Vivekachudamani - Post 28

  Verse 22     

विरज्य विषयव्राताद्दोषदृष्ट्या मुहुर्मुहुः ।
स्वलक्ष्ये नियतावस्था मनसः शम उच्यते ॥ २२ ॥

virajya viṣayavrātāddoṣadṛṣṭyā muhurmuhuḥ |
svalakṣye niyatāvasthā manasaḥ śama ucyate || 22 ||

 

(The peaceful state of the mind when it rests constantly upon the contemplation of the goal after having , again and again , detached itself from the chaos of the sense objects through a process of continuous observation of their defects is called 'sama'.) 

 

Sankara now enters into a discussion of the six qualities which are essential in the constitution of a mind and intellect for making a pilgrimage to their fulfilment in jnana. These are not enumerated to frighten away the unqualified. 

 

The first among the six qualifications is sama - calmness of mind. This calmness descends upon the mind when it comes to rest in its meditations, free from the agitations created by its continuous desire for the sense objects. But when the mind is thus taken away from the sense objects, it cannot be relieved of its sense thoughts, all at once. 

 

It is the nature of the mind to entertain thoughts and if it has nothing better to do, it will dwell on one or the other object of the world. Therefore, it is enjoined in all the yogas that the mind should be soaked some way or the other, with an idea, greater, nobler and diviner than sense objects. Unless we train the mind to revel in a subtler and diviner field, it cannot redeem itself from the field of ordinary pursuits. 

 

In bhakti, the devotee employs his mind constantly in the meditation of his beloved Lord and, therefore, the mind is automatically drawn away from its pursuits of sense objects. 

 

A true bhakta, even when he is bitten by a cobra, says, O God, you came in the form of a cobra and bit me!! That is, he takes even utmost pain as God’s prasad.

 

In the path of knowledge, in the early stages, the mind is to be given an alternative field for occupation. Therefore, a mind basking in the contemplation of the all-pervading Consciousness or Awareness, Brahman, alone is the mind that can successfully detach itself from sense objects. 

 

In all the objects, he sees / witnesses only the all-pervading consciousness.

 

Not only should the mind steep and maintain itself in Brahman by meditating upon the glories of the goal, but it should be whipped away from its mischievous fields of false entertainments by making it constantly aware of the weaknesses and imperfections of the field of objects. 

 

The more we gain control over the mind and  through that control withdraw it from its reveling in the field of  finite objects, the more will it become equanimous, peaceful and  serene and this condition of 'calmness in the mind' consciously  brought about by a lived discipline is meant by the word, 'sama'. 

 

Once we are non-attached to things which we have to take up being in the world/we are able to totally avoid the unreal/transient things without affecting our  life as householder, then, tranquility of mind through exercise of such vairagya.

 

Whenever this tranquility is a little disturbed, we have to exercise restraint on our internal organs BCA, (Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara as per diagram) which push our thoughts through the mind for actions. 

 

By putting in a timely effort to check the vagaries of the mind, we can prevent it from becoming fragmented or dissipated. This requires effort, self-will, mastery over the mind, and a great deal of patience. Every effort needs to be made to restrain the mind. This is the essence of the practice of Sama.

 

The Task of Sama: Disturbances arise from sub-conscious Vasanas (impressions, manifesting out of memories stored in our Chitta), requesting satisfaction of certain desires. 

 

In Sama, all such requests are scanned by the intellect and either permitted, if they are in accordance with Dharma, or rejected if they are anti-Dharma. 

 

In fact, if one is truly following the path of Knowledge and is ever in contemplation of the one truth-Brahman, then for such a true seeker or a true jnani, thinking of sense of objects/ thinking of pains and miseries in the world is as though such a thinking is an “Offense against his existence/ his contemplation on “Brahman”.

Brahman/consciousness and sense objects/ pleasure/pain cannot go together!!!

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 27

  Verse 21    

तद्वैराग्यं जिहासा या दर्शनश्रवणादिभिः ।
देहादिब्रह्मपर्यन्ते ह्यनित्ये भोगवस्तुनि ॥ २१ ॥

tadvairāgyaṃ jihāsā yā darśanaśravaṇādibhiḥ |
dehādibrahmaparyante hyanitye bhogavastuni || 21 ||

 

(That desire to give up all transitory enjoyments gained through seeing, hearing and so on, and also experiences gained through equipments ranging from a mortal body to the form of Brahma is called ’detachment '.) 

 

A complete and exhaustive explanation of vairagya is given here.  It is not only a detachment from external objects and circumstances.

 

That are conducive to joyous experiences, but it is a mental condition in which, the mind no longer runs after the phenomenal world in the hope of gaining peace or joy. 

 

The idea is that through  discrimination when one has come to, at least, intellectually  appreciate that sense objects have not in themselves any intrinsic  value for joy and that they are ephemeral, naturally, the mind will  never take wandering flights into the realm of the objects with a  craving for them. 

One need not prepare to lose the permanent thing. Why? It is not lost; One need not prepare to lose the permanent thing; because permanent thing is permanent, it is never lost. Therefore we are talking about a losable thing. Preparedness to lose the losable is called intelligence. 

Any losable, we are ready to lose. And the preparation is two- fold. Either I do not take that thing at all. Either I do not possess that thing, because possess, there is the worry of losing. Therefore either I avoid that thing; or there is no rule that we should avoid everything. Have that thing; but be mentally ready to lose that thing when the time comes, including life. If you take the whole life, preparedness for death is intelligence.

It has been logically concluded in our sastras that a man's mind will constantly hover around and land on objects only when it is convinced that there are three desirable qualities in them. 

They are - a sense of reality (satyatvam) of the objects, a belief in their permanency (nityatvam) and a faith that they contain potentialities for satisfying our craving for joy (samahitatvam). 

When we understand through discrimination that the objects perceived through the senses are all in fact unreal (asat), ephemeral (anitya), and that they have no real capacity to give us joy, riddled with sorrow as they are, our minds will not pant after them. 

In Sri Jnanesvara's commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, the  Yogiraja, beautifully brings out this idea in a series of inimitable  similes. Describing the attitude of a man of detachment towards sense objects, he gives some examples, which are very striking and effective. 

 

He says that a man of true detachment will run towards sense objects with as much enthusiasm as one would rush out to embrace a dead queen's rotting body; with as much satisfaction as one would decide to quench one's thirst by drinking the pus flowing out from a leper's wound and with as much readiness as one would enter a boiling cauldron of molten iron to take a refreshing bath. 

 

It is a very powerful way of expressing the idea  that where the intellect has come to firm conviction about the  hollowness of sense objects, the mind will not gush forth towards  them with hopes and expectations of satisfaction therein. This sense of detachment that arises from a full application of one's discriminative faculty is called true 'vairagya'.

 

Love.

 

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 26

  Verse 20    

ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्येत्येवंरूपो विनिश्चयः ।
सोऽयं नित्यानित्यवस्तुविवेकः समुदाहृतः ॥ २0 ॥

 

brahma satyaṃ jaganmithyetyevaṃrūpo viniścayaḥ |
so'yaṃ nityānityavastuvivekaḥ samudāhṛtaḥ || 20 ||

 

(A firm conviction of the intellect that Brahman alone is Real and the phenomenal world is unreal is known as discrimination between the Real and the unreal.) 

 

Here is a complete and exhaustive definition of the faculty of discrimination. In its application to a student of Vedanta, discrimination is the capacity to know the Real from the unreal from a mixture of things, for Truth or Reality is that which is changeless and ever-present. 

Three types of Pramana

1) Pratyakṣa pramana – This tells me that everything around me is perishing.

We all thought, without certain people, the world will not run; and we find that they all disappeared, and that the world is. And one day the whole earth may go away. Therefore Pratyakṣa pramāṇa teaches me.

2) Anumana Pramana. 

All the worldly and even svarga lokaḥ pleasures are finite. How? By knowing that whatever is karma phalam that is anityam. 

Just as we can infer fire with the help of smoke, we can infer the ephemerality of heaven by using what? Heavenly pleasure is is also karma phalam.

How do we know our own death? Whether prataksya or anumana. Our death, how do we know? It is not pratyakṣa because happily we are alive. Our death is only an inference; because we have seen all the other people; jatasya hi dhruvo mr̥tyuhu; whoever is born will die.

3) Sastra Pramana - Sastram comes and tells: Oh! Human beings, everything around is perishable. Thus, pratyakṣa, anumana, sastra pramaanehi, jagat anityam iti sunischaya.

Then naturally there is a curiosity; Is there something eternal? What is the truth of the universe? What is the permanent essence of the world?

 

Sastram comes and tells that there is something eternal; there is something eternal. 

Viveka is the intellectual ability to discriminate between real and unreal or what is described as Nitya and Anitya.

This viveka is a slow process. We live our life… we begin with many desires and ambitions. We fulfill each of them. Yet we find an emptiness inside – that emptiness inside is the feeling of being wanting which leads us to imagine that by doing something else we will become fulfilled.

Slowly we begin to understand that no matter what I do, no matter how many ambitions I fulfill, the emptiness inside does not seem to go.

Then what is the solution? This is where all the paper-back knowledge comes in handy… you read a book, or you go for a satsang. There you hear that the treasure you have been looking for all your life is within you… is you.

It is not out there in the changing world – the changing world cannot give you what you are looking for … you are looking for permanence – permanent happiness and permanent security…… that is God. God is permanent happiness and God is permanent security.

So Nitya vastu is God who is your true SELF. Now there is a longing to get one's true SELF. So far one was happy with the crumbs of happiness given out by life.

Now, one understands it is anitya - temporary…. and the interest in gaining anitya happiness and security etc simply drops.

Discrimination or Viveka is the 100 percent conviction that the Self alone is real and that objects are apparently real.

Discrimination is the sense of right judgement and understanding to differentiate between the permanent and the impermanent.

When we enquire into life and try to understand it in its pure essence, we come to experience that Life which is present everywhere at all times. This universal factor, the substratum is what is meant by the word 'Brahman' in Vedanta. 

 

To come to a logical understanding and arrive at a complete intellectual appreciation of the fact that this permanent substratum alone is ever existent, changeless, formless, and therefore, immortal, is to understand that Brahman alone is Real and the world of plurality that we now cognize is unreal and imperfect, although it be Its magnificent and wondrous manifestation, changeable, impermanent and joyless.

 

Love.