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Letter 6 Power to know or sentience is the attribute of soul or Jeev substance. So we will have to know soul through its attributes. There is no other way. It cannot be known or experienced by worshipping God or practising fasts or donating wealth.
But it can be experienced only by diverting our attention from all the other things and concentrating on it whose main attribute is knowledge or sentience, by meditation or so to say turning our concentration inwards (ataja).
Here I have to warn you or rather caution you about certain things. Therefore read this carefully and then proceed further.
After listening to such philosophical principles one is bound to think or question, "Are these things like worshipping, fasting, giving donations, alms etc. futile? Shall we stop doing these things?" The answer is "No. It is never to be stopped.
Our aim is to know the true nature of the substances. We have to understand and believe it."
One who has studied philosophical principles will automatically have great respect and reverence towards the omniscient ones. Such a person is bound to spend his time in such practices of Worship, penance etc..
But once a person has got this experience and knowledge of the true soul and has understood his ultimate goal of attaining salvation and firmly believes in his seperate true existence as Atma, he will differentiate himself from these physical activities. But since he has reasoned out he now understands that they will not directly lead to Veetaragata. But at the same time these things may be practised by him automatically.
In the initial stages sinful passions like anger, hatred, deceit etc. start diminishing. And the virtuous passions of worship, honesty, truthfulness, morality etc. increase. That is why at that stage one's actions incline more and more towards worship, devotion, helping poor etc.
But as the person achieves more Veetaragata and understands the teachings of the omniscient ones more and more in the true sense, he realizes that these are also passions, though they are virtuous. And then gradually these passions also wither away and one is more and more immersed in experiencing the true soul.
Such confusion as to whether such practices are to be followed or not do arise at the initial stage. Because we do not differentiate between the characteristics and attributes of human form and the true attributes of Atma. The practices described earlier are the manifestations of human attributes or characteristics.
