lessons in advaita-2
DESCRIPTION
Continuation of Lessons in Advaita -1....discussion on two levels of reality, importance of reducing thoughts and quietening the mind; the value of silence and other aspects for practice of Advaita.TRANSCRIPT
Lessons in Advaita -2
N K Srinivasan
The basic position of Vedanta is the relationship you
develop or hold on three entities: World [Jagat],You
[Atman or soul] and God [Ishwara].
World, God and You
The term 'world' or Jagat includes not only this planet
Earth, but entire physical Universe or prapancha, with all
its elements--living and non-living. This world is also
called Nature or 'Prakriti', the province of all
scientists. We are part of this world.
The term Atman or soul is the entity that gives you life
and consciousness. It is "YOU" IN ESSENCE. According to
Hindu philosophy, the soul is imperishable---it has always
existed. It has no birth and no death; it is eternal. We
have wrongly identified our selves with this body and mind
and forgotten the basic truth that we are indeed souls or
Atma only. Why this wrong identification occurs?--this is
a mystery of Life. Knowledge or divine knowledge, Jnana,
is meant to remove this wrong identification and make us
realize that we are souls and not bodies or minds with
personality.
In Hindu terms, the mind is part of the body in that it is
treated as sixth sense. The mind is always clubbed with
the five senses[seeing,hearing, tasting,smelling and
touching].The senses are the input devices for the
mind;the mind stores the impressions or vasanas and
interprets the data received through the five senses. Of
course, the mind can lose its ability when our functioning
is reduced or crippled as in certain diseases.
Vedantins say that the mind comes and goes, as our
thoughts sweep through the mind. The mind in deep sleep is
in dormant state. In dream state ,the mind builds its own
movies and castles. The mind is presented to us as a
stream of thoughts. As soon as we wake up our mind
operates with all the previous thoughts stored in it.
If you have deep sleep, the soul watches over your
consciousness, like a night watchman. How did you know
that you slept well, when you were not aware of yourself
during sleep? The prompting is from the soul.
The third entity is Ishwara or Godhead. One can imagine
different types of God: a ruler in Heaven, Father in
Heaven, compassionate Divine Mother,Mother Earth who
nourishes everything and provides food,water and air; a
stern judge who gives our merit or punishes us; someone
who gives heavenly abode or damnation in hell and so on.
But in Hindu Vedanta , Ishwara is the entity ,known as
Brahman, who pervades everything ["Isa vasyam Idam sarvam"
in Isa Upanishad.] ;everything is clothed by Ishwara. He
cannot be seen or enjoyed by our senses and mind.In fact
Ishwara is 'beyond mind and intellect". So Ishwara cannot
be seen but felt in our "heart". The term 'heart' and
Brahman go together in Vedanta.
By heart , i do not mean the physical pump that circulates
blood in the body. "heart " or ' hridaya ' is not a
bundle of emotions or feelings or thoughts. The Heart is
the sacred heart which is the seat of your 'human'
consciousness; it gives you the sense of "I " or the seat
of brahman. It is difficult to describe or explain the
heart in better terms.
In any religion and in Vedanta , heart is symbolized or
pictured in various ways: as a flower or lotus ["Hridaya
Kamala"], as a flame of light ['jyoti'] or sky [akasha]
and so on. Remember these are "symbolic representation"
for the sake of focusing your mind on certain concepts and
worship in a formal way. [It is like the mathematician's
symbol for an angle or equality sign, '=', integral sign
and so on.There is a process behind these symbols and
symbols indicate that. One should not attach too much
importance over these symbols and split arguments on the
use of symbols. In history, much quarrels and wars have
happened over these symbols!]
Relationship between the three entities
Much of Vedanta is only discussion over the relationship
between the three entities.Each group or sect in Vedanta
would develop one set of relationships between Jagat,
Brahman and Atman. [ It is like the constitutional lawyer
discussing the relationship between executive, legislative
and judicial branches in the government ]. Advaita is one
of these sets of relationships or view points. You accept
or reject Advaita. [ Among the Hindus, there are many
sects which totally reject Advaita.]
Why do we have different view points when "Truth" or
"Sat" is only one.? It is due to the limitations of our
human mind. Human mind looks at the relationships in
different ways. But then, final result or end point is the
same. It is based on one's 'experience', not on
intellectual argument. Vedanta always focuses on the
experience of the seeker or sadhak.
So , in Vedanta, some start with Advaita and reach the end
result of "identity with Brahman". The roads may be
different but they all lead to "Rome" we say. Like that,
you can start with advaita and proceed; or the exact
opposite route of "dvaita" and proceed, but end up with
the same "identity with Brahman or godhead". You need not
waste your time over needless argument on 'which is a
superior path?' and so on. Get on with experience in
Advaita, if you accept it.
Jagat and You
We have a triangular relationship here: between You,
Jagat and Brahman. To understand advaita, we will break up
into three dual relationship. Let us take the relationship
between Jagat and You, because the world is too much with
us!
The world is always changing. We live in a condition of
great uncertainty almost always--both in personal life and
in world affairs. According to Advaita, the world is
illusory or mayic. The word "maya" should be understood
carefully by any student of advaita. By illusion we do not
mean that the world does not exist. It exists and real, as
long as we consider ourselves to be real. Just as we are
impermanent and going to leave this earth at some time,
the world is unreal and will disappear from our minds. It
is the mind that grasps the world for us and the mind is
"mayic".[ In all Vedanta, mind is taken as part of maya,
appearing and disappearing ,and easily compared to the
moon ,which waxes and wanes .] When you ask what this
world is all about you, it is mostly your mind that
perceives this world and interprets it in so many ways. In
that sense, each one lives in his own "world" created by
his or her own mind. It is in this sense ,all jnanis say
that you create your own world and it is a creation of
your mind. In absolute sense, there is no world outside
your mind and ego.
Two levels of Reality
To elaborate on this, advaitins developed two levels of
reality. In absolute sense there is only one Reality ,with
capital 'R'.This absolute reality is called "paramarthika"
R , which is same as "Brahman".
But there is another level of reality for our minds,called
"Vivaharika" or transactional reality for everyday or
mundane life. I would use the term 'empirical reality' or
'apparent reality' or phenomenal reality. We all live and
move in this reality, scarcely aware of absolute Reality.
Vivaharika reality has birth and death, high and low, rich
and poor, beauty and ugliness and so on .This reality is
full of opposites, and everything can be divided into
two--good and bad,moral and immoral. This is the world of
duality.[When we are born ,the first question put to the
parent: "Boy or Girl" . Duality begins there.]
As long as we live, we have to deal with this vivaharika
reality. We have to respect the teachers, give alms to the
poor,serve the king and so on. We have to follow the rules
of the land and lead moral lives. One can, however, opt
out of this world by retiring to a forest or go to an
isoalted island or lead a hermit's life!
Even sages lived normal vivaharika life,eating food,
washing clothes, doing some work or other and so on. They
might suffer from terrible diseases like cancer or
paralysis. But this is not 'Reality' as such.That should
be borne at the back of your mind.[Ramana used to edit
books and help in the kitchen cutting vegetables or
grinding cereals, though he was constantly aware of
"brahman".]
Unfortunately many advaitins are confused as to the state
of mind with jnana and negate the vivahrika reality and
preach wrong views about the advaitic viewpoint or
experience. Our mind is a tool to attain higher realms but
at the same time should be used for transactional life. A
time will come when the mind is totally annihilated or
mano-nasha occurs. Till then mind, though illusory, have
to be used .Mind , the mayic component ,has to be
controlled suitably and then discarded.It is wrong not to
acknowledge its role and feel that one has transcended its
influence while still living in the mundane world.
Quietening the mind
An advaitin must quieten his/her mind to the extent that
only a few thoughts remain and later only one thought on
Self. Is this easy? Not at all. Mind is compared to a
drunken monkey bitten by a scorpion.!
As a first step, reduce trivial and useless thoughts about
the world or world affairs that a curious mind seeks. Do
this deliberately. In time, you would be surprised how
many useless thoughts flit across your mind.
The source of thoughts are the five senses. By controlling
the senses or the objects after which the senses run, you
can easily control the mind.This is indeed a tough task
and it must be done. There is no point in stopping the
mind for a few moments, but then the mind bounces back
with cartload of thoughts. Mind runs like a wind.
The Gita says that the mind can be controlled by practice
['abyasa'] and by dispassion, Vairagya. So, note that
vairagya is crucial to control the mind. This is the
toughest task facing a future jnani or serious
advaitin....very few can acquire vairagya to lead a life
of controlled mind.
For most of westerners and those who are busy in eastern
countries, activity becomes an obsession, thoughts
occupying their time that they could not control the mind.
When mind control is not achieved, deep meditation becomes
an impossible event and vairagya does not take deep roots.
Eastern gurus have always emphasized that one should
reduce activity, not to promote laziness or sloth, but to
enable controlling one's mind. I cannot write in more
detail than this on this point.
"Be still and know that you are god"--- this aphorism is
based on mind control, not just meditation sessions or
attending satsanghs though they can help.
Practice of silence for 12 hours or a few days can also
help.But real silence is 'silence of the mind'. When the
mind is silenced, the world disappears and the Self, which
is always self-effulgent, shines on its own and perceived
as such. Now we have a dual relationship between Self or
Soul and Ishwara, having eliminated jagat .
Are they- Self and Ishwara the same or different?