Swami Shantananda Puri Maharaj
If there are no individuals.. What are we expected to do?
In order to get out of your false idea of individuality which has resulted in enmities and sufferings we have to come into contact with our origin that is the source from which we have sprung. All of our suffering are because we are considering each one of us a separate individual having forgotten the universal totality. Whether it knows or not, every bulb in my house is directly or indirectly in constant contact with it's origin, namely the generator. But they have forgotten it. The same is the case with us all. As we have forgotten the infinite inheritance which is our right and considering ourselves only as limited desires and thus sufferings arise. After all, while coming to the origin we must have been in contact with it and were definitely aware of it. It is after assuming the various forms we identified ourselves with the roles in the dream drama and forgot our origin.
How do we remember a thing whose name we have forgotten? It is only by continuously trying to remember it back and it comes as a flash after hours. Similarly, constant remembrance of the supreme reality (we may call it by any name as Brahman, Self or Atman or Shiva, Rama, Krishana or God etc) will again bring us into contact with that infinite reality.
This is called `Satata smaranam`, continued remembrance of Lord. This is only one of the numerous methods to end the dream of the Lord and also our individuality.
Thus there is never a creation of the world or its individuals nor is there any dissolution. The entire thing was an imagination as a dream drama. When that is the case, the question of anybody being bound by maya or trying to do sadhana to get out of it does not arise. Obviously there is no liberation or mukti nor anybody longing to have it.
When the same thought of the Lord subsides and again arises assuming different forms of individuals it is called rebirth. When a particular thought subsides for good in the thinker and never more arises it is called Moksha or Liberation. Obviously the various theories of Moksha in the various systems of philosophy say, living in the same colony as the Lord, to be by the side of the lord, to have the identical features as the Lord, to sitting in a stone descended from nowhere and be on perpetual motion forever (Jain Philosophy) are all meant perhaps to impel the lower rung of people to believe in a higher reality.
What all is given above is scientific, logical, sensible and rational. They are all based on the Upanishadic texts and the text on Advaita by Adi Shankaracharya (Known as Shankara).
Sri Ramana Maharshi had devised a direct path for renewing the contact with the supreme reality by contemplating on `Who am I ? which also will be very useful. Even though it looks simple, a lot of courage is required in order to persistently and perseveringly pursue the quest of who we are and to establish contact.
- Swami Shantananda Puri Maharaj
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