Some words on discrimination between the true and untrue

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Digital Blackboard - August 11, 2004

One who thinks and discriminates properly becomes free and the one who does not, is but a beast in bondage. The Ultimate Truth (Paramartha) is the discrimination between the "True" and the "Untrue". The Self alone is True and everything other than the Self is untrue.

"Brahman alone is True. The world is untrue. Brahman and the Jiva are one." - Shankara

The individual (Jiva) itself is only Brahman. It is the Self in the form of Reality, in the form of the "Sublime Truth", that is truly Brahman. The one who experiences the illusion, is the "True", whereas the experience itself is untrue. That which is hidden or latent is the essence, the Truth, and that which is manifest is untrue. After renouncing all pride, He who remains, is the Reality, the underlying support of all (Shesh). To give up all untrue concepts and bondage, is itself the Ultimate Truth.

That which is secret and hidden is of essence, and that which is open and seen is nonsense. You are not the body, nor the senses, nor prana, nor mind, nor intellect. All of these are prone to change and doomed to destruction. With discrimination, understand that you are apart from the body.

Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj - From a talk given on February 22, 1933