MantraOnNet.com: Ram Gita
Sanskrit Wording:
English Wording:
makaramapyatmani cidghane pare vilapayetprajnamapiha karanam so ?ham param brahma sada
vimuktima – dvijnanadrn mukta upadhito ?malah.
English Meaning:
Let the m-letter sound in Aum, representing the prajna-jiva, which is the very cause for
both visva-jiva and taijasa-jiva, be then merged in the supreme Self, the mass of Consciousness.
Come to live this Knowledge: ?I am the supreme Substratum for the universe, Brahman ? ever free,
untouched by the filth of Maya, unconditioned by the equipments. This very Eye of Wisdom am I.
Continuing to expound upon the orthodox method of Om-upasana., Sri Rama says that, having
merged both the gross and the subtle into the causal principle of Isvara, let it be merged into
the pure Self, the one Brahman. The individually that was flittering about as I (the waker, the
dreamer, the deep sleeper) now merges into the universal One, and the seeker comes to realize. ?I
am the supreme mass of Consciousness; I am the supreme Substratum for the universe, Brahman.
After merger with Brahman, there can no longer be any equipments to condition the seeker,
and therefore he becomes ever free (vimuktimat), fully liberated from all the persecutions of his
earlier body-mind-intellect equipment (upadhittah muktah).
Since this state is beyond even the taints of vasanas, in this pure state of
Consciousness there is neither nonapprehension (avidya), nor the consequent misapprehensions
(dvaita pratiti); therefore, Sri Rama indicates it as amalah (immaculate). In the pure, infinite
Self there is neither tamas (nonapprehension) nor viksepa (agitations caused by
misapprehensions). The mind-intellect becomes supremely sattvic; in fact, the Self transcends
even sattva. Thus it is glorified as being beyond the gunas ? gunathita (amalah).
These are not mere objective descriptions of a unique state of consciousness. In the fulfillment
of Om-upasana, the student has a subjective realization that he is the Self (so ?ham parabrahma),
the very eye of wisdom, the one light that makes every experience shine (vijnana drk).
Sanskrit Wording:
English Wording:
evam sada jataparatmabhavanah svanandatustah parivismrtakhilah aste sa
nityatmasukhaprakasakah saksadvimukto ?calavarisindhuvat.
English Meaning:
A seeker who, through the above process, realizes directly pure the nature of the Self
becomes supremely contented in that blissful state of the Self. He totally forgets all the
experience of earlier jiva-hood and rises above them. He remains effulgent and lives in the
unbroken bliss of the Self. Supremely free, be becomes like a stilled ocean.
Laboriously, Sri Rama is trying to communicate to his brother the end result of
Self-realization. For the person who has realized the nature of the Self and who has totally
identified with it, the whole world of plurality (constituting the misapprehensions that rise out
of the nonapprehension of Reality) suddenly disappears ? so totally that even its memory cannot
return back to him.
Such an individual?s mental condition is being described here in terms of our worldly
experiences, because we can understand the mind of the man of realization only in terms of our
own mind. Picture to yourself the roaring, thunderous ocean, ever frothing and fuming in the
continuous clash of waves. If by the waving of a magic wand the waters of that ocean could
suddenly be transformed into utter stillness, the awesome beauty of that silence, the majesty of
that stillness perhaps could convey to your mind a vague picture of the boundless state of hushed
joy that the realized one experiences when the mind becomes totally absorbed in the bliss of the
silent Self (acala vari sindhuvat).
Sanskrit Wording:
English Wording:
evam sadabhyastasamadhiyogino nivrttasarvendriyagocarasya hi vinirjitasesariporaham sada
drsyo bhaveyam jita sadgunatmanah
English Meaning:
withdrawn himself from the entire world of perceived objects, he who has won a total victory over
all the inner enemies, he who has lifted himself from the six main urges of the body ? to him
alone I, the Supreme, am directly available in an effortless act of perception.
Sri Rama points out four adjustments necessary for the spiritual seeker:
- To one who thus regularly practices samadhi, meaning who is regular in his practice of
meditation, in him the vasanas get burned up, and consequently his mental agitations become
increasingly fewer. To the extent that rajas (misapprehension) gets eliminated at the mental
level, to that extent tamas (nonapprehension) also gets lifted at the intellectual level. The
mood of the mind-intellect under such a situation of inner peace and alertness is called a
sattvic mood. A sattvic mind settles easily into a steady, contemplative mood. - The source of disturbance in the mind is its engagement in the world of sense objects. The
mind gushes into the fields of objects only when it is whipped up by the desires in the
intellect. The desire to possess, embrace, and enjoy sense objects comes out of the foolish
values we entertain ? the erroneous misconception that an object contains a certain amount of
joy-content. Those who examine intelligently the nature of the world of things and beings and
realize for themselves that finite entities are impermanent, sorrow-oozing, mind-dissipating, and
therefore not desirable, end their unproductive efforts at gaining them. - The inner enemies are six in number: desire, anger, and so on. These six are the horrible
faces of rajas, and they are the destroyers of the sattvic poise of the contemplative mind. When
sattva increases, the rajoguna qualities that prompt one into continuous fields of work and
exhausting anxieties naturally clam down and disappear. - One who has successfully escaped the six urges of the body ? both gross and subtle ?
discovers an evergrowing intensity in one?s daily contemplation. These six physical and mental
urges are exhaustively examined in the Upanisads, and the rishis have declared that hunger and
thirst belong to the physiological system (prana), sorrows and passions belongs to the mind, and
old age and death belong to the body.
To those who accomplish the above four necessary adjustments, to them Sri Rama declares,
?I am directly available for their personal experience? Sri Rama, the supreme Self, explodes into
the vision of such a contemplative mind.
Sanskrit Wording:
English Wording:
dhyatvaivamatmanamaharnisam muni-stisthetsada muktasamastabandhanah
prarabdhamasnannabhimanavarjito mayyeva saksatpraviliyate tatah.
English Meaning:
liberated from all bondages. Thereafter, he lives his share of destiny without the sense of ?I am
the body,? and in the end he merges into Me, the pure Self.
Here the nature and mode of behaviour of a man of realization are being hinted at. A more
exhaustive picture of the man of perfection is eleborately painted in the Bhagavad Gita.
A true student and seeker continues to practice contemplation as advised in the previous
verse, slowly bringing into his life the fulfillment of all the four conditions. These four
cannot be achieved all of a sudden: the seeker has to put forth much conscious effort at
self-discipline and learn to ease his way slowly toward the state of pure Self. It is slow, at
times exhausting, evolutionary progress.
Once successful, the Self-realized individual remains ever liberated from all bondages.
The equipments of experience (body-mind-intellect) and the fields of experience
(objects-emotions-thoughts) can no longer condition him. In short, he is no more the little ego
(perceiver-feeler-thinker). This egoless state becomes natural to him. In the beginning, such a
state can be frighteningly shocking, confusing to those who have no devotion to the Lord. It is
a new dimension of experience: no ego ? yet, we experience with the ?no-experiencer? in us ! One
is then no more in the objective world of things and beings, but within a realm where the
objective world is not and yet is fully included. Nothing is excluded from the Self.
Such a Self-realized master?s mere existence in this world is in itself a blessing to the
people and their whole era.
If the Self-realized one has no identification with his equipment, if he has no vasanas
to exhaust ? he wants nothing, desires nothing, expects nothing ? if he has gained all that is to
be gained, why does he live on ? Why shouldn?t his body fall off ? What propels such a master to
continue living to vigorously and continuously work for the spiritual upliftment of the people ?
Following the Upanisads? own assertion, Sri Rama declares that such an individual ?lives
his share of destiny? (prarabdham-asnan). Everyone of us is living to exhaust our past vasanas,
but the master lives without any identification with such happenings ? he passes through such
events without ego and its selfishness. Success or failure, joy or sorrow, pain or pleasure do
not affect him. He does what is to be done as best as he can. He lives on, rejecting nothing,
accepting all, reflecting everything, keeping nothing ? like a mirror.
At the end of the body?s allotted time, when it falls off to rest in peace, the master
merges to be one with Sri Rama, the supreme Self.
Sanskrit Wording:
English Wording:
adau ca madhye ca tathaiva cantato bhavam viditva bhayasokakaranam hitva samastam
vidhivadacoditam bhajetsvamatmanamathakhilatmanam
English Meaning:
In the earlier days of the spiritual sadhana, in order to learn how to fold up his or her
attention from the outer world of dissipation, every student must have diligently followed, for a
long period of time, the various yogas recommended by our scriptural textbooks ? karma, bhakti,
jnana, worship of the Lord through eleborate rituals, and so on. The samskaras (innate
tendencies) are so powerful that even after the mind has become single-pointed and quiet, a
seeker generally hesitates to leave his old desires and enter into a pure state of contemplation.
Sri Rama unhesitatingly insists that the student should totally give up (hitva samastam) what has
been prescribed by our sacred books as something that we must diligently pursue (vidhivat
coditam).
With the integrated mind and intellect rendered single-pointed, quiet, alert, and
vigilant, let the seeker exclusively turn his entire attention to the Self within (sva-atmanan)
and realize that it is Self everywhere (akhila-atmanam bhajet).
In the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, Yajnavalkya insists that ?this Self is to be ?seen?: you
must hear, reflect, and meditate upon it.?
Through such steady practice, when the successful seeker satisfies the four necessary
conditions of the mind, he or she glides effortlessly into the higher state of the pure Self, the
Rama-state. The individual becomes fully liberated from all the encumbrances of the
body-mind-intellect ? the equipments of experience ? and is forever freed from all shackles of
objects-emotions-thoughts?the fields of experience. Never can these conditionings entrap him
again, as he has awakened to the state of the Self. He lives blessing the world with his pure
holiness, even if he is not ?doing? anything: his mere presence is an inspiration to the rest of
society.
If he is thus liberated from all equipments, why are the equipments not falling away
dead, when their owner, the ego, has been liberated ? The answer is that the force of its
prarabdha karma keeps the body alive. The body is the product of our own karma (vasanas), and it
is also a product of the karmas of others. One can redeem oneself of all one?s own karmas, but
the body still lives and functions, sustained by the karmas of others. This macrocosmic vasana
(samasti karma( is the equipment of the Lord (Isvara). Thus, a man of perfection is functioning
under the Lord?s will only. Without any sense of ?I-do? (ahankara) and any attachment (asakti),
he appears to be functioning in the world, himself ever living the experience of the infinite
Self, Sri Rama.
Once his share of destiny is exhausted, he merges into Brahman. This state is called
videha-mukti. Even earlier, when others were considering him as a member of the community, he was
already a liberated person (jivan-mukti).