self-enquiry - #7

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Q: When I read Sri Bhagavan's works I find that investigation is said to be the one method for realization.A: Yes, that is vichara (self-enquiry).Q: How is that to be done?A: The questioner must admit the existence of his Self. 'I am' is the realisation. To pursue the clue till realization is vichara (self-enquiry). Vichara and realisation are the same.Q: It is elusive. What shall I meditate upon?A: Meditation requires an object to meditate upon, whereas there is only the subject without the object in vichara . Meditation differs from vichara in this way.Q: Is not dhyana (meditation) one of the efficient processes for realisation?A: Dhyana is concentration on an object. It fulfils the purpose of keeping away diverse thoughts and fixing the mind on a single thought, which must also disappear before realisation. But realisation is nothing new to be acquired. It is already there, but obstructed by a screen of thoughts. All our attempts are directed to lifting this screen and then realisation is revealed. If seekers are advised to meditate, many may go away satisfied with the advice. But someone among them may turn round and ask,'Who am I to meditate on an object?' Such a one must be told to find the Self. That is the finality. That is vichara .Q: Will vichara alone do in the absence of meditation?A: Vichara is the process and the goal also. 'I am' is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is vichara . When spontaneous and natural, it is realisation. If one leaves aside vichara , the most efficacious sadhana [spiritual practice], there are no other adequate means whatever to make the mind subside. If made to subside by other means, it will remain as if subsided but will rise again. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realise the unconditioned, absolute being that you really are.Q: Why should self-enquiry alone be considered the direct means to jnana (knowledge)?A: Because every kind of sadhana (spiritual practice) except that of atma-vichara (self-enquiry) presupposes the retention of the mind as the instrument for carrying on the sadhana, and without the mind it cannot be practised. The ego may take different and subtler forms at the different stages of one's practice, but is itself never destroyed. When king Janaka exclaimed, 'Now I have discovered the thief who has been ruining me all along. He shall be dealt with summarily', the king was really referring to the ego or the mind.Q: But the thief may well be apprehended by the other sadhana as well.A: The attempts to destroy the ego or the mind through sadhanas (spiritual practices) other than atma-vichara (self-enquiry) is just like the thief pretending to be a policeman to catch the thief, that is, himself. Atma-vichara alone can reveal the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists, and enable one to realise the pure, undifferentiated being of the Self or the absolute. Having realised the Self, nothing remains to be known, because it is perfect bliss, it is the all. Q: Why is self-enquiry more direct than other methods?A: Attention to one's own Self, which is ever shining as 'I', the one undivided and pure reality, is the only raft with which the individual, who is deluded by thinking 'I am the body', can cross the ocean of unending births. Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method, whereas all other methods are done only by retaining the ego. In those paths there arise so many doubts and the eternal question 'Who am I?' remains to be tackled finally. But in this method the final question is the only one and it is raised from the beginning. No sadhanas are necessary for engaging in this quest. There is no greater mystery than this- that being the reality we seek to gain reality. We think that there is something hiding our reality and that it must be destroyed before the reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now.