by Peter Holleran

   Shree Atmananda (1883-1959) was a modern day sage who taught a Vedantic approach to self-realization, and was a major influence on Paul Brunton and others. He did not believe in world-denying asceticism, and himself had a wife and family as well as a demanding career in law enforcement. He went so far as to encourage others to take up the same line of work, affirming that spiritual realization achieved under such conditions was enduring, final, and much stronger than realization gained in an ashram or monastery. Atmananda held firmly to the conviction that the only thing one had to renounce for liberation was the ego, and this itself was only possible through the light of knowledge, or spiritual insight (jnana), and not through motivated self-effort directed towards some goal outside the self.

   When he was but ten years old, Krishna Menon (later Atmananda) was visited by a sannyasin of some repute and given an initiation into a form of mantra yoga. He practised assiduously for several years but by his early teens became convicted by the rationalistic model of western education and “converted” to atheism. He went on to university and then law school after which he became prosecuting inspector for the police department in Trivandrum. The spiritual quest soon got his attention again, however, and he began spending sleepless nights drenched in tears, agonizing over his need for God. He became convinced through his study that it was only a realized guru who could give him the help that he needed, and he was in constant mental torment over when such a being would appear. Not long after his tumult began he came upon the sannyasin he had met as a child, who assured him that he would soon meet a Mahatma who would guide him on the path. In 1919 Krishna Menon met his master, a sannyasin of regal bearing who went by the name of Yogananda (not to be confused with the author of Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda), who answered all of his questions and more. Prostrating before his guru’s feet, he begged for spiritual instruction and grace. Yogananda replied, ”It is for that and that alone that I have come all the way from Calcutta (over one thousand miles). I have no other interest in Trivancore. I knew of your yearnings even from that distance.” (1)

   Master and disciple were together for only one night, during which the sage taught his charge the path of devotion to Krishna, various other yogic techniques, as well as the path of jnana (knowledge) using the strict enquiry or vichara “Who am I?” Krishna Menon was reluctant to engage devotion and yoga, but Yogananda explained, “I appreciate your reluctance to take to the preliminary courses of devotion and yoga and I admit you are quite right, for mere realization of the ultimate Truth, the last course, namely the jnana path, is alone necessary. But I want you to be something more, which you will understand only later on. Therefore please undertake them first. It won’t take you long to finish them both.” (2)

   After a few years Krishna Menon began having long stretches of nirvikalpa samadhi, but, nevertheless, like Brunton after his time with Ramana Maharshi, remained unsatisfied. He therefore took up the path of jnana and in 1923 achieved self-realization, which seems to have been the penetration of the root of attention and the ego-I in jnana samadhi, or the Witness consciousness. Soon afterwards he inwardly received the name “Atmananda” from his guru and was referred to by that name from then on. Like Nisargadatta and so many others, after his realization he wanted to take up the path of the wandering renunciate, but again his guru appeared to him in a vision and advised him to remain a householder, serving his wife and family and society, while preparing for the devotees who were to come in the future. Atmananda retired from the police force in 1939, having risen to the level of District Supervisor (the equivalent of District Attorney in the United States).

   His later writings suggest his initial realization matured into sahaj, or the realization of the Soul, Consciousness Itself (or Overself as designated by Brunton). Atmananda, for instance, told a person who was an adept at entering the highest mystic trance of nirvikalpa that such was good, but that it was not the highest state, and that it was now necessary for him to “understand the world through the mind’s intelligence.” This is similar to the Chinese sage Huang Po, who said:

   “The original Mind is to be recognized along with the working of the senses and thoughts; only it does not belong to them, nor is it independent of them.” (3)

   In this realization the “eyes of the heart” open and all is recognized as being non-separate from the reality of Mind or Consciousness Itself. In the intermediate stage, that of the Witness Self, there is a relative freedom in the midst of phenomena, but the greater recognition or insight has not yet dawned. There is a final stroke yet to go. Paul Brunton explains that in the ultimate stage

   "There is no subject and object, whereas in the witness there is still subject and object, but the subject no longer identifies himself with the object as the ordinary man does.” (4)

   The usual initial effect of penetrating to the heart-root in jnana samadhi is that one tends to distance himself from the body and the world by his abidance in the Witness consciousness. He does not necessarily yet realize the origin of all apparent objects as Consciousness Itself, which takes understanding and time to mature into a lasting state of sahaj. This was apparently also the case with Ramana Maharshi in the early years after his first awakening. He only gradually adapted his awakening to active life in the body. The eminent Indian philosopher Krishnachandra Bhattacharya describes the Witness stage as follows:

   "Freedom from ahamkara does not by itself mean knowledge or realization of the self (or isvara). It is in the first instance a merging or forgetting of the self in a tattva higher than ahamkara, a free identification of the self with infinite buddhi - either in the form of feeling or in the form of willing. Free identification means identification in the explicit subjective attitude as distinct from unconscious or erroneous identification which impllies the objective attitude and the conceit of the body.” (5)

   The transcendental Witness consciousness realized in jnana samadhi (and touched upon but not necessarily understood in ascended nirvikalpa samadhi) is not yet realization of the Overself or Soul, which is not the “witness’ of anything, but the very heart or condition of which everything is a modification and in which everything arises, changes, and disappears. The Soul in sahaj is realized when it is discovered that the transcendental consciousness is the source not only of the ego-I, but of the body, mind, and the world of relations as well, and the exclusive tendency of attention to invert upon itself is transcended. The Witness is let go and Being alone remains. One realizes, as Anthony Damiani once stated, that the Witness, which at first seems like a stupendous realization, is not that pure, and that there is a further awakening.

   Atmananda said,

   "The samadhi experience is that ‘I was happy.’ But when you understand, from a Karana-guru, that Happiness is your real nature, you come to realize that you are yourself the goal of samadhi. With this understanding, all hankering after samadhi disappears; though samadhi might still come upon you sometimes merely as a matter of course or samskara. But you will never again be attracted by the enjoyment of happiness in samadhi." (6) .

   Contemporary non-dual teacher Adyashanti more simply stated:

   "You only want various things because you do not know who you are. But as soon as you come back to yourself, to that empty awakeness, then you realize there is nothing more you want because you are what you want." (7)

   While he was a serene jnani or sage, Atmananda was capable of freely expressed emotion. When his wife died he excused himself from his place of employment, attended her funeral, weeping openly, and then returned to work with full attention to the duties at hand. He was a man of deep feeling, but he maintained that such feelings were always under control from his position as Consciousness. In saying this, however, he did not imply that the sage strategically avoided the emotions of life or distanced himself from the human dimension altogether. He stated:

   “Feelings never come to him uninvited. If he thinks that it is time to act with discretion, feelings respectfully keep at a distance. But the moment he invites them they rush in like torrents. Again the moment he puts on the brake by a mere thought they disappear. This was what you were witnessing in me in those days. It is wrong to attribute either composure or indulgence to the Sage. He is the conscious background of both.” (8)

   Atmananda was a great realizer, outspoken in his criticism of both the suppressive tactics of the yogi and the weak emotionalism of the bhakta. In doing so, and becoming so strict in the jnana approach, Brunton felt he may have gone a little overboard in rejecting some of the earlier practises or sadhana he underwent which for many aspirants serve as preparation to make the later realizations more accessible. Some have also questioned whether Atmananda's comments about controlling his emotions may have indicated that he had yet to enter the fullness of sahaj, but exhibited a lingering tendency to hold on to the witness position instead.

   In any case, and most importantly, Atmananda was critical of teachings that proposed a liberation for the ego or some objective entity or self. For him, liberation was not merely going beyond bondage or subjection to the cycle of birth and death, but going beyond the illusion of birth and death. He joined Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta in maintaining that realization consists in becoming profoundly aware that one has never been in bondage, that, in fact, there is no “one” to be in bondage or to be liberated, and that the answer to the question “when shall I realize?” is “when the when dies.” According to Atmananda, while there is apparent suffering in life, it can never be eliminated without the transcendance of the sufferer. He taught that divine mystery is self-evident (anubhava), while worldly knowledge is nothing more than “giving a name to the unknown and immediately dismissing it from your mind.” (9) Thus knowledge of all worlds is only knowledge in a conventional naming sense since it is secondary to the great Unknown and Unknowable Reality.

   Atmananda was a master chess player and would often play the game with some of his disciples. He stated on many occasions that "he utilized even the game of chess to speed the spiritual progress of those who played with him." (10)   One is reminded of the famous story of a game between Rumi and his master, Shams Tabrez. Rumi was checkmated, whereupon he, also a master player, exclaimed, "Oh no, I have lost!" but his Murshid replied, "No, you have won," giving him liberation by a tap on the forehead with his sandal.

   A liability when reading the works of Atmananda and other like sages, particularly without the benefit of their personal company, is that one may get caught up in the lure of the verbal argument and prematurely bypass various preparatory physical, emotional, mental, moral, and devotional practises that for many makes the more advanced practises of insight and enquiry possible or fruitful. A high degree of free energy and attention is required to pursue jnana yoga to a successful conclusion. It is not just a “talking school,” but demands real maturity. In the sage's company, however, as beautifully expressed by Atmananda, one gets a boost from a radiant presence that burns his words deep within the heart:

   “You first listen to the Truth direct from the lips of the Guru. Your mind, turned perfectly sattvic by the luminous presence of the Guru, has become so sensitive and sharp that the whole thing is impressed upon it as if it were a sensitive film. You visualize your real nature then and there. But the moment you come out, the check of the presence of the Guru being removed, other samskaras rush in and you are unable to recapitulate what was said or heard. But later on, whenever you think of that glorious incident, the whole picture comes back to your mind – including the form, words and arguments of the Guru – and you are thrown afresh into the same state of visualization you had experienced on the first day. Thus you constantly hear the same Truth from within. This is how a spiritual tattvopadesha helps you all through life, till you are established in your own real nature.” (11)

   Anthony Damiani likewise explains that, in contrast with the ordinary teacher or guru, the sage:

   ”..works quite differently. He goes into the stillness, into the void mind. Then when he comes out, he holds your image in his mind and imagines you or conceives you to be what you really are and then he dismisses the picture. And then for the next ten lives you may be struggling to become what you really are. And the very power and concentration of his thought is so intense that it will bring to pass what he imagines you to be.” (12)

   Even without this rare opportunity, careful study of the words of a true sage is time well spent for it will plant seeds in the soul that germinate in due season.

   Click here for a link to a discussion of important aspects of Atmananda's teachings by a direct disciple.

   See also Atmananda by Philip Renard


1. Nitya Tripta, ed., Notes on Spiritual DIscourses of Shree Atmananda, Vol. II, (1953-1959) (Trivandrum, India: The Reddiar Press, 1963), p. 538
2. Ibid, p. 539
3. John Blofield, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po (New York: Grove Press, 1959), p.
4. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Vol. 14 (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 19 ), 8.85
5. Krishnachandra Bhattacharya, Studies in Philosophy (Calcutta, India: Progressive Publishers, 1956), p. 296
6. Nitya Tripta, op. cit., 928
7. Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing (Los Gatos, California: Open Gate Publishing, 2004), p. 227
8. Nitya Tripta, op. cit., 554
9. Ibid, (Vol I & II),
10. Ibid Vol. II , p. 557
11. Ibid, Vol II, 934
12. Anthony Damiani, Looking Into Mind: How to Recognize Who You Are and How You Know (Burdett, N.Y.: Larson Publications, 1990), p. 186