“Nevertheless, the conclusion must be reached that He is pure intelligence and His consciousness is absolute and transcendental. Such is the consciousness-intelligence in purity, Absolute Being, the One Queen, Parameswari (Transcendental Goddess) overwhelming the three states and hence called Tripura. Though She is an undivided whole the universe manifests in all its variety in Her, being reflected as it were, in a selfluminous mirror. The reflection cannot be apart from the mirror and is therefore one with it. Such being the case, there cannot be difference in degrees (e.g., Siva, or Vishnu being superior to each other). Bodies are mere conceptions in the lower order of beings and they are not to the point in the case of God. Therefore, be wise, and worship the one pure, unblemished Transcendence
94. “If unable to comprehend this pure state, one should worship God in the concrete form which is most agreeable to Him; in this way, too, one is sure to reach the goal, though gradually.
95. “Though one attempted it in millions of births, one would not advance except in one of these two ways.”
Thus ends the Chapter on the Nature of God in the Section of Hemachuda in Tripura Rahasya.
Chapter VIII
Key to the Parable of Chapter V
1-3. Having learnt from the mouth of his wise wife, the true significance of Tripura, who is Pure Intelligence and God in Truth, and also the technique of Tripura’s worship from competent teachers as prompted by divine grace, Hemachuda gained peace of mind and took to the worship with intense devotion.
A few months passed in this manner.
Note: God’s grace is the sine qua non of any kind of knowledge of God.
4. “The Supreme Mother’s grace descended on him, and he became totally indifferent to pleasure because his mind was entirely absorbed in the practical investigation of the Truth.
5. “Such a state is impossible for anyone without the Grace of God, because the mind engaged in practical search for truth is the surest means of emancipation.
6. “Parasurâma! Countless aids will not give emancipation if an earnest search for truth is not made.
7. “Once more Hemachuda sought his wife alone, his mind absorbed in the quest for Truth.
8-9. “She saw her husband coming to her apartment, so she went to meet him, welcomed him and offered him her seat. She washed his feet and prostrated before him, as was due to one of his rank, and spoke melting words of sweet love.
10-14. “Dearest! I see you again after such a long time. Are you in good health? Of course, the body is sometimes liable to illness. Do tell me why you have been neglecting me all these days. Not a day passed before without your seeing me and conversing with me. How have you been passing your time? I could never have dreamt that you would be so indifferent to me! What makes you so? How do you spend your nights? You used to say that a moment without me was like eternity to you, and that you could not bear it.” Saying this, she embraced him fondly and appeared distressed.
15-17. Though embraced lovingly by his dear wife, he was not moved in the least and said to her: “Dear, I can no longer be deceived by you. I am convinced of your strength and that nothing can affect your inherent happiness. You are a sage and unperturbed. You know this world and beyond. How could anything affect you like this? I am here to ask your advice. Now please listen. Explain to me that tale you once related to me as the story of your life.
18. “Who is your mother? Who is your friend? Who is her husband? Who are her sons? Tell me, what relationship have all these people to me?
19. “I do not clearly understand it. I no longer think it is a lie. I am sure you told me a parable which is full of significance.
20. “Tell me everything in full so that I may understand it clearly. I bow to you reverently. Kindly clear these doubts.”
21-23. Hemalekha with a smiling and delighted face heard her husband and thought within herself: ‘He is now pure in mind and blessed of God. He is evidently indifferent to the pleasures of life and is also strong in mind. This must be due to God’s Grace alone and his former virtues are now bearing fruit. The time is now ripe for him to be enlightened, so I will enlighten him.’ She said, “Lord, God’s Grace is upon you, and you are blessed!
24-25. “Dispassion cannot arise otherwise. It is the criterion of God’s Grace that the mind should be rapt in the quest for truth, after becoming detached from sensual pleasures. I shall now solve the puzzle of my life-story.
26. “My mother is Transcendence—pure Consciousness; my friend is intellect (discerning faculty); ignorance is Madam Dark, the undesirable friend of intellect.
27. “The caprices of ignorance are too well known to need elucidation, she can delude any one, making a rope seem to be a serpent and striking terror in the onlooker.
28-33. “Her son is the greatest of illusions—the mind; his wife is thought or conception or imagination; her sons are five in number, namely, audition, taste, sight, touch and smell, whose man sions are the respective senses. What the mind was said to steal from them is enjoyment of sensual objects which leaves an impress on the mind to develop later into the proclivities of the mind. Sharing stolen objects with his wife is manifestation of proclivities in dreams. Dream is the daughter-in-law of Delusion (i.e. , ignorance). Madam Vorax is desire; her sons are anger and greed; their city is the body. What was said to be my most potent talisman is Realization of the Self. Mind’s friend guarding the city is the vital principle which keeps moving as the life-breath. The different cities peopled by them are hells passed in the eternal passage of the soul. The consummation of the discerning faculty is Samadhi. My admission into my mother’s chamber is final emancipation.
34. “Such is in brief the tale of my life. Yours is likewise. Think well and be absolved.”
Thus ends the Chapter on the Course of Life in the Section of Hemachuda in Tripura Rahasya.
Chapter IX
How that Hemachuda Realized the Self after
Analyzing His Own Mind and Plunging Within
1. When Hemachuda understood the significance of his wife’s parable he was agreeably surprised. His voice chocked with pleasure as he said to her:
2. “My dear, you are indeed blessed, and clever too; how shall I describe the profound wisdom of the story of your life, narrated to me in the form of a parable.
3. “Up to now I did not know your progress. It has all been made as clear to me as a gooseberry resting on the palm of my hand.
4-5. “I now understand the end of humanity and realize wonderful nature. Please tell me more now: who is this mother of yours? How is she without beginning? Who are we? What is our real nature?”
Asked thus, Hemalekha told her husband:
6. “Lord, listen carefully to what I am going to say, for it is subtle. Investigate the nature of the Self with intellect made transparently clear.
7. “It is not an object to be perceived, nor described; how shall I then tell you of it? You know the mother only if you know the Self.
8. “The Self does not admit of specification, and therefore no teacher can teach it. However, realize the Self within you, for it abides in unblemished intellect.
9. It pervades all, beginning from the personal God to the amoeba; but it is not cognisable by the mind or senses; being itself unillumined by external agencies, it illumines all, everywhere and always. It surpasses demonstration or discussion.
10. “How, where, when, or by whom has it been specifically described even incompletely? What you ask me, dear, amounts to asking me to show your eyes to you.
11-12. “Even the best teachers cannot bring your eyes to your sight. Just as a teacher is of no use in this instance, so in the other. He can at best guide you towards it and nothing more. I shall also explain to you the means to realization. Listen attentively.
13. “As long as you are contaminated with notions of me or mine (e.g., my home, my body, my mind, my intellect), the Self will not be found, for it lies beyond cognition and cannot be realized as ‘ my Self.’
14. “Retire into s
olitude, analyze and see what those things are which are cognised as mine; discard them all and transcending them, look for the Real Self.
15. “For instance, you know me as your wife and not as your self. I am only related to you and not part of you much less your very being.
16. “Analyze everything in this way and discard it. What remains over, transcending at all, beyond conception, appropriation, or relinquishment—know That to be the Self. That knowledge is final emancipation.”
17. After receiving these instructions from his wife, Hemachuda rose hurriedly from his seat, mounted on his horse and galloped from the city.
18. He entered a royal pleasure-garden beyond the outskirts of the town and went into a well-furnished crystal palace.
19-20. He dismissed his attendants and ordered the keepers: “Let no one enter these rooms while I am in contemplation—be they ministers, elders or even the king himself. They must wait until you obtain my permission.”
21. Then he went up to a fine chamber in the ninth storey which looked out in all directions.
22. The room was well furnished and he sat down on a soft cushion. He collected his mind and began to contemplate thus:
23-30. “Truly all these people are deluded! No one of them knows even the fringe of the Self! But all are active for the sake of their own selves. Some of them recite the scriptures, a few study them and their commentaries; some are busy accumulating wealth; others are ruling the land; some are fighting the enemy; others are seeking the luxuries of life. When engaged in all this selfish activity they never question what exactly the Self may be; now why is there all this confusion? Oh! When the Self is not known, all is in vain and as if done in a dream. So I will now investigate the matter.
“My home, wealth, kingdom, treasure, women, cattle—none of these is me, and they are only mine. I certainly take the body for the Self but it is simply a tool of mine. I am indeed the king’s son, with goodly limbs and a fair complexion. These people, too, are taken up by this same notion that their bodies are their egos.”
31-36. Reflecting thus, he considered the body. He could not identify the body as the Self, and so began to transcend it. This body is mine, not me. It is built up of blood and bones, and is changing each moment. How can this be the changeless, continuous me. It looks like a chattel; it is apart from me as is a waking body from the dream, etc. ‘I’ cannot be the body nor can the vital force be the Self; mind and intellect are clearly my tools so they cannot be ‘I.’ ‘I’ am surely something apart from all these, beginning from the body and ending with the intellect. [Note: The intermediates are (1) the senses, (2) the mind including the thinking, reasoning and coordinating faculties, (3) vital force.] I am always aware, but do not realize that pure state of awareness. The reason of this inability is not clear to me.
37-38. Objects are cognised through the senses, not otherwise ; life is recognised by touch, and mind by intellect. By whom is the intellect made evident? I do not know. . . .
I now see I am always aware—realization of that pure awareness is obstructed by other factors (pertaining to the non-self) butting in—Now I shall not imagine them—They cannot appear without my mental imagery of them and they cannot obstruct the glory of the Self, without appearing.
39. Thinking thus, he forcibly arrested his thoughts.
40-41. Instantaneously a blank superseded. He, at the same time, decided that it was the Self, so became very happy and once again he began to meditate. “I will do it again,” he said and plunged within.
42. The restlessness of the mind being thus resolutely checked, he saw in an instant a blazing light with no circumference.
43-45. Regaining human consciousness, he began to wonder how this could happen. ‘There is no constancy in the experience. The Self cannot be more than one. I will repeat and see,’ he said and dived again. This time he fell into a long sleep and dreamt wonderful dreams. On waking up, he fell furiously to think:
46-48. “How is it that I was overpowered by sleep and started to dream? The darkness and light which I saw before must also be in the nature of dreams. Dreams are mental imagery, and how shall I overcome them?
“I shall again repress my thoughts and see,” he said, and plunged within.
His mind was placid for a time. He thought himself sunk in bliss.
49-54. Shortly after, he regained his original state, owing to the mind again beginning to function. He reflected: “What is all this? Is it a dream or a hallucination of the mind? My experience is a fact but it surpasses my imagination.
“Why is that bliss quite unique and unlike any that I have experienced before? The highest of my known experiences cannot compare with even an infinitesimal part of the state of bliss I was in just now. It was like sleep in so far as I was not externally aware. But there was a peculiar bliss at the same time. The reason is not clear to me because there was nothing to impart pleasure to me. Although I attempted to realize the Self, I do not do so. I probably realize the Self and also see others like darkness, light, dreams or pleasure, etc. Or is it possible that these are the stages of development for the realization of the Self? I do not understand it. Let me ask my recondite wife.”
55-61. Having thus resolved, the prince ordered the doorkeeper to ask Hemalekha to come to him. Within an hour and a half, she was climbing the steps of the mansion like the Queen of Night moving across the sky. She discovered the prince, her consort, in perfect peace of mind, calm, collected and of happy countenance. She quickly went to his side and sat by him. As she nestled close to him he opened his eyes and found her sitting close to him. Directly he did so, she quickly and fondly embraced him and gently spoke sweet words of love: “Lord, what can I do for Your Highness? I hope you are well. Please tell me why you called me up to this place?” Thus addressed, he spoke to his wife in his turn:
62-66. “My dear! I have, as advised by you, retired to a solitary place where I am engaged in investigating the Self. Even so, I have diverse visions and experiences. Thinking that the constant Self-awareness is dimmed by the uncalled-for interference of mental activities, I forcibly repressed my thoughts and remained calm. Darkness superseded, light appeared, sleep supervened and finally a unique bliss overpowered me for a little while. Is this the Self, or something different? Please analyze these experiences of mine and tell me, my dear, so that I may clearly understand them.
67-69. “After listening to him carefully Hemalekha, the knower of this world and beyond, spoke sweetly thus. ‘Listen to me, my dear, closely. What you have now done to repress thoughts with the mind turned inward is a good beginning and praised by the worthy as the best way. Without it, no one has ever been successful anywhere. However, it does not produce Self-Realization for the Self remains realized at all times.
70. “If a product, it cannot be the Self. For, how can the Self be got anew? So then, the Self is never gained. Gain is of something which is not already possessed. Is there any moment when the Self is not the Self? Neither is control of mind used to gain it. I shall give you some examples:
72. “Just as things unseen in darkness are found on its removal by means of a lamp, and are therefore said to be recovered from oblivion.
73-74. “Just as a confused man forgets his purse, but remembers and locates it on keeping his mind unruffled and steady, yet still says that he has gained the lost purse, though the steadying of his mind did not produce it.
75. “So also the control of your mind is not the cause of your Self-Realization; though the Self is always there, it is not recog nised by you even with a controlled mind because you are not conversant with it.
76. “Just as a yokel unacquainted with the system cannot understand the dazzling lights of the royal audience-chamber at night and so ignores its magnificence at first sight, so it is that you miss the Self.
77. “Attend dear! Blank darkness was visible after you controlled your thoughts. In the short interval before its appearance and after the control of mind there remains a state free from the effort to co
ntrol and the perception of darkness.
78. “Always remember that state as the one of perfect and transcendental happiness. All are deceived in that state because their minds are accustomed to be turned outward.
79. “Though people may be learned, skilful and keen, still they search and search, only to be thwarted and they do not abide in that holy state.
80. “They grieve day and night, without knowing this state. Mere theoretical knowledge of sculpture can never make a man a sculptor.
81. “Though he be a pandit well grounded in the theory and the discussion of the philosophy of the Self, he cannot realize the Self because it is not realizable but already realized. Realization is not attained by going far, but only by staying still not by thought (intellection) but by cessation of thought.
83-85. “Effort towards Realization is like the attempt to stamp with one’s foot on the shadow cast by one’s head. Effort will always make it recede.
“Just as an infant tries to take hold of his own reflection being unaware of the mirror, so also common people are taken in by their mental reflections on the mirror of the pure, luminous Self and are not aware of the mirror, because they have no acquaintance with the Self.
“Although people understand space, they are not aware of it because they are taken up by the objects in space.
86-88. “They understand the universe in space but have no regard for space itself. Similarly, it is with them in regard to the Self.
“My Lord, consider well. The world consists of knowledge and the objects known. Of these the objects are non-self and perceived by the senses; knowledge is self-evident; there is no world in the absence of knowledge. Knowledge is the direct proof of the existence of objects which are therefore dependent on knowledge. Knowledge is dependent on the knower for its existence. The knower does not require any tests for knowing his own existence. The knower therefore is the only reality behind knowledge and objects. That which is self-evident without the necessity to be proved is alone real; not so other things.
Tripura Rahasya Page 7