Sage Sri,Sankara said:- Talk
as much philosophy as you like, worship as many gods as you please, observe
ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even
after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.
Consciousness
is that which knows everything, that which sees. The consciousness alone
remains after one gets rid of all thoughts and ideas by identification with
self. Consciousness is only the seer; it is not Brahman that is an error. It
becomes Brahman only after inquiry and reasoning.
The ‘I ‘or mind or universe, waking or
dream, duality are one and the same thing. Since, ‘I’ is identified as self all
the confusion. And taking ‘I’ or ‘I AM’
as self is the cause of confusion. Taking ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self is
blocking the realization of ultimate truth.
The ‘I’ or universe is an object to the formless subject. Thus it is
necessary to include the universe in the inquiry to realize the unreal nature
of the ‘I’ or universe.
When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be
consciousness, which is the inner most self and thus the existence of
everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is the
self.
Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without
knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve.
Dualist or realists could not
distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’
They take ‘I’ as self or witness. Their highest is to say ‘I AM THAT’
without verification. They are so much attached to the 'I' that they do not
want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’
from the Real witness, which is ever formless.
The
dualist object: - If everything else is false than the statement I am Brahman is itself false, the but when one
says nonduality is false, there must be the awareness, consciousness, behind
the very statement. You will also go, die. One has to rely upon that which is
permanent. Formless witness of the ‘I’
alone is permanent. Anything that one says is a witnessed (waking), but there
is the formless witness (consciousness) there before any statement could be
made.
Dualist or realists approach is more practical, and they stuck
with the reality of the world (I), they take it as real.
The dualists or realists
are unaware on what standpoint the world is real and on what standpoint
the world is unreal.
The world is real because it is a manifestation of
consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal
like consciousness itself. Thus from the ultimate stand point the world is
unreal. Therefore whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as person
within the practical world is bound to be unreal from ultimate stand point
because of their impermanence. And the formless substance and witness of the
mind or universe is real and eternal.
The
individual means ego? Egos are always changing. As a boy one had different
ideas to what he has now. The ego then was not the same as the ego now.
Psychologists
glibly use the word personality but they do not see it is a term to be used
with the greatest difficulty, because which of all the changing personalities
of a man can be ascertained to be his real one? The truth is that a number of
other things or thoughts have combined with the consciousness, the formless
witness, and must be separated from it.
Realists
or Dualists say they shall go to Heaven or they shall attain Brahman but they
fail to realize, ‘what is ‘I’?’ ‘I’ is the
mind. The mind is in the form of the universe and the universe appears as
waking or dream. Buddha was partly right in teaching that it was an illusion.
Once
seeker understands the ego is a false entity within the false experience, he
will have understood 80% of Nonduality. One must learn that the ego is
different from consciousness, which is the innermost self. And innermost self
is beyond form, time and space because it is formless timeless and space less.
Homogeneity
is the natural condition of the self. Through ignorance we create dissociations
within it. The first dissociation is the ‘I’.
There
is no such thing as the ego. Ego is only the physical self within the false
experience. The ego exists only within
the waking or dream. Waking or dream both are false experience on the
standpoint of the formless witness of the three states. Therefore the understanding of the ego is not
the self and its nonexistence in the realm of truth is of vital importance.
