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28. If one knows what one’s own nature is,

then

[what will remain and shine is only]

the

beginningless, endless and unbroken existence-consciousness-bliss [anadi ananta akhanda sat- chit-ananda].

~ UPADESA UNDIYAR

Notes by Michael James as per the translation done by Swami Sadhu Om.

Abiding in this state [of Self],

having attained the supreme bliss,

which is devoid of bondage and liberation,

is abiding in the service of God [or is abiding as enjoined by God].

Note: Bondage and liberation are both mere thoughts, and hence they can exist only in the state of ignorance (ajnana) and not in the state of true knowledge (jnana), the state of Self-abidance.

Compare here verse 39 of Ulladu Narpadu, in which Sri Bhagavan says,

‘Only so long as one, being a madman

[a person devoid of true knowledge],

feels “I am a bound one”, will there exist

thoughts of bondage and liberation.

[But] when one sees oneself [by enquiring] “Who is the bound one?” and

when [thereby] the ever-liberated one

[the real Self] alone remains as the

established truth,

since the thought of bondage cannot remain,

can the thought of liberation remain?’

Since God is the perfect Whole, He does not need or want any service from us. But when we rise as a separate individual feeling ‘I am this body’, we experience endless misery, and hence it becomes necessary for the all-merciful God to run to our rescue in order to save us from our own

self-created problems.

Thus,

by our rising as ‘I am so-and-so’,

we make it necessary for God to serve us.

Therefore,

the only true service we can render to God is to cease rising as an individual and thereby to refrain from making it necessary for Him to serve us.

Hence,

to abide eternally as Self instead of rising again as an individual is truly to abide in the service of God.

In the Sanskrit version of this verse,

the meaning of which is,

‘The soul [jiva] who attains here the supreme bliss which transcends bondage and liberation, is indeed divine [daivikah]’,

Sri Bhagavan has made no direct mention of ‘abiding in the service of God’, which is the central idea in the original Tamil version of this verse.

However,

Sri Bhagavan once explained that the word

‘daivikah’ (divine) which He used in the Sanskrit version of this verse is intended to imply ‘one whose actions are the actions of God’, because he who has attained the state of supreme bliss has lost his individuality and is hence not other than God, the one supreme reality.

Compare verse 1139 of Guru Vachaka Kovai, in which

Sri Bhagavan says,

‘If it be asked, “If they [those who abide as Self] have lost the sense of doership, how can the actions [of their body, speech and

mind] go on?

We do see such actions going on,” rest assured that, since their inner attachments

have died, they have God Himself residing in their heart and doing [all those actions].’