'not I' cannot eliminate the 'I'

[Guest guest]

David Godman :

Vasanas is a key word in Who am I? It can be defined as, 'the impressions of

anything remaining unconsciously in the mind; the present consciousness of past

perceptions; knowledge derived from memory; latent tendencies formed by former

actions, thoughts and speech.' It is usually rendered in English as 'latent

tendencies'. Vishaya vasanas are those latent mental tendencies that impel one

to indulge in knowledge or perceptions derived from the five senses. In a

broader context it may also include indulging in any mental activity such as

daydreaming or fantasizing, where the content of the thoughts is derived from

past habits or desires.

The seven dhatus are chyle, blood, flesh, fat, marrow, bone and semen. The

five sense organs are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose, and the five types

of perception or knowledge, called vishayas, are sound, touch, sight, taste and

smell. The five parts of the body that act are the mouth, the legs, the hands,

the anus, and the genitals and their functions are speaking, walking, giving,

excreting and enjoying. All the items on these lists are included in the

original text. I have relegated them to this explanatory note to facilitate

easy reading.

The five vital airs (prana vayus) are not listed in the original text. They

are responsible for maintaining the health of the body. They convert inhaled air

and ingested food into the energy required for the healthy and harmonious

functioning of the body.

This paragraph of Who am I? has an interesting history. Sivaprakasam

Pillai's original question was 'Who am I?', the first three words of the

paragraph. Bhagavan's reply, which can be found at the end of the paragraph,

was 'Knowledge itself is ''I''. The nature of knowledge is sat-chit-ananda.'

Everything else in this paragraph was interpolated later by Sivaprakasam Pillai

prior to the first publication of the question-and-answer version of the text in

1923. The word that is translated as 'knowledge' is the Tamil equivalent of

'jnana'. So, the answer to that original question 'Who am I?' is, 'Jnana is

''I'' and the nature of jnana is sat-chit-ananda'.

When Bhagavan saw the printed text he exclaimed, 'I did not give this extra

portion. How did it find a place here?'

He was told that Sivaprakasam Pillai had added the additional information,

including all the long lists of physical organs and their functions, in order

to help him understand the answer more clearly. When Bhagavan wrote the Who Am

I? answers in an essay form, he retained these interpolations but had the

printer mark the original answer in bold type so that devotees could

distinguish between the two.

This interpolation does not give a correct rendering of Bhagavan's

teachings on self-enquiry. In the following exchange(1) Bhagavan explains how

self-enquiry should be done, and why the 'not I, not I' approach is an

unproductive one:

Q: I begin to ask myself 'Who am I?', eliminate the body as not 'I', the breath

as not 'I', and I am not able to proceed further.

B: Well, that is as far as the intellect can go. Your process is only

intellectual. Indeed, all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the

seeker to know the truth. The truth cannot be directly pointed at. Hence, this

intellectual process.

You see, the one who eliminates the 'not I' cannot eliminate the 'I'. To

say 'I am not this' or 'I am that' there must be an 'I'. This 'I' is only the

ego or the 'I'-thought. After the rising up of this 'I'-thought, all other

thoughts arise. The 'I'-thought is therefore the root thought. If the root is

pulled out all others are at the same time uprooted. Therefore, seek the root

'I', question yourself 'Who am I?' Find the source and then all these other

ideas will vanish and the pure Self will remain.

 

http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/whoami1.shtml

[Guest guest]

Minority of people in the world have super abundance of food, clothing and

housing; but their hearts may be dry and their spirits glooming and will have

some or other disease. For them superspeciality hospital are blooming.

Sense-control, self-confidence,renuciation, contentment, absense of hatred and

greed are far more precious possessions than land, money or houses. No effort

is made today to give lessons of this discipline in the educational

institutions. It is wrong to lay the blame on want of time. You are the

obstructor, not the time. The monkey that cannot pull out its clencled fist

from the narrow neck of the pot blames the pot or the maker of the pot. But if

only it releases the hold on the peanuts it has caught in that fist, it can

easily take its hand out. The fault lies in itself. So too, man's greed is the

reason for this want of time. That is why I often refer to it as the monkey

mind. Bhagawan Baba

[Guest guest]

Holi is a festival that occurs on 19th March and is celebrated over twodays. On

the evening of the first day bonfires are lit, normally in a publicplace. On the

second day people throw coloured powder and water at eachother. The first day is

Holi proper, the second day is called Dhuleti orRangapanchami (Ranga-colour,

Panchami=fifth day). Rangapanchami wasoriginally the fifth day as the festival

was earlier spread over five daysand so it was called Rangapanchami because in

earlier times it wascelebrated till the fifth day of the fortnight