Tag Archives: meditation

‘nididhyAsana’ – as Shankara explains – 2/2

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[Part – 1/2]

Putting together 4.1.2, BSB and 1.1.6, muNDaka bhAShya, we can draw five conclusions from bhagavatpada prasthānatraya bhAShya prakriyA as given below:

  1. It is possible to get the Knowledge of the Self in just one hearing of the Vedic statement ‘That thou art’. But, to achieve this it has to be a highly eligible seeker.
  2. Those who have but a vague idea of the meaning of a text on hearing it once do come to shed their various misconceptions and understand it rightly after repeated hearings.
  3. There are some for whom the meanings of words ‘that’ and ‘thou’ are obscured by ignorance, doubt and misunderstanding. In their case merely hearing the text ‘That thou art’ will not yield Knowledge of its True meaning. A seeker can only understand the meaning of the sentence after understanding the meaning of the words in it. In case of such people, repeated hearing followed by reasoning upon them is needed to first get the true meaning of words.
  4. The Knowledge gained by the most well-qualified in one hearing and that gained by another seeker over repeated hearings is not different; i.e. there isn’t anything more to be done by either of them. Because gaining the Knowledge itself is “gaining” the Self (unlike in karma kANDa where knowledge about a ritual which bestows heaven will not by itself take the seeker to heaven. After knowing, the seeker has to perform the ritual and body has to fall off in course of time. Only after that, s/he may be taken to heaven).
  5. For most highly qualified seekers all it takes is one hearing alone. For the remaining seekers (including Svetaketu Aruni) it needs repeated attempts. But in every attempt what is needed is shravaNa+manana+nididhyAsana combined together.

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‘nididhyAsana’ – as Shankara explains – 1/2

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[“nididhyAsana” is a very important and popular term in Advaita Vedanta.  Every teacher tends to give his or her own interpretation of what it means as per his/her understanding and/or the philosophical school s/he belongs to. A sincere seeker in Shankara tradition, however, would like to know what “nididhyAsana” stands for according to Shankara.

To answer this, Shri Michael Ji kindly collected Shri Prasanth Neti Ji’s comments from several separate posts on the subject and turned them into a single post at the FB SAV Group. I feel it provides an authentic picture of how Shankara himself explicates the term. Both Shri Prasanth Ji and Michael Ji have been very generous in letting me post the Article here. I trust the Readers will find this post interesting and useful – ramesam.]

***

Maitreyi asks her husband, Sage Yajnavalkya:  Continue reading →

Q.540 Following Bhakti Yoga

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Q: If God is not a separate entity and just a symbol for different qualities then how does one proceed with Bhakti?

Bhakti develops unconditional love for God. But shouldn’t this love be for our loved ones rather than for a God whom I have never seen? Isn’t that closer to reality?

I was doing Naam japa and getting immense benefits out of it but these questions have confused me, and I have stopped practicing this. People who are Self-realized also do Bhakti, don’t they? To whom do they pray?

A: There are two main points here.

First, since you are asking a question about Advaita, you must appreciate that, in reality there is only Brahman, or Consciousness. From the empirical standpoint, of course, you see a dualistic world with other people etc. and, from this point of view, it is not unreasonable to speak of a god, or gods. But anything to do with this empirical point of view has to be provisional only. It all has to be acknowledged as simply name and form of that non-dual reality eventually. That ‘acknowledgement’, and the firm belief that it is true, is what we call ‘enlightenment’.

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Bhgavad Gita (Topic-wise) Part 3

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                                                                                                                    Part 2

                                                                                                                    Part 4

4 Isvara

4-1 Avatara 4(1 to 9,14)
Though the main theme of the Gita is jnana yoga, Sri Krishna introduces the topic of Avatara, which is a unique concept in Vedic tradition. He wants to say, nay to remind Arjuna that He is an incarnation (Avatara) of God and has descended on earth to impart the (Vedic) teaching, which is very ancient, as old as creation. The teaching is eternal and cannot be out of date. In the process, He describes the history of the teaching. It was imparted to Lord Sun who gave it to Manu who taught it to Ikshavaku. It is kshatriya tradition different from Brahmin tradition. Sri Krishna and Arjuna are kshatriyas. The royal sages possessed the knowledge handed down from generation to generation. Due to the long passage of time, it was lost in the world. He is giving this teaching to Arjuna as he is a friend and a devotee and through him, this highest and secret teaching will be revived because the purpose of Avatara is to protect the teaching and the humanity. When Arjuna queries that Sri Krishna’s birth is much after the sun, it is clarified that as an Avatara He has many births, and He knows all the births whereas a human being does not know. His birth is different from a human birth. Continue reading →

Q.533 Value of practice

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Q: Do you know of any effective (tried and true) praxis methods for Advaita? Meditations, contemplations, visualizations, prayers, mantras, hymns, and so on. Particularly methods that nurture the understanding of the mahavakyas. I’ve been meditating daily and I’m open to different approaches.

I suppose I might do okay with reading, rereading, fathoming, and contemplating the mahavakyas, one by one. But if there are already good praxis methods out there, I’d love to give them a try.

A: The ‘problem’ is Self-ignorance and the ONLY remedy for this is Self-knowledge, which comes from scriptures, ideally interpreted/explained by a qualified teacher.

Having said that, the only value of any practice is to enable the above or enhance the ability of the mind/intellect to do the above. sādhana catuṣṭaya sampatti tells you what practices are of value. But practicing to the extent that you are able to still the mind at will and give all your attention to what is front of you, dropping desires etc., is of no value (as far as Advaita is concerned) unless you give that attention to scriptures/teacher.

You do that in the form of shravaṇa-manana and then go away and regurgitate-reassimilate that until it is fully accepted. ‘Doing’ of any sort, such as learning shruti by heart, singing mantras, trekking to the Himalyas etc. is not going to achieve anything.

mANDUkya upaniShad Part 11

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*** Read Part 10 ***

Mantra 10 (and kārikā K1.20)

स्वप्नस्थानस्तैजस उकारो द्वितीया मात्रोत्कर्षादुभयत्वाद्वोत्कर्षति ह वै ज्ञानसन्ततिं समानश्च भवति नास्याब्रह्मवित्कुले भवाति य एवं वेद ॥ १० ॥

svapnasthānastaijasa ukāro dvitīyā mātrotkarṣādubhayatvādvotkarṣati ha vai jñānasantatiṃ samānaśca bhavati nāsyābrahmavitkule bhavāti ya evaṃ veda || 10 ||

dvitIyā mātra – The second mātra (of OM)
ukāraḥ – the letter ‘u’
taijasa – is taijasa
svapna sthāna – the dream state
utkarṣāt – because it is superior
vā – or
ubhayatvāt – because it is in the middle.

ya evaṃ veda – Whosoever knows this
ha vai – verily
utkarṣāti – increases
jñāna saṃtati – the flow of knowledge
cha bhavati – and becomes
samānaḥ – the equal (of anyone).

abrahmavit – (A person who is) not a knower of brahman
na bhavāti – is not born
asya kule – in his family.

The letter u, the second mātra of OM, is taijasa, the dream state, because both are regarded as superior and also are in the middle of their respective series. Whoever knows this will become superior in knowledge and accepted by all. All members of his family will be jñānī-s.

The letter u is regarded as superior to a because it comes later in the alphabet and, in the sounding of o, the a ‘resolves’ into u. Whereas a was the basic, unadorned sound made by merely opening the mouth, u is a more subtle sound requiring that we modify the lips significantly.

The subtle taijasa is regarded as superior to vishva because subtle is superior to gross. Also, gross can be considered as the ‘effect’ of the subtle ’cause’. Gross equates to matter, subtle to energy. Mental is superior to physical; it is the quality of our mind that raises us above animals. The gross body returns to earth on death, whereas the subtle and causal bodies continue to rebirth (for the ajñānī). At the macrocosmic (samaṣṭi) level, at the end of the universe (pralaya), the entire gross creation (virāṭ) is subsumed into hiraṇyagarbha.

Each is the middle of its respective series: u comes between a and m; taijasa comes between vishva and prājña.

By meditating on OM, giving attention particularly to the letter u and being aware of these associations, the following benefits will accrue to the seeker who is still primarily interested in material benefits:  their mental power and corresponding knowledge will increase; they will be treated equally by everyone, yet envied by no one.

*** Read Part 12 ***

Q.457 Using meditation to ‘find the self’

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Q: Undaunted by my belief that meditation to find the self (soul) is difficult, I would like to try, but there are no teachers in my area. Therefore, in the first instance, I would really appreciate your advice regarding a book to follow for this type of meditation that is suitable for a beginner.

A: The purpose of meditation is to help gain control of the mind and senses so that you can cultivate dispassion and discrimination and still the mind when listening to the teacher.

Meditation cannot enable you to ‘find the self’. You are already the Self – you just have not realized this. What has to happen is for the mind to receive knowledge about the Self, clear any misunderstandings, resolve any doubts etc. Ideally, you need a qualified teacher for this – someone who knows the truth and is able to convey the relevant steps (via story, metaphor etc.) to help someone else come to the same understanding.

As an introduction to Advaita, there are three books I would recommend:

1. ‘Introduction to Vedanta’ by K. Sadananda – see https://www.advaita-vision.org/vedanta-introduction-sadananda/;

2. ‘Book of One’ (2nd edition) by myself – http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/thebook/thebook.htm;

3. ‘VEDĀNTA the solution to our fundamental problem’ by D. Venugopal (This is serialized at the website (https://www.advaita-vision.org/vedanta-the-solution-part-1/).

Q.490 Consciousness and the Brain

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Q: My question is one I can’t seem to clarify through any book, teacher or teaching:

How do we know that the brain isn’t responsible for consciousness? While we can observe mind with all of it’s contents as objects and then say we cannot be that which we observe, how can we be sure that there is not just some part of the brain which does the observing that is giving us this ability to watch thought? How does Vedanta address this? How can we know that the brain isn’t simply the one observing all phenomena?

Side note: I lost consciousness once due to a fall and blacked out, and all I can say is that there was complete absence of being and no one there to be aware of the non-beingness. No observer nor observed. Beyond no-thing. Absolutely no experience beyond the concept of the word. Continue reading →

Q.484 Sense of Self

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Q: About six years ago I was looking for the separate self through directly paying attention to the sense of self in my immediate experience. I did this over about a week or ten days during regular life. I followed this sense of self when it shifted say from the body to the thinking mind, to the sense of will etc. Suddenly everything dropped away and what was seen was just openness/absence of self /no me /nothing +everything.

I’m not sure how long this lasted. Then the mind came back. I felt liberated from all worry and desire for a couple of months. Then slowly old habits reestablished themselves. Since then I am at a loss what to do. 

So I have no problem accepting Advaita teachings but I could do with some further guidance. 

A: Presumably you are prepared to accept the basic premise of Advaita – that reality is non-dual. If it is true, then it must be the case that you already are the ‘Self’. So it is not really a case of ‘looking for it’ but rather realizing that you are already ‘It’. So you can ask yourself the question ‘who would be looking for what?’. The ‘sense of self’ is not the Self; it is a feeling or an idea in the mind.

If you practice meditation seriously (twice a day, 30mins at a time, for several years), you will eventually experience periods of samAdhi, which correspond to the experience you describe. But this is just an experience – as you can tell because it has a beginning and an end. Realizing the truth of Advaita, becoming ‘enlightened’, is Self-knowledge, not an experience.

Having said that, it is possible to gain Self-knowledge and yet still not have the ‘sense of bliss’, fulfillment or whatever, that you believe ought to result. This is because of ‘obstacles’ in the mind (pratibandha-s) remaining from having insufficiently ‘prepared’ the mind beforehand (sAdhana chatuShTaya sampatti).

The book I am currently writing is all about the confusions that are brought about in seekers as a result of wrong understanding by many modern teachers. pratibandha-s will be one of the topics covered and, because there has been much discussion on related issues at the website recently, I will be begin posting the material for this topic within the next week. It is quite long so will be in 3 or 4 parts. I suggest you look out for it and join in any subsequent discussion if you like. [Since this Q&A, I have posted the pratibandha series, now in around 11 parts, and it begins here.]

pratibandha-s – part 5 of 10

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Read Part 4

vij~nAna

Shankara differentiates what might be called ‘ordinary’ or ‘intellectual’ knowledge (j~nAna) from ‘transformative’ knowledge (vij~nAna). The knowledge becomes transforming – i.e. making it efficacious in conveying the status of jIvanmukti – when the gaining of it has been preceded by successful sAdhana chatuShTaya sampatti. In his bhAShya on muNDaka upaniShad 2.2.8, he says:

“Wise, discriminatory people (dhIrA) see through vij~nAna; vij~nAna is a special (vishihtena) knowledge (j~nAna), born out of the teaching of shAstra and AchArya (shAstra AchArya upadesha janitam), and received in a specially prepared mind, born (udbhutena) out of total detachment (vairAgya), having control of inner and outer organs (shama and dama), and which is therefore capable of upAsanA to begin with and later of nididhyAsana which together are called meditation (dhyAna). Through such a vij~nAna, wise people realize that the nature of the Atman (Atmatatvam) is non-different from the nature of Brahman (brahmatatvam)…” (Ref. 10)

‘Who am I?’ in communication

Who are we speaking of when we use the words ‘I’ and ‘you’ in writing and speech?

Since we are Advaitins, there are actually three possibilities:

  1. ‘I’ could mean Atman/Brahman, if used from the ‘as if’ pAramArthika viewpoint;
  2. ‘I’ could mean the reflected Consciousness (chidAbhAsa);
  3. ‘I’ could mean the usually understood ‘named person’.

Continue reading →