TRUTH IS SIMPLE 

There is no labour involved in seeking Truth, it is as natural and effortless as respiration, provided we understand its basic nature. There is nothing one needs to assume or add on to our wearied souls, already loaded with artifice. If anything, we need to shed our layers of acquired knowledge, one by one, like one does peel the layers of a seed, to reach the kernel which is the basic building block. Our human souls, likewise, are formed of many layers, acquired during the course of our journey through life and death, which must be removed to reveal the unbreakable spirit within. This spirit is the essence of our soul and is one whole. No further divisions are possible and it is this very core we have to know, to know our true selves. It is the answer to the timeless question, ‘Who are we?’. To reach it, is actually very simple. Peel off the layers and get to the bottom. That is all that one needs to do. The material view, on the other hand, has as its primary focus, concealment of our true nature and addition of layers upon layers to our incorporeal consciousness. It originates in the deep rooted but seldom expressed belief that truth is uncomfortable. Truth leaves us exposed, vulnerable and solitary. To beat the discomfort, we take refuge in a cloak. Superficially warm, we do not realize how this cloak weakens our spirit over time. We learn to avoid the truth because we have been conditioned to disparage anything that has not been ‘refined’ by our material standards of acceptance. The layers get added at each phase of our multi dimensional lives, as a result of educational, emotional, physical, psychological, political, religious and social conditioning. The more the layers, the more is the acceptance and approval in the material world. You end up gaining the world but losing yourself – your ‘real’ Self in all that charade. ..............Om Shanti!

                                           Contemplation and Enlightenment

Mind is not consciousness and the inability to distinguish between consciousness and mind is the major difficulty in our pursuit for the ‘Real’. Mind is involved in twofold process viz. firstly, mind’s identification of being with becoming and secondly, mistaking consciousness for thinking. When we are ‘aware’, we are aware only through mind, and there seems no other way of being aware, so that our consciousness has become veritably a kind of process. The nature of being is not the nature of thinking - mind is not consciousness. ‘To think is to be’ has become our attitude in life but this is not the fact. ‘To think’ need not ‘to be’, and being is not thinking. The primary entanglement is the one between consciousness and thought, and the secondary entanglement is the engagement of thought in certain contingencies of experience. We are in the double bondage of being identified with the process of thought, and the process of thought having been identified with the limitations of space and time. This is the condition into which our true state has apparently degenerated itself. The purpose of concentration and meditation is to free the essence of experience from the extraneous factors of the world of space, time and causality in which the mind moves, acts and seems to be involved. 

When you think about the past, it is only in the present. Likewise, we think of the future only in the present. We can never live either in the past or in the future because they do not exist when we talk of them. Now come to the present, it is so slippery like a ball of mercury on the ground that by the time we speak ‘present’, it will slip away from you. What is the meaning of time then? When there is no time, where is the question of birth, death, existence, all that we speak of. To think of existence or non-existence or even to think of God, there must be time. And that time has disappeared by your own analysis. Then where are we now? Let the mind dwell on this point. Quantum physics, which is very difficult to understand, is proving the same thing. Here we are using simple logic. Time dissolves. Can you prove the existence of past, present or future? Once you accept this, where is birth or death? Going deeper into the matter, the Upanishadic seers have, through intuition, ‘seen’ the ultimate cause or essence, the Consciousness which appears as the world. Therefore, they call this world of senses an illusion because it is not really as it appears. It is rather, pure Awareness, which is the Self of all. A man is, therefore, not a man but Consciousness masquerading as a man. A tree is not a tree but the Consciousness appearing as a tree. A mountain is not a mountain but the Consciousness in the disguise of a mountain. This is the case with all objects without any exception. So, our vision has to be reversed. To many this will sound strange if not nonsensical. The meditation prescribed is called the ‘neti, neti’ (not this, not this) method of reflection Every object, whether gross or subtle, a physical object or a mental concept, a name or a thought is really a limitation superimposed on Consciousness. Why does one negate everything? Because nothing can satisfy the conditions of Immortality and Infinity. Some say ‘sarvam khalvidam brahma’ (All this is Absolute) is the best definition of the Absolute, according to which even this body, a stone on the roadside, the sun in the heaven, etc, etc. has to be considered as the Absolute. Others argue that the best definition is the great declaration –neti, neti. according to which the Absolute is that which is after the complete negation of all that is objective and subjective. But whichever definition you use, don’t think that you have understood it. Neither can be understood by the intellect because the intellect itself is a part of the non-existent world. The Truth is there is no world except or other than God. Don’t try to think too much, that is dangerous. Along with this, cultivate devotion to Lord, some kind of prayer and worship to be combined with this reflection and meditation. Do not over exert because you are trying to think about that which is unthinkable. .........................Om Shanti!