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 is too much with

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

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?