Shining World

I Am the Song of the Self

1. I am whole and complete, non-dual, actionless, unlimited, ever-present, ordinary awareness/consciousness, the Self. My nature is unconditioned presence, fullness, pure love, pure existence, absolute peace and unlimited happiness. I never change for I am the Lord of Immortality.

2. I am the source of all happiness and joy. You will not find lasting happiness outside of me, it is futile seeking, because it does not exist. I need nothing to complete me nor any experience to make me happy. I am neither what is, nor what is not. I am pure auspiciousness, the essence of wisdom and the eternal reality. I alone give reality to everything. Though I am satya, that which is non-dual, always present and unchanging, I created ignorance and the unreal, or apparent reality, that which is not always present and always changing, mithya, duality. In mithya, dharma and adharma must co-exist or the apparent reality could not function as the Field of Existence in which jiva works out its karma. But neither dharma nor adharma is real, because duality is not real. Adharma, evil, is the result of ignorance of me and not “my will.” I have no will. Once I am known, adharma is no longer possible and dharma is automatic.

3. I am beyond the macrocosm, the Creator of the Field of Existence, Isvara, or “God.” Though Maya, the power in me to apparently limit myself, exists because of me, it never hides or covers me. The macrocosm, the Creator of the macrocosm, the myriad laws and principles (gunas) that make up the Creation and the seemingly individual jivas all appear in me like a dream, a mirage on the desert floor, a movie on a screen.

4. I am the subject for all objects, not the object for multiple subjects. An object is anything other than me. All objects are therefore known to me but do not know me, because they are not sentient and only apparently, not actually, real.

5. I am the attributeless nature and essence of all objects, the invariable, essential factor that cannot be negated or removed, just like water remains when the ocean and the waves are eliminated or the gold remains when the ring is removed. It is impossible to remove or negate me, because I would have to be present to be removed or negated. I am sometimes called emptiness, but I cannot be emptiness, because I am the witness of the emptiness-thought. I am the fullness of unconditioned awareness and cannot be changed, transformed or reduced to anything else.

6. I am is-ness, the substrate of all existence. The existence of all objects belongs to me, not the objects. Everything existent in name and form arises from me, comes and goes, dissolving in me, but existence itself remains because it is me.

7. I am non-separate from all objects who depend on me to exist, but I depend on nothing. I am Self-existent, I am the only thing that stands alone. I am Self-effulgent and need no other source of light to know myself, because I am the source of all light. Though all objects reflect me, the projection is not the same as me, but it is not different from me either, just as the reflection in a mirror is the same but not the same as the one who casts it; it cannot know or reach out and touch the one who casts it, because the reflection is inert.

8. I am the independent consciousness that enlivens the body, just like a ventriloquist enlivens a puppet. The apparent person seems to be alive and independently aware, but it is not. By my Light shining on the mind and senses, it thinks, feels, knows and acts. Hypnotized by my Maya it wrongly identifies with the body, thinks it is the doer and suffers. Maya crushes the deluded mind in its crocodile jaws, convincing jiva it is flawed, insignificant, entombed in decaying flesh, subject to ever-changing forces beyond its control. Staring in the contemptuous mirror of duality with self-loathing, jiva sees only its perceived need, unlovability, vulnerability, its hateful lack and imperfection. Instead of turning inwards to look at me, jiva looks outward at the world, hoping to be healed, seen, loved, known, wanted. But nothing satisfies for long or can free the mind from the inevitable dissatisfaction of the limited small-self besides Self-knowledge.

9. I am not a part, product or property of the body-mind. The human form is a microcosmic projection of me within the macrocosmic projection. It is an object known to me. I am thought to be associated with a material human body and mind due to ignorance of my nature, although I am always free of it. I am the unlimited Self, free of qualities and limiting factors.

10. I am the invisible, all-pervasive, intangible, space-like consciousness in which all bodies appear, including the one jiva refers to as “mine.”

11. I am only ever one, though it seems like I am two, limitless awareness and an apparently aware individual, because of Maya’s power to delude. The apparent person appearing in me seems like a unique individual with unique characteristics, but in truth there is only one Eternal Jiva whose essence is atman,me, the Self. Freedom from bondage to the idea of being a limited person/doer is moksa, liberation.

12. I am never affected or conditioned by ignorance/duality, though when Maya weaves the Creation into existence and I appear as a subtle body, it seems as if I am. Because the apparent person is a mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of spirit and matter, like twilight is a mixture of light and dark, I seemingly become confused and seek to find out who I am, even though I am always present and known to myself alone. Duality is not a problem for me, only the superimposition of duality on me, the non-dual Self, causes suffering for jiva.

13. I am undifferentiated and always free of the world. I appear as all names and forms, but I am nameless, formless and never become the world. My physical form is in one order of reality, mithya – and I am in another, satya. The two orders of reality never meet and do not contradict each other, just like the reflection in the mirror is true to the reflection but neither the reflector or the reflection affect each other. Or like when there is smoke in space, it seems as if space is smoky, but it is never actually contaminated. Nothing can contaminate, touch or hide me.

14. I am not limited by the boundary of the body. There is nowhere I am not. I am everywhere, brilliant, indivisible and undefiled by sin. Wise beyond measure, I am both immanent and transcendent.

15. I am never the jiva, the apparent person, but I seemingly use the person that appears in me as a lens to contact and transact with the world of objects. The only thing that changes when jiva knows its primary identity is me is how and why I contact objects – which I do happily, not for happiness. I love and accept the jiva as it is because I know there is nothing wrong with it. It’s just a program appearing in me. It does not need to be perfected, only understood and negated in the light of my Truth so that I live free of the jiva program as the Self.

16. I am never bound by individuality. When I understand that I am the limitless Self, my individuality and sense of doership disappear because I was only seemingly ignorant of my true nature. I am never liberated either, because I was never actually bound. With or without my apparent individuality I am, and always have been, the limitless Self, free of knowledge and ignorance. I just thought I was a person, thanks to Maya. If my ignorance was real, it could not be removed by Self-knowledge.

17. I am never incarnated, so I do not reincarnate. But at the determined time, according to the momentum of its past actions, the gross body dies and the subtle body goes into a potential, unmanifest state, subsumed in the macrocosmic causal body from whence it came. Depending on whether the vasana load and karma of the deceased jiva have been resolved, it may or may not appear as another jiva. If it does, the next subtle body that incarnates will have the same vasana/karma load, but not the same personality/ego. Those who perceive me in every being “merge into me” and are released from the wheel of birth and death.

18. I am unborn and undying. I am unaffected by the body superimposed on my radiance, so I am unaffected by the birth or death of the body. Realize me as the Self and conquer death. I am hidden in the hearts of everyone, the first and only causeless cause, and the final resting place. Obsessively devote your mind to me and I will reveal Myself to you.

19. I am not limited by or “in” time. Time is an object known to me and is another name for desire, projection. It is mithya, I am satya. I am eternal, beyond time, space and causality. I am inexhaustible, beginningless and endless. From within myself I project and sustain the whole cosmos. At my command evolution begins. At the end of time, I withdraw the whole Creation back into itself like the spider its web.

20. I am Self-evident and need nothing to prove my existence/consciousness. It is obvious all living beings exist and are conscious. When I am apparently under the spell of ignorance I know that I exist and am conscious, but I do not know that I AM existence/consciousness itself or what this means. I rely on the testimony of the senses, but they fool me. Eyes cannot see me, ears cannot hear me, nor can words express me. The mind cannot grasp me, though I am that by which you know what you know. I am known but not known, because I am other than the known and the unknown.

21. I am never contaminated or affected by the thoughts and feelings that appear in me even though without me, no thought or experience is possible. I illumine and pervade every thought/experience. I exist between thoughts and in all three states of being available to jiva, waking, dreaming and deep sleep. I do not come and go when thoughts/experience or states of being come and go. I am the knower of the coming and going of all things, and whatever happens in the mind makes no difference to me. The mind cannot hide me, but when it is identified with thoughts/feelings and the body, it is confused and deluded by duality – Maya. It thinks it is a limited and incomplete person, so chases objects to complete itself and suffers.

22. I am the non-experiencing witness to whom experience is presented by the experiencing entity. Yet I am also the ultimate experiencer even though I am never directly experiencing anything, because I lack nothing. Jiva life is one unbroken stream of experience generated by the gunas, Isvara. Experience presents no problem for my jiva if its true meaning is assimilated, which is that no experience takes place without my light shining on the mind, illumining unconscious content. Experience does not take place “in” me, because there is nothing but me. There is no “space” to accommodate objects/experience in non-duality. Non-dual means “nothing other than.” Experience takes place in the apparent reality, in mithya,the world of objects created by Maya, and never touches me.

23. I am limitless bliss, which has nothing to do with the experiential bliss of feelings and is never affected by them. I am always experiencing limitless bliss because it is my nature. It is not something that happens “to me” when the jiva feels good. It is who I am, so does not come and go, like feelings and states of mind do.

24. I am the Silence beyond silence because there are no differences in me. I need no thought or sense organs to exist, as I do not have a body or mind. I am the witness of the body and the empty or active, noisy mind. The silence which is devoid of sound cannot reveal me. Soundless Silence is an object known to me and will not remove ignorance of my nature. For that, only Self-inquiry with a valid means of knowledge for me works.

25. I am neither sentient nor insentient. I am the knower of both and by my presence alone I make sentiency possible. I never modify to experience, so cannot be called conscious as such, because there is nothing to be conscious of other than me. It is only when Maya, the power to delude and not know, appears in me that I seem to be conscious because there is something for me to be conscious of – the apparent reality.

26. I am beyond the jiva’s means of knowledge for objects. Even though I operate perception, I cannot be known by the senses or by perception and inference, because I am the subject, not an object of perception. Nothing a limited entity/doer/ego can do will reveal me or produce limitlessness, as it is the doer/ego that stands in the way of freedom from limitation. The object cannot know the subject, because I am subtler than the objects. By my power alone is the mind capable of self-reflection, to think, desire and will. I have given you free will to choose and the means to know me, but you must be taught to think differently and surrender to me. If you resist me, believing the world can give you what you seek, I cannot free you from the whirlpool of samsara, which is no problem for me, but it is for the jiva. I can only be known by the analysis of your own experience through inquiry into the cause and effect, i.e. the Creation, with a valid and independent means of knowledge for me, which is Vedanta, Self-knowledge. Use this powerful teaching to meditate on me. Only Self-knowledge can reveal my true nature with the removal of the superimposition of duality on me, non-duality, and end existential suffering for jiva. For Self-inquiry, jiva needs certain qualifications, the first being the realization that there is nothing to gain in this world. Also needed is a qualified teacher of Vedanta capable of wielding the teachings, just like an expert restorer is required to painstakingly remove the layers of accretions on a masterpiece that hide its true glory. If you try to teach yourself, the mind will contaminate the teachings with its own ideas and prejudices.

27. I am not the reflection, though I can be experienced as a reflection of my Self in a pure, sattvic mind, but the reflection does not know me directly, because it too is an object of perception. Once Self-knowledge has removed all the limiting factors that seem to hide me from being known, I am known directly as the one and only true and unlimited SELF – CONSCIOUSNESS. Once this knowledge is firm, it can never be lost.

28. I am never not awareness and am only ever experiencing awareness, regardless of what the mind believes or thinks it knows, because there is no other option.

29. I am the Self does not mean I must act in a “special” way as the jiva. There are no rules and no karmafor me, the Self. How my jiva behaves once liberated from duality will depend entirely on discrimination as the Self, not on the likes and dislikes of the jiva, because I am no longer bound to or identified with the jiva/doer, so am no longer driven by fear and desire. All desires that still exist will be in harmony with dharma and non-binding. Once liberated from bondage to the limited small-self, I continue to exist as the jiva with a given nature, always following dharma spontaneously with great devotion to Isvara, the Creator, or God. But I do so minus the hypnosis of duality. I do not believe “in” God, because I know there is only God, that Isvara and jiva share the same identity as me, the Self.

30. I am the Self means I would never cause injury to life in any form, because I know it is all me. The world may not be real, but it is an intelligently designed universe that runs on certain laws that must be understood and honoured for the jiva to have a peaceful life. Macrocosmic Maya continues when jiva’spersonal ignorance (avidya) has been removed, but when I know I am the Self and not the person, the world of objects and the jiva is as good as non-existent, for me.

31. I am totally free of fear, worry, smallness, insecurity, helplessness, confusion and need. Nothing can be taken from or added to me. Having gained the fruit of knowledge, I know there is nothing other than me. I need no validation, because I validate everything. Contented and free of the senses, I enjoy being alone, sipping the nectar of the bliss of my Self. I do not need distraction or entertainment and I am never miserable in this world, for I know the whole universe is filled with me alone. There is nothing else for me to identify with. Because I no longer perceive duality, which is the source of all misery, sorrow cannot touch me, though jiva still apparently experiences positive and negative feelings. All my actions are but apparent, so experiences, feelings and desires leave no impression on my mind. As I know I am eternal, I have no body-idea though I honour and take care of the body Isvara presents before me. I am ever-free and never bound, unattached to objects, always at peace. I am desirous neither of enjoyment nor liberation and have no attachment or aversion to virtue, security, pleasure, freedom, life or death. Life and death are meaningless to me. I live happily on whatever comes as a matter of course. Being fulfilled by the knowledge of the Self, my mind is absorbed in the glory of Self-knowledge and its resulting blessings, content that nothing needs to be done.

32. I am moksa. I am not a rare event, experience or “happening.” I cannot be attained, because I am not an object of experience. You cannot gain something you already have. I am, always have been, always will be ever-free, ever-present, ever-full consciousness. See me, the Essence of Mercy, in your Heart and in everyone. Realize I am the Ordainer, the maker of all the laws and the ruler of all. You attain the goal when you realize I am the only Reality, the source of truth, wisdom and boundless joy.

33. I am the altar fire burning in the homes of the righteous. I am the limitless light of awareness that flashes in the lightening, that twinkles in the stars and in your eyes. I am the light shining on the day and the night, the source of the sun and of every light in the universe. Throughout my luminous robes are woven the heavens, the earth, mind and body. I dwell in men, in the gods, in truth and in the vast firmament. I am the air you breathe, the fish swimming in the rivers and the plants growing on the earth. I am the wind blowing in space, the replenishing rain falling on the land and the dewdrop on the flower. I am the butterfly, the blue bird and the green bird with red eyes. I am the fiery volcano, the thundercloud, the violent storm, the seasons and the seas. I am the giver and taker of life. I am all that is beautiful and all that is ugly. I am the innocent baby, the boy and the girl, the man and the woman and the old man tottering on his staff. My face is everywhere. I have no beginning and no end.

I am you.

Brahma Sathyam Jagan Mithya Jivo Bramaiva Na Parah

I, the Self, am limitless consciousness and jiva is non-different from me.

~ Sundari

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