Queries on Realization & Enlightenment
Question
Sir, my greetings to you. Please clear some questions that are bothering me.
1. In a previous answer, you said to know god a person must realize who he is. Who am I?
2. Do enlightened beings also eat only vegetarian food? Are there not cases of such people taking non-veg?
3. Does one experience pain and pleasure after enlightenment?
4. Can a realized person do whatever he wants, just like god... since he has become one with God?
Answer
1. As long as the one who is asking this question exists, the self cannot be realized. When the one asking the question merges into the self, it will be known through direct experience.
2. An enlightened being eats a little of whatever comes to him by way of his Prarabdha (karma working out now), to sustain the body. He has no sense of differentiation between vegetarian or non-vegetarian food, for he takes in only the Prana (essence)in food, without least effect from the Guna (trait) of the elements that constitute the food. He is not concerned with any of these things, for the one who was concerned no longer exists.
3. The body & the senses of the realized sage experience pain or pleasure when consciousness partly associates with them, temporarily, when he brings his consciousness down into the worldly plane for 'Lokasamgraha' (benefit of mankind). However, he (as the Atman), remains completely unaffected, watching both pain and pleasure equally, with no internal reaction, as a mere witness, unconcerned with both these.
4. When he has become one with God and there is therefore only God, who is there to 'will', 'wish', 'do' or 'want'? That which the Lord wills occurs, just as always. Such a sage is an extension of the Lord in flesh and blood, with no individual want.
ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)