9 Obstacles to Self-Knowledge & Truth

Obstacles to Self-Knowledge & Truth

• Ego as a major hindrance
• Desire & delusive thinking
• Attachment to transient experiences
• Limited perception through intellect
• Speech leading to ignorance
• Worldly success vs. spiritual failure
• Role of austerity & penance
• Overcoming habitual thinking
• True renunciation vs. escapism

Integrity proceeds from Brahma-Anubhava

Brahmavid Brahmaiva Bhavati (ब्रह्मविद ब्रह्मैव भवति) . This is perhaps the last stop on the path of Jnana Marga. The one who knows the Brahman, who has realized himself becomes the Brahman. Unless Brahma-Anubhava (ब्राहमानुभवा the experience of Brahman) becomes a part of the seeker of Brahman, all other forms of knowledge will appear broken, incomplete and unsatisfactory.

When one is under the illusion of the Mayic force, the senses which are born out of Maya cannot transmit that which is real, that source from which everything emanates. Consider a person speaks out of some experience, what gives authenticity to his words is his integrity and truthfulness of experience.

When a man established in Brahman speaks, his words may appear simple, with no ornamentation. The power of the words however will be of highest value. This is because the words emanate from the depth of Truth which is in the direct experience of the speaker, through integrity born out of Brahma-Anubhava.

Mundaka Upanishad: Modern science is just one of Mother Nature’s moves.

The Mundaka Upanishad talks about the infinitum that Brahman represents. It directly challenges all the so-called modern sciences, which arise from the limited nature of worldly experience and merely manipulate and adjust to the inherent smallness of the world, especially when one wants to understand the nature of Creation.

Modern science cannot be anything more than that. All inventions are born out of man’s necessity to adjust within the limitedness of the world. What the Mundaka Upanishad exhorts is that all experience without the direct experience of Brahman is mere gloating. It says that actual knowledge is only born out of the Self.

All other types of knowledge are born out of ignorance and merely a guess work that Nature puts into place based on time, place and circumstance. If Thomas Alva Edison invented the electric bulb, he was just a mere instrument at the hands of Mother Nature. The electric bulb had to be invented, and it never mattered who would become a tool for this purpose. It was just a tiny occurrence on the vast landscape of natural occurrences and nothing more.

Intellect is a figment of Maya

It is important for man to go deeper into every experience of life whether he is making coffee or flying an aircraft. It is important for man to grasp the transience associated with every single activity of the world.

Only when one observes the transience of activity and realizes its mechanism, can man hone the ability to look beyond it to glimpse the background that is still, vast and magnanimous. If nature is transient, then what is eternal, is an obvious question. One cannot answer this question through intellect because intellect is born out of matter.

It is finite and fickle to answer such a profound question. Since the intellect is born out of Nature, it is fleeting and cannot grasp that which is eternal, and permanent which is also the cause for Nature. Even if an individual becomes interested in the transience of things and inquiries what is eternal, it is still of great value.

The question is a signal that the heart-strands of the individual that bind him to this fleeting world, Samsara, are already loosening. It is also a sign that one can severe these strands easily with one stroke of the Jnana sword.

Delusive conclusions Result from Falsity

Desire prompted actions always emanate from the limited self, the mind. Although desires may prompt good or bad actions the outcomes of such actions are temporary by nature and keep the doer on a shaky, ever- jittery ground. There can be no clarity in action or in the outcome.

The learnings associated with the outcomes depend heavily on the external conditions which are by nature non-permanent. This means that all such learnings are illusive. It does not contribute towards the growth of the individual.

Instead, he becomes a slave to erroneous conclusions which his sullied intelligence throws at him at the end of an experience. In addition, owing to the experience, one’s ego-shell also gets strengthened pushing him further towards delusive thinking.

When man comes under the sway of deceptive conclusions,nature may push him into lower forms of existence in succeeding lives where it shall force him to take up unlearnt lessons. Many delusive conclusions result by the dint of falsehood alone. Man is hesitant to accept truth because he is not mature enough to undergo the humbling experience of Truth.

7/8 Questions from Sanatana Dharma

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Ego is an impediment to Truth

Practice of Truth, is the highest form of Sadhana. Truth, penance, Brahmacharya and the acquisition of correct knowledge are the practices that give strength to the aspirant at the physical, mental, moral, intellectual and spiritual platform.

An aspirant endowed with this strength alone can reach the Goal—not a weakling, says the Mundaka Upanishad. These are all preparatory practices and they aid self-purification before one can inch further. However, all these practices are actions and no action by itself can attain that which is unattainable by any action, the Supreme Brahman.

Without these preliminary practices, the journey can never begin. The rupturing of the ego-centric shell is vital. The ego is the greatest impediment towards the perception of the Universal self. When one cannot perceive Truth, the ego- shell hardens as a renewed continuum. With every failure in accepting Truth, the ego proliferates and takes a being one step further away from Truth.

The Formula of Atman: Remembrance

All the Upanishads forbid us from talking about anything other than the all-inclusive Self. The austerity of speech is in recognition of the Truth about the Self. The inner mood should be to express the Self alone, Truth alone.

Trying to identify anything or anyone differently is to deride the Truth or the Self. The Atman is the Self that animates every being. If the recognition of Atman becomes an object of continuous remembrance, there can be no utterance of anything contemptuous or hurtful. Speech would automatically become humbly truthful and hence dependable. The act of sacrifice is also the dissolution of the ego-born falsehood and nothing else.

The love for the Self automatically triggers Vairagya (वैराग्य renunciation) in the heart that shall open the gateways towards liberation. Meditating on the Self with a thorough understanding of the Mundaka Upanishad shall auto-start the path towards self-revelation.

The Upanishad is a formula towards solving the problem of endless incarnations born out of the ego’s continuing thirst to maintain itself keeping the soul bound to the limited experience of the world. The Mundaka Upanishad is an invitation to pulverize ignorance born out of ego.

An average person is unconsciously petty and has an unhealthy ego. This just defines the overall personality of the average person. However, this aspect of human personality is the greatest obstacle on the path of Self-realization. It is the petty man inside that defines so-called habits and the Self opposing principles, who supports all superficial thoughts and defines the way one feels (as if these feelings are real), behaves and asserts.

This is the character which operates in the mode of passion and in the mode of ignorance. It is Rajas (रजस) and Tamas (तमस) in full operation. This is the superficial facade that hides the luminosity of the Self, the Atman, and our actual face.

What is the necessity to know oneself? Why should we realize we are the Self, the Atman? This is because unless we come to such a platform, long-lasting joy shall evade us. Our happiness shall be fleeting and shallow.

If we do not realize our Self we shall be glum and the search for true happiness shall turn into an endless witch-hunt. This witch-hunt shall then stoke unwanted, unprecedented desires that shall make us go in circles and tire us from one day into another. Is it not better to avoid this tireless wallowing in darkness? Hence one must first develop the aspiration to know the Truth.

One must first build oneself through fruitful pursuits of defining worthwhile permanent goals. Goals, those when achieved, shall hand-over the keys of everlasting joy and happiness without having to return to the chambers of darkness, sadness or grief, ever again.

The Seeker must strive to change his habitual lower personality entirely. If we do not become competent and empty vessels to accommodate this fresh energy, spiritual experience or renewed power shall deliver no value.

If one does not become conscious and sacrifice one’s little ego as he continues to keep petty, puny, self-limiting, ignoble, false and stupid notions about some imaginary concepts about life as propagated or unconsciously fed into him, through modern day movies, so-called stars and politicians, his consciousness shall remain at a very low ebb.

Unless man learns and understands about Tapas (तपस्या Austerities) and Sadhana (साधना spiritual discipline), no amount of effort driven by incorrect understanding shall yield any positive results. The initial step is to invoke the thirst of God-realization within oneself. Many of us may feel, I do not have this thirst anyway, how then can I invoke it?

The answer to this, is that the ancient scriptures have revealed it with a certainty that even the lowliest of worms have an inherent seed of Knowing God in its heart. This is an indisputable fact. Since we are parts and parcels of the Lord, how can we not have the desire to know our very source? This is just like saying that water has neither hydrogen nor oxygen. This shall be indeed absurd.

Only thing is that we have forgotten our eternal association with the Lord because of our continuous association with falsity in the world. One has to revive our thirst for God simply. That’s all.

There may be other curious aspirants who want to know God or even get curious about Him, but are not ready to sacrifice their lower nature, their ego, their pettiness. One does not want to lose one’s importance,. We want God, but we want God to adjust to our whims and fancies. We do not want to let go of our misery and yet want God to interfere with our lives, with methodologies best known to God and magically set everything right for them. How can that be possible?

It is like saying that fire is to be kept alive in the same container which is full with water. Such characters can never make even an iota of spiritual progress. Any partial or temporary elevation, slight occasional inspiration during some exalted moments, any momentary spiritual opening within, with no true or radical transformation of our lower nature or our compulsive petty personality, is of no practical value.

The act of remembrance is commonly associated with memory. Although remembrance has conscious elements, most of it is rather unconscious or subconscious. The act of driving, cycling or swimming is subconscious.

Some habits developed are conscious. One unconsciously takes out a cigarette, in times of stress. Our whole life is a set of repetitive acts. Thus, remembered acts, build open and define our lifestyle. The remembered acts, being automatic, lack the depth of what pure consciousness is capable of. We are bound tightly by the strings of memory and habit and stifled, without our knowledge. We become limited human “creatures”. In this state there seems to exist no “being”.

The state of “being”, becomes possible, only when one experiences freedom. The very act that binds us, can set us absolutely free. A thief may use a scalpel used to slit the throat or to scathe someone.

But a doctor can use the same scalpel to save someone’s life, at the hospital. The act of remembrance, is like the scalpel, that can free oneself from the limitations of material life. The egoistic makeup of “I” and “Me”, builds a memory wall, the habit wall of the scum of ego around us.

It is important to bring down this wall, systematically, so that one can explore the spiritual universe that lies beyond this limited zone which represents material life. Self-remembrance is a powerful spiritual practice that is used to get out of the ego-construct.

Below is a practice that I have followed for over 25 years, since I was a teenager. There are certain additional practices that I follow, even today. But this one, is used to bring the enormous wall of ego, built over many lifetimes. Now the practice.

One has to focus on the “I”, consciously. For example, when one is walking, strolling, one has to remember consciously, “I am walking”. It is advisable that one brings full attention to the “I”, who is walking. When one is eating something, one has to cultivate the habit of remembering consciously with the alertness; “I am eating”.

One should intently watch the “I”, who is doing what?, “eating”. If one consciously brings remembrance to every single act, in one’s life,things will start changing dramatically. This conscious flow of attention, one should also extend to “sleeping”. “I am about to sleep”.. “I am going to sleep” and so on.

The act of remembering is also an attempt to align with “Truth”. When this self-remembrance permeates through, to almost every act, including working or feeling bored, things will become very interesting. There will be considerable shifts in one’s consciousness and “higher” aspects of life will unravel.

Thinking, shall become conscious, spurious elements in the thinking process shall wither away systematically, through pure attention alone. All the thinking process will become “observing thoughts. As this happens, there shall arise a gap between the real “I” and the egoistic “I” construct. The results will be amazing and freeing by all means. Happy remembrance!

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