Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to
narrate a story. There were this group of people called Gunupudi Jangams. They
didn't have any personal possessions and used to beg for a livelihood. Once
they all met in a place and wanted to build houses for themselves. As they
didn't have any money for buying bricks, cement etc. they looked around and
found a field of banana trees. They found the banana trunks so round and shiny
and thought they would make great pillars for the house. They cut the trees and
constructed houses for each one of them with the banana trunks as pillars and
the leaves as roof.
One of the Jangams wanted to
know what is inside the banana trunk. He took a knife and started peeling the
layers of the trunk one-by-one. Finally, there was nothing left except for
himself. A short while later a huge gust of wind blew and all the houses made
of banana trunks fell down. the Jangams were very sad and started crying. but
the one Jangam that did the inquiry into the true nature of the banana trunk already
knew that it wouldn't last long and he remained blissful as ever.
In Vedanta, there is a process
of inquiry called "Neti Neti Vicharana" - meaning inquiry that rules
out all the things that are not "I". The inquirer starts with all the
worldly things he finds around him and rules each one of them out realizing
"This is not I, this is not I." Then he realizes his own body, mind
and intellect are also not himself. By such inquiry one realizes the true
"I" or "Atma". Once he realizes that there is no fear or
sorrow of losing the worldly things and he remains in his blissful state no
matter what comes his way.
Thus, he attains the true state
of a Sthita-Prajna as described in the Bhagavad Gita. No joy or sorrow can
touch him as he realizes his oneness with the all-pervading almighty. Sri
Gurudev used to give another example also for this kind of inquiry. He used to
say, "You start peeling the layers of an onion to see what's really inside
it. Once you peel of all the layers, there is nothing left except 'You'."
