Monthly Archives: May 2012

shrutisAra samuddharaNam (Part 2)

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The shrutisAra samuddharaNam

of

shri toTakAchArya

An Overview by C.S.Baskaran
(Part 2)

Read Part 1

Identity of the Self and Brahman: The indwelling self is identical with the ever changeless Brahman – the pure existence consciousness. It is the cause of this Universe. The indwelling self (jIvAtman) is aware of both the ‘I’ thought (ahaMkAra ) and ‘this’ (idam- vRRitti ) that resolves in deep sleep. This is the central theme of this text. How such a statement is made, if asked, the answer is that it is not a contradiction as revealed by The Scriptures/ Upanishads. It is proved by shruti, pramANa, logic, and experience as in deep sleep. Seven such pramANa-s are referred to as follows. Continue reading →

New Interviews Section

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A new ‘Interviews’ page has been added to the Menu Bar. This contains links to those Interviews originally present on the old site but new material will be added over the coming weeks, courtesy of John LeKay of Non-Duality Magazine.

Already added are the first part of an interview that I did with John a couple of years ago and part 1 of a new interview with Terry Coe, a disciple of Swami Dayananda.

 

Interview with the Gita

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We are very fortunate to have access to Bhagavad Gita ­– described as Mother, Goddess, Shower of the Nectar of Advaita and the Release from the Endless Cycle of Rebirth – to answers the many questions that relate to our day to day living. The advice relates to every person who, like Arjuna, find that, when the minds alone is involved, it is clear what’s needed, but when feelings become engaged they are no longer convinced they know what’s the right thing to do. And, at the end of each chapter, Gita is described as Brahma vidya [Knowledge of Reality] and yoga shAstra [scripture that prepares the mind for Brahma vidya]. So the questions start from this point: Enlightenment is the unshakable knowledge ‘Aham BrahmAsi’ [I am Brahman]…

Q: What stops us from knowing this truth of oneself 24/7?
Gita: Mind has three basic defects:
1. it is impure (i.e. it is ruled by appetites and aversions)
2. it is unsteady (i.e. it is unable to hold one thought for any prolonged period of time, let alone forever – i.e. it is NOT capable of being ‘unshakable’)
3. what it holds to be true is erroneous.
Krishna describes this sort of mind of the irresolute as ‘bahu shAkAh anantAh’ – many branched and endless. Continue reading →

Discrimination

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Spiritual seekers should be able to distinguish the essential from inessential in order not to waste time and energy with inessentials on their journey. Hence, the ability to discriminate is basic.

What exactly is it that helps us discriminate? Our senses inform us about the fact that a zebra is something other than a fish. The fact that the feeling of joy is something other than the thought that triggers that joy, is already a more subtle difference. However, both differentiations, indeed any differentiation, is made by using the function in our mind responsible for it, the buddhi. Continue reading →

When is an experience ‘true’? (Q. 309)

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Q. Questions are always coming up in mind. Things are confusing. At the moment, for example, I’m trying to understand how one can know whether experience is valid or not e.g. if one saw an apparition of Christ, is one to interpret it as real/unreal, true/untrue etc. and how would you know one way or another….questions about truth and validness are always crossing my mind. Continue reading →

Science and the nature of absolute reality (Part 2)

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Read Part 1

Although science is good at investigating objects, even there it is doomed to fail – because the essence of objects, too, is ultimately the same non-dual reality. As Atmananda Krishna Menon puts it, in his ‘Notes on Spiritual Discourses’: “As long as the least trace of subjectivity remains, objectivity cannot disappear. And until objectivity disappears completely, the real nature of the object can never be visualized. This is the fundamental error committed by science as well as philosophy, both in India and outside, in trying to approach the Truth through the medium of the mind.” (Vol 3 Notes, 1386)

Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda: Volumes 1, 2 and 3, Shri Atmananda and Nitya Tripta, Non-Duality Press 2009, ISBN 978-0956309129 (Vol 1) Buy from Amazon US or Amazon UK. Continue reading →

Mind Reifies Or Deifies

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Mind occupies a significant place in the teaching of Vedanta philosophy.

All the talk of liberation pertains to the mind only.  Maîtri Upanishad (VI-34-11) holds mind to be central for the liberation or bondage of human beings.  amRitabindu Upanishad (mantra 2) makes it further clear stating that “the mind engrossed in objects of senses leads to bondage but the same mind free from attachment to objects leads to liberation.”

But what is this mind?

Continue reading →

shrutisAra samuddharaNam

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The shrutisAra samuddharaNam

of

shri toTakAchArya

An Overview by C.S.Baskaran

A rare and much less known secondary scripture shrutisAra samuddharaNam is a composition  by  Shri Totakacharya, one of the four disciples of Shri Adi Sankara Bhagavatpada. Though most of the secondary Scriptures are on the same subject of oneness of jIva and brahman, ideas basic to Advaita Vedanta, this work is unique in certain ways. Firstly, it is composed in a meter that is named after the AchArya as toTaka meter. These verses are melodious when sung with their breath-taking rhythm, they remind us of Sri Sankara’s famous bhaja govinda stotram. He elucidated the nature of Brahman as one and non-dual, real, knowledge and bliss through a number of scriptural texts. Secondly he does not refer to the mAyA concept that is important to Advaita Vedanta nor discuss the tenability of the reflection theory (bimba pratibimba vAda) nor the limitation theory (avachCheda vAda ). The reasons are the possibility of his explaining the oneness of inner self (jIva ) and supreme self ( brahman ) of Advaita Vedanta without resorting to those concepts. He later became the Pontiff of the Sankara Matt established by his Guru at Badari, North India. With the blessings of my Guru, I shall try to give a short overview of this text. Continue reading →

The vulnerability of ‘doership’

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We live in turbulent times. And, when there’s turbulence, insecurity increases, and with the increase of insecurity neediness and desperation follow. The needy and desperate are ripe for exploitation. A school teaching ‘practical philosophy’ in London observes that in economically buoyant times the numbers walking though their doors drops, but when the economy gets tougher the numbers joining their classes shoot up.

Recently I bumped into people from this school promoting silence and contemplation by inviting people to walk through a labyrinth (based on the one in Chartres Cathedral) chalked in the courtyard of a church in the heart of London’s West End. Adults were very serious about being calm in following the instruction, but looked clumsy when ‘disturbed’, especially when those on the inward journey encountered those returning on the narrow chalked pathway – who should give way? Should one smile or maintain composure? If one speaks would one be disturbing the other or breaking the spell? Kids, on the other hand, just ran through the labyrinth with squeals of delight as they encountered sharp bends and jumped around like gazelles to avoid obstacles. Continue reading →

The Hole in The Whole

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There is no Whole without a ‘h-o-l-e’ in it.
There is no hole without the whole around it.

The whole never contracted to become the hole.
The hole cannot expand to become the whole.

Pain is our struggle to keep up the identity
And the separateness of a “me”
That struggle for the survival by a “me”
Has been going on for millennia.
That story is the Theory of Evolution.

Suffering is our effort to become
Back again One Whole
Seeking for integration
Propels us for Self-inquiry.
That story is the Theory of Liberation.

The whole and the hole together simply “are.”
That is Oneness. So just Be.

That “Beingness” itself is Meditation.