God is not belief. Holding
belief as God is holding illusion as reality, because the belief is possible
only within the realm of duality. Duality is mere illusion from the ultimate
standpoint. Without the belief of God
the belief system holds no water. Belief
is not God. Belief needs the believer. Believer needs to be born in this world.
If believer is born than he is part of the illusion. Without
the believer there is no belief. The
believer and his world and his belief of GOD are part of the illusion because
the self is birth-less because the self is formless. The one, which is born,
lives and dies, is not the self. The
innermost self is formless substance and witness of the falsehood [universe or
waking or illusion], which is soul or consciousness, consciousness is ultimate
truth or Brahman or Christ.
People take to the
path of belief or of authoritarianism merely because they are the easiest ways.
To seek for proof is hard and time-consuming. Religion and mysticism are so
much preferred to Spirituality because one has only to imagine, not to inquire.
The first is easy, the second is hard.
Peoples approach is more
practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world, they take it as real.
That is why all the confusion.
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.
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.
Religion and
mysticism is a species of mesmerism affecting weaker or impressionable minds.
Thus the god man creates unconscious suggestion in weaker minds of a superior
power or magical knowledge. Followers are suggested into thinking they
experience great peace because they are unconsciously hypnotized into believing
that will happen. But when a strong disciplined spiritually inclined mind meets
a god man, he is entirely unaffected.
Scriptures are
being added to from time to time with new interpretation. This process will go
on. There is the final authority among them? One contradicts the other: duality
reigns supreme.
That is why Sage Sri, Sankara says in (VC) :-
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.
Without the scriptures one has to move ahead in his pursuit of
truth.
Sri, Sankara says in (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.
The
world is both real and unreal. It is real because it is a manifestation of
consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal
like consciousness itself.
Peoples
approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world, they
take it as real. That is why all the confusion.
In self-awareness-- the
witness and witnessed are one in essence. That essence is consciousness. There
is no second thing exists other than consciousness.
Thus whatever seen, known,
believed and experienced as a person is reality within the waking experience
but waking experience itself is mere illusion.
Soul,
which is present in the form of consciousness, is the innermost self.
Consciousness is the witness that experiences the action, the actor, and the
world of separate things. It is like a light that illuminates everything in a
theatre, revealing the master of ceremonies, the guests, and the dancers with
complete impartiality. Even when they all depart, the light shines to reveal
their absence.
What
is not consciousness (formless) in the experience of duality (waking or
universe)? The waking and the dream
cease to exist without consciousness. The seeker, seeking and his destination all are one in essence.
There
is only need to realize the whole universe in which we exist is created out of consciousness
(soul or Atman), the innermost self. On
the standpoint innermost self, the universe is mere illusion created out of
consciousness. Thus on the ultimate
standpoint no second thing exists other than consciousness. Thus consciousness
is ultimate truth or Brahman.
