Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana
is the aim of every human being. Since everyone thinks the physical body is the
self their aim is misdirected and they focus their attention on materiality
which makes one feel the duality (waking) as reality.
A man may wish
to live for a hundred years, performing his duties as prescribed by the
scriptures, but he will not be able to assimilate the Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. If one does duties in the way prescribed in
the scriptures, it may be good for the practical life within the practical of the the waking experience.
The results of whatever one do will cling to the duality, which he is
experiencing it as reality. There is no other way other then, finding the true
self and realizing the fact that ‘I’ is not the self, but the soul is the true
self.
There is no point
in renouncing the worldly life within the waking experience. There is no point
in running after the pleasures the world within the waking experience. These
pleasures are momentary, because the waking experience is momentary. If one run
after them he will only become the pleasure hunter within the experience of
duality and bound to experience suffering.
Not everyone
is in a position to acquire the Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana . People want to enjoy life, and
to such people the religion, god glorification and yoga are necessary. They
must fulfill their desires strictly according to the rules laid down by the religious
and yogic scriptures. This will slowly lead to the purification of the mind
that is, the hankering for sense pleasures will go, the spirit of discrimination
will grow strong, and love for Self-knowledge will develop. When this happens
they will no longer be attached to what they have been doing all their lives.
The result is that they will be receptive to self-knowledge.
Religion, yoga
is for those who are not in the position to grasp the non-dual truth. They need
not feel lost. They can take time. However, eventually they have to come to the
path of the truth. Until then they must follow their chosen path.
The three
states are of the nature of change. There is no permanence in them. However,
that which sustains the three states it is never changing. It is always the
same. That is the soul/ the true self. On soul as self, everything rests. It is like a movie projected
on a screen. The movie changes but the screen is constant. Similarly, the
phenomenal waking/dream is projected on the soul. It is a mere superimposition
like seeing a snake superimposed on a rope on a dark night.
The snake has
no independent existence. It exists because of the rope, and it ceases to exist
as soon as a light is brought. The snake then dissolves into the rope. In the
same way, when one know the soul as self, the mind merges
into it and one realize that mind and soul are one in essence. To attain this
knowledge is the goal of the truth seeker. The three states then cannot taint the
self.
Thus Gnani’s contact with it is merely like that of a
piece of sandalwood, which has long been under water and has thereby come to
acquire a bad odour. For a while, the fragrance of the sandalwood is suppressed
and the bad odour prevails. But if the sandalwood is rubbed a little, the bad
odour disappears and the natural fragrance of the sandalwood becomes
predominant.
Similarly, Soul, the innermost self’s
attachment to the three states is temporary. It cannot be permanent. Think of the
self as Soul or Consciousness. When one thinks intensely and constantly in this
way, the attachment to the three states will then go.
One can attain the Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana by the
practice of renunciation of the three states. One has to keep reminding himself
that the three states, with all its allurements, is not real that is, it is not
real in the sense that it is transitory. Only soul is real because it is imperishable. One must
renounce these three states and concentrate on soul. Seeker of truth should
never run after things that are ephemeral. Never become attached to the three
states, which are ephemeral.
To one who
knows the fact that these three states are transitory, world is not world and
any form of sense pleasure is repugnant. Seeker of truth must be concerned only
with soul/self become steeped in soul. Soul alone is real and the self is that soul.
Soul is in the form of consciousness and become oblivious to everything else.
