For the Self Realised person there is no tomorrow

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.