Jnana Vahini - Post 28

What exactly is Atmavichaara? Not the study of the attributes of the Atma, as given in books, but the analysis of the nature of the 'I', laying bare the enveloping sheaths, the Panchakosas, through concentrated discrimination, directed inward. 

It is not the Vichara of the external world or the outer objective world, or the academic scholarship directed towards the interpretation of texts. It is the analytical penetration of the secret of the Atma, achieved by the keen edge of intellect.

Though Brahman cannot be discovered in the Sastras, they tell you of the Pancha Kosas or the Five Sheaths and of their identification marks and characteristics and so, by the exercise of the intellect, it is possible to reach down to the Atmic Truth. 

How can one not versed in the Sastras master the process of this analysis and this consummation, it may be asked. He can learn it from a Guru, or an elder Sadhaka, can he not?

But one fact has to be emphasized again. The Atma principle is beyond the reach of even the most profound Pandit who has learned the Sastras; it can be understood only by direct experience. That is why it is said that even a person who has had the vision has to approach the Guru. 

Without guidance from such a teacher, the Atma cannot be grasped. Even Narada had Sanathkumara as Guru and Janaka had Suka, and other Saints had other Gurus. When one has the Grace of the Lord, the Guru becomes very often superfluous; He makes everything known. 

Maitreyi, the consort of Yaajnavalkya and the unlearned Leela and Choodala are examples to show that without a prolonged study of the Sastras, women in the past learnt the Atmavidya from the Guru and attained success. 

Of course, whatever else a person may have, if he is blessed with the Grace of the Lord, he can certainly have a vision of the Atma, however deficient he may be in generally accepted qualifications.

Love.

PS - With this, Jnana Vahini comes to an end. However, efforts are being made to give the Jnana Vahini in a changed sequence, matching the path to be followed in the path of Jnana, to the extent possible, in a summarized way. 

Love.

Jnana Vahini - Post 27

To entitle one for embarking on the inquiry into the Atma, one must be endowed with the Sadhana Chatushtaya or the Four Qualifications. 

Scholarship in all the Vedas and Sastras, asceticism, mastery of ritual, dedication to japa, charity, pilgrimage - nothing will help in granting that authority. "Saantho Dantha Uparathi Thithiksha...", says the Sruthi; so equanimity, self-control, withdrawal of the senses, steadfastness - these alone confer that title; not caste, colour, or social status. 

Be it a Pandit versed in all the Sastras, a Vidwan or an illiterate, a child or youth or an old person, a Brahmachari, Grihastha, Vanaprastha or Sanyasin, a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, or even an outcaste, man or woman, the Vedas declare: "Everyone is qualified, provided one is equipped with the Sadhana Chatushtaya".

Mere reading of the Sastras does not entitle one; the attainment of Sadhana Chatushtaya mentioned therein is essential. The doubt might then arise: how can a person who has not read the Sastras attain Sadhana Chatushtaya? 

My answer is: how does the person who reads them attain them? "Because he knows the Sastras, he does act in a spirit of dedication to the Lord, gets mental purification thereby, and acquires Vairagya, renunciation, and other qualifications in increasing measure". 

Now, how can these be cultivated by one who does not know the Sastras? it is asked. Why can he not cultivate them? 

By the accumulated fruits of the educative influences and good deeds in the past births, it is possible to become qualified for Atmavichara in this birth, even without the initial back ground of Sastric study.

It is the mind which is a limitation on the Jivi; it has to be conquered; the body-consciousness must disappear; steady faith has to be cultivated in Jnana.

The human personality has to be discarded by inner devotion and discipline and the acquisition of the Divine; then the knowledge dawns that one is divine. Limitation of the Jivi has to be overcome before Brahman-hood dawns.

Experiencing identity with the Lord, the Jivi declares, "I am Brahman, where have all the changing worlds fled? How deluded I was to be caught in the tangle of Jiva and Jagath! 

Past, present and future do not really exist at all. I am the Sat-Chit-Ananda Swarupa, devoid of the three types of distinction". 

He is immersed in the Bliss of Brahman. This is the fruition of Jnana.

(Author’s note - The first step in the path of wisdom / jnana is equipping oneself with the 4 qualifications - viveka, vairagya, shad-sampat and mumukshatva.

The mansion of Spiritual sadhana, reaching up to the top most roof of Moksha, is impossible to be sustained without the 4 strong foundation pillars of these 4 qualifications.

Man, believing in his intellect, takes up discourses in this path, reads few books here and there, goes through Upanishads and thinks that he has understood this path. 

It does not work this way. Why? Because, in most cases, intellect is not pure, it is mixed up with our ego, our vasanas. So, we end up understanding the Upanishad truth with the coloring of our ego, our vasanas and ultimately, we end up nowhere and we leave the path more faster than anyone else.)

 The prescribed path is 

The contemplation has to continue till the time, the teachings / revelations of the Shrutis given by Guru is experienced subjectively within the disciple's heart.

Guru can even be someone who is an acclaimed realized Master, who may not be alive now, only if one is not fortunate to get / find  a Guru living in contemporary world, available to him physically, to go through all spiritual instructions one to one, to get all doubts cleared one to one and to see the Guru living before his eyes as the proof of all the vedanta teachings!!

Love.

Jnana Vahini - Post 26

JIVA

Who is this Jivi calling himself 'I'? Reflecting on this problem, he will see that the 'I' is the immutable permanent-witness, the Atma, which forgetful of its real nature considers itself affected by change, through sheer ignorance. 

Caught up in the coils of change, it is very hard to realize one is just the witness of all this passing show. 

SAKSHI

The Sakshi has no Ajnana and so has no need to get rid of it! The ignorant alone need to take steps to remove it. Qualities like ignorance or knowledge attach themselves only to the Jivi, not to the Sakshi. This is proven by actual experience. Because the Sakshi who is the apparent basis for Jnana and Ajnana, is devoid of both, while the Jivi is actively bound to these two.

Some may doubt, how this distinction came to be. "Does the Sakshi know the Jivi, the I, which changes and gets modified and agitated? And who is this witness? We are not aware of it", they may ask. 

JIVA BECOMING SAKSHI

When a Jiva deliberately spends thought on his identity, he will know, "I am not a Vikari, I am the witness of the ego," the ego that suffers continuous modification; then, from this step, he will proceed to identify the immutable Seer or Witness (or Sakshi) with himself. 

Undergoing the sorrows of Ajnana and seeking solace in the study of Vedanta, one infers that there must be a Witness, unaffected by the passing clouds. 

Getting a glimpse of the king inside the fort does not help the beggar acquire wealth or power; so too, the Jivi must not only know the Sakshi, (the Sakshi, more ethereal than the sky, beyond the three-fold category of knower, known, and knowledge, eternal, pure, conscious, free, blissful) but must become the Sakshi. Till then, the Jivi continues as Jivi, it cannot become Brahman.

Later, the Sakshi or Atma, which one knew by reasonings, is realized in actual experience, when the superimposition of the illusion of the world is removed by Sadhana.

The Sakshi is the inner core of everything, the 'immanent', the embodiment of Sat, Chit and Ananda. There is nothing beyond it or outside it. 

The Akasa in the pot is the Akasa that has filled everything everywhere. The Akasa in the pot is the ever-full immanent Akasa. 

The wind in one place is the wind in all places; the sunlight in one place is the sunlight everywhere; the God in one image is the God in all images. This type of identity has to be grasped.

Love.