ADVAITA-SAADHANAA
(Kanchi Maha-Swamigal’s Discourses)
BhartRhari was a great man.
He has composed a *shatakaM*, that is, a piece of hundred verses, with great
feeling and majesty, about Sannyasa and Sannyasi. He could have as well named
it “Sannyasa shatakaM”. Instead he has named it “VairAgya shatakaM*. If
VairAgyam is there Sannyasa is not far behind – seems to be the thought.
What else is ‘San-nyAsaM’?
Is it not a total ‘renunciation’? Unless you renounce that which is called
desire, how can you renounce everything else? So it is not surprising that
Sannyasam, as well as Renunciation, are both synonymous with vairAgyaM.
The great Tiruvalluvar has
told us in Tamil about Dharma. In the chapter on Renunciation, he says that
renunciation is when we attach ourselves only to the attachmentless God, thus
renouncing all other attachments. It is by desire, by rAga, that one gets
attachment. Alternatively, when we have an association with something, that is
when we are attached to something, then there arises desire towards that – just
as the Lord has said *sangAt sanjAyate kAmaH* (II – 62). Thus both desire and
attachment are mutually cause and effect for each other. Therefore when
Tiruvalluvar says *patru viDarkku* (abandonment of attachment), he is actually
referring to the rise of vairAgyaM. He calls that renunciation and
closes that chapter with the words *patru viDarkku*. In the same section of
chapters there is another chapter Advaita-saadhanaa 48
called
“cutting off of desires” (*avA aruttal*), which is also only vairAgyaM.
VairAgyam is the walking
off from all wealth. That VairAgyam itself is a great wealth, There is nothing
equivalent to that in the whole world, why, nothing in the divine world either
– says he very beautifully:
*VenDamai anna vizhuccelvam
INDillai
ANDum akdu oppadu il*.
Almost the same thought
(about renunciation and vairAgyam) has been expressed by Sadashiva Brahmendra.
In his Atma-vidyA-vilAsaM he visualises the Sannyasi as a king (of the
spiritual kingdom) and says: *svIkRRita-vairAgya-sarvasvaH* -- the one who has
appropriated all the treasures of vairAgyaM. He himself was like that!
Men like BhartRhari, Tiruvalluvar and Sadashiva Brahmendra were themselves in
possession of great vairAgya. Their thoughts about vairAgya touch our hearts --
at least for that moment! From their mouths we learn how, though acquiring that
kind of vairAgyam may be most difficult, once we achieve it we then really have
the treasure of the bliss of the Atman, -- the treasure that belittles as trash
all those treasures that we have been holding as great. Did not our own Acharya
run away with the utmost vairAgya at the age of eight from home, from town and
from the very mother who was treating him with extraordinary affection as her
own very soul? In fact he has produced a panchakaM (a piece of five shlokas)
where each shloka has the ending refrain: *kaupInavantaH khalu bhAgyavantaH*
(Blessed are those with nothing but a loin cloth). In BhajagovindaM also he
asks *kasya sukhaM na karoti virAgaH* -- Who is the one that will not get
Eternal Bliss from vairAgyaM?
The moment one thinks of vairAgyaM
one will not fail to recall the famous PattinattAr! He was born as an amsha
of Kubera and was doing even overseas trade. But one day there came the boy, an
amsha of Lord shiva, who left a written message “Not even a useless needle will
come along with you on your last journey” and disappeared. As soon as
Pattinathar saw that, he renounced all his immense wealth and left home clad
only in a loin-cloth, carrying only a begging bowl (‘Odu’ in Tamil), singing
the couplet
*VIDu
namaakkut-tiruvAlangADu vimalar tantha
Odu namakkuNDu*.
In course of time even that
begging bowl was thrown away by him since holding that ‘property’ was thought
to be unbecoming of a renunciate. And he sang: Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 49
Hometown
is not permanent; nor are relatives
Neither is the name they
gave you .....
(In Tamil: *Oorum
cathamalla, uRRaar chathamalla [uRRup-peRRa]
perum chathamalla ...*)
When we hear the
innumerable songs he has composed, vairAgya arises in us, even though
temporarily just as one gets after a child-birth (called *prasava-vairAgyam*)
or after visiting a cremation (called *smashAna-vairAgyam*) !
I told you about
BhartRhari. There is a story that even he was a disciple of this Pattinathar.
BhartRhari is also known as Bhadragiri. This Bhadragiri was a king of Ujjain; but he renounced
his kingship and came to Tiruvidaimaruthur where he was sitting as a renunciate
begging for food with a bowl in hand. He used to get Biksha (alms of food) for
both his Guru Pattinathar and himself. It is amazing to note that one who was
an incarnate of Kubera and another who had a kingdom to own both became
renunciates with that much of dispassion! Even then Pattinathar thought that
Bhadragiri did not have enough vairAgya! Because the latter had kept a begging
bowl for his begging! A poor man went to Pattinathar and asked for alms. It is
said that it was the Lord Himself of the temple (Mahalinga Swami) who went so
disguised. And Pattinathar told him: “I myself have nothing; why do you ask me?
Go and ask that ‘family man’ sitting at the western gate of the temple. And
tell him that I sent you there!” When Bhadragiri heard this statement reported
to him, he realised the force of the words ‘family man’ and in that very
instant threw away his begging bowl!
There are more interesting
things in this story; but I am not going to continue the story, for, then I
won’t have time to tell you about all the things I want to say about SAdhanA.
When we are talking of VairAgyam I thought the mention of these great role
models of renunciation would add to the depth of the ideas.
Here the one who sang *Odu
namakkuNDu* (‘we have the begging bowl’) later came to the conclusion that even
one who has the Odu (Begging bowl) is actually a family man! There is a similar
story in the life history of Sadashiva Brahmendra. He sings in his Atma Vidya
Vilasam (#46): “With the folded hand as pillow, the sky as blanket, the bare
ground as bed, and dispassion as wife – thus sleeps a renunciate in the blessed
state of samAdhi”. Once he was himself in that blissful pose of sleep on the
ground in an open field. A farmer girl who was passing by, remarked to her
friend, with a sarcastic smile: What a sannyasi! He needs a head-rest for his
head; what type of renunciation is this? This made Advaita-saadhanaa 50
Sadashiva
Brahmendra think: ‘How come I am thinking like an ordinary man that the head
has to rest above the level of the rest of the body in order to sleep? Unless I
get rid of this attachment to the body my sannyAsa is not worth the
salt. It is only Mother Goddess who has come in the form of this low-caste
woman to give me this upadesha’. Thus thinking, he removed his hand that was
used as a head rest and lay on the ground without any headrest.
But the same woman who had
commented earlier passed that way again, saw the change in the posture of the
sannyasi and again gave a sarcastic laugh followed by an equally sarcastic
comment! She said: “A Sannyasi should know things for himself. Just to keep
reacting to comments made by passers-by does not speak well of renunciation!”
That was the day when
Sadashiva became an honest-to-goodness non-reacting, non-acting, non-responding
inert-like entity, Sadashiva Brahman!
Thus even the commonfolk
seem to be knowing what kind of vairAgyaM should a Sannyasi possess.! It
is in such a land of ours we have modern Sannyasis who say they cannot remain
without coffee or ovaltine! And if you ask, they may say: “We are
ati-varNAshramis, who are above the Sannyasi level; as that low-caste woman
said, we know what to do and what not to do”
Instead of showing off like
this, if one wants to be really in possession of Atma-jnAna, the one
single thing very, very necessary, is vairAgyaM. It is said (e.g., in
Jabala Upanishad IV and other Sannyasa Upanishads) that when that vairAgyaM has
been acquired, then that very day one can leave home as a Sannyasi --
*yad-ahareva virajet tadahareva pravrajet*.
But one should not leave
home or karma in disgust of the present life not giving any permanent
happiness. Such a thing will turn out to be dry. The disgust about the present
impermanent life should be accompanied by the thought about the permanent bliss
of the Atman. Then only it will turn out to be a right SAdhanA and in
turn lead to everlasting bliss. Once the Realisation is reached, the disgust
also will disappear and everything will be full of Love. In other words it is
in association with the comprehension (vivekaM) of the syndrome of the
permanent and the impermanent that one should practise vairAgyaM.
Neither vairAgyaM without that vivekaM nor vivekaM without the vairAgyaM
will suffice. They have to combine. Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 51
The
very fact we are asked to analyse the distinction between the permanent and the
impermanent is to discard the impermanent through dispassion. To get that
dispassion is the first step of the spiritual ascent. That is why
‘AparokshAnubhUti’ gives importance to vairAgyam and classifies vairAgyaM as
the first step. In ‘VivekachUDAmani’ also *mokshhasya prathamo hetuH* (Verse
69/ Verse 70 in another reading) – An extreme vairAgya in things impermanent is
the first cause for Moksha – thus combining the two in a symbiotic way.
Thus these constitute the
first two of SAdhanA-chatushhTayaM.
Let us go to the third now.
Viveka and VairAgya are at least known to all people in a general way. But the SAdhanA
parts that we are going to describe now may not be so known, even by name.
18.
The Sextad of treasurable qualities.
The third part of SAdhanA-chatushhTayaM
is called *shamAdi shhaTka-sampatti* -- the sextad of treasures
beginning with ‘shama’. These are: ‘shama’, ‘dama’, ‘uparati’,
‘titikshhA’, ‘shraddhA’ and ‘samAdhAna’. Of these people know
about ‘shraddhA’, but even here, they usually think it means a deep
interest or involvement. It is not so. A firm conviction or faith is called shraddhA;
I have already mentioned that shraddhA is faith in what the ShAstras and
the Guru say. Again, the sixth one, called ‘samAdhAna’ is also a well-known
word but not a well-understood word in its connotation of one of the six
‘sampatti’. We shall take it up when we come to it in due turn.
The six are referred to as
‘shamAdi’ by our Acharya. Note that it is ‘shamAdi’ and not
‘samAdhi’. The ‘sha’ is not the ‘sa’ of ‘sa-ri-ga-ma-pa...’ but the ‘sha’ of
‘Shankara’. *shama-damAdi upetaH syAt* says Brahma-sutra (III – 4 – 27).
For the attainment of jnAna one should have shama, dama and
the like. *tad-vidheH* -- that is the rule, adds the Sutra. Who made the rule?
Obviously, the Vedas. It is Ishvara who has so ordained through the vedas.
Where exactly do the vedas
prescribe shama, dama and the like? In Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad,
(IV – 4 – 23) where Yajnavalkya teaches Janaka, he says a JnAni has to
be a *shAnta* (one with shama), *dAnta* (one with dama),
*uparata* (one with uparati), *titukshhu* (one with titikshhA)
and *samAhita* (one with samAdhAna). In other words, only he who has practised
and acquired all these can become a JnAni or can obtain jnAna.
Here five of the six have been mentioned. The same order among them is also
maintained by the Acharya. ‘ShraddhA’ is the remaining one. It is
actually basic to everything. The shruti talks about it Advaita-saadhanaa 52
in
several places. Thus we always talk about the sextad of ‘shama’ and the
like.
19.
Shama and Dama
What
is ‘shama’? The Acharya gives the following definition:
Virajya
vishhaya-vrAtA doshha-dRRishhTyA muhur-muhuH /
svalakshhye
niyatAvasthA manasaH shama uchyate // (Vivekachudamani: 22)
The conglomerate of all
sensual experience in the form of sound, touch, form, taste and smell by the
five sense organs is called *vishhaya-vrAta*. By discretion (viveka) and
dispassion (vairAgya) one has to analyse and discover that all these are
only obstacles on the path to Self-Realisation and so we have to discard them.
This is what is said by *muhur-muhuH doshha-dRRishhTyA virajya* -- meaning,
‘often, by realising they are bad, discarding out of disgust’.
Our mind is always thinking
about what it considers pleasurable and is perturbed because of the inability
to reach them. Thus it misses peace and happiness. Once we discard the sense
objects as bad then it would be possible to fix the mind on the goal of SAdhanA,
the Atman, which is full of peace and happiness. In other words the mind that
is frantically running after multifarious matters can be made to stop that
running and can be tethered to one goal. That kind of control is what is called
*shama*.
One should think about the
negative effects of ‘vishhaya-vrAta’, the gang of sense experience.
‘virajya’ :
discarding them out of disgust.
‘sva-lakshhye’ : in one’s
own goal.
‘manasaH niyata avasthA’
: keep the mind tethered under control
‘shama uchyate’ : is
said to be ‘shama’.
In short, the control of
mind is ‘shama’.
Why does the mind run after
sense objects? It is because of the footprints of past experience. They are
called ‘smell’ or ‘vAsanA’. This continues life after life. This
inter-life vAsanA continues in a latent form in the subtle body, even after the
physical body dies. When the soul takes another birth and thus obtains a new
physical body, the latent vAsanAs begin to show their mettle! If those vAsanAs
can be eradicated Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 53
in
toto, the mind will be calmed automatically. It is thus the Acharya defines ‘shama’
in ‘aparokshhAnubhUti’. (Just now what we gave was the definition from Viveka
chudamani).
*sadaiva vAsanA-tyAgaH
shamo’yam-iti shabditaH*
Abandonment always of
desire-promptings through vAsanAs is said to be ‘shama.
It is enough to understand
that ‘shama’ is control of the mind.
The thing that comes next
is ‘dama’. It is control of the sense organs. In fact there is a lot
more to say about ‘shama’. But mind-control and sense-control have both
to go hand in hand. So let us talk about some basics of ‘dama’ also now
and then we can go more deeply about both together.
Sense organs are ten – five
organs of action and five organs of perception. But the latter cannot ‘do’
anything themselves. The organs of action do action themselves: actions done by
hands – the names ‘kara’ (hand) and ‘kAryaM’ (action) are themselves
indicative, the legs do action by walking, jumping and running, the mouth
speaks or sings, and two remaining organs excrete waste or vIryaM from the
human body. On the other hand the organs of perception are those which cognize
(or perceive) things in the outside world and ‘experience’ them. The ear
experiences sound, the skin experiences the smoothness or otherwise and the
coldness or hotness of something outside, the eye perceives colour and form,
the tongue experiences the taste like sourness, bitterness or sweetness and the
nose knows the experience of smell.
When we do not keep these
sense organs under control all the mischief happens. The JIva is bound
to this mayic world through the experiences by these sense organs. Only when we
control these organs may we hope to enter the world of spirituality. Such
control is called ‘dama’.
The direct meanings of both
‘shama’ and ‘dama’ is control without any specific qualifier as
control of the mind or control of the senses. But traditional usage recognises
two controls – one, control of the sense organs which either receive or respond
to knowledge from outside and control of the sense organs which do actions to
help such perception or response and two, control of the mind which creates its
own world of thoughts and constantly is roaming about with or without aim in
that world. Usage distinguishes these two controls and so uses ‘shama’
for mind control and ‘dama’ for sense control. Since anyway both mean
control the Acharya himself, in the beginning of his ‘shhaTpadI stotraM’
Advaita-saadhanaa 54
goes
against traditional usage and uses ‘damaya manaH’ where he wants to say
‘control the mind’ and uses ‘shamaya vishhaya mRRiga-tRRishhNAM’ where
he wants to say ‘control the senses that run to the mirage of outside sense
objects’. The Prakarana works of the Acharya are unique in describing the
advaitic experiences. One can also get from them the rationale and procedure of
SAdhanA regimen in a systematic way. On the other hand when we want to
get at the siddhanta (conclusion) by analysing the pros and cons of Vedanta, we
have to give weight to his Bhashyas. And we may be surprised to note that in
these very Bhashyas he has sometimes interpreted shama and dama in
a way contrary to their traditional usage! In fact this has raised even some
controversy among scholars. Remember I told you earlier that the sextad of
qualifications with the exception of shraddhA has been mentioned in
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. In his commentary at that point, the Acharya has
interpreted ‘shAnta’ (one endowed with shama) as ‘one who has controlled
the goings-on of the outer senses’ (*bAhyendriya vyApArata upashAntaH*), that
is, the one who has reached a position generally accepted to be the state of ‘dama’;
and he has interpreted ‘dAnta’ (one endowed with dama) as ‘one who has
released himself of the thirst (tRRishhNA) of the inner organ, the mind,
(*antaHkaraNa-tRRishhNato nivRRittaH*), that is, the one who has reached a
position generally accepted to be the state of ‘shama’. On the other
hand, in his prakaraNa work, Viveka-chudamani, he goes with the general
trend of meaning. But this need not raise a debate or controversy. He wrote the
Bhashyas almost soon after he was initiated into Sannyasa in his youth. Shama, dama
both point to ‘control’ and he might have thought it fit to talk of
sense-control first and then only of mind-control. And later when he travelled
throughout the country he might have decided to follow the accepted tradition
among the scholars.
‘dama’ and ‘shama’
both imply a control on oneself by oneself. So when we generally talk of
self-control in an integrated sense of both mind-control and sense-control, we
may rightly use either ‘dama’ or ‘shama’ alone. In
BrihadaranyakaM when BrahmA teaches the divines generally to be humble, he just
says “dAmyata” thus using only the word ‘dama’.
An alternate name for
Bharata, the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala is ‘sarva-damana’, meaning
one who controls and reigns over all. It was because of the dominance of her
beauty that Damayanti is so called. The God of Death, Yama, is called ‘shamana’
because he calms away the life of every one, be he a king or a pauper, when the
time comes for it.
From the word ‘dama’
the two words ‘damanaM’ and ‘dAnti’ have been derived; so also from the
word ‘shama’, the two words ‘shamanaM’ and Maha-swamigal’s
Discourses 55
‘shAnti’
have come. The words ‘shamanaM’ and ‘shAnti’ are more frequently in use
than ‘damanaM’ and ‘dAnti’. We say ‘ushhNa-shamanaM’ and ‘pitha-shamanaM’
for controlling heat and bile, respectively. Also ‘krodha-shamanaM’ for
controlling anger. Though ‘control’ is generally the intention here, the
connotation is more mild and points out only to a softening rather than a
violent control. The word ‘shAnti’ itself connotes a calming down and stands
for a peaceful process or state where the intensity of control does not
surface.
‘shAnti’ is the state of
calmed mind; ‘dAnti’ is the state of calmed senses. Usually sannyAsis are given
the attributes like ‘shAnti dAnti bhUmnAM’.
[Note by Ra.
Ganapthy: In the Mutt
the Shrimukham of
the PithAdipati (head of Mutt)
includes this as
one of the attributes.]
The eyes and ears can close
themselves and stop seeing or hearing. The hands and legs also can be tied so
that they are incapable of any action. But even then the mind will be having
its own goings-on without any discipline. Even though the senses are not
experiencing anything, the mind can imagine them and go through all the
rumblings and turbulences. When the senses act they act only by the promptings
of the mind and for the satisfaction of the mind or fulfillment of the desires
of the mind. So what is necessary is to immobilise the mind in order to stop
all the multifarious activities of the senses.
It is because of this
importance of mental control and discipline that SAdhanA regimens talk
first of shama and dwell on dama later.
Of course an objection may
be raised: “If shama is achieved then automatically dama is also
a part of it; so why has it to be dealt with separately?”
The complete control of the
mind – what is also called the ‘death of the mind’ (*mano-nAshaM*) occurs only
almost at the last stage. We are here talking about the penultimate stages. Of
course one has to try to control the mind right from the beginning. But the
attempt at such control will only succeed temporarily. The moment the eyes see
a tasty dish or the nose smells something familiarly pleasant, all discipline
goes to the winds. The legs take you to the dish, the hands grab it, and the
mouth begins to chew it. Thus even the mind was having a little control of
itself, the senses perceive the sense object and that starts a yearning and
that does havoc to the control of the mind. Until we reach a spiritual height,
our mind behaves like this – that is, controlled when the sense objectrs are
not in the perception-range of the senses, and losing control when
Advaita-saadhanaa 56
the
senses ‘sense’ the objects of temptation. Those are the situations when the
‘eyes’, ‘ears’ ‘nose’, ‘legs’ ‘hands’ etc. have to be imprisoned and bound.
This is why, ‘dama’ is mentioned as soon as ‘shama’ is mentioned.
Kathopanishad gives a
beautiful analogy for mind and the senses. JIva is like the master
seated in a chariot. The body is the chariot. The intellect is the charioteer.
The chariot has several horses. Which are the horses? They are nothing but our
senses. The charioteer steers the chariot by pulling the reins thereby
controlling the horses. Those reins are the mind. The intellect – the one which
has already been tempered by viveka and vairAgya, the first two
of the four parts of SAdhanA-chatushhTayaM – is now the wise
intellect and therefore the right charioteer who pilots the chariot of the body
along the path of life. The right path is the spiritual path. The charioteer
has to pull the reins (the mind) the proper way, not too hard, not too loose,
so that the sense-horses go only in the direction of the highest experiences in
life. When the destination of Brahman realisation arrives, one releases the
horses (senses) as well as the reins (the mind) and also the charioteer (the
intellect), the JIva (the resident of the chariot) who is the master can
enjoy the Self by himself for himself!
‘dama’ denotes
sense-control; but here only the senses of perception (jnAnendriyas) are
indicated. Just as it is the mind which is the force behind the five senses of
perception so also it is the force of the senses of perception that motivate
the karmendriyas (senses of action) into action. That is why, the control of
the senses of action are not dealt with separately. The control of indriyas
usually means control of the five senses of perception only. In Viveka Chudamani
a little later (#76 or 78, depending on what reading you are using) these five
senses are shown to be the harbinger of all evil. “The deer obtains its ruin by
the sense of sound through the ear (Hunters play the flute, the deer gets
charmed by the music and stands still; that is when it is caught). The elephant
reaches its ruin by the sense of touch through the skin (The he-elephant is
caught when he forgets himself in the pleasure of contact with a she-elephant,
already known to him and now lured into his track). The moth meets its death by
sensing the form through the eyes (Does it not burn itself by being attracted
by the form of light-flame which deludes it?). The fish meets its ruin by the
sense of taste realised by the tongue (The bait of the fisherman is the worm
that prompts the fish to taste it and gets caught). The bee meets its ruin by
the sense of smell (The smell of the champaka flower attracts the bee and it
goes and sits inside the full blossom of the flower; when the flower petals
close up the bee still remains there, being enchanted by the smell and that is
when it dies, starved of fresh air). Thus each of the five different senses of
perception Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 57
prove
to be the cause of death for one of the five different species of beings. The
human, on the other hand is a prey to all the five senses of perception. What
to speak of the crisis in store for him?”
However, in shloka #23 he
refers to *ubhayeshhAM indriyANAM*, where he defines ‘dama’. He
says ‘dama’ is the control of both types of senses, of perception as
well as of action; the control is of the experience of pleasures obtained by
both:
vishhayebhyaH parAvartya
sthApanaM sva-svagolake /
ubhayeshhAM indriyANAM sa
damaH parikIrtitaH //
‘dama’ is said to be
the withdrawal of both kinds of senses (jnAna as well as karma) from
their objects of enjoyment and limiting them to their own spheres
(*sva-sva-golake*).
Here the ‘withdrawing of
the senses’ makes sense; but ‘limiting the senses to their own spheres’ is not
so clear. Let me tell you how I have myself understood this. It does not mean
that one should not see anything, should not hear anything, should not eat
anything, should not move about or do anything with hands and feet. No, the
Acharya does not mean that. If we stop all activities that way then the journey
of life itself would become impossible. And then where comes the SAdhanA?
Only if the base screen is there you can draw pictures on it. Whatever is
necessary for life’s journey – like seeing, hearing, eating, walking, moving –
has to be done. Thus what is necessary to be done automatically defines a
limit, a limiting sphere of activity, on all the senses. This is what is called
*golaka* by the Acharya. That particular activity of the particular sense
(indriya) which is necessary for life to continue, that range of activity is
its golakaM. Once you transcend it, it is detrimental to the spirit. That
boundary shall never be crossed. An automobile for instance can go at a
particular speed; the very purpose of an automobile is to go places. But there
is a speed limit. In the same way in the journey of life so long as the journey
is on, there is work for the senses. You cannot stifle them by cutting them off
from their work.
The Lord says in the Gita
(III – 8) : Do what is prescribed for you; Without doing any work you cannot
carry on this journey of life. This has to be brought into concordance here.
Don’t take *golaka* as
‘orb’. Take it as ‘orbit’ – the path of the movement and not just movement.
When all the planets keep to their orbits around the Sun the solar universe and
the inhabitants of this universe carry on their routine normally. In order for
life in the universe to be normal the movement of the planets has to conform to
its schedule. What will Advaita-saadhanaa 58
happen
if one of the planets just go out of its ‘orbit’? What will happen if the
planets do not get into their respectrive orbits? Either way there will be
chaos. In the same way the ten senses of man have to keep staying in their
orbits and keep doing their prescribed work; otherwise, there will be no life –
only death. Maybe everything will then have to start all over again according
to the maxim *punarapi jananaM*. And we do not know whether we will get a human
birth in that ‘punarapi jananaM’. At least now we talk of the Atman and we have
occasion to talk of ‘SAdhanA’ to reach that Atman. Our new birth may not
be anywhere near the availability of these opportunities. In short, we have to
see to it that the indriyas do their necessary work but do not get out of their
limited sphere of action. The *sthApanaM* (fixation, establishment) of the
senses in their spheres of action is not a stoppage of the senses, but is a
fixing of them in their own path.
Recall that all this
applies to both jnAnendriyas (senses of perception ) and karmendriyas (senses
of action).
Usually the five senses of
perception and the five of action are counted along with the mind as eleven
indriyas. The eleven rudra forms of Lord Shiva are the adhi-devatas, the
deities pertaining to these senses. When we fast on the Ekadasi day (the
eleventh day of the lunar cycle) it is for starving these eleven indriyas. Manu
has said:
ekAdashaM mano jneyaM
svaguNeno-bhayAtmakaM /
yasmin jite jitAvetau
bhavataH panchakau gaNau // (Manusmriti II – 92)
meaning, “Know the mind as
the eleventh indriya, that has an interactive relationship with the pair of
five indriyas each ; Just by vanquishing that one, we would have conquered the
other ten”.
There is another kind of
classification. Mind and the five senses of perception (*jnAnendriyas*) only
are together counted as six. In the Gita the Lord says *indriyANAM
manashchAsmi* (X -22). More specifically, he says in XV – 7, *manaH
shhashhTAnIndriyANi* -- ‘the six indriyas including the mind’.
There are contexts where
the Acharya also has the same opinion. For instance, the indriyas are sometimes
called ‘karaNas’ (instruments); because, it is the instrument which implements
the actions that fulfill the will of the jIva. On the other hand, the actions
of thinking, planning, enjoying happiness and sorrow -- these are done by the
mind which is within. So mind is called ‘antaH-karaNaM’. Along with the five
‘karaNas’ that do work outside, the Acharya visualises that sextad as a bee and
says in Soundaryalahari (#90) *majjIvaH karaNa-charaNaH shhaT-charaNatAM*. The
bee has six feet and so the JIva with its six indriyas (‘karaNas’) is
taken as a bee. All movement is with the help of the legs. In Maha-swamigal’s
Discourses 59
life,
all the movements of the jIva take place because of these six ‘karaNas’; so
they are as good as ‘legs’ for the jIva-bee! This is the ‘karaNa charaNa’ of
the shloka. The creature with six legs is the bee. The bee immerses itself in
the lotus flower and remains there in enchanted forgetfulness. So also the plea
of the devotee is to be immersed in the lotus feet of Mother Goddess forgetful
of itself like a bee inside the lotus flower. That is when the mind and the
pair of five indriyas are calmed down and the JIva with shama and
dama achieved, is immersed in the Absolute. Mother Goddess (ambaaL) has
in Her hands a sugarcane bow and five arrows; the bow is to help us with ‘shama’
for mind-control and the arrows are to vanquish the five senses thus helping us
achieve ‘dama’.
In short, both mind-control
and sense-control have to go hand in hand, complementary to each other. In fact
all the parts of SAdhanA have to move in one wavefront and so are to be
practised as such in mixed fashion. I already told you they are not supposed to
follow one after the other in isolation. I have to emphasize this further in
the case of ‘shama’ and ‘dama’.
Sometimes the senses do act
involuntarily; maybe we can say those are the times when the mind has nothing
to do with them. But generally almost all the time, the stopping of the actions
of the indriyas or of the mind, does need the sanction and prompting of the mind
from within. The movement of the indriyas are in fact the deliberate prompts of
the mind which tries to fulfill its desires through them. Of course there may
be a little involuntary movement of the indriyas on their own. Movement, maybe,
but never the stoppage of movement. It is the mind that has to stop the
movement of the senses. Thus, not only is shama, the control of the
mind, but dama, the control of the senses, also is the responsibility of
the mind. Therefore it is that we also have to contend with shama and dama
together.
Lord Krishna at one place
talks of ‘dama’ as the work of mind: “indriyANi manasA niyamya” says He
in III – 7. The same structure of expression occurs in VI – 24 where he says
“manasaivendriya-grAmaM viniyamya” – that is, the gang of senses has to be
controlled properly by the mind itself. ‘By the mind itself’ – ‘not by oneself’
is what is underscored by the words “manasaiva” ( = manasA eva). Thus
controlling, gradually and slowly (*shanaiH shanaiH uparamet*) one should calm
down, says he. In fact ‘uparati’ is the next in *shhaTka-sampatti*
starting from shama and dama. ‘uparamet’ means ‘one should reach
‘uparati’, namely the calming down of everything. Advaita-saadhanaa 60
The
Lord usually talks about shama and dama both together.
*sarva-dvArANi samyamya mano hRRidi nirudhya ca* (VIII – 12) : Here
‘sarva-dvArANi samyamya’ (damming all gates) is ‘dama’; ‘mano hRRidi
nirudhya’ (fixing the mind in the heart) is ‘shama’. The dvAras are the
gates; these gates are the indriyas, namely, ears, nose and mouth – in which
the gates are visible and explicit; and the skin, in which the gates are not
visible, but we know every hair on the skin is only a gate-like equipment,
though invisible; and finally the eyes, which we know is just a fixture in one
of the openings of the skull and further light passes through the eyes and
creates all the images that we see. So the controlling of these five gates is
nothing but the dama that controls the senses. And the process of
controlling the mind and stabilising it in the Atman is the shama described
in “mano hRRidi nirudhya”.
“bhavanti bhAvA bhUtAnAM
matta eva pRRithak-vidhAH” – All the different attitudes of the beings emanate
from Me, says the Lord. And then He gives a list of the highest among them: (X –
4, 5) Intellect, wisdom, non-delusion, forgiveness, truth, self- restraint (dama)
, calmness (shama), ... . And when he makes a list of all divine
qualities in the 16th chapter, he includes both dama and shama in
“dAnaM damashca” and “tyAgaH shAntiH” (XVI – 1, 2) . As I have already
mentioned, what is obtained by shama is shAnti (Peace) and what is
obtained by dama is ‘dAnti’.
A sannyasi is called
‘yati’. The Tamil name ‘Ethiraj’ is only a mutilated version of ‘Yatiraja’.
‘Yati’ means a Sannyasi. The direct meaning of the word is one who has the
quality of control or one who has controlled. Shri Ramanuja is usually known
also as ‘Yatiraja’. The words ‘yama’ and ‘yata’ both indicate ‘control’ or
‘discipline’. The divine Yama is one who controls every one by fear. He takes
them to his locale where they are controlled and punished; so his locale is
called ‘samyamanI’. That matter of Yama pertains to control of others. But the
matter of ‘Yati’ is control of the self. So the Shastras such as the Gita talk
of such a ‘yati’ as ‘yatAtmA’ or ‘samyatAtmA’. The forced controls take place
in the city of SamyamanI
whereas the Sannyasi who has strict self-control is called ‘samyatAtmA’ or
‘samyamI’. Here the control is of the mind and of the senses. In other words he
who has acquired ‘shama’ and ‘dama’ is the ‘yati’ or ‘sannyAsi’.
The Lord says (IV – 39) *shraddhAvAn
labhate jnAnaM tatparaH samyatendriyaH* -- the one who has, with shraddhA
(faith and dedication), controlled all the senses and thus is a
‘samyatendriya’, attains JnAna. Actually He has symbiotically combined
here shraddhA, shama and dama , all three occurring in SAdhanA-chatushhTayaM!
Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 61
In
describing the attributes of a sthita-prajna, He says: “Just as a tortoise
draws its head into the shell whenever there is danger, a human being should
withdraw his senses from the sense objects into himself” and thus emphasizes
the need for sense-control, by giving this beautiful analogy. Whenever the
senses go outward helter-skelter on their own, it is danger time for the human.
The tortoise has to draw its head into the shell only when it smells danger;
but the human has always to do this withdrawal. The Lord underscores this fact
by using a simple additional word, almost innocuously as it were, namely, the
word *sarvashaH* in that verse II – 58. *sarvashaH* means ‘always and by all
means’ ! : *yadA samharate cAyaM kUrmo’ngAnIva sarvashaH*.
In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
the entire divine community gets the advice: (V – 2 – 1) *dAmyata*, meaning,
‘Keep your senses under control’. The story goes as follows: Not only the
Divines, but the Humans as well as the Asuras – all three species went to
PrajApati, their Creator to get advice. They were told by BrahmA only a single
letter “da” and were also asked whether they had understood it.
Generally every one knows
one’s own weakness. So if somebody tells him a message in a disguised way and
asks him to understand what he needed to understand, they will get the message
in the way they think it was applicable to them. To understand something
oneself this way has also a greater value. It will stick. One will not find
fault with the fault-finder, for the curiosity to decipher the message will
win!
That is how, in the story
of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the single letter ‘da’ was conveyed by BrahmA to
all the three species (devas, asuras and manushyas) at the same time but each
one of them understood it to mean differently. They understood it to stand for
the first letter of a message specially intended for them. The divines took it
to stand for ‘dAmyata’, that is, ‘control your senses’. The Creator agreed with
their interpretation of the message.
The humans took it to mean
‘datta’ that is, ‘Give: Do acts of charity; be charitable’. This also was
approved by the Creator.
The asuras took it to mean
‘dayadhvaM’, that is, ‘Be compassionate’. Again the Creator gave his approval
of this interpretation.
The Acharya in his Bhashya
has commented on this that the three categories of people – devas, manushyas
and asuras – are all of them in the human kingdom itself. People who are
generally known to be good, but still do not have their senses in control are
the ‘divines’. People who have no charitable disposition and are greedy are the
manushyas in the classification, because man’s greatest weakness is greed and
the Advaita-saadhanaa 62
consequent
absence of a charitable disposition. People who have not even an iota of
compassion in their hearts are classified as asuras. In other words, all the
three messages of advice are for humanity.
The moral of all this is
that even those who have many good qualities do lack the quality of
self-control. This is because the attractions of sense-objects have power to
draw man into the vortex of MAyA. So the process of getting out of those
attractions can be very difficult. ‘dama and shama’ -- it is not
necessary to separate them as two things; even for the divines the control of
both the mind and the senses was what was advised – this control is what should
be achieved with great effort. One should not leave off the efforts after a few
failed attempts. One should not have a feeling of let-down by defeats in this
effort. Trust in God and persistently make the efforts. Keep the practice
without losing heart.
Even when the objects in
the outside world though perceptible to the ears, the eyes, and the tongue, are
not within the reach of these senses, the mind may be thinking all the time
about the experiences pertaining to those objects. The control of these
thoughts is what is called control of the mind. It is not at all easy to be
achieved. What is to be successfuly attempted at first is, even though the
desires in the mind do not vanish, at least in the outer world of activity the
indriyas may be restricted not to graze around – in other words, dama (control
of the senses of action). A vrata, a fast, a starving of the eyes from
objectionable sights, avoidance of sense-pleasures on certain days – such are
the efforts that must be practised with some persistence. This will lead to the
mind being trained for the paractice of shama and becoming a little more
mature. When the sense objects are not around, it may be possible to control
the mind from thinking about the experiences with them and the mind may remain
at rest; but once we come out from that solitude to the outside world,
immediately the ears will long for movie music from the radio and the tongue
will yearn for that tasty coffee or other drink it used to have. Thus each
indriya, without even the prompting of the mind, will run after its old vAsanA.
Independent of the reins the horses now are ready to run! Now again the
‘weapon’ of ‘dama’ has to be used. Thus controlling the indriyas from
running after the external objects, inspite of their availability around, the
other weapon of ‘shama’ of the mind has to be applied so that the mind
also does not run after them. Thus the processes of ‘dama’ and ‘shama’
have to be used alternately as well as simultaneously until one is really sure
that one has achieved the needed control of both kinds. The finishing line is
of course the total peace that one obtains at the fulfillment of ‘shama’.
Thus what can be somehow
accomplished is the process of ‘dama’. In the Mahanarayana Upanishad,
with great sympathy, it prescribes ‘dama’ regimen for a Brahmachari and
a ‘shama’ regimen for the renunciate Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 63
muni
who has renounced everything. “The Brahmacharis hold that ‘dama’ is
supreme, and revel in the implementation of that; whereas the dwellers in the
forests (the munis) hold that ‘shama’ is supreme and revel in the
implementation of that” (Narayanopanishad: 78 – 3,4). The intended meaning is
that both ‘dama’ and ‘shama’ are to be started right from the
Brahmachari stage so that when one gets to the stage of sannyAsa, one
can attain the total fulfillment of ‘shama’.
Where the mind finally
calms down and settles, that is the Atman. When the mind stops, the Atman
shines. Even in the previous stage, the senses would have stopped running
involuntarily and the mind would have of its own volition controlled the
senses. Thereafter the residual vAsanAs of the mind would be the ones still to
be eradicated. This eradication happens when ‘shama’ is totally
achieved. Such a complete cessation of the mind will generate the realisation
of the Atman. Thus it is that ‘shama’ is the final calming down. That is
why we say “shAntiH shAntiH shAntiH” and also refer to it as “Atma-shAntiH”.
The word ‘dAnti’ (controlled mind and senses) is also of the same kind. The
controlling action implies a force, whereas what follows is ‘shAntiH’. In other
words it is not ‘control, then shAnti’ but ‘control, that itself is shAnti’.
All the great people pray
mostly for the controlled calm of the mind. Lord Krishna also advises us:
Yato yato nishcharati
manash-chanchalam-asthiraM /
Tatas-tato niyamyaitat
Atmanyeva vashaM nayet // (VI – 26)
The use of two words ‘chanchalaM’
(wavering) and ‘asthiraM’ (unsteady) to describe the turbulent nature of
the mind is significant. By whatever prompting this wavering and unsteady mind
runs outward towards objects, from each such prompting shall the mind be pulled
back and drawn into the confines of the Atman, says the Lord.
ADVAITA-SAADHANAA
(Kanchi Maha-Swamy’s Discourses)
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(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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