ADVAITA-SAADHANAA
(Kanchi Maha-Swamy’s Discourses)
43. To remove the conceit of the ego
There
are two things to be avoided by a sAdhaka. He should not turn out to be
dry and lifeless. Secondly he should not fall a prey to conceit or pride. The
ego as part of his inner organ (antaH-karaNa) has to go finally. But that is a
big task that will be achieved almost at the end. Right now we are talking
about the commonly understood ‘egotism’ (‘aham-bhAvaM’, in Tamil).
Usually the technical shAstra literature does not make a distinction between
ahamkAraM and this aham-bhAvaM’. I am making the distinction for
clarity. Egoism is the name given to the ego’s thought of ‘I’ and egotism is
the name given to the conceit and vanity of a swelled head. The head swells
because of the thought: “I have advanced far above the base-level and
intermediate-level sAdhakas, far above the ordinary karma-bhakti path and am
now advancing on the jnAna path” and this thought is the end of it all!
The Acharya has kept Bhakti in order to promote the modesty and humility that
is most needed now. The ‘I’ itself has to melt in Love to become a zero; when
that is so, what to speak of any ‘weight’ of the head! Bhakti will make him
really light-headed. JnAna path has been recommended only for the
top-level aspirants. In order for him not to lose his balance by that very
qualification of topness, and for his SAdhanA not to be broken by the
weight of such extraneous thoughts, the submissive attitude of bhakti becomes
necessary. However much we may woo Brahman with love, unless brahman itself
does the ‘revealing’ (known as ‘vivaraNaM’), there is no scope for salvation.
It is with this thought that one has to submit humbly before the ideal goal. To
obtain this submissive attitude it is only Bhakti that helps. Not only in the
case of that phenomenon at the apex level. The submissive bhakti should extend
to the belief: “Whatever I have achieved so far in SAdhanA is all the
Grace of God! What I did was effort only. The very thought of making that
effort and the continuance of that effort were all again the gift of God!” Only
by this the renunciation of egotism (conceit and pride), a property most
important of all the properties to be renounced, at the time of taking
SannyAsa, can materialise.
44. Two stages of ego in sAdhanA
“When
We say ‘Love’ or ‘Relationship’ it needs two people. Consequently it is
dvaitaM. It should not come anywhere near advaita-SAdhanA” – this might
be the general understanding. Yes, for a long time during the course of the SAdhanA
it remains that way. In other words, understanding love to be limited to
just kindliness one is not supposed to bring it anywhere near actions. But in
due course of time, by the very fact that a refinement takes place by SAdhanA,
one gets to know what Advaita-saadhanaa 126
true love is. The relationship that arises from that is not any
more dualistic. One knows that it is to become a relationship whereby the one
who relates gives oneself up to the object that is admired and dissolves to the
extent that there are not two now, but only one. And then one gets the maturity
to practice what one has known. That is where Love has been termed as Bhakti by
the Acharya. If one continues in that practice, the maturity ripens further and
thereafter there is only the non-dual dissolution!
For
what purpose does one begin a SAdhanA? His goal is the thought “I should
reach Brahman. I must become Brahman”. And he continues the SAdhanA to
reach that goal. But when he reaches the goal, does the ‘I’ who started it all
become the Brahman? No. Not at all. There is no one to claim that ‘I’ now.
There is only Brahman. Only when the ‘I’-hood ends there is Realisation
(*sAkShAt-kAraM*). Even the word ‘Realisation’ is only a formality
(*aupachArikaM*). It is actually wrong to say ‘One realises Brahman’. No one can
do anything to Brahman. There is no ‘sAkShAt’, no ‘karaNaM’. Nothing can be
done with Brahman. Really what happens is, in that final state this very person
(sAdhaka) vanishes. Whoever did the SAdhanA he himself is not
there at the end of the SAdhanA; only the goal remains! It is this very
phenomenon that the great Ramakrishna described as “the story of the doll of
salt examining the depth of the ocean”.
Desirous
of being totally consumed and dissolved by it, one sacrifices himself to it.
That is what is termed here as ‘higher-grade’ bhakti.
When
one begins SAdhanA we keep on using the word ‘I’ in our thoughts: “I
should get Release. I should reach Brahman. I should become Brahman”. It is
impossible to sacrifice that ‘I’ at that stage itself. Even the thought of it
might be scaring. Many westerners who are strong in their intellect and courage
are fearful of the thought of sacrificing the JIvahood – the feeling of
an individual self – and they say: “What? Am I to sacrifice my individuality?”.
Even when one is not afraid from the very beginning itself, the JIva-hood
does not disappear then and there. Only when all old vAsanAs are extinguished
it will go. The extinction has to be done by means of the JIva-hood
itself. The SAdhanA-set- of- four is for that very purpose. First the
effort goes with the thought “I shall try to cultivate Discrimination”; after
some time one gets the satisfaction “I have got some Discrimination now” and
then the effort continues with the thought “Now I shall try to cultivate Dispassion”
and this, afterwards becomes “I have cultivated some Dispassion now”. This goes
on. All the time the efforts as well as the results are all based on the
individual self. This is an ego-based feeling, no doubt, but it is necessary to
enthuse ourselves in these earlier stages. Nothing wrong. Not only for
Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 127
encouraging ourselves in the progress but also for a proper regret
and due correction at times of slipping down. Only when the individual feeling
of ‘I’ is there, the thought will arise: “Oh, I have slipped down. I should
correct myself and practise more carefully”. On the other hand if we
rationalize it by an incorrect use of Vedanta by saying “After all everything
is false; there is no individual jIva. So where is the slip? Where is the
correction?” then there will be no upward progress of spirituality. The apex
attitude of “There is no individual ‘I’ at all” is not to be imagined on the
way. If in that imagination one ignores the necessary self-effort, then there
is nothing to hold you back and all the SAdhanA will go waste. The very
fact of SAdhanA is for the egoistic individual self. It is not for the
Atman. Does the Atman have to do SAdhanA to realise itself? The Atman is
actionless and it remains as it is always as Atman. Therefore it is the
individual JIva, that has to do the SAdhanA basing its actions on
the ego which is the cause for its individuality.
However,
after one obtains a certain success in controlling one’s senses, mind and
intellect, having discarded much of those that need to be discarded, having
obtained the formal teaching about the Atman to be realised, one reaches the
stage of readiness for being in the only thought of That and that is the stage
when the ego joins the set of those that are to be discarded. Hereafter
whatever is achieved is not to be ‘earned’ as the result of effort by the SAdhanA
of the JIva, but they are the solvents of the self awarded by the
Grace of God. That is why the SAdhanA-set-of-four ends with
‘mumukShutvaM’ according to the Acharya. So what happens thereafter is not by
the sAdhaka’s effort; He has nothing to earn. They are what he has to do
to sacrifice himself. They are shravaNa (listening), manana (thinking) and
nidhidhyAsana (contemplation).
When we
manufacture a cracker we pack tightly a lot of explosive material inside, wrap
it up by decorative paper, and make it attractive from outside. All this is
done for the final purpose of lighting up the wick and explode it so that
nothing remains of that cracker. Here also the ego inside has to be exploded so
that nothing remains. In Tamil one word for cracker is ‘vANam’. The vANaM’
(that is the ego) is elaborately prepared through a SAdhanA for the
final purpose of exploding it and making it ‘NirvANa!
It is
true that even in the beginning, everything happens by God’s Grace. But during
those times the JivAtmA was engaged in self-purification and for that to happen
well God’s Grace helped. But now the purification task has reasonably
progressed. Now the purified antaH-karaNa (inner organ) has to reach step by
step the state of experience. ‘Reach’ is really not the right thing; unusually
instead of ‘reaching’, now it is ‘giving’. As Manickavachagar said, it is a
smart trading. One gives up the JIva-bhAva Advaita-saadhanaa 128
and receives the ‘shiva-sthiti’ (the state of being the Absolute).
But even this is only true in a poetic sense or in the sense of bhakti. In
reality, there is no JIva who receives the ‘Shiva’. JIva is gone
but Shiva remains!
Bhakti
has been prescribed for reaching this maturity of the vanishing of the ego. The
Acharya says, as it were, “I have prescribed SAdhanA so that you may
acquire the wealth of the sextad (ShamAdi sampat) starting with Shama, the
wealth of Dispassion, the wealth of Discrimination, etc. You have acquired them
all. Hereafter you must learn to empty yourself. That is why Bhakti has been
prescribed.”.
45. Bhakti and the Heart
As one
progresses in the bhakti, Love and the submissive attitude consequent to that,
the SAdhanA that has been done so far make the mind and intellect light
and they are drawn by the ego to be sucked into the recesses of the heart.
Everybody knows that in that bhakti, the true bhakti wherein the individual
soul delivers itself to the paramAtmA -- this is Atma-nivedanaM – there is no
role or work for the intellect. Not only that. Even the mind has no work there.
Mind is nothing but an aggregate of volitions and indecisions
(samkalpa-vikalpa). These two have no role in true bhakti. True bhakti is the
state where we rest in the thought “It is Thy Will”. The feeling of bhakti is
not one among the many feelings that arise in, and are experienced by, the
mind. VatsalyaM (affection), madhuraM (pleasantry) and dAsyaM (servanthood) are
often talked about as the indicator-qualities of bhakti. But there is a
mountain of difference between these and the affection that a mother gives a
child, the love that spouses exchange with each other, and the submissiveness
that a dedicated servant shows to his boss. Is there not a ton of difference
between the affection shown by a woman to a neighbour’s child and the
tenderness that she showers on her own child? Far more than that is the bhakti
that a great devotee shows to his god of devotion! The same degree of
difference will there be when love or servanthood are exhibited as bhakti to
the Lord! These feelings arise somehow through somebody and are of a unique
class by themselves, far more purified, far more powerful, than ordinary
feelings of the mind.
Thus,
true bhakti is not the work of the mind. It arises from the ego itself that
lies deep within as a steadily rooted feeling of ‘I’ without any of the
perturbations of the mind. Further it arises not to nurture that ego, but to
lighten it and dissolve it in the unique self that is also its own root source
by going into the locale of the Atman. For desiring to dissolve there must be
some one to desire. Without its being there, how can there Maha-swamigal’s
Discourses 129
be a desire to dissolve? And that singleton is the ego. It is not
the ego that does the bhakti, but the ego exists for doing the bhakti!
What
should not be forgotten here is this. This bhakti that arises in this quest for
the goal of advaita is not like the ordinary bhakti which has the goal of
varied experiences of ‘rasa’. Because for that experience of the ‘rasa’ one has
to hold on to the individual jIva. So do those philosophers say who consider
bhakti as an end-in-itself and that itself as mokSha. But here, the basic maxim
that in order to be doing bhakti eternally, the egoistic individuality has to
be there eternally, is invalidated. Indeed the objective here is to dissolve
the ego by Love. How can it remain continuously dissolving? After a certain
period of dissolution, the ego has to be totally extinguished, so that there is
nothing more to dissolve. If Bhakti is intended to be a coating to be applied
over and over, then one can be doing that continuously. When actually it is not
a coating, but an acid in which the ego dissoves, then how can it be an eternal
process? Bhakti plays the role of acid for the ego. The ego thus gives itself
up to bhakti; thereby in the heart which is the locale for the ego, the ego
thins out and thins out until there is no more ego but only bhakti pervades
there. And the heart then becomes the locale for bhakti.
As one
matures in that bhakti, along with the change in Ashrama (i.e. having taken
SannyAsa) and along with that bhakti -- that is, dissolving the ego in the goal
through Love – one continues the shravaNa, manana and nidhidhyAsana. Bhakti now
sprouts fast and full in the heart and the feeling of ego is eradicated. But
before it is totally eradicated, the locale which is like the physical heart is
filled up by the subtle atoms of bhakti.
Wherever
the Upanishads speak of the heart as the locale for the ego, (Ch.U.VIII – 6 –
1, BrihadAranyaka U. IV-2-3) the Acharya speaks only of a ‘lump of flesh’ .
Even then it should not be taken to mean it is a full-fledged physical organ.
That is why the words “like the physical heart” were used above. It is the
organ which pumps blood that is totally physical. This heart however is in
between the physical and the subtle. The chakras that yogis speak of, and many
of the nADis are totally subtle. They do not fall in any X-Ray. This heart also
is not to be captured by X-Ray. Still it is not that subtle. It is this heart
which somehow controls in an integrated manner, by its life-feed, the blood
circulation done by the physical heart, the passage of breath conducted by the
physical lungs, the functions of the nerves prompted by the physical brain and
the functions that take place in the digestive organs and the associated
passages. It does this control through the nADis that start from it. Without
the feeling of ‘I’ in the JIva, what can happen in a body? That is why
this ‘power’ has been given to the heart which is the locale for the ego.
Probably because of the importance for the JIva of all Advaita-saadhanaa 130
the physical functions of the body and the necessity of the JIva
to monitor them, this heart is also kept ‘semi-physical’.
Even
though it is semi-physical, once the continued practice goes on with the
thought that ego is to be dissolved, in due time it becomes subtle and becomes
almost just space. The Atma-sthAnaM (the locale for the Atman) however is more
subtle; it is kAraNa-AkAshaM (causal space) – it is the centre point of the
heart. This subtler thing cannot be approached by anything physical or
semi-physical. Only by lightening the ego, making it subtle, it can enter the
subtler space. This lightening of the ego (*ahamkAra-kArshyaM*) is what is done
by Bhakti.
When
Bhakti ripens, it is only Love that shines through the whole heart more
prominently than the flesh and the nADis. That is why it goes by the name of
the heart. When somebody has no love or kindness we say they are heartless.
Sometimes we combine the two and say loving heart, or kind heart. The Inner
Organ (antaH-karaNa) has four organs in it. But note that never are they
identified with their physical locations in the body. The location of mind is
the neck, but we never call those who have a good mind as one with a neck! Or,
for that matter, someone with a good intellect as one with a face!. The reason
is, among these fleshy physical organs, the organs of the antaH-karaNaM sit
like a person in a chair; the chair is never identified with the person in that
seat!
The
heart also, when it is semi-physical, is the chair for the ego, as I told you
earlier. But we do not call some one with a lot of ego as one with a heart. It
is in the subtle form of the heart that love, unlike anything else, penetrates
deep into the core, and that is why we identify love with the heart. Further
when we refer to Bhagavan as *hRdaya-vAsI* we are not saying that it is He who
sits in the semi-physical heart donning the robe of JIva with an ego. We
are actually saying that it is He who shines forth from inside having melted
the physical into the subtle by Love at its peak of excellence. Maybe we are
not understanding it in all this detail but at least we understand that He
manifests himself in Bhakti that is full of Love.
46. The NaaDis of the heart: JnAni’s life rests, Other’s lives
leave
Isn’t
it strange? From that very heart things take place – even those which are not
related to Love! That is Ishvara’s mysterious MAyA shakti! All
this because, the heart is the locale for the ego. The nADis that
Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 131
control and monitor the jIva’s personal matters of life start from
there and proceed to the other organs giving them the life-force, as we have
seen earlier.
Several
semi-flesh nAdis go forth from this heart in all directions. Among them are
those which end in one of the nine Gates. (*nava-dvAra*). For all those who
have to take another birth – in other words, for ninety-five percent. of all the
people, life leaves through one of these gates. Besides these nine there is a
gate of the size of an atom at the top of the head. For all people life enters
into the foetus through that gate. But at the time of death of all those who
have to have another birth, life leaves not by that gate but by one of the
other nine gates. For those who do not have to be born again, other than the JnAni,
life leaves only by the gate at the head. That is what is called
“kapAla-mokShaM”.
I said
“other than JnAni”. So what is the case of the JnAni? Other than
the JnAni, who are those that are not destined for a rebirth?
The
prANa of the JnAni does not go anywhere outside at the time of the fall
of the body. There is no mokSha which he has yet to get. And in the same way,
there is no mokSha which has to be obtained at some time after death, for him.
Whenever he got his jnAna, that is, the Realisation of Brahman, then
itself, his antaHkaraNaM (the mind of the jIva) has been extinguished and he
has been released from MAyA; so he becomes a mukta, a JIvan-mukta
then and there. Thus he has been ‘released’ even when being in the body and the
prANa does not have to go anywhere after the fall of the body, for mokSha.
He has
been thinking of the Atman, as his life, the supreme life. Without even
recognizing it as bhakti, but with a great attitude of bhakti, he has been
doing his SAdhanA for the purpose of dissolving the ego. By this
process, it dissolves and dissolves and reaches such an emaciated slender
state, that it enters the small gate of the heart which is the locale of the
Atman, converges into the Atman, unifies with it and itself gets extinguished.
And immediately he becomes a mukta.
However,
his life (PrANa) has not left him. He is living and he is also a mukta; that is
why he is called a JIvan-mukta. Then in due time one day his body dies.
Why should he live after reaching the mukta state, and when does his life part
with him – these are questions into which we don’t need to enter at present.
Mostly the opinion is that he lives in order that his *prArabdha* may exhaust
itself. When it thus exhausts itself, then life also leaves. Let us be content
with that (explanation). Thus even after Brahman-realisation he has his life
(prANa). What happens to that prANa at the time of his death? Just as the
ahmkAra (since the Advaita-saadhanaa 132
mind and intellect has gone into the ahamkAra – so we can as well
say it is antaHkaraNaM now) has already gone into the heart-gate and merged
into the Atman-locale, so also now when death takes place the prANa also merges
in the same way in that Atman-locale. In other words, when the JnAni’s
body dies, his prANa does not go outside anywhere through any nADi. In the
Upanishad and the Brahma-sUtra it is so declared clearly. (Br. U.
III-2-11; IV-4-6) (Br. S. IV-2- 12 to 16).
In
general parlance also, it is never said that the JnAni’s life is gone;
it is usually said that it has ceased, settled or disappeared.
Other
than the JnAni who are those that have made themselves not to be reborn
in this world? They are generally called ‘upAsakas’. There are several
categories among them. They all have something in common. They all know that
this world or this body is not the end of it all. That there exists a basic
Truth is a confirmed belief of all of them. They all have the thought of the
necessity to release themselves from this world and the bondage. The common
opinion stops here. Beyond this there are lots of separate opinions. And the
observances also differ accordingly.
One of
those opinions holds the basic Truth as nirguNa, just like the advaitin.
However he thinks (contrary to advaita) that the Truth basis differs from JIva
to JIva. The advaitin holds that even though it is nirguNa, it is
sat-cid-Ananda-ghana.But he (the other opinion) thinks it is a blank, but still
not void (like the Buddha). He performs yoga by controlling the mind and for
ultimate union with that blank Existence. We call him yogi. He also thinks that
the individual jIva-bhAva – ego – has to be destroyed. However, he has not known
correctly about the one absolute True status . About the control of mind also,
he commits the same error. “I am not the mind. I am Brahman. Why should I be
tossed about by something which is not Me. Let me constantly recall the Shruti
statement that ‘I am Brahman’ and put an end to this” – this is the thought of
the seeker on the jnAna path, but the Yogi does not do it. In order to
overcome the difficulty in the direct control of mind, he gives much importance
to breath control, and only with its help he controls the mind.
[Note
by the Collator Ra. Ganapathy:
The
mind and the breath have both the same
root-source;
and so this is possible]
By such
a process, even though his goal Truth is a blank kaivalya, strangely, the
breath shakti goes to prANa-shakti, its source, that prANa shakti goes back to
the mahA-prANa-shakti, which is the root-source of all living beings, and by
the might of that shakti, he obtains several Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 133
miraculous powers. And he gets the added responsibility of not
missing his goal by being attracted by them.
Another
opinion holds that the Basic Truth is only saguNa. He thinks: ‘We should reach
that goal; but we should not merge in it. Because if we merge into it then
there will be no possibility of enjoying, by experience, its multifold
qualities. Either in one of them or in all of them one should experience it and
it is in this experience there is the Bliss for the JivAtman. So without being
one with it, I should be outside and be permanently enjoying that. And that is
mokSha’. Only by placing our Love on something we can experience and enjoy how
it is and what it does. So he considers Love as the basis of all that
experience and he practises loving it. We call him a Devotee (Bhakta). Not only
does he think that one should not become one with the paramAtmA which is
saguNa. He goes even further: “Such a union with the paramAtman is not
possible. The Lord has not provided for such a union” – this is his contention.
Another
proponent, however, is not able to do the SAdhanA by breath and mind
control; or he is not interested in that direction. Nor is he able to do bhakti
by pouring out his mind. But he is also one of those to be listed in the
‘upAsaka’ category of those who wish to be released from this samsAra and
the world of sensual pleasures. He does believe in the existence of God but he
is not able to hold on to Him either by bhakti through a feeling for Him, or by
jnAna through his intellect, or by any saguNa or nirguNa conception .
So, on the path for Release, he keeps on doing his svadharma duties and
obligations without being attached to the fruits thereof. Whatever the Vedas
have prescribed as samskAras for purification of the JIva, he performs.
We should also include in this category those, in the modern world, who do
service, without the thought of any gain for oneself. But whether it is a
religious karma or social service, whatever he is doing, he should be one who
longs for a retreat from samsAra (Release from Bondage ). Not only
should he not be thinking of one’s own benefit, he should not be thinking of
the results, to others, of his actions or service by the work or service he is
doing. In other words, there must be no stubbornness that the result must
happen. On the other hand, the conviction should be: “There is a God above.
Whatever happens to anybody will happen only by His Will, according to norms of
dharma and justice. I have no right to demand that things should happen only a
certain way. I should keep on doing whatever appeals to me to be just and good
. And leave the results to that dispenser of fruits (*phala-dAtA*).
This is
the path of Karma yoga and the one who follows it is a karma yogi.
Advaita-saadhanaa 134
From what I have said so far, it is clear that except for the
seeker on the JnAna path, the other three major ones, namely, a Yogi, a
Bhakta and a Karmi (the one who adopts karma yoga) – all three of them – are
‘upAsakas’. In the same category we may include all those who follow different
schools of philosophy which do not object to the Vedas and which do not
subscribe to the idea that ‘there is no Ultimate Truth, there is only a void’.
All the
above get release from samsAra after their death. They are not reborn.
However, the soul that goes out from their body does not immediately get
absorbed or unifed with the ParamAtmA. Because, none of these had the goal of
non-dual one-ness and an identification with the absolute. They did not think
of it nor did they understand it and do what was required for that. Even when
one asks for it, the Lord does not give it out so easily; so why would He give
it unasked?
However,
all these have asked for release from samsAra and from rebirth and have
followed noble paths, the Lord grants them that release from samsAra certainly.
In this
way. The souls that left their bodies do not return to this world. Instead they
go to Brahma-loka And that grants them the release from the samsAra of
this world and all the attendant sufferings and also from the rebirth. This is
mokSha.
Brahma
loka does not mean the world of Brahman.. You would have inferred this yourself
from all that you have heard from me so far. Yes, there is no loka (world) for
Brahman). What we refer to as Brahma-loka is just the world (loka) of the God
known as Creator BrahmA.
But
instead of calling it BrahmA’s world (the world of the four-faced deity BrahmA)
we should call it saguNa-Brahma-lokaM. Knowledgeable people call BrahmA as
Hiranya-garbha and Brahma-loka as Hiranya-garbha-loka.
Nirguna
brahman is subtler than the subtle state. By the work of MAyA the
concrete creation takes place. This is the concrete state. In between the two
states is the state of Hiranyagarbha. This is the state where creation has not
yet taken place, but the saguna-brahman with its MAyA has kept the whole
creation within itself as if in the embryo stage. Hiranya means gold. AvidyA
(Ignorance), otherwise MAyA, by itself is like darkness, but by the
presence of Brahman-consciousness it works out this wonderful task of creation,
the consciousness which thus shines and reflects is said to be golden.
Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 135
The gate that allows things to go out is also the gate through
which things enter. So the creation which came out from Hiranyagarbha goes back
inside through the same Hiranyagarbha. When does it go back? – when
Hiranyhagarbha is of age one hundred and thus his lifetime is over, he merges
into nirguNa brahman. In our reckoning, 1000 caturyugas (the period of four
yugas: Krta, Treta, Dvapara and Kali) make one day-time of Hiranyagarbha.
Similarly another 1000 caturyugas make one night of his. So that his one full
day is 2000 caturyugas. His years are calculated on this basis. Like that he
lives 100 years of his. All that time Creation goes on. When he is of age 100,
he is taken in into Brahman. Along with him all the worlds, jIvas and all that
was created would go and merge into Brahman. Brahman alone is there now.
Whatever time was spent in all this creation, an equal time goes on without any
creation, but with Brahman alone. Then Creation begins again.
When
the lifetime of Hiranyagarbha ends his Creation work ends and he merges in the
ParamAtmA. This event is called ‘Adyantika-pralaya’. You may recall I earlier
mentioned it and told you I will come back to it later.
For the
majority of of us jIvas who have a lot of karma balance and instead of going on
the path of Karma-yoga, or Bhakti, or Yoga or JnAna, have to repeatedly
die and be born, they are destined to suffer lakhs and lakhs of janmas till
that pralaya. He who goes by the jnAna path merges in brahman in this
life itself. The others who are ‘upAsakas’ escape from the birth and death
syndrome, but still do not get the advaita-mukti. They go to Brahma-loka
and from there at the time of Adyantika-pralaya dissolve in the very brahman
along with Creator BrahmA.
What
would be that Brahma-loka like? He who reaches there would not have either the
internal enemies like lust, anger, etc. or the external enemies like disease,
heat and cold, asura, etc. Their life will be pleasant and pure. This is true
of all kinds of upAsakas who go there.
Besides
this, for each particular kind of ‘upAsaka’ it will be different.
For the
Karma person, it will be a place where whatever he desires that is not faulty
will be fulfilled.
For the
Bhakti person, it will be a place which has the favourite deity that he wanted
to reach. Brahma-loka does not mean that there is BrahmA there. Various bhaktas
might say that even beyond, further higher up, there is Vaikuntha (the loka of
Vishnu) and there is Kailasa (the loka of shiva); but really it is this
Brahma-loka that appears to different viewers in a different way. The same
paramAtmA shows up as Vishnu, Shiva in the ‘different’ lokas. Advaita-saadhanaa
136
Incidentally, BrahmA is not the favourite deity (ishhTa-deivam)
for no one! Then why is this called Brahma-loka? Maybe that is exactly the
reason!. Let me explain. The ShAstras assign this Hiranya-garbha loka only to
those who perform their religious rituals without desire for the fruits
thereof, but as a path to mokSha. Not only in the spiritual type ShAstras like
Upanishads but also in Manu-smRti, which is a Dharma-shAstra, the
assignment of Brahma-loka is only for such persons. He does not have a
favourite deity in particular. So on the plea that he goes back from Creation
to the Source, the world that is the path from one to the other is given the
name of the Creator. Maybe,in a lighter vein, one might say that if it had been
named after one of those favourite deities, the others in the same category
might object to it!
We can
be more ‘generous’ and include some more in this list of ‘upAsakas’. Originally
once upon a time only the Vedas were there all over the world. Later, in the
other countries, somehow it all got mutilated and in course of time, the very
fact that there was a vedic path was itself forgotten. At some places some
great men established a religion or a religious philosophy – and these were
made in such a way that it promoted devotion to the divine, good character and
spirituality. All those who follow these other religions and religious works
may be included in the list of ‘upAsakas’. We may even suppose that they will
also go to Brahma-loka and that will be their ‘heaven’ or ‘the relieved state’
which is their goal according to their belief.
We can
be even more generous and broad-minded. Once our Vedic religion itself was
objected to and there were founders of other religions. Let the matter be
whatever with these Founders. In fact our Vedas have said (see Br. U. IV.3.22)
the Veda is not a Veda beyond a certain stage. Maybe one or two people might
have transcended by themselves the ritual regimen of the Vedas. Let us not try
to infer anything about those individual people. But unlike the avaidik (i.e.
which do not accept the vedas) religions that sprang up in other countries,
other religions in our own country were established by objectors to the Vedic
religions that prevailed here. I am now speaking of those who came in later
times in these other religions. They have been following these non-vaidik
religions as their veda and have been revering, with devotion and dedication,
their founders and other important persons as much as we revere our rishis and
Acharyas. They cannot be faulted for this. For them also it is possible that
Brahmaloka is their destination. For them it may be exactly what they think it
is – void or whatever. Whether Ishvara gives them Brahma loka or so, let
me have the credit of being ‘broad-minded’ for giving them this! If you ask the
hard-liner Vaidik people, they might not agree with me. They might opine: ‘If
those who belong to the non-vaidik religions follow their religion steadfastly,
as a consequence they will be Maha-swamigal’s Discourses 137
born in their next birth in some vaidik religion and only by
properly doing the upAsanAs there they will reach Brahmaloka’.
I have
to tell you one or two more points on the subject of mokSha.
It is
not as if only the mokSha of the ‘dualistic’kind is what will be obtained by
all the followers of the Bhakti path till the end. That was said only with
respect to those devotees who circumscribe themselves by a non-advaitic
philosophy. But in actuality, when one adheres to bhakti that comes from the
heart and overflows in its own natural way, it cannot be circumscribed by any
boundary. Such were the devotees, like the Alwars and Nayanamars. Instead of
limiting themselves to visishtadavaita or shaiva-siddhanta, they just allowed
themselves freely to be led by their noblest emotion of bhakti, wherever it
tossed them, to whatever experiences they were subjected to. For many of them,
even this process was not enough; they were not satisfied with doing this from
outside, they wanted to be one with their Ultimate. They poured all this in
their songs and some have sung about the non-dual experience that they were
blessed with. Such travellers who journeyed on the path of parA-bhakti and were
led on to the continuous state - *anusandhAnaM* - of one-ness, will not go to
the saguNa-brahman of Brahma-loka. Instead they will reach the MokSha of
non-dual Realisation (*advaita-sAkShAtkAra-mukti*).
The
person who by himself does not do any yoga-SAdhanA, but keeps on praying
to God that He should grant him advaita-mokSha, to him also the Lord grants the
Brahma-nirvANa, that is superior to Brahma-loka. What the pilgrim on the jnAna-path
obtains, through his SAdhanA, without recognising that it is also the
Grace of God, this devotee-type person obtains by prayer, knowing full well it
is the blessing/benediction (prasAda) of God. Of course elder traditionalists
in our religion may say that the Lord might not just give him advaita-mokSha on
a platter, he will also be turned towards the jnAna path and then only
he will be made to reach his goal.
Thus
there are several yogas. In one of these it has been stated that one should
hold on to the primeval shakti, hold on to it and rise on the sushumnA nADi,
chakra after chakra, and finally through that Power reach the Source of that
Power, namely the ShivaM that is Brahman and unite with it in one-ness. And
that mukti has been depicted as an advaita-mukti only. For such
upAsakas also, we may be sure that the destination is not Brahma-loka, but the
advaita-mukti itself.
Another
opinion is the ashhTAnga-yoga siddhas who speak of the goal of samAdhi in the
attributeless Absolute also obtain *Brahma-nirvANaM* Advaita-saadhanaa 138
(advaita-mukti). But the words of the Gita don’t support
this. There is no greater suthority than Lord Krishna Himself. That He calls
only JnAnis as ‘sAnkhyas’ or ‘sannyAsis’ is well-known to scholars of
all the different traditions. Krishna says:
Only those who go on the advaita path become ‘brahma-bhUtas’ while living in
this world and reach ‘Brahma-nirvANaM’ when the body falls. (B.G. V -24).
‘Brahma-bhUta’-becoming is also only Brahma-nirvANaM’. Just to show the
difference that one is in the jIvan-mukti stage even when being in the
body, we use the term ‘Brahma-bhUta’. To clear this , He himself says one or
two shlokas later: (V-26): “abhito brahma-nirvANaM vartate …”: “In both
situations, that is, both in this world and in the other world, JnAni gets
the Brahma-nirvANaM’.
He also
says what happens to those who go along the ashhTAmga-yoga (the
eight-component-yoga) path, what we ordinarily call the yoga-mArga. But the
Yogi he refers to must have practised well his ashhTAnga-yoga, and must have
perfected both the breath-discipline and the mind-control regimen. In addition,
as an added qualification he should have deep devotion and must be one who
constantly and continuously thinks of God – not just one who has to think of
God (*Ishvara-praNidhAnaM*), as per the prescriptions of the yogashAstra,
for the purpose of developing concentration . Krishna
says “mAM anusmaran” (remembering Me continuously) “satataM yo mAM smarati
nityashaH” (B.G. VIII – 13, 14) (he who remembers me always and every day) .
Such a yogi who has also devotion, even though he may leave the body in the
contemplation of praNava that has been equated to shabda-brahman, will still
not get the advaita-mukti. This is what the Lord says in the eighth
chapter called ‘akshhara-brahma-yoga’. It has been described
that
his soul goes only to Brahma-loka along the path of the ‘uttarAyaNa-Sun’.
[R.
Ganapthy, the collator of these discourses, writes this note at this point:
In
Chandogya VIII– 6.5 also, the JIva who leaves the body
in
the contemplation of Aum
is
said to reach saguNa-brahma-loka only
In
the fifth prashna of prashnopanishad the mukti ascribed
for
the worshipper of Aum has been commented on
by
the Acharya in his Bhashyain the same way.]
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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