To Thine Own Self Be True

by Swami Krishnananda

The Inner Personality

The whole of spiritual practice, the entirety of Sadhana, finally, boils down to a centralisation of our forces in the direction of the object of the practice known as Yoga. The word Yoga which is the highlight of spiritual practice suggests a coming together into a blending of forces of two sides – union of something with something. But in this practice of Yoga, what is it that is uniting itself with what?

Yoga students feel that they have to unite themselves with something in this practice. What kind of 'you' is getting united with what kind of 'object'?

Firstly, you take into consideration your own self. Who is this 'you' that wishes to be united with something that is regarded as the 'object' of meditation? A great confusion follows in answering this simple question as to who is this that is wanting to practise meditation. This son, this daughter, this husband, this wife, boss, subordinate, rich man, poor man, this that I am – is this person going to meditate on something? Put a question to your own self.

You are all different types of people coming from various parts of this country. What kind of people are you? When you put a question to your own selves, you will be flabbergasted at your own incapacity to answer this simple question as to what kind of person you are.

In the presence of all people, you may not be able to say anything about yourself due to some etiquette of society. Go inside your own room and lock the door. Let nobody be there and put a question as to what kind of person you are. Let the minister put a question to himself: "What kind of person am I?" The minister will feel miserable to find that he seems to be something different inside from what people think he is.

My real problem seems to be 'myself' only. What kind of person am I? Ask such questions to yourself every day: Am I a very important person in this world? What is my importance?

You will receive no satisfying answer: Your importance is something foisted upon you by your wealth, relations, office, etc. Minus all this, what is your importance?

Then what are you? Are you something, or are you nothing? To get a direct answer to this question you have to undergo a deep study of your own self, which is known as self-analysis. In the psychology of the study of human nature, it has been discovered that we have layers of personality within. We are many things in ourselves, not simply one solid compact mass like a rock. We are not a stone or a brick; we are like an onion, as it were, with many peels, one over the other, one inside the other, sometimes called the koshas in Sanskrit.

We seem to be a physical personality but our values, the worthwhileness of ours, do not seem to be confined only to the physical body. Your significance in life is not the significance of your physical vesture. Your importance, whatever it be, is not the importance attached to the body, because your body is made up of the same substance as the substance of any other person. A rich man's body is not made of gold and diamonds, and a poor man's body made of mud. You are the same mud as anybody else, even if you are a very special person. Your worth is not the physical body's worth.

There are so many things inside: your feelings, thoughts, understanding, education, health, and what you really seem to be in the in-depth root of your personality. For instance, some mystery is revealed when you are fast asleep. All your wealth, relationships, physical strength, even the mind, cease to operate in deep sleep.

What is your worth, and what are you actually when you are fast asleep? You seem to be annihilated completely out of existence, and assuming an importance when you wake up into the physical personality, subsequently. Has anybody thought over this intricacy of one's own involvement in the structure of one's personality? Are we the body, the mind, the intellect, or are we something else? None of these seem to be what we are.

Do you believe that you were existing in the state of deep sleep? Of course; but were you existing as the body, the mind, or as an intellect arguing? In what sense were you existing? How do you know that you were existing at all? Have you any proof? People want proof for everything. Scientific-minded people argue on the basis of evidence and verifiable proof. What is the proof that you existed in the state of deep sleep? Who is to prove your existence?

This analysis is not available in ordinary psychological parlance. You will know this only through an analysis conducted through Yoga psychology. Suffice it to say that there is an intricacy involved in the knowledge of our own selves. We need not go further into this difficulty for the time being. We shall take up this subject subsequently.

On the other side, there is the world of objects, people, etc. What is your relationship with this world? Is the world clinging to your skin? Does it belong to you? Or, are you totally unrelated to the world? Many a time you may feel that you have some relationship with it, due to which fact you are compelled to engage yourself in activity in this world. What kind of relationship is obtaining between you and the world?

The concept of relation is the knotty point in all philosophical investigation and any kind of deep deliberation. Nobody can understand correctly the relationship of one thing with another thing. It is something like trying to know the relation between what you call the cause of a thing and the effect that follows from that cause. You cannot know whether the effect is inside the cause or outside it. If it is inside, it cannot be visible outside; if it is outside, it cannot have any kind of intrinsic relation with the cause.

Now, in a similar manner, we cannot say properly whether we are 'in' the world or the world is 'outside' us. Is the world outside you, or are you inside the world? This again is a problem before us. In the same way as it was so difficult to know what we are made of, we seem to be facing another kind of difficulty in knowing where we are actually located in this world. Are we inside the world or outside the world? We cannot answer this question easily.

For some time, due to certain pressures exerted upon us, we may feel that the world is totally outside and we can go for a walk on the road without being affected by the world. The world does not give any trouble to us. We can just go as if we are independent and the world is there, away from us. The road on which we are walking does not cling to us or seem to have any connection with us organically. In that sense, the world is outside us, but is it wholly outside, or are we included in the world?

When you analyse this situation from another angle of vision, it would look that you are a part of the world. You are a part of your family, this country, a part of this international setup of humanity; don't you think like that? You are involved as a citizen of the world which cannot be regarded as totally segregated from you. But this kind of involvement, which is very much there, is not visible to the eyes.

Sensory observation cannot bring you this knowledge. Scientific observation and experiment in a laboratory is not the way by which you can know either your structure or the structure of the world. You cannot know anything about yourself by observing yourself through a telescope or a microscope or any kind of instrument available; nor can you know what an atom is made of, because it eludes the grasp of your senses; you cannot know whether it is an 'object' of your perception or whether it is something connected with your 'process of perception' itself.

The process of perception of anything in the world brings us face to face with this mysterious Something which seems to be operating between us and the world – this great mystery which felled the gods and made them feel utterly humiliated that their strength was not their strength. Our perception also is not actually our perception.

A total analysis of this kind is available to us at the very beginning of the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita:

Aksharam brahma paramam svabhavo'dhyatmamuchyate;
Bhutabhavodbhavakaro visargah karmasamjnitah.
Adhibhutam ksharo bhavah purushashcha adhidaivatam;
Adhiyajno'hameva atra dehe dehabhritam vara.

You read these verses in the Gita. It is a brief statement in two verses of the entire structure of the cosmos, including me, yourself, and also including that mysterious thing which operates between myself and yourself. There is a finally responsible thing over and above all things in this world which is what they call the 'Ultimate Reality'. In religion we call it God, philosophers call it the Absolute. This is what is designated in this verse of the Bhagavad Gita as Aksharam brahma paramam – the Imperishable Being. Svabhavo'dhyatmamuchyate: the self-consciousness that you are, the consciousness of personality, is the individuality. Bhutabhavodbhavakaro visargah karmasamjnitah. How did this individuality emanate? The process of the emanation of all beings right from the time of creation is the karma, so-called. Here karma is not to be understood in the sense of an ordinary work of cooking food in the kitchen, etc., but the cosmic activity which is responsible for the emanation of the whole world. Adhibhutam ksharo bhavah: All that is regarded as external to the perceiving individual is the perishable. Everything moves, all things are in a state of flux, and nothing is permanent in this world. Such is the nature of this physical world: purushashcha adhidaivatam. There is a presiding divinity over and above the very act of perception. Adhiyajno'hameva atra: the whole activity of the cosmos, the entire work of creation, every type of activity anywhere, from top to bottom, is presided over by some principle – without which, a leaf will not move in the tree, a finger cannot be lifted.

There are one or two other relationships which are not mentioned in this verse. For instance, there is the consciousness of righteousness. Just as we have the adhibhuta and adhidaiva, there is adhidharma, which word does not occur in this verse of the Gita. Adhidharma is that presiding principle of righteousness which makes you feel that you must do the right thing and be in a state of harmony with all things.

Who tells you that you should do the right thing? Does the world tell you this, or you yourself are saying that? In fact, neither are you saying so, nor anything in the world does say so. Something tells you that you must do the right thing. There is another consciousness altogether which is the presiding principle over the imperative commandment known as virtue, morality, righteousness.

I may add one more principle which is not mentioned in this description of the principles in the verses of the Bhagavad Gita: adhimoksha. The moksha principle superintends over everything. The liberation of the soul is the conditioning factor behind every activity. Whether inwardly done, openly done, consciously or unconsciously done, every activity of every creature (living, non-living, known, unknown), all these are determined by the need for liberation of the spirit. Everybody asks for ultimate freedom, from the ant to the galaxies. So, add one more word: adhimoksha, the law of final liberation.

Such is the structure of the cosmos. In this structure, situated as you are, how would you practise Sadhana, meditation? Answer the question: Who is meditating? On what subject? What is the object of your meditation, and who is the person meditating? Be clear about that, and then take the first step.