Friday, April 5, 2019

Jnana Vahini - Post 27



To entitle one for embarking on the inquiry into the Atma, one must be endowed with the Sadhana Chatushtaya or the Four Qualifications. 

Scholarship in all the Vedas and Sastras, asceticism, mastery of ritual, dedication to japa, charity, pilgrimage - nothing will help in granting that authority. "Saantho Dantha Uparathi Thithiksha...", says the Sruthi; so equanimity, self-control, withdrawal of the senses, steadfastness - these alone confer that title; not caste, colour, or social status. 

Be it a Pandit versed in all the Sastras, a Vidwan or an illiterate, a child or youth or an old person, a Brahmachari, Grihastha, Vanaprastha or Sanyasin, a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, or even an outcaste, man or woman, the Vedas declare: "Everyone is qualified, provided one is equipped with the Sadhana Chatushtaya".

Mere reading of the Sastras does not entitle one; the attainment of Sadhana Chatushtaya mentioned therein is essential. The doubt might then arise: how can a person who has not read the Sastras attain Sadhana Chatushtaya? 

My answer is: how does the person who reads them attain them? "Because he knows the Sastras, he does act in a spirit of dedication to the Lord, gets mental purification thereby, and acquires Vairagya, renunciation, and other qualifications in increasing measure". 

Now, how can these be cultivated by one who does not know the Sastras? it is asked. Why can he not cultivate them? 

By the accumulated fruits of the educative influences and good deeds in the past births, it is possible to become qualified for Atmavichara in this birth, even without the initial back ground of Sastric study.

It is the mind which is a limitation on the Jivi; it has to be conquered; the body-consciousness must disappear; steady faith has to be cultivated in Jnana.

The human personality has to be discarded by inner devotion and discipline and the acquisition of the Divine; then the knowledge dawns that one is divine. Limitation of the Jivi has to be overcome before Brahman-hood dawns.

Experiencing identity with the Lord, the Jivi declares, "I am Brahman, where have all the changing worlds fled? How deluded I was to be caught in the tangle of Jiva and Jagath! 

Past, present and future do not really exist at all. I am the Sat-Chit-Ananda Swarupa, devoid of the three types of distinction". 

He is immersed in the Bliss of Brahman. This is the fruition of Jnana.


(Author’s note - The first step in the path of wisdom / jnana is equipping oneself with the 4 qualifications - viveka, vairagya, shad-sampat and mumukshatva.

The mansion of Spiritual sadhana, reaching up to the top most roof of Moksha, is impossible to be sustained without the 4 strong foundation pillars of these 4 qualifications.

Man, believing in his intellect, takes up discourses in this path, reads few books here and there, goes through Upanishads and thinks that he has understood this path. 

It does not work this way. Why? Because, in most cases, intellect is not pure, it is mixed up with our ego, our vasanas. So, we end up understanding the Upanishad truth with the coloring of our ego, our vasanas and ultimately, we end up nowhere and we leave the path more faster than anyone else.)


 The prescribed path is 


The contemplation has to continue till the time, the teachings / revelations of the Shrutis given by Guru is experienced subjectively within the disciple's heart.

Guru can even be someone who is an acclaimed realized Master, who may not be alive now, only if one is not fortunate to get / find  a Guru living in contemporary world, available to him physically, to go through all spiritual instructions one to one, to get all doubts cleared one to one and to see the Guru living before his eyes as the proof of all the vedanta teachings!!

Love.



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