The Secret Of Self-Realisation

81. DESIRELESSNESS

Absolute desirelessness is the criterion of perfection.
Absolute desirelessness is the test of Jeevanmukti.
Brahman is all-full and self-contained.
All desires melt in Brahman.
Desire is born of ignorance.
When one has attained the all-full Brahman
How can there be even the least trace of desire in him?
Desirelessness brings supreme Peace,
Eternal satisfaction and Immortal bliss,
Perennial joy and unalloyed felicity.
Meditate on Brahman and become desireless.

82. METHOD OF NIRGUNA MEDITATION

Thoughts of objects, thoughts of body, etc.,
Are antagonistic to those of Brahman or the Infinite.
They stand in the way of meditation.
When you meditate on the Absolute
Such foreign ideas must be excluded.
This is Vijateeya Vritti Tiraskara,
A stream of ideas of the same kind
As those of Brahman must be encouraged.
This is Sajateeya Vritti Pravaha.

83. FORMULA FOR NIRGUNA MEDITATION

Meditate constantly and intensely:
I am that Brahman or the Intelligence Absolute.
Bliss Absolute, Existence Absolute,
Formless like ether or Akasa,
Immutable, unattached, all-pervading,
Ever free, Infinite, Immortal, Eternal,
Self-effulgent, self-luminous, self-contained,
Birthless, decayless, deathless, changeless,
Timeless, spaceless, limitless, secondless.

84. CHIDABHASA'S SOLILOQUY

O Kutastha, salutations unto Thee.
I am Chidabhasa, Thy reflection in the intellect.
I am Jiva or the individual soul.
Thou art Para Brahman or the Absolute.
I joined the company of mind, senses and body,
And ruined myself completely.
I forgot entirely my essential divine nature,
My identity with Thee.
I identified with the intellect, the senses and the body.
I became very proud and egoistic.
I thought "I am the doer and the enjoyer",
And reaped the fruits of pleasure, pain and sorrow.
I took countless births.
I took on myself the attributes of intellect and body.
As I am Thy reflection;
I superimposed Thy attributes on body and intellect.
I thought "Body and intellect are the imperishable Self."
What a terrible mistake I did!
Now I have realised my folly.
I have developed discrimination.
I ever meditate on Thee.
I am ashamed to show my face now.
Like the man whose nose was cut.
Pray forgive all my mistakes.
Through constant meditation on Thee
I have become like Thyself.
I now realise "I am neither the doer nor the enjoyer".
Let me merge in Thee now.
Sivoham, Sivoham, Sivah Kevaloham.

85. KRAMA MUKTI AND SADYO MUKTI

Bhaktas attain Krama Mukti.
Or progressive emancipation.
They go to Brahmaloka
And get initiation into Vedanta by Brahma.
They merge in Brahman along with Brahma
At the end of a Maha Kalpa.
Those students of Jnana Yoga,
Who have failed to attain Jeevanmukti,
Go to Brahmaloka and attain Krama Mukti.
Those Jnana Yoga students,
Who have failed to attain Jeevanmukti,
Whose Vasanas are destroyed (Vasana Kshaya),
Do not attain Jeevanmukti
But they attain Videhamukti.
Those Bhaktas like Sri Rama Krishna.
Who at first realise Saguna Brahman
But who later on realise the Nirguna Brahman,
Attain Sadyo Mukti like the Vedantins.
A Jnani attains Sadyo Mukti
Or Kaivalya, instantaneous emancipation;
He merges in the Nirguna Brahman.

86. NATURE OF LIBERATION

The Mimamsikas, Jaimini and Sahara
Do not concern themselves with Mukti.
For Prabhakara it is a negative conception.
It is a total disappearance
Of Dharma and Adharma,
And consequent escape from rebirth.
It is not a state of positive bliss.
It is a cessation of pain and pleasure also.
For Kumarila Bhatta
Release cannot be eternal
Unless it is negative in character.

Vedanta asserts that liberation
Is perfect freedom from all sorts of pains
And is attainment of supreme, eternal bliss.
Sarva-duhkha- nivritti and Paramananda- prapti.

87. KNOWER OF BRAHMAN

Sthitha-Prajna, Bhagavata,
Gunatita, Brahmana,
Ativarnashrami, Jeevanmukta,
Atma-Vit, Brahma-Vit, Tattwa-Vit—
All are synonymous terms.
All have attained Self-realisation.
Sthitha-Prajna is one who is stable in wisdom.
Bhagawata is a God-realised devotee.
Gunatita is one who has crossed over the Gunas.
Brahmana is a knower of Brahman,
And not who is a Brahmin by caste.
Ativarnashrami is one who is beyond caste and order.
Jeevanmukta is one who is free while living.
Atma-Vit is a knower of Atma.
Brahma-Vit is a knower of Brahman.
Tattwa-Vit is a knower of the Supreme Tattwa or Reality.

88. JEEVANMUKTA

A Jeevanmukta is free from all bondages.
He is established in Brahman.
Though he has eyes, he is as one without eyes.
Though he has ears, he is as one without ears.
Though he is associated with the body,
He is ever untouched by ignorance or its effects.
He is free from doubts, errors, etc.
Humility, non-violence, courage, etc.,
Divine attributes which are steps
To the attainment of knowledge,
Persist in him like so many ornaments.
He does not consider the objects as real,
Because he has already known their nothingness.

89. JIVANMUKTI AND VIDEHAMUKTI

A Jivanmukta has slight objective experience.
The world of names and forms has not entirely vanished for him.
But he sees the world within himself.
He is not affected by the names and forms.
He has no attachment for anything.
He sees his disciples,
And gives them spiritual instructions.
Sukadeva instructed Parikshit.
Yajnavalkya instructed Raja Janaka.
He knows that all names and forms are unreal.
Just as the man, who knows "This is only mirage",
Is not affected by the mirage
And will not run for obtaining water from the mirage,
So also a Jivanmukta will not run after sense-objects.
A Videhamukta has no objective experience.
He cannot give spiritual instructions.
He has merged himself in Brahman.
The world has entirely vanished for him.
One attains Jivanmukti while living.
Videhamukti comes after the mortal coil is thrown off.

90. JEEVANMUKTA' S INFLUENCE

If one attains Jeevanmukta or Absolution,
His wife and mother become males in the next birth,
His bad deeds of Prarabdha are taken
By those who vilify him.
His good deeds of Prarabdha are taken
By those who serve and praise him.
This is vicarious enjoyment of Prarabdha—
Suffering in place of or for the sake of another.


Source:
THE SECRET OF SELF-REALISATION
By Sri Swami Sivananda
Chapter IX, 81-90