Swami continues, describing the state of
Jivanmukhta
"The Jivanmukhta is established firmly
in the knowledge of the Atma. He has achieved it by dwelling on the Mithya of
the world and contemplating its failings and faults. By this means, he has
developed an insight into the nature of pleasure and pain and equanimity in
both.
(Author’s note -
Spiritual journey is always and has to be always starting with a conviction
that only Brahman is Sathyam / Eternally true and this world / creation is an
illusion / Mithya.
This is required
because, it is in this world and its objects that one has got attached for
several births. Unless one is convinced that whatever he was drawn to all these
years / births is a mere illusion, he / she will be never able to detach from this
world and its objects.
And, one is not
just left high and dry there. One has the real truth to hold on to, upon
rejecting world as an illusion. One is awakened to the truth that Brahman is
Sathyam (Sathyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma- Same SAI sang for all of us)
He knows that wealth, worldly joy and pleasure
are all worthless and even poisonous.
He takes praise, blame and even blows with a
calm assurance, unaffected by both honor and dishonor.
(Author’s note -
Wealth, worldly pleasure, praise, blame, blows- are all for the Ego, the
individual identity of a jiva. Once jiva transcends that ego and becomes a
mukhta, along with that transcendence, all these aspects identified by the jiva
as ego, are also gone)
Of course, the Jivanmukhta reached that stage
only after long years of systematic discipline and unflagging zeal when
distress and doubt assailed him. Defeat only made him more rigorous in
self-examination and more earnest about following the prescribed discipline.
The Jivanmukhta has no trace of the 'will to
live'; he is ever ready to drop into the lap of Death.
(Author’s note -
This is the real test to know where we are in our spiritual sadhana. Are we
ready to welcome our death any time??
Once, recently,
the author called few devotees and asked them- “Suppose, you wake up and know
that all your kith and kin, dear and near ones, are all dead previous night. No
one is left in your family. What will be your state then?
The same question
must be put up by all of us 'to ourselves" and we should try to
find answer to this earth-shattering question truthfully.)
Aparoksha brahma jnana or Direct Perception
of Brahma is the name given to the stage in which the aspirant is free from all
doubt regarding improbability or impossibility, and is certain that the two
entities, Jiva and Brahman, are One, and have been One, and will ever be
One.
When this stage is attained, the aspirant
will no longer suffer any confusion, he will not mistake one thing for another,
or superimpose one thing on another.
He will not mistake the rope for the snake.
He will know that all along there was only one thing, the rope.
He will not suffer from Abhasa-avaranam also;
that is to say, he will not declare that the effulgence of Brahmam is not in
him.
In the heart and centre of every Jivi,
Paramatma exists, minuter than the minutest molecule, larger than the largest
conceivable object, smaller than the smallest, greater than the greatest.
Therefore, the Jnani who has had a vision of
the Atma in him will never suffer sorrow. The Atma is there, in all living
things, in the ant as well as in the elephant. The whole world is enveloped and
sustained by this subtle Atma.
The Sadhaka has to direct his attention away
from the external world and become in-sighted, he has to turn his vision
towards the Atma.
He must analyze the process of his mind and
discover for himself wherefrom all the modifications and agitations of the mind
originate. By this means, every trace of 'intention' and 'will' has to
disappear.
Afterwards, the only idea that will get fixed
in the mind will be the idea of Brahmam. The only feeling which will occupy the
mind will be the feeling of Bliss, arising out of its establishment in the
Satchidananda stage.
Such a Jnani will be unaffected by joy or
grief, for he will be fully immersed in the ocean of Atmananda, above and
beyond the reach of worldly things.
The constant contemplation of the Atma and
its glory is what is connoted by the terms, Brahma abhyasa and Jnana abhyasa,
the practice of Brahma or the cultivation of Jnana."
Love.
