Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-44)

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For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

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SECTION 27: WHY IS THE ULTIMATE STAGE TERMED AS ‘RELEASE’

AND NOTHING MORE? (CONTD.)

Tamil Original: http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-101.htm

 

 

When the basic sUtra of the Vedanta school is itself

mentioning the Brahman experience as the ultimate goal,

why is that MokShaM is talked of popularly as the ultimate

goal? I have already given one reason for this. Another

reason strikes me. The ideas of the Vedas and Vedanta go

back to antiquity. Later, that too in ancient times, other

schools and religions did blossom – namely, BauddhaM,

PAtanjalaM (that is, Yoga Shastra), NyAya (Logic).

Humanity did generate different opinions. Among these,

there did come in later times, schools and religions much

different from the basic Vaidika school of thought. There

came even some which were totally against the Vaidik

religion. However, except for the Lokayata school of

thought, all others have agreed to the central point of

reaching a state which transcends the bondage of samsAra.

The Lokayata school which contends that “There is no God;

no Atman, no after-life; so there is no question of karma

or karmic experience, let us eat well and enjoy well” is

not eligible to be called a religion. The others, though

different from pure Vedanta, certainly keep the goal of

Release from worldly tangle.

 

However, none of them talk about the bliss after the

Release! BauddhaM talks about the state of void – nirvANa –

at the end of it all. Nyaya – and its sister-school,

Vaisheshhika – talk of the goal as ‘apavarga’, which is

said to be only a state of sorrowlessness, but there is no

talk of any state of happiness or bliss. The Release from

the bondage of samsAra produces sorrowlessness. Since there

is no mention of any happiness, one might even think of it

as an inert state which does not recognize any unhappiness.

The ‘kaivalya’ that is the goal of Sankhya is only the

Release from the play of MayA caused by PrakRti; there is

no talk of any positive happy state. In Patanjali’s yoga

also, the very sUtra talks negatively about the control of

flow of mind and there is no positive mention of any Bliss

of Realisation. Obviously the bondage of SamsAra as well as

the impact of MayA are both felt only by the mind-flow and

so if one can stop that mind-flow by a rock-like dam, the

resulting Release is the Release from samsAra.

 

All these different schools and religions have been there

since ancient times. And that may be the reason why our

Vedanta also has mentioned the so-common ‘mokShaM’ as its

lakShyaM (goal).

 

If one goes by the Vedanta route and obtains that MokSha,

it has to be only Realisation of Brahman. It does not mean

there is something new called Brahman which is ‘realised’.

Nor does one obtain any new happiness of a state called

sat-cid-Ananda. The Jiva is always Brahman. He is a mass

of sat-cid-AnandaM. Still mAyA has played its trick by

binding a blindfold on him. When the SadhanA is complete,

that blindfold gets severed. He is released from MayA.

That is, he obtains MokSha. And simultaneously and

automatically he knows his true nature as Brahman. So all

the SadhanA is for the removal of MayA, to get a release

from MayA – not for producing a sat-cid-Ananda Brahman, nor

to obtain it, nor for any action related to that. It cannot

be produced or created. Nor can it be destroyed . It is

always existing. It is with us all the time --*svayaM

siddhaM* --. There is nothing like ‘obtaining’ it.

 

Looked at this way, what is achieved by SAdhanA is only the

breaking of the MayA-bondage and the Release implied

therein; so it is but fitting to call the goal of sAdhanA

as ‘MokSha’.

 

SECTION 28: MUMUKSHU: DEFINITION BY THE ACHARYA

Tamil Original: http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-102.htm

 

One has to come out of this mAyA and become Brahman; this

should be the only thought of the mind. One who is thus

totally involved in this manner is said to be a ‘mumukShu’.

The Acharya in shloka #27(or 28) of Vivekachudamani gives

this definition:

 

ahaMkArAdi dehAn tAn bandhAn-ajnAna-kalpitAn /

sva-svarUpA-vabodhena moktum-icchA mumukShutA //

 

Here he talks about both the mAyA that has to be discarded

and the Realisation of the Natural state, that one

experiences after the release from the mAyA.

 

Ignorance itself is mAyA. It is because of mAyA that Ego

is imagined as an ‘I’ distinct from the Supreme Self. This

ego is the source of all the hierarchy of errors. The

hierarchy starts in the form of that ego as a subtle

thought and ends up with an individualised ego in every

physical (sthUla) Jiva. What thinks of the body as oneself

is the action of mAyA. The Jiva has been bound by imagined

bondages right from the subtle ahamkAra down to the

concrete physical body. This is what is said in the first

line of the verse above. The desire to be rid of this

bondage is *moktuM icchA* (desire to be released). The

anguish for the release is *mumukShutA*. Such is the

negative definition of ‘MokSha’. But what the final goal

is, is also mentioned right in the middle of the shloka in

a positive way: *sva-svarUpAvabodhena*. ‘avabodhaM’ means

waking up. The waking up is the awakening to wisdom from

the darkness of ignorance. Wisdom about what? About

‘sva-svarUpa’, that is, about Atman, one’s own natural

true state. Instead of saying ‘ awakening to wisdom about

Atman’ we better say ‘awakening to the Atman’. The Atman

itself is the wisdom, knowledge. This awakening is called

also ‘Awareness’. The self-consciousness brought about by

this awakening is not different from the Atman. They are

both the same. MayA is Ignorance; Brahman is JnAna,

Knowledge. That Knowledge is the ‘sva-svarUpa-avabodhaM’.

 

To those sAdhakas whose only goal is to discover the

Ultimate Truth, the Realisation of that Light of Truth

becomes the only object of attainment. From that attainment

itself they will be able to infer that the darkness of mAyA

is gone. If we look at the way such Atma-jnAnis have

described their experiences, we learn that they kept on

pursuing their enquiry about the Atman and suddenly the

Atman did shine. That is how they say it. They never say

that some such thing as the bondage of mAyA disappeared and

then there was Realisation of the Atman. Because, just as

Gaudapadacharya has said (in his Mandukya-kArikA), there is

nothing in reality like bondage of mAyA, nor something

which shows up as release of bondage. But now let us not

get into that ‘high philosophy’. Whatever it be, the only

objective of the right advaita-sAdhaka is the Realisation

of the Atman. It is for that purpose, he keeps meditating,

at the final stages of his sAdhanA, on the mahA-vAkyas. And

he experiences the non-different status of Jiva and

Brahman, declared by the mahAvAkyas. By that very

experience he knows that the bondage is gone. And that is

why the Acharya says *sva-svarUpAva-bodhena moktuM*.

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

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