Upadesa Saram - Post 23

Verse 20

अहमि नाशभाज्यहमहंतया |

स्फुरति हृत्स्वयं परमपूर्णसत् ||

ahami nāśabhājyahamahaṁtayā |

sphurati hṛtsvayaṁ paramapūrṇasat ||

Upon the destruction of the “I”, as “I”, “I”,

Shines the Heart, by itself, the Supreme, perfect fullness of Being.

When we enquired into the ‘I-thought’, we found that it had two parts to it, the subject and the object. How did the ‘I’ get associated with these two parts, which are opposite to each other? The answer: We were inattentive, and the ego crept into our life and took over. 

And so by turning on the searchlight on the ego and tracking it down, we have come to a point where we discover that it has gone into ‘hiding’ or disappeared. 

There is a famous example of iron ball in Vedanta. It is dealt in a verse in Drik-Drsya-Viveka.

When an iron ball is heated, it glows on account of the heat of fire and it assumes the appearance of fire itself and is referred to as fire ball.

It appears as though the fire is burning.

This fire ball is the product of association of iron and fire which are of opposite qualities. 

Iron is black and cold, whereas fire is red and hot.

Iron has a form, whereas fire is formless.

When iron and fire come together, the black iron assumes the qualities of fire, it appears red and hot.

Similarly, our body, mind, intellect is jada or inert but it seems to gain chaitanya or sentiency because of its association with awareness which is chetana.

   

Thus, the awareness - the fire, assumes the form or the attributes of our body mind intellect complex - the iron ball, and appears to be a fire ball. 

  

Thus, Ahamkara is born, which is awareness, limited by our body mind intellect complex or what is called in Vedanta as Avidya, or the ignorance of the truth that we are divine.

It is to be understood here that though the fire appears to be a fire ball, in reality, the fire is always separate and the iron ball is always separate. 

Thus, though the 'I' or the pure Aham, due to its association with the limited body mind complex or the Avidya/ ignorance of our divine nature, has assumed the 'I-thought' and has turned out to be Ahamkara, the truth is that we are always Aham. 

It is only that the false association, the ignorance, has to be removed for the Aham to shine forth in all its splendor.

The shine of the Self is uniform, not subject to the ups and downs experienced by the ego. It is described here as “Parama Poorna Sat”, which is the Supreme Infinite Existence.

“The Self shines to Itself, by Itself, for Itself, from Itself, and in Itself”. Life in the Self is unlimited, as there is no body, mind and intellect to restrain it. 

Grasping ego-less existence intellectually can be quite demanding. The mind always tries to understand by comparison, and here we have nothing to compare egoless-ness to. However, if we give the matter a serious thought, we can grasp it. 

To begin with, we accept that it is just the ‘I-thought’ that is very troublesome. Removing it removes the self-centered nature of our existence. The expanded consciousness of living in the Self welcomes that; indeed it can happen only when this narrow outlook has been removed. 

Thus, the ‘I-thought’ is rooted out from the mind, only when we refuse to give the body, mind and intellect more than just what is its due. We simply refuse to give it reality anymore. They are used as our instruments just to carry out the usual transactions in the world, nothing more. 

Dear all,

Couple of years ago, the author spoke about “Mrtyorma Amrtam Gamaya” to a small group of devotees.

We often refer this mantra loosely for praying to Swami / God for removing the sickness / ill health of someone and to make him healthy and that is why we chant this mantra whenever it is announced in the centre that “so and so is sick and let us pray for that person’s speedy recovery”.

In reality, from which kind of death to which kind of deathless-ness are we praying the Lord through this mantra from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad?

The author said, we have to sacrifice something to get something in life, which is the truth that all of us know.

So, something has to die for something to transcend the death aspect and to live forever.

Our Avidya, the ignorance of our true divine nature, must die. God created us as His own reflection, pure and perfect and here are we, totally ignorant about the pure, divine nature bestowed on us by the God and thus, like the iron ball and the fire example, we, the pure awareness think we are the iron ball and associating our true nature, the fire, with our limited body which we assume to be real (Avidya), we roam around for several births, thinking that this limited body mind existence is real. And from this first ignorance, various ego coloring arises like attachment, hatred etc.

So, let this ignorance attain Mrtyu. Let it die. 

And like the candle melts and still lights up the surroundings, let the Avidya die its death and in the process, let it illumine our true divine nature, the SELF, the AHAM which then will be deathless, Amrtam!!!

  

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।

मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Aum Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya |

Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya |

Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya |

Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Aum! (O Lord!) Keep me not in the Unreality (of the bondage of the Phenomenal World), but lead me towards the Reality (of the Eternal Self),

(O Lord!) Keep me not in the Darkness (of Ignorance), but lead me towards the Light (of Spiritual Knowledge),

(O Lord!) Keep me not in the (Fear of) Death (due to the bondage of the Mortal World, or, Avidya / ignorance, which is also highlighted in the above line, Tamaso Maa), but lead me towards the Immortality (gained by the Knowledge of the Immortal Self beyond Death),

Aum (May there be) Peace, Peace, Peace! 

Love.

Upadesa Saram - Post 22

Verse 19

अहमयं कुतो भवति चिन्वतः |

अयि पतत्यहं निजविचारणम् ||

ahamayaṁ kuto bhavati cinvataḥ |

ayi patatyahaṁ nijavicāraṇam ||

From where does this “I” come to be?

From one who knows,

Oh! The “I” falls.

This is Self-inquiry

Having decided to converge on the ‘I-thought’ with our enquiry, we are asked by the Maharshi to inquire, “Where does it arise from?” 

In ordinary life, we take it for granted that we are the doer (Karta), the enjoyer (Bhokta) and the knower (Jnata). 

A spiritual seeker in the path of Jnana, with a proper guidance from his Guru, goes deeper into this assumption. He asks the following questions and contemplates on the same.

Who is this ‘I’ that acts, enjoys and knows? 

Where does it come from? 

From where the mind arises?

Am I the one with this body, mind, intellect, the one who is the one from whom the thoughts arise?

If not, then, who am I really and how that Real I who I am, is different from my mind, the thoughts, the doer, the enjoyer etc.?

There is an analogy of Chariot and Charioteer in Kathopanishad. Let us see this analogy and then try and relate the same with the charioteer Krishna in Bhagavad Gita. 

In one of the chapters in Kathopanishad, there is an analogy of a chariot which is compared with a human being as under:-

CHARIOT	HUMAN BEING
The chariot	The Human body
5 horses running the chariot	5 organs of perception in a human being
Rein tied to the horse	Mind and the intellect, controlling the senses
Master of the chariot	Ahamkara or the Ego which rules over the mind / intellect which dictates / rules the senses.

When we take the above analogy to the Kurukshetra scene in Bhagawad Gita, then, Arjuna is the master, the Ahamkara and Krishna, the Lord, has stopped the horse and made the horses stand still and is holding the reins of the horses. 

Thus, holding the mind and intellect (reins) and by holding the reins, keeping the sense organs (5 horses) in His control, the Lord (or the Spiritual Guru) is looking back at the master (Arjuna, the Ahamkara) and commands the Ahamkara to get into the self-enquiry on "I".

Thus, now, the intellect of the disciple is in the control of his master and not in the control of his Ahamkara.

Thus, standing apart from his Ahamkara, the student is able to conduct an enquiry of his Ahamkara, the "I" thought, from an independent standpoint, the wisdom of his teacher. 

This is very much required, because, the disciple is Ahamkara by himself (the master of the horse in the above example) and as Ahamkara, how can he enquire into his own "Ahamkara"?? 

This is what is explained in Avidya-Kama-Karma exposition in an earlier verse in the blog by the author.

When an object of enquiry is considered, the means of knowing it becomes evident.

The end determines the means of Knowledge. 

You can at best conduct an enquiry up to the "I thought" and from there, the teacher / God takes over. 

It is either the Lord who reveals the truth of the real "I" or a Teacher.

The knowledge born out of such a teaching is opposed to Self-Ignorance as the Ahamkara (Arjuna) is already taken over by the God (Krishna) or a Realized Master.

Therefore, the ignorance goes. 

When the "I thought" falls, what happens? It resolves into the very thing out of which it is born. The snake, whose appearance was due to the real existence Rope, resolves and retraces to the real existence, THE ROPE.

We must make Sri Ramana Maharishi’s question our question. Then alone would we have the intensity of enquiry to get the answer He obtained. It has to be a life and death enquiry for us as it was for the Maharishi. 

Love.

PS- While teaching to few devotees, the author went a step further and asked the seekers to inquire into WHO IS THINKING? 

This is a step further to Maharishi's instruction to introspect on "Where this I thought arises?"

When one really inquires into "WHO IN ME IS THINKING, WHO IN ME IS THINKING / REACHING TO OBJECTS?" the Ahamkara which is the "I thought" falls away quickly and one exists as "AHAM" without the "I thought".

Love.

Upadesa Saram - Post 21

Verse 18

वृत्तयस्त्वहंवृत्तिमाश्रिताः |

वृत्तयो मनो विद्ध्यहं मनः ||

vṛttayastvahaṁvṛttimāśritāḥ |

vṛttayo mano viddhyahaṁ manaḥ ||

Modes of the mind, now, are dependent on the “I” mode.

Modes are the mind; know the “I” is the mind.

We had come to this step in our discussion of Ashtanga Yoga. There, we came to an equation where we said Mind equals a stream of thoughts. There, the procedure went on to eliminate the objects and the subject from the equation so that the net result would be Mind equals the Self.

Vritti

Vritti means thought modification. Mind is but various thought forms.  All these thought forms depend upon the “I” thought.

                                                                          

Aham

Aham is pure awareness without any ray of thought, without any awareness of object. Aham is unborn and has no limitation. It is pure, not tainted with anything at all.

This “Aham” is the pure awareness referred in the Maha vakya, “Aham Brahmasmi”.

                                                                            

Ahamkara

When the above Aham assumes a form, when one takes himself to be his body, his sense organs, his mind etc.,   the  “I” thought arises and the pure Aham becomes Ahankara or EGO.

To understand “All thoughts depend on the I-thought”, we take a simple thought and examine it: “I know a flower”.  We divide this thought into its two components: one is the object and one the subject:       

i) Idam Vritti: This is the objective part. The flower is the object of this thought. Thought centered upon a flower becomes “I know a flower”. This objective part is seen to be the changeable aspect of thought. If the flower changes, for example to “sun”, the thought also has to change, there is no choice in the matter.

One’s feelings also can change with the changing object. One may like a flower that is fresh, but when it withers, the same object loses its hold on the mind, producing a different feeling. The feeling produced by a thought is yet another new thought all its own. It is simply related to the previous thought. Thus, thoughts become interdependent and increase in number and complexity.

The “I” thought will not go in spite of changes in your environment, in your conditions.

Even if one evolves in his thoughts, in his spiritual sadhana etc., and thinks, “I am charitable”, “I have known SELF”, “I am a yogi” etc., the “I” is just gathering new thoughts, new qualifications, to remain there.

The imposter “I am so and so” does not quit.

ii) Aham Vritti: Independent of the object is another part of the thought – I know. This is the subjective part. We find that such a thought exists all the time in the mind. We can call it the “I am” thought (Aham = “I am”). This is the changeless aspect of the thought. It is found attached to all our thoughts. Every thought that crosses the mind has this I-thought attached to it as its subject. Nothing escapes this I-thought.

The two parts do have a relationship. ‘Idam’ cannot exist without the ‘Aham’. The Aham helps us to connect to the Idam. The Aham is thus more subtle. All Idam rest on the Aham. The Aham remains the quotient in all thoughts.

Thus, the statement “All thoughts depend on the I-thought” is explained. If we are to make anything of the mind, we need to get to the root of the Aham Vritti of our thoughts.

The approach taken by Jnana Yoga is therefore direct: 

Ignore the changing aspect or Idam Vritti, and try to get to the bottom of the Aham-Vritti. Then we shall solve the riddle of Mind.

It has to be remembered that Ego cannot conduct an enquiry into the “SELF” or Pure “Aham”.

Such an enquiry is possible only through another path and that is Guru’s instructions, Guru’s teaching.  

In the Rama’s story, when Rama could not slay Ravana with all His strength, someone else tells Rama, “Ravana’s life lies in his heart”. It is then that Rama aims Brahmastra at Ravana’s heart and  Ravana dies.

  

 Ahamkara is Ravana, which is a notion, not in the head, but in the heart.

Thus, Ahamkara is in our heart and whatever we do, it keeps coming back.

So, Ahamkara is Ravana in us and Aham is Rama,  the Lord in us.

Till the time we do not merge in our Lord, any amount of surrender does not work. Surrender is not complete till the time we are separate and Lord is separate.

Till the time this duality exists, our surrender is also a new imposter and we are still taking refuge in Ahamkara when we say, “I have surrendered to the Lord”. 

The new qualification that we have attained is yet another identity, “One who is surrendering”.

So, the Brahmastra that we have to use is total merger with Lord (in the context of today's post, merger with Aham) so that Ravana, our Ahamkara, dies permanently, never to return, never to assume a new qualification, a new imposter.

Love.