What is SELF REALISATION?

 

The formless brAhman/DIVINITY/ENERGY/God will reside hidden in every human being. The brAhman or the formless/nameless ENERGY that creates, nourishes and merges in it (ends) this transient World, is undivided and permanent.

In terms of Vedanta, the visible world, including living and non-living things, is transient and got divided and thus it is not permanent. The formless brAhman will remain dormant due to defective way of understanding/looking at the World, ie., believing the visible world as a permanent one. The DIVINITY/ENERGY/God will be activated only after getting rid of the false beliefs/perceptions/one’s weak habits.

This activation of dormant brAhman or realising the hidden DIVINITY within ONESELF is known by different terminology in different schools of thoughts, viz, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc, as moksha, nirvana.

This activation of dormant brAhman or realising the hidden DIVINITY within ONESELF is also called SELF REALISATION.

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Contrary to the prevalent beliefs, the term SELF REALISATION was first used in Rig Veda 1.82.2. There it was called svabhānavo - SELF-ILLUMINATION.

अक्षन्नमीमदन्त ह्यव प्रिया अधूषत । अस्तोषत स्वभानवो विप्रा नविष्ठया मती योजा न्विन्द्र ते हरी ॥

akṣan ǀ amīmadanta ǀ hi ǀ ava ǀ priyāḥ ǀ adhūṣata ǀ

astoṣata ǀ sva-bhānavaḥ ǀ viprāḥ ǀ naviṣṭhayā ǀ matī ǀ yoja ǀ nu ǀ indra ǀ te ǀ harī iti ǁ

Translation by Shri Aurobindo

Thus the self-lustrous illumined seers  shook down raptures, {they} tasted, intoxicated themselves, have chanted by newest thought . Now { I } have yoked, O Indra , thy {two} bright horses .