Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-41)

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Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/32192

 

 

SECTION 22: SAMAADHAANA (Continued)

 

What is ‘varaNaM’?. ‘vara’ means ‘best’. When a bridegroom

is chosen for an eligible daughter; the bridegroom is

called ‘varaH’ in Sanskrit and ‘varan’ in Tamil. Also

another meaning is one who has been chosen from among

several. This choice is inbuilt into the word ‘svayamvara’

where a bride (usually a princess) chooses her match from

an assembly of several princes who consider themselves

eligible bachelors for the princess. She chooses

whomsoever she likes best. The act of choosing is

‘varaNaM’. We look for a proper guru, finally choose one

and seek him as our guru – this is ‘guru-varaNaM’.

Accordingly there is ‘sishhya-varaNaM’ also.

 

In a similar manner we have to choose ‘Atman’, by

discarding everything else. We have to keep praying “Please

reveal yourself, O Atman. You are nothing but my self; but

I am not able to recognize it. All this mind, speech, and

intelligence (medhA) which think of myself as ‘I’, cannot

recognize you. Therefore please reveal yourself by

yourself”. A continued prayer like this will one day flash

the truth. It will nullify the intellect, manas and speech

and produce a Self-realisation as the Atman itself.

 

This is ‘Atma-varaNaM’. The reciprocal process by the

Atman, is beautifully described in the Upanishads and

called *vi-varaNaM*. The word means ‘revelation of what is

inside or hidden’.

 

In sum, the sAdhaka has to do only this. He should

understand that intellectual smartness will not work with

Brahman. What will work is only a constant prayer, after

having discarded everything else, to Atman itself, to be

the chosen goal,. The word ‘varaNaM’ which is the process

here, includes in it the concept of ‘prayer’ also; that is

how the Acharya has constructed his Bhashya for those

mantras of the Kathopanishad.

 

The same Acharya here says: “Establish the buddhi

(intellect) in shuddha Brahman”. What is meant by this? I

think it is only this: The intellect should dwell, not on

shuddha brahman, but in a one-pointed way on what has been

said by the Guru and the Shastras about Brahman.

 

To allow buddhi or intellect to be drowned in the ocean of

Brahman comes at the end of the third stage: samAdhi.

 

Here it is ‘samAdhAnaM’. ‘BrahmaNi’ does not mean ‘in

Brahman’ here but ‘in matters pertaining to Brahman’ – what

the ShAstras and the Guru say about it. This is the right

way to understand it. The purport is that we should direct

the intellect to dwell always on the philosophical

implications of Brahma VidyA.

 

In the exercise of shraddhA, we made the intellect to

confirm (avadhAraNa) the faith in what the ShAstras and the

Guru say. In continuation of the same , as a logical

conclusion, the Shastra of the Atman has now to be learnt,

by the intellect itself, without any doubts raised by the

intellect. The Guru might add something of his own, which

may not be in the ShAstras. That also has to be absorbed in

the same way.

 

Realisation or Experience of Brahman (*brahmAnubhava*)

comes much later. That is the true Enlightenment. Right now

whatever has to be learnt through the intellect has to be

absorbed as ‘buddhi-jnAnaM’. The total force of the

intellect has to focus on this now. This is the *samyak

AsthApanaM* (Right fixation). And this has to be done

always. This is the ‘samAdhAna’ of the intellect.

 

Now the Sadhaka has not yet matured to sit in dhyana and

have his intellect dissolved in the Atman. At this stage

the intellect keeps on doing its functions. Use that

intellect only in those functions which help you rise in

spirituality. And what could be those functions except to

know well the ShAstras about the Atman? Except for the

formal initiation (upadesha) into the mahAvakyas (which has

to be done only at the time of taking Sannyasa), everything

else has to be learnt now by proper study.

 

They have to be learnt at the feet of a guru. This is the

VidyA-guru.The one who later gives him the sannyAsa and

initiation into the mahAvAkyas is the Ashrama-guru. It goes

without saying that the latter has to be a SannyAsi

himself. Probably he might have been the Vidya Guru

earlier. Or probably he might be a scholarly practitioner

of the Vaidic Karmas.

 

SECTION 23: WHO IS QUALIFIED TO RECEIVE THE TEACHING OF THE

UPANISHADS?

 

There is an opinion that only SannyAsis have the right to

study the Upanishads. In other words only a SannyAsi should

teach Upanishads and that too to SannyAsis only. They say

that the others such as, a Brahmachari, a householder, etc.

may learn Vedanta from other expository books. When a

brahmachari goes through the study of the Veda-recitation,

he also learns to recite the Upanishads. Certainly. Among

the various vidyAs and upAsanAs therein, many are intended

for householders. Even then, without concentrating on the

learning of the meanings, one can learn to recite. If

desired, one can get to know the content of them in

outline. But a deep study in detail of the meanings of the

Upanishads is only for the SannyAsis. This is their

opinion.

 

But what appeals to me is what tradition has handed over to

us. Whether one is a brahmachari or a householder, they

have been learning, in fact deeply, all the Upanishads. So

I think only the initiation into the mahAvAkyas is to be

postponed to the event of taking over SannyAsa.

 

Of course in the recitation of the Upanishad itself, the

mahAvAkyas will come. But it is only the SannyAsi who can

use it for a japa. For this he has to receive by the

process of DikshA, the mahAvakya mantra from the SannyAsa

Guru only.

 

Otherwise, all those who are eligible to learn the vedas,

in whatever stage of life they are, can learn the

Upanishads from a guru. This, I think, is the opinion of

the learned and this has been in vogue for a long time.

 

As support to this one may state that originally those who

gave out the Upanishads or were the recipients of the

Upanishads were themselves not SannyAsis. But I don’t like

to lean on that point. For when the yugas change, the

dharmas also change. The spiritual strength of people of

the earlier yugas does not subsist in those of the later

yugas. That is why dharma shastras prohibit certain things

which were in vogue in the earlier yugas. We should not

transgress those injunctions of the shastras. Therefore it

is not a valid point to quote instances from the

Upanishadic times in support of the continuance of those

practices. Of course the SmRti does not specifically say

that Upanishads are only for Sannyasis. But instead of

taking my stand on this, I would rather go by what has been

handed to us by tradition.

 

There is what is known as ‘ShAnti pAThaM’ consisting of

certain mantras and invocatory shlokas, prescribed for

being recited at the beginning of every Upanishad class.

One of those mantras says: “ Who once created Creator

BrahmA and taught Him the Vedas, that Almighty is the One

who enlightens my intellect; being a seeker of MokSha, I

surrender to Him”. The word used here for the seeker of

MokSha is ‘mumukShu’. Only the advanced seeker is called

mumukShu. In Svetasvataropanishad, which, though not among

the ten topmost Upanishads, has been commented upon by the

Acharya, it is said that this Upanishad was taught to

advanced SannyAsis. People who advocate that SannyAsis are

the only ones to be taught the Upanishads usually quote

this fact. But our Acharya has mentioned in his

commentaries that several portions in the Upanishads are

only for the manda-adhikAris (those who are not fully

qualified). Certainly a mumukShu is not a manda adhikAri.

So I go by the traditional viewpoint, namely, instead of

saying that Upanishads can be learnt only after one is

advanced in jnAna-acquisition, I would say only by the

learning of the upanishads one would advance in the

acquisition of jnAna. Traditional practice has legitimately

adopted this relaxation.

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

The contents page of my website has been updated now to include a topic-wise list of every page of the site and a link to each. You may want to have a look at

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/contents.html

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Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

ttp://advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

ttp://advaitin/message/32192

 

 

 

The .pdf file link you had in the prev posts containing upto the 30 discourses was helpful and would be helpful to general readers who want to read it all or in their own spare time. I hope you consider including that link in future posts and also when you get the remaining translated. Thanks.