If the world is a means, the World is also
the end
The experience of the Eternal
and the destruction of the ego are simultaneous events. The diverse world
cannot, therefore, be said to be a necessary "means" in the
individual's struggle for Self-realisation. If the world is a
means, the world is also the end, and we "reach" nothing
"through" the world. A perishable means cannot lead to an eternal
end. Knowledge, which is not of the world, is eternal, and it is this that is
the means, and the end, too.
If the world is a means, the world is also the end,… etc.—The
forms are not in the Real, but the Real is in the forms. The individual has the
potentiality to realize the Absolute, not because there is any relation between
the Absolute and the form of the individual or the factors which constitute the
individuality independent of the Real, but because the Real is present in the
individual as its essence or being. That the individual takes the help of its
lower individualistic experiences in attaining the Absolute is not an argument
that can favor the view that the world is real in itself. The lower experiences
have a value because of the consciousness which is their reality, and this
consciousness is not in any way a part or a content of the world of forms.
Consciousness is never
identical with any form or condition. But still it is consciousness that gives reality
to any value that is in any form or condition. It is true that in this world we
take one thing as the end and another thing as the means thereto. The world is
a long chain of causes and effects which have neither a beginning nor an end.
This vicious circle is called samsara. But
nothing in this wheel can ever touch the taintless Brahman or Pure
Consciousness, and the individual, as long as it is revolving in this
world-cycle, cannot have a comprehension of Brahman. What is reached through
the world is the world itself, and not anything different from it.
The Absolute is beyond the
relation between causes and effects, means and ends. That anything of this
world can be of use in the Absolute or is a means to the knowledge of the
Absolute is not true. “Verily, that Eternal is not to be attained through the
non-eternal” says the Katha Upanishad. “That which is Not-Created is not (to be
reached) through what is created” says the Mundaka Upanishad. We cannot jump
from one realm to another unless there is something which is commonly real for
both.
The individual in the world
reaches the Absolute because the Absolute is the reality of both the individual
and the world. The individuality or the worldly character in the individual
does not reach the Absolute and is never a means to it, but the reality of the
individual, which is eternal, is what realizes the Absolute, and is the real
means to it. In the case of such realization, the means should not be different
from the end in any way. Even a broken needle or a piece of straw from this
world cannot be taken to the Absolute. The world of forms is not a means to
Knowledge, for form and Knowledge are contrary to each other.
But, then, does it mean that
the world is completely estranged from Brahman? Definitely not. If there is no
relation of the world to Brahman, there would be no such thing as the
individual’s attainment of Immortality. The truth of Brahman is present in
every form of the world, and the world exists because of the existence of
Brahman. It is the reality in the world and not the form of the world that is
the link between the world and the Absolute. We reach Brahman through the
reality of Brahman present in us and in the world, and not through the
constitution of our individuality which is a group of forms, or through the
world which is also a huge mass of forms. It was already observed that when the
world is denied as unreal, it is its form, and not its essence or fundamental
being, that is thus denied. The essence of the world is Brahman.
Excerpts from:
If The World Is a Means, the World is also the End - The
Realisation of The Absolute by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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