Inspired Talks: Sunday, July 28

Dattātreya, the son of Atri and Anasuyā, was an incarnation of Brahmā, Vishnu, and Shiva.

(RECORDED BY MISS S. E. WALDO, A DISCIPLE)

SUNDAY, July 28, 1895. (Avadhuta Gita or "Song of the Purified" by Dattâtreya)

“All knowledge depends upon calmness of mind.”

“He who has filled the universe, He who is Self in self, how shall I salute Him!”

To know the Ātman as my nature is both knowledge and realisation. “I am He, there is not the least doubt of it.”

“No thought, no word, no deed, creates a bondage for me. I am beyond the senses, I am knowledge and bliss.”

There is neither existence nor non-existence, all is Ātman. Shake off all ideas of relativity; shake off all superstitions; let caste and birth and Devas and all else vanish. Why talk of being and becoming? Give up talking of dualism and Advaitism! When were you two, that you talk of two or one? The universe is this Holy One and He alone. Talk not of Yoga to make you pure; you are pure by your very nature. None can teach you.

Men like him who wrote this song are what keep religion alive. They have actually realised; they care for nothing, feel nothing done to the body, care not for heat and cold or danger or anything. They sit still and enjoy the bliss of Ātman, while red-hot coals burn their body, and they feel them not.

“When the threefold bondage of knower, knowledge, and known ceases, there is the Ātman.”

“Where the delusion of bondage and freedom ceases, there the Ātman is.”

“What if you have controlled the mind, what if you have not? What if you have money, what if you have not? You are the Ātman ever pure. Say, ‘I am the Ātman. No bondage ever came near me. I am the changeless sky; clouds of belief may pass over me, but they do not touch me.’”

“Burn virtue, burn vice. Freedom is baby talk. I am that immortal Knowledge. I am that purity.”

“No one was ever bound, none was ever free. There is none but me. I am the Infinite, the Ever-free. Talk not to me! What can change me, the essence of knowledge! Who can teach, who can be taught?”

Throw argument, throw philosophy into the ditch.

“Only a slave sees slaves, the deluded delusion, the impure impurity.”

Place, time causation are all delusions. It is your disease that you think you are bound and will be free. You are the Unchangeable. Talk not. Sit down and let all things melt away, they are but dreams. There is no differentiation, no distinction, it is all superstition; therefore be silent and know what you are.

“I am the essence of bliss.” Follow no ideal, you are all there is. Fear naught, you are the essence of existence. Be at peace. Do not disturb yourself. You never were in bondage, you never were virtuous or sinful. Get rid of all these delusions and be at peace. Whom to worship? Who worships? All is the Ātman. To speak, to think is superstition. Repeat over and over, “I am Ātman”, “I am Ātman”. Let everything else go.