Thoughts 116

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११६. किं साधनं कः साध्यः एतयोः विवेकः नैव दृश्यते लोके। साध्यप्राप्तये परधर्ममपि नैकः स्वीकरोति, स्वधर्मं त्यक्त्वापि, तस्मिन्नेव परधर्मे वसति, साध्यं विस्मरति। साधनं कदापि दुष्पूरं भाति, तथैव तत्र भगवता श्रीकृष्णेन कामः महाशनः अनल इत्युक्तम्। एषः कामः सर्वं अश्नाति तर्हि अलं न विद्यते अस्येति। जीविकां साधनत्वेन न पश्यन् साध्यमिव पश्यति सर्वः। कुतो मोक्षः।

श्रीगुरुभ्यो नमः।

Thoughts 115

Thoughts 115: The child who keeps yelling and crying in a nightmare and refuses to wake up, when woken up by the loving mother who is awake, continues to yell, cry and suffer. The mother can only hope that she manifests in the nightmare to bring her child out. What else can Shruti do! 

Do you have brahmajnAna?

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There was a question to the effect so: you have studied prasthAnatraya and are involved in tarka with technical words, but why is it that you are not a brahmajnAnI?

It is a valid question, if it really was a question, and I shall answer it in the context of anyone, as my personal issue is useless to anyone. However, I may also be considered as falling within the following if it helps. The journey to brahmajnAna begins with mumukShutva, which is not possible without a good amount of chittashuddhi, which assumes viveka-driven vairAgya and shaTsampatti. However, wanting mokSha also, meaning mokSha among other things, brings neither this nor that! It is this type of mumukShutva that most of the people that we know have, which is technically not that at all. We are unwilling to work hard on our chitta at the cost of our jobs/businesses/livelihoods, fame, possessions, luxurious lifestyles, etc. We have all sorts of excuses for not doing our nityakarma, why-- most of us don't even know our nityakarma, let alone do it. Many others among us entered late into it and do what we can. Then we pick simpler options that will bring chittashuddhi such as tIrthayAtra which may be more of sightseeing than anything else, temple visits, dAna, etc. We are more comfortable with this approach than have shraddhA in a guru and do gurusevA, as we have more-or-less concluded that "there are no real gurus" today, or less likely "I am unfit to find a guru", or its impractical in this day, or whatever.

With all that going on, we also come across several books with translations, blogs, mailing lists, groups, online classes, recordings, and some nearby satsanga to bring us jnAna! It is this jnAna that we think is theoretical and needs practice, not the jnAna that comes out of systematic study under a guru. With either of these, there is also possibility of jnAnotpatti that feels so real sometimes, and I am not talking that under emotional unrest, that we think "this is it", but as Sw. Paramarthanandaji says, it lasts only till we wear our footwear after satsanga! This is the reason we end up thinking that brahmajnAna is very difficult and worse yet, brahmajnAna doesn't mean mukti but "I need brahmAnubhava". However, the fact is to the contrary: the indulgence in the world like before takes away that "feeling" which was undoubtedly not different from experience. To avoid this, Bhagavatpadacharya has said that a person who wants mokSha should give up everything lock, stock and barrel at the very glimpse of that non-dual reality, or that mithyAtva-feeling towards the world. Rarely does anyone do so today. Those who want to are unable to, due to their prabala-prArabdha presenting obstacles at every moment taking away decades till the time is ripe! This prArabdha manifests as family dependencies, health problems, kuNDali issues, etc; take your pick! So what is left is a balancing act trying to do what you can for continuing chittashuddhi, shravaNa and manana. The main reason for prArabdha to bring in hurdles is that the vAsanas are ready to manifest as obstacles and sannyAsa is a strict no as per shAstras when this happens. One is lacking chittashuddhi as one has been a gatecrasher to the shravaNa-party! At this stage, taking to japa, pUja, yajna, and/ or upAsana, and avoiding indulgence of any kind is called for. This can continue lifelong and may lead to videhamukti if the person has knowledge free from all doubts. However, jivanmukti, meaning Ananda, is not possible without sannyAsa or at the very least, solitude. If not at the stage of shravaNa, sannyAsa is called for at the stage of nididhyAsa. A person who is unable to take sannyAsa is held back by a similar prArabdha that denies shravaNa in the first place. Now then, what hope is there? A person doing continuous shravaNa giving up indulgence along with desires, and going along with prArabdha without opposing it, is either led to sannyAsa in time or is sure to get videhamukti on the fall of the body.

In other words, brahmajnAna is not that difficult, but niShThA is extremely difficult because it needs a lot of sAdhana that is skipped before jnAna, making dropping-off everything difficult! (An ideal adhikArI is a kRtopAsti). And then people start questioning brahmajnAna itself and so on goes saMsAra, be it hunting for more jnAna or anubhava.

gurupAdukAbhyAm

jIva, jagat, Ishvara and brahman

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The goal of all life is being liberated from the cycle of birth and death, which itself amounts from trying to become something one thinks one is not, finding oneself limited and wanting to remove that limitation by expanding his horizons. The issue with this is that it is a never-ending pursuit of a limited person trying to become limitless. The only way limitlessness is possible for "any" entity is if that entity is already limitless. And since the scriptures say that this liberation is possible, it means that this entity is already limitless and never did really become limited. This limitless brahman which finds itself limited is called as jIva and such limitation is nothing but a misunderstanding. Any misunderstanding can go only through knowledge and therefore, the entire pursuit of jIva becoming brahman is removal of ill-founded notions of limitation.

Since a limited entity can never become limitless, this erroneous conclusion of limitedness must have been due to taking something that potentially limits, so to say. That world outside is the insentient appearance of the existent reality, out of which a part is carved out as one's own body, which as-though limits the limitless. This limitation is also experienced due to the overwhelming tending-to-infinity-universe outside oneself. This insentient body makes brahman jIva. brahman associated with the entire universal body is Ishvara. So then, who is it that needs liberation? A seeker of liberation is not brahman, which is already infinite, ever-liberated, and doesn't need liberation. Ishvara is associated with the universe and cannot be limited as there is nothing outside of Him limiting Him. The jagat is insentient out of which a tiny part is one's own body! This entity which has managed to entangle itself with the miniscule part of its own appearance, owing to not knowing its true nature and erroneously knowing itself as limited, called as jIva, is the seeker. So although the same brahman appears as jIva, jagat and Ishvara, only the jIva is interested in mokSha, which is why he is the one who needs to know that everything, other than his own true nature as limitless brahman, is mithyA, a mere appearance of HimSelf.

That is why the scriptures focus only on the perspective of the seeker jIva telling him that what is not I, meaning brahman, meaning limitless existence-consciousness-bliss, is all part of jagat and mithyA.  Just by saying everything is brahman, nothing is achieved because limitlessness itself means there being no second entity as there cannot be two infinites. The very idea of second, limited or limitless, makes the other finite! Yet, there can be a finite or an tending-to-infinite appearance, a mere imagination, based on error. That appearance itself cannot be called as brahman since it has no basis of existence as its substratum is brahman. A thing not-truly-existent that appears to be existent, cannot even appear but for its truly-existent basis, akin to snake-appearance on rope. The snake is nothing but rope, but the rope isn't snake, meaning that it isn't limited to appear as snake, as it can appear as a stick, a streak on ground, stream of water, etc. On the other hand, the jnAnI knows jIva is brahman whole and brahman as jIva, as the carved part of the jagat is no longer limiting his unlimitable nature!

Finally, let me deal with an objection that seems valid: if brahman is one without a second, either both jagat and jIva should be called as brahman or both should be termed as mithyA; jagat should not be called as mithyA while jIva is called as brahman. Jagat is mithyA since it is an appearance of brahman. Again, brahman with tAdAtmyasambandha/ identification with a part of this apparent jagat is called as jiva. No one defines brahman as jagat with an upAdhi/ adjunct. jagat itself is the limiting adjunct, else there would be no jIvatva or Ishvaratva for brahman. And precisely why, a part of Bhagavatpadacharya's well-known verse refutes this objection clearly: ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः। To avoid such misunderstandings, the Advaita Vedanta tradition necessarily teaches what is the meant by mithyA before teaching that everything is brahman. This is also why opponents of Advaita Vedanta do not understand the siddhAnta.


ॐ तत् सत्।