A life of superimposition

A person who wakes up from sleep is not going to prove to others how the people, objects and situations are real.

Published: 13th June 2021 05:00 AM  |   Last Updated: 12th June 2021 03:39 PM   |  A+A-

All actions and their results drop on realisation of the Self. The Vivekachoodamani of Sri Adi Sankaracharya says that without any superimposition of the identity of Self on the limiting adjuncts of the body, mind and intellect, the individual stands as one. He experiences his Self as the Brahman in his contemplations.

For such an individual, the effects and results of a few actions have no role to play just as the stories and images of a dream have for a waking person. One who has awakened from sleep will not be identified with the sense of ‘I’ he experienced in sleep. In the dream, he would have owned many objects such as a car, house or had people around him. He is not going to be attached to them. Even the this-ness or ‘I saw this mountain, river, tree etc.’ will not be there. In the same way a person who is realised will have no attachment to his past actions and their results. 

A person who wakes up from sleep is not going to prove to others how the people, objects and situations are real. If at all he is still talking about them, then it is very clearly understood that he has not slept.In the same way, for the one whose consciousness is established in Brahman, he does not see anything else. Just as he remembers his dream, the realised person remembers his eating and other activities throughout the day.

The body has been designed by our actions in the past. However, the Atman is not created by any action of the past. While the Vedas say the Atman is unborn, eternal and existing, always. When the person is established in the Self, where is the question of worrying about results of past actions?
Prarabdha, which is the results of past actions, are valid only if the individual is identified with the body. However, the individual who does not have this identity of the body as the Self has nothing to do with prarabdha too. 

Even with relation to the body, prarabdha or results of actions are only a delusion. For the one who is living a life of superimposition, where is reality? For the one who is unreal, how can it get birth? For the one who has no birth, where can there be death and where is the question of facing results of actions for the non-existent untruth?


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