Self-knowledge or Atma Gnana or Brahma
Gnana cannot be attained by one who is without strength or earnestness or
without the receptiveness and courage to accept the truth and reject the
untruth. If a serious seeker strives sincerely by means of inquiry, analysis
and soul-centric reasoning, he will be able to realize it.
It is only seekers sincerity and
earnestness in his spiritual pursuit, the knowledge started revealing on its
own. Anyone who has humility and
patience and is sincere and ready to drop their accumulated dross and receptive
to accept the truth will enter non-dual Self-Awareness when his conviction
becomes firm.
Soul,
which is present in the form of consciousness, is the innermost self.
Consciousness is the witness that experiences the action, the actor, and the
world of separate things. It is like a light that illuminates everything in a
theatre, revealing the master of ceremonies, the guests, and the dancers with
complete impartiality. Even when they all depart, the light shines to reveal
their absence.
What
is not consciousness (formless) in the experience of diversity [waking or
universe]? The waking and the dream
cease to exist without consciousness. The seeker, seeking and his destination all are one in essence.
There
is only need to realize the whole universe in which we exist is created out of consciousness
(soul or Atman), the innermost self. On
the standpoint innermost self, the universe is mere illusion created out of
consciousness. Thus on the ultimate
standpoint no second thing exists other than consciousness. Thus consciousness
is ultimate truth or Brahman.
Consciousness, the One and Undifferentiated, which by the manifold application of its powers produces the dual and non-dual experiences [waking/dream/deep sleep] and, in the end, withdraws the three states into itself, is indeed the self—luminous.
The Maker of all the three states, self—luminous and all—pervading, Atman dwells always in the three states as its formless clay and witness. Consciousness is revealed by the negative way, discriminative wisdom and the Knowledge of Unity based upon reflection. The one, who know consciousness is the true self, becomes one with the immortal self.
When there is no ignorance, there is no day or night, neither being nor none—being; the pure consciousness alone exists. That immutable Reality is the meaning of consciousness. From it has proceeded the non-dual wisdom.
No one can grasp consciousness as separate entity apart from duality because it is the formless clay and the witness of the experience of duality thus it cannot be grasped as above, across, or in the middle.
Its form is not an object of vision; no one beholds it with the eyes. They who, through pure intellect and the Knowledge of Unity based upon reflection, realize consciousness as the true self becomes one with the immortal.
