Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-54)

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Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/32657

 

[Note To Shri Parasukhanandanadha: Thanks for your

write-up on “HridayaM” in

 

http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2006-August/018039.html

 

First, please note that whatever I write in this series is

only a translation of Kanchi Mahaswamigal’s discourses.

Nothing is original from me! Secondly, the Swamigal’s

presentation is not contradicting what you say about

Hridayam. And thirdly I would request you to read from

KDAS-50 to KDAS-60 carefully and you will find that your

doubts have been answered. Finally your concluding

statement about Jiva not ‘merging’ in Shiva, needs to be

commented on. I shall take that up in a separate post.]

 

 

SECTION 40: NIRGUNA BHAKTI & SAGUNA BHAKTI

 

[Note by VK: ‘ saguNa bhakti ’ means ‘Devotion to God with

attributes’

‘nirguNa bhakti ’ means ‘ Devotion to attributeless

Absolute’]

 

Just now I talked about the Atman that tests, the Atman

that reveals itself, the Atman that does the action of

taking over the surrendering self. “Do all these mean that

the Atman is not nirguNa but only a saguNa that does

actions? If it is saguNa then that is not our objective.

How can that be so?” – such questions may arise. This is

where one has got to bring in shraddhA (Faith)! Our

Acharya, who takes great care to show us the way, has

already created this bodyguard of shraddhA for our

protection! “Don’t ask questions about saguNa and nirguNa.

The very Upanishads which have talked elaborately about the

nirguNa Atman has spoken at this point only thus. Take that

in full faith and give yourself up to the Atman with Love.

Thereafter you will be taken only to the nirguNa Absolute,

so say all the Upanishads. So proceed just on faith” – this

is what you have to repeatedly remind yourself and

function.

 

If you want you may believe that the nirguNa brahman, in

order to shower its grace on you, works for just that

moment like saguNa, and then after sending you inside the

core of your heart, within there it remains nirguNa and

takes you over. Instead of resorting to such wishful

thinking, the best thing would be to go forward with

shraddhA and shraddhA alone!

 

Memory does go back to the Ishvara (saguNa brahman). As

long as there is a mental action, thinking of anything good

does bring back the memory of Ishvara, who is the aggregate

of all that is good. Except for advaita, all the other

schools of thought earmark him as the destination. How can

an advaita-sAdhaka not think about Him? But when that

thought does occur, start thinking: “Oh Lord, it is because

of your Mercy my mind has ventured into advaita. And by

Your Grace I am moving on this path little by little. I

know you are doing all this, in your great compassion, to

take me over finally into your advaitic oneness. So if I

now worship you as a saguNa deity, I will be going against

your own sankalpa. Please help me go forward on this same

path” This is a kind of expression of gratitude for the

path so far trodden and a prayer for the path that is

remaining, so that the mind still stays on the nirguNa

principle.

 

Gratitude, that is very important. The Bhakti that arises

out of this gratitude – gratitude to Him who has directed

us into this most remarkable advaita -- raises its head

now and then. Of course we may have to maintain it for a

very short time and quickly resume our journey. However,

this Bhakti of short duration is so intense that all that

bhakti that we did long ago for the one-pointedness of the

mind pales into insignificance. When we were carrying on

that Bhakti almost incessantly, it was like a routine, and

sometime lifeless. But now on our jnAna path, a certain

bhakti shoots forth as if from an underground spring, along

with a sense of gratitude, and even though it is only for a

moment, it is full of life.

 

But since our objective is nirguNa, even from this, the

mind has to be turned off.

 

However, if there is the thought that it might still be

better if there is a saguNa-mUrti for directing our Love,

especially at the beginning of this advanced stage of

sAdhanA, then certainly there is the Guru. Pour all your

Love and Bhakti on him. He will lift you up and make you

direct your Love towards the nirguNa. Has not our Acharya

said: *prasAdena guroH seyaM pravRttA sUyate phalaM* (See

KDAS-46: Sec. 29) –‘By the Grace of the Guru, the effort

will become pravRtta and will give the desired result’.

 

After all what is Love? Is it not what goes and attaches to

you wholly? But here the thing to which we get attached is

not for being possessed by us. Instead it should possess

us; that is the anguish with which we get attached. What

should go is the so-called individual self or ego. To

whatever we attach deeply for that very purpose, that is

Love, that is Bhakti.

 

But just because love or Bhakti is but a deep attachment to

something, it does not mean such an involvement in chess

or cricket or being a bibliophile is Love or Bhakti.

Because such attachment is all for fattening the individual

‘I’. In other words it feeds the ‘svayaM’ (the outer self).

On the other hand feeding the ‘svayam’ (to the Self) – that

is, the ‘svayam’ is to be fed to the Self -- is Love or

Bhakti. This is the grand ‘svayamvaraM’ wherein the bride

is ‘fed’ to the bridegroom!

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest addition to my website is the 4-page article on Krishnavatara, the Miraculous. Go to

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/Krishnavatarapage1.html