Most people don’t know the pain of ignorance because they cover themselves up with their belief systems. Belief systems never liberate you but they will give you solace for today. “Oh! God is looking after me, my father’s atman is looking after me.” Such beliefs will make you sleep well but they will not liberate you. They will only entangle you.
If you are seeking liberation, then you must see everything stark, the way it is. The reality is, you don’t know a damn thing about yourself. If you come to that reality and you understand the pain of not knowing who you are, where you come from or where you will go, but still go on as if everything is ok, it is a terrible thing to do. If that terrible thing sinks into you and really torments you, then you are willing to do anything to know. Then knowing is not far away because it is right here.
If it was sitting on the mountain, then the issue of whether you can climb the mountain or not would arise. When it is sitting right here, the question of whether you can get it or not is not the issue. Whether you want it and how much you want it is the only issue.
When you keep on lying to yourself with your belief systems about God, soul, atman and paramataman – things that you have never seen or experienced – then the longing to know is not there. That is why it is not known.
(Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic and visionary, and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. isha.sadhguru.org)
