Atma Bodha - Post 48

Verse 38

विविक्तदेश आसीनो विरागो विजितेन्द्रियः ।

भावयेदेकमात्मानं तमनन्तमनन्यधीः ॥ ३८॥

VIVIKTA-DESHE AASEENAH

VIRAAGAH VIJITA INDRIYAH

BHAAVAYET EKAM AATMAANAM

TAM ANANTAM ANANYADHEEH

[Sitting in a solitary place, freeing the mind from desires, controlling the senses, meditate upon the One Self without a second, that boundless Being, with unswerving attention.]

This is the final lap of the journey. There is a fine distinction drawn between the various states of consciousness reached upon the end of Nididhyasana. If we take a magnifying glass and look at the actual ‘map’ of the area that is travelled, we will see in finer detail what is broadly termed Samadhi.

An acharya from Chinmaya mission takes an easy example to describe this verse, thus:-

There are distinct levels of Samadhi which may be identifiable to one who is a serious practitioner.  If we look at a map showing India, Mumbai may be represented only as a dot called ‘Mumbai’. If we magnify this map many times and look at Mumbai closely, we will see all the main routes into the city, the suburbs as we approach the city, and then finally the main railway station at which one has to get off. The word Samadhi is like Mumbai, and taking a closer look at it we identify many more details within the topic of Samadhi.

The two main distinctions are Savikalpa Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. The former is a ‘suburb’ that we reach before the main station. It is the stage when the thoughts in the mind have been thinned out to a single thought. In Yoga this could be any thought, as long as it is a single thought. In Vedanta that single thought is called the Brahmakara Vritti, “I am Brahman”.

Savikalpa is also described as absorption of the mind while in meditation. It is like getting our first foot into the room of enlightenment. As one progresses further through the suburbs, one gets closer to the main Terminus which in Yoga is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

In this stage, the single thought is maintained without any effort even out of meditation, and continuously. It becomes the natural or Sahaja state in which one dwells at all times, without a break. That is the state of realization. 

Here in this verse, more advanced practice of meditation is prescribed for the person who wants to advance from the suburban station of Savikalpa Samadhi to the final main station of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

More advanced practice means more intense and prolonged meditation with more concentration. At this stage, all actions have to be given up, and the senses have to be brought under 100% control. There should be zero disturbance. This is the zero-tolerance zone of perfection. Only under these conditions can one enter the non-dual state. The Four Obstacles in this Stage: 4 Ananyadheeh: “unswerving attention”.

An acharya identified four obstacles that arise to obstruct the meditator at this very advanced stage. They are, in the order that they appear as one gets closer to the goal:

i)           Laya – Sleep: the mind feels an irresistible urge to slip into sleep while meditating.

ii)        Vikshepa – Restlessness: the mind develops a tendency to suddenly revolt and become restless, despite all the Abhyasa up to this point. It is just its nature.

iii)    Kashaya – Veiling: the meditator confronts a ‘block’ of nothingness or darkness or a block of dirt Vasanas, beyond which he finds it impossible to go. It just stands there before him like an impenetrable wall. 

iv)     Rasaswada – Taste of Bliss: when he does pierce this veil, the taste of the bliss is so great that he simply remains ‘locked’ in the enjoyment of that taste, and refuses to go further. The bliss of the state becomes an obstacle to move forward. This is just to give us, as students of Vedanta, some idea of what one is faced with at this penultimate stage of realization.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 47

Verse 37

एवं निरन्तराभ्यस्ता ब्रह्मैवास्मीति वासना ।

हरत्यविद्याविक्षेपान् रोगानिव रसायनम् ॥ ३७॥

EVAM NIRANTARA-ABHYASTAA

BRAHMA EVA ASMI ITI VAASANAA

HARATI AVIDYAA-VIKSHEPAAN

ROGAAN IVA RASAAYANAM

[Thus, by constant, endless practice of the thought “I am Brahman”, the impression created destroys ignorance and mental agitations,  just as medicine destroys diseases.]

From verse 25 to 37 we have journeyed from a state of “indiscriminate mixing” productive of the most serious of all blunders in human evolution, to the serene state of infinite peace and purity that transcends all duality.

What a vast ground to have covered! And where did all this take place? In that crucible or laboratory of all thought processes – the human intellect. We have used intellect for its highest purpose: to establish the “I am Brahman” thought as a counter - Vasana in the causal body to eradicate ignorant Vasanas.

For this reason – to perceive the real self, we took the help of Sravanam, Mananam – for first understanding the Nature of our SELF and then for clearly ingraining this understanding in us without an iota of doubt. 

But, this is just the path but not yet the final goal post. We need to do Nidhidhyasanam, a sort of contemplation / Meditation process – on our real nature, for as long as it takes to totally identify with the “Brahman” and dis-identifying with the Anatma. This process started with Vs.31 and is continuing.

“I am the Brahman” is the Key understanding in Nidhidhyasanam.

With “Aham Brahma Asmi” I become the master, I become free of all dualities, I become the eternal, supreme Consciousness bliss. My responses to worldly situations will become infinitely better.

My avidya and its related vaasanas are totally destroyed and will fail to have even an iota of influence on me. This is the biggest advantage I get from Nidhidhyasanam even for my worldly life.

The Nyaya of “Roganiva Rasayanam”: Medicine Destroys Diseases

The medicine that destroys the most widespread of diseases that perplexes humanity - IGNORANCE. To produce a medical cure takes a long time. Much research is needed to analyze information as well as various chemical processes. 

To then produce the medicine requires more laborious effort, trying to get the best conditions to carry out the chemistry needed to produce it.

Thus this simile fits excellently in describing the laborious effort or Abhyasa that we need to put in to bring us to the threshold of spiritual illumination. 

Since the disease here is of the nature of ignorance, the cure produced is of the nature of knowledge. Knowledge is the only antidote for ignorance, even as medicine is the only cure for disease.

The knowledge is obtained from hearing it, no doubt, but much else goes into it from that point onward in overcoming doubts, and undergoing further purification in thinning out the strength of old impressions that contradict this knowledge. Vedantic Cure Compared With Other Cures This work is well and aptly represented by the medicine analogy.

One can use a medicine that will just get rid of the symptoms of the disease; this gives temporary relief from the disease. Then one can get a medicine that goes to the root of the disease and “roots it out”. 

This may take longer, but it is more effective in the long run. Similarly, in the comparison with a spiritual cure, the Vedantic medicine goes to the very root of all diseases, namely, ignorance or Avidya itself.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 46

Verse 36 (This is What I Am)

नित्यशुद्धविमुक्तैकमखण्डानन्दमद्वयम् ।

सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं यत्परं ब्रह्माहमेव तत् ॥ ३६॥

NITYA, SHUDDHA, VIMUKTAIKAM,

AKHANDA-AANANDAM ADVAYAM

SATYAM JNAANAM ANANTAM YAT

PARAM BRAHMA AHAM EVA TAT

[Eternal, pure, ever-liberated and One, indivisible Bliss, and non-dual Existence, Knowledge and Infinite; I am verily that Supreme Brahman.]

“AHAM” is again the key word in this verse.

NITHYA SHUDDHAM:  I am ever pure. I am not affected by the impurities of the dualities like sukha, dukha at any time.

VIMUKTHAHA:  I am always liberated and free - in the past, the present or the future.

EKAM: I am the one and the only one without a second.

AKHANDAM: I have no parts or divisions and I cannot be divided into any such individual parts. The Anaatma has several parts. Sareeram has many parts. Mind has many parts. But, I, the Atma, am division-less.

AANANDAM: I am the eternal Bliss. I have no inadequacies. I do not miss anything. I do not have any regrets. When any thing comes into my life or goes out of my life, it creates no ripples in me. I am the aanandam, the eternal bliss

ADVAYAM:  I am one without a second.  I am all pervading, including the Sareera Thrayam and the world. I am the cause of every thing. Everything is merely my reflection and is Mithya. I am therefore the only one without a second.

SATHYAM, JNANAM, ANANTHAM BRAHMA:  This is again the definition of Brahma. Sathyam means Pure Existence. Death, Pralayam etc does not affect my existence – but only of the Sareera thrayam and the external world. JNANAM means - I am pure consciousness. ANANTHAM means - I am beginning-less and end-less but is infinite in time and space.

YATH PARAM BRAHMA: The one with these characteristics is the PARAM BRAHMA (Supreme Brahma).

AHAM YEVA THATH: I am that Param Brahma. I AM THE ABSOLUTE, INFINITE BRAHMAN.

Again an assertion is made as to who we really are. And again we have nine qualities painted before us in a panorama of exquisite beauty.

To contemplate on these thoughts is the way to directly experience the Self. This concludes the Nididhyasana or meditation upon the Self. In the process, we have unearthed the richest of spiritual treasure.

The Brahma Nishtha sage drinks his fill of these qualities as though they are nectar to him. Since beginning the quest for perfection from verse 30, starting with the doctrine of negation, we have completed all the three Lakshanas or definitions or pointers to the Self. This verse gives the final, Swaroopa Lakshana, the direct pointer to the Self by telling us what It actually is.

Satyam, Jnaanam, Anantam:

This is a very familiar Upanishadic statement appearing in the Taittiriya Upanishad, and dealt with in great detail in Sankara Bhashya on that Upanishad. Here, Sri Sankara repeats the words as they are the most eloquent expression to describe the nature of the Self.

This Taittriya Upanishad verse gave the complete expression on “BRAHMAN” for the first time, with the clarity found in very few Upanishad verses. The verse says,

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD | 2.1.1 |

OM! brahmavidapnoti param | tadesa'bhyukta | satyam jnanamanantam brahma | yo veda nihitam guhayam parame vyoman | so'snute sarvan kaman saha | brahmana vipasciteti || tasmadva etasmadatmana akasah sambhutah | akasadvayuh | vayoragnih | agnerapah | adbhyah prthivi | prthivya osadhayah | osadhibhyo'nnam | annatpurusah | sa va esa puruso'nnnarasamayah | tasyedameva sirah | ayam daksinah paksah | ayamuttarah paksah | ayamatma | idam puccham pratistha | tadapyesa sloko bhavati || 2.1.1 ||

(OM! The knower of Brahman attains the highest. Here is a verse uttering that very fact: “Brahman is truth, knowledge, and infinite. One who knows that Brahman as existing in the intellect which is lodged in the supreme space in the heart, enjoys, in identification with the all-knowing Brahman, all desirable things simultaneously. "

From that Brahman indeed, which is the Self, was produced space. From space emerged air. From air was born fire. From fire was created water. From water sprang up earth. From earth were born the herbs. From the herbs was produced food. From food was born the human. That human, such as one is, is a product of the essence of food. Of one this indeed , is the head , this is the southern (right) side; this is the northern (left) side ; this is the Self ; this is the stabilizing tail.)

Sathyam affirms Brahman by negating non-existence; Jnaanam affirms It by negating inertness; and Anantam affirms It by negating incompleteness. In this way we have the most comprehensive description of the nature of the Supreme Truth.

This one expression “Sathyam Jnanam Anantam” is sufficient and complete in itself for contemplation, meditation and absorption and the subjective experience of Brahman / Atman, within the cave of a sadhaka’s heart!!!!

The session on this one expression taken by the Author is a very elaborate one and it spreads to more than 3 hours as it is a verse which is the essence of all Upanishads.

Love.