Thereafter comes 'hearing', then reflection on what has been heard and lastly, long, constant and continuous meditation on the Truth for the Muni. Ultimately, that learned one attains the supreme nirvikalpa state and realizes the bliss of Nirvana in this very life. (70)
Sankara has already started an enumeration of the various techniques to be followed by a person on his march towards realising the eternal freedom of the soul. In this sloka, the Acharya is outlining the different stages of practices which one must follow, when one has renounced all pursuits of ego prompted, desire ridden activities contributing to a life of sensuousness.
An individual who has enough detachment from the enjoyment of finite objects, who has cultivated the four great qualities and who has renounced all self-motivated activities, is fit for the process called in Vedanta 'hearing' the scriptures.
It is imperative, that one must 'listen' to the exposition of at least one scriptural text from a true Teacher. In this transaction of wisdom, the Master also uses but finite words to explain the Absolute, there is no magic formula involved.
Therefore, the student must be fully tuned to the Teacher so that the latter's experiences may, in resonance, be amplified and conveyed to echo in the heart chambers of the student.
This 'listening' to the discourses (sravana), is to be followed by inner arguments and final assimilation by the intellect in a process called 'reflection' (manana), by which alone the ideas in the text can become the student's own philosophy.
Even this intellectual conviction is not sufficient, for Vedanta seeks a fulfilment not in merely propounding a theory to explain the happenings of the world and the destinies of mankind but to lift man to the highest pinnacle of evolution of cultural purity, so that he may thereafter revel as a God-man on earth.
Therefore, a person must attain Truth through a process of rediscovery of his real Self by detaching himself from his wrong and false identifications with the matter. This technique of detaching oneself from the false, and rediscovering one’s identity with the Self through disciplined currents of constant thought flow is called 'meditation' (dhyana).
Moksa condition is possible in two stages, just as before sleep, there is a period of dozing followed by the deep sleep state. During dozing, we are conscious that we are 'going to sleep' and that our conceptions and perceptions of the outer world are slowly and steadily becoming obscure. But the deep sleep state is a period when we are neither conscious of the outer world nor even of ourselves.
Similarly, in meditation also there is a hazy period of awareness, wherein we are conscious of ourselves nearing the Transcendental and that state of samadhi where there is still a vestige of the ego is called 'savikalpa samadhi'.
The egoless moment where the subject alone is, revelling in its own glory when the yogi experiences the infinite bliss of pure Existence, that state is called 'nirvikalpa samadhi'.
Tataḥ vidvan avikalpam parametya vidvan;
tatah; thereafter; thereafter means sravana, manana nidhidhyasa anantharam; as a consequence of these three, vidvan etya, that intelligent person, that discriminative person attains jivan mukthi. And what is that jivan muktiḥ?
Param; param means the ultimate, that is Brahman or Reality; Param means Brahman, param brahma etya. He attains param brahma. And what type of param brahma? Free from division; what type of division? Subject-object instrument division.
How does he attain division-less-ness? He understands that division belongs to the matter. Division belongs to matter. It does not belong to consciousness. Division belongs to matter; division does not belong to consciousness.
And that division less consciousness I am. Therefore, I am space-like division less consciousness; in which consciousness all the divisions of matter are floating.
This is the experience of godhood and after this Isvara darsana, there is no falling back into the values and impulses of the lower, worldly life anymore.
He insists that a Muni experiences the bliss of Nirvana even here and now. Muni in Sanskrit, in its etymological meaning, has an import equivalent to 'a man of discriminative reflection'.
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