1
Action yields fruit, for so the Lord ordains it. How can action be the Lord? It is insentient.
2
The fruit of action passes, but action leaves behind seed of further action, leading to an endless ocean of action, not at all to moksha.
3
Disinterested action surrendered to the Lord purifies the mind and points the way to moksha.
4
This is certain: worship, praise and meditation, being work of body, speech and mind, are steps for orderly ascent.
5
Ether, fire, air, water, earth, sun, moon and living beings... Worship of these, regarded all as forms of His, is perfect worship of the Lord.
6
Better than hymns of praise is repetition of the Name; better low-voiced than loud. But best of all is meditation in the mind.
7
Better than spells of meditation is one continuous current, steady as a stream or downward flow of oil.
8
Better than viewing Him as Other, indeed the noblest attitude of all, is to hold Him as the ‘I’ within, the very ‘I’.
9
Abidance in pure being, transcending thought through love intense, is the very essence of supreme devotion.
10
Absorption in the heart of being, whence we sprang, is the path of action, of devotion, of union and of knowledge.
11
Holding the breath controls the mind: a bird caught in a net. Breath-regulation helps absorption in the heart.
12
Mind and breath (as thought and action) fork out like two branches. But both spring from a single root.
13
Absorption is of two sorts: submergence and destruction. Mind submerged rises again; dead, it revives no more.
14
Breath controlled and thought restrained, the mind turned one-way inward fades and dies.
15
Mind extinct, the mighty seer returns to his own natural being and has no action to perform.
16
It is true wisdom for the mind to turn away from outer objects and behold its own effulgent form.
17
When unceasingly the mind scans its own form there is nothing of the kind. For every one this path direct is open.
18
Thoughts alone make up the mind; and of all thoughts the ‘I’ thought is the root. What is called mind is but the notion ‘I’.
19
When one turns within and searches whence this ‘I’ thought arises, the shamed ‘I’ vanishes and wisdom’s quest begins.
20
Where this ‘I’ notion fades, now there as I, arises the One, the very Self, the Infinite.
21
Of the term, ‘I’, the permanent import is That. For even in deep sleep, where we have no sense of ‘I’, we do not cease to be.
22
Body, senses, mind, breath, sleep—all insentient and unreal—cannot be ‘I’, ‘I’ who am the Real.
23
For knowing That which is—there is no other knower. Hence Being is Awareness; and we all are Awareness.
24
In the nature of their being, creature and creator are in substance one. They differ only in adjuncts and awareness.
25
Seeing oneself free of all attributes is to see the Lord, for He shines ever as the pure Self.
26
To know the Self is but to be the Self, for it is non-dual. In such knowledge, one abides as that.
27
That is true knowledge which transcends both knowledge and ignorance, for in pure knowledge there is no object to be known.
28
Having known one’s nature, one abides as being with no beginning and no end, in unbroken consciousness and bliss.
29
Beyond bondage and release is steadfastness in service of the Lord.
30
All ego gone, living as that alone, is penance good for growth, sings Ramana, the Self.