The portion added by Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai to Nan Yar? [Who Am I?] may appear to be of some use as an aid to understanding Sri Ramana's simple answer, "Knowledge alone is I." However, the presentation & wording of this added portion does not truly reflect Sri Ramana"s natural style of teaching, or his usual choice of words. His natural style was always to answer questions briefly, simply & to the point. Unless he was talking to someone whose Mind was already steeped in the complex & often obscure concepts & terminology of traditional vēdānta, he generally avoided using such concepts & terminology, & instead used only simple Tamil words, or words borrowed from Sanskrit whose meaning was clear & straightforward. Since many people who came to him were not well versed in traditional vēdāntic or yōgic concepts, he avoided as far as possible cluttering & burdening their Minds with such concepts, except for a few that were really useful & pertinent.
In particular, he avoided all the detailed descriptions & classifications of the "non-self" – whatever is not our Real Self – which are given in many traditional texts. As Sri Ramana writes in the 17th paragraph of Nāṉ Yār?:
"Just as no benefit [is to be gained] by a person, who should sweep up & throw away rubbish, scrutinising it, so no benefit [is to be gained] by a person, who should know [his or her real] self, calculating that the tattvas [detailed aspects of an objective 'realm'] , which are concealing [our real] self, are 'this many' & scrutinising their qualities, instead of gathering up & rejecting all of them. It is necessary [for us] to consider the World [which is composed of these tattvas] like a Dream."
That is, in plainer English, just as we would derive no benefit by scrutinising a mass of rubbish, instead of just sweeping it up & throwing it away, so we will derive no benefit by enumerating & investigating the nature of the tattvas, which constitute all that is "non-self" & which therefore obscure our knowledge of our Real Self, instead of rejecting all of them & thereby knowing our Real Self, which is the one true Existence or Essential Substance that underlies their imaginary appearance.
The word tattva, whose etymological meaning is "it-ness" or "that-ness", basically means that which is real, true & essential, the "reality", "truth", or "essence", but it is commonly used to mean any basic element or constituent quality that is considered to be real. In this context, therefore, the plural term tattvas denotes all the ontological principles – the basic "elements", essential components or abstract qualities of which all things are supposed to be made. The various schools of Indian philosophy each give their own classification of these so-called tattvas, & each reckon that there are a different number of them, a number that usually does not exceed 36 [commonly 24]. However, though some of them may use a different word to describe it,
most of these schools agree that the original & fundamental tattva is paramātman, the "Supreme Self" or "Transcendent Spirit", which is also called puruṣa, the primal "Person" or "Spirit". This puruṣa or paramātman is in fact our own Real Self, our own spirit or Essential Self-Conscious Existence, which we always experience as "I exist". Since this Primal Spirit "I exist" is the only tattva that exists permanently, without either appearing or disappearing, it is the only Real tattva.
The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com
short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58 link directly to free E-book PDF files
Different blogs available on:
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"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."
– the "no creation" school of Gaudapada Nome – Ajata Vada
for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/
[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]
also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.
Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.
[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]
also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.
Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.
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