Guest guest Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Namaste. For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see advaitin/message/27766 For the previous post, see advaitin/message/33479 SECTION 59: SHRAVANAM AND SUSHRUUSHHAA (RESPECTFUL SERVICE) Tamil Original: http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-132.htm First there is shravaNaM. It stands for the receiving through hearing/listening of the teaching of the mahAvakyas from the Guru. Along with that he teaches also several other matters about tradition according to Brahma-vidyA ShAstra. He also tells you several methodologies of how to reflect through DhyAna on the non-difference between Jiva and Brahman. Receiving all this through hearing is also shravaNaM. It does not mean that it is just hearing through the ears. One has to receive it in the heart and hold on to it. This is what is formally called shravaNaM. When we refer to the action of eating we usually refer only to the action that takes place in the mouth. Actually the purpose is to get it into the stomach and get it digested and absorbed into the blood. The mouth is only an external organ whose action is termed 'eating'. So also the external organ, the ear, does something and we name it shravaNaM, but it really means that what the ear consumes has to be digested in the mind and intellect as 'nectar' of upadesha and finally it has to be absorbed in the heart. When the 'Vinayakar Ahaval says *yen cheviyil yellaiyillaa aanandam-aLittu* it means it goes through the ears into the heart and creates Bliss there. Sound is what belongs to the all-permeating space principle. That is why there is importance to shravaNaM of receiving the teachings that are in the form of sound. Our Veda-mantras are the sound-chains that have been caught as such, so as to be accessible to our ears, by the Rishis through their extra-sensory powers, in the form of subtle sound vibrations that emanated in space from the very breath of the Lord . What they heard through their subtle ears should also be heard only by our physical ears and not be written down and learnt - this is the rule. Then only the quintessence of the teaching that has to reach the heart-space, the Source of everything, will go through by tracing the Universal Space, the breath of the Absolute, and the breathing paramAtmA. Hence the importanc of shravaNaM. Another thing. When we learn from a book, the book, being an inert object, may show the writing but it will not feed us the life behind the writing. It is when the letters come through the live medium of the Guru or the Acharya who has known the essence of the Teaching, that the upadesha enters as a living message. Furthermore, only when there is the upadesha coming from the Guru there happens the disciplic bhAva (*shishhya-bhAva). The humility and the sense of smallness are necessary for the destruction of the ego. The thought that "I am doing the very difficult jnAna yoga sAdhanA" certainly will bloat the ego; it is only the sushruushhA that one does to the Guru - who is himself in that enlightened state - that will knock you on the head and constitute the strategy for killing the ego. [Note by VK: The Tamil word the Mahaswamigal uses here as an attribute of the Guru is *anubhavi*. The literal English equivalent would be 'Experiencer' A few paragraphs later, the Mahaswamigal himself explains what *anubhavi* means.] I said 'sushruushhA'. The Tamils wrongly call it 'sishruushhA'. If we go by the root word for sushruushhA, it is related to 'shravaNaM'. The root 'shru' means 'to hear'. It is from this that both the words 'sushruushhA' and 'shravaNaM' have come. The direct meaning of 'sushruushhA' is 'to long to hear'. The meaning of 'to long to hear' when related to the Guru, is 'to long to do what is heard'. It is not just hearing that matters. The heard matter may be to one's liking or not. Either way there is no question of discarding it or leaving it just there after a word of appreciation. Without any scope for liking or disliking, what is heard must be put into practice. Thus 'sushruushhA' in its extended form has the meaning 'to long to practise whatever is going to be heard'. 'Listen to what is said', we usually say. We find fault by saying 'One is not being heard'. On all such occasions what we mean by 'heard' is 'heard and done'. Similarly, 'to long to hear for the very purpose of doing what is going to be heard' is *sushruushhA*. To do what one is told one needs a lot of the quality of humility. Once the quality of humility is there, a natural desire will arise to do service to him before whom we are humble. In other words respectful humility will automatically breed the willingness to serve. It is that service that has come to be known as *sushruushhA*. 'Go to the Guru! Fall at his feet! Listen! Do service! Serving him get the upadesha of jnAna from him! --*tad-viddhi praNipAtena pariprashnena sevayA*, says the Lord.(B.G. IV - 34). *praNipAtaM* is 'straight fall'. 'pAtaM' is fall. 'nipAtaM' is a clean fall. 'Pra-nipAtaM' ( = *praNipAtaM*) is a very clean, straight fall, as a total surrender. *pari-prashnena* means by a constant and repeated questioning. That is exactly 'sushruushhA'. As soon as He says that, he adds 'sevayA', meaning 'by service'. The matter unwinds here by a chain of one thing leading to another. The way the Gita shlokas appear here tells us that one gets the jnAna-upadesha from a guru only after one has abdicated all karmas and become a sannyAsi. "More than the yajna that one does in karma yoga with external accessories, the internal yajna of jnAna yoga is superior. All karma finally terminate in jnAna" says He in the previous shloka. Having said that, immediately he follows: "The jnAnis who have directly seen the Truth-that is, experienced - will teach you jnAna. Go to them, fall straight at their feet, question and listen repeatedly, and serving them, learn". This occurs in JnAna-karma-sannyAsa-yoga. When we put all these together, it is clear that he is talking about getting the Brhma-vidyA teaching from a jnAni only after throwing off karma and taking up sannyAsa. The sequence goes like this. First we hear by the ears. The very hearing is done for obeying what we have heard. This is sushrUushhA. The inseparable part that comes out of this is the humility. And from that the respectful service. Thus starting from hearing by the ears it leads on to service. And the service itself has got the name of sushruushhA. In due course of time people came to think that sushruushhA means service; its original meaning of 'listening' disappeared from vogue. But, more than the sushruushA of respectful physical service, the Guru considers as great (and is pleased at) that sushruushhA by which the disciple receives, with a clean heart, with the intention of carrying out in practice, the teaching imparted by the Guru with all the humility and the respect it deserves. He will not think as greatly of the service that the disciple does for the Guru's physical comforts as he would, of the spiritual progress that the sishhya makes by properly benefitting from the treasures of the Atman that the Guru transmits to him. It is the proper sushruushhA of the ears that constitutes the greatest sushruushhA of service. ShravaNa-sushruushhA is what is superior in the eyes of the Guru. Instead of his being served by the disciple, he would rather have his disciple rise spiritually with the instrument of the upadesha he transmits. But from the point of view of the disciple, however, both kinds of sushruushhA must rank equally important. One should receive the upadesha from the bottom of the heart and obey accordingly in practice; and one should also consider the dispenser of the upadesha as Ishvara himself, surrender to him and do all kinds of respectful service to him . The mantra that is taught does half the job and the Grace of the teacher completes the other half! Where is the scope for all this when one learns from books? SECTION 60: IS AN ENLIGHTENED GURU AVAILABLE? To be Continued) PraNAms to all students of advaita. PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal. profvk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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