Rely On The Self, The OverSelf

Bhagawan has spoken lavishly on the supreme truth of the Self that is the ultimate reality human sojourn is after. How man can know his truth, The True Truth by focusing on the Self, explains Bhagawan narrating a famed Shankaracharya episode.

If one concentrates on the Self, which has no change or characteristics, no subtraction or senility, no decline or damage, man can conquer death. Therefore, the most effective prescription is the injection of the Knowledge of the Self, the Soul as One’s Real Self.

Now I shall describe to you a beautiful incident from the life of Sankaracharya. One day, when he was in Benares, he was returning from the river through a narrow lane and a person who was considered to be untouchable was coming opposite to him. Then Sankara asked him to move out and keep away at a distance so that himself, the Brahmin could move unpolluted. Then that untouchable asked Sankara, “Are you asking the body to keep at a distance? If that is so, one body which is inert is asking another inert body and it has no authority to do so. If you are asking the Soul to keep away and at a distance, the Soul that is in me is the same as the Soul or the Self that is in you. Therefore the same Self cannot ask itself to move away from itself and be aloof.”

Then Sankara thought, “This so-called untouchable is the one who knows what is ‘Real Self’ and what is ‘real non-self’, what is the body and what is He Who knows the body and I must respect him.” So saying, he prostrated before the ‘untouchable’. The untouchable was none other than Lord Vishwanatha HimSelf. He then appeared in His true form to Sankara. Let him be a Brahmin or let him belong to any caste, if he knows the Principle Of Oneness, then he has the true spiritual enlightenment.

Several persons put the question: “Swami, please tell us where the Self goes after the death of the body?”

The sky is reflected in the water in a vessel. When the vessel breaks, the image of the sky merges with the limitless sky. So also, with the disintegration of the physical body, the Self merges with the OverSelf.

Realise that the Self is the OverSelf that is the Higher Knowledge. Krishna exhorted Arjuna to meditate on the Unchanging in order to experience the OmniPresent Reality Of The OverSelf.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II