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The Three Gunas
108. The so-called Inexpressible, the Lord's power,
is the ultimate, beginningless ignorance made up of the three qualities
(gunas), the pure Maya knowable through its effects, out of which this
whole world is produced.
109. It cannot be said to either exist or not exist, to be divisible
or indivisible, composite or unitary or both. It is amazing and
indescribable.
110. It can be overcome by the realisation of the pure non-dual God,
like the false idea of a snake through the recognition of the rope. It
is composed of the three qualities (gunas) of passion, dullness and
purity, recognised by their effects.
111. The distracting power of passion is by nature active, and from
it the primeval emanation of activity has taken place. The mental states
like desire and pain continually arise from it as well.
112. Lust, anger, greed, pride, envy, self-importance and jealousy -
these are the awful effects produced by passion. Consequently this
passion quality is the cause of bondage.
113. The veiling effect of the dullness quality is the power that
distorts the appearance of things. It is the cause of samsara in man,
and what leads to the activation of the distracting power (of passion).
114. Even a wise and learned man and an adept in the knowledge of the
extremely subtle self can be overcome by dullness, and fail to realise
it, even when demonstrated it in many different ways. What is presented
by delusion he looks on as good, and grasps at its qualities. Such,
alas, is the strength of the great veiling power of this awful dullness
quality!
115. Lack of sense or distorted understanding, lack of judgement, and
bewilderment - these never leave him who is caught in this delusion, and
the distracting power torments him continually.
116. Ignorance, laziness, drowsiness, sleep, carelessness, stupidity
and so on are the effects of the dullness quality. One stuck in these
does not understand anything, but remains as if asleep, like a wooden
post.
117. Clear purity is like water, but combined with these other
qualities it leads to samsara, though in this purity the nature of the
self is reflected, like the disk of the sun illuminating the whole
world.
118. In purity mixed with the other qualities virtues such as
humility, restraint, truthfulness, faith, devotion, desire for
liberation, spiritual tendencies and freedom from entanglement occur.
119. In real purity however the qualities which occur are
contentment, self-understanding, supreme peace, fulfilment, joy and
abiding in one's supreme self, through which one experiences real bliss.
120. This Inexpressible, described as made up of the three qualities
(gunas), is the active body of the self. Deep sleep is a special
condition of it, in which the activity of all functions of awareness
cease.
121. Deep sleep is the cessation of all forms of awareness, and the
reversion of consciousness to a latent form of the self. "I knew
nothing" is the universal experience.
122. The body, its functions, vital energies, the thinking mind,
etc., and all forms, objects, enjoyment, etc. the physical elements such
as the ether, in fact everything up to this Inexpressible are not one's
true nature.
123. Everything is the creation of Maya from space itself down to the
individual body. Look on it all as a desert mirage, unreal and not
yourself.
124. Now I will instruct you in the true nature of your supreme self,
by understanding which a man is freed from his bonds and achieves final
fulfillment.
125. There is something your own, unchanging, the "I", the
substratum, the basis, which is the triple observer, distinct from the
five sheaths.
126. The awareness that knows everything whether waking, dreaming or
in deed sleep, and whether or not there is movement in the mind, that is
the "I".
127. It is that which experiences everything, but which nothing else
can experience, which thinks through the intelligence etc., but which
nothing else can think.
128. It is that by which all this is filled, but which nothing else
can fill, and which, in shining, makes all this shines as well.
129. It is that whose mere presence makes the body, bodily senses,
and mind etc. keep to their appropriate functions like servants.
130. It is that by which everything from the ego function down to the
body is known like an earthen vessel, for its very nature is everlasting
consciousness.
131. This is one's inmost nature, the eternal Person, whose very
essence is unbroken awareness of happiness, who is ever unchanging and
pure consciousness, and in obedience to whom the various bodily function
continue.
132. In one of pure nature, the morning light of the Unmanifest
shines even here in the cave of the mind, illuminating all this with its
glory, like the sun up there in space.
133. That which knows the thinking mind and ego functions takes its
form from the body with its senses and other functions, like fire does
in a ball of iron, but it neither acts nor changes in any way.
134. It is never born, never dies, grows, decays, or changes. Even
when the body is destroyed it does not cease to be, like the space in an
earthen vessel.
135. The true self, of the nature of pure consciousness, and separate
from the productions of nature, illuminates all this, real and unreal,
without itself changing. It plays in the states of waking and so on, as
the foundation sense of 'I exist', as the awareness, witness of all
experience.
Vivek Chudamani
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