Immortality Those who are perplexed by observing life and
death, who seek a spiritual answer when recognizing
the approach of death, and who wish to free themselves
of the transitory so as to abide as the eternal,
seek the Eternal. Using the desire to be free
of death to find their Liberation, they seek
the immortality of the Self. They find clarity
regarding the desire to endure, and thus turn
this innate desire into the desire for Self-Realization.
This Realization alone can fulfill that innate
desire. Those who perceive transience, who feel
the inner urge to find something that does not
die, who recognize that everything in the world
perishes and therefore what they seek must be
found within in a way that transcends what is
physical, and who see that it is futile to be
attached to that which is only going to pass
away sooner or later seek spiritually for immortality.
This immortality is to be found in the Self.
Abidance as the Self is Knowledge of the Self.
An inquiry into the knowledge of immortality
reveals that bliss and immortality are the same
and that both are realizable by Knowledge. As
a result of comprehending this teaching, one
is liberated from the illusory connection to
the body and to what is mortal. The fusion of
the desire for happiness and the desire to exist
results in one being endowed with a singular
focus upon Self-Realization. This enables one
to practice the inquiry to know the Self with
the power of undistracted meditation.
Fullness and Perfection, the unceasing Bliss,
reside in That which neither rises nor sets,
which neither begins nor ceases. The experience
of happiness is connected with the experience
of eternity, and the desire for happiness is
connected with the desire for eternity. No one
desires a happiness that will cease, but, rather,
the desire is for a happiness that will not cease
and is forever. One wishes to exist forever so
as to experience that happiness forever. The
desire for immortality is as strong as the desire
for happiness. The two are inextricably woven
together. Just as no one wishes to be unhappy,
so no one wishes to cease to exist, though one
may wish objective appearances, such as the sensations,
the body, and thoughts, to cease. All wish to
continue to exist forever. This is an intuition
of the true nature of Being.
This desire to exist cannot be fulfilled externally
in bodily forms. The true state of Being, when
it is unrealized and delusion is present, manifests
as the desire for anything to last. Realized,
the Self itself is the unborn and the undying,
abiding in the state of imperturbable peace,
completely detached and not dependent on anything.
It is transcendent of the entire universe for
all time. The desire to endure springs from the
deepest, and it is fulfilled solely by realizing
the deepest, which is the eternal Existence of
the Self.
Immortality is complete happiness, for the essence
of both of them is the same, and only that which
is unending is complete. The transitory is not
complete, and that which is suffering is not
eternal. The Realization of the Self is blissful
immortality. It is abidance in and as That which
has no beginning or end. The desires for happiness
and immortality are the same. They come from
the same intuition of the Truth of the Self.
Only abidance as the Self, which is the Reality,
fulfills both.
The Self is that which has no beginning or end
and which is real, or truly existent. It is changeless.
Whatever has a beginning, a change, and an end
is unreal. This ‘being unreal’ may
be understood as being utterly nonexistent or
as the Existent entirely misperceived. To experience
blissful immortality, one must realize the Existence
of the Self as it really is; one must abide as
the beginningless and endless, as the changeless.
The Knowledge of the Self is the Knowledge of
the eternal, the unchanging, and the completely
blissful. It is the Knowledge of Reality. This
is the only true perception. To see anything
else is to see the nonexistent. That is ignorance.
Ignorance is composed of assumptions and superimpositions.
It is the non-perception of Reality and the misperception
of Reality, displaying itself as the non-seeing
of real, nondual Being and the hallucination
of duality or multiplicity. The knowing of anything,
be it gross or subtle, without the Knowledge
of the Self, is simply diversified ignorance,
or diversified illusion. In the Knowledge of
the Reality of the Self, there remains neither
multiplicity (or duality) nor anything else.
One formless Existence is, with no differentiation
whatsoever. One formless Existence appears as
if all this multiplicity. All the multiplicity
is only the one formless Existence imagined as
such.
To realize the Truth, for the Truth to be Self-revealed,
one should abandon ignorance, multiplicity, the
transitory, and the illusion of form, and abide
as the formless, which is real, non- dual, and
ever-existent. This abidance is Knowledge. The
destruction of illusion means the destruction
of ignorance regarding the Self, or the destruction
of misidentification. Such is the destruction
of suffering and the death of death. This is
blissful immortality. It is simply the vanquishing
of ignorance. By the Truth being revealed within,
misidentifications, or superimpositions, are
destroyed. By the destruction of misidentifications,
or superimpositions, Truth is revealed within.
In Self-realization, all notions about the Absolute
and the Self are relinquished. Notions about
the Absolute are such as that it is separate
from oneself, or objective, and that it is not
always present. Notions about the Self are such
as that it is endowed with form, minuteness,
that it is changeful, material, embodied, defined
by thought, in time, or endowed with individuality.
For Knowledge, the superimposition of the jiva-hood
(concept of individuality) is removed from Atman
(the Self) and Isvara-hood (idea of the Lord,
of God) from Brahman. Upon such removal of superimposition,
or ignorance, one realizes the identity, as declared
in the Upanishad, Tat tvam asi, That you are.
Sri Ramana Maharshi revealed in his teachings,
which are most direct and immediate, that if
the Self remains undefined, it is only Brahman,
and it alone is. Therefore, one should know the
Self.
The Knowledge of Reality, which is the Realization
of the Self and the Realization of the Absolute,
is attained by the direct path of true Knowledge.
By liberating oneself from the misidentification
with what is not the Self, one knows the Self.
When the real nature of what has been considered
as the non-Self is seen, it invariably proves
to be nonexistent, for it was dependent upon
misidentification in order to even ever appear.
Blissful and eternal is the Real Self. One should
regard only that which has no beginning or
end, is ever existent, is immutable, is transcendent
of all that has form, of all that changes,
and of all that is in time, and which is continuous
and undivided as real and as one's true Being.
By this Knowledge, one abides in the natural
state, which is the only true state of the
Self. The Self may be said to call unto itself,
as the Sought and the seeker, as the Guru and
the disciple, as God and the devotee. It seeks
itself as meditation. It reveals itself as inner
experience. It knows and abides in itself for
blissful eternity. May this blissful, immortal
Knowledge shine clearly.
Go to Part
1 of this chapter. Go to Part
3.
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