Q:: We are Flawless ! Then why ?

February 14, 2006

Shree Hari

Ram Ram

1) On one hand Gita and Ramcharitramanas says that I(Self) is

without any flaws or faults (Nirdosh, Amal), yet on the other hand

there is so much that is written in the scriptures that seems to say

otherwise, such as, in Ramcharitramanas " Mau sam kaun kutil khal

kaami. " Please explain what is meant by this? If Self(I) is truly

flawless, why does the issue arise about removing our flaws?

2) It has also been said in Gita (and from early messages posted in

the Sadhak group), that to be without faults, one has to

become " Nirmamoha, Nirahankara " i.e give up " I " and " Mine-ness "

(ego and attachment). It is said that, Ahamtaa (I, Ego) and Mamta

(mine-ness, attachment) is the root of all faults (dosh). What are

all the places in the Gita that address ways to become " Nirmamoha

Nirahankar " ?

Pray, I seek your guidance.

A Sadhak

Ram Ram

February 15, 2006

All is the god.

Only our cloths or our body formed by natural laws and its disposition

differs. The fault does neither exist in the god, nor in the

body/equivalent to cloths.

Fault lie in attachment to this transient cloths or various layers

of 'ego' of our physical, social, economic, spiritual and so on that

clouds the intellect, and we think these are our powers, and these are

misused.

All men or women are same when they sleep. After they wake up, they

recognize thier faces and recollect their memory, and two sleeping men

become enemy to one another, or become masters and slaves, and so many

different relationships. If all remain conscious of our true states of

the god, there will be no sense of ownership or ego, and all will live

happly with laws of mother nature, and father the SELF.

February 15, 2006

Loving Divine,

Pranam.

Following is how my Guruji has made me understood, I am going to try to

explain, It is kind of long but hoping to be beneficial... Instead of

clarification, if I have confused the point then it is just lack of my

communication skill...

1) For our understanding purposes I am going to say, let's put ourselves

into two categories (these are not God created but you and I are

creating them) of 'self' - lower Self (driven by body, ego, mind &

intellect - seemingly active or chetan aspect) and higher SELF (we can

call it God, Soul, Ataman, Paramaatmaa, Existence, Shunya, Nothingness,

IT, THAT, Brahman, Light, Consciousness, Sat-Chit-Anand, etc., etc.,

etc. - seemingly inactive or jada aspect). The one appearing to be

chetan/active in actuality is jada/inactive and the one appearing to be

inactive/jada is THE ONLY active/chetan in the entire existence!

Because of this chetan only, we, the body-ego-mind-intellect, call

ourselves alive. It is very difficult for us to perceive this Jad yet

Chetan aspect because...

* first of all, it is very very subtle - can't see 'IT' with our

physical eyes or I should rather say can't feel 'IT' with our physical

senses even though 'IT' is present in them!

* Second, IT is not only very subtle but IT is also formless, colorless,

odorless, soundless and all pervading, etc. - you just know that 'IT' is

in you that's why you can call yourself alive!!! Ask yourself, how do

you know you are alive? Keep on asking and keep on giving

reasons/answers until all reasoning/answering stops and you become still

to know 'IT' - you just know 'IT' - there is no questioning, reasoning,

answering, doubting remains.

* Third, because of the first two aspects of 'IT' described above and

most of us, most of the time, remain unaware (in darkness, andhakar,

ajnan) of 'IT' and consider ourselves (body, ego, mind & intellect) as

the doer of everything. This doership just traps us into samskaras &

bondages, limiting or blocking our perception of that vastness of the

higher SELF or the infinite SELF and therefore, puts us into the

category called lower Self - I the doer, supported by body, ego, mind

and intellect. Until we realize this trap or realize that we have

become the slave of our ego, mind and intellect or extremely unhappy or

frustrated with our decision making and be not able to receive the

desired results or meet expectations, we don't even try to find out

about this higher SELF. Basically, we love freedom; we like to expand;

we enjoy infinite power; so until our self created limits, bondages,

boundaries, restrictions start stifling us, we don't try to seek for

infinite or you just have the inquiring mind to know the SELF.

Eventually, we learn that I the doer can do things - desire, act, bring

results, etc. only up to certain extent but after that I can't do much

so realization strikes - can there be somebody else controlling my

destination? Who is it? So we start the search of this so called

higher SELF.

Please note, this lower Self is also a part of the higher SELF, but it

is limited by its samskaras created by ego, mind & intellect because of

taking ownership/doership of all the actions, including mental. It is

simply the fact that this lower Self has lost the track or awareness of

this higher SELF presence behind all of its activities.

So when all saints and sages talk about flaws or faults in ourselves, it

is nothing but them point it to our lower Self. Because the lower Self

is limited - by our own samsakaras, ego, pride, etc., it fails to seek

the limitless, it fails to trust the limitless and thus engages itself

into all kinds of decisions, desires, expectations, etc. and entangles

itself into more and more bondages, the cycles of birth and death. We

all know the story of those blind people touching different body parts

(trunk, ear, leg, body, tail, etc.) of the SAME elephant concluding what

elephant is according to what they experienced with their touch

sensation! Were they wrong? No. Were they right? No. So that's how

we all become when we operate under the lower Self. Again, the lower

Self can not function without the presence of the higher SELF, it's just

we are unaware of IT. Like under the presence of the Sun, good people

do good work and so called bad people do bad act, the Sun neither cares

nor discriminates between them, it just gives the same light and warmth

to all, it remains detached of the actions performed by these so called

good or bad people. Same way, the SELF just IS and in IT's presence

everything happens but IT remains detached with what the lower Self

does.

The lower Self is the one who distinguishes, separates, creates duality

- bhed (right-wrong, good-bad, hot-cold, like-dislike, saint-criminal,

favorable-unfavorable, acceptable-unacceptable, you got the point...),

dwells into forms (Ram, Krishna, Durga, Laxmi, Jesus, dog, swan, fish,

etc. but to this higher SELF, just like the Sun in our example,

everything is same - The higher SELF is present in all whether they know

it or not, accept it or not, believe in it or not, doesn't matter to the

SELF, IT just IS, keeping all alive. The Self can not exist without the

SELF, i.e., Self is dependent on SELF like waves can not exist without

the Ocean example. So when lower Self exist, know for sure that the

higher SELF also exist in the same body - whether that person is a

criminal or saint!

What separates us from the realized saints is that we still are trapped

into lower Self while the realized saints have transcended themselves

from this lower Self to the higher SELF. The example to understand this

would be a person standing on the top of mountain, looking at the valley

- it is greenery everywhere, but the man who is in valley knows that

there are mango trees or coconut trees or these bushes and that and what

not..., seems to be knowing it all about valley except being trapped

into this jungle doesn't know how this same valley with different

plantations looks from the top of the mountain because it just never

occurred to him to do so or never made an attempt, for one or the other

reason. So it is the same way with our realized saints and sages...

Everything is just ONE as they have attained the highest stage of

realization, i.e., perceived and have established/situate themselves in

that perception of all being one and only one, the source of everything

is one, the doer is only one, the bhokta is only one, only THAT ONE

exist. So it is lifting up from lower Self to this Higher SELF - the

person who was in that body as lower Self is still the same when he/she

now is acting as the higher SELF. The difference is in his/her

perception/realization/attitude and access to infinite. After

understanding who is actually the doer, the burden of doership is just

lifted off and he/she becomes forever happy - just like kids, when they

know Mom & Papa are there to take care, they don't take the

responsibility of doing anything.

Sooo..., all the flaws, faults, defects, etc. discussed by our saints in

various scriptures or when our Guruji talks about them in satsangs, it

simply means they are pointing to us to be aware of our lower tendencies

and at the same time also pointing to us to be aware of our higher

tendencies - if lower exist, the higher is bound to exist in the same

'us'! As Shri Ramsukhadasji says that if you drop bad (lower

tendencies), the good (higher tendencies) automatically comes forth. So

renounce the bad and good will automatically shine - no efforts needed,

so true, isn't it! So ignoring this higher SELF, forgetting IT, not

being grateful to what IT has given to us to enjoy, not realizing the

TRUTH, or seeking what is already leaving us, etc. is the biggest crimes

or sins discussed by our saints in various scriptures by calling

themselves as paapi, kaami, prapanchi, etc. I am going to give one

example, please don't interpret it in a wrong way, this is just to

enhance our understanding of why one would feel to this low level in

their relationship with God upon realizing what they had done. So it is

like this... We all know Newton's name is associated with the law of

gravity. Now let me ask you, if Newton had not put his experience in

words, can we say the law of gravity didn't exist prior to Newton's

discovery of it? Of course it was in existent. So if now Newton is in

very close relationship with God, realizing this that God had already

created this law to run his universe, and blessed him with this

experience of wisdom, and gave him the power to describe it exactly in

words so others can understand it, would Newton feel cheating God if he

claims it everything to be his? So same way whatever we are doing, it

is done because of His Divine presence and instead of giving credit to

Him if we keep on claiming it I did it, I am the doer, etc and the

moment we realize it that this so called I was just so incapable of

doing anything without HIS presence or this I was merely an instrument

of God to convey the knowledge, wouldn't you feel ashamed of claiming

all credits for saying I, I, I...? So it is the same bhav expressed in

our scriptures.

2) The entire Gita, every single sloka is about how to become detached

depending on ones own state of mind or evolution. If you are in

dejection/vishaad, one chapter is devoted to it. If you are in

awareness of prakruti, one chapter is devoted to it. If you are stuck

into only knowledge, the chapter is devoted to detach from it and bring

love. So pick any chapter, or even a sloka, depending on your own

awareness you will find out what lesson of detachment it is giving you

and you will realize that piece of detachment. Only towards the end

Shri Bhagwan says to give up all and take refuge in Him - 'sarva

dharmaan parityajya maamekam sharanam...' So He says that whatever I

told you before, even leave it all, just take refuge in me and I shall

liberate you from all! Prior to this whatever He said was all to

satisfy the lower Self so that all the tark-vitark or the debates of

good-bad, right-wrong, etc. arises can be brought to peace. Once you

reach that peace ONLY THEN one becomes ready to surrender!!! That means

once you surrender, there is no question what so ever arises in you and

if any, the answer is presented to you by this higher SELF in such a way

that you go back again to that peaceful state because there is nothing

remained for you to do. So in this case the same lower Self becomes the

higher SELF and that is always the flawless, faultless, most detached.

You got the point that there is no higher or lower self, it is our own

creation, we entangle ourselves into our own creation and then try to

free ourselves from it but the moment we leave it (surrender), there is

nothing remained for us to do. The categorization was made just to

enhance the understanding. It is not important how you categorize

yourself, what matters the most - how much aware you are of the SELF;

how you are situated in this SELF; how much you are aligned with this

SELF; how attuned you are with this SELF; then there is no lower or

higher self, it is just SELF.

Hope this helps...