Question and answer 1

Question and answer 1

ஸ்வாமி! எப்போதுந் துக்கமற்ற நித்யானந்த நிலை எய்துதற்குரிய வுபாயம் யாது?

எங்கெங்கே சரீரமுள்ளதோ அங்கங்கே துக்கமு முள்ளதென வேதத்திற் கூறியுள்ளதன்றி, எல்லோர்க்கும் பொதுவான பிரத்யக்ஷஅநுபவமாக விருத்தலான், எப்போதும் சரீரமில்லாத தனது எதார்த்தசொரூபம் இன்னதென்று விசாரித்துணர்ந்து உள்ளவாறிருத்தலே அந்நிலையெய்துதற்குரிய வுபாயமாம்.

In plain words

Master — what is the way to that state of unbroken happiness, where sorrow never comes?

Where there is a body there is suffering. The Veda says so, and everyone finds it out for themselves in any case. So the way is this: enquire into what you really are — which is, and has always been, without a body — come to know it, and then remain as you are.

Word for word

Master! What is the means proper to attaining the state of eternal bliss, which is at all times without suffering?

Wherever there is a body, there too there is suffering — this is not only said in the Veda; since it also stands as an immediately evident experience common to everyone, the means proper to attaining that state is: having enquired and known what one's own real nature, which is at all times bodiless, is — to remain as one is.