Know thy Self

As i have mentioned many times our slokas are not just requests, or praises or blabbering, mutterings which don't make sense, it has three layers to it. Our dharma is all about knowing one'self, that is why I titled my thought processes as know thy self.Now let me explain the different layers

The first layer: a person growing up in a Hindu family follows certain practices like early morning prayers, respect for elders, performing

karma, following rituals etc. These practices are meant to streamline one's life process, discipline them and physically and mentally prepare them for the next level of knowing and understanding one's life. We see this being followed at all stages of life but it is strictly 100% in the brahmacharya stage and the early stage of grihastha stage since they are in level 1.

The second layer: As one's body and mind is tuned to following rituals and the body is disciplined and conditioned, the real process begins in the late grihastha stage and early vanaprastham stage. The search for the truth of who we are, why we are what we are, what is the divine? What is an atman? What is the relationship between the two? These questions arise and every ritual performed will be looked at with not just performing them but doing it with understanding.

When the self is going through this process of understanding the cleansing process begins. All of us know that cleaning the body every day is necessary to be healthy physically, but little did we know that cleansing internally keeps our mind and intellect healthy. so when one is on the second level, you understand the importance of cleansing yourself internally. so manimekalai talks about this cleansing only.

Naladiyar says :

தக்கோலம் தின்று தலைநிறையப் பூச்சூடிப்

பொய்க்கோலம் செய்ய ஒழியுமே - எக்காலும்

உண்டி வினையுள் உறைக்கும் எனப்பெரியோர்

கண்டுகை விட்ட மயல்.

It means:Outward adornment is not inward purification.

Will impurity ever cease from the worthless body which the great have abandoned,

knowing it to be reeking with odours from processes connected with nutrition, though

aromatics be chewed, the head covered with garlands, and the body adorned with

false splendour?

so we need to understand that external purification alone is not enough, we should start cleansing internally as well.

How is this done?

1.disentangle yourself from your physical appearances, don't attach too much importance to a make over of your physical self.your inner beauty oozes out if you stop painting yourself on the outside.

2.be your own critic, understand your weakness and your evil thought process and make an effort to slowly turn it off.ie kama, krodha, moham etc. for example, you may look at someone very beautiful and get jealous about them. When the thought arises, try to turn the heat down by simply acknowledging that beauty is universal.

3.replace your weakness with a strong positive thought process. for eg. you may think , i don't have any talent, whereas everybody else has- this is negative, how do you turn it to positive by simply trying new things and identifying what is your liking, what comes out best in you. remember everyone in this world comes with a magic wand called talent, some find it some don't that is the difference. it is never too late to find it.

4. we do a lot of shopping and sometimes we use them, sometimes we don't use them isn't it? what do we do, we take them out, wipe them and either find a way to use it or give it away isn't it? Likewise, there are a lot of experiences which you would have gathered, revisit them once in a while, see whether they are useful to you at that point in time, if it is useless, throw it away , erase from your memory, clean it. or share it with someone who might need it and you forget about it. your action triggers a reaction and it might produce results for someone else.

This is the second layer or understanding.

The third layer is diving deep inside and reaching your soul which holds the divine.

Many of us are in the second level only so I have devoted more space to it. but let us scratch the surface of the third level.

3. This level is the parama anandam stage.

the stage when the universe (Prakrit); the parabrahmam (the divine) and the atma (soul) are in harmony with each other. So there is no barrier or wall. The atman is like a skater, skating on the ice of the universe to the tune of the divine.That is divine bliss, perfection at its best.