A case for Self-Realization
Imagine that one day, you wake up and realize that you have forgotten your real identity. How will you restore it? You can go around, asking individuals around you to tell you something about yourself so that you can piece together the bits and pieces of information that you gain from each person you meet. Though the process is cumbersome, you decide to go through with it, hoping that one day, all the information will come together in one beautiful stroke of inspiration to make you realize who you really are.
On some level, all of us are actually doing this. We go through life seeking our real selves. Every choice we make, every decision, is the expression of a desire to enact our real selves on the stage of life. Hidden in every action is the seed of the desire to know and experience what our selves are actually like. While this may not be apparent upon a cursory look at our choices, a deeper examination will reveal this truth.
Why do we enjoy plays? I think it is because a play reveals a story, an idea, or a philosophy (a central element) by bringing them into a sensory form. It is a means of disseminating information, and our hunger for information is unmatched. Every action in a play (at least in a well-written one) reveals something about the central element. No detail is irrelevant in a play because it reveals something by merely existing in the context of the play. What if we extend that idea to us revealing our central elements by means of the play of our actions?
Seen in this light, every choice and action of ours reveals something about our central element, the self. Who is it revealed to? Ourselves. It is our attempt to understand and experience ourselves. This attempt may not be conscious. For example, sometimes, we do things without really understanding why we did them. On other occasions, we are fully aware of our choices and the reasons behind them. In either case, we are only expressing ourselves to ourselves.
In the story of the forgotten identity, the action of inquiring with our neighbors corresponds to the fact of us trying to learn something about ourselves from every action and choice. This would mean that, on some level, we are also aware of the fact that we don’t really know our own selves. It also means that the meaning of our lives (the purpose of the inquiries) is to finally know our true selves. In this analogy, our expectation is that it will all finally fit together to reveal who we truly are.
This is merely an old problem stated differently. The question of the meaning of life and of self-realization has been answered differently in various belief systems and philosophies throughout the world. Extensive commentaries exist on each of these systems of thought. Throughout the ages, various people wanted to expand upon the original insights of the founders in order to increase the clarity of understanding for seekers of self-knowledge. They believed that it was important to clearly understand the answers in order to internalize them.
But, no matter how clear the answers become, they do not grant the culmination of understanding that is self-realization. Such a culmination must be an experience, it must be beyond the reach of doubt. A mental conception, no matter how strongly entrenched, is susceptible to doubt until it can be proved to exist in the domain of conscious experience. Unless there is a conscious experience of self-realization, one’s quest will continue.
Self-realization becomes a conscious experience when the inquiring mind comes to a stop and is able to become aware of what is at its heart. Where else but within does it need to go to know what is at its own heart? But the beauty of the system is that the mind automatically touches the heart when its activities stop. In our analogy, when the person stops his inquiries, he remains as he is, and that simple be-ing is his identity.
Self-realization is the simple conscious experience of be-ing that is independent of the activity or inactivity of the mind. It does not mean that the mind must die. It means that one becomes conscious of one’s identity as being beyond the mind and its activities yet being at its heart and center. It means that the various aspects of the mind, from the biological to the spiritual, must experience the central being that is the Self.
So, something must first integrate the different aspects of the mind, stop its activities and then make that integrated mind aware of the Self. This ‘something’ is called as Kundalini and is easily activated in the method of Sahaja Yoga to grant an experience of simple being that is free of the various stresses, tensions, depressions, passions etc. that plague the mind. In the beginning, one experiences physical and mental relaxation. But over time, the more hidden activities of the mind come into consciousness as the superficial activities cease. All through, the force of the Kundalini acts to keep the connection with the Self until in the end, the Self alone remains i.e. simple being alone remains and the initial purpose of the play i.e. revelation of the central element is achieved.
After this, a new dimension of the Self emerges i.e. one in which everything becomes a means of expression of the Self. Earlier, the person was inquiring to know himself. Now, he talks about himself to express himself. That is, a Self-realized person is involved in the expression of the Self. His actions are not means to discover himself but to reveal himself. To give another example, a student dancer performs movements in an effort to learn whereas a master performs them in an effort to express.
If we accept the idea that all our actions are our efforts to know ourselves, we must also accept that a technique for self-knowledge or self-realization must be the epitome of action itself. All action must be expressed in that act. So, why not take to it, and why not come to the center of our own being, something we have searched for since time immemorial?
Learn Sahaja Yoga here!
