Articles for Saadhana

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

I will recite a portion from Yoga Vasishtha Ramayana which is very, very revealing.

Vicārothhātma-vijñānam jñānamanga vidur-budhāḥ. Vicāra means truthful and infusional introspection, introspection done by the intelligence, reflective process, trying to evaluate, understand, compare, contrast, design matters – it is an effort of the buddhi.

Ātma-vijñānam vicaraḥ jñānamanga vidur-budhāḥ. The real knowledge is no other than faithful and truthful introspection over the Adhyātmic knowledge. Everything about the Self, Brahman is Adhyātma. Everything referring to ātma is called ādhyātma and ātma is that presence which you denote by the term ‘I’. Unless you do vicāra over it, you will not be able to know it and master it.

Jñeyam tasyāntarevāsti mādhuryam payaso yathā. When you do vicāra, and the vicāra becomes subtler, subtler, deeper, deeper, loftier, loftier - you know, in the very process of vicāra,

Jñeyam tasyāntarevāsti, the knowledge that you are seeking is actually within the process of vicāra.

A person is walking or running. While walking or running, what runs – namely the legs. Are they not within the walking and within the running? Are not the eyes present in the process of seeing? Are not the tongue, the mouth and throat present in the process of speaking? Similarly, in the process of introspection is present whatever is to be known!

What is to be known - The substratum of all the perishable things in the world. Similarly, the substratum of your transforming personality. Vasishtha says, Jñeya – the thing to be known, the knowable, is present within the vicāra process itself. Vasishtha follows to say:

Vicāraya dhiyā satyam – using your intelligence, start reflecting upon the Truth. You have to reflect upon the Truth by the process of vicāra. When the intelligence takes to introspection, it is called vicāra. When the vicāra is on the Supreme Truth, it is ‘Supreme Truth Introspection’, or introspection of the Supreme Truth.

Vicāraya dhiyā satyam – Dhiyā means by buddhi, by intelligence.

Satyam vicāraya – always reflect upon, reflect upon, think about, think about, ruminate over the Truth. What is that Truth - The presence that you denote or signify by the term ‘I’.

Asatyam hi parityaja – Abandon the untruth. Hold on to the Truth, abandon the untruth. Never discuss about untruth.

Abaddho baddha ity-uktvā – you are repeatedly describing yourself. “Oh! I am not happy, I am miserable, I am doubtful, I am too much this, that, another.” All these are untrue. That, which is denoted by the term ‘I’ is different from whatever the ‘I’ experiences. I see a tree; I am not the tree. I experience a doubt; I am not the doubt. I have my memory; I am not the memory. I have thoughts, I think; I am not the thought and thinking. This is the satya.

Abaddho baddha ity-uktvā – you have no bondage, no restriction or constriction of any kind. But still you say, ‘I have, I have, I have’. It is actually a blatant lie. You who are free and unconditioned, you repeatedly say, ‘No! I am bound. I am conditioned’. So this situation should change.

Abaddho baddha ity-uktvā kim mudhā pariśocasi – Why are you unnecessarily getting aggrieved by making the one who is free and unbounded, by making him bound?

So, the Truth is that like the space which is unbounded and unaffected by everything, the Chidākāśa ‘I’ is also unaffected and unbound by everything. This is the truth. That truth you remember fondly, you remind yourself, day in and day out. Maybe after sometime, there will come a time when you understand that what you have been asserting and practicing, speaking unknowingly is the truth! So, practice the truth. Abaddho baddha ity-uktvā kim mudhā pariśocasi.

You are unnecessarily lamenting. This is what Krishna told Arjuna in the battlefield.

“You are grieving over Bhishma and Drona who are never to be grieved at. They are quite stable; they are happy. Then why do you feel sorry about them?” He says that “The really wise people do not grieve over the dead and the living. If you worry over the dead, grieve over the dead, then you should grieve over yourself who will die. All the people in this world born are supposed to die. So when will your tears stop?” I think these two verses if you can remember – I think that is everything.

Like sweetness in milk, in the process of vicāra, the Supreme Truth is employed.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.