Table Of ContentTHE REALISATION OF
THE ABSOLUTE
SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
The Divine Life Society
Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org
ABOUT THIS EDITION
Though this eBook edition is designed primarily for
digital readers and computers, it works well for print too.
Page size dimensions are 5.5" x 8.5", or half a regular size
sheet, and can be printed for personal, non-commercial
use: two pages to one side of a sheet by adjusting your
printer settings.
2
CONTENTS
Publishers’ Note ........................................................................................ 4
Foreword ..................................................................................................... 5
Preface .......................................................................................................... 7
Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................. 13
Chapter Two: The Nature of the World ......................................... 26
Chapter Three: The Need for Integral Knowledge .................... 53
Chapter Four: The Nature of Reality .............................................. 66
Chapter Five: The Process of Truth-Realisation ......................122
Chapter Six: The Attainment of Liberation ................................163
Chapter Seven: Conclusion ...............................................................190
Explanatory Notes ................................................................................195
Notes ..........................................................................................................207
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
The primary issues of life are an expression of the
pressing need for peace and happiness. When peace is
being aspired after, the whole universe comes in there as
the factor that goes to form the vital current of this process
of aspiration. It is vain to think that lasting peace or
happiness can be had through resorting to certain aspects
alone, while neglecting or opposing others in the universe.
Only a Citizen of the Universe can be an enjoyer of Peace,
the Peace that passeth understanding. It is the aim of this
book to throw a powerful light on the art of growing into a
Universal Citizen, a Purushottama, a Being inhabiting the
whole cosmos; a Being that, in loving the Universe, loves
itself, in knowing itself, knows the All, and exists as the All.
It is the Science of Perfection and the Practice of the
Method to attain it, Brahmavidya and Yogasastra, that
forms the core of this teaching of immortal value. The
author, a direct disciple of the Great Swami Sivananda,
offers to the lovers of Truth, to those who have dedicated
their lives to the pursuit of Truth, this precious present, the
result of his deep study and experience. This treatise will be
found to be of immense value to all aspirants after Self-
realisation, especially to those who tread the Path of
Knowledge.
It is our earnest prayer that all Mumukshus may derive
the full benefit of imbibing this sacred Knowledge, handed
down by the ancient Seers, and of living their lives in
consonance with it.
—THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
FOREWORD
The Upanishads have always been acknowledged and
acclaimed as veritable Mines of Transcendental Wisdom.
They are fountain-sources and treasure-houses of Divine
Knowledge. But they are something more, too. They also
harbour within their precious bosom the key to gain access
thereunto. In them we have not only the revelation of the
radiant realms of the Supreme Brahman-Consciousness, but
also the shining pathway that leads one to it—the secrets of
Vedanta-Sadhana or Jnana-Yoga.
In “The Realisation of the Absolute” of Swami
Krishnananda, we have a forceful and brilliant monograph on
this theme which forms the central core of the Upanishadic
texts. He has presented us with a well reasoned-out, clear and
illuminating analysis of the problem of the appearance of
pluralistic consciousness, and simultaneously given a bold and
precise picture of the practical method of shattering this
illusion and soaring into the empyrean of the Undifferentiated
Absolute-Consciousness, the Reality, the nature of which has
been explained by him very elaborately. His treatment of the
subject of Vedanta is at once direct, inspiring and compelling,
for the statements therein are such as have been tested by the
author’s own practical personal experience. He is one who is
himself living the life of strenuous quest after Truth. Though
quite young in age, Swami Krishnananda (whom I know very
well indeed) is a seeker of high attainments, full of fiery
aspiration and a monk of a very high order. Himself an
advanced Sadhaka, nay, a seer-sage in the making, possessing
intense renunciation, deep dispassion and keen aspiration, he
has indeed rightly emphasised these factors so indispensable
to fit one for the path of Jnana-Yoga-Sadhana.
Expositions on pure philosophy there are a good many.
Works touching on the broad aspects of Jnana-Yoga, more or
less upon the conventional orthodox lines, too, are there. But
here you have an erudite consideration of the graduated
anatomy of the structure of the practical process through
which to realise the FACT about which philosophies but
speculate. “The Realisation of the Absolute” is a practical
Seeker-Sannyasin’s revelation of Jnana and Jnana-Sadhana. It
is replete with the sublimest conception of the Vedanta. It is a
dazzling light focussed upon the true essence of Vedanta-
Sadhana and meditation and valuable hints and clues that
reveal the pathway to Self-Realisation. In producing this
profound treatise the one supreme urge in the author appears
to be to fire the reader with a thirst for the Transcendent
Experience of Reality, Brahma-Sakshatkara. I am glad to say
that he has succeeded commendably in this purpose. The
work is powerful and rousing. One who studies these pages
will definitely find himself or herself transformed both in the
attitude to life and in aspiration. The sincere reader cannot
but feel with the author that “the quest for the Absolute
should be undertaken even sacrificing the dearest object, even
courting the greatest pain… It is a mistake to be interested in
the different forms of perception… Nothing is worth
considering except the realisation of Brahman.”
I wish this work the reception, acceptance and
approbation it richly deserves.
8th September, 1947.
Swami Sivananda
6
PREFACE
It is always with a full preparation to face the
contingency of being caught in vicious circles and to come
out of them victoriously that one can attempt to explain
anything concerning the Absolute or the Infinite. It is an
extremely difficult task, and it many times appears idle to
engage oneself in trying to understand the nature of eternal
verities ranging beyond the intellect. Man is nothing if he is
divested of the intellect, and yet this intellect is a very
inadequate means of ascertaining Truth. But, however
much imperfect, it is the only human faculty of knowledge
nearest to Reality. We can either know Reality imperfectly,
or not know it at all. Anyhow, fully to know Reality through
a process is an impossibility, for Reality is not a process. It
is not expected, however, that in these pages will be found
statements not open to further consideration and
discussion. It is not possible to enunciate anything without
being set in opposition to something. To express what is
complete is not within the capacity of the knowing process.
All knowing is a process, and all process is imperfection. To
know the perfect is to be the perfect, and not to express it.
Expression involves relations, and nothing that is related is
complete in itself. Intuition, however, is said to be
complete; but, then, no philosophy is complete, for
philosophy is intellectual judgment. Intellect is not a
revelation like intuition, though even intellect is an
imperfect revelation. By true revelation is meant the
integral vision, not a relational understanding. Intellect is
never free from subject-object-relationship, and every such
relation falls short of Reality. We can never expound a
philosophy which can stand before the light of intuition, for
all relations are transcended in intuition. The declaration in
the Mandukya Upanishad on the nature of Reality strikes
terror into the heart of all speculative philosophy, which
vainly tries to know Reality through transitory categories. If
the philosopher is not prepared to accept that, until Self-
Experience, he simply glories in shadows, he cannot at least
deny that his statements are not self-sufficient and self-
existent truths. Philosophy appears to be an apology for
Truth-realisation, and it fulfils itself when it meets the
requirements of intuition.
Let us accept that the intellect is imperfect. But without
this imperfect instrument, we do not seem to be better than
mere instinctive animals. There are some universal
standards of intellectual ascertainment of the Reality
behind forms. Positive affirmation of and meditation on
such universal truths will not go without leading the
meditator to what is real in the absolute sense. We can rise
above the intellect through the medium of the intellect itself
backed up by faith in and devotion to the Ideal. As long as
the highest Reality is not experienced, universal
ascertainments through philosophical enquiries should not
be allowed to battle with one another. It is true that all real
philosophy ends in Absolutism, but the intellectual
categories do not go without creating forms of Absolutism,
which seem apparently to rival with each other. The wise
course would be to consider each form as the highest
logical, as long as its sphere is the Absolute, and enough to
lead man to the Transcendental Being. To mention one
instance, Saguna-Brahman and Nirguna-Brahman, the
8
Personal Absolute and the Impersonal Absolute, should not
be considered as antagonistic, so long as they are not
subjects or objects of anything, for both are Absolute in
their own spheres, and do not involve relations, though the
reasoning faculty tries to see a difference between the two.
If hostile relations are developed between one absolute and
another absolute arrived at through forms of intellectual
comprehension, life will end in failure and misery. The
intellect should not be stretched beyond itself to the
breaking point. Otherwise, there is the danger of self-deceit
and knowing nothing. Reason should always be aided by
tolerance, and should not forget its own limitations.
How far this work is a success in this direction is for the
intelligent seeker after Truth to judge. This is not an
attempt to present something new, but to suggest a method
to him who is blazing with an aspiration to realise the
Highest. The purpose of this work is to provide a leaning
staff for those who are determined to plunge themselves in
the duty of the struggle for Self-realisation. The pure and
the sincere will certainly be benefited by this honest attempt
to investigate Truth in the light of the Upanishads. It is
impossible for anyone with a penetrative thinking, coupled
with a dispassionate heart, to desist from the enterprise of
seeking the trans-empirical Reality, whatever worldly loss
one may have to incur thereby. Those, however, who do not
want it, have to grow wiser and become truer men. The
baser nature always finds joy in its aberrations and cannot
tolerate what it thinks to be destructive to its dear egoistic
relations.
9
We can very happily console ourselves by admitting
that reason cannot determine the nature of Truth. Then, all
philosophy is only child’s play. Even the Upanishads are
truths expressed through words, and words cannot be
understood without the intellect. It cannot, somehow, be
denied that, at least to some extent, we can convince
ourselves, through a carefully guarded intellect helped by
faith, about the nature of Reality. The only condition,
however, is that the aspiring intellect should be pure and
unattached.
The main problem that arises out of the Upanishadic
philosophy is regarding the validity of the rise of thought in
the Absolute. The universe is explained as the wish or will
of Brahman. If wish cannot be attributed to Brahman, the
universe has no reality. If wish is attributed to Brahman,
Brahman becomes limited and temporal. Somehow, we see
something as the universe. But, if we have to be faithful to
ourselves, we cannot be so by denying either our critical
intelligence or our practical experience in this world. Our
common sensory experiences, anyhow, are more
untrustworthy than our deepest intelligence. Our sense-
experiences are often meaningless, and even in daily life we
can see how unwisely we are led by our mistaken notions
which cause experiences. Even death occurs through wrong
belief, and even life is saved through mere belief. We
cannot ask why, then, we see a world if there cannot be
change in Brahman. We have to simply admit that we are,
somehow, befooled by the world-appearance like many of
our other daily weaknesses, in spite of the intelligence
ascertaining something other than what we actually
10
Description:for the statements therein are such as have been tested by the author's own practical personal experience. He is one who is himself living the life of
