Siddhas

Bhagavan often says, “To know oneself and to be able to remain true to oneself, is siddhi, and nothing else. If one’s mind is absorbed in the enquiry of self, the truth will be realised some time or other. That is the best siddhi.”

I give below an extract from the prose writings of Bhagavan regarding these siddhis in his “Unnathi Nalupadhi”* which bears this out:

Siddhi is to know and realise that which is ever real. Other siddhis are mere dream siddhis. Would they be true when one wakes up from one’s sleep? Those who are wedded to truth and who had got freed from maya, will they get deluded by them? Please understand. 

Reality in Forty Verses, verse 35

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 40

If it is said, so as to suit (the maturity of) the mind, that the liberation which one will attain is (of) three (kinds), with form, without form, or with or without form, I will say that liberation is (in truth only) the destruction of the form of the ego which distinguishes (liberation as being of three kinds), with form, without form, or with or without form. Know thus.

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 28

Just as one would dive (restraining one’s speech and breath) in order to find a thing which has fallen into the water, one should dive within (oneself) restraining speech and breath with a keen mind (that is, with a keen and
penetrating attention fixed on the feeling ‘I’), and know (the real Self, which is) the rising-place (or source) of the ego, which rises first. Know thus.

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 19

The dispute as to which prevails, fate or freewill, is only for those who do not have correct knowledge of the root of fate and freewill, which are different (from each other). (That is, this dispute arises only for those who do not know that the ego, who is the experiencer of fate and the wielder of freewill, is truly non-existent). Those who have known the (non-existence of the individual) self (the ego), who is the one (and only) base of fate and freewill, have discarded them. (that is, they have discarded fate and free will along with their root and base, the ego). Say, will they again become entangled in them (in fate and free will, or in the dispute about them)?

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 11

Knowing other things without knowing oneself (the mind or ego), who knows the objects known, is (only) ignorance; can it instead be (true) knowledge? When (through the enquiry ‘Who am I’, the individual who knows the objects known) one knows (the non-existence of) oneself (the knowing ego) the base for knowledge and the other (that is, the base of knowledge and ignorance about objects) will cease to exist.

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 8

Whoever worships (the nameless and formless Reality) in whatever form giving (it) whatever name, that is the way to see that (nameless and formless) Reality in (that) name and form, (because) it is possible (to see it thus). However, becoming one (with the Reality), having known one’s own
truth (that is, having known the truth that one is not the ego, the individual who worships and sees names and forms, but only the real Self, who never sees names and forms) and having (thereby) subsided in the (nameless and
formless) truth of that Reality, alone is seeing in truth (in other words, being the Reality is alone truly seeing the Reality). Know thus.

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 37

Even the argument which says, “Duality (dvaita) during practice (sadhana) – which one undertakes (due to) not knowing (the truth that one is always Brahman) – and nonduality (advaita) after attainment (that is, duality is true during the time of practice and non-duality becomes true only after the attainment of Self-realization)”, is not true. Who else is one except the tenth man, both when one is anxiously searching (for the tenth man) and when one finds oneself (to be the tenth man).

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 37

Even the argument which says, “Duality (dvaita) during practice (sadhana) – which one undertakes (due to) not knowing (the truth that one is always Brahman) – and nonduality (advaita) after attainment (that is, duality is true during the time of practice and non-duality becomes true only after the attainment of Self-realization)”, is not true. Who else is one except the tenth man, both when one is anxiously searching (for the tenth man) and when one finds oneself (to be the tenth man).

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 36

If we think, having delusion, that we are the body, thinking, ‘No (we are not this body), we are That (the Reality)’, will be a good aid for (reminding and encouraging) us to abide as That. (However) since we (in truth ever) abide
as That, why to think always, ‘We are That’? Does one (always) think, ‘I am a man’? (That is, in order to be a man, does a man always need to meditate, I am a man, I am a man?)

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 32

When the holy scriptures proclaim, “You are That, which is declared to be the Supreme”, instead of oneself knowing and being oneself (by scrutinizing) ‘What (am I)?’, thinking, “I am That (the supreme) and not this (the body composed of five sheaths)”, is due to the absence of strength (that is, due to the absence of maturity of mind), because That indeed always exists as oneself (one’s own Reality).

Ulladhu Narpadhu 14

If that first person (the ego or subject, ‘I’) named ‘I am the body’ exists, the second and third persons (the objects , ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘that’ and so on) will exist. If the first person ceases to exist by one’s scrutinizing the truth of the first person, the second and third persons will cease to exist, and the state (which will then remain) shining as one (that is, as the one real Self and not as the unreal three persons), is indeed one’s own nature (the real nature or state of self).

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 26

If the ego, which is the embryo comes into existence, everything (the world, God, bondage and liberation, knowledge and ignorance, and so on) will come into existence. If the ego does not exist, everything will not exist. (Hence) the ego itself is everything. Therefore, know that scrutinizing ‘What is this (ego)?’ is alone giving up (or renouncing) everything!

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 25

What a wonder! (This) ghostly ego, which is devoid of form (that is, which has no form of its own), comes into existence by grasping a form (that is, by identifying the form of a body as ‘I’); it endures by grasping a form (that is, by
continuing to cling to that body as ‘I’); it waxes more by grasping and feeding upon forms (that is, by attending to second and third person objects, which it cognizes through the five senses); having left a form, it grasps a form (that is, having given up one body, it grasps another body as ‘I’); (but) if one searches (for it by enquiring ‘Who am I, this formless ego?’), it will take to flight (being found to be nonexistent)! Know thus

Ulladhu Narpadhu - Verse 15

The past and future stand (only by) depending upon the present, which remains always. While occurring they (the past and future) are both only the present. (Therefore) the present is the only one (time). [In other words, there are not three times, the past, present and future; there is only one time, the present.] (Hence) trying to know the past and future without knowing the truth of the present [that is, without knowing the truth that the present is non-existent as one of the three times, and that the sole reality underlying
the sense of present time is the ever-existing self] is (like) trying to count without (knowing the value of the unit) one.

Invocation - 1

If the Reality ‘I’ did not exist, could there exist the consciousness ‘am’ (the consciousness of one’s own existence)?* 

Since (that) Reality exists in the heart devoid of thought, how to (or who can) meditate upon (that) Reality, which is called the Heart? 

Know that abiding in the Heart as it is (that is, without thought, as ‘I am’), alone is meditating (upon the Reality).

*Rephrase thus : If the reality (one’s own existence, ‘I’) did not exist, could there exist the consciousness of Being (the consciousness of one’s existence ‘am’)?.

Invocation - 2

Mature souls who have intense inner fear of death cling to the Feet of the deathless and birthless Great Lord as (their) refuge. By their clinging (thus to His Feet), they have died as individuals and have thereby become one with that deathless Lord. (Therefore) Can (such) deathless people (again) have the thought of death? (They are) eternal.