The following PDF files are provided for educational purposes. I have downloaded them from various sources on the internet and in these uncertain times it seems wise to make them available on a multitude of sites. I still haven't re-read Atma Darshan and Atma Nirvriti to see if this is stated there also! For those interested in the.
21:03BiographiesPage 1 sur 7Peter Holleran Shree Atmananda (1883-1959) was a modern day sage who taught a Vedantic approach to self-realization, and was well-respected by Paul Brunton and others. Brunton himself would send people to Atmananda desiring a traditional guru-disciplerelationship, a function that he himself as principally a writer did not provide. Atmananda was a sage among sages who hadattained proficiency in all yogas prior to assuming his principle role of teaching jnana. John Levy and Walter Keers wereinfluential in bringing his work to the attention of the West, with Levy personally assisting Atmananda in the English translation ofhis works Atma Darshan and Atma Nivriti. Atmananda urged Levy to promote his teachings in a more accessible form, and tothat end Levy wrote The Nature of Man According to Vedanta and Immediate Knowledge and Happiness (Sadhyomukti), whileteaching students out of his home in London. Not a believer in world-denying asceticism, Atmananda had a wife and family as well as a demanding career in lawenforcement.
He went so far as to encourage others to take up the same line of work, affirming that spiritual realization achievedunder such conditions was enduring, final, and much stronger than realization gained in an ashram or monastery. Atmanandaheld firmly to the conviction that the only thing one had to renounce for liberation was the ego, and this itself was only possiblethrough the light of knowledge, or spiritual insight, and not through motivated self-effort directed towards some goal outside of theself. When he was but ten years old, Krishna Menon (later Atmananda) was visited by a sannyasin of some repute and given aninitiation into a form of mantra yoga. He practised assiduously for several years but by his early teens became convicted by therationalistic model of western education and converted to atheism. He went on to university and then law school after which hebecame prosecuting inspector for the police department in Trivandrum. The spiritual quest soon got his attention again, however,and he began spending sleepless nights drenched in tears, agonizing over his need for God.
He became convinced through hisstudy that it was only a realized guru who could give him the help that he needed, and he was in constant mental torment overwhen such a being would appear. Not long after his tumult began he came upon the sannyasin he had met as a child, whoassured him that he would soon meet a Mahatma who would guide him on the path.
In 1919 Krishna Menon met his master ofregal bearing who went by the name of Yogananda (not to be confused with the author of Autobiography of a Yogi, ParamahansaYogananda), who answered all of his questions and more. Prostrating before his gurus feet, he begged for spiritual instructionand grace. Yogananda replied, It is for that and that alone that I have come all the way from Calcutta (over one thousand miles). I have no other interest inTrivancore.
I knew of your yearnings even from that distance. (1) Master and disciple were together for only one night, during which the sage taught his charge the path of devotion to Krishna,various other yogic techniques, as well as the path of jnana (knowledge) using the strict enquiry or vichara Who am I? KrishnaMenon was reluctant to engage devotion and yoga, but Yogananda explained, I appreciate your reluctance to take to the preliminary courses of devotion and yoga and I admit you are quite right, for mererealization of the ultimate Truth, the last course, namely the jnana path, is alone necessary. But I want you to be something more,which you will understand only later on. Therefore please undertake them first. It wont take you long to finish them both. (2) What this 'something more' was might account for the perceivable 'glow' or effulgence in Atmananda's person, as found inmany saints and siddhas, in contrast with less integrated and more 'dry' vedantins, and may also be illustrated by Atmananda'slater ability to deal with disciple's karmas and after-death states in traditional Hindu Satguru fashion as revealed by the followingquotes: 'Lewis (Thompson) told me that Sri Krishna Menon had told him that it had taken him three days to undo the ties with his(Lewis') disciples from his former birth when he was supposedly a Tantric.
It shows what all these beings take on themselveswhen accepting a disciple.This is why surrender to a guru is so supremely important.' Biographies Atmananda (Krishna Menon) - Householder Karana GuruHome Office Info Health and Fitness Adventures Philosophy Links 21:03BiographiesPage 2 sur 7accepting a disciple.This is why surrender to a guru is so supremely important.' Atmananda said that Lewis had an 'intense struggle' for a month after leaving his body.' (2a) One must keep in mind that even the great non-dualist Sankara was a bhakta, tantric, jnani, as well as yogic adept withadvanced siddhis, and not just a verbal-oriented philosopher. That there are depths to realization that are not merely randomaccessories to the 'real thing', then, hardly seems arguable except within more narrow advaitic circles.
After a few years Krishna Menon began having long stretches of nirvikalpa samadhi, but, nevertheless, like Brunton after histime with Ramana Maharshi, remained unsatisfied. He therefore took up the path of jnana and in 1923 achieved what seems tohave been the penetration of the root of attention and the ego-I in jnana samadhi, or the Witness consciousness.
Soonafterwards he inwardly received the name Atmananda from his guru and was referred to by that name from then on. LikeNisargadatta and so many others, after his realization he wanted to take up the path of the wandering renunciate, but again hisguru appeared to him in a vision and advised him to remain a householder, serving his wife and family and society, whilepreparing for the devotees who were to come in the future. Atmananda retired from the police force in 1939, having risen to thelevel of District Supervisor (the equivalent of District Attorney in the United States). His later writings suggest his initial realization matured into sahaj, or the realization of the Soul, Consciousness Itself (orOverself as designated by Brunton). Atmananda, for instance, told a person who was an adept at entering the highest mystictrance of nirvikalpa that such was good, but that it was not the highest state, and that it was now necessary for him tounderstand the world through the minds intelligence. This is similar to the Chinese sage Huang Po, who said: The original Mind is to be recognized along with the working of the senses and thoughts; only it does not belong to them, noris it independent of them.
(3) While the Witness has been referred to as the awareness of awareness, the realization in sahaj is that of awareness itself,whether the world arises or not. In this realization the eyes of the heart open and all is recognized as being non-separate fromthe reality of Mind or Consciousness. In the intermediate stage, that of the Witness Self, itself impersonal, there is a relativefreedom in the midst of phenomena, but the greater recognition or insight has not yet dawned. There is a final stroke yet to go.While necessary, the realization that the knower is separate from the known, the witness different from the witnessed, must begone beyond and both realized as one and inseparable. Paul Brunton explains that in the ultimate stage 'There is no subject and object, whereas in the witness there is still subject and object, but the subject no longer identifieshimself with the object as the ordinary man does. (4) Sri Nisargadatta said: One must know that the real exists and is of the nature of witness-consciousness. Of course it is beyond the witness, but toenter it one must first realize the state of pure witnessing.
The awareness of conditions brings one to the unconditioned.Thewitness is the reflection of the real in all its purity. It depends on the condition of the mind. Where clarity and detachmentpredominate, the witness-condition comes into being. (5) 'King Janaka said to his guru, Yog-Vashista 'Yes, I am neither king nor beggar, I am the dispassionate witness.
The Gurusaid: This is your last illusion, that you are a gnani, that you are different from, and superior to, the common man. Again youidentify yourself with your mind, in this case a well-behaved and in every way an exemplary mind. As long as you see the leastdifference, you are a stranger to reality. You are on the level of the mind. When the 'I am myself' goes, the 'I am all' comes.
Whenthe 'I am all' goes, 'I am' comes. When even 'I am' goes, reality alone is and in it every 'I am' is preserved and glorified. Diversitywithout separateness is the Ultimate that the mind can touch. Beyond that all activity ceases, because in it all goals are reachedand all purposes fulfilled.' (6) Sri Nisargadatta admits that 'really there is no witness, because there is no-thing to be a witness to.'
(7) Thus one realizes non-dual truth, the final part of Sankara's formula: 'Brahman is Real, the world is illusion, Brahman is theworld.' The common initial psychological effect of penetrating to the heart-root or the witness position in in jnana samadhi or itsequivalent, nevertheless, is that one tends to distance himself from the body and the world by his abidance in the Witnessconsciousness. He does not necessarily yet realize the origin and nature of all apparent objects as Consciousness Itself, whichtakes understanding and time to mature into a lasting state of sahaj.
This may have been the case with Ramana Maharshi in theearly years after his first awakening. He only gradually adapted his awakening to active life in the body.
The eminentKrishnachandra Bhattacharya, in my opinion, attempts to describes, in Sam 'khya fashion, the Witness stage as follows: 'Freedom from ahamkara does not by itself mean knowledge or realization of the self (or isvara). It is in the first instance amerging or forgetting of the self in a tattva higher than ahamkara, a free identification of the self with infinite buddhi - either in theform of feeling or in the form of willing. Free identification means identification in the explicit subjective attitude as distinct fromunconscious or erroneous identification which impllies the objective attitude and the conceit of the body. Iyer, vedantic scholar and realizer, court philosopher of the Maharaja of Mysore, who was an important influence on Paul 21:03BiographiesPage 3 sur 7V.S.
Iyer, vedantic scholar and realizer, court philosopher of the Maharaja of Mysore, who was an important influence on PaulBrunton PB referred to him as 'my teacher' as well as Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, all whobrought teachings of vedanta to the West, in his Commentaries, Vol. 2 (9) similarly wrote: 'The mere absence of ego does not produce gyan. See deep sleep for instance. For a man may be egoless, and yet bedeceived by the world appearing to be real. Hence inquiry, based on science, is also needed.'
(2064) 'Brahman is permanent and is not a state. Moreover it is the activity of buddhi which brings the understanding of Brahman andbuddhi is inactive in sleep and Nirvikalpa. Finally, the sleeper sees nothing whereas the gnani sees the world, sees Brahmaneven in waking.' (2638) Concurring with the need for buddhi and the waking state for realization, Ramana Maharshi would sometimes quote scripture,'The Self is always shining in the intellectual sheath.' (source unknown) In Vol. 1, Iyer continues: 'European psychology has not gone beyond personality, has not reached the Witness.
This is because unless one's mind issufficiently sharp the notion of the Sakshin cannot be seen. One must perceive that the I itself comes and goes, as in sleep forinstance.
What it is that perceives this? It is the Witness.
The I is an object, the Witness is the subject. This position is the nextstep ahead of Western psychology. It much be reached, mastered and then dropped for the next higher step, the understandingof the Atman.
The Witness-self is not an individuality, it is universal, but still it is a temporary stage, not the ultimate truth. It is forbeginners and here Maharishi's 'Who AM I?' Analysis is most useful as it shows beginners that the I comes and goes, and thatthey must look beyond it to the principle of Awareness which tells you of these appearances and disappearances of the I. Butbeyond that point the Witness self, the Sakshin, the Maharishi's teaching does not go. Higher than his is the doctrine of theAtman.
The notion of the Witness arises only when you consider the objects from this standpoint which assumes the real (notideal) existence of all objects, the antithesis of a subject; a Witness must arise. But there is a loftier standpoint wherein theobjects are dismissed from consideration entirely through the use of avastatraya an analysis of the three states and thus non-dual Atman is reached.But that is not the end. We have to know all the world, and we have to know the real I.' '.The notion of Atman as the Witness or knower, of the three states is not the ultimate position. But we are forced to adopt itas a preliminary step, because we cannot leap into the ultimate view at once. From that view there are no separate statesbecause the ego which knows them is itself as transient and illusory, itself known and seen like other drysams objects or thingsseen.
Unless you know the true position of the ego, Vedanta cannot be grasped.' 282-283) Thus, the transcendental Witness consciousness realized in jnana samadhi (and touched upon but not necessarily asaccurately understood in ascended nirvikalpa samadhi) is not yet realization of the Overself or Soul, which is not the witness' ofanything, but the very heart or condition of which everything is an apparent modification and in which everything arises, changes,and disappears. The Soul in sahaj is realized when it is discovered that the transcendental consciousness is the source not onlyof the ego-I, but of the body, mind, and the world of relations as well, and the exclusive tendency of attention to invert upon itselfis transcended.
The Witness is let go and Being, the natural state, alone remains. One passes from Emptiness to Fullness. Thus,there is often this two-stage process. One realizes, as Anthony Damiani once stated, that the Witness, which at first seems like astupendous realization, is not that pure, and that there is a further awakening (He nevertheless confessed to knowing himself asthe witness self, and described it, with feeling, as 'peace, peace, peace'). PB states: 'The momentary glimpse of the true self is not the ultimate experience. There is another yet more wonderful lying ahead. In thishe will be bound by invisible hoops of wide selfless compassion to all living creatures.
The detachment will be sublimated, takenup into a higher level, where the universal Unity will be truly felt.' (10) 'How can a mental state be the final realization? It is temporary.
Mystic experience is such a state. It is something one entersand leaves. Beyond and higher is realization of unchanging truth.' (11) According to Iyer, this occurs through the exhaustive use of buddhi in the waking state: 'Whoever speaks of the oneness of things must first of all prove the illusory nature of the external world. Then alone can unitybe proven.' 2, 1827) 'Truth is not to be got by thinking only, you can go on thinking about the world until the end of time but you will only get onethought following another thought.
On the other hand, neither is truth to be found by not-thinking. Thus the question of truth neverarises in sleep or nirvikalpa, a non-thought state. The two must be combined in order to discover truth.' (1828) Note: this iscontroversial; Nirvikalpa has different meanings depending on the context. Here Iyer refers to it as if it were laya or a blank, but itis not a blank; rather, it is pure consciousness.
It is only that its relationship with the world must be made clear. Atmananda asked students to inquire into the three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep, as well as the ego-I, in order tocome to the underlying Atman, consciousness, or turiya which is always present. Iyer tells us: 'Ego is the last thing that will screen the Atman. It is the most difficult of all to subdue. The I can be got rid of only by knowingthat it does not exist, that it is only an idea, that it is dying every night.' (2056) 21:03BiographiesPage 4 sur 7'The ego is called a serpent in India because it lives hidden in a dark hole, going in and coming out from time to time.' (2058) Once this seeing-through is accomplished, the going into and out of samadhi is seen as unnecessary.
Atmananda stated: 'The samadhi experience is that I was happy. But when you understand, from a Karana-guru, that Happiness is your realnature, you come to realize that you are yourself the goal of samadhi. With this understanding, all hankering after samadhidisappears; though samadhi might still come upon you sometimes merely as a matter of course or samskara. But you will neveragain be attracted by the enjoyment of happiness in samadhi.'
Contemporary non-dual teacher Adyashanti more simply stated: 'You only want various things because you do not know who you are. But as soon as you come back to yourself, to that emptyawakeness, then you realize there is nothing more you want because you are what you want.' (13) On the nature of the Witness consciousness, he states: The world is Brahman collapses the position of the external witness.
The witness position collapses into the totality, andsuddenly were not witnessing from the outside anymore. Instead, witnessing is taking place from everywhere simultaneously -inside, outside, around, up, down. Everything everywhere is being witnessed from inside and outside simultaneously, becausewhat is being witnessed is what is witnessing. The seer and what is seen are the same. Unless that is realized, we can get stuckin the place of the witness.
We can get stuck in a transcendant void, in emptiness. (14) On a practical level, Adyashanti points out that with the collapse of the witness position, you can start to see the elements of ego that are using the witnessing position as a way to hide, to not be touched by life, tonot feel certain feelings, to not encounter our lives directly and intimately in a gritty, human way.
(15) What he is pointing to here is that the realization must become embodied and human, and not remain transcendental only. Vedantist Iyer, speaking of the 'lightning flash' of understanding, the transition from the witness to the Self, philosophically putsit this way: 'The students suddenly grasp the idea that all the world is only a thought, and that he himself is also a thought, and that all thisthought-world is inside himself, is Atma, Brahma. With that he recognizes that the thought itself is Brahman with all its ideas itincludes Brahman too, including the idea of himself.' (2584) Regarding the use of the intellectual faculty (buddhi) in accomplishing this, Sri Nisargadatta says: 'Your expectation of something unique and dramatic, of some wonderful explosion, is merely hindering and delaying your self-realization. You are not to expect an explosion, for the explosion has already happened at the moment you were born, whenyou realized yourself as being-knowing- feeling. There is only one mistake you are making. You take the inner for the outer andthe outer for the inner.
What is in you, you take to be outside you and what is outside you take to be in you. The mind andfeelings are external, but you take them to be internal. You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely a projection ofyour psyche. That is the basic confusion and no new explosion will set it right.
You have to think yourself out of it. There is noother way.' (16) PB summarizes this line of thought: 'A mystic experience is simply something which comes and goes, whereas philosophic insight, once established in a man,cannot possibly leave him. He understands the Truth and cannot lose this understanding any more than an adult can lose hisadulthood and become an infant.' (17) While he was a serene jnani or sage, Atmananda was capable of freely expressed emotion. When his wife died he excusedhimself from his place of employment, attended her funeral, weeping openly and profusely, so much so that people thought hewould never stop, and then returned to work with full attention to the duties at hand. He was a man of deep feeling, but hemaintained that such feelings were always under control from his position as Consciousness.
In saying this, however, he did notimply that the sage strategically avoided the emotions of life or distanced himself from the human dimension altogether. Hestated: Feelings never come to him uninvited. If he thinks that it is time to act with discretion, feelings respectfully keep at a distance.But the moment he invites them they rush in like torrents.
Again the moment he puts on the brake by a mere thought theydisappear. This was what you were witnessing in me in those days.
It is wrong to attribute either composure or indulgence to theSage. He is the conscious background of both. (18) Atmananda was a great realizer, outspoken in his criticism of both the suppressive tactics of the yogi and the weakemotionalism of the bhakta. In doing so, and becoming so strict in the jnana approach, Brunton felt he may have gone a littleoverboard in rejecting some of the earlier practises or sadhana he underwent which for many aspirants serve as preparation to 21:03BiographiesPage 5 sur 7in rejecting some of the earlier practises or sadhana he underwent which for many aspirants serve as preparation tomake the later realizations more accessible. Some have also questioned whether Atmananda's comments about controlling hisemotions may have indicated that he had yet to enter the fullness of sahaj, but exhibited a lingering tendency to hold on to thewitness position instead. An impartial examinatin of his teachings suggest that this was not the case.
He clearly distinguished thewitness from Consciousness. In any case, and most importantly, Atmananda was critical of teachings that proposed a liberation for the ego or some objectiveentity or self. For him, liberation was not merely going beyond bondage or subjection to the cycle of birth and death, but goingbeyond the illusion of birth and death. He joined Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta in maintaining that realization consists inbecoming profoundly aware that one has never been in bondage, that, in fact, there is no one to be in bondage or to beliberated, and that the answer to the question when shall I realize? Is when the when dies. According to Atmananda, whilethere is apparent suffering in life, it can never be eliminated without the transcendance of the sufferer.
He taught that throughdiscriminative inquiry the divine mystery, the Reality, Brahman, becomes self-evident, while worldly knowledge is nothing morethan giving a name to the unknown and immediately dismissing it from your mind. (19) Thus knowledge of all worlds is onlyknowledge in a conventional naming sense since it is secondary to the great Unknown and Unknowable (to the mind) Reality, butwhich is the Real Knower Itself, Atman, revealed through the faculty of Buddhi in the waking state, in which the world is reducedto ideas that are inherently reabsorbed into Oneself, after which the non-difference of Atman and Brahman may be known. As recounted by filmaker Peter Vos, Atmananda told John Levy his conception of the difference between being a saint and asage: A saint is still busy trying to go beyond his body with techniques, to let go of it, and a sage, that is someone who knows it,who is it. Note: this is controversial, too. A saint can be a sage, and a sage can be a saint. As with all things, itdepends. Further, Atmananda wrote: 'The head and the heart are not water-tight compartments.
They complement each other. It may be said that It is aharmonious blending of the head and the heart in the ultimate Truth that is called realization. It may generally be said that onegets enlightened through the head, and gets established in the Truth through the heart. A thought, when it is deep, becomesfeeling or in other words descends into the heart. Deep knowledge or objectless knowledge is Love. Love always gives andnever takes.
If only the giving is spontaneous and prompted by the heart alone, it is efficacious and divine. The slightest taint ofthe ego in the giving pollutes it to that extent. If you follow the path of love, until love is its own fulfilment, you reach the highest.But an ignorant aspirant can never complete it unaided. The help of a Karana-guru is absolutely necessary, at least towards theend.' (1179) Atmananda was a master chess player and would often play the game with some of his disciples. He stated on manyoccasions that 'he utilized even the game of chess to speed the spiritual progress of those who played with him.' (20) One isreminded of the famous story of a game between Rumi and his master, Shams Tabrez.
Rumi was checkmated, whereupon he,also a master player, exclaimed, 'Oh no, I have lost!' But his Murshid replied, 'No, you have won,' giving him liberation by a tapon the forehead with his sandal. A liability when reading the works of Atmananda and other like sages, particularly without the benefit of their personal company,has always been that one may get caught up in the lure of the verbal argument and prematurely bypass various preparatoryphysical, emotional, mental, moral, and devotional practises that for many makes the more advanced practises of insight andenquiry possible or fruitful. A high degree of free energy and attention is required to pursue jnana yoga to a successfulconclusion. Thus advaita has always traditionally required preparation. It is not just a talking school, but demands real maturity.In the sage's company, however, as beautifully expressed by Atmananda, one gets a boost from a radiant presence that burnshis words deep within the heart: You first listen to the Truth direct from the lips of the Guru.
Your mind, turned perfectly sattvic by the luminous presence of theGuru, has become so sensitive and sharp that the whole thing is impressed upon it as if it were a sensitive film. You visualizeyour real nature then and there. But the moment you come out, the check of the presence of the Guru being removed, othersamskaras rush in and you are unable to recapitulate what was said or heard. But later on, whenever you think of that gloriousincident, the whole picture comes back to your mind including the form, words and arguments of the Guru and you arethrown afresh into the same state of visualization you had experienced on the first day. Thus you constantly hear the same Truthfrom within. This is how a spiritual tattvopadesha helps you all through life, till you are established in your own real nature. (21) Sri Nisargadatta concurs: 'Words of a realized man never miss their purpose.
They wait for the right conditions to arise which may take some time, andthis is natural, for there is a season for sowing and a season for harvesting. But the word of a Guru is a seed that cannot perish.Of course, the Guru must be a real one, who is beyond the body and the mind, beyond consciousness itself, beyond space andtime, beyond duality and unity, beyond understanding and description. The good people, who have read a lot and have a lot tosay, may teach you many useful things, but they are not the real Gurus whose words invariably come true.' (22) Anthony Damiani likewise explains that, in contrast with the ordinary teacher or guru, the sage:.works quite differently. He goes into the stillness, into the void mind. Then when he comes out, he holds your image in hismind and imagines you or conceives you to be what you really are and then he dismisses the picture.
And then for the next ten 21:03BiographiesPage 6 sur 7and imagines you or conceives you to be what you really are and then he dismisses the picture. And then for the next tenlives (!) you may be struggling to become what you really are. And the very power and concentration of his thought is so intensethat it will bring to pass what he imagines you to be. (23) Even without this rare opportunity, careful study of the words of a true sage is time well spent for it will plant seeds in the soulthat germinate in due season. But actual company of a karana guru is a rare blessing, and Sri Atmananda would always maintainthat even a great aspirant, could only attain liberation with the help of a living Teacher or Karanaguru. He once wrote, 'Theunconditioned love towards one's own Guru is the only ladder to the goal of Truth.'
Shree Atmananda insisted that a sadhaka had only one ultimate or final teacher. Contemporary teacher Francis Lucille, a disciple of Jean Klein who himself knew Atmananda, demurs a bit on this last point, asis understandable, given that he is riding the wave of a loose-knit group of new realizers for whom the role of spiritual friend isincreasingly favored over that of guru. Still, he states: 'A living guru (spiritual teacher) is, in most cases, necessary to facilitate both enlightenment and self realization.
Although thekarana guru (the guru whose role is to help the disciple through the last stages of realization) appears to the disciple as aseemingly separate human being, he or she is knowingly established as universal consciousness. He sees the disciple as hisown Self. Consciousness in the disciple, being recognized for what it truly is, resonates with the silent presence of the guru. Themind of the disciple becomes gradually and mysteriously quiet, with or without the use of words, until the student has a glimpseof the causeless joy of his natural state. A relationship of love, freedom and friendliness that leads to the eventual spontaneousstabilization of the disciple in happiness and peace gets established. A true karana guru never sees himself as superior or inferior to anybody, nor does he or she take himself or anybody for a sageor an ignorant, for a spiritual teacher or a disciple. This impersonal attitude creates an unmistakable perfume of friendship andfreedom that is a prerequisite for the success of the final stages of the self realization process.'
(copyright 2000, Francis Lucille) While in his writings he was truly a radical non-dualist, in practice Atmananda was a traditionalist regarding the guru-disciplerelationship, giving due respect to different levels of reality: 'He considered it a pitfall to shout all too soon that everything is Consciousness in a worldly or relational environment, and hecontinued pointing out difference as long as this was the true state of affairs to the student. Thus he considered advaita, non-duality, not applicable to the relationship between teacher and student.
Think of your Guru only in the dualistic sphere, he said,apply your heart wholly to it and get lost in the Guru. Then the Ultimate dances like a child before you. And moreover: Advaitais only a pointer to the Guru.
You do not reach Advaita completely until you reach the egoless state. Never even think that youare one with the Guru. It will never take you to the Ultimate. On the contrary, that thought will only drown you. Advaita points onlyto the Ultimate. Atmananda considered a devotional attitude to be a great help. But in an instruction he made it clear that such an attitude isonly appropriate towards your own Guru.
That particular Person through whom one had the proud privilege of being enlightened, that is the ONLY FORM which onemay adore and do Puja to, to ones hearts content, as the person of ones Guru. It is true that all is the Sat-Guru, but only whenthe name and form disappear and not otherwise. Therefore the true aspirant should beware of being deluded into any similardevotional advance to any other form, be it of God or of man.
In another statement he reveals how strict and dualistic he was in respect to the student and guru relationship: A disciple should never bow allegiance to two Gurus at the same time; to which he added that accepting more than one guruat a time is even more dangerous than having none at all.' (Philip Renard, quoted from hyperlinked article below) See the excellent Atmananda by Philip Renard. Also see The Teaching of Atmananda: Universal and Individual for a discussion of the 'direct path' of Atmananda versustraditional 'cosmological, indirect paths,' giving the pros and cons of each approach, as well as various samplings of discoursesby the sage.1. Nitya Tripta, ed., Notes on Spiritual DIscourses of Shree Atmananda, Vol. II, (1953-1959) (Trivandrum, India: The ReddiarPress, 1963), p. Ram Alexander, Death Must Die: A Western Woman's Life-long Spiritual Quest in India with Shree Anandamayee Ma(Varanasi, India: Indica Books, 2006 (2002), p.
John Blofield, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po (New York: Grove Press, 1959), p. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Vol. 14 (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 19 ), 8.85 5. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj'I Am That' Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj(Durham, North Carolina: The Acorn Press, 2008, p.1766. 230-231 21:03BiographiesPage 7 sur 7Ibid, p. Krishnachandra Bhattacharya, Studies in Philosophy (Calcutta, India: Progressive Publishers, 1956), p. Iyer, Commentaries, Vol.
Mark Scorelle, 1999)10. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op.
Nitya Tripta, op. Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing (Los Gatos, California: Open Gate Publishing, 2004), p. Adyashanti, The End of Your World (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc., 2008), p. Sri Nisargadatta, op. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. 13, Part Two, 4.19818. Nitya Tripta, op.
Ibid, (Vol I & II), 20. Ibid, Vol II, 93422. Sri Nisargadatta, op. Anthony Damiani, Looking Into Mind: How to Recognize Who You Are and How You Know (Burdett, N.Y.: LarsonPublications, 1990), p.
Shared Left Border Notices K ey L essons More Resources AYP Public Forum Username: Password: Save Password Atmananda (Krishna Menon) Books Author Topic 3103 Posts Posted - Dec 19 2011: 01:34:15 AM For those who love Atmananda, just stumbled into this link on facebook: quote: The following PDF files are provided for educational purposes. I have downloaded them from various sources on the internet and in these uncertain times it seems wise to make them available on a multitude of sites.
I would encourage anyone who feels that they are enriched by the books to purchase hard-copies if they exist. Many of them are available from Amazon.com.
Love, Ananda Lebanon 2333 Posts. Posted - Jan 17 2012: 1:51:53 PM Also, for those of us who love Krishna Menon's teachings, please see and associated pages.
Incidentally, there it is stated that Sri Atmananda insisted that a living teacher is necessary! I still haven't re-read Atma Darshan and Atma Nirvriti to see if this is stated there also! A couple of caveats for those wanting to study these two scriptures:- The links above are for a condensed version of the publication that I have myself and the preface, a glossary and three essays are missing.
The preface is particularly important for making sense of these works because some of the verses are (apparently) contradictory and the preface discusses this (and a few other things) in some detail. There are various prakriyas (methods/approaches) advocated by Sri Atmananda and it is only necessary to follow one prakriya. If you try to follow them all, it can lead to confusion (non-relational self-inquiry presumably).
I've come across statements that the living teacher's skill is to select the appropriate prakriya for the disciple. Also, very importantly, I understand that Sri Atmananda's heirs and sucessors, who own the copyright, are very unhappy about the spread of these books over the internet and regularly search for links to 'pirate' copies. Both Greg Goode and Chris Hebbard (of StillnessSpeaks.com) were asked to stop distributing the full version pdf of these works by representatives of the estate some time ago. I therefore think that it's unlikely that the link above will function indefinitely. From my perspective, I'm deeply saddened that this means that the light of Sri Atmananda seems to be fading from the world and I'd welcome discussion about his writings, as I see myself as one of his students wanting to explore his teachings more deeply with others who share a love of his approach.
For those interested in the Direct Path of Krishna Menon, I'd heartily recommend the two-DVD set by Greg Goode and Greg's other writings and the 10 free videos that you can find on his site which give a good sense of this approach. Here also is a link to a recent interview with Greg, which raises some interesting issues: - Greg is very generous with his time and knowledge and you can correspond with him diretly by email. I'd probably best add that I personally don't agree that deep sleep and nirvikalpa samadhi are the same thing (although I've not discussed this with Greg) and my own path has involved a return to meditation (now AYP-style) after a considerable break in the practice and a long interlude on the non-duality circuit (which I'm certainly not knocking, as it was incredibly valuable). I also certainly agree with Yogani's view that most of us need to do a bit of construction work on the road to L.A. It's the clearest explanation I've ever come across and I really like his take on self-inquiry. Posted - Jan 17 2012: 4:17:09 PM quote: Originally posted by Ananda All is good my brother I'm glad.
Peace be with you also. Quote: If you want a copy of Atmanandopanishat, just send me your mailing address by email and I'll send it in air mail. It's very kind of you to offer. I'm fortunate in having been given a copy by another friend.
Before that I had to go to the British Library in London to read it!! Quote: By the way, the link you shared is by Ananda Wood who is still alive and whom you can contact by email also. I've thrown all my resources into reading all Yogani's writings including his archived postings and researcing other forum postings, as well as re-establishing my own meditation/practice (which is now AYP-based) and I see no reason to go elsewhere. I think it's time to build a few bridges and lay a bit of tarmac!! With Love gatito 3103 Posts.