Yesterday we understood that ignorance is not
‘removed’ but only negated. Let us continue further on this…
Example of the “Kataka-nut”:
The above process is compared with the effect
that the powder of the kataka-nut has on a bucket of muddy water. In India,
this powder, which is also ‘dirt’, is added to water which is to be used for
drinking, especially during the Monsoon season, when the water sources are
always very muddy.
The powder has the special quality to
precipitate the fine muddy particles in the water and make them settle to the
bottom of the bucket. The clear water left behind at the top of the bucket is
decanted for drinking. Finally the dirty mixture of mud and the powder at the
bottom of the bucket is discarded, having done its job of clearing the rest of
the water.
The simile applies in the following
manner:
1) The water is the Self.
2) The adulteration with mud is the impurities
embedded in our Jiva due to the lifestyle fostered in us by Ignorance.
The ignorance referred to in these verses
is the Primal or the first and the subtlest ignorance of the real truth that we
are divine. This Ignorance gives birth to our identity as a human being with
a Body, Mind and an Intellect. This then extends our identity to so many
things like - I am a doctor, I am a CA, I am rich, I am poor, I am
handsome, I am bad looking, I am this, I am that .........., the list is endless.
3) The remedy for a disease depends on the cause
of that disease. Here, the disease is IGNORANCE. So, the cure for this disease
has to be KNOWLEDGE.
4) So, the Kataka nut in this case is the
KNOWLEDGE of Brahman to remove the DIRT of our ignorance, which is covering the
clean water which is SELF.
5) Thus, only the state of "AHAM
BRAHMASMI" can drive away our mistaken notion of "I AM SO AND
SO".
It does not end there.
When once, a disciple approached his
Guru and told, "Guruji, I have known Brahman", the Guru says
only 2 lines - "SHUT UP AND GET OUT".
What did the Guru mean??
The Guru meant " GET MORE AND MORE
INWARD WITH THE APPARENT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT BRAHMAN WHICH YOU HAVE GOT, WHEN
HE SAID, " SHUT UP".
AND WHEN HE SAID "GET OUT", HE
MEANT, LET THAT KNOWLEDGE ITSELF GO OUT OF YOU WITH THE INWARD EXPERIENCE YOU
WOULD GET WHEN YOU GET INWARD!
Dear All,
This verse stands out as one of the most
crucial verse in the entire Atma Bodha text, in the context of those
who take up the path of Knowledge or Jnana Yoga for God realization.
One dangerous disease which grips one who
studies all treatise on Knowledge, the upanishads, all vedanta treatise is
that, the person is internally blown up with the impression that he is the most
learned person on the earth.
This is called as "Shastra Vasana",
i.e., impression about one's expertise and one's knowledge of shastras.
When such impression sets in, the entire
knowledge gathered by that person of wisdom has only added more ego to
him, rather than removing the very ego, the very ignorance of the real truth
that HE IS VERILY DIVINE SELF.
So, the actual culmination of Knowledge happens
when the knowledge gathered is absorbed so intensely that it transforms into
inner subjective experience of the TRUTH, the ONLY TRUTH that ONE IS
DIVINE SELF. Once such a Jnani abides in SELF, then the so called knowledge or
say, the impression about one's knowledge does and must leave him once for all,
like the kataka nut dissolves in the water after clearing all the impurities so
that the water is rendered pure and clean!!!!!
This inward experience of Knowledge is easier
said than done. It is the last stage in Sadhana where, having spoken or
meditated enough on "I AM BRAHMAN", the meditator actually attains
the intuitive intimate inner experience of Brahman which is referred as BRAHMA
ANUBHUTI and thereafter, there is no object of meditation - Brahman, there is
no one who is meditating on Brahman, there is no meditation even.
All the three - the meditator, the meditation
and the object of meditation merge together like the Triveni Sangam where
Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati come together and merge in Allahabad.
Thereafter, the Jiva is freed of all bondage and
becomes a Jivan Mukhta!!
Love.
