Sage Sri Sankara -VC- "All
this universe which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing
else but Brahman which is absolutely free from all the limitations of human
thought."
"It is this Supreme Oneness which alone is real, since there is
nothing else but the Self. Verily, there remains no other independent entity in
the state of realization of the highest Truth."
People believe that teacher or
mystic or priest has got so many followers and therefore there must be some
truth in their teaching, is a common fallacy accepted by the mass due to their
inherited conditioning. It proves only an ignorant can find a number of greater
ignorant to follow him.
A permanent view of world as unreal
can come only after soul centric reasoning; such knowledge cannot change. Were
the seeker who is sufficiently sharpness he could grasp the unreal nature of
the world by soul-centric reasoning alone. To know whole truth, one
must know the whole universe, otherwise he gets only half-truth.
Renouncing the worldly life and
accepting sanyasa or monk-hood means incapacity to think deeper, an impotency
to inquire and reason.
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
cause of the inborn samskara or conditioning which present as ‘I’ or ‘I
AM’.
In these three
states, everything is subject to change, yet the three states are pervaded by
the consciousness, which is the innermost self.
Seeker of truth has to practice
mental renunciation of the three states
and be strong in his conviction of
the true Self, which is the soul. One has to Realize whatever perceived within
the waking experience is in the base of ‘I’ as self is mere illusion.
The three
states are of the nature of change. There is no permanence in them. However,
that which sustains the three states it is never changing. It is always the
same. That is the soul, the innermost self. On the soul, the innermost self, everything rests. It is like a movie
projected on a screen. The movie changes but the screen is constant. Similarly,
the phenomenal waking/dream is projected on the soul. It is a mere
superimposition like seeing a snake superimposed on a rope on a dark night.
The snake has
no independent existence. It exists because of the rope, and it ceases to exist
as soon as a light is brought. The snake then dissolves into the rope. In the
same way, when one know the soul as self, the mind merges
into it and one realizes that mind and soul are one in essence. To attain this
knowledge is the goal of the truth seeker. The three states then cannot taint the
self.
Thus, Gnani’s contact
with it is merely like that of a piece of sandalwood, which has long been under
water and has thereby come to acquire a bad odour. For a while, the fragrance
of the sandalwood has been suppressed and the bad odour prevails. But if the
sandalwood is rubbed a little, the bad odour disappears and the natural
fragrance of the sandalwood becomes predominant.
Similarly, the
soul, the innermost self’s attachment to the three states is temporary. It
cannot be permanent. Think of the self as the soul or consciousness. When one thinks intensely and
constantly in this way, the attachment to the three states will then go.
One can attain the self-knowledge by the practice
of renunciation of the three states. One has to keep reminding himself that the
three states, with all its allurements are not real, that is, it is not real in the sense that it
is transitory. Only the formless soul is real because it is imperishable. One must
mentally renounce these three states and
concentrate on the soul, the innermost . Seeker of truth should never run after
things that are ephemeral. Never become attached to the three states, which are
ephemeral.
To one who
knows the fact that these three states are transitory, the world is not the
world and any form of sense pleasure is repugnant. Seeker of truth must be
concerned only with soul, the innermost self become steeped in soul. The soul alone is real
and the self is that soul. The soul is in the form of consciousness and become
oblivious to everything else.
