The embedded video below showing enlightenment taking place is from an old Indian movie, “Guide”. Some of my remarks in English are also shown below to highlight certain aspects of the story. The movie, “Guide” was inspired by the novel, “The Guide” by R. K. Narayan. English trailer of the movie can be found here.
Is dream really a dream?
A king saw a dream in which he lost his kingdom, sent into exile and subsequently faced extreme hardships. After waking up he found himself to be the king but the experience of losing kingdom and being treated poorly had gone deep into his mind. He kept on saying, “Is this true or is that true?”. When a sage visited him, the king said the same thing to the sage as well.
King: Is this true or is that true?
Sage: You experienced both things. However, when one experience was present, other was absent. You are experiencing kingdom now but this experience was absent when you experienced the loss of kingdom and events after that. No experience is absolute truth as experience keeps on changing. So, neither is this experience true nor is that experience true. What never changes is absolute truth. The only truth is YOU.
Robot Vs Human
Just like a robot is animated by electricity, a human is animated by breathing. In ordinary language we say that robot is not conscious whereas human is conscious. In the language of Vedanta it is just that the reflected consciousness is different when we compare robot with human and primitive robots may not appear to have much of reflected consciousness. Pure consciousness stands apart and both the robot and the human appear in it. Robot and human are just different types of instruments through which pure consciousness expresses. In times to come when the robot is programmed to show the expressions of pain, joy etc. it will become harder to notice the difference between the reflected consciousness of the robot and that of a human. In Quantum Physics when we talk of observer, it makes no difference whether the observer is conscious or not so to say, after all nobody, whether a machine or something made of flesh has consciousness of its own. It is always the borrowed consciousness from the pure consciousness field and this pure consciousness field is present everywhere.
From Absence to Presence
Just asking the mind to come to the present may not be a workable long-term technique to actually bring it to the present as there can be hidden reasons for the background activities taking place in the mind. For example, many times mind works in the background when it is searching for some answers. This act by unconscious mind makes us unavailable to the present moment. When the answer to the search suddenly appears, mind relaxes and becomes quite. There can be a rush of joy as well (bliss) in this state and the mind comes to the present.
10 Commandments for Enlightened Living
- The only truth is pure consciousness which is not an individual being but it is more like a unified field.
- Potentiality (maya) is the inherent nature of pure consciousness. Hence, it is the source of creation.
- All creation is made from pure consciousness itself as there is nothing else but it. Potentiality is something that is hard-wired within pure awareness. It is due to the potentiality that pure consciousness keeps on taking various forms. Potentiality keeps on generating ripples in the field of consciousness. Strength of the ripple leads to attachment/false identification creating false, “I”.
- The apparent* creation happens spontaneously as if driven by a set of laws. The set of laws are just like the procedure that a steady mind follows to build something on its own without any specific instructions and sticks to them.
- One of the results of these laws of creation is man. So, man in reality is pure consciousness.
- Suffering is due to the fact that pure consciousness (Self) gets identified/attached with the man who has several instruments of experience and memory. This identification/attachment creates false sense of I, also called individual soul (Jiva).
- Self-Realisation replaces false, “I” (conditioned consciousness or individual consciousness) with true, “I” (pure consciousness).
- For happiness, mind needs purpose/goal. If rajas/tamas drive the life, this would not lead to long-term happiness. There will just be moments of pleasure and sorrow.
- Non-doership, Singing your song (doing Swadharma), realising Self, abiding in Self (separate from the influence of gunas), purifying binding vasanas, attitude of service towards Self is the workable attitude for long-term happiness. This should be the goal of the mind.
- Service should be offered to the Self as per Swadharma. If due to certain reason one is not able to offer Swadharma, Law of Attraction# can be used. The results need to be accepted as they are in any situation as the whole universe has conspired to provide them.
*Strictly speaking there is no world “out” there as everything is made up of consciousness. However, it does appear to Jiva that there is creation. Since, it appears to be a creation hence the word apparent.
#This should be a rare practice as there is nothing called ideal work and there is no limit to more. There can always be a work that one is not aware of that one can do better than the most. It is a better policy to abide in Self while involved in whatever we are doing. After all, we must be reasonably good in whatever we are doing or others would not have accepted us in our current job.
Self Realisation
Swadharma
The quote is attributed to Einstein at several places on the internet but doubts have also been raised on this attribution.