The analytical knowledge of self

[dattaswami]

The analytical knowledge of self

2 channels of knowledge

Unless you are relieved from the worldly tensions, you cannot understand God with stable mind and serve God with full faith and determination

 

You should not say that the analytical knowledge of self is waste. Shankara gave importance to this analytical knowledge of self since it relieves you from all the worldly tensions. If you know that you are not this body, all the bonds related to the body disappear since such bonds are not your bonds. They are bonds of your body only. If you know that you are the internal awareness, which is the specific work form of inert energy, you will be relived from all the worldly bonds. If you become sharper in identifying the awareness as the basic inert energy only, you will not be aware of anything and hence, the tension disappears from root. Unless you are relieved from the worldly tensions, you cannot understand God with stable mind and serve God with full faith and determination.

 

Therefore, before identifying the specific human being possessed by God, you should have the analytical knowledge of yourself to become fit to serve the contemporary human incarnation. This analytical knowledge of self serves like sedative injection to get rid of all the worldly tensions. It forms the basis of your diine service.

 

 

Therefore, Shankara stressed on the first channel of the meaning, which is the analytical knowledge of self and to identify yourself as that self separating yourself from the human body. Once you achieve the result of the first channel, you deserve to go for the second channel of the meaning, which is the knowledge of identification of contemporary human incarnation.

 

Shankara trained all His disciples through the first channel through His commentaries and made them fit to serve Himself, the contemporary human incarnation. During this process of training, the disciples slipped in taking the word Brahman as God and feel that self is God and hence, they are God. Shankara corrected them by swallowing the molten lead and declared that He alone is the God (Shivah Kevaloham), which is the second channel of the meaning. The disciples, who already became fit for the divine service by the first channel entered the second channel and served Shankara in the rest of the period and were finally blessed by God.