Spiritual Questions - Part 16 (What is the concept Adam and Eve?)

Q) What is the concept Adam and Eve? How to understand these two characters?

A) It is very simple.

Adam = Purusha = Avyakta = Unmanifested Cosmos

Eve = Prakriti = Vyakta = Manifested Cosmos

It is erroneous to depict Adam and Eve as Man and Woman.

The thought is the fruit. Thinking process is the sin. When one is in the thinking process, then the creation goes on and that one is bound to the wheel of samsara undergoing the cycle of birth and death. When one comes out of the thinking process there is no creation. Then one enters into the Avyakta or the Unmanifested Cosmos. Then one is out of the wheel of samsara. That individual dies before his/her physical death and there is no more and nothing to be born again.

In Mundaka Upanishad third chapter, first khanda there are two verses which tell us a story of two birds on a tree.

Mundaka Upanishad - Chapter III, Khanda 1, Verse/Mantra 1:

द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते |

तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वात्य नश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ||

dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā samānaṁ vṛkṣam pariṣasvajāte
tayor anyaḥ pippalaṁ svādv attyanaśnann anyo’bhicākaśīti.

Two birds living together (living in the same Universal Consciousness), united always, never separated, each the friend of the other, known by the same name, closely perch upon the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit of the tree (delving into delusion), while the other simply looks on without eating (remains in the Universal Consciousness) remains not deluded.

Mundaka Upanishad - Chapter III, Khanda 1, Verse/Mantra 2:

समाने वृक्षे पुरुषो निमग्नोऽनीशया शोचति मुह्यमानः |

जुष्टं यदा पश्यत्यन्यमीशमस्य महिमानमिति वीतशोकः ||

samāne vṛkṣe puruṣo nimagno’nīśayā śocati muhyamānaḥ,
juṣṭam yadā paśyaty anyam īśam asya mahimānam iti, vīta-śokah.

Seated on the same tree the individual bird or jiva (identifying with the thought process or the mind) is drowned in grief as it got deluded and identified itself with the ego/mind moving away from the Universal consciousness. This when it beholds the other (bird which is always in the Universal Consciousness) ponders within and becomes aware of its ever present Universal consciousness realizes its own glory and gets freed from grief.

Q) What is sin?
A) Identifying our Self with the thought process is sin. Forgetting our true nature of avyakta, infinite Nothingness is sin.

Spiritual Questions - Part 15 ( What do the words "I, me and mine" mean?)

I, me and mine.

• Who am I?
• What is this me?
• What is mine?

If we can find answers for the above, then all seeking comes to an end. But how to find the answers?

The only way that we can find answers is to shed all the extra baggage and come out of the thinking process.

In trying to seek for Self-realization we are trying to add more things (we may call them as spiritual things). But in reality we are supposed to subtract and withdraw everything instead of adding. This realization of removal of all the additional things one has to get as early as possible or else the seeker in us is bound to go round and round the wheel of samsara.

There is a scene in the movie “Matrix – Revolutions (3rd part of the Trilogy)” where the hero Keanu Reeves will be in an underground metro railway station and wants to see where the track goes. So he walks in between the rails and ends up coming onto the same platform where he started.

This whole world of samsara exists as such in triviality. We can never come out of it as long as we are in the thinking process and bound by the mind. To come out of the wheel of Samsara we have to just get out of the wheel. By standing on the wheel it is never possible. So by thinking and being in the mind it is never possible. The moment we give up the thought process then lo we are already out of the wheel.

There is a simile given in Vedanta teachings. Let us say a sculptor has to sculpt a statue from a rock. What he has to do is only remove the unwanted rock pieces from the big rock. The sculptor always sees the statue lying always within the rock. What he does is only remove those extra pieces that are blocking the view of the already inherent statue.

Another simile is “the clouds obstructing the sun’s view or light”. The sun is always ever present. It is only that the clouds have to be moved to have clear view.

So, we all are already that. We have to simply remove our conditional thinking, our pre-conceived notions about us and the world around including everyone and everything that is present in it whether animate or inanimate.

Spiritual Questions - Part 14 (What is awakening?)

Q. What is awakening?
A. A natural noumenon which happens in the phenomenal world and we say it as awakening.

Q. What does the word noumenon means?
A. The dictionary mentions it as "The intellectual conception of a thing as it is in itself, not as it is known through perception."

Q. What happens when a person gets awakened?
A. No-thing happens.

Q. What do you mean No-thing happens.
A. No-thing means the happening of Nothing-ness happens. If there is something related to the mind or the ego - the "I", then we can say something happens. When it is not related to the mind or the I, then what do we say. Because in the awakening there is only No-thing which happens. And, even saying the word "happens" is also in a way wrong. Because it does not happen. It is is always there. Only thing is we get aware of that It is.

Q. What happens after awakening?
A. There will be a huge paradigm shift in perception of every thing.

Spiritual Questions - Part 13A (What is self-inquiry?)

Q) What is self-inquiry?

A) Inquiring about Silence through silence (no-thought or no-mind state).

Q) Can you explain further?

A) No, it is not possible, but will try to make a futile attempt.

Let us say you are looking for an answer to a question. What will you do? (I will ask someone.) Let us say in this case, you ask someone and that person does not know, or even if that person knows the answer he/she will not be able to express it as it would be inexpressible, then what will you do? (No idea.) Under such circumstances where there is no external source available for finding the answer then we try to look within for an answer. This does not mean that you are looking with your eyes into your physical body. Looking within means you are introspecting and interacting with your mind and questioning its existence. As you keep doing this, there will be a stage beyond which mind cannot give you an answer. Then you automatically enter into silence. Through this silence (the no-thought state) you enter into the Silence/ Stillness. In this Stillness you will see the Truth and understand that what you see as reality is only an illusion which the so called mind has created it.

Q) I understand it a bit, but how to reach that state?

A) Generally there are various kinds of techniques that are prescribed. Most of these techniques are based upon some or the other breathing patterns.

Q) Do you mean to say....if I follow these techniques can I get to self-realization?

A) No.

Q) Then why should I follow these techniques?

A) These techniques allow us to quieten our minds, our thought processes. 

The path in which such techniques are involved is called as progressive path. And in all progressive paths there is a seeker and something to be sought which the seeker is seeking for. Over a period of time the seeker gets into a state where he/she will start questioning the existence of a path. Then the seeker reaches a void and changes from the progressive path to direct path. In the direct path the seeker can quieten the mind faster and straight tries to reach to the source. This source is Nothingness or Emptiness.

Q) So do you mean to say that progressive path is not to be taken?

A) No. The progressive path is very important and it is the one path (among many) that one follows so that one can quieten the mind and take it away from its natural wandering. But once the natural wandering of the mind is stopped then mind can be taken inside and starts questioning about its existence. Since the mind has no real existence it cannot answer and gets disappeared. Then the natural substratum of Silence which was ever present appears clearly as if we are able to see the sun after the clouds have vanished.

Q) What are the main differences between these two paths?
A) Actually there are no paths in spirituality. It is only our illusion and the state in which our minds are. In the progressive path there is a seeker and there is something to be sought by the seeker. In direct path, the seeker questions - "what is being sought?"; "who the seeker is?"; and "where is this seeker existing?" There are no answers for these questions. But, when these questions are framed, then the seeker, the thing being sought and the questions all become one by dissolving their existence in the Stillness and by dissolving into Stillness they lose their existence. This is where the state of noumenon happens and it is a Natural state. The seeker comes to a realization that he/she is already that which is being sought.

Q) So you mean to say that Self-inquiry means I am inquiring about my self?

A) No. You are inquiring about your Self (the True Self) with your self (an illusory existence). As the True Self surfaces out (in reality we get more aware of it) then the little self slowly (sometimes all of a sudden) disappears. This surfacing of True Self or getting aware of the True Self they call it as awakening.