Vivekachudamani - Post 11

 Verse 5 

 

इतः को न्वस्ति मूढात्मा यस्तु स्वार्थे प्रमाद्यति ।

दुर्लभं मानुषं देहं प्राप्य तत्रापि पौरुषम् ॥५॥

 

Itah konvasti mudhatma yastu svdrthe pramadyati, 

durlabham manusam deham prapya tatrapi paurusam. 

 

(Is there a greater fool than the man who, having got the rare chance of a human birth and there too, the masculine qualities of the head and heart, falls short in his efforts to rediscover himself?) 

This is an extension of previous verse where Sankara talks about (spiritual) suicide which was explained in detail in the last post.

A sage wrote

“All creatures must wait for millions and trillions of years until nature takes them up step by step and moulds them into greater evolutionary equipments. In all the lower strata of existence, evolution is not a conscious development on the part of the individual but an involuntary thrust up received by him from the course of nature. 

 

Millennia of growth, change and decay must pass before a rock becomes soil, the soil anchors a tree, the tree bears fruit and the fruit contributes towards the making of a human being. 

Man alone, of all the species of the living kingdoms, can hasten his own evolution by cooperating with the great eternal scheme of things around him. Physically, he has evolved to perfection and nature has nothing more to improve him.  His next lap of evolution awaits him at the level of his mind and intellect and this is a process in which nature cannot help him at all. 

With this conclusion of the sastra in mind, when the Acharya takes up his pen to guide the generation, he must necessarily exclaim and conclude that there can never be a greater fool than the one who, being blessed with a human birth and the necessary mental and intellectual capacities, does not intelligently invest them for the higher purpose of self-redemption and self-rediscovery.”

 

yastu svarthe pramadyati 

A man does everything else in his life and he misses the most important thing; what is that. tva arthe; artha means purushartha.

 

Sva arthe means sva puruaharthe. With regard to the accomplishment of one's own purushartha, pramadyati, this person is negligent.

First a person squanders his health in search of wealth; then he squanders his wealth in search of health and ultimately loses both. So even being negligent with regard to health is the greatest foolishness called; health is the basic foundation on which dharma artha kama maksha all the four are resting. 

Therefore this person pramadyati; negligent with regard to dharma, with regard to artha, with regard to kama; and above all with regard to moksha. 

Swami Chidananda says,

"Hindu philosophy speaks of the four purusharthas that every human individual strives to attain — purushartha chatushtaya. And all of you also know that they are summed up in the words dharma, artha, kama and moksha.

In whatever sense these words are used, there is one thing that it ultimately brings home, namely, ends are obtained by endeavour. Worthwhile attainments and goals are the fruit — note that I do not use the word “result”— they are the fruit of endeavour. They are the fruit of effort. 

Gurudev (Swami Sivananda) sang a song: “Do real sadhana, my dear children.” He said, “Do real sadhana.” Doing is there, it means effort. It means action, it means dynamism. It means well directed, intelligent, purposeful rajas, a rajas that does not direct you, but that is directed by you."

"Purushartha is the key to realisation. You may know only a little, but you put it into practice. Gurudev said Twenty Spiritual Instructions are enough to grant you Self-realisation, and when he said that he knew what he was saying. And he was saying the truth. Not that he discouraged studies, but he wanted to emphasise action, not dry studies.

If you want to become a professor, a lecturer, then studies are very necessary, absolutely indispensable, very important indeed. But if you want to become a dynamic Yogi, more important than tons of knowledge is practice, action, purushartha, sadhana, yoga abhyasa. Spiritual life means engaging in active spiritual endeavor, it means purushartha."

 

Love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 10

 Verse 4 

 

लब्ध्वा कथञ्चिन्नरजन्म दुर्लभं

तत्रापि पुंस्त्वं श्रुतिपारदर्शनम् ।

श्रुतिपारदर्शनम् यस्त्वात्ममुक्तौ न यतेत मूढधीः

स ह्यात्महा स्वं विनिहन्त्यसद्ग्रहात् ॥ ४॥

 

Labdhva kathacinnarajanma durlabhaṁ

tatrapi pumstvam srutiparadarsanam 

yastvatmamuktau na yateta muḍhadhiḥ

sa hyatmaha svam vinihantyasadgrahat

 

(Is there a man, who having somehow gained a human embodiment and there having a masculine temperament and also a complete knowledge of the scriptures, foolish enough not to strive hard for Self-realisation?  He verily commits suicide, clinging to things unreal.)

 

Manushya janma itself is a rarer thing and in that manuṣhya janma also, developing an interest in spirituality is still rarer; and even after developing an interest, getting an opportunity to fulfill this desire by attaining a guru; this is the rarest thing.

 

And, having got such a wonderful opportunity, if a person fails this human life by pursuing only artha and kama, then Sankara points out that he must be the greatest fool in the world; who as though, commits  suicide, that is,  who is a destroyer of himself. 

 

In Taittariya upaṇiṣad, there is an advice kusalanna pramaditavyam. May you not be negligent with regard to your own well-being. Therefore if I am going to do my duty to all, and neglect the duties towards myself that is also foolishness and what is the duties for myself, I should spend some time for my dharma, and my artha and my kama and ultimately my moksha .

Chinmaya writes,

“This verse declares that having been born in a human form, and possessed of the necessary masculine qualities of the head and heart, when such an individual has also made a thorough study of the deep significances of scriptural techniques, if he has not the enthusiasm to walk the sacred path and reach the divine goal of self- perfection, such an individual, alas, commits suicide. 

How does a person commit this senseless suicide? By his false attachments with the objects of the world, as he looks out from the parapets of his body and his mind, forgetting his own real nature, which is all-pervading Consciousness, he comes to misunderstand himself to be the matter envelopments, which are nothing but thought created encrustations around the Divine in him.  

To satisfy these urges of his body and his mind, the individual runs after the objects. Necessarily, such a deluded person, having misunderstood his real nature, becomes the samsarika ego centre, a victim of his own ignorance. This fall of the Self to be the selfish ego is spiritual suicide. 

From the standpoint of  absolute reality, there is no suicide; but Sankara comes down to our level to help us discriminate between  the Real and the unreal, in and through our day-to-day life and it  is in this sense that he says we commit suicide. It is not the destiny  of the Self to suffer but it is the lot of the ego, the ego that strives in this world to be the sacred and the divine.”

 

We read in an earlier verse on step by step qualities required for a human being.

A human birth is indeed rare; 

To attain full manhood; 

A sattvika attitude in life. 

Steadfastness on the path of spiritual activity 

To have a correct knowledge of the deep significances of the scriptures. 

Discrimination between the Real and the unreal, 

A personal experience of spiritual glory and ultimately to get fully established in the living consciousness that the Self in me is the Self in all

 

In the above sequence, there are human beings who reach up to the penultimate stage - Discrimination between real and unreal and there, they halt, they stagnate, they are not able to take their sadhana to the next level to experience “Self” and to abide in Self.

This failure, after having achieved all the preceding points, is like a suicide, says Sankara.

Those who have not started off in the spiritual journey at all, who have not realized how precious is to be born as human, they are ignorant, they must go through several births, clear their acute prarabdha, to proceed in the spiritual path.

But those who have achieved 90%, who have walked in the spiritual path, who have been taught by a realized master or the vedas and having reached an advanced stage, if they are not able to sustain their sadhana, they are unable to get glimpse of SELF,  then, for them, it is definitely a suicide in spiritual sense.

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 9

Verse 3

 

दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतद्देवानुग्रहहेतुकम् ।

त्रयमेवैतद्देवानुग्रहहेतुकम् मनुष्यत्वं मुमुक्षुत्वं महापुरुषसंश्रयः ॥ ३॥

Durlabham trayam eva itad devanugraha hetukam, 

manusyatvam mumuksutvam mahapurusa samsrayah. 

 

(Manhood, burning desire for Liberation, the capacity to surrender completely to a Man of Wisdom - these three things are rare indeed, and  wherever they are found, they are due to the Lord's own grace.)

 

Chinmaya writes,

 

“Earlier we were told how rare is the human birth and necessary qualifications one must have for a vital and positive living by which  one can grow in one's inner evolution. 

 

In order to emphasise to the seeker the importance of the qualities which he should have when going to a great Man of Wisdom, seeking spiritual knowledge, these qualifications are here stressed.”

 

Manushyatvam

 

Sankara says that to be born as a human being is a sign of Lord's grace. After this, to employ in life a deep discriminative understanding and to perceive the ultimate futility of all the ordinary mundane pursuits of life and thereby discover an enthusiasm to seek a nobler path of self-redemption is rarer still. 

The sacredness of human birth has been well described in the previous verse already.

 

Mumukshatvam

 

We can spend the whole life in pursuit of artha or we can spend the whole life in search of kama and we can spend the whole life in search of dharma. However, we should be able to recognise the superiority of moksha and convert moksha into the top priority of my life; that is called mumukṣutvam.

 

It does not mean that one should not pursue Artha, Kama at all. Pursuance of Artha and Kama should be subject to observance of Dharma while one leads his life. However, like the woman carrying the pot filled with water may talk, may laugh while walking but her focus is always on the pot she carries on her head and she ensures that the water in the pot never gets dropped while she may indulge in all talks.

Similarly, while a human being may pursue Artha, Kama within the boundary of dharma, internally, his mind/ his heart/ his intellect should always be focussed only on one thing- God Realization. This intense focus or intense craving is “Mumukshatvam”

 

Maha purusha samsraya

 

Here maha is not in the literal sense, here it is stotriya brahma nishta guruḥ.  He should be a realized master and also, he should be able to transmit knowledge to his disciple effortlessly and wholly. There are masters who are unable to teach/ instruct their disciples / anyone properly. 

If a mumukṣu sadhaka gets a maha purushah as his Guru, then mukti is definite.  Here "mumukshu sadhaka" is a very important expression. Even if one gets a Maha Purusha's proximity, still, if the disciple is not a Mumukshu, he has not been endowed with the Sadhana chatushtaya Samapatti, the best of the Maha Purushas, even the Lord Almighty wont be able to help such a disciple attain  Mukti. 

Kathopanișad says when a qualified sishya meets a qualified teacher, gatihi nasti; there is no way of escaping moksha. 

 

Deva Anugraha

 

Lastly, when a creature is born as a man, when he feels a gnawing sense of impatience at his own limitations, for him to find the right Master to guide him across the thorny paths of his imperfections into the soft meadows of limitless joy and bliss is the rarest.

Sankara attributes all these three rounds of seeming luck to the grace of the Almighty.

Chinmaya concludes,

“What is meant here by God's grace is only  the sum total of reactions gained through the healthy and  intelligent way in which the individual has lived through his  many previous lives of great and noble cultural pursuits.”

In the previous sloka, several stages were talked about; those stages he condenses in three stages and says successfully going through these stages is or requires Deva anugraha hetukam, Deva anugraha phalam. 

Whenever we say Easvara's grace, it means purva janma puṇya phalam. The grace he has won in the purva janma by noble karmas and upasanas. 

So therefore grace is based on the law of karma; it is not at random. 

In the previous sloka, the last line he used the word punyairvina labhyate; the very same word puṇyam in this sloka he replaces by devanugraḥ; which means puṇya is devanugraḥ; devanugraḥ is puṇya; there is no difference. So if both are identical then why use two words?

If I am planting a tree, and I am growing a tree; remember, my effort alone is not enough, so many external factors should be favourable and the unknown factor is called Isvara. If I claim as my puṇyam I may take the whole credit and I may not acknowledge other factors. 

But when I say the very same thing is the grace of the Lord, it leads to humility and acknowledgement of the role of other factors.

When I take everything as Isvara Anugraha, I will have prasada buddhi, I will have humility and therefore we say devanugraḥ phalam.

Having said that, if one leads a noble life, accumulates all punya karmas, reaches the feet of " Maha Purusha Guru" after he is qualified in Sadhana Chatushatya, takes up Shravana, Manana, Nidhidhyasana sincerely of his Guru's teachings, then he richly deserves Deva Anugraha and Easwara  is always waiting to shower His grace on such a deserving Mumukshu Sadhaka. 

Thus, getting even Deva Anugraha is very much in the hands of the sadhaka, not with the choice of Easwara.

 

Love.