Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

Śravaṇa, manana and nididhyāsana are the three facets of spiritual sādhanā. The word ‘śravaṇa’ refers to hearing or listening. In order to hear or listen to, you must have somebody who speaks. Generally, it is the Sadguru. Only when he talks, you will be able to listen to him.

Always the Sadguru will not be available and he may not be talking also. So, the śravaṇa will have to be replaced by पठन (paṭana). That means you have to read yourself. Initially the Guru may make you read and also make you understand. So, it is an interaction. Apart from hearing, you also have somebody in your front. When you start reading, you only see. The books do not have anything like an auditory role to play. So, you have to read and you have to reflect upon it, make sure that you have read, you have understood. This process is called manana - Rumination or introspection. When śravaṇa or paṭana and introspection, both are had in ample degree, then you take to nididhyāsana - meditation.

The question is how to retain the knowledge that you have gained. First of all, you gain it either from books or from the teacher. It is a readymade knowledge given to you. You hear it and you accept it in your heart. Now the question is you should possess it and it should become yours. When will a knowledge becomes yours? I think the rule is the same. When whatever you have known remains in you as your knowledge, your knowledge, your knowledge, like anything else.

Knowledge is an inner or internal possession. So inwardly in your personality, whatever knowledge you have gained will remain there and this is spiritual knowledge. So, what is that spiritual knowledge? Every bit and piece of this spiritual knowledge will always be related to your mind, your thought process, your attitude, whatever the mind gives rise to and your behaviour and interaction which are external representations of the mind.

So, whether the knowledge you have gained reflects in your behaviour, reflects in your interaction, how to make sure? That means you have to make the knowledge yours and make it work, make it work, make it work. In order to retain, the only way will be to do sufficient manana. I generally say, you have to spend 50 mind hours on each subject. 50 mind hours. For 50 hours, your mind will have to be on the knowledge which you have gained.

I will quote a verse from the Vivekachudamani.

I happened to read this many many years back, some 63-64 years back in Kolkata in my pre-sannyāsa life. I am talking to you about it, when Mā told me “Please say something about how to retain the knowledge”. Remember when I read and also understand what and when I am speaking now about. So, this śloka I read; what does it mean?

Even if you know the truth, the truth of the soul, the truth of Brahman, the knowledge is gained by the intelligence. So, it becomes an intellectual possession. But your behaviour is primarily mental and sensory. The intelligence is a little higher. So, you have known this; it is there inside. But your mind and intelligence are given to their own expression and activity.

So, he says jñāte vastuni - Even when you have known the knowledge.

Balavatī vāsana anādireṣā. Vāsana means the latent tendency or desire, balavatī is very strong. You know the knowledge for the first time in your life but the tendencies and desires which are operating in you are many many janmas old, may not be new. You have inherited it from your parents, they have inherited it from their parents, like that maybe quite a number of generations it has been active. So, an influence which has been active for quite a number of janmas, do you mean to say it can be wiped off by a moment of knowledge? So Sankara says, Balavatī vāsana anādireṣā, the desire is very very strong, it is beginningless almost.

Kartā bhoktāpy-aham-iti dṛḍhā yāsya saṃsāra-hetuḥ. Life in this world is not binding, it cannot afflict you. What afflicts you is ignorance and delusion and wrong possessions. I am the doer, I am the enjoyer, I am the sufferer. When your eyes see, you feel that ‘eye’ helps you. Actually is it so? Your eyes have seen, your eyes you have not made, their work you don’t control absolutely. So like so many other things of nature, our eyes also were made, and they do their function. But you always jut in to say “Whatever my eyes see, I see, it is mine, I am responsible for it. So, I am the doer, I am the experiencer, I am the enjoyer, I am the sufferer”. This kind of an egocentric feeling very strongly remains in you. And this egocentric assessment is responsible for the continuation of worldliness.

Kartā bhoktāpy-aham-iti dṛḍhā yāsya saṃsāra-hetuḥ. You are continuing in this world or worldliness continues to have its influence in you only because of this – “I am the doer, I am the enjoyer, I am the sufferer”, these triple feelings are very strong in you. And they are many janmas old, many lifetimes old. This is mentioned there. As you read it, you should reflect upon it and make sure that you have gained this statement, it remains in you, you understand it, you accept it and you are conscious of it. So, the mind application should be there, not merely one time or two time reading. After reading, close the book, see whether you have understood, the knowledge is with you, if it is perfectly there it is okay, if some perfections have to be brought, open the book, read again, think about it, like that.

Now the question is, because these latent tendencies are strong, what is to be done? Sankara says pratyag-dṛṣṭyā ātmani nivasatā sā apaneyā prayatnāt. By effort you have to remove it. What is the process for removal? It is lingering in the mind. So, the effort also should be a mental effort. What is that mental effort?

Pratyag-dṛṣṭyā ātmani nivasatā. As you allow the senses to contact the objects and remain interactional, you should keep the senses quiet and with the mind and intelligence you should interact with this knowledge. “Oh…kartā bhoktāpy-aham-iti dṛḍhā, oh...oh...oh…I have the feeling of doer, enjoyer and sufferer. These feelings are very strong in the mind. What shall I do? Let me contemplate upon the unaffected, unconditional, blissful nature of the self. Rub it, rub it, rub it against my present trouble.”

How many hours are you able to spend like this - that will determine how weak the doer-ship enjoyer-ship and sufferer-ship have become. “I have known this knowledge. I have gained it. Now my behaviour, expression are different. I should not allow it. I am not the karta, I am not the bhokta, I am not the enjoyer, I am not the sufferer. Any enjoyment is upto the level of the senses, maximum to the level of mind, but not beyond that.” In this way you have to reflect upon, link, link, link what you have done through these assessments that you have. Unless this process of introspection- tattva vicāra is done and you imbue the mind with the quality you want, “No my dear mind, you cannot think that you are an enjoyer or a sufferer. You are busy with your work, how will you pick up these wrong notions and assessments?”. But understand they are in you and they will not yield.

Pratyag-dṛṣṭyātmani nivasatā. You have to withdraw from the interactive life and close your eyes, sit in a place lonely, close the door, and then bring this verse, bring this suggestion, bring this disclosure and make it interact with your plight until at last you feel the plight has become weak and the interactive memory becomes strong. So it is a process of making the mind and the intelligence work studiously and then relating their effort to the plight that you have. And you have to be convinced, yes, it was earlier very strong, now that feeling is much much much less now, it has become thinner, thinner. It is a question of verifying ourselves, verifying ourselves. So, bringing back the introspection, put the condition before it and make sure that the introspection is effective, the introspection will make you happy, lighter and content. When you have contentment, I think all the other things will become weak and may fall off. So, it is a question of spending mind hours, mind hours and mind hours.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.