Pure Consciousness -He , She OR IT?

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"The natural state of each individual is the state of being brahman,

say the scriptures. Sankara therefore defines bhakti in specific

terms as contemplative living in one's natural state, that is, the

divine state. This brahma-bhAva, being in brahman, automatically

implies an equanimous view of every being in the world as the same

self as the one dwells in the seer. This balanced view of everything

as One, everything as the Self, is a blissful experience, called

brahma-Ananda. It does not come out of studies or scholarship. It is

a state to be enjoyed internally, not by the external apparatus. When

that experience crystallises, there is no more knowledge, no more

ignorance, no perceiver, nothing perceived, no perception. All that

is seen by these enlightened souls is the godliness of Infinite Love

and the loveliness of the Omnipresent God.

 

Sankara waxes eloquent about such a state of supreme bhakti, which we

call advaita bhakti, in glowing terms. This poetic but precise

description of Sankara is very often quoted as the thesis on bhakti.

It is verse no.61 of SivAnanda-lahari. It gives five analogies for

bhakti or Devotion to Divinity. The first one cites what is called an

ankola tree which has the characteristic that when its seeds fall

from the tree on the ground and mature, they travel to the base of

the tree and join the roots by their own nature. Just as these seeds

reach the tree with a one-pointed purpose, so also the devotee should

be devoted to his God of devotion – is the theme. The second analogy

is that of iron filings that are drawn to a magnet. In these two

analogies the duality of the components of the system involved is all

but obvious. The next two analogies are that of a chaste wife being

devoted and drawn towards her husband and that of a creeper which

winds around a parent tree. In these two cases the quality of the

relationship is certainly different from that of the first two

analogies but still some duality remains. The fifth analogy is that

of a river which is irrevocably bound to a path towards the ocean,

its ultimate destination. It appears it is this analogy that is

closest to the heart of Adi Sankara as far as his definition of

bhakti is concerned.

 

Think of a golden ring. Does gold have the form of a ring? Goldness

has nothing to do with the shape of a ring or roundness. The

roundness of the ring is extraneous to gold. Do not see the ring, see

only the gold, they say. This is why even words fail when the Vedas

want to describe the Ultimate. What is not spoken by the tongue but

what makes the tongue speak is brahman, not the thing that is before

you, says Kenopanishad. It is something which the words cannot

describe, eyes cannot see, the ears cannot hear. Even the senses

cannot sense it. How can the Seer see himself? How can the Knower

know himself? So somehow out of all the multiplicity that is visible

to us we have to see and sense the unity which is our own Self. "

 

v.krishnamurthy- science and spirituality!

 

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thank you , siva for bringing us to the texts of Manasallosa! that

was ineed a treat ! of course, you seem to have sent everyone into

a'silence' mode, My dakshinamurthy! smiles!

 

love