Upadesa Saram - Post 3

Dear All,

Let us repeat the last paragraph of yesterday's post and then proceed further.

We perform an action for a DESIRED RESULT.

So, it is clear from the above expression that our actions are prompted by our desires. Thus, as long as we continue performing actions born out of desires, we will continue to get limited results. The “limited” ness thus continues and we can never get unlimited freedom.

Let us revise a verse from Atma bodha post in this context.

अविरोधितया कर्म नाविद्यां विनिवर्तयेत् ।

विद्याविद्यां निहन्त्येव तेजस्तिमिरसङ्घवत् ॥ ३॥

AVIRODHITAYAA KARMA NAA 

VIDYAAM VINIVARTAYET

VIDYAAVIDYAAM NIHANTYEVA 

TEJASTIMIRA SANGHAVAT

(Action cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness.)

In the previous sloka, we learnt that like the fire that can only cook food, the knowledge only can lead to liberation. In this sloka, Sankara is answering another doubt that may arise for a seeker as to why it is not possible for austerities and discipline to liberate one and why is it that only knowledge can lead to realization? 

Sri Sankaracharya must have given this question serious thought before arriving at his conclusion to the contrary. Even considering the startling achievements of action in the external world, the answer Sankaracharya comes up with is to still place knowledge above action. 

Avidya / Ignorance

Ignorance is what pervades our entire life. Because of it, though essentially born divine, created by divinity as divine, we still get identified with the body. 

We then perform actions to take care of this body. These become our central preoccupation. 

Kama Karma  

Very soon, we will include actions that arise purely from the desires arising through our body identification. Soon we are engulfed in activities, all of which may be astounding in themselves but which do not take us a single step forward towards God.

When our actions are not fulfilling, we become unhappy. Another series of actions are started to make us happy in the world. That does not succeed. 

All this is because actions are rooted in ignorance; they are conceived in ignorance, governed by ignorance, mothered and fathered by ignorance, supported by ignorance how can it oppose ignorance when ignorance is so rooted in it? And how can a handmaid of ignorance be the cause of destroying ignorance? Actions are not in opposition to ignorance and can, therefore, never overcome ignorance.

Am I really Limited?

So, we read in the previous post that man feels the pain of being limited and he wants to be limitless.

In his desire to be limitless lies the secret of his identity.

By the very fact that man wants to be limitless, it is implied that he is visualizing of something, some existence, that is limitless, infinite.

Now, if there is something which is infinite, then, by its very definition of "infinite", it must contain the man also, as he cannot exist in any zone which is finite and is not covered in that infinite existence.

This can be better explained when a man is in deep sleep. There is no limitation of body, mind, intellect when he is in deep sleep. The man in deep sleep is not limited even by time and space, as he experiences none of these things.

So, if he can experience that infinite existence while in deep sleep, then why can’t he experience the same when he is awake?

What is the path that can guide him to experience  his infinite existence?

This treatise of Ramana shall take us towards that path and give us the glimpse of how we can reach that state of infinite existence and supreme freedom from this samsara.

Summary of 1^stverse 

·        Man has got freedom to do an action but he does not have the freedom to decide on its results.

·        Result for any action is decided by God, which is explained in the theory of Karmas.

·        Any action which is taken up with any desire is limited to the extent of the limitation of that desire.  (Readers can think of any of their desire prompted action in this regard and can conclude that the object of their desire is  by itself limited to a particular time, particular  phase in their life and can never be permanent, throughout their life)

·        Thus, such Limited action (limited by desire) cannot give unlimited result. Unlimited result here means unlimited freedom.

·        Action (path of karma) cannot grant liberation. This is clearly explained by Sankara in many of his works and Atma bodha is one such piece of work by Sankara in which He explains this in this way.

EXCEPT PURE, SELFLESS ACTION, ANY ACTION HAS THE BACKGROUND OF IGNORANCE (AVIDYA) OF AN INDIVIDUAL.  HOW?

·        ANY ACTION HAS SOME DESIRE WHICH PROMPTS SUCH ACTION.

·        ANY DESIRE IS BORN OUT OF MAN’S IDENTITY WITH HIS EGO, HIS LIMITED IDENTITY OF HIS BODY/ MIND.

·        THIS IDENTITY WITHNHIS BODY/ MIND IS BORN OUT OF HIS IGNORANCE OF HIS DIVNITY/ HIS DIVINE NATURE.

·        THUS, AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE ABOVE CLEARLY, IT CAN BE KNOWN THAT ANY ACTION IS BORN OUT OF IGNORANCE.

AND, 

·          ACTION, BORN OUT OF IGNORANCE, CANNOT REMOVE ONE’S IGNORANCE (AVIDYA)

IS MAN REALLY LIMITED IN HIS EXISTENCE??

·        If man is really limited in his existence, he can never experience unlimited existence. Unlimited means, not limited by his being conscious about his limited body, mind and intellect.

·        When a man is in deep sleep, he is not conscious of all these three – Body / Mind / Intellect.

·        So, to that extent, it is clear that man is not permanently limited, permanently bound.

Love.