According to the ancient Wisdom on the subject, once you're self-realized, you'll show certain symptoms. That's how we can identify a truly sel-realized or liberated soul, compared to someone who is just talking theoretically, or fabricating.
It will be obvious by your actions that you're exhibiting symptoms of enlightenment. Watch what people do, not what they say.
According to the ancient text, a liberated soul knows the truth of self, other and source. And they know the relationship between these three objects.
They know that all three objects, namely self, other and source, are one and the same in quality, although they may appear different in quantity. That is the final conclusion.
And when you not only know this theoretically, but also experience it or realize it, then your actions will reveal this for all to observe.
How does one act when they see no distinction between themselves and any other, or between themselves and their maker, their source, their god? After all god is the word we use for the original source of everything, known in the Sanskrit text as the causeless cause of all causes. The original seed giving father of all offspring.
"Aham brahmasmi" I am spirit, the ancient Wisdom tells us.
We are all in quality one substance, vibrating at the same frequency, yet we feel and see separation - from each other, even from our source, from God. This separation is described as an illusion. There is no separation, only forgetfulness. We are all connected always.
Some conclude, therefore, that there is no other. Or that there is no self, or that there is no god. They may conclude that there is either nothing, or there is only one thing - spirit (Brahman).
But do they act accordingly? Is it internalized realization or only lip service and theory?
The truth lies somewhere in between oneness and duality, between union and separation. The truth lies in the third way, the synthesis of both concepts of oneness and separation, simultaneously, yet inconceivably so.
This inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference between self, other and god, is known in Sanskrit as
> achintya bedhabedha tattva
Realize this and you are liberated. That is the conclusion and secret of self-realization. Now you know, but do you understand? What does it even mean? What to speak of how does one act on this insight and realization.
You can't fake it. You can't deny it. There is nothing else. This is all there is, this one substance of which we are all small fragments and expressions.
To love is to love all, to love yourself, to love your God, as if they are part and parcel of one and the same thing. The other - all others - are included.
With this realization there is no enemy, no bad, no competition, no loss, no lack, no fear.
Only love, wholeness, union and completion.
Bhagavad Gita ch4:35
***yaj jñātvā na punar moham
evaṁ yāsyasi pāṇḍava
yena bhūtāny aśeṣāṇi
drakṣyasy ātmany atho mayi***
SYNONYMS
yat—which; jñātvā—knowing; na—never; punaḥ—again; moham—illusion; evam—like this; yāsyasi—you shall go; pāṇḍava—O son of Pāṇḍu; yena—by which; bhūtāni—all living entities; aśesāṇi—totally; drakṣyasi—you will see; ātmani—in the Supreme Soul; atho—or in other words; mayi—in Me
TRANSLATION
**And when you have thus learned the truth, you will know that all living beings are but part of Me—and that they are in Me, and are Mine.**
> PURPORT
The result of receiving knowledge from a self-realized soul, or one who knows things as they are, is learning that all living beings are parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The sense of a separated existence from Kṛṣṇa is called māyā (mā—not, yā—this). Some think that we have nothing to do with Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa is only a great historical personality and that the Absolute is the impersonal Brahman. Factually, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, this impersonal Brahman is the personal effulgence of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the cause of everything. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is clearly stated that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes. Even the millions of incarnations are only His different expansions. Similarly, the living entities are also expansions of Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādī philosophers wrongly think that Kṛṣṇa loses His own separate existence in His many expansions. This thought is material in nature. We have experience in the material world that a thing, when fragmentally distributed, loses its own original identity. But the Māyāvādī philosophers fail to understand that Absolute means that one plus one is equal to one, and that one minus one is also equal to one. This is the case in the absolute world.
For want of sufficient knowledge in the absolute science, we are now covered with illusion, and therefore we think that we are separate from Kṛṣṇa. Although we are separated parts of Kṛṣṇa, we are nevertheless not different from Him. The bodily difference of the living entities is māyā, or not actual fact. We are all meant to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. By māyā alone Arjuna thought that the temporary bodily relationship with his kinsmen was more important than his eternal spiritual relationship with Kṛṣṇa. The whole teaching of the Gītā is targetted toward this end: that a living being, as His eternal servitor, cannot be separated from Kṛṣṇa, and his sense of being an identity apart from Kṛṣṇa is called māyā. The living entities, as separate parts and parcels of the Supreme, have a purpose to fulfill. Having forgotten that purpose, since time immemorial they are situated in different bodies, as men, animals, demigods, etc. Such bodily differences arise from forgetfulness of the transcendental service of the Lord. But when one is engaged in transcendental service through Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one becomes at once liberated from this illusion. One can acquire such pure knowledge only from the bona fide spiritual master and thereby avoid the delusion that the living entity is equal to Kṛṣṇa. Perfect knowledge is that the Supreme Soul, Kṛṣṇa, is the supreme shelter for all living entities, and giving up such shelter, the living entities are deluded by the material energy, imagining themselves to have a separate identity. Thus, under different standards of material identity, they become forgetful of Kṛṣṇa. When, however, such deluded living entities become situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is to be understood that they are on the path of liberation, as confirmed in the Bhāgavatam: muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. Liberation means to be situated in one's constitutional position as the eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa (Kṛṣṇa consciousness).
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Written and published from my mobile device onto the Hive blockchain for those who are interested in self-realization and knowing the secret code to existence.
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