Self: 7 Keys to Brahman Realization

Self and The 7 Keys to Brahman Realization

• See outer world as Brahman
• See inner Self as Brahman
• Abandon rights, do duty with Dharma
• Maintain mental purity
• Renounce identification with the world
• Associate with Guru, Scriptures & Truth
• Cultivate dispassion (Vairagya) through Bhakti

Why is Realizing the Self as Brahman Impossible Without a God-Realized Guru?

When a sadhaka, after having given up, his internal clinging to the external phenomenon of nature such as being born, growing up, maintaining himself, declining, decaying and dying, he suddenly views the entire creation of animate and inanimate existence as Brahman alone. This he arrives at, seeking guidance from a perfectly realised Master, who clears his doubts regarding the outward phenomenon. 

There is no other way to realize this through mere observation. Here I do not allude to nitya siddhas who are born with a certain purpose and take an Avatar, having arrived directly from the spiritual sky.  Having realised thus, the sadhaka gets established in Brahman. This is same as Knowledge and Bliss condensed, solidified, in which he takes delight (The Gita, Chapter 5, Verse 24; Chapter 6, verse 27; Chapter 18, Verse 54)

The Sadhaka, thus regards all phenomenal existence to be illusory, in his heart and a product of the three Gunas, also all acts proceeding from the three Gunas (त्रिगुण) of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (सत्व, रजस, तमस, mode of goodness; mode of passion; mode of ignorance), are apart from the Self and verily perishable in all respects.

This becomes an attainment through direct experience, a deep established realization, having moved in the presence of a God-Realized Sage or Sadhu. There is no other way to get to this full-blown stage of realization. Negating all these by-products of phenomenon manifesting as time, place and circumstances, the sadhaka should get established in the Self alone, the Self being the only Existence (The Gita, Chapter 13, Verses 2, 34)

How Can We See the Outer World as Brahman and Apply It in Daily Life?

Everything around is Brahman as worshipable, the first approach, and that “I”, the Self, is Brahman, the second approach. One has to take up the first approach while dealing with the world and the second approach has to be taken up while dealing with oneself. The ways of applying these approaches to daily life can be understood as under.

In the first approach it is said that all that we see around is Brahman, of course this cannot be simply accepted or assumed without basing it on direct realization, having attained it through Satya (Truth) , Sadhu Satsanga (Holy Association), Swadhyay (Study of Scriptures and getting one’s understanding ratified by Guru), Seva (Higher Service) , and Sharanagati (Self-Surrender); from a source of absolute authority, the God Realized Guru. This means that when we deal with the world, this point should be borne in mind by the sadhaka. This notion has to bring up the following points as one deals with the world.

(1) The outside conditions are Brahman, hence I cannot underestimate the outside intelligence that is working around me.

(2) It would be a fallacy to assume that I can fool the world and get away with it. If I do get away with it, temporarily, it shall not last long. It is going to get me anyway.

(3) I cannot take undue advantage of another soul in the outer world. If you try to trick anyone, you are going to be trapped and tricked, just a matter of time. The laws of Brahman never miss their mark.

(4) Do not expect rights from the world. You are here to do your duty. This life is for service. Remember everything is Brahman and hence God. Brahman takes care of you automatically, if you do your duty well basing it on Dharma for which the Gita stands testimony. This is in fact, the price for your service. To take for granted, the external world, is to take for granted, Brahman alone.

Why Must We Recognize the Self as Brahman to Attain Inner Purity and Freedom?

In the second approach, it is said that you are Brahman. This means that when you deal with yourself, you are dealing with God. It is another matter that you have not realised, God is inside you.

(1) If God is within me, he is watching me and he knows all the evil intentions that the mind is throwing up at me.

(2) I cannot dare to abuse my mind with toxic thoughts and abuse the body. If I engage in nefarious acts of body and mind, my own body and mind shall revolt against me one day and put an end to this life. It is important that I maintain absolute purity in thought, word and deed.

(3) As one purifies oneself, through Sadhana, following our Spiritual Master and the scriptures, the Lord inside shall start revealing His presence within and without us. As we remove all that is toxic through maintaining a clear conscience, by maintaining a spotless character, by practising meditation and yoga, the energies within our body shall increase, giving rise to the higher experience of Brahman.

(4) On the other hand, if one abuses the body and mind, our consciousness levels shall drop and will take us to darker domains of existence, where life shall be experienced like a blot, a curse. It shall lead to episodes of depression and many other mental phenomena. It should be understood that it is Brahman alone that induces the gamut of experiences into our lives.

In short whether we regard the outer world as Brahman or the inner world as Brahman, the fact remains, everything that we know off and do not know, is Brahman alone. Even a blind acceptance of this concept is enough to take someone one step closer to Freedom, as a matter of deep Faith in the laws of Brahman. Let us now deal with the forgetfulness of Brahman, the state of the ordinary man, the state of disease.

7/8 Questions from Sanatana Dharma

The scores generated in this Quiz may or may not be absolute. There may be right or wrong answers to each Question. A percentage towards 100 indicates that you are more aligned to the overall subject matter.

Why Do the Vedas Say the Mind Is the Root Cause of Disease and Only God Can Cure It?

Our Vedic Shastras suggest that only a doctor can be the best friend of a diseased person. Diseases are generally regarded as gross manifestations.

Either it is negatively impacting the physical structure, the body, or the mental plane. The latter is usually termed depression. But, the Vedic texts and subtle sciences of medicines suggest that no disease directly affects the body.

It roots from the mind and then branches out, affecting the body.

So, an untamed mind becomes the root cause of suffering which eventually erupts as a disease. The mind’s disease is diverse. It is deeply connected with the 6 vices namely: Lust, Anger, Greed, Pride, Envy, and Attachment. So, uncontrolled thought patterns and tendencies form disease.

If we want to treat diseases from their root it becomes crucial to look upon these mental factors, which otherwise can never be cured. With time it only becomes worse.

Vedic scriptures are the best handbooks available to mankind. Indeed, the best self-help book to treat our innate, negative tendencies, is the Shastras.

It says: “Though there are doctors in the medical field to initiate a recovery of our bodily diseased condition, the disease called fear of death and impermanence can be treated by none other than (Bhagawan) God.”

Why Is God Called the True Doctor and Faith the Ultimate Medicine in Vedic Wisdom?

The true doctor is God and the best medicine is faith. How can God be a doctor?

Here is what Kulashekhara Azhwar says in his famous writing the Mukunda Mala

इदं शरीरं परिणाम-पेशलं

पतत्य अवश्यं शत-संधि-जर्जरम्

किं औषधः पृच्छासि मूढ दुर्मते

निरामयः कृष्ण-रसायनः पिब

idaḿ śarīraḿ pariṇāma-peśalaḿ

pataty avaśyaḿ śata-sandhi-jarjaram

kim auṣadhaḿ pṛcchasi mūḍha durmate

nirāmayaḿ kṛṣṇa-rasāyanaḿ piba

TRANSLATION

“This body’s beauty is fleeting, and at last the body must succumb to death after its hundreds of joints have been rumbled with old age. So why, bewildered fool, are you asking for medication? Just take the Kṛṣṇa elixir, the one cure that never fails.”

Even the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15, Verse 5 reflects a similar mood.

Free from Vanity and Delusion, victorious over the evil of attachment, dwelling constantly in the self or God, with desires completely stilled, liberated from the dualities, namely pleasure and pain. Such highly placed undeluded strivers reach the Eternal Goal.

Why Does the Gita Conclude Disengaging from Worldly Identity Is the Only True Goal of Life?

Verse 5 of Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad Gita needs to be studied from both a worldly and a spiritual standpoint. As soon as a living entity comes into the world, he starts identifying himself with everything around him. 

His childhood, name, parents, and physical appearance strengthen his identification. This is the beginning of Maya in his life. This identification increases in degree and variety as he ages. Thus, he distances himself from his essential nature which animates him, the spirit.

A devotee on the other hand is an individual who has undergone a severe reversal as compared to the common man. The devotee disengages himself from earlier identifications developed during the course of his lifetime.

 It is not possible for one to let go of one’s identification through a simple decision. This process of disengagement is the subject matter of Sadhana. In the course of spiritual discipline, the devotee trains to attach himself with the Supreme Spirit and subsequently learns to disengage from worldly entities. 

This training is essential and it takes a lifetime of effort to seriously disengage from one’s unconstitutional illusory position of being a part of this Mayic world. This is in fact the only objective to which a human being should be committed to, his entire life, to reclaim his actual position. This appears to be a daunting task because man has spent many previous lifetimes accepting and living this false identity and now he has accepted this fakeness as his reality, when it is otherwise.

This process is not as easy as it seems to be. The devotee has to first realize within his heart that other than the Supreme Spirit nothing belongs to him. With firm conviction, he must realize that he deserves nothing of this world, because anything that belongs to this world is simply delusional. 

This view is not a psychological suggestion that he gives to himself. It is not achieved through auto suggestion or any other western practices, but through Satya (Truth) , Sadhu Satsanga (Holy Association), Swadhyay (Study of Scriptures and getting one’s understanding ratified by Guru), Seva (Higher Service) , and Sharanagati (Self-Surrender).

Why Can’t Western Psychology Grasp Spiritual Truth, and How Does Sadhana Lead to Real Grace?

Western practices are outright rejected since spirituality does not fall under the purview of psychology or mental speculation. A person considered adept in psychology can never understand topics directly related to spirit. 

Only through sadhana, a person becomes eligible for grace. Spirituality does not look at the material qualifications. Instead, it can reject the highly qualified scientist and can sometimes easily accept a person considered to be a failure in the material world. A person, educated or uneducated, must bear purity of intention. Only then can Grace flow. Once Grace is attained, he graduates out of the psychological games that his own mind and the world plays.

Placed in the field of perfect spiritual knowledge, one breaks free from psychological inducements. The individual develops one-pointedness towards the Supreme Being, the source of creation. An individual who dedicates himself to God becomes utterly disinclined towards the world. Worldly activities disinterest him/her as they are mere manipulations of the psychological phenomenon.

How Does Devotion to God Transform Emotions and Lead to True Dispassion (Vairagya)?

Once an individual becomes disinclined towards the world, he becomes interested in God. Attachment to God is called Rati and the dispassion to the world resulting thereby is called Vairagya. By taking refuge under God, the individual becomes free of all materialistic emotions. Because what existed as materialistic emotions got transformed into Love for God or Bhakti. This is devotion. The Object of devotion is to become immersed in God by serving Him through thought, word and deed. Remembering the Lord at all times is the hallmark of cultivated devotion.

Only when devotion grows in the heart can attachment to the body be severed. All worldly actions are born out of the fundamental misunderstanding that the body and mind are the Self. When this misunderstanding is defeated, the living entity is awakened to the original Self. All desires relating to the world then come to an end and the world loses all attraction.

Why Does the Mind Stay Restless Despite Fulfilled Desires, and How Can Desire for God Bring Peace?

The mind belongs to the world when it is not purified. The world is transient and so is the mind. Just like newer things start cropping up and older things vanish, the mind too starts nurturing desires. With time the mind starts clinging from one desire to another like a dissatisfied monkey. 

The body ages and starts becoming weak but the mind continues its madness like a busy ghost and never lets peace descend on the heart. This is the nature of desires. Even if an object is attained by the mind, it is unable to enjoy the same object for a long time. The interest levels fall and the mind looks for a change.

This endless process keeps the mind in constant agitation. The more one tries to satisfy desires, the greater shall be the agitation and unrest. Trying to satisfy desires is like trying to extinguish fire with clarified butter! 

So a striver has to become conscious of the mind’s workings and pull away from those things which the mind desires. Instead, cultivate the habit of desiring the Lord. Except the Lord, nothing else has the capacity to put the mind to rest.

How Does the Srimad Bhagavatam Explain Maya and the Jiva’s Attachment to Sense Objects?

In the Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 11, Discourse 3, the reasons for getting attached to desires are discussed in detail from the viewpoint of Maya, the deluding potency of the Supreme Being. In the course of a conversation between King Nimi and supervisors of a fire sacrifice, there arose a conversation on the nature of Maya. 

King Nimi desired to know about Maya from the adepts of the fire sacrifice, who also happened to be the knowers of the Highest Truth. King Nimi himself was an Enlightened being. But, he asked this question on behalf of the living entities of Kali Yuga who suffer the pangs of Maya without relief.

One of the fire sacrifice supervisors by the name, Antariksha gave a thorough understanding of Maya. He explains that the Supreme Being split Himself into the mind and the ten senses. The ten senses include five senses of Knowledge and five senses of Action. These eleven components are said to be the body of Maya. 

The living entity or Jiva is then made to enjoy and suffer through these eleven components. The object of sense enjoyment emanates from the combination of these eleven components. When consciousness interacts with the mind and the senses, a variety of sense objects come to being. The Jiva gets attached to these sense objects which are the product of his own senses and the mind.

Why Does Attachment to Sense Objects Trap the Jeeva in the Endless Cycle of Karma and Rebirth?

A Jeeva gets attached to the pleasure and pain experienced as a result of committing himself to sense objects. As he attaches himself to these objects, he gets identified with everything he perceives. He gets identified with the experiences and claims them as his own. Instigated by desires and inner motives the Jeeva puts to action his senses. Thus, he undergoes agreeable and disagreeable consequences. Not only that, he even gets attached to those consequences creating a whirligig of cause and effect around him. This is the nature of his mundane life.

Once caught in the cycle of cause and effect, exhausting the past, accumulated effects cannot come to an end in just one lifetime. There is an insurmountable carry-over of causes that get created in each lifetime. Continuation and accumulation of ’cause and effect’ is called Karma. Karma is an unresolved action and forms the cause of a futuristic effect.

Thus, the living entity cycles through repeated births and deaths without any relief. The whole cause-effect cycle is like an ever-increasing avalanche that proceeds in intensity from one life into another. This represents the insatiable cycle of Maya, the cosmic illusion born out of attachment to sense objects and the result of actions performed with the senses.

“A patient reaches the peaks of surrender while undergoing surgery. The doctor cuts open his stomach, blood flows out and he himself is in a drowsy state, yet he does not object to the doctor.” He continues: “A doctor earns respect for cutting open the stomach of a patient. However, criminal partnering bloodshed finds room in the prison only.

Similarly, I am the patient and You (Bhagawan) are my doctor. Just like the patient surrenders, I have relinquished all complaints issued, regarding my life situations,material life has inflicted on me. This is my disease and you’re the only doctor who can rid me of it. You might rip all my parts and blood oozes. But, I know for certain that you are the reverend doctor who saves lives and not a criminal who takes away life. You do it all for my good alone. I cannot doubt Your intentions.”

Suffering is a Test, not Punishment

Namalvar, One of the foremost Vaishnavas of Southern Bharat describes: “Bhagawan is the only doctor for the disease of material existence.

He might test us in every life situation, by posing obstacles and unpleasant situations. But, we must hold tight the rope of faith and never doubt His intentions.”

The Shastras proclaim Suffering to be one of the stepstones to realize the futility of life. The moment we realize the futility of life, it becomes easy for Bhagawan to cure us. Therefore, developing distaste for the world is one symptom by which we can approach Bhagawan as a doctor.

Kapila Mahamuni also describes the suffering of material existence and the necessity of spirituality. It is needed that the patient has faith in the doctor, for the disease to fade away. Unless the patient trusts the doctor more than the disease, cure is distant. On the same lines unless an aspirant trusts the Guru and Bhagawan more than his current situation and frailties, getting out of one’s material afflictions shall remain a far-fetched dream.