Tattva Bodha Lesson # 3

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TATTVA BODHA

of Bhagwan Sri Adi Sankaracharya

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Lesson # 3

 

Further to the resolve of the teacher that he is going to expound, the

exact kind of discrimination required for the realization of Truth, which

is a means to attain total freedom, for those who are endowed with the

required four-fold qualities, the student raises the next obvious question :

 

Q. What are the four-fold qualifications referred to by the word Sadhana

Chatushtaya ?

 

A. The beauty of texts like Tattva Bodha is that alongwith giving

definitions of each & every word, the main message & vision of vedanta

is given without going into any dialectics. It is indeed an introductory

text

of Vedanta, and it is easy for all kinds of students, eastern or western.

The Acharya here says 'anyone' who is endowed with these four-fold

qualities is a fit person to not only go into this text but all the vedantic

texts, and vice versa, anyone who doesn’t have these qualities will

inevitably find it all very difficult. It is these four-fold qualities which

alone need to be seen, nothing else.

 

This is indeed a very pertinent question as to why some people can

understand the message of these scriptures very easily, while others just

do not seem to get the proper wave length. Not knowing the real reasons

the tendency to attribute the cause of inability to some superficial factors

like varna, ashram, age, sex, nationality, religion, times - like this or

that yugas, modern or ancient, or to people of east or west etc. becomes

inevitable. So it is extremely important to know the right qualifications.

If at all someone is facing some difficulties then the best way is to see

what is it out of these four-fold qualities which the person concerned

seems to be lacking in. If at all we continue to give this knowledge to a

person without making this point clear, then two things are possible; if

the person doesn’t have great sraddha on scriptures then the person will

brand the text or the entire philosophy as intractable, difficult or even

impractical, or if the person has too great a sraddha on scriptures or its

author, then he will start taking him or herself as incompetent etc. To

avoid both these negative consequences it is extremely important that

one should know as to who exactly is ready to go into all this.

 

Further to the question of the student the teacher first gives the names

and brief definitions of these 'four-fold qualities'. They are :

 

The Four-fold qualities of the student of Vedanta are :

 

1. Viveka : The capacity to discriminate between the permanent and the

impermanent.

 

2. Vairagya : Dispassion to the enjoyments of the fruits of one's actions,

here or hereafter.

 

3. Six qualities like Sama etc.

 

4. Yearning for liberation.

 

Thus we see that there is no reference of various imagined criteria's of

caste, religion etc.. Whenever a student goes to a teacher to get the

knowledge of Truth, then the teachers do not ask for any worldly bio-data's,

they only looks for these above qualifications. Whosoever has them is

accepted, while others are given guidance to help them bring these about

to satisfactory limits.

 

The obvious question that would arise here is, why then is there so much

stress on ones varna or the caste. This varna is only to help us discover

our field of activity in accordance with our inner inclinations. Inculcation

of sattvic attitude is best possible when the activity is in line with our

inner coloring. Once the mind has been made sattvic then the varnas,

yogas all have successfully fulfilled their roles, and one should have

the guts to keep such considerations aside. In Dharma shastra these

considerations of discerning ones right field of work etc. have very

important role to play, while here in Brahma Vidya, the knowledge of

truth, they have no role to play, thus we don’t even find their reference.

 

Hereafter, the student requests the teacher to elaborate the meaning

of these qualities a bit more.

 

To be contd…

 

Swami Atmananda