Vivekachudamani - Post 21

  Verse 15    

अतो विचारः कर्तव्यो जिज्ञासोरात्मवस्तुनः ।
समासाद्य दयासिन्धुं गुरुं ब्रह्मविदुत्तमम् ॥ १५ ॥

ato vicāraḥ kartavyo jijñāsorātmavastunaḥ |
samāsādya dayāsindhuṃ guruṃ brahmaviduttamam || 15 ||

 

(Therefore, a true seeker of the Self should learn to enquire and meditate after duly approaching a Guru who is himself established in the experience of the Self and who is an ocean of kindness.)

 

For the reasons so far given, it should be the endeavour of a true seeker to find a true Master and approach him duly to get initiated into the methods of enquiry through the process of meditation. 

Atah vichara kartavyaḥ. In the 13th sloka, Sankara said Vicharah alone will give knowledge.

And this vichara should be done by whom? jijnasu; by a person seeking knowledge. 

Jnatum icchuhu iti jijnasuhu; these are beautiful words in Samsr̥kit; ‘jij’ conveys the meaning of desire; jijnasuhu means desirer of knowledge; mumukṣuhu means desirer of moksha; tipadiṣuhu means desirer of studying.

So jijnasuhu vicharaḥ kartavyaḥ; one who is desirer of knowledge of the self. In short, desirer of self-knowledge. 

The word 'samasadya', by duly approaching is a simple word full of suggestions. It pinpoints the mental attitude with which a seeker should approach the Master in order that he may derive the maximum benefit during his association with the Teacher.

Sankara stresses; gurum samasadya; never make independent enquiry; but by approaching a guru. What is the definition of a guru; gr̥ nati atma tatvam upadisati iti guruḥ; to teach, to communicate; to consistently impart knowledge. 

गु gu means darkness; र ru means remover; गु र is equal to darkness remover; and what is darkness, ignorance; गु means ignorance; र means remover; and therefore guru means darkness remover; 

And what are the qualifications of the guru? 

Two are mentioned. Brahmavit uttamam; he is the greatest brahma jnani; brahmavit means brahma jnani; uttamam means greatest brahma jnani; and uttama indicates nishta; 

Sankara  mentions another qualification: dayasindhum; who is an ocean of compassion; Daya, compassion; sindhuḥ means samudrah; daya samudruh; kripa sagarah; karuna sagarah;

A Guru should not only be a man of Self-experience, but he should also have a large heart full of kindness and sympathy for all types of seekers. 

Swami Chidananda, Disciple of Swami Sivananda, writes on Guru Kripa,

“We have been told by our scriptures that guru kripa is a wonderful, mysterious factor that will enable the aspirants to seek and to attain the summum bonum of life, Self-realisation, darshan of God, or moksha. 

But then, how can we receive it? How should we conduct ourselves if we are to be ready to receive this grace? By discipleship. For, the question of Guru and guru kripa arises only for the disciple. For those who are not of the category named disciple, it is said that mercy, compassion, grace and ashirvad will be given, but not guru kripa. 

Inasmuch as guru kripa takes us to the highest state, discipleship is qualifying ourselves to attain that highest state or the realisation of ourselves as satchidananda. 

The best thing is to humbly leave everything to the Guru:

“I do not know whether I am a disciple or not. Therefore, O Ocean of Mercy and Compassion, pray make me a proper disciple. Generate in me that mumukshutva that makes me a disciple, and give me the spirit of willing obedience. 

Help me in trying to follow thy instructions. Help me in trying to mould myself upon the pattern set up by thee.”

This must be our constant prayer. And by this alone shall we be able to draw the kripa of our Guru and make our life fruitful. And the perfect way of praying is trying our best to be a real disciple.”

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 20

  Verse 14   

 

अधिकारिणमाशास्ते फलसिद्धिर्विशेषतः ।
उपाया देशकालाद्याः सन्त्यस्मिन्सहकारिणः ॥ १४ ॥

 

adhikāriṇamāśāste phalasiddhirviśeṣataḥ |
upāyā deśakālādyāḥ santyasminsahakāriṇaḥ || 14 ||

 

(Ultimate success in spiritual endeavours depends entirely upon the degree of fundamental qualifications in the seeker. Auxiliary conveniences such as time and place, all have a place indeed, but they are essentially secondary.) 

 

Here is a suggestion to seekers who generally get disappointed at having to encounter obstacles at the very outset of their sadhana. 

 

When a team of students is working under the instructions of the same Master, it is always observed that some of them progress faster than others. Those who lag behind soon reach a state of despair and they complain about the hollowness of the sastras. Such students are advised to attribute their lack of development to some intrinsic subjective maladjustment in their psychological and intellectual make-up. 

The indispensable requisites of a work worth studying are four in number and are collectively called Anubandha Chatushtaya.

One of the requisities is “Adhikari”.

Swami Sivananda writes, 

“Adhikari - A qualified student. Here it is one who is endowed with the four means of salvation. i.e., Sadhana Chatushtaya, viz., Viveka, Vairagya, Shad-sampat and Mumukshutva, who has removed Mala (impurities of the mind) by Nishkama Karma Yoga and Vikshepa (tossing of mind) by Upasana, who has Chitta Suddhi and one-pointed mind and who is endowed with Yukti (reason), Samartha (ability) and Buddhi (sharp intellect). 

 

Adhikaris are of two kinds, viz., Kritopasaka and Akritopasaka. He who has done full Saguna Upasana and who is endowed with perfect one-Pointed mind is a Kritopasaka. He will be equipped with all the Sadhanas mentioned in the scriptures. He who has done imperfect Upasana of Saguna Brahman is an Akritopasaka. He has only partial concentration of mind. He is equipped with only a few Sadhanas. 

 

He has Viparita-Bhavana though he possesses knowledge of Brahman by study of Vedantic Literature. He must practise constant and intense meditation.”

The qualifications necessary for a successful spiritual pilgrimage have been enumerated here by the Acharya only for self-scoring of the seekers themselves. 

 

That is, if success on the spiritual path has been slow or unsatisfactory, the seeker himself is to blame. It is invariably because of some clogs of the heart. All that he has to do in order to achieve more progress in his efforts is to remove these clogs and apply himself more intensely to self-development. 

 

Qualification of a student plays a very important role in the rise of knowledge.  

 

Just as a prepared land is required for a plant to grow. If seed is put in the desert land; it will not sprout; it is not the mistake of the seed; only that the land is not prepared. And land preparation is not an easy job; tilling the land is important; and also the temperature must be right to grow; 

 

The accomplishment of the result; that is moksha which very heavily depends upon or primarily depends upon what? adhikarinam; the competent student or the competency of the student; and that is the reason that in the olden days they never brought vedanta to the public.

When in meditation a sadhaka finds his mental avenues blocked, it is meaningless for him to sit in the asana and rave in disappointment, cursing the entire hierarchy of rishis or the science of Vedanta. He must, at once, look within to see if the necessary adjustments are all properly maintained therein. The description of the necessary qualifications is for our guidance, that we may know what are the common troubles that arise in the inner vehicle during our flight to the beyond. 

 

There are some seekers who wait for better circumstances to do their sadhana, a more suitable time or a greater Master to initiate them.

 

No doubt time, place and so on, are important, but not unduly so, for they are only subsidiary requirements. Without the needful inner adjustments even if a sadhaka is placed under the best conditions of time and place, he will not be able to make use of them. On the other hand, a true seeker, even under adverse conditions, will turn them to the best advantage and will progress steadily, unhampered. 

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 19

 Verse 13   

 

अर्थस्य निश्चयो दृष्टो विचारेण हितोक्तितः ।
न स्नानेन न दानेन प्राणायमशतेन वा ॥ १३ ॥

 

arthasya niścayo dṛṣṭo vicāreṇa hitoktitaḥ |
na snānena na dānena prāṇāyamaśatena vā || 13 ||

 

(Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity nor even hundreds of pranayamas can give us the knowledge about our own Self but a firm experience of the nature of the Self can be gained when we send our thoughts along the rails of arguments laid down in the salutory advices of the wise.) 

 

In the previous verse, Sankara said enquiry alone can give knowledge. Here he emphasises nothing else can give knowledge. 

 

When you say enquiry alone can give knowledge it is a positive statement called anvaya; nothing else can give knowledge is stressing that negative.

 

Here again we find the superficial methods of easy religious practices condemned. Since the student is a Vedantin, Sankara's efforts are to show him the right and direct path. In thus indicating to the student the correct path, every Master has to be very severe in his criticism of the by-lanes of religion. No doubt, they too can help in the progress of the individual, but they are all primary lessons. 

 

External methods of self-purification such as baths at the sacred confluences of rivers, visits to various temples and other sacred places, desire prompted or even unselfish charities, exercises such as breath control and  asanas are wholly condemned as they would not take one to Moksha. 

 

The hasty convert to Vedanta suddenly finds it very convenient to give up every religious practice and call himself an accomplished Vedantin. This attitude also has no sanction in the Master's advice. 

 

Here it is said, snanena would not give mokṣa; It is never said that snanena will not give anything; It not only purifies the body; as it is done with Ishvara samaraṇam; it purifies the mind also. Similarly we never condemn praṇayama; praṇayama is extremely wonderful practice; to tone up the annamaya kosa; to tone up the praṇamaya kosa; to tone up the mano maya kosa; 

 

Vedanta does not question the validity and role of praṇayama; But after integrating through praṇayama; come to sastra. That is to be done. 

 

While condemning these preliminaries, he is, at the same time, very strict and severe in prescribing the more subtle and intense practices of Vedanta. For a Vedantin, he prescribes correct thinking and continuous self-analysis. Merely giving up the usual methods of religious discipline is not the Vedanta prescribed by the Acharya. 

 

If at all they are to be given up, it is only after greater abhyasa called 'vichara'. This atma-vichara is not to be done in any manner that pleases the individual. There is an exact method of correct and intense thinking and this method is advised in the scriptures. Therefore, vichara, undertaken as taught by the rishis (hitoktitah), alone can take us ultimately to our redemption.

 

In the previous verse, we said, Sastras / scriptures are like a torchlight which throws light on reality.

 

Here also what is the extra torch light; hitoktitah; hitaḥ means guru; a well-wisher; a guide; a support is called hitaḥ; literally one who is a well-wisher, Hitoktitah means guru vakyeṇa; and what is the guru vakyam? the extra torchlight.

So in the previous sloka, we said sastram vakyam is the extra light; here we say guru vakyam is extra light; we do not make any difference between sastra vakyam and guru vakyam; because guru is by definition one who teaches based on sastra.

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 18

 Verse 12  

 

सम्यग्विचारतः सिद्धा रज्जुतत्त्वावधारणा ।
भ्रान्तोदितमहासर्पभयदुःखविनाशिनी ॥ १२ ॥

 

samyagvicārataḥ siddhā rajjutattvāvadhāraṇā |
bhrāntoditamahāsarpabhayaduḥkhavināśinī || 12 ||

 

(The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent on the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope which is available for recognition only through steady and balanced thinking) 

 

रजजसु पवय दार् means a clear knowledge of rope; rajju means rope; it is the satvam; sarvam means the substratum of the false snake; 

 

Suppose if one says it may be rope and somebody asks go and touch it; he will say: why to take risk. Similarly if we say the world is Brahman; it is one thing. If we say the world may be Brahman; that is not enough.

 

And how did the snake come into existence? Not that there was a mother snake; and it gave birth to smaller snakes; it is not like that; this snake how did come; purely because of rope-ignorance. 

Therefore he says Bhrantodita. Bhranthihi means the error; erroneous perception; uditha means born. So therefore the clear knowledge of rope is the destroyer of the fear born out of the snake which is born out of an erroneous perception. In short, knowledge alone will destroy this particular fear.

 

It is never possible that one who has seen the rope as a rope will ever have the fear and sorrow of a snakebite. But in the gathering darkness of dusk, a traveller mistakes an innocent rope to be a snake. The serpent delusion is created in the mind of the traveller because of his ignorance of the rope-reality. 

 

Having thus been bitten by a delusory serpent, the individual, so long as he is under the delusion, suffers the agony of a snakebite and, if left alone, will exhibit symptoms of blood poisoning too, but the traveller is advised to make an enquiry into his delusion. 

 

In vedanta, this example is often quoted to make the student understand how the names and forms created through the ignorance of Reality can end with the rediscovery of the Truth underlying them. 

 

However great a devotee he may be; you might have the mantropadesah, but when rajju sarpa comes, what you need is to intelligently bring the torch and see it properly. The torch is called the sastra pramaṇam. 

 

Take the sastra pramaṇam torch. Knowledge is attained through only proper enquiry. Proper enquiry means what, with sastra torchlight; that is why "proper" is put. So then alone this knowledge will come and the knowledge alone will destroy the bhayaṁ.

 

Similarly if the samsara bhayam should go; atma jnanam should come; and if atma jnanam should come, vichara is a must.

 

Till the time we keep thinking about snake, how much ever we may try to negate the existence of snake, the fear will never go. Only upon discovering the existence of rope, the delusion of snake will go.

 

Similarly, Sankara says, as long as you think that Brahman may be the reality, you won’t be able to experience Brahman. Only when you are convinced through the stage of mananam that “Only Brahman exists”, then, in nidhidhyasanam, there is hope for you to experience Brahman as pure awareness / consciousness.

 

 

Love.