SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

The evolution of the self

Given that the ultimate aim in Vedantic thought is knowledge of Brahman in the deepest, intuitive sense and the fusion of the self with the Self, atman with Brahman, it is easy to see why one single lifetime would be insufficient for such realization. The self evolves through an immense period of time, reincarnating from one existence to the next. Experience of atman may be glimpsed in one lifetime but life has to be lived entirely rooted in atman, and the jiva, the egoistic self has to be obliterated. Human beings cannot really last one minute without an egoistic thought and every egoistic thought is a karmic cause and must have a result - a result which accrues to the I which caused it. All individuals make sense of the world by dfferentiating between this and that, that is to say they are perpetuating the illusory distinctions of maya by living life in a world of dualities in which they make egoistic choices and judgements. And it is often the more subtle choices of the mind, even of the subconscious, which cause the individual to perpetuate desire or aversion for one thing as opposed to another. But; as we have seen, Brahman is beyond dualities, at a point where they cease to exist.       For an individual to come to that point too, when the dualities of life disappear and all is one, takes millions of reincarnations which Hinduism would view as the logical evolution for each person. Only when the egoistic self, the I, is lost can results of mental or physical actions cease to belong to a person, simply because there is no personality evident to which they can accrue. So `a person must somehow transcend the results of his own actions'. Dharma helps a person to evolve to this point by placing the individual in the life situation most suited to his or her stage of evolution - varnadharma ' class dharma ',  asramadharma ' stage of life dharma ' svadharma ' one's own dharma'. And overriding all are the more cosmic concepts of sadharanadharma, the common duties and obligations to one's fellow human beings, and sanatanadharma, the eternal law, the universal dharma, reminiscent of the older concept of rta in the Vedas.