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 [worshiping
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 (ego or waking entity) is not the self, but the soul or Atman, is
the true self. Therefore, for those who
believe the body as self, and refuse to accept the soul or 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.
Instead of indulging in the scriptural path, it is better
to follow path of inquiry and reason 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 or dream) is Atman and Atman is the true
self. And he will be able to understand the real meaning of the illusion.
