Loud speech in a stream of words, the efficiency in expounding or commenting upon the sastras, erudition gained, these bring only a little joyous , material satisfaction to the scholar but they are insufficient to liberate him completely. (58)
What is the aim of vēdantic study? The aim is to remove all types of psychological dependences which is called samsara.
Now this dependence, we classify into four types; One dependence is the dependence of the majority; dependence on the world; it is world dependence.
And then there afterwards, comes next one, dependence on God. So we say do not depend upon the world all the time; because the objects in the world are perishable; it does not last longer.
Therefore, we say do not depend upon the world, start depending on God; is what we prescribe.
And there afterwards they said if you have to drop God-dependence also, you should learn to depend upon yourselves; for that you should get the self-knowledge; you should discover inner strength; and for the sake of self-knowledge, you have to go to a guru.
Therefore God-dependence is now switched over to Guru-dependence; and I replace God by Guru;
Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishno, Gurur Devo Mahesvara; Guru sākṣāt ParaBrahmam, tasmai sri gurave namaḥ;
tvamēva mātacha pitah tvamēva; tvamēva bandhuscha saha tvamēva; tvamēva vidyā dravinam tvamēva; tvamēva sarvaṁ mama dēva-dēva.
What does the guru do when one approaches Guru and gives himself wholly to Guru?
He hands over the sastra to you. And he says you have to do sravanam.
Do not stop with sravanam; you have to do mananam; and you have to do nidhidhyasanam; therefore sastra must be dwelt upon; you should dwell upon the sastra while studying; and after also;
And if this is not understood, all these four (world, God, Guru, Sasta) can initially help you but these four themselves can become a bondage.
One starts speaking on Sastra and believes himself to be an erudite scholar.
The Yogasastra gives us the various subtle stages of metamorphosis of a thought or a desire before it is expressed in the form of sounds and words. Altogether it describes four distinct stages in the manifestation of a thought as an expression in words.
First of all, the thought arises from or has contact with the reality of life in us and at this stage, it is called 'para'.
When it manifests sufficiently for the ego in us to be conscious of it, it is in a state grosser than the previous one and at this stage of its perceptible existence it is called 'pasyantl'.
A thought of which we have become conscious passes through a state of inner moulding in the crucible of language and this state of transcribing thought into a series of symbolical sounds for the purpose of conveying it to another is called 'madhyama'.
And when actually the symbols indicated by the mind are relayed through expressed audible sounds, the thought in its grossest manifestation is called 'vaikharl'.
By the term 'vaikharl', Sankara means the unproductive and noisy discussions on philosophy which some students of Vedanta engage in.
These gabblers are laughed at, condemned, and quite ignored by all the great Acaryas like Sankara. To the Rishis, an ounce of practice is more sacred than tons of discussion around a table.
Our words have immense power. They channelize a creative force that express as action and ultimately create our reality. It is critical then that we learn to bring more accuracy, objectivity and positivity to our speech, as The Buddha enjoined his followers to do in his teachings on Right Speech, or maintain Noble Silence.
Love
