Ritualistic path, yogic path , devotional are not path of wisdom. Soul-centric reasoning helps the seeker to enter to Self-Awareness. And as his understanding matures, he will be able to realize the fact that, the form,time and space are mere illusion and whatever is connected to form,time and space is illusory reality created out of consciousness. The consciousness alone is is real and eternal. Thus consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman.
Karma theory is based on the waking
entity. Waking entity is false self within the false experience. Karma
performed by false self within the false experience is bound to be
falsehood. Thus one has to realize the fact that, dream entity is also is
false self within the false experience. Dream is considered as falsehood when
waking takes place. Similarly the waking also becomes falsehood when
wisdom dawns. Wisdom dawns when the waking entity realizes it itself is not the
self in the midst of waking experience.
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 [worshipping
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 worshipping gods and goddesses. By worshipping
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.
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 ignorance. It surely indicates the fact that, the seeker of
truth has to drop the worshiping god and goddess in order to get
self-knowledge.
the waking entity is not the ‘Self but 'Self is the
formless soul or consciousness. The soul has no
religion because it is formless. The religion is based on the form. without the form there is no religion. the religion is based on false waking entity (ego). Thus whatever is known, seen,
believed and experienced and accumulated on the waking entity is false hood because waking experience itself is falsehood. The formless substance and witness of the
falsehood is real and eternal. Thus man
and his idea of god and his religious beliefs and his experience of world are
reality on the standpoint of the waking entity,which is the false self within the false experience. And they are mere mirage on
the standpoint of the formless soul or consciousness , the innermost self.
If one is freed from religious truth, he has better chance
unfold the mystery of his true existence and realize the true existence is not
physical but the spirit. Religion is the source of all imaginable faiths and
disturbances; it is parent of fanaticism of civil discord, and it is the enemy
of the mankind because it does allow one to know the truth of the true existence.
One cannot examine illusive subject like God, soul, faith,
love, anger and other non-material subjects under a microscope. But one can
definitely evaluate their validity through deeper inquiry, analysis and
reasoning on the base of the formless soul , the innermost self and it is the source from where the mind or universe rises and subsides. It is necessary for the seeker of truth to
verify the fact that, the self is not physical but the formless spirit
before proceeding in pursuit of truth.
Truth realization is a very deep topic. One might ask what truth -realization is?
Truth realization is realization of the knowledge of the
innermost self to get unity in diversity. Identifying the fact that the
Soul , innermost self is the unified Whole.
Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is not theoretical knowledge
based on the waking entity or ego] but the knowledge of the ultimate truth on
which the physical existence (illusion) is dependent. Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the
True Knowledge.
