Reality of Life

We are not what we think, we are not body, flesh, mind, we are something superior. We are “Aham Brahmosmi” Sri Sankaracharya says in ‘Viveka Chudamani’, for all beings a human birth is difficult to obtain, Having obtained a human birth with soul, mind, mastery of Vedas to boot, it is foolish enough for man not to exert himself for self liberation. He kills himself by clinging to things unreal.

The conviction of truth seems to proceed from reasoning upon the salutary counsel of the wise,and not by bathing in the sacred waters, nor by gifts, nor by hundred pranayamas. The man who discriminates between real and unreal, whose mind is turned away from the unreal, who possesses calmness and the allied virtues, and who is longing for liberation, is alone considered qualified to enquire after Brahman. A firm conviction of the mind to the effect that Brahman is real and the universe unreal, is designated as discrimination (Viveka) between the real and the unreal.

So, for a seeker after liberation, the infatuation over things like the body is dire death. One can be in possession of everything but he should not think he is the possessor. Nourishing the body, is like crossing a river by catching hold of a crocodile, mistaking it for a log.

Extreme aversion to all perishable things and calmness, self control, forbearance, faith, devotion, shraddha, and meditation should be practised by the seeker of Brahman.

Identifying the self with non-self is bondage and ignorance which brings pain and misery. This bondage can be destroyed neither by weapons, nor by winds, nor by fire, nor by millions of acts,         except knowledge (Jnana) that comes by discrimination, sharpened by the grace of the Lord.

Human beings are covered by five sheaths: ‘Annamaya Kosha’, ‘Pranamaya Kosha’, ‘Manomaya Kosha’, ‘Vignanamaya Kosha’ and ‘Anandamaya Kosha’ over the ‘Atman’ which manifests itself through them. From ‘Annamaya Kosha’ (sheath) to ‘Anandamaya Kosha’ the sheaths are gradually finer and finer. Knowledge consists in going beyond them by all means of regulated practice and austerity and coming face to face as it were with ‘Atman’.

As said in Taittireya Upanishad, an aspirant of Brahma Vidya should never condemn or speak ill of these material sheaths. The body built by food is the first gateway to realize the “divine”. The highest knowledge of Brahman is obtained after crossing all these sheaths.

Brahman being the ground and substratum of all, he is immanent even in contradictories. Whatever is perceived, intuited or imagined, all that is Brahman. Whole universe is Brahman.

Attention should be specially drawn to the fact that the universe is never non-existent. Brahman is the all in all of the universe. Intuition of Brahman is not of a transmutation of the universe into Brahman or a reflection of it. Just as it is not possible to correct the erroneous perception of snake in a rope: without the knowledge of identity between the super imposed snake and the actual rope: so also, it is not possible to realize that there is only one reality which is Brahman, without the knowledge of identity between the world and the Brahman, through proper testimony. If one reads ‘Purusha Suktha’, one can get a clear picture.

The ‘reality of life’ is to know, search, experience and realize the infinite truth, the immortality in this mortal body by austerity and penance.