Vivekachudamani - Post 20

  Verse 14   

 

अधिकारिणमाशास्ते फलसिद्धिर्विशेषतः ।
उपाया देशकालाद्याः सन्त्यस्मिन्सहकारिणः ॥ १४ ॥

 

adhikāriṇamāśāste phalasiddhirviśeṣataḥ |
upāyā deśakālādyāḥ santyasminsahakāriṇaḥ || 14 ||

 

(Ultimate success in spiritual endeavours depends entirely upon the degree of fundamental qualifications in the seeker. Auxiliary conveniences such as time and place, all have a place indeed, but they are essentially secondary.) 

 

Here is a suggestion to seekers who generally get disappointed at having to encounter obstacles at the very outset of their sadhana. 

 

When a team of students is working under the instructions of the same Master, it is always observed that some of them progress faster than others. Those who lag behind soon reach a state of despair and they complain about the hollowness of the sastras. Such students are advised to attribute their lack of development to some intrinsic subjective maladjustment in their psychological and intellectual make-up. 

The indispensable requisites of a work worth studying are four in number and are collectively called Anubandha Chatushtaya.

One of the requisities is “Adhikari”.

Swami Sivananda writes, 

“Adhikari - A qualified student. Here it is one who is endowed with the four means of salvation. i.e., Sadhana Chatushtaya, viz., Viveka, Vairagya, Shad-sampat and Mumukshutva, who has removed Mala (impurities of the mind) by Nishkama Karma Yoga and Vikshepa (tossing of mind) by Upasana, who has Chitta Suddhi and one-pointed mind and who is endowed with Yukti (reason), Samartha (ability) and Buddhi (sharp intellect). 

 

Adhikaris are of two kinds, viz., Kritopasaka and Akritopasaka. He who has done full Saguna Upasana and who is endowed with perfect one-Pointed mind is a Kritopasaka. He will be equipped with all the Sadhanas mentioned in the scriptures. He who has done imperfect Upasana of Saguna Brahman is an Akritopasaka. He has only partial concentration of mind. He is equipped with only a few Sadhanas. 

 

He has Viparita-Bhavana though he possesses knowledge of Brahman by study of Vedantic Literature. He must practise constant and intense meditation.”

The qualifications necessary for a successful spiritual pilgrimage have been enumerated here by the Acharya only for self-scoring of the seekers themselves. 

 

That is, if success on the spiritual path has been slow or unsatisfactory, the seeker himself is to blame. It is invariably because of some clogs of the heart. All that he has to do in order to achieve more progress in his efforts is to remove these clogs and apply himself more intensely to self-development. 

 

Qualification of a student plays a very important role in the rise of knowledge.  

 

Just as a prepared land is required for a plant to grow. If seed is put in the desert land; it will not sprout; it is not the mistake of the seed; only that the land is not prepared. And land preparation is not an easy job; tilling the land is important; and also the temperature must be right to grow; 

 

The accomplishment of the result; that is moksha which very heavily depends upon or primarily depends upon what? adhikarinam; the competent student or the competency of the student; and that is the reason that in the olden days they never brought vedanta to the public.

When in meditation a sadhaka finds his mental avenues blocked, it is meaningless for him to sit in the asana and rave in disappointment, cursing the entire hierarchy of rishis or the science of Vedanta. He must, at once, look within to see if the necessary adjustments are all properly maintained therein. The description of the necessary qualifications is for our guidance, that we may know what are the common troubles that arise in the inner vehicle during our flight to the beyond. 

 

There are some seekers who wait for better circumstances to do their sadhana, a more suitable time or a greater Master to initiate them.

 

No doubt time, place and so on, are important, but not unduly so, for they are only subsidiary requirements. Without the needful inner adjustments even if a sadhaka is placed under the best conditions of time and place, he will not be able to make use of them. On the other hand, a true seeker, even under adverse conditions, will turn them to the best advantage and will progress steadily, unhampered. 

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 19

 Verse 13   

 

अर्थस्य निश्चयो दृष्टो विचारेण हितोक्तितः ।
न स्नानेन न दानेन प्राणायमशतेन वा ॥ १३ ॥

 

arthasya niścayo dṛṣṭo vicāreṇa hitoktitaḥ |
na snānena na dānena prāṇāyamaśatena vā || 13 ||

 

(Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity nor even hundreds of pranayamas can give us the knowledge about our own Self but a firm experience of the nature of the Self can be gained when we send our thoughts along the rails of arguments laid down in the salutory advices of the wise.) 

 

In the previous verse, Sankara said enquiry alone can give knowledge. Here he emphasises nothing else can give knowledge. 

 

When you say enquiry alone can give knowledge it is a positive statement called anvaya; nothing else can give knowledge is stressing that negative.

 

Here again we find the superficial methods of easy religious practices condemned. Since the student is a Vedantin, Sankara's efforts are to show him the right and direct path. In thus indicating to the student the correct path, every Master has to be very severe in his criticism of the by-lanes of religion. No doubt, they too can help in the progress of the individual, but they are all primary lessons. 

 

External methods of self-purification such as baths at the sacred confluences of rivers, visits to various temples and other sacred places, desire prompted or even unselfish charities, exercises such as breath control and  asanas are wholly condemned as they would not take one to Moksha. 

 

The hasty convert to Vedanta suddenly finds it very convenient to give up every religious practice and call himself an accomplished Vedantin. This attitude also has no sanction in the Master's advice. 

 

Here it is said, snanena would not give mokṣa; It is never said that snanena will not give anything; It not only purifies the body; as it is done with Ishvara samaraṇam; it purifies the mind also. Similarly we never condemn praṇayama; praṇayama is extremely wonderful practice; to tone up the annamaya kosa; to tone up the praṇamaya kosa; to tone up the mano maya kosa; 

 

Vedanta does not question the validity and role of praṇayama; But after integrating through praṇayama; come to sastra. That is to be done. 

 

While condemning these preliminaries, he is, at the same time, very strict and severe in prescribing the more subtle and intense practices of Vedanta. For a Vedantin, he prescribes correct thinking and continuous self-analysis. Merely giving up the usual methods of religious discipline is not the Vedanta prescribed by the Acharya. 

 

If at all they are to be given up, it is only after greater abhyasa called 'vichara'. This atma-vichara is not to be done in any manner that pleases the individual. There is an exact method of correct and intense thinking and this method is advised in the scriptures. Therefore, vichara, undertaken as taught by the rishis (hitoktitah), alone can take us ultimately to our redemption.

 

In the previous verse, we said, Sastras / scriptures are like a torchlight which throws light on reality.

 

Here also what is the extra torch light; hitoktitah; hitaḥ means guru; a well-wisher; a guide; a support is called hitaḥ; literally one who is a well-wisher, Hitoktitah means guru vakyeṇa; and what is the guru vakyam? the extra torchlight.

So in the previous sloka, we said sastram vakyam is the extra light; here we say guru vakyam is extra light; we do not make any difference between sastra vakyam and guru vakyam; because guru is by definition one who teaches based on sastra.

 

Love.

 

Vivekachudamani - Post 18

 Verse 12  

 

सम्यग्विचारतः सिद्धा रज्जुतत्त्वावधारणा ।
भ्रान्तोदितमहासर्पभयदुःखविनाशिनी ॥ १२ ॥

 

samyagvicārataḥ siddhā rajjutattvāvadhāraṇā |
bhrāntoditamahāsarpabhayaduḥkhavināśinī || 12 ||

 

(The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent on the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope which is available for recognition only through steady and balanced thinking) 

 

रजजसु पवय दार् means a clear knowledge of rope; rajju means rope; it is the satvam; sarvam means the substratum of the false snake; 

 

Suppose if one says it may be rope and somebody asks go and touch it; he will say: why to take risk. Similarly if we say the world is Brahman; it is one thing. If we say the world may be Brahman; that is not enough.

 

And how did the snake come into existence? Not that there was a mother snake; and it gave birth to smaller snakes; it is not like that; this snake how did come; purely because of rope-ignorance. 

Therefore he says Bhrantodita. Bhranthihi means the error; erroneous perception; uditha means born. So therefore the clear knowledge of rope is the destroyer of the fear born out of the snake which is born out of an erroneous perception. In short, knowledge alone will destroy this particular fear.

 

It is never possible that one who has seen the rope as a rope will ever have the fear and sorrow of a snakebite. But in the gathering darkness of dusk, a traveller mistakes an innocent rope to be a snake. The serpent delusion is created in the mind of the traveller because of his ignorance of the rope-reality. 

 

Having thus been bitten by a delusory serpent, the individual, so long as he is under the delusion, suffers the agony of a snakebite and, if left alone, will exhibit symptoms of blood poisoning too, but the traveller is advised to make an enquiry into his delusion. 

 

In vedanta, this example is often quoted to make the student understand how the names and forms created through the ignorance of Reality can end with the rediscovery of the Truth underlying them. 

 

However great a devotee he may be; you might have the mantropadesah, but when rajju sarpa comes, what you need is to intelligently bring the torch and see it properly. The torch is called the sastra pramaṇam. 

 

Take the sastra pramaṇam torch. Knowledge is attained through only proper enquiry. Proper enquiry means what, with sastra torchlight; that is why "proper" is put. So then alone this knowledge will come and the knowledge alone will destroy the bhayaṁ.

 

Similarly if the samsara bhayam should go; atma jnanam should come; and if atma jnanam should come, vichara is a must.

 

Till the time we keep thinking about snake, how much ever we may try to negate the existence of snake, the fear will never go. Only upon discovering the existence of rope, the delusion of snake will go.

 

Similarly, Sankara says, as long as you think that Brahman may be the reality, you won’t be able to experience Brahman. Only when you are convinced through the stage of mananam that “Only Brahman exists”, then, in nidhidhyasanam, there is hope for you to experience Brahman as pure awareness / consciousness.

 

 

Love.