Ashtavakra Gita - 2

 

Verse 2

The second verse talks about what needs to be done if you seek Liberation. We need to give up the attachment towards worldly objects, we should not indulge ourselves in acquiring material objects and say I own a this or that. Any attachment to external world takes us away from our true nature and Liberation. What is Liberation it is freedom from bondage and bondage arises when we get attached to objects. The person attached to objects will feel pain when he is not able to acquire it, this pain is totally avoidable. The cause of such attachment is the uncontrolled mind, moreover we should understand we are neither the body or mind but the true consciousness which is blissful by itself any happiness that the mind or body experiences is the happiness of the self and not from the objects acquired. So if one understands this then attachment towards objects will also go away. All these are possible when we control our urges of the mind and senses

We should seek for forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, contentment and truth which lays a strong foundation to aspire liberation.

When we talk about forgiveness, we should be able to forgive others and ourselves, we should also be ready to ask for forgiveness when required. When one is unable to pardon these feels starts forming impressions in the mind which is rear its head out eventually putting us in difficult situation. Without forgiveness the self is still identified with mind and body as pain is felt only by these and not by the atman. Our true self is indifferent to all these emotions and looks at everything as a witness, but if we identify ourselves with mind and body then pain is inevitable.

Being sincere is an important quality as this will avoid the hassles of ever vigilant, an honest person does not have to worry about his actions as he knows that he has genuinely put in his efforts or he does not have to remember everything does  or says as against a dishonest person who would expect repercussions of his actions. Being true to thought, speech and action helps in creating a worry-free mind which is very helpful for progression in spiritual life

Being happy with what we have is one level of contentment, other way of looking at is when are doing something that we are not happy with it creates hundreds of problems in our mind and there by makes us miserable. If we develop the attitude of contentment, we can see divinity that activity or with what we have. Contentment does not make us inert but rather helps us to overcome the sadness that is derived out of unattainable goals. If we have an attitude of being happy irrespective the success or failure or be indifferent to the outcomes, it will make us not to get attached to objects. We can keep trying to achieve the goal again and again till we succeed but failures will not affect us we are contented with what we have with us. We can keep progressing in life without irrespective of obstacles or failure when contented.

Finally we should seek truth and be truthful in our life, this is an important quality as if one is not truthful then it denoted attached towards body and mind, by being truthful we can transcend the same

Ashtavakra Gita - 1

 

Ashtavakra Gita 

 

Verse 1

The Verse starts with a question by Janaka to Ashtavakra, on how one can acquire knowledge? How do I get liberated? and What leads to renunciation?

The verse has three question which needs to be discussed in detail. The first question is to know how to acquire knowledge. But first, what is this Knowledge that is being discussed here?

Knowing about Who am I? What am I? How am I related to the universe around me? Who is God and How am I related to God? Knowing about this is the knowledge that is being discussed here.

The above point comes with two broad categories being Who am I and Who is God? and how these two are interlinked?

Coming to the first part of the question i.e. Who am I? we usually tend associate ourselves to the body mind complex. But we are neither the body nor the mind, but the silent witness of these two. This is what is called as Atma and Paramatma (God) is all pervasive existence, consciousness and Bliss.

The true knowledge here is to know that Atma and Paramatama is one and the same. Realization of this is true knowledge. To acquire this knowledge, we can read various scriptures, like Bhagvat Gita, Upanishads etc.

Atma is our true self which witnesses everything that is happening. When something stings us, the body feels the pain and we say My body is paining. When I say my body is paining, it means that I’m different from my body and it is the body that is in pain and this is observed by me, hence I’m not the body.

Then we think that the I’m the mind, mind and thought go hand in hand and they are the same, mind does not exist if there is no thought and hence when the body gets sting it feels sad and the thoughts comes up that it is suffering. But again here we say that my mind is disturbed due to pain and therefore I’m not the mind, as it is my mind that is disturbed and I’m witnessing it, in-turn I’m the true witness of mind and body or the one who illuminates the this event is the true self or Atma (Consciousness).

This true self is neither afflicted by the pains and pleasures of the body mind complex and remains the same irrespective of the situation that its body and mind undergoes, for this Self the body/mind is just like an illusion that appears in-front of it. Meaning for the Atma the pains of the body and mind appears in it and hence it’s an appearance, pain is either an appearance.

The existence of body and mind is dependent on Atma and Atman is independent of the these two. Atma can exist without these two but mind and body can’t (Imagine existence of anything without consciousness, it is not possible, without consciousness nothing cannot exist, how can one quantify of existence of something without existence itself without consciousness). By this way we can understand the Atman has the quality of Existence, consciousness and Bliss (bliss because there is nothing other than atman when everything is in atman, then it means that everything is perfect, you don’t need anything, as source of pleasure for everything everything is atman, hence it’s bliss, as atman is independent and body mind is an appearance to itself, it is perfect and hence blissful by itself)

God is traditionally described as Existence, consciousness and bliss and by above interpretation of Atman, both are one and the same

The second point touched upon in the verse after Knowledge is Liberation, the logical conclusion of the right knowledge leads to liberation, which freedom from bondage, misery, Liberation completely eradicates misery. A Jeevanmuktha (Liberated while living) does not experience any misery irrespective of any situation that he experience, it is important to note that realization does not take away the Karma that needs to be experienced but rather removes the pain (mind level/ no mind state) associated to it.

Finally, the third point which is spoken here is about renunciation, this is an important quality that one needs to develop for acquiring knowledge about Brahman (God) and obtain Liberation. A person who is attached to world or otherwise enjoyment will never be able to go beyond it as Brahman is beyond all these things, if one wants to attain liberation (beyond all bondages and limitations) can happen only with renunciation and associated qualities

 

 

Body/Mind and Ego in Self enquiry

Body/Mind and Ego in Self enquiry

To progress in spirituality, one must enquire about his own self and understand “Who am I? “. This is very important as unless we know who we are then there is no progress spirituality. We should know who we are and what is God and how we are related? Etc.

In Advaita Vedanta to answer this question we have Mahavakyas which encapsulate the entire teachings of Vedanta in to a statement like “Tatvamasi”, “Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi” etc.

We will try to analysis and understand the statement “Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi” here. The phrase consists of two parts one being “Aham” and second part “Brahmāsmi”. What is Aham ? In short it is nothing but Self that is within us. Self is nothing but the Atman. So, the statement clearly says that the Atman within and the universal God (Brahman) are one and the same.

Now you may say that hold on how can you say that I’m Brahman, where the person is always with many imperfections and Brahman is supreme and perfect. So, it is at this stage Self enquiry becomes important.

To discern and understand that I’m Brahman now we will investigate who we (our true nature) are as opposed to our assumed self. When the mahavakya says “I”, it is not referring to the body, mind or the ego which is appears from it. This simply refers to the source of body, mind and ego as we can consciously drop the notion of these and still exist.

If we do a simple exercise now, we can clearly discern that we are not the body as we perceive it, we say this is my hand, leg etc., so the perceiver/observer is different from observed, similarly we can observe the mind undergoing so many thoughts and we say that I have a good thought or bad thought, who is this I that is having good or bad thought? When we understand this, we know that we are neither the body or mind.

So next thing that comes up is the ego, now we will argue that the “I’m” the ego because it is for the ego that everything is done. Or is it really? If I say my name is Deva, I’m identifying myself as Deva and finally say that Deva did everything or doing everything. But stop, here I’m calling myself as Deva, so who is that I calling itself Deva? So again, ego is different from the true “I”. Meaning we neither the body, mind or ego. Then what are we? Is the question that needs to be understood.

After negating everything what is left is “I”, anything that can be imagined or cannot be imagined, anything that exist or does not exist, anything that we perceive or not perceive is not “I” (Brahman), then who am I becomes more confusing as it seems like there is not solution to this problem. For this the answer is simple, who am I is nothing but the witness of all of these and you are that witness, consciousness and bliss [Bliss because the I is everything and there is no second thing other than it, at material level we try to acquire more and more and think that we will be happy, when only Brahman (“I”) exists and there is nothing other than Brahman which is complete, there nothing to acquire, when there is nothing to acquire we are complete and blissful].

Why Spirituality?

Why Spirituality?

This is an important question that one should ask himself before want to pursue the path of Spirituality. The path of spirituality is different from path of rituals that are followed as spirituality now. So it is necessary for us to be clear as to why we want to pursue in the path of Spirituality

The nature of the human mind is that it always wants something or the other; because of this we undergo a series of emotions which is a never ending cycle of happiness and suffering. When a person realizes this truth and wants to transcend beyond this then his true spiritual journey begins.

Most of us are stuck at the level of Material happiness and reluctantly accept the suffering which comes along with it. We assume that all the happiness in the world can be acquired through money or material happiness is the primary source of happiness. We feel that outside objects around us is the source of happiness and try to accumulate more of it, but once you acquire what you want, there is an urge to acquire more and more. This becomes a never ending process and hence we fall in the trap of suffering.

The above point is important to understand as this realization is the stepping stone to spiritual progress. Only when we understand that outside objects is not the source of your happiness but rather is a tool to secure the body and its life for future contingencies. You will come to a profound understanding that happiness is not outside. Happiness is derived from within. The moment we understand money, objects and everything around us does not affect the way we feel about our self. We start the process of transcending this apparent material world.

Then at this crucial part of our life we try to find the answer for how we can experience true happiness and how to get over this cycle of suffering. At this stage we try to understand why am I suffering? This enquiry leads to the understanding mentioned above that attachment to material objects are the cause for suffering. Then next there is a void in our life as throughout our life we were behind money and objects and now we have now left the same. Then our mind works over time to go against the will and makes us to run behind objects again, but with will power we bring a control over our attachments. At this stage we give up objects and start having control over desires, and then we question ourselves what is the purpose of our life? Because throughout our life we were behind objects assuming that it’s the source of our happiness now that idea itself has crashed in our mind.

This is the stage where true transformation starts happening with the help of a Guru, were we start understanding the nature of our existence (because we have let go of objects and external world so only option left now is to turn inward and understand the nature of our existence). Once the renunciation of the material world beings (metaphorically as we still exist on earth only mental transformation happens) the questions like what is this life? What is the nature of the life? What is the purpose of the life? And most importantly who am I? Are the questions, that arise in the mind of the seeker. This is where he steps into spiritual path and he starts letting go of his attachment towards material world and starts understanding life by learning from a Guru, studying scripture and performing sadhana.

The spiritual seeks now learns the reason for his unhappiness and realizes that mind and ego are the source of all suffering, mind and ego gives rise to desire which is the cause of all the suffering. Then with meditation and learning from the teachings of the scriptures the apparent problems that he is facing would be of no consequence for him as he would just see all problems as the ones created by the mind, and he is not the mind or the ego but the observers of the both. At this stage he starts differentiating between himself and what is not he; through enquiry he will understand that he is not the body, prana, mind, false knowledge that he is the body and mind or the bliss arising from material object. He realizes that these are the objects of the experience and he is the observer of these. At this stage he finds true and everlasting happiness. Further he will realize that this observer which is the source of all objects is not restricted to himself but pervades everywhere as consciousness. This the ultimate stage where he realizes all is one and merges with the supreme consciousness. Getting away from the suffering permanently transcending Maya.

Note realization is not something which he creates or something that one searches for, this truth already exists but he realizes it now. At this stage realization happens and the apparent world becomes a maya for that being

Maya – The Grand Illusion

Maya – The Grand Illusion

If you go an elderly person ask what is life? They will just say that life is just a farce, they will say that things happen and we can control few and most of the other things are out of our control. We just ride the wave of what is happening to us with little or no control.

Though we feel that we have control on what we are doing or deciding, this control is conditioned by our surrounding, the way we are brought up and the habits/tendencies that we have acquired. It is these factors which have very high influence on our life which takes away our freedom and act based on the limitations that we are put into.

So these limitations that we are put into is nothing but Maya, to be precise the joy, sorrow, money, planets, talk, thought are all considered as Maya in Advaita Vedanta. To put in simple terms anything that can felt, seen, felt, understood or perceived is Maya. All that is physical is Maya.

Now this point creates lot of disturbance to people who are engaged in this world thoroughly and have difficult time agree with this point.

So why the yogi’s of the past and present say that the world and all the apparent things around is Maya, in fact Krishna say’s that world appears out of his Yoga Maya, or it arises from his yogic powers. This gives us a hint now that Maya is the power of the Brahman. This power arises out of Brahman and goes back into it. Meaning the apparent world arises out of Nirguna Brahman and goes back into the same, so one thing that remains always is Brahman and what comes and goes as a world is just nothing but a wave in the ocean of Brahman.

Now let us dwell more into this, the point here is that there is an underlying string which is the cause of all and this underlying factor gives rise to all that is. Now when there is something which is the source for the apparent world then how can the world be true existence? Its existence is completely dependent on Brahman. So now point becomes clear that world is a manifestation of Brahman.

Now people will come up with an argument that, the world is a manifestation of the God and hence there is God and from the God this world has come into being this existence and hence this existence is true as it is a manifestation from the Lord.

But Advaita goes even further to say that the world does not exist at all this world is just an appearance in the consciousness of the Brahman. This is where things get tricky. How and why do they say that this world does not exist at all?

It’s like this when a man dresses up like a women , the perceiving eye gets confused and misidentifies man to a women. Now we know that he is a man but his outer covering and dressing is making him to look like a woman but reality he is not. So man in this case is the absolute truth and looking like women is the Maya. The Man here has transformed himself to a women even though this has deceived others. Does it change the fact that he is man? No absolutely not.

Similarly the consciousness projects itself upon itself this world and assumes itself as this limited world, but this is wrong as it’s true nature is the absolute (Brahman) and the world is the projection in its consciousness. So for example if a person imagines himself to have four hands and now if he gets confused between reality and imagination and considers himself to have four hands. Does it change the fact that he has four hands? Absolutely not, so it is his mental projection (A mental image viewed as reality) which is giving raise such delusion.

This way it is quite clear that the apparent world and us are nothing but the projections in the Consciousness. It’s like we are in a child’s game where one day he build a castle and the next movement breaks it apart, similarly we are born in this projection (appear in the consciousness) and die in the same, but in reality there is no birth or death as everything is one reality i.e. Brahman. We have just put on this dress of body and discard it which is of no relevance to us as there is just Brahman.

Absolute Existence and Consciousness

Absolute Existence

When we say that “I’m That” what we are trying to say is that “I’m” (Individual Consciousness) are nothing but “That” (Universal Consciousness).

So let us try to understand few things before we fully understand “I’m That”. There are two components here “I” and “That”

Firstly we have to understand “I’m”, in-fact we need to know what is this “I” who is this “I”?

So now we will try to understand “I”, take an example of typing this article, now my hands are typing this article on the laptop and my mind is creating thoughts, the ego there by executes the action by associating itself with the body and mind and types the article. But if we observe closely this process of typing we understand that, first my hand is writing the article and my mind is thinking about the article and with the help of intellect to write it in an accurate manner and finally we say that “I wrote this article”. Now it very important to note the statement “I wrote this article”, as it is my body that wrote the article and my mind which came up with this thought, so I’m different from mind and body which has written this article.

Let us go further, we are here saying that my body and my mind, if it is my body and my mind, obviously I’m different from mind and body as here I’m saying that body and mind are mine, or in other-words both body and mind is used as tools by something else to write this article. So when I say “I wrote this article”, it does not mean the mind or body but something else which exists independently to this mind and body, which is using the mind and body as a tool for creating action. It is the cause and mind and body actions are the effect.

So what is this I? It is nothing but the consciousness that illuminates the mind and body. So when I say that “I wrote this article”, it should mean that the consciousness that exists within is the cause for this article and “I wrote” is nothing but “It wrote”, in-short this consciousness is the cause for everything and we should not wrongly identify ourselves with body or mind but to the consciousness.

So from this we understand that “I’m” refers to individual consciousness.

Now let us go to the second part “That”, now what is this “That”? It is nothing but universal consciousness. So now when we say that “I’m That” what it means is that the individual consciousness which is within is no different than the universal consciousness. Now the question that we come up is that how the individual consciousness is same as universal consciousness? To answer this we have to go with basics first. Universal consciousness is nothing but Brahman and per Upanishads Brahman is omnipresent and infinite. When I say that my consciousness and your consciousness, here this statement becomes contradictory to Brahman’s Omnipresence, as when Brahman (universal consciousness) is present everywhere then there cannot be another consciousness like individual consciousness as this will rule out the omnipresence of Brahman given raise to duality, if something is omnipresent the presence of something else defeats the purpose of Omnipresence.

Second argument would be that of infinity nature of Brahman (universal consciousness), if there are two consciousness then there needs to be space for two i.e. Brahman (universal consciousness) and Atman (individual consciousness), now if there are two then Brahman is not infinite as the individual consciousness limits Brahman consciousness.

Hence we say that “I’m That” as our individual Self is nothing but the universal Self and there is not difference between the same. What we have to do is that remove this ignorance from our mind by repeated learning of the scriptures, understanding them and finally bring it to practice by practicing Mahavakyas (Aham Brahmasmi, Tatwamasi etc) which will ultimately give raise to the realization of Self with the Universal Self.               

Why do we love others / Why should we love others?

Why do we love others / Why should we love others?

This may look like a strange question to many of them, but is a very pertinent one. The reason we have think about this topic is very important at this juncture of time in the world. It is a very important point that each and every one of us has to ponder upon to remove the hatred and aloofness that people are exhibiting now everywhere. If this goes unchecked the future looks bleak.

Now let us start analyzing why we love anyone or anything. We love anyone or anything for a sole reason that it gives us happiness. Just think about it, you love to talk and play with a child because you feel happy playing with the child. Will you play with anyone if you don’t like them? The answer would be no. Now understand this that we only love/like those people/things which makes us happy and we ignore or go away from people whom we don’t love or like.

So whatever we do in the above case is for our happiness (so that we are happy either by association or disassociation), we like to be with the person whom we love because it makes us happy and we leave the person whom we don’t like, as we want to be happy and that person/thing is obstructing the experience of that happiness.

Above situation is very apt in the current scenario as most of us are isolating our-selves from others to avoid the pain caused by them and to be at peace. But this is leading to a bigger problem of loneliness and depression as we don’t know how to deal with our thoughts and emotions.

So coming to the point, now we know that we love because we are happy by loving, we would not have loved anyone if it does not make us feel happy. So now the question would be why should we Love others then? The answer is simple; if we hate others then we are not happy. When we are shouting at anyone or bear hatred in mind how can the mind be at peace? It is not possible. Hatred is against the very basic nature of our true self as it leads to mental trauma and ultimately it manifests into physical ailments (in short unhappiness).

Thinking from other perspective what is the use of hating someone? There is none actually as we are engrossed in an emotion which is counter active to our peace and happiness. It does not mean that we have to take all hatred that comes to us and do nothing. It is only that we can fight back and move on with our life by not carrying that emotion further as it is detrimental to our happiness. Just to take an example we can see that people are jealous of the other because the other person may be rich, healthy etc. But what would the person get from being jealous of the other when he can use that time to channelize his energy to become a better person, if he remains in the state of jealousy he is wasting his energy to be unhappy which is totally unnecessary. What is the point in hating when ultimately the same is the cause of our unhappiness?

So we have to be more practical in life and understand that love only increases your happiness, it does not mean that we should not fight back with others who are troubling us or to absorb all everything that is directed towards us and succumb to its negativity, but to simply defend ourselves and move along in your life so that we are free from these impressions and memories why will make us ever happy.

To look at this from Advaita Vedanta point of view, the entire world is view as Maya (illusion – as this relative world is just a projection of consciousness, alternatively the world and us are temporary in nature) and we are the Self covered by Maya. When everyone and everything around us is the manifestation of the same consciousness, how can the same consciousness hate each other? This would become illogical. The mind of each and every person is attached to the same consciousness and it is like saying I hate the other self and love my own self (which would be Ludacris). It is only the mind which differentiates each of us as separate to each other, but in reality we are just a projection of one infinite being. When we say that we hate the other person it would mean that we hate ourselves. So the point is self-evident that there is no reason for a person for hating each other, as all are one consciousness

Four Steps to Freedom

Four Steps to Freedom

To know the nature of our true self we should slowly start developing certain qualities and acquire knowledge over a period of time. Let us discuss some important qualities that one should possess

Devotion/Bhakthi – This is most useful quality that one can possess and this does not require any pre-qualification. What it means is that if a person has to learn Vedanta he should have certain basis qualities in himself and because of that he becomes eligible to learn Vedanta (this is a traditional requirement which was followed, the basic qualification for Vedanta is collectively termed as Sadhana Catustaya, two of the qualities are discussed below).

Bhakthi or Love to wards divine has no conditions to it; it is the purest form of emotion that one can possess which keeps him/her always with the lord.  The love towards the divine should be unconditional and this is possible only when a person gives up his ego. It is just that a person has to start liking God and slowly but surely the thought of God will take over the mind. Love is such a powerful tool that it just needs a kick start and once this starts, it pervades each and every thought of a person.

So how should one proceed with Bhakthi? What one can do is that, he can remember God for all the actions that he performs. Suppose he is buying new cloths then mentally thank God for providing the new cloths or otherwise offer the Clothes to the God mentally before wearing, similarly while eating or going to sleep do the same thing. To a person who loves God he knows that nothing in this world is independent of the God, it is only God who is making us to do everything, not even a blade of grass will move without his will, hence he gives up the thought of I’m doing this, to God is making me to do this (agent ship). Finally as he proceeds his individual will ceases to exist and lives a life completely absorbed in the Self (God) and experiences bliss.

In Vedantic point of view the mind has to surrender to the consciousness within. Meaning other than the self-everything is Maya (illusion), hence the mind/body that we have should be used only in the service of the Lord, that is why we see that highly devoted people are highly compassionate, as they see the Lord in each and every one and they know that everything is only God and this existence is because of the Self and later merges back into the Self. Self is the base on which this relative world exists and it will cease to exist if there is no self, sustenance of the universe is dependent on the Self and not the other way around.

The reason we say that it is an illusion is that the world that we is not in the truest form, only the modification of the consciousness has made this apparent world appearing in front of us and hence when the person realizes the pure consciousness within, he understands that only consciousness/self exists and nothing else. Just think that once you realize that nothing is apart from you and everything one and the same, how a person will hate another, it is only love and compassion that will prevail.

Jnana/Knowledge – This is one of the qualities that also come up in Sadhana Catustaya and Vairagya as well which will be discussed later. Having scriptural knowledge about the Self is very important if a person wants to proceed in understanding the Self within, a person following Jnana yoga has to listen, understand and practice the teachings of the Upanishads. This will lead to the realization that his true nature is that of the God and there is none other than the God in existence.

Vairagya/Dispassion/detachment – Proper practice of Bhakthi or Jnana will always lead to viragya, when a person realizes that there is no second to the Self, his ego (false identification that he is separate from the creator) will go away as he see manifestations of God with the underlying realization that everything God, at this stage he would stay with the bliss of the Self perpetually and ignore the impermanent pleasures and pains of the material world

Viveka/Discernment/Discrimination - This is nothing but the quality to differentiate between what is true and false. The point is that with proper Viveka, one will understand and differentiate between the true Self and its manifestations, the world around is like a wave in the ocean, The wave is no different than the water in the ocean, if there is no water then there is not wave, hence the apparent world that we see and live is just a modification of the true self, but it cannot exist without the Self. The person with proper knowledge will be able to discern this and understand that the true nature of the self is beyond any explanation that can be given through a language. Language is not capable of understanding and articulating the true self but only through experience that a person can realize the self. This is viveka that Self is Absolute Existence, Consciousness and Bliss

When God Started a Game

When God Started a Game

God who is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss one day felt bored and started playing a game. He started using his inherent energy and created the universe around. Since he was absolute existence the appearing universe was just his appearance/projection. Now the he started the game by creating beings that are perfect with perfect control over the mind and firm knowledge of the self. These beings immediately understood the nature of the true Self and went into Samadhi and got liberated. So God decided that that creating perfect beings was not entertaining enough as the beings realized that they are the same God as the apparent world was just a projection/appearance of the Self within.

Now to makes things little interesting God created a world with ignorance induced in the minds of the beings, this ignorance led to the false Identification by the beings (who are nothing but God as the existence of God is absolute and there is nothing other than God) that they are different from God. It is funny to see that God got so much engrossed in the game that he forgot he is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

It is here that the drama of Samsara started where he placed himself as many and interacted with each other. To make it manageable he set rules on himself by the way of Karma. So he decided the actions that he performs and he decided what would be outcome based on his own law. This was so perfect that he got stuck into this whirlpool of samsara (births and deaths) by his own laws by forgetting who he is in true sense which is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

The he decided that he is tired of the troubles of this illusionary appearance (which is now real for him as he has forgotten his true nature) due to the rules which are self-created and self-imposed on oneself. He struggled and then started the process of understand what is everything and more importantly who he is in reality. This lead to the understanding that he is not the mind and body, understood its limitations and when he looked to his inner most core he realized that he is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

The game he created for fun with ignorance induced in the mind and rules of engagement within the projected world led the God to identify himself with his projection rather than his absolute nature. By this was he God stuck in samsara and when he was fed up he got out by realizing his true nature.

Hence this way we can say that the apparent world which we live in is nothing but his play, he is inducer of thoughts and actions and he is the judge who awards effects for these thoughts and actions. As he is the absolute existence this apparent world is none other than himself and all actions and effects are his play. Only when we realize this we realize our true nature which is the nature of the true self and ignore (not be bothered by the happenings) the world as now we know we are the absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

How do we know the self within is in the form of Bliss?

How do we know the self within is in the form of Bliss?

To answer this question let us understand, what we do when we are happy? Suppose take an example that I’m talking with my friend and he is being very cordial and helpful, at this stage we feel happy that we have a friend and so how do we react to this now? We try to hold on to this person as he is source of our happiness and if the other person is unpleasant then we discard relationship with that person as he is not the source of happiness (this is dualistic way of analysis for now to make us understand what we do when we are happy).

Here it is very evident that by nature we love objects that bring us happiness and discard which does not. It is very important to understand this point that we love objects that bring us happiness. This statement gives us the clue as to why the Self within is in the form of Bliss. So let us understand from the perspective of the object of happiness with regards to soul within the body. Mind always desires for living for thousands of years and says I may never die, we know that the soul is the cause of the mind and when it says that I may never die, it means that it experiences happiness from the Soul and that’s why it wants it to be permanent. Meaning the soul is the object of happiness for the mind and that is the reason it tries to hold on to it as is its natural tendency.

In this way we can clearly understand that the Self/soul within is in the form of Bliss as if it was not in the form of Bliss the mind shun the soul leading to disintegration of itself (mind)

Why is the Bliss of the Self the highest form of happiness?

This is because when a person feels happy the mind turns inwards to the soul, we know that Soul is in the form of Bliss from our earlier point and hence when the mind experiences the happiness its thought process reduces and experiences the bliss within for a moment. Hence it is clear that the happiness experienced by the mind is from within and not from the outside world. Hence the bliss of the Self is the highest form of happiness as we experience only the bliss of the Self within when we feel happy in this material world, other way of looking at this is that happiness obtained from objects are always impermanent as it will always (objects are not permanent) go away and the bliss of Self is ever existent so it would make the most superior form of happiness.

Nature of pure consciousness

When we start analyzing what is consciousness? We can go with a simple analogy. When we are awake I‘m aware of this laptop, the keyboard that being typed on, the mental modifications that is happening in the mind, physical actions and reactions that is being experienced by the body and the mind, but there is consciousness which is aware of these events.

Meaning, there is a body and which experiences physical comforts or discomforts and a mind which experiences happiness and otherwise. Both of these are the object of experience and these are being experienced by the awareness, this pure awareness is call consciousness.

In the above example our awareness is scattered to various objects around us and due to this the mind identifies itself with the body/mind as the awareness. But when we observe this further through proper discernment, we can effectively reject this and say that these experiences experienced by the mind and body are being witnessed by the consciousness. How do we prove this lets take the example of the deep sleep state where the person during deep sleep is not aware of the body nor the mind exists at that time. But how do we know that we were in deep sleep after waking up? Where there was no mind and body, but yet something existed. This something is nothing but the pure consciousness which is ever present with or without body/mind/object.

Now when we start dropping body and mind notion and see what exists is the purest consciousness. Let us take a practical example now, close your eyes and start taking away you awareness from the body by fixing your concentrating on a particular point within the body. Now slowly detach with thoughts from the mind by increasing your concentration on the point. What happens now is your thoughts will become zero due to the focus on a particular point and body at that time is nonexistent for you. Slowly when mind and body is dropped from our awareness what stays back is pure awareness without modifications of the mind. Now in this state though there is awareness (individual self exists) there is lack of it as well (in further stage). Meaning once there is no mind and body (nonexistence of external world as well as the sense organs are withdrawn at this stage). We experience a void and the conscious mind without thought will become unconscious at some point and there is no one to experience (individual self is absent) and nothing to experience (Object of experience). This is state of consciousness where the Object of the awareness, the object and process of awareness has become one i.e. no awareness (void etc). This is called pure consciousness.

The Walk of Spirituality - Part 1

The Walk of Spirituality

Since our early childhood some day or the other we think about the nature of our self. We also think about what is our relationship with this world/universe. I hope this has come to every mind and have tried to explore this with our limited knowledge at that point of time and eventually when we did not proceed anywhere, we tried to get this answered with our parents and elders who had better knowledge than us. But this turns out to be a futile exercise as most of them don’t give the right answers or try to avoid it. Because of this we get stuck. One more reason as to why we get stuck is that, as we grow older material happiness and problems starts take precedence over these questions and we tend to put this on the side lines and concentrate the problems before us (Though here we have to understand that most of the material problems are self-inflicted and can be ignored but the mind does not allow this).

Let us try to understand the problems associated with our life and slowly progress towards what would be the solutions.

When a baby is born its mind is free of impressions like a blank state, so in order to live, the survival mode of the organism kicks in and starts learning from the surrounding. It slowly starts accumulation information’s that are useful for its survival. So what happens here is that each and every activity that is performed is recorded in the mind in the form of memory and used whenever necessary. So suppose a child see’s a chocolate initially it will be skeptical whether to touch it, eat it etc. But once it eats it, it enjoys the taste of the chocolate and this get embedded as a memory and since it enjoyed the taste of the chocolate the impression in the mind prompts it to eat more or it, this is nothing but impressions which forms into future tendencies. So it is here that trap of life starts. The child proceeds to acquire innumerable impressions like this on daily basis due to which certain impressions are created and these impressions leads to certain tendencies which ultimately results in action and reaction (causation and effect).

The law of causation and effect is one of the most complex activities that take place in the human mind.  Because of this when an action is performed there would be an effect in proportion of that cause. The law functions with the impressions and tendencies in the mind and performs actions. Diving further let us understand how this works with the same example of the chocolate and the kid.

The first time a kid sees the chocolate the awareness within the person prompts the person that there is something before you. Now mind jumps in and tries to see what it is (by reviewing old memory) but when it is unable to decide it takes the help of the intellect. Intellect here tries to analyze what is the thing that is before it. It makes the mind to ask around to know what it is and once it is satisfied it makes a decision, mind now works with the ego and consumes the chocolate.

Since the chocolate is consumed for the first time the taste of the food leaves impressions of its delicious taste in the mind in the form of memory and since the mind has enjoyed the food, mind prompts the ego for more. This is where the initial seed of problems starts, as desire is now created and when left unchecked it rears its ugly head in various ways.

Let us understand how this works further, the enjoying mind which consumed the chocolate now has a tendency to eat more of it and has led to the desire of consuming this chocolate more and more. Usually at this point intellect comes into the picture and puts a stop on the urges of the kid says it’s not good to eat too much, but if the mind is filled with many such impressions and urges, intellects influence becomes weak. So in this example the child now wants chocolate, mind starts disturbing the intellect to come up with a solution to for procuring more chocolates. Now the intellects first things about what are the available options with it. So with the help of intellect the child asks the parents to buy more of eat for its consumption. Suppose the parents do not buy the chocolate saying this is enough for the day and no more will be given. This event will have varied effect on the mind of the child. If the desire for the chocolate is less, then the child will subside and keep quiet and go about with its other activities.

On the other hand when the kid’s desire has taken over the mind (or mind is filled with full of desire of the chocolate) the kid gets agitated (mind of the kind). The kid’s mind now direct the intellect to procure the chocolate in any way possible. So now the kid will starts crying and throwing tantrums against the parents. Even if this does not work the kid will try to steal the chocolate leading to disastrous actions and reactions. If the child gets the chocolate after an unruly behavior, the impression that being unruly will fetch results will get embedded in the mind and leads to a tendency of being unruly next time when it wants something that the parents or others oppose. Further if the kid steals the chocolate and eats it. Then an impression that stealing will fulfill the desire (minds restlessness is subsided). Finally what will happen is that these impressions and tendencies percolate in to something very big, making the same kid in the future to do unnecessary and immoral things for its end.

This is just one small example considering on small aspect, but when we consider our daily life activities there are innumerable number of such impressions and tendencies that get embedded in our mind and mix and match these impressions and tendencies starts ruling our life than it should actually be led. 

So we can see that innumerable impressions and tendencies which work within the mind make it corrupted and confused. Because of these impurities the quality of life that is led is also not good and we become slaves of our thoughts/emotions/ tendencies and not the other way around. 

Regarding the Self

Why the study of one’s own nature is required. If one observes the source of all experiences are this body and more importantly the mind. So whatever we feel is based on our thoughts and actions which invariably convert into reactions as our thoughts and actions are not controlled. When we enquire the nature of this thought and to whom this arises. We start our journey to understand ourselves.

Since all the experiences arise only in the arena of the mind it becomes very important now for us to understand what is it that makes us happy or sad and more importantly we enjoying or disliking things. From the day we are born our mind starts consuming information from external sources and stores it as memory. It is these memories which are the source of our miseries. When a person looks at the other when dealing with an issue, this if it is important for him will get embedded in the mind and when faced with similar problem he will try to replicate the response based on his 

memory.

Since most of these reactions happen unconsciously the person would not know why he reacted to a situation in this manner. Because of this he suffers from the problems that arise because of such reactions.

So the point where one starts to react to various memories in his mind would be collectively called Samskara's (mental impression, recollection, psychological imprint). So it here that it becomes very important for a person to develop good Samskara's. To put it in simple terms developing good habits is the key to avoid such repercussions. What is trying to be conveyed here is that if a person starts nurturing good thoughts in his mind eventually the good thoughts will take over his subconscious mind and when is faced with a situation he is likely to respond positively. Giving rise to good karma, otherwise no karma.

Now continuing further we will briefly try to understand, what is Karma? Karma is the sum total of actions (both mental and physical) of a person that has been recorded in his mind. The samskaras that it embedded in our mind makes us to do things in a certain way and samskaras that come from our previous birth forms karma in this birth most of the time. What does this mean? Say you have an experience and this experience is recorded in you sub conscious mind at the time at the time of the experience itself and this creates a certain tendency (vasanas) and these tendency with imprints usually come out of sub conscious mind it becomes as an action which is nothing but karma.

In simple words you experience something, which creates memory and minds works on these thoughts and creates desire/inclinations etc, there by an action is performed based on these imprints and inclinations which is nothing but Karma.

After a brief understanding on this aspect, let us get back to study of self and why this is important from the above perspective.

Now let us try to understand why our body is not the true Self. There are two or three ways we can say that body is not the self.

Firstly when we are in deep sleep there is no awareness on the body and mind, at this state we are in a state where nothing exists including our body and mind and yet Self exists (meaning you exist even though body does not exist)

Alternatively we can only be aware of objects and cannot identify our self with it. Meaning when I see a bag, I can only say that I perceive the bag or I’m aware of the bag but I cannot go and say that I’m the bag. So similarly the self only perceives the body and therefore is not the body. The self is aware of the body but it is not the body.

Then what makes a person to wrongly identify himself with the body? It is nothing but his ignorance.

Third way of looking at it is like this, we are born and we grow, become old and finally die. Here if you observe that, the Self within the body is the same when you were a baby, adult and old person.Here the body kept changing and yet you remain the same. Hence you are not the body

Surrender to the Divine and Destruction of Ego

The major hindrance in one's spiritual progression is the thought of "I", i.e. the ego plays a major role in making a person getting stuck in the cycle of happiness and sadness (dyads) leading to transmigration (cycle or re births) .

Whenever a person does something and says that it is because of him that this activity was completed or takes credit of the same, the ego raises its ugly head and inflates his arrogance, leading to disaster.

But when the same person en quire's as to who is doing the activity, or for whom is this thought being raised for, then ultimately the logical deduction will go to "I" which is the ego, and when you question who is this "I", there will be no answer, and at that time our intellect realizes that there is something which is supporting this "I" (ego) and it is this which is the cause of everything. This which supports the ego is the true Self (true "I") which is of the form of awareness.

It is this which people call it as GOD, Brahman, Shiva or Self etc. Which is nothing but pure awareness (consciousness) 

How do we justify that ego/mind ("I") is not the doer/cause but the awareness is? Simple during deep sleep state the ego does not exist and only after coming out of deep sleep, the ego realizes that it was not there in the deep sleep. 

So here there was an existence which was there even when the ego ("I") was missing (not there) in deep sleep. What is this existence? It is nothing but pure awareness (consciousness) which exists during wakeful, dream and deep sleep state independent of mind and ego (The point is he existed even though mind and ego was temporarily non existent during sleep, there by ego is the true "I")  . Hence we can also understand that this awareness is the source/cause for the mind and ego and not the other way around.

So once a person understands that all actions are not because of him (false ego) and it is because of the Self within. Then the process of surrender will start and destruction of ego commences.

So, the simple trick is to live a life where you repeatedly bear this in mind that all the thoughts and actions performed by you is not because of you (ego) but it is because of the Self within

Gradually when his false identification of himself from ego "I" to the Self within is established, there is complete surrender which leads to realization that you are nothing but the Self.

Good Read - Teachings from Ramana Maharishi

Self-Realisation

D:    How can I attain Self-realization?

M:    Realization is nothing to be gained afresh, it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought ‘I have not realised’. Stillness or peace is Realization. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realization, the attempt should be made to rid oneself of these thoughts. They are due to the identification of the Self with the not-Self. When the not-Self disappears, the Self alone remains. To make room, it is enough that the cramping be removed; room is not brought in from elsewhere.

D:    Since Realization is not possible without vasana-kshaya, how am I to realise that State in which the vasanas are effectively destroyed?

M:    You are in that State now!

D:    Does it mean that by holding on to the Self, the vasanas should be destroyed as and when they emerge?

M:    They will themselves be destroyed if you remain as you are.

D:    How shall I reach the Self?

M:    There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached,it would mean that the Self is not here and now but that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self; you are already That.
The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Self which is Bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this veil of ignorance which is merely wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge is the false identification of the Self with the body, mind etc. This False identification must go, and then the Self alone remains.
Therefore Realization is for everyone; Realization makes no difference between the aspirants. This very doubt, whether you can realise, and the notion ‘I-have-not-realised’ are themselves the obstacles. Be free from these obstacles also.

D:    What is the use of samadhi and does thought subsist then?

M:    Samadhi alone can reveal the Truth. Thoughts cast a veil over Reality, and so It is not realised as such in states other than samadhi.
In samadhi there is only the feeling ‘I AM’ and no thoughts. The experience ‘I AM’ is being still.

D:    How can I repeat the experience of samadhi or the stillness that I obtain here?

M:    Your present experience is due to the influence of the atmosphere in which you find yourself. Can you have it outside this atmosphere? The experience is spasmodic. Until it becomes permanent, practice is necessary.

D:    One has at times vivid flashes of a consciousness whose centre is outside the normal self, and which seems to be all-inclusive. Without concerning ourselves with philosophical concepts, how would Bhagavan advise me to work towards getting, retaining and extending those rare flashes? Does abhyasa in such experience involve retirement?

M:    Outside! For whom is the inside or outside? These can exist only so long as there are the subject and object. For whom are these two again? On investigation you will find that they resolve into the subject only. See who is the subject; and this enquiry leads you to pure Consciousness beyond the subject.
The normal self is the mind. This mind is with limitations. But pure Consciousness is beyond limitations, and is reached by investigation as above outlined.
Getting: The Self is always there. You have only to remove the veil obstructing the revelation of the Self.
Retaining: Once you realise the Self, it becomes your direct and immediate experience. It is never lost.
Extending: There is no extending of the Self, for it is as ever, without contraction or expansion.
Retirement: Abiding in the Self is solitude. Because there is nothing alien to the Self. Retirement must be from some one place or state to another. There is neither the one nor the other apart from the Self. All being the Self, retirement is impossible and inconceivable.
Abhyasa is only the prevention of disturbance to the inherent peace. You are always in your natural State whether you do abhyasa or not.... To remain as you are, without question or doubt, is your natural State.

D:    On realizing samadhi, does not one obtain siddhis also?

M:    In order to display siddhis, there must be others to recognise them. That means, there is no jnana in the one who displays them. Therefore, siddhis are not worth a thought; jnana alone is to be aimed at and gained.

D:    Does my Realization help others?

M:    Yes, and it is the best help that you can possibly render to others. Those who have discovered great truths have done so in the still depths of the Self. But really there are no ‘others’ to be helped. For, the Realised Being sees only the Self, just as the goldsmith sees only the gold while valuing it in various jewels made of gold. When you identify yourself with the body, name and form are there. But when you transcend the body-consciousness, the ‘others’ also disappear. The Realised one does not see the world as different from Himself.

D:    Would it not be better if the saints mix with others?

M:    There are no ‘others’ to mix with. The Self is the only Reality.

D:    Should I not try to help the suffering world?

M:    The Power that created you has created the world as well. If it can take care of you, it can similarly take care of the world also .... if God has created the world, it is His business to look after it, not yours.

D:    Is it not our duty to be patriots?

M:    Your duty is to be and not, to be this or that. ‘I AM THAT I AM’ sums up the whole truth; the method is summarised in ‘be still.
And what does stillness mean? It means ‘destroy yourself’; because, every name and form is the cause of trouble. ‘I-I’ is the Self. ‘I am this’ is the ego. When the ‘I’ is kept up as the ‘I’ only, it is the Self. When it flies off at a tangent and says ‘I am this or that, I am such and such’, it is the ego.

D:    Who then is God?

M:    The Self is God. ‘I AM’ is God. If God be apart from the Self, He must be a Selfless God, which is absurd. All that is required to realise the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? Hence atma vidya is the easiest to attain.

If there is a copyright issue let me know if I have to take this out

Understanding the SELF

The title itself will give us an Idea of what this article is all about. To understand who we are, we need to have a clear understanding of how we came into existence.

The entire universe was actually created out of nothing. Meaning the planets, stars and sentient beings like us are the resultant of nothingness. This nothing was termed by our Rishis as Para Brahman or Maha Shunya (as per Buddhism).

Then out of this nothingness the SELF (Brahman) came into being. It is not important for to know why the SELF came into being, as this will not help us to get us nowhere.

Since the SELF is always perfect and because of this perfection it remained inert, hence to get the process of Creation move forward Maya/Shakthi (kinetic enery) was created out of this SELF and this Maya used the energy of the SELF and started with the process of creation by creating souls (Tiny Brahman of the larger SELF) and surrounding around it so that it can interact with the external world.

To interact with the outer world first there was a necessity of a Consciousness, Mind, Intellect and Ego to understand and discriminate activities. But the Consciousness cannot exist by itself, hence it requires a body to perceive its surrounding and interact with it.

When the body reacts with the external factors, the mind starts reacting to the stimulus on a continuous basis. When this happens the pure consciousness that is pervaded by SELF is slowly corrupted. Meaning the Mind perceives external information, for the sake of preserving the body the Mind triggers commands to the Intellect, Intellect acts on this and is moved Consciousness and finally Ego is given the command to act on the stimulus.

This action creates impressions in our sub conscious mind. When an Impression is created in our sub conscious mind, the pure consciousness pervaded by the SELF is corrupted. When this happens on a continuous basis, our consciousness is devoid of purity that it possessed earlier. Hence the link between the Mind and SELF is forgotten, due to constant interaction with the external stimulus.

Since there is constant interaction of mind and external factors, the mind keeps reacting and creating more and more sub conscious impressions in our mind, hence impressions further gets accumulated and consciousness is devoid of essence of SELF.

Once an impression is created in the sub conscious mind, it is bound to resurface again in order to clear it out from our mind. This creation of impression and resurfacing of the same is nothing but Karma.

Since we are always interacting and creating new impressions, the impressions will not get exhausted within the life time of a person. Hence when the person dies these impression gets attached to SELF and moves out of the body and gets into another body (by being born again) to exhaust and experience these impressions. So this cycle keeps continuing and hence our consciousness is always impure and because of that we forget the existence of the SELF within us. This ignorance is the root cause for all the problems in our life. This leads to creation of karma and rebirths.

Hence to avoid this cycle of birth and rebirth, our Rishis came with concept of SELF realization and GOD realization, which is nothing but cleansing of our mind and consciousness. This technique is nothing but a sort of reverse engineering of the thought process. First we have to understand what makes us to react with the outside world and what actions create these impressions and hence perform actions in such a way that new impressions are not created and we exhaust the impressions (karma) which is already there in our mind from many births.

How do we do all these things, it only through our mind we can do this. We have work through our mind and thought processes. Understand the significance of our thoughts, as our thoughts are responsible for creating impressions (karma) in our mind.

So how do we work with our mind will be the next question. Ideally we should start changing our life style by showing restraint in our life. Our thoughts should always be positive and our actions should always be good. This forms foundation for us to tame our mind and make it to think beyond the day today problems of the life.

Once we start thinking with positive thoughts and good actions. There is cleansing of the mind and consciousness. Further leading a highly restrained life, couple with positive thoughts and actions all the times will be difficult for general people like us. Hence there is a requirement for mind to be protected all the time. This protection for the mind is provided by chanting mantras. Mantras generate required vibrations in our mind and strike at appropriate places in our body, so that our mind is not influenced by the external stimulus.

Even after protecting the mind, to tame the mind we need to take control of it or at least we should have a capacity to make our mind not addicted to anything. Hence to enable more control over mind we proceed with Pranayama (breathing exercises) this helps the mind to be still and further facilitate to enforce more control on the mind.

Finally once we are good at pranayama we should proceed with meditation. It is here that we work on our mind and thought processes. All the other activities are required just to make us more equipped to analyse, discover and cleanse the thought processes and proceed towards purifying the consciousness. When the consciousness starts getting purified the SELF starts pervading again in our mind there by link is again established with our mind. Purest form of conscious will clearly understand that body and mind that have been created are just the product of the Maya and it is this which has made us to forget the source of the existence by making us to interact with the external world and trapping us in the process of rebirths.

With purest consciousness (purest awareness) we will realize that the SELF is present in our body itself and at this stage we are Self Realized.

This article is based on the teachings of Guruji V Ravi. Any mistake kindly pardon me for lack of understanding.