Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-24)

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For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

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For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/28292

 

 

SEC. 18: SHAMA AND DAMA

 

What is ‘shama’? The Acharya gives the following

definition:

 

Virajya vishhaya-vrAtA doshha-dRRishhTyA muhur-muhuH /

svalakshhye niyatAvasthA manasaH shama uchyate //

(Vivekachudamani: 22)

 

The conglomerate of all sensual experience in the form of

sound, touch, form, taste and smell by the five sense

organs is called *vishhaya-vrAta*. By discretion (viveka)

and dispassion (vairAgya) one has to analyse and discover

that all these are only obstacles on the path to

Self-Realisation and so we have to discard them. This is

what is said by *muhur-muhuH doshha-dRRishhTyA virajya* --

meaning, ‘often, by realising they are bad, discarding out

of disgust’.

 

Our mind is always thinking about what it considers

pleasurable and is perturbed because of the inability to

reach them. Thus it misses peace and happiness. Once we

discard the sense objects as bad then it would be possible

to fix the mind on the goal of SadhanA, the Atman, which is

full of peace and happiness. In other words the mind that

is frantically running after multifarious matters can be

made to stop that running and can be tethered to one goal.

That kind of control is what is called *shama*.

 

One should think about the negative effects of

‘vishhaya-vrAta’, the gang of sense experience.

‘virajya’ : discarding them out of disgust.

‘sva-lakshhye’ : in one’s own goal.

‘manasaH niyata avasthA’ : keep the mind tethered under

control

‘shama uchyate’ : is said to be ‘shama’.

 

In short, the control of mind is ‘shama’.

 

Why does the mind run after sense objects? It is because of

the footprints of past experience. They are called ‘smell’

or ‘vAsanA’. This continues life after life. This

inter-life vAsanA continues in a latent form in the subtle

body, even after the physical body dies. When the soul

takes another birth and thus obtains a new physical body,

the latent vAsanAs begin to show their mettle! If those

vAsanAs can be eradicated in toto, the mind will be calmed

automatically. It is thus the Acharya defines ‘shama’ in

‘aparokshhAnubhUti’. (Just now what we gave was the

definition from Viveka chudamani).

 

*sadaiva vAsanA-tyAgaH shamo’yam-iti shabditaH*

 

Abandonment always of desire-promptings through vAsanAs is

said to be ‘shama.

 

It is enough to understand that ‘shama’ is control of the

mind.

 

The thing that comes next is ‘dama’. It is control of the

sense organs. In fact there is a lot more to say about

‘shama’. But mind-control and sense-control have both to

go hand in hand. So let us talk about some basics of ‘dama’

also now and then we can go more deeply about both

together.

 

Sense organs are ten – five organs of action and five

organs of perception. But the latter cannot ‘do’ anything

themselves. The organs of action do action themselves:

actions done by hands – the names ‘kara’ (hand) and

‘kAryaM’ (action) are themselves indicative, the legs do

action by walking, jumping and running, the mouth speaks or

sings, and two remaining organs excrete waste or vIryaM

from the human body. On the other hand the organs of

perception are those which cognize (or perceive) things

in the outside world and ‘experience’ them. The ear

experiences sound, the skin experiences the smoothness or

otherwise and the coldness or hotness of something outside,

the eye perceives colour and form, the tongue experiences

the taste like sourness, bitterness or sweetness and the

nose knows the experience of smell.

 

When we do not keep these sense organs under control all

the mischief happens. The Jiva is bound to this mayic

world through the experiences by these sense organs. Only

when we control these organs may we hope to enter the world

of spirituality. Such control is called ‘dama’.

 

The direct meanings of both ‘shama’ and ‘dama’ is control

without any specific qualifier as control of the mind or

control of the senses. But traditional usage recognises

two controls – one, control of the sense organs which

either receive or respond to knowledge from outside and

control of the sense organs which do actions to help such

perception or response and two, control of the mind which

creates its own world of thoughts and constantly is

roaming about with or without aim in that world. Usage

distinguishes these two controls and so uses ‘shama’ for

mind control and ‘dama’ for sense control. Since anyway

both mean control the Acharya himself, in the beginning of

his ‘shhaTpadI stotraM’ goes against traditional usage and

uses ‘damaya manaH’ where he wants to say ‘control the

mind’ and uses ‘shamaya vishhaya mRRiga-tRRishhNAM’ where

he wants to say ‘control the senses that run to the mirage

of outside sense objects’.

 

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest on my website: Shrimad Bhagavatam and advaita bhakti. Introduction.

Chatushloki Bhagavatam. Vidura and Maitreya. Kapila Gita.

Dhruva charitam. JaDabharata, Ajamila Stories. Prahlada Charitram.

 

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

 

and succeeding pages.