Self-Realisation, Its Meaning and Method

by Swami Krishnananda

The few words that I shall be trying to speak today are intended specially to be of some benefit to those who are not accustomed to the usual Indian concept of the liberation of the Spirit, call it Self-Realisation, or God-Realisation. While, generally, the citizens of India may be considered to be fairly acquainted with a general notion of what liberation, or the aim of life is, though there may be some, even in India, whose idea about the supreme purpose of life may not be perfect and perspicacious, yet it appears to me that there is a greater misconstruing of the very meaning of the aim of life in certain countries like Europe and America or what you call the jurisdiction of Western culture. The word Self-Realisation is commonly used in spiritual circles, and is often identified with what is known as God-Realisation. In spite of this common usage of what should be regarded as the principal motive behind every human endeavour, there is likely to be the possibility of the intrusion of the human way of thinking even in regard to what is totally transcendent to human reaches. It is an inveterate involvement in the human vision of things that should be regarded as responsible for reading human meaning even in what you may consider as God-Almighty.

Now, the human way of thinking has certain specific characteristics: Firstly it is involved in the concept of spatial extension and distance, and the notion of temporal succession, process and movement, activity and effort, work and achievement of the result or fruit of work. There is no other way in which the human mind can normally think. But to stretch this logic of what one may call the three-dimensional way of thinking, thinking in terms of distance and spatial difference, thinking in terms of temporal process or a terminus calculated by the movement of time, much worse, to think always in terms of human needs only, and not to pay any attention to the possibility of there being things in the world other than human—may be more important than human—should be a matter of concern for everyone.

What on earth does anyone mean by Self-Realisation? What do you mean by God-Realisation? We, with all the stretches of our intelligent imagination, cannot but be human. The human foibles and weaknesses are not merely confined to what we call desires and aversions, likes and dislikes, prejudice, passion and anger. These are, no doubt, weaknesses, but there are more subtle weaknesses which pass for the wisdom of life. There are more dangerous troubles to life in the world than the usually well-known wickednesses which are listed in our catalogues and available in the notification given to us through the scriptures. But the more dangerous and surreptitious intrusions of invisible forms of weakness in human thought are to be a greater matter for our concern than merely an effort to get rid of likes, dislikes, ego, prejudice, etc., which are all publicly known. There are difficulties which are not so well known, and cannot so easily be known also, because these weaknesses are the very constituents of the individuality of man. Man is made up of these weaknesses only, and, therefore, he has no avenue to discover the existence of these weaknesses. The components of human thought are themselves involved in these fundamental weaknesses and, therefore, human thought cannot be permitted entry for any investigation into these matters which concern its own makeup, the very building bricks of its existence itself. These matters are serious in the light of the fact that they are the final barriers, the checkposts, the chungis, which will put to set our hard-earned advantages through the austerities and the Sadhanas we perform to the extent of our knowledge and capacity.

The concept of Self-Realisation can stir up divine visions and a highly balanced outlook of life, a sober approach to every event and factor in life, a policy of impersonality in regard to any kind of encounter in the world. Yes, this is fine, and this can be there, and this is sometimes there. But there can also be something else. John Bunyan in his beautiful work, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” says in a fine passage that even when you are sure that you are at the gate of heaven itself, you are likely to step into a pit there which can lead to hell at the very gate to heaven. This pit to hell is nothing but the natural incapacity to overcome the human interpretation of the nature of God’s existence. And what is this human interpretation? That God also is positioned in this universe, something like a large individual, though He may be as large as this universe itself. Nevertheless, He is there, somewhere, as we are also here. Now, it is not true that God is somewhere sitting, though we may not be able to understand why it should be so. That we cannot escape the notion of God being somewhere sitting in some position, whatever be the extent of His personality, is related to our spatial way of thinking. God may be in heaven, in Brahmaloka, He may be in the highest possible universality and comprehensiveness of being, yet, He is ‘somewhere.’ The is-ness of God ‘somewhere’ creates a subtle difference between the location in which we are and the location to which we attach God. This notwithstanding the fact that we are honest in conceding an all-encompassing universality to God’s existence. Our honesty is one hundred per cent, and we agree that God is universal, is everywhere, and, therefore, He is everything, and at all times. But, still, I am also here conceiving this universality of God, and that the permission granted to God’s universality will not permit our existence does not occur to our minds. This is a fright to many of even the philosophers, both in the East and the West.

I had a discussion with some brilliant professors of philosophy come from America, well-known teachers of metaphysics, who have written good histories of philosophy. And one of the thinkers whom I had the occasion to meet here was a professor of philosophy from the Cornel University. He mentioned to me during the course of our discussion, “What good is there in such liberation? What point is there in the attainment of God if it means the cessation of the very existence of the seeker of God himself? Who is benefiting? The one who seeks benefit out of God’s experience, or God-experience, you say, will not be there. If the seeker of God is not to be there, who is seeking God?” This is a general difficulty with Western thinking, and it persists even today, and it cannot but persist as long as man is man. Some theologians in the East also have this difficulty.

Here is a point which may be relevant to earnest Sadhakas and seekers who come especially from Western countries, not necessarily professors from universities. There are sincere souls coming from the West, and they are sincere in their search for the finality of God’s Being, the end of human endeavour. But, the spatio-temporal vision of things does not easily take leave, so that there can even be a hard core of conviction within these sincere souls that there is some onerous duty that they have to perform even after entry into the bosom of God. The entry into the universality of God which we call liberation is only a permit that is granted to man for working greater wonders in this world, miracles, perhaps even to the extent of larger services to the human brethren. Again, we are in the midst of human brethren only. We rose from them and we have come back to them after having dipped ourselves in the light and ocean of God’s Being. This is not merely a philosophical mistake or a metaphysical handicap, it may end in a breakdown of the human personality which is in search of God. These subtle empirical intrusions into the final goal of life may, of course, not lead to that realisation, but may do something worse, from which it may be good for everyone of us to guard ourselves, namely, a breakdown of the whole nervous system and a disappointment with life itself, a disgust with existence in this world, and a sense of negation of any meaning in life. There have been honest souls who have finally found that life has no meaning, that it is a total idiocy. “It brings nothing, it can give nothing, and all these pursuits are a pursuit of the will-o’-the wisp, a phantasmagoria, an illusion, a fear-born delusion risen like a devil in the mind of man, a brain-washed education which has ruined my life.” With these notions the sincere seeker may leave this world because of an erroneous notion about God’s nature, the purpose behind the very reason in the search for God, and what actually could happen to one in God-Realisation.

It is difficult to believe that many of us have a clear notion as to what will happen if God-Realisation is to be our blessing. What will happen to us? You may scratch your head up to the core of your cerebrum, but you will not find an easy answer to this terrible question: What will happen to me after I attain God? You will have a hundred answers from a thousand people, all confusing and contradicting one another, leaving you at sea finally and landing you nowhere. This is a predicament we may escape if we have a competent guide. These days we feel that libraries are our Gurus, and travelling also brings experience. Well, this may be true in some percentage, but this is not a final support. Because, whatever be the extent of your study through books and encounter with personages in the various cultures of the world through your itineraries or tours—though they may be cultural tours—you will find that you are the interpreter of the books and you will see in these books only what you want to see, and you will not see there what you do not want to see. You go to these libraries and you go on tours round Ashramas and universities with some spectacles which you have manufactured for yourselves. These spectacles will determine the way of your vision of things and these mental glasses will also decide what you will read in these books. You will read only what is capable of being received by your mind through these specs that you have put on, and nothing else will come to you because you have become your own judge, you have become your own teacher, you have agreed to be your own Guru, finally, and many a young man feels that his judgement can be a final judgement. “What is wrong with them? I do not believe that the suggestions given to me should be wholly accepted. I feel and think and argue in this way and these ways of my thinking and arguing seem to be my ways.” So, a situation has arisen in the modern educated mind, where it considers itself as its own sole support, guide, friend, philosopher, and no other suggestion is acceptable. And even if any suggestion is given, instruction is imparted or knowledge is communicated, it will be received, through these spects, these mental glasses which condition everything that is communicated in any way. They will be sifted according to the idiosyncrasies, the background of education and the social circumstances of the person.

Self-Realisation is not an easy thing to achieve, because the notion of the Self is a barrier and a handicap. What do you mean by the Self when you speak of Self-Realisation? Where is this Self situated? “It is within me.” This is a usual glib answer available for any person. “I seek to know my own Self.” And why do I seek to know my own Self? Because I want to live in peace. What do you mean by peace? No answer can be given. Here, again, we are in a state of confusion. Why do you want Self-Realisation? To know my own Self. Why do you want to know your own Self? To be in a state of balance in my mind and outlook. What for is this effort? To be peaceful. What is peace? That cannot be answered. We do not know what this peace means, about which people talk so much and which is the theme of the various rostrums in the parliaments of cultural discussion the world over, which are taking place from Peru to China! But, what is this Self? While you may say, ‘it is within me,’ and this may appear to satisfy the person who has put this question, you will be sure that it does not satisfy even your own selves. There is no use merely saying ‘the Self is within me and that is my God.’ We have a curious notion of Self and God, indeed. It is within you! When you say, ‘the Self is within me,’ what do you mean by this ‘me’? What is this ‘me’ or the ‘I’? Again, the same question arises. Here, again, we are bodily shackled. We are men and women, we are human, and we cannot be anything else. So this ‘within’ in which the Self seems to be situated is the ‘within’ ‘this body.’ You have confined the notion of yourself to your bodily existence finally, though your intention is to break through the barriers of bodily consciousness in search for the Self. The thief has subtly entered through the back door, while you are keeping police and army at the front door to prevent an entry of the dacoits. They have come through the back door and they have done their work, because the Self which is supposed to be the means to break through the barriers of bodily consciousness has confined itself to the body only, again, for, when the Self is within, it cannot be but within the body. If it is not within the body, within what is it, when you say that it is within? Here is a difficulty before you. Many of the books will not answer this pose. If God is not within, where else is God? And if you say that He is within, within what? Within the body? You are caught again by the very answer that you are giving, which is supposed to be the solution to your problems.