Your Cognition Is Transformable
Authored by
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān-guṇān kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṇgosya sadasadyonijanmasu
The living entity in the material nature follows the way of life, enjoying the moods of nature. Due to association with the material nature it meets the good or evil among various species
Powerful Cognition
Every being is moving towards the Divine, whether or not the being is aware of it.
upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ paramātmeti cāpyukto dehe'sminpuruṣaḥ paraḥ
Yet, in this body there is a transcendental energy. He who is divine, who exists as a owner or the witness, supporter, enjoyer and the pure witnessing consciousness, is known as the Paramātman
Powerful Cognition
If we put ourselves into the fire of witnessing consciousness, we become purified
ya evaṁ vetti puruṣaṁ prakṛtiṁ ca guṇaiḥ saha sarvathā vartamānopi na sa bhūyobhijāyate
One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position
Powerful Cognition
The understanding that we are beyond all petty things like fighting for name, fame, money or power liberates us from them. A cognitive shift happens that transforms and frees us from the bondage of material things. And when it happens, it is a quantum jump in the level of consciousness. It does not happen gradually. It is spontaneous enlightenment. It is like pressing a switch and the whole room is lit up in one shot.
Introduction Here Kṛṣṇa gives us a technique. As of now, we are like 18-carat gold, copper and gold mixed together. When we repeatedly put the 18-carat gold into the fire of witnessing consciousness, eventually it becomes 22-carat gold. If we continue to put that gold into the fire, the 22-carat gold becomes pure 24-carat gold. In the same way, if we put ourselves into the fire of witnessing consciousness, we become purified to a certain extent. Again and again, if we constantly put ourselves into this fire of witnessing consciousness, our inner space eventually becomes completely pure, like 24-carat gold.
The essence of all religions and all spirituality, the whole thing is contained in this single verse that Kṛṣṇa presents here. Kṛṣṇa presents the master key that opens all locks. Witnessing the body and the mind, witnessing your being. Witnessing is the master key
If we can enter the witnessing technique and experience the witnessing space of completion for at least a few minutes, we will get a taste of it. However much we hear about witnessing, however much we talk about witnessing or however much we analyze the art of witnessing, unless we experience it ourselves, it is of no use. You must test it on yourself.
You must test it with your being. Reading or listening will not transform you. Reading or listening is like reading the menu and leaving the restaurant without tasting the food on the menu! If you listen to what I say without testing, it is like going away from a restaurant without eating. So now since we have read the menu card, it is time to taste the preparation.
Your Cognition is Transformable, Be Complete
Kṛṣṇa goes one step further. All along He told us how to cleanse our inner space and how to realize the Divine consciousness within. Now, in the last verse He says that one who does so attains liberation, regardless of his present position, sarvathā vartamāno 'pi na sa bhūyo 'bhijāyate (13.24).
Every being is moving towards the Divine, whether or not the being is aware of it. We take on this body to fulfill certain desires. If we truly put our energies into dissolving these desires, we have no reason to take another birth to fulfill these desires. The incompletion happens when we start to lead somebody else's life and forget we are here to live our desires and not others' desires. We constantly borrow other people's desires and accumulate them in us.
Then, before we start realizing our true nature, it becomes time to leave this body. We take with us the entire baggage of unfulfilled desires and take another body again. The universe again and again tries to help us dissolve our desires so that we become free of them. But we resist by not feeling responsible for what happens within and around us.
Kṛṣṇa says that an understanding of kṣetra or prakṛti straightaway liberates us. We are caught up in pursuing sense pleasures and accumulating desires as long as we associate ourselves with this body. The minute we understand that we are beyond the body and mind, we suddenly realize, 'What stupidity to run in this rat race!
Understand, your cognition is changeable, transformable is the first cognition you need. Whenever people realize that they are beyond the bondages of body and mind, that their cognition is changeable, spontaneous Enlightenment happens. When people who go on doing completion, with their body and mind, along with the basic root-pattern that their cognition is not changeable; then finally, at one point, they break and understand that cognition is changeable, they become enlightened. That is called Enlightenment process, gradual Enlightenment. People who immediately understand that cognition is changeable and awaken, are people who have become spontaneously enlightened, they have instant Enlightenment.
Cognitions are changeable
You go on believing that because you are seeing from the time of your birth, seeing is hardware of you like the eyes. You don't separate eyes and seeing, you don't separate ears and hearing, you don't separate tongue and tasting. You don't separate kṣetra and kṣetrajñya, the one watching the kṣetra. You think that if it is there, it is there, which is not the truth. Cognition is changeable. Cognition is transformable. With this clarity that the cognition is transformable, now decide and be liberated.
Completion does not mean blindly accepting everything that happens in your life, in the kṣetra. It simply means not resisting life as it happens to us. The root of all our incompletions is the idea we carry — Life should not be this way.
That is why we spend our whole life asking, 'Why, why, why? Why is life so bad? Why did this happen to me? Why do bad things happen to good people?'
Spontaneous completion or instant completion means simply dropping the wrong understanding that is creating conflict for you in a particular situation.