The visitor intoxicated with the power of his wisdom and works of repute sat there for some time unnoticed. He felt disgraced that the saint didn’t even honor such a person of great repute like him by extending special attention to him. At last, in order to reveal his presence, he said, “Honorable Master, you didn’t even ask me –
In a very pious and soft voice, that holy person asked, “Do you know the answers of these questions – you are asking me? I know that you have written many books on philosophy and have won many prizes. You are a man of great name and fame but do you know these simple questions about your own self - Who you are, where do you come from, why you are here and where you are leading to?” The highly intellectual person was dumb founded. These questions had never come to his mind. Then the saint handed over a blank white paper to him and asked him to go to a solitary place and write the answers to these questions in his own time. He went with the paper and after some time came back with the same blank paper. Seeing all this, the saint said surprisingly, “Oh! You do not know even this much. After having done so much intellectual work, you can not even answer such simple questions relating to your own self. Now leave aside all your wisdom and dive deep into meditation to get the answers to these questions.
This episode was narrated by Gurudev Shri Swami Vishvas Ji in one of his programmes on Meditation. Once you undertake Vishvas Meditation and start enjoying the Bliss of the highest state of ‘thoughtlessness’, the question comes before you “Who am I?” The answer comes from within, “I am the witness, I am the Seer, I am the neutral energy, I am the third eye (Shiv-Netra), and I am the Maha-Surya. I am not the body, I am not the mind. I am not the helpless little Self to be crushed under the cruel wheels of causation.”
The less the thought of body, the better it is. For it is the body which drags us down. It is attachment, identification that makes us miserable. So, one should expand this awareness- ‘I am the Spirit, the Self, the unchangeable, Infinite and not the body. The whole of this universe with all its relations, with all the good and evil is but a series of paintings of which I am the witness.’ This truth has to be heard, then reflected upon and then meditated. The greatest help to spiritual life (to get the answer ‘WHO AM I’) is meditation. In meditation, we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. We do get the answer to the question, “WHO WE ARE?” Books and temples cannot answer this question because the answer is within you – nay the answer is you. Plaintiff and Defendant are one; Questioner and Replier are one; Knower and Known are one; self and self are one- Only this little self, the demon ego has to go.
Gurudev Sh. Swami Vishvas Ji proclaims that with Vishvas Meditation, all mysteries regarding your Existence, Goal etc. are solved automatically. You do not have to depend upon any external help in meditation – no counting of beads, no reciting of any mantra, and no focus on any point. Through constant practice of Vishvas Meditation, you will realize- ‘I am Infinite Knowledge, Existence and Bliss. Anger, lust, jealousy, evil thoughts and all these things do not overpower me. My real happiness was never in earthly things – in husband, wife and children and other things. For I am like the infinite blue sky. Clouds of many colors pass over it and play for a second. They move off and there is the same unchangeable blue sky. Happiness and misery, good and evil may envelop me for a moment veiling the Self but I am still there. They pass away because they are changeable. I shine because I am unchangeable.’
Bounteous are the blessings of Vishvas Meditation. Get the answer to the question-‘Who am I?’ Go beyond mind where the answer lies. Where there is mind there are dualities and where there is no mind there is divinity. The dualities are finite and therefore they must die; the divinity is infinite and that alone is ‘I’- The True Self.