Essence of Vedanta - Part 3

3 STATES OF EXPERIENCE 
(WAKING, DREAM, DEEP SLEEP)

After a brief introduction to the reality which is perceived in different forms/ ways by different people as per their vasanas, the Acharya proceeds to explain certain fundamental concepts to the disciple one by one.

They are:-

1) Three states of consciousness

2) Three bodies 

3) 5 Koshas

Now, about 3 states of consciousness

King Janaka had acquired extraordinary proficiency in the knowledge of God. He was called "the King devoid of body"(videha mukhta). In other words, he had been able to transcend body-consciousness. 

One particular night after dinner, he was discussing certain administrative problems with his ministers. He got back to his bedroom a little late. A meal had been set out for him but he did not touch it. He relaxed on a sofa while the queen massaged his feet. Soon the King fell asleep.

The queen asked the various attendants present to leave the room and made sure that the King, who was extremely tired, would not be disturbed in his sleep. She covered him with a blanket and banked the light low, quietly remaining by his side.

Shortly afterwards, King Janaka quite suddenly opened his eyes, sat up, looked around incredulously at his surroundings, and in a most peculiar way began to ask,

"Is this real or is that real? Is this the truth or is that the truth?"(In tamil, the expression is – “Idu Nijama, Adu Nijama”)

The queen became a little frightened by his bewildered look and strange question. She tried to find out what exactly he was asking, but he would not explain or answer any of her queries.

He just went on saying, "Is this the truth or is that the truth?" She called for the ministers, counselors and other important officials. They all assembled and began questioning the King. "Maharaja, what is your doubt? What exactly are you asking?"

But the Maharaja would not respond to them. Finally the ministers brought the great Sage Vashishta to the court. Vashishta asked the King, "What are you asking? What is troubling you?" The King was replying to all the questions with the same query, "Is that the truth or is this the truth? Is this reality or is that reality?"

Sage Vashishta being omniscient closed his eyes and meditated for a while to find out the cause of the King's strange behavior. Vashishta realized that the King had suddenly awakened from a vivid dream in which he had forfeited his kingdom and found himself wandering lost, alone and despondent in a forest.

He was feeling very hungry and also very tired and forsaken. As he wandered through that forest he kept shouting, "I am hungry, I am hungry." It happened that there were some robbers in that forest. 

Those robbers were just sitting down in a glade nearby to have their meal, eating from plates made of leaves. Taking pity on him, the robbers made themselves known and invited Janaka to join them, offering him a portion of their meal.

Just at that moment, a tiger came upon them and they all ran for their lives. The tiger helped himself to all the food. 

Again Janaka found himself staggering through the forest crying out, "O, I am so hungry. I am so very hungry." When he woke up he discovered he was in a palace, on a royal sofa by the side of the queen, with a silver tray filled with luxurious food and dainties sitting on the table nearby, and he began asking whether he was the starving, forsaken wretch begging food from robbers in a fearful forest or whether he was a king living in a sumptuous palace surrounded by all possible luxuries. "Is this true or is that true? Is this real or is that real?"

Maharishi Vashishta immediately recognized the King's confusion and said, "King Janaka, neither beggar nor emperor is real. You alone are real. You, yourself, are the truth.

Life during the daytime is a day-dream, during the night it is a night-dream. They are both illusions. They are filled with defects and flaws because they constantly change from one thing to another; so they cannot be real. Only you who remain unchanged in all these states are real, free of all change and illusion."

(EXTRACT FROM SAIBABA GITA, COMPILATION OF DISCOURSES OF SRI SATHYA SAI BABA ON B. GITA)

Love.

Swami Rama

Essence of Vedanta - Part 2

Dear All,

We continue from the last post when we read 3 scenes.

Scene 4

“What did you say? This garden is for sale? Good, consider it sold. I’ll take it”. So saying a trader went in search of the owner of the garden and returned after some time accompanied with a few labourers. The labourers immediately started plucking all the rose flowers. The trader stood there watching it all and so was the gardener. But now he couldn’t even let out a whimper of protest. Mustering up enough courage, he softly asked of the trader, “Sir, why are you plucking all the flowers?”

“WHAT ?” the trader screamed back at him. Then taking pity on the poor fellow he winked at him and laughed out, “I’ll make Gulkand (a herb made of rose petals) out of it”.

Now, let’s see – how many of the above 4 or 5 people actually saw the flowers. What a question? Of course, everyone saw the flowers. But Vedanta asserts, “No. None of them saw the flowers”.

“Well then, you mean to say, they saw donkeys? Your Vedanta says anything. Nothing is clear”.

“Wait………..Listen carefully”.

The first girl saw the beauty of her flower – bedecked hair. 

The bhakta saw the beauty of Krishna’s idol. 

The lover saw the blossoming of his beloved’s face. 

And the trader had set his eyes on the Gulkand. 

The gardener never even had time to notice them. 

In short, everyone saw merely their own vasanas or desires. Failing to notice the flowers all of them established their own personal relationships with them. And this alone is Maya !

We never really see any object or person in totality. We see only our own preconceived notions about them, in them. And this is Maya. 

For example, we don’t see a radio or a cycle as a radio or a cycle, rather, we see it as my radio or my cycle. 

And were someone to just mention to us that our radio is not functioning properly, we would feel so offended as though he had said that we ourselves had some defects in us. 

Why is this? 

Because of Maya. Since, in essence, this relationship is itself delusory; Maya has ensnared everyone in its spell of delusion and make believe. So much so that even the spell of delusion is itself a delusion.

Vedanta teaches that whatever we see, hear, feel…………….. is all, in reality, a delusion, but being within the web of Maya, we have ourselves superimposed names and forms upon various objects and deluded ourselves completely. 

Just as a rose is not the beauty of any bedecked hair, nor is it any trader’s Gulkand, but is actually, merely a rose. In the same way, what we consider to be the jiva or the jagat is, in essence, Brahman itself. And what we are lost in is Maya. And thus, Vedanta emphatically asserts,

Brahma satyam jagat mithya,

jivo brahmaiva naparaha

Brahman is the reality.

This world, a mere transitory phase.

The jiva is not separate from Brahman.

Indeed, it is difficult to understand and assimilate this Truth but he who has searched for the Truth has verily found it. The rest are drowning themselves in the ocean of Maya.

Hari Aum Tatsat.