[Advaita-l] The outer Vs the inner

[V Subrahmanian]

 A friend shared this story, which makes a lot of sense, rather is full of
sense:

article which appeared in the magazine  "The MountainPath"
published by Sri Ramashramam , Tiruvannamalai. Please permit me to share it
with you.
Quote :

The 'Bhagavan' of the Devotees and The Real Bhagavan


By'One'

            From : The Mountain Path 1986 January



DO YOU know Bhagavan? To this question many devotees, His numerous
devotees, answer:

"Oh yes! I have read about His life story. His teachings, the reminiscences
narrated by those who were fortunate enough to sit at His feet".

Anyone belonging to the latter category would probably reply with great
enthusiasm, saying:

"Yes, I know Him very well! I have been greatly blessed in having His
darshan. How many times I have beheld His smiling face. His lustrous eyes,
heard His illuminating words, experienced the peace and power flowing from
His presence and felt the waves of pure love and compassion radiating from
His beaming countenance."

 Now if these devotees were to be told that they didn't know Bhagavan at
all and what-ever they saw or heard or read about Him was merely with
reference to His outer earthly manifestation, they wouldn't like it. But
the naked truth is that Bhagavan is Pure Spirit or Self and not the
socalled person or individual or the body. As Pure Spirit or Self, He
exists in the utter silence and aloneness of the spiritual dimension of
existence which totally transcends the illusory physical and mental levels
of existence.



As a Sufi Sage put it: —

"What knows the devotee of the Essence hidden within the form.

To his eye of flesh only the bottle is visible.

While blind is he to the wine invisible."

Here the bottle refers to the outer name and form and the wine represents
the Spirit within. Many devotees are so much taken in by the outer
appearance, that they are unaware of the Reality behind the appearance.

 The devotees' misapprehension of the Truth is no fault of theirs . As the
saying goes — "Only one Sage can understand another Sage." In other words
the perception depends upon the perceiver. Most people on earth are so much
in the grip of maya, that they are totally ignorant of their true nature as
the transcendent infinite Pure Spirit. Unaware of the
Existence-Awareness-Bliss which they actually are, they identify themselves
with their personality-mind-body. And so they superimpose this mistaken
identification on Bhagavan. And it is only when His Grace descends that the
wrong identification ceases and they experience Bhagavan; the real
Bhagavan, his own self.



The last words are; his own self, not His own Self. The omission of capital
letters is no error. In truth, there is but one single self and no other.
It alone is.

                              [From : The Mountain Path 1986 January]

Unquote