Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-33)

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http://www.advaitin.net/Discussion%20Topics/advaita-saadhanaa.pdf

 

For the post previous to this, go to

advaitin/message/31982

 

SECTION 20: TITIKSHHAA (Patience; Endurance) (continued)

 

The Acharya has defined ‘titikshhaa’ as *sahanaM

sarva-dukhAnAM* in Viveka Chudamani as well as in his

AparokshAnubhUti. It means to ‘bear all sorrows’. Here

‘all’ includes the so-called ‘pleasures’ also because

what appears to be pleasing or a pleasure turns out to be

really a sorrowful thing from the point of view of

eternity. Only ‘JnAna’ is happiness. Happiness is only

that which arises from advaita-jnAna. Any experience in

the world of duality is opposite to that jnAna and

therefore is only to be considered as unhappiness, not

happiness. At least what appears to be an unhappy thing now

gives us a distaste for this worldly involvement and

thereby it moves us a little towards enlightenment;

whereas, what appears to be a happy experience binds us

further to the world of involvement. Consequently one will

have to develop an attitude of treating those happy

experiences only as unhappy ones. At a later stage , just

as one bears misery with forbearance, so also one should be

able to forbear with what appears to be happiness. That is

why the Acharya says *dukhAnAM sahanaM* (forbearing

the sorrows) and stops with that. All our scriptures

recommend to us the forbearance of both pleasure and pain

equally; in other words, even what appears to be a happy

pleasing thing should be ‘endured’ as indifferently as we

are expected to endure the unhappy things.

 

Of course that happens after we reach a certain stage of

maturity. But even at an earlier stage, at a ‘lower’

stage, we have to observe ‘titikshhaa’ of good things in

another way. When a good thing happens our mind gets

excited about it. The excitement is as bad as the one we

get when an unhappy thing occurs. In both cases the

equanimity of the mind is the victim. Only when the mind is

steady without any vibration can one have the enlightening

realisation of the Atman. Thus even the excitement that

naturally follows a happy feeling should have to be

‘endured’. It is another kind of forbearance. When we do

not think of a weight as a burden, it does not any more

weigh with us. When there is no weight on either side the

needle of the weighing balance is steady and straight.

Think of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as the two side-plates of

such a balance. On whichever side you may place a weight,

the balance is going to tilt. So neither the experience of

the unpleasant nor the emotional excitement that might be

caused by the pleasant should be allowed to tilt the needle

of the balance from its normal equanimous position. The

‘good’ also should not ‘weigh’ with us. That is the

‘titikshhaa’ of the ‘good’.

 

In all that we have said what we call ‘good’ is not with

respect to our spiritual progress. It is what we ordinarily

call ‘good’ from our mundane material world, that is,

what pulls us away from progress on the spiritual path.

 

There is a certain negative aspect in these ‘good’ things,

that is not there even in the ‘bad’ ones. When we meet

with something that is pleasant and happy for us, we always

wish that it should happen again; we want ‘more’ of it.

This peculiar desire that the ‘good’ should repeat is

called ‘spRhaa’ in Sanskrit. To prevent the rise of such

‘spRhaa’ is also ‘titikshhaa’. Recall the Lord’s words:

 

*dukhesh-vanudvigna-manAh sukheshhu vigata-spRhaH* (B.G. II

– 56)

 

In other words, ‘titikshhaa’ stands for not being perturbed

by a miserable happening as well as not being affected by

*spRhA* at the onset of a happy occurrence. One is not to

be influenced by the dualities like pleasure and pain. To

be away from duality means non-duality. When duality

disappears, the bondage of samsAra is cut and the gates of

mokshha are already open. In Gita V – 3, Bhagawan has shown

the ultimate goal itself as the end result of ‘titikshhaa’:

*nirdvandvo hi mahAbAho sukham bandhAt pramucyate* meaning,

He for whom duality is gone easily releases himself from

bondage.

 

One who has ‘titikshhaa’ is called ‘titikshhu’. Such a one

is characterised by our Acharya as one who tolerates or

endures dual opposites -- *titikshhuH dvandva sahishhNuH*

-- in Brihad-AraNyaka bhAshya (IV – 4 - 23). The

vanishing of duality means there is only One. And the One

is Atman, no doubt.

 

In summary the Acharya’s clarion call is : “One should not

worry about either what is directly an unhappy thing or

about what appears to be pleasant but in reality is also a

miserable thing. ‘Not worrying’ means ‘not wailing’ about

it. Nor should one look for anitdotes for either the sukha

(happiness) or the dukha (unhappiness). Silently one should

be forbearing both”.

 

*sahanaM sarva-dukhAnAM apratIkAra-pUrvakaM /

cintA-vilApa-rahitaM sA titikshhaa nigadyate //* (Viveka

Chudamani #24 (or 25))

 

sA titikshhaa nigadyate : She is said to be ‘titikshhaa’

sarva-dukhAnAM sahanaM : forbearing all unhappiness

Note that so-called happiness is also included in the

‘unhappiness’.

apratIkAra-pUrvakaM : without searching for steps for

nullifying (the ‘sukha’ or ‘dukha’) Note ‘pratIkAra’

means ‘antidote’ or an ‘annihilating step’.

cintA-vilApa-rahitaM : without worry (*cintA*) or lament

(*vilApa*).

 

Now let me take up the feminine gender used here. *sA

titikshhaa* says the Acharya. ‘titikshhaa’ is a feminine

word. But it is not just grammar that is involved here.

When he talks about ‘nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka’

(Discrimination between the eternal and the ephemeral) he

says *so’yaM nityAnitya-vastu-vivekaH*; here he uses *saH

ayaM* -- ‘that is he’ – thereby invoking a masculine

construction. The word ‘vivekaH’ is masculine. Maybe

because of the age-old traditional opinion that a feminine

mind is prone to vacillation and a masculine mind has a

discriminating tendency.

 

On the other hand the concept of dispassion is indicated by

the neuter gender specification *tad-vairAgyaM* -- That is

dispassion. Maybe because, by means of dispassion one’s

mind becomes immune and inert!

 

In the process of discrimination there is an inherent

analysis involved. Consequent to that, the mind becomes

desireless. So in discrimination there is an action (though

mental) whereas in dispassion there is not so much action.

Action indicates a masculine power (*paurushhaM*) and so is

indicated by ‘saH’ (he) whereas the inaction-like inertness

of dispassion is denoted by a neuter ‘tat’ (that).

 

The words ‘shama’ (mind control) and ‘dama’ (sense control)

both occur in the masculine as ‘shamaH’ and ‘damaH’. Both

imply control. Accordingly they adopt the gender that

implies action, namely the masculine gender.

 

After saying what ‘shama’ is, he says ‘manasaH shama

uchyate’ – this is what is known as ‘shama’ of the mind --

and here the masculine ‘shamaH’ is used. He does not say

‘shamaM uchyate’ in the neuter gender. But he does not use

the explicit ‘saH’ (he) here as in the case of ‘viveka’

(discrimination) where he said ‘ayaM saH’ – this is he.

Also when he defines ‘shama’ instead of saying just ‘mind

control’ he says ‘sva-lakshhye niyata-avasthaa’ meaning

‘what stays in its own goal’. After the active masculine

work of controlling the mind, one stays in the peaceful

state of resting in the Atman; it is this state that is

meant by ‘shama’. So, maybe, the Acharya did not want to

emphasize the masculine aspect of shama, by using *saH*

(he) for ‘shamaH’.

 

On the other hand, when he talks about ‘dama’ (control of

the senses) he says *sa damaH parikIrtitaH* meaning “he is

called damaH”, where the masculine gender is explicitly

emphasized. When the senses run amuck, to control them and

draw them behind a lot of masculine activity is needed,

certainly.

 

The word ‘uparati’ is feminine. When we equate activity

with masculinity then the actionless restful state has to

be feminine. And so he says *uparatir-uttaamA* -- the

highest is ‘uparati’ (cessation) – using the feminine for

‘the highest’.

 

And, for the subsequent ‘titikshhaa’, he speifically uses

the ‘sA’ (she). Forbearance is known to be a special

characteristic of women in general – the quality of a

mother. Don’t we usually refer to the Goddess Earth as the

ideal for tolerance?

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

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