True Spiritual Self

[Guest guest]

Om Namah Sivaya

 

The following extracts are from an ancient Indian

scripture the Katha Upanishad:

 

'The good is one thing; the pleasurable, another. Both

of these, serving different needs, bind a man. It goes

well with him who, of the two, takes the good; but he

who chooses the pleasurable misses the end. Both the

good and the pleasurable present themselves to a man.

The calm soul examines them well and discerns. He

prefers the good to the pleasurable; but the ignorant

chooses the pleasurable out of desire.'

 

'Many there are who do not even hear of the True Self;

though hearing of Him, many do not comprehend.

Wonderful is the expounder and rare the hearer; rare

indeed is the realiser of the True Self taught by an

able preceptor. The True Self, when taught by an

inferior person, is not easily comprehended, because

It is diversely regarded by disputants. However, when

It is taught by him who has become one with the True

Self, there can remain no more doubt about It. The

True Self is subtler than the subtlest and not to be

realised through argument.'

 

'The True Self is smaller than the small, greater than

the great, is hidden in the hearts of all living

creatures. A man who is free from desires beholds the

greatness of the True Self through calming the senses

and the mind and becomes free from grief.'

 

'Beyond the senses is the mind, beyond the mind is the

intellect, higher than the intellect is the True Self,

higher than the True Self is the Supreme Self, higher

than the Supreme Self is the Unmanifest. Beyond the

Unmanifest is the Supreme Being, all-pervading and

imperceptible. Having realised Him, the embodied Self

becomes liberated from death and re-birth. His form is

not an object of vision; no one beholds Him with the

eye. One can know Him when He is revealed by the

intellect free from doubt and by constant meditation.

Those who know this become liberated from birth,

suffering, degeneration, death and re-birth.'

 

Sri Ramakrishnaya Namah

Vivekananda Centre London

http://www.vivekananda.co.uk