Nonduality Salon (/ \)

The Self, Maya, and the Heart: The Fundamentals of Non-Dualism, page 4

"Owing to the diffusion of light in the body, one has experiences in the body. That center of radiation, the sages say, is the Heart. (verse 8)
"From the play of the forces in the body, one infers the flow of the light of awareness.
The forces course through the body, each hugging their own special nadi. (verse 9)
"The particular nadi through which pure awareness flows is called sushumna*. It is also called atma nadi, para nadi, and amrita nadi. (verse 10) [*between the Heart and the brain] "As the light pervades the entire body, one gets attached to the body, mistakes the body for the Self and regards the world as different from oneself. (verse 11)
"When the discerning one renounces attachment and the identification of himself with the body and pursues one-pointed enquiry, a churning starts in the nadis. (verse 12)
"With this churning of the nadis, the Self gets separated from the other nadis and, clinging to one nadi alone, shines forth.
"When the effulgent light of awareness shines in atma nadi alone, nothing else shines except the Self. (verse 14)
"He for whom the Atman (Self) alone shines within, without, and everywhere, as (clearly as) objects to the ignorant, is called one who has cut the nexus. (verse 16)
"When the light, withdrawn from all other nadis, dwells in one nadi alone, the bond (between awareness and the body) is sundered and the light abides as the Self. (v. 18)
"Since such a one has no sense of doership, his karma, it is said, is completely destroyed. As nothing but the Self exists, no doubts arise for him. (verse 21)
"Once the knot is cut, one is never bound again. This is considered the state of power and peace supreme." (verse 22)
Sri Ramana Gita, Ch:IX, p. 49-55

Another well known Gita is the Avadhut Gita, the only known work of the Rishi Dattatreya, who lived sometime after Krishna. Avadhut means high Renunciate or Perfected Man. To get an idea of the state of one who ever abides as his Self, with no awareness of the body, I've included a couple of stanzas of this Gita here, as well:

"Atman is not the Knower, Nor is It the known. It is not accessible to inference. Words cannot describe This Consciousness Absolute. The mind is lost in Its majesty. How can it be explained to thee? Space-like immortality-giving knowledge am I. (verse 11)

"I am the eternal principle. Free from attachment and aversion, free from imperfections am I, Fate and providence exist not in me. Eternally free from the sufferings of the world, Verily, space-like immortality-giving Knowledge am I. (verse 13)

"Maya is not my modification. Nor is its glamour mine. Deceit, hypocrisy, truth and untruth Have no place in me. Space-like, immortality-giving knowledge am I." (verse 18)
Avadhut Gita, Ch III, p 25-27

The following are extracts from the Yoga Vashishta Sara, a condensed version of the Yoga Vashishta, the spiritual instructions of Vashishta to Rama, very similar to Krishna's instructions to Arjuna, which also helps to get a feeling for the meaning of non-dualism:

"Nothing whatsoever is born or dies anywhere at any time. It is Brahman alone appearing illusorily in the form of the world." Ch I: 23

"The Self is more extensive than space; it is pure, subtle, un-decaying, and auspicious.
As such how could it be born and how can it die?" Ch I: 24

"O Rama, there is no intellect, no nescience, no mind and no individual soul (jiva). They are all imagined in Brahman." Ch III: 25

"O Rama, the mind has by its own activity bound itself; when it is calm it is free." Ch III 27

"O Rama, this enquiry into the Self of the nature "Who am I?' is the fire which burns up the seeds of the evil tree which is the mind." Ch V: 1

"How wonderful that in me, the infinite ocean of Consciousness, waves of jivas (individual souls) rise, sport for a while, and disappear according to their nature." Ch VI: 8

"Knowledge is not separate from you and that which is known is not separate from knowledge. Hence there is nothing other than the Self, nothing separate (from it)." ChVIII:6

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