Dear and blessed P,
Harih Om Tat Sat. Your letter of 1st came here in time. I read it, and I am now reading it again. Here are my thoughts and reactions:
- Seekers are of various kinds. The variety extends from their bodily composition. The course of seeking and the results it produces also differ accordingly. As the voice and the appearance vary from seeker to seeker, so also are the deeper characteristics.
- But after these differences express and exhaust themselves, the pedestal to be reached must and will be the same. Till then, it is ‘different roads leading to Rome’.
- ‘Experiences’ will be guided by each seeker’s disposition and susceptibilities. But understand all experiences to be experiences alone. They tend to inspire the seeker and also give him the confidence that in this body there exists a Power and presence transcending the mere body. Beyond this confirmation, no purpose is served by them.
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Finally, when it comes to Self-knowledge, it is the knowledge that you are the Self, and never were you otherwise. This Self admits no change. No one experience particularly denotes or indicates It. All experiences are caused by the same Self and imply that Self alone. Self is not experience, but experiences are subsisting on It, caused by It. Even the body is its creation.
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Here are a few introspections. The advanced seeker can verify his own position:
- Do I look to anything or anyone else for fulfillment?
- Do I find any existence besides the Self, at any time, judged by any standards?
- Do I think of any gain than the Self, which I already am?
- Do I feel that I am a non-doer, and hence non-enjoyer and non-suffer?
- Do I know clearly that the Self is the supreme Brilliance and in its light alone all other things shine with their respective lustre?
- Do I realize that while wakefulness, dream and deep sleep states rise and set, their substratum does not rise and set? Do I also realize that these transitory states have no existence besides Self?
- Do I feel like comparing myself with other Knowers in order to judge my Self-knowledge? Do I feel I am less or more than others?
In short, Self-realization implies a state of full freedom in the conscious level. It denotes psychological sufficiency and intelligential enlightenment, both of which must be foolproof.
Decide how much freedom you envisage and want? And then fulfil it. Finally, the need for freedom will itself become extinct.
With love and Sivasis.
Yours,
Swamiji.