Benedictory Verse Addressed to the Self
May the unique Self, which appears as various objects in the same way that gold takes the shape of the mould into which it is cast, be our support and guide for composing this work, Sorupa Saram, which proclaims that the nature of the world is only consciousness.
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2 Since the three kinds of differences do not exist, everything is only consciousness. The certainty of the existence of consciousness is stated in this way.
Since there is nothing at all that is different from consciousness, the five elements, along with the five senses and the five organs of sense, all these are consciousness only. Whatever is in the beginning, in the middle and in the end – all these are also consciousness. The indescribable illusion is also consciousness. The one who perceives everything and the act of perceiving are also consciousness.
3 Question: Is there a logical way of concluding that everything is consciousness alone?
Answer: Yes, there is.
All the world’s diversity, which derives from the misperceptions of the mind and which appears to be real – is it not the witnessing consciousness alone? Hence, everything – beginning with liberation and including purity and impurity, joy and misery, that which is and that which is not – is only being.
May the unique Self, which appears as various objects in the same way that gold takes the shape of the mould into which it is cast, be our support and guide for composing this work, Sorupa Saram, which proclaims that the nature of the world is only consciousness.
Text
2 Since the three kinds of differences do not exist, everything is only consciousness. The certainty of the existence of consciousness is stated in this way.
Since there is nothing at all that is different from consciousness, the five elements, along with the five senses and the five organs of sense, all these are consciousness only. Whatever is in the beginning, in the middle and in the end – all these are also consciousness. The indescribable illusion is also consciousness. The one who perceives everything and the act of perceiving are also consciousness.
3 Question: Is there a logical way of concluding that everything is consciousness alone?
Answer: Yes, there is.
All the world’s diversity, which derives from the misperceptions of the mind and which appears to be real – is it not the witnessing consciousness alone? Hence, everything – beginning with liberation and including purity and impurity, joy and misery, that which is and that which is not – is only being.
4 Question: If all is being, do objects appear as one’s own Self, which is being-consciousness-bliss?
Answer: Yes, they do.
In whichever direction I look there is absolute perfection. The real nature of all the holy waters is blissful consciousness. The real nature of all the verses praising the Lord is bliss. Apart from me, what other form can exist?
5 Question: Is the above statement merely verbal or is it experienced?
Answer: It is experienced as well.
My Guru instructed: ‘Sir, the world appearance and its substratum – all these are you. There is no one who does not say “I”. Therefore enquire thoroughly into the “I”.’ If this is known intently and thoroughly [one can say] ‘I myself am pure consciousness’. Hence, I am the primal entity.
6 Question: Which entity had this experience of the Self, and when did the experience arise?
Answer: It is experienced by myself and the experience is ever-present.
I saw my real nature as pure consciousness. I see only myself, and not the great multitude of the world. Simply because I had not looked at myself thoroughly, did I at any time cease to exist?
7 Question: If everything is only the Self, why are the names many?
Answer: The many names do not make the Self multiple.
Since everyone abides as ‘I’ and declares himself to be ‘I’, right up to Iswara there is nothing other than ‘me’. The same person is addressed differently as son, brother and father; but for that reason will the body of the person become different?
8 Question: If so, the known and the knower will be different.
Answer: No, they won’t be different.
It is my Self who remained as the [seer] ‘I’. Those objects that were rejected as ‘not I’ – these too are my Self. It is like someone who goes to sleep at night as himself, manifests [in dream] as the form of [the seer and] the world and then wakes up as himself.
9 Question: What is the inherent nature of the Self that shone as everything?
Answer: It is ‘shining by itself as itself’.
The Self that shines as the body, as the beloved soul, as all the actions, as ignorance, as the enjoyment of true knowledge, as the blissful reality and as the one consciousness – that indeed is my own real nature.
continue reading the full text here: Sorupa Saram
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