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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
Yesterday, I was speaking something very subtly about the sadhana, the deeksha and all that. I would like to continue the theme today. Whenever you study a subject and go more and more inwardly into it you will find whatever you have understood about it earlier that understanding requires a deepening, a refinement, and a subtling process will take place. In many cases the earlier understanding will have to be totally overhauled and replaced. I think the same applies to Self-Knowledge also.
We first of all distinguish the Self from the body and make the disciple and the seeker know that the Self is different from the body. But as you approach the subject and understand the Self more and more, then the same person is told that the Self alone is, nothing else is. Then where is the question of the Self being different from something?
In Sreemad Bhaagavatam, there is a phrase ‘mahaanubhutih sakalaanubhutih’. It is a very, very mighty and magnificent experience. At the same time, it is an all experience. First of all we tell the seeker that the soul is different from the body in order that he may look for the Self different from the matter-energy aggregate called the body. You have a mind. The mind’s properties are such that neither matter nor energy has those properties. So the mind is different from the body. Look into it and find it out. And finally you are told that the Self which is in the nature of Consciousness alone is. In that case where is the question of distinguishing it from the rest? Unless you start looking for it distinct from the body, you will not be able to reach anywhere. Everything is the Self. So the body is the Self, mind is the Self. That means you don’t have to find out anything. So this kind of a contradiction or refinement cannot be avoided.
Finally, how does the Self become non-different from the body, if you ask, that is also true. What is the truth? What is body after all? Body is a subject of your awareness or cognition. What does it mean? Just like I say there is a building here, I say there is a body for me. What is the difference between the two assessments? One is there is a building here. Another is there is a body for me. Both of them are equally ideas or comprehensions or cognitions taking place in the mind. Apart from a cognition do you have a body? No, I have a body is a cognition from my mind. So it is a subject of cognition. As cognition belongs to the mind and mind alone, is body really there separate from the mind? Or it only remains there as cognition of, in, and by the body? The answer is the second. Any cognition is not different from the cognizer. Thus you will find whatever products or objects you are referring to are no more objects and independent entities but they are formations and cognitions taking place in your mind or consciousness. So everything becomes the consciousness alone. This is the ultimate truth. Now whatever you considered to be the Self different from the body, now becomes the Self which is the only source of all understanding, cognitions, memory and the like. This is how we proceed.
Secondly people have a feeling that we realize the Self, that realization takes place at one point of time and after the realization you will always be a self-realized soul. Nothing will happen to you. This is not right at all. You may realize the Self. In the light of the Realization your personality will have to be of a certain kind, order and qualities. These are the qualities which are listed in all our scriptures in different ways. When we define dharma, dharma has got a number of limbs. It is not dharma one word. As a word it is one. But as the constituents of dharma, there are a number of items. Ahimsa, satyam, astheyam, soucham, indriyanigrah. These are in brief the dhaarmic tenets or dhaarmic constituents. In the same manner, theSelf-Realization also has some constituents. Krishna in the 13th chapter describes them as twenty and he finally says ‘etat jnanam’. All these put together become knowledge. ‘Ajnanam etatonyata’ , everything else is ajnana. So jnana is not a two letter word. On the other hand it is a composite of a number of qualities functionally in an individual. Now if in your self-realized life or in the life of a self-realized person, these qualities do not have ample expression, you will find he will become faulty, he will falter, he will get into trouble. At no point of time, pramaada or carelessness should overtake the seeker or the knower. Our scriptures make all these references and stipulations somewhere. Listen to one verse from Yogavasishtha Ramayana:
Swarupe nirmale satye nimesham-api vismrithe
Vishwam-ullaasathaam eti praavrisheeva payotaraha
Yogavasishta Ramayana
Rama, if you forget your real nature even for a nimisha, even for a second, you know what will happen? vishwam ullaasathaam ethi, the multi-pronged universe will come and take over like, praavrisheeva payotaraha, just like clouds suddenly rise and shield the sun and moon, exactly in the same manner, themulti pronged universe will overtake you and put you into a lot of trouble.
What does it mean? Even a man of self-realization has to be watchful, careful. If he becomes loose, what will happen? But self–realization is such a good thing, such a beautiful item that once a person is able to have it he will not slip at all. Because it is so beautiful, so nice, so inward, so one with you, you don’t have to have anything like other people, riches, and conveniences, nothing you want. It gives you a lot of joy and fulfillment all inwardly. The non-self-realized people have the external sensory world as their focus for enjoyment. The self-realized man has got the inner world as the focus for his constant enjoyment. The former, the one given to worldly things, you will find all the things he has are transitory and therefore will not be able to provide uniform delight or fulfillment. On the other hand the man who turns inward, you will find his inward is absolutely insured. If ten of us sit together and meditate inwardly, in what way is one troubled or affected by the other? Your inside is not going to be wide for by the others.
On the other hand if five of us try to gain an external possession there will be a fight and even loss of life. So one is an external sensory enjoyment, gross one, another is subtle inner ecstasy, where no trouble, no botheration, no fight, no competition, nothing will take place. I think we have to understand it properly. If a person continues to pursue this path 25 years, after 25 years if he changes his company, if he starts talking in a very simple manner, in worldly manner keeping worldly people together, etc., etc., 25 years of sadhana will not flourish there. My mother used to say, an article is tied with 1000 ropes, but suppose you cut one the whole bondage is lost, binding is lost. So 25 years of sadhana, and in the 26th year, you do something entirely contradictory; the entire effort is wiped off. A room lit for a hundred years if you take away the electrical arrangement and the bulbs are taken off the room is going to be dark again. That it has been lit for 100 years does not stand in good stead when it becomes dark. You have to be constantly keeping the lamp blazing so that there will be no darkness at all. These are some of the points I wanted good seekers to know.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
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