SELF-REALISATION. PART- IV:

This is the concluding part of this series. There are two concepts in life. One is Brahman and another is Maya. Brahman has no qualities. It does not have form. It has no limits. It is absolute. It is one and the only one, which exists in all the living beings. It does not have a second. It is all alone. Brahman cannot be seen and could only be realized. It is a witness to all our activities. It is our soul. What is soul? Soul is called “atman”. Brahman inside a living being is called atman. Atman is not life (prana is life), but it is a witness to the activities of a life. It does not act on its own. It is the ultimate. It is the Creator. It is the Creator of everything. That is why Brahman is called the God. God is the Creator. Now let us take an example. Krishna an ordinary human is going to be born. Krishna is created in the womb of his mother. At the time of conception, Brahman enters into Krishna as Krishna’s soul or atman. From this point onwards Brahman does not act. But he continues to be a witness to all the acts of Krishna.

Brahman does not make Krishna to act, whereas the Maya makes Krishna to act. This is the difference between Brahman and Maya. Brahman is the Creator and the maya is the actor. In cinematic term they are called Producer and director. Everything around us is maya. Brahman is covered by maya as a sheath. The Brahman has different names like atman or soul. The effort taken by us to realise that Brahman is within us is called sadhana. Maya is illusion. Whatever we see, listen, feel etc. are the work of maya. Our joy and sorrow is the work of maya. If a person is fighting with you, you get angry. Both you and the other person are seeing only the anger in each other. Anger is the form of maya. If you look beyond anger, you will realise that there is nothing wrong between two of you as individuals and the problem is in your thought process. You are a person. All your actions are initiated and executed by maya. Brahman, within you is just witnessing your actions. You become addicted to the pleasures given by maya and go deeper and deeper into these pleasures. These pleasures are not permanent, as you will not enjoy pleasures forever. Pleasures are temporary. Too much of pleasure will lead to misery. You are misguided by maya to get yourself involved into the worldly pleasures. We have already seen that anything connected to maya will disintegrate over a period of time.

Let us assume that you are not willing to be misguided by maya and started practicing sadhana to realise the Brahmam within you. Depending upon your sincerity in the sadhana, you will start distancing yourself from the worldly pleasures, induced by maya. Once maya goes away from you, you will start realizing the Brahman within. Proper meditation is necessary to drive away the maya. Sit for meditation daily at the prescribed hour and try to explore within you. No Sunday and government holidays for meditation! Develop your will power to drive away the maya. One fine day you will realise that Brahman is within you. From that time onwards, you will be a different person. Since you have realized the God within you, you will not care for the good or the bad done to you. You cannot even think of bad to others. You will pray for others. You become a SELF-REALISED person. Becoming a Self-Realized person is the ultimate purpose of our birth.