Kanchi Maha-swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-70)

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SECTION 56: SANNYAASA

Tamil Original: http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-129.htm

 

 

Even though no one here may (or should have to) reach that stage, I have to

talk about it since the very first part of true advaita sAdhanA starts with

sannyAsa. All links and bondages have to be cut asunder completely. It is

not so for others. All seekers, however, have to work for reducing their

attachments to a certain extent. It is therefore good to learn about the

SannyAsa stage at least to the extent of hearing about it.

 

If we have to know about the Atman, we have to be constantly thinking about

it as the only task and only goal. The grand goal being Brahman, one has to

totally dedicate oneself to that goal and be attached to that only task.

If we have other attachments, interests and also try to do this, that mAyA

and this jnAna cannot coexist. We cannot succeed in fanning a fire by

simultaneously pouring water on it. It is the renunciation of all other

tasks and goals that is called SannyAsa.

 

Only after taking up SannyAsa one gets the eligibility and right to receive

the teaching of the mahAvAkyas that the Vedas proclaim in forms like "This

Jiva itself is Brahman". Brahman also means Veda. Since the Vedas which are

verily Brahman themselves declare Jiva as Brahman the mahAvAkyas get that

exclusive spiritual power. Just by knowing well that Jiva is brahman and by

meditating on that will not make that goal a fact of experience. That

declaration has to be repeated as a japa through the conglomerate of the

letters of these veda-mantras and has to be meditated upon as a regimen;

that is what makes the goal accessible. 'Accessible' does not mean 'easily

accessible'! I only said it in a comparative sense. To hope to obtain

Brahman-realisation by just continuous thinking about it is like a man who

wants to have a bath, starts all the way from digging up a well for the

purpose. But to reach the same goal through the mahAvakyas of the Upanishads

is like drawing water from an alreadyt constructed well. Of course you have

to draw the water - not like opening a tap and using the downpour from it.

The drawing of sufficient water from the well depends on the size of the

bucket or the pail, the depth of the well and other factors. The Samskaras

of the individual influence the efforts to be made just as the smallness of

the bucket will force you to draw water several times. But when you compare

this with the process of our digging up of a well - well, that is the

comparison I mentioned.

 

Moreover this is protected water. There is a watchman! Only if he allows

you, you can draw water. That watchman is called the Guru!

 

The conglomerates of sound vibrations called mantras suck in several ways

the Power and Grace of the Absolute, that is permeating the entire space and

produce for us the many beatifics of this world and the world beyond. Among

such mantras the mahAvakyas that identify the JivAtmA with the ParamAtmA

without any distinction are at the peak. The Acharya speaks of them (in

Aitareya Upanishad Bhashya 1.3.13) as sounds that wake you up to Atma-jnAna,

the advaita jnAna that lies dormant in the JivAtmA that is sleeping in

Ignorance. It is the Guru that trumpets the drum of the MahAvakyas, wakes

you up, as it were, from your sleep, thus waking you up to Enlightenment.

 

That Guru takes care to dispense the mahAvAkya teaching only after checking

the Sishya's eligibility and after initiating him into SannyAsa. That

eligibility is nothing other than the progress, to a certain extent, in

Viveka (Discrimination), VairAgya (Dispassion), shama (sense control), dama

(mind control), etc. in the SadhanA-set-of-four.

 

The Vedas have 1180 shAkhAs (branches). Each ShAkhA has an Upanishad of its

own and every Upanishad has a mahAvAkya. Though there are thus more than

1000 mahAvakyas, four of them, one for each Veda, have been held as

important. It appears from 'Visveshvara-smRti', which details the SannyAsa

Dharma, 'Nirnaya-sindhu', an anthology of Dharma ShAstras, and from other

authoritative sources for Dharma ShAstra, and knowledgeable tradition that

at the time of SannyAsa dikshhaa (formal initiation) these four mahAvakyas

are to be formally transmitted from the Guru to the initiate. And there is

also scope for the teaching of other mahAvakyas. Also there is a tradition

that the new SannyAsi who is getting the dikshhaa must also get the

additional mahAvakya that occurs in the ShAkhA to which he belonged before

he took SannyAsa. There is also a further tradition that first the PraNava

("Aum") is taught and then the mahAvakyas.

 

Thus listening to and receiving the teaching is called 'shravaNa' in the

Brahma Vidya scriptures.

 

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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