Articles for Saadhana

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

You know that I have been speaking about and also disseminating Brahmavidya. The word ‘Brahmavidya’ was there at the end of every chapter of Bhagavad Gita "Brahma-vidyāyām yoga-sāstre" is there. But I don’t think that anybody speaks about Brahmavidya as such. The very word practically had become extinct is what I feel. But when I first of all started thinking and got exposed to our scriptures, the one word that struck me was Brahmavidya. Vidya means knowledge, Brahmavidya means knowledge relating to Brahman. And what is Brahman? This is the only imperishable substratum in the entire perishable world.

Start from your own body, mind, intelligence and ego, all are perishable. And the entire world surrounding you is perceived and interacted with by your personality. Your personality is perishable in all these facets and the object world also. If all these are perishable, perishables alone cannot exist. So there must be an imperishable substratum. A changes into B. Then what will make B change into C? So there must be something different from A, B and C which brings about these changes. Is it understandable?

We are waking in the morning. At night we go to sleep. Sometimes we have a dream. From the dream we wake up. So if wakefulness has been wiped off into sleep, then how will we wake up again or go into dream? So there must be some changeless substratum and that substratum is the ‘I’ who wakes up, who sleeps and who also dreams. So that ‘I’ is called the fourth factor. Wakefulness, sleep and dream being the three, the ‘I’ is the fourth. Now examining all the three, you must be able to arrive at the fourth. That is that imperishable element. That imperishable is not anywhere outside. Why did I say this?

Brahmavidya is that vidya or knowledge which discusses, reveals and makes you realize and perceive the imperishable. This imperishable by its very nature is not outside. Whatever you interact with in the world as objects, they are objects to their senses. The senses themselves are not either the subject or the imperishable. So the imperishable is only inside your body. Brahmavidya is that vidya which discusses and reveals this Brahman, the Supreme Reality or the imperishable presence.

Mundakopanishad which I happened to read first in the Upanishadic group describes Brahmavidya as सर्वविद्याप्रतिष्ठाम्. Now these were the two words that I found to be of immense importance. Brahmavidya, a description of the spiritual knowledge.

सर्वविद्याप्रतिष्ठाम्- It is the foundation "the ādhāra" for all kinds of knowledge. I think you should think about these statements.

What are the different kinds of knowledge? With the eyes we see, with the ears we hear, with the nose we smell, with the tongue we taste and with the skin we touch. So the entire knowledge we have in the wakefulness is covered by shabdha, sparsha, rasa, rupa, gandha. There is nothing beyond these, different from these. Now in order to have all this knowledge, the fivefold knowledge, the fivefold perception, you have the world around you. So the entire world including all the objects. Be imaginative! The entire world along with all the objects it has, however infinitely distant the world is, however infinitely various the objects are.

So we are surrounded by an infinite world containing an infinite number of objects. But mind you, my dear seekers. The entire infinitude gets reduced into five when they come to us and we experience them. The world may consist of infinite number of objects but they are only when I experience them, our senses make them fivefold, just five - sound, touch, taste, color and smell. Just see? The entire world objects are reduced into five. And these five, when they go to the mind level, they become just two. Everything becomes sound only upto the ear drum and color only upto the eye level but beyond that they are impressions, imprints in your mind and these imprints fall into two category- pleasant and unpleasant. See the infinitude is reduced into five at the sensory level. Further reduced into two - pleasant and unpleasant in the mind level. And when you go to sleep, even the pleasant, unpleasant distinction goes away. What do you understand from this?

Between the world that surrounds you and the senses you have, which are superior? The object perceived are superior or the perceiving senses are superior? The world itself is an assessment by the senses, a report and reading by the senses. These senses are made in the mother’s womb, all because of the power of the soul within the body. The world has not made our senses. The senses are employed by the mind. So the mind is superior to the senses. The senses do not form any imprints. The mind employs the senses, then makes the imprints in itself. And this mind is directed by the intelligence. Mind doesn't have any power of quality to know. It can only it can only respond to and react emotionally to the sensory imprints. To transform them into knowledge is the task of the intelligence. The intelligence itself is a refined form of the mind.

So what do you understand from this? Life is constantly an interaction between the senses and the objects. ओnd in this interactional, experiential life, senses are superior to the objects around, mind is superior to the senses and the intelligence is still superior to the mind. There is something beyond the intelligence where everything ends and that is what is denoted by the term ‘I’, ‘The self’.

यो बुद्धे: परतस्तु स: as Bhagavad Gita (3.42) puts it. Now that is the imperishable "The Brahman". Brahmavidya is that vidya which relates to this subject, this imperishable subject which every one has. In fact, this is the only imperishable subject in the whole universe. You can say the universe is a huge circle drawn from this central imperishable presence. Sarva-vidyā-pratishtām.

Now you tell me, all the knowledge that you have, whether it is physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology, biology, electronics, nuclear science, humanities, business administration, corporate functioning, marketing, finance, anything whatsoever, all these are knowledge proceeding from the subject, proceeding from the subject and stored in the subject. Our mind is a subjective functional unit, intelligence is a subjective functional unit. It is neither matter nor energy. Our body is matter-energy but mind-intelligence are not. So, all knowledge is an effort and an outcome by the knowing process which proceeds from the knower and rests on the knower. There is no growth from outside to inside, only from inside to outside. So, the entire journey of knowledge proceeds from within, rests in within and concludes also within. Brahmavidya is that vidya which deals with this subject source within you on which the entire universe as a knowledge, as an experience, as a memory, rests, rests, rests.

Sarva-vidyā-pratishtām. It is the seat and foundation of all knowledge. In knowledge, there are two categories - the visible "the seen" and the "drishya". Another is the seer "The drasta" or "The drk". Drishya cannot exist independently but drashta always can and does. The world is the drishya. We come to the drishya from the drasta by a process. I open my eyes, then I see the objects of colors, if I don’t open, no color will ever be existing for me in this world. If it exists for the others, they have the eyes and they open the eyes.

Now are you intelligent enough? Wise enough? Persistent enough? Tenacious, zealous, persevering, subtle and refined to enter into your own inside within the body? Conduct whatever you want to understand the entire source of life, the entire source of experience, the entirely widely stretched out object world, all of them are resting on the subject within.

The object knowledge is available in the schools, educational, professional and research centers. All of them are dealing with the ramifications of matter and energy. The subject knowledge deals with the very process of knowing, understanding it to be a distinction called the knower, the knowing and knowable, then tracing it further, understanding the knowable and the knowing as the resting on the knower and the knower itself to be the pure and the serene consciousness; the supra-material presence in us. Once you know this, all the flair, craze, everything will come to an end. That is the one which really enriches you, empowers you, enlightens you, elevates you and fulfills you, the subject knowledge alone.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.