The quest of “truth
“begins with the first step. It is very much necessary to know the basics,
whether “Truth Realization” is related to religion, yoga and modern science or
any other subject. The religion, yoga or modern science is no way related to
the ultimate truth or Brahman.
In the formative
years, the religious propensities of an individual are shaped and formed
initially by parents, which is substantial. These inherited religious conditioning or samskaras handed down as a precious legacy from one generation to the next
generation.
To
say that we know God exists always implies one must also exist always to say
God exists. It would be correct to say on this point, I do not know because one
is not sure what God is.
Religion belongs to the world of sentiments
and emotions. That is why everyone likes it Religion changes as it appeals to
different emotions and sentiments. One will find at one pole the nude saint and
hata yogi is admired; at the other the
gorgeously-dressed God men is revered. Belief in religious prohibitions arises
out of fear of God's punishment.
Religions place God as the unknown
reality. Every believer has a
different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of reality. The fallacy
of believers appeal to scripture lies in the varying and conflicting
interpretations of the same scripture which different persons feel entitled to
give or hold.
Religion
continues to enjoy a pre-eminent position in the life of most people all over
the world. Religion conditions man to
be, to behave, to believe and to live as a person in the practical life within
the practical world. Religion is only a mind game based on the belief. The
religious worship, rituals, prayers scriptural studies and yoga are not the
means to Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Most
people take to the path of belief merely because they are the easiest ways. To
seek for proof is troublesome and time-consuming.
Religion
and mysticism are so much preferred to path of truth or wisdom because one has
only to imagine, not to inquire and verify the validity of his inherited belief
system. The first is easy, the second is difficult.
Religion
and mysticism is a species of mesmerism affecting weaker mind sets. Thus the
panoply of swamis or gurus religious robes and life style etc. creates
unconscious suggestion in weaker minds of a superior power or magical
knowledge. Similarly the people who visit to ashrams are suggested into
thinking they experience great peace because they are unconsciously hypnotized
into believing that will happen. But when a man with a strong disciplined rational
mindset meets a swami or guru visits an ashram, he is entirely unaffected.
Scriptures
are being added to from time to time. There is no final authority among them. One
contradicts the other: duality reigns supreme.
Each
man sees in his own Samadhi whatever is uppermost in his mind. How does he or
anyone know that what he sees is ultimate truth? Similarly each has intuitions
agreeable to what is uppermost in his mind.
Believers
who are anxious for a mystic or occult experience often get it. But it is only
a mental construction of their strong suggestion to subconscious.
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 real and eternal. Thus
consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman.
Thus one has to drop all religious baggage mentally ,which is the first
step in pursuit of truth.
People fail to
understand that, the emptiness is the nature of the self, which is
consciousness. When self becomes aware
of its formless non-dual nature it becomes empty of ignorance or illusion or
duality or experience of waking or dream.
Thus whatever remains empty of duality or ignorance or illusion is
non-dual reality. Only through wisdom one becomes aware of the truth in the
midst of duality.
That is why
"Sri, Sankara said: 63- (VC)- Without causing the objective
universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to
achieve Liberation.
Universe will
not remain as reality when wisdom dawns. Universe is mere mirage created out of
consciousness and there is conscious awareness of unity in diversity because
there is no second thing exist other than consciousness.
One thinks he
is imprisoned within this body; whereas the body and his experience of the
world are within the mind. The consciousness is hidden within the three states
but it is without the three states. The
one, which has the awareness of the three states, is not the body but the soul,
which is in the form of consciousness. Thus consciousness is not limited to
waking experience alone because it pervades all the three states. Till one
views and judges the world-view on base of ego or waking entity, he is in the
grip of individuality or intellectuality.
The self is not an individual because it is universal. And it pervades
in everything and everywhere in all the three states. Thus individualized
judgment will not lead one non-dual destination.
That is why
Sri,Sankara says (VC) :-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.
When the soul, the innermost self
becomes aware of its formless non-dual nature than it becomes empty of ignorance or
illusion or duality (waking or dream). Thus whatever remains empty of duality or
ignorance or illusion is non-dual reality. Only through wisdom one becomes
aware of this ultimate truth or Brahman in the midst of duality.
