Acharya Mahaprajna
[raison d'etre = reason or justification for existence]
Is Ultimate Reality consciousness or matter or both? Recent research in sub-atomic physics has answered many questions regarding the structure of matter. But as regards consciousness, there is still much ignorance not only among scientists but also among spiritualists.
Spiritualists tend to solve the riddle of conscious existence on the basis of scriptural knowledge. They base their solutions on the precision of logical processes. They think they can realise the nature of consciousness through philosophical literature. What a pitiable paradox that on the one hand the nature of consciousness is propounded emphatically to be beyond logic, literature and language, while on the other hand, they want to realise the nature of consciousness through direct personal experience. Without experience, no one can comprehend it. Scriptures and philosophical literature are expressed in language. Language is very helpful for conveying useful and important information, but whoever tries to communicate experience through it is very much mistaken. All that any language can do is to talk about an experience, but description of an experience is not the experience itself. It is only discussion about it. Whenever anyone did have the experience after learning from books, the experience came from the book. The process is to purify the perceptive competence and raise the level of consciousness. For a practitioner, striving for a personal experience is an inherent part of the process; hence, it is incumbent upon him to do so. He must not depend too much on books and beliefs, but on himself. This does not mean that we ignore or forget what we already know from books. It means that the practitioner must himself realise his own real SELF; the inspiration must come from within.
Scriptures are emphatic about the reality of the consciousness. But again, what they say is lingual expression about truth, a belief or faith. When, as a result of regular meditational practice, one becomes enlightened by insight, and when he is face to face with his real SELF, he knows that it is real. Then, he not only knows but is aware of his real SELF. It is the Truth itself - the Truth of experience, and it can be realised only by practice of meditation. There is no other truth of experience.
