Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-49)

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Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/32476

 

SECTION 31: ANCIENT SCRIPTURES & THE ACHARYA ON MUMUKSHU

(Contd.)

Tamil Original : http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-105.htm

 

Before Yama gave the supreme teaching to Naciketas, he put

the boy to a test just to confirm the intensity of his

mumukShutA (longing for mokSha). Or maybe Yama knew it all;

he may just have wanted to put the boy to a test just to

showcase to the world at large this ideal mumukShu.

 

The Lord of Death told the boy to ask for a different boon

‘because the Atman-philosophy is something which can

confuse even the divines’. But the boy was smart enough for

that. He says: “By the very fact you are categorising it

like this, it must be great. So nothing else would be

equivalent to that boon which I am seeking. Please give it

to me. There is nobody else who can equal you in teaching

this to me.”

 

Yama tries different artifices to convince the boy. “I will

grant you lots and lots of elephants, horses, treasures,

land, kingship, sons and grandsons, life as long as you

wish. Whatever you desire I will grant it. I will send my

own men to run your chariot and to play music for you.

Please don’t press for your boon. Ask anything else” says

Lord Yama. All this is a test. He forces a golden necklace

on the boy.

 

Nothing tempted the boy Naciketas. “What all you are giving

will one day return to you. I want only that which will be

permanent, ever. I want only that. This Naciketas will not

take anything else!”—says the boy most emphatically. The

golden necklace is not even touched by him.

 

And Yama is completely satisfied. He praises the boy. “You

have discarded all these gifts as *alpaM* (finite,

trivial). You have kept your mind on VidyA only. May I get

more and more seekers like you! (This statement of Yama

shows that such persons are really rare). You are a *DhIra*

(brave soul). The gates of Brahma Loka are open for you!

(Here Brahma-loka does not mean the world of Creator

BrahmA. It means that the gate is open for you to go

forward to the Truth, that is Brahman.” After praising

the boy like this, he gives him the secret teaching as was

demanded by him.

 

And at the end of the Upanishad we are told Naciketas, who

came as a mumukShu, became actually a mukta (one who is

released). And further, those who get to know the Truth

like him will all get Release -- so ends the Upanishad.

“Like him” means, “ with that kind of intense mumukShutA”.

 

We began with the four-part SadhanA regimen. These four

parts end with this ‘mumukShutA’.

 

SECTION 32: THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE ARMOUR OF

SPIRITUALITY

Tamil Original: http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-106.htm

 

The entire SadhanA regimen is a four-pronged army to fight

the bad elements and capture the kingdom of the Atman. The

last of the four prongs was ‘mumukShutvaM’.

 

‘mumukShutvam’ has been all along described as something to

be achieved. What was there as a trace in the beginning,

slowly got intense and that intense desire for mokSha is to

be finally, at this stage, culminated to its peak

intensity, by the intellect. Now and then it might have

happened that one has slipped into the depressing thought:

“Release of Bondage? Realisation? Not for poor me!” One

should not give way to such a thought. Not only that. One

should develop the positive attitude: “It is possible to

achieve; to know the Truth. Why would it be inaccessible,

if persistent efforts are made? Guru’s Grace will manage

all my ups and downs. So let me yearn for the Release, for

the Truth, with all earnestness”. This should be done as an

exercise. “Was I not a total ignoramus once? Even for me

the ascending steps of discrimination, dispassion, sense

control, shraddhA became gradually accessible. Guru’s

Grace that has brought me so far would not let me down. It

should certainly be possible for me – if only I intensely

yearn for it”. This is the exercise of mumukShutA.

 

Here ends the Sadhana-chatushhTayaM. But remember, this is

only the middle stage – second stage. Higher than this is

the third stage.

 

SECTION 33: PRIOR TO THE THREE COMPONENTS OF THE THIRD

STAGE

Tamil Original : http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-107.htm

 

After practising well the four parts of

Sadhana-chatushhTayaM, one obtains through a Guru the

Ashrama of Sannyasa as also the teaching of the

mahA-vAkya, and learns from him all the traditional

Shastraic knowledge along with direct experiential

information. All these are learnt by the intellect, churned

and digested into a heart-felt experience by constant

meditation. These are the componenets of the third stage.

After such persistent meditation , one attains

Brahman-Realisation. That is the Release from Bondage; the

Realisation of Truth.

 

These are usually sequenced as three components:

‘shravaNa’, ‘manana’ and ‘nididhyAsana’.

 

So naturally you would expect me to take up the topic of

‘shravaNa’ now. But I am going to disappoint you. However

you cannot fault me for that. Because the Acharya himself

has ‘disappointed’ us at this stage. I am only following

him in this disappointing act!

 

See the Viveka Chudamani. We have been following that in

all these discourses so far. Because that is the Acharya’s

own magnum opus. After talking about mumukShutvaM, and then

saying words of encouragement to the low-level and

intermediate level sAdhakas, then he says at the point of

winding up the sAdhana-chatushhTayaM, (shlokas 29,30 or

30,31): “ It is true that, if dispassion and mumukShutA

are not intense but mild, then the Atman will not show up.

In that low level, even if there is an appearance of the

mind calming down, it is only a mirage-like show.But don’t

lose heart. Don’t lose faith. Try to intensify the

dispassion as well as the mumukShutA. Then, even the

low-level as well as the intermediate level people can rise

to the peak of excellence of controlling the mind. And by

that means one can reach success also”. Thus he ends the

sAdhana-chatushhTayaM.

 

This is where one expects him to go to the topic of

shravaNaM. But he starts a new topic, namely, Bhakti!

 

(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