"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

'Whole Seeing' Needed

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Images in Imagination

Whatever be the subject of discussion at a session, Maharaj seems to see to it that the catechism follows the correct line of argument. And whenever somebody puts an irrelevant question Maharaj firmly but gently rules it out and brings the discussion back to the original theme.

Occasionally, however, Maharaj has to leave the room briefly on some errand, and during one such short interval, some one started talking about a politician who had prominently figured in the press that morning. He said that he knew the individual personally and that he was a conceited bully. Someone else immediately contradicted the speaker saying that the man in question was a perfect gentleman and it was a calumny to speak ill of him. An argument between these two was about to start when Maharaj returned and they kept quiet.

Maharaj, however, sensed the sudden silence and asked what was going on. When he was told about the contradictory opinions he was vastly amused. He sat still for a few moments and then started talking. Why this difference in the two opinions? he asked. Because the opinion-forming was done though an individual viewpoint and not through the integral perception. Both the images of the same person arose in the imagination of the viewers, both were entirely their own mental creations and basically unrelated to the object i.e., the person whose images these were supposed to be. Creation of such images, said Maharaj, is due to the functioning of dualistic discrimination - the 'me' and the 'other one'. This is indeed what may be called the original sin; this duality - the 'me' and the 'other' - is bondage. And if there is anything like liberation, it is indeed liberation from this concept of 'me' and 'other'. What is necessary, said Maharaj, is to cease making snap conceptual judgments of things as objects, and to turn one's attention back to the subjective source. He asked us to reverse our attention, to go back to the infant state, even to think of what we were before this body-mind complex was born, so that we would stop conceptualizing about others all the time and getting involved in mere mental images.

At this state a visitor said: "Yes Maharaj, I can clearly see what you mean. But how can one get away from this continuous conceptualizing which seems to be the very warp and wood of one's conscious life?" Maharaj fixed his gaze on the questioner and almost before the Marathi translation of his question had been completed, he remarked: "Rubbish! You could not have understood my point at all; if you had, your question could not arise."

He then proceeded to explain the process of objectification. Whatever your senses perceive and your mind interprets is an appearance in consciousness, extended in space-time and objectivized in a world which, the cognizing object (i.e., you) considers as separate from himself. And this is where the whole error lies: in this process perception is not total. What is necessary is whole seeing, seeing not with the individual mind, which is a divided mind, but seeing from within, seeing from the source - seeing not from manifestation as a phenomenon but from the source of all seeing. Then, and only then, will there be total perception and correct seeing and apprehending.

Maharaj concluded by saying that what he had said was virtually important and needed (manana) pondering and meditation over it, not mere verbal discussion.

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सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad