The Essence of Advaita.
An ornament made of gold is nothing but gold. When it is melted the ornament becomes gold again .There is no difference between golden bracelet and metal gold except the temporary shape. Or a vessel made of clay and water, air and fire is part of earth. It is temporary and once its broken it becomes again part of earth. There is no difference between vessel and earth except the temporary shape. The essence of
pond, river, rivulet, well, lake, ocean, vapour, ice & liquid water is nothing but H2O.
Likewise this body and mind are temporary shape and form . In the eternal cosmos of universes, we identify our self with our body and mind. The bondage and great love for the body, self attribution and self-inflation of our mind makes us think that we are a separate being. This false SELF is built up by thought and it is a thought merely. Your true self is not altered by past, present or future or any other time dimension. You are timeless like the cosmos. Nothing ever is destructed nor created - it is all a big show of changing forms & names.The destruction of this body and mind is just like the dissolving of earthen vessel into the earth or the bracelet into the
metal gold. The true self remains vibrant, alive and living - yet it only adapts different forms as the true self is in bondage of mind.
The bond of self identification with name, form, stage, race, nationality,caste, belief, religion, faith, clan, family of this or that life form is ONLY a temporary form of identification by one of your current forms and it is to decay. This body you decorate profoundly is a perishable commodity. Once YOU are out of this body, it dissolves back to the earth. The experience which you are going through, which you associate with your current YOU, your personality is an episode in the long serial of lives, triggered by your own mind (Karmas). It is like a dream, when you wake up from the sleep only you realize that it was a dream. Do not waste your time in giving your self for these false identifications. As long as your true self is held in bondage of these recurring dramatic going and coming (samsaara), IE birth and death, it will be coated with illusions of life, will be impressed by events around, will absorb given identifications and names, fear, attachment, lust, greed and unending
desire of self perpetuation. All this boils down to few thoughts. Free your self from these thoughts. Be your real self. See through your real self hidden around your body like aroma in flower or like energy in metal wire.
Meditate and find out your real self and thus you will create the first step to liberation. You are not born so you will never die, only your body was born and it will certainly perish one day what ever you do to preserve it. So never worry about anything and be happy always with the conviction that there is only "Brahmam" in this universe and all else is fading shades of temporary names & forms and try to see that same Brahmam in everything in this universe.
Bhaskaran Vellakkad
