Self-Knowledge: Supreme

Sage Vasishtha

The sage of self-knowledge is supreme amongst those who are radiant, glorious, strong, great and endowed with other characteristics which are considered marks of excellence. These sages shine in this world like the sun, the fire, the moon, and the stars all put together. On the other hand, they who have not attained self-knowledge are worse than worms and insects. The ghost of delusion afflicts only as long as self-knowledge does not arise in him. The ignorant man is forever sorrowful, though he roams everywhere to get rid of it. He is truly a walking corpse. Only the sage of self-knowledge is a living sentient being. Even as when dense clouds form in the sky the sun't light is veiled, when the mind becomes gross with impurities and ignorance, the light of self-knowledge is veiled. Therefore, one should abandon craving for pleasures (those that have been experienced in the past and others that have not yet been experienced but for which one craves) and thus gradually weaken the mind by the abandonment of a taste for them. By the cultivation of a false relationship with what is not self, the mind becomes gross. The notions of I and mine make the mind dense and ignorant. This is further aggravated by old age, sorrow, ambition, psychological distress, efforts to acquire and to abandon, attachments, greed, lust for wealth and sex and by the enjoyment of sense-pleasures, all of which are based on ignorance and delusion.