Pratyaksha

[Guest guest]

Talk 500:

 

D.: When all the thoughts are banished and the mind is still or enters into

a state of nothingness or emptiness, what is the nature of effort needed on

the part of the 'seeker' to have a pratyakshabhava of the 'sought' (e.g.,

seeing a mango as a mango)?

 

M.: Who sees nothingness or emptiness? What is pratyaksha? Do you call

perception of mango pratyaksha? It involves the play of karma, karta, and

karya (action, doer and deed). So it is relative and not absolute. Because

you see a thing now you say there is nothing afterwards (i.e., when you no

longer see it). Both are functions of the mind. What lies behind both these

assertions is pratyaksha. There is indriya pratyaksha (directly perceived by

senses), manasa pratyaksha (directly perceived by the mind) and sakshat

pratyaksha (realised as the very Being). The last alone is true. The others

are relative and untrue.

 

D.: If no effort is needed, can the perpetuated state of emptiness of mind

be called the state of realisation?

 

M.: Effort is needed so long as there is mind. The state of emptiness has

been the bone of contention in all philosophies.

 

D.: Is there anything like pratyakshabhava in the state of realisation or is

realisation merely felt or experienced as the very Being or Sthiti of the

soul?

 

M.: Pratyaksha is very being and it is not feeling, etc.

 

D.: Until the seeker realizes that he is the sought, the above questions

arise for him (the former).

 

M.: True. See if you are the seeker. The Self is often mistaken for the

knower. Is there not the Self in deep sleep, i.e., nescience? Therefore the

Self is beyond knower and knowledge. These doubts are in the realm of mind.

To speak from this point of view, the advice is to keep the mind clear, and

when rajas and tamas are wiped off, then the satva mind alone exists. So the

'I' vanishes in the satva (oonadhal kan). Jnana chakshus does not mean that

it is an organ of perception like the other sense-organs. Jnanameva

chakshuh. Television, etc.,are not functions of jnana chakshus. So long as

there is a subject and also an object it is only relative knowledge. Jnana

lies beyond relative knowledge. It is absolute. The Self is the source of

subject and object. Now ignorance prevailing, the subject is taken to be the

source. The subject is the knower and forms one of the triads whose

components cannot exist independent of one another. So the subject or the

knower cannot be the ultimate Reality. Reality lies beyond subject and

object. When realised there will be no room for doubt.

"Bhidyate hridayagranthih

chhidyante sarvasamsayah."

The heart knot is snapped; doubts are set at rest. That is called pratyaksha

and not what you are thinking of. Avidya nasa is alone Self-Realisation.

Self-Realisation is only owpacharika. Self-Realisation is only a euphemism

for elimination of ignorance.