"THE PLACE OF PRACTICE IN ADVAITA-VEDANTA" (Bhartrihari)

[Guest guest]

Namaste Anandaji.

 

An excellent post. In one stroke, we have shravaNa, manana and

nidhidyAsa well correlated here to avastAtraya and vaikhari, madhyama

and pashyanti of vAk. Given the depth of the subject, your

translation of 'VAkyapAdiya' is simply excellent and lucid.

 

May we all know where you found the referenced correspondence on

Bhartrihari's analysis?

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair

[Guest guest]

Dear Shri Madathil,

 

You asked: "... we have shravaNa, manana and nidhidyAsa well

correlated here to avastAtraya and vaikhari, madhyama and pashyanti of

vAk.... May we all know where you found the referenced correspondence

on Bhartrihari's analysis?"

 

The only reference I can think of here is Nitya Tripta's 'Notes on

Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda', note numbers 37, 286, 413,

1094 and 1387. It's through these notes that I came to think of

Bhartrihari's analysis. Some relevant excerpts from these notes are

reproduced below.

 

Ananda

 

-----

 

 

37. How can sound be utilized as a medium of enquiry to reach the

Absolute?

 

It has four distinct stages:

 

1. Vaikhari or gross sound. Here consciousness appears limited by the

audible word. It is practised by repetition of a mantra by word of

mouth, audible to one's own ears.

 

2. Madhyama: Here consciousness appears limited by the inaudible word.

It is practised by mental repetition of a mantra, inaudibly, in

contemplation of an idea.

 

3. Pashyanti represents that pure idea which is capable of being

expressed in different languages, but which remains languageless all

along. This limitation is binding only when viewed from the mental

plane; and it really takes one to the very brink of the Absolute, or

to the Absolute itself when correctly understood.

 

4. Para is pure Consciousness itself, or myself. Every sound or word,

when traced in the above sequence, leads to the Reality, or the

'I'-principle....

 

-----

 

 

413. Through sound to the Ultimate

 

The four stages of progression to the Ultimate explained in relation

to the path of sound can be applied to any sphere of life. For

example:

 

1. Vaikhari can very well be represented by every perceivable

expression as body.

 

2. Madhyama can very well be represented by every expression as mind

(inaudible) still with language.

 

3. Pashyanti can very well be represented by the languageless,

apparently limited 'I' or witness.

 

4. Para can very well be represented by the real Self or Atma beyond

even the limitation of oneness or beyond even the apparently limited

'I'.

 

Atma expresses itself in two realms, namely the mind and the body. The

Sage rests at the right end, Atma, and sees the other two as mere

illusions upon the Atma itself.

 

But the ordinary man remains at the wrong end, the body, attributing

complete reality to its form and name, and considering the mind and

Atma as relatively subtle (less real).

 

Thus the right perspective assumed by the Sage is reversed completely

by the ordinary man. To get to perfection the layman has therefore to

reverse his perspective likewise....

 

-----

 

 

1094. Progress through mantra and dhyana

 

This path is divided into four distinct stages, namely vaikhari,

madhyama, pashyanti and para.

 

Instructions from a karya-guru (one whose instructions take you to

anything below the Ultimate) may suffice for the first two stages. But

for the last two, the help of a Karana-guru is absolutely necessary.

 

Vaikhari is chanting of a mantra in audible tone and effecting

concentration of the mind there.

 

Madhyama is doing the same thing mentally and effecting concentration.

This is still in the realm of the mind and concentration is on an

idea.

 

Pashyanti: Here ideation is transcended. It may be said that here one

gets to the languageless idea. Unless one understands its nature from

a Karana-guru, one will be in an unconscious state. I may say

something about this languageless idea.

 

I may convey an idea to you by means of one particular language. The

same idea may be conveyed to another by means of a different language.

One is certainly not a translation of the other. What is the language

of that idea? It has no language, because it has gone beyond

expression. If that is correctly understood, it is itself the

background of the expressed idea of the first two stages. He, who

gets into that state, touches the background and is not in an

unconscious state. He understands, further, that the languageless idea

can only be one and cannot be many. This is the experience in

pashyanti.

 

Para: Even the notion of a background is transcended here, and

self-luminosity of the Reality takes possession of the sadhaka; and

here he is in deep Peace, which is changeless.

[Guest guest]

Namaste Anandaji.

 

Thank you for the wealth of information provided. It demands

repeated reading and I shall certainly be doing that.

 

Something from my personal experience, which may be rather irrelevant

here or sound nonsensical, comes to my mind with regard to your

paragraph referenced below.

 

The other day, a Philippino gentleman was talking to his sister in

his native tongue. I have absolutely no knowledge of their

language. I was witnessing the barely audible conversation in a very

detached mood from a distance of say ten feet. Suddenly, it occurred

to me that they were using words of my native tongue – Malayalam. I

held on to that assumption and continued to imagine that they were

speaking Malayalam. My hearing then produced a certain gist of what

the Philippino was saying. Asked later if my understanding of what

he was saying was right, to my utter consternation, they both nodded

in agreement and asked me if I knew their language. (I must tell you

here that all my deliberate attempts later on to re-enact this

ability have miserably failed.)

 

The second relates to my day-to-day activities where I have to speak

English, Arabic, Malayalam and Hindi. Often, at the end of my

activities, I have a real problem ascertaining which language I spoke

to express myself in a particular situation where my audience

concerned is either bi-lingual or multi-lingual like me.

 

Then, there is this incident which I read in some book long ago. A

professional killer who spoke only a certain European language was

about to kill his victim who didn't know a single word of that

language. As the killer was pressing down with a pillow to suffocate

the victim, the latter spoke the language of the killer and pleaded

for life. That aborted the killing as the surprised killer fled

perhaps thinking that he was on to a wrong guy.

 

Some divine persons like Sri Satya Sai Baba are said to speak

languages which they have never learnt. This may be a siddhi that

flashes off and on in the lives of ordinary mortals. There is no

other explanation.

 

All these, I believe, point to what you said and to the fact that

even ordinary persons, under certain special circumstances, are

unwittingly thrown back into the zone of languagelessness where all

languages are one and the same. Besides, all this has a strong

similarity to mixing of the senses like seeing in hearing, smelling

in tasting etc., where, deep underneath, the senses also seem to

share the same parentage of a `zone of senselessness'. You will

kindly recall that we discussed this under the "Light in

Enlightenment" topic when we probed right to the roots of physical

light.

 

Hope I have been able to properly express what I have in mind.

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair

 

__________________

advaitin, Ananda Wood <awood@v...> wrote:

.......................

>

> I may convey an idea to you by means of one particular language. The

> same idea may be conveyed to another by means of a different

language.

> One is certainly not a translation of the other. What is the

language

> of that idea? It has no language, because it has gone beyond

> expression. If that is correctly understood, it is itself the

> background of the expressed idea of the first two stages. He, who

> gets into that state, touches the background and is not in an

> unconscious state. He understands, further, that the languageless

idea

> can only be one and cannot be many. This is the experience in

> pashyanti.

>

> Para: Even the notion of a background is transcended here, and

> self-luminosity of the Reality takes possession of the sadhaka; and

> here he is in deep Peace, which is changeless.