How does the journey of self-realization, God realization and salvation start?
The journey starts with a very simple learning: we are not the body. It starts with a negation of the reality that we are the body. But how does one negate this belief that we are the body? All through life we say that we are this body - but what happens at death? At death we come to know that the body dies and the person in the body moves on, passes on. At least now, when we see a body that’s dying or dead, we should realize that this body is not the person that we knew. This body is only a vehicle of the divine soul, the spirit, the atman. When we realize that we are not this body, it marks the beginning of our journey of realization.
Without realizing that we are not the body, we cannot realize the true self. We are so attached to what we think is the true self and our ego is in complete command of who we think we are that we are unwilling to believe that we are ‘not this, not this’. That is why the first thing we must bring our self to believe is that I am not the body. The body dies, but I don’t die. This is my hand, this is my head, but where am I? What am I? I am not the body. I am something else. I am a power that resides in the body. I am the life power. I am the spirit. I am the energy. I am the breath. I am the life. I am not the body - this starts the realization journey.
The journey starts with wonder that captures attention, then moves to curiosity to investigate. This is not enough for the journey of realization, though. Not even desire is enough. The intelligence to see clearly comes about by pushing fear aside and not blinking, and this is required. Desire and honesty are also required but they do not insure awakening. Faith, or a belief that there is something more to be known than what you currently know … this ties in and provides a reason, at first. When chunks of ignorance begin to fall away, and who you think you are loses its grip on the motive to act, then the journey becomes more-or-less self-perpetuating. Through detachment, which is distinct from disassociation, one does view the body impartially. Thirst and hunger become incorporated into the ever-unfolding present moment. Resulting physical changes are on par with all other perceived phenomona in that they are incorporated into the fabric of living, without rejection, until a reason to drink that connects with the totality of all presents itself to awareness, and one drinks clean water. In the ensuing realization of drinking, in the starbursts of pleasure that are the body replenishing, one realizes that one is the body, and more.
“Your body, the society, the forest, and the ways are all in you; you are not in them. You are the body also, but not this body exclusively.” - Sri Ramana Maharshi