THE ULTIMATE TRUTH
Spiritualistic discipline can only remove one’s own ignorance; it does not bring a new thing, for realize the truth here and now.
The mind does not go, but it is kept quiescent, not agitated. Self realization is the highest and is the only tool to freedom. It means "non dual wisdom. Non duality is the true wisdom. In non dual wisdom there is no second.
The test of truth is to be able to realize the fact that the all the three states as Ataman. Constant reflection is necessary during the early stages of this path and it must continue mental effort through inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true base, until one learns to view and judge the worldview on the base of the soul as self, and drop the old habit of viewing and judging on the base of ‘I’.
In every form Atman/soul man is seeking to know itself. In the rock which is crumbling, in the grass which is growing and then decaying, in the yogi who is meditating, the religionist who is immersed in devotion; there is Ataman in various stages of evolution gradually getting to know the truth of itself. Hence everyone is really seeking truth.
Since they apply this desire to truth of the stage they are in. When they have a certain pleasure, they think this is nice and true satisfaction. The religionist thinks his devotion will pay, yogi feels his yogic Samadhi will yield fruits. They do not realize they ought to go beyond and thus know a higher truth to overcome the duality.
The unity in diversity is not possible until one has the perfect understanding of the self. The perfect understanding cannot arise until the mind is receptive receive self-knowledge. The mind will not become receptive to self-knowledge until one drops the religion, concept of god, scriptures, yoga and all inherited beliefs.
This self-realization may be achieved at first, , in lightning-flashes, in fleeting momentary glimpses, but later this must be stabilized into permanency. And as the Gnani knows the three states are unreal and formless substance and witness of the three states, which is the soul / Ataman, is the true self, is real and eternal.
Gnani knows there is no difference between the mind and its substance. Gnani knows the universal truth cannot be individualized.
If God exists, as he does for religionists, and exists separately from them, then there is duality, which always implies contradiction. But on the base of soul as self God is an idea, a thought, an object within the experience of duality, therefore it is the part of the illusion caused by the false identification with ‘I’, which is the false self.
The idea of god ceases to exist without the experience of duality. Without duality there is no man, no world, and no god. The duality is reality only in ignorance. The religion and its idea of god is greatest hindrance in pursuit of truth, because it blocks once thinking process and will not allow it to think of the beyond.
When there are two, there is always contradiction, one theory contradicts another .one theory seems correct at one point of view, and the other at another point of view, both theories contradict; one cannot get un -contradictable results. Therefore dualistic views based on the ‘I’ as self is always contradictable and non dualistic views based on the soul as self un- contradictable.
One cannot find non-contradiction in this world/duality. On the standpoint of soul as self the God does not exist, because his existence implies that one is different from Him. Any kind of difference means contradiction. Nothing other than the soul/ Ataman exists in reality. Non-duality means the negation of ignorance.
Truth is not only that which is beyond contradiction, but also that in which is no possibility of contradiction. Such a state can only be realized as non-duality, where there is no second thing. The illustration for that is deep sleep but sleep is not the ultimate reality. It is merely an analogy. if one thinks there is another entity whether man or God there is no truth." This is understanding and realization of those who have inquired and reasoned on the true base.
Soul/Ataman is only which is permanent, unchanging in the ever changing three states is reality. Everyone hears of Ataman and they can only imagine it. Constant reflection is necessary during the early stages of this path and it must continue mental effort through inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true base, until one learns to view and judge the worldview on the base of the soul as self, and drop the old habit of viewing and judging on the base of ‘I’.
In every form Atman/soul man is seeking to know itself. In the rock which is crumbling, in the grass which is growing and then decaying, in the yogi who is meditating, the religionist who is immersed in devotion; there is Ataman in various stages of evolution gradually getting to know the truth of itself. Hence everyone is really seeking truth.
Since they apply this desire to truth of the stage they are in. When they have a certain pleasure, they think this is nice and true satisfaction. The religionist thinks his devotion will pay, yogi feels his yogic Samadhi will yield fruits. They do not realize they ought to go beyond and thus know a higher truth to overcome the duality.
The unity in diversity is not possible until one has the perfect understanding of the self.
The perfect understanding cannot arise until the mind is receptive receive self-knowledge. The mind will not become receptive to self-knowledge until one drops the religion, concept of god, scriptures, yoga and all inherited beliefs.
This self-realization may be achieved at first, , in lightning-flashes, in fleeting momentary glimpses, but later this must be stabilized into permanency. And as the Gnani knows the three states are unreal and formless substance and witness of the three states, which is the soul / Ataman, is the true self, is real and eternal.
Gnani knows there is no difference between the mind and its substance. Gnani knows the universal truth cannot be individualized.
If God exists, as he does for religionists, and exists separately from them, then there is duality, which always implies contradiction. But on the base of soul as self God is an idea, a thought, an object within the experience of duality, therefore it is the part of the illusion caused by the false identification with ‘I’, which is the false self.
The idea of god ceases to exist without the experience of duality. Without duality there is no man, no world, and no god. The duality is reality only in ignorance. The religion and its idea of god is greatest hindrance in pursuit of truth, because it blocks once thinking process and will not allow it to think of the beyond.
When there are two, there is always contradiction, one theory contradicts another .one theory seems correct at one point of view, and the other at another point of view, both theories contradict; one cannot get un -contradictable results. Therefore dualistic views based on the ‘I’ as self is always contradictable and non dualistic views based on the soul as self un- contradictable.
One cannot find non-contradiction in this world/duality. On the standpoint of soul as self the God does not exist, because his existence implies that one is different from Him. Any kind of difference means contradiction. Nothing other than the soul/ Ataman exists in reality. Non-duality means the negation of ignorance.
Truth is not only that which is beyond contradiction, but also that in which is no possibility of contradiction. Such a state can only be realized as non-duality, where there is no second thing. The illustration for that is deep sleep but sleep is not the ultimate reality. It is merely an analogy. if one thinks there is another entity whether man or God there is no truth." This is understanding and realization of those who have inquired and reasoned on the true base.
Soul/Ataman is only which is permanent, unchanging in the ever changing three states is reality. Everyone hears of Ataman and they can only imagine it.
One requires words only to distinguish between is there and not there, but he can't posit either of Reality, because his saying so is only an idea within the experience of duality, not reality. The reality is beyond words. Words are of use, however, as a thorn to pull out the thorn of other words that hinder knowledge.
Intellectually knowing the truth is only an imagination, whereas realizing the non dual truth is knowing it as such.
People think that keeping out thoughts will give experience of Ataman. How can one keep out a portion of Ataman of the mind? It is utterly impossible. Such thoughtless experience is mere hallucination, even if it were possible, he is only keeping out Ataman! For the mind is the whole waking/dream experience. The formless substance and witness of the three states is Ataman, thus everything is Ataman. The thoughts arise only in waking/dream, and are non extent in deep sleep. Thus the experience of duality is prior to thought.
The yogi has got the idea of duality and therefore cannot realize truth. His experience of bliss is not Atamic Bliss is something one has to experience, therefore it will have to go as it came; hence it is only part of the illusion/duality. Yogis seek bliss through ignorance.
Intuition always implies knowing something, hence a second, hence it is rejected as duality. Even if it is intuition of the infinite, of bliss, God, etc., it is still a pointer to duality. Therefore the means to universal truth, i.e. Non-duality is not intuition, not mysticism but reason.
Yogis think meditation or actions which are other than Ataman it is fundamental mistake. The very idea they concentrate on is itself Ataman and hence needs no special effort. Yogi practice yoga as an individual within the false experience, thus he takes his body and the world as reality, thus yoga will not yield non dual truth.
It is impossible to treat one’s mind as different from Ataman. The awareness i.e. Ataman must be there prior to the waking experience in which the yogi and the world exists: therefore it is a fallacy to believe that any yogic exercise can get this awareness, this knowledge of the true self.
The Ataman is within the three states as its formless substance and witness therefore it not correct to say Ataman is only within the physical body. Seeker of truth must know that Ataman is in everything and everywhere in the three states. All that one sees is Ataman.
Reason is the summit of Non dual wisdom. It is the viewpoint of anything as reality, non-dual, whereas the religion deals with the relation between two things.
Soul/ Ataman the true self cannot be known in the sense in which one knows objects of thought. It can be known only to the extent to which one know them, for he can only think of the knower when he is in the presence of the known, i.e. objects/waking/dream, for the latter make one aware that a knower must exist. Thus duality makes one thinks of the knower, but it cannot make him know the knower. The knower is known in the world of duality only by implication, as he cannot think without it. The knower is a concept, and cannot be known in itself.
Non dual truth is known only in the negative way. One cannot make it an object of knowledge. One can know that he cannot have an idea of an object unless he posits a knower, unless the knower is implied already.
The Formless Witness itself is non dual wisdom, that is, it knows everything else. The true self is known only when one see something else, for that other thing reminds him of it. The self is unknowable as an object.
Knowing the non dual truth means knowing that Ataman exists. The word ‘know’ implies duality, something known; on the other hand non dual wisdom does imply an object. Ataman knows the ego as an object. The knowing powers, the Formless Witness, the knower can have no statement made about it, other than that its existence cannot be negated. The non dual truth which one can know is that Ataman is not something to be known.
From the standpoint of the ‘I’ as self , one say that its thoughts are transient and illusory; from the standpoint of soul as self when one seeks the essence of the three states one has to resolve waking /dream as mind. Mind is illusory. Individual thoughts arise within the waking/dream. The thoughts have no existence without the waking/dream.
To think about controlling the mind is to remain in the world of duality. Hence one cannot get a non dual wisdom by attempting get rid of the thoughts. The mind is not the knower the knower of the mind is the soul.
Even the thought of Ataman must disappear in deep sleep. Thought is changing and unreal. It passes away like dreams. It is impossible to eliminate thought entirely in the waking experience. No one has ever succeeded in doing so. If he does he will at once fall asleep.
From the standpoint of worldly communication through words one has to strive to know Ataman: but from the spiritualistic standpoint words can only be applied to an object. When one say 'I do not know Ataman,’ there must be something in him which knows he do not know, a Witness, and which thus contradicts him.
The formless witness in me, the Formless witness in him, the formless Witness in someone else, are all one and the same and universal; not separate from each other. Nobody has ever seen more than one Formless witness.
The one who knows the Formless witness is Ataman /soul, he remains satisfied. Not he who is concerned with three states. Death is itself an imagination or an idea on the standpoint of the soul as self, which one doesn’t even have in sleep. Death idea exists in waking and dream states only. Hence Atman/soul is immortal.
Thought is and individual experience within the mind/waking/dream.. "I" is an object to Ataman/soul which is the true self. Seeker of truth has to only to deal with certainty--the Mind alone one is aware of; all the rest are ruled out. Thus it is necessary to know what is mind and what the substance of the mind is, in order to unfold the mystery of the mind.
"This duality that is cognized is mere Illusion. This duality does not go, this illusion does not go. Illusion itself is Ataman in its substance.
There are three stages which succeed each other in the way human beings look at life and the universe, first, ordinary materialism. This declares that there to nothing beyond the physical matter and the world. The second stage says that the three states are unreal . This is a higher step, but it is not final. The third stage the inquirer asks how the three states are illusion, thus he penetrates to the ultimate reality, summing up; stage one is confined to matter, stage two is confined to mind, stage three liberates man into reality of the soul which is the true self.
The three states exist in Ataman; it is made of Ataman; it is all Ataman therefore. Only ignorance makes it seem separate, something different.
If one constantly inquires into the nature of Ataman i.e. by discovering what non-Ataman is, he is negating and what is he doing in yoga? He is keeping away, i.e. eliminating all thoughts until in Nirvikalpa he negates all thoughts. The difference between both is vital however: the spiritualist inquires into the world and then regards it, arriving at Ataman ultimately: the yogi refuses to consider the world and therefore arrives at a mere cipher, nothing, blankness, for he has not refunded the world into Ataman.
When one sees the second thing and though seeing it know it to be none other than Ataman, then he gets non dual wisdom. On the other hand, Yogic Samadhi is the non-seeing of the second thing; hence cannot yield non dual wisdom, for the yogi does not see and does not know what the world is.
Modern Science seeks to classify things or to generalize them. It is unifying knowledge, it is unconsciously seeking unity. The human mind is always restless until it finds unity: hence it is always seeking general ideas, unification.
The difference between the animal and man is that the former knows only variety whereas man can and does know unity, if in limited spheres. Thus science finds that diamond and lead-pencil, coal are all carbon, i.e. one and the same, i.e. unity.
It is the ordinary animal sense which everybody possesses to see the duality and multiplicity in the world, but deeper inquiry and reasoning on the true base is needed to bring all this into oneness.
If there is direct cognition of Ataman in Samadhi why don’t one go and sleep, for deep sleep and Yogic Samadhi are the same? Only Knowledge of Ataman is true knowledge and not the absence of duality.
The destruction of the duality does not mean that they should become imperceptible to the senses but there should arise a determination of their unreal nature; for if that were not the case, people may find emancipation without any effort on their part as during dreamless sleep and fainting. That Ataman /Soul remain as the sole real factor means that there should be a realization of Ataman as the sole unity and not a mere absence of the cognition of the duality; otherwise there would be no such thing as emancipation in this life.
If it is said that one gets non dual wisdom in Yogic Samadhi in which there is no duality, it is no better than sleep. If it be said that there is a direct cognition in profound contemplation in which there is no difference between the perceiver and the perceived and in which no duality can occur; then why not admit the same in deep slumber. If it be objected that there is no knowledge of the nature of Ataman in deep sleep, then one admits that knowledge of Ataman only is true knowledge and not the absence of duality. That Ataman remains as the sole real factor, means that there should be realization of Ataman as the sole entity and not a not a mere absence of the cognition of the world; otherwise there would be no such thing as emancipation in this life.
That alone is called Truth, which is a fact that can never be changed under any circumstances. The God seen in vision by anyone is only illusion. He may be seen outside anyone’s body, may appear as a totally distinct figure, yet still be only illusion. Man is not the creation of God; God is the creation of Man.
Seeing nothing, having a blank in the mind, as in Yogic Samadhi is on a level with deep sleep for value. The objective world is in the mind and must be understood, and must be perceived to be understood.
Yogic Samadhi cannot get one the non dual wisdom. It comes only after Samadhi, using the latter as a preparation. Hence yogic claim for realization through yoga is merely a bait to seekers to adopt his preliminary state, but it is not literally true. Yoga cannot give non dual wisdom.
One who is not receptive to self-knowledge tire soon and cannot keep up the concentrated inquiry into truth, the three states etc. without which he cannot grasp non duality and their real meaning.
Yoga helps one to keep out unnecessary ideas; hence it helps to keep up a train of concentrated thought. This is its value as preparation for pursuit of truth. Those who grasp quickly the non dual truth, when explained to them are sharp.
By shutting one’s eyes in Samadhi he does not know the nature of the universe. Hence the nature of the universe can’t be known as Ataman through yoga alone. One is in a non-dual condition in sleep or Samadhi, One without a second, true, but he did not know it at the time. One says only in the waking experience later on. Hence there must be inquiry so that he finds non-duality whilst he is awake, so that he can see non duality at the time not later on. Hence too the need of inquiring into the nature of the universe and knowing it as Ataman whilst one is awake, and not during sleep or Samadhi.
When can one say there is no error in his knowledge? When he sees all the three states in Ataman/soul; then there will be no doubt. Hence one must see the waking/dream, if he is to see them in the soul/Ataman. But deep sleep and Yogic Samadhi does not show them to him. Hence their knowledge is not perfect, not free from error and doubt.
When the yogi enters Samadhi, he will at once enter deep sleep. This will make plain to him after he wakes, that the inner self he sought and found the Ataman, because he is not aware of the fact that all the three states are the Ataman, and Ataman is not limited to his body alone. Only when one reaches this understanding then only all his accumulated dross will be burnt, then he becomes aware the soul is the true self, which is one without a second.
However the yogi must later wake up, emerge from Samadhi and there is duality again, the objective world confronts him. Thus, he cannot go beyond duality, unless he gets the conviction that the waking /dream are experience of duality as a whole. The individual experiences within the waking/dream are nothing to do in pursuit of truth.
Seeker has to work on the next stage which is to find consciously in the waking experience the same non-duality that he unconsciously knew in deep sleep. This is done by learning to view and judge worldview on the standpoint of the soul, which is the true self, and then only the world becomes illusion. Only at this final stage the seeker becomes aware of the fact that the mind and the soul] self are one in essence.
The yogi who emerging from Samadhi and says he found Non dual Wisdom there, says it to a second man, hence there is duality again. If he were a real Gnani, there would be nobody for him to tell that he had experienced Non dual Wisdom.
There are two different Samadhi, spiritualistic Sahaja Samadhi which is the highest and it derived after acquiring the non dual wisdom. In Sahaja Samadhi one is in full wakefulness, and one is fully aware the waking is mere mirage created out of Ataman. The world is seen in this Sahaja Samadhi. Whereas Yogic Samadhi is just like deep sleep, where one is unaware of anything, not even the world.
All yogic experiences, visions, astral experience however wonderful will pass away; they go as they come. They have the value of dreams. They are not truth which is unpassing and beyond change.
Seeker of truth does not seek God in the quest; his only object is non dual Truth. If he finds that Truth happens to be God, all right, he must accept it; but he cannot pre-judge the issue.
The mystic who talks of finding himself in other forms thereby acknowledges that there is otherness, that other exists whereas the Gnani knows only the One.
So long as one is speaking he is in the world of duality: so long as he ceases to speak, he is in non-duality. Non duality is the nature of the soul which is non dual silence; no physical system exists in that non dual silence. But the study and speaking of non duality and the soul is helpful so long as we have not reached wisdom.
Non duality means "not-two", the absence of mind/waking/dream. He, who thinks there is a God separate from him, cannot get truth. The nature of truth is same for all people and as un-contradictable. The truth is characterized by Universality, i.e. non-duality.
