"Jesus said:-"Those who seek
should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be
disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over
all." (Gospel of Thomas 2)
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.
Self
-inquiry prescribed by Sage Sri, Ramana Maharishi is a good tool in the beginning of the pursuit of truth. But
seeker will find it inadequate to in latter stages. However, it creates lots of
doubts and confusion. The seeker has to find the answers on his own
through deeper reasoning, than all his doubts and confusions will be cleared,
and he will be able to move ahead in the path of inquiry, and he will be able
to reach his non-dual destination. Nothing
is to be renounced in order to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman because
the practical life within the practical world itself is falsehood from the
ultimate standpoint. The self-knowledge is the knowledge of the whole not the
part. Therefore universe, which confronts one, has to be included in the
inquiry to get the truth of the whole. Thus ‘WHO AM ’I’ inquiry is
helpful in unfolding the half-truth. Thus WHO AM ‘I’? inquiry is helpful in
the first stage but seeker has to go much beyond ‘WHO AM ’I’ ?. The
seeker has to do his own homework to realize the truth of the
whole.
’I’ is not Self and Self is not 'I
'. 'I ' is bound by form, time and space. Without the form, time and space 'I'
cease to exist. Holding 'I’ as Self one remains in the clutches of duality.
When there is duality then there is ignorance. Ignorance is cause of
experiencing the duality (illusion) as reality. The one who identifies the Self
as 'I', will not be able to cross the threshold of duality. There is no point
in saying 'I ' this or 'I AM THAT' because the 'self' is that which witnesses
the 'I ' and the world together without the physical apparatus.
The earliest ancient sages used the word ‘I’
to the witness of the three states not to the ego as moderns use it and think
the ‘I’ without the body is self. The seeker has to understand the fact that
the fact that ‘I’ is not the self but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true self,
which is eternal.
Jesus
said: - "Know what is in front
of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. (THE GOSPEL
OF THOMAS- Saying 5)
"The
Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you, Not in a mansion of wood and
stone. Split a piece of wood and God is there, Lift a stone and you
will find God." (Gospel of Thomas)
People speak of getting rid of
conditioning or samskara but they themselves are unaware of the fact that, the
universe in which they exist is product of the inborn samskara or
conditioning. The ignorance is the cause of the inborn samskara or
conditioning which present as ‘I’ or ‘I AM’.
The real Moksha or
freedom is to realize the fact that ‘I’ consciousness is mere
physical awareness. Physical awareness is not self-awareness. The self
–awareness is when the formless soul or consciousness remains aware of its
own non-dual true nature. – FORMLESS PATH
The
very purpose of analyzing the world confronts one is to realize the form, time
and space are mere illusion created out of the soul, which is present in the
form of consciousness. Thus to enable one to judge the ‘what is what’ from the
highest viewpoint. People fail to make
this analysis, as with so many religious, yogic and intellectual minded seekers
fail to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman because their judgement is based
on the waking entity (ego) , which is the false self within the false
experience.
One
must be receptive and sharp enough to grasp the existence of formless witness
which is ever apart from the three states.
The soul is the formless substance and the witness of the three
states. If the formless witness witnesses the waking experience and its
attention are fixed to the waking experience than the waking experience
is experienced as reality. If
the formless witness witnesses the dream and its attention are fixed to the
dream than the dream is experienced as reality. If the attention of the soul is
on itself than it is called deep sleep in waking experience, which is the
states of ignorance. If the soul consciously remains in its
formless non-dual true nature in the midst of
waking experience through wisdom it is called self-awareness.
The three states are an object to
the formless soul, is the subject. The three states are state
of ignorance. In all the three states the soul, the innermost self is
in ignorance of its own formless non-dual true nature. This
forgetfulness is the cause of the ignorance. Ignorance is cause
of experiencing the three states as reality. The three states are the
cause of experiencing the individuality as reality.
Individuality is cause of experiencing the birth, life,
death and the world as reality. The three states are one in essence. In
the realm of truth the three states are non-existent.
In self-awareness, the three states are non-existent because
they are one in essence.
People think that the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ is
something different from the mind. They believe that the mind is really
two. This is the confusion among religionists and intellectuals. If
‘Soul’ has any meaning, if ‘spirit’ has any meaning, so long as one thinks of
them, they are merely ideas. The soul, the innermost self is ultimate truth or Brahman
If one
ignores the world confronts him, then he will not get wisdom. The whole world
confronts him must be known; if he gives up the world, what and how can he understand
the truth of it? Weak minds cannot take a comprehensive view and so
decry what they cannot understand.
As the
ascetics and yogis, there is no need for getting aversion to practical world;
on the contrary one should go on living in the world, acting, working, etc.
that he should accept life as it presents.
There
is no need to renounce the practical life to realize ultimate truth or Brahman. To
realize the innermost self, which is consciousness is nothing to do with
practical life because it is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but
is the formless substance and the witness of all the three states. And
all the three states are one in essence. Thus limiting the self to
the waking entity and waking experience is the cause of the ignorance. Ignorance
makes one feel the waking entity is the real self and waking world as reality.
Until
one holds the waking entity and waking world as reality the truth realization
is an impossibility.
Preliminary
inquiry reveals the fact that, self is not the body then how can one get the
truth on the base of the false self. When the body is not the self
than it is erroneous to view, judge and conclude the truth on the base of the
body or waking entity is erroneous. The truth has to be based
on the self, which is bodiless or formless. Thus whatever
seen, known, believed and experienced as a person of the world within the
waking experience is bound to be falsehood because the waking experience itself
is falsehood. Thus it is necessary for the seeker to become
aware of the formless witness of the three states which comes and goes in
succession. The witness only witnesses the coming and going of the
three states, it is nothing to do with individual experiences happening within
the waking or dream. When the self is formless then what is it that
sees the waking, dream and the deep sleep state?
The
dream is witnessed as a whole the dream entity is not the experience of the
dream entity because the dream entity was within the dream world. Likewise the
waking experience also witnessed as a whole and the waking entity is within the
waking world thus it is necessary to realize the existence of the formless
witness which is within the three states but it is apart from the three states.
It is within the three states as their formless substance and it is apart from
the three states as their formless witness. The formless
substance and witness are one in essence. Thus that essence is consciousness.
Therefore the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness. Thus
consciousness alone is real and all the diversities within the waking
experience is as falsehood as of the dream. Thus the three states
are the product of ignorance. Till the ignorance dominates they prevail as
reality. When the ignorance vanishes through wisdom their unreal
nature is exposed.
