Having realised that, which is without sound, without touch, without form, without decay, and also without taste, without smell, without beginning, without end, beyond the Mahat, eternal and unchanging, is freed from the jaws of death.
The Shruthi is explaining the transcendental nature of the inexplicable Atman, which is the absolute state of perfection. It is using the method of negation to explain the inexplicable. We understand the senses and their perceptions. Lord Yama is describing the Self, Atman (an unknown entity), by adopting the principle of education, i.e., to describe the unknown through the known. So, what is known to us are the senses – sound, touch, form, taste, smell, and change.
It states that Atman is without sound; it means the senses cannot perceive it. An object can be seen and touched, but Brahman is not an object of perception. You cannot capture with your senses the way you capture everything in the world. It is the subject that enables the senses to perceive objects.
The darshan of God are the elements i.e., fire, water, earth – the idol. An idol is a mere symbol of Brahman. An idol only represents the ideal. A form representing the formless reality.
The same logic can be extended to the mind and the intellect. The mind deals with emotions. During Bhajans devotional singing, one feels an intense emotion of God, which is only an experience of trans, ecstasy, but it is not realising God as it is not an object of emotion. The mind cannot capture God. Similarly, your intellect can think of the subtlest of ideas, but intellect cannot capture God in an idea, God is not an object of perception, emotion or thought. God is a subject that enlivens your senses to perceive, mind to feel, and intellect to conceive. It is a subject within and not an object outside.
Q: When we say karma, bhakti, and jnana are pathways or equipment to reach God, how does a Sadhak reach God with the equipment that enables them to perceive, feel, or think?
A: Every human is must combination of body, mind and intellect. One performs karma with the body, bhakti with the mind, and jnana with the intellect. The three main spiritual paths of karma, bhakti, and jnana spiritually elevate a seeker. They cannot collectively or individually give you moksha enlightenment by themselves. Nobody is exclusively a karma yogi, bhakta or jnani. These paths are primarily means to cleanse the spiritual mala impurities in the form of vasanas – desires.
- Karma Yoga reduces the quantity of vasanas
- Bhakti Yoga improves the quality of vasanas
- Jnana Yoga gives direction to the vasanas
90% of your vasanas are taken care by karma, bhakti, and jnana. Then one reaches a highly elevated state called uparathi, mental withdrawal from the world. Thereafter, one performs dharama, an open-eyed meditation. At this stage, you are 95% spiritually evolved. Then comes a point of Dhyana, which is closed eye meditation at 99% spiritually evolution. Once you do dhyana, you attain Self-realisation. Thus, true meditation is the gateway to self-realisation.
Man – desires = God
God + desires = Human
Yoga is to replace a lower thought with a higher thought. When we reach the point of self-realisation, it is thoughtlessness. We are not capturing God with a thought. Spirituality is replacing one thought with another to the point of thoughtlessness, which is Brahman. The last thought is eradicated, and Brahman reveals itself. In the spiritual path, action, emotion, and thought do not give you Brahman, it only purifies itself. Beyond the karma, bhakti, and jnana is an elevated spiritual state, which is uparathi, dharana, and dhyana. Samadhi is self-realisation. Ultimately, one has to be detached to the path itself at a higher level of spirituality. Path is the idol, a means to get to the ideal of Self-realisation.
Q: What is dropping the path itself mean?
A: Dropping the path is like passing through a tunnel. In a tunnel, after you enter, you cannot stop or return, and have to move forward to come out of the tunnel. So, karma, bhakti, and jnana are only the means, like entering the tunnel. Dropping them is like exiting the tunnel. Three paths are a tunnel to push you out of the samsara and worldly attachments and draw you to higher spiritual states. One who performs these practises very diligently, committed to the path, understands that they are means to get to the end and not an end in themselves. You use them, but you will not hold on to them.
EG: When you are injured, you require a prop to walk. You need that until you get back your strength. Having regained, you drop the prop and will not hold on to it. It was just a means to an end.
Dropping is not physical but the mental bondage. Everything in a spiritual journey is a means, and once it has served its purpose, you have to drop. It does not mean you abandon it. You understand that it has played its role and no further role in your journey.
All of us have grown from school, college, and teachers, and reached the current state. We have dropped all these things behind and marched forward. We are grateful for all the teachers who have moulded you into what you are now. But we are not hanging on mentally. You are currently holding on to certain things that are helping you to grow. After some time, you will have to drop them as well and move on. It is detachment and not looking down on things. By picking up higher, the lower automatically drops.
