way we can think. There is no other way of thinking. Our life should be a continuous
process, aviplava, of the manifestation of this understanding, so that even in our
day-to-day life, in our working hours also, our mind should think only in this manner
and there should be no other way of thinking—just as even when we are intensely
busy we cannot forget our identity of personality, and even the heaviest business
cannot obliterate the consciousness of the world that is in front of us or that we are
awake to at this time. A thing that is in front of us is visible to us, even if we are
intensely busy with any amount of enterprise, because that kind of awareness has
become part of our very existence; so should become this aviplava viveka khyati.
The moment we open our eyes, the moment we think, the moment we feel, the
moment we act or react, this should be the attitude. This is the continuous operation
of viveka khyati, which is the only way to salvation. No other way is there.
This viveka khyati, or understanding, arises by stages; it does not suddenly burst like
a bomb. In the beginning it very gradually reveals itself by effort, and later on it
becomes a spontaneous feature. In one of the sutras we are told that there are at
least seven stages of the manifestation of this understanding. The number seven is
very holy, and it has been held holy in all religions and in all mystical fields, whether
of the East or the West. Something very strange it is. In all the scriptures we see this
number seven mentioned as a holy number. These are supposed to be the stages of
the ascent of the soul to its perfection.
The earlier stages are those of personal effort, exertion and deliberate attempt,
whereas the later ones are automatic. We are merely carried away by the momentum
of past effort where, on account of the diminution of the intensity of individuality-
consciousness, the question of personal effort does not arise. The gravitational pull of
a totally different realm takes us by the hand and we are led along the direction of
that pull, which is a different thing altogether from the pull of this earth, against
which we have to put forth effort in the earlier stages.
Tasya saptadhā prāntabhūmiḥ prajñā (II.27): Consciousness is sevenfold. The
awareness of this type arises by gradual degrees, in seven stages, according to the
meaning of this sutra as agreed upon by interpreters, because the meaning is not
given here as to what these stages are. It simply says there are seven stages. We are
told that the seven stages are the stages of the discovery of reality, by degrees, in the
phenomena of experience.
The first stage is supposed to be the detection of the defect in the objects or things:
there is something wrong with things, and they are not as they appear to be. This is
the first awareness that arises in a person. Things are not what they seem, as the poet
said. Even the best things are not really what they are. They appear to be best under
certain conditions. The valuable things, the worthy things, the virtuous things, the
beautiful things—all these are conditionally valid, and they are not valid in their
essence. That the objects of sense, the things of the world, are constituted of a nature
essentially different from what they appear to the senses and the mind is an
awareness that arises in the discriminating, and not in all people. Crass perception
takes the world for granted, and people run after things as moths run to fire, not
knowing that it is their destruction. The awareness arises, pointing out that there is
some mystery behind things which is quite different from the colour and the shape of
things visible to the senses—that there is pain in this world, and it is not pleasure.
Pain is rooted behind the so-called pleasure of the world. Sorrow is to follow all the