Avastatrayam

The Three States of Being

Explained on the basis of teachings of
Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi

Mugavaikanna Muruganadimai K Sriram

Sri Ramana Bhaktha Samajam

Chennai 600 033
 Avastatrayam
[The Three States of Being explained on the basis of
the Teachings of Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi]
The Aim and Objective
“Avasta”, in Sanskrit means “State” and
“Trayam” means “Three”. Hence,
‘Avastatrayam’ means ‘The Three States of
Being’ i.e., 1] The Waking State [Jaagrat], 2]
Dream [Swapnam] and 3] Deep Sleep
[Sushupti]. All human beings, on a daily basis
and without exception, experience these three
states irrespective of caste, creed, religion or
country they belong to. The study of these three
states in depth on the basis of the Teachings of
Sri Ramana Maharshi is the aim & objective of
this study. Can there be a more fruitful
venture than to understand & obtain clarity
on one’s own nature? And who is not
interested in himself? To enable the reader
[even if uninitiated into Vedanta & Philosophy] to
follow the contents without difficulty, the Vedantic
terminology is either avoided or reduced to a
1 2
a nightmare, we get a severe shock, which
forcibly pushes us into the Waking State. The
mind, by the sheer logic of survival, expands to
its 100% level by the shock it gets in dream. In
fact, we heave a sigh of great relief that the
nightmare is over and all that happened were
only a dream. The dream is experienced to such
realistic levels in spite of total lack of reality
behind it.
The fact that the dream becomes a
nightmare shows clearly that the mind has no
control over its functioning. If the mind has
control over itself, it could have prevented the
pleasant dream becoming a nightmare. But,
never once, the nightmare is turned into a
pleasant dream again by the mind. This clearly
proves that the mind not only has no control over
its own functioning but also has no limits in
producing the thoughts irrespective of whether
such thoughts are pleasant or terrible. This fact
highlights the truth that the mind acts as an
insentient and lifeless thoughts- producing
machine and cannot act independently. Its true
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minimum as far as possible. However, every
effort is made not to dilute the seriousness of
the subject matter.
The choice is left to the reader to skip the
Sanskrit words used and this will not in any way
obstruct his understanding of the contents.
Theory and the Statement of Basic Data
When all thoughts subside, we are
overcome by sleep. When thoughts rise up
again, we wake up. In fact, it is the thought that
wakes us up. The mind is a bundle of thoughts
and hence, to put it more accurately, we are
woken up as soon as the mind starts functioning.
The mind functions at two levels. When mind
expands and comes out of its inertia to its half
level i.e. 50%, dreams appear. When the mind
expands to its full 100% level, the result is the
Waking State. All that happens during the Dream
State appear to be absolutely real as if they are
happening during the Waking State. As long as
the dream is pleasant, it continues for a longer
period of time. However, the moment it becomes
nature is revealed in the sleep when it is off-
guard during the nightmare.
Hence Sri Ramana Maharshi puts forth the
basic question as to whether it is wise to lead
one’s life totally depending upon one’s mind. He
says that leading one’s life by acting on the
advices offered by the mind is like traveling in a
ship without bearings and moorings. Hence, He
strongly advocates ‘Self-Enquiry’ [who am I? Am
I the mind?] to all those born as men and women.
Further, there must be a dreamer for the
dream to take place. In Vedantic terms, he is
called ‘Praatibhasika’ or ‘Swapnakalpita’ i.e.
the one who creates the dream. In Waking State,
the one [In Vedanta he is described as
‘Vyaavaharika’] cannot see the world unless he
identifies himself with a body. For e.g.
Vyaavaharika is unable to see the world in deep
sleep wherein he is not conscious of his body.
Likewise, The Dreamer has to identify himself
with a dream-body to see the dream world. So
it is obvious that whether it is Waking State or
Dream, perceiving the world in the respective
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spheres without the body becomes impossible.
Sri Ramana Maharshi states this fact in His
famous ‘Reality in Forty Verses’, verse no.4:
“Can the world exist without the body? Can
anybody see the world without one’s body?”
As such, there seems to be no difference
between the Waking state and the Dream except
that the Dream is a shortened form of Waking
State and the Waking State is an elongated
Dream [Swapnam kshanikam; Jaagram
Deergam-Sanskrit]. However, Sri Bhagawan
says that even the difference in the time frame
is an illusion created by the mind since the
dreamer experiences a period five years in
dream of 5’ duration.
Now one can safely infer that since the
Waking State and Dream are absolutely similar
in nature, there must be a True Awakening from
the Dream called the Waking state, as waking up
from a dream is everybody’s experience. Vedantic
definition for the one who is established in the
State of True Awakening is ‘Paaramarthika’.
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the sake of devotees, was a demonstration
of the state of True Awakening. Time and
again He affirmed that there exists this state
of True Awakening out of direct experience
of Self.
In fact, this state of True Awakening is
beyond time and space. For e.g., Chuang Tzu,
the Chinese philosopher, was immersed in grief
when his friend met him on one fine morning.
His friend was surprised to see him worried as
normally Chuang Tzu was a lively and very happy
person. So, he was curious to know the reason.
Chuang Tzu: Yester night I dreamt as if I were a
butterfly.
Friend: After all, it is only a dream; what is
there to feel bad about it?
Chuang Tzu: That butterfly was dreaming as if it
were a man!
Friend: Dream within a dream! Very good!
Why worry about it?
7 8
As there must be a Vyaavaharika for
Swapanakalpita to exist, there must be the
Paaramarthika for Vyavakarika to come into
being. So, Paaramarthika is the basic
substratum from which the other two have
arisen. Further, Paaramarthika is held as the
one who has completed the journey in the
spiritual path and has reached the final goal of
human life.
Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi got
established in the state of True Awakening
at the age of sixteen due to the nightmare
that gripped him in the form of Fear of Death,
which destroyed the dream called the
Waking State for Him. The transformation of
the body-mind combination of a little boy,
Venkataraman, into the Eternal Spirit, Sri
Ramana Maharshi took place in a matter of
few minutes. Sri Bhagawan become a full-
blown, Self-Realized Jnani without having
heard of Self-Realization even once before.
Thereafter, His entire life for the next 54
years during which He bore the human body for
Chuang Tzu: That person was none other than
me!
Friend: Let it be! Everything is only a
dream. You must remember that!
Chuang Tzu: No! My concern now is whether
I am a butterfly dreaming myself
to be Chuang Tzu or am I a
human being imagining myself
as butterfly? When I am not sure
of my own existence as a man
or butterfly, how can I be happy?
By this, Chuang Tzu is only making it clear
that there is no difference at all between the
Waking State and Dream. Sri Bhagawan
reiterates the fact that the Waking State is only
yet another form of Dream in His ‘Ekanma
Panchakam, Verse 1’.
“Forgetting one’s own real nature & believing it
to be the body,
Undergoing countless births & deaths and finally
realizing our nature
As the one and only Self is to wake up from the
dream
Called the Waking State which is full of worldly
activities
Know this to be the Truth ultimate. “
Jagat Guru Adi Sankara Bhagawat Pada, in
his ‘Drg Drsya Vivekam’ has explained this
subject ‘Avastatrayam’ with suitable examples,
comparing Paaramarthika with the big ocean,
Vyaavaharika with the wave that comes out of
the ocean and the Swapnakalpita with the froth
that is formed by the wave. The comparisons
are as follows:
When one thinks of ocean, the wave and
the froth which form its infinitesimal part
comes to our mind first but not its major portion
which is deep and calm. Likewise, Vyaavaharika
and Swapnakalpita are experienced directly
whereas Paaramarthika remains in the
background unnoticed like the big ocean. Here
one can make one more observation that
Vyaavaharika and Swapnakalpita cannot exist
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basis for Vyaavaharika [Waking State]. So also,
just as the wave is the basis for the froth,
Vyaavaharika is the basis for Swapnakalpita. Just
as the chillness is the nature of the froth,
pleasantness is the nature of Dream. When the
dream turns out to be unpleasant, the very dream
comes to an end as the dreamer is awakened.
The chillness is called Saithiyam in Sanskrit. Just
as the froth disappears again back into the wave
and the wave into the ocean & the ocean alone
remains as before, when True Awakening takes
place, Vyaavaharika & Swapnakalpita merge in
Paaramarthika & the SELF ALONE SHINES
FORTH AS THE ONE WITHOUT THE
SECOND, [Ekameva Advatiyam Brahma] as
proclaimed by the Vedas.
In the above analogy, it is noteworthy to
understand the fact that Paaramarthika also is
an imagined Personality to prove the falsity
of the other two, namely, Vyaavaharika and
Swapnakalpita. What remains always is the
one and only Self [State of True Awakening]
alone.
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without Paaramarthika just as the wave & Froth
cannot exist without the ocean. Water has its
own characteristic sweet taste that is called
Madhuryam [Sanskrit word] and this is
compared to the Bliss of the Self [Atman]. One
should remember here that the ocean in this
simile is full of sweet water and not salt water
as the ocean is compared to Paaramarthika,
the Jnani and its sweet taste to the Bliss Eternal
of the Selfhood. Likewise, water cannot be but
liquid in nature and this is called Dravatvam in
Sanskrit. As the liquid nature of the ocean fully
permeates the wave, the Self i.e. Paaramarthika
is fully present in Vyaavaharika. However,
Vyaavaharika forgets his true nature that he is
the Self since he is totally engulfed by the worldly
activities. This forgetfulness is described in
Vedanta as ‘Pramada’. Adi Sankara, in many of
his works, exhorts the seeker that he should be
extremely careful not to indulge in pramada while
seeking the Self.
Just as the ocean is the basis for the wave,
Paaramarthika [State of True Awakening] is the
Hence, as the dream world is believed
to be true in the Dream State, the world that
appears before us in the Waking State is
believed to be true in that state. In reality,
both the worlds are false and it is the
bounden duty of all those who are born as
human beings, being endowed with power
of discrimination, to try with every ounce of
their energy to sift the false from Reality &
bring to an end the dream called Waking
State and wake up to the State of True
Awakening. This is the very purpose of
human life. This is the only achievement that
opens the gate to permanent happiness
that is devoid of all sufferings & anything
that fall short of this, however great
achievement it may be, will not free us from
the sorrows of the world of the Waking State.
Now let us get back to some more aspects
of ‘The State of True Awakening’. This is a state,
which is not interrupted by sleep as in the case
of the ordinary Waking State. Hence this can be
called as ‘Total Wakeful State’. You can also look
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at this state from the other way around.i.e. This
is a state that is not interrupted by Waking State.
So you can call this state as ‘State of Total Sleep’.
To put it in a nutshell, this state is full of ‘Total
Awareness’ and is beyond all the three states
[i.e. Waking State, Dream & Sleep]. This is a
state where ‘Total Wakeful State’ and ‘Total Sleep
State’ mean one and same thing. This True State
is the foundation on which the other three states
are built upon. In Hindu mythology, out of 330
millions of Gods, two are held supreme. They
are Lord Siva and Lord Maha Vishnu. Lord Siva
is portrayed as God of ‘Total Wakeful State’. He
sits in Padmasana with crossed legs and eyes
closed and fully aware of Himself. The Atma
Jnana or the Self –Knowledge is described as
His ‘Third Eye’ which never sleeps. On the other
hand, Maha Vishnu happily & totally lies down
on His snake-bed and is in ‘Total Sleep State’.
Since this state does not belong to the ordinary
sleep, Puranas describe this as ‘Yoga Nidra’
or Endless Sleep [Anantha Sayanam-Sanskrit
word]. That is why Lord Siva and Lord Maha
Vishnu are held as the highest of Gods, nay, they
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State is experienced. When this body-
consciousness identifies itself with the body of
the Dream State, the Dream world is
experienced. When the body-consciousness is
absent, both the Waking State and the Dream
disappear and we go back to our natural state
i.e. Sleep which is covered by ignorance.
However, when the body-consciousness is
destroyed through Intelligence by Atma Vichara
i.e. Self-Enquiry while we are awake, the natural
state of Self-Bliss that is experienced in the sleep
is experienced in the Waking State also. Since it
is beyond all the three states, it was named as
the Fourth State, i.e. ‘Turiyam’ in Vedanta. When
all the three states are realized to be false, how
can this state of reality be named as the Fourth
one? Hence, Vedanta again renamed it as
‘Turiyatitam’ i.e. the one and only state
transcending all the three states. Thus the
names, Turiyam & Turiyatitam were ascribed
to this State of True Awakening. These
philosophical sojourns creating various names
are for those who seek theoretical solutions to
satisfy their intellects. In reality, the Jnani’s
15
are held as one & same but different
manifestations of the Same Self-Supreme.
In fact, this state of True Awakening is
called in different names, such as, Self,
State of Deliverance, State of Emancipation,
Mukti, Moksha, Brahmam, Kaivalyam,
Sahaja, Ekatma, State of Sthitha
Prajnya, Chidakasam, Chidhambaram,
Daharaakasam, Parama Padam,
Sachidanandam, Silence, Shanthi, Mownam,
Atma Jnana Bhodham, Lord Siva, Lord Maha
Vishnu, Parasakthi, Lord Ganesh, Lord
Subrahmania, Allah, Father in the Heaven,
Prajnyanam and in many other names.
This State of True Awakening is also called
‘Turiyam’ [Fourth State] because it is beyond
the three states. When the indivisible Self,
Ekatma Vasthu, is partitioned by the two walls,
namely, 1] Waking State and 2] Dream, the third
portion i.e. Sleep is created. These three states,
in turn, create the ‘I am the body’ consciousness.
When this body-consciousness identifies itself
with the body of the Waking State, the Waking
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experience is the indescribable State of True
Awakening that is beyond ‘Avastatrayam’
[Sanskrit word] without any variation or gradation
or names or forms.
Further, Vedanta explains Avastatrayam in
conjunction with Sareeratrayam [i.e. three
bodies]. All human beings are made up of three
bodies. They are 1] Sthula Sareeram [Gross
body] – the physical body, 2] Sukshma
Sareeram - Mind or Ego [Sukshma means
‘subtle’ - As the mind is subtle & invisible, this
body is called Sukshma Sareeram], and 3]
Kaarana Sareeram [Subtlest of all the three
bodies]. Kaaranam means Cause. As this body
is the root-cause for the creation of the other
two bodies, it is named as Kaarana Sareeram.
Also, Vedanta says that the Self is covered by
five sheaths [Pancha Kosas – Pancha means
five & Kosa means sheath]. These are
1] Annamaya Kosa, 2] Pranamaya Kosa, 3]
Manomaya Kosa, 4] Vignanamaya Kosa and
5] Aanandamaya Kosa. Sthula Sareera is made
up of Annamaya kosa & Pranamaya kosa. The
nature of Sthula Sareera is Waking State
[Jaagrat]. Mind or the Sukshma Sareera forms
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the Manomaya kosa. Its nature is Dream
[Swapnam]. Mind creates the dream during
sleep and daydreaming in the Waking State as
well as the Waking State, which by itself is a
dream as has been stated repeatedly in this
study. The nature of Kaarana Sareera is
Sleep [Sushupti] which forms the fifth
sheath, Aanandamaya kosa. Karana Sareera
functions as Intellect in Vignanamaya kosa
during Waking State and lies dormant and
immersed in Original Ignorance [Moola Avidya
– Sanskrit word] in Aanandamaya kosa wherein
it is detached of the mind during Sleep. Kaarana
Sareera is also called Karana Maya as it gives
rise to primary illusion called Ego or Mind
[Sukshma Sareera], which, in turn, creates the
secondary illusion i.e. the false identification
with the body [Sthula Sareera]. Further on, these
two combine to create the dream called
Waking State. Adi Sankara, in his famous
Vivekachoodamani defines Kaarana Sareera as
follows:
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goes beyond the three gunas i.e. becomes
Trigunaatita [Sanskrit word], it is not possible
to attain Selfhood. It is this Kaarana Maya that
acts like a three-headed King Cobra with its three
gunas as its three heads and guards Self, the
treasure & denies access to it to one and all.
Hence, one should destroy this Kaarana Maya
mercilessly with the help of the sword that is
Atma-Jnana to recapture the treasure, the Self,
which is, after all, is his birthright. Another
characteristic feature of this Kaarana Maya is that
it can be destroyed by Self-Knowledge alone
and by nothing else.”
Now let us come back to the subject-matter
i.e. the State of True Awakening.
Since this State of True Awakening is not
interrupted either by sleep or wakefulness,
it is also called Waking Sleep [JaagratSushupti],
Wakeful Dream, Sleepless Sleep, Being fully
aware without anybody awake, Action in
Inaction, Inaction full of incessant Action,
Thinking without the thinker, Action without
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“Kaarana Sareera or Maya is the root-
cause for all the sufferings. This is the
Original Ignorance that is directly opposed to
Atma Jnana [Self-Knowledge]. While it is
possible to define everything under the sun within
the nine categories, namely, 1] Sat [Exists], 2]
Asat [Does not Exist], 3] Satasat [Beyond
Existence & Non-Existence], 4] Bhinnam
[Divisible], 5] Abhinnam [Indivisible], 6]
Bhinnabibhinnam [Neither Divisible nor
Indivisible], 7] Avayavam [With parts], 8]
Niravayavam [Without parts], 9]
Avayavaniravayavam [Neither with parts nor
without parts]. This Kaarana Maya can not be
defined by any of the above nine
categories. This is called Avvyaktham [can not
be seen concretely] since it is the most invisible
& subtle. This is also called Brahma Sakthi as
it derives all its power from the Self and has no
separate existence apart from the Self. Its
Sorupa [form] is made up of the three Gunas
i.e. 1] Satva [All good Qualities], 2] Rajas [Full
of Activities] and 3] Tamas [Devoid of Activities,
Idleness, and Laziness etc.]. Hence, unless one
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the actor etc. The reasons for this unique
phenomenon are as follows:
The Jnani who has attained this State of
True Awakening remains a Non-doer [Akarta-
Sanskrit word] in spite of performing actions.
Actions generate good [Punya-Sanskrit word]
and bad [Papa-Sanskrit word] effects, which
can be worked out or neutralized only by
enjoying or suffering them. Since the doership
[Kartruthvam-Sankrit word] is absent in the Jnani
as his ego is totally extinguished, his actions do
not bring in the good or bad effects. So, despite
indulging in actions, Jnani remains detached of
fruits of his actions. As soon as the sun rises
up, millions plunge into action but the fruits of
their actions do not affect the sun anyway.
Likewise as the sun of Self-Knowledge shines
forth in Jnani, the fruits of his actions do not bind
him. Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi states
this fact in His Upadesa Saram in verse no.15
as follows:
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 “The Great Jnani, for whom the mind thus
annihilated, rests in Self
For Him no further practice is necessary and
He remains untouched by fruits of any further
action”.
Not only the Jnani remains a steadfast Akarta
but also makes the disciple who surrenders to
Him also an Akarta. In His Guru Vachaka Kovai
in verse no.283, Sri Bhagawan affirms this as
follows:
“The elephant in its dream beholds
The lion that wakes him up from sleep.
Even so the seeker in his dream-like
Waking life of ignorance sees
The guru and wakes from slumber dark.”
- Garland of Guru’s Sayings [Prof.K.Swaminathan’s
translation].
When an elephant, in its dream, sees a lion,
the dream becomes a nightmare. It is frightened
that it would be killed by the lion and hence wakes
up due to the fear of imminent death. Likewise,
Sat guru appears before the disciple in his dream
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reality as it is only a dream-lion. So also, the name
and form of the Sat Guru who appears as
separate from the disciple in his waking State
also is false as the waking state itself is a dream
i.e. the feeling that Sat Guru is separate from
the disciple disappears and the Sat Guru & the
disciple become the one and only Self. This
is called Para Bhakthi or Swatma Bakthi in
Vedanta i.e. there is nothing else other than
ONESELF that exists as ONE NON-DUAL
CONSCIOUSNESS and the Self-Realized
Jnani revels in the Bliss of being Himself.
However, the Sat Guru’s Grace to lift the disciple
to the State of True Awakening from the Moola
Avidya remains true just as the elephant’s waking
up from the sleep is true.
We have seen earlier that one who attains
the State of True Awakening becomes an Akarta,
for no further practice or efforts are necessary
for him as he has accomplished all that have to
be accomplished [Krta Krtya – Sanskrit word]
and also since the good and bad effects [Punya
& Papa] of the actions He indulges in do not
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called the Waking State in the same human
form, which he can recognize and relate easily
& also, can follow what he teaches. By Sat
Guru’s Grace, ultimately, the disciple wakes up
from the dream that is Waking State and finds
himself in the State of True Awakening. Hence,
by Sat Guru’s Grace, not only the dream called
the Waking State that is removed but also the
Sleep itself, i.e. the Moola Avidya [Original
Ignorance]. The result is that the root-cause,
Sleep, is removed & thereby, the dream of
repeated births & deaths in the Waking State
i.e. the cycle of Samsara is brought to an end.
Thus, waking up into the State of True Awakening
is Liberation [Mukti], Freedom [Moksha],
attaining the Selfhood etc. So also, removing
the Sleep means the removal of the dreams
of repeated births & deaths once for all as
no dream is possible without Sleep.
Even though the lion appeared only in the
dream of the elephant, the dream was brought
to an end effectively by the lion & the elephant
ultimately woke up. Hence, the lion also has no
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affect him and do not cause rebirths. Hence it
is also obvious that the Jnani, the one who is an
Akarta makes his disciple also an Akarta by his
sheer Grace. Thus, creating an Akarta out of
the disciple is the biggest action performed
by the Sad Guru and wonder of wonders!
He does this by his act of being Akarta! And
that is why this State of True Awakening is called
‘Actionless Action’, ‘Incessant Action in Inaction’
etc. Sri Bhagawan throws extra-ordinary
light on this ‘Akartatvam [Action in Inaction
or Inaction in Action] in His Guru Vachaka
Kovai in Verse 271:
“When the Guru commands the disciple to
practice further on the lines suggested by him,
the disciple accumulates further Punya or Papa
by plunging wholeheartedly into further activities
as guided by the Guru. Already the disciple had
suffered countless births and deaths by indulging
in a sea of activities and accumulating Punya
and Papa and infact, is tired of having enjoyed
or suffered the effects of such Punya or Papa.
By forcing him into a new set of activities, the
24
pseudo-Guru paves way for extending his cycle
of births and deaths to work out the fresh Punya or
Papa. Thus such a Guru becomes his Brahma,
Lord of Birth as well as Yama, Lord of Death
simultaneously. On the other hand, He alone is
the real Guru who tells the disciple that he had
suffered enough by having indulged in activities
all the time and by His powerful Grace, keeps him
away from further activities however attractive, they
may be. Thus the disciple is made an Akarta as
Sat Guru extinguishes his ego automatically. The
Ego can act by creating dreams in the sleep &
the dream called Waking State but cannot exist
in the State of True Awakening. Hence the Sat
Guru who makes his disciple realise that he is
also an Akarta like himself is the real Guru and
he is the living example of the Vedantic
declaration that God, Guru and Grace are one
and same.”
Such a remarkable Sat guru is Bhagawan
Sri Ramana Maharshi who guided those
devotees who surrendered at His Holy Feet
in letter and spirit & helped to recognise the
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Conclusions and Inferences
1. It is obvious that Sat Guru does not
handover the Self [Atma] to the disciple.
Neither has He created the Self. All He does
is to remove the Original Ignorance in which
sleep the disciple is immersed in.
2. Any dream, however lengthier & pleasant, has
to come to an end at a certain point of time.
Dream, by its very nature, is impermanent.
3. One has to wake up into the State of True
Awakening ultimately, however much he
may even consciously prolong it to enjoy the
worldly pleasures. This is inevitable as he
will end up with the nightmare of bitter
sufferings that is the result of indulging in
such worldly pleasures.
4. The State of True Awakening, in reality, is
never lost even though it appears to have
been lost. Hence, it is only a question of our
being conscious or unconscious about it as
it exists permanently as our own nature.
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‘Akarta’ nature of the Self experientially. He
taught in silence stilling the minds of those
around him and hence He is hailed as the
reincarnation of Lord Dhakshinamoorthi
who is renowned for Teaching in Silence.
The extra-ordinary light He threw on the
three states of being, namely, Sleep, Dream
& Waking State i.e. on our own existence
draws devotees from all over the world who
do not possess even an iota knowledge on
the cultural background of this country i.e.
4 Vedas, 6 Sastrs or 18 Puranas. Even today,
true seekers, irrespective of the caste,
creed, religion, race or nationality turn to
His Teachings to realize the Truth of their
own existence in spite of the fact that more
than 56 years have elapsed since He laid
down His mortal coil. Lord Siva in Satya
Yuga, Lord Rama in Dwapara Yuga and Lord
Krishna in Treda yuga are glorified as Yuga
Purushas for the respective yugas. Truly,
Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi is praised
as the Yuga Purusha for Kali Yuga.
26
Here it is interesting to recall the contents
of verse no. 1124 from Sri Ramana Sannidhi
Murai, rendered by Sri Mugavai Kanna
Muruganar, one of the outstanding devotees and
the poet-laureate in the Empire of Sri Ramana
Maharshi.
First let us know the following background so
that we can appreciate the whole matter in the
right perspective:
“King Pari [Tamil word] was a great Tamil King
whose hospitality the famous Tamil Poetess,
Avvai Patti [Patti is a Tamil word meaning
grandmother i.e. the grand old lady] was enjoying
for a few weeks. Avvai Patti would always be
touring & never stayed in a single place for long.
Whenever she started to leave, the King
requested her to stay on for some more days.
The days became weeks & the old lady became
restless. However the King was relentless in
persuading her to stay back. On one dark night,
Avvai Patti silently left the palace. On knowing
this from his spies, the King followed her
disguising himself as a way-laborer and took
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away forcibly the small hand luggage she was
carrying. Avvai Patti got terribly angry. She
immediately returned to the palace. Next morning,
she went to the King’s Durbar [Assembly] and
took the King to task severely. She said in strong
terms that he was unfit to rule when thieves &
dacoits operate so freely without fear in his state.
The King promised to catch the thief & the next
day, disguised as the thief once again, he himself
gave her back her hand luggage and told that he
would accept whatever punishment she wanted
to handover. He revealed his identity & said that
he did so to prevent her going away from his
state as he knew she would be upset & come
back. Moved by his love and affection that was
showered on her in such abundant measure,
Avvai Patti stayed back for a few more weeks.”
Sri.Muruganar recalls this incident in Avvai
Patti’s life and uses this analogy with a telling
effect to illustrate his own experience he had with
his master, Sri Ramana Maharshi. He says in
the above verse that just as King Pari gave back
Avvai Patti her own belongings i.e. her hand
luggage and made her extremely happy when
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true, one should never forget the fact that it
is false. Attaining the State of True
Awakening happens by the Grace of Sat Guru,
which may or may not happen immediately.
However, even the theoretical knowledge that
the world is an illusion will sow the seed of
detachment [Vairagya] in our hearts; it will
destroy the otherwise unconquerable basic
bad qualities like desire, anger, miserliness,
greediness, covetousness and arrogance; it
will help annihilation of Ego ultimately; it will
help to develop in our hearts positive qualities
like Forgiveness, Love, Compassion,
Confidence; it will sustain us providing great
mental strength during the period of
inconsolable grief [which may otherwise
destroy us to the core] caused by 1] Loss of
dear ones like Father, Mother etc, 2] blatant
betrayal by a so-called friend on whom we
reposed our faith blindly, 3] during severe
financial crisis which appeared to have
consumed us and 4] several other tragedies
in life; it will impart in our hearts the feeling
of total security with respect to what may
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the old lady demanded it so angrily, Bhagawan
Ramana gave him back his own belongings i.e.
the Self that is present in him already when
Sri.Muruganar demanded It from his master so
desperately.
By this, Sri.Muruganar reiterates that Self
i.e. God appears before us as Sat Guru to
answer our sincere prayers and gives back
[i.e. makes us aware of] the State of True
Awakening which we never lost! The present
author sincerely hopes that above words are
not confusing even though it would have
been difficult to understand if the reader had
attempted to do so in the beginning of this
article. This once again proves the futility of
words and the importance of practice to
make all efforts with every ounce of our
energy to attain the State of True Awakening
for which the human birth is gifted to us.
The real fact is that both the worlds that
belong to Dream state and the Waking state
are false and illusions. Hence, however much
the world of the waking state appears to be
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happen to us in the future. The plain truth is
that it is not possible to list out the
innumerable benefits that will accrue due to
the theoretical knowledge [Paroksha Jnana]
that the world is Maya & an illusion. Finally
it will convert every one of us, a true seeker
of Truth and pave way to experience the
State of True Awakening [Aproksha Jnana],
which is the greatest benefit one can think of.
Forewarned is forearmed! Now we are
forewarned in no uncertain terms that the
world we see is a dream and forearmed with
the conviction that there exists a State of
True Awakening within us! Let us make sincere
efforts & strive to possess consciously this
State of True Awakening as it is our own!
May Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi
and all the innumerable Sages who
completed this spiritual path and attained
the State of True Awakening bestow upon
us their choicest blessings in tons &
cartloads to make our efforts fruitful!
Aum Sri Ramanarpanamastu
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