Search This Blog

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

I-The Reality



The vedanta repeats that reduction of the vasanas is the means of volatilizing the mind. When we look into the mirror and do not see our face in it, not because the mirror is not reflecting the image in front of it, but because the reflected image is not perceptible to our vision due to perhaps due to the thick layer of dust on the mirror. When we clean the dust on the mirror, the act of cleaning does not create the reflection of face but only reveals the reflection which was already there. Similarly man is not aware today of his divine spiritual nature because the subjective mind reflecting it is thickly coated with dull vasanas gathered by it during its egocentric passionate existence in the world.
One further needs to understand that Vedanta is not a theory where you as a subject or a meditator retain your status of subject and experience something different from you, the 'object' of your experience. The subject matter of Vedanta is not away from you. It is not like an indirect knowledge of a special type of animal in Arctic pole that you need to confirm by going there and seeing it for yourself. You are very much available all the time. The knowledge given by Vedanta is direct and immediate knowledge as it talks about the real nature of 'I'.

Moreover, any direct knowledge is to be understood and not practiced. For example, when eyes reveal forms and colors, when you operate the means of knowledge that is your eyes, is it theory or practice? It is none. It is just immediate knowledge. Similarly, when the truth of the 'subject' and 'objects' is revealed to be one non-dual consciousness by Vedanta, the differences are understood to be mithya or apparent. To understand the 'individual' body-mind-sense complex and the 'objects' as mithya, one only needs to inquire into their reality. One need not resolve them temporarily and physically in a special experience.

No comments: