Vivekachudamani - Post 4

Verse 2

 

                        जन्तूनां नरजन्म दुर्लभमतः पुंस्त्वं ततो विप्रता

                        तस्माद्वैदिकधर्ममार्गपरता विद्वत्त्वमस्मात्परम् ।

                        आत्मानात्मविवेचनं स्वनुभवो ब्रह्मात्मना संस्थितिः

                        मुक्तिर्नो शतजन्मकोटिसुकृतैः पुण्यैर्विना लभ्यते ॥ २ ॥

 

    jantūnāṃ narajanma durlabham ataḥ puṃstvaṃ tato vipratā

    tasmād vaidika dharma mārgaparatā vidvattv amasmātparam |

    ātmānātma vivecanaṃ svanubhavo brahmātmanā saṃsthitiḥ

    muktirno śhata janma koṭi sukṛtaiḥ puṇyairvinā labhyate || 2 ||

 

(For all living creatures, a human birth is indeed rare; much more difficult it is to attain full manhood; rarer than this is a sattvika attitude in life. Even after gaining all these rare chances , to have steadfastness on the path of spiritual activity as explained in Vaidika literature is yet rarer; much more so , 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 - these come only later on and culminate in one's Liberation. This kind of a perfect Liberation cannot be had without merits earned in hundred crores of lives, lived intelligently.)

 

In the very beginning of the textbook, Sankara is emphasising the difficulty of awakening ourselves to the real communion with the Divine in us. In fact, there are innumerable specimens of living creatures in the universe. Truth is the substratum of all and, therefore, the real nature of all creation, even the inert and the insentient. There are many qualities dealt in this single verse. We will deal with all of them one by one. In fact, this one verse lays the very foundation for this entire text- Viveka chudamani and gives the pre-requisite for “Self realization through Sadhana”.

 

Human birth is rare. Here Sankara seems to emphasise that this text is meant only for evolved human beings since it explains and expounds a theory of spiritual perfection, which can be understood, practised, pursued and perfected only by men of certain mental calibre and moral character. Such perfect ones who are ripe for a sudden and immediate spiritual self-development are always rare in the world at any given period of its history.

 

Thus the Acharya says that to get a human birth is rare, having got a human birth to have a masculine temperament is rarer still.

 

"The traditional number of created beings is 84 lakhs, and man is the final item of the evolutionary procession; but, why did the number stop at 84 lakhs? It stopped because man is the zenith, the fullness; He is endowed with manas, buddhi, chiththa and ahamkaara (mind, intelligence, reasoning faculty and ego), all four, in an integrated personality, whereas the birds and beasts and all other species have mostly ahamkaaram (ego) alone. Man has the capacity to follow sathya, dharma, shaanthi and prema; man alone has it." (SSS Vol. 6-15).

 

"Man alone has the chance to liberate himself from the wheel of birth and death, through the pleasant means of serving God. But as a result of ignorance, or what is worse, perversity, he lets the opportunity slip from his hands, and suffers grief and pain, fear and anxiety, ad infinitum." (SSS Vol. VI, page. 60).

 

“Embodiments of Love! Human life is the most sacred in the entire creation of God. Daivam Maanusha Rupena (God incarnates in the form of human being). Humanness is pure, unsullied and beyond attributes. Such a sacred human life is being polluted with evil desires and thus man is bringing disrepute to human birth itself. Jantu Naam Nara Janma Durlabham (human birth is the rarest and the noblest). It was God who created everything in the universe, right from the microcosm to macrocosm. In that case, why is it that He has attached utmost importance to human birth alone? Only man has the capacity to accomplish things which no other living being can.” Divine discourse -16.10.1999.

 

Let us believe in the above Sai’s words, believe in the sanctity and sacredness of our life, pour our infinite gratitude to God for having made us essentially so pure, so sacred, no matter what we are as of now.

 

 

Continued….

 

 

Love.

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.