ADVAITA-SAADHANAA
(Kanchi Maha-Swamy’s Discourses)
There is a custom of
offering me a PoorNa-kumbha (the formal ritual reception with a vessel full of
purified water). At that time, as well as in your marriages and other functions
when you offer the sacred offering to the Achareya, there is a mantra which is
recited by the Pundits. It refers to “those great ones whose antaH-karaNa has
been purified by sannyAsa-yoga”
[cf. Mundaka U. III-2.6.
*vedAnata-vijnAna-sunishcitarthAH
sannyAsa-yogAd-yatayaH
shuddh-satvAH*]
Here the reference is to
the jnAnis. And this again shows the contention of the Upanishad that sannyAsa
is first, and then only, through that purification one obtains jnAna.
An ‘atyAshrami’ is one who
is either in the SannyAsa-Ashrama or one who is even higher than that, namely
one who is a jnAni whom no ShAstraic injunctions touch. The
Svetasvataropanishad (VI-21) seems to be teaching Brahma VidyA only to such
atyAshramis. There is an Upanishad called Kaivalyopanishad. The Acharya used to
quote from it Advaita-saadhanaa 164
often.
In the beginning of that Upanishad it says the atyAsharami goes to a solitary
place, sits in a straight Asana, controls his senses and mind and meditates on
the Shiva svarUpa, his Atman.
After shravaNa, come manana
and nididhyAsana. Just as it says: “Only after becoming a sannyAsi the shravaNa
process takes place” so also there is also an authority for saying Only a
SannyAsi has the right to do manana and nididhyAsana: *mananAdau sannyAsinAM
adhikAraH*.
In Brahma-sUtras, the
sannyAsis are referred to (III-4-17) as *Urdhvaretas*. This means those who
don’t waste their energy in low activities of the senses, but take it
Brahmasutras and also upward into noble paths. Reading through those portions of the the
Achary’a Bhashyas on them, it is clear that they (the SannyAsis) are the ones
who are qualified for the third stage in advaita-sAdhanA. A jnAni has to be a
sannyAsi; should be.
Brahmasutra has another
name for it: ‘Bhikshu-sutra’. Bhikshu means sannyAsi. One who lives, not on
one’s home-food, but on BhikshA (formal ritualistic begging) is called a
bhikshu. The book that is totally dedicated to enquiry into Brahman being
called ‘bhikshu-sUtra’ shows that it is the sannyAsi who has the right for this
v idyA.
When a matter occurs in the
Gita, then there is no higher certificate needed! If we question whether the
matter of sannyAsi having the only right for shravaNa etc. has occurred in the
teachings of the Lord, the answer is yes! “All karmas finally end up in jnAna”
(IV – 33, 34), says the Lord and continues “The seers of Truth will teach you
the jnAna. One should bow to them, be in servitude to them, and learn by
questioning and further questioning”. Ending up of karmas means thereafter it
is only sannyAsa. Does it not then mean that “Only such a sannyAsi has the
eligibility to receive the teaching of jnAna”?
Truth is the absolute
ultimate, no, it is tapas (austerity) that is ultimate. No again, it is dama
(control of mind); it is only shama (control of the mind) -- and so on goes the
Narayanavalli, detailing the greatness of one after the other (Mahanarayana
Upanishad. Anuvaka 78). But finally, it says: “It is none of these that is
ultimate. SannyAsa is the Ultimate Principle. The Creator Brahma Himself has
said so”.
When one reaches the higher
rungs of the ladder of sAdhanA to know the Atman, it is possible only by the
SannyAsi who has left karma behind. Atma is inaccessible by karma. It has to be
enquired into, meditated on, further meditated on, and then in due course even
that meditative action has to stop – only in that stage one can know the Atman.
‘To do karma and also to do dhyAna simultaneously’ is incompatible. So long as
one is Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 165
in
karma stage, associated with that there will be several relationships. *sangAt
sanjAyate kAmaH …krodhaH … * as the Lord has said (B.G. II – 62), a single such
association will set up a chain relationship of kAmaM, krodhaM, etc. and
finally end up in *buddhi-nAshAt praNashyati* (intelligence is destroyed and
the individual is lost). That is why the Acharya says in Vivekachudamani
(147/149) “karma-koTibhiH na shakyaH” – even if a crore of karma is done, the
bondage will not cease. *viveka-vijnAna-mahAsinA vinA dhAtuH prasAdena sitena
manjunA* -- It can be cut asunder only by the grand sword of sAdhanA starting
from nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka (discrimination between the unreal and the real)
up to the vijnAna stage when one gets the wisdom of experience, by the Grace of
God.
If one has to dedicate
one’s life to cut this bondage, one has to get away from family, relationships,
profession and even all religious obligations.
But one thing should not be
forgotten. It is not as if any one can just throw away religious obligations of
karma and become a sannyAsi. The Acharya has never said so. He has ruled that
such a right is there only for those whose minds have been purified. How to
purify the mind? The emphatic direction of the Acharya is to discharge all the
karmic obligations systematically and without default. The same Acharya who said
that even a crore of karma cannot give you release from bondage, in his great
compassionate anguish at the dim prospect of this being misused by immature
people who may throw away the karmic obligations as well as their svadharma and
thus destroy themselves, has, right in the next shloka, cleared this matter:
*shruti-pramANaika-mateH
svadharma-
nishhTA
tayaivAtma-vishuddhir-asya /
vishuddha-buddheH
paramAtma-vedanaM
tenaiva-samsAra-samUla-nAshaH
//*
The latter half of the
shloka says:
‘tenaiva samsAra-samUla-nAshaH’
: through that alone the samsAra bondage is cut along with its roots.
Through what?
‘paramAtma-vedanaM’ : the
sparking of the jnAnaM about the paramAtmA.
‘Vishuddha-buddheH’ : to
the one who has had his mind purified.
How does that purification
of mind happen? He gives it in the first half.
Svadharma-nishhTA : (he who
is) fully and firmly established ( nishhTA) in one’s own dharma.
Tayaiva Atma vishuddhiH :
By that alone the mind gets purified Advaita-saadhanaa 166
Well,
how does one know what that svadharma is?
The answer is already there
in the very bveginning of the shloka:
Shruti-pramANaika-mateH:
The nishhThA of svadharma comes from the unique faith and comviction that the
religious sanction comes from only the vedas.
What the Vedas say is the
authority. With that faith one goes about doing his svadharma as the be-all and
end-all. That is svadharmaika-nishhThA. The svadharma that the Vedas talk about
is the division into the varNas and the allocation of duties to each. There is also
prescribed what a Brahmachari should do, what a householder should do, what
women should do and so on . So the nishThA that comes from the authority of the
Vedas means the nishTA in the discharge of all karmic obligation. Thus one
should do one’s karma completely. That is what gives purification of mind. And
then follows Atma-jnAna as well as the end of all bondage.
When one does karmas
according to the prescriptions of the Vedas, first it drains all the dirt from
the body by those sheer karmas. Not only that. Simultaneously the dirt of the
mind is also rinsed and wrung out. Afterwards one stops doing his karma but now
goes into the karma of the mind by doing dhyAna. And still later even that
dhyAna stops and he reaches the stage of jnAna.
So the sequence is first
dharma nishThA, then karma-nishThA and finally jnAna-nishThA. Nothing should be
missed here. One should not move forward without having done the earlier one.
Nor should one have anything to do with the earlier one once he has moved
forward. When a cloth is washed, we do mix a lot of water and wring the cloth
for the dirt to go. But once the dirt is gone no more wringing is necessary. If
we keep wringing the cloth after that it will only damage the cloth. What is
necessary now is to dry it up in air. This is the going to the jnAna path! The
air and sunlight evaporates the water in the cloth. But jnAna evaporates the
cloth itself. It is not just a total end of the cloth. The Jiva cloth is there
no more, but now it has become a golden sheet of Brahman. The nishThA in the
Atman that the Jiva was engaged in is not any more the action of the Jiva, the
Jiva is not there any more, the Existent Thing (*sad-vastu*) that was in an
experiential form in the culmination of the nishThA – that alone remains. It is
the Peace Ultimate, it is the parAyaNaM talked about as the peak state.
*nishThA shAntiH parAyaNaM …* says the Vishnu sahasranAmaM. Maha-swamigal’s
Discourses 167
57.
Chain of linked names in Vishnu-sahasranAmam
*nishThA shAntiH parAyaNaM*
comes in Vishnu-sahasranAmaM. Some names occur here in a chain, relating to
each other beautifully on the same concept. There are nine names (of God)
strung together like flowers in a garland, on the idea of SannyAsa.
*…. nirvANaM bheshhajaM
bhishhak /
sannyAsakRt shamaH shAnto
nishThA shAntiH parAyaNaM *//
*nirvANaM* is the end of
jnAna-yoga. He is the same as the saguNa-mUrti VishNu.
*bheshhajaM* means
medicine. He is the medicine in the form of jnAnaM for the disease of samsAra.
Muthut-tANDavar was a
devotee of God Nataraja. He lived before the age of the musical trinity of
Tamilnadu. When a snake bit him he considered Lord Nataraja as the only
medicine and sang an extempore Tamil composition beginning with *aru-marundoru
tani marundu* (meaning: the rare medicine, the unique medicine) on Lord
Nataraja. He was relieved from the snake poison..
When the poison of karma
invades the system the medicine of jnAnaM that is the antidote for the poison
is only the Lord.
He is not only the
medicine; but He is also the Doctor who gives the medicine! So He is *bhishak*
(Doctor). Here in Tiruvanmiyur (in Chennai,
India) the Lord
presents Himself as “marundIshvara” (the Lord who is the medicine). In the town
called Vaideesvaran Koil he is called “Bhava-roga-vaidyanatha swami’ meaning
the JnAna-Acharya who cures the disease of samsAra. In his commentary on Vishnu
Sahasranama, the Acharya says “the Doctor who gave the medicine of the Gita for
all the world”.
In the Gita the Lord gave
his final diagnosis and the curing medicine, which is SannyAsa. He leads us on
through the path of karma yoga ultimately to the SannyAsa in jnAna yoga. In the
science of Ayurveda, they first give you a laxative-type of medicine and then
only they give you the medicine that is needed for the illness. So also the
Lord gives first the laxative of karma yoga so that all our karma-garbage may
be exhausted and then finally when he gives the medicine of jnAna, he
prescribes sannyAsa. In the beginning it was he who created the four Ashramas
and made Sannyasa the fourth Ashrama. So He is *sannyAsa-kRt*, the maker of
SannyAsa. Advaita-saadhanaa 168
We
saw a lot about *shama*. That is also the form of the Lord. When the mind
stills to rest that is shamaM. That is in fact the heart of jnAna yoga, its
life. Right now it is unbridled in us and from this through the various stages
of its control little by little, we have to go through several steps. Finally
when nothing of the mind is left, it rests in the Atman; that is the
destination point. That is the goal of a SannyAsi. At this place the Acharya
gives a quotation which pinpoints a unique dharma for each Ashrama. It says:
“For the SannyAsi his dharma is shamaM; for the Vana-prastha, his dharma is the
conglomerate of tapas and vratas, all together called niyama; for the
householder the dharma is charity; and for the brahmachari it is serving the
guru.
*yatInAM prashamo dharmo
niyamo vanavAsinAM /
dAnameva gRhastAnAM
shushrUshhA brahma-chAriNAM
//
Next comes the name
*shAntaH*. He who has shama is shAntaH.
Only next to this, the word
*nishThA* appears. Having become a sannyAsi, and then also a shAnta for whom
the mind is totally at rest, he establishes himself firmly in the nishThA of
the experience of jnAna, that state is also the Lord. This is The SaguNa Brahman
who is our Lord with attributes, in His nirguNa state.
And in that state there is
a total peace. Therefore *shAntiH*. And that is the supreme goal; therefore
*parAyaNaM*.
58:
SHravANAm ET AL – Vedic Commandment
As soon as the sannyAsa is
taken, one gets the mahAvakya-teaching. To receive it is shravaNaM. ‘mananaM’
is the chewing and churning of that in the mind by repetitions and analysis.
Following that is the dhyAna that is done to get the direct experience; this is
called nidhidhyAsanaM. These three complete the sAdhanA.
These three (shravaNa,
manana and nidhidhyAsana) are actually commands of the Vedas. The same
Upanishad which talks about shama, dama, uparati and titikshhA
(BrihadAraNyakopanishad: II-4-5) also gives the commands about these three. But
shama, dama, etc. are not directly given as an order, they are recommended only
indirectly by saying that a jnAni would have these treasures of spirituality,
namely he will be a “shAnta, dAnta, uparata” etc. But these three have been
what is called Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 169
an
‘injunction’ in the form of a formal order. *shrotavyo mantavyo
nidhidhyAsitavyaH*. “The Atman principle only has to be listened to, has to be
repeated in the mind and has to be meditated on” – this is the rule.
We shall take these one by
one now.
59.
ShravaNam and SushruushhA (Respectful Service)
First there is shravaNaM.
It stands for the receiving through hearing/listening of the teaching of the
mahAvakyas from the Guru. Along with that he teaches also several other matters
about tradition according to Brahma-vidyA ShAstra. He also tells you several
methodologies of how to reflect through DhyAna on the non-difference between
Jiva and Brahman. Receiving all this through hearing is also shravaNaM.
It does not mean that it is
just hearing through the ears. One has to receive it in the heart and hold on
to it. This is what is formally called shravaNaM. When we refer to the action
of eating we usually refer only to the action that takes place in the mouth.
Actually the purpose is to get it into the stomach and get it digested and
absorbed into the blood. The mouth is only an external organ whose action is
termed ‘eating’. So also the external organ, the ear, does something and we
name it shravaNaM, but it really means that what the ear consumes has to be
digested in the mind and intellect as ‘nectar’ of upadesha and finally it has
to be absorbed in the heart. When the ‘Vinayakar Ahaval says *yen cheviyil
yellaiyillaa aanandam-aLittu* it means it goes through the ears into the heart
and creates Bliss there.
Sound is what belongs to
the all-permeating space principle. That is why there is importance to
shravaNaM of receiving the teachings that are in the form of sound. Our
Veda-mantras are the sound-chains that have been caught as such, so as to be
accessible to our ears, by the Rishis through their extra-sensory powers, in
the form of subtle sound vibrations that emanated in space from the very breath
of the Lord . What they heard through their subtle ears should also be heard
only by our physical ears and not be written down and learnt – this is the
rule. Then only the quintessence of the teaching that has to reach the
heart-space, the Source of everything, will go through by tracing the Universal
Space, the breath of the Absolute, and the breathing paramAtmA. Hence the
importanc of shravaNaM. Advaita-saadhanaa 170
Another
thing. When we learn from a book, the book, being an inert object, may show the
writing but it will not feed us the life behind the writing. It is when the
letters come through the live medium of the Guru or the Acharya who has known
the essence of the Teaching, that the upadesha enters as a living message.
Furthermore, only when
there is the upadesha coming from the Guru there happens the disciplic bhAva (*shishhya-bhAva).
The humility and the sense of smallness are necessary for the destruction of
the ego. The thought that “I am doing the very difficult jnAna yoga sAdhanA”
certainly will bloat the ego; it is only the sushruushhA that one does to the
Guru – who is himself in that enlightened state – that will knock you on the
head and constitute the strategy for killing the ego.
[Note by VK: The
Tamil word the Mahaswamigal uses
here as an
attribute of the Guru is *anubhavi*.
The literal English
equivalent would be ‘Experiencer’
A few paragraphs
later, the Mahaswamigal himself explains
what *anubhavi*
means.]
I said ‘sushruushhA’. The
Tamils wrongly call it ‘sishruushhA’. If we go by the root word for
sushruushhA, it is related to ‘shravaNaM’. The root ‘shru’ means ‘to hear’. It
is from this that both the words ‘sushruushhA’ and ‘shravaNaM’ have come. The
direct meaning of ‘sushruushhA’ is ‘to long to hear’.
The meaning of ‘to long to
hear’ when related to the Guru, is ‘to long to do what is heard’. It is not
just hearing that matters. The heard matter may be to one’s liking or not.
Either way there is no question of discarding it or leaving it just there after
a word of appreciation. Without any scope for liking or disliking, what is
heard must be put into practice. Thus ‘sushruushhA’ in its extended form has
the meaning ‘to long to practise whatever is going to be heard’.
‘Listen to what is said’,
we usually say. We find fault by saying ‘One is not being heard’. On all such
occasions what we mean by ‘heard’ is ‘heard and done’. Similarly, ‘to long to
hear for the very purpose of doing what is going to be heard’ is *sushruushhA*.
To do what one is told one
needs a lot of the quality of humility. Once the quality of humility is there,
a natural desire will arise to do service to him before whom we are humble. In
other words respectful humility will automatically breed the willingness to
serve. It is that service that has come to be known as *sushruushhA*.
‘Go to the Guru! Fall at
his feet! Listen! Do service! Serving him get the upadesha of jnAna from him!
--*tad-viddhi praNipAtena pariprashnena Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 171
sevayA*,
says the Lord.(B.G. IV – 34). *praNipAtaM* is ‘straight fall’. ‘pAtaM’ is fall.
‘nipAtaM’ is a clean fall. ‘Pra-nipAtaM’ ( = *praNipAtaM*) is a very clean,
straight fall, as a total surrender. *pari-prashnena* means by a constant and
repeated questioning. That is exactly ‘sushruushhA’. As soon as He says that,
he adds ‘sevayA’, meaning ‘by service’.
The matter unwinds here by
a chain of one thing leading to another. The way the Gita shlokas appear here
tells us that one gets the jnAna-upadesha from a guru only after one has
abdicated all karmas and become a sannyAsi. “More than the yajna that one does
in karma yoga with external accessories, the internal yajna of jnAna yoga is
superior. All karma finally terminate in jnAna” says He in the previous shloka.
Having said that, immediately he follows: “The jnAnis who have directly seen
the Truth—that is, experienced – will teach you jnAna. Go to them, fall
straight at their feet, question and listen repeatedly, and serving them,
learn”. This occurs in JnAna-karma-sannyAsa-yoga. When we put all these
together, it is clear that he is talking about getting the Brhma-vidyA teaching
from a jnAni only after throwing off karma and taking up sannyAsa.
The sequence goes like
this. First we hear by the ears. The very hearing is done for obeying what we
have heard. This is sushrUushhA. The inseparable part that comes out of this is
the humility. And from that the respectful service. Thus starting from hearing
by the ears it leads on to service. And the service itself has got the name of
sushruushhA. In due course of time people came to think that sushruushhA means
service; its original meaning of ‘listening’ disappeared from vogue.
But, more than the
sushruushA of respectful physical service, the Guru considers as great (and is
pleased at) that sushruushhA by which the disciple receives, with a clean
heart, with the intention of carrying out in practice, the teaching imparted by
the Guru with all the humility and the respect it deserves. He will not think
as greatly of the service that the disciple does for the Guru’s physical
comforts as he would, of the spiritual progress that the sishhya makes by
properly benefitting from the treasures of the Atman that the Guru transmits to
him. It is the proper sushruushhA of the ears that constitutes the greatest
sushruushhA of service. ShravaNa-sushruushhA is what is superior in the eyes of
the Guru. Instead of his being served by the disciple, he would rather have his
disciple rise spiritually with the instrument of the upadesha he transmits. But
from the point of view of the disciple, however, both kinds of sushruushhA must
rank equally important. One should receive the upadesha from the bottom of the
heart and obey accordingly in practice; and one should also consider the
dispenser of Advaita-saadhanaa 172
the
upadesha as Ishvara himself, surrender to him and do all kinds of respectful
service to him .
The mantra that is taught
does half the job and the Grace of the teacher completes the other half!
Where is the scope for all
this when one learns from books?
60.
Is an enlightened guru available?
Guru is always depicted by
shAstras as an *anubhavi* (one who has seen the Truth directly):
‘brahma-nishhTha’ in Upanishads, ‘tatva-darshinaH’ in the Gita. Such a person,
who has truly realised Brahman – would such a person be available in modern
times? Don’t worry about it. If you are crying in true anguish with sincere
mumukshhutA (longing for Release) the Lord will not fail to show you such a
one. Whether he is a brahma-nishhTa or not all the time, you will be shown the
best available one and the Lord Himself will enter into him at the time when
you are being givn the mahAvAkya-upadesha. That is how it happens. That is how.
No doubt about it.
[Note by the
Collator Shri R. Ganapathy:
Here the
Mahaswamigal speaks with great conviction,
emotion and
emphasis that he is passing on a great truth]
Just as the disciple is
feeling the anguish whether an *anubhavi* guru will be available even these
days, the Lord is also looking for, with the same anguish (!) whether a proper
mumukshhu is going to come; so such a person would not be missed by Him. Maybe
He will not appear in concrete form in the body of a human Guru, but it is
possible that He manifests as a subtle guru in the very antar-AtmA of the
disciple and grace him. But if I say it this way, it may turn out in this
independent age where humility is wanting, people might go with the impression:
“Even the Shankaracharya of the mutt has said so. A separate individual as a
Guru is not necessary. The Lord will come into us directly and grace us from
the inside”. It is really very rare for such a thing –without an external human
guru, for the Lord Himself to come as an internal guru -- to happen. Rare
top-ranking mumukshus will have that privilege. Or if there is an enormous
amount of pUrva-samskAra from the earlier lives, even if one is not a mumukshhu
but just an ordinary person, the Lord Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 173
Himself
on His own pulls him out and blesses him with all grace. To make this the
general rule is totally wrong.
61.
Involvement in one single goal
Now we have come to the
stage where one has taken up sannyAsa and also received the upadesha from the
Guru. Afterwards what should the Sannyasi do? Let me tell you that he should
certainly not be doing what I am doing now! [The Swamigal laughs]. I am getting
into all sorts of newspaper gossip; am I not? History, Geography, Local news
all of it are coming into my speeches and actions. A true SannyAsi would have
nothing to do with all these.
[Ra. Ganapthy adds
a footnote here: The Mahaswamigal is describing
now the dharma that
pertains to a SannyAsi
who is yet to reach
his siddhi.
With great humility
combined with humour
he laughs at
himself saying he is
not following
rules.
But actually he is
a Jivan-mukta, an enlightened soul.
He can do anything,
no rule will bind him. ]
All the time he has to be
only in the thought of the Atman; that should be his speech, that should be his
goal. The Mundakopanishad says (II – 2) “Leave off all talk about anything that
is non-Self. In the bow of PraNava (that is, the MahAvakyas), mount the arrow
of your own self, shoot yourself at the goal and be fixed there”. The one idea
of the non-difference between Jiva and Brahman should be the only occupation of
your mind. All other talk is only an unnecessary exertion for the throat, says
BrihadAraNyakopanishad IV-4-21. Lord Krishna builds it up like this:
*tad-buddhayaH tad-AtmAnaH tan-nishhTAH tat-parayaNAH*.
Keeping the intellect in
the Atman, the life itself in the Atman, and firmly established in that one
Self, with That only as the goal (B.G. V – 17) – this is how he should be. This
is what He says in “sannyAsa-yoga”. When he talks in “vibhUti yoga” it is He
who plays all the other roles and those who know this revel in His thought
only, their very life in Him, exchanging with one another thoughts about Him
and narrating to one another the stories of His Glory and thus dance and revel
in great satisfaction about Him.
maccittAH madgata-prANAH
bodhayantaH parasparaM /
kathayantashca mAM nityaM
tushhyanti ca ramanti ca // Advaita-saadhanaa 174
In
the same context, Vidyaranya Swamigal talks about nirguNa upAsanA (that is what
a SannyAsi should be doing) and says: The only thought being Brahman, the only
conversation between each other being That, the only teaching among one another
is That – thus a Sannyasi has That as his only occupation.
If there is a number of
sannyAsis at one place gathered together, the teaching of one another
(bodhayantaH parasparaM) and the recalling to one another (anyonyaM
tat-prabodhanaM) take place. But such crowding of several sannyAsis and their
living together is not first of all recommended as a good thing. Scope arises
for attachment, enmity, hate, competition, jealousy and differences of opinion.
So after becoming a SannyAsi one should hasten to a solitary place. No
attachment or bondage should be allowed to develop. Staying at the same place
for more than three days is taboo. The SannyAsi should keep moving. That is the
meaning of a ‘parivrAjaka’. That is the Dharma of a Parama-hamsa SannyAsi.
[Ra Ganapathy’s
note: But this does not apply to heads of mutts
who have
organisational and training responsibilities.]
In sum, after one gets the
upadesha, the Sannyasi has to have the only goal of obtaining a direct
perception of the advaita brahma-bhAva that has been taught to him by his guru.
To achieve this, two
processes – manana and nidhidhyAsana – are prescribed. NidhidhyAsana may also
be called nidhidhyAsa.
ShravNa, Manana,
NidhidhyAsana – with these three the elaborate presentation of advaita-sAdhanA
comes to an end.
62.
ShravNa, Manana, NidhidhyAsana – Characteristics
The mental analysis of the
upadesha by rolling it over in the mind repeatedly is what is called mananaM.
Thereafter, without scope or necessity for any more enquiry, analysis, research
or debate in the mind, follows NidhidhyAsana, which is the one-pointed
identification in that Atma-tattva, about which there is now perfect clarity,
and the mind is without any vibration.
The Acharya has graced us
with an expository work (*prakaraNa-grantha*) called “AtmA-anAAtma-vivekam” in
prose in the form of questions and answers. What is shravaNa, what is manana,
what is Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 175
nidhidhyAsana,
-- all these are defined there in a very crisp fashion. Usually there are six
components of proof by which a matter is established as a conclusion. That the
advaita truth is what the Vedas declare will be explained by the Guru through
the medium of all these six components of proof. To listen to and receive it is
shravaNaM. Having learnt about the non-dual entity one analyses and pursues the
reasoning in his mind in accordance with the Veda-ShAstras; this is mananaM.
Mark it; I said ‘in accordance with the Veda-shAstras’. This is important. The
logic that you follow has to be in accordance with the Veda-shAstras. Your
mental make-up has already been tuned properly by the sAdhanA-set-of-four,
particularly the component of shraddhA therein. One does the mental analysis of
the Guru’s upadesha without being drawn astray by the narrow intellect, wrongly
called rational mind. The Acharya has warned us against this in his
sopAna-pancakaM: *dustarkAt suviramyatAM shruti-matas-tarko’nusandhIyatAM* --
meaning, Discard distorted logic; adopt the logic consistent with the purpose
of the Vedas. Such an analysis is mananaM. Having confirmed it by the
intellect, now you have to experience it. So without being distracted by any
other thought, the mind (cittaM) should now flow like flood in the one
direction (of the Atman). That is ‘nidhidhyAsanaM’ – that is how he defines it
in AtmAnAtma-vivekaM.
In between I told you about
the six components of proof. What are those six? The subject of a book can be
known from the beginning and end of it. This is called ‘upakrama-upasamhAraM’.
This is the first of the six. The second one is repetition. If a book declares
the same thing repeatedly, it is clear that it is the subject of the book. This
is called ‘abhyAsaM’. The third is ‘apUrvaM’; if an idea is presented in a most
unusual way, that is the subject. The fourth is the process, called ‘phalaM’ of
telling something and immediately listing the positive effects of it one by
one. The fifth is the method of praising something sky-high; this kind of
praise is called *artha-vAdaM*. And the last, namely the sixth, is ‘upapatti’
which brings out the reason, the concordance and logic and establishes that
such and such is the subject.
63.
Penultimate stage to siddhi
Several ideas about the
Atman will get clarified during the mananaM, and that itself will lead to the
nidhidhyAsana of meditation on that One Atman alone.
When the
manana-nidhidhyAsana are deep, many things will occur -- may occur -- known
only to the Ishvara and that Jiva who is the sAdhaka. Some things may occur
which are not comprehensible even by Advaita-saadhanaa 176
the
Jiva. Here he should not falter just because they are incomprehensible; it is
for this that the Acharya had already instilled into him enough of shraddhA and
bhakti! So without getting confused about the fact that nothing is being
comprehended, he will go on in the straight path that the Guru has shown him.
Ishvara also will do things that wring out any residual karma or vAsanA in
order to take him on to his final destination. Only when such VasanAs and karma
get destroyed, that process itself will set up the chain of further wringing
out in the heart-nADis – this is called “nAdi mathanaM” – which makes the
merging of the antaHkaraNaM in the heart.
I wonder whether it is
right for me to say these things to you. Because the sAdhaka’s only thought
should be Brahma-anubhavaM (“Brahman-experience”); so when I say ‘nADi’,
‘heart’, ‘mathanaM’ etc. he might get distracted from his one-pointedness by
unnecessary observations about ‘wringing of the nADis’, ‘merging in the heart’
etc. Actually these things take place involuntarily. So there is no need to
know about them. By being distracted by the beauties of the garden outside one
may finally fail to enter the house!
Further Ishvara may not be
doing everything the same way to every one. He might have several ways of
handling. The old (karma) balance might be different from person to person and
Ishvara’s manner of settling them also will differ accordingly. Also He has his
own style of several leelAs of pleasing Himself! Once He takes the sAdhaka to
his destination, there will not be any scope for His leela, so he might be
doing something new for every one! Maybe some of them might not have any such
‘wringing’ or ‘mathanaM’ at all! Why, even it may be that for some there may
not be any necessity to make the mind one-pointed at the Atma-sthana in the
heart, and one might be able to think of the Atman as transcendent and
all-pervading and be able to concentrate on it.
It is in view of all this
that the Acharya simply says “Carry on your nidhidhyAsana deeper and deeper and
keep going” and then just mentions the Brahman-Realisation as the destination
and winds up there.
64.
Manana that transcends intellect; Nidhidhyaasana that transcends mental feeling
There are three authorities
-- shruti (the Vedas), yukti (reasoning), anubhava (experience) – for knowing
the Truth. Of these it is said that shruti corresponds to shravaNaM, yukti
corresponds to mananaM and anubhava corresponds to nidhidhyAsanaM. The mantras
of shruti and Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 177
all
the matters pertaining to Brahma-vidyA are heard by the disciple through his
ears (shrotra) from the guru. It is quite fitting therefore to associate
shravaNaM with shruti.
The concept of ‘yukti’ is a
little more tough to be understood correctly. This ‘yukti’ (reasoning) is not
the rational thinking by which in the ordinary world we use our intellect to
arrive at conclusions. Nor has this word ‘anubhava’ (experience) the common
connotation of experience that happens to us merely at the level of the mind in
several alternating ways! What is being said here is a ‘yukti’ (reasoning) that
will be done, at the highest sophisticated level, by the mind and intellect –
which have been flooded by shraddhA and bhakti, calmed, rested and purified,
after all that sAdhanA -- when they are converging to the very base of the ego
for the purpose of destroying that ego. Similarly, the ‘anubhava’ is what such
refined and tempered mind and intellect have known by this ‘yukti’, as now
experienced at the deepest layer of the mind right from the very base of the
ego. I dare not lecture about them now. If it truly happens to a fortunate one
amongst us, he will know it by himself.
[Note by VK:
Usually I don’t add any word whose equivalent
either in language
or in sense does not exist in the Tamil original.
In the above paragraph
I have made one exception.
The word
‘sophisticated’ is mine. I am not very clear why I want it there. But after
having typed it almost without thinking,
I feel that without
it, I am not
getting the
Mahaswamigal’s mind!
Readers should
decide whether it should be there or not.]
That neutral state of peace
and quiet is said to be sAtvikaM. On the other hand, if we are vacillating by
the force of emotion as we usually are, that is called rAjasam. The reasoning
of our intellect at such a time is therefore rAjasic, and so, wrong. But the
third stage sAdhaka whom we are discussing now, has destroyed his rajasic
intellect and made it satvik. The reasoning that it carries out will be totally
different. It will not be the reasoning that we do by objecting to the Truth
and the Shastras, circumscribing ourselves by a small boundary called
rationality. Instead it will be concordant with the ShAstraic Truth and be the
reasoning of a wisdom that is superior to ‘rationality’. About this the Acharya
has said:
Mokshaika-saktyA
vishhayeshhu rAgaM
nirmUlya sannyasya ca
sarva-karma /
sashraddhayA yaH
shravaNAdi-nishhTo
rajaH svabhAvaM sa dhunoti
buddheH // (Viveka Chudamani 182/184) Advaita-saadhanaa 178
The
only involvement should be for Release (from samsAra). All attachment to sense
objects should have been uprooted. And accordingly leaving off all karmas,
becoming a sannyAsi, whoever with shraddhA is established in shravana, manana
and nidhidhyAsana, he it is that discards all rajas nature of the intellect.
Note that the sAdhanA
regimen of mumukshutvaM, sannyAsaM and shravaNa etc. have all been mentioned.
And in that state, the reasoning itself will be unique.
So also in that stage, the
‘anubhava’ or experience will also be unrelated to the senses but related to
the antarAtmA.
[Laughing, the Mahaswamigal
says] I am telling you in the manner of a professor. That kind of reasoning
will be ‘super-rational’ and the experience ‘mystic’!
MananaM, the process of
mental repetitions of the upadesha, is for the purpose of the mind to stay put
instead of giving any scope for digression or distraction. It is this mananaM
that is called ‘AvRtti’ in Brahma-sUtra. “The Vedas have repeatedly prescribed
repeated memorisation”: -- *asakRd upadeshAt* (IV – 1.1.) How long should one
do this memorisation? The Acharya replies with a sense of humour: If you are
told to husk paddy, you should not be asking ‘how long should I husk it?’. You
have to husk until you see the rice coming out. So also until the Atman comes
out of the cloud of avidyA, you have to be in that same thought, same
repetition, same dhyAnaM.
65.
To be rid of two wrong conceptions
However much the mind and
intellect might have matured, until the Brahman Realisation happens, mAyA does
not spare you. Maybe it is not right to throw the blame on mAyA. Realisation is
the apex of all sAdhanA. It cannot be achieved unless all karma is
extinguished. What can be done if, inspite of all the sAdhanA done, the earlier
karma is several times heavier? Maybe for their extinction, right now, not by
the work of mAyA, but by the Grace of Ishvara, there arise undesirable thoughts
that shake up the sAdhaka. I am not referring to thoughts of kAma,
krodha, etc. They have all been extinguished much earlier. There are two other
undesirable thoughts or conceptions. One is called *asambhAvanA* and the other
is called *viparIta-bhAvanA*.
[Note by Ra.
Ganapathy:
As far as this
collator knows, these two words Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 179
‘asambhAvanA’
and ‘viparIta-bhAvanA’
occur in the very
first ‘taranga’ of ‘VichAra-sAgaraM’ in Sanskrit,
which itself is a
translation from a work of the 19th century in Hindi by
Nischaladasa.
In advaita works,
‘asambhAvana’ is known as ‘samshayaM’
And
‘viparIta-bhAvanA’ as ‘viparyayaM’.]
“SadhanA has been done for
so long. The so-called goal is impossible. After all I am finite. How can this
finite little being become the Infinite Universal Brahman?” This is
‘asambhAvanA’. In fact it is the question which casts a doubt on whether the
advaita experience is a possibility at all. When this doubt crystallises and
matures, instead of being a doubt it turns out into a reply to the question and
says to itself: “No. It is not possible. It is only Duality that is possible.
And that is the truth. Jiva is different and Brahman is different” – this is
‘viparIta-bhAvanA’. ‘After such long effort, I am still only a separate Jiva,
so I have to remain only as a separate Jiva. This is the duality in which I
have to be always’ – it is this trend of thought that creates the ‘viparIta-bhAvanA’.
Of these two, to eradicate
the ‘asambhAvanA’ one needs to do mananaM. And to get rid of ‘viparIta-bhAvanA’
one needs ‘nidhidhyAsana’.
‘asambhAvanA’ might have
covered one entirely like moss. But if one is constantly chewing in the mind
the Vedanta statements and analysing them by the matured mind, repeating the
powerful mantras in the form of the mahAvAkyas, even if the real Brahman
experience does not occur, the possibility of its occurrence will get
crystallised in the mind.
Maybe the possibility
becomes acceptable, but unless it has actually occurred, thus leading to
resolution of all doubts once for all, how will this acceptance be sufficient?
The present everyday experience is a direct experience of duality. We are
having a direct observational experience of Brahman as something different from
us. If advaita is the truth that also should become a direct such experience.
In other words, without a Brahman-realisation, how can the viparIta-bhAvanA
disappear? That direct experience will occur only if the nidhidhyAsanA
continues as a single dhyAna to the exclusion of everything else. There is no
other way. That the (familiar-to-the–Tamil-world) ‘panchAmRtaM’ is composed of
honey, milk and ghee, etc. and can therefore be expected to be nothing but
sweet, is mananaM. However, there could be a doubt. ‘Is it truly a sweet dish?
Maybe the sweet things together by some combination make it bitter. Who knows?’
When such a doubt arises, the only way to get out of the doubt is to taste it;
how can there be a resolution of the fact otherwise? Advaita-saadhanaa 180
If
one goes through the nidhidhyAsanaM with perfect dedication to the prospect
that the Ultimate Reality, the existence of which was conclusively confirmed by
reasoning in the course of the process of mananaM, must show itself up in one’s
experience, it will certainly show its taste off and on. Of course the taste,
the taster and the taste-Giver would have become all one! Even though that
state disappears, one gets the confirmation that there is certainly an advaita
experience. How can the viparIta-bhAvanA rise up thereafter?
The very fact that in this
third stage these negative bhAvanAs pop up is in a sense a God-sent blessing in
disguise! It is because of that the sAdhaka continues in full earnest his
manana-nidhidhyAsana efforts in order, one, to get the intellectual conviction
at the level of his antaHkaraNa that advaita is the Truth and two, to get one’s
own shades of experience at the level of the inner Self! Otherwise he may be a
little easy-going and miss it entirely! Even if it is not missed it may
certainly get postponed. Only when a counter-thought occurs one gets the
motivation for a full-fledged no-mercy onslaught to check it either way. It is
in that sense the two dispositions of asambhAvanA and viparIta-bhAvanA help as
‘incentives’!
66.
Greatness of Manana & NidhidhyAsana
The mananaM that keeps
analysing the conceptual matter off and on leads on to the nidhidhyAsana which
shows the same thing as an experience. Thereafter there is no analysis or
churning. There is only that single thought, dhyAna. The Acharya has a
favourite way of saying this. *samAna-pratyaya-pravAha-karaNaM*. He uses this
expression in many places. (Sutra-Bhashya IV-1.7.8; Gita Bhashya XII – 3). Just
as the flow of a flood of water converges in one direction so also the
converging of thought in one direction is what dhyAna means. ‘Just as oil flows
down in a straight wire-like appearance – taila-dhArAvat’ is also another
expression of his.
‘Muni’ is a Sanskrit word
for a great person who is a perfect jnAni and spiritually very powerful. He is
actually the best among Rishis. Only he who is an adept in the process of
‘mananaM’ is called a ‘muni’. In Sutra Bhashya III – 4 – 47, this is how the
Acharya speaks of the derivation of the word ‘muni’: *mananAn munir-iti (ca)
vyutpatti-sambhavAt*. He also says there that the word ‘muni’ has a special
significance in jnAna-- *jnAna-atishaya-arthatvAt*. Thus the process of
‘mananaM’ is not just repetition for memorisation, nor it is, as we think of it
usually, a logical reasoning at the intellectual level to import spiritual
matters just into the Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 181
brain.
It is far higher than that. It is something that dwells on matters clarified by
the touch of intuition.
Remember our Acharya is one
who gave the noblest status to the hearing (shravaNa) of the teaching from the
guru. If the same Acharya says “Let it be understood that mananaM is a hundred
times greater than shravaNaM”. *shataguNaM vidyAn-mananaM*, then at how really
a high level should shravaNaM be counted?
And he doesn’t stop there.
If mananaM is a hundred times greater than shravaNaM, he says nidhidhyAsanaM is
a hundred-thousand times greater than mananaM: *mananAdapi nidhidhyAsaM
lakshha-guNaM*.
MananaM is not just dead
information; it is knowledge full of life. But even that knowledge becomes tiny
little in the face of experience. You may know everything about sugar, you
might have bales and bales of high class sugar, but they are not equivalent to
that experience one gets from the taste of a little pinch of that sugar. That
is why he says nidhidhyAsaM is one hundred thousand times greater than mananaM.
NidhidhyAsaM is also not a
one-shot affair by which one gets established into a permanent
Brahman-experience. It is only with a self-effort that one does what is called
nidhidhyAsaM. And he gets flashes of that Brahman-experience. The moment we say
this we know there is duality in this. The Brahman-experience, instead of
glittering, twinkling and disappearing like a lightning flash, if that
lightning of brahmAnubhava ‘electrocutes’ him in a sense, killing his
Jiva-bhAva, and makes him the nectarine brahman itself, that will be the end of
it all; that is the siddhi position. The sAdhanA stops there, the sAdhaka
himself becoming the sAdhya (the goal) sthAna (locus).
Just as hands and feet do
works, so also nidhidhyAsa is work done mentally. However glorified it is,
there is the duality of action and of doer; so how can it be considered as the
Final Truth that stands alone by Itself?
Even so, so long as one
continues as a Jiva, the one noblest thing that he can do not to be that Jiva
is to keep thinking only of Brahman; as such one has to steadfastly hold on to
the nidhidhyAsa-action.
67.
Worm becoming the wasp; Making the worm a wasp Advaita-saadhanaa
182
The
action of constantly thinking about brahman ends up in the state where one has
become the action-less brahman.
There is what is called a
*bhramara-kITa-nyAyaM*. Bhramara is the wasp. KITa means a worm. The worm is
said to be constantly thinking of becoming a wasp. That constant thinking, it
appears, causes its own transformation of its form and the growth of wings and
finally it becomes a wasp and flies away from the nest. So it is said! The
nidhidhyAsaM of the worm makes it the wasp – this is bhramara-kITa-nyAya. In
the same manner the Jiva in the constant thought of Brahman, thinks of ‘this’
Jiva becoming ‘that’ Brahman, thinks that even now ‘this’ is only ‘that’ and
such a nidhidhyAsana all the time ends up with the Jiva becoming Brahman – so
says the Acharya in Viveka chudamani 358-359/359-360.
This has been said by the
Acharya in order that the jnAna-pathfinder does not get side-tracked into the
direction of saguNa-brahman. In other words he has wound up the context of
Vivekachudamani by saying that by the sheer power of this constant thought one
automatically becomes Brahma-svarUpa. In actual fact this becoming happens only
by the Grace of God! It is by His Grace that the JivAtma becomes the ParamAtmA!
The Acharya certainly knows this; and knows this quite well. To win over the
karma-mimamsaka-upholders this is the final BrahmAstra that the Acharya used:
“No action by itself gives the result; the results are given by Ishvara”. When
that was the case, he would have never subscribed to the idea that the very
mental action of nidhidhyAsana would automatically produce the great result of
Brahma-nirvANaM.
MayA’s function of hiding
things is called ‘tirodhAnaM’. Right now the real Brahman that we are is
*tirohitaM*, that is, hidden from us. The hidden thing comes out by the dhyAna
of ParamAtmA – so says BrahmasUtra, but immediately, lest we may think it is an
automatic consequence, it adds, clearing up any confusion, “This hiding as well
as the bondage (caused by the hiding) are both by Ishvara. When we do
nidhidhyAsanaM, the removal of the hiding, the manifestation of the Truth and
the grant of mokshha, all are again the work of Ishvara”. (III – 2-5). When the
Acharya writes the BhashyaM on this, he says, more explicitly, “This
manifestation will not happen automatically or naturally for all and sundry.
Only to that rare person who makes effort to do intense nidhidhyAsana it
happens by God’s Grace”. *na svabhAvata eva sarveshhAM jantUnAM* -- ‘Revelation’
does not happen naturally for everybody. *Ishvara-prasAdAt samsiddhasya
kasyacit eva Avirbhavati* -- ‘By God’s Grace It reveals only to that rare
person who has the highest achievement’. Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 183
[Note
by Ra. Ganapathy:
See the
Mahaswamigal’s related discourses in Tamil under the Sections
‘The jnAna gift of
the Lord as per Adi Shankara’ in
http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural364.htm
and ‘The bondage of
Karma is by the Lord;
the attainment of
jnAna is also His Grace’ in
http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural367.htm
]
In advaita shAstras it is
customary to depict God’s Grace as Guru’s Grace itself.
[ See again http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural365.htm
under the heading:
‘The duality in the form of Guru does not intervene’]
But the Acharya in the apex
of his prakaraNa-granthas, namely, the Vivekachudamani (476/477) has given a
higher place to Ishvara’s Grace over and above Guru’s Grace. A person asked me
this question. The reference is to the statements: “The Gurus stay on the banks
of the ocean of samsAra and being on the bank they teach you how to swim across
the ocean of samsAra. It is the disciple who, on his own, has to get the prajnA
of True Knowledge, and keeping it as the boat he should cross the ocean; and
this prajnA is granted only by God”.
Maybe the Acharya thought:
“In the coming ages, there may not be many gurus of knowledge who have attained
enlightenment. Even then, as far as the disciples are concerned, even through
them (such gurus) the Lord Himself will grant the release” and so depicted the
gurus as those who have not crossed; but however he added, the disciples will
cross (the ocean) by God’s Grace.
Another reason may also be
mentioned. If a disciple gets the true attitude of surrender, by which he
totally surrenders to the Guru and leaves it to him to ‘do whatever he likes’,
then that Grace of the guru itself is the boat as well as the favourable wind,
and it ferries him to the other shore. But that kind of total surrender is not
possible by every one. Even if he does not do the total surrender, he may
default by being a little indifferent in his sAdhanA, thinking that “After all
he is our guru. He is the one who blessed me with the teaching . So his own
Grace will surely lead us on to the goal of the upadesha. How can this fail to
happen?” Coupled with the absence of total surrender if this kind of default
persists wherein even the sAdhanA is not perfect, and if there is the
indifferent attitude in the hope that the Guru will take care, -- such a
possibility should be prevented. Addressing such defaulters, in other words, to
emphasize the fact that one should not lax on the self-effort on the alibi of
Guru’s Grace, the Acharya must have said “Guru shows the Advaita-saadhanaa 184
way
from the bank; it is you who have to set sail in the boat and cross the ocean”.
Though the Acharya said
“You have to do it yourself” he must have also thought this might end up in
boosting up one’s ego in the thought “Thus after all it is our own effort that
has all the power”. So he also says that even though it is you who do it, that
is also Ishvara’s Grace. It is He who prompts you and keeps you company.
If we carefully note what
the Lord says in the Gita we would know the Acharya has said the same thing. When
He winds up the Gita, the Lord says: “Surrender to me and rest. I will take
care of you!” A little before that he also says “Do a total surrender to the
Lord in every possible way. By His Grace you will attain the highest goal of
Peace”. And He Himself says in another place *uddhared-AtmanAtmAnaM* ‘one has
to lift oneself by oneself’ and thus talks of self-effort as great. Unless one
does the total surrender, it is self-effort that wins – this is the sum and
substance. In all this also there is God’s Grace in hiding!
He who does the
nidhidhyAsana really deeply does forget himself off and on and gets hooked up
to Brahman but he also comes out of it. He who causes them to happen is
Ishvara. From the very beginning, from the time one begins with nitya-anitya-vastu-vivekaM
– why, even further down, from the rock bottom practice and performance of
karma and bhakti -- the agent-provocateur who takes him up inch by inch, in
answer to his efforts, is only the Ishvara. But He never explicitly shows
Himself, even a little, to be so. It is the sAdhaka who has to infer it, by the
thoughts ‘I think my mind is now purified a little, some dispassion has come,
it is now possible to still the mind for a moment at least’ and so on, by
observing himself. He does the nidhidhyAsana, but to be lost in that trance
even for a moment is His work! Formerly, the action of progressing in the
sAdhanA, as well as attaining greater and greater maturity, was the
responsibility of the JIva. But now he is progressing towards the state of actionlessness;
what action shall he do now? He can only think of it; except for that how can
he do the ‘becoming That’ as an action?
We say ‘I passed the
examination’. Actually the act of passing, was not done by us. Our action was
only to write the examination. Yes, we did it well. But we cannot ‘pass’
ourselves. Some responsible official has to ‘pass’ us. Our business ends with
writing the examination. The awarding of the ‘pass’ is by the person
responsible for it. (Of course I am talking about the period before Indian
Independence. The methods of ‘gratification’ or ‘applying pressure’ for the
purpose of ensuring a ‘pass’ were not known in those days!). To ‘pass’ in the
sAdhanA examination, which means to ‘pass’ to be admitted to the world of
actionlessness, it is Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 185
the
Grace of the Ishvara, the ‘phala-dAtA’ (dispenser of fruit) that is not only
the capital but also the instrument of action.
Unlike the case of the
ordinary examination, where the result is only a piece of news, the value of
which is only a further job or an eligibility to pursue studies further , in
the case of sAdhanA, a pass in the final examination of nidhidhyAsanA is indeed
a great Experience. There is nothing above or beyond that. It is nothing but
Brahma-nirvANa, advaita-moksha.
The truth certainly is that
the Lord makes the JIvAtma as paramAtmA, as a result of the constant thinking
of the former.
In the Tamil world, there
is a saying which is in conformity with ‘bhramara-kITa-nyAya’. “The wasp stings
and stings and makes the worm one of its family” goes the saying. *koTTik-koTTi
kuLavi tan-niRam AkkitrAm*! It is not that the worm becomes the wasp by itself;
it keeps on thinking about the wasp, the wasp continues to sting and converts
it into the form of the wasp – so goes this saying. It is in that manner
Ishvara does to the JIvAtmA who does the nidhidhyAsana.
Mark it! There is a
difference! The One who does the transformation here is the Ishvara who is the
saguNa-brahman. But the transformation he does to the JIvAtmA is the formless
nirguNa-brahman! And the Jiva does the dhyAna only to become nirguNa and not
for becoming the saguNa Ishvara! So this transcends all analogy and stands very
high!
From the beginning Ishvara
did not reveal Himself as the one who was granting the progress step by step.
Even now he only plays ‘blind and seek’. Now and then he takes the sAdhaka to
samAdhi and later permanently makes him a JIvan-mukta or a videha-mukta.
However there is a major difference. In earlier stages, all the cleaning up or
purification and other touches-up that were happening in the mind, had Him as
their Cause. But now He destroys the very mind itself! Once the mind has
vanished, how can this (sAdhaka) get to know Him (the saguNa Brahman)? And that
is why even now the work of Ishvara is a black box to the JIva! But though it
is not visible to the eyes, it is million times proximate in the sense that
there is a unification between ‘this’ and ‘that’ NirguNa. The saguNa Ishvara
who makes the JIva a nothing, also makes Himself a nothing and shines only as a
sat-cit-Ananda tattva only. [The Mahaswamigal laughs here] I said ‘shines’; is
it the light of a bulb of one thousand watts? We are running out of language
here! We are only talking at our level like this in order to attempt to
communicate!
Indescribable by words,
unreachable by the mind – nothing more blissful, nothing more peaceful than
that, nothing more independent, Advaita-saadhanaa 186
nothing
more of knowledge – it is a state, the truth of truths, the universal One! That
is the destination for the jnAna path, and for the regimen of advaita-sAdhanA,
wonderfully paved for us into a royal path by the Acharya.
By his Grace we got the
fortunate opportunity of talking about it, hearing about it and thinking about
it. Let us pray to him that we should be able to march forward in that path,
little by little.
68:
What is to be done immediately?
The First thing to be done
is the discharge of obligatory karmas – what the shAstras have ordained and in
the manner they have chalked out. Nowadays ‘advaita’ has come to mean the
discarding of all karma, and all AchAra (regulatory prescriptions). They think
‘advaita’ is a free license to be without AchAra. And they even advise
‘conventionalists’ such as me and say “What is there in all this (AchAra)?”.
Without an iota of experience of advaita or the JIva-Brahma-non-difference,
without having made even the slightest effort towards that, they get into the
habit of playing with expressions of opinions like “How can Atman have karma?
Or regulatory prescriptions? By observing varnAshrama dharma are we not
contradicting advaita?” In other words, they intervene into advaita only to do
what they like irrespective of the shAstras. I have all along been shutting my
mouth ( and not talking about advaita), lest I become a party for the promotion
of such opinionated sins. Somehow it has happened that I have talked about it
all. But let me not wind up with a guilty note. The final goal being advaita,
every one should know at least an outline of it – this has been the maxim of
the Acharya. And by his Grace only I have been able to tell you something; and
that is my satisfaction.
Let no one immediately take
all this (advaita-sAdhanA) seriously. At the core of your mind, hold on to the
thought that JIva and Brahman are the same. Once you hold on to it, it will
have its own effect. What you have to do voluntarily is to discharge your
karmic obligations according to the shAstras.
In the advaita shAstra that
has been handed down to us by tradition through the efforts of great
‘anubhavis’ one has been asked to move on to advaita-sAdhanA only after one has
reached a reasonable perfection in the discharge of his shAstraic duties.
More fundamental than that
we should make efforts to become ethically pure. Beginning a great sAdhanA to
become that ‘Pure One’ (*Ekam sat*) Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 187
does
not mean that we ignore the necessity to be ethically pure! The word ‘sat’ has,
in addition to its meaning of ‘Brahman, the Reality’, has also, according to
Lord Krishna Himself, (B.G. XVII – 26) the meaning of ‘good’, that is, a good
quality or character. *sad-bhAve sAdhu-bhAve ca sad-ity-etat prayujyate*. We
call those who are good, as sAdhus; that has its origin from the word ‘sat’. We
speak of people as ‘sat’ (good ones) and ‘asat’ (bad ones). As such, we have to
hold on to this ‘sat’ (the good) and then through this go to that ‘sat’, the
Reality!
This ‘sad-guNa’ (good
quality) and that brahma-jnAna are not unrelated. Without this that will not be
obtained. The Acharya says: For that, this is the ‘sahakAri cause’ – i.e. the
accessory cause; the cause with which it cooperates and produces the fruit
(phalaM). The word ‘phalaM’ and ‘sahakAri’ remind me of the type of mango
called ‘sahakAra mango’. It is a mix of different types of mangoes. In
Kanchipuram there is a mango tree of this type and it is at the foot of such a
tree that the Goddess is united with the Lord Ekambareshvara (cf.
Mukapanchashati AryashatakaM shloka 64). In the same manner the good quality
‘sat’ and ‘jnAna’ have to integrate together to produce the ripe fruit of
moksha. In the Gita, at a certain place (XIII – 7) where He delineates what
jnAna is, the Lord says: “Self-pride is wrong. Pretentiousness is taboo. One
should have the quality of ahimsA (non-injury), forbearance and
straightforwardness”. Beginning thus He reels off a big list. That is where in
the Acharya’s Bhashya, he himself raises the question on behalf of the opponent
“How can these things be jnAnaM” and replying to the objection, says “All these
are ‘sahakAri’ causes for jnAnaM and hence themselves called jnAnaM”. Further
he adds that these are the good qualities that constitute the fertile ground
for the spark of jnAnaM.
The statement that
self-pride is wrong implies only the necessity of humility. A humble nature. We
should all begin with that kind of humble nature and make efforts to become
good. Keeping the thought of that ‘sat’ (the Reality) at the bottom of our
hearts, and with the Grace of the Acharya, let us all do what we should for
this ‘sat’ (goodness).
One should close with the
word ‘sat’ (Recall *om tat sat*). So let me mentally say so for all of you.
CONCLUDED.
PraNAms
to all students of advaita.
PraNAms to the
Maha-Swamigal.
Om Tat Sat
(End )
(My humble salutations to the lotus feet of H H
Kanchi Mahaswamy, great devotees and Advaita Vedanta dot org for the collection)
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