How rare! How precious! How utterly lofty! How far beyond the everyday consciousness of humanity, yet how close to our most intimate yearnings!
The interesting thing about this Gita is its unswerving focus upon one teaching only, that of the Self, or Self-God. "Tat Tvam Asi," "You are That".
The book consists of 44 chapters, each one of which considers the Self, or Brahman, from one point of view, or conversely, looks back upon consciousness from the point of view of the Self. The reader who is inclined to monism will be delighted. He may find some stanzas awakening new perception. For example, "You never had a witness," struck and forcefully impacted this reader.
It is important to note that the book does not rest with absolute monism, which would not allow any validity to the dualistic view. This is what makes this text truly great. After exposing in each chapter the world and all its inhabitants and happenings as totally unreal from the perspective of the highest Absolute, it concludes each chapter with practical advice in terms of duality, offering some of its most beautiful passages. The book systematically dismantles its own theology, one might say, after constructing it. In this it is consistent, showing that even theology and doctrine are relative, not absolutes.
It should be mentioned too that this book was the great Ramana Maharshi's "bible". He referred to it constantly, and taught and encouraged others to read it. It is a Moksha Mantra from beginning to end, with no intellectual diversions, no entertaining digressions. We must marvel at the Great Ones who so long ago sustained such a contemplation, the likes of which cannot be found elsewhere. Let us hold our hands together in homage to those realized beings who held Truth in the palm of their hand, who knew the Unknowable, and who left us this legacy of their revelation that jiva is, indeed, Siva. --Hinduism Today, October 1995
Sacred Work
A lucid exposition of Advaita Vedanta without the least trace of dualism is the essence and substance of this text. With countless negations of all that is of an unreal nature, and the declaration after declaration regarding the sole-existent reality of Brahman, the Self, the Truth is presented, utterly unobscured, by Ribhu in this rare but sacred work. The Supreme knowledge contained herein is also called Shiva-Knowledge. Ribhu declares that Shiva himself is his Guru and that the instruction he bestows upon his disciple, Nidagha, is the very same that Lord Shiva bestowed on him. One should not simply read such a literary work, but contemplate and strive to realize the Truth of what is stated herein.
This second edition is updated with relevant footnotes suitably placed at the end of the translation of individual verses. The book also contains an enhanced glossary from the original first edition.
Swami Divyakripananda
Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata
Prabuddha Bharata, Feb2021
A journal of the Ramakrishna Order
