Saguna Satcitananda

God is universal consciousness.

Individual consciousness is a product of ignorance.

In other words, consciousness is God.

***

God is consciousness.

Let’s give it a name.

I know. I am. I love.

Suite Nonduality: The Edge of Maya

1.

Doing and not doing are two sides of the same ignorance.

Nondoing is the wisdom of Maya. Nondoing is the will of God. Listen. Surrender.

Neither Citizen Kane nor Bartleby, Wu Wei is the razor’s edge of God’s great sword, Maya.

2.

What exactly is the difference between nondoing and not doing?

In not doing, the body is turned off but the mind is still in control of the switch. 

In nondoing, the body may be on or off, but God is wielding the sword.

3.

In the land of duality, there are 10,000 objects and one subject. While visiting, it is wise to pay one's respect to God.

In the world, it's not a question of theism or atheism. All people come with gods.

Deconstructing God before deconstructing the personal is divine madness.

4. 

I Am is the voice of God.

God is the principle of existence conceptualized.

Black holes are indescribable. So am I.

Issac, Quantumaya, and Parabrahman

Samsara is like Newtonian physics. Maya is like Quantum physics. Parabrahman is like the Anti-physics.

Look, there is no grand unification theory. There’s only nondual reality. In dreaming, there’s the waking dream and the sleeping dream; deep sleep is not a dream.

Similarly, there is Newtonian ignorance and quantum Maya; nonduality does not harmonize the one with two. Nonduality is beyond mind and god.

A Rose is a Rose is a Sunflower Sutra

If I-Know is an offshoot from the ground of consciousness, then self-awareness is its flower.

If I-Love is the fragrance of the essence of bliss, then unconditional love is its essential oil.

If I-Am is the principle of existence in action, then nondoing is its core.

Being Afterword

If part of you believes you're an individual being, then part of you believes there is a universal one as well.

This universal one is like a god. Giving it a name and backstory is just what people do.

It's voice is echoing inside you — I am.

footnote

This nameless god that speaks I Am is the manifestation of the Principle of Existence.

That principle of existence is the ground of consciousness is the essence of bliss. 

Some call that nondual trinity, Satcitananda.

Self Prayer

In the world of samsara, there is doing and not doing, rajas and tamas, busyness and inertia.

In primordial Maya, the quantum power of God, there is nondoing, sattva, wisdom.

In the world of samsara, I am someone, I know some things, and I love some of them.

In primordial Maya, the quantum power of God, I am, I know, I love.

In reality, there is the Principle of Existence, the Ground of Consciousness, the Essence of Bliss, Satcitananda, the Nondual Absolute, Parabrahman.

To wit, I minus Avidya equals That minus Maya, Tatvamasi, I Am That, Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman.

Self, look within.

Ashtavakra’s Counterpoint (AG3)

1. The Self

The one indestructible Self: having known that as your true nature, how does this knower of the Self stabilized in wisdom remain attached to accumulating wealth?

From ignorance of the Self arises an attachment to the illusory world of the senses. As from ignorance of the mother of pearl arises greed for its illusory silver.

But this universe arises like waves in the sea that I am. Thus realized, why are you running around like some hopeless individual?

After truly hearing the Self is pure consciousness and gloriously beautiful, why reap the impurity of a deep attachment to sensual things?

2. How Strange

The Self in all beings and all beings in the Self: in the wise one knowing that, how strange self-interest should continue.

Dwelling in absolute nonduality and fixed upon the great intent of liberation: how strange that such a one is subject still to sexual desire, languishing in erotic play.

Sensuality is the enemy of knowledge and weakens the spirit: how strange that someone who understands this would welcome sensuous pleasures while nearing the end of one’s life.

Dispassion towards all objects of the world and discernment between the permanent and impermanent: how strange that such a one striving for liberation from ignorance fear liberation from the body.

3. Wise One

The wise one whether glorified or persecuted is ever seeing the Self alone and thus may neither be pleased nor pained.

Seeing the actions of one’s own body like those of another, how could a wise one be bothered by praise or blame?

Seeing this universe as sheer illusion and being without any interest in it, how can the steady-minded one feel fear even as death approaches?

Whose mind is indifferent and without expectation, the great sage is at ease in self-knowledge. To whom can that one be compared?

Knowing this visible world by its very nature isn’t anything substantial, how could the steady-minded one prefer one thing or deny another?

In the final view, unbound from attachments, beyond divisions, and free from desires, all ordinary experience brings neither pleasure nor pain.

~my free transcreation of Ashtavakra Gita 3.1-14 using the translations of Chinmayananda and Nityaswarupananda et al.

Janaka Exclaims. Part Two.

1. pure consciousness

Knowledge, knower and the knowable — this trinity does not exist in reality. I am that stainless Self in which, through ignorance, this triad is appearing. Janaka declares.

O duality is the root of misery. There is no remedy except the realization that this visible world is not real and I am the One Pure Consciousness.

Yes, I am pure Consciousness. Through ignorance I have projected these limitations, like the body-mind, upon my Self. Contemplating constantly this way without the activity of thought, I abide in the Absolute.

2. on bondage

Janaka says, I have neither bondage nor liberation. For having lost its reinforcement, the illusion has ended. O! The universe although appearing in myself does not in fact exist.

Along with this body, the universe isn’t anything. Thus I know for certain that pure Consciousness alone is the Self. So upon what can imagination make its stand now?

Body and mind, heaven and hell, bondage and freedom, misery and fear: all of this is mere imagination. What purpose has it with myself whose nature is pure Consciousness?

O! Even in the multitudes of human beings, no duality is seen, their having now become like a forest. To whom should I feel an attachment?

I am not the body nor is the body mine. Nor am I a finite living being. For I am Consciousness. And the only bondage is the desire for life.

3. the limitless sea

Janaka utters O! Diverging waves of worlds spontaneously generate in me, the limitless sea, as the mental storm arises.

In me, the limitless sea, the storm of the mind has ceased to be. And woe to the merchant individual whose ship of world is wrecked and drowned.

In me, the limitless and shore-free sea, how marvelous as waves of individuals arise and collide, jostle and play, and then re-enter into me according to their nature.

~my free transcreation of Ashtavakra Gita 2, 15-25 using the translations of Chinmayananda and Nityaswarupananda et al.

Janaka Exclaims. Part One.

1. through the guidance of wisdom

Janaka exclaims, O, spotless, peaceful, Pure Consciousness, I am. Beyond the natural world! For so long I’ve been bewildered by an illusion.

I alone illumine this body as I alone reveal this universe. Therefore this universe is mine, or truly, nothing is mine.

Thus having disowned both body and universe, O! I now see my Supreme Self through the guidance of that Wisdom.

2. some similes

As waves, whitecaps, and bubble plumes are no different than ocean water, so the universe emanating from the Self is no different than the Self.

As cloth, when inspected, is found to be nothing but thread, so this universe, when investigated, is seen to be nothing but the Self. Janaka continues.

As sugar generated from sugarcane is wholly pervaded by its juice, so the universe manufactured in myself is permeated by myself within and without.

3. imagine

From ignorance of the Self, the world appears. With knowledge of the Self, the world is not. Similarly, a snake appears through non-apprehension of the rope. With the apprehension of the rope, there is no snake.

Light is my own nature and I am no different than light. When the universe manifests, I alone am shining. Janaka goes on 

O imagine! The universe through ignorance mistakenly appears in me. Like the silver in a mother of pearl. Like the snake in a rope. Like the water in sunlight.

From myself the universe has emanated and into myself it will dissolve. Like a pot into clay. Like a wave into water. Like a bracelet into gold.

4. hymn to the self

Janaka sings. How breathtaking am I! I bow down to my Self who knows no decay and is ever existent, even in the dissolution of the universe from Brahma the Creator down to a blade of grass.

How breathtaking am I! I bow down to my Self, who, although appearing with a body, is the One who neither goes anywhere nor comes from anywhere, but pervades the universe, ever existent.

How breathtaking am I! I bow down to my Self. There is none so competent as I, who holds this universe forever without ever bodily touching it.

How breathtaking am I! I bow down to my Self who has nothing, or has it all which may be thought or spoken.

~my free transcreation of Ashtavakra Gita 2, 1-14 using the translations of Chinmayananda and Nityaswarupananda

Ashtavakra Says. Part Three. Really.

You've been caught in the rope of the body-mind, dear child. Sever it with your sword of knowledge, “I am Pure Intelligence.” And be happy.

You are unattached, actionless, self-luminous, and without stain. Your practice of meditation is your bondage. Says Ashtavakra.

You pervade this universe and this universe appears in you. Really, your nature is Pure Consciousness. Don't be small-minded.

~Ashtavakra Says, Part Two. (my free transcreation of Ashtavakra Gita 14-16 in one paraverse using the translations of Chinmayananda and Nityaswarupananda)