The Search

  The search for ‘truth’ is an endless one. There is enormous literature both in science and philosophy regarding this. But the spiritual literature is scarce. Whatever little we know from the spiritual texts give us a clear idea about the problems and the answers to them in cryptic aphorisms, code words, signs and symbols, imageries and formulae. Some of these are quite interesting. These are found in the ahirbudhnya samhitas, sattavata samhitas, Lakshmi tantra, Shaivagama shastra and other 250 samhitas of pancharatra agama. Many scholarly works are available in print.

   What these spiritual texts simply state is that “What we seek is our Self only, nothing but the Self”. The search ends with the seeker knowing his true self. Here the seer and the seen become one. What we seek outside is not permanent since all that is found outside of us is subject to limitations of time, space and causality. What we seek is the ‘truth’ the intransient, permanent, that which is eternal. This the ‘sat’, Truth and “That’s it”.

   In the beginning, everything was ‘sat’. The term ‘sat’ means not just the truth, but it also means light, consciousness, energy and everything! Hence, the learned sages simply said everything is sat, the brahmn. sarvam khaluvidam brahmaa | These terms – sat, chit, anand are highly esoteric. A lot can be said about them. In fact, the one ‘sat’ only has manifest as the ‘chit’ (consciousness, knowledge), and ananda (bliss) and the entire universe is thus, the ‘sat’ only. Bhagavan Shree Krishna says, “Om tat sat iti” and concludes that everything is ‘That’, that is it.

  Now, whatever is ‘sat’ (‘That’) is also the manifest phenomenal objective world- ‘this’. This universe is the manifest form of the ‘sat’! Whatever is that eternal, immortal, intransient only has come within limitations of time, space, causality (cause and effect), and name, forms and functions. Duality such as this and that ceases to exist when these limitations are overcome with the help of ‘transcendental meditation, (samadhi yoga). When a person is ignorant of his true self, he /she tends to think- “I am different from that, this, you, he, she it, etc. Knowledge, truth, reality dawns when this ignorance, avidya, knowledge covered by attachment, ego, desire, etc. are removed. This is what Bhagavan Shree Krishna teaches us through Arjuna. The Lord says, “Arjuna, you are full of attachment, ego, desire and have forgotten your true self. Once you realize who you are, ‘realize that you are none other than the unborn, eternal, immortal sat, you become Me only. You and I are always one. But, the moment you get attached to phenomenal objective world and begin to think of i, me, mine, etc you go away from Me. You can always return to Me when you drop what all you have acquired as the blemishes of attachment, ego, desire, anger, envy, etc. This is the ‘Truth’.”  [Bhagavad-Gita]

    The Universe in Different Perspectives: The Universe is like a mosaic seen through a kaleidoscope (triangular glass tube) which displays ever-changing, varying forms of the contents like pieces of colorful glass bangles. So, each one of us get a different perspective of this transient phenomenal world. Little do the living beings (jivarashi) ever realize the ‘truth’, reality of this existence, until they get a divine vision? The living beings revel in ignorance and believe whatever is presented to them or they see as the illusory world. In fact, it is not that the world is unreal, but its transient or ever changing nature that makes it difficult to know. The scientists deal with matter and use their mind, intelligence, and the senses to study matter. They invent new methods and equipments such as the spectrometer, telescopes and microscope to study things that are beyond the capacity of their sense organs.