People believe that teacher or
mystic or priest has got so many followers and therefore there must be some
truth in their teaching, is a common fallacy accepted by the mass due to their
inherited conditioning. It proves only an ignorant can find a number of greater
ignorant to follow him.
The true existence is consciousness without the form, time and
space. Therefore the self is nothing other than the consciousness. However,
this consciousness is not the flux of states, a stream of consciousness.
A permanent view of world as unreal can come only after soul centric reasoning;
such knowledge cannot change. Were the seeker who is sufficiently sharpness he
could grasp the unreal nature of the world by soul-centric reasoning
alone. To know whole truth, one must know the whole universe,
otherwise he gets only half-truth.
Renouncing the worldly life and
accepting sanyasa or monk-hood means incapacity to think deeper, an impotency
to inquire and reason.
‘I AM' is not Self and Self is not 'I AM'. 'I AM' is bound by form, time
and space. Without the form, time and space 'I AM' cease to exist. Holding ' I
Am as Self one remains in clutches of duality. When there is duality than there
is ignorance. Ignorance is cause of experiencing the duality (illusion) as
reality. The person who identifies Self as 'I AM' will not be able to cross the
threshold of duality. There is no point in saying 'I AM' this or 'I AM THAT'
because the 'self' is that which witness the 'I AM' and the world together
without the physical apparatus.
The earliest ancient sages used the word ‘I’ to the witness of the three
states not to the ego as moderns use it and think the ‘I’ without the body is
self. The seeker has to understand the fact that the fact that ‘i’ is not the
self but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true self, which is eternal.
People think that the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ is something different from the
mind. They believe that the mind is really two. This is the confusion among religionists
and intellectuals. If ‘Soul’ has any meaning, if ‘spirit’ has any meaning, so
long as one thinks of them, they are merely ideas. No, Mind is the highest: it
is consciousness, non-dual wisdom.
The individual is a bundle of memories, desires within the waking or
dream. The memories and desires are part of the duality. Therefore the
individual self is entirely part and parcel of the mirage. Peoples ideas of
that they will go to some world after death, some astral plane or religious
heavens will disappear as nonsense with the disappearance of belief in the
reality of the ‘I’.
Sage Sri Ramana Maharishi Says:- The self is fullness of consciousness.
Therefore, there is nothing apart from it.
Consciousness (soul) is the substance and witness of the duality. The duality is present in the form of mind.
Mind is present in the form of universe. The universe appears as waking or
dream and diapers as deep sleep. The one which is aware of the coming and going
of the three states is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but the
formless soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. When the soul becomes aware of its formless non-dual true nature in the midst of duality it is called self –awareness. It is
foolish to limit the consciousness only to duality because the consciousness
pervades all the three states
Reflecting on the whole is the best
way towards the non dual destination: reflecting on the parts are only steps
towards that.
- v What is the first thing that one sees when waking takes place?
It is the world. The mystic and
religionist disregard this in order to think of self.
Those who jump at once to Atman disregarding
the world are mystics or religionists, not seekers of truth.
If one doesn’t see objects, it does not mean he has non dual wisdom.
Whoever looks at objects alone, at the external world, he is wholly ignorant. However,
one, who looks at both the outside and inside, inquires; he is led towards
self- knowledge.
Seeker of truth has to analyze both
mind and matter to get at the truth. The knowledge of the objective world and
the knowledge of the truth of the self or the subject are necessary in pursuit
of truth.
In the beginning of path of inquiry
one does it to please himself, not for truth; hence he asks "Who am
I?" It helps the elementary stage of understanding of the fact that the
body is not the self and helps in loosening of the ego.
