Tag Archives: karma

Updesa SAhasrI-Part 1

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Part 2

Chapter 1 Upodghatprakaranam
Upadesa SAhasrI means A thousand Teachings. Its authorship is attributed to Adi ShankarAchArya. It has two parts- prose and verse with many paragraphs and verses which is a figurative justification of the title. Prose part has 116 paragraphs.  Verse part which has 19 chapters is the focus here. Some of the chapters are small and chapter 18 titled Tat Tvam Asi is the biggest with 233 verses. There are totally 675 verses across all 19 chapters. Upodghat means introduction and prakaranam means chapter. Verse 1 is a prayer and much more. A prayer is generally for successful completion of the objective. Here it contains teachings also. The seeker prays (bows down) to Nirguna Brahman which is of the nature of pure consciousness. It is the Self (essential nature) of a jIva. It resides in the cave (intellect) of everyone and is like a witness of the intellect. It is within and without. It is all-pervading like rope pervading the mithyA snake in rope-snake metaphor. It is omniscient. It is beyond all perceptions and all objects of knowledge.

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BrihdArnyAka Upanishad (Part 9)

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Part 8

Part 10

Chapter 3 Section 1- Asvala brahman
3.1.1 and 3.1.2 King Janak of Videh performs a sacrifice in which many Vedic scholars are present. The king desires to know the most erudite scholar whom he will reward with 1000 cows with gold covered horns. None of the scholars comes forward except Yajnavalkya (in short Yvk), a Vedic scholar who straight away asks one of his disciples to drive home the cows indicating that he considers himself the best. Naturally, other scholars object.

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AI and Consciousness (Part 5)

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*** Go to Part 1 *** *** Go to Part 4 ***

Q: A few comments:

Given that Advaita tells us that sarvam khalvidam brahma, that means that you are also Consciousness. And the teaching of karma and reincarnation tells us that a plant and an animal are jīva-s just as much as is a human. The ability of a plant to respond to external stimuli is much less than is your own, while your effective intelligence is much greater than most humans.

A jīva needs to be ‘alive’ in order to function in a ‘self-aware’, intelligently responsive manner. But what does ‘alive’ mean here? And how does that differ from an AI LLM needing electricity and coolant in order to function. Is the organic, neurochemical operation more than functionally different from the inorganic, electronic operation of a microprocessor?

How would Advaita cope with these sort of questions? Are you sure you are not conscious?

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BrihdAranyaka Upanishad (Part 7)

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Part 6

Part 8

2.4.7 to 2.4.10                                                                                                                   If an entity cannot be perceived apart from something else, then the latter is its essence. Yajnavalkya gives many examples to highlight that the Self is unique, one and is the essence of one and all. When a drum or the like is beaten with a stick etc, one cannot distinguish its various particular notes from the general note of the drum, but they are included in or modifications of, the general note. They have no existence apart from the general note of the drum. They are not perceived as distinct notes. When a conch is blown or a veena is played, one cannot distinguish their various particular notes, but they are included in the general notes of the conch or veena. The universe, at the time of its origin as also prior to it, is nothing but Brahman as sparks, smoke, embers and flames are nothing but fire before emerging from the fire. The four Vedas and other scriptures are like breath of the supreme Self.

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Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 40

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Part 39

Chapter 7 Brahm Sutra Bhasya
7.7 BSB 3.3.53 and 3.3.54 The Self distinct from the body                                          Please see the post Vedanta and Hard Problem of Consciousness

7-8 BSB 3.4.1 to 3.4.17 Knowledge of Brahman is independent of rites                The aphorist establishes that karmAs do not produce knowledge of Brahman. In sutras 1 to 7, the opposite views (Purva Paksha) are presented which are refuted in sutras from 8 to 17 (Siddhanta).

7-8-1                                                                                                                             BSB 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 (Purva Paksha)                                                                     Knowledge itself cannot produce any result. Action is paramount. Knowledge is an aid to action. There is no result of knowledge in its own right. If there are any Vedic texts to the contrary, they are only figurative to glorify the knowledge. Knowledge of self is also an aid to action. The knowledge that self is different from body is an aid to action. Because the performer of rite believes that on fall of body at death, the self goes to higher loka due to punya earned on account of successful completion of rites.

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Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 28

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Part 27

Part 29

Chapter 6 JnAna and Moksha

6-7 Mundaka Upanishad

6-7-11 Mundaka 3.1.3 to 3.1.6
When a jiva is disillusioned by the world of duality and is restless, he seeks permanent solution. He turns to spirituality. It is a life-turning moment. He discriminates between permanent and temporary and finally recognizes his true nature, namely, consciousness. As consciousness, he is the source of creation. All worldly experiences are like ripples in the vast mirror of consciousness which he is. He has Self-realization. He transcends all actions. Action does not taint him though he is ever-engaged in action. He knows that his true nature is consciousness which enlivens the vital forces running through body. He is not interested in boasting of his luminosity because being established in Self, he delights in it. He sees same Self everywhere. The enlightened one does not ‘see’ anything else because it is mithyA. PrAna gives life to the body. Self gives life to prAna. Hence It is vital force of vital forces.
The Self is realized by practice of spiritual disciplines, namely, truth, concentration, knowledge, continence and the like. Truth is the path of gods and leads to victory.

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Q.554 – Practice and Enlightenment

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Q: I have been a seeker for the past 25 years and now realize that Advaita is the optimum path. I would like to study full time but still need to pay the rent! How can I gain Self-knowledge while performing a mundane job?  Simply ‘being in the present’ cannot bring about self-realization.

Also, is it correct that ‘cosmic ignorance’ produces māyā and the universe? Īśvara and māyā produce the guṇa-s, which then determine the jīva’s individual ‘make-up’? If this is right, it seems that individual karma must be related to Īśvara as well? But I read that Īśvara has no karma, although responsible for ‘creating’ the gunas. I am confused!

A: The bottom-line answer to your question is that no, there is nothing that you can ‘practice’ or actively ‘do’ in order to gain enlightenment. The ultimate reality is that there is no creation and no ‘individual you’. Reality is non-dual. Who-you-really-are is the non-dual Consciousness and therefore you could say that you are already enlightened.

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Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 4

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Part 3

Part 4

Chapter 3 Jiva Jagat Isvara

3-1 Introduction
It is desirable to begin with the obvious, namely, the creation and human being. The world is constituted of living and non-living beings. It also includes invisible entities, e.g., thoughts, and emotions. A human being is a living being. Though Upanishads differ in the details of creation, there is consensus about a causeless creator called Brahman and that the creation is cyclic, not linear. A linear creation with a beginning and an end runs into logical fallacies. In the cyclic version, there is no beginning and no end. Pedantically, it is absurd to talk about any beginning of creation because time is a part of creation. An immediate question that begs an answer is about the source of raw materials for creation. Before the creation, there was nothing except the creator. Upanishadic answer is that the creator has the material within Himself like a spider having material inside itself. The material is the mAyA power of Brahman which does not exist separately from Brahman. Cyclic creation and the material within the creator lead to a third proposition. In one cycle, the world emerges out of the creator, runs its course according to certain laws, and then resolves into the creator to remain there in potential form and become ready at an appropriate time for the next cycle. It is called creation-sustenance-dissolution. The word ‘creation’ is a misnomer because it conveys that a new thing comes into existence which is not correct. A more appropriate word is manifestation.

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Q.550 – Alzheimer’s and Self-knowledge

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Q: I read your answer to a previous question on this topic but am still not clear. What would be the state of all the knowledge of Advaita that I have acquired? E.g. I know now that I am not the doer and I should surrender the fruits of all my actions. But how can I still know this if I wake up with Alzheimer’s?

A: As I intimated in the answer to Q. 383, you have to differentiate between paramārtha and vyavahāra. In reality, there is only Brahman. There is only the appearance of people and world. They are mithyā. Their real substrate is Brahman.

We appear to have a body-mind and that body-mind is subject to disease, decay and death. This applies equally to the body-mind of the jñānī. The difference between the jñānī and the ajñānī is that the former knows that the body-mind is mithyā, while the latter doesn’t. Just as the body may suffer disease or even lose parts through accident, so the brain also is subject to illness and deterioration. Since the mind is associated with the brain, if the brain suffers loss, the mind will also. The memory may deteriorate or fail completely. This is the case irrespective of whether the jīva had previously gained Self-knowledge.

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Q.544 – Evil in the world

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Q:  I understand that ultimately, from a pāramārthika perspective, Brahman is all that there is, and that ‘that’ reality is what we are/ I am. However, on a vyavahāra level, there is so much suffering. Not my personal suffering – that’s just a small insignificant thing.

My question is: How can one look at war, hunger, poverty, of sentient beings, human and animal and not be affected by it? How can one put it into context?

Advaita seems to say that this universe / world / body-mind complex are all ‘mithyā’; just an ‘appearance’; dream-like, having no independent nature of its own. “Brahma satyam, jagat mithyā, jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ”. It seems cold and uncaring, and kind of an easy way out just to brush it off as ‘appearance’ only.

I find it hard to brush of as ‘just an appearance’ all the suffering that I see. How does Advaita rationalize this?

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