Religion needs a guru to
propagate its belief system, whereas in pursuit of truth there is no need for a
guru. The ultimate truth has to be ascertained by seeker alone. Yoga needs guru to guide its student to
practice Samadhi.
Religion encourages
one who can induce himself to feel
convinced that he has realized the Self, or has
an admirer who believes that he has done so, the it opens up for
him the way for the founding of a new sect based on Guru-worship.
People, too, have developed curious credulousness. Often they would install an
earnest seeker and devotee, or a pious saint, on the throne of God and begin to
offer him worship and homage even if he protested and resisted such acts. They
would lay prostrate, sing hymns, wave lights (arati) and burn incense before
him, and present to him food which was to be returned by him as prasada, wash
his toes and sip the wash. At times the disciple would go to the length of
getting food, fruit or a betel-nut leaf chewed by him, and taking the morsel
back from it.
They would place his
photo in the private temples of their homes and perform all these rites and
ceremonies which are usually offered to temple-idols. In this way there might be at present in our
country scores of individuals who are worshipped as living God, with a
following varying in numbers.
If one is seeking truth
one has to drop all religious based dogmas and blind beliefs ritualistic baggage
and move forward in their pursuit of truth.
When Chandogya Upanishads:-
This universe comes forth from
Brahman and will return to Brahman. Verily, all is Brahman. A person is what
his deep desire is. It is our deepest desire in this life that shapes the life
to come. So let us direct our deepest desires to realize the Self.
If one is seeking truth then it is necessary to
bifurcate and drop the traditional Advaitic path which is not the means to
self-knowledge and move ahead without the traditional baggage to get direct
realization on his own as suggest by the great sages.
Thus seeker of truth has to know what this universe?
What is this ultimate truth or Brahman? in order to realize the non-dualistic or
Advaitic truth?
No one can escape the waking experience which
is the very basis of the physical existence. What was the waking experience
before it appeared? Was their existence before the appearance of the waking
experience? When the waking perishes,
does the soul or consciousness survive alone?
Is there a self or soul? The
seeker has to find answers for all these doubts in order to realize ‘what is
truth’ and ‘what is untruth’.
As one goes deeper in
self-search one becomes aware of the fact that, the self is neither the waking entity not self
is the dream entity but the self is
formless substance and witness of the three states. And the formless substance
and witness of the three states are one in essence. And that essence is
consciousness. If the formless substance
and witness are one in essence, than there is second thing can exist, other
than consciousness? Thus consciousness
alone is real and all else is mere illusion created out of consciousness, which
is the innermost self.
