Sri Rama Gita
This is complete collection of sixty-two
verses spoken by Lord Rama to his devoted brother Lakshman are found in Veda
Vyasa’s Adhyatma Ramayana, in the Uttarakanda as its fifth chapter. It is
conceived in the literary style called Pauranic. The text, popularly known as
Sri Rama-Gita, is also often described as sruti-sara-sangraha, a brief summary
of the very essence of all the Vedas.
sri mahadeva uvaca tato jaganmangala
mangalatmana vidhaya
ramayanakirtimuttamam cacara purvacaritam
raghuttamo myatha.
Thereafter, the great hero of the Ramayana,
the best among the Raghus – the glory of the universe ever blessing the world
of creatures – organized his life into a program of intense tapa, as lived
earlier by the royal saints in his own dynasty.
Kailasa. Springtime. A dim crescent moon
imperceptibly floats against the snowy peaks of the sacred Himalayas. Lord Siva
has just emerged out of deep meditation and smiles at his devoted consort,
Parvati.
When Lord Mahadeva is in the higher states of
meditation, his consort. Sri Gauri, though ever wedded to him feels out of
contact with him. Rare are the moments when the Lord comes down to play in his
lower state to contact his greatest devotee and sevika, Sri Parmesvari. Seeing
him at a level where she can easily hug his personality and desiring to hold
him at that level before he next soars into the Higher. Parvati asks a question
regarding a theme that is ever fascinating to Lord Siva – the life of Sri Rama.
It is well known that in the heart of Siva dwells Rama, and in the heart of
Rama Siva is ever present.
Perhaps Lord Siva has many a time told the
story of Sri Rama to his consort, and she knows very well how dear that theme
is to the heart of Mahadeva. So she asks : “After making the inhuman sacrifice
at the altar of his royal duty as a king and after deserting his pregnant and
innocent queen Sita near the ashram of Valmiki, how did Rama continue his life
?” As king, Rama had to attend to his administrative duties and live in is
luxurious palace, surrounded by his ministers and courtiers. Physically, he had
to live as if nothing had happened. The foolish demand of the people had been
fulfilled, and the spirit of democracy had been maintained. The inquisitive
Mother of the Universe wants to know from Lord Siva the life-style that Rama
adopted after this terrible personal tragedy.
It is under these circumstancs that the facile
pen of Vyasa set to work. The fifth chapter of his Adhyatma Ramayana contains
the exquisite Vedantic poem called Sri Ram Gita, which holds Lord Siva’s answer
to his consort’s question :
Prompted by Parvati’s inquiry, Siva with an
irresistible enthusiasm, eloquently explains that in the midst of the luxurious
life at his palace in Ayodhya, Rama lived in total penance (tapas), just as his
ancestors had lived, and earned the worthy title of “royal saint” (raja rsi).
Rama, popularly known as Ramacandra, was the
son of dasaratha. Rama’s name derives from the Sanskrit rama, which means “that
which revels in every form.” (ramate sarva bhutesu, sthavaresu caresu ca)
“that” being the Self, the higher Reality in us.
Text II
saumitrina prsta udarabuddhina ramah kathah
praha puratanih subhah ramah kathah praha puratanih subhah rajnah pramattasya
nrgasya sapato dvijasya tiryaktvamathaha raghavah.
At the request of the large-hearted Laksmana,
son of Samitra, Rama told him many gracious and ancient stories, such as the
story of the in advertent King Nrga, who, when cursed by a brahmin, became a
chameleon.
Continuing, Lord Mahadeva, as though seeing in his mental vision
the scene in the palace, describes how Rama told his beloved brother many
ancient stories, emphasizing the right values of life and the tremendous
pit-falls and unavoidable injustices one is compelled to suffer in the world of
plurality. In the present state of consciousness, life around him can never be
without its contradictions, confusions, and compelling compromises. Truth in
all its glory and purity can be lived only in the higher planes of
consciousness.
Rama seems to have emphasized the story of King Nrga. It was
ridiculously unjust. The sufferer was totally innocent. Yet, he had to live and
suffer:
King Nrga, on all auspicious occasions, would invite many
learned pundits and poor brahmins and distribute cattle to them. (In those
days, before the existence of money, cattle was wealth.) One old brahmin also
received some cattle as a gift.
Somehow, one of the cows in his share strayed away from the herd
and instinctively mingled with the thousands of cattle in the king’s herd. On
the next auspicious occasion, the king again away cattle to the poor, and it so
happened that the cow that was given to the brahmin and had strayed away and
later returned to the king’s herd was again part of the king’s gift, this time
to a new recipient. This was a totally unintentional mistake, but the old
brahmin was not forgiving, and the king was cursed to become a chameleon.
The story has an intimate reference to the immediate personal
suffering of Sri Rama, although it is not clear whether Laksmana received the
message. Through stories such as this, elementary students of Vedanta are
trained to recognize, appreciate, and come to live the nobler values of life.
Everywhere, value-oriented educational systems best follow this technique;
there is no other way in which we can impart healthy moral values to the
growing generation. Values and principles of living are too subtle for a young
mind that does not have thorough schooling in the experiences of life. But when
these subtle values of life are concretized in the form of stories, they are
readily taken in, easily digested, fully assimilated, and comfortably absorbed
by the student.
Text III
kadacidekanta upasthitam prabhum ramam ramalalitapadapankajam
saumitrirasaditasuddhabhsvanah pranamya bhaktya vinayanvito ‘bravit
Upon seeing Lord Ramacandra, (who is none other than Lord
Visnu), whose feet are everadored and served by, Laksmi, sitting all alone,
Laksmana, the son of Sumitra, whose heart was extremely purified (through
selfless service), after prostrating to the Lord in deep devotion, humbly asked
:
One day, free from administrative duties and programs of his
severe spiritual sadhana, Rama was sitting relaxed under a tree in the garden,
all alone, listening to the noisy orchestra of birds gathering to roost upon
the trees for the night, when his brother Laksmana approached him.
After fourteen years of a perfect life of self-control, every
moment of which was spent in selfless service to Rama and his life’s work, the
spiritual seeker Laksmana has already gained a steady mind, undisturbed by the
pressure of vasanas in him. A mind that has been thus steadied is an instrument
fit for seeking the spiritual dimension of life through contemplation.
The brother did not dash into the presence of Rama shouting a
cheery “Hi!” as a loving brother would, but he approached Sri Rama as a devoted
disciple should. With great reverence and humility., surrendering himself to
the Lord’s gracious will, humble and dedicated, the devotee in him asked Sri
Rama.
Text IV
tvam suddhabodho ‘si hi sarvadehina –matmasyadhiso’so nirakrtih
svayam pratiyase jnanadrsam mahamate padabjbhrngahitasangasanginam.
O wise one ! You are, indeed, pure Knowledge, the Self of all
beings, the Lord of all, but in Yourself Yo are formless, You are seen by those
men who are endowed with the eye of wisdom and are attached to the company of
Your devotees who court Your lotus feet, like the bees.
Laksmana was not considering Rama as a physical entity, who has
relationships qualities. Sri Rama, the great warrior, the benevolent king on
the throne of Ayodhya, was Laksmana’s own blood brother, now living in
dignified sorrow at his tragic bereavement. But Laksmana had penetrated deeper
than this superficial person, the delusory name and form, and in his devoted
heart recognized the inner spiritual significance of Sri Rama, the paramatman,
the supreme Self. He not only recognized it, but he openly acknowledged it and
declared : “You are nothing but the pure light of Consciousness in which
Knowledge – not knowledge of something, but pure Knowledge in the light of
which all other knowledges are rendered possible.”
This seat of Consciousness is the flame of life, the enlivening
Presence in the heart of all living beings, the one Self in all. So long as
Consciousness is present in us, our sense organs, mind, and intellect function.
This Self enlivens everything. Where Consciousness is not, all physical,
mental, intellectual, and even our spiritual activities cease to be, and hence
Consciousness is the sole proprietor, owner, master, and boss of the universe.
It is the supreme Lord of the world vividly throbbing in the fields of time and
space.
Laksmana was saying to Rama: “In your essential nature, as the
supreme Consciousness, you are formless.” Form is possible only to the limited.
When something is conditioned by something else, it possesses a form. Space,
being all-pervading, has no form. Pure Consciousness, being beyond the body,
mind, and intellect equipments, is deconditioned from everything, and therefore
this unconditioned Self can only be formless.
The Laksmana continued: “ Yet, as those who are ever devoted to
you (Rama) gather mental purity, they come to apprehend your true spiritual
nature, arriving at the state of Knowledge (jnana). The dreamer in the dream state
apprehends the dream; the sleeper in the sleep state apprehends sleep; the
spiritual seeker in the spiritual state apprehends the pure spirit (jnana
darsana).”
As a result of steady contemplation upon the deep significance
of the great statements such as “That thou art.” the mind leaves all its
preoccupations with its familiar world of objects, emotions, and thoughts and
starts exclusively contemplating upon Brahman. This state of mind unfolds a
unique faculty of perception – the eye of wisdom – with which the seeker
“perceives” the state of the pure Self, which is Sri Rama’s real nature.
Text V
aham prapanno’smi padambujam prabho bhavapavargam tava
yogibhavitam yathanjasajnanamaparavaridhim sukham tarisyami tathanusadhi mam
O Lord ! I am surrendering at Your lotus feet, upon which yogis
contemplate and which can liberate one from the bondage of time. Please teach
me the quickest means by which I can cross the shoreless ocean of ignorance,
comfortably.
The previous verse declared the student’s acceptance of the
teacher as more than a mere person or individual: he recognized in him the very
presence of the infinite Self. This kind of a glorification of the teacher is
beneficial to the student because the physical presence of the teacher becomes
to him a symbol to remind him of the final goal and destination,, the Self.
Secondly, it also turns the teacher’s beam of special attention upon the
student. Thus, a mutual tuning-in can be brought about between the teacher and
the taught for ready and easy communication.
In the Indian tradition, extreme importance is given to showing
respect and reverence at the feet of the Lord, and again at the feet of those
we love and respect – “touching the feet” of the elders. The teacher stands
rooted in Truth. Since the student cannot directly reach this subtle and
transcendental Reality, the best he can do is worship the Truth upon a symbol
nearest to it, the teacher’s feet, upon which he stands, just as he stands
rooted in Truth. Sri Rama’s feet are the object of contemplation of every
devoted seeker, every developed spiritual seeker in his seat of meditation.
Time is the medium in which the world of plurality comes to
play. The equipments of experience, the body-mind-intellect; our fields of
experience, objects-emotions-thoughts; and even the very experience, the
perceiver-feeler-thinker, all exist and function in time, Time is ever
changing, and therefore everything in time must also constantly change. Caught
up in the present state of consciousness as we are, we can exist and function
only in the realm of time in the world of change. Nothing is permanent; every
experience is ephemeral. Thus, our individual selves are tossed about
mercilessly in this endless tide of time. To establish ourselves in the
contemplation upon the Lord’s feet is to enter into a harbor safely away from
the tyranny of time.
Laksmana, the student and disciple, after surrendering thus to
Rama, his teacher, demanded knowledge and help. He wanted to know what is the
quickest means for going beyond the ocean of ignorance.
It is a trick of the human mind – perceptible everywhere and to
everyone – that when we don’t know the real nature of something, in our
nonapprehension our minds project a newly created reality, and we experience
misapprehensions. On a dark, moonless night, when we come across a misshapen
post at the roadside, we may not apprehend it properly in the dim light and
therefore convince ourselves that we are seeing a ghost: the nonapprehension of
the post gives rise to the misapprehension of a grinning, frightening ghost.
The noapprehension of Reality given us the misapprehension that we are the
limited, tired, sorrowful individual (ego). This nonapprehension of Reality and
the consequent misapprehensions of the same are together termed ignorance
(ajnana) in the subjective science of Vedanta.
Laksmana has pointedly asked what is the quickest means by which
one can cross over this shoreless ocean of ignorance, comfortably and
effortlessly (sukham). “Teach me that path, instruct me upon this secret means,
guide me. O Teacher, to the yonder shores of this boundless state of
ignorance.”
English Wording: srutvatha saumitrivaco ‘khilam tada praha
prapannartiharah prasannadhih vijnanamajnanatamahprasantaye srutiprapannam
ksitipalabhusanah
Then, having heard all that Laksmana had said, Sri Rama– the
serene jewel of royal kings, who destroys all sorrows of those who surrender to
him – gave out to Laksmana, who was eager to listen, the Knowledge, for
dispelling the darkness of ignorance.
Every teacher becomes extremely happy and enthusiastic when he
recognizes the glory, ripeness, and devotion in a student’s heart. The guru in
Rama finds an ideal disciple in Laksmana, an therefore he declares pure
Knowledge as the most direct means to end ignorance. The teacher represents the
infinite Self; to contemplate and meditate upon Him and thus come to surrender
to Him is to end all miseries felt by the ego in its own limitations. The
knowledge that Rama imparts to Laksmana is not anything new or original. It is
the very knowledge declared in the ancient Upanisads by the masters of yore.
According to the Vedic tradition, once the seeker has purified
the mind and intellect and gained a steady consistency in thinking, he or she
must strive to employ the mind in a mood of unwavering contemplation, analyzing
and discovering the total identity of the essence behind both the individuality
(jivatma) and the universal Self (Paramatma). Knowledge then becomes both the
means and the goal. Knowledge gathered from the Upanisads (jnana) takes us to a
direct spiritual apprehension of the higher state called vijnana. To gain this
direct spiritual apprehension of Truth is the last leap of the limited to reach
the Unlimited, for the finite to experience the Infinite, for the mortal to arrive
at the state of Immortality.
Text VII
adau svavarnasramavarnitah kriyah krtva samasaditasuddhamanasah
samapya tatpurvamupattasadhanah samasrayetsadgurumatmalabdhaye
First of all, after we have performed all the obligatory duties
required of us due to our position in society (varna) and status in life
(asrama), and thereby have gained a purified mind, we should give up all these
earlier karmas, and thus endowed with the necessary qualifications, we must
surrender totally to the teacher in order to attain the Self.
The great rishis of yore have prescribed to the individual in
the community certain irrevocable duties in his or her social life, and these
are prescribed with an eye to the status of the individual in the society
(varna) and the stage of life he or she is in (asrama). When these obligatory
duties are performed without any anxieties for their fruits, they tend to
exhaust th vasanas and bring the mind to a quiet, vigilant, and alert
composure, ready for study and contemplation.
With such sensitive equipment, the student must arrive at the
feet of the reacher in order to gain the maximum in his or her interaction with
the teacher’s words
Text VIII
kriya sarirodbhavaheturadrta priyapriyau tau bhavatah suraginah
dharmetarau tatra punah sarirakam punah kriya cakravadiryate bhavah.
Action is considered to be the cause for the manifested body. He
who is extremely attached to the body performs both desirable and undesirable
actions, which create dharma and adharma (that produce joy and sorrow), giving
rise to another body by which more actions are performed. Thus, like a wheel,
nonstop runs the procession of briths and deaths – samsara.
Rama is not going to mince words, because the disciple in front
of him is fully matured. The teacher in Rama ruthlessly dissects the nature of
work and convincingly points out that through work we can never reach the
absolute state of inner poise, the Self. Work can only produce yet another
lease in the world, with the body as the harvester of the experience in
duality. Confrontation of the body, mind, and intellect with the world of
objects, emotions, and thoughts is called work. All such physical, mental, and
intellectual encounters leave tendencies, called vasanas, as their end result
in the doer’s personality. These tendencies try to express and exhaust
themselves in similar actions.
Those who are striving in the outer world, prompted by their own
desire to fulfill their likes and dislikes, come to experience ephemeral
moments of exciting pleasure and flashes of painful sorrow.
Righteous actions are those in which our selfishness is at a
bare minimum; unrighteous actions are those prompted largely by blind
selfishness. These good and bad action necessarily create moments of joy and
regrettable moments of tearful sorrow. The good and bad karmas generate
positive and negative tendencies (vasanas). In order to work them out of our
system, we have to take an appropriate body-form and manifest ourselves in a
conducive environment.
In short, the present is a product of the past, with past karmas
providing the blueprint for the present. The future is never a mere continuum
of the past; the past is remolded under the pressure of present activities and
thoughts.
Thus, work can only guarantee continuation in the field of
plurality in an endless array of lives, with different forms functioning in
different environments. Actions create vasanas; vasnas mature and become
impatient to express and exhaust themselves; and, for this, new forms and new
environments may be needed. Work, however sacred and noble it may be, can only
yield for us relatively good and bad experiences, never total liberation from
the realm of time and space to reach the timeless Essence divine.
Text IX
ajnanamevasya hi mulakaranam tadhanamevatra vidhau vidhiyate
vidyaiva tannasavidhau patiyasi na karma tajjam savirodhamiritam
The root cause for this samasara is ignorance; naturally, its
destruction here is the sole remedy prescribed by scriptural injunction or
teaching. Knowledge alone is efficient in destroying that ignorance, never
karma (work); for work is said to be the product of ignorance and hence not
opposed to it.
The nonapprehension of Reality creates the misapprehension in us
that we are limited entities, helplessly panting to seek our fulfillment and
total satisfaction from the world of plurality; hence our exhausting and
fatiguing work – sweating labor whipped up by our desires, anxieties, and
worries.
Apprehension of Reality, knowledge, alone can be the efficient
antidote to remove our misapprehensions, ignorance. When the individual awakens
to the higher state of Consciousness, the sense of individuality and its world
of experience, physical, mental, and intellectual, roll away, just as a dream
rolls away on awakening. Karma (work), however noble, cannot end this
subjective ignorance, because all actions are undertaken by the individual in
the context of his or her misapprehensions. In short, work is a product of
ignorance, and it cannot destroy its own cause. Symptoms cannot destroy the
disease :
Text X
najnanahanirna ca ragasanksayo bhavettatah karma sadosamudhavet
tatah punah samsrtirapyavarita tasmadbudho jnanavicaravanbhavet.
English Meaning:
Work cannot end ignorance nor reduce one’s attachment to the
fruits of action; on the other hand, from such karmas new, evil (binding)
karmas arise, because of which samsara also becomes unavoidable. Therefore, a
wise seeker should inquire into and contemplate upon the nature of Knowledge –
Reality.
Karma cannot ever destroy spiritual ignorance. Here, ignorance
may be considered as the product of ignorance, the ego the sense of limited
individuality (the perceiver-feeler-thinker). The sense of doership cannot be
totally eliminated from the field of work. In fact, no matter how alert we may
be in our work can only fatten the sense of doership in us.
So long as the individual functions with a arrogant conviction
of doership, he cannot stand divorced from the desire to enjoy the fruits of
his actions. Doership and enjoyership go together, and this is called the ego.
Both these misapprehensions cannot be ended through work. Work can only produce
its reward, which is to open up for us fresh fields of undertaking and to
provide the appropriate equipment to function in those fields. Work creates
tendencies, vasanas, which seek their exhaustion through further work, for
which, unavoidably, we will have to move from one field of work to another
within the span of this life, and move from one body to another after death.
Sir Rama therefore concludes with the idea that the wise seeker, after
purifying his or her vasanas through selfless work, undertaken in a loving
spirit of dedication, “must begin to contemplate upon the nature of Reality.”
To analyze and to deeply and consistently ponder over the great statements such
as “That thou art” is the way of knowledge, the path of jnana, which is to be
diligently pursued.
However great and holy the work be, it cannot produce the
Reality ever present in every one of us. Selfless work undertaken with love and
devotion to the Lord and to our fellow man can indeed, chasten our vasanas; and
when noble (sattvic) vasanas become predominent in us, our mental and
intellectual extrovertedness is slowly eliminated. Our thoughts learn how to
become quiet, alert, and vigilant. Such a purified heart will have the
necessary poise for steady contemplation upon the nature of Reality, the Self.
As we practice, we become more and more dexterous in maintaining ourselves
steadily in the mood of contemplation and a state of ever-expanding joy.
This verse becomes, a it were, an introduction to the text. The
teacher has judged his student rightly that he has practiced karmayoga (the
path of dedicated action) sufficiently long, purifying his mind in the process,
and for such a student to walk onto the path of contemplation is the next step.
Due to its attachment to the teacher, a child refuses to move on to his new
classroom, even though he has been promoted to the next grade. Then the parents
have to intercede in order to persuade the child and if need be to use the required
amount of compulsion, until the child becomes familiar with his new teacher and
gathers new friends. Similarly, the spiritual teacher has to slowly persuade
his students to leave their fields to work for the seat of contemplation. It
has to be done very carefully. To break faith is easy; to create faith is
almost impossible.
Sri Ramcandra seems to have known Laksmana’s heart through and
through; therefore, with a surprising abruptness, he bombshells him with an
uncompromising declaration that karma can never release our personality from it
misapprehensions : “Knowledge alone can end ignorance; karma is but the product
of ignorance.”
English Wording: nanu kriya vedamukhena codita tathaiva vidya
purusarthasadhanam kartavyata pranabhrtah pracodita vidyasahayatvamupaiti sa
punah
Just as the Vedas declare that knowledge is the means for
attaining the ultimate goal, with the same emphasis the Vedas also prescribe
karmas. Moreover, the karmas prescribed are compulsory for a living being.
Therefore, these karmas can be complementary to the path of knowledge. In order
to derive home the conviction to the student, Rama here repeats the arguments
of others and answers them himself.
The ritualists argue that not only the path of contemplation is
prescribed by the Vedas, but that the very same Veda has commanded that karma
should be done. Thus, Veda-prescribed karmas must be undertaken along with the
practice of contemplation for the final liberation. The argument has legs,
because the Veda has an unquestioned authority in spiritual matters.
Text XII
English Wording: karmakrtau dosamapi srutirjagau tasmatsada
karyamidam mumuksuna nanu svatantra dhruvakaryakarini vidya na
kincinmanasapyapeksete.
The scriptures have even cautioned that by not doing karma one
will incur sin; therefore, the prescribed karma. In case you insist that the
path of knowledge is independent and quite efficient in achieving the goal by
itself and needs no karma – not even in a dream – then … [the argument
continues in the next verse].
The opponents continue their arguments. In their eloquence they
are not able to stop the flood of their words. If karmas is not done, the
default can bring sin and consequent punishment. Not only by commission but
also by omission sin can be incurred. Thus the argument that the jnana path
needs no karma to complement it is a dangerous lie. These are the words of the
Samuccaya Vadins, repeated here by Sri Ramacandra. The teacher in Sri Rama
wants his disciple Laksmana to know about the existence of such an argument.
Text XIII
na satyakaryo‘pi hi yadvadadhvarah prakanksate‘nyanapi
karakadikan tathaiva vidya vidhitah prakasitair-visisyate karmabhireva muktaye.
It is not so. Just as the Vedic rituals, though meritorious in
their results, depend upon many accessories such as the doer, and so on, so too
the path of knowledge becomes capable of giving liberation with the help of
those karmas that are revealed by the Vedic statements. The Vedas describe
rituals very elaborately, and eloquently promise rewards for those who follow
the strict discipline the rituals require, performing them properly at the
right time and place, using the right materials and mantras.
Those who support the integral path (Samuccaya Vadins) argue
that just as we need many accessories to perform karma properly, so also those
who pursue the path of contemplation need the support of the path of karma.
Each blesses the other, and the seeker gains his goal. In these three verses
the arguments of the Samuccaya Vadins are vigorously paraded. According to
them, contemplation and karma must be pursued together. When each strengthens
the other, we have a sure means for our personality liberation. The path of
knowledge (jnana) is not independent : jnana will fruitfully lead us to the
state of spiritual freedom only in combination with karma. These are the
arguments of the Samucaya Vadins.
Text XIV
kecidvadantiti vitarkavadina stadapyasaddrstavirodhakaranat
dehabhimanadabhivardhate kriya vidya gatahankrtitah prasidhyati.
So argue some men of erroneous logic; but that, indeed, is false
because of the obvious contradiction. Action is performed (increases) due to
identification with the body, whereas Knowledge is realized at the elimination
of the ego, that is, of body identification. Sri Ramacandra, having summarized
the arguments of the Samuccaya Vadins, answers them all. With one powerful word
he smashes down their array of arguments: he declares their stand as a mere
delusion, and then supports his conclusion by showing the inherent weakness in
their elaborate arguments.
Karma is performed by the ego with noble, not-sonoble, or
stark-selfish desires. The ego asserts itself in all karmas. The ego is the
doer-experiencer entity in each one of us.
Jnana, the path of contemplation, starts when the ego is curbed;
in the final stage of the path, the ego disappears totally as we glide into the
state of pure Consciousness, the Self. Movement into the state of
Self-Awareness is not possible unless we leave the ego of the previous state.
The dreamer-ego can never perceive or enter the waking state. The waker-ego
must end in sleep. The waker-dreamer-sleeper ego must cease to be when we
realize the Self.
Therefore, to claim that karma and jnana are to be pursued at
one and the same time is a misconception. In the path of karma, the ego must
play, while in the path of knowledge, the ego must disappear.
These opposed conditions exist in the very working of these two
paths. Through karma we gain inner purity, and such a purified mind gains its
necessary poise in contemplation. The process of contemplation purifies the
mind more and more. The quieter the mind, the more intense becomes the
contemplation; the higher the intensity and steadiness of contemplation, the
quieter becomes the mind.
In this cycle, a state should come when the mind is totally
quiet. Thoughtless mind is Brahman, the absolute Self. Karma and Jnana can
never be practiced together; they must be taken serially. First, perform karma
as a sadhana, then follow the path of contemplation. After realization, again
perform karma as a selfless expression of the siddha, a man of wisdom.
Text XV
visuddhavijnanavirocanancita vidyatmavrttiscarameti bhanyate
udeti karmakhilakarakadibhir – nihanti vidyakhilakarakadikam
The exclusive thought of the Self, arrived at through
comtemplation with a purified heart, is called knowledge (vidya). Karma rises
from its various (five) causes, while vidya demolishes all these instruments of
karma. Sri Ramacandra clearly defines what is meant by the term “knowledge.
”vidya. As a result of exhaustive pondering upon the deep significance of
mahavakyas (great spiritual statements) such as “That thou art.” the student’s
mind, in deep contemplation, comes to dwell upon the thought of the Self,
exclusive of all other thoughts. This thought of the Self dies away by itself
on realizing the state of the Self.
Just as fire, having consumed the fuel, disappears into its
unmanifest or, just as the dreamer and his world of dream merge and disappear
upon awakening, so too the ego, as our sense of individuality (ahamkara vrtti),
disappears into the experience of the supreme state, Brahmasaksatkra. I and my
sole desire to sleep disappear when I enter the deep-sleep state. The
“dreamer-I” and my dream world dissolve and disappear into the “waker-I” upon
awakening.
Karma and jnana cannot be lived at one and the same time because
of their opposite natures. Karma springs from its unavoidable five essential
factors:
the body, which is the basis of actions;
doership and enjoyership together called the individual;
the instruments, the sense organs;
the various functions in the body; and
the presiding deities of the sense organs,
which are the conditions necessary for each sense organ to function efficiently. The path of knowledge has its destination in direct apprehension (jnana), wherein all these factors and the sense of doership end.
Thus, because of their essentially contrary natures, karma and jnana can never be practiced at one and the same time by the same seeker – as the Samuccaya Vadins recommend and fanatically argue to prove their viewpoint.
doership and enjoyership together called the individual;
the instruments, the sense organs;
the various functions in the body; and
the presiding deities of the sense organs,
which are the conditions necessary for each sense organ to function efficiently. The path of knowledge has its destination in direct apprehension (jnana), wherein all these factors and the sense of doership end.
Thus, because of their essentially contrary natures, karma and jnana can never be practiced at one and the same time by the same seeker – as the Samuccaya Vadins recommend and fanatically argue to prove their viewpoint.
In this verse, Sri Rama applies an axe to the very root of all
the arguments of those who recommend integral yoga. We can pursue a variety of
karmayogas – service of the people, prayer, worship, and so on. But work and
contemplation cannot be pursued at one and the same time. In karma, the mind is
active and turned outward into the field work, while in contemplation, the
mind’s attention is turned away from the outer world, and the mind is
exclusively engaged with thoughts of the nature of the Self, seeking to realize
the total identity of “I” (ego) with the divine Self.
Text XVI
tasmattyajektaryamasesatah sudhir – vidyavirodhanna samuccayou
bhavet atmanusandhanaparayanah sada nivttasarvendriyavrttigocarah.
Therefore, let the pure-hearted learn to drop all activities; as
activities are contrary to knowledge, their combination with knowledge is not
possible. Quieting all activities of the senses and mind perceptions, one
should always be engaged in contemplation upon the Self.
Since Samuccaya is not possible, let the one who has purified
his heart through selfless, noble work, learn to drop all activities of the
sense organs and the mind. The body-mind-intellect equipment gushing out into
objects-emotions-thoughts to possess, embrace, and enjoy them constitutes all
our physical and mental activities. We must withdraw all our attention from
this childish preoccupation with the world of plurality; we must cease from all
activities. This is a precondition before we can hope to be successful in contemplation.
Since karma and jnana cannot be practiced together as they are contradictory to
each other, having purified our inner equipment, let us stop work and dive into
contemplation – a state where we are exclusively alert to the knowledge of what
lies behind the mind, at the very foundation of our personality.
Nobody can give up work totally. Work is the signature of life
in the individual. But the Gita explains that when we work “without anxiety for
enjoying the result of work” (that is, without desire or an ego-sense), our
work is “not-work.” When the desire to enjoy the rewards of work is eliminated,
our minds gather a unique poise, and in this inner peace, steady contemplation
becomes easy and extremely enjoyable.
This is not a free sanction to give up work altogether. Having
awakened to the Self, then give up work, says the Gita. As long as
body-consciousness is with us, we must keep on doing the prescribed noble work
– but without the desire to enjoy its rewards.
Train yourself to turn your entire attention to contemplation
upon the nature of the Self, until you realize the absolute identity of the
ego-sense in you with the supreme Self. First, do selfless service of the
society (karma), then worship the Lord (upasana). Through these, when the mind
gets purified, it detaches itself from all pursuits of sense objects and from
all sensuous thoughts (visaya cintana). Such a mind alone can steadily
contemplate upon the Self (brahma cintana). Once you experience the joy arising
out of a quiet, alert, and vigilant mind, you will never stop your
contemplation sessions. They are always so rewarding, so full, so very
fulfilling.
Text XVII
English Wording: vavacchariradisu mayayatmadhi – stavadvidheyo
vidhivadakarmanam netiti vakyairakhilam nisidhya ta – jjnatva paratmanamatha
tyajetkriyah.
As long as one identifies with one’s body as a result of the
play of Maya, so long one must perform the scared work prescribed by the Vedas.
Thereafter, with the help of the sruti declaration of negation -”not this, not
this”-one must learn to rise above one’s body identity and realize the Self-and
then give up all work.
The earlier verse that daringly asserted that “all work should
be renounced, ”though very logically arrived at, can shock the seeker and
undermine his faith. This is suicidal for the seeker’s spiritual life. Hence,
in this verse, Sri Rama, with endless patience, explains what he meant by his
apparently cruel rejection of all that the culture had been insisting on and
the seeker had been practicing perhaps for many years now.
As long as you have the “I am the body” Feeling, as long as the
delusory misapprehension that “I am the body ”persist, so long perform
selfless, devoted works as prescribed in the scriptures. The ”I do ”Mentality
is the ego (ahamkara). When as a result of following spiritual disciplines the
ego and its desire promptings have thinned out, then start contemplation. Learn
to rise above that which you are not, indicated so vividly in the Upanisads by
the words of negation: ”Not this, not this ”(neti neti). When you have arrived
at pure Consciousness, when the Self is realized, then all work becomes
meaningless, empty, and purposeless.
Having woken up from a dream, what duty have you toward your
dream family? Once you reach sleep, how can the sleeper continue the effort of
the waker, who was then but trying to compose himself to sleep.
All work ceases when the ego -I wakes up to the “I am the Self
awareness. When a river reaches the ocean, its flow ends as it merges to become
the ocean.
Non apprehension of the true nature of the Self created in you
the misapprehension that you are a limited helpless, and tearful individual.
Your non-apprehension of Reality (avarana) and the consequent misapprehensions
(viksepa) are together called delusion (Maya). On apprehending the Self
(jnana), all your misapprehensions (ajana) end. On realizing this grand goal,
in that state of Self, no work is possible, no work is possible, no work is
required. It is not really a question of your renouncing all activities -all
activities simply slip off from you!
tasmattyajektaryamasesatah sudhir – vidyavirodhanna samuccayou
bhavet atmanusandhanaparayanah sada nivttasarvendriyavrttigocarah.
Therefore, let the pure-hearted learn to drop all activities; as
activities are contrary to knowledge, their combination with knowledge is not
possible. Quieting all activities of the senses and mind perceptions, one
should always be engaged in contemplation upon the Self.
Since Samuccaya is not possible, let the one who has purified
his heart through selfless, noble work, learn to drop all activities of the
sense organs and the mind. The body-mind-intellect equipment gushing out into
objects-emotions-thoughts to possess, embrace, and enjoy them constitutes all
our physical and mental activities. We must withdraw all our attention from
this childish preoccupation with the world of plurality; we must cease from all
activities. This is a precondition before we can hope to be successful in
contemplation. Since karma and jnana cannot be practiced together as they are
contradictory to each other, having purified our inner equipment, let us stop
work and dive into contemplation – a state where we are exclusively alert to
the knowledge of what lies behind the mind, at the very foundation of our personality.
Nobody can give up work totally. Work is the signature of life
in the individual. But the Gita explains that when we work “without anxiety for
enjoying the result of work” (that is, without desire or an ego-sense), our
work is “not-work.” When the desire to enjoy the rewards of work is eliminated,
our minds gather a unique poise, and in this inner peace, steady contemplation
becomes easy and extremely enjoyable.
This is not a free sanction to give up work altogether. Having
awakened to the Self, then give up work, says the Gita. As long as
body-consciousness is with us, we must keep on doing the prescribed noble work
– but without the desire to enjoy its rewards.
Train yourself to turn your entire attention to contemplation
upon the nature of the Self, until you realize the absolute identity of the
ego-sense in you with the supreme Self. First, do selfless service of the
society (karma), then worship the Lord (upasana). Through these, when the mind
gets purified, it detaches itself from all pursuits of sense objects and from
all sensuous thoughts (visaya cintana). Such a mind alone can steadily
contemplate upon the Self (brahma cintana). Once you experience the joy arising
out of a quiet, alert, and vigilant mind, you will never stop your
contemplation sessions. They are always so rewarding, so full, so very
fulfilling.
Text XVII
vavacchariradisu mayayatmadhi – stavadvidheyo vidhivadakarmanam
netiti vakyairakhilam nisidhya ta – jjnatva paratmanamatha tyajetkriyah.
As long as one identifies with one’s body as a result of the
play of Maya, so long one must perform the scared work prescribed by the Vedas.
Thereafter, with the help of the sruti declaration of negation -”not this, not
this”-one must learn to rise above one’s body identity and realize the Self-and
then give up all work.
The earlier verse that daringly asserted that “all work should
be renounced, ”though very logically arrived at, can shock the seeker and
undermine his faith. This is suicidal for the seeker’s spiritual life. Hence,
in this verse, Sri Rama, with endless patience, explains what he meant by his
apparently cruel rejection of all that the culture had been insisting on and
the seeker had been practicing perhaps for many years now.
As long as you have the “I am the body” Feeling, as long as the
delusory misapprehension that “I am the body ”persist, so long perform
selfless, devoted works as prescribed in the scriptures. The ”I do ”Mentality
is the ego (ahamkara). When as a result of following spiritual disciplines the
ego and its desire promptings have thinned out, then start contemplation. Learn
to rise above that which you are not, indicated so vividly in the Upanisads by
the words of negation: ”Not this, not this ”(neti neti). When you have arrived
at pure Consciousness, when the Self is realized, then all work becomes
meaningless, empty, and purposeless.
Having woken up from a dream, what duty have you toward your
dream family? Once you reach sleep, how can the sleeper continue the effort of
the waker, who was then but trying to compose himself to sleep.
All work ceases when the ego -I wakes up to the “I am the Self
awareness. When a river reaches the ocean, its flow ends as it merges to become
the ocean.
Non apprehension of the true nature of the Self created in you
the misapprehension that you are a limited helpless, and tearful individual.
Your non-apprehension of Reality (avarana) and the consequent misapprehensions
(viksepa) are together called delusion (Maya). On apprehending the Self
(jnana), all your misapprehensions (ajana) end. On realizing this grand goal,
in that state of Self, no work is possible, no work is possible, no work is
required. It is not really a question of your renouncing all activities -all
activities simply slip off from you!
Text XVIII
yada paratmatmavibhedabhedakam vijnanamatmanyavabhati bhasvaram
tadaiva maya praviliyate ‘njasa sakaraka karanamatmasamsrteh
English Meaning:
When the shining, direct knowledge of the Self -the destroyer of
the difference between Paramatma and jiva -arises in the heart of an individual,
then alone Maya, the cause for the jivs’s samsara, disappears instantaneously,
along with its effects, all misapprehensions.
The Lord (Paramatma), the individual ego- sense, and the world of plurality created by God and perceived by the ego, all these three are destroyed by the direct experience of the higher Self (vijnana). Then , in the inner equipments of mind and intellect, arises (avabhati) the resplendent (bhasvaram) Self.
The Lord (Paramatma), the individual ego- sense, and the world of plurality created by God and perceived by the ego, all these three are destroyed by the direct experience of the higher Self (vijnana). Then , in the inner equipments of mind and intellect, arises (avabhati) the resplendent (bhasvaram) Self.
Just as on waking up from the dream the entire dream rolls away
instantaneously, so also the delusory world of plurality rolls away when the
contemplative student arrives at the direct knowledge of the self. All non
apprehension and misapprehensions are instantaneously wiped out. The
individual, the, universe perceived, and the Creator (God) all merge into the
one experience divine.
It is profitable to remember that Laksmana’s demand was how he
could cross over the ocean of nonapprehension instantaneously (verse 5). Here
Sri Ramacandraji uses almost the same word (anjasa) and takes pains to explain
how the seeker can instantaneously go beyond his delusions and come to
apprehend Reality.
Text XIX
srutipramanabhivinasita ca sa katham bhavisyatyapi karyakarini
vijnanamatradamaladvitiyata – stasmadavidya na punarbhavisyati.
Once Maya, (ignorance) is totally destroyed by the process
expounded in the struti (the valid means of knowledge), how can she (Maya) even
be capable of creating various delusory effects ? Since the Self is absolute
Knowledge, pure and nondual (and is realized by the wise one) avidya will
therefore not rise again.
There can still be a lingering doubt in the student’s mind that Maya, even if destroyed once, might again do her trick of projecting delusory misapprehensions. The teacher is denying this possibility because the misapprehensions were caused by the nonapprehension of Reality. When nonapprehension is destroyed in the direct apprehension of Reality. Maya folds her magic kit and disappear, never to come back.
There can still be a lingering doubt in the student’s mind that Maya, even if destroyed once, might again do her trick of projecting delusory misapprehensions. The teacher is denying this possibility because the misapprehensions were caused by the nonapprehension of Reality. When nonapprehension is destroyed in the direct apprehension of Reality. Maya folds her magic kit and disappear, never to come back.
In direct apprehension, all misapprehensions end; thereafter, in
the state of the direct vision of the Self, nonapprehension cannot rise.
Therefore, the individual in never more caught up with enchanting
misapprehensions. Sri Ramacandra thus concludes. “Therefore, this Maya (avidya,
ignorance) can never again arrive to delude the bosom of such an accomplished
spiritual seeker.”
Text XX
yadi sma nasta na punah prasuyate kartahamasyeti matih katham
bhavet tasmatsvatantra na kimapyapeksate vidya vimoksaya vibhati kevala.
If Maya, once destroyed, cannot ever rise again, how can the
idea “I am the doer of this karma” ever rise for the realized person?
Therefore, knowledge is independent and does not need anything else. By itself,
it is capable of giving liberation. Sri Ramacandra is still trying to make the
Samuccaya Vadin feel ridiculous at his own false assertions and arguments. If
Maya, once destroyed through the apprehension of Reality, can no more bring any
misapprehensions, how can the delusory sense of “I”, the sense of doership,
arise ? Therefore, karma and jnana can never be performed at one and the same
time by the same individual. Integral yoga is a palpable contradiction in
terms. Knowledge alone removes ignorance. Apprehension alone ends
nonapprehension. Thus, the path of knowledge is totally independent of all
other help, and indeed self-sufficient in itself.
sa taittiriya srutiraha sadaram nyasam prasastakhilkarmanam
sphutam etavadityaha ca vajinam srutir-jnanam vimoksaya na karma sadhanam.
The famous Taitiriya sruti declares clearly and emphatically that
all sastra-prescribed karmas are to be given up entirely. The Vajasaneya
scripture (the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad) also declares, by statements such as
“This alone is immortality,” that the means to total liberation is knowledge
(jnana) and not work (karma)
What has been already established through logic and reason is
now being reaffirmed by the declarations in our famous scriptures. Other than
direct knowledge (pratyaksa) and inference (anumana), Vedanta accepts as a
third source of knowledge scriptural declarations (apa-vakya). Therefore, when
an idea or point of view is logically established and that idea is found
supported by the rishis in their Upanisadic declarations, that idea becomes an
authentic conclusion.
That karma is not the means to liberation and that jnana alone
is the effective and sole means has been proven so far on the strength of mere
arguments and common-sense logic. Here, that very same conclusion shown to be
doubly valid because the Upanisads also clearly declare the same idea.
In the Taittiriyaranyaka, we read the rishi clearly declaring :
“Immortality, and timeless Essence, can be realized not through karma, nor
through children, nor through wealth; it is gained only through renunciation.”
This is not done to insult the Vedas, but to show the way to liberation.
Through karma, one who has already quieted and purified the inner equipments
(antahkarana) must now give up all activities and compose oneself into deep
contemplation upon the nature of the Self.
This declaration gets again reconfirmed in the bold statement of
Yagnavalkya to Maitreyi in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad : Liberation is to be
achieved by the process of negation (netineti). Practice negation, and you
arrive at the state of Self. This path of contemplation requires no help from
any action (born of duality).’
Laksmana had asked, “Please tell me what is known to you as the
most direct means to realize the timeless Self.” Sri Ramacandra has just
elaborated upon the path of knowledge (jnana marga) in answer to Laksmana’s
question.
From these two different scriptural declarations, it becomes
clear beyond all traces of doubt that karma, the product of “nonapprehension”
cannot take us to the direct apprehension of the Self. It can only create more
and more karma, and ultimately tie us down to the level of the ego and its
vanities of doership and enjoyership. “I do” and I-experience” are the constant
whisperings of the ego. Jnana (apprehension) alone can end ajnana
(nonapprehension).
This direct apprehension is independent, and need no support
from any karma. Where the physical, mental, and intellectual karmas cease, the
Self becomes self-evident in its own effulgence.
Text XXII
vidyasamatven tu darsitstvaya kraturna drstanta udahrtah samah
phalaih prthaktvadbahukarakaihkratuh samsadhyate jnanamato viparyayam.
The example you had given to prove the similarity between karma
(yajna, and so on) and jnana (knowledge) is not proper, because each produces
different results. Also, karma (yajna) can be performed with the help of many
accessories, whereas knowledge is opposite of this.
In verse 13 we heard the Samuccaya Vadins thundering their
argument and hammering it tight by an example. Just as yajnas are performed
with the help of many things, jnana needs the support of karma to accomplish itself,
they said. This lame argument has no legs to stand on. The Samuccaya Vadins can
never prove what they are supposed to assert, the jnana needs the support of
karma.
You had tried to show the similarity between karma and
knowledge, but your example fell flat, proving nothing. Why? Only because the
two have contrary results. Karma can produce only more and more karmas, to
fulfill which new bodies have to be taken to play them out in ever-widening
fields and pastures new.
Also, the accomplishment of karma is accompanied by many
accessories. But vidya (knowledge) is free and independent of all accessories.
Therefore, karma and jnana are contrary factors: karma springs from body
consciousness; while vidya comes to be when this body-consciousness is eliminated.
Text XXIII
sapratyavayou hyahamitanatmadhi – rajnaprasiddha na tu
tattvadarsinah tasmad budhaistyajyamavikriyatmabhir – vidhanatah karma
vidhiprakasitam.
“If I don’t perform karma, I will incur sin.” This erroneous
notion about oneself is true only in the case of ignorant ones and not for a
seer of Truth. Therefore, wise men who have realized their nature to be the
acitonless, changeless Self should renounce all karmas prescribed by the Vedas.
The Samucaya Vedins had argued earlier that the scriptures have declared that it is a sin not to perform karmas. Sri Ramacandra is now trying to explain the implication. The idea “I will be committing a sin in defaulting on my prescribed karmas” belongs to them who have identified with their own misapprehensions, never to those who have ended their nonapprehension. To the limited ego, such fears are natural.
The Samucaya Vedins had argued earlier that the scriptures have declared that it is a sin not to perform karmas. Sri Ramacandra is now trying to explain the implication. The idea “I will be committing a sin in defaulting on my prescribed karmas” belongs to them who have identified with their own misapprehensions, never to those who have ended their nonapprehension. To the limited ego, such fears are natural.
The wise man, in his actionless state of contemplation,
renounces all actions – even those prescribed by the Vedas. In Vivekacudamani,
Sri Sankaracarya brings it out very vividly. Only those who are conscious of
the body through their identification with it experience joy and sorrow and
evaluate things as auspicious (subha-punya) and as inauspicious (asubha-papa)
But he from whom this body consciousness has left, who has merged himself in
the Self-how can he recognize these vivid experiences of the ego ?
Therefore, he who has reached the state beyond the body, beyond
the gunas (the three thought textures), beyond the emotions of joy and sorrow,
to him even the prescribed Vedic rituals are empty and should be renounced. In
that higher state of Consciousness, it is not possible to undertake any work.
Text XXIV
sraddhanvitastattvamasiti vakyato guroh prasadadapi
suddhamanasah vijnaya caikatmyamathatmajivayoh sukhi bhavenmerurivaprakampanah.
A man of pure mind, endowed with faith, through contemplation of
the great statement “That thou art,” with the grace of the teacher comes to
realize the perfect identity between the Paramatman and jiva, and then gains
supreme happiness and becomes like the Meru Mountain, unperturbed under all
circumstances.
Sri Ramacandra, demonstrating the art of a perfect teacher of Vedanta, beautifully maps out the stages on the spiritual path for the benefit of Laksmana, his disciple. Having purified the mind, through desireless activities, into a complete steadiness, the seeker gathers a fresh momentum in his growing understanding–and so in his faith in the higher Reality. Thereafter, through steady and deep contemplation upon the pregnant suggestions of the great statement “That thou art,” he becomes supremely happy, and, like the Meru Mountain, is steady under all circumstances.
Sri Ramacandra, demonstrating the art of a perfect teacher of Vedanta, beautifully maps out the stages on the spiritual path for the benefit of Laksmana, his disciple. Having purified the mind, through desireless activities, into a complete steadiness, the seeker gathers a fresh momentum in his growing understanding–and so in his faith in the higher Reality. Thereafter, through steady and deep contemplation upon the pregnant suggestions of the great statement “That thou art,” he becomes supremely happy, and, like the Meru Mountain, is steady under all circumstances.
That which functions as conscious individual ego (jiva), that
which expresses itself as the world of plurality (jagat), and the Creator of it
all (Isvara) are all expressions of the one Essence, the Self. To realize this
essential identity between the ego and the Self is the final goal and true
destination of all spiritual seeking. To reach this goal means to achieve a state
of blissful Consciousness (citananda), a state possible only for the extremely
pure mind.
Text XXVI
adau padarthavagatirhi karanam vakyarthavijnanavidhau vidhanatah
tattvampadarthau paramatmajivka – vasiti caikatmyamathanayorbhavet.
It is well known that according to the rules for understanding
the true meaning of a given sentence, understanding the meaning of individual
words is the initial means. (In the sentence “That thou art,” the words “That”
and “thou” indicate the Paramatman and jivatman, respectively, and the word
“art” indicates the total identity between the two.)
In the earlier verse, Sri Rama suggested that one must analyze and examine the deeper significance of the great statement “That thou art.” This verse reveals how this analysis is to be undertaken and shows the technique of discovering the deeper significance of the terms employed. In order to grasp the silent and secret suggestiveness of the mahavakya, in the beginning (adau) each word is to be thoroughly examined with the help of the scriptures, as guided by the ancient teachers. Knowing the exact import of all the words employed in a sentence reveals the total idea communicated by the sentence.
In the earlier verse, Sri Rama suggested that one must analyze and examine the deeper significance of the great statement “That thou art.” This verse reveals how this analysis is to be undertaken and shows the technique of discovering the deeper significance of the terms employed. In order to grasp the silent and secret suggestiveness of the mahavakya, in the beginning (adau) each word is to be thoroughly examined with the help of the scriptures, as guided by the ancient teachers. Knowing the exact import of all the words employed in a sentence reveals the total idea communicated by the sentence.
Free thinking may not help in exact sciences like mathematics.
Every theorem in mathematics has its own definite significance. By the grace of
the mathematics teacher alone can the student of mathematics hope to learn this
precise meaning.
The term “That” (tat), in its direct word meaning, indicates the
omnipotent, omniscient, ever-free God Principle (Isvara), which has for its
conditioning the Total Mind (Maya). The word “thou” (tvam) indicates, in its
direct word meaning, the individual entity (ego), which is limited in its power
(if not completely helpless), and conditioned by a total sense of
nonapprehension of Reality, indicated in the scriptural texts as spiritual
ignorance (avidya).
To say that these two, the God Principle and the individualized
ego, are identical is to talk through the hat. The direct word meanings of
these two terms do not signify this essential and total identity declared in
the mahavakya. Therefore, Sri Rama employs the very expressive phrase “now”
(atha), meaning that this identity is to be realized not through superficial,
direct meanings of the words, but through their implied suggestiveness
(laksana).
English Wording:
pratyakparoksadi virodhamatmanor – vihaya sangrhya
tayoscidatmatam samsodhitam laksanaya ca laksitam jnatva svamatmanamathadvayo
bhavet.
Rejecting the difference of nearness and remoteness and so on, between
jivatman and Paramatman, one should know one’s own nature as that of pure
Consciousness, arrived at through inquiry and implied by the method of
implication. Thereafter, realizing one’s own true Self as Brahman, one should
merge to become one with it.
Give up the confusions that might arise in accepting the direct
meaning of the terms tat and tvam. The direct meaning of tat is the Creator,
who is not perceivable by our sense organs or comprehensible through our
emotions or rational thinking. The direct meaning of the word tvam is the
individualized ego; we perceive its calamitous confusions at very close
quarters. To say that the ego and the Creator are identical will not withstand
the scrutiny of reason because of their contrary natures. It is in the
suggestive meanings of the two terms that their identity is justified, and we
can arrive at this understanding only through a careful and exhaustive
investigation into these suggestive meanings. When we examine tat and tvam
closely (samsodhitam) and successfully derobe them of their conditioning,
avidya and Maya, we come to recognize the pure state of Consciousness, which is
the one enlivening Essence behind both the ego and the Creator. The difference
between the two is only between the equipments of the individualized mind and
the Total Mind. The contemplative student, in the final stages of his
contemplation upon the mahavakya, comes to realize the perfect identity between
the essence in him (jiva) and the essence behind the universe (Isvara).
After gaining direct knowledge of this sacred and divine
identity (atha), the seeker merges to become one with the infinite Self: the
river loses its distinct name and form and merges with the ocean to become one
with it. On awakening from the dream, the dreamer folds up his dream world and
his experience in the dream and disappears to become one with the waker. In an
effortless movement in moments of intense contemplation, the individualized ego
glides into a new dimension of consciousness and there disappears to become one
with Brahman. At this moment one could declare that one has “reached the Goal”,
but that statement is meaningless, just as it is meaningless to cry out that we
“got” the key – which was, during our entire search for it, lying quietly in
our pocket !
Text XXVII
ekatmakatvajjahati na sambhave- ttathajahallaksanata virodhatah
so yampadarthaviva bhagalaksana yujyeta tattvampadayoradosatah.
Since the suggestive meaning of the terms tat and tvam indicates
their total identity, the jahati method cannot be employed. Neither can we use
the ajahati method, because in the direct meaning there is total distinction
between the two. Here the method of bhaga-tyaga is to be applied without fear
or any misapprehension, as in the case of the sentence, “He is this man.”
In our daily communication, we liberally employ the suggestive
meaning lyig hidden behind sentences. The intelligent listener sometimes
rejects what is meant literally by the sentence to make sense out of the
sentence heard (jaha laksana); sometimes the intelligent listener will have to
add something in order to interpret a statement correctly (ajaha laksana); and
sometimes he has to give up some aspect and retain another one in order to
recognize the exact meaning of a statement made by others (jaha ajaha laksana).
When my listener hears the statement “My house is right on the
sea.” he does not conclude that the house is made up of cork and bamboo and is
floating on the sea, but he subtracts the sea from under the building and
understand that my house is next to the sea, but standing firmly upon its own
foundation. This is an example of ajahati.
When any intelligent listener hears the statement “The guns
marched,” he adds a soldier under every gun; this is an example of an ajahati
laksana.
“That Devadatta (as a child) is this youth” is a statement
wherein a child from a given time an place and of a given size and with other
qualities of childhood is shown to have become, after fourteen years, this
youth. The listener has to subtract the time, the place, the size, the shape,
the innocence in the child and add the new time, place, size, shape, and the
mischief of the youth, retaining the person himself, in order to arrive at the
perfect identity between the person in the child and the square-shouldered teenager
who is now sitting right in front of him. This is an example of jaha ajaha
laksana.
Sri Ramacandra is elaborately explaining to his dear brother
Laksmana that to grasp the significance of the mahavakya, we have to use the
method of jaha ajaha laksana, which is also called bhaga laksana. Because jiva
and Isvara are in essence nothing but the one Self (ekatmakattvat), jahati
laksana cannot be used.
Similarly, in trying to understand the significance of tat tvam
asi, we see the word meanings to be the supreme Lord of the Universe, the
Creator (Isvara), and the limited ego (jiva). They are different in their
expressions because of the difference in their equipments, ignorance (avidya)
and total vasanas (Maya).
We cannot employ jaha laksana and conclude that avidya is Maya –
this is not the goal of Vedanta. To pursue such a goal would be a wasteful
expenditure of human energy.
Similarly, we cannot use the ajaha laksana method by merely
analyzing and concluding that avidya, conditioned Consciousness, is jiva and
that Maya-conditioned Consciousness is Isvara. The student is not arriving at
the direct apprehension of “I am Brahman.” Therefore, ajaha laksan is not an
adequate method for apprehending the spiritual Essence.
We will have to use bhaga laksana (also called bhaga-tyaga
laksana), wherein the contradictory factors, such as avidya and Maya are
removed, and we understand that the Self that expresses itself through these
two equipments, manifesting itself as jiva and Isvara, is one and the sme
Essence.
Pure Maya is extremely sattvic. When it is disturbed by rajas
and therefore muddied by tamas, it becomes avidya. At this moment, avidya is
the equipment in the seeker. When he quiets the mind and eliminates the rajas
that creates the misapprehensions and the tamas that creates nonapprehension.
Sattva increases in his inner equipment; and when this process is continued,
the mind becomes more and more quieted inits creative poise (sattva). Sattva by
itself can never exist except in combination with rajas and tamas. When all
rajas is removed, in that pure sattvic state, the nonapprehension created by
tamas ends, and the individual goes beyond sattva to realize his own pure Self.
Text XXVIII
rasadipancikrtabhutasambhavam bhogalayam duhkhasukhadikarmanam
sariramadyantavadadikarmajam mayamayam sthulamupadhimatmanah
Made up of the five gross elements, for example, the earth, a
hut of all experiences, fashioned by one’s own past actions, having a beginning
and an end, a product of Maya – is the gross body. This is considered to be the
gross equipment of the Self.
The Self is not readily available for our recognition because at this moment it is conditioned by – is expressing or functioning through, is wrapped up in – its equipments (upadhis). In this verse and the following two, Sri Rama defines and describes the nature and function of the gross, subtle, and causal bodies, which are the three equipments enlivened by the Self. In this verse, he gives an exhaustive definition of the gross body. The material from which the gross body is made is a happy mixture of the five gross elements. The process by which the subtle elements (tanmatras) become grossified is elaborately described in our sastras. The gross material from which bodies are made, whether they belong to plants, animals, or humans, comes from the same five gross elements. However, the same material can be structured in may different ways, and the blueprint is determined by the individual’s own past actions. The past actions recorded in our personality are called vasanas; and these vasanas determine the shape of the gross body (of a plant, animal, or human): its healthy or unhealthy condition, its size and shape, its color. We have taken this present body in order to exhaust our past impressions, known collectively as prarabdha.
The Self is not readily available for our recognition because at this moment it is conditioned by – is expressing or functioning through, is wrapped up in – its equipments (upadhis). In this verse and the following two, Sri Rama defines and describes the nature and function of the gross, subtle, and causal bodies, which are the three equipments enlivened by the Self. In this verse, he gives an exhaustive definition of the gross body. The material from which the gross body is made is a happy mixture of the five gross elements. The process by which the subtle elements (tanmatras) become grossified is elaborately described in our sastras. The gross material from which bodies are made, whether they belong to plants, animals, or humans, comes from the same five gross elements. However, the same material can be structured in may different ways, and the blueprint is determined by the individual’s own past actions. The past actions recorded in our personality are called vasanas; and these vasanas determine the shape of the gross body (of a plant, animal, or human): its healthy or unhealthy condition, its size and shape, its color. We have taken this present body in order to exhaust our past impressions, known collectively as prarabdha.
All bodies, all names and forms, are conditioned in time, and
therefore they are perpetually in a state of change. They are finite: they have
a beginning and an end.
Nonapprehension of Reality creates misapprehensions, and the
three equipments, the gross, subtle, and casual, are all products of this
nonapprehension, avidya. This gross body, described so eleborately, is the
gross equipment in which the Atman, the Self, is conditioned to become the ego
(jiva).
In these three verses, Sri Ramacandraji is trying to dissect and
exposethe significance of the term “thou” (tvam) in the mahavakya. The Self
(Atman) is a mere witness, itself unaffected by the equipments. But we,
identifying with the equipments, express ourselves as limited entities. The
gross body is not the Self. It is only an equipment through which the Self
apparently expresses itself.
Text XXIX
suksmam manobuddhidasendriyairyutam
pranairapancikrtabhutasambhavam bhoktuh sukhaderanusadhanam bhave-
cchariramanyadviduratmano budhah
Consisting of the mind, the intellect, the ten organs (of
perception and action), and the five pranas, and structured from the five
subtle elements, this serves as the instruments for the jiva togather its
experience of joy and sorrow – this equipment of the Self is declared by the
wise as the subtle body.
The gross body is supported by the subtle body, which consists of the mind and intellect, the faculties in the five sense organs of action and perception, and the powers called pranas, which govern and control the five physio-logical systems.
The gross body is supported by the subtle body, which consists of the mind and intellect, the faculties in the five sense organs of action and perception, and the powers called pranas, which govern and control the five physio-logical systems.
These seventeen items together constitute the subtle bdoy, which
once again is structured from the five subtle elements (tanmatras). The subtle
body is the instrument that serves the individual in contracting the world
outside and gathering experiences of joy and sorrow.
Text XXX
anadyanirvacyampiha karanam mayapradhanam tu param sarirakam
upadhibhedattu yatah prthak sthitam svatmanamatmanyavadharayetkramat
The timeless and indescribable Maya product body constitutes the
third equipment of the Self, which is declared by the rishis as the causal
body. Since the Self is separate from these different equipments, let the
seeker learn to recognize his true Self in the heart (negating the equipments)
in stages.
In his dissection of the human personality – while trying to point out tous the Self, which is beyond the personality – Sri Rama describes the third and last of the equipments, the causal body (karana sarira). Because it consists of vasanas, we are justified in calling it the casual body, since vasanas determine the nature and the quality of the individual’s gross and subtle bodies, as well as the environments and circumstances that those bodies confront in the form of objects, emotions, and thoughts. This subtlest of equipments functions in one’s body in deep sleep; it is pure state of nonapprehension, because of which all misapprehensions arise. Therefore, it is right to name it the causal body.
In his dissection of the human personality – while trying to point out tous the Self, which is beyond the personality – Sri Rama describes the third and last of the equipments, the causal body (karana sarira). Because it consists of vasanas, we are justified in calling it the casual body, since vasanas determine the nature and the quality of the individual’s gross and subtle bodies, as well as the environments and circumstances that those bodies confront in the form of objects, emotions, and thoughts. This subtlest of equipments functions in one’s body in deep sleep; it is pure state of nonapprehension, because of which all misapprehensions arise. Therefore, it is right to name it the causal body.
The nonapprehension of Reality and the consequent
misapprehensions are together called ignorance (avidya or Maya). Thus, even
though the three bodies are all together expressions of the same avidya, for
purposes of analytical study, they have been depicted as three distinct
entities, Essentially separate (prthak stitha) from these three is the pure
Self, which enlivens them all by its mere presence (sannidhimatrena).
Sri Ramacandra wants Laksmana to grasp this idea and firmly make
it his own personal knowledge. The Self is the Consciousness that illumines our
equipments, they being nothing but Consciousness itself grossified, just as the
objects in our dream are projections of our mind stuff.
English Wording:
kosesvayam tesu tu tattadakrtir – vibhati sangatsphatikopalo
yatha asangarupo yamajo yato ‘dvayo vijnayate ‘sminparito vicarite.
Just as by the contact of a red flower, a crystal glass looks
apparently red, so too, this Self, unattached and unborn, when in contact with
the five kosas (sheaths), appears to be of their characteristic individual
nature. But when one discriminate intelligently and thoroughly, then one
realizes that the Self is unborn and not attached to anything, since it is
nondual.
If Atman, the Self, is unborn and not attached to anything, how
is it that it appears to have no existence other than in the form of gross,
subtle, and causal bodies ? Such a question would be natural in the mind of
Laksmana. Anticipating such a doubt, Sri Ramacandra explains this phenomenon of
delusion-superimposition.
A crystal glass is spotless and colorless; but when we place a
red flower near it, the glass appears to have red color. Against a blue
background it appears blue. When it tests upon a yellow tablecloth, it appears
yellow. These colors are not its own. It has no color in itself. Yet, it
reflects whatever color is in contract with it.
In the same way, while functioning through the five kosas, the
Self, Consciousness, appears to have gathered to itself all the properties of
the kosas. This apparent illusion created upon a substratum is called
superimposition. The Self is ever unattached. That which is unattached can
never get contaminated by anything; yet, the Self appears to be of the nature
of the kosas (personality sheaths), in which, at any given time, it happens to
function. When it is playing in the gross body, it appears to have for itself
all the properties of the gross body – the body appears fat, lean, black,
white, healthy, and so on. This gross body is called annamayakosa (the food
sheath).
The subtle body consists of the pranamayakosa (vital air
sheath), the manomayakosa (mental sheath), and the vijnanamayakosa
(intellectual sheath). The causal body is called anandamayakosa (bliss sheath).
In whichever kosa Consciousness functions, it temporarily appears to be
entirely of the nature of that particular kosa. When we intelligently reconsider
this situation in all its total implications, we can distinguish the Self from
the not-Self. Discarding the not-Self, the seeker can realize his own ego as
nothing other than the pure Self, ever unattached and nondual. This is
accomplished by intelligent contemplation upon the great statement (mahavakya)
“That thou art.”
This Self is unborn, ever present, and uncontaminated by
anything that exists in it. Therefore, it is advaya; the Chandogya Upanisad
confidently proclaims that the Self is one without a second. Only when it
functions through the equipments does it appear to be many. This is to be
rightly realized.
Text XXXII
buddhestridha vrttirapiha drsyate svapna dibhedena
gunatrayatmanah anyonyato ‘sminvyabhicarato mrsa nitye pare brahmani kevale
sive.
The intellect comes under the sway of the three gunas;
therefore, it has three states of consciousness, such as the dream state. Since
the experiences in the three states contradict each other, they are by
themselves illusions and they do not exist in this eternal, supreme, non-dual,
ever-auspicious Brahman.
The intellect comes under the sway of the three gunas: sattva,
rajas, and tamas. Tamas creates “veiling,” incapacitating the intellect to know
the Truth. This nonapprehension creates misapprehensions projected by the mind,
expressing themselves as rajoguna. When tamas and rajas are reduced, the mind
and intellect enter into a calm domain of creative poise called sattva. The
waking, dream, and deep-sleep states are thus all experienced by the equipments
and not by the Consciousness, the Self. These three states are conditions of
the intellect and not of the Self, which is the same Consciousness ever present
in all the three states of vivid experience.
An intelligent person, however, can detect the obvious fact that
the three states contradict and cancel each other. The security of one’s
well-to-do existence in the waking state can, for instance, be contradicted by
the object poverty in one’s dream. And the experience of both the waking and
the dream states are entirely negated in the peaceful state of deep sleep.
Truth is something that cannot be contradicted at any time or at
any place. That which can be contradicted is false; it is an illusion, a
delusion. The Self is never contradicted in the three periods of time. In the
Self, which is beyond the three bodies, the five kosas, and the three states –
in the pure, nondual Self, the individuality as we now experience it can never
be. Recognizing all these as the not-Self, reject them all and be in the pure
state of the blissful Self.
Text XXXIII
dehendriyapranamanascidatmanam sanghadajasram parivartate dhiyah
vrttistamomulatayajnalaksana yavadbhavettavadasau bhavodbhavah
The inner equipments, presided over by the Self, come to
identify with the body, the sense organs, prana, the mind, and so on. This
complex makes the intellect dance in endless thoughts. Because thoughts stem
forth from tamas, they are of the nature of ignorance. As long as the intellect
remains, so long remains this birth in samsara.
In the Self, in pure Consciousness, there is no perception of plurality, as it is one without a second. Consciousness has no senses to perceive, no mind to feel, nor an intellect to think. But when the inner equipments are presided over by Consciousness and Consciousness floods through that complex, perceptions and feelings start and the intellect is made to dance to their tunes. Electricity by itself does not produce light or heat or sound, but explodes into expression when it functions through various equipments – a bulb, a heater, or a radio. The play of dancing thoughts springs from nonapprehension of Reality (tamas), creating all misapprehensions (rajas). Thus tamas creates rajas; that is, nonapprehension (tamas) creates all misapprehensions (rajas).
In the Self, in pure Consciousness, there is no perception of plurality, as it is one without a second. Consciousness has no senses to perceive, no mind to feel, nor an intellect to think. But when the inner equipments are presided over by Consciousness and Consciousness floods through that complex, perceptions and feelings start and the intellect is made to dance to their tunes. Electricity by itself does not produce light or heat or sound, but explodes into expression when it functions through various equipments – a bulb, a heater, or a radio. The play of dancing thoughts springs from nonapprehension of Reality (tamas), creating all misapprehensions (rajas). Thus tamas creates rajas; that is, nonapprehension (tamas) creates all misapprehensions (rajas).
As long as thoughts are dancing in the mind and our attention is
dissipated into the world outside, so long the world of plurality appears to be
real. The seeker who is thus perceiving plurality maintains an ego-sense
(jiva-bhavana). This limited ego must necessarily get tossed about helplessly
in the midst of its endless imaginations and fancied experience of joy and
sorrow. The experiencer can only experience the miserable world of plurality
and cannot comprehend, nor ever spiritually apprehend, the one Self, the One
without a second. Only when the sense of individuality gets merged in the
higher state of Consciousness can the world of perceived plurality totally
cease to persecute the individual ego.
Until we discover the rope, the imagined serpent-in-the-rope,
with its dreadful fangs, will frighten th deluded.
Text XXXIV
netipramanena nirakrtakhilo hrda samasvaditacidghanamrtah
tyajedasesam jagadattasadrasam pitva yathambhah prajahati tatphalam.
After rejecting all the equipments with the help of the famous scriptural
statement “Not this, not this” and experiencing the immortal, changeless mass
of pure Consciousness in his heart, the wise man, having enjoyed the existent,
blissful Self, should discard the entire world, just as one throws away the
empty shell of a tender coconut after having enjoyed the sweet water of the
fruit.
The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad concludes that the outer vehicles of life are not the Self and thus indicates the pure Self through a process of repeated negation of the not-Self : When an individual, through the process of negation (“Not this, not this”) dismisses the entire perceived world and frees himself from all equipments of experience as well as the fields of experience, he – in his quiet, alert, vigilant mind-intellect equipment – comes to experience the state of pure Consciousness, Brahman, the Blissful. Thereafter, he renounces everything that was seen and experienced in the state of misapprehension – he rejects them all for all time to come.
The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad concludes that the outer vehicles of life are not the Self and thus indicates the pure Self through a process of repeated negation of the not-Self : When an individual, through the process of negation (“Not this, not this”) dismisses the entire perceived world and frees himself from all equipments of experience as well as the fields of experience, he – in his quiet, alert, vigilant mind-intellect equipment – comes to experience the state of pure Consciousness, Brahman, the Blissful. Thereafter, he renounces everything that was seen and experienced in the state of misapprehension – he rejects them all for all time to come.
Having enjoyed the pure Self, which is the substratum for all
plurality (atta sadrasam), reject the sorrow-ridden names and forms, urges
Rama. He brings this subtle idea to his dear brother’s mind through a simple
but brilliant example: A traveler opens up a tender coconut. Having drunk of
its ambrosial sweetness and feeling refreshed, he, without any regret, easily
drops the useless, empty shell. So too, having experienced the blissful Self,
with effortless ease and ready comfort, drop the delusory shell of names and
forms that constituted the world of sorrows in your past.
Text XXXV
kadacidatma na mrto na jayate na ksiyate napi vivardhate ‘navah
nirastasarvatisayah sukhatmakah svayamprabhah sarvagato ‘yamadvayah
This Self is never born, never grows up, never decays, and never
dies, It is not new; that is, it is most ancient, devoid of all attributes of
the equipments. It is blissful, self-effulgent, all-pervading and One without a
second.
In the previous verse, Sri Rama indicated that we must learn to enjoy the pure Self, the substratum of the pluralistic world, and having enjoyed this blissful Presence, we must throw away the pluralistic, finite, ever-changing world of names and forms, just as we throw away the shell after enjoying the delicious coconut water.
In the previous verse, Sri Rama indicated that we must learn to enjoy the pure Self, the substratum of the pluralistic world, and having enjoyed this blissful Presence, we must throw away the pluralistic, finite, ever-changing world of names and forms, just as we throw away the shell after enjoying the delicious coconut water.
Since Atman, the Self, is beyond the intellect, it is timeless
and therefore also changeless. It is ever the same in all the three periods of
time. Thus, it was never born. It is not an effect that has come out of any
cause. It is both changeless and unborn.
The Self never grows. If it was not even born, how can any
growth or modification come to it ? Neither does it decay. How can a thing that
is not born ever come to decay ? Being changeless and immutable, it can never
die. That which was not born can never die. And that which has neither birth
nor death is infinite, permanent.
The Self cannot be called new because it was, is, and shall ever
be. Thus, Rama uses a very forceful word, a-nava, “not new.” The Self is
perpetual (sasvata) and most ancient (purana). These are the terms in which the
Katha Upanisad declares the nature of the Self.
When we discover the gross, subtle, and causal bodies and their
objects as mere whiffs of our delusory fancies, and reject them all by the
Upanisadic technique of “Not this, not this,” what remains as the substratum is
the Self.
This state of the Self is one of blissful beatitude. It is
self-effulgent, all-pervading, and nondual.
evamvidhe jnanamaye sukhatmake katham bhavo duhkhamayah
pratiyate ajnanato ‘dhyasavasatprakasate jnane viliyeta virodhatah ksanat.
In this pure Self, which is of the nature of pure Consciousness
and infinite Bliss, how can one perceive a pain-ridden world of names and forms
? It appears only because of the nonapprehension (of the Self) and consequent
misapprehensions (of the body-mind-intellect equipments). When Knowledge
(realization) takes place, ignorance disappears instantaneously, it being
contrary to Knowledge.
If Atman is, indeed, blissful, how do we experience this
pain-ridden, endless misery of a pluralistic world ? In the changeless,
immutable Self, which is ever of the nature of pure Knowledge and infinite
Bliss, how can there be even a whiff of perception of samsara, the endless
flood of birth and death ? If the Self is blissful and One without a second,
how do we perceive and experience the world, which is of opposite nature –
riddled with pain and full of plurality ? In the nonapprehension of the Self
(ajnana), our misapprehension of the equipments arises; superim-posing the
nature of the not-Self upon the Self, we experience illusory world of endless
miseries.
Illusion, or Maya, expresses itself in us as the veiling power
(avarana) in the intellect, and as agitations (viksepa) in the mind. When our
true nature is thus veiled from our direct perception, an entire chain of miseries
is generated, including our sense of ego, from which our bondage and its
endless sorrows and pains arise.
Is there an escape from this calamitous state ? The teacher
points out that knowledge alone can wipe out ignorance – instantaneously,
effortlessly. All the names and forms projected by ignorance suddenly disappear
to become the one, all-consuming experience of the Self.
Text XXXVII
yadanyadanyatra vibhavyate bhrama-dadhyasamityahuramum
vipascitah asarpabhute ‘hivibhavanam yatha rajjvadike tadvadapisvare jagat.
To perceive a thing to be something other than itself and to
recognize the thing to be only what your perceive it to be is called by the
wise the phenomenon of superimposition. Just as in the rope, which has no
serpent, we see the serpent only, so too we see world of plurality
(superimposed) upon the Lord.
To recognize the world of plurality (ajnana) on something other
than itself (anyata), meaning Brahman, due to delusion (bhramat), we imagine
(vibhavyate) Brahman to be nothing other than world of plurality. Vedantic
literature calls this phenomenon superimposition (adhyasa). This is vivified by
the classical example repeated by Rama: upon a rope (and other round, long
things which have nothing to do with a serpent), in delusion, one perceives a
crawling serpent with its hood spread, ready to bite.
Similarly, upon Brahman, which has none of the qualities of the
finite world of plurality, the deluded individual, through an act of
superimposition, recognizes a world of ever-changing names and forms. In the
snake-rope example, nothing but the rope, in fact, exists, but due to the dim
light of the gathering gloom of dusk, we misapprehend it as a snake, which
quite naturally elicits fear. In truth, nothing but Brahman exists, One without
a second, blissful and perfect. Yet, in the nonapprehension of this Reality, we
entertain the misapprehension of a world of plurality riddled with sorrows and
clothed in imperfections. In Vedanta-sastra, this delusory vision of the
serpent in the rope is called the vivarta-theory.
When a thing, without losing its own essential nature, provides
experiences other than itself, it is called vivarta. The snake is the vivarta
of the rope. This world of plurality is the vivarta of Brahman. In
Aparoksanubhuti, Sankara explains this theory very clearly:
Just as the blue color in the sky, just as the illusion of
mirage waters in the desert, just as the ghost in the post, so too the world of
happenings upon the pure Self.
Just as in a lonely place a deluded one may get frightened of a
terrible face (vetala), jsut as in an idle moment one detects an entire city
among the clouds (castles in the air), just as due to a defect in our eyes we
may actually see a pair of moons in the sky, similarly, in truth we perceive
the dynamic world of happenings.
Earlier Sri Rama had demanded that his disciple recognize
Brahman, enjoy its delicious sweetness, and throw away the world of plurality
as we do the empty shell of a tender coconut. Now, the moment he reaches the
understanding that the snake is only a superimposition (adhyasa), the student
recognizes the rope: there is no thing else for him to throw away ! Similarly,
on awakening to Brahman, there is, in fact no world to be rejected. Brahman is
all-inclusive. Vedanta rejects nothing, accepts everything, but keeps nothing.
Text XXXVII
yadanyadanyatra vibhavyate bhrama-dadhyasamityahuramum
vipascitah asarpabhute ‘hivibhavanam yatha rajjvadike tadvadapisvare jagat.
To perceive a thing to be something other than itself and to
recognize the thing to be only what your perceive it to be is called by the
wise the phenomenon of superimposition. Just as in the rope, which has no
serpent, we see the serpent only, so too we see world of plurality
(superimposed) upon the Lord.
To recognize the world of plurality (ajnana) on something other
than itself (anyata), meaning Brahman, due to delusion (bhramat), we imagine
(vibhavyate) Brahman to be nothing other than world of plurality. Vedantic
literature calls this phenomenon superimposition (adhyasa). This is vivified by
the classical example repeated by Rama: upon a rope (and other round, long
things which have nothing to do with a serpent), in delusion, one perceives a
crawling serpent with its hood spread, ready to bite.
Similarly, upon Brahman, which has none of the qualities of the
finite world of plurality, the deluded individual, through an act of
superimposition, recognizes a world of ever-changing names and forms. In the
snake-rope example, nothing but the rope, in fact, exists, but due to the dim
light of the gathering gloom of dusk, we misapprehend it as a snake, which
quite naturally elicits fear. In truth, nothing but Brahman exists, One without
a second, blissful and perfect. Yet, in the nonapprehension of this Reality, we
entertain the misapprehension of a world of plurality riddled with sorrows and
clothed in imperfections. In Vedanta-sastra, this delusory vision of the
serpent in the rope is called the vivarta-theory.
When a thing, without losing its own essential nature, provides
experiences other than itself, it is called vivarta. The snake is the vivarta
of the rope. This world of plurality is the vivarta of Brahman. In
Aparoksanubhuti, Sankara explains this theory very clearly:
Just as the blue color in the sky, just as the illusion of
mirage waters in the desert, just as the ghost in the post, so too the world of
happenings upon the pure Self.
Just as in a lonely place a deluded one may get frightened of a
terrible face (vetala), jsut as in an idle moment one detects an entire city
among the clouds (castles in the air), just as due to a defect in our eyes we
may actually see a pair of moons in the sky, similarly, in truth we perceive
the dynamic world of happenings.
Earlier Sri Rama had demanded that his disciple recognize
Brahman, enjoy its delicious sweetness, and throw away the world of plurality
as we do the empty shell of a tender coconut. Now, the moment he reaches the
understanding that the snake is only a superimposition (adhyasa), the student
recognizes the rope: there is no thing else for him to throw away ! Similarly,
on awakening to Brahman, there is, in fact no world to be rejected. Brahman is
all-inclusive. Vedanta rejects nothing, accepts everything, but keeps nothing.
Text XXXVIII
vikalpamayarahite cidatmake – ‘hankara esa prathamah prakalpitah
adhyasa evatmani sarvakarane niramaye brahmani kevale pare
In Brahman, which is untouched by the projections of Maya – in
that pure Consciousness, the Substratum of all, which is untainted and ever
pure, first arises an egocentric self-consciousness. This is a mere
superimposition upon the Self.
From the pure Self, how can a world of plurality arise ? The Self is without the thought-agitations of the mind, and from this thoughtless state of pure Consciousness – which is of the nature of pure Knowledge unmuddied by the sorrows of the world – from this Self, a conceptual sense of an individualized ego is imagined. Thus, ego is the first misapprehension projected by Maya, the nonapprehension of Reality. The misconception that “I am the body, mind, and intellect,” and, therefore, “I am the perceiver, feeler, thinker” is the sense of doership and enjoyership that constitutes the individualized ego, which is the very first superimposition. In fact, there is no ego. There is nothing but the pure Self.
From the pure Self, how can a world of plurality arise ? The Self is without the thought-agitations of the mind, and from this thoughtless state of pure Consciousness – which is of the nature of pure Knowledge unmuddied by the sorrows of the world – from this Self, a conceptual sense of an individualized ego is imagined. Thus, ego is the first misapprehension projected by Maya, the nonapprehension of Reality. The misconception that “I am the body, mind, and intellect,” and, therefore, “I am the perceiver, feeler, thinker” is the sense of doership and enjoyership that constitutes the individualized ego, which is the very first superimposition. In fact, there is no ego. There is nothing but the pure Self.
Text XXXIX
icchadiragadi sukhadidharmikah sada dhiyah samsrtihetavah pare
yasmatprasuptau tadabhavatah parah sukhasvarupena vibhavyate hi nah.
The endless desires, the innumerable attachments, the varieties
of pleasure are all the various conditions of the intellect and are the causes
of samsara that always appear in the supreme Self. They belong to the intellect
only, since they are absent in the state of deep sleep when the intellect is
absent; at that time we experience the Self, which is of blissful nature.
In deep sleep, when the intellect is folded up, none of the various conditions of the intellect disturb the deep sleeper; he experiences only the bliss of sleep. Once the ego rises, the intellect, veiled by its nonapprehension, encourages the mind to project with its agitations a world of delusory objects. Thus, we come to misapprehend pure Brahman.
In deep sleep, when the intellect is folded up, none of the various conditions of the intellect disturb the deep sleeper; he experiences only the bliss of sleep. Once the ego rises, the intellect, veiled by its nonapprehension, encourages the mind to project with its agitations a world of delusory objects. Thus, we come to misapprehend pure Brahman.
These misapprehensions are mere superimpositions upon Brahman,
as the snake is superimposed on the rope. This process is the cause for the
experience of the world of plurality. Desires and desirelessness, attachment
and detachment, pain and pleasure – these pairs are indicated by the addition
of adi (etcetera) to each of these words; indeed, without a doubt, they all
belong to the inner equipment (buddhi). The term sada (always) indicates that
these pairs are not of the nature of Brahman but belong to the inner equipment
only, at all times and under all conditions. Identifying with these, the
individualized ego comes to suffer the tossings of the world of plurality.
Students will not easily accept the fact that these pairs of
opposites belong only to the inner equipment; therefore, the teacher reminds
the student that proof lies in his own experience. In deep sleep, when the
inner equipment quiets itself, all these urges of doership and enjoyership end.
The individual in sleep experiences a vast expanse of bliss, which is the
nearest experience that the deluded can have of the nature of the supreme Self.
Upon awakening, we all have a strikingly similar response: “I had a good sleep.
I enjoyed it well. It was blissful sleep.” Atman, the Self, as Consciousness,
is the illumining factor in our lives. It is ever present, even in sleep, to
illumine the absence of things, which we apprehend as joy, which is the very nature
of Atman. Only in deep sleep does the buddhi no longer function, and thus no
longer creates the illusions of desire.
Text XXXX
anadyavidyodbhavabuddhibimbito jivah prakaso ‘yamitiryate citah
atma dhiyah saksitaya prthak sthito buddhyaparicchinnaparah sa eva hi.
The light of pure Consciousness reflected in the intellect,
which is born out of beginningless ignorance, is called jiva, the
individualized ego. The Self as a mere witness ever revels as separate from the
intellect. That which is thus not conditioned by thoughts is, indeed, the
Paramatman, the supreme Self.
The direct word meaning of “thou” in the famous mahavakya “That thou art” is the individualized ego, which is the subject of Sri Ramacandra’s discussion in this verse. Out of the nonapprehension of Reality, which is recognized as timeless ignorance, is born the thought-flow, the buddhi, which represents the entire inner equipment. The light of Consciousness caught up in the play of these thoughts is the individualized, conscious ego. This is the direct meaning of the word “thou” in the mahavakya.
The direct word meaning of “thou” in the famous mahavakya “That thou art” is the individualized ego, which is the subject of Sri Ramacandra’s discussion in this verse. Out of the nonapprehension of Reality, which is recognized as timeless ignorance, is born the thought-flow, the buddhi, which represents the entire inner equipment. The light of Consciousness caught up in the play of these thoughts is the individualized, conscious ego. This is the direct meaning of the word “thou” in the mahavakya.
The individualized ego is limited in its knowledge and power. It
recognize itself as the doer and the enjoyer, the happy and unhappy entity.
Just as the sun is reflected in a bucket of water and appears to be the
sun-in-the-bucket, so too the light of Consciousness caught up in the web of
our thoughts appears to be the individuality.
In short, our thoughts glowing in the borrowed light of the Self
is the intelligent, individualized ego. This reflected consciousness
(cidabhasa), the ego, is that by whose glory the intellect has its intelligence
with which we can observe, analyse, and come to our endless decisions and
rational conclusions. This sense of ego in each one of us is considered by us
as our true self, and we refuse even to try to apprehend the real Self beyond
it.
The true Self is that which stands as a witness, uncontaminated
by the intellect and its thoughts, merely illumining them. This illuminator of
the thought flow is a mere witness, totally unattached by all the convulsions
of the inner equipment. The unattached Self is ever immaculate: it never gets
contaminated by the quality, quantity, or condition of the inner equipment
(asango na hi sajjate).
The Self, without any modification, ever remains as something
other than the flood of thoughts; when the sun in the bucket appears to be
dancing, the sun in the sky is unaffected by the movement of the water in the
bucket.
The Self is beyond the inner equipment; it merely blesses it
with its own life. It is not conditioned by the quality or nature of the
thoughts. Ever unconditioned by them is the pure Self.
cidbimbasaksyatmadhiyam prasangata- stvekatra
vasadanalaktalohavat anyonyamadhyasavasatprutiyate jadajadatvam ca
cidatmacetasoh.
Consciousness of the Self and the inertness of the intellect,
due to their mutual proximity, get mutually superimposed, just as iron pieces
glow in the fire. The product is the intelligent ego, a product of illusion.
When the self-effulgent supreme Consciousness and the inert
inner equipment, a product of subtle matter, remain very near to each other
(prasangatah), they combine together (ekatravasat), and the result is the
intelligent and consciousness ego. To bring it out clearly for Laksmana’s full
understanding and appreciation. Rama uses the classical example of iron and
fire:
Iron is cold to the touch and black in color; but when different
pieces of iron, beaten out in different geometrical shapes, are put into fire,
they become hot to the touch and golden in color. This becomes an example of
the phenomenon of mutual superimposition. The heat and golden color of the fire
are superimposed upon the black, cold iron, and the geometrical shapes of the
iron pieces are loaned out the fire. Together, in their unholy wed-lock, the
iron and fire present themselves to our perception as golden, fiery pieces of
precise geometrical patterns.
In the same way, thoughts of the intellect shining in the light
of Consciousness give us a vivid illusion of an intelligent sense of individuality.
This impossible marriage between the Consciousness of the Self and the inert
inner equipments gives rise to the feeling “I am my thoughts.”
Text XXXXII
guroh sakasadapi vedavakyatah sanjatavidyanubhavo niriksya tam
svatmanamatmasthamupadhivarjitam tyajedasesam jadamatmagocaram
When, through the grace of the guru, and also by deep
contemplation upon the suggested implications of the great Vedic statements,
the direct experience of Brahman is gained, the individual comes to “see.” in
his own heart, the pure Self, which is devoid of all conditionings. Thereafter,
let him give up the entire inert world perceived through the sense organs.
Having heard the science of Reality from the teacher through the
great statement tat tvam asi, the student does his own reflections and deep
contemplations, and comes to directly perceive the experience of Reality. The
verse indicates the standard classical sequence of spiritual learning:
listening to the teacher, reflecting upon the significance of what has been
heard, and practicing deep and continued contemplation upon the same subject.
The final end result of all this is direct experience. The experience of what ?
That which words cannot express, but which is the very
substratum of our personality is experienced by the seeker in his own heart.
That pure Self is experienced as devoid of all entrapments such as the gross,
the subtle, or the causal bodies.
When once this experience has descended upon the student of
contemplation, let him thereafter totally stop entertaining the gross, inert
world of objects, emotions, and thoughts.
Text XXXXIII
prakasarupo ‘hamajo’hamadvayo ‘sakrdvibhato ‘hamativa nirmalah
visuddhavijnanaghano niramayah sampuna anandamayo ‘hamakriyah.
I am self-effulgent, I am unborn. I am the One without a second.
I am the ever-resplendent light of Consciousness. I am extremely pure, the
uncontaminated mass of pure Consciousness. I am holy, infinite, blissful, and
actionless.
All the words used here by Sri Ramacandra are words borrowed from the Upanisads. Each one of them has very great significance. It is with these deep meanings for the terms employed that the teacher is able to communicate to the purified heart of the student the entire science of Reality (brahma-vidya).
All the words used here by Sri Ramacandra are words borrowed from the Upanisads. Each one of them has very great significance. It is with these deep meanings for the terms employed that the teacher is able to communicate to the purified heart of the student the entire science of Reality (brahma-vidya).
When seekers successfully turn their entire attention in the
direction indicated by these words and all their pregnant suggestions, they
arrive at the gate of Truth and themselves “disappear into the vision” of the
Supreme – just as a river, on arriving at the shore of the ocean, effortlessly
disappears into the ocean to become one with it.
This verse and the following one give us a chart on how to
perform nididhyasana, deep and continuous contemplation:
I am the source of all light, to know Me, no other light is
necessary. I am self-effulgent. I am without birth, and therefore
beginningless. I am One without a second; in Me there are no distinctions. (The
Chandogya Upanisad) insists that the Self is one alone, with no otherness).
I am like the sun, ever resplendent with the light of Consciousness.
Never does the light of Consciousness cease to be. Even when there are not
objects for it to illumine, as in deep sleep or under chloroform, Consciousness
illumines the very absence of everything !
I am never immaculate, with nothing to veil My intellect.
Nothing can create agitations in the mind. Both these are products of Maya;
therefore, I am beyond Maya.
I am unborn and continuous, the ever-present experience of
bliss. I am without any activity, meaning that I am ever the same, with no
modifications. There can never be any change in Me. Action can rise only as a
result of nonapprehension, and it feeds and gets fed by our likes and dislikes.
Since I am a pure mass of objectless Awareness, the all-pervading substratum
for all names and forms, there can never be any action.
This verse is specially meant for contemplation. It provides ten
arrow marks indicating the direction in which the student of contemplation
should hold his entire attention. All the ten terms employed here indicate,
from different angles of understanding, the one essential spring of all life,
the Self.
The following verse enumerates additional exercises in
contemplation.
Text XXXXIV
sadaiva mukto ‘hamacintyasaktima –
matindriyajnanamavikriyatmakah anantaparo ‘hamaharnisam budhair – vibhsvito
‘ham hrdi vedavsdibhih.
I am ever liberated. I am the power behind the universe which no
intellect can comprehend. I am that pure Knowledge which is beyond all sense
organs. I am immutable, endless, and shoreless. The erudite scholars of the
scriptures meditate upon Me, day and night, in their hearts.
This verse supplies six additional arrow marks that indicate the direction in which a student in his seat of contemplation must hold his mind’s entire attention. In short, this verse constitutes another set of exercises in contemplation:
This verse supplies six additional arrow marks that indicate the direction in which a student in his seat of contemplation must hold his mind’s entire attention. In short, this verse constitutes another set of exercises in contemplation:
I am ever liberated – in the past, present, and future; in the
waking, dream, and deep-sleep states; in all places, at all times, and under
all conditions. Never have I been bound, nor can I ever be in bondage in the future.
My power is immeasurable: in fact, I am the source of the
omnipotent Lord; being the creator, sustainer, and destroyer are all minor
expressions of my total power.
I can never be the object of the sense organs, nor of the inner
equipments. In short, I do not belong to the category of objects, emotions, or
thoughts. (I am so described in the Taittiriya Upanisad.)
I am without any change: none of the six modifications ever
touch Me. Birth, existence, growth, decay, disease, and death are the six
modifications through which all forms must necessarily pass, but none of them
can ever bring about any change in Me.
I am infinite : neither time, place, nor objects can ever
condition Me. I pervade them all. Since I am infinite, no-thing can limit Me. I
go beyond all limitations, and thus I am shoreless. It is this infinite nature
of Mine that is continuously contemplated upon by great saints and sages in
their quiet, alert, and vigilant hearts, suffused with a sattvic mood.
Both this and the previous verse are aimed at students of
contemplation for their daily practice of lifting their attention toward the
state of pure Consciousness.
Text XXXXV
evam sadatmanamakhanditatmana vicaramanasya visuddhabhavana
hanyadavidyamacirena karakai rasayanam yadvadupasitam rujah.
If we continuously expose the mind to the thought “I am
Brahman.” the special knowledge that arises removes, in a sudden flash, all
spiritual ignorance and its consequences, that is, the perception of plurality
– just as medicine taken regularly removes the disease and itself gets
eliminated, all by itself.
The benefit of practicing what has been advised in the previous
verse is spelled out here. By holding the mind exposed to this infinite Self,
the nonapprehension of the Self (avidya) and the consequent misapprehensions
(ajnana) are both blasted out, and the pure Self reveals itself. But we may
ask: are we not again creating a “thought” during our contemplation ? Instead
of thinking thoughts about the world of objects, are we not merely substituting
them with thoughts of the Self? If thoughts are still with us, will not the
mind continue to survive, and entangle us within its meshes? Will not golden
chains bind us as efficiently as iron shackles?
These are valid doubts of an intelligent armchair-Vedantin who
lacks the heroism to slip his seat of contemplation. However, Vedanta is a
subjective science, and any amount of mere study and argumentation will not
bring a clear understanding.
When a mind gets fully engaged in the practice indicated in the
previous verses, the quiet mind, uncluttered with thoughts of the world of
objects, expands to embrance the concept of the infinite Self, the sole
substratum of the entire perceived world of experiences. In this thoughts of
the infinite Self, thought is no more a thought: the thought-wave becomes a
wave with no amplitude, and therefore becomes a no-thought wave. Thus, when one
arrives at the Self, thoughts cease to be thoughts. The individuality merges
into the vision of the Reality.
The very “thought” of “The Self am I” (aham brahasmi iti vrtti)
is a “no-ware” (no vrtti); it merges to disappear in the direct experience
divine. This idea that the thought will merge and disappear by itself is not
easy for the intellectual student to grasp, and hence Sri Rama offers one of
the classical examples often used in Vedanta :
The medicine (rasayanam) taken by the sick corrects the
disturbance in the physical system (rujah) and then itself gets eliminated from
the system, all by itself; so too the brahmakara-vrtti (the thought “Brahma am
I”) ends all by itself when the seeker arrives at the realizion of the Self.
vivikta asina uparatendriyo vinirjitatma vimalantarasayah
vibhavayedekamananyasadhano vijnanadrkkevala atmasamsthitah
Settling oneself down in an undisturbed place, quieting the
sense organs from all disturbances of sense objects, holding the body steady
and unmoving, calming the mind from all its oscillations – established in the
pursuit of steady meditation and withdrawn from all other yoga-means – one
should steadily contemplate upon the one Self, the spring of life within.
Sri Rama explains a scheme consisting of five adjustments for
the contemplative student to strive for and successfully achieve in
establishing himself or herself on the path of contemplation. Newcomers to the
path must very diligently attend to all five adjustments:
Select the right place and time for your practice of meditation.
Choose a quiet place: there should be no disturbances, at least not from the
outside.
Clam the senses, and disengage them from all their preoccupations with sense objects.
Learn it sit firmly (sthira) and to hold the body without any swinging movement (acala). When the body is thus held firm and steady, the mind automatically enters into a state of inner poise and balance.
Many other yoga-means may have been pursued at one time or another by the student: Dedicated service to others (karmayoga), devotion to the Lord through worship of Him at the altar (bhaktiyoga), even serious and laboriously concentrated efforts to study and reflect upon the subtle declarations of the rishis in the Upanisads (jnanayoga), and so on. Memories of these might come up in the contemplative student’s mind as he sits in his seat of meditation. Let him learn to rise above these thoughts, and bend his entire attention to the nature of the Self, exclusively.
Let him then contemplate solely upon the one infinite Self, without allowing any other dissimilar thought current to crisscross his mind pell-mell.
These five adjustments are repeatedly indicated in many places along the vast expanse of Upanisadic literature. Thus gathering all the wandering rays of the mind, turn its entire attention to the one Self and learn to merge into the higher state of Consciousness.
Clam the senses, and disengage them from all their preoccupations with sense objects.
Learn it sit firmly (sthira) and to hold the body without any swinging movement (acala). When the body is thus held firm and steady, the mind automatically enters into a state of inner poise and balance.
Many other yoga-means may have been pursued at one time or another by the student: Dedicated service to others (karmayoga), devotion to the Lord through worship of Him at the altar (bhaktiyoga), even serious and laboriously concentrated efforts to study and reflect upon the subtle declarations of the rishis in the Upanisads (jnanayoga), and so on. Memories of these might come up in the contemplative student’s mind as he sits in his seat of meditation. Let him learn to rise above these thoughts, and bend his entire attention to the nature of the Self, exclusively.
Let him then contemplate solely upon the one infinite Self, without allowing any other dissimilar thought current to crisscross his mind pell-mell.
These five adjustments are repeatedly indicated in many places along the vast expanse of Upanisadic literature. Thus gathering all the wandering rays of the mind, turn its entire attention to the one Self and learn to merge into the higher state of Consciousness.
Text XXXXVII
visvam yadetatparatmadarsanam vilapayedatmani sarvakarane
purnascidanandamayo ‘vatisthate na veda bhayam na ca kincidantaram
English Meaning:
This dynamic world of things and beings perceived by us is
nothing but the supreme Self. One should merge it into that Self, the cause of
all. He who accomplishes this in himself is merged into the limitless, blissful
Self, and remains “knowing” nothing of his outer or inner worlds of plurality.
This dynamic world of names and forms is perceived by our
instruments of experience: the body, the mind, and the intellect. The
experience of this world of plurality is the perceiver-feeler-thinker entity,
who, in his present state of consciousness, perceives the world as a march of
events, a clamoring, noisy field of happenings. The individualized ego feels
persecuted by the tensions and struggles brought to him by the merciless
situations in his environment. Sri Rama is advising Laksmana that in the seat
of meditation the student must try to recognize that the entire world of
plurality, the endless crowds of confusing names and forms, are all but a
disturbance in the infinite Consciousness.
The roaring, thunderous hosts of oceanic waves are all nothing
but their own essential substratum, the serenely tranquil ocean.
One who accomplishes a full awakening into his own real nature
merges into the Self to become the Self. From that realm of pure Consciousness,
removed from all inner and outer pluralities of objects, he revels as the one
objectless Awareness.
Names and forms are the interpretations of our sense organs. In
deep sleep none of these names and forms disturb us. In the mood of
contemplation, the mind rises above the inner and outer worlds of plurality and
arrives at a unique state of consciousness where the Self alone is. It is a
state wherein all the mental and intellectual fluctuations have disappeared;
therefore, the mind-intellect (dhi) has become thoughtless, totally undisturbed
(sama). In this samadhi-state, thoughts cease, the mind-intellect withers away,
and the Consciousness that was caught in the web of thoughts gets released
totally from all its encumbrances. In this total state of liberation one
recognizes neither an outer world of names and forms, nor an inner world of
emotions and thoughts. The individual and his world of plurality merge to
disappear in the experience of the substratum, the Self.
Text XXXXVIII
purvam samadherakhilam vicintaye – domkaramatram sacracaram
jagat tadeva vacyam pranavo hi vacako vibhavyate ‘jnanavasanna bodhatah
Before reaching this state of total absorption (samadhi),
contemplate upon the entire universe of names and forms, the moving and the
unmoving as nothing but Omkara. Om is a sound symbol representing the entire
world. This (duality) appears due to ignorance and not after direct Knowledge.
This practice is valid only before direct Knowledge; never afterwards.
Now Sri Rama is trying to explain how to take the mind to the
state of total absorption (samadhi). Samadhi is of two kinds, with thoughts
(savikalpa) and with no thoughts (nirvikalpa). The former is popularly known as
the state of contemplation, and the latter is called the state of meditation.
In the state of contemplation (savikalpa), the contemplator has
an awareness of the subject-object relationship, technically called the
triputi. When the subject and object are merged into one awesome state of
infinite Existence, that state is called total absorption (nirvikalpa).
Sri Rama now indicates how to persuade the mind to enter into
these states of partial and total absorption. He first advises Laksmana to contemplate
upon the entire world of perceived names and forms as Om or Omkara. The
Mandukya Upanisad indicates how the three sounds that constitute Om (or Aum),
a, u, and m, represent the experience of our individual waking, dream, and
deep-sleep states. The silence between two successive Oms (amatra) represents
the pure Self.
Names and forms have a validity only when we are conscious of
them. One Consciousness illumines all names and forms, as well as all
perceptions of the outer world and of the inner mind. When we shift our
attention to the pure Consciousness, the names and forms merge, as it were –
just as in the waker’s mind the dreamer and his entire dream world merge.
To stimulate the condition of steady mental poise, which is the
immediate precondition for samadhi, contemplation upon Om is very useful.
Contemplation is neither necessary nor valid once the individual has merged
into the pure Self and directly lives the state divine.
Text XXXXIX
akarasamjnah puruso hi visvako hyukarakastaijasa iryate kramat
prajno makarah paripathyate ‘khilaih samadhipurvam na tu tattvato bhavet.
The rishis of the Vedic period declare that a-kara represents
the waker, u-kara represents the dreamer, and ma-kara, the deep sleeper, and
all their respective experiences. These distinctions are all valid only before
samadhi, never in the absolute nature of Reality.
As was mentioned in the commentary for the previous verse, the three sounds that together constitute Omakara represent the three states of consciousness through which every one of us moves during each twenty-four-hour day of our lives. The sound a represents the waking-state world of the waker; u represents the dreamer and his dream world; and m stands for the deep sleeper and his experience of the absence of things.
As was mentioned in the commentary for the previous verse, the three sounds that together constitute Omakara represent the three states of consciousness through which every one of us moves during each twenty-four-hour day of our lives. The sound a represents the waking-state world of the waker; u represents the dreamer and his dream world; and m stands for the deep sleeper and his experience of the absence of things.
All these pluralistic concepts prevail only before samadhi. Once
the mind is transcended, when the thought flow has ceased and the mind is in
state of total absorption, that is, has the vision of the realized saint, there
is neither the waker, the dreamer, nor the deep sleeper; neither the individual
nor the world of plurality (Virat); neither the Creator (Hiranyagarbha), nor
the Lord (Isvara), the Creator-Sustainer-Destroyer, the Intelligence behind the
cosmos. In the one Self there is neither the microcosmic world nor the
macrocosmic expansion of the same.
Text L
visvam tvakaram purusam vilapaye – dukaramadhye bahudha
vyavasthitam tato makare pravilapya taijasam dvitiyavarnam pranavasya cantime.
The a-letter sound in Aum represents the visva-jiva that expresses
in a thousand ways, along with its microcosmic expression as Virat, and it may
be merged into the u-letter sound, representing the taijasa-jiva, along with
its microcosmic expression as Hiranyagarbha. Now the u-letter sound, the second
letter in Aum, may be merged into the m-letter sound, the last of the triple
sounds that make up the Aum symbol.
The process of contemplation, how to fold up all the delusory manifestations of our perceived world of plurality by using Om-upasana (Om-worship), is being explained in this verse and the next. Both the microcosmic expressions of the Self in the individual, visva (waker-I), taijasa (dreamer-I), and prajna (deep-sleeper-I); and the microcosmic expansion of the Self, Virat (total gross world of forms), Hiranyagarbha (the Creator, the womb of the universe), and Isvara (the Lord), are to be merged into the Aum sound-symbol.
The process of contemplation, how to fold up all the delusory manifestations of our perceived world of plurality by using Om-upasana (Om-worship), is being explained in this verse and the next. Both the microcosmic expressions of the Self in the individual, visva (waker-I), taijasa (dreamer-I), and prajna (deep-sleeper-I); and the microcosmic expansion of the Self, Virat (total gross world of forms), Hiranyagarbha (the Creator, the womb of the universe), and Isvara (the Lord), are to be merged into the Aum sound-symbol.
This process is called upasana (worship). To recognize a mighty
vision in an insignificant symbol is called the art of worship. To see the Mother
Divine in an ordinary river Ganges; to see Siva in a stone idol; to see the son
of God and His sacrifice for man’s sins in a wooden cross – this is upasana. In
Om-upasana we try to seek the waker-I (visva) and the total universe of names
and forms (Virat) in the a sound. Then we merge this private gross world
(visva) and the universal gross world (Virat) into the subtle world of the
dreamer-I (taijasa) and the total womb of forms (Hiranyagarbha). Let this then
be merged into the last sound of Aum, the m sound, representing the
deep-sleeper-I (prajna) and the universal cause of both the gross and the
subtle worlds, the Lord (Isvara).
makaramapyatmani cidghane pare vilapayetprajnamapiha karanam so
‘ham param brahma sada vimuktima – dvijnanadrn mukta upadhito ‘malah.
Let the m-letter sound in Aum, representing the prajna-jiva,
which is the very cause for both visva-jiva and taijasa-jiva, be then merged in
the supreme Self, the mass of Consciousness. Come to live this Knowledge: “I am
the supreme Substratum for the universe, Brahman – ever free, untouched by the
filth of Maya, unconditioned by the equipments. This very Eye of Wisdom am I.
Continuing to expound upon the orthodox method of Om-upasana., Sri Rama says
that, having merged both the gross and the subtle into the causal principle of
Isvara, let it be merged into the pure Self, the one Brahman. The individually
that was flittering about as I (the waker, the dreamer, the deep sleeper) now
merges into the universal One, and the seeker comes to realize. “I am the
supreme mass of Consciousness; I am the supreme Substratum for the universe,
Brahman.
After merger with Brahman, there can no longer be any equipments
to condition the seeker, and therefore he becomes ever free (vimuktimat), fully
liberated from all the persecutions of his earlier body-mind-intellect
equipment (upadhittah muktah).
Since this state is beyond even the taints of vasanas, in this
pure state of Consciousness there is neither nonapprehension (avidya), nor the
consequent misapprehensions (dvaita pratiti); therefore, Sri Rama indicates it
as amalah (immaculate). In the pure, infinite Self there is neither tamas
(nonapprehension) nor viksepa (agitations caused by misapprehensions). The
mind-intellect becomes supremely sattvic; in fact, the Self transcends even
sattva. Thus it is glorified as being beyond the gunas – gunathita (amalah).
These are not mere objective descriptions of a unique state of consciousness.
In the fulfillment of Om-upasana, the student has a subjective realization that
he is the Self (so ‘ham parabrahma), the very eye of wisdom, the one light that
makes every experience shine (vijnana drk).
Text LII
evam sada jataparatmabhavanah svanandatustah parivismrtakhilah
aste sa nityatmasukhaprakasakah saksadvimukto ‘calavarisindhuvat.
A seeker who, through the above process, realizes directly pure
the nature of the Self becomes supremely contented in that blissful state of
the Self. He totally forgets all the experience of earlier jiva-hood and rises
above them. He remains effulgent and lives in the unbroken bliss of the Self.
Supremely free, be becomes like a stilled ocean.
Laboriously, Sri Rama is trying to communicate to his brother
the end result of Self-realization. For the person who has realized the nature
of the Self and who has totally identified with it, the whole world of
plurality (constituting the misapprehensions that rise out of the
nonapprehension of Reality) suddenly disappears – so totally that even its
memory cannot return back to him.
Such an individual’s mental condition is being described here in
terms of our worldly experiences, because we can understand the mind of the man
of realization only in terms of our own mind. Picture to yourself the roaring,
thunderous ocean, ever frothing and fuming in the continuous clash of waves. If
by the waving of a magic wand the waters of that ocean could suddenly be
transformed into utter stillness, the awesome beauty of that silence, the
majesty of that stillness perhaps could convey to your mind a vague picture of
the boundless state of hushed joy that the realized one experiences when the
mind becomes totally absorbed in the bliss of the silent Self (acala vari
sindhuvat).
Text LIII
Sanskrit Wording:
Sanskrit Wording:
evam sadabhyastasamadhiyogino nivrttasarvendriyagocarasya hi
vinirjitasesariporaham sada drsyo bhaveyam jita sadgunatmanah
He who thus sincerely and regularly practices this yoga of
contemplation, he who has withdrawn himself from the entire world of perceived
objects, he who has won a total victory over all the inner enemies, he who has
lifted himself from the six main urges of the body – to him alone I, the
Supreme, am directly available in an effortless act of perception.
Sri Rama points out four adjustments necessary for the spiritual seeker:
Sri Rama points out four adjustments necessary for the spiritual seeker:
To one who thus regularly practices samadhi, meaning who is
regular in his practice of meditation, in him the vasanas get burned up, and
consequently his mental agitations become increasingly fewer. To the extent
that rajas (misapprehension) gets eliminated at the mental level, to that extent
tamas (nonapprehension) also gets lifted at the intellectual level. The mood of
the mind-intellect under such a situation of inner peace and alertness is
called a sattvic mood. A sattvic mind settles easily into a steady,
contemplative mood.
The source of disturbance in the mind is its engagement in the world of sense objects. The mind gushes into the fields of objects only when it is whipped up by the desires in the intellect. The desire to possess, embrace, and enjoy sense objects comes out of the foolish values we entertain – the erroneous misconception that an object contains a certain amount of joy-content. Those who examine intelligently the nature of the world of things and beings and realize for themselves that finite entities are impermanent, sorrow-oozing, mind-dissipating, and therefore not desirable, end their unproductive efforts at gaining them.
The inner enemies are six in number: desire, anger, and so on. These six are the horrible faces of rajas, and they are the destroyers of the sattvic poise of the contemplative mind. When sattva increases, the rajoguna qualities that prompt one into continuous fields of work and exhausting anxieties naturally clam down and disappear.
One who has successfully escaped the six urges of the body – both gross and subtle – discovers an evergrowing intensity in one’s daily contemplation. These six physical and mental urges are exhaustively examined in the Upanisads, and the rishis have declared that hunger and thirst belong to the physiological system (prana), sorrows and passions belongs to the mind, and old age and death belong to the body.
To those who accomplish the above four necessary adjustments, to them Sri Rama declares, “I am directly available for their personal experience” Sri Rama, the supreme Self, explodes into the vision of such a contemplative mind.
The source of disturbance in the mind is its engagement in the world of sense objects. The mind gushes into the fields of objects only when it is whipped up by the desires in the intellect. The desire to possess, embrace, and enjoy sense objects comes out of the foolish values we entertain – the erroneous misconception that an object contains a certain amount of joy-content. Those who examine intelligently the nature of the world of things and beings and realize for themselves that finite entities are impermanent, sorrow-oozing, mind-dissipating, and therefore not desirable, end their unproductive efforts at gaining them.
The inner enemies are six in number: desire, anger, and so on. These six are the horrible faces of rajas, and they are the destroyers of the sattvic poise of the contemplative mind. When sattva increases, the rajoguna qualities that prompt one into continuous fields of work and exhausting anxieties naturally clam down and disappear.
One who has successfully escaped the six urges of the body – both gross and subtle – discovers an evergrowing intensity in one’s daily contemplation. These six physical and mental urges are exhaustively examined in the Upanisads, and the rishis have declared that hunger and thirst belong to the physiological system (prana), sorrows and passions belongs to the mind, and old age and death belong to the body.
To those who accomplish the above four necessary adjustments, to them Sri Rama declares, “I am directly available for their personal experience” Sri Rama, the supreme Self, explodes into the vision of such a contemplative mind.
Text LIV
dhyatvaivamatmanamaharnisam muni-stisthetsada
muktasamastabandhanah prarabdhamasnannabhimanavarjito mayyeva saksatpraviliyate
tatah.
Through such steady and continuous contemplation the ‘spiritual-seeker-shall
become ever liberated from all bondages. Thereafter, he lives his share of
destiny without the sense of “I am the body,” and in the end he merges into Me,
the pure Self.
Here the nature and mode of behaviour of a man of realization are being hinted at. A more exhaustive picture of the man of perfection is eleborately painted in the Bhagavad Gita.
Here the nature and mode of behaviour of a man of realization are being hinted at. A more exhaustive picture of the man of perfection is eleborately painted in the Bhagavad Gita.
A true student and seeker continues to practice contemplation as
advised in the previous verse, slowly bringing into his life the fulfillment of
all the four conditions. These four cannot be achieved all of a sudden: the
seeker has to put forth much conscious effort at self-discipline and learn to
ease his way slowly toward the state of pure Self. It is slow, at times
exhausting, evolutionary progress.
Once successful, the Self-realized individual remains ever
liberated from all bondages. The equipments of experience (body-mind-intellect)
and the fields of experience (objects-emotions-thoughts) can no longer
condition him. In short, he is no more the little ego
(perceiver-feeler-thinker). This egoless state becomes natural to him. In the
beginning, such a state can be frighteningly shocking, confusing to those who
have no devotion to the Lord. It is a new dimension of experience: no ego –
yet, we experience with the “no-experiencer” in us ! One is then no more in the
objective world of things and beings, but within a realm where the objective
world is not and yet is fully included. Nothing is excluded from the Self.
Such a Self-realized master’s mere existence in this world is in
itself a blessing to the people and their whole era.
If the Self-realized one has no identification with his
equipment, if he has no vasanas to exhaust – he wants nothing, desires nothing,
expects nothing – if he has gained all that is to be gained, why does he live
on ? Why shouldn’t his body fall off ? What propels such a master to continue
living to vigorously and continuously work for the spiritual upliftment of the
people ?
Following the Upanisads’ own assertion, Sri Rama declares that
such an individual “lives his share of destiny” (prarabdham-asnan). Everyone of
us is living to exhaust our past vasanas, but the master lives without any
identification with such happenings – he passes through such events without ego
and its selfishness. Success or failure, joy or sorrow, pain or pleasure do not
affect him. He does what is to be done as best as he can. He lives on,
rejecting nothing, accepting all, reflecting everything, keeping nothing – like
a mirror.
At the end of the body’s allotted time, when it falls off to
rest in peace, the master merges to be one with Sri Rama, the supreme Self.
Text LV
adau ca madhye ca tathaiva cantato bhavam viditva
bhayasokakaranam hitva samastam vidhivadacoditam
bhajetsvamatmanamathakhilatmanam
Understanding this samsara to be the cause of fear and grief in
the beginning (childhood), in the middle (youth), and similarly also in the end
(old age), the seeker should give up all identification with the equipments.
Renouncing all other sadhanas prescribed in the Vedas, let him learn to
contemplate steadily upon the Self in him as the one infinite Self everywhere.
In the earlier days of the spiritual sadhana, in order to learn
how to fold up his or her attention from the outer world of dissipation, every
student must have diligently followed, for a long period of time, the various
yogas recommended by our scriptural textbooks – karma, bhakti, jnana, worship
of the Lord through eleborate rituals, and so on. The samskaras (innate
tendencies) are so powerful that even after the mind has become single-pointed
and quiet, a seeker generally hesitates to leave his old desires and enter into
a pure state of contemplation.
Sri Rama unhesitatingly insists that the student should totally
give up (hitva samastam) what has been prescribed by our sacred books as
something that we must diligently pursue (vidhivat coditam).
With the integrated mind and intellect rendered single-pointed,
quiet, alert, and vigilant, let the seeker exclusively turn his entire
attention to the Self within (sva-atmanan) and realize that it is Self
everywhere (akhila-atmanam bhajet).
In the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, Yajnavalkya insists that “this
Self is to be ‘seen’: you must hear, reflect, and meditate upon it.”
Through such steady practice, when the successful seeker
satisfies the four necessary conditions of the mind, he or she glides
effortlessly into the higher state of the pure Self, the Rama-state. The
individual becomes fully liberated from all the encumbrances of the
body-mind-intellect – the equipments of experience – and is forever freed from
all shackles of objects-emotions-thoughts–the fields of experience. Never can
these conditionings entrap him again, as he has awakened to the state of the
Self. He lives blessing the world with his pure holiness, even if he is not
“doing” anything: his mere presence is an inspiration to the rest of society.
If he is thus liberated from all equipments, why are the
equipments not falling away dead, when their owner, the ego, has been liberated
? The answer is that the force of its prarabdha karma keeps the body alive. The
body is the product of our own karma (vasanas), and it is also a product of the
karmas of others. One can redeem oneself of all one’s own karmas, but the body
still lives and functions, sustained by the karmas of others. This macrocosmic
vasana (samasti karma( is the equipment of the Lord (Isvara). Thus, a man of
perfection is functioning under the Lord’s will only. Without any sense of
“I-do” (ahankara) and any attachment (asakti), he appears to be functioning in
the world, himself ever living the experience of the infinite Self, Sri Rama.
Once his share of destiny is exhausted, he merges into Brahman.
This state is called videha-mukti. Even earlier, when others were considering
him as a member of the community, he was already a liberated person
(jivan-mukti).
atmanyabheden vibhavayannidam bhavatyabheden mayatmana tada
yatha jalam varinidhau yatha payah ksire viyadvyomnyanile yathanilah.
Just as when water is poured into the ocean, as milk is poured
into milk, as space is merged into space, as air is merged into air to mingle
together and become one indistinguishable sameness, so, too, when the seeker
contemplates upon this world of plurality as identical in essence with the
Self, he comes to realize and live his total oneness with Me, the Self.
In the seat of meditation, through intense contemplation, the
seeker persuades his individualized self to entirely drop all its
identifications with the body-mind-intellect. He then effortlessly glides into
the higher state of Conciousness and becomes indistinguishably one with it.
When a river reaches the ocean, it loses both its name and form and becomes one
with all the oceans around the world.
To vividly portray this total Oneness, Sri Rama repeatedly
employs the classical examples that one meets with in the Vedantic tradition.
When water is poured into the ocean, you cannot, later on, remove that specific
sample of water, as it has merged completely with the oceanic waters. After a
cup of milk is poured into a bucket of milk, that specific cup of milk can then
no longer be separated from the total quantity of milk in the bucket. When a
jar is broken, the space contained in the jar immediately and irretrievably
merges with the space in the room, without effort, readily and naturally.
Similarly, when a window is suddenly opened, the air inside the room and
outside the room mingles. In all these examples, the idea hammered into the
student is that on waking up to the higher state of Consciousness, the Essence
in the core of the limited individual is realized as being identical with that
which is at the core of the whole universe, the one nondual Self, the sole
Substratum upon which the plurality of names and forms appears to dance,
creating the illusion of a timebound world of flux.
“The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman,” say the scriptures. The
distinctions between the individualized ego (jiva), the world of plurality
(jagat), and the Creator of it all, the omnipotent, omniscient God, all merge
together to be one Self divine. The Mundaka Upanisad declares clearly. “This
world of dynamic action is nothing but Brahman.” This is again supported by the
Brhadaranyaka Upanisad. When it declares. “All these are nothing but this
Atman.
Text LVII
English Wording:
ittham yadikseta hi lokasamsthito jaganmrsaiveti vibhavayanmunih
nirakrtatvacchruti yuktimanato yathendubhedo disi digbhramadayah
Even if a wordly minded person of reflection were to practice
this abheda-bhav (experience of nondifference), he, too, shall experience Me,
because the world of plurality is indeed a delusion, which is proved by the
words of the Upanisads and by logical thinking. The worl is a delusion just as
the many moons seen, or as teh confusion of direction we may experience in a
new place. Even if a person of reflection is still earth-bound, still has
body-fascination, and is attracted by the fancied charms of sense objects
(lokasamsthitah), if such a person dwells on the idea that the world of
plurality is no-thing other than pure Conciousness, he, too, shall in time
develop more and more detachment and move ahead into the spiritual dimension.
In the end he will realize Me and My glory, the Self, pure and nondual.
As the spiritual seeker’s sadhana gathers momentum, his
identification with the body becomes relatively diminished, and to that
relative degree his sensuous life of passion naturally transforms itself into
the contemplative life of spiritual pursuit: he moves from the undivine world
of passions and yearnings into the divine realm of inner peace and fulfillment.
This world of names and forms is indeed a delusion, a
misapprehension. The names and forms are impermanent, and therefore false.
However, Reality, which is their substratum, is permanent and true. Through the
authority of scriptural statements and through our own logical thinking we can
come to the conclusion that this world of names and forms is delusory in
nature. “Brahman is one without a second.” “In Brahman there is no plurality.”
“This dynamic world of happenings is nothing but Brahman.” “This entire
perceived world of names and forms is all nothing but Atman.” All these vivid
and forceful statements from different Upanisads given out by different
masters, in different periods of time, arrived at from different angles and
through varying logical approaches, should clearly give authority to the claim
about the delusory nature of the world.
Not only the authoritative statements of the scriptures command
us, but by careful observation and close study of the data so collected, we can
logically and rationally arrive at the same picture of illusoriness of the
world of multiplicity. During sleep or under chloroform, when the mind is
folded up, the world of plurality is not available for our experience. That
which remains in all the three periods of time is Truth, Reality. In the dream,
the waking world is negated. In deep sleep, both the dream world and the waking
world are negated. When we wake up, yesterday’s dream and the peaceful
deep-sleep experience are both totally negated.
Only the Substratum upon which these three realms of experience
came and danced and from which they disappeared remains, Waves rise, clash with
each other, and disappear, but the ocean upon which they came to play their
game was continually there – before the waves took shape, while they clashed,
and after they totally disappeared. In order to drive home the idea that names
and forms are delusory and the Substratum is permanent and true, the teacher in
Rama is tempted to string together some examples. In all these examples,
certain entities are as though “seen,” yet, on analysis, our rational mind
discovers them as mere illusions: We know there is only one moon; yet, we can
see many moons reflected in many pools of water. Also, by pressing the top of the
eyeball and thus creating defective vision in our eyes, we can actually “see”
two moons in the sky !
Similarly, at dusk, a traveler to a new town in his weariness
gets confused about his sense of direction. He will have to inquire of others
and realize that what he thought was east is actually north. Once he has
ascertained the true east, all his confusions end, and he gains the true
knowledge of all the four directions.
Text LVIII
yavanna pasyedakhilam madatmakam tavanmadaradhanatatparo bhavet
sraddhaluratyurjitabhaktilaksano yastasya drsyo ‘hamaharnisam hrdi
As long as one is not able to “see” the entire world of
plurality as My divine nature, so long one must worship My form with all
devotion. In the pure heart of him who is endowed with deep faith and mighty
devotion I become self-evident.
When the individual (jiva), in moments of deep contemplation,
leaves all his identity capers with the body-mind-intellect equipment, the
experiencer-ego awakens to the state of God-Conciousness, the Self. In that
state, the familiar world of names and forms, interpreted by the equipments of
experience, gets wiped out. The usual world of objects-emotions-thoughts
disappears into the vision of the pure, blissful Self, Sri Rama.
As long as this mind-transforming experience of the one Self,
without properties (nirguna), has not happened to a seeker, let him engage
himself in the worship of Me, in My enchanting form (saguna). Worship nourishes
devotion to the Lord, and when love is directed to an altar, the mind
gravitates easily, readily, and effortlessly toward it. When we live in an
attitude of surrender to Him – “Lord ! Thy will be done, not mine” – the
existing vasanas get exhausted, and the inner personality of the devotee
becomes extremely quiet and peaceful. In such a purified heart, rich in
understanding and in supreme devotion, the Self, which is ever with us, comes
to shine out, just as the sun emerging out of the clouds.
Behind the thick wall of our mental agitation lies the Self,
apparently hidden, veiled form our direct apprehension. When the mind is
de-clutched from its preoccupations with the world of perceptions, feelings,
and thoughts, in that still moment of utter silence of deepest contemplation,
the individuality disappears into the vision of Sri Rama, the supreme Self.
Text LIX
rahasyametacchrutisarasangraham maya viniscitya tavoditam priya
yastvetadalocayatiha buddhiman sa mucyate patakarasibhih ksanat.
This discourse that I have given you here, dear brother, is upon
the great secret, the very essence of the Upanisads, which I have assimilated
and ascertained in my life’s personal experience. Any intelligent man who
reflects upon these ideas shall, too, get liberated from all his host of sins.
“You are dear to Me,” says Rama, because Laksmana had purified
himself by his selfless service to Rama, with deep and abiding devotion to the
Lord. To Laksmana, Rama was never a mere elder brother. He was Lord Rama, the
supreme Self.
That which Rama revealed in the Rama Gita is the very essence of
all the Upanisads (srutisarangraha). And it is a great secret (rahasya). This
great secret of the Upanisads can be ascertained only with the help of a
sadguru and through sincere efforts in contemplation by the seeker. Sri Rama
confesses to his brother that the theme he is giving out in this Gita is what
“I had ascertained in my own subjective, direct realization.” You, too, strive
with ease to realize this state and be one liberated while living (a
jivan-mukta), Rama encourages us.
“Anyone who has your qualities of head and heart,” Rama is
saying to Laksmana. “and who can seriously reflect upon this science of Reality
(Brahmavidya) that I have revealed, can learn to enjoy the state of total
fulfillment as a jivan-mukta.” Such a person very easily goes beyond all
vasanas – both good and bad – patakarasibhih; and it takes no time (ksanat
mucyate). When the criminal dies, the punishment for the crimes committed has
no bearing; when the doer_I, the ego, ends, all vasanas must cease to be
effective.
Text LX
bhrataryadidam paridrsyate jaga – nmayaiva sarvam parihrtya
cetasa madbhavanabhavita suddhamanasah sukhi bhavanandamayo niramayah
Brother ! This perceived world of experiences is all but an idle
projection of Maya (delusory, not real). Renouncing all identification with
this, turn to Me alone with a purified heart. May you become thus ever
blissful, with no restless sorrows, continuously happy.
Dear brother Laksmana, the world experienced as objects-emotions-thoughts, through the vehicles of experience (body-mind-intellect) are all mere products of delusion (Maya). Leave your misconceptions that they are real and all the consequent identification which you have cultivated with them. With your thoughts and emotions so purified, quieted and becalmed, turn your attention from the snare of Maya through steady contemplation upon My infinite, divine nature. May you thus become sukhi, away from all the sorrows of plurality; niramaya, peaceful, as you will be away from the vasana-tickled mental agitations; and blissful in the direct experience of the Self. At the end of all nonapprehension, all misapprehension of plurality ends: you will reach the final state of beatitude.
Dear brother Laksmana, the world experienced as objects-emotions-thoughts, through the vehicles of experience (body-mind-intellect) are all mere products of delusion (Maya). Leave your misconceptions that they are real and all the consequent identification which you have cultivated with them. With your thoughts and emotions so purified, quieted and becalmed, turn your attention from the snare of Maya through steady contemplation upon My infinite, divine nature. May you thus become sukhi, away from all the sorrows of plurality; niramaya, peaceful, as you will be away from the vasana-tickled mental agitations; and blissful in the direct experience of the Self. At the end of all nonapprehension, all misapprehension of plurality ends: you will reach the final state of beatitude.
Text LXI
yah sevate mamagunam gunatparam hrda kada va yadi va gunatmakam
so ‘ham svapadancitarenubhih sprsan punati lokatritayam yatha ravih.
Anyone who contemplates upon My pure, formless nature, or on Me
with qualities and form, becomes of My nature, Brahman. Wherever such a
fulfilled seeker goes, he makes the place holy with the mere touch of his
sacred feet, just as the sun purifies the earth its atmosphere.
Sri Rama earlier advised Laksmana that in case one was not capable of directly contemplating upon the pure Self in its unconditioned, absolute nature, he could “worship My form.” In order to conceive of the vast, infinite Self, the mind must have the canvas-area to embrace and accommodate the full spread of the all-pervading Substratum of the universe. In its attachments, its limit vision and interests, its petty selfishnesses and laughable vanities, our distorted, stunted mind cannot successfully lift itself to the Absolute.
Sri Rama earlier advised Laksmana that in case one was not capable of directly contemplating upon the pure Self in its unconditioned, absolute nature, he could “worship My form.” In order to conceive of the vast, infinite Self, the mind must have the canvas-area to embrace and accommodate the full spread of the all-pervading Substratum of the universe. In its attachments, its limit vision and interests, its petty selfishnesses and laughable vanities, our distorted, stunted mind cannot successfully lift itself to the Absolute.
In the present state of our mind, then, the only available
technique is devoted worship of the Self with form and qualities. This worship
of an “idol,” a symbol that represents the highest Essence, is a sanctioned
technique. In this verse, Sri Ramacandraji places his signature of approval on
this method of worship.
“No doubt, in My ultimate nature, “Rama confesses, “I am without
gunas – I am beyond gunas. “In fact, Rama is the very Consciousness that illumines
all gunas. But in case a seeker, due to the agitated nature of his mind or due
to his compelling sensuous nature, is not able to conceive of and contemplate
upon this formless, pure nature, the Paramatman (mukhya), let him worship “My
lower nature” (gauna), Rama as the son of Dasaratha, with qualities –
omnipotent, omniscient, Lord of the Universe, beauty-incamate.
This worship is not to be a mere mechanical, physical routine,
but must issue forth from the pure heart (hrda sevate), with ardent prayers,
sincere surrender, and steady contemplation. In contemplation upon the pure,
unconditioned Self, learn to identify yourself with Me, the Self, or in abiding
devotion steadily contemplate upon My form and qualities, says Sri Rama. In
either case, you will arrive to realize Me and become Me. The Bhagavad Gita
also assures us of this final state. Those who worship the Lord’s form will
also reach the supreme state of fulfillment. In the final stages of his intense
devotion, the devotee comes to realize that he is not separate from Me; I shall
lift him up to this higher state of realization.
Both the devotee of form and the contemplator of the Formless,
render everything divine in their inner, direct knowledge; they sanctify
whatever they touch, and wherever they roam about, they make the place holy
with the mere touch of their feet. Jerusalem, Mecca, Saranatha, Kashi, the
Himalayas are all famous and spiritually holy because of the masters whose
presence sanctified them. Such masters need not “do” anything: their mere
presence is sufficient, just as the sun nurtures, nourishes, and purifies
everything it illumines.
Text LXII
vinnanametadakhilam srutisaramekam vedantavedyacaranena mayaiva
gitam yah sraddhaya paripathed gurubhaktiyukto madrupameti yadi madvacanesu
bhaktih.
This entire science of Reality, along with the techniques of
realization (sadhanas), forming the essence of the Upanisads, is sung by Me –
the “quarter” that is to be realized only through the Upanisadic declarations.
He who with firm devotion to his teacher with ardent faith merely reads or
hears this Rama Gita, he, too, can reach My form – if he has faith in My words.
The contents of this Gita, elucidating the supreme Knowledge, is the very Truth enshrined in the Upanisads. It speaks of the nondual Self, the One without a second, and “I, Sri Rama, the Self.” am giving it out. This Self, Sri Rama, is the state to be known through study of and contemplation upon the pregnant declarations of the Vedas.
The contents of this Gita, elucidating the supreme Knowledge, is the very Truth enshrined in the Upanisads. It speaks of the nondual Self, the One without a second, and “I, Sri Rama, the Self.” am giving it out. This Self, Sri Rama, is the state to be known through study of and contemplation upon the pregnant declarations of the Vedas.
“I am that quarter declared in the Vedas” – the quarter with
which the Supreme supports the entire universe of names and forms. The world of
change rests only upon a part of the Infinite, three-quarters of which is
untouched by the plurality twinkling in time and space ! The Bhagavad Gita also
expresses the same idea: “I am carrying the entire universe with a mere portion
of Me.” This quarter is the very support of the entire universe of names and
forms, the stage upon which the entire dynamic drama of life is being played
out. This Lord of the universe, now acting as Sri Rama, is giving out this Rama
Gita.
Whoever (yah) can reflect upon the meaning of these verses and
contemplate upon their significance, if he has cultivated deep devotion to the
guru, and also the ability to intellectually gain an understanding of the
subtle impact of these verses (sraddhavan), even if he only reads or hears this
Gita, he too, can gain “My form divine.” Rama-form here is identical with the
nature of the Self (Atma-svarupa).
Thus ends the fifth chapter, in the Uttarakanda of Srimad
Adhyatma Ramayana – a dialogue between Uma and Mahesvara – Rama Gita, by Veda
Vyasa.
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