Kanchi Maha-swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-72)

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For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

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For the previous post, see

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SECTION 56: SANNYAASA (continued)

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

 

 

After shravaNa, come manana and nididhyAsana. Just as it says: "Only after

becoming a sannyAsi the shravaNa process takes place" so also there is also

an authority for saying Only a SannyAsi has the right to do manana and

nididhyAsana: *mananAdau sannyAsinAM adhikAraH*.

 

In Brahma-sUtras, the sannyAsis are referred to (III-4-17) as *Urdhvaretas*..

This means those who don't waste their energy in low activities of the

senses, but take it Brahmasutras and also upward into noble paths. Reading

through those portions of the the Achary'a Bhashyas on them, it is clear

that they (the SannyAsis) are the ones who are qualified for the third

stage in advaita-sAdhanA. A jnAni has to be a sannyAsi; should be.

 

Brahmasutra has another name for it: 'Bhikshu-sutra'. Bhikshu means

sannyAsi. One who lives, not on one's home-food, but on BhikshA (formal

ritualistic begging) is called a bhikshu. The book that is totally

dedicated to enquiry into Brahman being called 'bhikshu-sUtra' shows that

it is the sannyAsi who has the right for this v idyA.

 

When a matter occurs in the Gita, then there is no higher certificate

needed! If we question whether the matter of sannyAsi having the only right

for shravaNa etc. has occurred in the teachings of the Lord, the answer is

yes! "All karmas finally end up in jnAna" (IV - 33, 34), says the Lord and

continues "The seers of Truth will teach you the jnAna. One should bow to

them, be in servitude to them, and learn by questioning and further

questioning". Ending up of karmas means thereafter it is only sannyAsa.

Does it not then mean that "Only such a sannyAsi has the eligibility to

receive the teaching of jnAna"?

 

Truth is the absolute ultimate, no, it is tapas (austerity) that is

ultimate. No again, it is dama (control of mind); it is only shama (control

of the mind) -- and so on goes the Narayanavalli, detailing the greatness

of one after the other (Mahanarayana Upanishad. Anuvaka 78). But finally, it

says: "It is none of these that is ultimate. SannyAsa is the Ultimate

Principle. The Creator Brahma Himself has said so".

 

When one reaches the higher rungs of the ladder of sAdhanA to know the

Atman, it is possible only by the SannyAsi who has left karma behind. Atma

is inaccessible by karma. It has to be enquired into, meditated on, further

meditated on, and then in due course even that meditative action has to stop

- only in that stage one can know the Atman. 'To do karma and also to do

dhyAna simultaneously' is incompatible. So long as one is in karma stage,

associated with that there will be several relationships. *sangAt sanjAyate

kAmaH .krodhaH . * as the Lord has said (B.G. II - 62), a single such

association will set up a chain relationship of kAmaM, krodhaM, etc. and

finally end up in *buddhi-nAshAt praNashyati* (intelligence is destroyed and

the individual is lost). That is why the Acharya says in Vivekachudamani

(147/149) "karma-koTibhiH na shakyaH" - even if a crore of karma is done,

the bondage will not cease. *viveka-vijnAna-mahAsinA vinA dhAtuH prasAdena

sitena manjunA* -- It can be cut asunder only by the grand sword of

sAdhanA starting from nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka (discrimination between the

unreal and the real) up to the vijnAna stage when one gets the wisdom of

experience, by the Grace of God.

 

If one has to dedicate one's life to cut this bondage, one has to get away

from family, relationships, profession and even all religious obligations.

 

But one thing should not be forgotten. It is not as if any one can just

throw away religious obligations of karma and become a sannyAsi. The Acharya

has never said so. He has ruled that such a right is there only for those

whose minds have been purified. How to purify the mind? The emphatic

direction of the Acharya is to discharge all the karmic obligations

systematically and without default. The same Acharya who said that even a

crore of karma cannot give you release from bondage, in his great

compassionate anguish at the dim prospect of this being misused by immature

people who may throw away the karmic obligations as well as their svadharma

and thus destroy themselves, has, right in the next shloka, cleared this

matter:

 

*shruti-pramANaika-mateH svadharma-

nishhTA tayaivAtma-vishuddhir-asya /

vishuddha-buddheH paramAtma-vedanaM

tenaiva-samsAra-samUla-nAshaH //*

 

The latter half of the shloka says:

'tenaiva samsAra-samUla-nAshaH' : through that alone the samsAra bondage is

cut along with its roots.

Through what?

'paramAtma-vedanaM' : the sparking of the jnAnaM about the paramAtmA.

'Vishuddha-buddheH' : to the one who has had his mind purified.

 

How does that purification of mind happen? He gives it in the first half.

 

Svadharma-nishhTA : (he who is) fully and firmly established ( nishhTA) in

one's own dharma.

Tayaiva Atma vishuddhiH : By that alone the mind gets purified

 

Well, how does one know what that svadharma is?

The answer is already there in the very bveginning of the shloka:

 

Shruti-pramANaika-mateH: The nishhThA of svadharma comes from the unique

faith and comviction that the religious sanction comes from only the vedas.

 

What the Vedas say is the authority. With that faith one goes about doing

his svadharma as the be-all and end-all. That is svadharmaika-nishhThA. The

svadharma that the Vedas talk about is the division into the varNas and the

allocation of duties to each. There is also prescribed what a Brahmachari

should do, what a householder should do, what women should do and so on . So

the nishThA that comes from the authority of the Vedas means the nishTA in

the discharge of all karmic obligation. Thus one should do one's karma

completely. That is what gives purification of mind. And then follows

Atma-jnAna as well as the end of all bondage.

 

When one does karmas according to the prescriptions of the Vedas, first it

drains all the dirt from the body by those sheer karmas. Not only that.

Simultaneously the dirt of the mind is also rinsed and wrung out. Afterwards

one stops doing his karma but now goes into the karma of the mind by doing

dhyAna. And still later even that dhyAna stops and he reaches the stage of

jnAna.

 

So the sequence is first dharma nishThA, then karma-nishThA and finally

jnAna-nishThA. Nothing should be missed here. One should not move forward

without having done the earlier one. Nor should one have anything to do with

the earlier one once he has moved forward. When a cloth is washed, we do mix

a lot of water and wring the cloth for the dirt to go. But once the dirt is

gone no more wringing is necessary. If we keep wringing the cloth after

that it will only damage the cloth. What is necessary now is to dry it up in

air. This is the going to the jnAna path! The air and sunlight evaporates

the water in the cloth. But jnAna evaporates the cloth itself. It is not

just a total end of the cloth. The Jiva cloth is there no more, but now it

has become a golden sheet of Brahman. The nishThA in the Atman that the Jiva

was engaged in is not any more the action of the Jiva, the Jiva is not there

any more, the Existent Thing (*sad-vastu*) that was in an experiential form

in the culmination of the nishThA - that alone remains. It is the Peace

Ultimate, it is the parAyaNaM talked about as the peak state. *nishThA

shAntiH parAyaNaM .* says the Vishnu sahasranAmaM.

 

SECTION 57: LINKED NAMES IN VISHNU SAHASRANAMAM

 

 

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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