Acharya Mahaprajna
Right in front of me is a coconut tree, a straight trunk, some leaves, and a few coconuts. This is all I can see. Is this all that is there, or is there more, as seed and invisible sap?
Our senses cannot go beyond the visible, physical world. The invisible is simply beyond their reach and unknown to them. They can neither affirm nor deny the invisible.
Visibility and invisibility are relative concepts. Having come some distance from where I was, I cannot see the tree now. There is a wall between the tree and me. Any hindrance can make the visible invisible for the senses. Now I am far away from the tree, and even though there is no hindrance, I cannot see it. Distance too makes for invisibility. What the microscope reveals, the naked eye cannot perceive.
What I see is the gross physical world; what enables me to see it, is itself gross and physical. The subtle truth can be perceived only by subtle sight, which can establish contact with the former and uncover it.
Unlike the tree, I cannot see awareness, for the latter is abstract. The tree can be out of sight and distant, but not awareness, because I as manifest form of awareness, serve as a link between awareness and subtle invisible universe made of infinite atoms.
Both, awareness and atom are devoid of hunger, they do not eat. They do not speak either. I feel hungry; I eat and speak, because I am situated at the meeting point between awareness and atom.
The visible world, where happiness and unhappiness prevail, also belongs to the same meeting point. Pure awareness is neither happiness nor unhappiness, neither bondage nor freedom; it is merely an experience of existence. When awareness is at the above-mentioned meeting point, it is susceptible to happiness, unhappiness, bondage, and freedom. Attaining purity means to be in a state of happiness and freedom. This is the point where existence is at its zenith and where all constraints of the senses have been overcome. There is an experience of infiniteness and inexpressible, limitless joy.
It was observed earlier that it is ordinarily futile to barter away the present happiness for an imaginary one. This is not so, when what one leaves is of an inferior order as compared to what one sets out to seek. Sensual pleasure is easy, natural, and agreeable, ordinarily none wants to relinquish it. He alone can leave it who has felt a compelling attraction towards pure existence.
Having attained the state of parasensual joy, people get to know the inferiority of sensual pleasures. Its inferiority lies in the following three aspects:
- It is variable
- It is interruptible
- It is transient
The parasensual joy is invariable and permanent; it is more dependable and certain. Sensual pleasures appear so tangible, because they are related to physical instruments; parasensual joy appears difficult, because it is related to introspection. Once this right understanding grows, the concept of joy undergoes complete transformation.
