Miscellaneous - Religion   

Look inwards to know

CHENNAI: Since spiritual knowledge is abstract, subtle, and difficult to grasp, spiritual teaching relies on the symbolic mode to elucidate recondite thoughts and experiences. In a lecture on the Kathopanishad, Swamini Satyavratananda said the essential relationship between the Paramatma and the Jivatma, elucidated in the form of a dialogue between Yama and Nachiketa, made use of figurative references for a better grasp of the abstract. The symbols have to be understood beyond their literal frame.

The oneness of the individual soul and the supreme soul is established in the categorical statement that the Supreme Being is manifest as the inner Self of all creation, animate and inanimate. It is He who abides and pervades their varying forms and tendencies. Dwelling within the body, He is the witness of the past and the future as well. Knowledge of the self is gained when one realises that He exists in all and all exist in Him.

Being self-luminous and beyond all thought, it is He who illumines the world. He is the light in whose presence things are known and identified. He shines and all things else shine as a result. Everything in the universe reflects but that light. "Subtler than the subtlest is He, farther than the farthest, nearer than the nearest. He resides in the shrine of the heart of every being."

Knowledge of the Self is to be aware of the soul's immortal nature against the mortality of the body, and of it being very much a part of the Infinite and the Absolute. This knowledge is described as a smokeless flame, which shines without the blurring effect of ignorance. Only those who are contemplative, strong, have the yearning to know Him, and strive to meditate on Him in the right manner can attain Him.

The teaching emphasises that to escape the tangle of illusion, one needs to overcome attachments, threats and temptations. To tread this path of adhering to righteousness one needs to exercise one's will and sense of discrimination. This can help in transcending one's individuality that appears in the form of ego. One should realise that anything that is achieved through desires and actions shall vanish one day, and that the only thing ever enduring and worth knowing is the one Self in all. Knowing the self is the key to knowing the world.

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