30.
WHO AM I?

I am the Self (atman). I am Being-Consciousness. Being
is my nature. I am the Self-aware Witness-
Consciousness. I have no identity with the three states --
waking, dream and sleep; they pass and re-pass in my
presence. I am the Knower of Reality; I have my identity
with the Divine.

      Being unattached to any fluctuations of the life-force
and the mind, I have neither joys nor sorrows. These
pertain to the states of waking and dream, which are the
mental modes of the individual soul. In the waking state
he is known as the [viswa]; in the dreaming state he is
known as the radiant [taijasa]; in the sleeping state he is
known as the wise [prajna]. I am the Knower of Reality.
These three states are really non-existent, they function
only as the result of the latent tendencies [vasana] of the
mind; and even while they function and screen my real
identity, I am the Self.

      I am the Present ever-present, so I am not newly
discovered or obtained, only I have no delusion about
myself. I am unborn (aja), so death cannot affect me. For
me death does not mean the loss of a body, whether gross,
subtle or causal. To me death means only identifying the
self with the non-self. This is intoxication (pramada ^[?]) and
this intoxication is Death. So has Sri Maharshi taught.

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      The discrimination which removes this intoxication
(pramada ^[?]) is Immortality. This Immortality is not obtained
after prolonged penance and at some distant point of
time. It is obtained here and now. As a result of this
discrimination I steady myself to enquire who I am. After
this enquiry, as instructed by the Benign Guru, I find the
`I' to be the real substratum, the Self ever aware. All this
enquiry is only on the path, for the Final Goal is the
supreme Wholeness, into which there is nothing to
enquire.

      I am the Final Goal of the path. The Reality that I
AM appears to be hidden by confusion and a veil. But by
the Grace of the Guru, I being fixed firmly in my own
reality, the veils have fallen away, both inside and out; so
I am the One Indivisible, the Turiya (Fourth State). Yet
though it be termed the "fourth" with reference to the
changing three states, yet this "fourth" is the substratum
and the primal state of Being. When this "fourth" is in
contact with the Guru's real nature, then is established
Being, and then is the One Whole.

      I am the Heart (hrdaya), the one eternal `I-I'.

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