Advaita Bhoda Deepika #8

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Referring to Chapters I and II, posts #1-7...

 

....A competent seeker must carefully study these two chapters

before proceeding further...

 

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA

 

SADHANA

CHAPTER III

 

THE MEANS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

 

1. To the question "How can there be samsara for the

Supreme Self of Being-Knowledge-Bliss?", the sages answer

"When unmanifest, the power of the Self is called Maya, and

when manifest, the same is mind. This mode of Maya, the

inscrutable Mind, is the sprout of samsara for the self".

D.: Who has said that mind is indescribable?

 

2-3. M.: Vasishta has said to Rama. In the non-dual

Consciousness the bhava which, different from knowledge that

is real and different from insentience that is unreal, tending to

create, projects the latencies as this thing and that thing, mixes

together the conscious and unconscious, and makes them appear

under the categories, "the sentient" and "the insentient", itself

of the nature of both the sentient and insentient; always

vacillating and changeful is mind. Therefore it is indescribable.

 

4. Though itself unchanging, the Supreme Self associated

with the wrongly superimposed mind, appears to be changeful.

D.: How is that?

M.: Just as a Brahmin who is drunk, behaves strangely

when in the power of liquors, so too the Self though unchanged

by nature, associated now with mind, appears changed as the

jiva wallowing in this samsara. Hence, the Self 's samsara is not

other than mind. The srutis say so.

 

5. Mind being the samsara, must be investigated. Associated

with mind which according to its modes assumes the shapes of

objects, the man seems to undergo the same changes. This eternal

secret is disclosed in the Maitryiniya Upanishad. This also is

confirmed by our experience and by positive and negative

induction.

 

6-7. D.: How is it confirmed by our experience?

M.: When in deep sleep the mind lies quiescent, the Self

remains without change and without samsara. When in dream

and waking, the mind manifests, the Self seems changed and

caught up in the samsara. Everyone knows it by experience. It

is evident from sruti, smriti, logic and experience that this samsara

is nothing but mind itself. How can any one dispute this point

which is so obvious?

 

8-9. D.: How does association with mind entangle the

Self in samsara?

M.: Mind whose nature is always to be thinking of this and

that, functions in the two modes - the 'I' mode and 'this' mode,

as already mentioned in Chapter I on Superimposition. Of these

two, the I-mode has always the single concept 'I', whereas the

this-mode varies according to the quality operating at the time,

satva, rajas or tamas, i.e., clearness, activity or dullness.

D.: Who has said so before?

 

10-11. M.: Sri Vidyaranyaswami has said that the mind

has these qualities, satva, rajas and tamas and changes

accordingly. In satva, dispassion, peace, beneficence, etc.,

manifest; in rajas, desire, anger, greed, fear, efforts, etc., manifest;

in tamas, sloth, confusion, dullness, etc.

 

12-14. Unchanged Pure Knowledge by nature, the Supreme

Self when associated with the mind changing according to the

operative qualities, becomes identified with it.

D.: How can that be?

M.: You see how water is of itself cold and tasteless. Yet

by association, it can be hot, sweet, bitter, sour, etc. Similarly

the Self, by nature Being-Knowledge-Bliss, when associated

with the I-mode, appears as the ego. Just as cold water in union

with heat becomes hot, so also the Blissful Self in union with

the 'I'- mode becomes the misery-laden ego. Just as water,

originally tasteless, becomes sweet, bitter or sour according to

its associations, so also the Self of Pure Knowledge appears

dispassionate, peaceful, beneficent, or passionate, angry, greedy,

or dull and indolent, according to the quality of the this-mode

at the moment.

 

15. The sruti says that the Self associated with prana, etc.,

appears respectively as prana, mind, intellect, the earth and the

other elements, desire, anger, dispassion, etc.

 

16. Accordingly associated with the mind, the Self seems

changed to jiva, sunk in the misery of endless samsara, being

deluded by innumerable illusions, like I, you, it, mine, yours, etc.

 

17. D.: Now that samsara has fallen to the lot of the Self,

how can it be got rid of?

M.: With complete stillness of mind, samsara will disappear

root and branch. Otherwise there will be no end to samsara,

even in millions of aeons (Kalpakotikala).

 

18. D.: Cannot samsara be got rid of by any means other

than making the mind still?

M.: Absolutely by no other means; neither the Vedas, nor

the shastras nor austerities, nor karma, nor vows, nor gifts, nor

recital of scriptures of mystic formulae (mantras), nor worship,

nor anything else, can undo the samsara. Only stillness of mind

can accomplish the end and nothing else.

 

19. D.: The scriptures declare that only Knowledge can

do it. How then do you say that stillness of the mind puts an

end to samsara?

M.: What is variously described as Knowledge, Liberation,

etc., in the scriptures, is but stillness of mind.

D.: Has any one said so before?

 

20-27. M.: Sri Vasishta had said: When by practice the

mind stands still, all illusions of samsara disappear, root and

branch. Just as when the ocean of milk was churned for its

nectar, it was all rough, but became still and clear after the

churn (viz., mount Mandara) was taken out, so also the mind

becoming still, the samsara falls to eternal rest.

D.: How can the mind be brought to stillness?

M.: By dispassion, abandoning all that is dear to oneself,

one can by one's efforts accomplish the task with ease. Without

this peace of mind, Liberation is impossible. Only when the

whole objective world is wiped out clean by a mind disillusioned

as a consequence of discerning knowledge that all that is not

Brahman is objective and unreal, the Supreme Bliss will result.

Otherwise in the absence of peace of mind, however much an

ignorant man may struggle and creep on in the deep abyss of

the shastras, he cannot gain Liberation.

Only that mind which by practice of yoga, having lost all

its latencies, has become pure and still like a lamp in a dome

well protected from breeze, is said to be dead. This death of

mind is the highest fulfilment. The final conclusion of all the

Vedas is that Liberation is nothing but mind stilled.

For Liberation nothing can avail, not wealth, relatives,

friends, karma consisting of movements of the limbs, pilgrimage

to sacred places, baths in sacred waters, life in celestial regions,

austerities however severe, or anything but a still mind. In similar

strain many sacred books teach that Liberation consists in doing

away with the mind. In several passages in the Yoga Vasishta, the

same idea is repeated, that the Bliss of Liberation can be reached

only by wiping out the mind, which is the root cause of samsara,

and thus of all misery.

 

28. In this way to kill the mind by a knowledge of the

sacred teaching, reasoning and one's own experience, is to undo

the samsara. How else can the miserable round of births and

deaths be brought to a standstill? And how can freedom result

from it? Never. Unless the dreamer awakes, the dream does not

come to an end nor the fright of being face to face with a tiger

in the dream. Similarly unless the mind is disillusioned, the

agony of samsara will not cease. Only the mind must be made

still. This is the fulfilment of life.

 

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Taken from Advaita Bhoda Deepika

as published by Sri Ramanasramam

Tiruvannamalai 2002.

 

To be continued...

 

You can download at

http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/downloads/downloads.htm

[Guest guest]

, "Lady Joyce" <shaantih@c...>

wrote:

>

> Referring to Chapters I and II, posts #1-7...

>

> ...A competent seeker must carefully study these two chapters

> before proceeding further...

>

> =====================================================

> ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA

>

> SADHANA

> CHAPTER III

>

 

Namaste LJ,

 

I would add this;

 

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD.

 

-One thing which has become a hallmark of this Upanishad is the

Theory of Ajatavada. Normally some scriptures give some theory of

creation, only to later prove the creation to be ephemeral, while

here Gaudapada appears to be very uncompromising. He doesnt like

going the longer way, he declares right from the beginning itself

that there is no creation whatsoever. He considers the compassionate

effort of some to temporarily accept the creation as a compromise.

He thunders the raw truth uncompromisingly............Swami Atmananda