Who am I and what is self-realisation and how to achieve it?
Question by: Dikshant Pandey, (location undisclosed)
You are what others are and to know it for sure is self-realisation. As long as we have superficial identities, we believe ourselves to be those identities and end up miserable as we are not what we believe we are.
Like you will say, " I am Dikshant and I am a man". But if I counter question you--how do you know you are these, you will be at sixes and sevens. Your reply will be that you are Dikshant because your parents call you by this name. Well, why did they give you the particular name? You will say some pandit advised this according to your rashi or some elderly person suggested this name.
But these are just advice and suggestions, not your real identity. How do you say that you are a man? You will count out certain standard features and call yourself man. But aren't they just man-made identifying features and not your real identity? In both the cases, you silently accepted the suggestion and standard and began to believe in them. Therefore, isn't your identity based on others' ideas accepted by you? It is.
We can say to know your real identity is self-realisation. After that is God realisation. They are not one thing. But, they build a process of realising your full dimension. After self-realisation, you get qualified for God realisation. Self-realisation helps you recall all your past memories, experiences, weaknesses and strengths, associations and all and then you realise what your destination is. It helps you uncoil your hidden past as an individual -- amoeba to manhood and know where you are headed. But, that is still in the realm of an individual memory. If you are a sincere explorer, you will then realise that all these memories, associations and experiences are only superimpositions on you. They are just layers beneath them, you lie buried. The moment you realise self-imposed hypnotic layers, you will find yourself at the beginning of the universal level. But, as Krishna says in Chapter 7 of the Gita says,मनुष्याणां सहस्त्रेषु कश्चिद्यतति सिद्धये। यततामपि सिद्धानां कश्चिन्मां वेत्ति तत्त्वत:।।"One out of thousands strives to attain Me. Out of such strivers, only one knows Me exactly as I am." Here, Me refers to the universal state of your being, which is hard to attain. But, one must strive for it. In the same chapter, Krishna says,बहुनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मां प्रपद्यन्ते ।वासुदेव: सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभं।।"One wise reaches Me at the end of the series of life and birth and he just realises one thing " Vasudeva ( the existing entity) alone is all. That Grand Soul is the rarest of the rare to find."
This explains that self-realisation and God realisation aren't a piece of cake. You have to be sincere, honest and striving. Make a start. Maybe, you are the one who can. Many people preach that "you are the soul which weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, air cannot dry and water cannot wet...." This is all right. But, even the preachers will have to realise it first. It can be realised, if you follow the process which made you accept and believe that you are Dikshant and you are a male! When you can believe in others' ideas, you can believe in God's idea too. Accept and believe to make a start. Good luck!--VS