Questions to ponder over part 4

[Guest guest]

To the Self

 

" As birds, my friend, fly to a tree for rest, even so do all these things

fly to the Self: Earth and its peculiar essence, water and its peculiar

essence, fire and its peculiar essence, air and its peculiar essence, ether

and its peculiar essence, the eye and what it sees, the ear and what it

hears, the nose and what it smells, the tongue and what it tastes, the skin

and what it touches, the voice and what it speaks, the hands and what they

grasp, the feet and what they walk on, the mind and what it perceives, the

intellect and what it understands, the ego and what it appropriates, the

heart and what it loves, light and what it illumines, energy and what it

binds together. " (Prashna Upanishad 4:7, 8)

 

They " fly to the Self " because the Self is their origin. They are returning

to their source after ages upon ages of separation in relative

existence/experience.

 

" For verily it is the Self that sees, hears, smells, tastes, thinks, knows,

acts. He is Brahman, whose essence is knowledge. He is the immutable Self,

the Supreme. " (Prashna Upanishad 4:9) The Self is the Experiencer in all

beings, the knower of all things, and the doer of all acts. This points out

the fact that Maya-illusion-is the misperception of things, not perception

itself. Also, sense experience, thought, and actions are NOT illusions. It

is our misunderstanding of them that is illusion. The Self is real and its

experiences are real. It is true that they are purely mental in nature, but

is the mind not real? Again, it is a matter how we perceive.

 

The Self is a wave of the ocean of Brahman, the Absolute, whose nature is

Consciousness. The Self is immutable, and beyond it there is nothing else,

for in essence it is one with Brahman, the ultimate Being. Yet, the Self

needs to attain itself, needs to attain the consciousness of its Being which

is Brahman. Therefore the sage says further:

 

 

 

(to be continued)

 

OM

 

******************************************************************

Greetings from Sri Radha Kutir,

Please visit our website on Vedanta:

http://www.geocities.com/radhakutir

http://www.geocities.com/vedantacourse

and also

http://www.geocities.com/vedicfoundation

******************************************************************

" In the whole world there is no religion or philosophy so sublime and

elevating as Vedanta. This Vedanta has been the solace of my life,

and it will be the solace of my death " ------ Schopenhauer.

*****************************************************************