िये प्रकाशं परमो वितीर्य
स्वयम् धियो अन्त: प्रविभाति गुप्त: ।
धियं परावर्त्य धियो अन्तरे अत्र
संयोजनान्नेश्वर-दृष्टिरन्या ।। —२४
dhiye prakAsham paramH vitIrya
svayam dhiyo antaH pravibhAti guptaH
dhiyam parAvartya dhiyaH antare atra
sanyojanAnneshvara dRiShTiranya—24
dhiye = to the intellect; prakAsham = sentiency; paramH = Supreme; vitIrya = lent;
svayam dhiyo antaH = Itself (being) inside the intellect; pravibhAti guptaH = shines while being hidden; dhiyam parAvartya = having turned intellect; dhiyaH antare – within intellect; atra = here; sanyojanAt = by uniting; na Ishvara dRiShTiranya = Ishvara vision (takes place)not by anything else.
The supreme having lent sentiency to the intellect, shines while being hidden inside the intellect. Having turned the intellect, here, within the intellect, by uniting, Ishvara vision takes place not by anything else.
The organs and mind are material in nature, by themselves inert. The all-pervading consciousness also available in the mind, lends sentiency to them. They, by nature are extrovert.
Man, has a tendency of feeling inadequate in many ways. This makes him search for something to make him more fulfilled. He resorts to the external world through the mind and organs. This is innate to all and has to be deliberately changed.
The first step to changing is to discriminate between the real and the unreal. Coming to this stage itself takes along time. Years of conditioning has led man to believe he is getting happiness and peace from the world. He has time and again been credulous enough to believe so, never questioning it, accepting it as the norm. On the other hand, he has been incredulous at the fact that the truth is something diametrically opposite.
All the pleasures he has gained have been pain ridden and temporary. How is this so?
Engaging himself in the pursuit of objective happiness, he has lost a lot, mental peace, time and energy. He has recurrently been enmeshed either by the fear of failure or by
the pressure of destruction of what he has gained ( rank , commodities or honor). Everything he has earned till now has come along with displeasure.
Even after attaining what he wished for, there have been losses. Nothing he gains remains permanent. Either, there is loss of what he gained or he himself has found it meager, stimulating him to find greener pastures. Sadly, whatever he found till now has not been green enough, refreshing enough.
Embracing fruitless activities in search of peace has led him into a mental maelstrom. He, in the end, is as miserable as ever. Happiness is something unknown to him.
He seeks answers to questions about life. Then he is introduced to a truth he is unaware of. He is told that what he thought was ultimate is, in fact unreal and what he was unaware of till now is his real nature, which is the essence of the whole, mobile and immobile world.
Inherently, he constantly is extroverted. Through constant and consistent enquiry he clears doubts that he has. Through contemplation he negates the habitual extroverted and negative tendencies that manifest in the mind.
In this verse, bhagavAn Ramana instructs that the insentient mind gents enlivened by the Atma, which need not be sought. It is within the mind, behind every thought, as consciousness. One needs to consciously stop looking out for it. One has to engage in ‘introverted pondering’ (if I may say so), in the sense of shedding the inclination to run towards the world. Looking within, understanding that the consciousness within the mind is the only sentient one and that I am. The peace I am looking for, is not only within me but is also my very nature. That I am. I do not have to run hither and thither. I do not have to be anxious. I am all and there is one alone.
Using the mind to gain this insight and get rid of incessantly clinging to the world is needed.
It is vital to note here that the mind does not ‘know’ the AtmA. Only objects can be perceived and become known. AtmA cannot be known by the mind since mind itself depends on Atma for vitality. One only needs to shed ignorance and limitations. Atma is the ever experienced truth. Gaining this insight to the truth within, is Ishvara vision.
Swami Rama Tirtha in a talk delivered in San Francisco on December 17, 1902 declared (“In Woods of God Realization” Volume-1)
“Lo! the trees of the wood are my next of kin.
And the rocks alive with what beats in me.
The clay is my flesh, and the fox is my skin.
I am fierce with the gadfly and sweet with the bee.
The flower is naught but the bloom of my love, And the waters run down in the tune I dream.
The sun is my flower, uphung above.
I cannot die, though forever death.
Weave back and fro in the warp of me.
I was never born, yet my births of breath.
Are as many as waves on the sleepless sea.”
Oh! Heaven is within you, seek happiness not in the objects of sense; realize that happiness is within yourself.
Here is another one from Him-
I am the mote in the sunbeam,
and I am the burning sun,
“Rest Here”! I whisper the atom,
I call to the orb, “Roll on!”
I am the blush in the morning,
and I am the evening breeze;
I am the leaf’s low murmur,
the swell of the terrible seas.
The lover’s passionate pleading,
the maiden’s whispered fears;
The warrior, the blade that strikes him,
his mother’s heart wrung fear.
The rose, her poet nightingale,
the songs from the throat that rise,
The flint, the sparks, the taper,
the moth that about it flies.
I am intoxication, grapes,
wine-press and must, and wine,
the guest, the host, the traveller,
the goblet of crystal fine.
Oh! The splendor and glory of yours makes the pomp of Emperors ridiculous.
The translation from the Tamil Ulladu Narpadu is perhaps clearer:
“The Self (the Lord) who is Pure Awareness lends the light of Awareness to the mind and shines within the mind. How then can one know Him by the mind except by turning the mind inward, away from the objective phenomena of the world and unifying it with the Lord?”
From Lakshmana Sarma’s commentary:
“The mind verily is the obstacle that stands in the way of knowing and Being the Self as It truly is. That state of non-distinction will not be attained so long as the mind assumes and believes in its separate identity and engages itself in activities. The one and only way to achieve this is to redirect the light of awareness by turning it inward and focusing the mind towards its source, the Self.”
From Sadhu Om’s commentary:
“In this verse Sri Bhagavan clearly reveals the truth that the only means by which one can know God, who is the real Self and who shines within the mind as the pure consciousness ‘I am’, is to merge the mind in Him by turning it inwards through the enquiry ‘Who am I?'”
From Kanakammal’s commentary:
“Any effort to know the Atman, which illumines the inert mind with intelligence and shines within it, is itself the great obstacle to remain as Atman – the Consciousness. As long as the mind assumes an independent existence and indulges in activities, the state of non-difference will not be gained. Merging and becoming one with Atman with non-difference, without remaining as ‘other’ than ‘That’ is to be truly aware of the Atman. Unless and until activities of the mind cease, the state of fullness is not possible. In the no-mind state, the Lord shines unceasingly”