The Spirit of The

Upanishads

The Spirit of The Upanishads

Writings
The HinduYogi Science of Breath
Hatha Yoga or The Yogi Philosophy of Physical WellBeing
Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism
Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism
The Science of Psychic Healing
A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga
The Bhagavad Gita or The Message of the Master
The Spirit of the Upanishads
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga
A Series of Lessons in Mystic Christianity or The Inner Teachings of the Master
The HinduYogi System of Practical Water Cure
Life Beyond Death
A Series of Lessons on The Inner Teachings of The Philosophies and Religions of India

ii

The Spirit of the

Upanishads
The Aphorisms of the Wise

A Collection of Texts, Aphorisms, Sayings, Proverbs, Etc., from

The Upanishads, or Sacred Writings of India, Compiled and
Adapted from over Fifty Authorities, Expressing the Cream of
the Hindu Philosophical Thought.

1907

Yogi Ramacharaka
18621932

YOGeBooks: Hollister, MO
2012:06:20:16:10
iii

The Spirit of the Upanishads

Copyright
YOGeBooks by Roger L. Cole, Hollister, MO 65672
2010 YOGeBooks by Roger L. Cole
All rights reserved. Electronic edition published 2010
isbn: 9781611830149 (pdf)
isbn: 9781611830156 (epub)
www.yogebooks.com

iv

Epigraph
Hear thou even the little child, and from his words accept
thou the Truth that goeth straight to thy heart. But reject
all that doth not so go to thy heart no matter how high the
authorityyea, even though the lotusborn creator, Brahm,
himself, be the speaker.
YogaVasishtha.

The Spirit of the Upanishads

vi

Contents
Part I. The Threshold.
Part II. The Absolute.
Part III. The Real Self.
Part IV. The Way.
Part V. The Student.
Part VI. The Teacher.
Part VII. The Lesson.
Part VIII. The Law of Karma.
Part IX. Devotional Worship.
Part X.Freedom.
Part XI. Spiritual Knowing.
Part XII.The FourFold Means.
Part XIII. Union (Yoga).
Part XIV. Liberation.

vii

The Spirit of the Upanishads

viii

Preface.

his volume is a collection of texts; aphorisms, sayings;

proverbs; etc., from The Upanishads, or Sacred Writings
of India; compiled and adapted from over fifty authorities,
expressing the Cream of the Hindu Philosophical Thought.
The adapter of the book acknowledges his appreciation of
the work of Dr. Manil N. Dvivedi, of Bombay, India, the original
translator of many of these aphorisms, etc., the general form of
whose translation has been followed in the majority of cases,
subject to such supplementary changes and rearrangement as
have seemed desirable in the present work.
The contents of this book are selfexplanatory, and need little
introduction. The wonderful philosophy of The Upanishads,
is so generally recognized that words of praise would be
superfluous. Many can say with the German philosopher,
Schopenhauer: In the whole world there is no study so
beneficial and so elevating as that of The Upanishads. It has
been the solace of my life; it will be the solace of my death.
One word of caution we would give to the reader who may
not be grounded in the fundamental thought of the Hindu
Philosophies. We allude to the frequent use of the words: The
Self, or Self, in many of the aphorisms. The student of the
Oriental Teachings will, of course, recognize the fact that the
ix

The Spirit of the Upanishads

word Self, so used, implies the One Self, or Infinite One,

whose Essence permeates the Universe, and in whom all living
forms, live, and move and have their beingand which
Self is the Essence of the countless personal selves. We have
used the Capital S, in the word, when so used; the word self,
meaning the personal self, being printed in the usual way.
The thought and teachings underlying this entire book, is
that of this One Selfthe only Reality. The personal self is a
thing of the momentbeing born; growing old; and dying
but the Real Self, endureth forever. The Real Self, in each of us, is
the Spirit in each of us, which is at One with the Father. Nearly
every aphorism in the book emphasizes this Truth, in various
words and forms of expression, and many of them are intended
to lead the reader to a Realization of The Truth.
Some of these seedthoughts will appeal to one, and others
to another each will draw to himself that which is his, and will
let the rest pass him by. This is the Law of Learning: Accept only
that which appeals to your Heart, as Truthlet the rest pass
you by, for the time beingfor to each comes his own; and none
can gain his own, until he is prepared for it. The words of the
Yogavasishtha, quoted on our title page, intended to convey
this same truth. Listen to this Aphorism of the Wise:
Hear thou even the little child, and from his words accept
thou that Truth that goeth straight to thy heart. But reject
all that doth not so go to thy heart as Truthno matter how
high the authorityyea, even though the lotusborn creator,
Brahma, himself, be the speaker.
Therefore, accept the pearl of Truth, even though it lie in the
mud of the gutterand reject that which does not seem to be
the real Truth, even though it be offered you from the hand of
one of the gods. Test all statement of Truth, by the light of the
Spirit within you, and you can not stray far from The Path.
We would call the attention of our readers, to the edition
of The Bhagavad Gita, or Message of the Master, published
simultaneously with the present volume. This first mentioned
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Preface

book, should be read by all who enjoy the present one, for it
contains the key to the Higher Teachings, which the writers of
these Aphorisms wished to express.
We trust that this little book will cause the minds of many to
unfold to the light.
The Yogi Publication Society.
Chicago, Ill., U. S. A., January 12, 1907.

xi

The Spirit of the Upanishads

xii

The Spirit of the

Upanishads

The Spirit of the Upanishads

Part I.

The Threshold.

hat wherein disappears the whole of that which affects

the mind, and that which is also the background of all;
to That I bow,the all eternal consciousness, the witness
of all exhibitions of the Intellect.
Upadesasahasri.

As is the sight of the sweetest Honey to the traveller in the

Desert, so is the perception of the evereffulgent.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
I expound in half a verse what has been told in a million
volumes;That is the Truth, the world is illusion, the soul is
none other than That.
Upadesasahasri.
Action leads to incarnation, and incarnation to pleasure and
pain. Hence arise all likes and dislikes which again propel to
action resulting in merit and demerit. These put the ignorant
wanderer, again, into the bonds of incarnation;and so on and
on, for ever, rolls the wheel of this world. Nothing but ignorance
is the cause of all this; the remedy lies in the destruction of
1

The Spirit of the Upanishads

ignorance. Knowledge of Brahman is the way to find final

beatitude in the destruction of this ignorance. For knowledge
alone, not action which is only a part of ignorance, is competent
to accomplish this result. Nor is it possible to do away with likes
and dislikes so long as ignorance is not done away with. This is
therefore undertaken with the object of destroying ignorance
as well as its effectsthis world,and also of explaining the
real philosophy of Brahman.
Upadesasahasri.
From the senses finding each its own gratification in the objects
peculiar to each, there arises no real happiness, but only a
temporary allaying of the fever of the mind. It is vain, therefore,
to grope for any real happiness in the world of objects. The
deluded deceive themselves by imagining every experience of
evil to be so much good; but in birth, death, and limitation, the
wise never fail to perceive the evil that conceals itself under the
inviting form of objects. They find no happiness in things subject
to such results. The smallest happiness, in the real sense of the
word, is no way possible in any thing;oh! I should become
that Self which is all bliss, all existence, all enlightenment.
Atmapurana.
Knowledge of the Divine dissolves all bonds, and gives freedom
from every kind of misery including birth and death.
vetasvataropanishad.
The Creator (Brahma), the Protector (Vishnu), the Destroyer
(Siva); the Consumer, the Sun, the Moon, the Thunder, the
Wind, the Sacrifice, and so on, are terms used by the sages
to describe the One Eternal, as they look at It through the
multifarious forms of the intellect;all my best worship to that
Divine Essence, the destroyer of that ignorance whose form is
this world.
ankaracharya.
2

Part II.

The Absolute.

hat should be known as Brahman, which, beyond the

gaining whereof, there remains nothing to gain; beyond
the bliss whereof there remains no possibility of bliss;
beyond the sight whereof there remains nothing to see; beyond
becoming which there remains nothing to become; beyond
knowing which there remains nothing to know.
Atmabodha.

This is All, and so is that;All comes out of the All,taking

away the All from the All, the All remains for ever.
Isopanishad.
He is eternal among the eternal, conscious among the
conscious; He, ever one, produces the variety of ideas in the
many; knowing that Divine One, as the Supreme Cause, all
bonds dissolve themselves into nothing.
vetasvataropanishad.
That which, in the beginning, sent forth the Creator (Brahma)
and favoured him with the storehouse of all knowledge, the
Veda;I, desirous of liberation, betake myself to It, the
3

The Spirit of the Upanishads

evereffulgent light, revealing Its eternal Self through the

intellect.
vetasvataropanishad.
As in the sun, all light, there is neither day nor night, so in The
Absolute, all light, there is neither knowledge nor ignorance.
Upadesasahasri.
The ever unchangeable is devoid of sound, touch, form, taste
or smell. It is without beginning or end, ever beyond the
prime cause of all evolution;knowing that, one escapes the
alldevouring jaws of death.
Kathopanishad.
The eye has no access there, nor has speech nor mind; we do
not know It (The Absolute), nor the method whereby we can
impart It. It is other than the known as well as the unknown; so
indeed do we hear from the sages of old who explained It thus
to us.
Kenopanishad.
Try to realize (within thyself) That whence arise these beings,
by which they stand sustained, and unto which they return and
become naught;that indeed is The Absolute.
Taittiriyopanishad.
To the emperor (Janaka) thus explained Yajnavalkya; When
there is, as it were, a second, there alone does one see, smell
or taste something other (than Self); there alone does one
speak to or hear, think of or touch or know something other
(than Self). But when the seer is all alone with That, he is as
still as an undisturbed body of water,this indeed is Spiritual
Consciousness, the condition of universal empire. This to the
self, is the highest end, the best riches, the supremest world, the
4

The Absolute

greatest joy;the rest of beings live only by a particle of this

bliss.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Father, son, mother, nay even the worlds, the Gods, the Vedas
are all naught in The Absolute; the thief is nothief, the ascetic
noascetic;It has no relation with good or evil. One who has
become It is beyond all desires of the heart. It should not be
supposed that (even in sleep) It does not see, for It does not
see though ever seeing; the sight of the seer is never lost, being
eternal, there is nothing other than Itself which It can make the
object of Its seeing.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The Absolute is described as not this, not that, and so on by
negatives only.
Brhadarnyakopanishad.
That is real bliss which has no conditions; in the conditioned
there can be no happiness;the Unconditioned alone is bliss;
try to realize the Unconditioned (in thyself.)
Chhandogyopanishad.
That is the Unconditioned wherein one does not see another,
one does not hear another, one does not know another; that
wherein one sees another, hears another, knows another, is the
Conditioned. The Unconditioned is immortal, the conditioned
is mortal. Oh master! where is this Unconditioned to be found?
Everywhere or nowhere!
Chhandogyopanishad.
Hence is described the Real Self; This Self alone stands above,
below, west, east, south and north; everywhere all is this Self!
He who thus sees, thinks and knows, enjoys this Self, plays with
this Self, has this Self alone even for a second, finds perfect bliss
5

The Spirit of the Upanishads

in this Self, becomes the lord of all, gains access to all worlds and
beings. Those who understand otherwise, betake themselves to
other masters, enjoy only the mortal world of conditions, find
no access to all beings and all worlds.
Chhandogyopanishad.
That which is ever awake even in sleep, sending forth the variety
of ideas, is the Real Self, and all immortality;all the worlds
are held in it (as it were, in suspension), there is nothing which
transcends it. It is this. As the one fire pervading the universe
appears in so many forms in the variety of objects, so the Inner
Self of all, ever one, appears to take on so many forms, but it is
ever beyond them. As the sun who enlightens everything has
nothing whatever to do with the numerous ills the eye may
perceive, so the Inner Self of all, ever one, has no connection
whatever with the joys and sorrows of the world, being ever
beyond them.
Kathopanishad.
That is the real Witness, all consciousness, who unites in one
grasp, the actor, act and the variety of objects apart one from
the other. I see, hear, smell, taste and touch,in this form does
the Witness unite all in one continuous consciousness, even
like the lamp suspended in a theatre. The lamp in the theatre
takes in the master, the audience, the actors and all, without
distinction, in one sweep of light, and continues to shed the
same light even when all these are not there.
Panchadasi.
The Seer of thy sight thou shalt not see; the Hearer of thy ear
thou shalt not hear; the Thinker of thy thoughts thou shalt not
think; the Knower of thy knowledge thou halt not know this
is thy Real Self, allpervading, everything besides is but mortal.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
6

The Absolute

Without the glass there is no possibility of a sight of the

reflection; whence then could there be any possibility of the
knowledge of name and forms without assuming that which is
Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss?
Panchadasi.
He pervades the earth and yet transcends it; the earth knows
Him not; the earth is His body: He controls the earth from
within;He is thy inner Self ever immortal. He pervades
water and yet transcends it; water knows Him not; water is
His body: He controls water from within;He is thy inner Self
ever immortal.He is the unseen Seer; the unheard Hearer;
the unthought Thinker; the unknown Knower. There is no Seer
other than this; no Hearer other than this; no Thinker other
than this; no Knower other than this. That is thy inner self, ever
immortal; all beside is mortal.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
That which is not spoken in speech but that whereby all
speech is spoken. That which does not think in the mind but
that whereby the mind proceeds to think. That which does
not perceive with the eye but that whereby the eye receives its
sight. That which does not hear with the ear but that whereby
the ear hears. That which does not breathe the breath of life
but that whereby life itself is kept up. Know thou that That is
The Absolute, not this that people worship.
Kenopanishad.
Immortal Spirit alone is That; the east, west, south and north
is all That: This wide expanse of the universe above and below
is indeed all That.
Mundakopanishad.

The Spirit of the Upanishads

In the beginning, oh good one! was The Absolute alone; all one
without a second.
Chhandagyopanishad.
Brahma, Indra, Prajapati, all the gods, the five primordial
elements, and all that breathes, or moves about, or flies above, or
stands unmoved,the whole universe exists through Thought,
depends on Thought, Thought is its stay;the Thought of the
Absolute.
Aitareyopanishad.
This Real Self is all intellect, all mind, all life, all eyes, all ears,
all earth, all water, all wind, all ether, all light, all darkness, all
desires, all peacefulness, all anger, all quiet, all religious merit, all
religious demerit; It is the All, It is this, It is That.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
This Real Self is causeless, without a second, having no within
and without; this Self is The Absolute, the consciousness of all.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Oh Gargi! this immutable one is the unseen Seer, the Unheard
Hearer, the unthought Thinker, the unknown Knower;There
is no Seer beside this; no Hearer beside this; no Thinker; no
Knower beside this. In this immutable Essence, oh dear Gargi! is
interwoven the essence of all existence.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
He (Yajnavalkya) said, oh Gargi! the knowers of The Absolute
thus explain the ever Immutable. It is neither with dimensions
nor atomic, neither short nor long; It is not red, not sticky, not
light, not dark; neither air, nor ether. It has no relation, no taste,
no smell, no eye, no ear, no speech, no mind, no light, no life, no

The Absolute

mouth, no form, no break, no without;It enjoys nothing or is

enjoyed by nothing.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Objects transcend the senses; the mind transcends objects;
the intellect transcends the mind; the mahat (i. e. cosmic
consciousness) transcends intellect (i. e. individual intellect);
the avyakta (i. e. the undifferenced first cause), transcends the
mahat; the Real Self transcends the avyakta;beyond the Real
Self there is nothing which can transcend It, or prevent It from
being the last essence, the last resort of all.
Kathopanishad.
That is the Great Real Self who, though without hands or feet,
is the swiftest of approach; though without eyes or ears, sees
and hears everything; though uncomprehended, comprehends
everything knowable.
vetasvataropanishad.
The Absolute is never born, never dead. It comes out of nothing
and goes into nothing.It is unborn, eternal, immutable, ever
unique, never destroyed with the destruction of the body. If the
killer intends to kill, or if the killed thinks He is killed, both of
them do not Know; they neither kill nor are killed. It is smaller
than an atom, greater than the universe, It is present in the
heart of all beings. The glory of this Self is realized by him the
whole of whose sensibility returns to a state of placid calmness
through absence of desire; he alone passes to the other side of
this ocean of sin and sorrow.
Kathopanishad.
Truth alone conquers, not falsehood, the divine path stands
upheld by Truth; sages with desires put out by satiety pass over
it to the great treasure of Truth. It (the Truth) is allembracing
yet unthinkable, all light, minutest of the minute yet ever
9

The Spirit of the Upanishads

manifest. It is farthest of all yet ever near in all beings, ever

present in the hidden consciousness of all which passes out in
all acts of mind and body.
Mundakopanishad.
One so freed from the bondage of senses transcends all
material relation, and becoming all supreme light, regains his
own Self. This indeed is Self. It is beyond mortality, beyond fear,
It is Truth;Truth is only another name of The Absolute.
Chhandogyopanishad.
There cannot be any room for separateness in that
intransmutable, formless, characterless, Absolute Being which
is beyond the relations of subject, object, instrument, etc.,
which is every way full to the utmost, like the waters surging
above all things at the great cyclic deluge. In it merges the cause
of illusion like darkness in light;there, verily, can be nothing
like separateness in It, the highest Essence, without character,
and ever one without a second.
Vivekachudamani.
That is the form of the highest Self wherein the world of subject
and object though existing does not exist, and which though
all akasa has no touch with it. It is all void and yet as if it were
no void, the world is naught in it, it continues to be completely
void though full of numberless worlds upon worlds.
Yogavasishtha.
The whole of this cosmos is One Self, there is no room for the
idea of body and its like. That is all that is, all bliss, whatever
thou seest is all thought.
Yogavasishtha.

10

The Absolute

As light belongs to the sun, coldness to water, and heat to fire,

so do existence, consciousness, bliss, eternity, immutable purity,
belong by nature, to That.
Atmabodha.
The material cause of this illusion is none other than That; the
whole of the universe is, therefore, That, and nothing else. That
being the All, causality is mere illusion; the real Truth being thus
known there can be no room for the slightest separateness.
Aparokshanubhuti.
This Real Self is the bridge, the support, of the whole universe
which, but for it, will be nowhere.
Chhandogyopanishad.
That is all bliss of every kind; Attaining this bliss one realizes his
nature which is all bliss.
Taittiriyopanishad.
That therefore is the last measure of all bliss.
Taittiriyopanishad.
The one evereffulgent stands concealed in all beings. It
pervades every knowable object and is the Inner Self of all. It is
the witness of all action, the allembracing resort of beings, the
unaffected seer, all thought, unique, and without properties.
vetasvataropanishad.
It has neither form nor instruments. It is not seen as equal to
or greater than any thing. Its transcendent power is heard of
as unimaginably multifarious, omniscience and omnipotence
constitute Its very nature.
vetasvataropanishad.

11

The Spirit of the Upanishads

It is unborn, ever awake, free from dream, having no form or no

name. It is one continuous thought, allknowing. There is no
metaphor whatever in saying this.
Gaudapadacharya.
This oh Satyakama is That higher as well as lower. Science and
nescience all is That.
Prasnopanishad.
As above so below, as below so above; he passes from death
to death who here finds the least shadow of variety. There is
no variety in That. It should be grasped by the mind alone. He,
indeed, passes from death to death who here finds the least
shadow of variety.
Kathopanishad.
As a hawk or an eagle having soared high in the air, wings its
way back to its restingplace, being so far fatigued, so does the
soul, having experienced the phenomenal, return into Itself
where it can sleep beyond all desires, beyond all dreams.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The sun does not shine there nor the moon nor the stars nor
even these lightnings, least of all this fire; everything becomes
enlightened in its light, the whole of this shines through Its
lustre.
Kathopanishad.

12

Part III.

The Real Self.

particle of Its bliss supplies the bliss of the whole

universe, everything becomes enlightened in Its light;
nay all else appears worthless after a sight of that
essence;I am indeed of this Supreme Eternal Self.
Vijnananauka.

The power of sun, moon, fire and even of speech having

exhausted itself; the senses being all extinguished. That which
stands selfillumined, beyond all relations, sending forth this
universe of ideas, and all thought, is shown to be the Inner Self
of all.
Svarajyasiddhi.
I am without character, without action, without imagination,
without relation, without change, without form, without sin, all
eternity, ever liberated.
Atmabodha.

13

The Spirit of the Upanishads

If thou objectest how I should grasp this? Pray do not grasp it,;
for the residuum after all grasping is at end, is none other than
thy Real Self.
Panchadasi.
Where is the man who doubts the fact of his own existence? If
such a one be found, he should be told that he himself, who
thus doubts is the Self he denies.
Svatmanirupana.
No other knowledge is necessary in knowing one self, for the Self
is all knowledge;the lamp requires not the light of another
lamp for its own illumination.
Atmabodha.
Setting aside every thing which becomes the object of
knowledge in this world, there yet remains a residuum, the real
essence of knowledge. The knowledge that this is the Real Self,
is true knowledge of the Self.
Panchadasi.
It is the ear of ears, the mind of minds, the speech of speech, the
breath of breaths, the eye of eyes. The wise transcending these
(i. e. the physical ear, mind, etc.) and renouncing this world of
experience, rest in eternal immortality.
Kenopanishad.
This Self in my heart is smaller than a grain of rice or barley or
mustard, smaller than a grain of the Syamaka or even than a
part of its part. And yet, this Self in my heart is bigger than the
earth, more extensive than the atmosphere, wider than the sky,
greater than all these worlds together. It is all action, all desire,
all smell, all taste; It pervades all that is; It is void of speech, and
all other senses; ever indifferent to good or evil. This indeed is
the Self in my heart, this indeed is the Real Self. He becomes this
14

The Real Self

Real Self, after passing away from here, who has faith in the Self,
and has no doubt whatever.
Chhandogyopanishad.
All this is the One Self, this Self is the Universal Self.
Mandukyopanishad.
As the fool with eyes all bedimmed, sees the sun all dark, though
covered only with a cloud, so does It appear in bondage only
to the victims of illusion. I am this pure Self whose form is all
eternal consciousness.
Hastamalakastotra.
It is the one pervading all, but ever untouched by any, and
therefore ever pure, and all clear, like the allpervading Akasa. I
am this pure Self whose form is all eternal consciousness.
Hastamalakastotra.
It is without mind, without eyes, without any similar means of
relating itself to the objective. But nevertheless, it is the mind
as well as the eye of all minds and all eyes, nay the means of
means;Its form being ever incomprehensible by the mind, the
eyes and the rest. I am this pure Self, all eternal consciousness.
Hastamalakastotra.
I am indeed that Supreme eternal Real Self which is all bliss; all
light; beyond illusion; beyond conditions; realizable only in the
idea I am.
Vijnananauka.
It is this infinite atom, all this is that Self from end to end, It is
the Truth, It is the Self;oh vetaketu! Thou Art That.
Chhandogyopanishad.

15

The Spirit of the Upanishads

As a lump of salt melted in water cannot be experienced by the

eye, but only by the tongue, so indeed the everexistent Real
Self shining in the depth of the heart, cannot be realized by
the external senses, but only by the light of that sympathetic
awakening which comes from the word of a teacher. Thou
indeed Art this Real Self, not the phenomenal that appears
around.
Svarajyasiddhi.
The ocean transformed, through the action of clouds, into
the form of rivers, etc., ceases to be itself; so indeed hast thou
forgotten thyself through the power of conditions. Oh friend!
remember thy full Self, Thou Art The Real Self, the ground of
existence the All.
Svarajyasiddhi.
Where there is anything like duality there alone does one see
another; there alone does one smell another; there alone does
one hear another; there alone does one speak to another;
there alone does one think of another; there alone does one
know another. But when all is One Self to him, what should
he smell, and with what? what should he see, and with what?
what should he hear, and with what? what should he speak of,
and with what? what should he think of, and with what? what
should he know, and with what? By what indeed should that be
known through, which knows everything? By what should the
Knower be known?
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
It is not attainable by the most constant attendance at lectures.
For many, though hearing numerous such, never know what It
is. Strange indeed is the speaker who speaks of It; stranger still
who obtains It; but most strange of all is he who, being properly
instructed by a competent teacher realizes It in himself and all.
Kathopanishad.
16

Part IV.

The Way.

ill Study should not allay in thee the sense of separateness,

the mind cannot take on the form of that essence, and
thou canst not realize The Real Self. Four indeed, are
the gatekeepers at the entrance of the palace of liberation:
(1) Selfrestraint, (2) Contemplation, (3) Contentment, (4)
Company of the Wise.
Yogavasishtha.
He alone escapes from the web of illusion, in this world, (even
like the lord of beasts from the trap which holds him fast,) who,
with all acts, all pleasures, attuned to the Supreme Aim, puts
forth strong personal effort in that behalf.
Yogavasishtha.

Trees continue to vegetate, and so do live on beasts and birds;

he alone lives whose mind lives not in consequence of taking
on a variety of forms. All holy writ is so much burden to him
who has no discrimination, all philosophy is so much burden to
him whose germ of desire is not destroyed; the mind is so much

17

The Spirit of the Upanishads

burden to him who has not acquired selfcontrol, the body is so

much burden to him who knows only the anatman (nonself.)
Yogavasishtha.
There can be no man more despicable than him who does
not put into practice the words of the proficient teacher, who
explains, with great pains, the Real Truth, on being questioned.
Yogavasishtha.
All desire is ignorance, the destruction of desire is liberation,
and this liberation oh Rama! is easily brought about only by
ceasing to desire. The mind experiences bondage from the firm
conviction I am not the Real Self. It realizes entire freedom,
from the equally firm conviction I am the Real Self.
Yogavasishtha.
He continually sees the Real Self, who studies to unify
philosophy, and the teachers explanations, with the facts of his
own consciousness.
Yogavasishtha.
The light breaking in upon the mind should not be excluded by
that false logic which puts forth unholy guesses of every kind
up to the obliteration even of the facts of consciousness.
Yogavasishtha.
With no confidence in the facts of his own consciousness, and
with the obvious endlessness of argumentation, how would he
who poses himself as a Professor of Logic, obtain conviction
of Truth? If argumentation is meant as a help to the intellect,
you are welcome to argue in accord with the facts of your
consciousness, but certainly not to argue without aim, in any
line you choose.
Panchadasi.
18

The Way

The sense of this can never be gathered by Intellect alone, oh

beloved one! it leads to real knowledge only when used by one
who really knows. This knowing is that which thou, oh child of
truth! hast already acquired;oh Nachiketas! there indeed can
be no better questioner than Thyself.
Kathopanishad.
This Self is not realizable by study, nay not even by intelligence
or much learning. The Self unfolds its full essence to him alone
who applies his self to Self. He who has not given up the ways
of vice, he who is not able to control himself, he who is not at
peace within, he whose mind is not at rest, can never realize
the self, though full of all the learning in the world. That which
lies at the root of all distinctions of caste and creed is its food,
even death itself is its drink;who, not so prepared, can know
what It is?
Kathopanishad.
How can books enlighten that lump of clay fashioned in the
form of man, who does not in any manner realize the Truth
explained to him with all possible clearness.
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
We rejoice with those whom we recognize as centered in Self
Realization; the rest we pity; with the deluded we do not care
to argue.
Panchadasi.
Talk as much philosophy as you please, worship as many gods
as you like, observe all ceremonies, sing devoted praises of any
number of deities;liberation never comes, even at the end
of a hundred kalpas, without realization of the Oneness of Self.
Vivekachudamani.

19

The Spirit of the Upanishads

Who knows Spiritual Consciousness passes beyond death, and

enters Immortality.
Isopanishad.
The Good is one thing, the Agreeable another; men find them
in a variety of objects and become bound, one way or other. He
who attaches himself to the Supreme Good reaps the highest
bliss; he who persues the Agreeable is cheated of the real object
of existence.
Kathopanishad.
These, the Good and the Agreeable, thou knowest, are opposed
one to the other in their very nature, and having entirely different
results in store. Oh Nachiketas! the various desires I propose
to thee fail to move, thou art really devoted to the Agreeable
alone. Groping about in its night, fools flatter themselves with
wisdom and learning, and continue to tumble about, without
end, like the blind led by the blind.
Kathopanishad; Mundakopanishad.
The lyre with all the beauty of its make, and the melody of its
music, serves at best to please the hearer; it cannot lead to
universal empire. In the same manner all the flow of speech, all
the stream of sweet words, all the skill expended in explaining
philosophy,all that the learned call learning, has the senses
and mind, not the Self, for its end. Vain is the study of philosophy
if it leads not to the Essence, equally vain is all philosophy if the
Essence is realized.
Vivekachudamani.
Disease disappears not with the mere name of medicine, but
by actually swallowing it. Talking of the Self, without proper
realization, can never bring about liberation. Till the objective
is not dissolved in the subject; till the Essence of Self is not
20

The Way

realized; no liberation can come from speaking Its mere name

all the fruit of such, activity is only waste of so much breath.
Vivekachudamani.

21

The Spirit of the Upanishads

22

Part V.

The Student.

he knowing intellect skilled in grasping the pros and cons

of every theme, and cleared of all dross by the means
just described, is the true aspirant after selfknowledge,
Discrimination, nonattachment, selfcontrol and its
accompaniments, keen desire of liberation, these make one fit
to inquire after The Real Self.
Vivekachudamani.

This Self cannot be realized by want of spiritual strength, by

indifference, by austerities unaccompanied with renunciation.
The self of that knower who applies himself to Self with the
means described enters the Great Self. Sages having found It,
stand ever content in Spiritual Consciousness; remain centered
in the Self, being free from all attachment, and always at
peace within and without. They find the unconditioned and
allpervading, and realizing It within, become one with the
All. With faith firmly fixed in the teaching of the Yogis, with
the mind entirely purified through renunciation and Spiritual
Consciousness, ascetics, one with the immortal, become one
with the Real Self at the moment of dissolution.
Mundakopanishad.
23

The Spirit of the Upanishads

In the air or in water no mark is seen of the passage of birds or

fishes; so is entirely inscrutable the passage of the knowers of
the Self.
Sankaracharya.
The eye perceives not sound, being dissimilar by nature; the
material eye cannot see the spiritual self.
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
As the face is fully reflected in a clear glass, so in the true seeker
the Spirit is reflected in the intellect.
Atmapurana.
He knows who finds a teacher; he then delays only so long as
he is not free from the body, for on being so free he is one with
the All.
Chhandogyopanishad.
Having obtained this priceless birth, with all the senses in their
full activity, he who does not understand the good of Self,
destroys himself.
Mahabharata.
The boatthis bodyhas been chartered by thee at the
heaviest priceall thy good acts,to cross over to the other
side of this ocean of sin and sorrow. Pray pass on before it breaks.
Miscellaneous.
Those who destroy their Self, go, after death, to the sphere called
Asurya (without the sun), all enveloped in thick darkness.
Isopanishad; Brhadaranyakopanishad.

24

Part VI.

The Teacher.

ill thy mind reaches the stage of intuitive development,

follow what is assured thee by teachers, books and the
logical instruments of knowledge. When thus is burnt out
all latent desire, and the Thing is realized, thou shouldst not
hesitate to give up all concern even with these, however good
or useful they be.
Yogavashitha.

By my book is meant all that is written by way of explaining

the facts of nature, by great souls free from likes and dislikes,
with eyes trained to observation and reason. Those resolute
souls who are full of the highest goodness, who are equal to all,
and who are possessed of a tact peculiar to themselves, are the
really wise.
Yogavasishtha.
I, thus informed, am yet only versed in the words of the Mantras
(the sacred hymns), I know nothing of Self. I have heard from
sages of your stamp that the knower of Self rises above all

25

The Spirit of the Upanishads

sorrow. With all my learning, I am full of discontent and sorrow,

oh Lord! take me to the other side of this ocean of misery.
Chhandogyopanishad.
This Real Self should be explained by the father to his eldest son,
or by the teacher to a properly sympathetic pupil, and to no
one else.
Chhandogyopanishad.
Oh Rama! the cause of SelfRealization is none other than the
pupils own intelligence.
Yogavasishtha.
One course leads to success in one birth or many, by gradual
practice after the manner pointed out by the teacher; the
other leads soon to real Spiritual Consciousness through the
Self, aided even by intellectual development, even like the fall
of the fruit from above.
Yogavasishtha.
Having supported Self by Self, of ones own accord, through
reflection, one should carry this deerhis own mind across the
ocean of delusion, this world.
Yogavasishtha.
Tell me what thou seest as other than religion and nonreligion,
other than these effects or their causes, other than that which
is past and that which is yet to come.
Kathopanishad.
aunaka, the rich householder, approached Angirasa in due
formality, and asked oh Lord! Teach me that whose knowledge
leads to the knowledge of all that is!
Mundakopanishad.
26

The Teacher

The ultimate aim of all the Vedas, the final result of all austerity,
the object of keeping the period of studentship, I describe to
thee in brief:it is the syllable Aum. This is the symbol of the
immutable self; this is the highest Essence. It becomes whatever
he desires to him who knows this, the everunchangeable. This,
indeed, is the highest support, the greatest help, betaking
himself to this he becomes glorified in That.
Kathopanishad.
The knower of the Self attains to the Supreme; hence it is said
The Self is Being, Consciousness, Limitlessness. He who realizes
this, present in the intellect, as well as in the highest Akasa, has
access to the fruition of all desire whatever, at one sweep, being
one with allseeing Self.
Taittiriyopanishad.
This cosmos is all Soul; all ceremonial; all austerities; the highest
immortal Self. He who realizes this in the cavity of the heart,
easily scatters into nothing, oh good one! the knot of Illusion,
even in this life.
Mundakopanishad.
The wise knowing, through the practice of subjective
concentration, the Alleffulgent One, extremely difficult to
see; concealed deep beyond everything; shining through all
acts in every heart; inaccessible; and without beginning; they
transcend all pleasure and all pain.
Kathopanishad.
He who sees himself in All, and All in himself, attains to the
empire of Self, thus worshipping Self and looking on all things
with equal eye.
Manu.

27

The Spirit of the Upanishads

Knowing the great allpervading Self, through whom is

experienced the whole of dream and waking, the wise never
become subject to sorrow.
Kathopanishad.
As surely as water showered on a tableland seeks the lower
ground, so indeed does one seeing variety in the attributes
of Personality, become attached to them in future. As water
poured upon a clear even surface stands ever pure and
undefiled, so stands the Self of the silent knower.
Kathopanishad.
This body is the city, with nine gates, wherein dwells the unborn,
unfailing Consciousness. He who knows this well never comes
to grief, and is liberated twice over.
Kathopanishad.
These rivers flowing to and gaining the ocean lose themselves
in it, lose even their name and form, and become included in
the name Ocean. So do all the sixteen forms of the objective
flowing to and gaining the Self become lost in Him. They lose
even their name and form, and become included in the Self.
This Self is the immortal, transcending all forms of the mortal,
This is thus summed up:That death may not overpower thee,
know the only knowable, the Self, in whom are centred all
forms like the radii of a chariotwheel in its hub.
Prasnopanishad.
Know that one Self alone with which are bound sky, earth,
atmosphere, mind, and all the vital breaths. Leave aside all
other speech. This alone is the bridge over the gulf of this world
to Immortality.
Mundakopanishad.

28

The Teacher

The Brahmans disown him who knows other than Self as a

Brahman. The Kshatriyas disown him who knows other than
Self as a Kshatriya. The people disown him who knows other
than Self as the people. The gods disown him who knows other
than Self as a god. The spirits disown him who knows other than
self as a spirit. Everything disowns that which knows other than
Self as the thing. The Brahmans; the Kshatriyas; the people; the
gods; the spirits; everything;is Self.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
That Self which is beyond sin, decay, death, sorrow; which
requires no food nor drink; which is all accomplished desire, all
fulfilled thought; should be looked for, should be inquired after.
He gains access to all worlds, has all his desires fulfilled, who,
having known this Self, realizes It fully in himself and all.
Chhandogyopanishad.
Said Yajnavalkya to the Emperor Janaka: The same has been
explained by the Vedas as well: this, indeed, is the eternal glory
of him who has realized The Absolute. It neither grows nor is
diminished by doing, or not doing, any act. The knower knows
this very truth. Knowing this, he is not affected by any Karma
whatever, all being as sin to him. The heat of his senses cools
down into that calmness of mind which follows on absence of
desire; All kind of latent attachment leaves him; No conditions
disturb him; Ecstasy environs him,who knowing thus sees
Self in Self, sees the All as Self. No good or evil touches him; he
transcends all good and all evil. The fulfilment or nonfulfilment
of any secular or temporal act affects him not, he having
reduced them all to nothing. He is beyond all form; beyond all
desire; beyond all doubt. This is the real Spiritual Consciousness,
this is the real condition of Spirit.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.

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The Spirit of the Upanishads

I know this Self to be the All, the Great Self, all effulgence,
transcending all darkness. Knowing this, one can transcend
even death; there surely is no other road out of this world.
vetasvataropanishad.
Like and dislike do not cease to affect him who yet relates himself
to the body; these never touch him who has disembodied
himself, mentally.
Chhandogyopanishad.
As oil is found in sesamumseeds; as ghee is found in curds;
as water is found in watercourses; or as fire is found in the
aranwood: so is the Self seen in Self by him who tries to realize
It through universal love and perfect control over mind and
body.
vetasvataropanishad.
Brahmans and others desirous of knowing It, know It by the study
of the Vedas; by sacrifice: by ascetic practices unaccompanied
with desire; knowing It they become the Silent Ones.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Having explained the Vedas to his pupil, the teacher thus enjoins
him: Tell the truth; go by religious forms; never disregard thy
proper study; and having satisfied thy teacher do not put an
end to thy line.
Taittiriyopanishad.
Three are the stays of religion:Sacrifice, Study, and Charity.
Chhandogyopanishad.
He who knows It the immutable Spirit thus; and he who does
not know It thus; both perform Karma by It. Wisdom and
Ignorance admit of innumerable varieties; that alone which is
30

The Teacher

done with knowledge, faith, and complete surrender, becomes

powerful for good.
Chhandogyopanishad.
Even like the radii fixed in the hub of a chariotwheel, is He,
the Eternal one, pervading everything, and appearing as many,
after the forms of the intellect. Meditate on this thy Self as the
syllable Aum. May you be ever happy in the realization of That
which transcends all darkness.
Mundakopanishad.
Seeing the whole universe subject to the law of causation, the
Brahmans understands that there is nothing other than the
Self which is the causeless uncreate, and finding no use in
acting up to the ideals of the world feels supreme contempt
for everything. He then repairs, with holy grass in hand, to the
teacher, wellversed in sacred lore and full of the realization of
Spirit, to inquire after the Eternal. The knower explains to him,
who with mind free from all egoism, and with the senses turned
within, repairs to him, thus questioning, that Inner Doctrine
which reveals the eternal Self, the highest Truth.
Mundakopanishad.
The chief help to selfrealization is, however, that reflection
which comes of ones own effort. An the rest, Including the
teachers grace, and so forth, are but subordinate means to the
end. Attend, therefore, carefully to the principal means.
Yogavasishtha.

31

The Spirit of the Upanishads

32

Part VII.

The Lesson.

eyond desire; without parts; above egoism; being or

nonbeing;whatever Thou art, Thou canst not escape
from being the Self. Thou destroyest; protectest; givest;
shinest; speakest; though ever free from egoism;wonderful is
the power of Maya, illusion.
Yogavasishtha.
He thought: I may become many and multiply. He objectified
himself and evolved all this, everything whatever. Having
evolved this, he entered into it; and entering became all
positives and all negatives, all spirit and all matter, all infinite
and all finite.
Taittiriyopanishad.

Then, when It was all Unmanifest, It, of itself, became manifest

through name and form, endowing everything with this or
that name, and this or that form. All things even till now are
defined by some name and some form. This is all the import of
Its entering in the objective evolved from itself.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

Dadhyangatharvana thus described this Divine Honey to the

Asvinikumaras; the seer telling what he saw, describing It as
taking on a separate form with every form. The evereffulgent
is understood to take on many forms through illusion solely for
the purpose of selfrealization.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The one who is selfenlightened, becomes everything from the
highest to the lowest; becomes the many in dreams, and as it
were, enjoys all pleasures, laughs a hearty laugh with friends, or
feels the sense of fear on seeing cause for it.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
In dreams there are in reality no chariots; no horses, not even
the course on which the chariot may run; and yet all these are
mentally created in a moment. There are in reality no joys; no
pleasures; no delights; and yet all are mentally seen and felt at
the instant. There are in reality no ponds, no lakes, no rivers;
and yet all are there at the merest thought. This power of
evolving any number of forms from Itself is the Creative Power
of the One.
Brahadaranyakopanishad.
This, therefore, is the Truth. As from fire well lighted, fiery sparks
flow off in all directions by the thousand, so do all beings of
every variety come out, oh good one! from the ever Immutable,
and are resolved also into the same. It is the selfillumined,
formless, Spirit, all within and all without; unborn; without
breath; without mind; above all conditions; beyond the eternal
cause of the phenomenal.
Mundakopanishad.
Camphor and the like never cease to emit fragrance, though
kept in any place whatever. The whole of the phenomenal may,
in the same manner, be seen in that which is all consciousness.
34

The Lesson

As the bracelet is in the gold; as water is in the mirage, or even

as a wall stands round the city seen in dream; so subsists the
form of every object in the subject.
Yogavasishtha.
He who generally knows everything, knows the same particularly
also; this omniscience is the only austerity known to him.
Mundakopanishad.
As the statue preexists in the wood; and a statue exists again
in every limb of that statue; and so on ad infinitum, so does this
gigantic statuethe Kosmosexist in the One.
Yogavasishtha.
The wise realize everywhere That which is beyond sight; beyond
grasp; which has no relation whatever; which has no form;
which has no eye and no ear, no hand, no foot; which is eternal,
allpervading, smallest of the small, ever immutable, the source
of all being. As a spider spins out his web from within himself
and draws it in at pleasure; or as herbs grow out of the earth; or
as hairs grow out of the living man, so, indeed, does evolve the
Kosmos from the ever unchangeable One.
Mundakopanishad.
This Asvatthatree, with root upward and branches extending
below, stands eternally thriving; it is the spotless, it is as the Self,
that verily is the Immortal; all worlds subsist in it, nothing can
transcend It. This is That. Through It burn fire; through It shines
the sun; through It thunders Indra; through It blows the wind. If
thou failest in this world to see the Light before the dissolution
of thy body, thou hast before thee a passage in another body
through worlds and creations.
Kathopanishad.

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The Spirit of the Upanishads

As consciousness bears witness to itself, or as separateness bears

out separateness, so is illusion sufficient, of itself, to bear out
itself and everything in contains. This indeed is Illusion, capable
of bringing about things and events beyond conception;it
deludes all in the whirl of its illusive action.
Svarajyasiddhi.
The SelfExistent inflicted a curse on the senses in endowing
them with a tendency to objectivize; it is hence that they tend to
objects without, and not to the subject within. Some rare Sages
desirous of immortality see the Self, turning there eyes within.
Children find pleasure in the objective, and become bound
in the expansive net of death; the wise knowing immortality
as the only thing stable, care not to desire anything of the
impermanent.
Kathopanishad.
Self is the rider on the chariot of this body guided by the
intellect as charioteer, drawn by the senses as powerful horses,
controlled by way of the mind serving for the reins. Thus
runs the vehicle over the course of experience. The Self thus
conditioned by the senses and the mind is called the Enjoyer
by those who know. He who is forsaken by the charioteer
(intelligent discrimination), and has no idea of guiding the
reinshis mindin the proper manner, has no control over
the senses, and is like a driver of restive horses. He who has the
intellect for his driver and the mind for proper reins, is able to
reach the other end of the course, the highest essence of the
AllPervading. That ever concealed in all, is never manifest, but
is grasped by the sharp intellect of those who are trained to
minute observation.
Kathopanishad.
Though having only three Gunas, or Qualities, Thou art the
cause of all the worlds; even the gods fail, through want of
36

The Lesson

insight, to measure the depth of Thy immeasurable power.

Thou art the sustainer of all, the whole of this universe is only
a particle of Thyself; thou indeed art the undifferentiated first
cause, the highest Prakrti. Oh Divine Mother! thou art that
supreme science of power Inconceivably immense, which
sages desirous of liberation, rising above every weakness, apply
themselves to, with the inner power of their senses held tight
in perfect control.
The Saptasati (Markendeyapurana).
Thou art the light that shines through the sun, dispelling the
darkness of ignorance prevailing within; thou art the vein that
carries the fragrant honey of the flower of consciousness to every
particle of matter; thou art that which becomes thousands of
that jewel which satisfies every desire of the needy; thou, Divine
One! art to those struggling in the ocean of incarnation, the
Restorer and Preserver.
Anandalahari.
This divine goddess, the power of supreme illusion forcibly drags
away the mind even of the knower into the web of delusion.
Saptasati (Markandeyapurana).
He who while fully attached of his body, desires to realize Self,
prepares to cross a river on the back of a crocodile mistaking it
for a piece of wood.
Vivekachudamani.
If the Wise Man leans towards objects and enjoyments,
forgetfulness throws him off the guard, like an adulteress her
paramour, by clouding his intellect. As moss moved from upon
the face of water stands not away even for a minute, delusion
(Maya) envelopes even the knowing one, if he is off his guard.
Vivekachudamani.
37

The Spirit of the Upanishads

A woman may appear as a wife, daughterinlaw, sisterinlaw,

brotherswife, mother, and so on, respectively, to the several
persons related to her, but she herself continues ever one.
Panchadasi.
That the origin of experience is explained from evolution, after
the manner of pots, etc., from clay; instruments etc., from iron;
or sparks from fire; is only a method of putting the matter to
the learner; there is, in reality, no distinction whatever in the All.
Gaudapadacharya.
He, who imagines a limit in the limitless, transcendant, Self, has,
of himself, put his self in bondage.
Yogavasishtha.
That which is naught at beginning and end, is naught in the
present moment also; things though fully resembling unreality,
are said to be real by a kind of metaphor.
Gaudapadacharya.
Experience known as experience tends to degrade, but known
as import of the World, it becomes all perfect bliss.
Yogavasishtha.
Thou alone eternally evolvest through the gracefulness of thyself
made up of being and nonbeing, having for its embodiment
the wonderful variety of endless objects.
Yogavasishtha.
As the rope, not understood as such, is mistaken, in the dark,
for a snake, so is Spirit mistaken for the variety of this world.
Gaudapadacharya.

38

The Lesson

Experience, full of likes and dislikes, is verily a dream; real while

it lasts, all unreal on being awake.
Atmabodha.

39

The Spirit of the Upanishads

40

Part VIII.

The Law of Karma.

ortitude, forbearance, selfrestraint, no desire for

others wealth, purity, control over the senses, conscious
intelligence, spiritual culture, truthfulness, absence of
anger,these ten make up the characteristics of all true religion
whatever.
Manu.

As the caterpillar, getting to the end of the straw, takes itself

away after finding a restingplace in advance, so the Soul leaving
this body, and finding another place in advance, takes himself
off from his original abode. As the goldsmith taking little by
little of the gold expands it into a new form, so, indeed, does
this Soul, leaving this body, make a new and happy abode for
himself.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The sacrifice of the ignorant drowns itself and those who betake
themselves to it. Those fools who imagine any good in this, are
led again and again into the wheel of decay and death. Those
men of stupid intellect who imagine vain forms and ceremonies
41

The Spirit of the Upanishads

as the height of religion, and know no good besides, return

again into this world or even into a lower one.
Mundakopanishad.
Therefore, as here, in this world, dies out what may be
encompassed by Action, so dies out in the world next to this,
all that may be acquired through acts of formal religion.
Chhandogyopanishad.
Forms of religion but forge so many bonds round the individual;
Spiritual Consciousness alone disperses them.
MahaBharata.
Formal religion has its use in purification of the intellect, it
cannot show us That. That is realized through reflection, not
at all even by a million forms of worship.
Vivekachudamani.
Karma leads to that result alone which it can produce, reach,
evolve, or modify; liberation is not brought about in any of
these ways; hence Karma cannot be the means of liberation.
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
Karma never dispels ignorance, being under the same category.
Knowledge alone destroys ignorance, even as light dispels
darkness.
Atmabodha.
Happiness or misery is not in any ones giving, it is all a
misunderstanding of the intellect which shows either the one
or the other as coming from some one else. Nay, the proud
egoism even in the act, of the form I do it, is entirely vain.
Every individual is governed by his own Karma.
Miscellaneous.
42

Part IX.

Devotional Worship.

ll this verily is the Self, for it is of it, in it, and through

it. The selfcontrolled should devote himself to this Self.
The man is all Idea, whatever Idea the man cherishes in
this world that he becomes in the next. Fix thyself, therefore, on
to the Idea of the Self.
Chhandogyopanishad.

Teachers; interpretations of sacred texts; the force of religious

merit; none of these lead to the realization of That which is
revealed in the clear reflection of the heart, engendered from
contact with the good.
Yogavasishtha.
Clarified butter, though present in every part of the cow,
conduces naught to her nourishment. It serves as the best
nourishment to its producer, only when worked out into its
proper form. In the same manner, the highest effulgent Self,
present in all beings, even like the clarified butter, is never of
any practical use to them, till properly realized through the
force of devotion.
Yogavasishtha.
43

The Spirit of the Upanishads

If you ask what can be the difference between Spiritual

Consciousness and devotion? pray hear; reflection is bound up
with the thing, devotion with the actor. Spiritual Consciousness
comes of reflection, no opposite desire can put it out; it burns
up every appearance of reality in the world of phenomena, in
the very moment of its birth.
Panchadasi.
This body is the holy Kasi; the river of Spirituality flowing through
and through the three worlds is the sacred Ganges; devotion and
faith stand for the heavenly Gaya; the muchcoveted Prayaga
is, indeed, in deep concentration at the feet of the teacher; and
this inner Self, the fourth, the witness of every ones mind, is
the God;if thus all holy places stand together in this body of
mine, what other place could be holier to seek?
Kasipanchaka.
Formal objects of worship are devised for the use of those who
have not yet realized the Essence; going by miles is devised for
those who cannot go by leagues.
Yogavasishtha.
Said Prajapati: whence does come this fear! With the thought,
why did I fear? disappeareth all fear; for, fear comes of duality.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Insist not on the order of steps in the process of Selfrealization;
the inverted vision which, like hunger, is the cause of much
tangible suffering, must in one way or other, be cured.
Panchadasi.
Attend to this, the essence of all Spirituality, and attending,
digest it well. Desire alone is bondage, its destruction is
liberation.
Yogavasishtha.
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Devotional Worship

To all ascetics whatever, the condition of Fearlessness depends

upon control of the mind, which leads also to destruction of
misery; perfect light, and inexhaustible peace.
Gaudapadacharya.
The mind of Rama! is that which is between being and nonbeing,
which stands between spirit and matter, which in fact swings to
and fro between the two.
Yogavasishtha.
Thinking evolves the objective. All the three worlds exist in and
through thinking. The Kosmos melts away on its dissolution.
This thinking should carefully be diagnosed.
Yogavasishtha.
All ideas come of Thinking, they disappear on suspension of
Thinking. Attune this Thinking, therefore, to the highest Self,
thy Inner Consciousness.
Vivekachudamani.
That which leads to false vision, sets up the Personal Self in
place of the Real Self; shadows forth a thing in nothing; this oh
Raghava! is that which we describe as thinking.
Yogavasishtha.
Abandon all latent desire for the multitude of enjoyments
pressing round. Nay give up even the desire for life as
represented in the body. And finally rise above all sense of
being and nonbeing. Find thus full Bliss in absolute Spiritual
Knowing.
Yogavasishtha.
My mind was occupied elsewhere, and I did not see; my mind
was occupied elsewhere, and I did not hear; it is through the
mind alone that one sees or hears. Love, thought, doubt, belief,
45

The Spirit of the Upanishads

unbelief, patience, impatience, intelligence, shame, fear, all

make up the mind.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Mind alone is, to men, the cause of bondage or liberation;lost
in the enjoyment it leads to bondage, emptied of the personal
it leads to liberation.
Panchadasi.
The light of Spirituality breaks not in full force upon that puny
thing which is all beclouded with fear of the world, with pride
of learning; and with love of life.
Smrti.
The father, being victim of Illusion, bewails the loss of his son,
taking him for dead, though he be full of life in some far off land.
On the other hand, he does not bewail even though his son be
dead, till the information has reached him. It is plain, the cause
of bondage lies in the mental creation.
Panchadasi.
You may drink the ocean dry; you may uproot from its base the
mountain Meru; you may swallow fire. But more difficult than
all these, oh Good One! is control over the mind.
Panchadasi.
As fire, not fed by fuel, subsides into its place, so, indeed, does
all thinking die out into its source, on not being led into
modifications of any kind.
Jivanmuktiviveka.
He who understanding the mind applies himself, again and
again, to subduing it, gains no success without the help of
some consummate plan, even like one who fails to subdue a
mad elephant without the iron hook. Application to spiritual
46

Devotional Worship

science; company of the good; abandonment of latent desire;

restraining the flow of breath; these are some of the most
useful means to control the mind. Those who, in face of these,
try to control it through physical practices, lose sight of the
lamp, while vainly dispelling darkness with darkness.
Yogavasishtha.
Renounce all conformity with the world, give up all concern of
the body, nay, have nothing to do with the forms of religion and
learning;thus wear off the false illusion that wraps thySelf.
Vivekachudamam.
As one desirous of coming out successful in debate applies
himself closely to the study of poems, plays, logic and the like,
so must he who desires liberation reflect constantly on himself.
Panchadasi.
The God of the twiceborn is Fire. The God of the Silent one is
his Heart. Poor intellects find their God in idols. The eveneyed
enlightened one sees God everywhere.
Uttaragita.

47

The Spirit of the Upanishads

48

Part X.

Freedom.

hat mean spirit should be avoided from a distance, who,

relying on the unseen Fate, attributes his conduct to the
unreal and false idea of some one necessitating it from
behind. He is verily a beast, constantly in anothers power, who
thinks he goes to heaven or hell as God may will it.
Yogavasishtha.
Even the body being of illusion, where could there be any room
for necessity? That the Vedas speak of necessity is only for the
enlightenment of the ignorant.
Aparokshanubhuti.
In this world, oh child of the Raghus! every one can always
compass everything through welldirected personal effort.
Yogavasishtha.

Resort to personal effort. Hear such word of scripture as points

out some useful line of action. The rest, even though as old as
time, should be overlooked, with the eye fixed on truth and
truth alone.
Yogavasishtha.
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

The wise, relying on necessity, should not give up free personal

effort, for even necessity works through freedom.
Yogavasishtha.
He who sets himself not at liberty by cutting the tight bond
his mindwith his mind, can never be freed by any one else.
Yogavasishtha.

50

Part XI.

Spiritual Knowing.

piritual Knowing, is of all means, the only direct means

of liberation. Liberation is never accomplished without it,
as sure as food is not cooked without fire.
Atmabodha.

The Real Truth is seen by reflection engendered through some

beneficent suggestion; it can never be seen by constant washing,
by giving gifts, nay not even by a hundred breathing exercises.
Vivekachudamani.
The state of the Real Self is within reach of those alone who
are full of austerity, virtue, and truthfulness. Those, indeed, find
that entirely pure condition, in whom there is not the remotest
trace of fashionable lies or deliberate falsehoods, nor any
hypocrisy whatever.
Prasnopanishad.
When entirely disappear all desires rankling in the heart, the
moral becomes immortal, and fully realizes the Self even here.
When here, indeed, burst all ties that bind the heart so fast, the
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

mortal surely becomes immortal. This verily is the teaching of

the whole of the Vedanta.
Kathopanishad.
No means other than reflection can produce real Spiritual
Knowing. Nothing but light can ever reveal the existence of
things.
Aparokshanubhuti.
Reflection may run as follows:Who am I? How is this evolved?
Who can be the creator of this? What may be the material
cause? And it may proceed to answer the questions thus:I
am not the bodya mere cluster of elements,nor even the
senses. I am something quite different from the one as well as
the other. Things come out of ignorance, but die away on the
rise of Spiritual Knowing.
Aparokshamtbhuti.
Reflection must be supposed to have borne fruit in that man of
good intellect, who continues to lose, from day to day, all desire
for enjoyment.
Yogavasishtha.
Depth such as of the ocean; firmness such as of the Meru; and
internal coolness such as of the moon;these arise in the man
devoted to reflection.
Yogavasishtha.

52

Part XII.

The FourFold Means.

he four means of Selfrealization beginning with

nonattachment, come about from keeping all duties
prescribed for the occupation one belongs to; by austerity;
and by satisfying God with devotion.
Aparokshanubhuti.

Control; give; sympathize; these three must be learnt and

practised: Selfcontrol, charity, and sympathy.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Thou longeth after unrealities such as I and mine. Those who
know wish thy activity were directed to the highest reality. Thou
never canst know the thing nor can I. It is meet, therefore, oh
mind! for thee to turn to selfrestraint.
Upadesasdkasri.
Selfrestraint consists in freedom from latent desire. Control
consists in checking the activity of the external senses. That is
the height of Nonattachment which turns the mind entirely
away from the objective. That is the best of Indifference which
patiently puts up with all evils whatever. Faith is full confidence
53

The Spirit of the Upanishads

in sacred texts and their interpreters. Constant oneness of aim

is the minds fixing on the Eternal Being this is called Pacification
of the mind. Oh my fate! when and how shall I get rid of the
bonds of this worldthis firm and burning desire may be
described as the DesireforLiberation.
Aparokshanubhuti.
Where theseNonattachment and Desireforliberationare
as yet in the initial stage, there can but appear a mere glimpse
of Selfrestraint and the rest, even like a glimpse of water in the
mirage.
Vivekachudamani.
The wild mareDesirebreaking away to the longest distance,
and running back as often, keeps roving about up to the very
dwelling of the hunters.
Yogavasishtha.
He alone sees who looks upon anothers wife as upon his own
mother; who looks upon anothers wealth as upon so much
earth and stone; who looks upon every being as upon his own
Self.
Smrti.
To the fishesthese menin the pond of birth and death,
wallowing in the slough of the mind, bad latent desires serve for
the line to which the woman stands attached as the treacherous
bait. He feels desire for enjoyment who has a woman about him;
there is no place for enjoyment to the womanless. Abandon
woman, and you abandon the whole world; abandoning the
whole world, you find supreme happiness.
Yogavasishtha.
Wealth, ever on the move, clouds the intellect, nips the line of
virtues in the very bud, and betrays into the net of misery. The
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The FourFold Means

man is warm and soft and all that is desirable, to his own and
to the world, only as long as he is not sufficiently hardened by
wealth, like water by the cold blast.
Yogavasishtha.
Misery attends the acquisition of wealth, and misery attends
the protection of wealth acquired, there is misery in its coming,
there is misery in its going;oh! fie upon wealth, the abode of
misery out and out.
Panchatantra.
There is no hope of immortality through wealth, and all it may
accomplish of good or religion.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
All growing ends in fading, all rising ends in falling, all meeting
ends in parting;such indeed is the law of this world.
Yogavasishtha.
Oh Yajnavalkya! what would your worship mean to the
All? which is beyond hunger and thirst, beyond sorrow and
illusion, beyond decay and death? It is this Self knowing which,
Brahmans, renouncing all contact with world, wealth and wife,
go about as religious mendicants.
Brhadaranyakopanishad,
Objects of desire, even though they should abide long, are sure
to depart. What difference does it make in the parting, though
men do not part from them of their own accord? This is the
answer: If they depart of themselves, they leave immeasurable
mental suffering behind; if you part from them they confer on
you the endless bliss of selfrestraint.
Vairagyasataka.

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The Spirit of the Upanishads

Death is the law of being. The wise describe it as Life.

Miscellaneous.
To the really enlightened, this great cityhis bodyis, like a
garden, opening up a passage to liberation through enjoyment;
thus all bliss and no pain whatever.
Yogavasishtha.
The mind only half informed, and not yet in full realization of
the spotless condition, feels the keenest torture in tearing itself
away from objects of enjoyment.
Yogavasishtha.
With every connection which the poor thing binds nearer itself,
there is driven an additional spike of harm into its heart of heart.
Mahabharata.
Full of the waters of mental creations; boisterous with the waves
of latent desire; infested with the crocodile of attachment;
the resort of the birds of imagination; carrying along its mad
stream the trees of fortitude growing upon its bank; difficult to
cross on account of the treacherous eddies of illusion; enclosed
within the impassably high banks of anxiety;thus supremely
terrible runs the river of Desire. The lords of ascetics, with their
minds purified of all dross, rejoice in eternal joy, having crossed
over to the other side.
Vairagyasataka.
There is the greatest misery in hope, in hopelessness is the
height of bliss.
Vairagyasataka.
Everything that depends on Self is bliss, everything that depends
on Self is misery.
Manu.
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The FourFold Means

A mere cover of bark satisfies one; but another seeks satisfaction

in wealth and luxury. The feeling, however, is the same in either
case, and the difference is really no difference at all. He, indeed,
is the miserable man of poverty who has in him the most
insatiable desire. The mind being all contentment, what can
make the rich or the poor?
Vairagyasataka.
Oh my heart! to secure what favour dost thou enter this slough
of worry and distraction in trying to please the mind of others?
If thou wouldst only please thy Self, there would, indeed, dawn
of itself, on thee, the power of that jewel which is known to fulfil
every desire;what wish, then, of thine will remain unfulfilled,
on the merest thought of the moment?.
Vairagyasataka.
What can be said to the man who finds fault even with him
who values at its proper worth all rubbish and its belongings!
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
There is no remedy, within knowledge, which can satisfy each
and all. Attend, every way, to thy own good, what can the
manytongued world do to thee?
Jivanmuktiviveka.
When men desirous of doing good, give up even wealth
acquired with considerable pains, for the pleasure of others, I
would consider it an unmixed good, brought about without
any trouble, if men should find satisfaction in speaking ill of
me. In this world where we stumble upon poverty of spirit at
every step, and which is devoid of every kind of happiness, if
any being should find pleasure in speaking ill of me, let him by
all means indulge in his feeling, either in my presence or behind

57

The Spirit of the Upanishads

my back, for, in this world, all misery, it is very hard to come

across even a single moment of such pleasure.
Jnanankusa.
If the wise man of the world who carefully picks holes in the
character of others, would but expend the same skill on himself,
what could prevent him from breaking through the bonds of
Ignorance.
Smrti.
If thou feelest anger at him who does thee the smallest evil,
why dost thou not feel anger at the passion itself which entirely
spoils the chief aim of existence:Liberation.
Jivanmuktiviveka.
He who is full of discrimination, who sees one equal Self in
friends and foes as well as in himself and can feel no more angry
with any one, than with a part of himself.
The Vartika.
Life is as dear to all beings as it is to oneself; feel compassion for
every being taking thy own Self as the measure.
Smrti.
Let all be happy; let all enjoy perfect health; let all find the good
of their heart; let no one come to grief.
Jivanmuktiviveka.
The triad of the Veda, the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Pasupata, the
Vaishnava;the three prasthanas being interpreted into one
or other of these, men look upon this as good and upon that
as agreeable, and so on.Of men thus betaking themselves to
a variety of ways.straight, easy or difficult, on account of the

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The FourFold Means

difference of intellect, That alone is the ultimate resort even

like the ocean of all water whatever.
Pushpadantacharya.
The ass carrying a load of sandalwood is conscious only of the
burden, not of the fragrant wood. So, indeed, does he carry
about a mere burden who having studied the Religious Books
knows not their real import and essence.
Uttaragtta.
That which is not to be, shall never be; that which is to be shall
never not be;why dost thou not drain this draught which will
eradicate the poison of anxiety from thyself?
Vairagyasataka.
What means the shaft of love, after youth has gone by? What
means the lake, after the water is dried up? What means friends
and relatives, after all wealth is gone? What means the world,
after the Essence is realized?
ankaracharya.
The ascetic with the matted hair; the mendicant with the shaved
head; the Yati with the hair rooted out; and many others of
the same class; play a variety of parts, under the cloth dyed
yellowred.People though seeing, fail to See, and go through
an amount of trouble for the sake of the outward form and
show.
ankaracharya.
Day follows upon night, evening succeeds morning, the blast of
withering cold follows the season full of flowers, and this over
and over again. Time plays with the life of beings thus wearing
out; and yet the whirl of Desire does never subside.
ankaracharya.
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

One beam meets another in the dash of the great ocean, and
becomes immediately separated in the same manner; similar
indeed is the meeting of beings with beings.
Mahabharata.

60

Part XIII.

Union (Yoga).

iberation is not on the other side of the sky, nor in the

nether world, nor on earth; liberation lies in the mind
purified by proper Spiritual Knowing.
Yogavasishtha.

He alone is fit to inquire after the Self, who has acquired full
discrimination; who is firm in nonattachment; who has in
him the qualities beginning with selfcontrol; and who, thus
qualified, feels keen desire for knowledge.
Aparokshanubhuti.
I have studied enough of philosophy, nay I have talked and taught
it to my full; And, now I am convinced there is no condition
higher than that Silence which comes of the abandonment of
all latent desire.
Yogavasishtha.
That is called the highest condition wherein all the five senses
and the mind remain under full control and wherein even the
intellect does not pass out to other desires. This steadying of
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

the senses is called Yoga; the Yogi is full awake in that condition,
for, Yoga is creating accompanied with giving up.
Kathopanishad.
Firm and studious application to the one Essence, and control
of mind;this is a short statement of the import of Liberation.
Yogavasishtha.
Two oh Raghava! are the paths leading to suspension, of
thinking: Yoga which consists in controlling the thinking
principle, and Spiritual Knowing which consists in the proper
eye for experience.
Yogavasishtha.
Yoga is the control of the thinking principle.
Patanjali.
Control of speech; full independence; absence of hope and
desire; and constant love of seclusion,these open the first
door to Yoga.
Vivekachudamani.
The mind is controlled by practice and nonattachment.
Patanjali.
Spiritual Knowing; control of mind; and destruction of latent
desire; these being the reciprocal causes, one of the other, they
are the most difficult to accomplish.
Yogavasishtha.
Mind being nearest mind, those who abandoning the true
secret, apply themselves only to the body, are described as lost
in physical attachment.
Yogavasishtha.
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Union (Yoga)

Whatever comes to view in this world; whatever raises you to

the sky; whatever exalts you to heaven;everything, oh Rama!
is within reach after complete destruction of all love and all
hate.
Yogavasishtha.
Producing the Self from self, and, as often, deluding self by the
Self; inner consciousness leads itself, of its Self, to the bliss of
selfrealization.
Yogavasishtha.
If Yoga consists in restraining the vital breath, this could easily be
done through nonattachment, through constant application
to the Cause, through some wellconceived device, through
the abandonment of evil habits, or through realization of the
Absolute.
Yogavasishtha.
Detach thyself from the thing tasted and from that which tastes
it, meditate on the taste alone; thus be ever the Self.
Yogavasishtha.
The mind being full, the whole universe is filled with the juice of
nectar; the whole earth is covered with leather to him who has
put his foot in the shoe.
Yogavasishtha.
I think those Yogis will never find their efforts sending in any
good result, who without knowing spiritual yoga address
themselves only to physical exercises.
Hathapradipika.
Doing and suffering being at end, peace alone survives;this
expanded to the absolute limit, the wise call liberation.
Yogavasishtha.
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

Time must elapse between sowing and harvest, nay even in

the growth of such wild grass as the holy Kusa and the like;
reflection on the Self ripens into selfrealization by degrees, and
in course of time.
Panchadasi.
Attach thyself not to Karma; but equally attach thyself not to
stupid inactivity and suspension of all Karma whatever;be
what your are, equal in all conditions.
Yogavasishtha.
That patience which would empty the ocean drop by drop, at
the tip of a straw of the Kusagrass, will, untiringly sustained,
establish control over the mind.
Gaudapadacharya.
The inner Self is the purusha as big as the mans thumb ever
present in the heart;him should he patiently separate from
the body like its pulp from the straw.
Kathopanishad.
The One, omnipotent, inner Self of all beings, manifests himself
as the manifold. None but those who see Him in themselves,
find eternal happiness. Eternal in the eternal; conscious in the
conscious; ever one; he sends out all the variety of ideas to all.
None but those who see Him in themselves, find eternal peace.
Kathopanishad.
The interval between the minds passing from one idea to
anotherthe period of calm between the two storms of
Thoughtmay be described as the native condition of Self.
Yogavasishtha.

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Union (Yoga)

Fix thy mind on That which is not smitten with the evil eye of
the Devil of Multifariousness,causing shakiness of mind.
Yogavasishtha.
What one does and what he thinks, that he becomes.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
No being ever lives of Air, or Food, or Vitality, but all beings
live of the thing that transcends themof the thing in which
they live. I shall explain to thee, once more, the eternal, esoteric
Spirit; I shall tell thee, oh Gautama! what becomes of the soul
who knows not Spirit after death. Some of these return into
the womb of woman for further incarnation, others assimilate
themselves with immovable things, all in accord with the acts
they have done, the Idea they have lived.
Kathopanishad.
Neither speech nor mind, nay not even the eye, can realize
It; how can It be realized in any category other than Being. It
should be realized as pure Being, through proper analysis of
both its conditioned and unconditioned forms. On him breaks
the light of the Essence, beyond Being as well as nonBeing,
who thus realizes It.
Kathopanishad.
Subject is coloured with object, and object is coloured with
subject; both again, are coloured with the sense of egoism, on
the destruction whereof is, therefore, realized the oneness of
All.
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
Egoism is plainly not destroyed, till all forms and conventions
which hold thee fast in bondage, as in a cage, are annihilated to
the extent of leaving absolutely nothing for remainder.
Yogavasishtha.
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

Being, wisdom, bliss, name, and form, these five make up all
objects whatever; the first three make up Spirit, the rest the
material world.
Drgdrsyaviveka.
Some may cognize the ever blissful, the illuminator of all
illumination whatever, even by cognizing It without even these
attributes.
Atmapurana.
Said Yajnavalkya:Oh love! the husband is dear not for himself,
but for Self; the wife is dear not for herself, but for SelfNo
one thing is dear for itself, but for Self. This Self should be seen,
studied, contemplated, assimilated; oh sweet Maitreyi! the
study contemplation, and assimilation of Self leaves nothing to
know.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Said Yajnavalkya: It may be seen after the following illustrations:
The ocean is the one resort of all water; the skin is the ultimate
sphere of all touch; the tongue is the one ground of all taste;
the nose is the one basis of all smell; the eye is the one field
of all form; the ear is the one place of all sound; the mind is
the one source of all ideas; the heart is the one fountain of all
knowledge; the Word is the one truth of all the Vedas:even
thus is It the one fact of all and every being. Put a lump of salt
in water, it melts into the water of which it came; you can never
grasp it afterwards; it is all salt, every drop of water you may
touch. So indeed, oh dear one! is this great, endless unlimited
Being,all thought. The universe coming of this, melts away
into this, and being thus lost, loses all distinction whatever.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The following may serve for fit illustrations:When a drum is
being beaten it is difficult to catch all the noise that proceeds
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Union (Yoga)

from it; the drum itself being seen, the whole of the noise that
follows the beating is grasped without mistake. When the
conch is being blown it is difficult to mark all the sounds that
blow themselves out to all directions; the conch being seen the
whole of the sound that blows through it is marked without
fail. When the lyre is being played upon, it is difficult to observe
the notes passing one into the other; the lyre being seen, the
music flowing through it is seen in a moment. As from fire fed
with wet fuel arise sparks and smoke and the like, so is all this,
oh dear one! the mere spontaneous breath of the great Being.
The Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samveda, the Atharvaveda, all
history, all mythology, all science, all philosophy, all poetry, all
aphorisms, all commentaries, all parables;everything is Its
breath.
Brhadarnyakopanishad.
Oh good one! one form of clay furnishes the clue to all that is
made of clay; all forms and shapes being mere names, mere play
of words; the real ground of them all being clay and nothing
else. One form of gold reveals the nature of all forms of the
same metal; all forms being mere names, mere play of words;
the real ground of them all being gold and nothing else. One
form of iron leads to all forms whatever of the same metal; all
forms being mere names, mere play of words; the real ground
of them all is iron and nothing else, Thus oh good one! should
be understood what I explained to thee in the words Thou art
That.
Chhandogyopanishad.
Who thinks the Self is naught becomes naught; he is all being
who knows the Self to be.
Taittiriyopanishad.

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The Spirit of the Upanishads

The whole world is Spirit, there is no thing else in Reality;

Betake thyself to this view of things, and rest in peace, thus
regaining thy real Self.
Yogavasishtha.
The man attached to being, is all being, through total
identification with the Idea; the grub full of the idea of the bee
becomes the bee.
Vivekachudamani.
Identify the mind with that which leads to good in the end;
which is all truth, which is everlasting; which is above illusion;
and which is not struck with the eye of evil desire.
Yogavasishtha.
Identification with being leads to being; identification with
emptiness leads to emptiness; and identification with the All
leads to supreme Allness. Study to attain the condition of this
Allness.
Aparokshanubhuti.
There is no condition either of bondage or liberation; there is
no duality and no unity; it is AllBeingout and out. This is the
absolute truth.
Yogavasishtha.
The wise man should fuse all speech and senses into the mind;
the mind into the Self that discriminates; the discriminating
Self into the great Self; and he should fuse his Self into the Self,
all peace and tranquility.
Kathopanishad.
Having destroyed sense with Sense; mind with Mind; egoism
with Egoism; I stand supreme as the Self of all.
Yogavasishtha.
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Union (Yoga)

Use for bow the word of glory, Aum, fix the arrow, thy personal
Self, on the string; and being all attention, take such unerring
aim as will fix the arrow in the targetThe One Self.
Mundukopanishad.
The emptying of the mind of the whole of its illusion, is the
true rechaka (the process of emptying the lungs of the air
they contain; the full realization of the idea I am Spirit is the
true puraka (the process of filling the lungs with air drawn in
from without); and the firm steady sustenance of the mind on
this conviction is the true Kumbhaka (the retention of the air
inhaled). This is the true Pranayama of the enlightened; fools
find it only in torturing the nose.
Aparokshanubhuti.
Him death desires to overpower, who wears on his heart the
badge of that necklace upon which the vices are held together
by the thread of unbroken latent desires. Death overpowers
him whom anger, the fire drying up the waters of discrimination,
has power to affect. The oilmill presses the mixed heap of
hard sesamumseeds into an indiscriminate mass;death
overpowers him, who is similarly pressed by Carnal Lust into a
mass, all indiscriminate and confused.
Yogavasishtha.
Arouse the mind if it fall into lethargy! pacify it back into its
place if it run out; persuade it by proper knowledge if it tend to
the objective;touch it not when it has found the condition
of Peace.
Gaudapadacharya.
Spirituality, the fire which burns up the straw of desire, is all
that is meant by the word Samadhi, not at all the attitude of
silence and contemplation.
Yogavasishtha.
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Let the mind function out into the condition beyond

distraction; let it, then, take on the form of the idea I am
Spirit; and let it lastly subside into entire forgetfulness of all
personality whatever. This is the real ecstasy of the Saint.
Aparokshanubhuti.
The absolute sense of universal Being is realized only when
consciousness, void of all that it makes conscious, loses itself in
the Self, being purified of all relation to personality.
Yogavasishtha.
When all material thinking is put out by complete identification
with the idea of nonexistence, then indeed does consciousness,
the common substratum of all, ripen into the absolute sense of
universal Being.
Yogavasishtha.
Let Carnal Love and its kind by all means remain for those who
still are deluded thereby; Their mere existence can certainly give
no offence to the Wise, for the old sheserpent now deprived
of her poisonous fangs, is powerless to do any harm to such
as these, who have perceived the serpentnature within her
beautiful tinted skin.
Jivanmuktimveka.
Enjoyment accompanied by Spiritual Knowing conduces to
pure contentment. The thief, admitted into company with
knowledge of him as thief, becomes more a friend than a foe.
Yogavasishtha.
The knower of the Essence, enjoying the pleasures of the senses
with moderation, but knowing them for what they are, may
derive both temporal as well as spiritual pleasure, even like one
having knowledge of two languages.
Panchadasi.
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Union (Yoga)

I believe him liberated for ever, who performs every act without
the idea of his personally doing it, taking it to be only a part of
the multifarious spontaneous action of Nature.
Yogavasishtha.
Fixed abode; desire of fine pots, etc., for use; laying by a store;
the taking of pupils; sleeping by day; vain talk;these six
degrade the ascetic into bondage. That ascetic falls in no time
who indulges in cohabitation, or who begins to lay by a store
of wealth.
Smrti.
The loving woman never ceases to dream of her lover, even
when all intent on the discharge of her household duties.
The wise finding sweet rest in the supreme undefiled Essence,
continue for ever to enjoy it within, though going in the ways
of the world, without.
Panchadasi.
Relate thyself not with the future, nor with what has gone by;
live the present out with smiling heart.
Yogavasishtha.
The consciousness of self implied in the ego, the subject;
and the consciousness of belonging implied in the mine
attached to objects;when both these consciousnesses so to
speak are emptied of all content whatever, then indeed does
one become the knower of Self.
Upadesasahasri.
Thus the araniwood, this self, being constantly worked upon
with this other piece of wood, contemplation, there arises the
flame of Spirituality burning up all ignorance whatever.
Atmabodha.
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He enjoys the ecstasy of absolute bliss, who, in consequence of

the absorbing pleasure of Selfrealization, rises above all such
means as words and objects, and ever stands like the jet of a
lamp in some place protected from the breeze.
Drgdrsyamveka.
The liberated man thinketh ever upon that Being who is the
goal of all philosophic reasoning; who is the conviction of every
heart; who is the All; who is Everywhere; who is Everything.
Yogavasishtha.
He is liberated even against his wish who gains that full
consciousness of Self which dispels the illusion identifying Self
with the body;consciousness as strong and firm as that he
had while under the illusion.
Upadesasahasri.
Capable of distinguishing good from evil, ever in supreme peace
gained through Spirituality, cured of its native restlessness, my
mind stands, oh sage! in perfect calm.
Yogavasishtha.
Half of ignorance is destroyed by free exchange of thought; half
of the remainder is dispelled by application to philosophy; the
rest fades away in the light of Selfreflection.
Yogavasishtha.
Identification with ignorance resulting in obscuration of the
light of Self, disappears with the rise of Spirituality.
Panchadasi.

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Part XIV.

Liberation.

ow to me, this Self, void of consciousness and that which

it makes conscious; void of subject and object, of all names
whatever;Selfillumined for once and for ever. Hail
again to me; all rest and peace; the high mountain of supreme
bliss, smiling under the sky cleared of all clouds of egoism; fresh
after complete extinction of the wild, devastating conflagration
of Desire. To the lamp of Love burning bright with its wick of
spontaneous ideas without any material oil;to the light of
inner consciousness, the selfsustained sustainer of the intellect
and all that depends on it;right hearty welcome, right joyous
greeting!
Yogavasishtha.

Subject, object, instrument, time, space, categories, being,

nonbeing, phenomena, all are forms of That which is the
blessed Self.
Yogavasishtha.
Lightness, health, peace; beauty and grace; melodious voice;
profuse fragrance; these signify the firstfruits of Yoga. The
resplendent ball of gold encrusted with dust, shines in native
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The Spirit of the Upanishads

lustre, when carefully washed; the self having regained its Self
shines alone in the eternal bliss of supreme fulfilment.
vetavataropanishad.
As the sword flashes out of its sheath before the eye in dream,
transcending the scheme of all causation; so is the knower
all Selfeffulgent, transcending the five sheaths and standing
above all causations.
Upadeasahasri.
Thou mayest realize the distinction between this world and
Spirit, to be as like unto the distinction between void and Ether.
Yogavasishtha.
Those are the enlightened great souls of this world who happen
to be firmly fixed in eternal unborn Calmness. The world can
not even dream of it.
Gaudapadacharya.
Sight of the Supreme breaks asunder the knot of egoism in the
heart, dispels all doubts, extinguishes all Karma.
Mundakopanishad.
The blindest sensualist finds in his mother the irremovable
bar to the excess of his indulgence; the man of the sharpest
intellect is overcome by the ultimate resort of all thought and
all blissThe One.
Vivekachudamani.
Therefore, the knower of The One finishing all learning, should
wish to be strong in the Self, and finishing even this strength
as well as that learning, he should try to become the silent
one. Finishing learning, and strength, and silence, he becomes
the true Brahman, the real knower of Brahman. What, indeed,
makes the Brahman? Whatever may make the Brahman, he
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cannot be other than the one thus described; all beside is vain
and worthless.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Powder of the katakawood put into water settles down the
mud that makes it foul. So Spirituality constantly put in, drives
down the ignorance which renders the soul all turbid, leaving it
in the native purity of itSelf.
Atmabodha.
Nothing moves him to love or hate, who finds all beings in
himself and himself in all beings. What can delusion or sorrow
mean then? when to the knower realizing unity of the All, every
particle has become his Self.
Isopanishad.
Spiritual Consciousness having shown the absolute
nonexistence of the objective; the supreme peace of liberation
is fully realized in the minds being wiped clean of all and every
object whatever.
Panchadasi.
Experience in the light of Wisdom, dissolving every impression
it may leave behindthis sleep in waking,is the real nature
of those who know; liberation is only the highest development
of this nature.
Yogavasishtha.
Said Yajnavalkya:This is not the Self, this is not the Self; the
incomprehensible is never comprehended; the indissoluble is
never dissolved; the unconditioned is never conditioned; the
unpained is never pained; never put out;thou oh Janaka! hast
realized entire fearlessness.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
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The bliss of Brahman!speech and mind fall back baffled and

abashed; all fear vanishes in the knowing of that bliss.
Taittiriyopanishad.
The silent one, the knower ever resting in the Self, may walk,
stand, sit, lie down, or do anything at his sweet will.
Vivekachudamani.
I do not see, for, I have no eyes; without ears, how can I hear? I
cannot speak, for, I have no speech; without mind how could I
find the world of mind?
Upadesasahasri.
There is none superior to me in Selfknowledge, none inferior
to me in ignorance; who knows thus, is the greatest knower of
Brahman.
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
Neither knowable nor unknowable; neither spoken nor
unspoken; neither liked nor disliked; impossible of retaining
in any mental presentation; nay not possible to fix in
contemplation even for a moment; all bliss through and
through; beautiful in the deep sense of ecstatic selfrealization;
this mySelf wonderfully dissolves the world in the sudden flash
of its abundant light.
Svarajyasiddhi.
Separate, unique, one, multifarious, knowable, knower, motive,
mover,these and other imaginings of the same kind, where
could they find room other than in me all One?
Upadesasahasri.

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Liberation

Egoism having disengaged itself from the body, and having

been dissolved in the light of Supreme Self, the mind stands in
a blissful state wherever it goes, whatever it directs itself to.
Drgdrsyaviveka.
The native form of the subject, highly transcendent,
selfillumined for once and for ever, unborn, one, immutable,
unconditioned, allpervading, without a second;I am this,
the ever liberated word of glory.
Upadesasahasri.
He has had a dip in the holy waters of all sacred rivers; he has
given the whole earth in pious gift; he has offered a thousand
sacrifices; he has satisfied all the gods in heaven; he has lifted
his ancestors out of the circle of birth and death; he deserves
worship of all the three worlds;the man whose mind has,
even for a moment, tasted of peace in the absorbing idea of
Brahman.
Miscellaneous.
Neither love nor hate; neither ambition nor illusion; neither
pride nor the least tinge of jealousy; no good, spiritual or
temporal; no desire; no liberation;I am none of these, I am
all Bliss, the Bliss of All Eternal Consciousness. Holiness or
unholiness; happiness or misery; incantation or holy pilgrimage;
scripture or sacrifice; none of these belong to me; not even the
enjoyed, the enjoyer, or the sense of enjoyment; I am all Bliss,
the Bliss of All Eternal Consciousness. Death I fear not; caste I
respect not; father, mother, nay even birth, I know not; relatives;
friends I recognize not; teacher and pupil I own not;I am all
Bliss, the Bliss of All Eternal Consciousness.
ankaracharya.

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I am Brahman, not at all of the world, never apart from

Brahman; I am not the body, nor have I any body whatever;I
am the unconditioned, eternal One.
ankaracharya.
Who, being full of unity, sees not, as in sleep, the least trace
of duality, though seeing it in entire wakefulness; who though
acting is, for the same reason, entirely at rest;he and no one
else is verily the true knower of Self.
Upadesasahasri.
He is all taste and refinement, yet all insipid; He is merciless, yet
fondness itself; He is cruel, yet all compassion; He is beyond
desire, yet deep in the whirl of all desire. All care and anxiety
without, like the rest of Mankind,yet all quiet and calm
within, He stands as if possessed, though ever unpossessed.
Yogavasishtha.
Regaling all content in the nectar of Bliss; fully satisfied in
supreme fulfilment of every duty; there remains nothing for the
yogi to do; if anything remain, he must be just so many removes
behind Bliss.
Jivanmuktiviveka.
The least of a thing is greatest if it comes without trouble to any
one; without seeking it of the wicked; and without the least
pang at heart.
Mahabharata.
The cycle of strife and struggle will place Brahman in the mouth
of all. None, oh Maitreya! will know it, if intent on the pleasures
of sex and stomach.
Jivanmuktiviveka.

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Liberation

I am Brahman, I am the Creator;those who do not thus know

me, are lost to Wisdom as also to the purifying forms of external
worship;they are on the highway to materialistic Atheism.
Upadeasahasri.
Oh Gargi! who performs the sacrifice; who undergoes the
severest penance even for several thousands of years; all without
knowledge of this Immutable Essence, meets only with that
good which is sure to end. Who passes away, dear Gargi! from
this world, without knowledge of this Immutable Essence, goes
away, alas! with the tight bond of narrowness about his heart;
he alone who passes away in the knowledge of this Immutable
Essence is the real Brahman.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The heart of the wicked never melts into goodness, even though
he should be deep immersed in the Vedanta.
Jagannath.
Always at their best while talking of Brahman, but without the
heart having at all become It, being all coloured with love of the
world;these too, are ignorant fools of the first degree, never
free from the circle of death and birth.
Aparokshanubhuti.
Who does not know, knows; who knows, does not know; It is
known to those who do not know, It is not known to those who
know.
Kenopanishad.
The ladle helps to prepare a variety of viands, but it never knows
the taste of any one of them: he knows all the four Vedas, and
Institutes of Duty without end, but the poor thing knows not
the essence of them allBrahman.
Uttaragita.
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Attachment to any one of the many fields which the mind

visits for exercise, is the surest sign of ignorance; greenness is
certainly impossible in the tree that conceals a consuming fire
in its hollow.
Naishkarmyasiddhi.
The swimmer, having safely carried many to the other side of
the stream, is drawn into the whirlpool, and is carried beyond
all help. Those, on the other side, who feel grateful for his help,
pity him, others pass on in indifference. The Wise Man caught
into the whirlpool of words and technicalities, has the pity of
those who having reached the other side of all words and all
forms feel yet grateful for his help.
Atmapurana.
That knower of Self who yet deals in give and get returns hath
not graduated himself for Liberation.
Upadeasakasri.
The wise grieve not, having seen the unbodied Self pervading all
mortal forms, ever great, allembracing.
Kathopanishad.
As is the being of things; the voidness of void; or the being with
forms of forms; so is this Universe. That whereof comes the
whole universe at the end of sleep, and that wherein it dissolves
itself at the moment of rest, is this chidakasa.
Yogavasishtha.
The area of this cosmos can hardly suffice for the enjoyment of
the highminded knower; the flutter of a tiny fish can produce
but a scant ruffle on the surface of the deep.
Bhartrhari.

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Though taking part in all affairs of every kind, like all ordinary
men, he soars constantly above all beings, conscious or
unconscious.
Yogavasishtha.
If one knows his self as the Self, what desire, what object, should
burn his body in the fever of care and anxiety.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
Think of It, speak of It, enlighten one another in It;this is full
devotion to the idea of Oneness, this, the wise call study of
Brahman.
Panchadasi.
The irrevocable love which the indiscriminate have in objects
of sense;may that very love never fade from my heart while it
yet continues to be full of thy holy memory.
Panchadasi.
Great souls, ever at rest in the Self, all light and standing at the
height of development, are always as firm within as mount
Meru, though appearing as fickle without as the tip of a feather.
Yogavasishtha.
Neither joy nor sorrow; neither movable nor immovably fixed;
neither being nor nonbeing; nay not even the intermediate
between these opposites;so is described the mind of the
enlightened.
Yogavasishtha.
The army engaged in close battle, in a picture, fights all
unmoved; the wise, though deep in intercourse with the world,
stands equally even in all conditions.
Yogavasishtha.
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The Vedas; the constant study of the Scriptures; close application

to the subtleties of philosophy;what do these avail! What,
indeed, is the use of that whirl of ceremonial worship, which at
best lodges the weary soul in some hovel of the village called
Heaven! Conscious harmony in the blissful condition of Self,
the greatpralayafire destroying the net of misery born of
the bondage of this world;all, saving this, are but the toys of
spiritual pedantry.
Bhartrhari.
The Soul imagining itself into the act, takes on the result of that
act; not imagining itself into the act, it is ever free of the result.
Yogavasishtha.
Where could That be invoked which fills all space? where is
the seat of That which is the seat of all? Of the Pure, what can
be the wash or the offering of honour?what the drink that
purifies within?
ankaracharya.
I have no distraction, and therefore no attraction; distraction
or attraction are all incidents of the mind under power of
attraction.
Upadeasahasri.
The idea which consciousness, at first, imagines, of itself, as
its own form, that it continues to be even to the present
day. The same consciousness may, by yet another effort of
greater strength, take the opposite form, and so on and on, in
proportion to the effort it should put forth.
Yogavasishtha.
Neither teacher nor book, neither pupil nor teaching, neither
you nor I, neither this nor that;the light of Self, intolerant of
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all doubt whatever, I am all pure bliss, the one residuum of the
many thus denied.
ankaracharya.
The patient Brahman having known It should harmonize
himself in the Self, he should not be deluded away by words; it
is mere waste of breath.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The wise having found the path of Wisdom indirect and direct,
from the study of books, should then cast them away even like
straw after threshing the rice out of it.
Panchadasi.
This is the truth: I know no change, for, there can be no cause to
change, there being all Oneness out and out. No spiritual merit
or demerit, no liberation or bondage, nor have I any caste or
locality, for, I have not the body of which these are accidents.
Upadeasahasri.
None of the philosophies do I profess; I am that pure
consciousness, the subject of distinct Selfexperience; all pure
bliss; the one residuum of the many thus denied.
ankaracharya.
In the duties of Caste and Neighborhood some take delight; in
childlike innocence, some in stupid indifference, others find
their meed; lover, reveler, ascetic, to no one grade of life the
knower confines his choice.
Svarajyasiddhi.
A perfect fool in one place, all royal splendour in another; at
times in fond delusion, at times entire peace and quiet; often in
the slothful indifference of the boa; the subject of the highest
encomiums in one place, in another all contempt; in a third
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entirely unnoticed;thus goes about the wise knower, ever

happy in the highest bliss.
Vivekachudamani.
The ascetic, not straying away from the path of wisdom, should
so conduct himself that foolish men, feeling ill at ease, should
seek not his company.
Smrti.
The ignorant set up this panorama of objects, I wipe it out as
often; I have faith in none; I am not afraid of the last penalty;
I hate socalled virtue; Selfsatisfaction is all I seek. The whole
of my wonderful life spent in escaping the World, none can
understand.
Svarajyasiddhi.
What means Selfrealization to me, all eternal realization from
end to end; all duties have been done, all wishes have been
fulfilled, this is the most sure conviction of my heart.
Panchadasi.
I neither do nor make do, I neither enjoy nor make enjoy, I
neither see nor make see; I am the selfeffulgent Self unlike
every possible name or form.
Vivekachudamani.
The knower and the ignorant are both equally subject each
to his own previous Karma;the knower, all patience, knows
no sorrow; the ignorant, ever unsteady, continues to grieve.
Of two men passing on the road, both being equally fatigued
and the road before them being equal, he that knows treads
on patiently to the end, the poor ignorant fool lingers behind
bemoaning his lot.
Panchadasi.
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Liberation

Bliss here attends the extremes of Intellect;the highest which

transcends Intellect, and the lowest which is far below Intellect.
The way between these extremes is the way of worry and evil.
A very thin partition divides ecstasy from madness; for, in the
former, the mind having lost all faith is quite clear of every tinge
of attachment.
Yogavasishtha.
In all acts whatever, whether of commission or omission, there
is nothing, save absence of attachment, to distinguish the fool
from the man of wisdom.
Yogavasishtha.
I look with equal eye upon a poisonous snake or a garland of
flowers; upon a strong enemy or a kind friend; upon a costly
jewel or a lump of earth; a bed of flowers or a slab of stone;
a group of beautiful women or a collection of useless straw;
thus do I spend all my days in some holy solitude, all intent on
the blissful syllable.
Bhartrhari.
Neither action nor inaction are in me, ever one and without
parts; how can he act who is all one Self, a compact mass, allfull
and allfilling like the Ether?
Vivekachudamani.
He is never overjoyed though often coming to good things; he
stands firm as Meru under the direst calamity; he walks the
world like a god, finding Self in the bliss of Self in everything
whatever.
Svasajyasiddhi.
A Chandala; a twiceborn; a udra; an ascetic; a man of intellect
refined by application; the lord of Yogis;thus described at
the top of thoughtless prattle by men conceiving each his own
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fancy, sages harmonized in the Self wend their way neither

angry nor proud of the compliments thus bestowed.
Bhartrhari.
The knower catches in the ecstasy of his heart the full light of
that Brahman which is indescribable, all thought, all pure bliss,
incomparable, transcending time, ever free, beyond desire,
resembling limitless Ether, having no parts and admitting of no
idea beside itself.
Vivekachudamani.
Does it make any difference in this gem of heaven, the sun, if he
is reflected in the waters of the Ganges or in the stream flowing
through the scavengers street? Does it make any difference
in the Ether enclosed in an earthenware or in a jar of gold? In
That, the inner being of all, the billowless ocean of native bliss
and light, what means this great delusion, this nightmare of
separateness, creating distinctions? The selfsame Self shines
plainly in all the three conditions of waking, dream and sleep;
it is, moreover, the inner witness of all,pervading even like a
thread, all forms whatever from Brahma to the tiniest ant;He
who has the firm conviction I am this Self, not the form it
takes, let him be a Brahman or a lowcaste, my mind points to
him as the real Master.
ankaracharya.
Has it set? is it broken? is it shattered to pieces? is it dissolved?
is it pounded to dust? is it swallowed up? is it suddenly gone
to decay?the mind being turned inward, I do not find
even a trace of the universe in the free depths of myself, the
indescribable ocean of the bliss of Selfrealization.
Svarajyasiddhi.
All latent desire having died out, he looks upon the world as
all destroyed; as some unreal nightmare; as a castleintheair;
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or even as a painting which is nearly washed off under a heavy

downpour of rain.
Yogavasishtha.
Though ever moving about in the world of experience, the whole
of it exists not for him;allpervading etherlike consciousness
alone subsists. Such a one is called Liberated. The expression
of his countenance neither flushes nor fades under pleasure or
pain; he stands unmoved whatever may come or go. Though
acting after every feeling, such as love, hate, fear and the like, he
who stands unaffected within, is said to be the liberated while
yet in this life. He whom the world finds no cause to fear, and
who is never afraid of the world, ever beyond joy, and jealousy,
and fear, is said to be the real Liberated One. With the woes of
this world laid entirely, at rest he who, though full of all learning
and art, is yet without any; who, though with mind is without it,
is said to be the real Liberated One.
Yogavasishtha.
Trembling and other signs of fear subside, only by degrees, even
after knowledge of the snake as nothing but a harmless piece
of rope; the same rope met with in dim light, even after such
knowledge, may yet become the same terrible snake it once
was. Thus previous Karma comes gradually to end by fruition
through experience and not all at once by any obstinate remedy;
nay, it is even possible for the immortal one to temporarily feel
his mortality in moments of such fruition. This, however, is no
flaw in the condition of Spirituality once realized, for, Liberation
is no observance, it is being at harmony with the course of
nature.
Panchadasi.
When all desires infesting the heart are entirely given up, the
mortal becomes immortal and lives in Spirit even here. The
slough cast off by the serpent lies dead and lifeless on the
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anthill; so even lies this body; and the mortal, who is thus
disembodied, while yet here, becomes immortal, all life, all
Spirit, all light.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
The highest Self, all endless bliss, unconditioned limitless
consciousness, being realized, whether through the great texts,
or through Yoga, in all experience whatever, let one lose himself
in the ecstasy of Realization, for he has for ever lost all touch
with bondage of every description.
Svarajyasiddhi.
Clad in rich cloth or in the wide expanse of space, having
his skin alone for cover, or buried deep in the ample folds
of allembracing thought,he wanders the world like a
madman,like a child, or even like a ghost, when compared
with the unfolded of his race.
Vivekachudamani.
Without having in ones self the clear light of Selfexperience,
no one can appreciate the phenomenal sublimity of anothers
experience in the same line.
Yogavasishtha.
As timber is carried away by the stream to places high and
low, so even is the body led by Law to whatever awaits it at its
proper time.
Vivekachudamani.
The traveller with mind firmly fixed only on the goal he is
approaching, never feels the motion of his legs along the road
he treads; act thus in all you do.
Yogavasishtha.

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The fright caused by the appearance of a thief survives his

capture, the cloth yet leaves the impress of its form on the ashes
to which it is burnt;the world reduced of itself to naught in
the case of the Knower, lasts with his body to bear out such
fruition as previous Karma should bring.
Svarajyasiddhi.
The knower may, oh child! let his external senses manifest in
acts and all conditions as long as his body lasts; but he should
never let his internal sense go with the external.
Yogavasishtha.
The Ether may appear in any condition whatever, it is never
conditioned. The Self never takes on the properties of whatever
accidents may appear to colour his Self.
Atmabodha.
The knowers of the Supreme neither avoid nor court intercourse
with the world, they go with whatever should turn up in
ordinary course. Being in all, I am ever inactive, he who, with
this conviction, acts in accord with what is brought to him in
the course of nature is always inactive. He is not motionless
though standing; he does not walk though going; he is all peace
though deep in intercourse; he is ever inactive though full of
activity.
Yogavasishtha.
This kind of apparent latent desire in those who have found
liberation while living is no desire at all; it is that universal sense
of being which is known as pure being.
Yogavasishtha.
Having known It thus, fill thyself with the memory of pure
Unity; having realized the Unit, walk the world like a mass of
so much dead matter. No praise, no salute, no offerings even
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to the dead, no fixed or unfixed abode,the harmonized soul

should ever live in Faith and Trust.
Gaudapadacharya.
The fifteen rays return into their source; the divine forces
governing the senses find back the universal fountain of their
rise; the reflection in the inner sensethe embodied soul
together with every action whatever, all become one in the
supreme unchangeable Essence. As rivers flowing into the
ocean lose their individual name and form, nay thus lose even
themselves, so does the knower, freed from all name and all
form, find the highest Being, all light. He who thus knows the
highest Self, verily becomes Self; none that is born in his family
has his eye closed to Self. He soars above sin and sorrow; freed
from the ties of the heart, he becomes immortal.
Mundakopanishad.
Giving up the body in some holy place or in the house of the
lowly, conscious or unconscious, he finds Liberation, all cause of
sorrow being entirely destroyed, and liberation being found in
the very moment of the rise of Spiritual Consciousness.
Vartika.
Water is water, whether it stands all placid or surges up in high
billows; it makes no difference to the Ocean. Embodied or
disembodied, there is no difference in the liberation of the silent
knower. What difference can embodiment or disembodiment
make in the Liberated? Whether in tempestuous waves or in
placid calm, the sameness of Ocean undergoes no change.
Yogavasishtha.
Who has no desire, who is beyond desire, who has all desires
fulfilled in the Supreme, who has Self as the object of all and

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every desire;his breath rises not beyond him; being Self, he

becomes Self, in truth.
Brhadaranyakopanishad.
I have no Illusion for my consort; no serpent for my couch; no
discuss for my weapon; no round of incarnations to go through,
nor have I the anxiety of protecting the world, still I am the
Lord, to all intent and purpose, in my Self.
Svarajyasiddhi.
The Absolute neither rises nor sets, nay he is never laid at rest.
He is not being nor nonbeing, neither near nor distant, neither
I nor thou. He shines as the sun, He protects the three worlds
appearing as Vishnu, As Sira He destroys all. He acts the creator
in the form of the lotusborn Brahma. Whatever is, whatever
has been, whatever shall be,every object in any one of the
three forms of TimeHe is that; He is everything. Oh best of
knowers! when He takes on the form of the three worlds and
all they contain, I believe Him to have gone through the act of
creation. If verily the three worlds do exist, let him by all means
become those words, for in Him the Three worlds are, in truth,
empty of all real content whatevermere words are they?
Yogavasishtha.
They divert themselves in the native bliss of Selfexperience,
they enjoy themselves in any manner with perfect freedom.
The manysided, wonderful course the Liberated pursue, on
the inscrutable Path, ever free of attachment, knowing no limit,
always tending to the good of the universe, is as inscrutable
as the course of fishes in water, the passage of birds in the
atmosphere, or the course of wind throughout space.
Svarajyasiddhi.

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Doubt, dispute and explanation, all depend on language

which means duality. In the language of Unity, there can be no
question and no answer.
Panchadasi.
There is in Reality no dissolution, no creation, none in bondage,
no pupilage, none desirous of liberation, none liberated;this
is the Absolute Truth.
Gaudapadacharya.
Bow to him who enunciated this method of harmony in the
Absolute, conducing to the wellbeing of all, beneficent, above
all dispute, entirely at One.
Gaudapadacharya.
Wonderful, supremely wonderfulthis Philosophy! More
wonderful still the Masters who teach the Truth! A thousand
wonders surround the depth of Spiritual Consciousness taught!
The bliss of Knowledge is the Silence of indescribable wonder!
Panchadasi.

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Bibliography
Ramacharaka, Yogi [Atkinson, William Walker]. The Spirit of the Upanishads
or the Aphorisms of the Wise. Chicago, IL: The Yogi Publication Society,
1907.

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