Sage
Sri,Sankara said:- Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship
as many gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but
liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the
Oneness.
People consider themselves to be knowledgeable because they have read books and well informed about the subject. But all these accumulated knowledge is not wisdom. One can’t get non-dual wisdom from accumulating knowledge.
Whether the knowledge accumulated are scriptures or
something from most recently published books are mere pointers to truth but not
wisdom. First, whether we're aware of it or not, as one reads he is
imposing his own cultural conditioning, biases, experiences, and prior
knowledge onto what he is reading; this is how his brains work. He “makes
sense" of new things by associating them with things he already knows.
Most of the time, this is useful. But if the "new
thing" is utterly different from anything one has been exposed to before,
he is almost certain to distort it to make it fit into pre-existing conceptual
boxes. So much of knowledge is about changing perspective, but
that's hard to do when one is twisting the knowledge around to fit the
perspectives he is already having.
Regarding the Vedic scriptures, most of us are reading English
translations of texts written in Sanskrit or some other language from long ago
and far away. Because these languages are enormously different from English,
literal translations into sensible English are not possible. So, what we're
reading often is as much the translator's interpretation as it is a
translation. Often in English syntax requires that the translator construct
phrases that aren't in the original. And to do this, the translator must draw
upon his own cultural conditioning, biases, experiences, and prior
knowledge. That becomes apparent if one gets the chance to compare
several translations of the same text. Sometimes the differences are
significant.
One should not accept the scriptures as proof the way
religionists hold as ultimate truth without verification. Scriptures may be
useful to validate a path already traveled, but not much good as a roadmap to
the final destination.
Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana does not depend on reading, or by
following the path or teacher, or through scriptural studies or by
practising yoga or by leading a religious oriented life, but it comes by
perfect understanding, assimilating realizing the fact that, the
self is not physical but self is consciousness (soul).
Self is consciousness, by mistaking self to be a physical entity,
the ignorance is born. One thinks one is imprisoned within the physical body;
but in reality the consciousness is within the three states but it is without
the three states. One has to mentally grasp the existence of the
consciousness. One has to realize the Consciousness is the true self, by
knowing it without the three states to realize its formless true nature.
The moment one knows that the mind is consciousness, and then
there is no ignorance. When there is no ignorance than there is no duality.
When there is no duality then there is no illusion. When there is no illusion
then there is only reality, which prevails as non-dual existence.
Consciousness is of the nature of knowing. Existence of god
means one is thinking of god but gods existence is depends on
consciousness. It is a duality which causes the ignorance. Thus one has
to inquire into the nature of the mind (duality or universe) first, after
understanding the nature of the mind, and then only he has to proceed further
to understand the consciousness. By understanding “what is the mind? And
“what is the substance of the mind?” is the only way to acquire
Self-Knowledge. Until and unless one knows the consciousness, he has only
the mind, which is the whole physical existence (man+ universe).
If one goes beyond mind, it is nothing but consciousness. Inside and outside the mind everywhere is only consciousness.
When the mind manifests as universes itself it is the
consciousness that shines. Consciousness is the witness and what appears is
also consciousness. Whatever has appeared is appeared on its
own. Man and the world are within that appearance. The one which is aware of
the appearance and disappearance of the appearance is not the waking entity,
because waking entity is within that appearance. Therefore, viewing
the appearance on the base of the waking entity is the cause of all
confusion. Therefore, one has to mentally trace the formless knower
of the appearance, to realize the waking entity is not the knower of the
appearance but the formless consciousness (soul) is the knower of the
appearance dual and non-dual experiences.
