Posted on: 04 Feb 2005
It is correct to a certain extent, till you reach the self (Jeevatma). But the spiritual journey does not stop there. When you differentiate yourself from your body as pure awareness, you will attain peace but you have to go further to reach the ultimate goal which is the Super-Self (Paramatma). When you are travelling on the path to reach the Super-Self after attaining the knowledge of the self, you will lose your peace because that path is full of sacrifice. Sacrifice will disturb your mind because you have to cut all the worldly bonds, including the bond with your body and even with your life. While reaching the self you are as if eating a sweet which will give you satisfaction. Now once you have had that sweet [attained the self], you cannot have fruit from the Lord again. You have already eaten the sweet and you cannot charge money for eating the sweet. You are already given the fruit when you attain your self but when you are reaching the Paramatma, you are giving the sweet to Him and you have to suffer with hunger. Therefore the Lord will pay you for the sacrifice of the sweet. When you lose the peace, the Lord becomes peaceful. Therefore attaining the self by removing the illusion that you are the body etc. is only half the journey.
The Lord is called as the Atmeshwara in the Veda, which means that He is the controller of even the self. The goal of the Advaita philosophy is reaching the self which is only an intermediate station. Of course you must attain the peace, which gives you a lot of strength so that you will withstand the suffering by sacrifice in the next half of the journey. Shankara stopped by preaching this intermediate station to all the people. When a few people reached this station, then He opened the further path to them only. He swallowed molten lead and preached to the disciples that He alone is the Lord. The disciples had realized the self and reached the intermediate station called as Brahman by the path of “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am Brahman). Brahman means pure awareness. The next half of the path is to reach Lord who is Ishwara. Peace is not the final fruit. Peace is only an intermediate fruit, which gives you the strength to complete the journey. The fruit given by the Lord is the final fruit, which is peace, bliss and all the eight super powers. If one takes a sleeping tablet, he can get peace during the sleep as well as after awakening. Detachment from the world gives you peace (Brahman) but the fruit given by the Lord is to remain peaceful, blissful while living in this world and helping the real devotees with the help of the eight super powers (Ashta Siddhis). The fruit given by the Lord will give you the real bliss i.e., entertainment in the life-game played by you in this world itself, which is certainly far higher than mere peace. “Sivoham” (I am Ishwara) as said by Shankara is the final goal and not “Aham Brahmasmi”.
Shankara lived in the world and did a lot of work. He never sat idle thinking “Aham Brahmasmi” like the present Advaita philosophers. Patanjali wrote Yoga Sutras and fixed Ishwara as the final goal. We remember Shankara today as a divine hero but not the other Advaita philosophers. Shankara sacrificed His mother and earning money for the sake of the mission of the Lord. But the present Advaita philosophers sit in their houses and roll with their family bonds and simply say “Aham Brahmasmi”. One should become a divine hero like Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Swami Vivekananda etc.; they were always dynamic—doing Karma Yoga without any selfishness. Their Karma Yoga was the propagation of the divine knowledge, which is Jnana Yoga, but today the Advaita philosopher is doing Karma Yoga with selfishness for his family bonds. What is the use of their Jnana Yoga [What is the use of the knowledge that the Advaita philosophers achieve if their actions are selfish and their bonds with their family are not cut?]