Knowing about the truth does not amount to experiencing the truth. Knowing is not realising. After describing the true Self in the most poetic manner in the Vivekachoodamani, Sri Adi Sankaracharya suggests the methods we can adopt to realise that.
First, give up all activities directed towards getting some benefits from the world. Next, give up all activities directed towards pampering and worrying about the body. Third is significant: Give up all activities directed towards accumulating more and more information from the books of knowledge—the shastras. Focus on seeing the different superimpositions that you have created over the Self over many lifetimes, out of ignorance.
Superimposition is very subtle. When we point out to a wall in the room and question someone, “What is it?” the answer will be wall! The truth is—there are many individual bricks. The bricks have been cemented and pasted to make them stand together as one single piece of wall. The cement and paste have been superimposed on the brick. The cement looks grey and dull. On it, a layer of white plaster has been superimposed to make the rough wall smoother.
White plaster has been covered with two coats of paint and the fourth layer of superimposition is the paint. Also, we do not leave the wall as it is. We superimpose and arrange photographs or art works, and when we look at that side, we see the photos and art works, and forget that the wall exists. Superimposition can make us forget what is real, and hold on to what is fleeting and temporary.
The superimpositions we make on the Self are, of the body, the vital airs, the mind with all its desires and thoughts, the intellect with its discriminative and analytical functions, and the experience of bliss. They are all slapped upon the Self which is in fact none of all these. It is these superimpositions we need to remove on the seat of meditation. For that, it is important to give up other activities with the world, the body, or books of knowledge as these three excursions will only add more superimpositions to the Self.
There are three types of desires commonly we all have. One, to interact with the world, its people, objects, and situations; two, to accumulate more and more knowledge; three, to feed, clothe and decorate the body. However, holding on to these three desires that the shastras have identified, it is never going to be possible to know the true Self as it is.
The writer is Sevika, Chinmaya Mission, Coimbatore (www.chinmayamission.com); email: sharanya.chaitanya@chinmayamission.com