Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-45)

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SECTION 28: MUMUKSHU: DEFINITION BY THE ACHARYA (CONTD.)

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

 

To be relieved of all bondages is not an end in itself. A

person who thinks of it as an end-in-itself, because the

bondages were the cause of one’s suffering and so their end

is all that is needed, is not considered as a ‘mumukShu’ by

the Acharya. He does not leave the matter like that, as

Patanjali did with his yoga theory that the stoppage of all

mind-flow (citta-vRtti-nirodha) is all there is to it. Our

Acharya’s subject and object in the source book, Brahma

Sutra, is ‘brahma-jijnAsA’. So the anguish-cum-desire for

release from all bondages is only for the Realisation of

the non-difference between JivAtma and ParamAtmA – that is

‘brahma-sAkShAtkAra’ (Realisation of Brahman) -- and it is

this desire that is ‘mumukShutA’. This is clear from the

shloka of Viveka Chudamani that we were discussing.

 

*sva-svarUpa-avabodhena* means ‘by the awareness arising

from the Enlightenment as the Atman’. It is through that

awareness that one should desire to get rid of the bondage

of Ignorance. But mark it! This does not mean: “First there

happens Realisation of Brahman (this is the *avabodhaM*)

and then follows the release from bondage. This contradicts

what has so far been said. In other words, the so-called

‘positive’ event of Brahman-Realisation finally leads only

to the ‘negatively-stated’ Release (mokshha) from bondage”.

No, this is not how it should be understood. No one who

has studied Vedanta in depth or who has understood the

teachings and works of the Acharya, would arrive at such a

conclusion.

 

Between the two, namely, Release from bondage, and

Realisation of the Atman, -- between these two, there is

nothing that is before or after. Both are simultaneous. In

total darkness we light a match. And there is light.

Darkness is gone. Does light come first and then after some

time does the darkness disappear? Are they not both

simultaneous?

 

But note one thing. It is not that darkness goes and light

comes at the same time! Light comes and at the same time

darkness is gone!

 

This is where Vedanta is great. Its goal is to find the

Light of the Self. Keeping this as the central focus, it

starts from nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka (discrimination

between permanence and impermanence) and ascends gradually

from one step to another. Their objective was not the

removal of misery (as was that of the Buddha), nor was it

the stoppage of mind-flow that causes all misery (as was

that of Patanjali); the Rishis of the Upanishads, the

author of the Brahma-sUtra and the Acharya all emphasized

the Realisation of Brahman as ‘the Goal’. They prompted us

to search for the Truth and go after it. Theirs was a

“satya-anveshhaNaM”. In other words, they declared:

“Whatever is the Ultimate Truth, that has to be found by

an intense inquiry. Let it be good or bad, let it be

happiness or misery. The flood of Time brings events after

events and the whole universe is in motion. For all this

movement there must be a base of action. And that must be

something firmer than all of them. So also in the case of

the Jiva that pertains to us, who are waxing and waning,

something grants us a life, a consciousness and a power;

what is the permanent substratum of this? Let us discover

it.” With this trumpeting call the Upanishad Rishis

marched on with infectious enthusiasm, confidence and

courage and proceeded bravely like ‘dhIras’ towards that

discovery. Truth for the sake of Truth, that was their

clarion call. Theirs was not an aimless adventure of a

distressed and crying mind that looks for ways to be rid

of any existing despair in the hope of accepting whatever

that comes. Their spiritual march was not a disgusting

prompt by the torture of the mind flow; nor did they

proceed as if they were running away to a distance which

may hold or open up what they know not, but which they

will accept, so long as they are assured of relief from

the misery of the mind flow. On the other hand, they all

started with a determination to discover that ineffable

Light of the Atman that was shadowed by an unreal mAyA.

Not only did they march to inquire and discover, but they

urged the whole humanity to march with them on the same

call!

 

I said they did not start with a distressed and crying

mind. One who started with a distressed mind was the

Buddha. But even about him, the followers of that religion

speak of him only as one who went out seeking a positive

state of Enlightenment and he got that Wisdom (bodha)

underneath the Bodhi Tree. And that gave him the name The

Buddha. Before he sat for meditation under that tree it

appears he himself said something which has become a

significant shloka in ‘Lalita-vistAra’ (A life history of

the Buddha). It is so significant that even now we can cite

that as the best example of a ‘mumukShutA’ :

 

*ihAsane shushhyatu me sharIraM

tvag-asti mAmsAni layaM prayAntu /

aprApya bodhaM bahu-kalpa-durlabhaM

naivAsanAt kAyam-idaM chalishyati //

 

meaning, “Let this body dry out on this very seat; let

skin, bone and flesh die. Without getting Enlightenment,

even if it takes as long as a kalpa, this body shall not

move from this seat” ! This is the rock-like resolve that

he made before he sat under the Tree. Whatever it be, our

Rishis of the Upanishads did leave everything only to

discover the Ultimate Truth.

 

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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