Vivekachudamani- Post 55

What is bondage? How has it come? How does it continue to exist?  How can one get out of it completely? What is the not-Self? Who is the supreme Self? And what is the process of discrimination between these  two (Self and not-Self)? Please explain all these to me. (49)

This is series of seven questions which the student asks the  Teacher, who will now take them up one by one and answer them exhaustively. 

1) Ko nama bandaḥ; what is the bondage that is talked about in all philosophical literatures? This word bandaḥ is used in all Indian philosophical literature and this refers to spiritual bondage, which is otherwise known as saṁsāra.

2) kathameṣa agataḥ; how did this bondage come; what is the cause of bondage; 

3) kathaṁ asya pratiṣṭaḥ; how does this bondage continue to survive? how does this bondage continue? pratiṣṭaḥ means what? Continuation; permanence; persistence; how does it persist; that is another better word; because you find in the creation anything that we experience goes away by itself in course of time; anything you see wears out in course of time but this saṁsāra bondage is such a unique thing, that it does not have a natural death; every other thing including stars have a natural death.

4) katham vimōkṣaḥ; how can we free ourselves or give up this persistent saṁsāra; that which does not have a natural death? Therefore we will have to specifically work for getting rid of this saṁsāra.

Just as rivers ultimately merge into oceans, you will also ultimately merge into Brahman, God; but that can create a misconception; that mōkṣa is a natural process. Here we say No; it is never natural; it requires our effort; our initiative; our hard work; and how can we do that? katham vimōkṣaḥ; how is freedom from bondage acquired or how is this shackle broken? This is the fourth question.

5) kaha asaui anātma; what is anātma? That is a technical word; if you translate into English it only means not-self. Ātma means self; ‘a’ means not; anātma means non-self; what do you mean by non-self. 

6) paramaḥ ka atma. What is meant by paramatma? paramatma means the real self; the true self; the supreme Self. Why we have to say the real self?

7) tayōrvivēkaḥ katham; how can one discriminate between; or differentiate; how can one differentiate ātma and anātma.

The student wants to know what is this individual personality and how do you dissect the individual personality and find out the what is the genuine-I and what is the non-genuine-I. Katham. How to do that?

In all the previous verses,  the Teacher spoke in terms of 'bondages', 'Liberation', 'not-Self',  'supreme Self', and the 'discrimination between the Self and the  not-Self', till now these terms were freely used but the student is  not satisfied with a mere understanding of the theories of Vedanta. 

He wants to live them in life. So he is now pointedly asking him to explain more clearly. Naturally, the Teacher catches the  enthusiasm of the student in getting clear answers to all his questions and and we shall see how beautifully he warms up to  the discussion.

Love

Vivekachudamani- Post 54

The sishya said , "Kindly listen , O Master! to the questions that I now  raise. Hearing their answer from your lips , I shall feel entirely satisfied."  (48)

The entire Vivekacudamani has, by now, changed from being a  textbook into an outstanding poem, a literary masterpiece because,  while writing this great work, Sankara often excels the philosopher  in him and becomes a poet to splash the entire power with brilliant  colors of pure literary genius. 

He has a special niche in  the 'poet's corner' and will perhaps be remembered as the noblest  poet who ever wielded a pen to bring about a cultural revival. 

Questions of the Disciple 

The very conversational style of this verse relieves the  monotony of the philosophy and brings into its arid fields the  touch of the human hearts and the thrills of a warm, pulsating  life. Here, an ignorant student reaches a seer, who is the fountain of knowledge and through a process of discussion, tries to attune  himself to his Teacher for walking out of dark ignorance into the  Master's brilliant domain. 

He says: Hey Svamin, Oh Lord, the Sishya is no more looking at the guru as even a person; he has raised the guru to the status of Bhagavan; therefore he is addressing Hey Svamin;

Moksha gita starts with the sishya addressing his Guru thus:-

The disciple said: O Merciful Master! I bow to thee. I have fallen into the dreadful ocean of birth and death. I am afflicted with the three kinds of Taapas. Save me, O Lord. Teach me, how I should cross this ocean of Samsara. 

 Oh Lord; ayam prasna maya criyate; a group of  questions is presented by me to you.

And for what purpose I am giving the question? You should not just give me prasādam and send me away. Questions are for answers. Therefore, he says yat uttaram aham srutva; I would like to get answers to these basic questions. 

So yat uttaram prasnanam uttaram; sapta prasnanam uttaram aham srutva; I would like to hear. In fact, the entire Vedanta  sastra is sapta prasna uttaram only. 

And I want to listen from whom? Bhavan mukhat. So do not say that the reply is in that book; go and read, do not say go to this person and that person; do not send me away; bhavan mukhat srutva; I want to hear from you only. 

And by listening to the answers, aham kr̥tarthaḥ syam.  kr̥tarthah means fortunate, blessed, fulfilled; that is best translation; fulfilled I will become.

kritaarta means moksha purushartah prapti. Philosophical fulfilment, which includes intellectual fulfillment, which includes emotional fulfilment, which includes even physical fulfillment. 

Rare are such disciple existing in present day world, sincerely treating their Guru (Essence ) as Swamin/ Lord, wanting/craving for getting all their spiritual  doubts clarified  only from their Guru- Bhavan Mukhat Srutva. 

Such verses elevate a sincere Spiritual aspirant to an inexplicable level. 

Love

Vivekachudamani- Post 53

It is indeed, through contact with ignorance that you, who are the  supreme Self, experience yourself to be under the bondage of the not- Self From this misunderstanding alone proceed the worlds of births and deaths. All the effects of ignorance, root and branch, are burnt down by the blaze of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two - the Self and the not-Self  (Verse 47)

Ajnana yogat tava paramatmanaḥ; so you are really the paramatma; the consciousness; you are really the consciousness, not the body. It isnot you have consciousness, it is not you have consciousness, but according to Vēdānta, you are Conciousness. It is an independent entity.

And now what has happened. Anatma bandaḥ; whereas now you are tied down to the body; the matter; now you are tied down to the matter;

What causes us, the supreme Self that we really are, to suffer these  bondages, and what exactly is that, which compels us thereafter to  struggle hard to regain our true divine glory through the delicate  process of Self-rediscovery is explained here. 

Just as a ghost vision is possible on a wayside post when  there is ignorance of the post, so too, it is the ignorance of the  Self in us that gives birth to the 'thought flow' called the 'mind'. 

The pure Consciousness or Life gets reflected in the pool  of thoughts and in our preoccupation with our mental life we  take ourselves to be this egocentric (jiva), which is nothing but  life conditioned by our own thoughts in a given pattern of time  and place. 

Anatma bandaḥ means deha abhimanah; And what is the cause of this deha abhimanah?

ajnana yogath; purely because or ignorance. 

Purely because of ignorance; and when did ignorance come; it has been there right from birth; in fact, even as I am born, I find that I am born ignorant. 

The sorrows of life, the limitations of the equipment, the  imperfections of the world, the concept of likes and dislikes, the  pulls of pleasures and pains, the shattering concepts of merit and  sin - all these are effected by this ego. 

The ego ends upon its own funeral pyre lit by itself, which  blazes into a conflagration of knowledge. The fire arising from  a constant discrimination between the Real and the unreal,  between the Self and the not-Self, between the Spirit and  matter, is fanned into a blazing brilliance through steady vichara in  which all the effects of ignorance are burnt down. When ego ends,  we realise our real nature to be intrinsically divine, eternally free  and absolute Bliss. This is immortality. 

Sastra alone presents consciousness as a separate entity and by the study of that sastra, vivrkaḥ means discrimination between; tayorho; between atma and anatmanoho; matter and consciousness.

And it will produce what? bodhahvanni; it will be produce the fire of knowledge. So by the friction of enquiry, the fire of knowledge is produced; and why is the knowledge compared to fire; because ajñāna karyam pradahet samulam; this fire of knowledge will burn down; what?

ajnana karyam; ajnanam as well as its karyam; what ajnanam?; that I am Consciousness the separate entity is not known.

And what is its consequence? Since I do not know that I am consciousness, I take myself as matter; that matter-identification is karyam; ignorance is karanam; identification is karyam; So, the fire of knowledge will destroy the effect along with the causal ignorance; it will destroy the effect along with the causal ignorance. 

Where there is light, darkness cannot be; where knowledge  has come to rule, ignorance must quit. Where the cause has been  eliminated, the effect cannot remain. Where ignorance has ended,  all its effects - the five kosas constituting the three bodies, the  three planes of consciousness, the realms of pains made up of sense  objects, feelings and ideas - must end instantaneously, totally.

Love