Originally Posted by Atanu Banerjee
Dear Atanu:
While I enjoyed your self-inquiry method and acknowledge truth in it, but for many others and me where human personality dominates, my reality is in my creator who is apart from me.
You have articulated well to bring your point across. With all due respect, without assuming an adversarial role let me say this: your self-inquiry leading to self-realization to the knowledge of the Creator assumes a giant leap along the human journey. To inquire “who am I?” really means trying to find out the source of the ego or “I thoughts” and destroy them as quickly as they arise. That is a tall order! Besides, when the knowledge of own self is full of unresolved doubts, to know the creator by inquiring within would only lead us to a very muddied view at best.
In fact, the great Ramana Maharishi who is the proponent of such “who am I?” inquiry, only ends up admitting the following: “The true import of the Sastras cannot be learnt except from Jnanis, that is, those who have had and live in the direct experience of reality; no one can understand the true spirit behind any of the Sastras merely by his command over language or by his keenness and superiority of intellect.”
BTW, “I am this body but I have separate existence”, which is used as the base and teach four Yogas (Karm Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana Yoga) as a path to a perfect happiness. In each of these Yogas, there must be an “I”: an I to do action without attachment to the fruit thereof. In all these four Yogas the individual existence of an “I” in the form of “I am this” or “I am so-and-so” is indispensable. Without this “I”, no yoga can be performed.
The “I” in me experiences the reality of life through my senses, how can I denounce it? The followers of “I am Brahman (Advaita)” and “neti-neti” schools share a common belief that the “self” can be discovered by the mind either through affirmation (advaita) or by negation (you propose). Given the challenges, these methods remain theoretical at best. Therefore, to make such a leap is unrealistic and impractical.
In human journey there is a role of creator and our cord with Him whether you are at a lower level or higher level in your knowledge. The divine “grace” plays a key role in our journey and not the practice of self-inquiry. Moreover, grace does not differentiate between higher-self and lower-self.
Self is like a fetus in a womb. It has different stages of development from gestation to full maturity; 3 months, 6 months and 9 months. Yet in all these stages it still is attached to placental cord to connect with the source of energy. Similarly, “self”, in whichever stage of development it is, in its journey needs the hand of grace for the journey, thus, establishes the role of creator outside of “self”. Even the highest-self holds on to the cord of the creator as evidenced by the sages (just look at the lives they lived untouched by matter). In the manifested creation, no matter how enlightened you are, a state of highest-self does not exist where the hand of grace is no longer needed.
If knowing self (self-inquiry) is a sufficient condition to know the non-self - God, why sages like Ramana, Ramakrishna, Shankara, Chaitanya etc, had tears in their eyes in their Bhakti? If they all had attained higher-self why would they do that? Because, even in that state, they were crying out to the Creator who is apart from them. Such a cry can be heard from ancient sages when they were in utter helpless state trying to know the creator had this to say:
Asatoma Sadgamaya, “ Lead me from untruth to the truth….”
Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya, “Lead me from darkness to light”
Mrityoma Amritangamaya, “Lead me to the life from this death…”
Purified atman, the spirit, is the spark of the creator but not the creator Himself! Yes, God’s spirit is in us, therefore, God is in us but God is not us!! A child is of mother but child is not the mother! Why would Jesus Christ say, “ No one comes to my Father except through me”. Why not, come to me only, instead. This is very telling of the separate personality (albeit of the same essence) called creator. Therefore, the very assumption you make (sufficiency in knowing self) bypasses the reality and misses the true picture.
Instead, why not take a more practical and realistic approach that Christ Jesus offers. When Jesus said these words, “I am the way, the truth and the light”, I believe, it was not meant to be a mere sermon material for Sundays but truly meant to be taken seriously. No man can attain the unqualified Absolute, the transcendent Father beyond creation, until he has first manifested the “son” activating Christ Consciousness within creation.
Swami Paramahansa Yogananda so aptly puts it this way:From his book: Second Coming of Christ Part IIThe Christ Consciousness present in Jesus, and in all vibratory creation and phenomena, is the noumenon, “truth,” the primary substance and essence of life everything in creation. No human being who is a part of vibratory creation can take his consciousness to cosmic consciousness, “the Father”- which lies beyond vibratory creation and the immanent Christ consciousness-without first experiencing the Christ-imbued Cosmic Vibration, or Holy Ghost, that manifests vibratory creation, then passing through the God-reflection of Christ Consciousness.
In other words, to “come unto the Father” every human consciousness has to expand and attain realization of the Christ Consciousness, in order to reach Cosmic Consciousness.
In the end, all these practices and individual efforts mean nothing if there is no hand of grace that can lead you. We struggle and strive to please Him, never really sure we have succeeded, at times frustrated over the pressure we think He is putting on us, and yet afraid to stop trying. Don’t you think that kind of life is sheer misery?
Complete unconditional surrender to the higher power – God and fully dependent on His grace - would lead one to realize Him in a more accessible and practical way. Because, it is His grace through complete surrender that bestows wisdom upon you and me to know Him intimately. Christ was very clear on such issues when He said, “you have to be like children to enter the kingdom of God”, He was not referring to a biological reversal of aging but to have a heart and mind of a child, who is completely dependent on parents, who completely surrenders to the will of the parents in its development.
When divine grace works its way into a person, he begins to understand God the creator. It is befitting that many saints and sages were able to accomplish the same through this route.
Therefore, to me, a complete surrender to the will of the Father and begging for mercy to know God is more appealing than going through rugged practice towards an unattainable goal.
In that sense, Christ’s teaching is not delusional as some may think. Therefore, when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, it is settled for many. Because implicit in that is the assurance: “my grace is sufficient for you.”
Blessings,
nirotu
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