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SAMAYSARA
by desire for worldly things, enjoyment of the same and consequential bondage has been heard, observed and personally experienced by all. But the realisation of the unity of the Higher Self which is free from all such empirical conditions, by our own personal experience, is not easy of achievement.
COMMENTARY Here the author frankly states in the beginning that it is extremely difficult to apprehend the nature of the metempirical Self or the Ego-in-itself. He contrasts it with our knowledge of the empirical Ego. The nature of the empirical Self can be easily apprehended from the concrete world of living beings. The behaviour of a living organism is a clear indication of its nature. The instinct of self-preservation in an organism is the main motive force of its behaviour. Every animal has to seek its food from the environment to appease its hunger, to search for water to quench its thirst, and to roam about in search of a mate to satisfy its sex desire. This tendency to seek objects from the environment, to acquire them and to enjoy them is a common characteristic of the behaviour of all living beings from the lowest to the highest. This knowledge we obtain from our observation of other animals and by the study of books on natural history describing the behaviour of animals in general. The information so gathered by observation and study is further corroborated by our own personal experience since our own behaviour as an organic being is no exception to the general law of animal behaviour. The information thus obtained from different sources gives us a fairly accurate knowledge of the nature of the empirical Ego. But when we begin to talk about the metempirical Ego we feel extremely helpless. None of the above sources of information is available to us. The reality which we try to apprehend has nothing in common with our empirical reality. That is why the Upanishadic thinket frankly states that it can be described only by negative attributes. We can only speak of it as Nett Neti, not this, not this. That is exactly why Gautama Buddha kept silent whenever he was asked by his disciples to give some information about the Self or Atma. Again, that is exactly
