Untitled - the Divine Life Society

experience creates distinction and sets up false limits wherethere exists none. Pain and pleasure, good and evil, virtue andvice, merit and sin, are all conventions based on this variety ofexperience. But in the Absolute (Brahman) no suchdistinctions.are possible and the Highest Bliss, which cannotbe described in words other than those employing negation ofeverything positive known to us, consists in forgetting thissource of separateness and realising that unity which is thevery being and the nature of the cosmos. When the sense ofseparateness is killed out by intense and incessant spiritualSadhana, you will become one with Brahman.There are seven links in the chain of bondage. Misery is thefinal link in the chain of cause and effect. Every link dependsfor its existence upon the previous link. The seven links are:(l) Misery, (2) Embodiment, (3) Karma, (4) Raga, (5) Dvesha,(6) Aviveka and (7) Ajnana.If the root cause Ajnana (ignorance of the Selfl is removedby Atma-jnana or knowledge of the Self, the other links willbe broken by themselves. From ignorance, non-discriminationis born; from non-discrimination, Abhimana; from Abhimana,Raga-Dvesha; from Raga-Dvesha, Karma; from Karma, thisphysical body; from the physical body, misery. If you want toannihilate misery, you must get rid of embodiment. [f youwant to get rid of embodiment, you must not perform actions.If you wish to cease to act, you must abandon Raga-Dvesha. Ifyou want to free yourself from Abhimana, you must destroyAviveka and develop Viveka or discrimination between theSelf and non-self. If you want to get rid of Aviveka, you mustannihilate Ajnana. If you want to get rid of Ajnana, you mustget knowledge of the Self. There is no other way of escapingthis chain.Brahman is otherwise known as 'Svarupa'. "Then by whatshould he see whom?" (Bri. Up: ll-4-13). This passageintimates that there is neither an agent nor an object of action,GIST OF VEDANTA 91