Introduction to Vedanta-3

[Guest guest]

Introduction to Vedanta -3

 

It appears that everybody is struggling hard to find

happiness. The desires are different for each human

being. What I want or what I think that makes me

happy is different from what others want or think that

makes them happy. Thus each ones likes and dislikes

are different. However, the bottom line for all human

pursuits is that we are all searching for happiness,

thinking that fulfilling this desire or that desire

will eventually bring happiness that we want. However

in every gain by fulfilling the desire, there is

always a loss. I thought I am going to be happy when

I get married, but with marriage I lost my freedom of

my bachelorhood. Thus every gain involves a loss;

every achievement involves a sacrifice of some thing

or the other. Thus there can never be a complete gain

without a loss. Therefore whatever happiness that we

get by fulfilling desires is not fulfilling, since

every one of them leaves us in the end unfulfilled or

desiring something else to be full. So the life

itself seems to be a loosing proposition, trying to

find eternal and inexhaustible happiness through

varieties of means, but not achieving what we want and

ending the life miserably. The tragedy is even after

knowing very well, we cannot stop going after

fulfilling our desires. Our desires may get

sophisticated or cultured but the bottom line remains

the same.

 

Looks like we are trapped in this ever chasing

happiness as the game of life. Everyone thinks that

those who have more are happier, while those who have

more are still feeling that what they have is

inadequate and still longing for more to be happy.

Even if one is wealthy, he is not healthy. We want

wealth for security, now we are worried about the

security of the wealth. Some seek religion for solace,

since there is promise of happiness in the life after

death. Most of the religions promise eternal,

inexhaustible happiness in the heavens after the

death. Vedanta recognizes this as the fundamental

human problem, nay problem for all beings. Everyone is

seeking happiness and Vedanta says as long as you are

seeking you will never find it. Some are longing for

experiences and the very longing prevents them from

having or recognizing that experience. Our experiences

confirm this since no one has ever become happy, and

contended and stop seeking any more after they have

gained what they wanted. Life has become an endless

struggle. Vedanta says solution to the problem lies in

correct understanding of the problem. It declares:

‘any dependence on something other than yourself is

slavery, while dependence on only yourself is

freedom’. All desires- that include desire for a

thing, a person, a position, name or fame, make you

dependent, since your happiness depends on the

fulfillment of these desires in the way you want.

Slavery is insured as they control you than you

control them, since you are not omniscient. Some

content that accepting slavery as your lot to the

omniscient itself is happiness. How can a slave be

free? Freedom involves independence. That ‘any

dependence, however glorified it sounds, is bondage’

is the true teaching of Vedanta. Freedom or liberation

or moksha cannot be gaining something, or going

somewhere since anything that one gains one can loose

and any thing that has beginning has an end. State of

limitless alone is freedom from all limitations; it

should be space-wise limitation (non-finite),

time-wise limitation (eternal) and object-wise

limitation (unqualifiable or undefinable).

 

Let us examine how Vedanta approaches this problem.

After examining all human pursuits though out their

lives, all over the world, at all times, it concluded

that they all originated from three fundamental

erroneous conclusions. Human being is not only a

conscious entity but a self conscious entity. He is

not only conscious of the world consisting of things

and beings around him, but also conscious of himself

too. Because he is self-conscious, he examines

himself and comes to a conclusion about himself or

makes judgment about himself. He makes three

fundamental conclusions about himself; 1. He is mortal

or his life span is limited, 2. He is unhappy and 3.

He is ignorant. He is not comfortable with these

conclusions since there is an inherent longing in him

to be eternal, happy and knowledgeable being. All his

pursuits in life are essentially trying to solve or

trying to establish himself that he is eternal, happy

and knowledgeable. Fear of death is the fundamental

for all human beings arising from the conclusion that

he is mortal. This conclusion is supported by the

assertion that he is born on such and such a day and

will die one day, whether he likes it or not. Thus

his existence is time-wise limited by birth and death.

This was the root cause for grief of Arjuna, in

Bhagavad Gita. In spite of this evidence, there is an

inherent desire for every one not to die or not to

cease to exist. Promise of eternal life, at least in

heaven, became the basis for many religions because of

this fundamental conclusion. On the other hand,

Krishna is emphatic in stating the law of Nature;

‘that which has a beginning has an end or that which

is born has to die and that which dies has to be born

again’ – If my heavenly abode has a beginning then it

should end one day as per the law. This applies to

even to the liberation too. If I am going to be free

or liberated one day or at some time then it should

end too. Hence freedom or moksa cannot be of the type

of gaining something that I do not have. If that

freedom is not intrinsic to my nature and I have to

gain by some process or by some grace, then it is

equally likely that I will loose it. Hence Vedanta

asserts that there is problem in the fundamental

conclusions I have made about myself starting from

that I am mortal.

 

Let us examine the second conclusion about myself. I

am unhappy. I do not like that conclusion either and

I am therefore seeking happiness by acquiring this or

getting rid of that. I want to be happy since I feel

currently I am not happy with myself. Therefore I

seek happiness outside by gaining something that I

like and getting rid of something I do not like.

Experience shows that any amount of seeking will not

give me the eternal inexhaustible happiness that I

want. I become desperate since I cannot get what I

want and I cannot stop seeking what I want. This is

the tragedy of every life form. Vedanta says the

fundamental conclusion that I am unhappy is inherently

wrong.

 

Finally, let us look at the third conclusion. ‘I am

ignorant’ - this is a strange conclusion that human

endowed with intellect reaches about himself. Nobody

wants to be ignorant, particularly about oneself.

Everyone wants to know what others think of him, or

what others gossip about him. This longing to know is

an inherent desire to be all knowledgeable, since

knowledge is also power. The funny thing is the more

one knows the more ignorant one becomes. The reason

is the more one knows the more he learns that there is

lot more to learn. Any objective knowledge makes one

more ignorant. He becomes humble since he knows that

what he knows is very limited. In any objective

knowledge one becomes super specialist in a narrower

and narrower field. Such is the nature of objective

knowledge. In one upaniShad, a Vedantic student asks

his teacher, “Sir, please teach me that knowing which

I will know everything”. It is a tall request. People

spend their whole life trying to specialize in one

subject. Here the student wants to know that by

knowing which he knows everything and everything means

every thing. This cannot be about any objective

knowledge, since knowledge in each area is

inexhaustible. One cannot know fully one subject let

alone becoming an expert in all subjects. On the other

hand a Vedantic student wants to know that knowing

which he will know everything that needs to be known

so that his longing to know is fulfilled.

 

Vedanta says all pursuits ultimately fail miserably

until one quits his life. One can neither gain what

one is seeking in terms three fundamental pursuits nor

one can give up the pursuits. This is the problem of

all beings, in the past, in the present and will be in

the future. This is what Vedanta calls as ‘samsaara’.

Then the question is ‘what is the solution to this

human problem?’ Let us evaluate ourselves whether the

above analysis fits us or not. Are we seeking in life

something different other than that which can be

reduced to above three fundamental pursuits? Are we

finding what we want by seeking? One has to evaluate

impartially one’s life experiences and come to

conclusion. Only when have fully and categorically

resolved that we cannot get what want by any pursuit,

teaching of Vedanta becomes meaningful. Otherwise it

will be like any other academic study to know what is

Vedanta? Veda means knowledge and Vedanta means end

of knowledge or the ultimate knowledge or the

knowledge of the ultimate. It has meaning only when we

have committed to understand the ultimate purpose of

our life itself. That is what the pre-requisite

mentioned in terms of qualification to pursue Vedanta

that we mentioned in the beginning. Study of Vedanta

is not for academic interest is different – for that

we need the knowledge of Sanskrit. Here we are not

trying to become experts in Vedanta but trying to

realize the truth expounded in the Vedanta. For that

we need certain discriminative faculty to recognize

what is ephemeral and what is eternal and certain

dispassion to reject that which is ephemeral in

pursuit of eternal. Most importantly we need faith in

the declaration of Vedanta and in the teacher who can

explain the teaching in a way we can understand.

 

Vedanta is unique and it provides a daring declaration

that differs from all others. It says you are trying

to solve a problem where is no problem to start with;

and that becomes a problem. The fundamental

conclusion that you reached about yourself is

fundamentally wrong. You are not mortal, you are not

unhappy and you are not ignorant. You take yourself to

be what you are not and try to solve a problem which

is not there, and therefore there cannot be any

solution to that problem other than the recognition

that the original conclusions about yourself are

wrong. The problem is unreal and therefore any number

of pursuits will not solve a non-existent problem

hence all human pursuits fail miserably. Vedanta

says: You are immortal (SAT), you are happy (Ananda or

limitless) and you are knowledge itself (CIT) – you

nature is sat-chit-ananda.

 

How can that be? I feel I am limited mortal who is

unhappy, and I am born on a particular day and die one

day. How can I be immortal? I do not know many

things – I do not know many subjects starting from

physics to chemistry to astrology to many other

-ologies. How I can be knowledgeable entity. Other

than occasional happiness that I get when my desires

are fulfilled, I am most of the time miserable. How

can I be happy? Vedanta says the fundamental problem

is you do not know your true nature and because of

that ignorance of your true nature you take yourself

to be other than yourself. This is what is called

adhyaasa – a superimposed error. You do not know what

you are or who you are and take yourself what you are

not and suffer the consequence of that identification.

It is like this - I am relaxing after scrumptious

dinner sitting on a lazy-boy chair in an air

conditioned room and intensely watching a movie on TV.

I was so involved in the movie that I start sweating

and crying since the hero and heroin in the movie are

miserably suffering running away to save their lives

in the hot sun without food and shelter. There is no

reason for me to cry since I just finished my dinner

and lazy-boy chair in the air conditioned room is very

comfortable – but yet I am crying. This is what is

called adhyaasa. I have nothing to do with the story

on the TV. Yet I superimpose the problems of the hero

and heroin on myself by identifying myself with them

and suffer the consequences of this identification.

First it is a just a story, second the problems belong

to the hero and heroin and third I have nothing to do

with their problems. But the identification is so

intense that I am unable to separate the problems of

the seen from that of seer, myself. I am the seer,

the subject and the movie and the hero and heroin are

the seen, the objects. Seer is different from the

seen. Yet because of intense identification with the

characters that are seen and I superimpose their

problems as my problems. I am not even aware that I

am superimposing that which does not belong to me.

 

In the same way, Vedanta says you are subject, the

seer, and the rest of the world that includes whatever

that is seen are objects. Objects are limited –

time-wise and space-wise and of course object-wise. I

am not an object but a subject. Whatever I see, what

ever I have, whatever I transact with are all objects.

That includes this body that I claim as my body, my

mind and my intellect. Whatever that is mine is not

me, the subject. I have a body but I am not the body.

I have a car, but I am not the car. The subject I is

different from the object ‘this’. Yet, I transact in

the world fully and consciously as though I am the

body. Body is born and body dies. The modification of

the body I take as my modifications due to intense

identification of myself with the body. Body

continuously changes. The body that I had when I was a

child is different from that when I was youth and that

when I am old. But I am the same entity who claims as

this is my body when I had child body, or this is my

body when the body slowly changed in to youth and this

is my body when it became old. Body changed I am

changeless entity in the changing body.

I am the owner who is different from the owned and I

am conscious entity (chit swaruupam) different from

the body, which is matter and is unconscious entity.

How can I be ‘this’ – the object of my perception?

Yet I take the qualities or attributes of the body as

my attributes. Body is limited, therefore I feel I am

limited; and any limitation is a source of

unhappiness. I do not like to be limited and I try to

solve this superimposed problem, by acquiring this or

that to make myself limitless, without realizing that

any amount limited additions cannot make limited I to

unlimited I. That is I cannot become infinite by

adding finite things. Therefore any amount of

addition will not result in eternal infinite happiness

that I am seeking. Vedanta says you are limitless or

infinite (Brahman) and that is your essential nature.

Seeking your essential nature is natural or therefore

seeking happiness assuming you are unhappy becomes a

natural struggle. But any amount of seeking will not

solve the problem; in fact aggravates the problem,

since in the very seeking you are solidifying the

problem. Therefore solution to the problem is to

recognize you true identity – you are that sat chit

ananda that you are seeking in terms of immortality,

knowability and happiness – the three fundamental

universal pursuits of all beings. This is the essence

of Vedanta as explained by advaitic doctrine.

 

When this is revealed, I am not ready to accept the

teaching. Here are my problems in my understanding.

Here are some questions that I have. Sir, I can

appreciate the fact I am the subject and not an

object. I do not need Vedanta to tell me that. I can

also logically understand that happiness does not

really come with any object per sec but it is my

intrinsic nature. I can understand that happiness is

not an object out there and also it cannot come with

any object either. If I am happy with hot cup of

coffee in the morning, does not mean happiness is in

the coffee. I can understand the fact, with hot cup

of coffee, my longing mind is no more wanting or

demanding in those moments and is contended with

itself until another desire props in. I can appreciate

all that teaching. However, how can you prove that I

am infinite even if I am not the body? How about the

other beings? They should also be infinite and we

cannot have two infinities, or multiple infinites, can

we? How about the knowledge? I somehow managed to

graduate with minimum grades and you say I am all

knowledge – you should have been my examiner. Let us

face it. What I know is limited and I cannot believe

myself my true nature is I am all knower. You say that

‘if I know myself, I have solved all my problems’.

What about the problems that I have right now– I am

worried about the tomorrow’s dinner on the table. If I

am worried about the education of my children, health

of my near and dear, my bank balance, my mortgage and

worried about whether I have enough insurance to cover

all this, when I die, even though you think I am

eternal. I am happy if all these problems are solved;

and you say I am trying to solve the problems that I

really do not have. Sir, these are real problems. I

can sit and dream that I have no problems, if I keep

getting my paychecks regularly without working. What

about the world? You have not explained to me how did

the world come for me to deal with. Why am I born to

these particular parents with the particular body,

even though you say I am not the body? Why I have this

body and not the body of Mr. /Miss Universe? Can

Vedanta provide answers to all these?

 

Well – wait until the next post says a Vedantin.