Getting On the Innernet

For most Hindus, Self-realization is God-realization. How can this be? " The air closed inside a jar is not at all different from air outside the jar", said Shankaracharya " In exactly the same way, your Inner self is exactly identical with the Self of all. Smash the jar and the air inside it merges seamlessly with the air outside. Smash the illusion that you exist apart from God, and you merge in that divine reality". 

The jars we are locked in are the physical, astral, and causal bodies. The physical body is smashed at death. The astral body is smashed at rebirth. But the causal body, the subtlemost vortex of energy in which our Inner Self reincarnates, is smashed only at the moment of final liberation, when the Inner Self merges in the Divine Self.

Think about it. Just as our five fingers are not really separate because they are linked to the same hand, so the Self in you and the Self in me (and the Self in Lassie the dog for that matter) are not really separate because they are linked in the Supreme Self, the consciousness of God.

When you harm someone else, you are literally harming your Self. When you love someone else, you are literally loving your Self.

At the innermost level of our being we are all intimately linked. Apollonious of Tyana was amazed when he arrived in Kashmir and found yogis who knew everything about him. " How can you possibly know me?" he demanded. " We begin by knowing our-selves", was their reply.

The advanced adepts of the Hindu tradition move into a space in consciousness where there is no space between us. They explain that that is how they appear to know their disciples' very thoughts. Hindus assume Jesus was expressing exactly the same concept as their own great spiritual masters when he said, " I am the vine, you are the branches". (John 15:1.) We are linked at the root with God.