English original · from The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, ed. Arthur Osborne, Sri Ramanasramam, 4th ed. 1974
Reality in Forty Verses
Once Bhagavan composed twenty Tamil stanzas containing his important teachings. They were not written in any particular order to form a poem. Sri Muruganar therefore suggested that Bhagavan should write twenty stanzas more to make the conventional forty. Accordingly Bhagavan composed twenty more stanzas. Out of these forty stanzas Kavya Kanta Ganapati Muni selected two as the invocatory stanzas. Then Bhagavan wrote two more to complete the forty. Some of the stanzas were translations from Sanskrit, but as devotees wanted all the forty verses to be original they were eliminated and new stanzas composed in their place. The verses were all arranged in a continuous order to form a poem. Later a supplement consisting of a second forty verses was added. So indifferent to authorship was Bhagavan that he did not write all those supplementary verses himself. When he came upon a Suitable one he used it — mostly translations from Sanskrit and when not, he made one. The verses eliminated from the original forty verses were included in the Supplement. In this volume those verses which he took from older Sources are printed in italics.
These eighty verses are the most comprehensive exposition of the Maharshi’s teaching. A number of translations have been made and commentaries written on them. They have been published as a separate booklet by the Asramam under the titles ‘ Ulladu Narpadu’, ‘Sad-Vidya’ or ‘ Trath
Revealed’. Bhagavan translated these verses into Telugu prose under the name of Unnadi Nalupadi and into Malayalam verse under the name of Saddarsanam.
1. If there were not being could there be any idea of being ? Since that which is is free from mental concepts and is within oneself, who is there to contemplate it ? It is called the heart. Know that to remain within oneself as being is to contemplate it.
2. Those who have great fear of death seek refuge at the feet of the Supreme Lord who is without birth and death, in order to overcome their fear. They then die to themselves along with their adjuncts (sense of ‘I’ and ‘ mine’). Will those who are (have realised themselves to be) deathless entertain again the thought of death?
1. Since we perceive the world we must agree unanimously that there is a power which is capable of becoming multiple. The picture of name and form, he who sees it, the cloth on which it is based (painted) and the light which illuminates it are all oneself.
_ 2. Every system of thought postulates the three fundamentals ; individual, God and world. Only the one appears as the three. It is only as long as there is an ego-sense that one says that the three are really three. The best thing is to renounce the ego-sense and remain in one’s true state. 3. ‘The world is real’, ‘No, it is a false appearance’, The world is sentient’, ‘No, it is not ’, * The world is happiness °, ‘No, it is not’—what is the use of such disputes ?
That state is agreeable to all in which, ignoring the world, one knows one’s Self, abandoning both unity and duality and the ego-sense is gone.
4. If one has a form the world and God will also have forms. If one has no form who is there to see their forms, and how ? Can anything be seen without the eye ? The real eye is the Self which is the eye of Infinity.
5. The body is of the form of the five sheaths, Therefore these five are included in the term ‘body’. Is there a world in the absence of the body ? Has any one ever seen the world without a body ?
6. The world is of the form of the five (kinds of) sense objects and nothing else. These five sense-objects are known by the five sense organs. As the one mind knows the world by means of the five sense organs, is there a world apart from the mind? Answer (me).
7. Although the world and awareness of it rise and sink together the world is perceived through awareness. ‘That in which the world and the awareness of it rise and set is the Plenitude (purnam) which shines without rising (or setting).
8. Under whatever name and form one worships That which has no name and form it is only a means of perceiving it. To know the truth of one’s Self as the true Reality and merge and become one with It is the only true perception (Realization). Understand this.
9. The dyads and triads always depend upon the One. If one sees within one’s mind what that One is they disappear. Only those who have seen this have seen the Truth. Know that they will never be perturbed.
10. There is no knowledge apart from ignorance and no ignorance apart from knowledge. Who is it who has this
knowledge and ignorance? That Knowledge which knows the Self which is the basis of both is the real Knowledge.
11. Is it not ignorance to know all else without knowing the Self which is the source of knowledge ? Can it be knowledge ? When the Self which is the basis of knowledge and the object of knowledge is known, ignorance and knowledge cease to exist.
12. What is neither knowledge nor ignorance is (real) ‘knowledge. Knowledge of (objects) cannot be real knowledge. The Self which shines without there being anything else to know or be known is knowledge. Know that it is not nothingness.
13. The Self which is knowledge is alone the truth. The knowledge of multiplicity is ignorance. This ignorance, which is unreal, has no existence apart from the Self which is knowledge. Have diverse gold ornaments any reality apart from the gold of which they are made ?
14. If the first person exists the second and third persons will also exist. If the reality of the first person is enquired into and the first person ceases to exist the second and third persons will (also) cease to exist and all will shine as One. This is one’s true nature.
15.` The past and the future depend upon the present. They are also present while they are current. There is only the present. Without knowing this truth, trying to know the past and the future is like trying to count withoit the unit (one.)
16. When we look into them, what are time and space apart from us? If we are our bodies we are involved in time and space, but are we? We are the same now, then and at all times, here, there, and everyhere. We exist; We who are beyond time and space alone are.
17. To those who have not realized the Self as well as to those who have, the body is ‘I’, To those who have not realized the ‘I’ is limited to the body. To those who have, within the body, realized the Self the ‘I’:shines boundless. Know that this is the difference between them.
18. The world is real to those who have realized (the Self) as well as to those who have not. To those who have not realized, the world is merely the world; to those who have, truth is formless and shines as the substratum of the world. Know that this is the difference between them.
19. The dispute as to which prevails, fate or free-will, interests only those who do not know the source of both. Those who have realized the Self which is the ground of fate and free-will are free from them. Will they again resort to them?
20. Seeing God without seeing the Self who sees is only a mental image. Only he who has seen himself has seen God, since he has lost his individuality and nothing remains Dut God.
21. If it be asked, ‘What is the meaning of the old Scriptural texts which speak of seeing oneself as seeing God ? ? the reply is (the counter-question) how, being one, one can see oneself? And if one cannot see oneself how is one to see God? Only by being swallowed up by God.
22. How is it possible for the mind to know the Lord who imparts His light to the mind and shines within the mind except by turning the mind inward and fixing it in the Lord?
23. This body does not say ‘I’. Nobody says “I did not exist during sleep’. Once the ‘I’ arises everything arises. Enquire with a keen mind whence this ‘I’ arises.
24. The inert body does not say ‘I’. Being-Consciousousness does not rise (and set). Between them and limited to the measure of the body something emerges as ‘I’. It is this that is known as the knot (granthi) between the consciousness and the inert and also as bondage, individual being, subtle body, ego, the samsara, mind. This know.
25. Attaching itself to a form (that is, the body) this formless ghost of an ego comes into existence. Attaching itself to a form it endures, Attaching itself to a form it feeds (experiences) and grows. On relinquishing one form it attaches itself to another. But when sought after it takes to flight. This know.
26. If the ego is, everything else is too. If the ego is not, nothing else is. Indeed the ego is everything. Therefore the enquiry what it is really means giving up everything. This know.
27. The state in which the ‘I’ does not arise is the state of being ‘That’. Without seeking the place from which the ‘I’ arises, how is one to bring about the extinction of oneself characterised by the non-arising of the ‘I’? And without effecting that extinction how is one to abide in one’s true State in which one is That? Answer me.
28. Just as one would dive into water to see (recover) an article (which had fallen in) one should dive deeply into oneself with speech and breath restrained, and find out the place from which the ‘I’ arises. This know.
29. Seeking the source of the ‘I’ inwardly, with the inturned mind, without uttering the word ‘I’ is the true path of Knowledge. Meditation on ‘I am not this’, ‘I am that’ may be auxiliary but cannot be the enquiry.
30. When the mind, turning inward, inquires, ‘ Who am I?’ and reaches the heart, that which is ‘I’ (ego) sinks
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crest-fallen and the One (Self) appears of its own accord as ‘J-I’. Though it appears thus it is not the ego; it is the Whole. It is the real Self.
31. To one who has destroyed himself (his ego) and is awake to his nature as bliss, what remains to be accomplished ? He does not see anything (as being) other than. himself. Who can comprehend his state ?
32. Although the scriptures proclaim ‘That thou art” it is a sign of weakness to meditate: ‘I am not this but That’ instead of enquiring what one is and remaining so ;. for one is always That.
33. Itis absurd to say either : ‘I have not realized the Self’ or ‘I have realized the Self’. Why? Are there two selves for one to be the object of the other? It is the experience of all that it (the Self) is one. j
34. Itis due to the illusion born of ignorance that, instead of realizing that which is always the nature of every one and which shines in the heart and abiding as that, men dispute whether it is or is not, has form or not, is single or dual or neither.
35. To realize the Self which is always present and to: remain as that is (the real) attainment. All other attainments are like those which appear in a dream. Are these real when one awakes? Will those who have got rid of delusion and are established in their true state be deluded again ?
36. If we think, ‘I am the body’, the thought, “no, I am That’ will help us to abide as That; but should we keep on thinking that? Does (a man) keep on thinking. he is a man? We just are That.
37. The precept: ‘duality while seeking and non-duality on attainment’ is not right. Who else is one but the tenth man,! both while anxiously searching for one’s Self and after attaining one’s Self?
38. As long as we are the “performers of actions we have to undergo their consequences but when, as a result of enquiring who is the performer, one knows one-self, the sense of being the performer is lost and one is set free from the three kinds of karma.2 The (resulting) state of Liberation is eternal.
39. It is only so long as the thought ‘I am bound’ continues that the thoughts of bondage and Liberation continue. When, through the enquiry ‘Who is- bound?’ one sees (realizes) one’s Self, the ever-attained and eternally free Self alone remains. The thought of bondage does not remain, so how can the thought of Liberation?
40. If it is said that Liberation is of three kinds, with form, without form and with and without form, we say Liberation is the destruction of the ego which discusses whether it is with form, without form or with and without form.
1This refers to a traditional story of a party of ten fools who ‘were travelling together. They had to cross a river and on reaching the other shore wanted to check up whether all of them had got safely across. Each one counted in turn, but each ome counted the nine others and forgot himself. So they thought the tenth man had been drowned and began to mourn him. Just then a traveller came past and asked them what was the matter. _He at once saw the cause of their mistake and in order to convince them he made them walk past him one by one, giving each one a blow as he passed and telling them to count the strokes.
2 Sanchita, agami and prarabdha.
Supplement to the Forty Verses
1. That in which this entire universe is established, to which it pertains, out of which it arises, for which it exists, by which it comes into being, and which it really is — that is the Self-existent Reality, the Truth. Let us worship That in the heart.
1. By association with the Sages attachment (to mate-rial things) is removed. When this is removed ‘the attachment of the mind also vanishes. Those who have got rid of their attachment of mind become one with That which is motionless. They become Liberated even while alive.’ Seek their company.
2. That Supreme State which is to be attained here through association with Sages and steady inward-turning cannot be obtained through a (merely) learned teacher or by (understanding) the meaning of sacred texts, or by merit or by any other means.
3. If one associates with Sages where is the need for all these methods of discipline? When a pleasant breeze from the south is blowing, of what use, tell me, is a fan?
4. Heat is allayed by the cool (light of the) moon, Poverty (is removed) by the wish-fulfilling tree and sin by (bathing in) the Ganges. But all three are removed by the Peerless benign look of the peerless Sages.
5. Neither sacred bathing places consisting of water nor the images of Gods made of stone and clay can equal those
great ones. They take countless days ‘to purify one, but know that the Sages do so by a mere look.
6. ‘Who is God?’ ‘He who knows the mind? ‘My mind is known by me who am spirit? ‘Therefore you are
God ; also because scripture declares “ God is one”.
7. ‘What provides you with light?’ ‘By day the sun; by night a lamp. ‘What is ‘the light which sees these lights?’ ‘The eye. ‘What is the light that illumines the eye?’ ‘The intellect? ‘ What is it which knows the intellect?’ ‘It is the “I”? ‘Therefore you are the light of lights.” When the teacher said this (the disciple said), ‘ Truly J am That?
8. In the interior of the heart-cavern the one Brahman shines alone as ‘I-I’, as the Self (atman). Resort to the heart by diving deep within, through Self-enquiry or by subduing the mind along with the breath. You will thus become established in the heart.1
9. Know that awareness of, and remaining as, the Pure, immutable Self in the lotus of the heart bestows Liberation by destroying the ego.
10. The body is inert like a pot. Since it has no * I-consciousness’ and since, in its absence in deep sleep, We still exist, it cannot be the ‘I’. Who is it then that produces the feeling of ‘I-ness’? Where is he? In the heart-cavern of
1Jn 1915 when Bhagavan was living in Virupaksha Cave, E young „devotee, Jagadiswara Sastri, wrote on a piece of paper in Sanskrit the words hridaya kuhara madhye (in the interior of the heart cavern). He then went out on some business. When he returned he found to his surprise a complete Sanskrit verse beginning with those words and learned that Bhagavan had written it. This verse was later translated into Tamil by Bhagavan and incor: porated ins the Supplementary Forty Verses. Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni also included this verse in his Sri Ramana Gita.
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those who thus (enquire and) realize, the omnipresent Arunachala Siva shines of his own accord as ‘ That-am-I” consciousness.
11. He alone is born who, after enquiring ‘ Where was I born ?’ is born in his source, which is Brahman. Know that he is ever-born and daily renewed. He is the supreme Sage,
12. Give up the idea that this loathsome body is the Self. Realize the eternally blissful Self. To seek to know the Self while cherishing the ephemeral body is like mistaking a crocodile for a log and ‘trying to cross the river on it.
13. Gifts, penance (tapas), sacrifice, upright conduct (dharma), self-control (yoga), devotion (bhakti) heaven {the expanse of consciousness), subtance (existence), peace, truth, grace, silence, the Supreme State, deathless death, knowledge, renunciation, Liberation, bliss—know that all these are only severance of the I-am-the-body consicousness.
14. To enquire who it is who has karma, vibhakti (lack of devotion), viyoga (separation) and ajnana (ignorance) is true path of karma, bhakti, yoga and jnana. Remaining as the Self which has none of these things, and without an ego to make the enquiry, is indeed the true state.
15. The attitude of those madmen who, without realizing the Power which animates them, expect to attain all supernatural powers reminds one of the story of the Jame man who said, ‘If I am supported on my feet what can the enemy do?’
16. Peace of mind is permanent in Liberation, so how can those whose minds are attached to supernatural powers, which cannot be gained without activity of the mind, achieve the bliss of Liberation in which there is a cessation of the activity of the mind ?
17. The Lord bears the burden of the world. The pseudo-Self which thinks it bears it is like the grinning sculptured figure (at the foot of a temple tower) which seems to support it. Whose fault is it if one who travels in a cart carries his luggage on his head to his own discomfort instead of putting it in the cart which carries it anyway?
18. Between'the two breasts, below the chest and above the abdomen, there are six organs of different colours. One of these resembles the bud of a water lily inside and is situdted two digits to the right. This is the (spiritual) heart.
19. It is inverted and within it is a tiny orifice in which dwells dense darkness (ignorance) along with desires, etc. All ‘the great psychic nerves (nadis) depend upon it. It is the abode of the vital forces (pranas), the mind and the light (of consciousness).
20. The Lord who dwells and shines in the lotus of ‘the heart is worshipped as Guhesa (Lord of the Cave). When, by continued effort, the conviction ‘I am that Guhesa’ becomes as firm as the sense of ‘I in your body and you become that Lord, nescience of the form ‘I am ‘the perishable body, will disappear like darkness at sunrise.
21. “Please explain to me what is that great mirror it which the whole world is reflected. What is the heart of all individuals in the world ? ”, Rama once asked Sage Vasishta. The latter replied : “ When one thinks about it it appears that the heart of all individuals in the world is twofold.
22. “Listen to the characteristics of these two, of which one is to be accepted and the other rejected. The orga which is called the heart which is situated in a particular place inside the chest of the physical body is to be rejected. The heart which is of the form of consciousness is what iS
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to be accepted. It is both within and without; yet it has no inside or outside.
23. “This is the important (spiritual) heart. All this is situated within it. It is the mirror of all things and ‘the abode of all wealth. Therefore, it is said that consciousness alone is the heart of all beings. It is not a small part of the perishable body which is insentiert like a stone.
24. “Therefore, the practice of merging the ego in that pure heart of the nature of consciousness, leads to stilling the vital air (vayu) and the latent impressions of the mind (vasanas).
25. “Through constant, uninterrupted meditation in the heart : ‘ That consciousness which is devoid of all adjuncts, that Siva, I am’ removes all attachments from the mind.
26. “ Having understood the various states and always holding firmly at heart to the supreme state which is above them and free from delusion play your part in the world (as on a stage). O hero! Having realized in the Heart that which underlies all appearances, never forget it. Then play your (allotted) part in the world, O hero, acting as though attached to it.
27. “With simuldted zeal and joy, excitement and hatred, initiative and effort play your part in the world without attachment, O hero. Having obtained release from all Kinds of bondage, having gained equanimity in all situations and performing outward actions according to your part, O hero, play your part as you like in the world.”
28. Proclaim that he who is established in Truth through Knowledge of ‘the Self and has destroyed the latent impressions of the (five) sense organs through that knowledge, is the fire of knowledge, the possessor of the thunderbolt of knowledge, the destroyer of time, the hero who has overcome death.
29. Know that illumination, intelligence and strength develop spontaneously in those who have realized Truth, just as with coming of spring beauty and other qualities embellish the earth.
30. The mind whose impressions (vasanas) have been destroyed is not engaged in activity even when it performs actions ; it is like those who listen to a story absent-mindedly, The mind which is crowded with them is engaged in activity even when it does not perform actions ; it is like one who, while lying still {in sleep), climbs a hill and falls into a pit in his dream.
31. To one who is sleeping in a cart the movement of the cart, its stopping and its being left alone are the same. (Similarly) to the true Sage who is asleep inside the gross body, activity, contemplation and sleep are (the same).
32. Beyond the reach of those who experience the waking, dream and sleep states there is a state of wakingsleep known as juriya (literally ‘ the fourth’, meaning transcendental experience). As that state alone is real and as the (other) three which appear are unreal, know that zuriya is itself turiyatita (beyond turiya).
33. If one says that the Sage is free from the accumulated karma from past actions (sanchita) and the karma now being made (agami) but is subject ‘to the karma that is to be worked out in this life (prarabdha) that is only 10 satisfy others who ask about it. Know that just as none of a man’s wives can remain unwidowed on his death so when the doer is gone none of the three forms of karma can survive.
34. Wives, children and others form the family of thé unlearned, but know that in ‘the minds of the learned there
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are not one but many families consisting of books, and these form. obstacles to their spiritual progress.
35. What is the use of learning for those who do not seek the source of their birth and attempt to erase the writ of Fate?1 They are like a gramophone. Tell me, Lord of Sonagiri (Arunachala), what else are they ?
36. Those who are not learned are saved from the mis-. fortune of those who have learning but no humility, They are saved from the clutches of the monster of pride, as well as from the disease of wandering thoughts and words, and from running about seeking wealth and fame. Know it is not from one evil alone that they are saved.
37. Though he may reject all the worlds and have all the scriptures at his finger tips, it is hard for one who is enthralled by the vile courtesan flattery to free himself from bondage.
38. Who is there besides the Self ? What does it matter whether one is praised or blamed? Without differentiating between oneself and others and without swerving from one’s natural state, one should abide as the Self.
39. Retain at heart always the sense of non-duality, but never express it in action. My son, the sense of non-duality may apply to the ‘three worlds, but it is not to be used towards the Guru.
40. I will proclaim truly the essence of the conclusion arrived at by all`the Vedantic texts. It is that if the ego dies and the ‘I’ becomes That (Brahman), that ‘1’ which ts of the form of consciousness alone remains.
; e 1 This refers to the conception of the letters of a man’s destiny written on his forehead. To wipe out the letters is to transcend
‘one’s destiny or karma.