Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-15

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Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-15

 

>From Surging Joy

By Dr Sarada Nataragan

 

It is indeed more than enough if self-enquiry is performed with the

attitude of doubt. Then it will automatically lead to absorption in

the Self…If the enquiry "Who am I?" is only mental and not felt

intensely, then it is certainly not enough…To want to attain Self-

knowledge while holding on to the body-idea is like trying to cross

a river by clinging to a crocodile. Identity is to be questioned, it

is to be cut asunder, it is to be rooted out. So long as one clings

to identity, self-enquiry is not self-enquiry…We must let go of the

illusion that we are limited. If we hold on to the illusion and yet

say we perform self-enquiry, then self-enquiry itself becomes one of

the ego's pursuits, then it serves no purpose.(56)…Bhagavan has time

and again stressed that effort is of paramount importance. Grace

draws us to the path, it gives us an understanding of the way, it

creates circumstances without and within that are conducive to self-

enquiry, and grace bestows the fruits of self-enquiry. But the

effort at self-enquiry must be made, that is our share of the work…

Self-knowledge is not something that can be attained or won or

grasped by the mind.(57)…Reminding oneself at every point of the

utter irrelevance of all thought we must continue with the enquiry.

(58)