The third qualification with which one has to be equipped is
Uparathi. This implies a state of mind which is above and beyond
all dualities such as joy and grief, liking and disliking, good
and bad, praise and blame, which agitate and affect the common
man. But, these universal experiences can be overcome or negated
by means of spiritual exercises or intellectual inquiry. Man can
escape from these opposites and dualities and attain balance and
stability. Uparathi can be achieved, if one is careful, while
engaged in day-to-day living, to avoid entanglement with and
bondage to differences and distinctions. One should free oneself
from identification with castes like Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya
and Sudra, or clans like Gotras, or conditions like boyhood,
youth, adult and old age, or genders like masculine and feminine.
When he succeeds in discarding these and is firmly established in
the Atmic Reality alone, he has really achieved Uparathi.
Do not look at the world as the world with a worldly eye. Look
upon it with the eye of Atma, as the projection of Paramatma. That
can make one cross the horizon of dualities into the region of the
One. The One is experienced as many, because of the forms and
names man has imposed on it. That is the result of the mind
playing its game. Uparathi promotes inner exploration, Nivrithi,
not outer enquiry and activity, Pravrithi. Along Nivrithi lies the
Path of Jnana (Intellectual Inquiry); along Pravathi lies the Path
of Karma (Dedicated Activity).
The sacred activities like rituals and sacrifices (Karma) laid
down in the Vedas cannot confer liberation from bondage to birth
and death, Moksha. They help only to cleanse the Consciousness. It
is said that they raise man to Heaven; but Heaven too is but a
bond. It does not promise eternal freedom. The freedom which makes
one aware of the Truth, of his own Truth, can be gained only
through Sravana (Listening to the Guru), Manana (Ruminating over
what has been so listened to) and Nididhyasana (Meditating on its
validity and significance). Only those who have detached their
minds from desire can benefit from the Guru. Others cannot profit
from the guidance. Those who expect and look forward to the fruits
of their actions can engage in them until their consciousness is
cleansed. After that, their actions are of no value. So, one must
be ever conscious of the Atma, as pervading and penetrating
everything, so that attraction and repulsion, the duality complex,
cannot affect him.