Advaita in a nutshell, by Prahlada

[Guest guest]

Namaste

 

Recently I had occasion to talk about Prahlada Charitram.

Prahlada, as a boy of five years, gets an opportunity to

teach his own classmates about what he had learnt from Sage

Narada while still in his mother's womb. Five shlokas of

this teaching summarise the entire advaita vedanta most

precisely. I remember to have written about this under the

title Prahlada Bhakti Sutra in the list. But I am not able

to locate it.

 

The five shlokas are: (Shrimad Bhagavatam: VII - 7 - 19,

20, 23, 24 and 25) .

 

AtmA nityo-vyayaH shuddhaH ekaH kshhetrajna AshrayaH /

avikRRiyaH svadRRig-hetuH vyApako'sangy-anAvRRitaH //

etair-dvAdashabir-vidvAn Atmano lakshhaNaiH paraiH /

ahaM mamety-asad-bhAvaM dehAdau mohajaM tyajet //

 

The Atman is permanent; does not undergo any change; is

uncontaminated by mAyA; has neither internal nor external

distinctions; is the one intelligent being which cognizes

everything; needs no support but supports everything;

neither acts nor is acted upon; sees everything but is not

seen; is the primal cause but is itself never caused; is

beond space, time and matter; is unattached to anything;

and can never be negated by anything.

 

These are the twelve indicative qualities of Atman, by a

knowledge of which one should be able to throw away the

false identification with the body, mind and intellect.

 

dehastu sarva-sanghAto jagat tasthuriti dvidhA /

atraiva mRRigyaH purushho neti netIt-yatat tyajan //

anvaya-vyatirekeNa vivekenoshatA''tmanA /

sarga-sthAna-samAmnAyaiH vimRRishadbhir-asatvaraiH //

 

The body is a conglomeration of all (the effects of

PrakRRiti -- referred in shlokas 22,23, not quoted here)

and is of two kinds, mobile and immobile. It is here in the

body that the Self (Purushha) is to be sought for by

discarding every non-Self as 'not this' 'not this', by men

coolly reflecting on the creation, continued existence and

dissolution of the universe with a mind purified through

reasoning on the lines of 'anvaya' (the all-pervasiveness

of the Absolute) and 'vyatireka' (the distinctness of the

Absolute from everything else).

 

buddher-jAgaraNaM svapnaH sushhuptiriti vRRittayaH /

tA yenaiv-AnubhUyante so'dhyakshhaH purushhaH paraH //

 

Wakefulness, dream and deep sleep -- these are the three

functions of the intellect. He alone by whom they are

directly cognized is the transcendent purushha, the witness

of everything.

 

These five shlokas are, in my opinion, best suited for a

continued nididhyAsana to get the advaitic conviction into

our individualised minds.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

New on my website, particularly for beginners in Hindu philosophy:

Empire of the Mind:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/ManversusMind.html

 

Free will and Divine will - a dialogue:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/FWDW.html

[Guest guest]

V. Krishnamurthy wrote:

> Namaste

>

>

>

> These five shlokas are, in my opinion, best suited for a

> continued nididhyAsana to get the advaitic conviction into

> our individualised minds.

>

Namaste Professor-ji,

I have a feeling that I want to do it, but I don't know what a

"nididhyAsana" is. I looked it up in one of my books on Hinduism, and

it defines the word as "contemplation," but I have a feeling that it's a

specific method of contemplation.

 

Thanks for whatever you can tell me,

 

Bob

[Guest guest]

advaitin, Bob Freedman <rlfreed@p...> wrote:

 

> Namaste Professor-ji,

> I have a feeling that I want to do it, but I don't know what a

> "nididhyAsana" is. I looked it up in one of my books on Hinduism,

and

> it defines the word as "contemplation," but I have a feeling that

it's a

> specific method of contemplation.

>

> Thanks for whatever you can tell me,

>

> Bob

 

Namaste Bob, and others.

 

The path of jnAna is like a spiralling staircase. It has several

rounds and in each round there are three steps. These three steps

are shravana (listening to vedantic expositions and teachings),

manana ( reflection on what had been heard in order to absorb them

as they were given) and nididhyasana (churning in the mind the

concepts and the logic associated with them, leading into a deep

contemplative silent enquiry about the Self). This last is an

unceasing flow of knowledge that takes you beyond just

understanding – most probably to the Realisation of Truth itself.

That is why it is sometimes called `Meditation on Brahman'. From

shravana step when one goes to the manana step one might have to

repeat the manana process several times. And when one goes to the

nididhyasana step one may have to repeat the process several several

times. Ramana Maharishi's constant emphasis on the question `Who am

I?' is perhaps to prompt us all to do the nididhyasana on that

question continuously. The stage of manana is important, for

otherwise we might digress into independent lines of thinking

during nididhyasana. Since shruti is the ultimate pramANa, unless we

are in line with the shruti in our logical pursuits of vedantic

statements, we may be led to conclusions which are far from the

Absolute Truth. And in order to get back to the shruti line, we

have to do the shravana part again and again. Thus goes the spiral!

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk