When the self is formless therefore
it is birth less and deathless. Thus the
theory based on body, which is not the self is mere imagination and
speculation. The belief system has all sorts’ myths and stories which are deep-rooted
in the minds of people. People are sentimentally got involved in such myth. The
pursuit of truth is to clear all the myth. This myth are add-onns and adulteration
and non-Vedic. Scriptures indicate that people who indulge in such myth will
enter in to darkness and suffer. But for that everyone has to investigate the
truth of their own religion by peeping in to annals of the history of their own
religion. Thus what is the use of
getting indulge in the religious prescription which brings suffering.
Truth should not only be known
but it should be proved, verified. Through Deeper self-search one become aware
of the fact that there is ONE but it proves that there is no second thing. Thinkers
started with one substance, or the Absolute; but where is the proof of the
existence of this ONE or the Absolute. Hence they started with assumptions;
whereas mere assumption is not proof, but the truth has to be proved mentally and accepted for one's own realization.
Self-discovery does not even
start with assumption of some truth; the discovery of the existence of consciousness
comes only at the end of deeper self-search and not at the beginning.
This is the Great difference between religion and spirituality
[path of truth]. Every religious tenet
may seem superior on their own accord but they are based on the false self
within the false experience.
Religions are created
for the mass to regulate their life with religious code of conduct with fear of
conceptual god and reward of heaven, hell, and rebirth, and sin, good and bad
life in the next world or in next life.
Pursuit of truth is pursuit of verification of every tenet;
truth is proof, not poetry. Accepting either intuition or imagination as truth is
disastrous in pursuit of truth.
A man may say "I have seen God, I have realized the Absolute"
cannot be accepted as truth because, such declaration are mere assumption based
on the false self within the false experience.
Truth is not physical proof but one has to trace it through
deeper self-search mentally and realize it. Similarly those people who speak of the Author of the Universe are telling
lies, for whoever could possibly have seen Him creating the world? They are
merely using their imagination because they were themselves created later.
If one does not
find reflection of his self when he is standing in front of the mirror but he
finds his body and the background world in the mirror. The one which is conscious of the body and
the experience of the world is not the body but the consciousness, which is the
inner most self.
The relationship and
love, hate happiness and misery of the practical life within the practical
world are not connected to the soul [formless consciousness] which is his true self.
The true self is beyond form, time and space and beyond birth, life, death and
world.
Thus rest in
consciousness by recognizing it as our inner most self, which is god. And realize the practical life within the
practical world is mere mirage created out of consciousness. Consciousness is
ultimate truth and ultimate truth is God.
Getting rid of
the physical shackle is necessary to overcome the burden and bondage of the
illusory samsara. Love and relationship seems reality in practical life within
the practical world but they are mere illusion from ultimate standpoint. Thus
the game of life is mere passing show.
It is not
possible to get rid of the ego through religious or yogic path. But one can get
rid of the ignorance, which is the cause of experiencing the illusion as
reality through Gnana or wisdom.
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 the religion is not the means to self-realization.
Katha Upanishad
1:2:23 The Soul cannot be realized
through hearing scholarly explanation of the discourses, not even by the
intellect.
Katha
Upanishad 1:3:6 “Through the knowledge of the Soul, God, one is pure and
clean constantly.” Neither by reading the book, nor by taking a bath at holy
place has one become pure. Inner purity is possible when one remains in constant
touch with the Soul. Constant Soul-Consciousness is the real purity.
Kena
Upanishad 2:4 When it is known through every state of cognition, it is
rightly known, for (by such knowledge) one attains life eternal. Through one's
own self one gains power and through wisdom one gains immortality.
Kena
Upanishad 2:5
If
here one knows it, then there is truth, and if here one knows it not, there is
a great loss. Hence, seeing the Real in all beings, wise men become immortal on
departing from this world.
Mundaka
Upanishad 1:2:8
“Remaining in the fold of ignorance
and thinking “we are extremely wise and learned,” the fools with boastful
nature ramble about like the blind led by the blind alone.”
Mundaka
Upanishad 3:2:3
“The weak and timid cannot realize the
Self. Self-Realization is not possible through intellect or hearing spiritual
discourse. One who welcomes God in every activity, through a thorough
controlled and disciplined life, to him also the Soul is revealed."
Mundaka
Upanishad 3:2:3
The
Soul cannot be realized by the weak and timid.
That is why Sri, Sankara says in Viveka Chudamani:-
56. Neither by
Yoga, nor by Sankhya, nor by work, nor by learning, but by the realisation 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 realisation 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’.
Seeker of truth has to take the direct path
and avoid losing precious time and effort loosing himself in philosophical
studies.
All the religionists believe in god and goddesses [vidya] and performing rituals and other sacrifices[Avidya] both are hindrance to self-knowledge
according to Ish Upanishads, then why the seeker of truth needs worshiping of god and
goddesses, when essence of Advaita is Atman is Brahman [soul or self as ultimate reality].
When the
self is formless there is no need pada pooja [feet worship] Advaitin gurus to
get freedom. A guru who preaches conduct as the means to freedom believes in
birth, life death and the world as reality, whereas the Advaitic sage Sri,
Sankara declares the world as unreal. Therefore, how actions performed in
unreal world can get moksha or freedom. Therefore there is need to know the
fact that, the self is not physical in order to understand and assimilate and
realize the truth beyond physicality.
That is why Gaudapada says that: - The
merciful Veda teaches karma and Upaasana to people of lower and middling
intellect, while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.
It means the
people who follow religion and worship of guru and conceptual god are lower and
middling intellect. But in this modern
world people are sharp enough to understand and assimilate ultimate truth or
Brahman or god. Thus it is high time to discard the lower knowledge and move
ahead to realize the ultimate truth, which is Brahman or God.
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]
Therefore, if one
is seeking truth he has to know his true self is not physical but it is the Atman, which is in the form of consciousness.
Isa Upanishads indicates that: By worshiping gods and goddesses and
going to the world of gods after death is of no use. The time one spends
in ritualistic practices is wasted; one can spend same time moving forward
towards Self-knowledge, which is the main goal. One cannot reach the non-dual
destination by glorifying god and goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper
and deeper into darkness. It surely indicates the fact that, the seeker of
truth has to drop the worshiping god and goddess in order to get
self-knowledge.
It also indicates that, Religious
Rituals [Avidya] is Karma [action] and therefore a hindrance. By
performing Agnihotra and other sacrifices [Avidya] is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the
dark.
In addition, it indicates the karma
is limited only to the religious rituals, not on the whole human life. This
karma theory based on the human conduct must have been adopted from Buddhism
and other theories based on human conducts.
When it says: Perform the obligatory
karmas without any attachment to the fruits, and at the same time worship gods
and goddesses, again without any desire to go to heaven - then you can get the
benefit of both, liberation and bliss. For those who are not yet ready to
renounce, this path is recommended, it mean that the religion and its
idea of god and goddesses and code of conducts, and its rituals are meant for
the mass who are incapable of thinking of the beyond.
In addition, it also speaks of heaven
the abode of gods, where one goes after death, and it speaks of rebirth, this
contradiction, seeker has to conclude that religion, rituals god and its code
of conducts are meant for the mass that is not receptive to
self-knowledge.
When the self is not the body [‘I’]
whatever one sees, knows, believes, experiences and feels on the base of the
body [‘I’] as self is bound to be illusion. Thus, the karma performed in
illusion is bound to be illusion. The birth, life and death is happening within
the illusion, therefore it is bound to be illusion. Thus, rebirth and
reincarnation theories based on the false self within the false experience are
bound to be illusion on the base of the true self. Only the witness of the
illusion is real [Brahman]. Therefore, everything has to be viewed and
judged, on the base of the Formless Witness [soul] in order to overcome the
illusion/duality.
Seeker of truth has to know somewhere
he is going wrong, and it is for the seeker to go on his own and remove the
obstacle. The greatest hindrance is mixing religion, god, scriptures, and
yogic theories. Moreover, attachment to scriptures, personal god and religious
code of conduct keeps one permanently in the grip of duality.
Seeker has to have courage to
accept the truth and reject the untruth because most people will not be able to
subscribe to path of truth because they sentimentally and emotionally involved
with their inherited belief system and even if one does he has to overcome all
his doubts confusion and despair. These
are problem for the seekers who are from religious back ground because of their
conditioning and they are made to accept their blind belief as truth and their
interest or insight is not deep. Thus
all my blogs are useful analyse these problems because they highlight the what
is not truth according to their own religious scriptures and make
them to accept the truth and reject all the false conditioning and move
ahead in pursuit of truth.
It becomes difficult for the
orthodox cult to accept anything else as truth other than their accepted
belief, which they hold as truth. Although all religious followers are
participants alike in the spiritual endeavour of the world, overzealous followers of each religion are not prepared
to accord equal status to other faiths and assert the superiority of their own.
Thus universal brother hood is total impossibility because it is difficult to
accept anything other than their inherited belief system.
Most of the pundits are egoic and
they try to snub others who question them. They think they are unquestionable authority. They quote the citation from the scripters as
proof without verifying the validity.
All punditry is a great obstacle in realizing the Advaitic truth
expounded by the Sri, Sankara and Goudapada.
One finds lots of differences between Adavita preaching and
practice. There is need to bifurcate religion, concept of god and scriptures
from Adavitic philosophy to assimilate the essence of Advaita.
Sri, Sankara says
in Brahma Sutras: that Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya
he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding,
the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they
cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a
higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.
Sri, Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words,
and to practice semantic analysis in his book "Definition of one's own
Self. [" Page 199, v.24 of "Sankara's
Selected Works]
Sri, Sankara founded his Advaita
Vedanta either on reason independent of sruti or on sruti confirmed by
reason." Sri, Sankara's commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad,
II, 1: This [the unreality of duality] is borne out by the Srutis
... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from
pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.
Sri, Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti,
or revealed scripture. This may be because Sri, Sankara addressed the
ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea
of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter. He believed
that those of superior intelligence, have no need of this idea of divine
causality, and can therefore dispense with Sruti and arrive at the
truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.
Sri, Sankara, in debates with
Buddhists and others who did not recognize the authority of the Vedas, had been
obliged to prove the truth of Advaita by means of reason alone. Mandukya
Upanishad, a scripture which appealed to reason to the exclusion of Revelation.
Non-duality does not need the support
of any Scripture or Revelation like the Veda. For it is based, not upon the
varying theological fancies, which are as numerous as the sands of the sea, but
upon reason, the common heritage of all mankind, irrespective of colour or
creed or clime.
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.
