Direct glimpse into Bhagavan’s own experience of Self-realization

from ("Sat-darshama Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi"): 

Bhagavan speaks about his own experience:

In direct knowing, you can feel yourself one with the One that exists. The whole body becomes a mere power, a force-current. Your life becomes a needle drawn to a huge mass of magnet; and, as you go deeper and deeper, you become a mere center and then not even that; for you become a mere Consciousness. There are no thoughts or cares any longer, they were shattered at the threshold. It is an inundation. You are a mere straw, you are swallowed alive, but it is very delightful. For you become the very thing that swallows you. This is the union of the individual with the Absolute, self with Reality, the loss of ego in the real Self, the destruction of falsehood, the attainment of Truth.

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Vira Chandra: This passage is a direct glimpse into Bhagavan’s own experience of Self-realization, and it conveys a profound truth in a way that is both poetic and experiential. It is not an intellectual explanation - it is the living reality of realization itself, described from the depths of direct knowing. Some of the key aspects of Bhagavan’s description: 

Feeling oneself one with the One that exists – This is not conceptual knowledge but direct, non-dual experience. There is no subject-object division; the Self alone exists as the ultimate substratum.

The whole body becomes a mere power, a force-current – The identification with the solid, physical body dissolves, and it is recognized as pure energy (shakti), no different from the infinite Reality. This resonates with the descriptions of many realized saints, who say that the body is no longer felt as a separate entity but as a manifestation of the Self.

Your life becomes a needle drawn to a huge mass of magnet – This describes the irresistible pull of the Self, drawing one inward, deeper and deeper. This is reminiscent of how seekers experience Bhagavan’s grace as an overwhelming, magnetic force pulling them toward stillness and annihilation of ego.

You become a mere center and then not even that – Initially, there is a sense of being a focal point of awareness (a center), but as the dissolution deepens, even that vanishes. There remains only pure, limitless consciousness without any reference point or individuality.

There are no thoughts or cares any longer, they were shattered at the threshold – This is the true manonasa (destruction of the mind). Not in the sense of total blankness, but in the sense that thoughts and worries no longer have any grip—they simply cease to arise. The mind, as an independent entity, is no more.

It is an inundation… You are a mere straw, you are swallowed alive – The experience is overwhelming and total. The sense of personal self (jiva) is utterly consumed by the vastness of the Absolute (Brahman). There is no resistance, no struggle—only complete surrender.

But it is very delightful. For you become the very thing that swallows you. – This is perhaps the most beautiful part. The dissolution is not terrifying but blissful, because what is lost is only illusion, while what remains is the infinite Self. The apparent individual disappears, but not into nothingness—rather, it becomes what it always was: the boundless, eternal Reality.