Swami Chidanand Saraswati
Timeless Being-ness is verily the eternal ground of all the diversity that you see. The appearance of this infinitely variegated ‘many’ is like the reality of your dream, which is rejected when you wake up. This infinite variety is like the mirage that is seen by the traveller in the desert. It is a very real appearance, but an appearance, nonetheless. The reality of this variegated phenomenal exhibition in front of us is the same reality as the ‘castles,’ ‘mountains’ and ‘flying objects’ that you seem to see in the clouds that form in the sky.
This is the nature of this outer appearance, but can you attribute reality to an unreality, to an appearance? Unless you are able to grasp and understand the fact of its unsubstantial nothingness, you will be hypnotized and enslaved by it. You are completely overwhelmed by its apparent sense of reality, and if you are held down in this level of erroneous perception, the cognising of something higher becomes impossible.
As long as you are seeing everything through tinted glasses, you can never get the actual view of things as they are. To see things as they are, remove the tinted glasses and look with clear perception. You have to strip off the veil and see things in their actuality. If you wish to rise up into a higher state of clarified perception, it is imperative to perceive the emptiness and transitory nature of appearances and to understand them as such.
As long as the world is real to you, Brahmn is unreal to you. If you wish to get even a little glimpse of the reality of transcendental truth, you have to recognise the unreality of this universal perception. Until slumber is cast aside, the sleeper cannot be awake. You are either awake or you are asleep. You cannot be in deep sleep and say, “I am awake.” There is the philosophical need of clearly perceiving this phenomenal appearance for what it is.
Adi Shankaracharya and other great philosophers used reasoning, logic and analogy to break the delusion, bit-by-bit, of regarding this world as real. They wanted to completely destroy this deep delusion in which the individual soul is firmly caught. The whole of Shankara’s philosophy is dedicated to making it as clear as daylight that in reality, all is passing appearance and that nothing exists as an unchanging and eternal reality.
The statement, “Nothing exists, nothing belongs to me,” dismisses the actuality of all appearances. Once you dismiss the apparent universe and erase it from your consciousness, you turn your attention to yourself. “I am neither mind nor body. I am not the psychological or the physical personality. I have no name, no form; immortal Self am I.” In that state of existence that is the non-dual state of consciousness, time does not exist. Eternity alone remains – an undivided eternity in which everything is only now. In that now, Being-ness is forever in the present tense.
That eternity, that forever-now, is the basis of being. It is the unbroken, continuous stream of consciousness, and that is the basis of your being. It is the substratum upon which, waking, dreaming, sleeping – and once again waking, dreaming, sleeping over and over again – come, change and disappear. This cycle of waking, dreaming, sleeping is forever manifesting itself upon that unbroken inner current of eternal consciousness. (Divine Life Society)
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The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India: The Speaking Tree: Feb02, 2019
Swami Chidanand Saraswati
Timeless Being-ness is verily the eternal ground of all the diversity that you see. The appearance of this infinitely variegated ‘many’ is like the reality of your dream, which is rejected when you wake up. This infinite variety is like the mirage that is seen by the traveller in the desert. It is a very real appearance, but an appearance, nonetheless. The reality of this variegated phenomenal exhibition in front of us is the same reality as the ‘castles,’ ‘mountains’ and ‘flying objects’ that you seem to see in the clouds that form in the sky.
This is the nature of this outer appearance, but can you attribute reality to an unreality, to an appearance? Unless you are able to grasp and understand the fact of its unsubstantial nothingness, you will be hypnotized and enslaved by it. You are completely overwhelmed by its apparent sense of reality, and if you are held down in this level of erroneous perception, the cognising of something higher becomes impossible.
As long as you are seeing everything through tinted glasses, you can never get the actual view of things as they are. To see things as they are, remove the tinted glasses and look with clear perception. You have to strip off the veil and see things in their actuality. If you wish to rise up into a higher state of clarified perception, it is imperative to perceive the emptiness and transitory nature of appearances and to understand them as such.
As long as the world is real to you, Brahmn is unreal to you. If you wish to get even a little glimpse of the reality of transcendental truth, you have to recognise the unreality of this universal perception. Until slumber is cast aside, the sleeper cannot be awake. You are either awake or you are asleep. You cannot be in deep sleep and say, “I am awake.” There is the philosophical need of clearly perceiving this phenomenal appearance for what it is.
Adi Shankaracharya and other great philosophers used reasoning, logic and analogy to break the delusion, bit-by-bit, of regarding this world as real. They wanted to completely destroy this deep delusion in which the individual soul is firmly caught. The whole of Shankara’s philosophy is dedicated to making it as clear as daylight that in reality, all is passing appearance and that nothing exists as an unchanging and eternal reality.
The statement, “Nothing exists, nothing belongs to me,” dismisses the actuality of all appearances. Once you dismiss the apparent universe and erase it from your consciousness, you turn your attention to yourself. “I am neither mind nor body. I am not the psychological or the physical personality. I have no name, no form; immortal Self am I.” In that state of existence that is the non-dual state of consciousness, time does not exist. Eternity alone remains – an undivided eternity in which everything is only now. In that now, Being-ness is forever in the present tense.
That eternity, that forever-now, is the basis of being. It is the unbroken, continuous stream of consciousness, and that is the basis of your being. It is the substratum upon which, waking, dreaming, sleeping – and once again waking, dreaming, sleeping over and over again – come, change and disappear. This cycle of waking, dreaming, sleeping is forever manifesting itself upon that unbroken inner current of eternal consciousness. (Divine Life Society)
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India: The Speaking Tree: Feb02, 2019