Upadesa Saram - Post 35

Verse 30

अहमपेतकं निजविभानकम् |

महदिदं तपो रमणवागियम् || ३० ||

ahamapetakaṁ nijavibhānakam |

mahadidaṁ tapo ramaṇavāgiyam || 30 ||

Free from “I,” the innate Light,

This is great tapas; this is the saying of Ramana.

Before even getting into a brief commentary on this verse, the author or this humble soul, with utmost reverence, is reproducing extract from Jnana Vahini, emerged from the God, the Guide, the Supreme Sadhguru, the Poorna Avatar, my Master, Bhagawan Baba. 

"All agitations will cease the moment one enters on the inquiry, "Who am I"? This was the Sadhana that Ramana Maharshi achieved and taught to His disciples. That is also the easiest of all the disciplines.

First, there must be the Subhechchaa, the desire to promote one's own welfare. This will lead to the study of books about Brahmam and its principles, the search for the company of the good, the withdrawal from sensory pleasure and the thirst for liberation.

Even the Mahaavaakya, "Aham Brahmaasmi", has a trace of ignorance sticking on to it, the Aham, considered as separate but identical. This Aham is so persistent that it will disappear only through ceaseless meditation on the implications of "Tatwamasi" and all-inclusive Atma or Brahmam.

The springs of egoism etc., arise from ignorance of the Basic Truth. When knowledge of the Atma dawns, ignorance with its brood of worry and misery will vanish. The mark of the Jnani is the absence of egoism, the extinction of desire, the feeling of equal Love for all without any distinction. These are the fundamentals of Atmajnana."

The author of this blog is filled with such inexpressible inner feeling even while he quotes his Swami above that he feels the whole commentary of all the 30 verses is over with the above quotes from Jnana vahini. 

In this verse, Maharshi does not mean the name and form of Ramana Maharshi who has written the work – but He says that Ramana is the Self which has spoken about Itself. 

The verse has 3 components and let us re-arrange the three to arrive at the essence as well as the sequence of spiritual sadhana.

    1) Mahad Idam Tapo - Through self-enquiry (the reading of  this work and intense tapas on the same).

    2) Aham Apethakam - Devoid of Ahamkara (the tapas or  the self enquiry has to be taken without Ahamkara and ultimately, the practice of this work results in annihilation of Ahamkara).

     3) Nija Vibhanakam - Self shines on its own.

   Let us get further into the above three in the next and the concluding post of Upadesa Saram.
   
Continued...

Love.

Upadesa Saram - Post 34

Verse 29

(Continued…)

बन्धमुक्त्यतीतं परं सुखम् |

विन्दतीह जीवस्तु दैविकः || २९ ||

bandhamuktyatītaṁ paraṁ sukham |

vindatīha jīvastu daivikaḥ || 29 ||

Beyond bondage and liberation, the Supreme happiness,

He finds here that the jiva is certainly the Divine.

Beyond bondage and liberation

Maharshi adds in this shloka that the Self is beyond bondage and liberation because the Self is ever-realized. There is no liberation for the Self. 

Both bondage and liberation belong to the 'Aham Vritti' or the ‘I-thought’. Bondage and liberation are only at the level of the mind. They are from the standpoint of the ordinary mind. The impulse to strive for happiness in the ordinary man is also mind-driven.

That is not the impulse that drives the sage. The sage has seen that the mind itself is an illusion, and has raised himself beyond it to the Divine Consciousness. His joy is therefore beyond the ideas of bondage and liberation. 

Divine state 

An Acharya of Chinmaya Mission explains the state of such a sage / saintly person / Jivanmukhta as ‘Divinity on two legs’, thus:

A person who has experienced the pure Self becomes a Divine person with divine qualities. Divinity pulsates through such a person, flows right through him without any obstruction. All noble virtues become part and parcel of him. 

There is not a trace of hatred for others in him, as there is no ‘other’ for him! He has a purity that transcends worldliness. His actions are spontaneous, not artificial. 

The personality of the sage has a special beauty that is not seen in ordinary humans. When we do not find the usual human weaknesses in a person, we call him Divine. 

The entire Cosmos takes care of him. Everything is taken care of for him. His needs are met in a mysterious manner. His work is taken care of by the Lord Himself. One observes a remarkable co-operation from cosmic forces which seem to lie at his disposal, eagerly waiting to be at his service. It is as though the whole universe is working in his favor.

To understand what divinity is, the only way is to see it in action in such a saintly person. He stands as ‘Divinity on two legs’.

The state of such a Jivanmukhta, liberated while alive, has been explained vividly in many treatises. Swami Dattatreya has dedicated a Gita itself, all about such a sage, titled “Jivanmukhta Gita”. Swami Sivananda has written beautiful commentary on the verses of Jivanmukhta Gita.

Author of this blog used to reach to an unimaginable ecstatic state while reading and absorbing this commentary by the Supreme Master Swami Sivananda. Sankara describes about such realized sage in Viveka Chudamani. And almost in all Vedanta works written by Sage Vidyaranya, Swami Sivananda etc., the state of realized Seer has been described in the best possible way, with available finite words.

Love.

Upadesa Saram - Post 33

Verse 29

बन्धमुक्त्यतीतं परं सुखम् |

विन्दतीह जीवस्तु दैविकः || २९ ||

bandhamuktyatītaṁ paraṁ sukham |

vindatīha jīvastu daivikaḥ || 29 ||

Beyond bondage and liberation, the Supreme happiness,

He finds here that the jiva is certainly the Divine.

Any work according to the scriptures contains the Phalasruthi or the result of learning the work & imbibing the import of the work through practice and experience. 

Maharshi explains what would happen for the person who reads this work and contemplates on the meaning of the work and puts it to practice through intellectual conviction - realizes the Self, knowing which nothing remains to be known.

Thus, the effect of the work is Self-Realization alone. Self-Realization is not just the fruit of this work alone but of all the Upanishads. 

Thus, the very purpose or goal of the Upanishads is to realize the Self which is one’s own real nature and not different from Brahman.

Realizing one’s real nature

The Mundaka Upanishad starts by the disciple Saunaka (a householder) questioning Sage Angiras thus:

Kasmin u bhagavo vijnaatham sarvam idam vijnaatham bhavathi ithi

(That by knowing which everything becomes known – let me know that O Lord!)

A similar verse occurs in the Bhagawad Gita where Krishna tells to Arjuna:

Jnaanam te aham savijnaanam idam vakshyaami asheshatah

Yat jnaatva na iha bhooyo anyat jnaatavyam avashishyathe

(I will tell you knowledge along with experience or wisdom – knowing which there will remain nothing else to be known.)

In another verse in Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna after the above verse that whatever you see here is ME alone (here 'ME' means Brahman or Consciousness alone and not the form of Krishna as supposed by many people – Krishna Himself states in many places that ‘I am not this form but Brahman alone’). 

Thus, we come to the conclusion that the Self is Brahman only – That Brahman by knowing which everything becomes known; That Brahman which stands for the illusions of names and forms which is the world.

That Brahman which is without any change and ever remains as one without a second, even during times of illusions when world seems to exist (as rope only exists even when the snake is seen and rope remains without any change even though it seems to change into the snake).

Maharshi says in this sloka that the Self realizes its Supreme state of Bliss (when knowledge becomes complete through the path of enquiry).

The Self is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute as has been explained in the previous postings. 

Readers may, after going through the remaining part of this post, go through Swami’s discourse on SAT-CHIT-ANANDA and really experience the ANANDA. 

Continued....

Love.