Vichāra-saṅgraham 12: The Self-experience
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2022-02-12

Devotee: Is the aforesaid Self-experience possible, even in the state of empirical existence, for the mind which has to perform functions in accordance with its prārabdha [the past karma which has begun to fructify]?

Mahārṣi: A brāhmaṇa may play various parts in a drama; yet the thought that he is a brāhmaṇa does not leave his mind. Similarly, when one is engaged in various empirical acts there should be the firm conviction “I am the Self,” without allowing the false idea “I am the body, etc.” to rise. If the mind should stray away from its state, then immediately one should enquire, “Oh! Oh! We are not the body etc.! Who are we?” and thus one should reinstate the mind in that pure state.

The enquiry “Who am I?” is the principal means to the removal of all misery and the attainment of the supreme bliss. When in this manner the mind becomes quiescent in its own state, Self-experience arises of its own accord, without any hindrance. Thereafter sensory pleasures and pains will not affect the mind. All phenomena will appear then, without attachment, like a dream. Never forgetting one’s plenary Self-experience is real bhakti (devotion), yoga (mind-control), jñāna (knowledge) and all other austerities. Thus say the sages.