VEDANTA A PATH TO RECOGNISE THE SELF BY K.KRISHNAMOORTHI.

Introduction : Spiritual education ( as different from rituals practiced) in a human beings life is very important. This is because the humans find themselves in life situations where they feel helpless and want to transfer the responsibilities to some power above who would take care of everything. India for ages has been preaching and following the spiritual path of Vedanta ( Literally translated as The culmination of Knowledge). It does not preach any religious rituals, but trains a human being to identify the Godhead within himself or herself by using the power of thinking which is available only to the human beings not to any other living beings in this world.. The human being has the ability to choose his actions. Vedanta does not bind or restrict one to follow a set of rules, but encourages use of the human intellect to recognize this God within oneself (Brahman or Atman) by thinking, questioning, enquiring reasoning with the truths laid down by it.. As per Vedanta, the human being has the true self or God within him and three equipment for him to function in this world (The Body, the mind and the intellect). As the human being is the only creature on earth who has the intellect which gives him the choice of action, he must use this equipment to realize the God within himself. What is Vedanta ? : Vedanta is a systematic and formulated knowledge of life and living. It helps you to unfold your divinity. It trains you to think for yourself and helps you to analyse, investigate and realize the essence of life. Vedanta is an experimental science. It needs to be verified by its practical application in life. You do not have to retire to the forests and mountains to put Vedanta into practice. Philosophers world over have praised the Vedanta philosophy. Arthur Schopenhauer, Max Muller, Paul Deussen, Schlegel , Swami Vivekananda, Swami Rama Thirtha to name a few. Vedanta being a systematic study it must be studied as you would study science or mathematics. Why Vedanta ? : Man is in constant pursuit of happiness. Every activity of his is directed towards this. His Body seeks sensual pleasures, the Mind, emotional joys, and the Intellect , rational delights. The desire for these happiness are unending the more you get, the more you want.. If you have Trillion dollars, you want a gazillion! If you are emotionally happy, you do not want it to be interrupted. If you have conquered the world, you want to go for the Universe. How to control this unending desire ? When the human realizes the Godhead within himself, these desires cease to exist. This is why the quest for the self is important. Vedanta helps you in this. To enjoy the eternal and complete bliss uninterrupted, you need to realize the Godhead within you. German philosopher Schophenhaur puts it nicely It is difficult to find happiness in oneself, but it is impossible to find it

anywhere else. Thus Vedanta leads you to this eternal bliss which can never be taken away from you.. It helps you solve physical, mental and intellectual problems.

How Vedanta leads you to eternal bliss ? :The vedantic approach to the problem of stresses and strains of human beings is scientific and experimental. It explains thoroughly, clearly and scientifically the facts of life. It proceeds logically from the known to the unknown. It takes you step by step from the lowest of depth of ignorance to the highest peak of knowledge. Godhood within you is your original nature., just as your health which is your original nature. When a disease attacks, you seek the help of a doctor, who uses his knowledge of medicine to remove the disease. He does not give you health.. So it is with spirituality. Your original nature is the Godhood in you. The disease is the ignorance. Vedanta gives you the knowledge to combat this ignorance, leaving you with your Godhood in you. Vedantic knowledge takes you up to the furthermost point. Thereafter you have to experience the Reality subjectively. There is a good analogy to this called moon branch analogy. Some times on a sunny day you see the crescent moon in the sky. It is faintly visible and you want to point it out to your friend. There are no reference points in the sky as there are no stars in the day. So, you point at a tree to him . Then lead him on to the trunk of the tree and thence to a branch and to the tip of the branch. Thereafter ask him to gaze at the sky at the tip of the branch and suddenly the moon appears to his eyes. You will recognize that the tree, the trunk branch or the tip of the branch have nothing to do with the moon which is far beyond all of them. Yet, these pointers are essential to locate the moon. If he sticks to these pointers, try as he might, he will never be able to see the moon.. Exactly in the same way, Vedanta gives you the knowledge to reach to a point and leaves you to find the Godhood within you. Vedanta can take you to that point of perfection short of realization from your present state of knowledge. Vedanta or for that matter no religion can take you beyond this point. So do not get attached to this knowledge and remain there. Make use of it to go beyond it. This is how Vedanta helps you in achieving the eternal bliss. Some facts to remember in the Quest of the Self : Your mind and intellect together constitute your inner personality which defines your individuality. Your body is just a vehicle to carry your personality from place to place. When you contact the world 3 transactions take place Receipt of stimuli from the world., Reaction within your personality and Response to the world. The sense organs (Eyes, Ears, Nose, tongue and skin) are constantly perceiving sense objects of the world.. You need to check the quality of this and avoid inflow of impure and unhealthy stimuli. Having received the stimuli, the mind and intellect must help in producing the proper reactions and avoid reactions like jealousy, greed , lust etc; Thirdly the response should be made through actions which are unselfish which gives eternal peace and happiness. The realization of the true self or eternal bliss is to remove the veil of ignorance in 3 steps Remove the lack of information through teachers and books; Secondly reflect on the information so gathered.

Finally experience the self by meditation (Fixation of thought upon the self to the exclusion of all other thoughts.) All human beings have to act. The nature of action is determined by the inherent tendency present in a man.(Called Vasana) Past actions produce present vasanas, present vasanas produce future actions. Thus Vasana is the cause and action the effect. Vasanas become thoughts then turns into desires and finally manifests as action. An artist has a vasana for painting, which converts into a thought to paint. The thought then converts into a desire to paint and culminates into the action of painting. All actions must be performed without any personal motive behind it. This would give you the eternal peace and bliss. In short, action should be without any attachment to the fruits of action, but should focus on the goal to be achieved. The world (Object) is constantly changing: and so is the man (Subject). To enjoy a harmony between the Subject and the Object, there has to be dynamic changes to be made by the subject as the changes to the object are un controllable. Process of learning to realize the self.: To realize the true self, one has to follow systematically 3 steps : 1. Accept your ignorance. You are not aware of the existence of the spiritual self. 2. Collect Information on the process by reading books and listening to masters. 3. Reflect upon this knowledge by applying it in your life step by step. Indian scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishads, the Bhagwat Gita are packed with such knowledge. But mere reading and cramming the texts alone would not do. It has to be reflected upon and digested and experimented in real life situation My own experiences : My learning of Vedanta and the quest for finding meaning to human existence started around the year 1997. It all started with a small ad. in a daily about lectures on Bhagwat Gita by Swami A. Parthasarathy. Out of curiosity I went to attend his lectures. It was in English and he put the essence of life and living in a very lucid style and in simple language. He presented the Vedanta philosophy through the Gita so convincingly that I decided to pursue my studies further. It was not a dry and very complicated thought flow as normally one expects, but simple and logical explanation to the day to day living of human beings. I recalled Somerset Maughams book Razors Edge which I had read years back in which he talked about Hinduism as a way of life and not a religion. I had been a god-fearing man till I listened to these lectures and I became a god-seeking man as my studies continue. All of a sudden a lot of things that happened in my life started making a new meaning and things started reassembling as if it were a jigsaw puzzle pieces falling into place. What looked as impossible and improbables started looking simple and made a lot of sense. As an Electronics Engineer, I was looking for a sequential and logical explanation to spiritual pursuit. It made sense to go deeper into the study. Another interesting spin-off was that I could explain a lot of things which till then looked inexplicable. As I continue my studies I find that it is not only the past events that get explained, but the future can also be seen in a clearer perspective. It also gives the mental and spiritual courage and stability to face the

challenges in life and brings the meaning and purpose to life and living. Contrary to the general belief that you have to go into recluse to get spiritual knowledge, Vedanta looks at life in a very positive way and leads you to a life of peace and tranquility. You live a life full of action but totally detached from the happenings in the world. The essence is distinguish between aiming for the goals rather than the fruits of your actions. This does not suggest that you leave things to happen on their own without performing actions in this world. Today after much studies, I am able to handle problems that arise in my life with less amount of agitation. It has helped me to focus on what action I should take, taking into account all facts of the situation, rather than worrying on the effects or the magnitude of the problem at hand. I use the intellect to take control rather than the emotions or the bodily comforts that would result. No doubt, it causes agitation to the uninitiated around you. This leads to a lot of misunderstanding by them. But in the ultimate, the ratio of right decision to wrong decision is very high. Yet another important thing that happens is, when happiness occurs, I do not jump with joy and feel that the happiness is everlasting. So it is with sadness. Thus I find myself to be more equanimous in situations of happiness and sorrow. This attitude of being a witness rather than a person involved in it, provides the resilience needed to handle the various situations.

Worry and what causes it ?: I used to think in the past that worries and tensions are caused by the world and injustice is being meted out to me by it in spite of being an honest & God-fearing man! .This concept is gone from my mind and replaced with the logical causes of discomfort or tension. I have started realizing the truth that worries are caused due to thoughts of the past and concerns of the future. I used to remember the happy days of my childhood, the trials and tribulations of my carrier , the sorrows of failures in my life, the pride in my successes and feel happy and sad over the incidents. Vedanta has helped me to logically analyze these events of my life and create equanimity of thought and realize that whatever happened had to happen. This is the nature of the world. If one realized this, the world becomes heaven, else it is going to be hell. How to develop this attitude ? It is by constantly reminding yourself of the lifes only mission the goal of realizing the god within you and not associating things with your body, mind and intellect. You often hear people say I like eating sweets (Body). Some say I love to spend time with my family (Mind). Yet some others say I love reading books on Vedanta (Intellect). All these do not comprise your true self. Practice to remind yourself that you are searching for a permanent peace and not the temporary happiness. If you contact diabetes, your love for sweets disappears, if you lose the loved ones in your family, you have to learn to live without them, and if the intellectual pursuit is interrupted, you give up the study. All these do not change your true self which remains unaltered. So at every occurrence of an event in the world, develop the attitude to remind yourself that these are transient in nature and has nothing to do with your true self (God within you). You (the subject) have to contact the world (the object).

The object is ever changing. It is the nature. If the subject does not change to adjust for the changes of the object, worry, tension, misery follows. You hear parents say When we were children, it was never like this... You also hear the children say Your time was different, you are outdated. Neither of them are right, as history will be repeated when these children grow up. The problem is not with time, it is with subject unwilling to change to the vagaries of the object. So focus on the true self, the subject-object conflict is removed and eternal peace comes. Some events of the past : My own personal experiences of the past, now, could be better explained from the study of Vedanta. As a child, I grew up in an upper middle class, Hindu Undivided Family which was very religious and there were a lot of rituals going on around me in which I participated and never questioned the meaning of these rituals. Then came the phase of my life with the Armed Forces where I had no occasion or time to practice these rituals. I came across a cross section of people belonging to various social, religious, economic groups. Here I learnt that how little I knew about the world and its behavior and how to deal with various situations. I started putting all these events as experiences which I could examine at the appropriate time. In the next phase I started working as an independent consultant and started recording new experiences which were new and varied. In these three phases of my life, the events and experiences can be analyzed by analyzing the relationship of me (Subject) with others (Object). There were events which made me happy, sometimes sad, sometimes filled with tension. During all these events the subject(me) was completely with the pleasures and sorrows occurring around me. Weddings in the family were great occasions of rejoicing. Deaths in the family left a sad feeling of despair. Illnesses left a deep sense of regret and helplessness. The root cause of all these reactions to the external events were due to association of ones self to the body(Illness) and the mind(Happy occasions). Today, as I understand the existence of the true self within, the direct association with the body and mind are getting lesser priority and hence the effect of such occurrences is slowly reducing. It is not that happiness and sorrow are eliminated, but the effect on you are less. Does this mean that you develop an attitude of callousness ? Certainly not. You laugh or cry at events, but continue to act in the way you should. (Do what you ought to do and not what you like to do). Recognize that it has nothing to do with your true self which remains unaffected. The technique : From the foregoing, some things are apparent : a. Human beings have to act. Inaction is not the right thing to do. b. The actions should be focused on Goals and not on its Fruits. c. Happiness and sorrow occur periodically and are part of life and are highly transient in nature. d. The true self within you is different and permanent unlike the body, mind and intellect which are mere equipment and satisfy your temporary desires and give a false sense of happiness. e. Body mind and intellect tend to meet the demands of ones ego.

The ultimate thirst for knowledge is quenched when you find the godhead within you. The technique to be adopted towards this end depends upon how you train yourself. Some tips to train yourself a. First accept your ignorance about the self. b. Go from the known to the unknown. For this, use the intellect for all your actions. Do not let the mind or body supercede the intellect in your decision to act. c. Use the intellect to study the world and you through a process of collecting the information, then reflecting on this information little by little. By doing this, you would start understanding the nature of your true self. d. Slowly but steadily, you would start removing the gross self (Body, Mind and Intellect) and start revealing the subtle self (Godhead within you). By doing this, the agitations within you start reducing and lasting peace emerges. e. Start by avoiding selfish, grow to be an unselfish one and then become selfless. This technique takes you to the godhead within you.. For instant, if you are doing things which are going to satisfy only your needs and desire, increase it to include your family and close friends. Keep increasing the base to your community, your city, country, the world etc; This helps you to become selfless which results in getting closer to the realization of the self. Look at the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and others. f. Constantly remind yourself that it is the true self which should be recognized and not the transient likes and dislikes of the body mind and the intellect. In your quest of knowledge, use your intellect most of the time. As you approach the state of realization, you have to transcend even the intellect, when you will suddenly realize the God in you which brings eternal bliss. When you are realized, you will know it without the use of the Mind, Body or the Intellect. The real self in you is self-effulgent. The Self knows itself by itself. Conclusion : Todays world is fraught with worries, concerns and tensions, the Vedantic approach provides a lot of solace. It teaches you how resolve many mental agitations, by controlling ones mind with his own intellect. How to develop an attitude of gratitude to whoever created you and has given so much. Develop the spirit of repaying these debts. If you reflect upon the good things that you have got from the world on a nocharge basis, you would realize how much you need to repay to this wonderful world. In the process you realize the godhead within you, without going to the places of worship like temple, Church or mosque etc;. Eternal peace (absence of Agitation) results within you and the world becomes a wonderful place to live in..

Acknowledgements 1. Vedanta treatise Book by Sri.A. Parthasarathy (Published by Vedanta Life

Institute,Mumbai400006) 2. Mrs. Janki Chopra My mentor in the study of Vedanta