or anything else, because it is in Motionless Timeless Realisation of Actionless Reality, which is Itself; therefore it is Nescience Itself [Tom: here Bhagavan is saying the Self is actually Nescience or Ignorance, as it knows nothing, which is the literal meaning of nescience or ignorance].

Yet the Self transcends Knowledge and Nescience. Nothing can know the Self, because there is nothing besides it; therefore there is no such thing as not-Self. That day on which man awakens into Living Realisation of the fact that knowledge of the not-Self or nescience of the Self is impossible is the day on which he awakens into his true imperishable nature of Immortality. This teaching alone is verily the nectarous ambrosia which rouses man from the sleep of his illusory mortality.

Chadwick was swimming in tears by the time Bhagavan had finished enunciating these words.

G.: While the teaching sounds simple, practising the state of effortless-and-volitionless-thoughtlessness does not seem to be so easy…

B.: The biggest tragedy is that people, instead of giving up everything, think that by doing some practise they are going to go somewhere or attain something. If everything is thrown away, only Jnana remains. Supposing you want to make space inside a room – how do you go about it? Hurl away the useless objects taking up space in the room – as simple as that. There is no question of importing space from elsewhere. If all ideas or vrittis [mental modifications or conceptualisations] are thrown away or given up, only the Self remains.

If you are able to realise the truth that what you are giving up is indubitably more obnoxious than the egesta in your intestines and what you gain is indubitably worthier than your life in this ephemeral body, you will be able to give up everything in your mind one, neat, simple stroke; to such a one Jnana comes in a trice; then what awaits is only the Kingdom of Heaven from which there is no return possible.

Chadwick: We are unable to develop the conviction that the world is worthless or mirage-like – that is the problem.

B.: There is no need for any [new] convictions to be cultivated. Give up even your existing convictions.

C.: The conviction that the world is unreal can be used to combat the conviction that the world is real.

B.: [laughing] Oh! Is that so? Have you heard the story of the monkey that kept chasing its own tail?

C.: No.

B.: You would not have, and you cannot. Why? Because the story is yet to conclude. The monkey started at the beginning of Krita-yugam. Still he is going on.

C.: He must be a very energetic monkey. Bhagavan must have fed him peanuts with his own hands… [All 3 of us laugh.]

G.: What is the analogy?

B.: That will be the perverse fate of one who endeavours to counteract concepts with concepts. The fetid odour of concept-gas can be eliminated only by diverting the gas away from the mind-room. Instead, some want to release into their own originally odour-free, pristine and blemishless mental environment more and more poisonous, odious concept-gases, thinking, ‘Aa haa! This concept-gas will fight [all] the previous one[s]!’. If this should keep on happening, as it does indeed in the case of many unfortunate beings on this Earth, what will the result be? [laughs] Will not everyone suffocate unto death? What has caused the absurd mentality which prompts man to go on releasing one mephitic concept-gas after another? HE HAS FORGOTTEN THE BLISS OF HIS ORIGINAL ODOUR-FREE ENVIRONMENT.

He thinks being surrounded with the miasmic fumes of his own concept-gas is his natural state. When it has all become patently and obviously unmanageable, he goes to a charlatan, who says unto him:

[Tom: in all the following examples Bhagavan is referring to thoughts and concepts as being like toxic gas, and various false teachers as handing out these toxic-gas concepts]

‘Sir! Be certain that your anxities end with today. What I have with me is the most precious concept-gas in the world, released by the Self-Realised Sages of the Himalayas. Here I have captured it in this areca nut-coloured bottle. You are indeed fortunate that you have met with me today, sir, have not the least doubt about it. Forthwith take this invaluable gas into your room and release the same. Then you will come back and thank me till your mouth aches.’

Delighted, the man rushes back into his noisome room and with tremendous eagerness does as told. What is the result? He ends up burning his nostrils. He thinks his delicate nostrils are to blame and thus harbours no ambition to pick any quarrel with the charlatan.

What does he do next? Go to another charlatan. This time the gas has been released by the Sages of the Vidhya Hills. And then another – perhaps this time the Podhigai Hills. And so on and so forth. Finally he decides these foreign gases are only making his room more olid, and, abjectly resigning himself to his miserable fate of having to put up with his putrid mental environment, gives up hunting after newer and newer exotic nocuous concept-gases to release.

Then a friend of him chances to meet him and asks why he should look so despondent, whereupon the man confesses unto him his malodorous problem. ‘Oh! Is this all?’, says the other, ‘Don’t worry. I know just the thing to set you aright. In the Arunachala Hill there is one koupeenadhâri-swami; he-‘.

[Tom: koupeenadhâri means one who wears a kaupina or loin cloth]

The next moment the vexed man catches hold of his friend by the scruff of the neck and shouts wrathfully into the alarmed man’s face, ‘I shall have no more of it, I tell you. It is all a grand fraud; I realised the fact just some time prior. ALL GAS STINKS’.

‘Pray, do not enrage yourself, my good man.’, says the calm friend, shaking himself free from the first man’s irate grip, ‘This swami will neither demand any money from you nor will he give you any gas to release.’

‘Then what is he a swami for?’ ‘He never announced himself as a swami. People understand him to be this or that depending upon their individual tempraments of mind. I am sure you will benefit by visiting him…’ The man reluctantly makes the trip, telling himself, ‘At any rate I don’t have anything to fear from possibility of disappointment, since this time I have no expectations. What is probably going to happen is this: he will try to sell me a bottle of his gas, and I shall refuse to buy it and come away peacefully, after telling him, “Thank you very much for the kind offer, sir, but you see, my nostrils have been assaulted with enough gas for this one lifetime.”. If he tries to persuade me [into making a purchase] I shall slap him and run away from the place.’.

When he puts his difficulty before the koupeenadhâri-swami, he expects to as usual be handed with a bottle of concept-gas and demanded money, but the swami, being no gas-releaser, merely decorously says, ‘Open the windows’. The man is stunned. Can it really be that simple?, he wonders. For a time the man is reluctant to give up the rancid odours to which he has been for a long time now acclimatised. Then he begins to yearn for the odour-free state. Finally he abandons altogether his penchant for concept-gases and throws the windows open as per the advice of the koupeenadhâri-swami of Arunachala Hill. Then sweet, fresh air, which he has not experienced in [his] living memory, bursts into the room and he dances for ecstatic joy. He remembers all his various exploits with the different charlatans he had encountered and enjoys a hearty laugh at his own expense…

Chadwick is unable to contain himself. He has already collapsed against the wall of the Hall in laughter at hearing Bhagavan’s ‘gas-analogy’. His paroxysmic convulsions, which are yet to abate, are now observed with a curious eye by early inmates and visitors trickling into the Hall. ‘Shoo! Shoo!’ says Bhagavan, smiling and putting a finger to his lips. Chadwick – with difficulty – manages to straighten himself up. He wipes away the tears trickling down his cheeks and tries to look serious.

G.: Concept-gas stands for vrittis, the bottles stand for instructions on sadhana, releasing them in one’s room means trying to practise any mental activity as sadhana, and opening the windows is summa iruththal [Tom: ‘Be still’ or ‘just be’]. Am I correct?

C.: Hey, boy! Isn’t it obvious?

G.: I still want to make sure. So I am corroborating my understanding with Bhagawan. What does Bhagavan say?

B.: Yes. Also, the reluctance to abandon one’s age-old mental predilections is exclusively the handiwork of – But at that moment the brahmins enter the Hall. It is time for the chanting of the vedas. For now the conversation is at an end.

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 14th August 1936, see here for more information on this text.

You also are a Jnani; only, you think otherwise! | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

Questioner: For Jnanis it is different; what of the common man?

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: You also are a Jnani; only, you think otherwise!

Q.: How could that be?

B.: 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.

Q.: That does not satisfy me. I am unable to Realise it for myself.

B.: So long as worldly attachments are present the mind cannot be succesfully turned inwards.

Q.: How to eliminate worldly attchment?

B.: By turning the mind inwards.

Q.: Really!

B.: 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.

Q.: Which comes first?

B.: The sadhaka [Tom: seeker] 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.

Q.: The boubts Bhagavan mentioned – they are my doubts also. Why is everyone witnessing the same dream? The sun, moon, etc. are seen by all.

B.: 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.

Q.: 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.

B.: 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?

Q.: At least is the present real?

B.: 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.

Q.: If everything is unreal, can we conclude that bondage and liberation are also unreal?

B.: Yes.

Q.: Then why should I try to obtain Liberation? Let me remain as I am.

B.: Exactly!

Q.: I do not understand.

B.: Remaining as you are is the loftiest Sadhana.

Q.: How can remaining in ignorance be sadhana?

B.: 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. 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] without requirement for further effort.

Q.: Is even desire for Liberation an obstacle to Liberation?

B.: Yes.

The above excerpt is taken from Aham Sphurana, 17th July 1936, see here for more information on this text.

For those attached to the world, the world is considered to be a divine manifestation. For the advanced seeker, the world is considered to be an illusion | Advaita Vedanta | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Ajata Vada

~ Tom Das ~ 3 Comments

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’

For more on this teaching see here and here

Namaste

Q. I find it shocking to consider the waking state to be another dream | Sri Ramana Maharshi | Aham Sphurana book excerpt | Advaita vedanta

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

The following is a teaching excerpt from a large unedited manuscript, well over 1000 pages long, called ‘Aham Sphurana’. You can download the entire text here.

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.

7th July 1936

Questioner: I find it shocking to consider seriously Advaita’s proclamation that the Jagrat [Tom: waking] state is nothing better than a dream. It amounts to saying that I am now dreaming whereas I believe to the contrary, that whatever I am experiencing through the senses exist independantly of my perception thereof. How is it that the numerous disciples of yours – or followers or devotees or worshippers or afficionados or whatever it is that one would be justified in calling them – take gladly to the idea that the world – the same world they experience everyday- is a dream?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: You say it is the same world you saw yesterday that you are seeing today. How do you know that? Through memory. Memories are also illusory. They create a deceptive fabric of intellectual continuity where in fact none exists. What actually exists is only Beingness or Self. Even in dreams you have memories, go to familiar places, etc. How is it? Jagrat [Tom: waking] or Swapna [Tom: dream], the same mind draws the poisonous veil of objectification or differentiation over the pure Self, hiding it. This veil is called the screen of avidya maya. Don’t ask, who cast this veil? Instead, ask, Who sees the veil? Then you will see there was never any veil. This is called Self-Realisation. The desire to do sadhana to attain it is itself meaningless because it presupposes the existence of someone apart from the Self who is doing Sadhana to reach the Self.

Questioner: Is it the realisation you speak of as Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi? Should I not do any Sadhana? Is Sadhana useless then?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes, it is the same realisation. Sadhana is the means to gain the Self. Only the idea “I am doing Sadhana.” renders the Sadhana totally pointless and useless. Sadhana becomes natural if attraction to worldly pleasures stands removed. Desire for worldly pleasures take to their heels when you realise the world is only a dream.

Questioner: I still find it impossible to believe this solid world could only be a mere dream.

Sri Ramana Maharshi: [smiling] Two different categories of spiritual aspirants or sadhakas exist. One is the Spülauftrag [Kritopasaka] and the other is the Wischauftrag [Akritopasaka]. [Bhagavan sometimes used words in the questioner’s native tongue to drive the impact home, or where technical terms were involved.] The former is born with the intellectual conviction, born of aeons of serious and steadfast spiritual practice directed along the correct channel [that of making the mind turn Selfwards or Sourcewards], that the cosmos he sees around him is the merest of illusions, and that expending one’s mental faculties upon it would be the ruin of one’s inherent nature of abiding peace and unshakeable happiness; whereas the latter is shocked and unsettled when informed that there is no difference – for all practical purposes – between the Jagrat and swapna states. The firm intellectual conviction that the perceived cosmos is seen, owing to delusion, as being constituted by multiple disparate entities while the truth is that it is vested in the same Substratum, Adhishtanum, or Sadhvasthu as the Seer, is born only as a result of arduous spiritual practice which is possible only if the Sadhguru’s abundant Grace is available as a catalyst, which Grace descends unto him alone who perpetually bathes his heart in the effulgent glow of unselfish and non-reciprocationexpecting love of God, Humanity or any other single-minded ideal of pure, ecstatic devotion or parabhakti, and this intellectual conviction [as to the world’s objective unreality] is the seed of Jnana that grows into the tree that chokes the poisonous weed of Egotism or Ahankara at its root, destroying it once and for all, such seed having been planted long ago in the fathomless, dark misty depths of the mind by way of the Supremely merciful glance of Grace of the infinitely compassionate Sadhguru

Shakara did not teach ‘The world is an illusion, only Brahman is real, the world is Brahman’

~ Tom Das ~ 1 Comment

As far as I’m aware Shankara never actually taught ‘The world is an illusion, only Brahman is real, the world is Brahman.’ – this appears to be a misquote.

The actual teaching is ‘Brahma satyam, jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah’

..which means:

‘Brahman is Truth/Reality, the world is illusion, the Jiva (individual Self or ‘I’ or ‘I Am’) [when enquired into] is nothing but Brahman’