It is said that we should spend up to 75% of our time in self-inquiry. Even those who take sanyas are encourage to mingle in society and observe their reactions. This is self inquiry. When you travel in a carriage, do you take the carriage as ‘I’? Look at the Sun. It gets reflected in a small pot filled with water, in a broad river, in a mirror, or a polished pot. For this reason does the Sun feel that all these things are ‘He’? Does it get sad when the pot breaks, or the river gets dry? This is exactly like that. If you take ‘I’ to be the body, then it is all bother! If you don’t take it so, you will shine like the sun, independent of anything else.
Glossary:
satta-samanya: undifferentiated existence; primeval existence
tattva-gyan the knowledge of Reality; wisdom or knowledge of that thou art
asang: not attached; free from worldly ties; not identified with anything.
atmaroop: the form of Atma; that which is seen is only the glamour of Atma; it is atma in and of itself.
vasana: tendencies or desires
jivanmukta: permanently self-realised (or God-realised) person who no longer has any indentification whatsoever with his or her body.
videhamukta: liberated; having no body feelings or body consciousness.
Atma-tattva reality of the Spirit; the primordial element; the consciousness that is the primeval element of existence;
Question 216: Sir, kindly explain to me how to attain quickly the primordial source (or seed) which brings the highest bliss.
Answer: Ramji, strive to be stabilised in the pure consciousness-existence (satta-samanya), abandon with all your might the vasana of the universe, practise Atma intensively, and then, on being free from all obstacles you will attain the Self. If you attain to this state even for a moment, you will attain immortality. This state is attained after great endeavour.
Ramji, the goal is attained only when a jiva practises annihilation of mind, extinction of vasana and wisdom or knowledge of that thou art – all the three continuously. Quiescence is not possible by any other means. Ramji, he whose mind is not identified with material objects and is unattached does nothing even when he is engaged in actions—hearing, touch, smell, taste, etc.—because his chitta is lifted above all these and he is stabilised in that unique Atmic state. It shows that identification or attachment is the cause of all sins, desires and sufferings. When a jiva becomes free from the identifications of the mind, he becomes immortal and liberated. Therefore, you abandon all attachments, be a jivanmukta and remain stable in the Self.
Question 217: Sir, what is that non-identification or non-attachment (asang) ?
Answer: Ramji, the impure vasana from which all objects—existing and non-existing bringing joy and sorrow—are produced is called identification or attachment (sang). The vasana (desire, tendency) of a liberated individual, which is pure and free from joy and sorrow, is said to be asang (not attached to anything). The vasana of a wise person is pure and is not the cause of birth and death. Therefore, his actions are not the cause of bondage. But when one is inclined towards the objects of the world, and when one accepts or rejects them with joy or sorrow, then such an impure vasana (desire, tendency) is the cause of birth and death.
Abandon such impure vasanas and be stabilised in the Self. When you do this, you will remain unstained while working, and being free from faults will remain unattached to and unaffected by actions. He whose mind is not identified with anything is a liberated individual (jivanmukti). Even if he is beset with joy and sorrow, he does not abandon his spirit of stability in Atma, because he is firm in that spirit. To a wise person the cases of fortune or misfortune, kingship, or a birth as a serpent or as Lord Indra, are the same because his mind is stabilised in the Atmic state and he experiences neither joy nor sorrow in any state.
Ramji, when in this manner you attain to the Atmic state, you will be free from all sufferings and will not be bound with the cycle of rebirths. You must now dwell deeply on the essence of what I have so far told you and when you fix your consciousness in that, you will be stabilised in the Atmic state. This state is attained with continuous contemplation and spiritual discipline; it is impossible by any other means.
This Jagath (Universe), taken as true by the deluded, is just a jumble of Names and Forms devoid of the permanence that Atma alone can have. Hence, it breeds disgust and discontent and causes renunciation to grow. The mind is soon free from attachment to the objects of sensory pleasure and it moves along its natural bent to Brahmam itself. All sounds are names; vaak or voice is the cause for its emergence. Rupa or Form is the result of vision or sight: it emerges from the eye. Karma similarly has the body as its source; the body is just a context for vaak and other instruments. Contemplation on such truths helps the process of Atma vichara (enquiry into the nature of the Self) to start and progress. Upanshad Vahini, 6
Hamsa Gayatri
Om Hamsaaya Vidmahe
Paramahamsaya Dheemahi
Tanno Hamsa Prachodayat
“May we realise Hamsa that is our own Self as the Swan. Let us meditate on that Paramahamsa, the Supreme Self. May Hamsa illumine us.”
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