"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

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Look Within

Sri Annamalai Swami

You must understand who you are and what you are, and then you must remain as that. If you can manage this, this itself will suffice. Right now you are under the impression that you are your body and your mind, but the truth is, you are the Self. Let go of the 'I' that you imagine yourself to be and catch hold of the real 'I', the Self.

What do you hope to gain from your pilgrimage, from going here and there in an external journey? You are holding onto the idea that you are your body and your mind. Having assumed this, you are now looking for an external God so that you can worship him. Though such worship may be beneficial, it will not take you beyond the realm of the mind. While you hold onto the idea that you are a person inside a body, whatever you see will be a manifestation of your own mind. You cannot transcend the mind by worshiping your own external projections. All these external appearances that you see in front of you are maya. They have no fundamental abiding reality. To find the Self, to find what is true and real, you have to look inside yourself. You have to find the source, the place where all these mental projections arise.

You are looking for satisfaction in the outside world because you think that all these objects you see in front of you are real. They are not. The reality is the substratum in which they all appear. This is what you should be seeking, instead of looking for external gods in different pilgrimage places.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
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