Atmabodh; Self Realization

Every living being longs always to be happy untainted by sorrow; and everyone has the greatest love for himself, which is solely due to the fact that happiness is his real nature. Hence, in order to realize that inherent and untainted happiness, which indeed he daily experiences when the mind is subdued in deep sleep, it is essential that he should know himself. For obtaining such knowledge the enquiry, ‘Who am I?’ in quest of the Self is the means par excellence. ‘Who am I?’ I am not this physical body, nor am I the five organs of sense perception - eye, ear, nose, tongue and the skin, with their respective corresponding functions of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. I am not the five organs of external activity - the vocal organs that articulate speech and produce sound, hands and feet that govern the movements of the physical body, anus that excretes fecal matter, and the genital organ for procreation and which yields pleasure. I am not that. I am not the five vital forces, which control respiration, digestion and assimilation, circulation of blood, perspiration and excretion.]I am not even the thinking mind. Neither am I that unconscious state of nescience, which retains merely the subtle Vasanas (latent impressions or mental tendencies), being then free from the functional activity of the sense organs and of the mind, and being unaware of the existence of the objects of sense perception.
If I am not all this - then who am I? That which remains separate and alone by itself, is that the cause of existence ; Am I and the cause of the existence same? This pure awareness verily am I. This awareness is by its very nature Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss).
If the mind, which is the instrument of knowledge and is the basis of all activity, subsides, the perception of the world as an objective reality ceases. Unless the illusory perception of the serpent in the rope ceases, the rope on which the illusion is formed is not perceived as such. Even so, unless the illusory nature of the perception of the world as an objective reality ceases, the vision of the true nature of the Self, on which the illusion is formed, is not obtained.
The mind is a unique power (sakti) in the Atman (Self), whereby thoughts occur to oneself. On scrutiny as to what remains after eliminating all thoughts, it will be found that there is no such thing as mind apart from thought. So then, thoughts themselves constitute the mind.
Nor is there any such thing as the physical world apart from and independent of thought. In deep sleep there are no thoughts: nor is there the world. In the wakeful and dream states thoughts are present, and there is also the world.
Just as the spider draws out the thread of the cobweb from within itself and withdraws it again into itself, even so out of itself the mind projects the world and absorbs it back into itself.
The world is perceived as an apparent objective reality when the mind is externalized thereby forsaking its identity with the Self. When the world is thus perceived, the true nature of the Self is not revealed. Conversely, when the Self is realized, the world ceases to appear as an objective reality.
By a steady and continuous investigation into the nature of the mind, the mind is transformed into That to which the ‘I’ refers; and that is verily the Self. Mind has necessarily to depend for its existence on something gross; it never subsists by itself. It is this mind that is otherwise called the subtle body, the ego, the jiva or soul (individual soul).
That which arises in the physical body as ‘I’ is the mind. If one enquires whence the ‘I’-thought in the body arises in the first instance, it will be found that it is Hrdayam or the Heart. [ The word ‘Hrdayam’ consists of two syllables, ‘Hrt’ and ‘Ayam’ which signify ‘I am the Heart’.]
That (Hrdayam or Heart) is the source and stay of the mind. Or again, even if one merely but continuously repeats inwardly ‘I – I’ with the entire mind fixed thereon, that also leads one to the same source.
The first and foremost of all the thoughts that arise in the mind is the primal ‘I’-thought. It is only after the rise or origin of the ‘I’-thought that innumerable other thoughts arise. In other words, only after the first personal pronoun, ‘I’, has arisen, do the second and third personal pronouns (you, he, etc.) occur to the mind; and they cannot subsist without the former.
Since every other thought can occur only after the rise of the ‘I’-thought and since the mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, it is only through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ that the mind subsides. Moreover, the integral ‘I’-thought, implicit in such enquiry, having destroyed all other thoughts, gets itself finally destroyed or consumed, even like the stick used for stirring the burning funeral pyre gets consumed.
Even when extraneous thoughts sprout up during such enquiry, do not seek to complete the rising thought, but instead, deeply enquire within, ‘To whom has this thought occurred?’ No matter how many thoughts thus occur to you, if you would with acute vigilance enquire immediately as and when each individual thought arises as to whom it has occurred, you would find it is to ‘me.’ If then, you enquire ‘Who am I?’ the mind gets introverted and the rising thought also subsides. In this manner as you persevere more and more in the practice of Self-enquiry, the mind acquires increasing strength and power to abide in its source.
It is only when the subtle mind is externalized through the activity of the intellect and the sense-organs that gross name and form constituting the world appear. When, on the other hand, the mind stays and abides in the Heart, they (name and form) recede and disappear. Restraint of the out-going mind and its absorption in the Heart is known as introversion (antarmukha -drshti). The release of the mind and its emergence from the Heart is known as Bahirmukha-drishti (objeciveness).
If in this manner the mind becomes absorbed in the Heart, the ego or the ‘I’, which is the centre of the multitude of thoughts, finally vanishes and pure Consciousness or Self, which subsists during all the states of the mind, alone remains resplendent. It is this state, where there is not the slightest trace of the ‘I’-thought, that is the true Being of oneself. And that is called quiescence or Mouna.
This state of mere inherence in pure Being is known as the vision of wisdom. Such inherence means and implies the entire subsidence of the mind in the Self. Anything other than this and all psychic powers of the mind, such as thought- reading, telepathy and clairvoyance, cannot be wisdom.
Atma (atman) alone exists and is real. The world, the individual soul and God are, like the illusory appearance of silver in the mother of pearl, imaginary creations in the Atma. They appear and disappear simultaneously. Verily, the Self alone is the world, the ‘I’ and God. All that exists is but the manifestation of the Supreme.
For the subsidence of mind there is no other means more effective and adequate than self-enquiry. Even though by other means the mind subsides, that is only apparently so; it will rise again.
For instance, the mind subsides by the practice of pranayama (restraint and control of breath and vital forces); yet such subsidence lasts only as long as the control of breath and vital forces continues; and when they are released, the mind also gets released, and immediately becoming externalized it wearily wanders through the force of its subtle tendencies.
The source of the mind on the one hand, and of breath and vital forces on the other, is one and the same. It is really the multitudes of thoughts that constitute the mind; and the ‘I’-thought is the primal thought of the mind, and that itself is the ego. Now, breath too has its origin at the same place whence the ego rises. Therefore, when the mind subsides, breath and vital forces also subside; and conversely, when the latter subside, the former also subsides.
Breath and vital forces are also described as the gross manifestation of the mind. Till the hour of death the mind sustains and supports these forces in the physical body, and when life becomes extinct, the mind envelopes and carries them away. During sleep, however, the vital forces continue to function, although the mind is not manifest. This is according to the divine law and is intended to protect the body and to remove any possible doubt as to whether it is dead or alive while one is asleep. Without such arrangement by nature, sleeping bodies would often be cremated alive. The vitality apparent in breathing is left behind by the mind as a ‘watchman’. But in the wakeful state and in samadhi, when the mind subsides, prana (Vital force) also subsides. For this reason (viz., that the mind has the sustaining and controlling power over breath and vital forces and is therefore ulterior to both of them), the practice of pranayama is merely helpful in subduing the mind but cannot bring about its final extinction.
Even like pranayama, Murti-Dhyana (meditation on form), Mantra or Nama-Japa (repetition of sacred syllables or of names of deities), and the regulation of diet, are only aids to control the mind. Through the practice of Dhyana or Japa the mind becomes one-pointed. Just as the elephant’s trunk, which is otherwise restless, will become steady if it is made to hold an iron chain- so that the elephant walks (goes) his way without reaching out any other object- even so the ever-restless mind, which is trained and accustomed to a name or form through Dhyana or Japa, will steadily hold on to that alone.