Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-2)

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KDAS – 2

 

3. APPEARS TO BE EASY – BUT REALLY, DIFFICULT

 

Because that is a big ‘if’! ‘If only, we can dispose off

the mind, ..’, then there is the advaita-siddhi. The

difficulty is exactly there – to dispose off the mind. When

our shirt loosely fits us we can take it off easily. But

if the shirt is tight, the taking off might have to be made

with some effort. And when we are required to take off our

very outer skin, imagine how difficult it could be. Just as

the skin is sticking to our body, our mind is sticking to

us, but in deeper proximity! A dirty stinking sticky

cloth becomes pure when the dirt, stink and stickiness

are off the cloth. It is not necessary to look for another

cloth. The same cloth, when the dirt, etc. are off, becomes

the pure cloth. So also for our Jiva we don’t have to look

for a new entity called Brahman; if we can remove the

present dirt and stink of the mind, that should be enough.

The same person will emerge as the pure Brahman. But that

is exactly the formidable task – to remove the dirt and

stink that is so deeply adhering to mind!

 

Mind refuses to be disposed off. What exactly is this mind?

It is the instrument which creates thoughts. If the

creation of thoughts stops, mind will also not be there.

But we are not able to stop the creation of thoughts. All

the time it is galloping to go somewhere. We go through

lots of experiences and enjoyments. We also keep seeing

them; those of this birth that we know, and many more in

the other births that we do not know. Each of them has left

an impression in our mind. They keep running in our mind

and sprout numberless thoughts. It is like the smell that

persists in the bottle in which we kept spicy asafoetida.

So also even after we have gone through experiences and

enjoyments, their smell persists in our mind. This is what

is called Vasana, or JanmAntara VAsanA (Vasana that comes

from other births), or SamskAra VAsanA. What does it do? It

keeps surfacing thoughts about that enjoyment and becomes

the cause for further thoughts about how to have that

experience again. These thoughts are the plans which the

mind makes. This ‘smell’ of the past has to subside. That

is what is called ‘VAsanA-kshhayam’ (Death of the VAsanA).

And that is the ‘disposal of the mind’!

 

‘Disposal’ implies the ‘end’. What keeps running all the

time has an end when it stops running. When a large flow

of water is dammed, the flow stops. In the same way when

the flow of the mind is stopped, it means that is the end

of the mind.

 

When I say mind is stilled or stopped I do not mean the

staying or resting of the mind on one object. That is

something different. Here when I say the mind is stopped or

stilled, I mean something else. When the mind stays on some

one object, it means the mind is fully occupied with that

object. No other object can have then a place in the mind.

Even to keep the mind still like that is certainly a

difficult process. This is actually the penultimate step to

‘dispose off’ the mind. When a wild animal is jumping and

running all around, how do you shoot it? It is difficult.

But when it is made to stay at one place, we can easily

shoot it. Similarly the mind that is running in all

directions should be made to stay at one place in one

thought. It does not mean the mind has disappeared then.

No, the mind is still there. Only instead of dwelling on

various things it is now full of one and only one thought.

This is the prerequisite to what I call the ‘disposal’ of

the mind. After this the mind has to be vanquished totally.

That is when Realisation takes place -- Realisation of the

Atman. In other words the being as a Jiva goes and the

being as Brahman sprouts.

 

This process of stopping the mind at one single thought and

then vanquishing even that thought in order to dispose off

the mind along with its roots is a Himalayan achievement.

Our scriptures very often refer to “anAdyavidyA-vAsanayA”,

meaning “because of vasanas of ignorance going back to

beginningless antiquity”. This is the reason for the dirt

of the mind being so thick and dense. Removal of that dirt

is no doubt a most difficult job.

 

4. MOKSHA IS BY GRACE OF GOD

 

However, if we persist with our efforts, by the Grace of

God, if not in this life, maybe in a later life, that noble

goal of Brahman-realisation, that is, the realisation

that we ourselves are Brahman and being–in-Brahman

happens.

 

Who is this God (Ishvara) that is bestowing this Grace on

us? Jivas and the universe are just a show of mAyA, but

even in that ‘show’ there is a lot of regularity. It is not

a haphazard mad show; it is a well-enacted play. The mind,

which is a part of this ‘play’ may be weird in its ways of

dancing hither and thither, but the entire universe of the

Sun and stars down to the smallest paramAnu’s vibration

within the atom, are all happening with a fantastic

regularity. Even this mind has been stilled to silence by

our great men and they have chalked out ways for us in

terms of what they called Dharma, to follow their

footsteps and still our minds. Further, there are thousand

other things which happen according to the rules of cause

and effect that our ancestors have discovered and left as a

heritage for us. The affairs of this universe are happening

in spite of us according to some schedule chalked out for

them so that we may live in peace. If we observe all this

carefully, maybe from the absolute point of view everything

is a mAyA but in the mundane world of daily parlance, there

is an admirable order that must have been initiated or

chalked out by a very powerful force, far more powerful

than all the powers that we know. That power is what is

called Ishvara (God).

 

It is Brahman that, in association with mAyA – even the

words ‘in association with’ are wrong; for Brahman does no

work and so does not ‘associate’ itself with anything; so

we should more precisely say ‘appearing to be in

association with’ – is the Ishvara that monitors and

manages both the universe and the Jivas. It is in His

control all this world of Jivas rolls about. When that is

so, for us to transcend this curtain of mAyA, and to get

out also of His control so that we may realise the

Brahman that is the core of Him as well as us, is not

possible without the sanction of that power, namely

Ishvara. In other words only by the Grace of Ishvara can

our mind be overcome and Brahman-realisation can happen.

 

In this mAyic world, the dispenser of the fruits for all

our actions is this Ishvara. What fruits go with what

actions – is all decided by Ishvara. Every single action

of ours has a consequence and the dispenser of this

consequence is the same Ishvara. It is this cycle of

actions and the cycle of the fruits of our actions that

result in the revolving recurrence of new and newer lives.

Only when karma stops may we ever hope to become the

karma-less brahman. What prompts the Jiva to be involved in

karma is the mind. It is by the prompting and urging of the

mind that we do action. So action will stop only if the

mind stops. But the mind refuses to stop. How can a thing

destroy itself by itself? Can a gun shoot itself out of

existence? So what the mind can do is only this: In the

total agony of anticipation of its own death, it has to

keep thinking all the time about the Jiva-Brahma-Aikyam

that would happen after its (mind’s) death. This is what

‘nididhyasana’ means. It has to be done with great

persistence. The essence of advaita-sAdhanA is this kind of

persistent thinking. Of course this is also ‘action’.

Walking is the action of the legs. Eating is the action of

the mouth. Thinking is action of the mind.

 

I just now said that all actions are carefully watched by

Ishvara and it is He who dispenses the fruits of actions.

He also watches this ‘thinking action’, namely the

nididhyasana. When we do this persistently and sincerely,

He decides at some point that this person has done the

nididhyasana sufficiently enough to destroy his balance of

karma and dispenses His Grace that will kill the mind that

has been always struggling to establish our individuality

that shows this Jiva to be distinct from Brahman.

 

This is the meaning of the statement that by God’s Grace

one gets Realisation of Brahman. That does not mean

however that God waits and calculates whether we have done

enough Saadhanaa to get our karma from all our past lives

exhausted. If He does so then that should not be called

‘His Grace’! A mechanical calculation like a trader to

balance the positive and negative side of our work does not

deserve the name of Grace. Love, sympathy, compassion,

forgiving and allowing for marginal errors – only these

will constitute what is termed as Grace, or ‘anugraha’.

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest on my website: A conversation on the Concept of God in Hinduism.

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/ConceptofGOD.html