Dear James,
In the Bhagavad Gita four types of devotees are described and the Gita says that the most exalted relationship is between someone who knows he or she is the Self. I’m not clear on how that is possible because a relationship is duality and the scriptures say reality is non-dual which means that there is no relationship. Is the answer connected to the idea of satya and mithya? If you have time please help me with this. I think it is important.
James: You are right. It is the most important teaching.
Are a wave and the ocean the same or are they different? They are the same and they are different, depending on the point of view. They are different in that a wave is part of an ocean but the ocean is not part of the wave. But they are the same because both are water. As a body/mind/sense complex you are different from the whole creation but from the standpoint of your essence, Existence/Awareness, you are not different. So a relationless relationship obtains for someone who knows what they are. So someone who knows what they are can transact with the world efficiently by playing by the rules of duality and at the same time enjoy the many benefits of non-duality, the most positive of which is the constant feeling of fulness. He or she feels completely adequate in every transaction, irrespective of the outcome. He or she is a joyful, positive, free person.
And secondly he or she is a grateful person. Grateful for what? Grateful to whom? Grateful for the non-dual understanding that comes from his or her guru and grateful to Existence itself, since the guru got it from his or her guru, who got it from his or her guru, who got it from Existence itself. So this type of person finds his or her self in the best of all possible situations: he or she has his cake and eats it too. Life is a both/and AND it is an either/or, whereas a person who doesn’t know satya and mithya only has it only one way. He or she misses the fullness benefit and the immortality benefit and worries incessantly about non-existence as the body/mind/ sense complex is slowly ground down to nothing by karma.
Love,
James
