Upadesa Saram - Post 21

Verse 18

वृत्तयस्त्वहंवृत्तिमाश्रिताः |

वृत्तयो मनो विद्ध्यहं मनः ||

vṛttayastvahaṁvṛttimāśritāḥ |

vṛttayo mano viddhyahaṁ manaḥ ||

Modes of the mind, now, are dependent on the “I” mode.

Modes are the mind; know the “I” is the mind.

We had come to this step in our discussion of Ashtanga Yoga. There, we came to an equation where we said Mind equals a stream of thoughts. There, the procedure went on to eliminate the objects and the subject from the equation so that the net result would be Mind equals the Self.

Vritti

Vritti means thought modification. Mind is but various thought forms.  All these thought forms depend upon the “I” thought.

                                                                          

Aham

Aham is pure awareness without any ray of thought, without any awareness of object. Aham is unborn and has no limitation. It is pure, not tainted with anything at all.

This “Aham” is the pure awareness referred in the Maha vakya, “Aham Brahmasmi”.

                                                                            

Ahamkara

When the above Aham assumes a form, when one takes himself to be his body, his sense organs, his mind etc.,   the  “I” thought arises and the pure Aham becomes Ahankara or EGO.

To understand “All thoughts depend on the I-thought”, we take a simple thought and examine it: “I know a flower”.  We divide this thought into its two components: one is the object and one the subject:       

i) Idam Vritti: This is the objective part. The flower is the object of this thought. Thought centered upon a flower becomes “I know a flower”. This objective part is seen to be the changeable aspect of thought. If the flower changes, for example to “sun”, the thought also has to change, there is no choice in the matter.

One’s feelings also can change with the changing object. One may like a flower that is fresh, but when it withers, the same object loses its hold on the mind, producing a different feeling. The feeling produced by a thought is yet another new thought all its own. It is simply related to the previous thought. Thus, thoughts become interdependent and increase in number and complexity.

The “I” thought will not go in spite of changes in your environment, in your conditions.

Even if one evolves in his thoughts, in his spiritual sadhana etc., and thinks, “I am charitable”, “I have known SELF”, “I am a yogi” etc., the “I” is just gathering new thoughts, new qualifications, to remain there.

The imposter “I am so and so” does not quit.

ii) Aham Vritti: Independent of the object is another part of the thought – I know. This is the subjective part. We find that such a thought exists all the time in the mind. We can call it the “I am” thought (Aham = “I am”). This is the changeless aspect of the thought. It is found attached to all our thoughts. Every thought that crosses the mind has this I-thought attached to it as its subject. Nothing escapes this I-thought.

The two parts do have a relationship. ‘Idam’ cannot exist without the ‘Aham’. The Aham helps us to connect to the Idam. The Aham is thus more subtle. All Idam rest on the Aham. The Aham remains the quotient in all thoughts.

Thus, the statement “All thoughts depend on the I-thought” is explained. If we are to make anything of the mind, we need to get to the root of the Aham Vritti of our thoughts.

The approach taken by Jnana Yoga is therefore direct: 

Ignore the changing aspect or Idam Vritti, and try to get to the bottom of the Aham-Vritti. Then we shall solve the riddle of Mind.

It has to be remembered that Ego cannot conduct an enquiry into the “SELF” or Pure “Aham”.

Such an enquiry is possible only through another path and that is Guru’s instructions, Guru’s teaching.  

In the Rama’s story, when Rama could not slay Ravana with all His strength, someone else tells Rama, “Ravana’s life lies in his heart”. It is then that Rama aims Brahmastra at Ravana’s heart and  Ravana dies.

  

 Ahamkara is Ravana, which is a notion, not in the head, but in the heart.

Thus, Ahamkara is in our heart and whatever we do, it keeps coming back.

So, Ahamkara is Ravana in us and Aham is Rama,  the Lord in us.

Till the time we do not merge in our Lord, any amount of surrender does not work. Surrender is not complete till the time we are separate and Lord is separate.

Till the time this duality exists, our surrender is also a new imposter and we are still taking refuge in Ahamkara when we say, “I have surrendered to the Lord”. 

The new qualification that we have attained is yet another identity, “One who is surrendering”.

So, the Brahmastra that we have to use is total merger with Lord (in the context of today's post, merger with Aham) so that Ravana, our Ahamkara, dies permanently, never to return, never to assume a new qualification, a new imposter.

Love.