ओम् श्रीगुरुभ्यो नम:
We, or our near and dear ones, may have had the experience of going through some illness followed by several “treatments” by various doctors that not only did not help but just prolonged the suffering. I am reminded of one of my relatives, who was quite young in his late twenties. He started feeling weak and tired all day even with very little activity. He visited a doctor with his complaints. A superficial investigation involving a blood test showed that he was anemic. The doctor prescribed Iron supplements to treat the Anemia. Taking iron supplements made him feel a bit better, but when he stopped them, he started to feel weak again. Not finding the expected lasting relief, he went to another doctor who suspected a deeper cause for the Anemia and conducted a thorough investigation. His investigation revealed the presence of bowel bleeding that was causing some blood loss. That finding also explained why the supplements did not provide lasting relief. When the bowel bleeding was addressed, the disease was eliminated for good.
A superficial solution (iron supplements in the example to address the Anemia) no doubt provided some transient relief from the symptoms. However, as long as the root cause (the bowel bleeding in the example) was unaddressed, it continued to manifest as symptoms (Anemia and weakness) again and again until the root cause was conclusively identified and eliminated.
From such experiences, we know that unless the root cause of a problem is correctly diagnosed, one will end up pursuing incorrect or superficial solutions that don’t really help. Any medicine or treatment has to identify and strike at the root of the disease for it to end the disease once and for all.
OK, so far so good. But how is all this relevant to spirituality?
We cannot overstate the importance of root cause diagnosis in the spiritual domain as well. We all want to “be happy and secure”. But we sense a “lack of happiness and security” and we want to get rid of this lack. We try to address this lack through various acquisitions such as money, power, pleasures, etc. This approach also happens to be the majoritarian view that is reinforced in most educational, professional, social, and personal interactions. But have we really tried to understand the root cause of this “lack of happiness and security”?
If we ask ourselves if we know of anyone who has attained lasting security/happiness through these pursuits of money, pleasures, etc, the answer would be no. Even a very wealthy and powerful person, someone who has numerous resources at his beck and call would be still found nursing some inner insecurity and unhappiness for some reason or the other. If everything is perfect professionally, things may not be good on the family front, or vice versa. And if someone feels that everything is just right and perfect on all fronts, all he needs is a stomachache for him to come to his knees and for all of his latent insecurity and unhappiness to emerge.
Only after a repeated and fruitless pursuit of this solution that involves pursuing money, pleasures, etc., one may finally begin to see that this approach doesn’t seem to work as one had imagined. One seems to perpetually need to “become secure/happy” no matter how much one has acquired. It is as if one has been running on a treadmill all along, stuck in the same place where one had begun.
At this juncture, one may turn to spirituality from materialism hoping to do better. But then even in the spiritual field, one may again end up in a struggle to “become secure/happy” through the pursuit of some mystic experience/event that will make one secure/happy one day. As all experiences and events are time-bound, no specific experience or event can in itself provide lasting security and happiness. When the mystic experience ends, one still has to confront one’s own insecurity/unhappiness again.
A truly thinking person, having examined all this, should then question the efficacy of such pursuits to provide a lasting solution to the problem of lack of security/happiness. He or she should begin to seek a lasting solution.
This is when Vedanta becomes relevant. Vedanta points out that the solution of “becoming secure/happy” through the pursuit of money, pleasures or even mystic experiences cannot be the lasting solution that one is seeking. It is somewhat like taking those Iron supplements (in the example discussed earlier) to address one’s Anemia problem even when the deeper root cause of the Anemia is left unaddressed. Similarly, Vedanta asserts that such pursuits cannot eliminate the lack of security/happiness once and for all because there is a deeper root cause for this lack of security/happiness that needs to be attacked with an entirely different solution that strikes at that root cause. For that, one has to first understand the root cause as presented by Vedanta. Only then, one can pursue the appropriate solution that completely eliminates the problem once and for all.
Vedanta then reveals its mind-boggling vision of who you really are. In the vision of Vedanta, “You are limitless“. Your premise that you are limited is not really true, to begin with. The root cause of the struggle is that you are ignorant of your limitless Brahman nature. Due to this, you have mistaken yourself to be the limited body/mind and then you pursue security and pleasures to become secure and happy. Such an approach can only provide fleeting fulfillment for anything you accumulate/gain is also limited and time-bound, Acquisition is a struggle, and maintenance of the acquisitions is also a struggle. In the meantime, one becomes enslaved by the acquisitions and increasingly dependent on them. Finally, one day, whatever is accumulated will inevitably fall apart and that causes sorrow. The lasting happiness and security one seeks, through these acquisitions, continue to remain evasive. Vedanta teaches us that this struggle can end only with the elimination of the root cause of this struggle, which is Self Ignorance.
Just as in the case of the lady with the necklace who mistakenly thinks that the necklace is lost and endlessly searches for it, the search/seeking is invalid because the search is based on a false premise that something is missing when it is not. The lady with the necklace is already the lady with the necklace she is seeking. The seeker is the sought. The distance between the seeker and the sought is purely caused by ignorance. Any search is a reinforcement and amplification of the ignorance of what is. The search itself is based on an incorrect premise that there is a lack. Hence, a commitment to the search takes one away from the possibility of ever concluding the search for what one is looking for can never be “found” for it was never “lost” to begin with. The invalid search can only end with the knowledge that the search is invalid because that which is desired to be accomplished is already accomplished.
So also, you are Brahman. You are eternally free of all limitations and free of any lack of security/happiness! You are already that which you are seeking to be! The seeker is the sought. It is only due to Self Ignorance that you have taken yourself to be really limited and then engage in an endless struggle to “become secure and happy” by seeking security, pleasures, or perhaps some exalted mystic experience. Unless the root cause is understood as self-ignorance of one’s own limitless Brahman nature, one will take the limitations to be real and try to pursue limited ends with limited means with the hope of “becoming secure and happy” one day, which never arrives because it is impossible for a limited being to “become secure and happy” with any number of limited accomplishments. As Pūjya Swami Dayanandaji has said, the problem is not what you lack. That you think that you lack at all is the problem. No matter how elaborately the limited Jīva tries to fill the lack with limited accomplishments, he continues to remain limited and lacking in his own flawed vision. This results in the perpetual struggle for fulfillment called Samsāra. This is why Śvetāshvatara Upaniṣad says:
यदा चर्मवदाकाशम् वेष्टयिष्यन्ति मानवा: ।
तदा देवमविज्ञाय दु:खस्यान्तो भविष्यति ॥
One can attain the end of suffering/struggle without Self Knowledge only under one condition: if one is able to roll up space like leather/hide!
Śvetāshvatara Upaniṣad 6.20
The Upaniṣad cheekily declares the impossibility of ending this perpetual struggle for fulfilment without Self Knowledge. Only when one understands that the root cause of this struggle is Self Ignorance will the solution, which is Self Knowledge, become evident for only Self Knowledge can destroy Self Ignorance. One then transitions from being a seeker of limited pleasures/securities (Artha, Kāma) to a seeker of Mokṣa (limitless fulfillment) through Self Knowledge for only by knowing that I am eternally That limitless Brahman, can all struggle to gain peace/happiness/security in life come to an end. The solution of Self Knowledge strikes at the root cause of the problem, which is Self Ignorance, and eliminates it forever with all of its secondary effects. One who has this knowledge is unconditionally and eternally fulfilled no matter what happens in the world.
I am reminded of the following, one of my all-time favorite verses, from Panchadaśī, that brings out the utter freedom and independence that a Jñānī enjoys:
मायामेघो जगन्नीरम् वर्षत्वेष यथा तथा ।
चिदाकाशस्य नो हानिर्नो वा लाभ इति स्थिति:: ॥
May the Clouds of Māyā produce the rainwaters of the World in any manner whatsoever. What difference does it make to the space-like consciousness (that I am)? There is no gain or loss at all.
Panchadaśī 8.74
To gain this liberating knowledge, one has to seek this knowledge. And for that, one has to seek a Guru who has this knowledge. Therefore, Krishna teaches:
तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया ।
उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिन: तत्त्वदर्शिन: ॥
Understand that (which is to be known) by prostrating, by asking proper questions, and by service. Those who are wise, who have this vision of the truth, will teach you this knowledge.
Bhagavad Gītā 4.34
May we understand this bigger picture as presented by Vedanta that the root cause of all of our struggles in life is Self Ignorance. May we also seek the proper solution as taught by Vedanta, which is Self Knowledge, which alone can eliminate Self Ignorance for good and liberate us from all limitations and our endless struggle for fulfillment.
ओम् श्रीगुरुभ्यो नम:
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Advaita Drishti 