Chp 1 Inst on Self-realization

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CHAPTER ONE INSTRUCTION ON SELF-REALIZATION

 

Janaka said:

 

1. How can knowledge be aquired? How can liberation be attained? How is

renunciation possible? - Tell me this, O Lord.

 

Knowledge - realization of the identity of the individual self and the

Supreme Self or Brahmana which is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss absolute.

 

Liberation - freedom from ignorance, all bondage and limitations -arising

concomitant with Knowledge, i.e. the complete destruction of all misery and

the attainment of supreme bliss.

 

Renunciation - Unattachment to the pleasure and pain derived from worldy

objects and even to the joyful life in heaven, which is also impermanent.

This forms the most important of the four qualifications required by an

aspirant for the attainment of Self-knowledge - the other three

qualifications being 1) discrimination between the real and the unreal, 2)

acquisition of the six cardinal moral virtues which are" restraining the

outgoing propensities of mind, restraining the external sense-organs through

which the mind attaches itself to sense objects, withdrawing the self,

forbearance, faith-the faith the is the grasp upon the ultimate, faith in

the power of one's own self. 3) intense longing for liberation.

 

It will be noted that 'renunciation' is defined as 'unattachment'. Both

these terms must be understood in depth. 'Renunciation' has nothing to do

with giving up possessions. Even one with no possessions has not renounced

them if, mentally, he still identifies himself with them and therefore

either still desires them or rejects them.

 

Unattachment is not indifference: nor is it the supression of natural

feelings of pleasure and pain.

 

Attachment springs from the concept of duality, the idea that there are more

entities than one. These entities are, on one hand, the individual self,

including mind and the senses, and on the other, the world. Within the

individual self there is Consciousness. The individual is Consciousness

identified with his own body, mind and senses. He regards other individuals

and all objects as separate and different from himself.

 

As long as this identification perists, the individual's relationship with

the world will be based upon this sense of difference. The individual is

attracted to persons and things that he likes, and is repelled by those he

does not like. Pleasure and pain are rooted in attraction and repulsion.

And attraction and repulsion are rooted in the concept of duality.

 

The concept of duality can only be resolved in the concept of the unity of

Consciousness, the self in all beings and all things. There is but one

Absolute Existence. Whatever is perceived by the mind and the senses is

only temporary appearnce superimposed on the Self. The Self in all is thus

the only 'Reality'; the world of phenomena is unreal for it has no absolute

reality. The reality of the world is the Self, not in its outer form.

 

Living in the world, we ordinarily are not aware of the Self as the only

reality. We take the superimposed form to be the reality. This state is

described as 'ignorance'. Any relationship we establish between ourselves

and the world, except on the basis of the reality of the Self and the

unreality of the world, is an act of ignorance. Knowledge comes with the

perception, or intuition of the Self.

 

The conception of the unity of Consciousness revolutionizes the relationship

between the world and the individual. While ignorance perists, and

attraction is rooted in the conception of duality, we mistake the real

content of our attraction for the objects of the world. But, with the

attainment of Knowledge we realize that it is the Self, the one real

existence in all, that is the source of our attraction to them. As in the

Brhadoranyala Upanisad (2.4.5.) 'It is not for the sake of the husband that

the husband is loved, but for the sake of the self, that the husband is

loved.'

 

When objects are viewed as real in themselves, we identify with them and are

thus attached to them. Attachment then, is false identification. While

attachment springs form ignorance, unattachment springs from Knowledge."

 

To be cont.