The State of the Liberated
The nature of the living liberated one · Verses 51 to 57
The one who has become free while still alive, what does he look like? Rama himself lays a finger on that state, the one where neither grief takes hold nor delusion.
Lakshmana’s question was simple, and its answer is the axis on which the whole Rama Gita turns. Rama now points to the man who has come to rest in Brahman while still alive. First he says that the causal Prajna, the syllable M itself, must be dissolved into the Self beyond, the Self that is solid consciousness. And then only this remains: “We are that very supreme Brahman,” ever free, without a second, with the eye of knowledge, released from all limiting conditions, spotless. Then he gives a name to his own state: the one who stays always absorbed in the thought of the supreme Self, content in his own bliss, having forgotten everything, rests free like a still sea.
Verses 51 · 52
मकारमप्यात्मनि चिद्घने परे विलापयेत्प्राज्ञमपीह कारणम्।
सोऽहं परं ब्रह्म सदा विमुक्तिमद्विज्ञानदृङ् मुक्त उपाधितोऽमलः ॥51॥
एवं सदा जातपरात्मभावनः स्वानन्दतुष्टः परिविस्मृताखिलः।
आस्ते स नित्यात्मसुखप्रकाशकः साक्षाद्विमुक्तोऽचलवारिसिन्धुवत् ॥52॥
Now Rama speaks of the yogi who keeps up the practice of samadhi-yoga without a break, whose senses have all turned back from their objects, who has conquered every one of his enemies and brought the six qualities under his control. For such a man, Rama says, we become ever visible; he alone comes to see us. Then he goes further: the sage who meditates on the Self this way, day and night, released from every bond, having laid down pride, resting while he lives out only his prarabdha (the karma already set in motion), that sage in the end dissolves directly into us.
Verses 53 · 54
एवं सदाभ्यस्तसमाधियोगिनो निवृत्तसर्वेन्द्रियगोचरस्य हि।
विनिर्जिताशेषरिपोरहं सदा दृश्यो भवेयं जितषड्गुणात्मनः ॥53॥
ध्यात्वैवमात्मानमहर्निशं मुनिस्तिष्ठेत्सदा मुक्तसमस्तबन्धनः।
प्रारब्धमश्नन्नभिमानवर्जितो मय्येव साक्षात्प्रविलीयते ततः ॥54॥
Rama opens something deep. This whole world, at its beginning, in its middle, and at its end, is nothing but a cause of fear and grief; knowing this, a person should set aside all the ritual works that the injunctions of scripture urge, and worship his own true form, the Self that is the Self of all selves. The one who sees this with the eye of non-difference becomes one, without any difference, with that Self, the way water merges into the water of the sea, milk into milk, space into space, and air into air.
Verses 55 · 56
आदौ च मध्ये च तथैव चान्ततो भवं विदित्वा भयशोककारणम्।
हित्वा समस्तं विधिवादचोदितं भजेत्स्वमात्मानमथाखिलात्मनाम् ॥55॥
आत्मन्यभेदेन विभावयन्निदं भवत्यभेदेन मयात्मना तदा।
यथा जलं वारिनिधौ यथा पयः क्षीरे वियद्व्योम्न्यनिले यथानिलः ॥56॥
And at the end Rama sets down the line on which this entire part rests. The sage who stays established in the world and even so knows this whole universe to be unreal, he is the one who truly sees. By scripture and by reason this universe is refuted, and so it is unreal, the way a single moon appears as two, or the directions seem turned around when your sense of direction fails. This is the seeing of the living liberated one, ordinary on the outside, wholly at rest within.
Verse 57
इत्थं यदीक्षेत हि लोकसंस्थितो जगन्मृषैवेति विभावयन्मुनिः।
निराकृतत्वाच्छ्रुतियुक्तिमानतो यथेन्दुभेदो दिशि दिग्भ्रमादयः ॥57॥