"It was with great hesitation that I acceded to the suggestion of friends to prepare a simplified translation of Sri Bhagavan's Ullardu Narpadu. When undertaking the task I used 6 different English translations and avoided all technical terms. I also wrote brief commentaries on each verse. The following synopsis which gives the gist of every verse."
S. S. Cohen

Forty Verses on Reality by Ramana Maharshi; Synopsis by S. S. Cohen

1. Awareness is All, seer and seen, real and apparent.

2. The triad - Creator, soul and world - is the creation of the ego and disappears with the ego.

3. Speculations about the Creator and world avail nothing; Self-realisation is the heart's cry of all.

4. Form and formlessness of the Creator depend on the ego's conception of itself.

5. The world is the body inclusive of the five sheaths, for without them the world cannot be conceived or perceived.

6. The world is what the mind conceives through the senses.

7. The world rises and sets with the knowledge of it. Both have their source in the Self.

8. Any sincere worship eventually leads to Realisation.

9. The dyads and triads are supported by the One, which can be discovered by enquiry.

10. Knowledge and ignorance are interrelated. Real knowledge arises by inquiring for whom both knowledge and ignorance occur.

11. Not to seek the Self which is the source of both knowledge and ignorance is real ignorance.

12. True knowledge is self-effulgent; it is neither knowledge nor ignorance.

13. Knowledge of diversity is ignorance, yet it is not apart from the Self, like the shapes of ornaments which are not apart from the gold.

14. 'You' and 'he' exist when the 'I' exists. If the root of the'I' - the One - is found, 'you' and 'he' will also shine as the One.

15. Past and future are only the present when they occur, thus the present alone exists.

16. Time and space do not exist apart from the Self.

17. To those who have not realised, the 'I' is of the size of the body. To those who have, it is limitless.

18. To those who have not realised, the world is confined to the space it occupies. To those who have, it is the limitless substratum of the world.

19. Arguments about destiny and free-will are carried on by those who have not realised. Those who have are free from both.

20. Seeing the Self is seeing God, so the Self is not other than God.

21. To see God is to be asorbed by God.

22. God shines in the mind. But to know God the mind has to turn inward.

23. Although the world disappears with the 'I', the 'I' continues to exist in sleep as in waking.

24. Neither the body nor the Self says 'I'; between them the ego rises and ties them together.

25. The ego takes a body and accomplishes various acts. It takes one body after another until it is destroyed by vichara.

26. The ego being the all, surrendering it is surrendering all.

27. To destroy the ego the source of its emergence has to be sought and retained as the real state.

28. The seeking has to be deep within oneself, like diving to recover a precious object that has fallen into deep waters.

29. The vichara is not muttering 'I', but sinking the mind into its source.

30. On reaching the heart, the 'I' subsides and the real 'I''I' manifests in its place.

31. Having extinguished the ego, the jnani has no other purpose in life but to remain immersed in the bliss of Self.

32. Although 'Thou are THAT' say the Vedas, not to investigate into one's nature and 'abide as That' is mental weakness.

33. Self-knowledge is not duality; the Self being single, it is itself both the object as well as the subject.

34. Disputing the nature of the Self without attempting Self-realisation merely constitutes delusion.

35. Thaumaturgic powers are like dream magic; they do not entrap the Self-realised.

36. It is not necessary to go on meditating 'I am That' for one is always THAT.

37. Non-duality prevails always, whether as the world or as the Self.

38. The sense of doership reaps the fruits of action; karma ends when the doer realises his true nature.

39. Bondage and Liberation are mere notions in the mind; they cease when he who is bound is inquired into and realised.

40. True Liberation has no form, and destroys the very ego which distinguishes between one kind of it and another.