MALADY OF EMPIRICAL EXISTENCE

Live life itself. Man is essentially the all-pervading eternal soul, according to Swami Sivananda. Because of his ignorance and delusions, he associates himself with the five illusory Koshas, or sheaths, that are the Annamaya Kosha (physical sheath), Pranamaya Kosha (physiological or energy sheath), Manomaya Kosha (psychological or the mind sheath), Vijnanamaya Kosha (wisdom sheath), and Ānandamaya Kosha (bliss sheath). He believes that he is also susceptible to these fluctuations. He considers the physical body, the Annamaya Kosha, to be his identity, and he considers himself burned when the physical body is burned. In addition, he believes that he is black. For the sake of ignorance (Avidya), he gets connected to his familial relations, property, fortune, etc., and assumes he possesses them completely. He considers himself to be a householder, an ascetic, a student, and so forth. There are five components that make up the body. It is very different from the true self. Ignorance is what ties a person to samsāra (birth and death) since it is based on fallacious notions of "I" and "mine."

1. Outline

The ephemeral drives of dualities or opposites—joy and sorrow, happiness and anguish, pleasure and pain, pacification and inflammation, satisfaction and thirst, and rage and calm—are what attachment succumbs to and draws towards. The foundation of attachment is the ego. All body-mind-intellect bonding, sorrows, and ailments stem from the ego. There is nothing more pernicious than to locate ourselves in a comparative experiential setting and to look upon us through that setting only. Through our life journeying processes, we experience a variety of experiences based on our sense organs, which are mediated by the perception of our senses. Our lives are ours alone, nothing more or less. Our centre of gravity is in our own being, in the subjective realm of subjectivity, and not in the objective realm of objectivity.

Many people in the world have an erroneous notion that one's work and existence are unconnected, despite the fact that practically everyone shares this misunderstanding. As a consequence of this, we think that we may act in a way that is at variance with who we really are on the inside, despite the fact that such conduct might only be possible in the context of the outside world. Considering they lead two distinct lives, a great number of people on this globe are psychologically schizophrenic. People who are born with only one life to live are uncommon. Persons lead dual lives—a public persona and a personal one. This is the malady of life, a brilliant elucidation by Swami Krishnananda. Psychological schizophrenia, or split personality, as it is known in psychoanalysis, is one of the greatest ailments that might conceivably exist. It happens when the mind assumes a pair of characteristics, two illusory distinctness, and operates in a dual manner, believing it were two separate entities altogether. This illness has a tendency to creep into people's lives by degrading understanding as a whole.

We very much connect to the world of objects through our sense organs, under the active direction and superintendence of our own mind. Whatever information the mind receives, it processes and manufactures more thoughts and actions. Senses organs perceive and cognise that is perceivable and cognisable by the sense organs within time and space format. The entire edifice of the mind and sense organs is subject to the limitations of adjuncts of sense perception and cognition. Our experiences vacillate in the infinite thought-making process of our own mind. The mind cannot function independently without some sort of attachment, and it, by its own nature, moves outwards to derive sensual gratification in the objective dimensions of the world.  Swami Sivananda says that deep meditation techniques are necessary to rid the mind of its three defects: vikshepa, or tossing; avarana, or veil; and mala, or impurity. To realise oneself, one must practice yoga and purge the mind of impurities.

According to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the so-called "mind" is an amazing force that is a part of the self. He goes on to claim that all thoughts originate in the mind. There is no such thing as a mind other than ideas. Consequently, the mind's nature is thought. The world is not an independent thing that exists outside of thinking. There is no autonomous entity called the world other than thoughts. Thus, the mind is, by nature, a thinking mind. There are no worldly thoughts when one is in deep sleep. Both the awake and dreaming phases contain thoughts and the outside environment. There are no thoughts and no world while one is in deep sleep. There are thoughts, and there is a world in both the waking and dreaming phases. The mind projects the universe out of itself and then resolves it back into itself, just as the spider emits the thread out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself. There is a world when the mind exits the self. Thus, while the world seems real, the self does not appear; conversely, when the self shines, the world does not seem. The self is the residue left behind by the mind when it is continuously questioned about what defines the mind. The self, referred to as the Ātman, is the inner self, also regarded as the inner spirit. The mind is never content to exist on its own; it is always dependent on something gross. Jiva, soul, or subtle body are expressions used to refer to the mind (Who Am I?, The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Translation by Dr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, from the original Tamil, Published by V. S. Ramanan, President, Board of Trustees Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1982).

The world of objectivity is ephemeral or transitory. Whatever we derive through our sense organs epitomises the evanescence of the phenomenal world. Sensual perception and cognition are reflections of the transitory nature of the phenomenal world, which itself is subjected to the limited adjuncts of space and time. The duality of life inside and outside facilitates the germination of all maladies and pathologies to act as a rumble, stopper, or chock in the life elevation process. It dwarfs our beings to become conscious of our own selves.

2.  Scriptures

The Scriptures are profound in their assertions that you are what you are. Your self is real, and anything other than self is unreal. The self is consciousness, and consciousness is total awareness. Total awareness is that which posits the essential identity between the Ātman (inner spirit or self) and Brahmān (Absolute Existence or Supreme Being). A profound aphorism from scripture, expounded in the Mahāvākyas (the Great Sayings):

(i) “Prajñānam Brahma,” Aitareya Upanishad (3.3), Rig Veda, refers to "Consciousness is Brahmān;"

(ii) “Ayam Ātmā Brahma,” Mandukya Upanishad (1.2), Atharva Veda, refers to "This Self (Ātman) is Brahmān;"

(iii) “Tat Tvam Asi,” Chāndogya Upanishad (6.8.7), Sāma Veda, refers to "Thou art That;" and

(iv) “Aham Brahmāsmi,” Brihadāranyaka Upanishad (1.4.10), Śukla Yajur Veda, refers to “I am Brahmān.”

You Alone Are Real, explains Sage Ashtavakra in an answer to the question, "Is this real or was that real?" You are neither the body nor its owner; you are neither the one who takes actions nor the one who suffers the results of them. According to Sage Ashtavakra, "You are eternally pure consciousness, the witness, and in need of nothing—so live happily." There is only one true you, since the truth is you. In addition, you are your actual existence; you are the one who experienced both of these phases; you are the one who, in the dream state, existed as pure consciousness and who, in the waking state, is here, performing as the king. Daydreams during the day and nightdreams at night characterise life. They are both illusions. They are filled with illusions, replete with flaws and defects, that they can never be real because they are constantly evolving into something completely different. You alone are real, unaffected by illusion or change, and you exist in all these scenarios. You are the only one who remains true and unaffected by erroneous thoughts despite all of these situations.

Sage Yajnavalkya teaches that the Self is pure consciousness that arises from the heart and pervades the senses. This Self and Brahmān, the one Reality, are one. The consciousness is called caitanya, and the witness is sākshi. It surpasses attachment, involvement, place, time, cause, experience, and perception of the cosmos. The Self is an uninfluenced, uninterfering witness and consciousness of all that has happened, is happening, and will happen in thought, action, and deed. A person who is attuned to themselves experiences the world in all its details without distinction; they see without seeing, smell without smelling, taste without tasting, talk without speaking, hear without hearing, touch without touching, think without questioning, and know without knowing. This absolute unity and oneness, without a second, is the world of Brahmān. It is the lack of a substitute. This is the highest joy, the greatest treasure, and the fundamental and ultimate objective of life.

Laghu Yoga-Vasistha provides a beautiful explanation of the difference between the real and the unreal. When the Muni saw the black clouds towering overhead, they became as ecstatic as the bird Cātaka (sparrow) and poured forth praises, prostrations, and salutations to Lord Viṣṇu (Supreme Bing). He asked Lord Viṣṇu, "I have known vividly the nature of Māyā (delusion), the result of Karma (activity), as thou wert pleased to show me," with elegant vision. However, I am still unaware of Māyā in its dormant, intrinsic form. How did this delusion appear to be genuine? "Oh Brāhmin, this earth and other things of the universe have the mind as their substratum and do not exist at any period apart from the mind," Lord Viṣṇu retorted. Nearly everyone on earth views the domain of illusions, a sense of entitlement, and fantasies as real and enjoyable while travelling in it. The cosmos resides only in Chitta, the swirling mind. Since Nica's life is merely a small portion of the entire universe, why should you be astounded that your mind, which may hold the entire universe, can make it objective? Your extreme narrow-mindedness was evident in the life of a Nica, a reflection that was recognised at the time.

Its underlying assumption is that the external objective world of matter is temporary, insentient, inert, perishable, prone to anxiety, misery, vexation, craving, bondage, attachment, jealousy, and all those appended adjunct qualities, while the internal subjective self is eternal, luminous, self-effulgent, sentient, imperishable, existence-consciousness-bliss (Sat-Chit-Anand). Looking within will help you see your ignorance and come to understand who you really are.

The reason behind this difficulty, according to Swami Krishnananda, is that our activities, when they are directed to our own selves, become inseparable from our own selves. We are used to regarding life as something other than ourselves. We are accustomed to regarding the world as something different from ourselves, to clinch the whole matter. We are habituated to thinking that activity of life and our personal existence are two different things, so one can afford to be something inside, and another thing in public activity. What a pity!

3. Remarks

The Upanishads' philosophy holds that a person's ignorance of how the universe functions is what keeps them trapped in a cycle of births and deaths known as samsara. Since our sorrows result from our disobedience to the universe's laws, they are, in a sense, products of our own making. The ego is the assertion of a reality that is distinct from what it actually is. The core of one's personality is that. The jiva, or individual, who manifested as a result of the ego's affirmation, is suffering because of this affirmation of individuality, jivatva, personality, or something distinct from the organic structure of creation. Births and deaths are the "punishments," so to speak, meted out to the individual so that it may be reformed in the field of experience of the world, allowing it to return to the normal state of consciousness, which is universality of being, of which it is currently deprived because it does not know how it is connected to the universe and believes it is independent of it. Existence itself is the most difficult thing there is to do.

One should lead the life of his own being only. As stated in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, a person is considered transcendentally situated when they give up all self-serving aspirations and sense-ceasing appetites that cause mental distress and are content with realising who they are.

Sri Krishna in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita says, O Partha, such is the state of an enlightened soul that, having attained it, one is never again deluded. Being established in this consciousness even at the hour of death, one is liberated from the cycle of life and death and reaches the Supreme Abode of God.

-Asutosh Satpathy