Do You Know Your-Self?

To remove sorrow and experience bliss, you have to do nothing in the non-self. Whatever has to be done must be done within. Establishing your identity in the Self is the only remedy to destroy illusion and ignorance. You only have to break your wrong beliefs, and the karma bondage will inevitably break. Once the wrong beliefs are annihilated, your cycles of birth and death too will end.

The Work of the Sadguru

The Sadguru explains the true nature of the Self and the correct method to realise it He offers, a very simple solution to bring you out of delusion – to know your Self and abide in it.

But mysterious is the power of ignorance! The simple task of knowing and realising your own innate nature seems difficult; and the impossible task of changing and hoarding the non-self, appears simple! Your wrong belief is the cause of your misery. Just because of this belief, even though essentially you are the Lord of the three worlds, you behave like a beggar.

The Enlightened Ones say, “Give up your wrong belief and recognise your infinite strength. Have faith in your incredible capacity and intensify your resolve. Never believe that it is impossible to realise the Self for you. Thoughts such as, ‘How will I destroy the perennial delusion?’ or ‘Will I be able to realise my Divine Self?’ are petty and cowardly. Give them up! The moment you determine that the task is simple and must be done, your focus will start shifting from the non-self to the Self.”

The Enlightened Ones repeatedly remind you to immerse in the Soul that is supreme consciousness and distinctly separate from the body and the illuminator of the Self and the non-self. For this, you must become acquainted with the complete grandeur of the Soul. And in doing so, you should feel so elated as though you have discovered a treasure. The Soul is the source of bliss, the ocean of peace, the treasure of infinite powers. When your mind becomes so overwhelmed with such glory of the Soul that by mere listening to the word ‘Soul’, you feel thrilled and choked with emotion, only then, believe that you are heading towards self-realisation.

Establishing Identity

The difficulty is that, intellectually you may appreciate that, ‘I am the Soul, endowed with infinite qualities like consciousness and so on’, but within, you do not feel that the Soul that is being glorified is ‘me’. Once the identity is established in the Soul, while discussing about the Soul, you can associate with it, and feel that ‘I am being talked about.’ The feelings of enthusiasm, joy and centredness automatically start flowing.

Suppose a seminar is organised to learn about the nature of the Soul, and ten speakers talk for an hour each praising the inconceivable greatness of the Soul, would you feel joyous or bored? Boredom upon hearing about the Soul clearly indicates that your identification, I-ness, my-ness, doership, and enjoyership are with the body and the mind, and not in the Soul.

Now, instead of a seminar on the Soul, suppose there is a ceremony to felicitate you. Will you experience the same boredom? No. Even if the speakers felicitating you take for over an hour each, repeat the same thing, still you will not be troubled. Let alone appreciation, you even listen to criticism with such interest! Do you show such earnestness while listening about the Soul?

You do not get tired of listening to praises of the one you identify with. But when the Soul is being discussed, you look at your watch every now and then. This clearly shows that you like being talked about, appreciated, and praised for sure. The only problem is that your identity is misplaced. You have heard so much about the Soul yet, your knowledge cannot be called right knowledge just for this reason! Withdrawing from the non-self, when your attention is established in the Self, you shall experience the Self, and at that time, your knowledge will become right knowledge.

Understand that self-realisation is yet far if your heart does not begin to dance upon hearing the word ‘Soul’. Aspirants who have believed it to be the source of bliss are thrilled on hearing the word ‘Soul’; fountains of joy spring forth in their hearts. Their zeal knows no bounds.

Tiredness or boredom in discussions about the Soul indicates your disinterest in the Soul. ‘Effort follows interest.’ According to this maxim, all your energy flows in the direction of your interest. If your interest is in the Soul, then all your energy will flow towards the Soul, and if your interest is in fulfilling desires, then all your energy will flow in that direction.

Interest in the World or in Self-realisation?

A father was praising his daughter while she served food to guests, how well she could cook, her mastery in making sweet dishes, and particularly her extraordinary will-power! She could make great sweets and though she loved them, she would not even touch them. She was strong-willed with great self-control, as though an ascetic! The daughter knew that if she ate sweets, she would put on weight and distort the geometry of her body. She liked sweets, but more than that she liked looking beautiful. The reason for her self-control was her firm desire and passion to look beautiful.

When the desire to do anything arises from within, all energies get centred there. No matter how difficult the task is, if there is a strong desire, it can definitely be accomplished. The question, ‘Will I be able to do it?’ can be answered by a counter question, ‘Do I have the ardent desire to do it?’ As the desire, so is the effort; as the inspiration, so is the willpower.

Just as the young lady desired both, sweets and beauty, but her second desire became so strong that the first one became secondary and even eventually vanished; similarly even when you have worldly desires, make your desire for self-realisation so strong that no traits of worldly desires remain. The yearning breeds willpower. Develop a keen interest in the Self, as opposed to the world. Keep making it intense and firm. All energies will get centred there and bring transformation.

At present, your interest is in wealth, power, and family. You consider the growth of the family, etc. as your own growth and their loss as your own loss. Because of contrary interest, your energy also flows in the contrary direction. You are indeed very strong, but your strength is being wasted elsewhere. Why are you not ready to understand that wealth, power and family are temporary associations, and not the source of your happiness?

Renounce Your Doership

An ignorant, seeing changes in the non-self, nourishes the false notion of doership that, ‘all this is happening because of me, and nothing would happen if I were not there.’ So long as there is a belief that I am the doer and happiness, peace and security lie in wealth, power, and family, the entire energy of the Soul is squandered away only in trying to acquire, increase and protect them.

In reality, by increasing wealth and other things, your happiness does not increase, however your worries, agitations and unhappiness certainly do. You think you are earning well because you are intelligent and hardworking. The Enlightened Ones say that acquisition of wealth, etc. is dependent on merits from your past. If wealth is acquired by your intelligence or present efforts, then the same effort must yield the same amount of wealth everytime. Clearly it is not so. Therefore, give up your ego, your doership in the non-self.

The Enlightened Ones say, ‘Recognise your innate nature of consciousness and bliss. You are a treasure trove of infinite virtues. You are complete in yourself. You do not need anyone in the world to become happy. The only way to be happy and peaceful is to realise your true Self and revel in it.’