Crest Jewel of Wisdom
(Viveka-Chudamani)

Verses 451-500

The karma created before the arising of knowledge does not come to an end with knowledge without producing its effect, like an arrow shot at a target after being loosed. 451

An arrow released in the understanding that it was at a tiger does not stop when it is seen to be a cow, but pierces the target with the full force of its speed. 452

The effects of previous conditioning are too strong for even a wise man, and it is eliminated only by enduring it, but the effects of present and future conditioning are all destroyed by the fire of true understanding. Those who are always established in the knowledge of their oneness with God, as a result of that are not affected by these three aspects of conditioning since they share the unconditioned nature of God. 453

The question of the existence of past conditioning does not apply for the ascetic who, by getting rid of self-identification with anything else, is established within in the knowledge of the perfection of God as his true nature, just as questions concerned with things in a dream have no meaning when one has woken up. 454

He who has woken up makes no distinctions about his dream body and the multiplicity of things connected with it as being "me", "mine" or anything else, but simply remains himself by staying awake. 455

He has no desire to assert the reality of those illusions, and he has no need to hold on to the things he has woken up from. If he still chases these false realities he is certainly considered not awake yet. 456

In the same way he who lives in God remains in his own nature and seeks nothing else. Like the memory of things seen in a dream is the way the seer experiences eating, going to the toilet and so on. 457

The body has been formed by causation so past causality appropriately applies to it, but it does not apply to the beginningless self, since one's true nature has not been causally formed. 458

Scriptures which do not err affirm that one's true nature is "Unborn, eternal and abiding" (Katha Upanishad 1.2.18), so how could causality apply to someone established in such a self? 459

Causality applies only so long as one identifies oneself with the body, so he who does not consider himself the body has abolished causality for himself. 460

Even the opinion that causality applies to the body is a mistake. How can a false assumption be true, and how can something which does not exist have a beginning? How can something with no beginning have an end, and how can causality apply to something that does not exist? 461

The ignorant have the problem that if ignorance has been completely eliminated by knowledge, how does the body persist? To settle this doubt scripture talks about causality in accordance with conventional views, but not to teach the reality of the body and such things to the wise. 462, 463

Complete in himself, without beginning or end, infinite and unchanging, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 464

The essence of Truth, the essence of Consciousness, the eternal essence of Bliss and unchanging, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 465

The one reality within everything, complete, infinite, and limitless, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 466

He cannot be removed or grasped; he cannot be received from someone else, or held onto. God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 467

Without attributes, indivisible, subtle, inconceivable, and without blemish, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 468

His appearance is formless, beyond the realm of mind and speech. God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 469

Exuberant Reality, self-reliant, complete, pure, conscious and unique, God is one and without a second. There is nothing other than He. 470

Great ascetics who have abandoned desires and given up possessions, calm and disciplined, come to know this supreme Truth, and in the end attain the supreme peace by their self-realisation. 471

You too should recognise this supreme Truth about yourself, your true nature and the essence of bliss, and shaking off the illusion created by your own imagination, become liberated, fulfilled and enlightened. 472

See the Truth of yourself with the clear eye of understanding, after the mind has been made thoroughly unwavering by meditation. If the words of scripture you have heard are really received without doubting, you will experience no more mistaken perception. 473

When one has freed oneself from association with the bonds of ignorance by the realisation of the reality of Truth, Wisdom and Bliss, then scripture, traditional practices and the sayings of the wise remain proofs, but the inner experience of truth is proof too. 474

Bondage, freedom, contentment, worry, health, hunger and so on are matters of personal experience, and other people's knowledge of them can only be by inference. 475

Impartial gurus teach, as do the scriptures, that the wise man crosses over by means of wisdom alone through the grace of God. 476

Knowing his true indivisible nature by his own realisation the perfected man should remain in full possession of himself free from imaginations within. 477

The conclusion of all the scriptures and of experience is that God is the individual and the whole world too, and that liberation is to remain in the one indivisible Reality. The scriptures are also the authority for the non-duality of God. 478

Having thus attained the supreme reality by self discipline through the words of his guru and the testimony of the scriptures, his faculties at peace and his mind at peace, he becomes something self-poised and immovable. 479

Having established his mind for some time in the supreme God, he arose from supreme bliss and uttered these words. 480

My intellect has vanished and my mental activities have been swallowed up in the realisation of the oneness of myself and God. I no longer know this from that, nor what or how great this unsurpassed joy is. 481

Words cannot express nor the mind conceive the greatness of the ocean of the supreme God, full of the nectar of bliss. Like the state of a hail-stone fallen into the ocean, my mind has now melted away in the tiniest fraction of it, fulfilled by its essential nature of Bliss. 482

Where has the world gone? Who has removed it, or where has it disappeared to? I saw it only just now, and now it is not there. This a great wonder. 483

In the great ocean filled with the nectar of the indivisible bliss of God, what is to be got rid of, what is to be held onto, what is there apart from oneself and what has any characteristics of its own? 484

I can neither see, hear or experience anything else there, as it is I who exist there by myself with the characteristics of Being and Bliss. 485

Salutation upon salutation to you, great guru, free from attachment, the embodiment of absolute Truth, with the nature of ever non-dual bliss, the sea of eternal compassion on earth. 486

Your very glance has soothed like gentle moonlight the weariness produced by the great heat of samsara, and I have immediately attained my own true everlasting home, the abode of imperishable glory and bliss. 487

Through your grace I am blessed, I have achieved the goal, I am freed from the bonds of samsara, I am eternal bliss by nature, and fulfilled. 488

I am free, I am bodiless, I am without sex and indestructible. I am at peace, I am infinite, without blemish and eternal. 489

I am not the doer and I am not the reaper of the consequences. I am unchanging and without activity. I am pure awareness by nature, I am perfect and forever blessed. 490

I am distinct from the seer, hearer, speaker, doer and experiencer. I am eternal, undivided, actionless, limitless, unattached - perfect awareness by nature. 491

I am neither this nor that, but the pure supreme reality which illuminates them both. I am God, the indivisible, devoid of inside and outside, complete. 492

I am uncomparable, beginningless Reality. I am far from such thoughts as "you", "me", and "this". I am eternal bliss, the Truth, the non-dual God himself. 493

I am Narayana, I am the slayer of Naraka and of Pura. I am the supreme Person and the Lord. I am indivisible awareness, the witness of everything. I have no master and I am without any sense of "me" and "mine". 494

I abide in all creatures, being the very knowledge which is their inner and outer support. I myself am the ejoyer and all enjoyment, in fact whatever I experienced before now. 495

In me who am the ocean of infinite joy the manifold waves of the universe arise and come to an end, impelled by the winds of Maya. 496

Ideas like "material" are mistakenly imagined about me by people under the influence of their presuppositions, as are divisions of time like kalpas, years, half-years and seasons, dividing the indivisible and inconceivable.. 497

The presuppositions of the severely deluded can never affect the underlying reality, just as the great torrent of a mirage flood cannot wet a desert land. 498

Like space, I am beyond contamination. Like the sun, I am distinct from the things illuminated. Like a mountain, I am always immovable. Like the ocean, I am boundless. 499

I am no more bound to the body than the sky is to a cloud, so how can I be affected by its states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep? 500

This page was published on Realization.org on May 16, 2000.