Our constant search in life is either to overcome suffering or find our lasting peace. All our 'life projects' can be summed up between these two goals. But all our attempts have at best given us temporary relief from suffering or fleeting taste of joy. As an avid follower of Eastern philosophies like Vedanta and Buddhism, I came across this statement: "Tie this knowledge to the hem of your cloth…and do what you will" … these words of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, the revered Guru of Swami Vivekananda, provide the key to finding your bliss. If this topic interests you then read on... What is this Knowledge? He is talking about the knowledge of Vedanta, encapsulated in the scriptures and passed on from the sages and rishis of ancient India. Vedanta makes the claim that we do not know our true nature - and this ignorance of our true nature is the cause of our suffering. And that once we realize our true nature, we will overcome suffering and find everlasting bliss. And whichever way we look at it, Overcoming Suffering and Finding Lasting Bliss seems to be the Life Project for the entire Humanity, even though we may come at it quite differently. How do I find my True Nature? Swami Sarvapriyananda, currently the head of NY Vedanta Society, calls it "Two Steps to Not-Two"! (Not-Two or Non-dual or Advaita branch of Vedanta)
Not this - Not this (or Neti-Neti) : The first step to finding our true nature is to recognize what we are not. As Mark Twain once said, "The trouble is not what we don't know. But that we know that it just ain't so!". If we are asked the question "who are you?", most of us will point to our body and talk about our name, age, role, or stage in life, or other personality traits. Vedanta says we are none of this. In fact, Vedanta says that anything that we can point to and call as "this", cannot be our true nature.
A. Three Techniques to understand our true-nature:
1. Seer and Seen (or Drg-Drsya in Sanskrit): One may ask why anything that can be labelled as "this" cannot be our true nature. This is clarified in a beautiful scripture called Drg Drsya Viveka or the "Knowledge of Seer and Seen".
There are 3 laws or principles that we can apply to distinguish the Seer and Seen. (The Seer is the one that is observing, and the Seen is the one being observed.) First, that which is seen cannot be the seer or in other words, the Seer and the Seen are not the same. Second, the Seer is always One, and the Seen are Many. And third, the seer is always constant and unchanging, whereas the Seen is always changing.
Take, for example, that you are looking at a book (and other objects). Then your eyes are the seer and the book (and other objects) is the Seen. If you apply the 3 laws to the example of your eyes and the book, you first notice that your eyes and the book are not the same. Second, your eyes (both eyes taken together) are one sense organ, and the book and other objects the eyes see are many. Third, the eyes as the Seer is unchanging, but the book (or any other object) is constantly changing: it is open, shut, new, wrinkled, torn at the edges, etc.). The insight here is that the moment we can observe the distinction between the seer and the seen, we notice that anything that happens to the seen, does not automatically happen to the seer. For example, if a page in the book is torn, your eye remains unaffected.
Let's take the example to the next deeper level. If you step inwards and look at your eyes, now your mind becomes the Seer, and your eyes (and all four other sense organs like the ear, tongue, nose, skin) become the Seen. Again applying the 3 laws: First, you know that your mind and your eyes (and other sense organs) are not the same. Second, the mind as the Seer is one, and the senses as the Seen are many. Finally, the mind as the Seer is unchanging and the Sense organs as the Seen, are constantly changing (your eyes can be open or shut, they can see clearly or not so clearly, they can be sleepy and tired, or bright and awake). So clearly, your mind is unchanging and your eyes (and other senses) are constantly changing. Notice here that the mind and the senses are not the same. So, applying the previous insight, when something happens to the Sense organ, it does not automatically happen to the Mind (although it may appear to be so!).
Finally, we take a further more subtle step back and observe the mind. We can observe the thoughts and feelings that emerge in the mind (say happy thoughts, confused thoughts, what's-this-guy-talking-about thoughts!). Now the watcher of the thoughts becomes the Seer, and the thoughts and feelings themselves become the Seen. Applying the 3 Laws: First, the 'Watcher of the thoughts' and the Mind with its set of thoughts and feelings are not one and the same. Second, the Watcher is One and the thoughts or states of mind are Many (the mind can be clear or confused, the mind can feel happy or sad thoughts, and so on). Third, the 'Watcher' is constant or unchanged but the Mind with its thoughts, feelings, and emotions is constantly changing. Hence, we can conclude that the Watcher and the Mind are not the same. Now, if we apply the initial insight again, we can come to realize that everything that happens to the Mind as a thought or a feeling does not automatically happen to the 'Watcher' or the 'Witness'. Wow!!!
This "Watcher" or "Witness" also called the "Sakshi" in Vedanta, is a pointer to our True Nature of the Self (with a capital S).
2. Five Sheaths (or Panchakosha in Sanskrit) - like the Seer and Seen, Vedanta uses more techniques to segregate the Self from the "not-Self", to help us get an indicator of our true-nature. One of these techniques is called the Panchakosha Viveka or the "Wisdom of the Five Sheaths".
The first and the outermost layer is the physical body that we can see, feel, and touch. It is known as the Annamaya Kosha since it is made from the food (Anna) that we eat. The second layer, the Pranamaya Kosha, consists of the subtle systems including the respiratory system, the nervous system, digestive system, reproductive system, etc. The third sheath, Manomaya Kosha, consists of the mind and includes all the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and memory. The fourth sheath, Vignyanamaya Kosha, is made up of the intellect and is responsible for discernment and the decision making faculty. The fifth and innermost Bliss Sheath or the Anandamaya Kosha, is the space for the deepest peace and we rest there in our deep sleep. Vedanta says that none of these five sheaths are the Self (not even Anandmaya Kosha!). The Self or Atman is beyond the five sheaths but we often mistake one or more of the sheaths as the Self.
3. The Three States (or Awasthatreya in Sanskrit) - another technique to point to the Self is called the Awasthatreya Viveka or the "Wisdom of the Three States".
The Three States that all of us are familiar with are the Waking, Dreaming and the Deep-sleep states. Firstly, we spend most of our day in the waking state, conducting our activities, and going about our daily business. Secondly, during our sleep we enter the dream state, whether they are happy dreams or scary dreams. And finally, we slip into Deep-Sleep state (or dream-less sleep), a state of complete blankness (ignorance) and peace. This is the most restful part of our our sleep. We only wake up and say "Oh, I slept like a log. I did not know anything". Vedanta says that we are neither the waker, nor the dreamer, nor the deep sleeper. Our true nature, is underlying the three states, of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. It is called Turiya or the 'Fourth'. Although it is called the Fourth, it is the first and only Self. Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep are all states which emerge within the Turiya. Swami Sarvapriyananda gives a beautiful analogy to help us understand this technique. He says imagine the state of the Railway-Station when a train arrives on the platform (like the Rajdhani Express in India). There is a lot of activity, people carrying luggage, rushing to catch the train, and so on. At this moment the Station Master is Watching. Then the Rajdhani Express rolls out from the platform and a Goods Train rolls in. There is still some activity going on, and the Station Master is still Watching. And soon the goods train rolls out of the platform and the platform is Vacant! But the Station Master is still watching. Think of the platform with busy Rajdhani train as our Waking State with the mind fully active, the state of the platform with the goods train, as the Dream State with the body asleep but the mind still active, and the Vacant Platform as the Deep Sleep state where the mind has also gone into sleep mode. Now, the Turiya or our True Self is not the Rajdhani, not the Goods Train, and not even the Vacant platform - it is the Station Master - always watching! B: So now at the end of the First Step, we understand 3 techniques of finding our True Nature, the Self (and hopefully also understanding what is not the Self!). (Remember, that these techniques are only pointers to our true nature and not true nature itself - Buddhism cautions us to not mistake the finger pointing to the moon to be the moon!).
But how does this help in our Life Project: to overcome suffering or finding everlasting Bliss? The first step of Vedanta tells us that all the suffering belongs to the body, mind, and intellect, not to the Self. Until we continue to mistakenly believe that we are the body, mind, and intellect (or any combination thereof), we mistakenly "own" all the sufferings - be they diseases which belong to the body, or pain or insult, which belongs to the mind. Our true nature, the Witness (Sakshi), or Self (Atman), or the Fourth (Turiya), is One, Indivisible, Unchanging, ever watching, untainted, by the goings on of the body, mind, intellect and its environment.
[At this stage itself, if we are ready, we start to notice a small gap emerge and that is a source of huge relief and freedom. Because it starts to take the sting out of life. We begin to step back and see the movie (of life) instead of only being an actor in the movie.]
So then, what is the second step?
Come Home to the Self: The Second step is to see the One Witness Self in everything and
everyone around us. The Self and the Non-Self are not two but One. Like the analogy of the dream (as beautifully explained in the Mandukya Upanishad by Gaudapadacharya). When we are in a dream, we see the objects, buildings, people, and even our own body in the dream and it all appears as separate distinct things. Only until we wake up to realize that it was all One - a creation of our mind… the mind of the Dreamer!
This branch of Vedanta, known as Advaita Vedanta (or Non-Dual Vedanta), makes the dramatic claim, that just like everything appears as distinct, separate and real in a dream, until we wake up…exactly like that, everything appears distinct, ever-changing and real to us in the world around us, but in absolute reality, it is all an appearance to and reflection in Witness-Consciousness, (also known as Brahman or "the Vast" in Sanskrit).
This dramatic claim forms the foundational basis for all slogans such as Unity in Diversity, the World is a Family (Vasudaiva Kutumbhakam), and See thy Neighbour as Thy Brother. If the teeth bite the tongue by mistake, we do not punish the teeth because we are one. Even more powerfully, when we watch a movie, and it happens to be a horror or tragedy film like say, Schindler's List, we still go ahead and give it an Oscar award, because we know it is just a movie. The Screen remains totally unaffected by the acts of the characters in the Movie, be they heroic acts or villainous Acts. The screen neither clings on to the Heroic Acts, nor hates the Villainous Acts… it remains untainted and unattached. Similarly, at the absolute level, we come to the realization that as the watchers or Witness-Counsciousness, we are nothing but Sat-Chit-Ananda, or Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, and everything that we experience is nothing but an appearance in our or, more accurately, in awareness.
Okay, so at this stage, if I say that "I get it", then how will this change my life?
Once we have this knowledge of our True Nature, and the Oneness, we begin to experience beautiful changes in the way we live our life:
To begin with, it can help us to take the sting out of life… we can start seeing beyond the 'surface level' movie into the screen on which the movie is playing.
We can begin to notice the vastness and all-encompassing nature of what Eckhart Tolle, the author of Power of Now, calls the vertical dimension of the Now and present moment awareness, which lies beyond the horizontal surface level story in the dimension of time …past and future, which is ever-changing and ephemeral.
We can let go off our need to grasp for things that we like and our fear of things that we don't like, because they are all going to go anyways. As the Buddha calls it is all momentary, so why covet and hoard.
We can start to notice the commonality (Sama Darshana) across things, people, and situations, more frequently. The similarity in the shape of the atoms with the circum-ambulating electrons, and the Sun and the revolving planets, between the structure of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm, is not just a chance occurrence, it is the One Unchanging and Indivisible Consciousness in which the whole universe is appearing.
And above all, once we shift the perspective of the "I" from the small self, trapped in this small body mind intellect, and move to the capital S of the vast ocean of awareness 'Brahman', or 'existence-consciousness-bliss', then suddenly, we feel the deep sense of completeness (purnatvam), contentment and fulfilment (tripti), and deep peace (shantam) - "I am That" or "That Thou Art" or "Tat Tvam Asi". We can overcome feelings of greed, jealousy, and anger because we see the ultimate truth, clearly.
So what's Next?
When is the happiest moment? Right Now
Where is the happiest place? Right Here
What is the happiest thing? It is "I" …not this body-mind-personality, but the Real "I", Existence-Consciousness-Bliss
… and then do what you will… with this knowledge of our true nature, whatever I choose to do, will be fine! Because with this knowledge of my true nature, I do not have to grasp or hate anyone or anything… it is all an expression of and an appearance in Me the consciousness! … do what you need to do … I can do what I need to do without the burden of the world (picture ATLAS carrying the burden of the world!) and without the fear of the world (What if it does not go well), as an expression of my own true nature, or as a worship or dedication to my deeper absolute truth… as an offering to the Universal Intelligence! ----------------------------
Gratitude to the Ancient Sages and Masters who brought this knowledge to us
Gratitude to Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Swami Sarvapriyananda - from whose talks I have borrowed heavily in this blog
Photo Credits: Joshua Earle, Aaron Burden, Jay Castor, Zac Durant (all on Unsplash)
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