Vivekachudamani - Post 17

 Verse 11  

 

चित्तस्य शुद्धये कर्म न तु वस्तूपलब्धये ।
वस्तुसिद्धिर्विचारेण न किंचित्कर्मकोटिभिः ॥ ११ ॥

 

cittasya śuddhaye karma na tu vastūpalabdhaye |
vastusiddhirvicāreṇa na kiṃcitkarmakoṭibhiḥ || 11 ||

 

(Selfless work and charitable acts help to purify the mind, but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the perception of Reality. The discovery of the Reality is brought about only by discriminative analysis and never by any number of actions.)

 

An often quoted analogy by the author - In our school times, we loved our school, we loved our seating, our class mates who uses to sit along with us in a row. But can we, after growing up and getting married, still go and sit on the same seat in that same row in the same class room saying that we love that seat, that class and we won’t leave that?

Another example.

A child is told by his parents to revise his arithmetic tables  everyday. The obedient child soon gets into the habit of starting his day with a reading of the tables. But if the child continues his habit as a dull and unintelligent routine even in his postgraduate classes, it is but natural for his professor to laugh at his stupidity.

 

A sage writes,

 

“In the halls of Vedanta, the seeker is laughed at because of the time-worn techniques of self-development to which he has become habituated, but that does not mean that  Sankara or the Vedantins are against them. 

 

The paths of karma, bhakti and so on, have certainly a place in the scheme of self-development and they are unavoidable in hauling up a man through the various stages of self-development to the pinnacle of perfection. 

 

Here Sankara points out that karma when undertaken with a pure nishkama bhava purifies the inner instruments of feeling and understanding. The word 'shuddhi' used in connection with the mind is to be understood as a greater degree of integration. The purer mind has a greater capacity to concentrate.”

 

Three things constitute dharma; one is rituals or religious exercises; like puja, japa etc. that is one part of dharma; all religious exercises whether it is temple visit, puja, pilgrimage japa, etc. all of them will come under rituals or religious exercises.

 

Second part of dharma is values. There are many people who give importance to religious exercises but they never give importance to their character, the quality or morality. And therefore morality or value is the second part of dharma.

 

And third part of dharma is attitude; the way we look at the creation; the way we look at ourselves and the way we look at the people around. First learn to respect yourself.  A Bhakta is great not because of anything; because Lord is inside him. 

 

Thus religious exercises, values and attitude. This is called karma here. Chittasya Shuddaye karma; Karma is equal to dharma.

 

When an action is undertaken with a motive, the individual must necessarily be shattered and fatigued under its persecution. On the other hand, when an act of charity or kindness is done in a spirit of dedication  and love, with no ulterior motive, the mind cosily settles down and  peace that rises within the sadhaka increases automatically and  his personality becomes more and more integrated. 

 

Selfless actions do not help a seeker directly in his flights of self-discovery. But they certainly have a place in one's sadhana in as much as they prepare the individual to transcend the ego and give him the wings for the last flight to the beyond. 

 

Sankara is uncompromisingly severe when he declares in his irrevocable statements that the Self is neither produced nor knowledge created as a result of finite actions, however noble, divine and great they may be.

 

How about someone who is unable to take up the path of vichara? He would like to do more of puja; Can he cry in front of the Lord as a replacement of vichara? 

 

Sankara says Na kinchit karma kotibhihi; one can do crores of yajnas; crores of yagas; crores of pujas; intense bhajans; one  may do all these things; cry in front of the Lord; crying would not replace enquiry; but crying in front of the Lord would not go waste; the Lord will make him fit for enquiry make you love enquiry. 

 

Such a bhakthi will gradually change and one will begin to like enquiry and Lord would change the mind; change the attitude. 

 

A bhakta may not know when he has moved / evolved to the path of discrimination. In His Love for God, when the urge within him is on fire to merge with the lord instead of crying out for the lord, in that quest for merger with lord, the path of Jnana/discrimination has started.

Karmaṇa siddhihi, vicharane jnana. This is sara of this sloka. Religion gives purity; philosophy gives knowledge. Veda purva is purity; veda anta is knowledge. 

 

 

Love.