Sadhana Panchakam - Post 57

 

The vedic scriptures, Upanishads and all the spiritual documents have one thing in common, that is the goal which the fragment has for the whole, and the rivers have for the oceans. 

Chhandogya Upanishad specifically enjoins that ‘here in the city of Brahman, there exists an abode, like a small lotus flower, within it is a small place. What is within that should be sought, for that assuredly is what one should desire to understand’. That is what one should be propitiate.

 

In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya clarifies that as the ocean is the one goal of all waters, as skin is of all kinds of touch, as nostril is of smells, as tongue is of all tastes, as eye is of all forms, as ear is of all sounds, as mind is of all resolutions, as heart is of all forms of knowledge, as hands are of all actions, as organ of generation is of all joys, as excretory organ is of all evacuations, as feet is of all movements, as speech is of all Wisdom …so verily is this great being, infinite, limitless, as aggregate of Wisdom, Arising there from they disappear there into. 

When one thus goes forward, there is no more to be known. And finally when all the aggregate karmas cease, the self loses its individual identity in the vast and ever encompassing Brahman even as a lump of salt loses its individuality when it sinks in the vast ocean.  

When such event occurs then like the juices which are reduced to honey do not know the tree from which they were sourced, the Self ceases to know the form which it had before it became one with supreme, luminous, the immortal Brahman, designated as  SATHYAM - the Prime Existence.  

Katha Upanishad says let the wise Brahmin after knowing SELF, practice wisdom and not waste time in reflecting on many words, for that is, verily, weariness of speech.

 

Mundaka Upanishad delving on the subject says that seers having realized the enlightened wisdom, being content, established in Self, freed from attachment and composed in mind, realize the all-pervasive One in all directions, and merge into that all.

 “I am Brahman” stands here for complete identification with the Supreme Source of our existence. It is the very opposite of “I am the Body”, which stands solely for the material aspect of existence. 

The realized person passes through his Prarabdha Karma with complete balance, unaffected by joys and sorrows that are brought on by Prarabdha. He simply witnesses them passing through him. 

‘I AM BRAHMAN’ - In the sentence, ‘Aham Brahmasmi,’ or I am Brahman, the ‘I’ is that which is the One Witnessing Consciousness, standing apart form even the intellect, different from the ego-principle, and shining through every act of thinking, feeling, etc. This Witness-Consciousness, being the same in all, is universal, and cannot be distinguished from Brahman, which is the Absolute. 

Hence the essential ‘I’ which is full, super-rational and resplendent, should be the same as Brahman. This is not the identification of the limited individual ‘I’ with Brahman, but it is the Universal Substratum of individuality that is asserted to be what it is. The copula ‘am’ does not signify any empirical relation between two entities, but affirms the non-duality of essence. This dictum is from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. 

An extract from talk delivered by Swami Vivekananda in San Fransisco, on 23 rd March 1900. 

“I am the one Existence. Nothing else exists. I am everything. 

Go on saying “I am free”. Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says “I am bound”. 

This truth is first to be heard. Hear it first. Think on it day and night. Fill the mind with it day and night: “I am it. I am the Lord of the Universe. Never was there any delusion…” Meditate upon it with all the strength of the mind till you actually see these walls, houses, everything, melt away until body, everything vanishes. “I will stand alone. I am the one”. 

Struggle on! Who cares! We want to be free. We do not want any powers. Worlds we renounce. Heavens we renounce, hells we renounce. What do I care about all these powers? And this and that! What do I care if the mind is controlled or uncontrolled! Let it run on!. What of that! I am not the mind. Let it go on!. 

The sun shines on the just and unjust. Is he touched by the defective character of any one? I am He. Whatever my mind does, I am not touched. The sun is not touched by shining on filthy places. I am existence. 

This is the religion of non-dual philosophy. It is difficult. Struggle on!. Down with all superstitions!. Neither teachers nor scriptures nor gods exist. Down with temples, with priests, with gods, with incarnations, with God himself!. I am all the God that ever existed. There, stand up philosophers! No fear! Speak no more of God and the superstition of the world. Truth alone triumphs, and this is true, I am the infinite. 

All religious superstitions are vain imaginations.  This society, that I see before me, and that I am talking to you- this is all superstition. All must be given up. Just see what it takes to become a philosopher!. This is the path of Jnana Yoga, the way through knowledge. The other paths are easy, slow. But this is pure strength of mind. No weakling can follow this path of knowledge. You must be able to say “I am the soul, the ever free, I never was bound. Time is in me, not I in time. God was born in my mind. God the Father, Father of the Universe- he is created by me in my own mind…” 

 

With this we come to the end of this sacred treatise “Sadhana Panchakam”.

 

 

Love.