Nirvana Upanishad
Om ! May my
speech be based on (i.e. accord with) the mind;
May my mind be based on speech.
O Self-effulgent One, reveal Thyself to me.
May you both (speech and mind) be the carriers of the Veda to me.
May not all that I have heard depart from me.
I shall join together (i.e. obliterate the difference of) day
And night through this study.
I shall utter what is verbally true;
I shall utter what is mentally true.
May that (Brahman) protect me;
May That protect the speaker (i.e. the teacher), may That protect me;
May that protect the speaker – may That protect the speaker.
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
1. Now we shall expound the Nirvanopanishad.
2. The Paramahamsa: I am He.
3. The mendicant monks who wear marks of renunciation inwardly. [They
are the ascetics entitled to study this Upanishad.]
4. (They are) the protectors of the field in which I-ness (indicative of
the separateness of the Self) is destroyed.
5. Their settled conclusion is partless like ether.
6. (Their heart) is the river of immortal waves.
7. (Their heart) is imperishable and unconditioned.
8. (Their preceptor) is the (realized) sage free from doubts.
9. The divine being (they adore is) final beatitude.
10. Their activity is free of family (and other) ties.
11. Their knowledge is not isolated.
12. (They study and/or teach) the higher scripture.
13. (They constitute) the propless monastic centre.
14. Their dedication (is to reveal Brahman) to a group (of worthy
disciples).
15. The instruction is the non-existence (of things other than Brahman).
16. This dedication brings joy and purification (to the disciples).
17. Their sight is (like) seeing the twelve suns.
18. Discrimination (of the real from the unreal) is (their) protection.
19. Their compassion aloe is the sport.
20. (They wear) the garland of bliss.
21. In the cave of one seat (is) their audience of happiness, free from
restrictions of yoga-postures.
22. (They) subsist on food not prepared (specially for them).
23. Their conduct is in consonance with the realization of the oneness
of the Self and Brahman (Hamsa).
24. They demonstrate to disciples (by their conduct) that Brahman is
present in all beings.
25. True conviction is their patched garment. Non-alignment is their
loin-cloth. Reflection (of the truths of the Vedanta) is their
(emblematic-)staff. The vision of Brahman (as non-different from the
Self) is their yoga-cloth. Sandals (consist in avoiding contact with
worldly) wealth. Activity (for bare living) at the behest of others.
Their bondage (is only in the desire to direct) the Kundalini (into the
Susumna). Liberated while alive, as they are freed from denial of the
highest (Brahman). The oneness with Siva is their sleep. True knowledge
(by denying joy in Avidya) or the Khechari-mudra is their supreme bliss.
26. The (bliss of) Brahman is free from the (three) qualities (Sattva,
Rajas and Tamas).
27. (Brahman) is realized by discrimination (of the real from the
unreal) (and) it is beyond the reach of the mind and speech.
28. The phenomenal world is impermanent as it is produced (from Brahman
which alone is real); it is similar to a world seen in a dream and an
elephant in the sky (i.e. illusory): similarly the cluster of things
such as the body is perceived by a network of a multitude of delusions
and it is fancied to exist as a serpent in a rope (due to imperfect
knowledge).
29. The (worship of) gods named Vishnu, Brahma and a hundred others
culminates (in Brahman).
30. The goad is the path.
31. (The path) is not void, only conventional.
32. The strength of the supreme Lord (is the support to the aerial
path).
33. The Yoga accomplished by truth is the monastery.
34. The position (heaven) of gods does not constitute its real nature.
35. The prime source Brahman is self-realization.
36. (The ascetic) shall meditate on the absence of distinction, based on
the Gayatri through the Ajapa Mantra.
37. Restraint on the mind is the patched garment.
38. By Yoga (there is) the vision (experience) of the nature of
everlasting bliss.
39. Bliss is the alms that he enjoys.
40. Residence even in the great cemetery is as in a pleasure garden.
41. A solitary place is the monastery.
42. Complete quiescence of the mind is the practice of Brahmavidya.
43. His movement is to unmani state.
44. His pure body is the propless seat of dignity.
45. His
activity is the bliss of the waves of immortality.
46. The ether of consciousness is the great established conclusion.
47. Instruction in the emancipating mantra results in efficiency of
bodily limbs and mind for possessing divine power in practising
tranquillity, self-restraint, etc., and in the realization of the
oneness of the (so-called) higher and lower Self.
48. The presiding deity (of the Taraka) is the everlasting bliss of
non-duality.
49. The voluntary religious observance is the restraint of the inner
senses.
50. Renouncing (tyaga) is the giving up of fear, delusion, sorrow and
anger.
51. (Renouncing results is) the enjoyment of bliss in the identity of
the higher and lower (self).
52. Unrestrainedness is pure power.
53. When the reality of Brahman shines in the self there is the
annihilation of the phenomenal world which is enveloped by the power of
Shiva (Maya); similarly the burning of the existence or non-existence of
the aggregate of the causal, subtle and gross bodies.
54. He realizes Brahman as the prop of the ether.
55. The auspicious fourth state is the sacred thread; the tuft (too)
consists of that.
56. (To him) the created world consists of consciousness; (so also) the
immovable and the group of various beings.
57. Uprooting (the effect of) karman is (mere) talk; in the cemetery
(Self-Brahman), illusion, ‘mine-ness’ and ego have been burnt.
58. (The realized Parivrajaka) has his body intact.
59. Meditation on the true form which is beyond the three attributes (of
Sattva, Rajas and Tamas); (even this) condition (of distinction ‘I am
Brahman’) is a delusion which shall be annihilated The burning of the
attitude of passion, etc., (ought to be done). The loin cloth ought to
be rough and tight (so that the vital energy moves upward in perpetual
celibacy). Deer-skin garment for long (and later to be unclad). The
unstruck mantra (the Om in the fourth state turiya) is practised by
refraining from (worldly) action. Conducting himself freely (as he has
reached a stage which is beyond good and bad, he realizes) his true
nature which is liberation.
60. His conduct (of serving a primary Avadhuta) as a ship (to cross the
ocean of worldly life and) reach the transcendent Brahman; practising
celibacy till tranquillity is attained; getting instruction in the stage
of a celibate student, or learning (the truth) in the stage of a dweller
in the forest (Vanaprastha) he (embraces) renunciation wherein all
(true) knowledge is established; at the end he becomes of the form of
the indivisible Brahman, the eternal, the annihilator of all doubts.
61. This Nirvanopanishad (the secret doctrine leading to final
beatitude) shall not be imparted to one other than a disciple or a son.
Thus (ends) the Upanishad.
Om ! May my speech be based on (i.e. accord with) the mind;
May my mind be based on speech.
O Self-effulgent One, reveal Thyself to me.
May you both (speech and mind) be the carriers of the Veda to me.
May not all that I have heard depart from me.
I shall join together (i.e. obliterate the difference of) day
And night through this study.
I shall utter what is verbally true;
I shall utter what is mentally true.
May that (Brahman) protect me;
May That protect the speaker (i.e. the teacher), may That protect me;
May that protect the speaker – may That protect the speaker.
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Here ends the Nirvanopanishad, as contained in the Rig-Veda. |