How to achieve self-realization, the mother of all knowledge?
Self-knowledge is considered the best method to realize the True Knowledge of the world, particularly of human beings. In all religions, self-realization has been given the highest place. In the Gita, Lord Krishna said:
“I will fully explain Self-knowledge along with Self-realization to you after knowing that nothing else remains to be known in this world.”
All religions, including Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, and Judaism, emphasize the need for self-realization through different methods such as meditation or yoga. The importance of self-actualization is not just limited to religions. All the poets, artists and scientists have realized the ultimate truth through self-realization. Galileo, one of the greatest scientists and astronomers, has rightly said: “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” Even the greatest scientist like Einstein did not acquire the knowledge of his theories through experiments, but the knowledge of himself through which he was able to capture the spirit of the Universe. In a letter to a child who asked if scientists pray, Einstein said:
Everyone who is seriously involved in the search for science becomes convinced that a spirit manifests itself in the laws of the Universe, a spirit far superior to that of man… In this way, the search for science leads to a religious feeling of a special kind, which is in fact quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.
Self-realization is the secret of all creative people in the field of art, music, literature and poetry. In the words of the world famous poet Kahlil Gibran,
“The knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. Therefore, it is incumbent on me to know myself, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties and its very atoms.”
If self-knowledge really is the mother of all knowledge, we all need to be extremely knowledgeable since we all seem to know at least one person very well, namely ourselves. Why then don’t we have all the knowledge in the world?
It is, then, evident that there is a mystery contained in “knowledge of oneself” and self-realization is not the same as knowing yourself as a person who has a body, a desire, a passion and a state of mind that changes each time. instant. What is it that we need to discover in the process of self-realization?
Realization of the Self
When we see the world, through our eyes, we find it in continuous movement and change. People grow old, new people are born, old people die. If we visit the world after a few decades, we may not find any in the same conditions as a few decades ago. If we visit the same place after a century, we may not find any known person. People’s dresses, culture, language, houses and lifestyle undergo a complete change in a few decades. However, there is one thing that does not change with time and place amidst all the changes in the world. We call this this “immutable reality of the world” as the Spirit of the world.
In the same way, when we try to know ourselves, we find that we too are constantly changing. The changes are quite noticeable in the body as we progress from our childhood, to youth, and then on to adulthood and the days of old age. Almost all the cells in our body are replaced within a few months. However, there is something in the human body that connects the past, present and future and does not change.
Just like our body, our thoughts and feelings are also changing every moment. Our thoughts today are not the same as we used to think a decade earlier. On some days, we feel happy, but the next day, we can feel bad and even depressed. All feeling seems to come and go like fleeting moments. Sometimes we have noble thoughts that lead us to do noble works. However, in the next moment, it seems that we are doing the exact opposite. It seems that we love a person more than our life in a day, but we hate him or become indifferent after some time.
Therefore, when you ask this basic question, “Who am I?”, you can hardly get a consistent answer. Unless you know yourself, you can never predict your behavior and feelings in a particular context or in the future, just as one cannot predict the weather or a solar eclipse unless one has full knowledge of nature and motion. planetary.
However, if we pay close attention to getting to know ourselves, we will soon begin to notice that among the hundreds of changes that occur in the body and mind every moment, there is something that remains unchanged throughout our lives. This unchanging reality is our True Self that gives us our identity and the goal of self-realization.
Thus the realization of the self is not easier than the realization of the world. GK Chesterton said
“One can understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.”
Therefore, the realization of the self is only possible by paying close attention to the self and the world, since both seem to be in a state of continuous flux. However, when a country pays attention to the world around it, with the goal of finding a connection between seemingly different events, it soon begins to notice a pattern within the different events. This pattern is the realization of Ultimate Reality or Ultimate Truth. In the words of KT Jong
Only when we silence the thunderous sounds of our daily existence can we finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us as it knocks on the doors of our hearts.
Steps to achieve self-actualization
The first step to self-realization is careful observation of the outer and inner world and the attempt to find a reason for everything. When we meet different people or observe different events in our lives, we often treat them as random. Therefore, we do not learn anything from what happens around us. However, if we believe that all effects arise due to some cause and due to some reason, we will gradually discover the cause and reason behind each event. There is a cause for your good and bad mood, your happiness and depression, your emotions of love and hate. However, the necessary condition of self-actualization is that the knowledge has to arise from within without the help of any external agent or agency and not on the basis of some theory proposed by some expert or specialist or scripture. In the same way, the cause and reason of all events in the external world must also be analyzed with the effort of self-knowledge.
Once we get some logic and reason for actions in the world, which comes from within with the help of intuition, the next step is to test the knowledge. This is not very difficult. For example, if you have discovered that your particular action is the cause of your happiness, you can improve that action and happiness should increase. In the same way, your sadness should be reduced by stopping the action you found to cause sadness. If your “intuition” is correct, little by little you should be able to become a better person, since you can achieve what you like best and avoid what you don’t like.
The third step of self-realization to experience your self-knowledge with the outside world. The knowledge of the self is not only for self-satisfaction or for the purpose of the spiritual aspiration of the self, but is also equally applicable to the outer worlds, since the whole world is created from the one cause to which we refer. as God or Supreme Being. A man through the knowledge of the Being actually realizes the knowledge of the Universe since the Being or Soul or Atman of the person is an integrated part of the Soul or Universal Spirit. Therefore, the knowledge of the self is applicable not only to the self but to all people in the world, since the “I” of each person is the same despite the external manifestation of the person that seems to be different for each person. and it seems to be changing every moment.
Don’t be knowledgeable: be the knowledge
In the modern world, there is no shortage of information that is often mistaken for knowledge. However, if one acquires all the knowledge in the world, one becomes at best a mobile library of knowledge. This knowledge is of little use as the knowledge gained is often contradictory and confusing.
A self-realized person does not acquire worldly knowledge but rather acquires knowledge from the depths of his soul. In this way he takes advantage of the knowledge of the universe and becomes the knowledge itself. He knows the fundamentals of the universe as if his Self connected to the Self or Soul of the Universe. Thus self-knowledge is the mother of all knowledge since all knowledge can be automatically created by a self-actualized person.
Therefore, it is not surprising that self-actualizing people are highly valued in society. All the prophets realized divine knowledge through self-realization and have been given the status of God. They are the Gurus and teachers of humanity who have provided solutions to the problems of humanity.