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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

The Self has to be experienced

 

CHENNAI, MARCH 9. Mere intellectual study or reflection cannot

lead a spiritual aspirant to the path of meditation by which the

Self can be experienced. The Self lies beyond speech and

transcends the intellect; so it has to be apprehended as one's

essential being. The spiritual masters have thus attempted to

explain the inexplicable by guiding the student to observe the

thoughts that arise in the mind.

 

The whole objective of this exercise is to make the student

examine the intellectual process which immediately seizes the

thought and objectifies it. Mental sloth is the refusal to see

this subtle distinction. Meditation is the total application of

the integrated human personality - body, mind, intellect - in the

search of truth so that the transition can be made from the known

to the unknown which can be only experienced.

 

The Ashtavakra Samhita, also known as the Ashtavakra Gita, is a

classical text in the form of a dialogue between sage Ashtavakra

and his disciple, king Janaka, traversing the search of the

Absolute Truth and the mystical experiences of a seeker in his

intense moments of meditation. In worldly life we have associated

joy with sensory pleasures and in due course it becomes apparent

that they are transient. In meditation when absolute bliss is

experienced the discovery of the limitations of sensory

experiences does not tantamount to condemnation of them. It only

gives the seeker the insight that they have only a certain

utility.

 

Just as one cannot enjoy anything in worldly life by proxy - a

hungry man has to eat to satiate his hunger and cannot ask

another to eat on his behalf - so also, the Self has to be

experienced by oneself only. When the truth that absolute joy can

be discovered within dawns, there is peace and the craving of the

mind to hanker after sensory pleasures stops. This is akin to the

river after it merges with the ocean; its movement is always

there but the search ends.

 

In his discourse, Swami Suddhananda said it was impossible to

experience the finite without touching the infinite but we tended

to compartmentalise the two in the mind as though they were

distinct. The moment one wakes up to the reality of one's being

this delusion ceases to affect anymore.

 

To function in life we need the plurality but it should be

remembered that they all point to the underlying unitive reality.

This can be understood with the analogy of locating a place with

the directions given; the directions are necessary to reach the

place but they are relative to the destination we want to reach.

 

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