Friday, August 9, 2013

How can we experience the one (Atman) who does not change?



Question: How can we experience the one who does not change?

Swami Ramsukhdas ji: Do you ever doubt that you exist? Have you ever asked anyone whether you exist? It is your own experience that you exist. There is a difference between understanding and experience. I have said these things, you have heard them and agreed with me. You have understood what I have said but have not accepted it from within. To experience you have to accept it from within. To experience be situate in your existence. It is different from understanding. Nowadays people study Vedanta and think that they know God - they know the essence. It is mere knowledge - there is no experience. You cannot realize God through reading and learning only. The essence is beyond all means (mind and intellect). One can only understand the world by the means (instruments) that you have, not God.

The knowledge that you gain is always the same. You get information of the birth of a grandson and the death of a son (two extremes). The information is totally different but the knowledge of the information is same. You get happy and sad when you mix yourself with the information - when you have 'my-ness' with the information. The situation changes, your position changes (childhood, youth, old age) - but you remain the same.


Source "MAnava Jivana MAtra KalyANa ke Liye Hai" in Hindi pg 80

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