Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-16)

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/27994

 

 

15. NITYA-ANITYA-VASTU-VIVEKAM (Continued)

(Discrimination between the permanent and the ephemeral)

 

Right in the beginning of His Gitopadesha, Bhagavan makes

it clear: Atman is the only Permanent entity. The body

from the killing of which Arjuna retreats, is nothing but

ephemeral (anitya). All experiences of the body come and

go: *AgamApAyinaH anityAH*. That which is permanent,

immeasurable is only the Atman : *nityasyoktAH sharIriNaH

anAshinaH aprameyasya*, thus runs his elaboration. Later

*anityam asukhaM lokaM imaM prApya bhajasva mAM* (IX – 33)

-- you have obtained a life in this impermanent miserable

world; in order to get out of this, worship Me, says He.

What does He mean by ‘Me’? He is the Atman, He is the

Brahman. *ahamAtma guDHAkeshaH sarva-bhUtAshayaH sthitaH*

(X – 20) [i am established as the indweller in the hearts

of all beings]: this is His own statement. So worshipping

Him means only the meditation on the Self. The sum and

substance of what He says is: “In this world everything is

impermanent; hold on to the Atman”. The thirteenth chapter

of the Gita is called ‘kshhetra-kshhetrajn~a

vibhAga-yogaM’. It is the yoga that distinguishes the body

that is the ‘kshhetra’ and the conscious Atman inside that

is known as ‘kshetrajn~a’. This kshetra-kshetrajn~a yoga is

nothing but the discrimination between the permanent and

the ephemeral. When the Lord defines (XIII – 5, 6)

‘kshhetra’ as made up of the five elements, senses, the

objects that senses run after, desire (icchA), hate

(dveshhaM), happiness and misery, etc., he is actually

dissecting all those that are impermanent. In the same way,

he shows the Permanent One as the kshhetrajn~a. It is clear

from his further statements: “It exists in all the

universes enveloping them all; without and within all

beings, moving and unmoving, near and far away is that”.

(XIII – 13,, 15). Then as He goes along distinguishing

kshhetra and kshhetrajn~a, Bhagavan says: “He who knows the

distinction between prakRRiti and purusha does not have

another birth” (XIII – 23). In other words, such a person

attains moksha, says He. Suddenly he seems to switch over

to two other categories; no, kshhetraM is prakRRiti and

purushha is kshetrajn~a, as is clear from the context.

 

This is where he gives in a crystallised essence the

matter we have been discussing – namely nitya-anitya-vastu

vivekaM. What is known in sAnkhya shAstra as purushha is

the Absolute Reality of advaita shAstra known as Atman and

Brahman. What is called prakRRiti there (in sAnkhya) is

mAyA here. Of course there is a slight difference; but the

fact that prakRRiti and purushha is the mAyA and the Atman,

respectively, is 99 percent. true. It is well known that

the Atman is the eternal Truth (nitya). So what is meant

by nitya-anitya-vastu-vivekaM is nothing but the

comprehension of the Atman as separate from the effects of

mAyA. In the word ‘AtmA-anAtma-vivacanaM’, the anAtmA is

nothing but mAyA. So, to know the distinction between

prakRRiti and purushha is to distinguish between anAtmA and

AtmA.

 

For an Atma-jnAni there is nothing like anAtma. But being

an Atma-jnAni is in the future. There is a work called

“prouDhAnubhUti” by the Acharya, a wonderful rendering in a

majestic manner of the status of a jnAni, written in

such a ‘madness’ full of advaita-Ananda, that could be

even mistaken by unknowing people as a kind of pride. In

fact, [the Mahaswamigal adds smiling] the ‘pride’ justifies

the name ‘prouDhAnubhUti’. In this the Acharya says very

emphatically: “It is absurd to talk about Atma-anAtma –

vivechanaM. Is there a thing like anAtma? If there is one

such then how can it be negated out of existence?”. But

remember, this is the statement of one who has had the

anubhUti (the Experience). But, for those who have yet to

reach that stage, the question that looms large is : “Is

there something like the Atman? It is only anAtmA that

seems to be everywhere”! For all those who have not yet

reached that apex of jnAna, it is necessary, during their

efforts on the journey, to be alert and to keep sorting out

with discrimination, which is the one that is really

eternal, which is the one that is the impermanent anAtmA,

and what those are that, though impermanent, would be able

to help us go to the Eternal Permanent entity, and what

those are that, being impermanent, would drag us deep into

further impermanence. The Acharya, in the last but one

shloka of his Bhaja Govindam, has recommended us to do this

sorting between Atman and anAtmA very carefully:

*prANAyAmaM pratyAhAraM nityAnitya-viveka-vichAraM*. The

shloka after this in Bhaja GovindaM is a phala-shruti.

 

The Acharya has his own doubts whether we can do this

sorting in an intelligent way; so he gives in his prakaraNa

work “anAtma-shrI-vigarhaNam” a long list of anAtma

items. In each shloka therein, the first three lines end

with *tataH kim?*. It means, “ So what? What is the use?”

Status, wealth, dress and decoration, physical beauty, fine

health – there are many of this kind that we hold to be

highly esteemable and in each line one of them is

mentioned, followed by a “tataH kiM”. Three such lines in

every shloka are followed by the fourth line *yena svAtmA

naiva sAkshhAt-kRRito’bhUt* (if one has not realised the

Self). This is repeated in every shloka. The meaning of

this refrain is to say: If one has not realised the Self,

what is the use of his status? Of his wealth? Of his

decorative show? Of his beauty? Of his health?. One does

not know the truth of oneself; and without knowing that,

what is the value of adding one’s status, wealth and

health? – this is the substance of the shlokas. Will it

not look absurd if “we don’t know somebody; but still we

are going to honour that somebody with a presentation of a

purse of money”? That is the situation here, says the

Acharya. Atman is the truth of oneself; if this truth is

not known what else is going to be of value? On the other

hand if one knows the Self, to him also all these are of

trivial value. In fact only if one discards all these as

trivial, one can know his own Self. Thus in any case,

status, wealth, decoration, beauty, health and whatever

other things we hold to be great – all of them are

undesirable. The discarding of all of them as anAtmA

(non-self) is “anAtma-shrI vigarhaNaM”. The meanings of

the word ‘shrI’ known to everybody are: Lakshmi,

auspiciousness, wealth. But there is another meaning also:

‘poison’! Lord Shiva is keeping the poison in his throat

and that is why he is also called ‘ShrI-kanTha’. The

pleasures that we consider to be of value from wealth

and auspiciousness, should be devalued as poison – this is

‘anAtma-shrI-vigarhaNaM’. And this is nothing but another

name for AtmA-anAtma-vivekaM, that is,

nityA-nitya-vastu-vivekaM.

 

 

(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