[Advaita-l] (no subject)

[Vinodh]

Namaste Sri Harsha,

It is indeed possible to attain self-realization while seemingly indulging
in worldly activities.

This is because the Self is already attained and it is what one truly is.
It is due to ignorance that one does not realize this, and instead thinks
“I am this body and mind”, “I am the son/daughter/wife/husband of so and
so”, “I am happy, I am sad, etc”. In other words, due to ignorance, one
forgets one’s true Self and instead superimposes the non-self (body, mind,
relationships, feelings) on the Self and is deluded by assuming oneself to
be a doer of actions and experiencer of the results of actions.

To come out of this delusion, the prescribed path is that of karma yoga,
that is, to perform one’s duties according to one’s varna and ashrama and
offer the results of one’s actions to paramathma with bhakti.  Doing so
purifies the mind by slowly removing the thought that one is the doer of
actions and the enjoyer of the results.

When the mind is sufficiently pure, it is able to truly grasp the meaning
of the Upanishads, which teach that one’s true svaroopa is the aja advaya
atma (unborn Self that is one without a second), and that the entire jagat
is nothing but an illusion (think of this like a dream in which the
universe of the dream and all the people creatures in it are not external
to the person who is dreaming, but rather are mere illusions and do not
have an existence independent of the dreamer).

A firm understanding of this teaching with the mind not moving away from it
is essentially self-realization. One who has had this realization is free
from all apparent bondage and is referred to as a muktha or a liberated one
(even though one was not actual bound to begin with, it was due to one’s
ignorance that one assumed to have been bound). That person may appear to
move and speak and seemingly indulged in worldly activities, but the muktha
really does not do any action (“dhyaayati iva, leelayati iva”, *as though*
thinking and *as though *playing, says the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad).

Om tat sat

On Sun 10. Apr 2022 at 11:49, Harsh Raval via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Hello
> My name is harsh.
> I have one question.
>
> Can a person attain self realization while living in grihastha ashram and
> doing worldy activities(doing a job)?
>
> For eg:- For doing wordly activities one requires to be turn outwards
> whereas to contemplate on aatma one requires to turn inwards?
>
> So can a person desiring self realization devote half of his time to wordly
> activities and half to meditate on aatma attain self realization?
>
> If yes then how?
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