Self- Discovery (Unravelling The Ultimate Truth About Human Existence)

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Since times immemorial the human mind has endeavoured to plumb into the nature and depths of human existence. The rishis of India were stalwart inquirers into the nature of human existence and Consciousness. Their meditations and processes of enquiry constitute the Upanishads or the knowledge portion of the Vedic literature. This profound piece of literature epitomizes the Indian spiritual heritage and is called Vedanta. It encapsulates the essence of the Vedas and goads human energy to discover the highest reaches of human consciousness.

Vedanta essentially contains the Science of Consciousness. The unit of Consciousness that constitutes the core of human existence is called the Atman, the Self. Its nature is Sat - Existence, Chit - Consciousness and Ananda - Bliss. It can be realized through a process of Self-enquiry. This Self-discovery comprises the summum bonum of the human experience. The path to Self-discovery is both difficult and rewarding. No developed human mind can ever desist from this ultimate adventure.

I was deep into the Vedanta from a young age. The bold analytical inquiries to unravel the bare existential truths of life, which characterizes the Vedanta, inspired me from within. My diaries were full of research into Consciousness both from the personal and scriptural angles. In 2019, NRCVEE IIT Delhi requested me to offer a course on Discovery and Management of Self to graduate and post graduate students. The course was floated as VEV 731 Special module on Inner Development. This was the third course I delivered at IIT Delhi. It allowed me to delve deep into the concept of Self and the unfolding of higher consciousness.

The course talks were uploaded on NRCVEE's official channel and are being studied by millions world-wide. The younger generation is the most interested. Most of the viewers are from within the 35-age category. The study of Consciousness naturally and seamlessly interfaces diverse branches of knowledge including Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Positive Psychology. The tremendous insights of Vedanta are thus greatly relevant to our youth force and a huge section of our intelligentsia. Swami Vivekananda had exclaimed, "A student who thinks he is the Atman will be a better student, a lawyer who thinks he is the Atman will be a better lawyer and so on."He also said, "Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and all that is excellent will come once the soul is aroused to Self-conscious activity."

In the whole of creation, man is unique. Using his sense organs, mind and intellect he studies and analyses the external nature - the world experienced by him. However immense may be his knowledge of this external world, he is not satisfied. He wants to explore the internal nature - his own Self! That leads to the question "Who Am I?" Swami Vivekananda says, "The aim of human life is to manifest the divinity within using any one or more of the four Yogas - Karma, Bhakti, jnana and Raja Yoga." He would assert to youngsters, "Stand as a rock. You are indestructible. You are the Self of the universe."

Trying to know the Self, by going beyond the trifles of this world, going beyond body-consciousness, mind, intellect and ego, opens up a vast field, the vista of "Consciousness" which is realized as one's own nature. This is the Real Self pervading the whole Universe -Brahman. This realization is possible only when we can successfully transcend the body-mind-ego complex.

This book is all about transcending the Non-Self namely body, mind, intellect and ego through Yoga and Vedanta and getting established in one's own True Being - the state which is Sat-Chit-Ananda - Existence, Knowledge and Bliss.

Self-Discovery is a collection of nine lectures delivered to students of IIT Delhi in 2019 by Pravrajika Divyanandaprana of Sri Sarada Math, who is currently stationed at our centre in New Delhi. It is a matter of great joy and satisfaction that our young men and women in the universities are getting ready access to this subtle and profound subject - Self-Knowledge. The book is bound to make its mark wherever consciousness will be studied as a science. The combination of neurophysiological and psychological perspectives and angles in the book throws fresh light on the extreme relevance of studying consciousness not through the lens of religion or philosophy, but as a science.

**Contents and Sample Pages**