Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-1)

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KDAS – 1

 

1. OTHER PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS

 

“There is a Supreme Entity as the Cause for all this

universe. For us also there is the same Cause. That is what

created us. We are only a finite Jivatma. But that is

Paramatma, the infinite Supreme. This Jivatma has to go

back to join that Paramatma. Only then this samsAra, the

repetitive cycle of birth and death, the tortures to which

this karma subjects us, and the unending turbulence in the

mind will all end and we may reach the state of eternal

happiness. It is that state which is called ‘Release’ or

‘moksha’. Once we have reached it then there is no more

death and there is an eternal peace”.

 

So says Religion and it also shows us the way to reach

that Paramatma. Each religious or philosophical school

gives a name to that Paramatma. One school says it is

‘Shiva’. Another says it is ‘Vishnu’. Still another says it

is ‘Shakti’. Do this and this, then you can go to Kailasa

where Shiva resides and that is the world of moksha, says

one school. Another says that world of moksha is only

Vaikuntha, the residence of Lord Vishnu. In the same way

the Shakti school says moksha-world is the world of Amba,

called Shri-puram. ‘Moksha is the Ananda-Bhuvana where

Ganesha lives’ says another. ‘No, it is Skanda-giri, where

Subrahmanya resides’; ‘Even Rama and Lakshmana did not go

to Vaikuntha after they left this world, they have their

own separate loka called ‘Saketa’; ‘Krishna has his own

world of bliss, called ‘Goloka’ – thus the different

schools of thought wax eloquent. Each one gives a

methodology of worship and also mentions that the goal of

all that Upasana is to reach that world of Infinite Bliss,

to which they give separate names.

 

What would be the relationship between Jivatma and

Paramatma? This is an important question raised and

answered by each of the schools in its own distinct way.

One school says that the Jivatma will always be distinct

from the Paramatma; and in that state of moksha, the

Jivatma would enjoy infinite bliss by worshipping the

Paramatma with Bhakti – that is the Dvaita conclusion.

Another says: Even though the Jivatma will be a separate

soul doing Bhakti towards Paramatma, it will have the

feeling of the Paramatma immanent in it as its soul; this

is Vishishtadvaita. Still another says: When the Sun rises

the stars do not lose their existence; they just disappear

from view, because of the luminosity of the Sun; so also in

moksha, the Jivatma, though it does not lose its existence,

will have its own little consciousness submerged in the

Absolute Consciousness of the Paramatma – this is the

doctrine of Shaiva-siddhanta. There are still other

schools of thought.

 

2. ADVAITA DIFFERENT FROM ALL THESE

 

The school of philosophy propagated by Adi Shankara

Bhagavat-pada is called Advaita. It says something totally

different from all the above. It discards all that talk

about the Jivatma escaping from this world, from this

samsara, about the Jivatma going and joining with the

Paramatma and all the consequent underlying assumptions

about this world and the so-called world of moksha and the

relationship between the two. There is no such thing as

‘this world’; it is only mAya. Moksha is not a place or a

world. When the Atma is released from the bondage of the

mind, that is moksha. It may be right here and now. One can

be ‘released’ even when alive, not necessarily only after

death. He whom we call a jnAni may appear to be living in

‘this world’ but in reality he is in Moksha.

 

There is no such thing as the union of Jivatma and

Paramatma. A union occurs only when there is more than one.

Only when there are two any question of relationship

between the two arises. In truth the Jivatma and Paramatma

are not two distinct entities. Atma is one and one only. It

is itself by itself; other than itself there is nothing.

The Self being the Self as such is what it is. That is

called by the name ‘nirguna-brahman’. However, with that

Brahman as the support and at the same time hiding that

very support, there appears a mayic show, as if it is a

magic show, in the form of this universe. The movie appears

on the support of the white screen. There is no show

without the screen. Still that very show hides the screen

itself which is its support. The screen has in no way been

affected; it is still the screen and it remains as the

screen. In the case of Brahman there is an additional

mystery. On one side Brahman remains as Brahman; but on the

other hand, by its own mAyA shakti, it has become several

individual Jivas each with a distinct inner organ

(antaH-karanam). By a proper Sadhana if we can dispose of

this antaH-karana, the Jiva itself turns out to be Brahman.

In other words there is no ‘union’ of two things called

Jivatma and Paramatma. The one knows himself as the other.

The same entity that does not know its own real nature

thinks of itself as a Jiva, and knows of itself as Brahman

when the real nature is known. There are no two entities.

It is Brahman that has the name Jiva when there is the

bondage with the mind and when the bondage is thrown off,

it remains by itself as itself; thus no one gets united

with some one. There is no question of relationship here.

Where is the question of ‘relation’ of ourselves with

ourselves? It is the release from this bondage that is

called moksha; so there is no place for calling it a

different ‘world’ or ‘place’ of moksha. This is the

bottomline of advaita.

 

One may wonder: ‘Dispose off the mind – we are ourselves

Brahman. That is moksha’. This statement of advaita seems

to make it all easy for us. All along, the other schools

are saying that there is something higher than us, above

our world, that is called a world of moksha; there is a

Paramatma above us, we are only Jivatma, far below Him and

we have to strive to reach His world. But advaita says

there is no high, no low; we are ourselves that Paramatma

and in order to reach this moksha we don’t have to ‘go’

anywhere; right here we can have that. One may think that

this should then be very easy.

 

(To be continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Mahaswamigal .

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