The experience of joy and sorrow is common to all beings and has the same effect on them, though the cause may vary. Sastras call it vritti or a feeling that arises from individual likes and dislikes. So desire or hatred in beings implies dependency on something or someone. When Arjuna becomes confused about his sense of duty, he experiences sorrow at the thought that he should fight his own kith and kin. Is this war necessary at all, he asks Krishna. What joy can come with killing one’s own brothers, preceptors and elders?
Such pondering over issues is characteristic of every jivatma when one is deluded by the pulls of the world and is unable to sift the real from the unreal, pointed out Swami Omkarananda in a discourse. Krishna advises Arjuna to rise above the mundane aspects of life that centre on the concepts of “I” and “Mine.” He begins to instruct Arjuna about the knowledge of the self or atma vidya, which alone can give a true perspective about the meaning of life to every jivatma. Realised souls are able to see the self within as something not connected with the physical gross body comprising the mind, intellect and senses. Nor can the subtle body constituted of impressions and vasanas be considered as the self. One’s true identity is to be recognised as the essence of “pure consciousness” that is distinct from all else in this universe. It is synonymous with the self and always exists. It is unchanging while fully aware of all the changes in time and space that take place constantly in the universe.
The self is the only Reality, and is the great source of happiness By renouncing all attachment and by meditating on the self, one is sure to realise the Absolute Reality. Meditation on the self is the only valid means to true knowledge.
