Sadhana The Spiritual Way

by Swami Krishnananda

Prajapati, the Creator, in his assembly hall, is said to have proclaimed, "Whoever knows the Self shall obtain everything." This declaration was heard by the gods as well as the demons. They all felt that this is good news.

"Whoever knows the Self shall obtain everything. Then we shall know the Self, so that we may have all things. We shall learn what this Atman, this Self, is. We shall go to Prajapati and request him to initiate us into the mystery of the Atman." The gods were represented by Indra, the ruler of the gods; the demons were represented by their leader, known as Virochana. Indra and Virochana, both, went to Prajapati and pleaded before him, "We have heard your great statement that whoever knows the Self shall have all things. We wish to know the Self."

Prajapati said: "Yes, good. Go and stand near a reservoir of water and see what is there; whatever you see there is the Self. Go. I have initiated you into the nature of the Self." They were very happy - this initiation is very simple,so Indra and Virochana saw what was there in the pool of water. What would they see, except their own body? Virochana and Indra saw themselves reflected in the water. Is this the Self? Well, Prajapati, the great Master, has told us that this is the Self. It must be. Very good.

Virochana was very happy, "I have understood the Self; now I shall have all things." He went to his people and proclaimed to all the Asuras that this is the Self. "This very body is the Self because this is what I have learned from the master Prajapati. Decorate it, feed it, maintain it well, let it be beautiful and gallant. This visible physical body is the Self." Thus, Virochana was fully satisfied on a simple indicative statement of Prajapati that what you see with your eyes is the Self.

After all, what can you see with your eyes, except material substance? Whatever you have before you as things to be contacted by the sense organs are substances, matter; and even this body of your own is just matter. Materialism became the philosophy of the Asuras: All that you contact with the sense organs, including all that you see with your eyes, is the Self. Materialism proclaims that the visible is the real, the tangible is the real, the audible is the real.

Virochana was satisfied; but Indra, on his way, began to doubt the significance of this instruction. How could this body be the Self? It can decay; it can die also one day. Will the Self also decay and die? This body is subject to diminution gradually by old age and it is going to be annihilated by death. If this body is the Self, this Self is of no utility to us. There is something wrong with this instruction. Indra went back to Prajapati. "Great master, I have a doubt."

Prajapati said, "Why have you come? I have already initiated you."

"No, I am feeling that this self, which you have suggested is perishable (what I see with my eyes), does not seem to be the real Self because that is material and destructible. Please instruct me properly."

"Yes, you can go back. What you see in dream is the Self."

Indra went back. On the way, again, he had doubts: "How could the thing that I see in dream be the Self, because it is as futile, as oscillating and transient, as what I see with my physical eyes in the waking state? Practically, there is no difference in the character of dream objects as compared with the waking ones."

Again, Indra went to Prajapati and said, "I don't see much meaning in this dream self, because it is as transitory as what I see with my eyes in the waking condition."

"What you experience in the state of deep sleep is the Self. Go," said Prajapati.

Indra was satisfied. "Now I have better instruction." But on the way, again, he had doubts. "What can I see in deep sleep? It is as if I am dead. It is darkness, annihilation, a kind of void, a nothingness. Is this the Self?" So he went back to Prajapati. "Sir, there is some doubt again."

"What is your doubt?"

"This Self which you are identifying with the state of sleep is as though it is not there at all. It is a Self-annihilation actually, instead of Self-existence. Darkness and negation seems to be the nature of the state of deep sleep. How could that be the Self?"

"Now, sit here," said Prajapati. "I shall tell you what the Self is." After testing Indra three times, the real instruction came from the mouth of Prajapati: "Transcendent is the Self, which rises above the entanglements and involvements in body, mind and the causal condition of sleep. The Self is not what is involved in the body. It is also not what is experienced in dream. It is not what is happening in sleep. It is beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep."

How can you contemplate this so-called transcendency which is not to be associated with anything that we are capable of experiencing in this world? What is it that you are seeing? This body, this bundle of relations connected with this body, and the dream and the sleep. We pass through three states of consciousness every day. These three states are waking, dreaming and sleep. We do not have any other experience in this world. Nobody has seen what is beyond waking, dreaming and sleep. Now, if Prajapati, the Creator, is to tell us that the Self is none of these, what else is it?

This kind of question arose in the minds of six great learned people as we have it recorded in the Chandogya Upanishad. What is the Atman? If the realisation of it is the greatest of blessings which one can think of at any time, how are we to attain it? How is it to be contemplated or meditated upon?

I suggested to you that these great men went to the king of the country, Ashvapati Kaikeya, and requested him to initiate them into the true nature of the Self. The king queried each one of them, "What are you already doing? What is the practice that you are carrying on? What is your notion of the Atman? Let me first of all hear what you know already. Then let me see if I can tell you something more." Each one of them started saying what he knew.

"I consider this entire earth as the Self," one of them said. "The whole physicality that I can think of is the Self."

"This is what you think is the Self?" said the king. "This is as if it is the footstool of the Cosmic Being. As the entire physical earth is a part of the whole of creation, you are considering a part as the whole. The Self is the wholeness of existence, and are you contemplating a section of the wholeness as the entirety? It is good that you came to me in due time for rectifying your mistake. If you had not come to me, your legs would have gone out on account of an erroneous contemplation on the footstool of the Atman."

Then, the other people also had their own say. One said, "I contemplate the sun." Another said, "I contemplate the whole sky or entire space as the Atman." And varieties of such objective considerations of them were placed before the king as their own practices and processes of meditation.

The king, who was a master of the spiritual wisdom known as Vaishvanara Vidya, said, Every one of your statements is involved in a mistake. Whether you meditate on the earth, or the sun, or the space, or the ocean, or light - whatever it is, this cannot be regarded as a real concept of the Atman, because you are making two basic mistakes in your notion of the Atman. Whatever be the object which you are identifying with the Atman, the procedure that you are adopting itself is an erroneous one. What is the error?

"There is a twofold error. Firstly, you are thinking that the Atman is outside you. When you say it is the earth, it is the sky, it is the sun, it is the water, it is the ocean, it is the light, you are considering the Atman as something outside you. This is the first mistake.

"The second error is that you are thinking that the Atman is in some place, and not in all places. Whether it is the ocean or the sun or whatever it is, they are locations spatially and durationally and, therefore, they cannot be regarded as a correct conception of the Self."

We have noticed in our considerations that the Self is an inwardness of experience and it is not to be associated or identified with anything that is outside. The outside things also have their own selves. This is, of course, to be granted and conceded. All people who are outwardly visible to the eyes, all things which are externally capable of contact with the sense organs, no doubt appear to be outside oneself. I am seeing you all seated in front of me and everyone is outside me as far as my perception goes, but each one of you has the Atman inside, the Self.

This Self, which is the indwelling principle in each and every person and each and every thing, is not cognisable either through the mind or through the sense organs because of the fact of its being the Self and not the seen thing. It is the seer, the knower, the cogniser, the perceiver, the experiencer. It is not what is seen or perceived or experienced, notwithstanding the fact that whatever is perceived or seen also has a self. How will you reconcile these two - aspects of your awareness of things in the world?

On the one hand, you appear to be sitting in front of me as external objects. On the other hand, it is to be appreciated fully that the Atman within me is also present in you. So, the knowledge of the Atman would not be equivalent to the perception of anything through the sense organs, but another kind of intuitive grasp, so to say,an insight into the Self-hood of the so-called external perceptions (persons, things, etc.) through a medium of contact which is other than sensory media. You have to adopt some means of the cognition of the Atman. What is the means that you are adopting in the perception of things in the world? Eyes, ears, etc. - but these are inadequate for the purpose.

Something which is dissimilar in nature to the Atman cannot become a suitable medium for the experience of the contact of the Atman. Whatever is similar in nature to the Atman alone can see, experience or contact the Atman. Is there anything in us which is similar to the Atman? There is obviously nothing similar to the Atman. The Atman alone is similar to the Atman.