Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-55)

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Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/32667

 

 

SECTION 41: COOLING LIFE-GIVING LOVE

Tamil Original: http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-115.htm

 

 

Another point to be noted is this. What we are attached to or involved in

is something that has life. In the name of this involvement our little self

establishes a relationship. But afterwards, this relationship, as well as

itself are all gone and it becomes that. This is Love. Life! That is

important. Life unites thus with life. That is Love. Can you imagine chess

or cricket having life?

 

But we know monumental examples where the practitioners of music, dance,

literature give up all their lives to such arts as if they are divines with

life. And when they dwell at the peak of excellence in their performance,

we say "they performed as if in trance, forgetting their self". It only

means, for that moment they gave themselves up to those arts. And the

'life' within the art makes them reach a peak of excellence.

 

In Science also the same self-effacing 'intuition' produces the discoveries

attributed to Einstein and others. One may say that such scientists did not

consider their Science as a living devatA. But all living beings have a

super-Being as their common source. That central source is the root source

of all the arts and sciences and of all knowledge and action. When the

scientists devote themselves heart and soul to their science in a dedicated

fashion, it is that common Universal Source of Knowledge that sparks them

with that intuition about new truths and discoveries. Even in chess and

cricket also this might happen. But in all these, the beauty of the

relationship of one soul giving its all to another living soul is absent.

That 'mAdhurya-rasa', the taste of sweetness, is what is missing!

 

Starting from nitya-anitya-vastu-vivekaM (discrimination between the real

and the unreal), the sAdhanA that goes through vairAgya (dispassion), shama

(sense control) and dama (mind control) and uparati (cessation), has been a

dry affair keeping everything as well as oneself dry like an inert object.

There has been no trace of a relationship with ticking life. If one goes

that way one will only end up in the emptiness advocated by BauddhaM. But

Vedanta's Brahman is not emptiness. It is a fullness, full of the

quintessence of bliss. The Taittiriyopanishad has revelled that Jiva in its

Fullness becomes Bliss itself (II - 7). It is the cit (Knowledge) that has

become Life. It is the essence of cit and Ananda, Fullness of cidAnanda.

The whole concept of Bhakti is to conceive of it as a living fullness,

relate ourselves to it and develop the thought that we should dissolve in

that fullness. That is how through Bhakti one cools and waters the dry

sAdhanA regimen.

 

When we kept it dry, that was also justifiable. There are methods of cure

where the medicine is administered only after one is made to starve. Even

among crops, sometimes they are allowed to dry up and then only proper

watering is done to cool them and make them grow better. It is the same

situation here. We usually are in such a state where, in the mind, intellect

and ahamkAra, thoughts, feelings and determinations arise as food for them..

It is necessary first to dry them all up. By that very drying up the

sprouting of love takes place by which that very ahamkAra becomes ready to

be offered as food to something else. That is when it can be converted into

Bhakti towards the Universal Source of all Life.

 

Bhakti towards Brahman, that is, the Atman, bhakti sometimes towards the

saguNa Ishvara, bhakti towards the Guru, all these are a must. One more

bhakti is a must. You remember, after all the four-component sAdhanA, one is

now ready for the SannyAsa and to receive the mahA-vAkya teaching. We are

going to learn deeply all the shAstras and Upanishads. These mantras as

well as the philosophy imbedded in them are equally living things, -- not

just pieces of information to be learnt from writing. They are living

divine things. Just as the icons of the temples which have been ritually

invoked by PrANa-pratishhTA, the mantras etc. are deities in the form of the

akshharas (letters). We have to set up a relationship with them, a sort of

love that takes us to that state where we ourselves melt into nothingness..

These principles of philosophy that the Guru teaches us and which are to be

absorbed by manana and dhyAna, are wrongly considered to be dry philosophy.

They should be practised with great bhakti as if they were equivalent to the

icons with life. All along we have been doing sAdhanA in a dry mechanical

way; but hereafter we have to do the shravaNa, manana etc. with great

devotion that breathes a cold air.

 

The next step being sannyAsa, one may think that this is the 'dry' stage in

the sAdhanA. On the other hand, the wet and cool weather is going to start

only now. It is dry only from the outside. The outside world thinks it is

a 'dry' world which discards the 'outside'. But in reality that is the world

that is full of the coolness of nectar of love. Outside there is only bark

and shell, but inside there is the sweetness of coconut-water. That is the

nectar of love which has to be milked from the Thing that is inside

everything. This is the stage of SannyAsa that the Acharya has shown to us

with great compassion.

 

SECTION 42: TO REMOVE THE CONCEIT OF THE EGO

Tamil Original : http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-116.htm

 

There are two things to be avoided by a sAdhaka. He should not turn out to

be dry and lifeless. Secondly he should not fall a prey to conceit or pride..

The ego as part of his inner organ (antaH-karaNa) has to go finally. But

that is a big task that will be achieved almost at the end. Right now we are

talking about the commonly understood 'egotism' ('aham-bhAvaM, in Tamil).

Usually the technical shAstra literature does not make a distinction between

ahamkAraM and this 'aham-bhAvaM'. I am making the distinction for clarity..

Egoism is the name given to the ego's thought of 'I' and egotism is the name

given to the conceit and vanity of a swelled head. The head swells because

of the thought: "I have advanced far above the base-level and

intermediate-level sAdhakas, far above the ordinary karma-bhakti path and

am now advancing on the jnAna path" and this thought is the end of it all!

The Acharya has kept Bhakti in order to promote the modesty and humility

that is most needed now. The 'I' itself has to melt in Love to become a

zero; when that is so, what to speak of any 'weight' of the head! Bhakti

will make him really light-headed. JnAna path has been recommended only for

the top-level aspirants. In order for him not to lose his balance by that

very qualification of topness, and for his sAdhanA not to be broken by the

weight of such extraneous thoughts, the submissive attitude of bhakti

becomes necessary. However much we may woo Brahman with love, unless

brahman itself does the 'revealing' (known as 'vivaraNaM'), there is no

scope for salvation. It is with this thought that one has to submit humbly

before the ideal goal. To obtain this submissive attitude it is only Bhakti

that will help. Not only in the case of that phenomenon at the apex level.

The submissive bhakti should extend to the belief: "Whatever I have achieved

so far in sAdhanA is all the Grace of God! What I did was effort only. The

very thought of making that effort and the continuance of that effort were

all again the gift of God!" Only by this the renunciation of egotism

(conceit and pride), a property most important of all the properties to be

renounced, at the time of taking SannyAsa, can materialise.

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

[Guest guest]

>"V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk >

 

>The next step being sannyAsa, one may think that this is the 'dry' stage in

>the sAdhanA.

........

>This is the stage of SannyAsa that the Acharya has shown to us

>with great compassion.

 

>"Whatever I have achieved

>so far in sAdhanA is all the Grace of God! What I did was effort only. The

>very thought of making that effort and the continuance of that effort were

>all again the gift of God!" Only by this the renunciation of egotism

>(conceit and pride), a property most important of all the properties to be

>renounced, at the time of taking SannyAsa, can materialise.

 

Prof. VK - PraNAms.

 

I am delighted to study your posts. In fact for the past few weeks I have

been studying many posts on this lists particularly those of yours, Shree

Shyam md's and Subbu's. All are revealing and contemplative.

 

The discussions on the topic of sanyaasa; we had several recently in the

list. You presentation of Shree Kanchi Maha Swamigal's Discourse is

revealing.

 

Recently, I encountered a situation where I had to do sanyaasa to my longing

for sanyaasa it self, since the Lord with His infinite compassion showed me

how foolish I am in trying to look for Him somewhere else, when he is within

and without, everywhere. Even the very thought of giving up is buried in the

notion of owning it to start with. I used to think that whatever I have

accomplished in this world is due to grace of God. I am beginning to feel

that even this is self-conceited thought; and I am disowning whenever it

props up in my week moments. Shree Swamigal is talking about egotistical

self-conceitment in the owner ship of the agency in one's accomplishments.

 

When the breathing itself cannot take place without His very presence in us,

where is the question of doing anything with or without His grace? What are

we or who are we to give up since every part of this body-mind-intellect

complex without Him enlivening them can not function even for a second? I

cannot even lift a blade of grace by myself without Him. In fact He is

doing it and it is my foolishness even to claim that I have done it. There

is no question of giving up any more; it is just basking in His beauty and

glory in all His actions and manifestations. Giving up the very giving up

has become the sanyaasa. What a relief it is!

 

Yes, this is the stage of sanyaasa that Acharya has shown to us with great

compassion.

 

Hari Om!

Sadananda

 

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