Sadhana Panchakam, Instruction 7

Isvara, the Supreme Self

Translation and Commentary by Jayaram V

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1.7. Strengthen the will to know the Self

The purpose of sadhana (practice) is to know oneself or to see whether there is anything beyond the mind and body, which supports them and is better than the known self. It is to know your true self through inquiry and personal experience. Is this your only true identity? Is there is anything which is hidden and beyond your ordinary mind and senses? Questions such as these arise in your mind and dominate your thinking as you practice the previous six instructions and cultivate an abiding interest in spiritual matters and the state of liberation.

The wisdom to distinguish the not-self and the curiosity to know the self are the starting points of any spiritual quest. The idea that you are not the mind and the body shall be firmly implanted in your consciousness through study, inquiry and self-purification. From that conviction arises the strength and the will to renounce everything that you love dearly in your life and go an exciting spiritual quest to discover the truths and worlds that are hidden in your own consciousness. As the Upanishads suggest, one should always abide in the self and leave everything behind. It is by the self, for the self and with the self only one can enter the self and become dissolved in it.

At this stage, you do not have true knowledge, but only beliefs and assumptions about the endless possibilities that may await. You may be assailed by fear and doubt or feel discouraged by the actions and attitude of others. You do not know whether you will succeed or not, or what dangers and difficulties await you. Faith (shraddha) is your only raft in the sea of ignorance and worldly knowledge. If you have sincerely practiced the previous instructions, you will not turn back or give up. With abiding faith, you will surrender to the will of God or your guru and keep kindling your aspiration to persevere and persist.

The curiosity (jijnasa) to know the self (atman) or the supreme self (Brahman) does not arise in everyone. As the Bhagavadgita declares, only at the end of innumerable births does one develops the curiosity to seek God and know the self. Human birth is rare, and still rarer is the person who seeks self-knowledge through discernment and self-transformation. The self cannot be realized until one knows the boundaries of the not-self and remains detached from it.

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