Quest of the Highest Truth – Hint at the Fourth stage
O, Sadhu ! The one form pervades all There is no difference between one drop and another: The sea and the drop are one Sea in the drop and the sea as the drop, This is the truth and none. Behind the drop the sea extends, The sea supports the drop. To make the drop realize the ocean Is all the Reality. Conception crept up in the sea That it is but a drop Knowledge removed the misconception; Difference never again will crop. False is the delusion, false is the concept, False are the affairs of the world. When we know that all is false, All the opposites end. Brahman is free from opposite states, whereas the Jiva or individual soul lives in the contradictory states. This has the qualities of pulling and becoming tight whereas the Brahman is free from unrest as there is no feeling of happiness in Him. The individual soul, in its desire for life, craves for happiness and escapes sorrow. Sorrow is the result of the individual soul being a part, and because it is desirous of happiness, it experiences sorrow. There is wholeness, perfection and fullness in Brahman. He wants neither living (life) nor happiness. Therefore, there is no sorrow for Him. Knowledge is the state of imperfection. Wherever there is knowledge, there is the triad or triune state of knowledge, knower and the known, resulting in limitation. But when there is no limitation in the Brahman, how would you establish the triad? As the Brahman is perfect, how can there be any supposition and illusion in Him? Supposition and illusion can only be found in the Jiva which is imperfect. The Brahman has no idea of His completeness and perfection. Whatever attributes are found in Him, they are only from the point of view of Jiva. The Brahman does not call Himself Sachchidananda. He neither believes in Karma nor does He call Himself perfect. It is the Jiva that thinks Him to be so, and keeps Him as its final goal. If the Brahman says that He is complete, then it means that He has the idea of part and whole and, when the knowledge or idea of part creeps in, He ceases to remain complete or perfect. The part and the whole are two classes which cannot be called one (and the same) under any circumstances. Desire in the individual soul or Jiva is due to the impression, or the illusion, of its being part, because to the view that sees unity in all, a drop appears to have lost its existence in the ocean. To such a view the ocean is but a vast and limitless drop in which there are no parts (divisions). This is one aspect. Another thing is that if, due to some reason, the drop has the knowledge of its being separate, it should also think that there is the ocean at the background of each and every drop, and that it is itself one with the ocean, having mingled in it. Then when one-ness sets in, where does the illusion of separate-ness of the ocean and the drop remain? The Jiva does not even think like this. If it thinks as such, then too the idea of separates, deficiency and of being part would not worry it. Such belief (faith) is the first step towards the attainment of the final goal. This is called 'the knowledge of the word' or Vachik jnan which is existence — Sathpana along with which there is the body — Shaareeriktha. The middle knowledge is called 'the true knowledge' or Yathartha Jnan which is the result of this thought and contemplation and is called knowledge or Chit pana, The final (end) knowledge is called the 'real knowledge' or knowledge of the same form — Tadroopa jnan, which is supreme bliss, and which is such an intoxicated condition that it knows no sorrow at all. It has also no feeling of bliss in it. It is perfect, complete, and It alone is Brahman.
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