Essence of Vedanta - Part 21

Dear All,

Let us recapitulate the disciples answers in the Ekasloki verse which we read couple of days in the previous post on the current theme

• Sun is the light in the day and at night lamp is the light.
• Eye is the light which enables one to see sun in the day and Lamp in the night.  (Here eye means not literally eye but it includes all the sense organs, i.e., the senses.)
• Intellect is the light which lights up the eyes / the senses.
• Me, the SELF, is the source which illumines my intellect.

Earlier, with a story of King Janaka, we dealt with the 3 states of consciousness.

In waking state, our body, mind, intellect- all are awake

In dream state, Our body is at rest but our mind and the source that illumines our mind, the intellect, are both active.

In deep sleep, none of the three - Body, Mind and intellect are active. 

Now let us relate this deep sleep with the essence of the Eka sloki verse given above where we understood that it is the intellect which illumines our mind and through mind, our senses!!

So,
  
Intellect ----- illumines the mind/ senses

In deep sleep ------ Intellect is at rest and that is why, the mind and senses are not illumine and are not active.

Still, SOME THING IS ACTIVE  which, as we learnt in an earlier post, Illumines the intellect on the next day and we say (As king Janaka said),  that we had a deep sleep without disturbance.

Let us understand one thing here.

It is not possible that when we were in deep sleep, NOTHING WAS THERE, NOTHING EXISTED and when we got up next day, all of a sudden, our intellect became aware that we had a deep sleep yesterday night, as we have understood that in our deep sleep, our intellect was not active. 

So, what was active when we were in deep sleep?????

The answer is in the ekasloki verse when the disciple says- It is ME, THE SELF THAT ILLUMINES THE INTELLECT!!!!!!

So, readers, there is THIS SOURCE SELF OR AHAM OR I, which is there in Waking, Dream, Deep Sleep states which illumines our intellect (in deep sleep, the intellect is not there but still the SOURCE SELF IS THERE) !!!!

The author has taken up the otherwise impossible task of explaining / expressing the STATE OF REALIZATION which is almost impossible to express!!!!

Swami Chinmayananda in His commentary on a verse in Vivekachudamani pours a line- "WHEN I REACH THERE,  i DO NOT EXIST, WHEN I COME DOWN, i CANNOT EXPRESS".

When our little I or the ego is transcended, we reach THE STATE where the I ego is not there, but when we come down from that state and we return to our ego identity, the ego can never express or explain how we existed when we transcended our ego!!!

The state is explained in all the upanishads, all vedanta treatise which the author can easily explain verse by verse but all those explanations or commentary or verse by verse translation or transliteration can never give the actual experience of THAT INEXPRESSIBLE STATE.

If the author has to express  the experience of THAT STATE which SAI  granted to him (somewhere in  the beginning of 2011, perhaps February, exact date is not certain) out of SAI's infinite grace and compassion, then he can  pour thus:-

• The sense of body disappears.
• The mind never exists at all. 
• There is no chance of thought, because it is thought that prompts and activates the mind. 
• The intellect that illumines the body and the mind is not there, if the intellect is there, then how can the sense of body / mind disappear?
• The experience of Bliss/ Ananda/ Joy is transcended.
• Any experience, even the subtlest experience , that I am AWARE, I AM TRANSCENDING THE AWARENESS, I AM EXISTING AS PURE AWARENESS- these subtlest experience is also not there.
• So, I Exist, (without the awareness of my existence, no ecstasy, no joy, no bliss, no love......, beyond every possible experience that a human being can have)!!!
• However, I DO EXIST, it is not a vacuum, it is not like a state in anesthesia, it is not a state after the body had died, I EXIST, I EXIST , WITHOUT THE AWARENESS THAT I EXIST!!!!!!!!

Divyatman,

The above expressionless expressions some how captures the STATE where, one exists as the source that illumines one's intellect, but with no intellect, no mind, no body!!!!!!!!!!

This state of existence can be explained through the major and minor upanishads, through all Sankara's treatise on advaita, through Brahma sutra etc. etc., but all such explanations remain as theoretical knowledge gained!!!

WHEREAS, 

In the above expressionless expression, ONE EXISTS AS THE PURE KNOWLEDGE which later on is observed to be illumining one's intellect to gain all knowledge in this knowledge!!!!!!!!

So, any exposition of any advaita treatise, any elaborate lecture on Srutis (upanishads) would be very nice to speak or to listen but all of them are of no use unless one has gained the actual EXPERIENCE of the above EXPRESSION LESS EXPRESSION which the author has poured from within!!!!!!

Note:-

Though there may be few more posts on the theme to further explain the essence, if a reader is not able to relate to this single post in its entirety, then  reading of all further posts would be at intellectual level, at best!!!!!!

HARI AUM TATSAT.

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda

One day in the Cossipore garden, I had expressed my prayer to Shri Ramakrishna with great earnestness. Then in the evening, at the hour of meditation, I lost the consciousness of the body, and felt that it was absolutely non – existent.

I felt that the sun, moon, space, time, ether, and all had been reduced to a homogeneous mass and then melted far away into the unknown; the body-consciousness had almost vanished, and I had nearly merged in the Supreme. 

In this state of Samadhi all the difference between “I” and the “Brahman” (God, the Absolute Divine Consciousness) goes away, everything is reduced into unity, like the waters of the Infinite Ocean — water everywhere, nothing else exists — language and thought, all fail there. Then only is the state “beyond mind and speech” realised in its actuality. Otherwise, so long as the religious aspirant thinks or says, “I am the Brahman”–“I” and “the Brahman”, these two entities persist — there is the involved semblance of duality.