SELF REALISATION - PART II

SELF-REALISATION. PART II. In part I we have discussed about the 24 tatwas. These tatwas

play vital role in a human being. These tatwas are bundled in a concept called “Maya”.

Understanding Maya is very important. Only a thorough understanding of Maya can lead us to

know about “Brahmam.” A thorough understanding of these two will lead to “self-realization”. So,

now let us now try to understand “maya”. For a proper understanding of maya, a thorough

knowledge of the 24 tatwas is necessary. This has been dealt with in Part I of this series. The

five basic elements viz., akash, air, fire, water and earth form the basis of the whole universe.

All the activities of a man are controlled by the five elements through the other tatwas. Let us

now take an example. Krishna wants to drink a cup of water. First he should have water and

water is one of the panchabhudas or five elements. Then he needs a cup to hold the water. Let

us assume that the cup is made up of clay. Clay is the earth element and space inside the cup

is filled with air before water is poured into the cup. For holding the cup he needs hands. He has

to swallow the water through his mouth. Here one of the karmaenthriams and one of the

Jnanaenthriams are involved (hand and mouth). While he drinks water, he has to realize that he

is drinking water only. How he decides? One seeing through his eyes, and another by tasting

through his mouth. Thus all the tatwas are involved in a particular act of drinking water. We can

imagine the magnitude of the activities of all the 24 tatwas in the universe. Without these tatwas,

there is no life on the planet earth or even the universe. These 24 tatwas together is called

“Maya”, the illusion. All the things and beings around us are maya. A thing that exists today and

does not exist at a later date is maya. Maya’s ultimate end is death or destruction – be it

movable or immovable. We buy a table today and this will not lost for ever. May be for 5 years

or 50 years or 100 years or even 1000 years and after its life is over, the table will not be there.

So things that ultimately perish are maya. We see a tree and we call the tree as mango tree,

coconut tree or whatever. We see a tree, with its green leaves and beautiful fruits. On seeing

this tree our mood gets lifted. We get attached to the tree and fall in love with it, simply

impressed by its lush external appearance. But we fail to explore what how the tree has grown

or which or who made the tree grow. In other words, we do not try to find out the root-cause for

the tree’s creation and existence. The external appearance is called “Maya” and the cause for

its existence is called “Brahman”. Now, let us understand this concept of Maya and Brahman.

These two are interrelated. Maya cannot exist with out Brahman. Brahman cannot function

without maya. Brahman is The Creator and maya nurtures the creations of Brahman. Any thing

in the universe is created by the will of Brahman. Since the Brahman is the cause for creation,

he is also called the Creator. We could see and feel his creations. He becomes real. Brahman is

alone. He does not have a form. He does not have qualities. He is not controlled by tatwas or by

anything. He is independent of everybody. He is called GOD. Nothing can control him. He does

not need a second person for his creation. Except the Brahman, we need a second for getting a

third. Two cats can create a third cat. Creation of a table needs wood and a carpenter. Trees

need butterflies for their proliferation. A man needs a woman to get a child. Thus all the

creations of Brahman need a second to create. But Brahman himself does not need a second

for his creations. We cannot see the Brahman as he does not have a form. The understanding

of Brahman is called Self-realisation. How we can understand him when he does not have form,

nor we can feel his presence, nor we know where he is. To understand the Brahman, we have

to understand maya first. We have dealt in detail about maya. Maya is the combination of the 24

tatwas. Out of this 24 let us take only the anthakkaranam. This consists of four tatwas viz. mind,

intellect, consciousness and ego. Mind thinks and influences the intellect to discriminate, which

in turn informs the consciousness which finally decides to act through ego. Why the mind thinks

and what is the necessity for the mind to think? We should have an answer for this first, as the

mind is starting point of maya. This will be dealt in detail in Part III, which will be posted shortly.

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