Vivekachudamani 50

Sri guru uvaca |
dhanyo'si krtakrtyo'si pavitam te kulam tvaya |
yada vidya bandha muktya brahmi bhavi tumicchasi ||
(Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 50)

The Guru replied: Blessed you are. For you wish to attain the absolute Brahman by freeing yourself from the bondage of ignorance. Indeed, you have fulfilled your life and have glorified your family.

We have got our spiritual form within this body, but because we have no vision of the spiritual form, we are taking this body as our form. This is called illusion.

The spiritual form is there. That is the realization of Brahman, aham brahmasmi. The Vedic injunction is just to understand that I am not this body. If anyone is under the concept of this body -- "I am this body," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am American," "I am Indian" -- in this way, with the bodily concept of life, we are thinking we are different from one another. At the same time, we desire that there may be unity of the human society, of the human being, and we can live peacefully. That is a very desirable thing. That is the thing we require to understand. But so long we are on the bodily concept of life, this goal cannot be achieved.

Unless we have got a spiritual understanding, we'll have to present ourselves with this bodily designation. This is designation: "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am Bengali," "I am Sindhi," "I am Punjabi," "I am American" These are all bodily conception of life. And so long we are in the bodily concepts of our life, we are no better than the animals, cats, and dogs. That is the statement of Vedic literature.
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Sang Guru menjawab: Terberkatilah kamu. Karena kamu ingin mencapai Brahman absolut dengan membebaskan dirimu dari belenggu kebodohan. Memang, Anda telah memenuhi hidup Anda dan telah memuliakan keluarga Anda.

Kita telah mendapatkan bentuk spiritual kita di dalam tubuh ini, tetapi karena kita tidak memiliki visi tentang bentuk spiritual, kita mengambil tubuh ini sebagai bentuk kita. Ini disebut ilusi.

Bentuk spiritual ada di sana. Itulah realisasi dari Brahman, aham brahmasmi. Perintah Veda hanya untuk memahami bahwa saya bukan badan ini. Jika ada orang di bawah konsep tubuh ini - "Saya adalah tubuh ini," "Saya Hindu," "Saya Muslim," "Saya Kristen," "Saya orang Amerika," "Saya orang India" - di dengan cara ini, dengan konsep kehidupan jasmani, kita berpikir kita berbeda satu sama lain. Pada saat yang sama, kita berhasrat agar ada kesatuan masyarakat manusia, umat manusia, dan kita bisa hidup damai. Itu adalah hal yang sangat diinginkan. Itulah hal yang perlu kita pahami. Tetapi selama kita berada pada konsep kehidupan tubuh, tujuan ini tidak dapat dicapai.

Jika kita tidak memiliki pemahaman spiritual, kita harus menunjukkan diri kita dengan sebutan jasmani ini. Ini adalah sebutan: "Saya Hindu," "Saya Muslim," "Saya Kristen," "Saya orang Bengali," "Saya Sindhi," "Saya Punjabi," "Saya orang Amerika," Semua ini adalah konsepsi tubuh hidup. Dan selama kita berada dalam konsep jasmani kehidupan kita, kita tidak lebih baik dari binatang, kucing, dan anjing. Itulah pernyataan literatur Veda.