According to Advaita Vedanta when a person stops identifying “I” with Jagat (Not-Self) and starts identifying “I” with the nameless, formless, Concentrating Entity within all of us which is nothing but Pure Consciousness, Silent Awareness, Chit Shakti (Sentient Energy), Atman (Self), it is called Self-Realization.
Jagat includes this entire world, body, mind, ego-self and the thoughts. All these are called Anatman (Non-Self).
When a person exists without any trace of Jagat which means existing without any thoughts then one is said to exist as pure Self, pure Consciousness, silent Awareness.
To remain without any thoughts for a prolonged period of time seems like an impossible task but it really is not so.
Even though the mind is incessantly engaged with numerous thoughts, the mind can think only one thought at a time. This particular nature of the mind should be taken advantage of and one should with great concentration try to remain in a single thought which could be “I am a Concentrating Entity”, “I am Consciousness”, “I am Atman”, “I am Brahman”.
Sri Ramana Maharshi calls this “I” thought as no thought and instead calls this as Self-Attention.
To know what exactly needs to be done to gain Self-Realization please read my answer to the question How can I attain self-realization according to Ramana Maharshi?
Post a Comment
Post a Comment