Self Untouched By Joy and Sorrow

Sage Vasishtha

Thus conversing with each other and enquiring into the nature of the world, they soon attained the Supreme Wisdom. Hence, O Rama, I tell you that there is no way other than self-knowledge for the cutting asunder of bondage and for crossing this ocean of illusion. To the enlightened person this ocean of sorrow is like a little puddle. He views the body as a spectator looks at a distant crowd. Hence he is not affected by the pains that the body is subjected to. The existence of the body does not diminish the omnipresence of the self any more than waves diminish the fullness of the ocean.

What is the relationship of a swan, a rock or a piece of wood to the water which surrounds them? Even so, the Supreme Self has no relationship with this world-appearance. A falling tree seems to raise waves on the water: similar is the experience by the self of the pleasure and pain that appear on the body. Even as by its proximity to water, wood is reflected in the water, the body is reflected in the self. But even as a rock falling into the water does not injure the water nor is injured by it, even so when the body comes into contact with other material substances (such as wife, children or material objects) there is no injury or pain to anyone.

The reflection of an object in the mirror can be said to be neither real nor unreal; it is indescribable: even so the body which is reflected in the self is neither real nor unreal, but is indescribable. The ignorant person accepts as real whatever he sees in this world; not so the wise one. Even as a piece of wood and the water in which it is reflected have no real relationship, the body and the self have no real relationship. Moreover, there is in fact no duality where such relationship could exist. One infinite consciousness alone exists without subject-object division. In this, diversity is imagined and that which is untouched by sorrow believes itself to be miserable, even as one who thinks he sees a ghost sees a ghost! On account of the power of thought this imaginary relationship assumes the force of reality. The self is ever untouched by pain and pleasure; but thinking itself to be the body, it undergoes the experiences of the body. The abandonment of this ignorant belief is liberation.