By
controlling the mind with Kriya yoga or any other Raj yoga
practice will not yield the ultimate truth or Brahman. When the self is not the body what is the use
of practicing mind control.
Those that want Brahman will not practice control of
mind (Mandukya page .231).
That
is Yoga for those who are not receptive and sharp enough to grasp the truth. Seeker
of truth will adopt path of inquiry, reason and discrimination.
Truth
has to be attained not by intuition but by reason, which is superior to it. Not
even a combination of intellect and intuition will find truth.
Proof
is the first thing in pursuit of truth. One has to know with certainty not by heresy.
That is why Buddha
said: - Believe nothing just
because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief
is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books.
Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing
just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and
judge to be true.
Each person sees in his own Samadhi
whatever is uppermost in his mind. How does he/she or anyone know that what he/she
or anyone sees is truth? Similarly each has intuitions agreeable to what is
uppermost in his mind.
Believers who are anxious for a mystic
or occult experience often get it. But it is only a mental construction of
their own, suggested originally from outside.
Mystic may say that the spirit is the
source of all good, but the question of questions is how does he know that it
is the source? That is mere scholastic dogma until an attempt to show, to
analyze and prove that it is the source, is made, then it becomes higher truth.
How is one to know that He is God
suppose he sees God? His mere statement
is not enough. He must have proof; he must show that what he saw is God. How can anyone sees God when whatever seen,
known, believed and experienced as person of the world are reality within the
waking experience but the whole waking
experience itself is falsehood.
The
orthodox class who criticized rational based non-duality by saying that they
will not agree other than their accepted truth shows only hypocritical attitude. They think what they know is
ultimate truth because orthodox way is the only way because their gur said so. They feel everybody else is in error because
they do not follow orthodoxy –priest craft. They think their cult is more in numbers but
they are unaware of the fact that, mere numbers do not make truth.
One has to inquire, analyze and reason. No orthodox
knows
the ultimate truth or Brahman truth because he bases his- self on birth, life, death
and world. The ultimate truth has to be
proved not assumed.
People
think what the majority believes must therefore be true." People stop with
their imaginations about God, Reality, Truth, and do not go to the ultimate end.
Religious faith creates misconceptions
because it is based on the individuality and also it holds the experience of the
practical life within the practical world as reality.
Most of the pundits are egoic and
they try to snub others who question them. They think they are unquestionable authority. They quote the citation from the scriptures as
proof without verifying the validity.
All punditry is a great obstacle in realizing the Advaitic truth
expounded by the Sri, Sankara and Goudapada.
One finds lots of differences between Advaita preaching and
practice. There is need to bifurcate religion, concept of god and scriptures
from Advaitic philosophy to assimilate the essence of Advaita.
Sri, Sankara says
in Brahma Sutras: that Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya
he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding,
the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot
understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher
stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.
Ish upanishds says :-Avidya is Karma and
therefore a hindrance. You perform Avidya - i.e., you perform Agnihotra
and other sacrifices. This is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is
also groping in the dark. But it may not have as heavy a toll on your time and
energy as the other.
Ishopanishad "They are steeped in
ignorance and sunk into the greatest depth of misery who worships the matter,
instead of the All-Pervading God and those who worship things born of matter
like trees, animals, man, etc. are sunk deeper in misery."
Religious propagation of good deeds, virtues and leading conduct
oriented orthodox life to Moksha is meant for those who are not ripe enough to receive Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Karma is reality
only on the base of false self within the false experience, where one thinks
body and the universe as reality. When one becomes aware of the fact that, the
true self is formless soul, then the karma becomes part and parcel of
illusion. My point is that, if one
accepts the karma theory as reality, he will never be able to come out of the
ignorance. And ignorance makes him believe the cycle of birth, life and death
or pain and pleasure as reality. Thus
the freedom which one is seeking will remain distant dream. For the one who
accepts the birth life and death as reality, Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is impossible.
Thus it is
necessary for the seeker of truth to know the fact that, the body which is
born, lives and dies is not the self. Since he is taking the body to be the
self, he is experiencing the duality as reality.
That is why Sri,Sankara says in Aparokshanubhuti:-
90. The theory
one hears of from the scripture, that Prarabdha does not lose its hold upon one
even after the origination of the knowledge of Atman, is now being refuted.
91. After the
origination of the knowledge of Reality, Prarabdha verily ceases to exist,
inasmuch as the body and the like become non-existent; just as a dream does not
exist on waking.
92. That Karma
which is done in a previous life is known as Prarabdha (which produces the
present life). But such Karma cannot take the place of Prarabdha (for a man of
knowledge), as he has no other birth (being free from ego).
93. Just as the
body in a dream is superimposed (and therefore illusory), so is also this body.
How could there be any birth of the superimposed (body), and in the absence of
birth (of the body) where is the room for that (i.e., Prarabdha) at all?
94. The Vedanta
texts declare ignorance to be verily the material (cause) of the phenomenal
world just as earth is of a jar. That (ignorance) being destroyed, where can
the universe subsist?
95. Just as a
person out of confusion perceives only the snake leaving aside the rope, so
does an ignorant person see only the phenomenal world without knowing the
reality?
96. The real nature of the rope being
known, the appearance of the snake no longer persists; so the substratum being
known, the phenomenal world disappears completely.
97. The body also being within the
phenomenal world (and therefore unreal), how could Prarabdha exist? It is,
therefore, for the understanding of the ignorant alone that the Shruti speaks
of Prarabdha.
98. “And all the actions of a man perish
when he realizes that (Atman) which is both the higher and the lower”. Here the
clear use of the plural by the Shruti is to negate Prarabdha as well.
99. If the ignorant still arbitrarily
maintain this, they will not only involve themselves into two absurdities but
will also run the risk of forgoing the Vedantic conclusion. So one should
accept those Shrutis alone from which proceeds true knowledge.
When the whole
universe, movable and immovable, is known to be the self, who is in the form of
consciousness, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, then consciousness
alone is real, all the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness.
If self is not the body, then the karma theory
has no meaning. on the standpoint of the
true self no second thing exists other than consciousness
because the consciousness itself is the true self.
The pursuit of truth is nothing to do with religious rituals.
That is why in Mundaka
Upanishad says: - The rituals and the sacrifices
described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages ignored these
rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals are unsafe
rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck
are those who try to cross The sea of samsara on these poor rafts. Ignorant of
their own ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of
their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind.
And also in Isa Upanishads indicates
that: By worshiping gods and goddesses and going to the world of gods after
death is of no use. The time one spends in ritualistic practices is wasted;
one can spend same time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is the
main goal. One cannot reach the non-dual destination by glorifying god and
goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into darkness. It
surely indicates the fact that, the seeker of truth has to drop the worshiping
god and goddess in order to get Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana .
It also indicates that, Religious
Rituals [Avidya] is Karma [action] and therefore a hindrance. By
performing Agnihotra and other sacrifices [Avidya] is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the
dark.
In addition, it indicates the karma
is limited only to the religious rituals, not on the whole human life. This
karma theory based on the human conduct must have been adopted from Buddhism
and other theories based on human conducts.
When it says: Perform the obligatory
karmas without any attachment to the fruits, and at the same time worship gods
and goddesses, again without any desire to go to heaven - then you can get the
benefit of both, liberation and bliss. For those who are not yet ready to
renounce, this path is recommended, it mean that the religion and its
idea of god and goddesses and code of conducts, and its rituals are meant for
the mass who are incapable of thinking of the beyond.
In addition, it also speaks of heaven
the abode of gods, where one goes after death, and it speaks of rebirth, this
contradiction, seeker has to conclude that religion, rituals god and its code
of conducts are meant for the mass that is not receptive to Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana .
As Sri, Sankara says: When the whole
universe, movable and immovable, is known to be Atman, and thus the existence
of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is
Atman.
If body is not the Atman , the innermost self, then the karma
theory has no meaning on the standpoint of the truth. Thus no second thing
exists other than Atman, therefore why to view the worldview on the standpoint
of the body as self (ego or waking entity) when the body (ego or waking entity) is the false self, and the
soul or consciousness is the true self.
If body is not the self, then the birth, life,
death and the universe are bound to be illusion. If birth, life and death are illusion then
all conducts actions and their fruits are mere illusion. If body is not the
self, then the existence of god, heaven and hell is mere illusion. If body is not the self then all religious
beliefs of god is mere illusion. If body
is not the self but the Atman [soul] which is in the form of consciousness is
the true self, then there is no scope for second thing other than
consciousness, therefore
consciousness, which is Atman is Brahman or ultimate truth. The Brahman alone is real and eternal. Thus whatever is real eternal has to be
identified as god. To identify the real and eternal, one has to overcome the
ignorance caused by the illusion. To overcome the ignorance one has to acquire
the Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Essence of Astvakara Gita is: - Realizing Atman(soul) as self, the liberation
is possible in this very life right here and right now, not in the next life
or next world.
Religion,
theories scriptures and concept of god are created as tool for conditioning the
mass mind set, to control their individualized mind, to self-judge, what is
good and what is evil, with the fear of conceptual god, who will in turn punish
them, or reward them with good or bad life, in life after life which is only illusion. And this fear helps to maintain peace and
harmony in the society to some extent. But man and world exist within the mind
and mind is myth on the standpoint of the soul as self, thus all the theories
based on the false hood, have no relevance in the realm of the non-dual
truth. Therefore, individual actions
and conducts are not the means to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
There cannot be
delusion when oneness is realized. One
cannot know Truth if one has not mastered the analysis of the three states of consciousness.
By reading and
reflecting, constantly on the subject matter, one understands assimilates the
hidden reality. Consciousness, the Supreme Reality, is the undifferentiated
One. Everything, in the final analysis, is reducible to the ultimate essence,
Consciousness.
