January 12th was the 159th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanda. On this occasion, let us look at who judges us, from a spiritual point of view.
The greatest judge is not God, but our own conscience. Each of us is meant to be our own judge.
The reasoning is thus:
If we are all Jivatmas and the Lord God is Paramatma and according to the Vedanta philosophy, the Jivatma and Paramatma are non-different, then the following conclusions derive:
- Jivatma and Patamatma are different sides of the same coin
- The only reason why we , the Jivatmas cannot manifest the qualities of the Paramatma, is because we have chosen to enjoy mortal life or Samsara
- A necessary condition of enjoying mortal life is to switch off, or forget, our existence as Sat.Chit.Ananda – essentially, a part of Brahman and also the Paramatma, who is nothing but the active representation of Brahman
- The key thing to note here is that our manifestation as humans or mortals is driven by our own desires
- What that means is that God doesn’t send us here – we ourselves do
- Why ? Because not only do we have sentiency, we also have agency and ability
- The lives we lead here generate Karma and that Karma determines what happens in our next lives
- Therefore, we are also our own judges
- Till the time that we do not fully understand our true constitutional position , relative to Brahman and the Paramatma, we are not able to judge ourselves
- So, we are driven by the ups and downs of life and the resultant reactions of our own Karmas
- But the minute we are attain comprehension of the truth of our situations, then regardless of which faith we belong to ( remember that Sanatana Dharma is non-sectarian, meaning all beings are Sanatana – there is no separate ceremony needed to become one), we are immediately in a position to take cognizance of our own actions and non-actions
- When we reach that stage, we are able to judge ourselves and take the necessary actions
- We are then close to the stage known in Vedanta as Jivanmuktas – living but free from the effects of Samsara
- To reach Jivanmukta, we need to meditate, recognise the truth about our being Sat.Chit.Ananda and become non-interested in the benefits of Samsara
