Self-Enquiry Ensures Grace

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

You cannot describe contentment, or that which you call happiness. When a mute man eats sugar, he cannot describe its sweetness. Listen with extreme eagerness. It cannot be understood, and cannot be known, even if it is explained. It cannot be imagined. Words cannot communicate it. The Supreme Self, Paramatman, is absolutely hidden. It can be understood only through being near Saints, by being in their company. That happiness of Paramatman, that contentment, is very deep. If the experience is to be told by any sign or indication, it is unutterable. It cannot be described. Hand or facial symbolic signs are only the qualities of those limbs, and they are therefore limited, and inadequate. Even the deepest power of speech, which is called the "Para"speech, or the original energy, cannot show it by any indication, as it is indescribable. It cannot be known without the help of the Sadguru. Only one who searches oneself will receive the blessings of the Sadguru. 

What is the experience of the one who receives the blessing of the Sadguru? That one experiences that he himself is Paramatman. That is the result of one's Self-search. When you understand that you are nothing, then what remains is only one Brahman. This is called the "Natural State of Samadhi" or Sahaja Samadhi. If he walks and talks, it is called "Sairat Samadhi", this is a state of seemingly insane activities, but a resting in inner contentment. He is completely happy without doubt. People think he behaves abnormally, but he is not aware that he is behaving at all. The contention of some is that Paramatman is the witness to all, but those who know the Reality, the Siddhas, say that "witnessing all" is but a state of mind, and the Reality is devoid of any such state or hypothetical position. Paratmatman is beyond all the four bodies and all the four sheaths of consciousness (mind, intellect, thinking, and "I" or ego). When you realize that what you perceive is not an objective thing or any material, but that all is Brahman, the complex of "I" the ego will vanish. When the notion "I" is dropped then the idea of "you" also drops away. The disappearance of "I" is the sign of realization. "That" which is is. It is neither the individual (jiva) nor God (shiva). That duality does not appear there. We also cannot say that there is nothing. "That" is the indescribable Bliss. The speech, the word, is also illusory. The word conveys the meaning but it disappears as soon as the meaning is understood. The word ends. After giving the message, the word goes away. In Brahman, the word is false. Only its meaning should be taken. The word is different from what is seen, and what is beyond it is Brahman, the Reality. "Pure Experience" is incapable of being pointed at. Self-experience is without the factor of giving any attention to it. To give attention to it is a quality. When you try to look at it, the "other" comes into being. The nature of attention is such that automatically, very naturally, there is some production by it. To be capable of producing is its specialty. It is its nature, its inherent quality, which cannot be destroyed by anything. Only by the "Knowledge of Reality" does it disappear. It is said that the sky is filtered through a strainer and thus the core of the Life-Energy, chaitanya, is obtained, but that is also imagination. The "rule of experience" is that it is not possible without duality. Experiencing means duality. The mother of experience is the daughter of a barren woman who is the original Illusion, or Maya, which is a concept of imagination. This "Illusion", this imagination, is a vehemently uttered bad word. This is known only by those who know their own Self. Where there is the phenomenon of experience, there is duality. Therefore, in the "True Existence of Reality", there is no place for experience. In the wake of Self-Realization, duality shies away.