Let’s understand the relationship between love, meditation and awareness with respect to the Self. The Self means the Soul.
In our scriptures, it is said:
The one with pure awareness of the Soul is poised in the Soul,
His Knowledge and meditation captivates the mind;
Aloof he remains from the binding of karma,
Becomes he the Absolute (God, real love)!
The Result of Pure Awareness of the Soul is Liberation
Awareness
Awareness of the Self means the perception or consciousness of the Self i.e. the Soul.
There are four ways in which the awareness of the Self is used. One can make:
- an impure use of the awareness of the Soul,
- a bad use of it,
- a good use of it, or
- The pure use of it. This is the best use of the awareness and it is called shuddh upyog or the pure awareness of the Soul!
Pure Awareness of the Soul (Shuddh upyog)
Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an enlightened being, explains:
“A person with pure awareness of the Soul sees only the pure. He disregards the packing (the body) and sees the contents (the pure Soul within). To see with the elemental vision (the Soul and not the body) is the pure awareness.
Pure Awareness begins only after Self-realization. When this awareness is absolute and continuous, it is called Keval Gnan (Absolute Knowledge).”
Meditation
God has said that every human being is engaged in one of the four types of meditative states:
- Raudradhyan – evil contemplation of perverse pleasure in causing injury to others,
- Aartadhyan – repressive or self-tormenting contemplation that causes internal suffering,
- Dharmadhyan – Virtuous contemplation, and
- Shukladhyan – pure contemplation of the Soul. This is the best and the ideal meditation that one must engage in.
Meditation enhances the awareness, which leads into experience!
Our actions are a result of our past life’s karma. But what is noted is our meditation i.e. what is the mind engaged in, what is it contemplating at the moment. For example, one may sit in meditation (the action) for an hour every day, but if his meditation (dhyan) is on the timepiece, that when this hour gets over so that I become free, then it doesn’t yield the desired experience!
Pure meditation of the Soul or Shukladhyan
This is the ultimate meditation and there are four stages of it. In the first stage, there is a vague and indistinct experience of the Soul. In the second stage, there is a constant, clear and distinct experience of the Soul. The fully enlightened beings are in the third stage of shukla-dhyaan when they attain Keval Gnan i.e. an absolute and complete knowledge of everything. They are the Omniscient. And the fourth stage of this meditation is the final liberation where one attains moksha.
The Consequence of Pure Meditation of Soul is Liberation
Pure Love
The word love really belongs to a state, which is beyond the world. What people call love in this world, is the language of illusion. Love is something very divine. Real love begins the moment one begins to understand one’s real Self i.e. the Soul. Self-Realization gives rise to real love.
Real love is the union with the Soul, the Self. The Soul is love. Love is the Absolute Soul (the Parmatma). Parmatma means God. Real love is Parmatma; nothing else is Parmatma (God).
That which is eternal is liberation. That which remains always is liberation. The pure Self is the life force, it is the pure Soul that is eternal, and that is God, the Parmatma, the real love!
Where There Is Love, There Is Liberation
Param Pujya Dadashri, while narrating a personal incident, says,
One priest asked me, “You travel by car and so many insects get crushed under your car, are you not binding a sin?” I asked him “Dear Priest! What do your scriptures say?”
The one with pure awareness of the Soul is poised in the Soul,
His Knowledge and meditation captivates the mind;
Aloof he remains from the binding of karma, Becomes he the Absolute (the God, real love)!
I am always in pure awareness of the Soul (shuddh upyog). Does a shuddha-upyogi ever commit violence? The priest answered, “No.” I told the priest that I do not bind karma, but he does, because according to his knowledge, he has a constant awareness of, ‘I am a priest. These are my feet and the insects are being crushed under my feet.’ This belief remains even as he sleeps and that is why he is liable for his actions. I remain constantly aware of the Soul. Not even for of a moment do I feel that this body is mine. I have no sense of ownership over this body and that is why I am not held liable for the karma.
God is in every living being, as the Self, the force behind all life i.e. the Soul. The world is not aware of the Self (Atma), and what it believes to be the Self, is really not Self (Anatma). They believe the living body to be the Self, but it is in fact not Self. They have absolutely no awareness of the Self.
Gnani Purush is Pure Love and He Can Give You Your Self Right Away
Only when the Enlightened One gives us the knowledge of the Self and graces us with Self-Realization, the awareness of the Self, the pure Soul begins within. As the meditation of the pure Soul enhances and peaks, one becomes God, Parmatma. Parmatma is the real love, the pure Love! Such is the relationship between awareness, meditation and God!