What is Self-Realization?
Since just about every Self-realized master defines Self-realization in their own unique way, perhaps the best approach for answering this ellusive question is to provide a sampling of various explanations. In this way you can decide which answers the question best for you.
“Self-realization means the realization that your true Self is not the ego, but God, the vast ocean of Spirit which manifested for a time the little wave of awareness that you now see as yourself.”
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-Paramahansa Yogananda-
"Self-realization is God-realization and God-realization is Self-realization."
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"Who am I? This realization is the purpose of of human life."
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-Sri Anandamayi Ma-
“Our essential nature is happiness. But we have forgotten the Self and imagined that the body or the mind is the Self. It is the wrong identity that gives rise to misery.”
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“The Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God. (Mental) Stillness is the sole requisite for the realization of the Self as God.”
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-Sri Ramana Maharshi-
"Nirvana is the realization of the Self; and after having once known that, if only for an instant, never again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality."
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-Swami Vivekananda-
As Defined by Others
“The words Self-realization and enlightenment are often used synonymously in spiritual literature to refer to the liberation of an individual from the sense of limitation brought about by identification with conditioned beliefs, opinions, fears, desires, and habits.”
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-James Schwartz- (www.stillnessspeaks.com)
"God-realization and Self-realization are one and the same. God-realization is nothing but the ability and expansiveness of heart to love everything equally."
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"The human endeavor and purpose is not actually to attain God. You already have God; God is omnipresent. What you don’t have, what you have not attained, is yourself. So your endeavor should really be to attain yourself. When you truly know yourself, when you realize yourself, then you will understand that you have also realized God. That which you call God today, you will understand fully when you know yourself on the deepest level. Do not disturb your practice of religion, but also learn to know yourself on all levels."
-Swami Rama-
"Self-realization, which means knowing who you are beyond the surface self — beyond your name, your physical form, your history, your story."
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-Eckhart Tolle- (Stillness Speaks)
"The realized is like a child at peace in the womb of the Mother, knowing he is sustained at every moment by the grace and Light of the Divine Mother."
~ Mother Meera
"The realized is like a child at peace in the womb of the Mother, knowing he is sustained at every moment by the grace and Light of the Divine Mother."
~ Mother Meera
"The realized is like a child at peace in the womb of the Mother, knowing he is sustained at every moment by the grace and Light of the Divine Mother."
~ Mother Meera
“What is the meaning of God-Realization? It means to become one with God. By thinking and imagining, one can never become one with God. Union is possible only after the death of thoughts and imagination — the mind must die."
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-Meher Baba-