The body is like an earthen pot, inert. Because it has no consciousness of ‘I’, and because daily in bodiless sleep we touch our real nature, the body is not ‘I’. Then who is this ‘I’? Where is this ‘I’? In the Heart-cave of those that questions thus, there shines forth as ‘I’, HIMSELF, THE LORD SIVA OF ARUNACHALA.
V. 10, Reality in Forty Verses : Supplement
Dear Devotees,
When a devotee named Dr. Srinivasa Rao asked Sri Bhagwan whether in Verse 10 of the ‘Supplement to Reality in Forty Verses ‘ Sri Bhagwan does not teach us TO AFFIRM ‘SOHAM’. Sri Bhagwan explained it as follows:
“It is said the whole Vedanta can be compressed into the four words, DEHAM, NAHAM, KOHAM, SOHAM. This stanza (as quoted above) says the same. In the first two lines, it is explained why deham is naham, i.e., why the body is not ‘I’ or na ham. The next two lines say, ‘IF ONE ENQUIRES KO HAM, I.E., WHO AM I, I.E. IF ONE ENQUIRES WHENCE THIS ‘I’SPRINGS AND REALISES IT, THEN IN THE HEART OF SUCH A ONE THE OMNIPRESENT GOD ARUNACHALA WILL SHINE AS ‘I’, as sa aham or soham: i.e., HE WILL KNOW ‘THAT I AM’, I.E. ‘THAT IS ‘I’.”
Dear devotees, if one enquires, “Who am I?” and allows the mind to take deeper and deeper plunge within, he will know ‘THAT I AM’, THAT IS ‘I’. This is ATMA-VICHARA. And not ‘I am not this, I am that’, etc., although this practice may be an aid for some, as Sri Bhagwan has also taught that ‘pranayama’ may be an aid, and that if one achieves concentration by these practices, one should not stop at that, but press further and ask ‘Who am I?’ with one-pointed mind thus achieved. One may even take japa to achieve one-pointedness. But one should know that these are only aids, if one cannot take to Vichara directly.
Thanks very much.
Pranam,
Anil
