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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

Miscellaneous

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Religion

 

 

Characteristic of the Self-realised person

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHENNAI, JAN. 4. It is difficult to convey the awareness of the Self (Atman) in

words and hence scriptural texts often resort to paradoxes to show that language

can only point to it and cannot describe it. Any experience can enable one to

become aware of the underlying consciousness of the Self. For instance, on a

cloudy day one knows that the Sun is shining in all its splendour behind the

clouds. Both the clouds and the Sun lend meaning to our lives. If only the Sun

shines there will be drought on the Earth and hence the rain-bearing clouds are

necessary to sustain life on this planet.

 

So also, consciousness of the Self by itself cannot make a person engage in the

world. Sensations, thoughts, emotions - all enrich worldly experiences. But, it

is the underlying consciousness which makes all these experiences possible. The

knowledge of the Sun behind the clouds will not enable a person who is soaked in

the rain to get dry, whereas, an individual who is poised in the Self

(Self-knowledge) will not be affected by his thoughts, emotions and bodily

afflictions. One must see the difference.

 

In his discourse, Swami Suddhananda said Nature was not fragmented. It is the

human mind which creates the divisions in its perception and understanding.

Neither does the wave feel distinct from the ocean nor the ocean know its

expanse. It is the mind which perceives these distinctions. Man in his

day-to-day life uses his sensory organs, mind- intellect and consciousness in

all his acts of perception, acquiring knowledge and experience. But he is

unaware of the underlying consciousness which makes all these possible. To

become Self-aware he must understand how the process of knowledge takes place.

 

Just as space does not have a choice in accommodating anything in it, so also

human consciousness does not have a choice in accommodating thoughts; but, to

express a thought or become aware of it requires effort. To be poised in the

Self does not require any effort; so meditation is the natural state of the

Self. Nowhere does the spiritual tradition emphasise denial of sense perception

as there is no escape from it. The Bhagavad Gita gives the analogy of the ocean

remaining placid even when all the rivers empty their waters into it; similarly

one who is established in the Self will remain unaffected by the flow of

thoughts in the mind. The Ashtavakra Gita says of such a Self-realised one,

``May he be a mendicant or a king, he indeed excels, who is unattached and whose

view of existence has been freed from the sense of good and evil.''

 

 

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