[Advaita-l] 'Removal of the non-Self ' : A trivial analogy

[V. Krishnamurthy]

Namaste

 

A little while ago I pointed out (in Message #19058) to Ranjeet Shankar that his own quotes from Shankara Bhashya showed only that ‘no effort is needed to know the Self; the effort is needed only to remove the non-self’. After posting that, I went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee for myself (from scratch) and in doing so I ‘discovered’ an analogy for ‘the removal of the non-self to be the only thing attempted’. I am presenting this analogy below, not because  it is a wonderful analogy, but because it made sense to me at the time when it struck me like a flash. So here is my two cents worth. 

 

My methods of making coffee. I pour boiling water over the coffee powder in the coffee cone (# 1). The filtered coffee drips down into the coffee jug (# 2) below. But I usually want a second filtration. So what do I do?  After all the water has filtered through the powder into #2 as coffee, I pour the contents of #2 back into the cone (#1). But when I take #2 out from under the cone there has to be something at the bottom to receive any residual drip from #1. So I put #1 over a temporary cup (#3) and pour the contents of #2 back into the cone. But my final coffee has to be in #2, the coffee jug.  So I have now to take #1 away from its position over #3 and put it back over #2. But in doing so I cannot allow any dripping of coffee (now #1  is full and dripping) on the counter top. So this process has to be done in an artistic way which is nothing but obvious.

I keep the cone (#1) in my right hand, the temporary cup #3 below it in my left hand, keeping them in the same position of their vertical order, lift both hands, bring them vertically above #2 (final destination of the coffee) and when all the #s 1, 2 and 3 are in the same vertical line, SIMPLY REMOVE #2.

So this is the removal of the non-Self to see the Self. The Self is already there, namely #2. I only remove the non-Self!.

 

praNAms to all advaitins 

profvk



Prof. V. Krishnamurthy
My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/
You can  access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and Practice,  and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.