ॐ गं ॐ
Vedanta points out that what is apparently shining here as self-evident, immediate, 'I', is in reality, absolute consciousness - changeless, formless, limitless in time, space and object....meaning totally free, whole, complete...purna. What is immediate, is limitless. What is limitless is immediate.
Then what is this 'I' that I think is myself? It is the ego, the mistaken sense of self-identity, which is just of bunch of thoughts that I, absolute consciousness, am holding onto tight, in the mistaken belief that it is myself.
What is interesting is that thoughts by themselves are harmless - they come to go. However when we believe them to be real, and hold onto them, repeating the same thought over and over again, they seem to acquire a structure, and create a core identity, which appears solid and real. And our entire psychology, indeed all our behaviour stems from this sense of core identity.
This whole sense of core identity is based on error. And this is indeed a very costly error...It is only when we realize what a price we are paying, that we desire to be free of this error.
The core identity maybe healthy, it maybe unhealthy....both ways, it is still based on the basic error of taking 'I' to be restricted to the body-mind-sense complex.
First step is to gain an insight into the existence of the real self. To gain that insight itself requires so much of grace. To gain that grace, a life of dharma is the first step. Sometimes one may wonder, what great life of dharma one lead, to gain the insight .. it could be countless previous lives of dharma, leading to satsang in previous lives, which leads to an initial insight in this life. Therefore always lead a life of dharma. What is a life of dharma, is not the topic here...so for the time being, I leave it alone.
Once the insight is gained, one cannot but strive to do whatever it takes, to strengthen that insight into firm assimilated knowledge. There is no choice anymore. Once you understand how costly is the error, you will do whatever it takes to correct the error.
Then starts the process of letting go .... dropping whatever is not true. It is choiceless. There is no interest in holding on to thoughts based on error, believing them to be real. And as you drop notions one by one - you discover yourself as you are - full, whole, complete, purna.
Om Tat Sat
