Ramana Maharshi

seeming to have excitement and aversion, seeming to exercise initiative and perseverance, and yet, without attachment, play, O hero, in the world.

Released from all bonds of attachment and with equanimity of mind, acting outwardly in all situations in accordance with the part you have assumed, play as you please, O hero, in the world.

1.

who by knowledge of the Atman is established in the truth, one who has vanquished the five senses. Call them the fire of knowledge, the yielder of the thunderbolt of knowledge, the conqueror of time and the hero who has slain death.

Just as on earth with the coming of spring the tree shines in fresh beauty of foliage, even so one who has seen the truth will shine with growing lustre, intelligence and power.

Like one to whom a tale is told while their thoughts are wandering far away, the mind which is free from attachment is inactive while it acts.

but the mind immersed in attachments is active, though it does not act, like the sleeper lying motionless here, who in their dream climbs a hill and tumbles down.

As the movement of the cart, its standing still, and its being unyoked to the passenger asleep in the cart, even so are action, contemplation,

and sleep to the sage asleep in the cart of their body. For one who seeks waking, dreaming, or sleep, there is a state beyond these three. A wakeful sleep

a fourth state called the turia. But because this turia state alone is real, and the three apparent states are illusory, the fourth state is indeed the transcendental state.

The statement that the jnani retains perub the karma, while free of the other forms of karma.

is only a formal answer to the question of the ignorant. Of several wives, none escapes widowhood when the husband dies. Even so, when the doer goes, all three karmas vanish.

For unlearned folk, there is only one family consisting of wife, husband, children and dependents.

But in the mind of those with much learning, there are many families of books, theories, and opinions as obstacles to yoga. What is the use of letters to those lettered folk?

who do not seek to wipe out the letters of fate by inquiring, Whence are we born? What else are they but gramophones, O Lord of Arunachala? They learn and repeat words without realizing their meaning.

The unlettered are easier saved than those who are learned, but unsubdued.

The unlettered are free from the clutches of the demon pride. They are free from the malady of many whirling thoughts and words. They are free from the mad pursuit of wealth. They are free from many, many ills.

Though a person looks on the world as a wisp of straw and holds all sacred law in their hand, it is hard for them to escape from thralldom if they have yielded to vile flattery.

Without thinking of oneself as apart from others, without swerving from one's true nature,

If one abides always in the self, who is there alien to one? What matters it what people say of one? What matters it if one praises or blames oneself?