Sublime

negate the five sheaths, which are other than oneself. Hence in Upadēśa Undiyār Bhagavan has amended the path of knowledge (jñāna mārga) by rearranging the back-to-front process described in ancient scriptures into a new and practical order – that is, he points out that the practice of nēti nēti is actually the end result.

The top five tattvas of Śuddhādhvan are ways of describing the One Reality by way of phases of awareness. In both—the directions of descent and ascent —the top two tattvas remain as Śiva and Śakti. While, in the direction of descent, we have icchā, jñāna and kriyā as the next three tattvas, they are known differently in the direction of ascent. The

The Saundaryalaharī says that if the worshipper practises Ātmārpaṇam, ordinary talk is converted into Japa, normal work with the hand becomes Mudrā, walking becomes Pradakṣiṇa, eating becomes Homa, lying down Praṇāma—in fact whatever action is naturally done is transformed into worship.

The origin of Śakti worship can be traced to such Vedic texts as Śri-Sūktam, Durgā-Sūktam, Bhū-Sūktam, Bahvrcopaniṣad, Tripuropaniṣad, Bhāvanopaniṣad and other Devī Upaniṣads. In Sandhyā Upāsanā, we think of Gāyatrī Devī in the solar orb and imagine that the sun shines by Her effulgence and that She is also the Truth which has kindled the light of

Completely giving up identification with the body alone is exhalation [rechaka]; merging within through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ along is inhalation [puraka]; abiding as the one reality ‘I am that' alone is retention [kumbhaka]. This is the real pranayama.11

Since each one of us experiences ourself as ‘I am only one, not two’, we should not give room to any sense of duality in which one ‘I’ seems to be seeking another ‘I’ by differentiating two distinct selves, a lower self called ego and a higher self called ātman, as Bhagavan implies in verse 33 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu: To make oneself viṣaya [an object,

Oneself (ātman) is svayam-prakāśa (self-luminosity), which shines constantly as ‘oneself alone is oneself’, the form ‘I am’.

What was it that Nisargadatta, the Vedanta sage, said? “Wisdom tells me I’m nothing. Love tells me I’m everything. In between, my life flows.”

Sri Ramana's God is not a personal God, he is the formless being which sustains the universe. He is not the creator of the universe, the universe is merely a manifestation of his inherent power; he is inseparable from it, but he is not affected by its appearance or its disappearance.