Sridakshinamurtistotram (Part VIII - f)

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Sridakshinamurtistotram

(Part VIII - f)

 

shrImad-viShNupadAlambam vedAntAmRRita-varShiNam |

lokasantApa-shamanam vande'bhra-sadRRisham gurum ||

(I pay obeisance to the clour-like Guru, who abides in (the sky that

is) the Supreme Brahman, pours forth the nectar of Vedanta and

terminates the sufferings of people.)

(A verse composed by Sri Abhinava Vidyateertha SwaminaH in

reverential obeisance to His Guru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati

SwaminaH)

 

Now the method of revealing, `prakaTIkaraNa', that the hymn adopts in

this verse is taken up for discussion. The Consciousness, the Shine

which, is Isvara in association with upadhis, provides facilities for

the devotee for worship and sadhana and appearing as Guru leads him

step by step by instruction, removing thereby the various phases of

ajnana, eventually reveals Itself without upadhi as the very Self of

the seeker:

Isvaro GururAtmeti mUrtibheda-vibhAgine |

VyOmavad vyAptadehAya dakshiNaamUrtaye namaH ||

 

This Consciousness is at once the Supreme Peace of Silence, which is

most eloquent as making known everything else including speech. This

is the Supreme purport of the entire Sruti as revealed by each one of

the Mahavakyas. The knowledge of the Svrupa results in the

attainment of the Supreme Bliss in Its full glory, as also the

realization that duality never was, never is, nor will ever be. This

realization is given expression to by the Svaaraajyasiddhi (2 – 61)

and the tika thereon which speaks in a similar vein:

 

I am That which is free from origination and destruction, without any

flaw, Self-effulgent Consciousness, free of the six-fold

modification, ever free from even the possibility of bondage,

unsublatable, devoid of properties such as grossness etc., free from

duality, without any internal difference, pervading within and

without, of the nature of unalloyed Bliss, the Innermost Witness of

antahkarana etc., Atman, verily Brahman, the purport of all the

Srutis. Just as darkness cannot exist in the Sun who is by nature

bright, the universe did not, does not, and will not exist in Me, the

Bliss, Existence, Consciousness, transcending the triad of states.

Says the Mandukya Karika II-32: There is neither dissolution nor

creation, none in bondage and none practicing disciplines. There is

none seeking Liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute

truth.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad iv.5.19 says: That Brahman which is

Atman is without cause or effect, without interior or exterior, this

Self, the perceiver of everything, is Brahman.

The Mandukya Karika I.18 says: This duality exists not, when the

highest Truth is known.

The Sambandha Vartika 183,184 says: On the mere rise of the true

knowledge generated by the Mahavakya `That thou art', Avidya, along

with its effects, was not, is not and will not be.

Sublation of Saakshitva of Atman:

 

In this connection, the Siddhantabindu (9) raises an objection: Since

what is involved in each of the triad of states, as being attached to

it, is false along with the states, their Witness also would be

false, there being nothing special in Him. The answer to this is

given in the Dashashloki (9):

Moreover, Atman being all-pervading, It having been taught to be the

Highest object of man's attainment, It being of the nature of self-

manifest knowledge and not dependent on anything else, the whole of

this universe which is of a nature different from It, is unreal. I

am that One, which alone remains over, the Auspicious and Absolute.

The import is that all else is naught, Atman alone is.

 

Sublation of Akhandakaravritti; Sublator:

 

Here a doubt may be raised: when the primal ignorance is destroyed by

the Akhandakaravritti, even though the entire universe which is a

product of ignorance is sublated, this Brahmakaravrtti remains over,

there being nothing to destroy it; and as such duality persists.

Therefore what remains over is not the One without a second. If

another vritti is brought in to destroy this antahkaranavritti, then

that vritti remains over as the second and this process results in

infinite regress. As such there is no escape at all from duality.

We find the answer to this in the Svarajyasiddhi (2 – 62):

The Akhandakaravritti, the plenary experience, which has been shown

decisively as the purport of the entire Sruti, even as it arises,

destroys the entire mesh of duality along with its cause, Avidya, and

itself disappears immediately, leaving over the Eternal, non-dual

Atman, the Supreme Bliss, spoken of as Nirvana, in the manner of fire

churned with the help of two sticks, which burns the grass and then

becomes extinguished; or in the manner of the powder of the clearing

fruit, kataka, which subsides after removing the mud from water.

 

It is accepted that Vedic injunction `svAdhyAyo adhyetavyaH' (one's

own Veda should be learnt) pertains to the entire Veda inclusive of

itself, the notion of difference is brought in to differentiate one

thing from another as also itself from either of them. Avidya is

responsible for itself and its ramifications as well. Consciousness

is responsible for making known all else and Itself as well and the

statement `neha naana asti kinchana (in this Atman there is no

multiplicity) refutes all duality inclusive of itself. In the same

way the acceptance that the Akhandakaravritti sublates all duality

inclusive of itself, is without blemish. The vritti as associated

with Consciousness is the sublator as differentiated from its

insentient aspect which is the sublated.

 

What the dispeller of ajnana does is this: All those coming under the

category of vyavrittas like the states of childhood etc., the waking

etc., the six-fold transformation inclusive of death as pertaining to

the gross body, the various gross bodies one after another in the

various lives, the disposition, moods etc., of the subtle body as

also the apparently persisting subtle body in various lives, Avidya

itself as also the final vritti that is the Akhandakaravritti, are

removed without any vestige whatsoever. The word vyavritta means

also `that which is excluded'. Discarding all these vyavrittas, one

has to take hold firmly of what `is' i.e., Atman that can never be

vyavritta. That is, look into and search only for Atman but leaving

out every one of these, by steadfast devotion. This steadfast

devotion is really devotion to the Acharya, the Jnanasvarupa, the

Sphurana, which is only one and the same at all times and

everywhere. In this search, the direction is secured by always being

aware that the `Light' for this search in darkness, Avidya, comes

only from the Sphurana, the Inner Self, the Acharya, Isvara. And the

obstacles in the way, the vyavrittas, are all removed by the Grace

and continuous instruction from the Acharya. Intellectual

impediments are because of the wrong notions of Atman and Brahman.

 

Progress Temporal; Perfection, the Eternity, in a flash:

 

It should not be thought that progress and perfection are conceptions

pointing to the same level of experience. The one takes place in

time; the other signifies transcending it. Perfection is not

attained in the time order, but it is victory over time. That is,

perfection is not to be understood as taking place gradually or step

by step, but in a flash at some point during the progress. This is

the significance of the Sruti quoted by Sri Acharya Shankara in the

Kathopanishad bhashya (1.3.12): `anadhvagaa adhavasu

paarayishNavaH' which means that the knowers `arrive at the goal

without travelling'. The chidachid-granthi is torn asunder by the

Mahavakyajnana and thereafter the Chit shines in Its full glory.

That the granthi, knot, is torn means that the names and forms of all

that is superimposed including Avidya, the very existence of which is

only the Substratum, `svarUpeNa adhyasta", are sublated leaving

behind Sat, the Adhisthana.

 

Sublation of Maya:

The removal of ignorance, Avidya, through Knowledge, is none other

than the sublation of Maya. As to what this Maya is, we have the

Acharya's words.

 

Says the Sutrabhashya (2.1.6.14):

Name and form which constitute the seeds of the entire expanse of

phenomenal existence and which are conjured up by Avidya, are, as it

were, non-different from the Omniscient Isvara and they are non-

determinable as real or unreal and are mentioned in the Srutis and

Smritis as the power called Maya of the Omniscient Isvara or as

Prakriti, the primordial nature.

Again, says the bhashya on the Kathopanishad I.3.11:

Beyond even the mahat, subtler than that, being its internal

principle, greater than all is the avyakta, the seed of all the

universe, the unmanifest state of name and form, the combined state

of the potentialities of all causes and effects, denoted by the terms

avyakta, avyakrita, aakasha, etc., entering in the Supreme Atmana as

warp and woof….

 

Ajnana once sublated never reappears:

 

Removing the possible doubt that Ajnana that is destroyed by Jnana

might reappear much in the same way as the universe which reappears

after being destroyed in dissolution, the nature of sublation is made

clear in the Svarajyasiddhi (3.15). A thing that is sublated is

absolutely non-existent, without any residue left in a potential

form, as distinguished from an existent effect that merges into the

cause on destruction. The sublation of Avidya is not non-existence

posterior to destruction, pradhvamsaabhaava, formulated by the

Naiyaayikas, for, if that were the case, this pradhvamsabhava would

continue to exist and there would be duality in liberation. Rather,

it is only the Substratum itself. So it is that ajnana that is

sublated, really never was, never is and never will be, as shown

already. Again, destruction is only the ultimate state of

transformation of an existent, and not a form of non-existence,

abhava, for it is reasonable to regard destruction only as the

merging of an existent in its cause. On the other hand it must be

accepted that Sublation is the experience of the non-existence of

the superimposed in the substratum.

 

The universe is Brahman-Atman alone for the Wise, diverse for the

deluded:

 

The wise, endowed as they are with the direct experience of the

Atman, see the world as none other than the One Brahman-Atman. All

objects, right from the subtle space to the grossest earth, all ideas

and concepts, all events that are of the external and internal

nature, are seen as just vikalpas and therefore inconsequential.

Brahman-Atman alone is what is substantial and this is the non-dual

experience with which the Wise live in this world. However, the

ignorant, not having the benefit of this experience, continue in the

world of duality, experiencing all the travails of samsara.

 

(end of part VIII – f)

(to be continued)