cc from post to Self-knowledge@ re sadhana, sardhana and pradupati

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pietersa

Self-knowledge

Cc: usha udhayakumar

Saturday, July 26, 2003 7:27 AM

Re: [self-knowledge] Doubts regarding the nature of maya

 

Dear Usha,

 

Leaving aside comparative religious and philisophical references, and

practically speaking, the matter of not seeing the small size of atoms (as a

description of maya) does not come into consideration or relevance to either the

experience of Self or not-self (maya).

 

The Reality is the light of our own consciousness and the sense of our own being

ever pulsing as "I as I." This consciousness is an infinite screen upon which

appears the universe from the smallest atomic particle to the vastness of the

universe, one single undifferentiated whole.

 

Because we have the habit of identifying with images that appear in the surface

consciousness of the mind (the waking state), and clinging with all our power of

attention to those images as the basis for our sense of identity, we do not

recognize that our True Identity (Sat Nam) is the light of the seer emanating

from the heart (Hrdayam - the One Star) and lighting all the nadi's (nerves) of

the body, including a major nadi coming up to the brain (para or atma nadi).

 

Believing that there may be more to our consciousness and sense of being than we

seem to think, we begin to read the experience of those who describe their

awakening to this Sat Nam irradiant pulsation in the Hrdayam, as single,

all-pervasive, unconditioned, beginningless, and we begin practices (sadhana) to

make the mind pure enough, to where this message can be "heard," and we begin to

recollect, as though coming out of an amnesia, our True State of Being, to abide

as That.

 

Sadhana distills the mind of impurities, resulting in ardhana - the sublimation

of the ego-I identification with objects to the True "I," which leads to

pradupati, the crystallization of the abidance in our True Identity in and as

the Infinite Being, which before was only felt like a belief in a word, such as

GOD, something that creates, organizes and destroys, yet is beyond.

 

Suddenly, this awakening occurs; the old mind (the subconscious storehouse of

images and impressions) is relinquished, as the waking and dream state merge and

we begin to experience a field of oneness in which the body has become ephemeral

- sort of transparent, where the sense of "I" is no longer limited to the body,

but is felt to pervade the space around us. The experience is as though waking

within a dream, where the dreamer and dream are realized to be all the product

of one's own creation, and this etheric knowledge is now one in our expanding

field of awareness of our True Being.

 

Soon, this pure waking mind impacts the unconscious (jagrat-sushupti), and we

become awake in the field of the Mind of the Infinite Being, where the use of

the eyes to see, etc becomes less and less, as the light of awareness abides as

a single field of consciousness we experience directly within us - infinitely

large and infinitely small, no difference.

 

Beyond this is what is called the "forth state" or Turya. When hearing (sravana

manifests the Truth in our minds, the radical force of our remembrance (manana)

and abiding (niddidyasana) in the Truth, becomes so great that it sucks in the

sense of "I" from association/identity with objects and expands pervasively the

infinite light, outshining the screen of consciousness. We no longer practice

nor meditate, as our True Self meditates the mind with the soundless sound of

the ever pulsing sense of "I as I" - "empty clear, self illuminating, with no

exertion of the mind's power (attention)." This is the force of radical

relinquishment, a sense of intolerance to all action, physical mental vocal,

abiding beyond...

 

BTW, these terms hearing, remembrance, abiding, are expressed in all religions,

Christianity, Hinduism/Vedanta, Sikhism, Buddhism, as the foundation and basis

of the experience of truth and Reality they convey, beyond the simple realm of

the senses, which later drop from use, as the moon of the mind seen in a blue

sky is no longer necessary to see, once the sun in the heart has risen.

 

As to atoms, the idea of atoms is also relinquished. In the Sikh Dharma, the

word for hearing is "sunia." The Words of the Sages, Saints and Saviors have

such an archetypal force and power to reverberate the soundless sound of Truth

within our consciousness that Religions form, and temples, churches and

cathedrals are built, just to house the possibility of hearing these words in

the core of our being. Regardless of the actions of man in relation to the

Religions, the Word they harbor and hold and the names of those who spoke them

will live forever as beacons to those that might "hear."

 

The prayer or mantra of the Soul crystallized in the Consciousness of God might

be

Blessed am I

In freedom am I

I am the infinite

in my Soul

I can find no beginning

no end

All is my Self

All is my Self

Hope this clarifies the matter of maya. The world is real and the sense of "I"

consciousness is real. It is the limited adjunct of the identity of the mind to

the clinging to objects of attention (i.e., ego) that presents a picture that is

out of sync with Reality. The cure for this malady of forgetfulness (maya) is

sadhana.

 

Pieter

 

--

 

-

usha udhayakumar

Self-knowledge

Saturday, July 26, 2003 3:21 AM

Re: [self-knowledge] Doubt by Jayakaran....answer by Prasad

 

 

hello,

we humans are made up of atoms.....all the cells are atoms of carbohydrates,

proteins and fats. the computer is also made up of different type of

atoms....So all things ..living and non living are made up of atoms. ..But

we see with our eyes....certain figures...tree, leave, computer..etc...but all

are atoms....arranged in different ways...

all are atoms = reality

the figures which we see is due to the capacity of eye...the eye cannot see

atoms..If the eye can see minutely the atoms....the figure will not be there =

maya

atoms = reality

figure = maya ..due to the inability of the eye to see minutely...

Is this explanation a correct one?

 

Vivekananda Centre <vivekananda wrote:

 

Dear Mr.Jayakaran,

 

I will try to answer your following doubt:

and one more doubt i am having. According to your statement is this world is

maya and that brahmam is original. then why you build so many hospitals,

educational institution. why are you very struggling to protect this illusion?

Even though we know that the world is an illusion, we need to build hospitals

etc. to protect this body and mind by which most of us identify ourselves. If

you read the life history of Sri Thakur, we see that Sri Totapuri comes and

teaches him Vedanta and within 6 months Sri Thakur achieves Nirvikalpa Samadhi,

the highest spiritual state that took 30 years for Sri Totapuri to achieve. As

Sri Totapuri was a advaitin who doesn't recognize the existence of this world,

he was naked, didn't bow down to the images and forms and ridiculed Sri Thakur

when he took the names of different Gods. But later on he had to undergo some

ailment in his body which he thought he could ignore since he doesn't identify

himself with it. Even though he tried hard not to bring his well trained mind to

the body level during meditation, the pain was so horrible, he couldn't do that.

Finally he went to the temple of Divine mother and prayed to her to reduce his

pain and was relieved. So, we see that it's not easy to get rid of identifying

ourselves with body and mind. As Sri Thakur says, this maya or illusion is a

projection from of the Brahman and a true devotee sees that Brahman has become

part of it just as a thread makes a cloth by becoming a part of it. If you feel

that my answer is not satisfactory, please let me know.

 

We bow down to his lotus feet who is the source of all the energy, purity and

beyond the power of nature whom we call Paramatman. If your successful in

identifying ourselves with the atman, no longer identify ourselves with body or

mind and are able to see the same atman in others then you can address as our

lotus feet. It fits for people like Sri Sankara, Vivekananda and Thakur to say

SIVOHAM (I am same as Lord Siva), but it will be a mere utterance like a parrot

if we can't reach that state.

 

With love and respect

Prasad