In waking experience everything
is subject to change, yet everything is covered by the consciousness. Seeker has to practice discrimination between
the subjects and object, and renounce the object and he has to be strong in his
conviction that waking entity is not the self but the soul or the consciousness
is the true self.
This waking is
constantly changing it becomes deep sleep and it again becomes dream. Man exits
within the world and the world exists within the waking or dream. But that which
sustains the three states is never changes. It is always the same. That is, the
formless soul or consciousness is the formless substance and witness of the
three states. On soul or consciousness everything rests. It is like a movie
projected on a screen. The movie changes but the screen is constant. Similarly,
the waking or dream is projected on the formless soul or consciousness.
Waking or dream is a
mere mirage. The mirage has no independent existence. It exists because of its
substance from which it is created out of, and it ceases to exist as soon as a one
becomes aware of the substance. The Mirage then dissolves into the substance
from which it is created out of. In the same way, when one knows the formless
soul or consciousness as the innermost
self , the three states merges in merges into it and one realize that subject
and object are one in essence.
To attain self-
knowledge is the goal of truth seeker. The three states then cannot taint the
true self. Ataman’s contact with it is merely like that of a piece of
sandalwood, which has long been under water and has thereby come to acquire a
bad odour. For a while the fragrance of the sandalwood is suppressed and the
bad odour prevails. But if the sandalwood is rubbed a little, the bad odour
disappears and the natural fragrance of the sandalwood becomes predominant. Similarly,
soul or consciousness’s attachment to the three states is temporary. It cannot
be permanent.
One has to realize the
soul or consciousness as the innermost self to realize all the three states are
one in essence. Therefore, there is no second thing exists other than
consciousness the innermost self. –FORMLESS
PATH
