Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

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SELF-AWARENESS
Modern Thinkers vis-a-vis Ancient Teachers
Ancient spiritual teachers and enlightened spirits have ordained that to know the self is the ultimate goal of one's life. Lord Mahavir said, “One who knows one (self), knows everything else”. “One who is awake or aware of the self is the real saint (Muni) and the one who is not awake is not a saint (Amuni)”. Being awake here means to be aware of one's thinking and emotions. Socrates and Jesus Christ also said, “Know Thyself”. This also means to know and to be aware of the self. Maharshi Patanjali of Yoga fame says, “To be in oneself is ‘Kaivalya', the highest gnana (wisdom).”2 Lord Buddha said, “To end the suffering, set up yourself in constant awareness. Constant awareness is enlightenment.”. Lord Buddha referring to the arising and disappearing of sensations on the body and asking the disciple to be constantly aware of them said, “Having experienced as they really are, the arising of sensations, their passing away, the relishing in them, the danger in them, and the release from them, the Enlightened One, O monks, has become free without grasping”. In this connection it is inspiring and revealing to know the experience and realization of the modern day spiritual thinkers like J. Krishnamurti and others. It will be seen that they have reached similar conclusions and their views are instructive and enlightening.
J. KRISHNAMURTI (1895-1986)
J. Krishnamurti has been one of the most enlightened souls of the twentieth century. According to him self-awareness is the beginning and the end of life. His whole teaching can be said to revolve around this whole question of self-knowledge. * To explain what is self-knowledge J Krishnamurti