OM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA

kartur ajnaya prapyate phalam

karma kim param karma taj-jadam

Karma must ever yield its proper fruit,

For thus it is ordained by God, Himself,

Supreme Creator. Then is Karma God?

No, for it is itself insentient.

krti-mahodadhau patana-karanam

phalam asasvatam gati-nirodhakam

Of Karma the results must pass away,

Yet it leaves seeds which in their turn will sprout

And throw the actor back into the flood

Of Karma’s ocean. Karma cannot save.

isvararpitam necchaya krtam

citta-sodhakam mukti-sadhakam

But acts performed without attachment’s urge

And solely for the service of the Lord

Will cleanse the mind and indicate the way

Which leads at length unto the final goal.

kaya-vak-manah karyam uttamam

pujanam japas cintanam kramat

Worship, reciting of God’s Holy Name,

And meditation, mainly are performed

By body, voice and mind, and they excel

Each other in the order here set down.

jagata isadhi-yukta-sevanam

asta-murti-bhrd-deva-pujanam

If we but recognise this Universe

Of eightfold form as form of God, Himself,

And serve in adoration all the world.

This is of God most excellent worship.

uttama-stavad ucca-mandatah

cittajam japa-dhyanam uttamam

Constant repeating of the Holy Name

Is more than praise, at length the voice will sink

To silent repetition in the Heart,

And in this way is meditation learnt.

ajya-dharaya srotasa samam

sarala-cintanam viralatah param

Better than meditation that recurs

In broken fits and starts is that which is

A steady ceaseless flow, like to the course

Of falling oil or a perennial stream.

bheda-bhavanat so’ham ity asau

bhavana' bhida pavani mata

Worship of God as in no way distinct

From him who worships, or in other words

Thinking that “He is I”, is better far

Than any other kind of worshipping.

bhava-sunya-sad-bhava-susthitih

bhavana-balad bhaktir uttama

To rest in the Real Being, that transcends

Our every thought, by reason of the strength

Of our devotion to some thing conceived;

This of supreme devotion is the truth.

hrt-sthale manah-svasthata kriya

bhakti-yoga-bodhasca niscitam

To be absorbed again into one’s Source (Heart)

Is Karma, Bhakti, Yoga, Jnanam, all

These things in truth. Or put in other words

Good works, Devotion, Union, Gnosis, too.

vayu-rodhanal liyate manah

jala-paksivat rodha-sadhanam

As by the fowler birds are caught in nets

So by the holding of the breath within

The mind can be restrained. This a device

That will effect absorption of the mind.

citta-vayavas cit-kriyayutah

sakhayor dvayi sakti-mulaka

For mind and life expressed in thought and act,

That is with thought and action as their function,

Diverge and branch like two boughs of a tree,

But both of them spring from one single stem.

laya-vinasane ubhaya-rodhane

laya-gatam punar bhavati no mrtam

Suppression of the mind in two ways comes,

Absorption and extinction; mind absorbed

Will live again, but mind which is destroyed

Will never more revive, for it is dead.

prana-bandhanal lina-manasam

eka-cintanan nasam etyadah

When, by the means of restraint of the breath,

The mind has been controlled, then make it flow

Along a single current, that achieved

Its form will then entirely disappear.

nasta-manasotkrsta-yoginah

krtyam asti kim svasthitim yatah

For the Great Sage for whom all form of mind

Has disappeared and who is ever one

With the Reality, there is no Karma more,

For He, indeed, the True Self has become.

drsya-varitam cittam atmanah

cittva-darsanam tattva-darsanam

When mind has given the sense-objects up

Which are external and has drawn within,

And has perceived its own refulgent form,

Then verily alone True Gnosis is.

manasam tu kim margane krte

naiva manasam marga arjavat

When pondering with constant vigilance

Upon the actual nature of the mind

One finds that there is no such thing as mind;

This, of a truth, is the straight course for all.

vrttayas tvaham vrttim asritah

vrttayo mano viddhy aham manah

The mind is nothing but a lot of thoughts,

Of all these many thoughts ‘tis the thought ‘I’

That is the root. So we can see by that

The mind in truth is only the thought ‘I’.

aham ayam kuto bhavati cinvatah

ayi pataty-aham nija-vicaranam

Whence, therefore, does this ‘I-thought’ have its birth?

With vigilant and ever active mind

Seek this, and crestfallen the ‘I’ becomes.

The search, itself, the quest of Wisdom is.

ahami nasabhajy-aham-ahamtaya

sphurati hrt svayam parama-purna-sat

This search pursued till ‘I’ has disappeared

There now vibrates the ‘I-I’ all alone,

The quest is finished, there’s no more to seek.

For this is really the Infinite Self.

idam aham pada’bhikhyam anvaham

ahami linake' py alaya-sattaya

This is eternally the true import

Of the term ‘I’. For in the deepest sleep

We do not cease to be. We still exist

Even though here there is no sense of ‘I’.

vigrahendriya-pranadhi-tamah

naham eka-sat tajjadam hyasat

As I am pure Existence, I am not

The body nor the senses, mind nor life,

Nor even ignorance, for all these things

Are quite insentient and so unreal.

sattva-bhasika cit kvavetara

sattaya hi cic-cittaya hy aham

As there is not a second consciousness

To know Existence, it must follow that

Existence is itself that consciousness;

So I myself am that same consciousness.

isa-jivayor vesa-dhi-bhida

sat-svabhavato vastu kevalam

In their real nature as Existence both

Creatures and the Creator are the same,

The Unique Principle. In attributes

And knowledge only is a difference found.

vesa-hanatah svatma-darsanam

isa-darsanam svatma-rupatah

Realization of the Self alone,

Eliminating all its attributes;

Is God-Realization of a truth,

As it is He that shines forth as the Self.

atma-samsthitih svatma-darsanam

atma-nirdvayad atma-nisthata

To be the Self that is to know the Self,

As there is no duality in Self.

This is Thanmaya-Nistha, or the state

Of absolutely being That in truth.

jnana-varjita ' jnana-hina-cit

jnanam asti kim jnatum antaram

That knowledge is true knowledge which transcends

Knowledge and ignorance both equally.

And this alone is truth. For there is no

Subject or object there that can be known.

kim svarupam ity atma-darsane

avyaya' bhava’ ‘purna-cit sukham

If one can only realize at Heart

What one’s true nature is, one then will find

That ‘tis Infinite Wisdom, Truth and Bliss,

Without beginning and without an end.

bandha-mukty-atitam param sukham

vindatiha jivas tu daivikah

Remaining in this state of Supreme Bliss,

Devoid of bondage and of freedom too,

Is found to be a state in which one is

Rapt in perpetual service of the Lord.

aham apetakam nija-vibhanakam

mahad idam tapo ramana-vagiyam

By ardent quest and shedding ego’s veil

Realize the Self, the One that’s ego-less,

And function thus; the sole right penance this.

So teaches Bhagavan Sri Ramana,  Who is the SELF of everything that is.