The Vision in spite of perception.

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In a message dated 5/8/00 9:58:56 PM Romance Daylight Time,

chandran writes:

 

<< Please explain to your fellow advaitins, how does Advaita Philsophy help

you change your attitude toward your friends, relatives and foes? >>

 

"The Vision in spite of perception" guides me, as a seeker, to relate to

the relationships/events etc., that fall within the realm of my attention.

"Be a breeze that stirs no dust." was Gurudev Chinmayanandaji's words to me

many years ago, and that I find is a beautiful way of living. Sure, one does

slip once in a way but Krishna is a great guide!! (The Gita).

 

VISION IN SPITE OF PERCEPTION

 

We the jivas, claim subjectively and objectively many a notion with a sense

of "I"ness and "mine"ness. The identity with the physical body leads to

certain notions like "I am beautiful/ugly, strong/weak, etc." In the

emotional realms it is seen as "I am peaceful/restless, happy/sad" and so

forth. In the intellectual realms the identification leads to notions of

being as "I am intelligent/stupid, success/failure, etc." Whilst these

subjective claims give rise to "I"ness, in the objective level the claims of

"mine"ness are in terms of relationships and possessions.

 

Thus when the quality of the created realms, which belong to the order of

"not-real" or "apparently real" is added to the order of Real, which is

Atman/Self, this seeming union between these two different orders of Reality

creates the sense of "ahamkara". This notional identification is in relation

to something other than the "I" (Real). An error is committed when the

notional ego is conferred with the status of the Real. This erroneous

judgement is due to our ignorance of the true nature of "I."

 

The discriminative analysis by the methodology of Vedantic teaching corrects

this wrong judgement. An individual in life has three states of experience.

They are the waking, dream and deep sleep states of experience. The notions

of being the owner of the body and mind as mine, with relationships, roles,

ideals, and, the means to relate and achieve them, manifest totally in the

waking state of experience in the empirical world. This waker and the world

of his experience are absent in the dream and deep sleep states. In the dream

state the jiva creates from his mind a dream world and dream experiences. In

the deep sleep state, the status of being "waker" and "dreamer" are both

absent. In this state with the mental faculties at the lowest ebb, the jiva

remains ignorant of his familiar world and of his ahamkara as well. Yet on

waking up, the jiva claims the deep sleep experience as "mine" though there

was no status as ahamkara in that sleep.

 

Thus in the analysis of the three states of experience which constitutes

one's life, we find that jivatvam is variable. Being variable, ahamkara

belongs to the order of not-real. The invariable factor, which lights up all

the variable states of experience is the self-effulgent Atma as Witness. It

only illumines all states but there is no sense of being the doer/enjoyer

(ahamkara) in Atma. Jivatvam is only an incidental attribute of "I", while

"I", the Pure Consciousness remains free of all attributes as the ever

present invariable factor.

 

The scriptural teachings reveal the reality of "I" and the apparent reality

of jivatvam. Prior to the revelation, the notional ego had the stamp of Real

for the jiva. When it is corrected by discriminative analysis of the Real and

not-real, the "I" is retained true to its absolute nature as that which knows

its own existence - Consciousness.

 

The understanding of the nature of "I" as Real and of jivatvam as apparently

real is not inimical to one's ego. One continues to claim one's body,

faculties, actions with the notional sense of "I"ness and "mine"ness but

there is a silent disowning within. This silent disowning in the world of

empirical reality is "Vision in spite of Perception." To know that the blue

sky is truly not blue despite the blue colour seen; to know that the water

seen in the desert sands is a mirage despite the continued appearance of

water, is correction by knowledge in spite of perception.

 

The one who has understood the Truth, lives with the recognition of the Real

as the inner essence of his nature, with the notional ego retained as only

apparently real. He accepts whatever notions that have to be owned in life as

due to his prarabdha, - the portion of accumulated karma, which results in a

particular birth and continues to fructify in that given life span.

 

As seekers, we have to understand that the mind from time immemorial depended

upon the notional identification and judgements and now needs correction to

understand the Vision. Once understood true to the Vision even the notion of

being an atma sadhak, which is possible because of the ego, is shed at the

altar of Wisdom.

 

(Excerpted from Swami Tatwananda's Talks - The Vision and The Values)