Aum

MOkshasaadhanam (Means of Liberation) – 17

by Krishna Sastri

SUDDHA CHAITHANYAM

Sishya: Bhagavan! When you say that the sense organs have no capability to know that the body is superimposed on the Self, then please tell me how is the Self known?

Guru: You are ignoring the fact that the Self is known to everyone with or without the sense organs.

Sishya: Sir, then who makes the mutual superimposition, the body or the Self?

Guru: Does it matter?

Sishya: If I were the body then I would be non-conscious and would exist for a conscious entity. If I were the body being non-conscious I would not have made the mutual superimposition. On the other hand, if I were the Self then I would be a conscious entity and would exist entirely for myself and therefore would not be making the mutual superimposition.

Guru: If you understand that the mutual superimposition is the root cause of all evils, then do not make it!

Sishya: Sir, I am not independent. I am made to act by someone else, such as Easwara.

Guru: In that case, you do not exist for yourself, because you are a non-conscious entity. Thus you should conclude that you are a body.

Sishya: I am not entirely non-conscious for I do feel the pain and the pleasure. How does that happen?

Guru: Are you different from pain and pleasure?

Sishya: The pleasure and pain come and go and I do know them like I know the objects such as a pot or a kettle. Therefore I am different. If I were not different then I would not know the pleasures and pains. And those pleasures and pains would exist for themselves and not for me. Such a situation of pleasures and pain existing for themselves is neither reasonable nor possible. Objects such as the pot and the kettle and the pain and the pleasure therefore exist for me as I am their knower. I know I am different from them as all things are pervaded by the intellect.

Guru: As you have rightly concluded that you are possessed of consciousness, you should realize that you exist for yourself alone and not made to act by anyone else as you claimed before.

Sishya: How about servant-master relationship where the two serve each other’s purpose?

Guru: An independent conscious being would not be made to act by another even if the other is also an independent conscious being. (For example two lights do not serve each other’s purpose.)

Nor would an independent conscious being act for the sake of a non-conscious entity. (A potter would not exist for the pot.)

Also an entity which is non-conscious in nature would be incapable of acting by its volition for the sake of another. (A pot may serve your purpose but it is not out of the pot’s volition.)

Also two non-conscious entities do not serve each other’s purpose. (That is, a pot cannot call a kettle black and vice versa!)

The Guru continued: My dear Devadatta, what you know is what is presented to the intellect as pain and pleasure. It is not your experience for you as consciousness have no attributes (with which to feel the pain and the pleasure) and would always remain changeless (devoid of experience).

(contd)