Knowing that we are the unlimited nondual Self and not the limited person we thought we were should be enough to produce permanent satisfaction. Home free, right? But for most, it creates another problem. When microcosmic maya (personal ignorance) is removed from my mind, the person does not disappear, and nor does the world (macrocosmic Maya). What or how do I live if I am not the person but the impersonal witness (that is not really a witness) of it? How do I respond to the world? Should I leave it, and join a monastery?
Joining an ashram or monastery will not ultimately help if you are doing it for that reason. For the majority of Self-realized people, this stage can become a big obstacle, which is why as stated, nididhysana is about resolving residual ignorance that survives moksa, our attachment to the identity of inquirer and the one who is taught. If there is still a subtle doer with binding likes and dislikes, we do need to resolve that in light of the teachings. This is not about perfecting the person, but living a truly dharmic life in accordance with the scripture. But the fear of ‘getting it wrong” can prevent us from experiencing the permanent satisfaction that is our birthright. From having the confidence to live nonduality without fear.
Think about these three points because they are often stated in the Vedanta teachings, but their full import is not fully understood:
1. I Do Not Need Ignorance Removed. You do not have to have your ignorance removed to live as the nondual Self. What? But, don’t we say that Vedanta removes our ignorance? Yes, Vedanta does do that. But you only need to know what ignorance and knowledge are, and have the ability to discriminate between them. You do not gain or lose anything when you realize the Self. If you think you have lost ignorance and gained knowledge, you not only have attachment to another object, but what you have lost (ignorance)could return.
That should be enough of a pass for you to know that if our true nature is freedom as the Self, you have no limits. You are free to experience anything because if you were not, how free are you? If you are the Self, you are completely porous, so nothing sticks to you. You live with total confidence in yourself and life because you know that the jiva is the Self though you are not it, you know what the field is, how it functions, and you know that you will never break dharma. There is no contradiction in being the Self and devotion to Isvara as controller of the field of experience.
2. I Do Not Need Moksa. You do not need moksa as the Self because you were never not free. You never gain enlightenment because you were never unenlightened. It’s ordinary to be the Self. Moksa, freedom from the limitation of duality, is for the jiva to have a wonderful life, all the time, regardless of what is happening or not happening in your field of experience. Nothing touches you, the witness. You can forget about Self-actualization and focus on a dharmic life of complete surrender to Isvara/God.
3. I Do Not Need A Purpose in Life. You do not need a purpose in life as the limitless Self. You are the purpose. As the jiva is known to be you, its only purpose in life is to live surrendered to Isvara, or God. Knowledge-based mindfulness is the practice of taking the nondual perspective of the witness, Consciousness, the observer of your mind in the present moment, 24/7. Self-knowledge changes the filters of the seer who looks at life through the lenses of its likes and dislikes, and feels dissatisfied by what it sees, so wants things to be different.
We no longer need to manipulate life once the subject/object split collapses, and we know that the seer (Consciousness) is not the same but not different from the seen (jiva/life). Life ceases to be threatening as we relax and become the seer who sees only itself, Consciousness. No more bad outcomes. The jiva is safe, known and happy. We live a sacred God-centered life of complete trust and humility, that has one overarching purpose: to neutralize our likes and dislikes and live in harmony with whatever life presents to us, knowing that Isvara always gives us exactly what we need, taking appropriate, stress-free, dharmic action where necessary.
That is what it means to live as the Self. Isvara is the centre of your world, even though you know that you as the jiva and Isvara as the creator share the same identity as Consciousness. Life is a joy to live, and you live it in deep gratitude and wonder. Laughter will never be too far from your mind.
Think about it this way. Georg has been sending us wonderful videos of life in India, with special emphasis on what ashram life is all about. He has spoken a great deal about the Kailash Institute in Rishikesh, where monks who take the vow of sannyas live a life dedicated to the study of Vedanta, to the exclusion of everything related to the world, for the rest of their lives. To take this vow means you not only have the svadharma for this path in life, you also have what it takes to renounce the world.
Thank goodness there are souls Isvara chooses who protect the lineage of Vedanta in this way. It sounds tempting for us spiritual types to live this way too, but we do not all have this svadharma. Are we any less a protector of Vedanta if we live the teachings, and share them in our field of experience? Definitely not. In fact, it is harder to live as a true jnani in the world than cloistered away from it. Isvara works as much through the jnani in the world as the one who lives completely shut off from it. There is no order of greatness in Isvara’s world. There is only one Self, and we are all it.
The three stages of God worship really need to be understood and assimilated. It is natural for the entry level inquirer to come to Vedanta with lots of erroneous ideas about who or what God is, which are very limiting. If the inquirer is qualified, Vedanta will end that limited and limiting idea of God permanently, and give you instead, unlimited God or Isvara. But as I said previously, as important as it is for moksa, to transition from the dualistic small idea of God to the unlimited idea of God, to maintain a relationship with the nondual God, is difficult and subtle.
As Pirouz said a few Sundays back and he is a highly advanced inquirer, for him there was mourning when he ‘lost’ the dualistic God after Self-realization. He could not understand why he as the Self could (or should) have a relationship with God if he is the intelligence that created the whole field, which is non-different from him. You see how easy it is to project satya onto mithya? He was confusing the intelligence of Isvara, which is not the intelligence of the light of Consciousness shining in the mind (reflected intelligence), with God’s intelligence as pure Sat. God does not have a mind capable of thinking, or ‘human’ intelligence. God simply is Consciousness/Sat, that by whose presence human intelligence is possible.
James helped him a lot by making him aware that once you live a life surrendered to God, you do not need a purpose in life anymore. God is your purpose. You live Amor Fati – which is to see every moment of your life as a sacred instruction from the field of life telling you what your appropriate response is. You do not even need karma yoga anymore, nor guna knowledge, because you are the knowledge and just live in harmony with Isvara. It should be simple, but it isn’t, unfortunately. I have posted another satsang on this, called ‘How to Live Nonduality as a Person’, which addresses why this is so.
Sundari
