Self realisation

 Self realisation (know thyself)

Self consciousness is generally understood as an awareness of oneself. and expressed in English by the words “I”, “me”, and “my”, terms that each of us uses to refer to ourselves as such. We call it “मैं” ‘मेरा’ in Hindi and अहं, मम् Sanskrit, The word अहं derived from the first and the last alphabets अ and ह with the unionised म् (सामरस्य). 

Human body is a bundle of five bodies (अन्नमय, प्राणमय, मनोमय, विज्ञानमय, आनंदमय कोष). It is made of the material of the universe with the hardware of five basic elements (आकाश, वायु, तेज, जल, पृथ्वी) and its quality (तन्मात्रा) (शब्द, स्पर्श, रूप, रस, गंध) with the organs of enjoyment or suffering, popularly known as five sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin) and five exit (action) senses (mouth/speaking, hands/grasping, feet/walking, genitals/procreating, and rectum/excreting). 

The software to experience pleasure or pain is also inbuilt in the system with mind, intellect and ego (मन, बुद्धि, अहंकार). And the power comes from the universal infinite consciousness (चिति-शिव) which has been solidified as limited individual consciousness (चित-जीव) (as per required voltage) and playing as different creatures and forms on the platform of different Bhuvanas including our earth.

In normal human life we focus more of the hardware, the sensory organs and feel pleasure or pain from the experiences of the outer world. But in the process of self realisation, we focus on the software part of mind, intellect and ego and evaluate who is feeling pleasure or pain and why, and accordingly try to upgrade or neutralise the intellect understanding from the past sanskaras so that the pain or suffering reduces. The intellect takes on the form of that which is thought. 

But as we progress upward, we come into the area of I, I am, I exist, the individual sense of existence, the ego, the limited or caged consciousness. As we move up, we realise the wave effect of the ocean but still in the state of wave (ray of light-चित). Further up is the state of Ocean state (चिति) and thereafter the state of Chaitanyata (Shiva-परम). 

A descending journey of चिति to चित, or call it परमात्मा to आत्मा, turns into ascending journey of a Atma to Parmatma. 

Our intellect guided by relevant scriptures and or Guru (outer or inner) is our paddle to cross the river. But once we reach to the destination, the bank of the river, we shall leave the paddle.  It is otherwise left because everything dissolve in that final state of self realisation, अनस्मित (never sets), नित्योदित (always rising), अनुत्तर (can’t be described, only realised- the highest state). 

Thereafter, we see ourselves as everybody, everywhere in all forms and formats, accepting them all as part of our own being, जीवन्मुक्त. 

Know Thyself.

Punamchand 

19 October 2022