Advaita Bhoda Deepika # 14

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CHAPTER IV

 

SRAVANA (Hearing)

 

1. In the foregoing chapter we had seen that yoga is suited

to the lower grade of seekers and enquiry to the higher. In this

chapter we shall consider the path of enquiry which effortlessly

leads to Knowledge of Brahman.

 

2-4. D.: What is this path of enquiry?

M.: From the shastras it is well known to consist of sravana,

manana, nidhidhyasana and samadhi i.e., hearing the Truth,

reflection, meditation and Blissful Peace. The Vedas themselves

declare it to be so. "My dear, the Self must be heard from the

master, reflected and meditated upon." In another place it is

said that in Blissful Peace the Self must be realised. The same

idea has been repeated by Sri Sankaracharya in his Vakyavrtti,

namely that until the meaning of the sacred text "I am Brahman"

is realised in all its true significance, one must be practising

sravana etc.

 

5-7. In Chitra Deepika, Sri Vidyaranyaswami has said that

enquiry is the means of knowledge and it consists in hearing

the Truth, reflection and meditation; only the state of blissful

Peace of awareness in which Brahman alone exists and nothing

else, is the true "nature" of Knowledge; the non-revival of the

knot of the ego parading as "I" which has been lost once for all,

is its "effect"; always to remain fixed as 'I am the Supreme Self '

just as strongly, unequivocally and unerringly as the heretofore

ignorant identification "I am the body" is its end; liberation is

its fruit. From this it follows that only hearing etc. is the enquiry

into the Self.

 

8-10. To hear the Supreme Truth, reflect and meditate on

it, and to remain in Samadhi form together the enquiry into

the Self. They have for their cause (Hetu) the aforesaid four

sadhanas, namely, discernment, desirelessness, tranquillity and

desire to be liberated. Which of these is essential for which part

of enquiry will be mentioned in its appropriate place. Here we

shall deal with sravana.

M.: Sravana consists in ascertaining, by means of the six

proofs considered together, that the Vedas aim at the non-dual

Brahman only.

 

11-12. To analyse sravana under the five categories:-

Intense desire to be liberated gives rise to it; always to be

hearing of the non-dual Brahman is its nature; the complete

removal of that aspect of the veiling power of Ignorance

which says, "It (Brahman) does not exist" is its effect; non

recurrence of this veiling power is its limit; a firm indirect

knowledge is its fruit.

 

13. D.: How can the desire to be liberated be said to be

its cause?

M.: In the sruti it is said: "In the state of dissolution before

creation there was only the non-dual Reality." This Reality is

the same as the Self. Only he who is eager to be liberated will

seek the knowledge of the Self and take to hearing it. No other

is interested in It. Therefore eagerness to be liberated is the

essential requisite for this part of enquiry, viz. sravana.

 

14. D.: Just now you said that always to be hearing of the

non-dual Self is the nature of sravana. Who is this non-dual

Self?

M.: He is famous in the srutis as the Consciousness beyond

the gross, subtle and causal bodies, apart from the five sheaths

and witness of the waking, dream and sleep states.

 

15-17. D.: What can be beyond the gross, subtle and

causal bodies?

 

M.: Of these the gross body is composed of skin, blood,

muscles, fat, bones, nerve stuff and lymph; it is secreting and

excreting; it is born and it dies; like a wall it is insentient; like a

pot it is an object of the senses.

The subtle body is the internal organ (antahkarana) wellknown

as the mind, which functions as the 'I' mode and 'this'

mode; together with the five vital airs, the five senses and the

five organs and limbs, it transmigrates to other bodies or worlds;

always remaining within a gross body it experiences pleasures

and pains.

The beginningless, neither real nor unreal, and indescribable

Ignorance manifests these subtle and gross bodies and

is therefore said to be the causal body.

 

18. These three bodies are contrary to the nature of the Self.

D.: How?

M.: The gross body is insentient; the subtle is pain ridden;

the causal is unreal. These are the opposites of the Being-

Knowledge-Bliss nature of the Self. Therefore the Self must be

different from these.

 

19-25. D.: How is it so from the five sheaths also?

M.: The five sheaths are the material, the vital, the mental,

the intellectual and the blissful ones. Of these the material sheath

is born of food and grows with food; it is thus food modified.

Therefore it is material. Like a sheath to a sword, the body

covers the Self and obstructs its knowledge. Therefore it is the

material sheath. Moreover it has a beginning and an end.

Therefore it is not the Self who is eternal.

Together the vital, the mental and the intellectual sheaths

form the subtle body. Through the five passages in the body

functioning in five different ways according to its modes, the

vital air together with the five organs and limbs obstructs the

Self from being known; therefore this is the vital sheath. Being

insentient it cannot be the Self.

 

Joined with desire, anger etc., thinking this and that, the

"this" mode of mind manifests the latencies. Together with the

five senses this "this" mode forms the mental sheath. Being

insentient, it cannot be the Self.

Definitely to make out the "this" and "that" ideas of the

mind to be a pot, a cloth etc., to have the false notion of 'I' in

the body etc., and that of "mind", in home, wealth, lands etc.,

is the nature of the 'I' mode. United with the five senses, this

I-mode forms the intellectual sheath. Arising in the waking and

dream states, joined with the body, permeating it from head to

foot, it is resolved in swoons or in the deep sleep state; therefore

it cannot be the eternal Self.

 

After waking from deep sleep every one feels, "I did not

know anything - I slept happily." Here ignorance and bliss

are the experiences. This blissful ignorance is the blissful sheath.

Being ignorant, it must be insentient and non self.

So far all the five sheaths have been shown to be non self.

The experiencer in them must be different from them like the

seer of a pot remaining different from it. There can be no doubt

on this point.

 

26. D.: How is the Self said to be witnessing the three

states?

M.: The three states are the waking, dream and deep sleep

through which the Jiva or the 'false-I' or the ego passes,

identifying itself with the gross, subtle and causal bodies

respectively. The Self must therefore be the Consciousness

witnessing these three states; "It" is not identical with any or all

of them.

 

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Taken from Advaita Bhoda Deepika

as published by Sri Ramanasramam

Tiruvannamalai 2002.

 

To be continued...

 

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