Jnaneshvar teaches #3...

[Guest guest]

Jnaneshvar continues to talk to his father, trying toconvince him to

return to the city, that it is not necessary to separate oneself from

society and wordly surroundings...

....Jnaneswar: Knowing one’s Self and being that Self alone is

Brahmanishta, and not living in forests...

When one is Sat Chit Ananda (three fold Self) himself, why should one

engage in nishta sadhana (practice with faith)?

Father: Do not the wise say that Brahmanishta (devotion to Self)

consists in realizing while awake, the sleep state? If we don’t so

realize, can irresistible bliss flow from samadhi?

Jnaneswar: While the Vedas say that proper bliss consists in watching

like a spectator the diversions of the senses during the waking

state, the activities of the mind during dream and the state of

nothingness or blank during sleep, and that the state described as

sleep during waking consists in being like a kite’s shadow (which

while touching anything is not attached to it), can you imagine that

to be in a blank state as during sleep is real bliss, and that it is

the state called sleep during waking?

Father: Waking and dream conditions will plunge one into the affairs

of the world and render one a prey to the wild beasts of sense

organs. Hence, only that samadhi where all affairs of the world cease

and where there is total void as during sleep, is the proper samadhi.

Jnaneswar: The best samadhi is not to be a mere blank but, like

meeting blow with blow, to engage in the affairs of the world and

check the sense objects and be indifferent to them by opposing them

with the sword of steady jnana (realization of unity), like Janaka.

Father: Only Suka, who got rid of all attachments, was able to conquer

the monkeyish mind, which had accumulated within it many vasanas (deep

set desires) during countless generations, and not Janaka, who,

without being in the sleep-like state, had steady jnana that he was

Brahman.

Jnaneswar: Only Janaka secured annihilation of mind and was able to do

what he pleased with his mind, and not Suka who gave up all external

attachments and betook himself entirely to life in forests.

Father: It is only by inhering in the Seer that one can get rid of the

seen. How can one get rid of the seen by being in the seen? If to cure

a man of poison, poison is administered to him, will not death be the

result?

Jnaneswar: As we administer one poison as an antidote against another

poison, he alone is wise, who establishes imperturbable jnana against

the dangers of the sense organs, both external and internal, and not

he who is always in nishta filled with fear lest at any time the wild

beasts of sense objects should come and attack him. This latter will

realize only his fear and never the supreme bliss of Brahman.

Father: What would not the sense objects do to one in family life,

when they are capable of subjecting to grief even those who have

become ascetics and are always absorbed in nishta samadhi? Can a

dried leaf that has fallen into a turbulent flood keep still in one

place?

Jnaneswar: The sense organs will bring down one who has not attained

firm jnana, however long he may remain introverted, and cause him

grief. Like a big rock that has fallen into a flood and remains there

unmoved, one must remain unmoved, however numerous be the sense

activities that come to one, and whatever be the unbearable grief

they cause. It is only such a one that can experience the bliss of

Brahman. The ignorance of one that is not steadily fixed in jnana

will never disappear.

Father: However steady one may be fixed in jnana, he is sure to be

engulfed in the darkness of maya (worldly illusion) unless he is

always absorbed in meditation of Brahman, giving up all society.

Jnaneswar: It is only if there is such a thing as maya apart from

Brahman, one would have to get rid of it by being always in nishta.

Like saying ‘one’s shadow will fight with one,’ you have pointed to a

nonexistent avidya and an ego and declared that we must always be in

nishta. As the only result of fighting with an unreal shadow will be

exhaustion, you will have only endless trouble if you don’t stay

quiet in mauna (silence), realizing the unreality of maya, but go on

eliminating, saying, “Not this, not this”.

Father: How is one to attain sahaja jnana (spontaneous knowledge)

without eliminating the unreal, becoming one-pointed in mind, and

remaining a mere sakshi (witness), unmoved by all that takes place.

Jnaneswar: The more we eliminate the unreal things as “not this, not

this,” the more sense objects will go on appearing, like winged white

ants that swarm out from an ant hill. The more we try to make the mind

one-pointed, the more will the mind get disturbed like a repressed

ball rebounding. The more you remain a sakshi, the more will the

delusion “I am the body,” etc., assert itself like the curly tail of

the dog resuming its bent shape, however much we try to keep it

straight. So it is the majestic bliss of Brahman to realize by the

jnana (realization) of enquiry, that one is himself Brahman, and

avidya, alias ego, and maya, alias unreality, are entirely illusory

like the appearance of silver in the mother of pearl.

to be continued...

 

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