Moksha

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Thoughts are natural and they will always return. So you have to do nirodha all the time to see atma. Even if you see atma in samadhi, atma becomes objectified and is reduced to the level of any other object in the creation. If atma is the object, who is the subject? Assuming you see atma in samadhi, can there be fulfilment in terms of knowledge or of fullness? You continue to be a samsari. According to this, if you settle for atma, you miss the world and vice-versa. So a yogi is always tense, afraid of the world.

Elimination of thoughts is not knowledge; it is not self–discovery. Thoughts do not cover atma. Thoughts come, I am. Thoughts go, I am. Compare this with: snake is, rope is; snake is not, rope is. So there is the mistake of equating thoughts with ‘I’. If I do not know who I am, this original mistake is never corrected by removing the thoughts. Vedanta does not accept thoughts as the cause for sorrow. The mistake of taking thoughts to be atma is the cause of sorrow. This is entirely different from what modern Vedanta and Yoga say.

Sorrow is the result of a mix–up between the real and the apparent. A wave is not separate from or independent of water, while water does not depend upon the wave. So too a thought is not independent of atma, I, awareness, while atma is independent. The mistake of taking the thought to be atma is obviously the cause of sorrow. Even if thought is a problem, the solution, “Get rid of the thoughts” is wrong. The thought, “I am small” is a problem. So, enquire if you are really small. Mistaking the thought for ‘I’ is the problem and the solution is the knowledge, “I am real, thoughts are apparent.”

The reality given to the mind is to be destroyed by knowing the invariable atma manifest in all thoughts. Atma is not covered by thoughts. Wave does not cover water; in wave itself, we see water. The wave need not subside for us to see the water; in wave itself, we see water. There is no covering at all. Atma cannot be covered by anything except ignorance. It is always manifest. I am awareness, always free from thoughts, in spite of thinking. This is the darshana of the one self. What is real is always one, one alone is real. This knowledge destroys the old silly mind that stood against me. Thinking continues but it is known as mithya, apparent, and so it is as good as non–existent. One's shadow is not a problem. Mithya is not a problem — it is useful; mind is useful and that is all there is to it.

‘Talks on Upadesha Saram’ pp78–80, Swami Dayananda © Copyright Arsha Vidya