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 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 is too much with

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?