| Listen to Prabhaata-rashmih Audio |
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
We have been discussing over the past few days, particularly based upon the Ashtavakra Samhita--what is knowledge, who is a knower, what is the true knowledge, who is the true knower. And because of this knowledge of the Self, what should be the basis and character of one's thinking, speaking, interactions, etc.? If you have been sharp in listening to the descriptions, you must have a lot of disillusionment, if at all, and enlightenment.
First of all you should know that there is something different from the body called the Soul. If it is different from the body, it should be different in every way, not partially. Now you can start thinking about one quality after the other. The body is animated, the Soul should never be animated. It can animate, but it is not animated. The body had a birth, it will also have a death. The Soul must never have been born, and it can and it will never die. The body is of a certain height and a certain weight. The Soul will not have any height or weight. The body has a three dimension--length, width and also thickness. The Soul will not have any one of these. The body is constantly in a state of vibration or movement. The Soul can never be so. In this way, everything about the Soul is different from the body.
Knowing such a Soul, what should be done? Any kind of a difficulty, torment or suffering which the body causes must have its solution in the knowledge of the Soul. It may not be absolute and 100 percent. At least everyone should strive to have it as much as possible and as soon as possible.
It may be easy for a seeker to meditate alone in a place, and then the mind becomes still and he has a sense of illumination and joy. That may be possible. He may have it for an hour or may be even more. Perfectly alright. The trouble is that the day consists of 24 hours and you may sleep for 7 hours. For the rest of the 17 hours, only one hour you sit in meditation and get absorbed. What about the 16 hours? Meditation itself became necessary only because of the non-meditational nature of life and the strain, torment and bondage our actions and interactions bring about in a subtle manner in the mind and intelligence. So, if one hour of absorption alone you have, and 16 hours of interaction continue, then the interactional impacts will always be much more than, it will be 16 times the meditational impact. So, everyday you get one hour impact of meditation and 16 hours of opposite impacts. So, when can you achieve fulfillment and a full solution? If this discretion or discrimination arises in the mind, the mind will gallop, "Arey! Meditation is ok to know the Self, to experience the bliss, but what about the non-meditational hours of the day where interactions continue to bring about their impacts?" So, what is that solution, what is that insight, what is that application, by virtue of which the interactional impacts either will not be there or they will be dissolved or assimilated by the system? This is where a seeker becomes a seeker of spiritual wisdom. "What is that, what is that, what is that", is an enquiry. And the answer to the enquiry is, "This is that, this is that, this is that"-- it is a knowledge. So, a seeker necessarily has to become a knowledge-seeker and that knowledge is called Self-Knowledge.
You will find in Bhagavadgita very few verses are there about meditation and meditational experiential fruition. But so many verses are there how a Yogi, or a Jnani or a devotee will conduct himself in this world and all the qualities presented are relating to the mind and intelligence. Intelligence becomes the tool in absorbing and understanding them, and then the intelligence will have to pass on this understanding and sublimate the mind in a state of function.
Ultimately it comes to this. What is that? The Soul which I have realized in my meditation, experienced in meditation, does not give room for anything at all. So there is nothing second to the Soul. Only the Soul is there. Then what is all this world, the changing world? It is only a manifestation of the Soul and the changingness is not absolute or real. It is just like the dream world and the various changes you notice there. When the dream is gone, all the objects also are gone. We remain unaffected because it was a dream. In the same manner when you understand the Soul and its fullness, that fullness doesn't permit anything else at all. So, what are these? These are more its illusory creations and display. If they are illusory creations and display, the Soul alone is as a substance. So any idea or secular idea of plurality and differentiation, all this will have to crumble and dissolve in your mind. Not only that, the mind should be able to overwhelm the impacts of the world. Rather than the mind getting overpowered by the world impacts, the mind should overwhelm the impacts. Not only that, the mind should reach such a state of understanding or its effect that there is nothing besides the Soul. It is the Soul impacting upon the Soul.
To have a greater and greater confirmation of the Soul and its nature, rather than the Soul getting affected by an alien substance. So, it boils down to – any notion of plurality should be considered only as a notion and not as a reality and this notion arises from the mind, like all other notions the notion of plurality also is notional and it should simply get dissolved.
This disillusion will take place initially in our meditation like thoughts dissolving into their very source, but that will not be sufficient. When you are acting and interacting, then also the disillusion should be a fact, a continuity, an incessant experience. The question is whether you can rise to that level and you need it. The earlier you get it, the better. But ultimately it is a question of the mind asserting itself, the mind reducing everything to thoughts and imaginations and the thoughts and imaginations being proven to be not a second or an alien substance. It is all notional and imaginational,nothing is really there as a gross substance. This is called the non-dual knowledge.
I will even say that this is very much said, but very seldom had, because the seeker should get stifled if he is not able to have this non-dual position. "Arey! I sat in meditation for a hundred hours. Everything was good and absorptional. I can continue to sit for a thousand hours. But the moment I wake up this plurality assails me. So, I must be able to overcome the plural impact". And he should feel stifled, then this non-dual knowledge, even when you are interactional in life, arises. I don't know whether you have understood what I have said. But it is worth hearing and worth reflecting upon.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
* * *