YOU ALONE ARE REAL

‘You Alone Are Real,’ explains Sage Ashtavakra in an answer to the question, "Is this real or was that real?" raised by King Janaka, well versed in Vaisvanara Vidya, or the knowledge of the Universal Self, and father of Sita of the Ramayana, before his assembly of advisors. You are not the body, nor is the body yours, nor are you the doer of actions or the reaper of their consequences. You are eternally pure consciousness, the witness, in need of nothing—so live happily, an aphoristic proclamation by Sage Ashtavakra (Ashtavakra Gita,15.4., translation by John Richards, 2nd Edition, Stackpole Elidor, UK, 1996).

Sage Ashtavakra emphatically says real is neither the waking state, Janaka as King, nor the dreaming state, Janaka as Beggar. It is untrue that King Janaka is an emperor or a beggar. You are the only real you. Because you are the truth. Furthermore, you are your true reality; you are the one who witnessed both of these states, the one who existed as pure consciousness in the dream state and who is present in the waking state, portraying the role of the monarch. Life is a daydream in the daytime and a nightdream at night. Both of them are delusions. They cannot be real since they are embedded with illusions and rife with imperfections and defects because they are always changing from one thing to another. You are the only one who exists in all these states and is real, unaffected by illusion or change. The only you who is true and unaffected by illusory notions is you, who has not changed in any of these situations.

We are all visitors to this world, which is full of objects and Maya, or illusion, but our eternal abode is Aksharadham, which is not subject to decay or illusion. We take pride in being visitors and consider the world of objects as our permanent abode to gratify our insatiable desires emanating from our body-mind-intellect complex, notwithstanding our evanescent lives, and that is the cause of our continual suffering.

 1. Outline

Self is the light of all lights, self-luminous and self-effulgent, explains Sage Yajnavalkya during the course of a conversation with King Janaka on Vaisvanara Vidya, or the Universal Self. He clearly says that you are Self, and remain unattached, formless, and conscious-witness of everything. As Sage Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.3) carefully explains the Self—our light, in fact—to King Janaka over a series of question and answer sessions, he was teaching him about Vaisvanara Vidya, or the Universal Self. In response to King Janaka's query, what is the light that illuminates, awakens, and impels a human being? The sun is the response that Sage Yajnavalkya gives straightaway. It is the sun alone that is the source of all light, and it is for this light that man sits, moves about, does all his work, and returns. The moon is the answer when the sun sets. Fire is the solution in the absence of the sun and moon. In the absence of the sun, moon, or fire, speech is the only source of illumination. The Self is the source of all light that awakens, illuminates the routes, and motivates one to work when neither is there.

According to the teachings of Sage Yajnavalkya, the Self is the pure consciousness that permeates the senses and emanates from the heart. Brahmān, the one Reality, is the same as this Self. Sākshi is the witness, and caitanya is the consciousness. It transcends attachment, participation, location, time, cause, experience, and cosmic perception. In thought, action, and deed, the Self is a witness and conscious of all that has occurred, is occurring, and will occur without ever being influenced or interfered with. When a person is in harmony with the self, he perceives every detail without differentiation; he sees without seeing, smells without smelling, tastes without tasting, talks without speaking, hears without hearing, touches without touching, thinks without pondering, and knows without knowing. The realm of Brahmān is this state of unity, oneness without a second. It is the absence of another. This is life's fundamental purpose, its greatest treasure, and its ultimate joy.

2. Scriptures

The scriptures proclaim that Self is self-luminous, self-effulgent, pure and eternal. The Ashtavakra Gita corroborates the same:

na tvaṃ deho na te deho bhoktā kartā na vā bhavān |

cidrūpo'si sadā sākṣī nirapekṣaḥ sukhaṃ cara || 15.4 ||

Sage Ashtavakra advises King Janaka that you are neither the body nor its proprietor, nor are you the one who does actions or who suffers the results of actions. Live a happy life because you are eternally pure consciousness, the witness, and you require nothing.

Sage Ashtavakra, in explaining to King Janaka, goes on to highlight the pure essence of Self as Consciousness:

Anger and desire are byproducts of the mind, but your mind is not, and has never been, yours. You have little influence over anything; consciousness remains constant; therefore, rejoice.

Acknowledging oneself in every creature and every creature in oneself, experiencing happiness, letting go of remorse, and letting go of the attachment to "me."

Your essence is the awareness that the entire world overflows into, much like ocean waves. Without a doubt, it is who you are, so don't worry, anyone.

You are formless, detached, and a witness to all that occurs.

Self appears as the world because of ignorance; self vanishes when self is realised. When anything is done incorrectly, a rope that was mistakenly depicted as a snake disappears.

If you want to be free, steer away from sensual objects like poison and practice being tolerant, real, empathetic, content, and honest as the remedy opposite.

The elements—earth, water, fire, air, and even ether—do not make you. To gain freedom, recognise that you are consciousness and the observer of these.

If only you would remain resting in consciousness, seeing your Self as distinct from the body, then even now you will become happy, peaceful, and free from bonds.

If only you would stay in a state of consciousness where you are aware of yourself as separate from the body, you would immediately feel content, at ease, and unbound.

You are unconditioned and changeless; formless and unmovable; unfathomable awareness; imperturbable; so hold on to nothing but consciousness.

Recognise that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding. Through this initiation into truth, you will escape falling into unreality again.

Just as a mirror exists everywhere, both within and apart from its reflected images, so the Supreme Being exists everywhere within and apart from this body.

 According to the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, there is no cease for the eternal and no endurance for the transient, according to the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. In fact, the truth-seekers have noted and determined this after examining the characteristics of both. The past, present, and future are all instances of truth. One name for Atman is Sat, or Truth. According to the Bhagavad Gita, asat, or untruth, is a concept that is nonexistent, much like water in a mirage (The Bhagavad Gita, BG-2-16).

It is well known that the Self, or Atman, which permeates the entire body, is indestructible. Nobody is able to destroy an indestructible soul. The soul is conscious, meaning it is sentient. The body is constituted of consciousness, devoid of insentient matter. But, because the soul resides in the body, it also imparts consciousness to it. As a result, the soul pervades the body by pervading every part of it with consciousness (BG-2-17).

Only wise men alone truly see, who perceive the Paramātmā (Supreme Soul) accompanying the soul in all beings and who understand both to be imperishable in this perishable body. The Brahmān (absolute reality), exists in all living and non-living beings. Those who perceive with the eyes of knowledge the difference between the body and the knower of the body and the process of release from material nature attain the supreme destination. Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that the embodied souls in this material world are My eternal fragmental parts. But bound by material nature, they are struggling with the six senses, including the mind (BG-13-27).

The upanishads also proclaim in similar vein. The Self is Brahmān, fearless, and eternal. According to the Chandogya Upanishad, it is located in the hṛdayam, or heart. This is how the word "hṛdayam" is derived: hṛdi + ayam, which means "it is in the heart." Thus, the term "hṛdayam" refers to the heart. Our sense of the Self occurs in the heart. It is where self-realisation is found. One who knows thus goes daily to the heavenly world, i.e. we go into our own Self.

The Prashna Upanishad also corroborates the eternity of Self, or atman. This ātman is in the heart. Here, there are a hundred and one nerves. Every one of these has a hundred brandies; again, every one of these has seventy-two thousand sub-branches. In these, vyana moves. In the heart, the subtle body is connected with the ātman. The primary nerves, numbering 101, are located here in the heart. These principal nerves each have one hundred branches. There are seventy-two thousand sub-branches in each of these branches. Vyāna, so named because it pervades everything, moves on these nerves. Everywhere in the body, including the joints, shoulders, and important components, Vyāna continues to permeate and emanate from the heart like sunbeams. As it grows, it may accomplish tasks that call for a great deal of strength in between the prana and the apana's operations.

3. Remarks

Sage Ashtravakra asserts that pleasure and suffering, as well as righteousness and unrighteousness, are entirely mental concepts and have no bearing on the Self, or Ātman. The Self is neither the action-taker nor the one who suffers the results. It is the only one who has seen everything and is unaffected by anything. Because he perceives the witness as something different than this, this is the reason for the being's bondage. You should ingest the antidote of faith in the knowledge that "I am not the doer," suggests Sage Ashtravakra. He underlines once more that in order to be happy and distress-free, we must put out the fire of the realisation that "I am the one pure awareness" and burn down the forest of ignorance. Imagined like the snake on a rope, all of this seems to be saying that you are joy, supreme joy, and awareness; therefore, rejoice. A person is free if they believe they are, and they are bound if they believe they are bound. The adage "Thinking makes it so" is accurate in this case.

-Asutosh Satpathy