DOER NON-DOER: UNRAVELING THE PARADOX

Once a gentleman from Bengal, aware of the eminence and enlightenment of 𝐉𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐝𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐮 𝐒𝐫𝐢 𝐒𝐫𝐢 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐁𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐣𝐢, arrived at Sringeri. Surprised, perhaps disappointed, to witness His Holiness rigorously performing morning ablutions and later worshipping the Divine Mother in Sri Chakra Yantra. Expecting perpetual deep Samadhi, he struggled to align his notion of a seer revelling in contemplation of the Formless Absolute with the observed ritualistic precision and devoted image worship. Seeking resolution, he expressed his dilemma to His Holiness.

He asked in a general way "If a person has Atmic realisation as propounded in the Vedanta, can he properly engage himself in rituals or in image worship?" His Holiness asked in answer. "What else do you expect him to do?"

Visitor: "I do not mean to say that he should do anything else. My difficulty arises this way. Doing anything, be it rituals, or image worship, or even study of the scriptures, implies a sense of doership. Self- realisation implies a sense of non-doership. Are not these two attitudes inconsistent with each other and, if so, how can they exist at the same time in the same individual?"

Jagadguru: Quite true. Two things which are mutually contradictory cannot exist at the same time in the same entity. Now will you tell me, who the non-doer is?

Visitor: Of course the Self.

Jagadguru: Quite right. You have studied our system well. Will you tell me who the doer is?

Visitor: Certainly it is the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect.

Jagadguru: Quite right again. The Self is the non-doer and the doer is the non-self. Is it not so?

Visitor: Yes.

Jagadguru: Where is the inconsistency now? The doership and the non-doership do not inhere in the same entity.

The gentleman felt this solution to be telling and at the same time so simple that he realised the absurdity of his doubts and parted from His Holiness more devoted than before. - An Excerpt from the #MustRead book 'The Saint of Sringeri' published by Vidya Bharati Press & available at all Sringeri Mutt Book Stores.

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