To understand this heading we should first understand what is meant by
the meaning of the term “ self realized “ . A person who has distinguished
between his soul and his body as two different entities having their
independent characteristics is a Self Realized person since he has realized the
self. On the other hand , a person who believes and treats his body same as his
soul is an ignorant person. The Self Realization is a process which uses the
techniques of negative and positive assertions to complete the realization
unequivocally. For example, an apple is not a book. The apple is identified by
its own properties like sweetness, colour, shape etc while book is identified
by its own shape and size etc. From the negation of the properties of the apple
in the book, we say that the book is not an apple and by assertion of the
properties of the book within the book we confirm it.
The same process is used to
differentiate between the soul and the matter. The properties of matter are
colour, taste, shape etc. All these are not present in the soul which is
invisible. Still how does one call soul as soul since sky is also invisible and
does not have properties of matter. The confirmation comes form the properties
of the soul like consciousness, knowledge, perception, blissfulness some of
which can be experienced even by layman. These properties are not existent in
matter and thus one can differentiate between the two.
Still one would not call a person
as self realised just by uttering the sentence that he is different from body.
The question arises how far he believes in it and practices it. A person
indulging in activities of money making day in and day out can hardly be called
self realised even if he makes such statement. Because it is easily seen that
even though he states that his soul is not same as his body, he cares all the
time for his body only and is doing everything possible to pamper and sustain
it while ignoring the soul altogether.
The Point
is that soul does not need food, money , house, car etc and they do not mean anything to the
soul. These are all ornaments of the body only for which the person toils all
his life. The truly self realised person would practice it also in the same
spirit if he believes in it. He does not need any possessions since they do not
belong to his soul. He knows the nature of the soul as truly detached,
possessionless, having knowledge , perception and consciousness as its constant
companion. On the other hand the body is transitory, for the duration of earthly
life, deteriorating with time, senseless and material.
Hence he
focuses his attention on the soul and practices to be within his own nature
rather than on external objects. Once he
does that he realises and experiences the blissfulness of his nature, the
tranquility and glory of the self. So much so that he wishes to experience it
again and again and loses all interest in worldly affairs automatically.
One looks
for tomorrow if there is expectation of some thing to happen. For example a
desire is expected to be fulfilled. For all the worldly people tomorrow
signifies the fulfillment of hopes which they have for future. But for the self
realised person, he has no expectations tomorrow nor any desire to be fulfilled.
He is happy to live in present and experience the self and enjoy the blissful
nature of the self. What more does he want tomorrow ? Hence he has no tomorrow.
The same
sentiments were expressed by Srimad Rajchandra a reknowned Jain scholar who was
spiritual guide to Mahatma Gandhi, in his letter to his friend. He stated that
he does not have desire for Moksha since he does not need it. It means that
even the desire for Moksha is not worth aspiring for since he is already
experiencing the blissful nature of the self.
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