Isanya Jnana Desikar (1750 – 1829 CE) lived in Tiruvannamalai. He was a great siddha and famous for his teachings based on Advaita. Here is a collection of teachings of Isanya Jnana Desikar.
O Sat Chit Ananda, who stands as ‘The Self is he’, by the power of the Guru’s love I recognised you as God. I praise and bow to the blissful form, vast as the sky. You made me silent; now grant me liberation.
In my identity with the body I had the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ in the three states of waking, dream and sleep. By Your gracious love this sense has vanished like a dream. You made me turn to you, O Arunachala, You who burn like a flame. You burnt away my Self-forgetfulness.
Is there any truth apart from the Self? Great men live without the illusory mind-screen, rooted in the reality of blissful no-thought. Abiding in the Self, totally free, they are the wise ones, free from karma.
In the past, present and future, you, the form of grace, abide as the lofty Siva-bliss which is the one life in all life.
You are absorbed in the Self and you abide as the Self which is everything, with nothing separate from it. In a myriad ways you engage in sport in the world of forms: I as you, you as I. O Supreme Infinite Siva! You shine within the devout as the Self that is awareness.
If you think without thoughts of that eternally blissful One who shines everywhere as the divine, as Sakti, as Siva – that bhakti itself is mukti.
Realising that all we have learned is but the work of God, and knowing that we cannot know anything by ourselves, to be in silence is the jnana that vouches freedom from rebirth. Speak not. See the unborn Self as chit, as Siva. That seeing is illumination.
Like a piece of straw being blown about in a cyclone, I was caught up and tricked by maya. Out of ignorance I mistook maya to be real and was held in bondage by it until you released me and bound me to your feet. O blissful supreme Guru! Father! The Eternal! Consort of Unnamulai residing in Annamalai! How you play with your devotees!
When the mind, the five elements and the five senses combine, a false knowledge within the intellect makes the world appear to be real. This is nothing but a magic trick. The mind is wounded when it combines with lust, but still it wallows in the mud of desire. Is there no way to fight and be victorious over these wicked thieves? I believe that you are the Supreme God (Arunachala Shiva). So, grace me and remove my difficulties.
The great maya is like a mango tree, and the five elements are the seeds that scatter from its fruits. Growing aimlessly, they develop into a forest of lust, anger, and so on. All souls live in this forest, wandering aimlessly, thinking that they are the senses. The evil spirits known as sankalpas [intentions] get together and shout aloud that there is no God, and they cry ‘It’s real!’, ‘It’s not real!’ Since this is the situation, bestow on me the proper grace to reach you.