What has been indicated in the previous stanza as “THE OTHER UNMANIFEST — WHICH IS THE ETERNAL EXISTENCE — WHICH KNOWS NO DESTRUCTION,” is explained here as the Imperishable mentioned earlier in this chapter. The Imperishable was defined as the Brahman, the substratum for the entire universe, and we were
also advised that we must meditate upon OM as the symbol of this Imperishable. The Self which is of the nature of Pure Awareness is that which lends existence and dynamism to the unmanifested vasanas, and makes them capable of projecting out to form the manifested world of activities and behaviours. This Eternal Unmanifested Factor, the Imperishable Self, is the highest goal for man to achieve.
In all other states of existence, there is again and again the experience of return. Just as sleep is not the end of life, but only a refreshing pause between two spans of activity, so too death is not an end, but often, only a restful pause in the unmanifested condition, that comes between two successive manifested existences in different embodiments. It was already indicated that even from higher levels of Consciousness, the ego-centres will have to return to exhaust their unmanifested cravings, the vasanas. Birth, we have already been told, is “A HOUSE OF PAIN AND FINITUDE,” and therefore, complete satisfaction can be reached only when there is no rebirth — no return.
Often, educated students of the present generation ask: “Why, after realising the Self, should there be no-return?” The question, though natural, cannot stand even a moment’s scrutiny. Generally, cause-hunting is for things that happen and not for things that do not happen! Nobody anxiously enquires why I am not in a hospital but an intelligent enquirer has every right to enquire why I have gone to the hospital. We may enquire why the Infinite has become the finite; but the question does not arise at all why the Infinite should not fall again into the finite. This question is as absurd as my enquiring as to why you are not yet in jail. For not going to jail, no cause-hunting is necessary. And if you have actually gone to jail, there is certainly a justification to ask and enquire what is the exact crime for which you have been sent to jail.
We can never explain to a little girl and make that child understand what are the physical and emotional thrills of married life; in her childhood she has not the vehicle for comprehending the biological thrills of sex-life. But, as the same girl grows in her maturity, she develops in herself the biological antennae to feel and mentally comprehend the very same thrills which were to her but empty suggestions in early childhood — when all she wanted was that her mother should marry her! In the same fashion, a seeker who lies burrowed in the dung-heap of his mind and intellect, cannot, in its filthy atmosphere, know the vast embrace of the horizon and the glorious fragrance of the fresh breeze. As he detaches himself from his false identifications, through the process of meditation advised, (VIII-12, 13 and 14) he, as it were, hatches out of his limiting adjuncts, and enters the vaster fields of subtler experiences. On waking up alone can one realise the falsehood of one’s dreams; the dreamer can never, so long as he dreams, realise the delusion from which he is suffering. Having awakened from a dream, the waker cannot be persecuted by his dream sorrows and his dream-happenings.
The Self, or Pure Consciousness, is poetically described here by Vyasa as the dwelling place of Krishna, “THAT IS MY HIGHEST DWELLING-PLACE.” In the Geeta, the Singer of the Song Divine, is THE Self, and as such the Highest Goal is to reach the State of Pure Consciousness, the Imperishable, which is available for the experiencer of the Self. This was described at length while the teacher was indicating the nature of Knowledge gained by one who attains the State of the Divine Purusha.
THE DIRECT PATH BY WHICH THIS CONSUMMATE GOAL CAN BE REACHED IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:
