Self

SELF----our true nature.

Who am I? Where did I come from? Where was I before I was born? Where will I go after I die? Am I really dying? Why am I sometimes happy and sometimes sad? If one can answer these questions to one’s satisfaction and follow them, that person is a man of self –realization. In other words, we should all answer these questions to our satisfaction, not to someone else’s satisfaction and follow them.

We need to reflect, contemplate, and meditate on these questions. All Hindu scriptures, namely the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad-Gita are roaring with the message that our true nature is SELF, not this body, mind, or intellect. That means we need to know what the self is? SELF is that by who’s mere presence the body perceives, the mind feels, and the intellect thinks. SELF is the substratum for all our experiences of the body, mind, and intellect. SELF is the illuminator of our body, mind, and intellect. If SELF is the illuminator and this body, mind, and intellect are illumined by the SELF, then logically, both must be different. To give an analogy, imagine a room in your home illumined by electricity. Shut off the electricity and the room becomes dark. That means the room and the electricity are different. Similarly, the SELF, the illuminator, and the body, the mind and the intellect, the illumined, are different. This is the basic philosophy of Hindu religion.

The self is the same in all of us. The self which illumines my B M I and the self which illumines your B M I are one and the same. He who understands this concept recognizes oneness in this world of plurality. Such a man of self-realization is unequalled in society, because he looks at every body equally, as he finds the same SELF in every person dancing and glowing. HE is a real yogi.

The self is one (second to none), yet the self appears as many when it expresses itself through the plant kingdom, animal kingdom, and human kingdom. In the human kingdom, the self-expresses itself through men, women, different sizes, shapes, colors and different mind and intellect equipments. This principle of SELF holds the plant, animal and human kingdoms of this universe together, as a string holds flowers of different shapes, sizes and colors to form one beautiful garland. The body, mind and intellect are nothing but insentient matter. The body is a grosser form of matter. The mind and intellect are subtler forms of matter. But all of them are by themselves inert and insentient. The self makes the BMI sentient. The pure SELF by itself has no expression. It is when the self or spirit weds the insentient matter, man and woman are born. Swamy Chinmayananda has given a beautiful analogy of electricity. Electricity by itself has no expression. An electric bulb by it self has no expression. When the electricity comes in contact with the light bulb, electricity expresses itself as light. In the same way, the BMI equipment is inert and insentient. The pure self, by itself, has no expression. Just as when electricity goes through the light bulb and expresses as light, the self weds BMI (matter) and expresses as life i.e. the insentient matter becomes sentient. The SELF is otherwise known as the absolute, Brahman, pure consciousness, spirit, truth, or the supreme reality. The SELF is immutable, omniscient, all pervading, self luminous, and imperishable. The self is that beyond the knowing of which, there is nothing else to know, beyond the seeing of which, there is nothing else to see. The SELF was, is, and will be. The SELF is also described as SAT-CHIT- ANANDA. It means, existence, consciousness, and bliss. SELF alone is ever existent and self is bliss infinite. It is in that self, we (the BMI) are born. We exist for some time and when we are decayed and destroyed, we merge in that SELF. SELF alone remains. SELF was there in the beginningless, SELF is here now, and SELF will be there in the endless. When Arjuna in the battle field of Kurukshetra saw his teacher Dronacharya, his grand sire Bhishma, and his cousins, he said to lord Krishna, his charioteer, that he would forego his kingdom rather than killing all these people. Then lord Krishna told him as follows: Oh Arjuna, never did I not exist, nor you, nor will any one in this battlefield ever ceases to be in existence. In other words, says lord Krishna, I was there in the beginningless, I am here now, and I will be there in the endless. The same thing applies to you and all the people in the battlefield. In other words, you are not dying, nor will any one in this battlefield.

Arjuna was convinced by lord Krishna that Bhishma, Drona, and his cousins were not dying, and that they were only leaving their present embodiment to take a different embodiment depending on their vasanas. He sprang into action in the battlefield to destroy all his enemies who were clinging on to adharma and established dharma. Here lord Krishna by implication convinces us that our true nature is the SELF and not this body, mind, or intellect. Immutability, omniscience, all pervasiveness, self-luminosity, and imperishability are our characteristics

With this understanding, let us try to answer the questions that we posed in the beginning. Who am I? The answer is simple. I am not this body, mind or intellect. I am the immutable SELF. I am the illuminator of this body. I am pure consciousness. Why am I unable to become aware of my true nature? That is because, I am suffering from maya disease, delusion, dream state, camouflaging, and veiling. The SELF, our true nature, is covered by various sheaths called food sheath, vital air sheath, mental sheath, intellectual sheath, and bliss sheath. The goal of life is to transcend the five sheaths and to become aware of our true nature as that pure consciousness.

Where did I come from? Contrary to popular belief, I did not come from any where. I was, I am, and I will be. I was there in the beginningless, I am here now, and I will be there in the endless. Because of my maya and vasanas I am unable to recognize my true nature, which is veiled. It is like a dream. In my dream, whatever happens, it is true as long as I am dreaming. It is only when I wake up that I realize that the entire dream is false. Similarly, this maya, delusion, and veiling by the five sheaths are all like a dream. It is only when we transcend these things, we realize that this is all false. Hence our true nature is ever-present pure consciousness.

Where was I before I was born? When the spirit weds matter (BMI), it inherits all the properties born of prakriti. We have taken many lives in the past based on our tendencies called vasanas. Our true nature is self, which is ever present. But ignorance of our true nature is because of our vasanas, which we have accumulated over many lives. We are going through birth, death (gross body), and re-birth cycles because of our innate tendencies called vasanas, which need to be exhausted. Until we exhaust all our vasanas, we cannot become aware of our true nature as that pure consciousness. Swamy Chinmayananda said that desirelessness leads to vasanalessness, which leads to thoughtlessness, which leads to self-awareness. Hence vasana exhaustion is very important to reach the goal of self-awareness.

Where will I go after I die? After we leave this embodiment (gross body), the causal body consisting of our acquired vasanas in the present life and any unexhausted vasanas in the previous lives were carried forward to the next birth and the cycle is repeated until we exhaust all our vasanas to become aware of our true nature as the pure consciousness. Then there is no more birth, death and re birth cycles. This is what we call MOKSHA, liberation, Nirvana or Kaivalya.

Am I really dying? We answered this question extensively earlier. Suffice it to say that the self (our true nature) was, is, and will be. SELF is eternal. We leave one embodiment to take another embodiment to exhaust our accumulated vasanas. When my true nature is happiness (bliss infinite), why am I sometimes happy and sometimes sad? SELF is bliss infinite. But, because of our identification with the body, mind, and intellect, we are some times happy and some times sad. Body always perceives objects. When that is not successful, you become sad. Mind always feels emotions. When there is material success, we feel happy. When there is material failure, we feel unhappy. In other words, if we identify with our BMI, success is always followed by failure, good is always followed by bad, praise is always followed by curse etc. If one can transcend the body, mind and intellect through transcendental reflection, contemplation, and transcendental meditation, one can become aware of one’s true nature as pure consciousness. Then, one is beyond the perceiver, feeler, and thinker of objects, emotions and thoughts. That is bliss infinite as self is that beyond the bliss of which there is no greater bliss.

In summary SELF is our true nature. So, let us awake and arise from this sense of mortality to immortality, from this sense of limitation to limitlessness, from this sense of ego to egolessness and become aware of our true nature. Hari om.

K.Eswara Dutt