Atma Bodha - Post 57

Verse 47

सम्यग्विज्ञानवान् योगी स्वात्मन्येवाखिलं जगत् ।

एकं च सर्वमात्मानमीक्षते ज्ञानचक्षुषा ॥ ४७॥

SAMYAK VIJNAANA-VAAN YOGEE

SVAATMANI EVA AKHILAM STHITAM

EKAM CHA SARVAM AATMAANAM

EEKSHATE JNAANA-CHAKSHUSHAA

[The perfect Yogi of Realization and Enlightenment sees “The entire world residing in his own Self” and regards “The entire world as his own Self”, thus does he behold with his “eye of wisdom”.]

The Yogi here stands for one who is united with his Self. The identity of Jiva and Paramatman is declared to be Yoga. The Yogi, having attained that state, sees with the “Eye of Wisdom”.

What is this eye? Does it make him see differently from the rest of us?

“Eekshate Jnana Chakshusha” - The Eye of Wisdom Simile

Yes, the Yogi’s enlightened vision is so different from the vision of ignorant souls like us that it is here even said that he has a third eye to behold this unique vision. It is very symbolic. There is no physical eye called the ‘third eye’. It is another of Sankara’s similes to convey to us the idea of an entirely new way of seeing the same world.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna bestows this ‘third eye’ to Arjuna to behold the Cosmic Vision. The Jnani is said to have a special eye using which he looks upon the same world as you and I, but sees it in an entirely different manner. How does he behold it?

Eekshate: which means “sees” also carries with it the sense of seeing effortlessly, implying that he does not behold this world with any sense of strain, anxiety, worry, fear, etc, as we do. What does he behold differently? – Everything. The Eye of Wisdom does not just refer to our vision. It includes all that we perceive through our senses.

All five sense organs of perception are bringing in their reports to the mind. In the case of the enlightened person’s senses, the reports are very straightforward. They are not twisted or slanted according to one’s likes and dislikes. No personal whims influence or bias their reporting. So a Jnani perceives the whole world as it really is from the standpoint of Truth.

What Does the Yogi See?

The Jnani sees the world residing in himself. This is called Sarvatma Bhava. He also sees his own Self as the Self of all. These two statements appear to be contradictory, but they are not so. When we understand that they are spoken from two different standpoints then we can reconcile the apparent contradiction. In Sanskrit there is a term used for such opposite statements. It is Daardyam, meaning “a thing is said in its opposite way to mean the same thing, for the sake of adding emphasis.”

The example here is, “The Jnani see all as his Self, and the Self as all”.

i) The first statement is from the macrocosmic viewpoint. The Yogi has expanded his Consciousness to include everything. Thus the whole world appears to him as Himself. He becomes the common substratum of the whole world and all beings in it.

ii) The second statement is from the microcosmic viewpoint. The Yogi realizes that he is just one individual like every other individual. Just as God dwells in him, so does He in all others, too. He recognizes that his individuality, as that of all other beings, is a superimposition on the common Reality within all beings. 

Dear All,

Both the above affirmations were explained in a session which was given to few sadhakas recently by the Author, taking the example of wave, ocean, bubble and water.

1.      SEEING ALL AS SELF

In an ocean where there are  numerous waves, bubble etc. a wave, with the grace of its Acharya / God, comes to realize that it is just nothing but the water, which has never risen, never existed for a short time as a  wave nor does it lose its identity at the end.

As clearly explained in the ghost and post, gold and ornament, snake and rope simile in previous posts, up to the point of it Acharya’s entry and His teachings, the wave had considered itself to be just a wave, which had emerged, which had grown and which is now receding and soon meeting its end / death, on reaching the shore.

But with the grace of Guru, it comes to realize that this emerging, sustaining and dying wave is not its real identity.

Even in these 3 processes, IT IS NOTHING BUT JUST WATER.

And, it is WATER THAT PERVADES THE ENTIRE APPARENT OCEAN (The SELF PERVADES THIS APPARENT OCEAN OF SAMSARA / CREATION)

2.     SEEING EACH ONE AS SELF, SEEING THE SELF IN ALL

The realization of that wave of its eternal truth as water does not stop there.

Upon realization, when it looks at each and every wave appearing on the ocean, it comes to realize that each and every wave is also nothing but the substratum water.

The entire human beings in this creation, with apparent diversity, with each one having his / her peculiar nature, peculiar shape, peculiar look, peculiar attitude, peculiar likes and dislikes etc. are all not what they appear to be, but in reality, all are THAT ONE SELF!!!!

A sincere reader would appreciate and understand that the second truth given above cannot be experienced unless one has experienced the SELF within him and has subjectively experienced the truth of Upanishads - “ISA VAASYAM IDAGM SARVAM”. Unless one exists verily as SELF, The pure consciousness, it is impossible for him to experience the SELF in people around him!!!

Swami gave us the mantra “LOVE ALL SERVE ALL”.

For loving all, one has to experience the SELF within Him first and exist verily as that LOVE himself. Without that, the expressions “LOVING ALL” or “SEEING SWAMI IN ALL” are all at superfluous level and are just mere sounds, without any substance!!!!

Only after experiencing divinity within yourself, can you effortlessly, naturally experience the same divinity in every one around.

The secret here is that you actually do not go about deliberating to experience the divinity in all and loving all.

You exist as a pool / ocean of Love and each and every one coming into contact with you physically or in your thoughts or in whatever way, as though, happily take a dip in you the ocean of Love or Ocean of SELF and absorb your divine existence, just like one gets wet when one enters water!!

The above expression can only be experienced when one exists AS SELF and abides IN SELF. Till that time, these expressions can at best be pleasing to a sincere reader!!

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 56

Verse 46

तत्वस्वरूपानुभवादुत्पन्नं ज्ञानमंजसा ।

अहं ममेति चाज्ञानं बाधते दिग्भ्रमादिवत् ॥ ४६॥

TATTVA SWAROOPA ANUBHAVAAT

UTPANNAM JNAANAM ANJASAA

AHAM MAMA ITI CHA AJNAANAM

BAADHATE DIG-BHRAMA-AADI-VAT

[As a result of the experience of the Truth,  Self-knowledge is gained, and instantly  the ignorant notions of “I” and “mine”  are destroyed, just as wrong notions of directions (are destroyed by right information).]

To attain something that is not with us requires three things: knowledge, time and space. We need the (secular) knowledge of when and where to get it, the time to get it and to cover the space that separates us from it.

But the attainment of the Self is not in this category. It is already in us. To get it we need only Self-knowledge – no secular knowledge, no time and no coverage of space.

These two categories are given technical terms in Sanskrit by Indian Philosophers (these are not terms exclusive to Vedanta):

Apraaptasya Praapti: The former belongs to this category, which means “attaining that which we do not possess.” For this category, Action is required. The results of an action always come in the ‘future’ of the actual action, whether that may be just seconds away or centuries away.

With action comes the accompaniment of the whole train consequential to action, namely, the creation of merit or demerit (Punya or Paapa), the time when it will fructify, the actual fructification and the experience of the joy or sorrow. 

This is the cycle of Karma which, when looked at compositely and over the long term, is the same as the cycle of rebirth, of endless repetition.

Praptasya Prapti: This refers to the category of attaining “that which is already with us, but concealed from us.” Self-realization falls in this category. 

Here Karma is not necessary. We do not need to go through an endless cycle of births and deaths to acquire it. We simply need Knowledge to destroy the ignorance that conceals it. No action is required. 

“Digbhramadivat”: Wrong Notions About Directions

An Acharya takes great pains to illustrate why he considered this simile to be of outstanding quality. It is listed out so that the application can be compared to it thereafter. As usual it had its entertaining side:

1.        Patika: There is a traveler, who is journeying at night.

2.   Nagta Andhakara: He gets lost in the dense darkness and cloudy conditions.

3.       Dig Bhrama: He loses his sense of direction completely.

4.      Raja Marga: He loses the main road on which he was.

5.    Yatra-Tatra: He roams or wanders about here and there as a result.

6. Kantaka: He gets hurt by the sharp stones, he hits against trees, thorns, etc.

7.  Duhkham: He experiences great sorrows as a result of these.

8.      Surya Tejo: In the morning, at the coming of the dawn,

9.   Dig Bhrama: He is able to see his way again, and gets the proper directions.

10. Raja Marga: He finds the main road which he had lost.

11.  Anandam: He is ever happy that he has found his way once again.

The application of this simile, stage by stage, as laid out above is as follows:

1.        Jiva: The individual soul is also on a similar journey. 

2.     Avidya: He gets lost in the dense darkness of Avidya or ignorance.

3. Aham-Mama: He loses his true identity and gets identified with “I” and “mine”.

4.  Brahma Marga: He loses his path of going along the road to Brahman.

5.  Janma-Marana: So he gets knocked about and goes through endless rebirths.

6.    Vighna: These cause him to go through many a hardship or obstacle.

7.       Duhkha: He experiences great sorrows as a result.

8.  Jnana Tejo: Then at the right time he comes in touch with the spiritual teaching.

9. Sadhana: He does spiritual practices in earnest according to his Guru’s guidance.

10. Brahma Marga: He gets established on the spiritual path once again.

11. Moksham: He finally attains liberation and enjoys everlasting bliss.

One may view this as follows: Those aspects of the spiritual journey which require action are connected to the aspect of spiritual unfoldment needed to reverse and nullify the Karma accrued from the first category of Action.

In this Shloka, Acharya Sankara says when you experience your own form which is like the divine / Absolute (Tattva), there is knowledge that you are joy. The ignorance of “i” and “mine” is released.

Pay attention to your own experience that your happiness is from the Self. The more we reflect on this, the more we become independent of people’s words, success / failure and stress does not touch us.

With Right thinking (realizing that source of joy is myself), there is experience of joy and the more experience I have the more insight there is to the source of that experience. This can be reversed and understood as  —  with right thinking there is insight and with insight comes experience.

With enough reflection, contemplation becomes natural. “i” and “mine” is wrong thinking. Ignorance such as “i” and “mine” is released with right thinking, experience and insight just like being directionless is rectified when you are given one direction.

When we start to have Vairagya then we start to become independent of “Ahamkara” or ego. Renunciation of ego (“i”), and realizing that there is a deeper, higher “I” makes one free.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 55

Verse 45

स्थाणौ पुरुषवद्भ्रान्त्या कृता ब्रह्मणि जीवता ।

जीवस्य तात्त्विके रूपे तस्मिन्दृष्टे निवर्तते ॥ ४५॥

STHAANAU PURUSHA-VAT BHRAANTYAA

KRITAA BRAHMANI JEEVATAA

JEEVASYA TAATTVIKE ROPE

TASMIN DRISHTE NIVARTATE

[Due to delusion, a ghost is seen instead of post. So also, Brahman is seen as the individual Jiva. The real nature of the Jiva, when it is seen as the Self, (then the Jiva) is destroyed.]

Wrong identification, which was the very root of the ‘forgetfulness’ or drifting away from the Self, is only at the level of the mind. It is just a thought, the “I” - thought. The entire problem of spirituality is discovered to have arisen from just this one thought. Does that not make the whole of spiritual life look so trivial!

Volumes of books have been written on this “trivial” problem! If we correct that single, original, stray thought of “I” – meaning the thought which led us astray from the Self – then the error is corrected, and with it the Self discovered.

In trying to make us understand the sheer simplicity of spiritual illumination, Sri Shankaracharya in this verse blesses us again with another one of his unique similes… “Sthanau Purushavat”:

The Post and the Ghost Simile

Here we are teased again about the nature of the delusion that has overcome us, and an Acharya’s fertile imagination was triggered by it.

A man is returning home late at night in the fog. As he approaches his home, he is terrified by the sight of a man with his hands up in the air, as though eerily stalking through his garden. He is gripped by fear at the sight of this ‘ghostly’ figure.

As he slowly recovers  from the shocking sight, he recognizes that it is not a ghost at all, but an old dead tree which was struck by lightning a year ago and whose trunk and a couple of branches still remained as a reminder of its death. In the fog it looked like the ghostly figure of a man and the branches looked like his twisted hands! That is how delusion clouds our vision of the truth, like a ghost in the fog that never existed.

In utter darkness, sometimes, we catch a shadowy glimpse of a tree and mistake it for a human being – especially if we are anticipating a human being to be available there. The darkness creates a delusion in our mind. A police man thinking of chasing a thief may mistake the tree as the thief. On the other hand, the thief trying to escape from a Policeman may mistake the tree for the policeman. Darkness coupled with expectation creates variety of delusions in human mind. Likewise, in such darkness, we can mistake a rope as a snake.

Both darkness and delusion must be removed

How do we remove the delusion? First the darkness must be removed. Next, our expectation which is creating the delusion must also be removed. It is not enough to prove that the distant shadow is not of a human being. In such a case, the mind may create another delusion that it is  a statue or pillar towards which the mind has a leaning or expectation.

The darkness creates the appropriate image in the mind due to this delusion. So, it must be conclusively proved that what is before is the TREE and nothing else. Darkness and delusion should both be removed for the purpose.

Similarly – it is not enough to prove that there is no snake before us on the road. In that case, the mind may assume it to be a long vegetable like snake gourd or a long curved stick. The mind imagines many such things.

The delusion continues until the veil of ignorance is totally removed and the fact is established.

In the same way, we mistake the Paramatma or the SELF in us to be the jeeva we perceive with the five senses and the mind. This is because of the ignorance in us, which creates all sorts of delusions.

What is unreal appears as real and what is real appears as unreal – until the Maya or avidya in us is totally destroyed and it is established beyond a shadow of doubt that the jeeva consciousness in us is in fact the Atma or Paramatma.

Who perceives this? It is I, the Atma; I, the Brahman; I, the SELF who perceives this. The perceived also is “I”. The perception also is ‘I’.

The removal of ignorance is all that is needed for this realization and liberation.

We are what we are seeking. All that we need is guidance to take our eyes from articles, beings and circumstances to look more closely at who we are. Acharya Sankara in this verse explains how delusion causes doubts in mind and how with right knowledge, the true nature of the Self can be understood.

Due to delusion I project that a post is a ghost. We always project one who scares / hurts us. Doubts hold us back. Imagine the doubt that I am not the nature of joy! - How much this will hold us back!

There is a wrong knowledge that instead of "I" being the Self, “i” is the ego. Instead of me being united with the substratum which is “existence-awareness-joy”, all I perceive is the world that grows and dies. I feel finitude in infinity. This is Bhranti (confusion / delusion).

We have to find the fundamentals of this individuality — then the Jiva (individuality) will go away just like when you face your fear, then it fades away.

Swami Tejomayananda shares that “Maya” cannot handle introspection. Like a dream that rolls up into itself when a dreamer wakes up, our true nature can be experienced — of being independently joyous.

Self-realisation or the true Self revealing Itself follows inevitably when ignorance is cleared. The ‘egocentric individuality’ sees the world only as a ghost; the enlightened sage alone sees it as a post, and loses all fear for it.

It has to be known that the intellect has only one function, the function of discrimination.

Thus, the intellect, borrowing consciousness, only does one thing. It points out to our mind, our ignorance and our false belief/ delusion of taking the unreal as real, the ghost as the post or our limited identity of Body and Mind as real and eternal.

Once this is done, it is clearly taught by an Acharya to his student that Intellect does not have any function beyond this and once it proves to our Mind about our mistaking post to be Ghost, our physical existence as real existence, the intellect's function is over and at once, at that instant, Atman shines by itself, as We were and we are ever, the PURE SELF.

It is just similar to how a liquid is used or some powder is used to brush / clean an ornament which is very dull in appearance. Once this cleaning is done, Gold shines by itself, as the gathering of dust over the gold had been obstructing the vision of Gold. This obstruction may temporarily block the vision / sight of Gold but IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE GOLD HAS LOST ITS SHINE / GLORY.

Gold is always Gold, Brahman ever exists, We are verily the ATMAN and the whole vedantha, all the upanishads teach us only this ONE, SINGLE TRUTH.

Love.