Resting in Supreme Felicity
Unconditioned Awareness in Creative Motion
Self-effulgent — knowing without needing an object to know.
Being Ineffable Infinite Consciousness
A Discourse on the Self, Intellect, and Ultimate Reality
I. The Call to Self-Inquiry
“Call your thoughts home, and employ them soon to think of your own essence; and to bring about your ends, as the breezes of heaven convey the fragrance to the nostrils.”
When the long-sought object is possessed, desire reaches its end. One who has realized the Truth has nothing left to seek as desirable, nor anything to reject as despicable.
When you have achieved mastery over yourself—both in times of peace and disquiet—apply yourself entirely to the investigation of the Self, attending to nothing else. You may begin by observing the phenomenal world as a preparation for knowing the noumenal.
II. The Nature of the Intellect
Do not rely merely on external knowledge. Observe the internal breathings that move the physical body, just as mechanical forces move a machine.
Lifeless body without breath, becomes dull and inert as a block of wood.
While its power of movement derives from vital breath, thought and knowledge belong to the Intellect.
- This Intellect has a form more rare and transparent than the vacuous air; it is an entity (ens) which is the cause of all entities, and is not destroyed by the destruction of the living body for want of vital breath.
This Intellect is more rarefied and transparent than ethereal air and never perishes with the body—an entity that remains as the power of intellection, in the mental and living body.
| Mind State | Mirror Analogy |
| Pure Mind of God | Like a clear, shining mirror, it reflects all images from within itself and from nothing situated without. |
| Lifeless Body | Like soiled glass, it receives no reflection of outward things, even though its physical form remains visible to our view. |
| Self-Realized Intellect | Though formless and all-pervasive, the Intellect becomes drawn outward when it identifies with sensory perceptions. However, when it comes to pure understanding and recognizes its pure spiritual nature, it comes back to its original state as Supreme Śiva. |
III. The Source of All Divinity
This immaculate Intellect is then called by many names—Hari, Śiva, Brahmā—who grant the desires of all living beings.
It is also styled the fire and air, the sun and the moon, and the Supreme Lord.
Its is the ubiquitous Soul and the reservoir of all intelligence, which is the source of all intelligence.
It is the lord of gods, the source of celestial beings, and the lord of heaven.
- Any body who feels the influence of this great intellect in himself, is never subject to illusion.
All gods are like sparks from hot iron or droplets in an immense ocean of creation, and all those that are mistaken for gods, springing directly from the Supreme Intellect.
So long as the seeds of ignorance and the endless webs of imagination remain within, the tree of illusion will never cease to sprout in endless ramifications. The Vedas, their commentaries, and ritualistic literature are merely tufts on the tree of ignorance when they bind human minds. These again produce many other sects, to hold men fast in their ignorance. Who can describe the production of nature, in the course of time and place, even the primary deities—Hari, Hara, and Brahmā—originate from this single Supreme Being, their common Father.
Mahādeva the great god, is the root of all. He is called the All (sarva), because He is the essence of all things, and the sole cause of our knowledge of all existence. He is the giver of strength to all beings, he is self manifest in all, and is adorable and hallowed by all. He is the object of perception to them that know him, and is ever present in all places.
IV. The Path of Inner Worship
There is no need for formal invocatory mantras to reach the Lord. Being omniscient and omnipresent, He knows and sees all things as present before him across all time and space.
Internal Invocation: Prayed to within the mind, the Lord resides in everything is attainable in every place and form. And in whatever form the divine Intellect reveals itself to a person, it serves entirely for their ultimate good
Form and Essence: The Supreme manifests in whatever form the devotee holds in their heart; and this form should be revered first with sincere devotion as the supreme Lord of all gods.
Spiritual Freedom: Know this as the ultimate of the knowables of the greatest minds. Whosoever beholds this self-same soul, is liberated from fear, sorrow, complaints of old age and the cycle of rebirth—like a roasted seed that can no longer germinate.
“By worshipping this well-known and unborn First Cause within oneself at ease, every one is freed from fear and attains supreme felicity. Why then bewilder yourselves amidst the visible vanities of the world?”