In English
I will give you the quintessence of all in one sentence. ‘The that is present in all living beings is one - and the only one - and that is no other than you.’ That was the early morning time. The environment was such that the mind was put at ease, because of the cool breeze. The rising sun gave the entire sky a golden colour. In this very peaceful atmosphere, a thought was generated in the mind of . In this sacred atmosphere, the mind of was indeed constantly generating sacred thoughts. Who is ? Who discovered this aspect of ? What constitutes ? Who is responsible for all this creation? In this manner, from moment to moment, was troubled with ideas and filled with the desire to learn the answers to such questions. made the firm determination to get at the answers. Unable to contain himself any longer, he went to his father to seek an answer. His father was an allknowing person. He prayed to his father to give him the knowledge that he was seeking. did not have any objection to give answers to such questions, but in those days, the environment was such that the answers to such questions were to be sought by the students themselves. If a clears the doubts of the disciple as soon as they arise, then the disciple will lose all capacity to seek and search for answers. Every individual must be given some independence to seek answers to such questions and satisfy his curiosity. In this manner, wanted to give such an opportunity to . He gave him only a brief outline and said, “ is one in whom all creation started and in whom all creation will merge. He is also the one who sustains all Creation.” Having received these indications, went back to the forest and after a great deal of thought came to the conclusion “.” He thought that man is born out of food, man lives on food and food sustains man. Ultimately, man dies because of what be eats, and so he came to the conclusion that ‘food is a form of ’ and returned home. He came home and asked his father if what he has learnt was the truth or whether it was merely a reflection of his ignorance. The father said that he had not yet recognised the true significance of and suggested that he go back to the forest to seek further answers. He went back to the forest and contemplated for some time. He began to wonder if man can live by food alone. If there is no life in man, can the body enjoy the food that is kept before him. He therefore concluded that life is more important and concluded that “.” He made several attempts to reach this conclusion and came again to his father. Again his father said that the answer was not correct and suggested that he should make further enquiry. Here we may wonder if it is right for the father to keep on sending his son back to the forest without giving him the correct answer. A true seeker of truth should be prepared to undergo any amount of trouble to get at the truth. The teachers of those days believed that each person - be he their son or some one else - should undergo all the trouble necessary to learn the truth. The of those days were such that they recognised this aspect. went back to the forest and in many ways was making attempts to learn the truth of . He asked himself if food and life were available, would man be happy and contented. Would it be right to conclude that man is born only for food and sleep. He came to the conclusion that in order to understand life, one’s mind is most important. If mind was not present, we can never understand human nature. If there is no mind, one cannot understand the connection that should exists between man and man. Mind, alone, is responsible for bondage and liberation of a human being. He thus came to the conclusion that mind is the form of . He returned to his father and reported to him his conclusion. Again the father said that he should go back to the forest and seek the truth. did so and thought that if man has not got the ability to distinguish right from wrong, his life will become useless even if he has food, wealth and mind. One should be able to distinguish the permanent from the impermanent. Sometimes we also accept this and say, in common parlance, that if a man has no , he is useless. In this context, came to the conclusion that is . This was referred to by him as “.” When he came back to his father and reported this conclusion, the father was still not happy and suggested further enquiry. went back to the forest again. A true will have such intense desire to seek an answer to his questions. Without such concentration, one cannot achieve true satisfaction. Today, our concentration is on transient and impermanent things. The and students of the earlier days had immense concentration on their objective. This is the true destination of man. This is the secret of man and should be the final destination of man. After having acquired human birth, he should make an attempt to understand divinity. continued his enquiry and came to the conclusion that however learned a man may be, unless he has bliss and happiness, his life is useless. The purpose of life is and life comes from . As a water bubble is born in water, grows in water and merges in water, man has to be born in and sustain himself by and finally merge in . came to the conclusion that this was . He was filled with such and this began to grow. He did not come back to the father. After a few days, the father himself came to see him. was fully immersed in bliss and, for such a person, there is no father, or mother or relatives. The father recognised this state of bliss and blessed his son.