Monday, March 10, 2008

Abiding in Mauna through the Guru’s Grace




Those of perfect and mature wisdom will declare: ‘Reality, the consummation of jnana that shines in the perfectly pure state of mauna, the hard-to-attain vedantic experience, will, through the Guru’s grace, spontaneously flare up and shine as “I-I” within the Heart.’

By taking the Sadguru as your sole refuge, you should know that the cause of the continuous and distressing confusion that nurtures births is the fragmented mind which regards itself as different from God, Atma-swarupa. You should also learn from him the means for ending it [the fragmented mind] and, adopting that means, you should, through his grace, steadfastly unite with the Self, the ego-free swarupa, and abide in mauna. This alone bestows eminence.

Bear in mind that the true worship of the jnana Guru is only the Self-abidance in which the desire-free mauna surges once the disciple-consciousness that proclaimed itself as ‘I’ is destroyed by the raging fire of the consciousness of the jnana Guru, he who is God Himself.

To destroy the form of the mind, enquire into the ego, the delusion, and enter the Heart. Only this is the worship of the lotus feet of the Guru’s holy form, he who abides in the mauna that is beyond the mind.

~ from a forthcoming new translation of Guru Vachaka Kovai by Dr T. V. Venakatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman

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