The preface is particularly important for making sense of these works because some of the verses are (apparently) contradictory and the preface discusses this (and a few other things) in some detail. I still haven't re-read Atma Darshan and Atma Nirvriti to see if this is stated there also! A couple of caveats for those wanting to study these two scriptures:- The links above are for a condensed version of the publication that I have myself and the preface, a glossary and three essays are missing. Here, each ‘individual person’ or ‘ jIva‘ is considered as a misleading appearance that confuses self and personality. In Shri Atmananda’s teachings, there is a continuation of this trend towards independent questioning, by the individual sAdhaka. So it is only natural that the ‘direct path’ or the ‘ vichAra mArga‘ should have been made more public, most famously through Ramana Maharshi. In the modern world, we have developed a different kind of society - where education is far more widespread, and independent questioning is encouraged from a much earlier stage of education. As for example, the skeptical questioning of the upaniShad-s was kept somewhat hidden until its publication in the last century or two. Accordingly, there has been a tendency to keep the direct approach somewhat hidden, away from ordinary public notice. For traditional societies, such an independent attitude has been publicly discouraged, for fear of destabilizing the obedient faith that has been needed to maintain their social order.
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