Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat! Jai Guru! Jai Guru!

Last night during the satsang, we were discussing a verse from the sixth chapter in which the uttarārdha was running like this.

Krishna refers to two propositions. Śānti - in the nature of supreme nirvāṇa. Again, "This is seated in me, The Supreme Reality or God." So here is a relationship of oneness between the nirvāṇa which apparently is an independent outcome. Another is, it is the same thing that abides in the Supreme Lord. One is a devotional description, another is a spiritual assessment.

I am reminded of a statement in Māndukya kārika. When the spiritual truth is explained properly... What is spiritual truth? The spiritual truth is the truth about the human personality. It is the truth about what is denoted by the common and universal reference ‘I’, "Aham Pratyaya Gocharah".

Gowdapāda says that once the truth of the self is properly explained by the teacher, received and understood by the disciple.. What is this truth? The Self alone is. If at all anything else is, it is an expression, display and manifestation of the self.

In the case of a lake or a sea, the waves and bubbles are arising into the air, into a place where there is no water. But in the case of the self, there cannot be a bubble which penetrates into a non-self area. The self is full. Because it is full, there cannot be a bubble as in the case of the sea or lake. There cannot be even a ripple because it is something full.

As I always say, suppose you fill a bottle fully with water with no air space in between, even if you shake the bottle, the water cannot move. Fullness means that. Fullness means naischarya also. So when the truth is explained, what is the truth?

Ādhyātmikam dṛṣtvā - sensorily you are the body. But supra-sensorily and inwardly, you are the consciousness. And as consciousness, it is only one and all-pervading. It is full. As the senses are perceiving the gross body and the gross world of plurality, the enlightened intelligence and mind will also perceive and experience the truth of the inward oneness.

Tattvam-ādhyātmikam dṛṣtvā - when a person is born in this world, he is anointed with a twofold identity. One is the mortal body - gross. Equally so, he is anointed with the impersonal, impartial, immortal self within. There is no conflict or contradiction between the two. It is just like a wet cloth in which the cotton fabric is there and equally so, the water permeating it is there. No example is perfect because the examples are taken from the gross object world and what we seek to illustrate is the subject inmost presence. They differ. But nevertheless we only have access to the sensory examples.

Tattvam-ādhyātmikam dṛṣtvā tattvam dṛṣtvā tu bāhyatah |

Inwardly, understand that you are the self which is singular, supreme, unborn, undying and ever the same.

Tattvam dṛṣtvā tu bāhyatah - even the approach to the self is enabled by the sensory perceptions of the body and the world. We see an object and then think of the subject which perceives the object. So the two are collateral you can say.

Tattvam dṛṣtvā tu bāhyatah - What is the external truth? Everything in this world perceived by the senses is transitory, short living, transforming. Without transformingness, no sensory existence can ever be. Your body now is not what it was five minutes earlier or yesterday. So, you must have a twofold perception. What is that? Bodily I am mortal and transforming and soul-wise, I am impersonal, impartial and non-transforming. Tattvam dṛṣtvā tu bāhyatah.

Now, you have to pitch your identity. Where? Will you pitch your identity with the transforming and ephemeral body or the un-transforming and ever present self? This is a crucial question.

Tattvībhūtah - become the truth. Become what you have understood – the self.

Tad-ārāmah - in that knowledge, understanding and identity, you must have a lot of contentment, satisfaction, pleasantness and even ecstasy. Tattvībhūtah tad-ārāmah.

Then what is the real sādhana towards the end? Tattvād-aprachyuto bhavet - make sure that your mind and intelligence does not slip or fall from this truth which you have apprehended, comprehended or realized. What a great statement is this! I told you that the whole process of yoga is a psycho-intellectual pursuit. In that pursuit, mind and intelligence alone are involved. Here also, reading or listening – reading of the scriptures or listening to the scriptures, they are sensory pursuits. By doing that what is it that you understand? Your understanding is not sensory. You read the scriptures, you hear them, these processes are sensory but the outcome is not sensory. It is inward, beyond the senses, transcendental. Tattvībhūtah tad-ārāmah tattvād-aprachyuto bhavet.

Once you have reached that kind of a confirmation, what is the next step? He says, 

This is how sannyāsins are truly born in this country. Many people may not take to sannyāsa in this manner. Whether they take or not, sannyāsa is an inevitable outcome of true and wholesome spiritual pursuit.

Nistutih - never indulge in praising so many deities as the Vedas in the samhita portion are doing.

Nirnamaskāro - it is a habit with people to go and prostrate before all the temples, deities and installations. Even when they are travelling, when the temple front comes, they will join their palms and show their prostration. It is okay as a good practice for ordinary people. But when you are trekking in the path of enlightenment, it means that only in front of a temple you remember God and prostrate before him. In the non-temple locations and the other hours of the day, you are cut away and distanced from God. Otherwise, why this difference?

Nirnamaskāro nihsvadhākāra eva ca - there is nothing like offering a pinda or a tarpana to the departed soul particularly to the father and the mother. The soul is unborn and undying. So which soul are you offering oblations to? The father and the mother who are unborn and undying, you are killing them first and then offering pinda and udaka. Nihsvadhākāra eva ca.

Then what is it that you have to be? Calācala-niketascha. You already have a mobile body and this mobile body is animated and activated by an immobile sentience. These are the only two items available. The pāncabhautik body and the sentient presence inside which animates and activates it. Calācala-niketascha. The body already is the self, even before already was. So you are already linked to, associated with the mobile body and the immobile self. This is not going to be increased or decreased. Even a particle of matter from the world is not going to be added to your inner being. The world has got nothing to give you. Nothing! Nothing!

I always say “My dear world, you cannot add a plus to me nor can you inflict a minus to me”. My body is full with pancabhutas. And this pāncabhautik body is fully animated by the sentience. So there is no place for even a microscopic item to enter me and be an addition.

Yatih yādṛcchiko bhavet - arriving at this conclusion and realizing it, live a life of chance, yādṛcchikata. This is how sannyāsa becomes the climax of spiritual pursuit. You may not understand it fully but at least hear it and keep it in mind.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.