SEEING IS BELIEVING?

The key concern that arises is: can we believe what we see? Or perhaps it works the other way around: we see what we believe. If seeing or believing can apprehend reality, it's well and good to believe or to see. The sense organs sense information for collection and processing by the mind for the generation of thought and action. The mind also conjures up various thoughts independent of any experience, directing the same into a certain action framework. Thought emanating from the mind has a tendency to generate centrifugal forces that drive a being more away from the centre, or the subject, the Self, towards the objects. The mind cannot stand independently, as it requires some sort of attachment to thrive and activate itself to generate thought and move further away from the centre. The centre of everything is the Self. A being is pulled more in the direction of the subject by the force coming from the Self. According to the Isavasya Upanishad, such mental musings cast a veil of ignorance on the atman, or inner soul. By being unaware of the Self's presence, its influence over their lives, and how it guides their behaviour, they reject the Self's own existence. They solely rely on the sensations or sentiments induced by the strength of the sense organs, as well as the impulses of the eyes and ears.

asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ |

tāṃste pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ || 3 ||

What nature this Self is, by slaying which the ignorant transmigrate and, as distinguished from them, the learned, by not slaying it, attain final release.

  1. Outline

The individual soul is a tiny representation of Brahmān, also known as Sat-Chit-Anand (eternal Existence-Consciousness-Bliss), the ultimate Reality. To experience Sat-Chit-Anand is its fundamental natural imperative. "Divine Love" is the name for the instinctual desire to savour the divine bliss of the ātman. However, when the ātman is obscured by the veil of ignorance, it perceives itself as a component of the body-mind-intellect complex and savours the object; this is known as "lust." By lifting the curtain of ignorance and realising the atman (inner spirit or inner self) as the truth, the Srimad Bhagavad Gita states that the goal of existence is to realise the ultimate Truth. The veil of ignorance prevents consciousness from discovering the Supreme Consciousness through self-realisation, also known as self-awareness or the realisation of one's true essence. There is a beautiful analogy from the Katha Upanishad.

ātmānam̐ rathitaṃ viddhi śarīram̐ rathameva tu |

buddhiṃ tu sārathiṃ viddhi manaḥ pragrahameva ca || 3 ||

indriyāṇi hayānāhurviṣayām̐ steṣu gocarān ।

ātmendriyamanoyuktaṃ bhoktetyāhurmanīṣiṇaḥ ॥ 4 ॥

Five horses are pulling a chariot, Katha Upanishad adds, and the charioteer is holding the reins in each horse's mouth. The chariot has a passenger seated in the back. The charioteer will take the reins and drive the horses in the proper direction after receiving directions from the passenger. In this case, the horses are in command because the passenger is nodding off. As a result, the perplexed soul is unable to steer the intellect in the appropriate direction when under the constraints of material possessions. As a result, the senses are what decide the chariot's direction. The soul experiences the pleasures of the senses vicariously, but they do not satisfy it. For all of eternity, the soul (passenger) has been riding through this material world in this chariot.

Jnāna (knowledge) is the ability to discern the Truth or Reality by the application of reason based on separation from and abnegation of the senses. It requires the capacity to distinguish between reality and illusion. The intellect engages in a dialectic of internal reflection, external speculation, external hypotheses, internal logical assertions, and internal reasoning in order to understand the visible and invisible components of Reality or Truth.

According to the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, someone is said to be transcendentally located when they let go of all self-serving desires and cravings of the senses that torment their minds and find fulfilment in realising who they are.

prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha mano-gatān

ātmany-evātmanā tuṣhṭaḥ sthita-prajñas tadochyate

What you see through sensual organs is not real but what you dont see and can be perceived onsciously is real. In the sankhya yoga Sri Krishna says whatever attachments comming out of body-mind-intellect complex is ephemeral  and part of miopic vision. Move beyond your miopic vision towards eye consciousness to perceive the reality, the immanece of supreme consciousness.  

The Great Sayings, or "Mahāvākyas," of the Upanishadas aphoristically say that Truth is Knowledge and Brahman (Supreme Being or Reality) is one and infinity, which have significant significance as pointers to Reality.  Reality is ‘Prajnanam Brahma," or Consciousness is Brahmān. The Mahāvākyas state succinctly, "Reality is one, and knowledge is to comprehend it."

Scriptures proclaim what you see through sensual organs is not real but what you dont see and can be perceived consciously is real. Whatever attachments comming out of body-mind-intellect complex is ephemeral  and part of miopic vision. Move beyond your miopic vision towards eye consciousness to perceive the reality, the immanece of supreme consciousness.

“The explanation starts from the premise of the finitude of the finite to the infinitude of infinity and explains the unknown from the known manifested objects of perception, emotion, and thought emanating from the body-mind-intellect complex.”

2. Pathways

According to Swami Sivananda, man is a triune entity; the three horses connected to this body-chariot are action, emotion, and intelligence. They must operate flawlessly in tandem or harmony. Only the chariot will thereafter move without incident. He aspires to own the things he wants. Since he is emotional, he also feels, compares, and thinks because he has good reason. It's possible for the emotional component to prevail in some situations while the rational component does so in others. Work, devotion, and knowledge are not mutually exclusive, just as will, feelings, and thought are not distinct and separate. Therefore, he needs to refine his heart, mind, and hand. He can only achieve perfection after that.

2.1. Defects Resolution

If you want to see your face clearly in a mirror, according to Swami Sivananda, must remove the dirt in the mirror, keep it steady, and remove the covering also. You can see your face clearly in the water of a lake only if the turbidity (impurity) is removed, if the water that is rendered still, and if the (avarana of) moss that is lying on the surface is removed. Even so is the case with Self-realisation.

In the mind there are three defects: mala or impurity, vikshepa or tossing, and avarana or veil, says Swami Sivananda.

The contaminants in the mind must beĺ cleared by yoga practice in order to visualise reality. Yoga stems from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means "to yoke" or "to unite," to achieve self-consciousness deliberately through ideal body-mind-intellect system synchronisation. The mind-flipping is eliminated by such meditational synchronisation. A condition of separation can be changed into one of unity with divine consciousness through the practice of yoga. Attachment is a fundamental component of the mind. It can't stand on its own. It develops a bond with external objects thanks to sensory organs. Once that perception has dissipated, it returns to a state of grief and suffering. To detach the mind from external stimuli and rejoin it is the aim of meditation.

2.2. Unison in Way of Life

It is important to regularly cultivate all-around perfection. One such route is through yoga's meditative practices. In a clear statement, Swami Sivananda argues that seeing the one Self in all beings is Jnāna Yoga, knowledge; loving the Self is Bhakti Yoga, devotion; and serving the Self is Karma Yoga, activity. He asserts that Yoga of Synthesis is most appropriate at this time. To reach the ultimate goal of life, enlist the aid of Karma, Bhakti, yoga, and Vedanta. The highest aim is reached by the practice of Karma Yoga, singing Hari's names, and vedantic vichar (enquiry). They are not at odds with each other. On the other side, they serve as assistants, or sahakaris, in achieving God's realisation.

However, there are certain cardinal principles that need to be imbibed, to discern the real  and the unreal, include:

The veil of ignorance is removed by persevering with vidya, or knowledge, to realise the Truth. Truth is eternal and beyond time-space-causation. Its nature is Sat-Chit-Anand (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss).

Eye consciousness, or the eye of atman (the inner spirit or soul), is all about expanded awareness, inner vision, and heightened perception. It emphasises one's awareness or attaining a higher state of consciousness.

Unshackling from all the bonds because bonds demean a perceiver’s ability to perceive the atman. Moksha liberationn), Nirvana (enlightenment), Atma-Jñana (self-knowledge), empowerment, and freedom are the birth rights of every being. The cultivation of wholistic knowledge is inherent in meditation.

Instatiable desire and its instatiability cloud the power of intellect and judgement. Self-enquiry is the only infallible and direct means to the instiability of desire.

Titiksha (forbearance, endurance, and patience) enable the seeker to become free from all opposites, dualities, extremes, and complexities.

Vairagya or detachment, is seen as a means to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana, and break free from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

3. Remarks

One must see to believe. However, the truth of the cosmos does not seem to be limited to this apparent division, which is driven by human experience because each individual being is isolated from the outside world. We evaluate values in the world in a conventional manner, claims Swami Krishnananda. I observe something, and I evaluate it in the context of how I perceive it specifically. The outside world is outside, and I am inside. There is a supernormal vision that rises above this distinction that is typically created in our perception of the world and shows us a reality that will astound us and lift our spirits to a level that is unfathomable to our normal thought process. The Upanishads employed a similar technique.

 Importantly, our belief system impacts both our reality and how we perceive the world. Fundamentally, our belief system is based on how we define happiness and value rather than how we feel about politics, ideologies, or religion. Our reality is based on what we believe to be the greatest source of enjoyment and value. Our primary connection becomes the subject of our thoughts throughout our entire lives, including when we are dying.

-Asutosh Satpathy