Sunday, December 25, 2011

As long as there is the sense of "I' and "mine' within us, there can be no Self-knowledge







Dear Sriram,
Ish Upanishad says:-
10/11/12

Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.

 This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be your own master? In order to be your own master you have to realize that you are identical with Atman, the true Self, that you are Pure Consciousness, ever free, without name and form, and unconditioned.

You are not subject to any modification, without beginning and end, beyond thought and speech. You are Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute. When you know this you are free. You no longer swing between birth and death. If you do not try to know who you really are, you are indeed committing suicide. You are inviting the ignominy of a slave's life in this world and a similarly unfortunate fate after death. , the Self, is one without a second, complete in itself. It never moves. It is always still, always the same, yet it moves faster than the mind. It is the power that moves everything, and it makes the whole world go the way it does. It gives

Those who mechanically perform sacrifices [avidya] go into darkness that is like being blind. But those who merely worship gods and goddesses [vidya] go into a deeper darkness. [IX]

"Blinding darkness' here implies ignorance. And those who worship gods and goddesses go into a deeper darkness because they seek rewards for their worship. As long as there is the sense of "I' and "mine' within us, there can be no Self-knowledge. When you say "me' and "mine' you automatically identify yourself with your body-mind complex. This shows that you are ignorant of your real Self, which is Pure Consciousness and which is also the Self of all. The sign of an ignorant person is in the way he uses the words "I' and "mine'. He says: "I am so and so. I own this much property,' and so on.

An ignorant person has many desires in his mind, and because of these desires he is born again and again. He has to have a body; otherwise he cannot satisfy his desires. But the more he tries to satisfy them, the more they grip his mind. This goes on endlessly. But it is given to a human being to think, reason, and discriminate. Thus he soon comes to realize that the path he has been following cannot give him peace of mind. He understands that he has to choose another path the path of renunciation. As long as he does not practice renunciation, he gropes in the dark like a blind man and he suffers.

There are two types of such people who grope in the dark. One type worships avidya (ignorance) that is, they mechanically perform the prescribed sacrifices without any thought as to why they are doing them. No wonder they grope in the dark. They are doomed unless someday the truth dawns on them that to save themselves they must seek Self-knowledge.


Worse, however, is the situation of the other type those who worship vidya. The word vidya ¸ usually means "knowledge', but here it is used to mean "gods and goddesses'. Some people worship gods and goddesses so that they may someday attain the same status. They may get their desire fulfilled, but this will only delay their liberation. That is why the Upanisad says that they will be in deeper darkness.


Scholars say that the path of avidya [performing aganihotra and other sacrifices] and the path of vidya [worshipping gods and goddesses] produce different results. Wise men confirm this. [X]

Vidya and avidya both are hindrances to Self-knowledge, but vidya is even worse than avidya. The word vidya is used here in a special sense; here it means worshiping gods and goddesses. By worshiping gods and goddesses you will go after death to the world of gods and goddesses.

But will that help you? The time you spend there is wasted, because if you were not there you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of gods and goddesses you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into darkness.

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.

To overcome the ignorance one has to inquire, analyze and reason. Until one believes in karma theory, he will remain ignorance. Until ignorance is there, he will remain experiencing illusion as reality.  Until illusion is there, he will remain ignorant of the fact that, the cycle birth, life and death are mere mirage.  Therefore, it is not possible for one to accept the fact that, world is illusion, unless and until he becomes aware of the fact that the physical body [I] is not the self, but the soul/Atman, is the true self.  Therefore, for those who believe the body as self, and refuse to accept the soul/Atman  as true self, find the law of karma as universal law and very sacred, because they have accepted their birth, life and death as reality without verifying  the validity of their  accepted truth.  

Thus instead of indulging in the scriptural path, it is better to follow F.S which helps the seeker to enter the inner realm. And as his inquiry matures, he will be able to realize the fact that, the karma was reality only on the false base, within the false experience, the formless witness of the false experience [waking/dream] is Atman and Atman is the true self. And he will be able to understand the real meaning of the illusion. 

With respect and regards
Santthosh.