WORK FOR SELF-DEVOTION

The self, or the ātman, is a living being and a part of the Supreme Self. It is the realised meaning of life and is eternally free, unrestricted, transcendent, and effulgent. Everything is unreal except for who you are. It transcends time, space, and causality and is everlasting and unbreakable. It is a being's everlasting essence and light, existing outside of time and space. Transmigration, or freedom, occurs for the Samsār chakra, or the wheel of birth and death. Finding one's true self—the divine and pure essence of oneself—and transcending individuality are the ultimate goals of life exploration.

Every being is unique. Unique in birth, growth, decay, and death. Uniqueness is its essential identity, and real identity is its self. When a being takes birth, he comes to this world embedded with the koshas (sheath) of his body-mind-intellect system that propels him outward. The first way he feels the world outside is through his sense perceptions—sound, touch, sight, hearing, and taste—through the active superintendence of the mind. Swami Sivananda says that the mind is made up of many thoughts. He further asserts that of all thoughts, the notion of 'I' is the primary and fundamental one. The system gathers data from senses in order to store, compile, and process it. It uses the sense organs to carry out the procedure. Sense organs become active in order to move forward in the external realm. The bridge connecting the inner and outer selves is the mind. Within the body, mind, and intellect conjunction, the mind is the most dynamic. In terms of subtlety, speed, thought, quickness, ability to generate ideas and think critically, and multifaceted nature, it is ubiquitous and pervasive. According to Sri Ramana Maharshi, what is referred to as'mind' in the body-mind-intellect system is a tremendous power that dwells in the Self. He goes on affirming that all thoughts emerge in the mind. There is nowhere to be found as a mind other than ideas. Therefore, the mind's nature is thought. There is no separate entity called the world other than our thoughts. He says that it would be for you to take a close look at yourself and ask yourself, What is it inside of me that thinks my thoughts when I am thinking? When I believe I am seeing something, what part of me perceives it? That's who you are. That's how you define your unique identity. This goes beyond just taking a look at something and comprehending it. It is not a thing to be studied and comprehended, like a board with a dissected specimen pinned to it. According to Ramana Maharshi, there is no such thing as a genuine thing that correlates and organises all ideas and senses. Because we never examine it closely or examine how it persuades us of its existence, we are led to believe that it is a permanent and real object. (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 human being, or for that matter, all living beings, by their natural tendency, tend to move outward in a comparative setting. It is more inquisitive to know others—what others are, how they move, negotiate, perform, or live. This normally comes out in various types of media reports, evaluations, and assessments. That way, there is a general tendency to know others in various or several ways of nomenclature and existence. It happens from childhood until the last breath of life.

 1. Outline

Self is Ātman (inner spirit or self). Ātman is part of the Supreme Self, the Absolute Existence, and the infiniteness of infinity. It's inside and subjective, while the rest are objective and limited. Swami Krishnananda says eloquently that if the inside is not outside, that would mean that the outside is not inside.

 If that is so, work where self is realised. Devote to Self in the subjective dimension of infinitude rather than in the objective domain of finitude. In a limited span of this life, why work to glorify the one that is for non-self development? It is Real, Indivisible, Absolute, infinity, and not subject to time-space-causation. One example of non-self development is the vicissitude of corporatisation in every dimension of life processes.

What finally remains is your own self. You are the only one who is left. It always stays by itself, detached, and unencumbered.

Work in devotion with detachment to become conscious of the Self, Self-realisation to reach a state of absolute freedom, and Sat-Chit-Ananda, or Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. That way, it is one with the Supreme Self, which is Absolute Existence, Unattached, Inseparable, Integrated, and a Single Organic Whole. Above all, it transcends the opposites and dualities of birth and death, attachments and aversion, calm and wrath, happiness and misery, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and hatred, quench and thirst, and pacification and inflammation. Since these are all mental states, they are all transient. Kaivalya, the ultimate level of Self-awareness or Self-consciousness, is that condition of Self-awareness or Self-realisation. In Kaivalya, there is no bondage, ignorance, attachment, aversion, fear, greed, lust, rage, or any other vice that arises during the process of elevating one's life journey. There is no one left but you. It never moves; it remains alone, detached, and unfettered.

But from the moment of their birth, the created creatures get enmeshed in the bonds and attachments of the phenomenal world of opposites and dualities. Based on their karmas (actions), the web of entanglement bonds people to the transient material bodies as they savour the fruits of the trai-gunas (three modes or qualities) of sattva (goodness), rajas (passion), and tamas (ignorance) through their sense organs. Thus, in the samsāra chakra (wheel of birth and death), the bondage of beings is a perpetual circle. Because of bondage, it forgets its original nature as an outgrowth of the ātman. As a result, it gets caught up in those gunas and carries out all of its ideas and actions within the constraints that those gunas establish. Realising its true identity, origin, source, and inherent nature is fundamental. The created being, in its manifestation, became forgetful of its intrinsic nature as self. The being is unmanifest before birth, manifests in life, and is again unmanifest upon death, says the Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

3. Scriptures

The Scriptures are profound in ascribing the Real to the Self. The Scriptures affirm that the Self is the Real and the Real is the Self. So strive every moment to realise the Self; be conscious of the Self. It is because Self is Absolute, Self is Infinity, Self is Real, Self is Free, and Self is Imperishable.

The Mahavakyas (Great Sayings) of the upanishads are quite emphatic in this line of affirmation. They vouch aphoristically as:

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

(ii) “Ayam Atmā Brahma,” Mandukya Upanishad (1.2), Atharva Veda, refers to "This Self (Atman) is Brahman;"

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

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

 Satyam-Jñānam-Anantam Brahma, or Brahmān, is Truth-Knowledge-Infinity, is a clarion remark by Taittirya Upaniṣad (2.1.1).

The realisation of the Self is really nothing but identity with the Supreme Self. Since the Self's realisation or non-realisation depends on its attainment or non-attainment, the individual soul, though fundamentally the same as Brahmān, confines itself to the limits of “I am none other than those non-Selves composed of food, etc.” by identifying with and attaching itself to the sheaths made of food, etc., which are limited, external, and composed of subtle elements. Ignorance is the means by which Brahmān, the Self, remains unattainable.  This is the way ignorance keeps Brahmān, which is the Self, out of reach.

"Know that you are the Self, the witness of all these, the heart of awareness," advises the sage Ashtavakra, if you want to be free. (Ashtavakra Gita: 1.3). You are the only one who is true, unaffected by illusion or change, and who exists in all three of these states—waking, sleeping, and deep sleep. You are the only one who remains true and unaffected by false beliefs despite all of these circumstances.

In a discussion on Vaisvanara Vidya, or the Universal Self, Sage Yajnavalkya teaches that the Self is the light of all lights, self-luminous and self-effulgent. He asserts unequivocally that you are the Self and that you continue to be formless, detached, and aware of everything.

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita says that the eternal has no end, while the transient has no endurance. In fact, the truth-seekers have noticed this and come to this conclusion after examining the characteristics of both. The past, present, and future are all filled with truth. Ātman is also known as Sat, or Truth. Falsehood (asat) is defined by the Bhagavad Gita (BG-2-16) as a concept that does not exist, like water in a mirage.

Live life as it comes. Swami Sivananda taught that man is fundamentally the all-pervading eternal soul. Owing to his ignorance and illusions, he identifies with the five imaginary Koshas, or sheaths: Annamaya Kosha (physical sheath), Pranamaya Kosha (physiological or energy sheath), Manomaya Kosha (psychological or the mind sheath), Vijnanamaya Kosha (wisdom sheath), and Anandamaya Kosha (bliss sheath). He believes that he is vulnerable to these changes as well. He views his physical form, the Annamaya Kosha, as his identity and believes that when the physical form is destroyed, he is also destroyed. Moreover, he thinks of his identity as black. For the sake of ignorance (Avidya), he bonds himself to his family's assets—property, wealth, etc.—and believes he has them all. He sees himself as a student, a householder, an ascetic, and so on. The human body is composed of five parts. It is not at all like the real me. A person is bound to Samsāra by ignorance because ignorance is predicated on false ideas of "I" and "mine."

3. Remarks

Placing ourselves in a context of comparative experience and just viewing ourselves through that lens is the worst affliction there is. We go through a range of experiences during our life journeying processes, which are mediated by our senses' perception. These experiences are based on our sense organs. Nothing more or less; our lives are ours alone. Rather than in the objective domain of objectivity, our center of gravity is within ourselves, in the subjective realm of subjectivity. The false belief that one's work and existence are unrelated is held by a large number of people worldwide, even though almost everyone has this misconception. This leads us to believe that we can behave in a way that is inconsistent with our true selves, even though that behaviour could only be conceivable in the setting of the external world. Considering that they live two different lives, a significant portion of the global population suffers from psychological schizophrenia. It is rare to be born with only one life to live. People have two lives: a private life and a public one. This is the curse of life, as masterfully explained by Swami Krishnananda. Split personality disorder, or psychological schizophrenia, as is one of the worst diseases that could exist. It happens when the mind behaves in a dualistic way, taking on two characteristics, two fictitious distinctnesses, and believing them to be two separate entities. This illness has a way of creeping into people's lives by generally impairing comprehension. With the active oversight and direction of our own minds, our senses play a vital role in our connection to the world of objects. The mind processes information and creates new ideas and behaviours based on what it learns. All that the sense organs are capable of perceiving and comprehending is presented in a temporal and spatial context. The constraints of adjuncts of sense perception and cognition affect the entire structure of the mind and sense organs. Our experiences fluctuate inside our minds' limitless process of creation. The mind seeks sensuous satisfaction in the objective elements of the universe and, by nature, cannot function autonomously without attachment of some kind. Deep meditation techniques are required, according to Swami Sivananda, to purge the mind of its three defects: mala, or impurity; avarana, or veil; and vikshepa, or tossing. One must practise yoga and cleanse the mind of impurities in order to realise the Self.

-Asutosh Satpathy