Dakshinamurthy Stotram - Post 26

 Verse 8

 

He who sees / witnesses the World of cause and effect, related as

i) possessions and possessor, 

ii) taught and teacher,

iii) father and son,

in Himself as Atman; these being further differentiated into the dream and waking states,

He who is the Purusha (Brahman), (seeing / witnessing these) when whirled in Maya,

to that “Ultimate Seer”, the Revered Form of the Guru, do I offer my salutation;

He is the Revered Form of Sri Dakshinamurti!

The main topics discussed here are Jagat, Atman, Brahman and Maya. Brahman is experiencing the Jagat as Atman under the influence of Maya. Whatever and whenever He experiences, He remains unaffected by them all. For in the ‘Seen-seer’ chain, Brahman or Purusha is the ultimate Seer. There is no Seer higher than Him. All else is seen by Him.

Initially, these lines may not mean very much unless we introduce two concepts well-known in Vedanta philosophy. These are 2 different outlooks on life. They are: 

A. The Srishti – Drishti Model “As is the world, so is our vision.”

B. The Drishti – Srishti Model “As is the vision, so is our (own) world.”

 

The Srishti – Drishti Model:

In this verse all the varieties mentioned are from this view of life. This is the conventional view of the world. The world is transactional reality (Vyavaharic). 

Relative to it, on one side we have our dream world which is unreal (Pratibhasic) in comparison.

On the other side we have Absolute Reality (Paramarthic) or Brahman, which is transcendental.

This is the model most of us are used to and which we find ourselves quite comfortable with. 

Here, the essential feature is that Creation is posited first, and our Drishti follows to suit what is created. There is one Creation and many individual Drishtis.

It is a world of relationships, with people and things, all being related to each other by the law of cause and effect. What is spoken of in these two lines – the possessor and the possessed, the teacher and the taught, father and son, etc., are all experienced from this view of life.

The Drishti – Srishti Model

Now we look at the alternate view, and one might say that philosophers favour this view. Being uncommon, there is not much written about this view, except in Vedantic literature. Hence, it remains a realm within philosophy that is of little interest to the common man. 

In this model, no creation is posited. Everything originates with knowledge, in the world of thought, in the MIND. This is in accordance with one’s own Drishti or vision. Everything is happening in the mind. There is no world out there.

The immediate result is that the Vyavaharic world is cut out. Only two planes of reality exist: the Absolute Reality and the Mental (or dream) reality. The waking state is incorporated into the dream state, which has Pratibhasic reality. 

In this model, knowledge is creation, and thoughts are the main objects of reality. By now, the student will already be noting that there is a huge shift in the vision of such a reality.

What else is there that is mind-boggling?

If “Mind is World”, there is no need to have any cause-and-effect relationship. There is no need for any transactional relationships of the previous model. This means no possessor or possessed, no teacher and taught, no father and son, no husband and wife – in other words no cause/effect relationship. 

There are two key principles in this model:

i) One’s experience is considered as a ‘Dream’. Like any dream, this Dream, too, exists only whilst one is dreaming. It ends as soon as the dreamer awakes! Beware, this is a huge shift in thinking.

ii) Knowledge and the object of knowledge arise together. One sees a thing as soon as the thought of it arises. In fact, thought has replaced the physical object. No action is needed; thoughts are the action!

These are two powerful principles which radically alter the way we look at life. 

 

Continued......

 

Love.