Vivekachudamani - Post 3

सर्ववेदान्तसिद्धान्तगोचरं तमगोचरम् ।

गोविन्दं परमानन्दं सद्गुरुं प्रणतोऽस्म्यहम् ॥ १ ॥

 

sarvavedantasiddhantagocaraṃ tamagocaram |

govindaṃ paramanandaṃ sadguruṃ praṇato'smyaham || 1 ||

 

My salutation to Sri Sadguru Govinda who is of the nature of Bliss Absolute, who can be known only through the import of the essence of Vedanta and who is beyond the reach of the known instruments of perception.

 

Sankara begins the text with an invocation seeking the blessings of his Guru. Normally the invocation is in the form of Īsvara Namaskara. Here Sankara starts with Guru Namaskara to show that he does not feel any difference between Guru and Easwara.

 

Guru means the teacher of Vedanta. The one who does the upadesa is called guru; one who teaches anything can be called guruḥ; and be called guruḥ. Here what type of guru; Sat gurum. The word sat refers to pure existence Brahman. Therefore Sadgurum, the teacher of Brahman.

 

And then Sankaracarya describes that Guru; what type of guru he is? Paramanandam; the one who is an embodiment of Ananda. Supreme Ananda. Highest Ananda. Govindaṁ. Sankara’s guru's name is Govinda Bhagavad padcharya. And what is His real nature? He is not the mere physical body. That is superficial self. He is none other than Brahman itself.

 

In the first line: paramatmanam; who is none other than the Paramatma; he is not a person born on a day and dying another day. He is none other than paramatma.

 

Therefore paramatma swarūpam govinda bhagavadapadam ahaṁ praṇathaha asmi.

 

Paramatma is described here as agacaram.

 

Agocaram means what? Not available for any regular instruments of knowledge. Gocharaha means object; agocharaḥ means not an object of perception; not an object of inference; not an objection of scientific experimentation, not available for human instruments of knowledge. Why? because all the regular instruments of knowledge can collect data from matter only because matter alone is available for observation.

 

Your consciousness is not available for collecting data; therefore we can have varieties of hypothesis about consciousness, we can never arrive at a conclusive idea about the consciousness. Siddanta gocharaḥ means tatparyam viṣayaḥ.

 

And what is meant by tatparyam viṣayaḥ; the essential teaching. Of what? Sarva vedanta; of all the upanishads. So paramatma is that which is the essential teaching of all the upanishads. And why do you say the essential teaching.

 

For the Upanishads, there are many non- essentials; Annamaya kosa in the upanishads;

 

annaat vai praja a prajaai yante ... atho annenaiva jīvanthi. athai... (40.08)

 

The body grows because of food, body is sustained by food, body dissolves that into food; this idea is there in the Taittariya upanishad.

 

Suppose somebody asks a person; In Taittariya Upanishad, what is said; I have understood a very important thing; what is that; body grows by food. For that Taittariya Upanishad is necessary? If you eat more for some days, it is seen. So that is not essential teaching.

 

When the upanishad talks about Sr̥ṣhṭi, there is no tatparya viṣayaḥ. Therefore we should study the upanishad for the sake of cosmology; and try to compare it with the present day cosmology; that is not the thing. Vedanta does talk about cosmology; how the perception takes place. Vedanta talks about so many others. Therefore we should not focus on those things and waste our time, because they are all stepping stones; use them, arrive at consciousness; and drop everything. So the Paramatma is the tatparyam.

 

Spirit is the subject matter; and not matter. Upaṇiṣhad does not want to concentrate on matter because it will be discovered today or tomorrow; that mind is a matter.

 

Therefore tam agocharam means that it is not available for science; it is available only for vedanta. One is material science; another is spiritual science. Do not make use of one to prove the other.

 

The verse can be interpreted in two possible ways. As a mortal's physical act of prostration unto a finite Guru, it has already been interpreted. It can also be understood to mean the ’spiritual salutation’ of a Man of Wisdom to the supreme Truth. When thus interpreted, the word 'aham' meaning T, should indicate the subject as dissociated with the body, mind and intellect. This ego centre in the seeker comes to seek its identity with the Real and discovers for itself that the supreme Govinda, the essence in all literature of Vedanta, beyond the perception of the sense organs, human emotions and reasoning intellect, can be experienced as the ego's own real nature when contemplation takes place along the lines of discussion indicated in the scriptures.

 

Love.

Vivekachudamani - Part 2

The three bodies, are non-self and are unreal. The Self, that is the Aham or “I” is quite different from them. It is due to ignorance that the sense of Self or the “I”-notion is foisted on that which is not Self, and this indeed is bondage. Since from ignorance arises bondage, from knowledge ensues liberation.

 

To know this from the Guru is sravana. The process of manana, which is subtle enquiry or deep contemplation, consists in rejecting the three bodies consisting of the five sheaths [physical, vital, mental, intellectual, and blissful], as not “I” and discovering through subtle enquiry of “Who am I?” that which is different from all three and exists single and Universal in the Heart as Aham or “I”, just as a stalk of grass is delicately drawn out from its sheath.

 

This “I” is denoted by the word tvam [in the scriptural dictum “Tat Tvam Asi”, “Thou art That”]. The world of name and form is but an adjunct of Tat or Brahman [Reality] and, having no separate reality, is rejected as reality and affirmed as nothing else but Brahman. The instruction of the disciple by the Guru in the scriptural saying [mahavakya] “Tat Tvam Asi“, which declares the identity of the Self and the Supreme, is this upadesa [spiritual guidance]. The disciple is then enjoined to remain in the beatific state of Aham-Brahman, [I – the Absolute]. Nevertheless, the old tendencies of the mind sprout up thick and strong and constitute an obstruction.

 

These tendencies are threefold and ego is their root. The ego flourishes in the externalised and differentiating consciousness caused by the forces of projection due to rajas [restlessness], and veiling due to tamas [dullness]. To fix the mind firmly in the Heart until these forces are destroyed and to awaken with unswerving, ceaseless vigilance the true and cognate tendency which is characteristic of the Self [Atman] and is expressed by sayings: “Aham Brahmasmi” [“I am Brahman”], and “Brahmaivaham” [“Brahman alone am I”] is termed nidhidhyasana or Atmanusandhana, that is constancy in the Self. This is otherwise called bhakti [devotion], yoga and dhyana [meditation].

 

Atmanusandhana has been compared to churning curds in order to make butter, the mind being compared to the churn, the Heart to the curds, and the practice of concentration on the Self to the process of churning. Just as butter is made by churning the curds and fire by friction, so the natural and changeless state of Nirvikalpa samadhi is produced by unswerving vigilant concentration on the Self, ceaseless like the unbroken flow of oil. This readily and spontaneously yields that direct, immediate, unobstructed, and Universal perception of Brahman, which is at once knowledge and experience and which transcends time and space. This perception is Self-realisation. Achieving It cuts the knot of the Heart. The false delusions of ignorance, the vicious and age-long tendencies of the mind which constitute this knot are destroyed. All doubts are dispelled and the bondage of karma is severed.

 

Thus in this Crown Gem of Discrimination Sri Shankara has described samadhi or spiritual trance which is the limitless bliss of liberation, beyond doubt and duality, and at the same time has indicated the means for its attainment. To attain this state of freedom from duality is the real purpose of life, and only he who has done so is a jivanmukta, liberated while yet alive, not one who has a mere theoretical understanding of what constitutes Purushartha or the desired end and aim of human endeavour.

 

Thus defining a jivanmukta, Sri Shankara declares him to be free from the bonds of threefold karma [sanchita, agami and prarabdha]. The disciple attains this state and then relates his personal experience. He who is liberated is indeed free to act as he pleases, and when he leaves the body, he abides in liberation and never returns to this birth, which is death.

 

Sri Sankara thus describes realisation, that is liberation, as twofold, jivanmukti [liberation while alive] and videhamukti [liberation after death], as explained above. Moreover, in this short treatise, written in the form of a dialogue between a Guru and his disciple, he has considered many other relevant topics.

 

Love.

Vivekachudamani - Post 1

Introduction to Vivekachudamani

 

as written by Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

Every being in the world yearns to be always happy and free from the taint of sorrow, and desires to get rid of bodily ailments, etc., which are not of its true nature.

 

Further, everyone cherishes the greatest love for himself, and this love is not possible in the absence of happiness.

 

In deep sleep, though devoid of everything, one has the experience of being happy. Yet, due to the ignorance of the real nature of one’s own being, which is happiness itself, people flounder in the vast ocean of material existence, forsaking the right path that leads to happiness, and act under the mistaken belief that the way to be happy consists in obtaining the pleasures of this and the other world.

 

Unfortunately, however, there is no such happiness which has not the taint of sorrow. It is precisely for the purpose of pointing out the straight path to true happiness that Lord Shiva, taking on the guise of Sri Shankaracharya, wrote the commentaries on the triple canon Prasthana Traya of the Vedanta, which extols the excellence of this bliss; and that he demonstrated it by his own example in life.

 

These commentaries, however, are of little use to those ardent seekers who are intent upon realising the bliss of liberation but have not the scholarship necessary for studying them. It is for such as these that Sri Sankara revealed the essence of the commentaries in this short treatise, The Crown Gem of Discrimination Vivekachudamani, explaining in detail the points that have to be grasped by those who seek liberation, and thereby directing them to the true and direct path. Sri Sankara begins by observing that it is hard indeed to attain human birth, and that, having attained it, one should strive to achieve the bliss of liberation, which is really only the nature of one’s being.

 

By jnana or spiritual knowledge alone is this bliss to be realised, and jnana is achieved only through vichara or steady enquiry. In order to learn this method of enquiry, says Sri Shankara, one should seek the Grace of a Guru; and he then proceeds to describe the qualities of the Guru and his disciple and how the latter should approach and serve his master.

 

He further emphasises that in order to realise the bliss of liberation one’s own individual effort is an essential factor. Mere book learning never yields this bliss; it can be realised only through Self-enquiry or vichara, which consists of sravana or devoted attention to the precepts of the Guru, manana or deep contemplation and nidhidhyasana or the cultivation of equanimity in the Self.

 

Continued……

 

Love.