Vivekachudamani - Post 30

  Verse 24     

सहनं सर्वदुःखानामप्रतीकारपूर्वकम् ।
चिन्ताविलापरहितं सा तितिक्षा निगद्यते ॥ २४ ॥

sahanaṃ sarvaduḥkhānāmapratīkārapūrvakam |
cintāvilāparahitaṃ sā titikṣā nigadyate || 24 ||

 

(Titiksa is the capacity to endure all sorrows and sufferings without struggling for redress or for revenge, being always free from anxiety or lament over them).

 

Describing the fourth psychological qualification in a man of true spiritual stamina, Sankara gives a full and scientific definition of the quality of silent endurance which is glorified in all the religions of the world. 

Meek surrender and silent suffering are the watchwords in all religious disciplines. This quality to endure and to suffer for a cause which has been accepted by the individual as the ideal and the perfect, finds a place in every great philosophy whether it is religious or secular. 

 

In Tatva Bodha, titikṣaḥ was defined as Sheeta ushna sukha duḥkhadi sahisnutvam. In simple language, titikṣaḥ means endurance power; the capacity to endure pain without breaking down. That endurance, physical; more than physical, it is mental is called titikṣaḥ; sarva duḥkhanam sahanam. 

 

Sahanam means endurance; endurance of all kinds of discomfort caused by adyatimikam, adiboudikam; the surrounding, caused by adidevikam, like the rain; how you all have got the endurance power to come in spite of rains; that is called titikṣaḥ.

 

At the body level, the content of the hardship is predominantly bodily discomfort and pain. The cause of this discomfort and pain is largely some external factor which we have little control over. It may be unbearable weather, either too hot or too cold; 

 

It may be deprivation of basic creature comforts due to poverty or natural calamities; it may even be living in unavoidable conditions of squalor, imprisonment or rampant crime. Whatever it may be, there is little we can do about it other than “bite our teeth and bear it”.

 

Physically, it is not possible to have all the ideal conditions. Nature gives us a “package deal” of mixed conditions, both favorable and unfavorable, wherever we may be. We can safely say that there isn’t a place on earth where everything will be perfect.

 

“What cannot be cured, has to be endured.” We should not run after ideal conditions. The conditions we live in are determined by our Karma, our Paapa and Punya. So we just have to be stoical and bear external hardships.

When Krishna displayed His divine Resplendence to Arjuna, He speaks of Himself as the Creator, the Preserver, the Gods and Seers, the illumination, strength, fame, prosperity, intelligence, receptivity, firmness, determination, the imperishable Time, all the positive forces in manifestation, 

 

He also made it clear that He also is the rod that chastises, Vasuki among serpents, Ananta among the nagas, Prahlada among the daityas, deceit in gambling, the terminator and destroyer, the rod that chastises, the all-devouring death and the World destroying Time, with terrible form touching sky, blazing with colours, with eyes glowing bight, with mouth wide open, terrible with tusks, where hosts of warriors seem to enter, some even caught between the teeth, the three worlds tremble, lack of receptivity, the illusion that conceals, bewilders, deceives, as gambling. There is nothing in creation which does not have stamp of his authority and control. 

 

Therefore, for one who is aware of the universal and all-pervading nature of the Divinity there is nothing that needs to be rejected and everything to be understood in the right perspective. He accepts things without preferring or denying, without liking or disliking without choosing and selecting as the sign of detachment from duality in samsara. 

 

In awareness, there is neither good nor bad, neither noble nor ignoble. 

 

Therefore, Krishna tells that the one who is equal to friends and foes, to honor and dishonor, to cold and the heat, who free from attachment is same in pleasure and pains, silent in speech content with everything, having no fixed attachment to any abiding place, firm in mind, that man being devoted is dear to Him.

 

Love.

 

 

Vieckachudamani - Post 29

  Verse 23     

विषयेभ्यः परावर्त्य स्थापनं स्वस्वगोलके ।
उभयेषामिन्द्रियाणां स दमः परिकीर्तितः
बाह्यानालम्बनं वृत्तेरेषोपरतिरुत्तमा ॥ २३ ॥

viṣayebhyaḥ parāvartya sthāpanaṃ svasvagolake |
ubhayeṣāmindriyāṇāṃ sa damaḥ parikīrtitaḥ
bāhyānālambanaṃ vṛttereṣoparatiruttamā || 23 ||

 

(Steering both kinds of sense organs (of knowledge and action), away from their sense objects and placing them in their respective centres of activity is called 'dama' (self-control). The best 'uparati' (self-withdrawal) is that condition of the thought waves in which they are free by from the influences of external objects.) 

 

In this verse we have the explanations of two more requirements of the mind and intellect which are essential in an aspirant. They are dama and uparati. 

 

Dama

 

Compared with sama, dama is a system of discipline concerned with a relatively outer field since it prescribes a control for the sense organs. 

Dama is control of the Indriyas (sense-organs). This is rational control, not blunting or deadening of the sense by foolish austerities. 

 

This body is the moving temple of God. It should be kept healthy and strong. It is a vessel to take you to the other shore of fearlessness and immortality; it is a horse to take you to the goal.

 

Ignorant people adopt foolish methods to control the senses.

 

Remember, it is only the abuse or misuse of the organs that brings misery and untoward results. The senses should be consecrated at the Lotus Feet of the Lord for His services. They should be utilized in serving one's Guru and other Mahatmas. 

 

If the senses are disciplined properly and if they are kept under control, they become your useful servants.

 

People ask: "Where is the necessity for the practice of Dama, when one practices Sama?" Dama, control of the senses, is also necessary. Then only will one get supreme control of mind. 

 

Though the senses cannot independently do any havoc when the mind is under control, yet their control ensures perfect safety and supreme peace of mind.

 

When one's inclinations and emotions, desires and appetites, senses and mind are under control, it is called self-control. Control yourself first, then you can control others. Self-control clears the mind, strengthens judgment and elevates your character. 

 

There is no triumph more glorious than that of the victory obtained over your own Self. Till you have done this, you will only be a slave of the senses. He who is subject to his passions is the worst slave on the surface of this earth; he who rules his passions, desires, cravings and senses is the real King of Kings.

 

When one has gained a degree of proficiency in sama and dama, uparati (self-withdrawal) automatically takes place, wherein the seeker's mental condition is such that, it no longer gets affected by any disturbances created by external objects. 

 

Uparati

 

Uparati is satiety; it is resolutely turning the mind away from the desire for sensual enjoyment. Rather, it is cessation for worldly longings. 

 

Some define Uparati as renunciation of all works and taking up Sannyasa. This state of mind comes naturally when one has practiced Viveka, Vairagya, Sama and Dama.

 

Sri Sankara defines Uparati in His Viveka Chudamani as follows:  

"The best Uparati, self-withdrawal, consists in the mind function ceasing to act by means of external objects".

Uparati implies an inner satisfaction gained through constant discrimination and unshaken faith in the spiritual fact that the experience of true bliss and plenitude is to be had only in the Atman. 

The mind of the student who is established in Uparati will never be agitated when he sees a beautiful object. There will be no attraction. He will have the same feeling when he sees a woman as when he looks at a tree or a log of wood. 

When he looks at delicious fruits or palatable dishes he will not be tempted. He will have no craving for any particular object or dish and will never say "I want such and such food".

He will be satisfied with anything that is placed before him. This is due to the strength of mind he has developed by the practice of Viveka, Vairagya, Sama and Dama. 

Further, the mind experiences a wonderful calmness and transcendental spiritual bliss by the above practices. 

It does not want these little illusory pleasures. If you have got sugar-candy, your mind will never run after black sugar. 

You can wean the mind from the object to which it is attached by training it to taste a superior kind of bliss.  

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 28

  Verse 22     

विरज्य विषयव्राताद्दोषदृष्ट्या मुहुर्मुहुः ।
स्वलक्ष्ये नियतावस्था मनसः शम उच्यते ॥ २२ ॥

virajya viṣayavrātāddoṣadṛṣṭyā muhurmuhuḥ |
svalakṣye niyatāvasthā manasaḥ śama ucyate || 22 ||

 

(The peaceful state of the mind when it rests constantly upon the contemplation of the goal after having , again and again , detached itself from the chaos of the sense objects through a process of continuous observation of their defects is called 'sama'.) 

 

Sankara now enters into a discussion of the six qualities which are essential in the constitution of a mind and intellect for making a pilgrimage to their fulfilment in jnana. These are not enumerated to frighten away the unqualified. 

 

The first among the six qualifications is sama - calmness of mind. This calmness descends upon the mind when it comes to rest in its meditations, free from the agitations created by its continuous desire for the sense objects. But when the mind is thus taken away from the sense objects, it cannot be relieved of its sense thoughts, all at once. 

 

It is the nature of the mind to entertain thoughts and if it has nothing better to do, it will dwell on one or the other object of the world. Therefore, it is enjoined in all the yogas that the mind should be soaked some way or the other, with an idea, greater, nobler and diviner than sense objects. Unless we train the mind to revel in a subtler and diviner field, it cannot redeem itself from the field of ordinary pursuits. 

 

In bhakti, the devotee employs his mind constantly in the meditation of his beloved Lord and, therefore, the mind is automatically drawn away from its pursuits of sense objects. 

 

A true bhakta, even when he is bitten by a cobra, says, O God, you came in the form of a cobra and bit me!! That is, he takes even utmost pain as God’s prasad.

 

In the path of knowledge, in the early stages, the mind is to be given an alternative field for occupation. Therefore, a mind basking in the contemplation of the all-pervading Consciousness or Awareness, Brahman, alone is the mind that can successfully detach itself from sense objects. 

 

In all the objects, he sees / witnesses only the all-pervading consciousness.

 

Not only should the mind steep and maintain itself in Brahman by meditating upon the glories of the goal, but it should be whipped away from its mischievous fields of false entertainments by making it constantly aware of the weaknesses and imperfections of the field of objects. 

 

The more we gain control over the mind and  through that control withdraw it from its reveling in the field of  finite objects, the more will it become equanimous, peaceful and  serene and this condition of 'calmness in the mind' consciously  brought about by a lived discipline is meant by the word, 'sama'. 

 

Once we are non-attached to things which we have to take up being in the world/we are able to totally avoid the unreal/transient things without affecting our  life as householder, then, tranquility of mind through exercise of such vairagya.

 

Whenever this tranquility is a little disturbed, we have to exercise restraint on our internal organs BCA, (Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara as per diagram) which push our thoughts through the mind for actions. 

 

By putting in a timely effort to check the vagaries of the mind, we can prevent it from becoming fragmented or dissipated. This requires effort, self-will, mastery over the mind, and a great deal of patience. Every effort needs to be made to restrain the mind. This is the essence of the practice of Sama.

 

The Task of Sama: Disturbances arise from sub-conscious Vasanas (impressions, manifesting out of memories stored in our Chitta), requesting satisfaction of certain desires. 

 

In Sama, all such requests are scanned by the intellect and either permitted, if they are in accordance with Dharma, or rejected if they are anti-Dharma. 

 

In fact, if one is truly following the path of Knowledge and is ever in contemplation of the one truth-Brahman, then for such a true seeker or a true jnani, thinking of sense of objects/ thinking of pains and miseries in the world is as though such a thinking is an “Offense against his existence/ his contemplation on “Brahman”.

Brahman/consciousness and sense objects/ pleasure/pain cannot go together!!!

 

Love.