Balancing life through Vedanta -1: Summary of Swami Ishwarananda's lecture

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

The following is my brief summary -- errors of fact,

slips of content and faults of logic are all mine -- of

the first lecture of a series of five lectures by Swami

Ishwarananda. The first lecture (18th April) was titled:

Why Vedanta. I have omitted most of his quotations from

Upanishats and other Vedantic works.

 

 

Does Vedanta offer solutions to problems of human life? Its

solution is unique in the sense it dissolves those

problems by bringing the correct focus. Vedanta is not a

book or an author. It is the knowledge contained in the

Upanishats. It is a subjective science that provides

rational insight into human life. Our problem is not with

God but with ourselves, generated by our own emotional

instability. The Vedanta technique to solve the problem is

to accept a situation as it is. And the result is: the

problem ceases to exist. This is the dissolution of the

problem. Vedanta only changes our perception. It is neither

pessimistic nor optimistic.

 

Each one of us is a Perceiver-Feeler-Thinker (PFT) in our

own way. Every PFT is different from every other PFT.

This is because we have brought our own Vasanas into this

life. Whether those Vasanas are good or bad can be judged

only by asking the question (of ourselves): ‘How happy or

peaceful am I with my Vasanas’. If the answer is ‘I am

happy and peaceful’, then Vedanta is not needed. But for

most of us, it is true that we are not at peace with our

Vasanas. And then of course we need the perception that

Vedanta gives us.

 

Now let us start with the five elements – earth, water,

fire, air and space. Each one of the first four is

certainly a constituent of our physical system. Let us come

to space. It is everywhere. No doubt about it. Is space

within us, or are we within space? Asking the question in

a different way, when we move from one place to another,

are we carrying the space with us or not? Since space is

everywhere, there is no question of carrying it anywhere.

Actually what happens is we are carrying ourselves in

space. Everything is happening in space. But space itself

– where is it located or stationed? Upanishat says space

is in brahman. Brahman is bigger, more comprehensive and

inclusive, than space. “bRRihatvAt brahman” – It is greater

than even space. That is why it is called brahman. Brahman

is not the God spoken of in religions. Brahman is not a

personification. It is a presence – an omnipresence. It is

everywhere and beyond. The presence of brahman finds

expression through a mortal focus and then we call it jIva.

When a question is asked of ourselves: ‘Who are you?’, an

answer which gives our name or our qualification or our

relationship with something else or somebody else, is never

the correct answer. On the lighter side, this truth is

brought home by a kid’s question asked of me, Swami

Ishwarananda: “What was your name, Swami, when you were

normal?”!!! So the kid instinctively recognises that I must

be something other than Swami Ishwarananda!

 

It is the identification with a name or a qualification or

relationship, etc. that becomes the Ego in us. All such

identifications are only expressions. Expressions of what?

Of the Presence or Existence of the Absolute in us. When

we say that somebody is ‘dead’ it is only another way of

referring to the non-expression of the Spirit which was

expressing itself in the live body. So all of us, in fact,

everything that you see or hear or taste or smell or touch

is an expression of brahman. Recall the famous passage of

Narayana Upanishat:

*yac-ca kimcit jagat sarvaM dRRishyate shrUyate’pi vA /

antar-bahishca tat-sarvaM vyApya nArAyaNas-sthitaH //*

 

So long as the expression of the Existence is there, the

being is supposed to be alive. When that expression is

‘gone’ we say that he/she is ‘gone’. Who has gone? The

Presence is always there and everywhere. It has not gone

anywhere. In the ordinary world of activities when the

master of the house is asleep, the wife says to a visitor

‘He has gone to sleep’, meaning simply ‘He is not

available’. This non-availability is what is meant by

‘gone’. In the case of the dead body also it is the

Expression of the Presence that is non-available.

 

So then what is ‘moksha’. It is liberation. Liberation

fcrom what? Liberation from all limitations. Since there

are no limitations, freedom is not restricted. Becoming

free from life’s limitations does not mean running away

from responsibilities. In fact a sannyasi is not one who

has run away from life but he is one who is now ready to

face anything. He has that freedom. Right now you are not

free. Freedom means you have the right to choose anything.

Can you choose your thoughts all the time? No. That shows

you are not free; you are conditioned by the mind.

 

That freedom is Knowledge. That choice is liberation. When

the Buddha was asked ‘Have you seen God?’ he replied: ‘I am

awakened’. It is this awakening to the Infinite Absolute

that is the Ultimate Freedom, called moksha.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins and to Swami Ishwarananda.

profvk