Isha Upanishad - Super school - Auroville - Isha Upanishad 706

 He in whom it is the self-being that has become all existences that are becomings, for he has the perfect knowledge.

This is the mark of the perfect knowledge, namely when you know that it is the self-being that has become all existences. You see the difference between the first sentence and this one, in the first one you see yourself in all and all in yourself. Here you go farther to the second stage; it is the self-being that has become all, that is why you are everywhere. It is the same self in all because himself which has become all. Because it has become all and is itself all, therefore it is in all. So, that is why you have to realise that the self-being, it has become all existences then you have the perfect knowledge. Then you know that it is the self that has become all and therefore, the self is in all and all is in the self.

The self-realisation has three aspects, to see the self in all, all in the self and thirdly to know that the self has become all. The three aspects when they are combined together is a mark of self-realisation. Then comes a greater boon, after that how shall he be deluded, he will commit no mistake. How shall he be deluded, when shall he have grief, grief comes to man because he thinks that he is alone but that is delusion, he's not alone. If you see, who sees everywhere oneness ‘ekatwam eva anupashayati’, ekatwam means to see oneness, eka is one, to see oneness everywhere, how shall there be grief in any part of the being, even in the body, see oneness everywhere.

Question: Isn't this part of the oneness?

Answer: What happens that this is a miracle, which happens. You know it is said that Sri Aurobindo was in prison in 1908 and 1909. And you have to imagine the kind of prison and a cell in which he was lodged, it was solitary imprisonment, he was alone in the cell. It was the hot month of May-June and July, and that was a very small room in which there was only one bed and one bowl. Sri Aurobindo says that the bowl was like ICS Officer of India, ICS officer is supposed to do all kinds of activities, he can be the Railway Chief, he can be educationist, he can be agriculturists the same man, so this bowl was meant for everything. The bowl was meant for everything, in which he could drink water, in which the food was poured, both dal and rice the same bowl, it was also used for taking bath, it was also used for doing all kinds of activities of ablutions. There was only a mattress not mattress actually only a blanket. In hot summer a blanket and below the blanket was only sand it was not cemented and from the sands there used to come out and red big ants, and these red ants were in love Sri Aurobindo's body, so that they used to sting his body. You see; how even one mosquito can trouble you, imagine red ants stinging and Sri Aurobindo says that in this sting he experienced the love of the Divine. There was no shrinking; Sri Aurobindo was practising these verses of the Upanishad in his spiritual sadhana. Sri Aurobindo says that it was a good thing this condition was the best condition to experience, where is the grief? So the grief is grief only when it is experienced through a kind of a barbed wire, which is in our consciousness called ego-sense. I am different from the others, ego sense is like a barbed wire and experience comes to us and there is a shrinking, therefore, there is grief. But if this wire is removed, the same experience, it was also the grief but when ego sense is taken out, it is experienced as what it is namely, Amanda. So Sri Aurobindo says that Shri Krishna gave him that experience to live in that cell because elsewhere this experiment could not have been done. This was a good play field where this experiment could be done. Every bite was the bite of a lover, so that it was a great experience of delight. So, where is the grief, the grief also was there and the grief was experienced in this form. When you say grief is also there, − yes, but grief when experienced in this way (it remains the same) but it is no more the bite which pains you, it is no more an experience of grief. It is an experience of love, joy sweetness this is the experience that one gains.

This Sri Aurobindo says is the mark of self-realisation. When the experiences which normally give you pain are experienced by you as great experience of joy then think that delusion has gone, then our grief has gone and we are in the State of self-realisation. Sri Aurobindo calls it the expression of the loftiest spiritual experience. You go all over the world and look at any description of the experience of the Supreme, of the Self; in these two verses the loftiest experience has been described.

Comment: Actually the ego is the best teacher

Answer: Yes you might say so. As Sri Aurobindo says that through the ego we learn, ego is the helper, ego is the bar. Through the ego we learn, it’s a helper, and then at a given stage it becomes a bar, it obstructs us. At that stage, throw it out. So we have now reached the stage where ego is the bar, so we have to work out in such a way that what we call desire, ego all that has to be exiled and when it is exiled we come into this experience. All right, we stop here today.