Sadhu Om's Sadhanai Saram
Bhagavan Sri Ramana
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Part 1 of 5
(Selections translated by Sadhu Om and Michael James)
from The Mountain Path, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 1984
Sadhanai Saram (The Essence of Spiritual Practice) is a collection of Tamil poems and songs composed by Sri Sadhu Om, consisting of a total of 523 verses, most of which were written in reply to questions raised by aspirants on various aspects of spiritual practice. The whole work is divided into 86 chapters and contains numerous clues and ideas of encouragement and advice to help aspirants who are following the paths of Self-enquiry and self-surrender, the two principal paths taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
Sadhanai Saram was recently published as a book in Tamil, and an English translation of it will be serialized in The Mountain Path beginning from this issue.
Invocation
1. 0 Sri Ramana, bestow Your Grace upon me so that I may in experience flawlessly attain the unequalled and unsurpassed essence of the sadhana of Self-knowledge, the excellent path 'Who am I?' which you have discovered to be the central and foremost among all the various paths.
2. 0 Sri Ramana, the Heart, who through Your Grace protects me at every moment by guiding me along the correct path, rise from within and teach me the true import of Your divine and unequalled teachings so that I may know them in their undefiled pristine purity.
2. The Greatness of this Birth
3. However many crores of births they may take, it is indeed very difficult for anyone to have the opportunity of gaining such a great benefit as that which is gained in this birth of ours, in which we have come to the Feet of Bhagavan Ramana, who is a rare treasure for the world. So great is the benefit of this birth.
3. The Body and Yoga
4. If it is asked, 'Why is it said in scriptures that for attaining Self-experience the human body is best?', it is in order to reveal that this body alone enables one to have the keen discrimination (viveka) to scrutinize the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep (and thereby to attain Self-knowledge).
Note: Sri Bhagavan used to say that plants are always in sleep, that animals are always either in sleep or in a dream-like state, that celestial beings are always in the waking state, and that human beings alone experience all the three states (compare Talks No.617, p.580). Since the ability to scrutinize all the three states and thereby to discriminate and understand that one's true nature transcends the limitation of these states, is a priceless aid for attaining Self-knowledge, it is said in scriptures that the human birth is the most favourable.
5. (When the scriptures say that the human birth is the best they mean only what is said above) "After it has come to you, cherish this human body" is not at all the meaning of that saying. The destiny (prarabdha) which has given you this human body will cherish (or protect) it. (Therefore, without worrrying about protecting the body) you should earnestly make effort to remove the delusion 'I am this body' by intense enquiry (vichara).
S. A human body is necessary (in order for us to attain Self-knowledge); all right, it has now come to us. But if we still have a liking for this human body (and if we desire to make it healthy and strong), the attachment to it in the form T and 'mine' will increase, and it will not help us in the least to destroy the feeling 'I am this body' (dehatma-bhava). That (desire to protect the body and to make it healthy and strong) is indeed an obstacle (to the attainment of Self-knowledge).
7. These (ideas expressed in the above three verses) are an expanded elucidation to make us clearly understand the true import of the jnana-precept given by Sri Ramana (in verse 12 of Ulladu Narpadu - Anubandham) which says, "Trying to know the (real) Self and at the same time cherishing the (unreal and) perishable body, is like taking hold of a crocodile in order to cross a river".
4. Endeavour and Result
8. For those who seek and make effort to attain Self, not only Self but also all other benefits will automatically be attained in full. But if one desires and makes effort to attain worldly objects (either through worldly endeavours or through spiritual practices), know that they will be attained only partially and to the extent of one's endeavour, and that Self will not be attained at all.
5. The Goal
9. If we deeply ponder over the natural yearning of all living beings to remove their miseries (through some means or other), it will be decidedly known that the sole aim for which the whole world is striving is only to remain always in perfectly imperishable bliss.
10. If the people of the world still do not cease making efforts, the conclusion we must come to is that they have not yet attained perfect happiness, is it not? Whoever among the people has obtained complete contentment and has therefore ceased making any kind of effort is truly one who has attained all that is to be attained.
6. Which is Greater
Refrain
Is the Giver (God), greater, or are these gifts (the body and the world) greater?
Sub-refrain
O you who, having left aside the Giver, are wandering through so many births clinging to the body and world (which are given by Him) and seeking to derive happiness from them, (is the Giver greater, or are these gifts greater?)
Stanzas
11. For how many days are these gifts (the body and the world) given to you? For how many days more can you play with them? For what purpose were they given to you? Why have you not yet discovered that purpose? If (throughout your Ijfe) you cling to the Giver, He will thereafter give you even greater gifts than before. Therefore (is the Giver greater, or are these gifts greater?)
12. (O child) your mother has purchased and given you a doll made of clay. But is not the love of your mother greater and more dear to you than that clay doll, however pleasing it may be to your eyes? (Now that hunger has come to you) your mother is calling you to come and take food. If you now cling to this clay doll (the body and the seemingly pleasurable objects of this world) instead of running to your mother, will your hunger (the longing for true happiness) subside? (Can this clay doll appease your present hunger? Therefore, is the Giver greater, or are these gifts greater?)
13. If you unceasingly adore and entreat the Giver, He will graciously give Himself to you as a gift. Therefore, if you do not give up your attachment to the body and world and cling instead to Sri Ramana, who has given these things to you, what foolishness it is! (Is the Giver greater, or are these gifts greater?)
7. True Learning
14, Learning to abide as the indestructible existence-consciousness 'I am', having known it to be different from the existence of the body this alone is true learning {the supreme science or para-vidya). Abiding thus, having clearly known this existence-consciousness and having thereby subsided in Self, this alone is the state of true knowledge (jnana).
15, Even though one's mouth is dumb, (that may be an obstacle to one's speaking but) how can that dumbness of mouth be an obstacle to one's eating and filling one's stomach? Similarly, even though one has not at all studied and learnt the scriptures, (that may be an obstacle to one's delivering long and learned lectures but it cannot be an obstacle to one's enjoying the true happiness of Self, because) to abide permanently in Self is easy.
16, All the knowledge which one learns (by studying countless scriptures) is nothing but a great store of thoughts and tendencies (vasanas). The pure (adjunctless and contentless) knowledge 'I am', which remains as Silence when one has completely discarded all those thoughts and vasanas, this alone is true knowledge (mey-jnana) Therefore know that all one's learning more and more is only ignorance (ajnana).
17, Know that making effort to achieve an inward-facing attention, which will increase the clarity of Self-awareness, instead of driving the mind outwards with great force in order to acquire the useless learning (of mundane knowledge or apara-vidya), which will cloud and destroy that clarity, is the truest and highest learning (para-vidya).
18, The knowledge of one's own Self, 'I am', alone is true knowledge (jnana), Whatever knowledge one has acquired of anything other than oneself, is only ignorance (ajnana). Know that all that is seen by one who has first known himself, will not appear to him as different from himself.
19, The greatness which one attains by learning all the arts and sciences (the sixty four kinds of mundane knowledge or aparavidya) is only like a very valuable gem which one has acquired in dream. In the true awakening, the state of kaivalya or absolute oneness, which is like one's awakening from dream, all that mundane learning will be found to be useless and unreal like the blueness of the sky.
8. The Importance of Grace
20, The ego is only a trivial entity; besides, it is unreal and powerless (asakta). It is a mere adjunct which rises and subsides. Therefore. what a foolish idea it is to say, "The sadhana done by the strength of this ego will by itself bestow the goal of life; the supreme power of divine Grace is not of any consequence (and is unnecessary in order for one to attain the goal)"!
21. Is not the unreal help which one unreal man renders to another unreal man, experienced by everyone in this world as real? Therefore, 0 Sadguru, the embodiment of Grace, the sole reality, is it impossible for You to save me by dispelling the unreal ego? What doubt or wonder is there in Your being able to help me thus?
Note: A man or jiva is merely an unreal appearance, and hence whatever help he may seem to render to another man is also unreal. But when such unreal help rendered by an unreal man is experienced by everyone as real, why should we doubt the ability of the Sadguru, who alone is truly real, to render us the real help of destroying the unreal ego? Such help from the Sadguru will certainly be experienced by us as more real than the help which we feel is rendered to us by others.
22. Unless our Lord, Sri Ramana, who is the form of God, Himself bestows His divine Grace, who can by his own effort attain that heroic state of firmly abiding as Self, having clearly known one consciousness other than the body to be the real 'I'?
9. The Grace of Sri Ramana
23. Sri Ramana, the Bestower of Grace, will never give the least dissatisfaction to those who weepingly pray to Him, "Make me Your possession". I know that our Lord uses countless inexpressible tricks in order to protect and save those who have become His slaves.
24, What our Lord uses to save us are tricks of Grace. Even by the skill of our intellects, it is impossible for us to know all those tricks. If He wishes, even an ocean will enter and disappear into a mustard seed. Therefore, as soon as the glance of Sri Ramana's Grace falls upon us, the Supreme Reality will be revealed.
25. Since He is not bound by time or even by the limitation of place, He will not wait for some suitable time or suitable place to bestow His Grace upon His devotees. He has far greater compassion than even a compassionate mother, who has no plan that she will give her baby milk to drink only when it cries and hence, even without our crying for it, He will bestow His Grace upon us of His own accord).
26. 0 Bhagavan, innumerable are the wrongs (the mistakes and misfortunes) from which I, this poor creature, have escaped by Your Grace unknown to myself. You know all of them, but I do not know anything except enjoying the bliss of being saved by Your Grace.
27. We and all our possessions beginning with the body are in truth only the possessions of Sri Ramana, When the responsibility of saving us and protecting our possessions is borne by Him alone, why should we worry about anything in our life on this earth, thinking it to be either pleasure or pain? Where is any such thing as suffering now?
10. The Certainty of Sri Bhagavan's Protection
28. 0 Sri Ramana, those who have taken refuge at Your Feet are protected perfectly not only on one or two occasions but on more than a crore of occasions, From many incidents which happen in their life, this is a truth which is clearly known to the hearts of Your devotees.
29. The state of abiding in the Heart as the Heart as it is (that is, as the adjunctless and thought-free existence-consciousness 'I am') is the ineffable and most excellent state. He who nurtures the fruit of such Self-abidance by sowing the seed of clarity of mind and by watering it with divine Grace, is only our Sadguru-deva, Sri Ramana.
11. The Wealth of Sri Ramana
30. The wealth of the almighty Sri Ramana's jnana is a treasure which is ever available to be plundered by all people who want it, and however much it is plundered, it will never decrease even in the least. However, only good people who are true devotees know how to plunder it; though other people, who are too immature go near that treasure, cannot see anything there.
(To be continued)
Go on to part 2
Sri Ramanarpanamastu