People think love is the means to
self-realization but they are unaware of the fact that, love and hate are made
of the same stuff. Love is not the means of self –realization. Love is very
much necessary in practical life within the practical world. Love implies
duality. Whatever is of duality is
falsehood. Thus love is reality within the falsehood. Lover and love ceases to exist in reality
because the experience of duality is not reality. The experience of practical life within
practical world is reality within the waking experience but waking experience
itself is mere illusion created out of consciousness. Thus lover and love are
one in essence. Thus path of love is religious path because religion is path of
individuality or duality.
Most of the saints and sages of the past
are mostly social reformers, thus they are more concerned to the humanism
rather than the truth. Their contribution is very valuable to live in the
practical world. Thus humanism is limited to practical life within the
practical world. The path of love is path for humanity
therefore, it is individualized path.
Thus path of love is limited to the physical structure, it cannot transport one
to ultimate end. Thus seeker has to understand the fact that the
practical life and practical world are part of the mirage from the ultimate
standpoint.
The simple reason is that the average
person may have desire for knowledge but when the whole society is immersed in
belief system and feeling himself out of place because of societal
fear and surroundings circumstances and he thinks it unfits him to pursue the
path of truth.
The seeker of truth is one who is ready
verify and has courage to accept and reject the truth when he finds out what is
truth and what is untruth. The meek will stick to their inherited conditioning
remain experiencing duality as reality.
When a yogi realizes that yoga is not
the means to acquire self-knowledge than takes up deeper self-search by
dropping all the yogic discipline. Yoga
is inadequate and useless in quenching his inner thirst. By indulging in deeper
self –search he realizes the self is formless consciousness and the three
states are mere mirage created out of consciousness. Therefore he attains
Gnana.
The ignorance is the cause
of experiencing all sorrow and calamities as reality. Thus eradicating the
ignorance completely is necessary. And this is possible only through
self-knowledge or Gnana. Thus, there is
no other road to freedom other than Gnana.
There is no other entrance other than except Gnana. The ignorance will vanish only when the
nondual wisdom dawns.
That
is why Sri Sankara, indicated in
Bhaja Govindam says: - [Jnana Viheena
Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena] - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred
births, no matter which religious faith he follows.
Thus it proves he religion is not the means to self-realization
.
When Upanishad itself declares:- sarvam khalvidam brahma - all this (universe) is verily Brahman.
By following back all of the relative appearances in the world, we eventually
return to that from which it is all manifest – the non-dual reality [ Chandogya Upanishad].
Then it is no use
going roundabout way, trace the Brahman which is the formless substance and
witness of the universe, which is in the form of mind. By tracing the source of the mind or universe
one will be able to realize the Brahman.
Thus, self-knowledge is meant only for those who have intense urge, and
courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people
start comparing with their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to
assimilate and realize the non-dual truth. Therefore, there is no
need to convince anyone other than our own-selves to get the firm
conviction.
Gaudapada says: - the merciful Veda teaches karma and upaasana to people of lower
and middling intellect, while jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.
So they clearly indicate rituals and theories are not meant for
those who are searching for the higher knowledge or wisdom. The path of wisdom is the only means.
All the orthodox Advaitins indulge and immersed themselves in
ritualistic oriented life style and follow the path of karma and upasana which
is meant for lower and middling intellect
and not for realizing the
Advaitic truth. Many chose these
orthodox scholars as their gurus. But these gurus are good to learn the conceptual
Adavaita meant for those orthodox who believe their conduct oriented life style
leads to Moksha [liberation]. But
religious based Adavaita is not the
means to acquire self –knowledge or nondual wisdom. Those who are seeking truth have to do their
own homework in order to acquire self-knowledge.
Adi Sankaracharya says in Aparokshanubhuti:-
88. When the whole universe, movable and
immovable, is known to be Atman, and thus the existence of everything else is
negated, where is then any room to say that the body is Atman?
89. O enlightened one;
pass your time always contemplating on Atman while you are experiencing all the
results of Prarabdha; for it ill becomes you to feel distressed.
90. The theory one hears of from the scripture, that Prarabdha
does not lose its hold upon one even after the origination of the knowledge of
Atman, is now being refuted.
91. After the origination of the knowledge of Reality, Prarabdha
verily ceases to exist, inasmuch as the body and the like become non-existent; just
as a dream does not exist on waking.
92. That Karma which is done in a previous life is known as
Prarabdha (which produces the present life). But such Karma cannot take the
place of Prarabdha (for a man of knowledge), as he has no other birth (being free
from ego).
93. Just as the body in a dream is superimposed (and therefore
illusory), so is also this body. How could there be any birth of the
superimposed (body), and in the absence of birth (of the body) where is the
room for that (i.e., Prarabdha) at all?
94. The Vedanta texts declare ignorance to be verily the
material (cause) of the phenomenal world just as earth is of a jar. That
(ignorance) being destroyed, where can the universe subsist?
95. Just as a person out of
confusion perceives only the snake leaving aside the rope, so does an ignorant
person see only the phenomenal world without knowing the reality?
96. The real nature of
the rope being known, the appearance of the snake no longer persists; so the
substratum being known, the phenomenal world disappears completely.
97. The body also
being within the phenomenal world (and therefore unreal), how could Prarabdha
exist? It is, therefore, for the understanding of the ignorant alone that the
Shruti speaks of Prarabdha.
98. “And all the
actions of a man perish when he realizes that (Atman) which is both the higher
and the lower”. Here the clear use of the plural by the Shruti is to negate
Prarabdha as well.
99. If the ignorant
still arbitrarily maintain this, they will not only involve themselves into two
absurdities but will also run the risk of forgoing the Vedantic conclusion. So
one should accept those Shrutis alone from which proceeds true knowledge.
The above proves
that the karma is reality only on the base of false self, where one thinks body
and the universe as reality. When one becomes aware of the fact that, the true
self is formless soul, then the karma becomes part and parcel of illusion. My point is that, if one accepts the karma
theory as reality, he will never be able to come out of the ignorance. And
ignorance makes him believe the cycle of birth, life and death or pain and
pleasure as reality. Thus the freedom
which one is seeking will remain distant dream. For the one who accepts the
birth life and death as reality, Self-knowledge is impossible.
Thus it is
necessary for the seeker of truth to know the fact that, the body which is
born, lives and dies is not the self. Since he is taking the body to be the
self, he is experiencing the duality as reality.
As Sri, Sankara says: When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be
Atman, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any
room to say that the body is Atman.
If body is not the Atman/self, then the karma
theory has no meaning on the standpoint of the truth. Thus no second thing
exists other than Atman, therefore why to view the worldview on the standpoint
of the body as self [I] when the body [I] is the false self, and the
soul/Atman is the true self.
If body is not the self, then the birth, life,
death and the universe are bound to be illusion. If birth, life and death are illusion then
all conducts actions and their fruits are mere illusion. If body is not the
self, then the existence of god, heaven and hell is mere illusion. If body is not the self then all religious
beliefs of god is mere illusion. If body
is not the self but the Atman [soul] which is in the form of consciousness is
the true self, then there is no scope for second thing other than consciousness, therefore consciousness, which is Atman is
Brahman or ultimate truth. The Brahman
alone is real and eternal. Thus whatever
is real eternal has to be identified as god. To identify the real and eternal,
one has to overcome the ignorance caused by the illusion. To overcome the
ignorance one has to acquire the Self-Knowledge.
The
individual experience within the dream is reality with in the dream. Therefore
waking reality is also is reality within the waking. This waking is parallel
dream and dream is parallel waking. Only when self-wakes up in waking the dream
becomes unreal. When the self-consciously wakes up in its formless non dual true
nature in the midst of waking experience
then all the three states are
mere mirage created out of its formless non- dual true nature.
The form
time and space within the dream are falsehood when waking takes place.
Similarly the form, time and space of the waking are also falsehood when wisdom
dawns. The wisdom dawns only when one realize the self is neither the waking
entity nor the dream entity. Thus it is erroneous to judge and reason and
conclude the ultimate truth on the base of waking entity and waking world
because waking experience itself is illusion.
A Gnani is one who attains the non-dual tranquility in the midst of duality. A Gnani is in self –awareness and
he is fully aware of the fact that the form, time and space are mere mirage
created out of consciousness.
They alone in this world are endowed with the
highest wisdom who are firm in their conviction of the sameness and
birthlessness of Ataman. The ordinary man does not understand their way. [Chapter IV — Alatasanti Prakarana
95-P-188 in Upanishads by Nikilanada]
This passage indicates the fact that
everything is Ataman/spirit. The one who views and judges the worldview on the
base of his birth /body will not realize the fact that, the man including the
world is created sustained and finally dissolves as Ataman. Thus Ataman alone
is, and all else is mirage.
Thus
self-knowledge is the aim of every human being. Since everyone thinks the
physical body is the self, their aim is misdirected and they focus their
attention on materiality which makes one feel the duality [waking] as reality.
In pursuit of
truth the ultimate truth has to be proved, not assumed. Pundits who take
scriptures for granted are not Gnanis.
Pundits teach
that all is your-self, but none of them can show that this is so, none has analyzed it scientifically, and none can prove it. Rational proof is needed, so
that one arrive at knowing truth i.e. wisdom; punditry is mere dogma,
parrotism, repetition of what they read in scripture. Scriptures are not
yardstick and scriptural truth is not proof.
Pundits take scriptures as authority.
Authoritarianism merely assumes as true what another says, but what has
yet to be proved.
Pundits have to
test truth in this world not in the next world.
There is no proof other than blind belief based on the scriptures,
belief is not truth. So, doctrines are
not the means to realize the ultimate truth. There is no need to follow them.
Doubts and
Confusions arise when seeker finds the scriptures and yoga are inadequate or
useless to quench his spiritual thirst.
Disappointments in religion or yoga or even science imply error or
ignorance.
When serious seeker
reaches a stage with all his baggage of accumulate knowledge, then uncertainty
haunts him. Whether he is right?"
Where is the certainty that he is proceeding on right lines?" Thus doubts
arise and the inquiring spirit comes and impels to search elsewhere for truth
where it will not be possible even to have doubt. The test is therefore in
experience. And only in non-duality, where there are no two to argue about
views or to have difference of opinion can such doubtlessness be possible. Belief depends upon unstable bases whereas
certainty depends on proof.
Sri, Sankara says in Viveka Chudamani indicated that:-
56. Neither by
Yoga, nor by Sankhya, nor by work, nor by learning, but by the realization of
one's identity with Brahman is Liberation possible, and by no other means.
58. Loud speech
consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and
likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the
scholar, but are no good for Liberation.
59. The study of
the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is
equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.
60. The Scriptures
consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to
ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature
of the Self.
61. For one who
has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge
of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred
formulae) and medicines to such a one?
62. A disease does
not leave off if one simply utter the name of the medicine, without taking it;
(similarly) without direct realization one cannot be liberated by the mere
utterance of the word Brahman.
63. Without
causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the
Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word
Brahman ? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.
64. Without
killing one’s enemies, and possessing oneself of the splendour of the entire
surrounding region, one cannot claim to be an emperor by merely saying, ‘I am
an emperor’.
65. As a treasure
hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction,
excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and
(finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name,
so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects,
is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by
reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.
66. Therefore the
wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all
the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and
deaths.
Thus Sri Sankara clearly
indicated that: - yoga, intellectualism, scriptural mastery is not the means to
self-knowledge. But by the realization
of one's identity with consciousness, which is ultimate truth or Brahman, freedom
from experiencing the illusion as reality is possible, and by no other means.
Seeker of truth
has to get rid of his doubts through deeper inquiry, analysis and reasoning on
his own, to realize the fact that, the self is not the form but self is
formless. Thus his analysis and reasoning has to be based on the formless not
on the form. By simply go on believing
and accepting whatever said by the punditry will not lead one towards path of
wisdom. All the doubt has to be got rid of "by the sword of Self -
Knowledge." The scriptures, yoga
are not necessary if one follows the inner [formless] path. Religion and yoga are not the means to path
of wisdom.
