Our life is a continuous tug of war between our intellect and our ignorance.
If the intellect wins, we can realize the truth. If ignorance wins, we will fall off the cliff to live and die again and again in ignorance.
Intellect
vs.
Ignorance
Our life is a continuous tug of war between our intellect and our ignorance.
If the intellect wins, we can realize the truth. If ignorance wins, we will fall off the cliff to live and die again and again in ignorance.
Intellect
vs.
Ignorance
One can also imagine this to be like a coin; it has two sides. If the ego surfaces up, the energy is pushed down and Liberation doesn't happen. If realization is complete and one conquers the ego, body, and mind, pushing that side down, then the energy side looks up, leading to Liberation. For one to enjoy the Third Peak of Happiness, one must conquer the ego, mind, and body and let realization lead to complete Liberation from misery, pain, and sorrow.
“We are unable to realize who we are because the mind wanders and the senses desire and thus we continue to be what we are not.” – AiR
Therefore, the journey is long and challenging. It is about first going on a quest, then understanding the truth, then knowing about realization, and finally attaining realization by the elimination of the deep ignorance that we were in. Thus, the several rounds of tug of war leave only a very small, blessed group of fortunate human beings on the ultimate peak of Liberation who experience a life of eternal joy, everlasting happiness, peace, and tranquillity without pain, misery, and sorrow.
An interesting equation can help a seeker move towards realization.
Here, “Me” is the power that resides in the body-mind complex, and EMB is the ego the leads the mind and body to act. Considering the above-mentioned definitions of Me and EMB, what does the equation below mean?
Me – EMB = Liberated Energy
Liberated Energy + EMB = Me
The above equation states that if we eliminate the ego, mind, and body controlling our life, we shall be liberated from all pain and sorrow. If we achieve Liberation but attach ourselves again to the ego, mind, and body, we once again start experiencing all the prisons of misery and sorrow.
Further, as long as I believe I am the ego, the mind, and the body, I shall never be able to experience Liberation. The realization that I am energy that gives life to the body is Liberation. If the realization of this truth is complete and the ego, mind, and body are transcended, then I can experience true Liberation!
A pilgrim on the path to Liberation arrives at this third peak post the complete realization of the truth and defeat of the ego, mind, and body. The realization leads one to know what we truly are and what we always falsely thought ourselves to be. We are the pure energy that exists within our body–mind complex. Such energies exist in all persons and things, but without realization, we consider ourselves to be different from others.
Realization reveals the secret that the energy in you and energy in me are one, which is the universal energy. Therefore, there is no difference between you and me.
This realization can create true bliss.
The liberated one realizes that he is energy. He also realizes that just like he is energy, everybody else is energy. In a home, there may be electrical energy in a bulb and energy in a fan and in an air conditioner, but these are not different energies. The source of energy is one power. The liberated one realizes that he is one with all as the same energy is within everybody, and this realization creates tremendous bliss and joy. A liberated one further realizes that so-called inanimate things also have energy. This is endorsed by science. The energy in me and the energy in everything are one energy. This thought creates an intoxication of bliss for the liberated one.
When one realizes that one is not the body, mind, and ego but rather the energy, one further realizes that everybody around is also nothing but energy. This realization creates bliss for the realized one. Till now, everybody else was different from me, but now there is no difference. The energy that is me and the energy that is you – both are the same energy that is the Creator. This realization is blissful!
Imagine believing that the air I breathe is different from the air you breathe. Isn't it absurd? There is one air that we all inhale from and exhale into. The impure air is inhaled by plants to exhale pure oxygen, but this is creation that is beyond human comprehension. Realization acknowledges that we have not been given that sense of perception to decode this process. Explaining this further, our eyes have perception to see and ears can perceive sound. If somebody were to tell you to close your eyes and see them with your ears, could you do it? It would be impossible! Each sense of perception has limited capability of what it can perceive. We humans have not been gifted that sense of perception to understand how the Creator has created the entire universe. We are unable to see beyond Liberation and the third peak, but we do have the intellect to climb the peak.
The human being is not doomed to live in prisons of misery and sorrow. Several liberated ones have realized the truth and have been liberated from misery. Realization is the key! One experiences energy or consciousness all-pervading. One is liberated from the limited body and mind just as one is liberated from all the tiny prisons of misery and sorrow.
A person who is caught in a maze that is a tiny cell thinks that the cell is all that exists. He doesn't realize that there are millions of such cells that adjoin each other. If one were to break all the walls of all the cells, then one would truly experience how vast the space is. Such is the effect of realization!
One feels ultimate bliss, eternal peace, and tranquillity as one transcends desire, fear, worry, and other joy stealers. One doesn't seek happiness; one becomes happiness! The realization of the truth that one is part of the cosmic energy creates bliss beyond expression. One is liberated from all mental trauma and physical pain.
Are all these Prisons of Misery & Sorrow?
Mental
Stress
Physical
Pain
Anger
I/Me
Worry
Fear
Revenge
Hate
Jealousy
Old
Age
Disease
Death
Karma
Mental
Stress
Physical
Pain
Anger
I/Me
Worry
Fear
Revenge
Hate
Jealousy
Old
Age
Disease
Death
Karma
I am imprisoned in these prisons of misery & sorrow
Liberation I need Freedom!
from these prisons!
Liberation comes from Realization
Realization I am Not This (Not Body/Mind) |
Realization I am That (The Soul) |
The SOUL is FREE from All PRISONS. Liberation is Mukti, Moksh, Nirvana!
The most unique gift of Liberation is the bliss and everlasting joy that is born out of knowing the truth that one is consciousness. A liberated one lives as the universal energy without any duality. Dropping all differences with people and things, he becomes one with the Creator and the creation, and this gift of Liberation creates everlasting joy and eternal bliss.
The peak of Achievement seems like a tiny ant hill and the second peak is like a little hillock just as the third peak stands as a majestic mountain above the two. In comparison to Liberation, Achievement is just a dot of happiness, which is constantly surrounded by sorrow. It is a yo-yo that goes up and down depending on success and unfulfilled desires. Fulfillment, the Second Peak of Happiness, is enhanced joy and peace, but constantly disturbed by problems and joy stealers, being imprisoned by misery and sorrow. Liberation is an ocean of happiness. There are no desires, no problems, no miseries, and no pain. The Third and Ultimate Peak of happiness is about realization and Liberation that transcends even death. A liberated being is eternally blissful and peaceful as it merges with the universal energy. Very few are fortunate to reach the peak of Liberation.
On Liberation, the ego, mind, and body cease to exist and therefore fight hard to keep us imprisoned. Even if we read a book like this and understand the truth, the mind wanders and distracts us from moving forward. Even if we move forward and start living a life of realization, the sense perceptions of the body distract us away from the realization into the prisons of misery and sorrow.
Therefore, the fight to be liberated is the ultimate fight of life. One has to use one’s most important weapon that is the intellect to destroy the ego, the mind, and the sense perceptions of the body along with the ignorance that we are born and we die with.
No wonder, only one out of hundred people think of Liberation, the Third Peak. The mind keeps us busy with other things. In today's world, there is enough and more to be occupied with. While we all want to be happy, we are so caught up with pleasures that we think that there is nothing beyond this joy. Thus, 80% of humanity live and die on the first peak of Achievement. The 20% of humanity who think that they have transcended to the ultimate peak don't realize that Fulfillment only promises peace and joy. It doesn't eliminate the several prisons of misery and sorrow that we live and die with birth after birth and death after death in what seems to be part one, part two, and part three of a movie called life that appears to be projected on the planet called Earth.
A liberated soul continues to live in the body–mind complex but has realized the truth. I have a body and mind, but I am not the body and mind. How does the liberated soul live blissfully?
The key to a liberated blissful life is the use of the intellect. We all possess an intellect – the faculty to discriminate between what is right and wrong and what is real and unreal. Before Liberation and realization, the intellect is controlled by the body, mind, and ego. On realization, one takes charge of the intellect to be liberated. To be liberated while alive, one should continue to be in command of the intellect. Otherwise one will sink backwards and be overpowered by prisons of desire, lust, anger, and worry, and hence lose one's Liberation.
Why is taking charge of the intellect so important? The intellect is the faculty of discrimination. Every time we are approached by a thought from the mind or a sense perception from the body, we tend to act and react. But the question is should we respond, should we act, or what should we do? We need the most important tool of intellect to be able to question and to decide.
Therefore, if one is in command of the intellect, then the intellect controls the mind and the body both individually and simultaneously and lets one remain in a state of realization on the third and ultimate peak of bliss and happiness, free from the prisons of misery and sorrow.
But if one doesn't take charge of the intellect, then one is in deep trouble because the reverse will happen. The mind is like a monkey; it will keep jumping from one thought to another. And out of the fifty thoughts it produces every minute, we may get carried away by any of the thoughts. The senses are made to pull us down, not letting us climb the peak of ultimate joy. Therefore, through the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and our sense of touch, we get attracted towards desires that will make us sink in this world. If we sink into the illusion of ignorance, then we are destroyed and we are deprived of the third and ultimate peak of happiness. This can happen if we lose command of the intellect.
I read a very interesting story about a man who was liberated and he had realized that he was not the ego, the mind, and the body. He had renounced the world and lived a life of ultimate peace, bliss, and joy. He was a lawyer by profession, and he had earned a lot of money, but leaving his money and his profession, he went into a life of solitude, peace, and bliss. Not that it was necessary for him to go into such a life, but that was his choice. One can be a king living in a palace or the CEO of an organization and still be peaceful. One doesn't have to run away into the forest in solitude to achieve the state of realization and Liberation.
Living in a forest, the only thing he owned was a little cloth that was used like underpants to cover himself. Unfortunately, when he used to sleep, this cloth was eaten by little rats, and he felt that he should take care of the cloth and so to get rid off the rats, he got a cat. Now he found that the cat needed milk, and so in the forest, he had to get a cow. The cow produced milk for the cat who kept away the rats. But who would milk the cow? So he decided to get a woman. The woman came and needless to say, they had children, and thereafter, he was no more in solitude in the forest. This little story tells us how we have to discriminate if we want to enjoy the Third and Ultimate Peak of Happiness. We must choose to live as a realized soul who is liberated.
Everything is a drama, a movie, a theatre. Why do we worry? Why do we do things that will make us sink in the world? We do things that make us sink in the world because we lose command of the intellect. If the intellect is sharp and always in command, it will question, it will choose, it will decide, and it will not let us sink. It will stop us from desires, cravings, and seeking things that will pull us downwards.
If we start thinking that we are the ego, the mind, and the body we are sure to lose our joy through joy stealers and sure to get imprisoned by misery and sorrow. If we start worrying about our duties and get carried away by lust and embarrassed by shame, these three joy stealers can imprison us forever in a prison that will stop us from climbing the ultimate peak. Therefore, if we want to eliminate the control of the mind and the body and if we want to stay away from these three terrorists, the most dangerous of all – duty, lust, and shame, we need the intellect.
Without us taking charge of the intellect, we do not have the tool of realization and Liberation. The only tool that can liberate us and lead us forward to the Third and Ultimate Peak is the intellect. The intellect is part of the mind, but it is not the mind. The mind wanders, the mind thinks, the mind decides, the mind remembers, and the mind has different faculties. And this faculty of the mind that is the intellect should be used to control that faculty of the mind that wanders and desires and makes us sink.
Therefore, carefully pick up the faculty of the mind called intellect, take charge of the intellect, and move towards realization and Liberation, enjoying the ultimate peak of joy, peace, and bliss.
To enjoy the third and ultimate peak of happiness, a liberated soul lives intellectually as the energy and not the body–mind complex. A liberated soul doesn't seek happiness post realization because the energy realizes the self to be a source of happiness. A liberated soul lives without problems and misery as it watches everything as a four-dimensional dream, knowing death of the physical body not to be a painful and sorrowful end but rather just a bend to transcend.
To a reader, it may seem so magical and like a fairy tale that by using the intellect, we can be liberated from the pain of the body and the mind and we can just escape from the prisons of misery and sorrow. But it is true! If we use the intellect, then we can be free from all the prisons of misery and sorrow.
We are the energy. On realization, we KNOW it! We don't have to believe it; we don't have to doubt it. We absolutely know that we are not the body that experiences death and we are not the mind that continuously wanders, but we are the energy that gives life to the body and the mind and unfortunately also creates the ego. When we know that we are the energy, then we distance ourselves from the body, mind, and ego using the intellect.
It is not that the body doesn't experience pain, but we don't react to that pain as our pain. It is not that the mind doesn't wander and desire, but we transcend the mind and treat it as our neighbour and sometimes even as our enemy. This is the power of the energy. The moment we realize we are the energy, we transcend the ego. One of the two will dominate our life, the ego or the energy, and it is the intellect that makes this happen. The moment the intellect is weak, the ego dominates. If the intellect is strong, only then the energy will dominate and let us be on the ultimate peak of happiness. The intellect thus decides if we are ego or the energy.
As long as one is physically alive, the energy that is us inhabits a body-mind complex. At a destined moment, when the blissful energy merges with the universal energy, the body and mind ceases to exist, the microcosm becomes the macrocosm. The wave becomes the ocean. Till this happens, the liberated soul can continue to enjoy the ultimate journey of bliss, peace, and happiness as a human on the Third Peak of Happiness as it inhabits the body post realization.
Therefore, we the energy, need the help of the intellect for realization and Liberation to climb the Third Peak of Happiness. Without the use of the intellect, we can never be free from the prisons of misery.
Towards the Third Peak - Finally!
A seeker of the Third Peak of Happiness must start with a quest – a search of a peak unknown and not visible. The seeker must have faith, hope, and belief that the third peak exists at the distance. One of two things will lead the seeker to the third peak: a passion for finding the purpose of life or an obsession for discovering the Third Peak of Happiness. Either of these two will open the doors to Liberation from the prisons of misery and sorrow.
Those who have experienced Liberation describe the need to pass the four doors to Liberation:
FOUR DOORS TO LIBERATION
The third peak of happiness will be visible to a seeker in the distance, but the seeker must pass through these four doors to get to the third and ultimate peak of happiness.
Discrimination Dispassion Discipline Desire for Liberation
liberated without using discrimination at every step. This frees the seeker from being ordinarily human. This is the first door a seeker must pass enroute to Liberation. Without discrimination, the liberated one will fall back into the prisons of misery and sorrow because of making the wrong decisions without using the intellect.
If a seeker doesn't develop a power to discriminate, he is controlled by his wandering mind and craving body. By developing the faculty of discrimination, a seeker questions everything. Is it right? Should I do it? Should it be avoided? Without such questioning, the seeker would be doomed. His wandering mind would be in command rather than his intellect.
The second door - Dispassion: To strengthen the search, the seeker becomes dispassionate, detached, and void of desires. If the seeker doesn't pass this door and continues to let the body desire and the mind create passion, the seeker will be locked back into the prisons of misery.
A seeker who is void of desires and dispassionate transcends the mind and the body and progresses towards Liberation. If passion and obsession rule our life, how can we ever be liberated? Therefore, a seeker should overcome passion and should remain detached and disconnected from the pangs of desire that are common to humanity.
The third door – Discipline: Six disciplines are necessary for a seeker to move towards Liberation: Control of the body and its sense perceptions, control of the mind and its wandering, control of continuous cravings together with unshakable faith, absolute focus, and forbearance at every step.
Without discipline, it is impossible for a seeker to be liberated. The seeker realizes that his first enemy is his own mind. He learns to discipline it. He then realizes that the cravings of his body need to be disciplined in order to be liberated. To discipline the body and mind, he adopts three positive virtues of faith, focus, and forbearance that complete his art of self-discipline.
The fourth door – Desire for Liberation: It is not enough to use discrimination, to be dispassionate, and to be disciplined. A seeker should develop a strong desire for Liberation.
Can a seeker who removes all negatives become positive? Discrimination, dispassion, and discipline gives freedom to a seeker to move on. But what gives the seeker the energy to be liberated? A burning desire for Liberation and nothing else is the fourth ultimate door that paves his way to Liberation.
One who passes these four doors seems to be qualified and blessed to realize the truth and be liberated.
The seeker then marches towards the third peak, seeking Liberation and nothing else. What does this mean? The seeker experiences full realization of not being the ego, the mind, and the body. This liberates the seeker from all the prisons of misery. The seeker doesn't seek happiness as he realizes that the source of happiness is within.
An extremely fragrant and valuable musk is found in the navel of the Himalayan deer giving it the title of “The Musk Deer” in the Northern Hills of India. When the aromatic musk comes out of the navel of the musk deer, the deer becomes attracted to the aroma of its own perfume. It leaps and roams around searching for the fragrance. Unable to find the source of the fragrance, out of restlessness, the deer jumps from the high cliffs into the valley in an attempt to track the source and thus meets its fate when the hunters get hold of him and tear out the pouch of musk, also known as Kasturi.
A poet mentioned, “O you foolish musk deer, you sought for the fragrance everywhere but in your own body. That is why you did not find it. If you only had touched your nostrils to your own navel, you would have found the cherished musk and would have saved yourself from suicide on the rocks below”.
A seeker lives fearlessly without worry or stress enjoying every moment blissfully. Nothing is good or bad; everything is perfect. The seeker lives in total surrender and acceptance, accepting life as a divine manifestation of the Creator. The seeker knows death as just a bend to transcend. Like the wave is never born nor dies, the seeker enjoys appearing from and disappearing into the energy consciousness that is Omnipresent. The seeker doesn't try to decode the cosmic intelligence puzzle, but rather enjoys living in Ananda, ultimate bliss, as the microcosm of the macrocosm that has created him. The seeker realizes his identity as the vast divine ocean, although he appears to be a wave that rises and falls, and the seeker enjoys splashing on Earth as a wave moment after moment as it appears in bliss and peace.
What do normal human beings think? We think we are the body, we are the mind, and we are the ego that has a spirit within. But a seeker who has attained realization thinks differently. He thinks that “I am the energy and I am in a body that has a mind and is controlled by the ego”. These are two opposite paradigms of life. The understanding of the one who has not attained realization and the one who has attained realization are exactly the opposite. As long as we live a life without realization and we think that “I am the body that has a mind and an ego”, we will never be free from the prisons of misery and sorrow. Therefore, we should understand that it is a part and parcel of living in the ignorance of being a human being having a spiritual experience. Realization changes the paradigm. We need to realize that “I am not a human being having a spiritual experience; I am the energy, spirit, or soul that is having a human experience. I am not the body, the mind, and the ego. I have a body, a mi