Dear James,
It has been a long time since the last time we talked. Your guidance and teaching was extremely helpful to me and I managed to change many things in my life circumstances. If you recall, my main struggle was that I simply had too much stuff happening in my life, especially work related. Since then, I managed to expand my business a bit more in order to add more managers and developed standard operating procedures to ease the load of me. And although I still cannot distance myself completely from work (nor do I think I should), I am obtaining the benefit of extra free and flexible time that I can utilize to reflect on the self.
James: Because reality is non-dual, there is actually no difference between work and “free and flexible time.” So, Vedanta agrees that there is no need to distance one’s self from ‘work.” In fact, human beings are constantly active, which is to say that they are thinking and doing all the time. Therefore, dualistic thinking, not work, is the problem. If you are the non-dual Self as Vedanta points out, then the concepts “work and leisure” are objects known to you, neither of which is real. Why are they not real? Because they are not always present and they don’t stand alone; they depend on each other for meaning. If there were no women, for instance, would you or I be men?
So the tension between freedom and action is not justified in the first place. Karma yoga, which removes that tension, is just looking at one’s life from the position of the Self. But taking the position of the Self—existence/consciousness/bliss—is also duality. It is a person relating to a part of his or her mind as if it was not his or her Self, which it actually is because reality is non-dual, meaning that there is no difference between one’s self and one’s mind. Likewise there isn’t any difference between the leisure thought and the thought of freedom. Both are just you, the Self, appearing in different forms.
If we move a little deeper into this inquiry we discover another problem. The person—Kabir—who is concerned about the work and leisure issue isn’t actually real either. Kabir is an object known to you, Consciousness/Existence. He may be known to you, but he doesn’t know you. He is just an inert concept that doesn’t have knowing power. Only the Self, with the help of Maya, has knowing power. If reality is non-dual as Vedanta says, then there is only one knower, the Self. So you are actually the Self, not Kabir, in which case there is no way that it matters whether you are apparently acting or apparently free. So you actually haven’t “gained time to reflect self.” You are the Self, which is not subject to gain and loss.
Freedom and bondage likewise are dualistic concepts and are not real for the same reason that work and leisure are not real.
So the statement that you have “attained discrimination” is only true if you are Kabir, which you aren’t. Discrimination is knowing the difference between Kabir and the Self. It is knowing that Kabir, the one that attained maturity and discrimination is not real and that the Self, the knower of Kabir is real. You make this point, so it seems that you know what discrimination is, but your next statement suggests that you aren’t clear about what it means to be discriminating.
What is that statement? “I can easily and quickly set myself in (as) awareness and can control the mind so it is steady and sattvic. But (and there is always a but) I find it hard to perform my duties towards my business, clients and employees without sacrificing my sattvic state, even though I know that it does not affect the knowledge of the Self that is always there.”
To say you are discriminating means that you are the Self. But the Self isn’t a doer that can set itself in (as) awareness because setting one’s self in/as awareness implies that one is awareness prior to the “setting,” which is a mental action. You can’t do anything unless you are conscious and you aren’t conscious unless you are borrowing it from Consciousness aka awareness. And if you are awareness you don’t need to set yourself “in” or “as” awareness. Discrimination is knowing that Kabir and his work/leisure issue is a non-starter, which is to say that it makes no difference whether Kabir, who is only seemingly real, is working or taking time to contemplate on the Self.
Furthermore, you—awareness—are the knower of the gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. They are concepts that produce three forms of experience, which by their very nature are unreal. They are never the same from one moment to the next. So establishing one’s self permanently in sattva is not possible. Nor is it necessary because awareness is not affected by experience, which is to say the gunas.
It is my opinion that you are sattvic enough as you are. Sattva is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. If you are sattvic enough as you are, then Kabir, such as he is, has a knowledge problem. He is not clear about the difference between the only knower, awareness, and the seemingly conscious object, Kabir, that is known to him. If you are clear, then Kabir will appear as non-different from any other person, and in fact from animals, plants and obviously inert object like stones and sand.
Finally, there is no need to sacrifice your sattvic state, first because sattva isn’t yours—it’s Isvara’s—and second because rajas and tamas are just as good as sattva. In fact, rajas is often more appropriate in conflict-full environments than sattva. Sometimes understanding is not enough; you just have to crack the whip! And since you are the boss, you can fall asleep at your desk when you are tired of dealing with your employees, without fear of being fired. So tamas is good too!
Kabir: To elaborate more, it is often that I need to deal with people on a day-to-day basis, where I provide them with counsel and advise them on matters of importance to them and others. This role requires an extensive effort from my part and there is often a thin line between doing the right thing, (and subsequently obtaining the desirable results) and getting it wrong (which often leads to undesirable results and consequences which would only increase the amount of work as we attempt to remedy the situation). I know that results of actions does not affect the Self as it’s all in the dharma field.
James: Yes, but it’s seemingly affecting the “you” that is in the dharma field.
Kabir: However, there seems to be an inclination of doubt as to why I have strong thoughts about performing my duties, almost to the point that if I do not do them, my mind becomes restless as the consequences (often undesirable and material) unfold.
James: If you knew that action i.e. duties were not real you wouldn’t have “strong” thoughts, meaning you wouldn’t be attached to doing them. You would do them leisurely, or not at all. What does it really matter? If you don’t do something that needs to be done, Isvara will get someone else to do it. Kabir is dispensable in every way. You needn’t take him seriously. Finally, anyone in your situation that doesn’t have strong doubts about doing his duties is probably a robot, not a living being. Rajas is a nasty energy unless it is channeled into Self inquiry.
Kabir: I know that the Vedanta teaches that one must conduct himself in a dharmic manner to attain the fruit of moksha. If that is the case, can one really attain moksha based on knowledge path only and without doing his duties, which I understand to be the doer path/karma yoga?
James: Yes and no. If Kabir, the doer, is qualified, yes. If not, no. I’m arguing that you are qualified enough for knowledge, that you needn’t worry about karma yoga. You’re already serving people, which is serving Isvara.
Or maybe you aren’t qualified because it seems you don’t know what karma yoga is because you seem to be worried about business and about moksha. You needn’t worry about either because what happens in the business is up to Isvara and moksa is not an event that is not going to take place at some time in the future when you get sattvic enough. Moksa is your nature. So you already have it. Karma yoga removes the anxiety about everything. And Vedanta supplies the knowledge via the logic of its teachings that remove the belief that you aren’t always free.
Knowledge is just “I am awareness.” If you get it, then all problems are solved. If not, then you need to practice it, which means that you need to keep it in mind at all times and dismiss the doer and its thoughts as unreal until the satya/mithya vasana is unshakable. If Kabir argues that it is impossible to do that in his present environment, then he has three options (1) stay in business until he is completely fed up and turns the business over to someone else or (2) understand that in or out of business there is always a downside, if you think you are Kabir. (3) Gradually reduce your participation until you enjoy doing business.
Kabir: Krishna teaches Arjuna about renunciation as a qualification for attaining moksha, and the way I understand it is that the true renunciation is the renunciation of the result of action (and not of action). This leads me to believe that a person who truly obtained moksha should continue to perform his duties in a karma yoga attitude (i.e. without attachment to results of actions, which are in the hands of Ishvara).
James: Yes and no. Yes, if he or she is a person and no because you are not a person. Freedom means freedom. You are free to act and you are free not to act. If freedom means that you have to do your duties, then you aren’t free. Freedom also means that you are free to take yourself to be a doer or as Awareness. However, a person who is 100% convinced that he is not a person but is the Self would be a rununciate by default because he or she would understand that action and its results have no effect on him or her. So there would be no “practice” of karma yoga. There would be no thought involved. It would be just knowledge.
Kabir: If my understanding is correct, this means moksha is not contradictory with a busy and difficult life, which I have.
James: Correct.
Kabir: Nonetheless, it appears to be the case that my jiva yearns for the sattvic state which comes with focusing on the knowledge that I often wonder if it is an escape mechanism I’ve developed to ease the pressure of my circumstances.
James: It probably is an escape that gives you a temporary sense of relief. It seems the second part of karma yoga has escaped you: right action. If you are a business person, taking care of business is right action. But if you are a karma yogi, doing business is not right action because you are choosing an environment that is rajasic/tamasic by its very nature. When your mind is in it, there is no way to insulate it from rajas and tamas, unless your satya/mithya vasana is hard-wired. Then you don’t take those people and all their silly demands to be real. You pretend that they are real and secretly you are amused by their foolish antics. If you are a karma yogi doing business, then you are enjoying business because you know that Isvara is actually doing it.
Kabir: Please help, Ramji, as I want to achieve a constant state of bliss/moksha (which is freedom for the jiva as much as it is from the jiva) unaffected by the worldly circumstances around me, which can be tough on anyone. Is this an achievable goal? Is my understanding as laid out above correct. Thanking you in advance.
James: Of course it is achievable but only in the way that I mentioned above which is: you have to see Kabir and his desire to do the right thing by his family and society as an object and let go of your attachment to him. The world will go on very nicely without your participation. Knowing that, you can participate…or not…as you see fit. But you have to be very careful that you don’t use the idea that you are just playing in Maya to avoid letting go of Kabir, his actions and their results.
Much love,
James
