Advaita for the Novice - Who is the doer-experiencer? - 5

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Namaste all.

 

Series on Advaita for the Novice

 

"I am neither the Doer nor the Experiencer" - 5

 

(For No.4 see post #35119)

 

Doer-Experiencer

 

[A reference, say, to Ch.2, Shloka 7 of the Bhagavad-Gita would simply be

given as

"(2 - 7)" without mentioning the Bhagavad-Gita]

 

 

To the questions: "Who is the doer?, "Who is the experiencer?", the common

answer turns out to be neither the Self, nor the non-Self. Either way

advaita is contradicted. Pure Consciousness can neither act nor experience.

Matter is inert. What acts or experiences is a complex of the Self and

non-Self. It is Jiva, a complex of Consciousness and matter. "The

discriminating people call that Self the enjoyer when it is associated with

body, organs and mind" (Katha U. 1-3-4). This 'association' itself is

because of one's own nature (variously designated as 'prakRti' or

'sva-bhAva'). Even when the Upanishad says "The Self is to be seen" (Br. U.

II-4-5; 'AtmA draShTavyaH'), it is not an injunction for us to 'do'

something in the form of 'knowing', because the Self is beyond 'knowability'

as an object; 'it is meant mainly for attracting one's (Jiva's) mind

towards Reality' ("para-vidyAdhikAra-paTithAH" : Shankara in Br. S.

Commentary of III-2-21) - that is, turning one's mind towards one's own

natural state ('sva-rUpa'). One's own 'nature' (sva-bhAva) has to be

contended with in order to gain one's own 'natural state' (sva-rUpa).

 

The empirical Self, that is, the PP, that is, the soul who has identified

with the BMI, is therefore the doer and the experiencer. It is he who enjoys

and suffers. It is he who is subject to pleasure and pain. And it is he who

thinks of himself as the doer and experiencer.

 

[Note by VK: When I was a teen-ager, I remember to have asked this

question "Who is then the doer?" to my father, once after his Gita-class to

his contemporaries, which I had the good fortune to attend. The cryptic

answer he gave is still fresh in my memory: "The doer is he who thinks he is

the doer!".]

 

Advaita is clear however that this doership/experiencership is not natural

for the soul. For if it were so, then there would be no liberation for the

soul. 'If agentship be its very nature, there can be no freedom from it, as

fire can have no freedom from heat' ( "kartRtva-svabhAvatve hyAtmanaH ....

auShNyAt" : Shankara, Commentary on Br. S. II-3-40). The states of being an

agent and an experiencer are conjured by ignorance and so devolve on the

soul only in its state of ignorance, that is, only when it is wrongly

identifying with the BMI.

 

Shankara further elaborates it in his commentary on Br.S. II - 3 - 41:

"During the state of ignorance, when the individual soul is blinded by the

darkness of ignorance and cannot understand itself to be different from the

assemblage of body and organs, it derives its transmigratory state,

consisting in its becoming an agent and experiencer, from the behest of the

Supreme Self who presides over all activities and resides in all beings, and

who is the witness (of all) , imparts intelligence (to all) and is the

Supreme Lord". ('avidyA-vasthAyAM ... kartRtva-bhoktRtva-lakShaNasya

samsArasya siddhiH').

 

The non-participating, 'un-knowable', 'non-knowing' Witness is deep within

as the IP, the Atman, the unchanging Self. He is the silent, immutable,

all-pervading, motionless, self-existent Consciousness. He is impersonal. He

is disassociated from the doings of the GuNas. He is the inactive non-doer

and Witness. He is like the Sun who is said to illuminate the whole world

while he actually does nothing to illuminate. Just he is - and the

illumination takes place!

 

The concept of the two Selves -- or two poises or roles of the one Self --

and a consequent grand design of a triple Self, is an essential contribution

of the Gita to the understanding of the eternal Upanishads. In order to

explain this grand design to ordinary people different masters give

different illustrations. Vidyaranya's Panchadasi gives a beautiful analogy

in its sixth chapter. The analogy that Vidyaranya gives and sustains

throughout his work is so graphic that no presentation of the Self as

adumbrated in Advaita Vedanta can be complete without mentioning

Vidyaranya's analogy. Incidentally this analogy exploits both the ideas -

that of 'reflection' and that of 'limitation'.

 

Imagine an empty pot. Even though empty, it encloses space

(AkASha). We may call this enclosed space, the pot-space. This is not

different from the universal space which is outside the pot -- except that

the pot-space is space enclosed or conditioned by the material of the pot,

whereas the universal space is unconditioned. Now fill up the pot to the

brim with water. The pot-space has vanished. We only see water now but in

the water we see the universal space reflected. This reflection shows the

sky, the stars or whatever there is in the sky or the space, like buildings,

trees, clouds, etc. with all their different shades of colour. This

reflected presentation of the outside space shall now be called

'water-space'.

 

Important remark: Water-space shall not mean 'the space occupied by water'

but shall mean the reflection, in the water, of the universal space, which

is everywhere.

 

Now the water-space hides the real space, namely the pot-space within and

projects a falsity of an outer space, inside. This is the grand delusion

in which we are all in.

 

The water-space corresponds to the JIva (the individual soul) or the PP.

It hides the presence of the pot-space within. The pot-space is the IP.

Without the substratum of the pot-space there cannot be any water-space. We

in our delusion think that the water-space is all there is. We forget there

is a pot-space within. It is the real space. The water-space is only a

false projection of the reality. Without the substratum of the IP within,

the jIva or the PP or what we think as our personality has no existence.

Recall Shankara's commentary on Br.S. I-4-22: "There is the vedic text

(Ch.U.VI-3-2) 'Let Me manifest name and form by Myself entering in the form

of this individual soul' which reveals the existence of the Supreme as the

individual soul. And also there is the Taittiriya text (Aranyaka. III-12-7)

'The Supreme, having created all the forms, and then given them names, and

having entered into them He exists there by doing all kinds of actions'

['sarvANi rUpANi vicitya dhIrah; nAmAni kRtvA'bhivadan yadAste']. While

speaking of the creation of light etc. the Upanishad does not make any

separate mention of the creation of the individual soul, in which case alone

the soul could have been different from the supreme Self and a product of

the Self. [na ca tejaH prabhRtInAM ... anyaH tadvikAro jIvaH]".

 

The IP is also called (15-16) kUTastha, the immovable, or the immutable,

that which remains like the unchanging iron-piece (anvil) on which the

blacksmith does all his hammering.

 

[Optional Note: kUTastha also means the top of a mountain which remains

unchanged and undisturbed. kUTa also means the changeable universe amidst

which the unchangeable remains fixed and is therefore called kUTastha]

 

The water in the pot is the mind or intellect. It is the reflection in our

intellect of the Absolute Consciousness that generates the Jiva-feeling, an

individualised feeling, in us, of 'I' and 'mine'.

 

On one side there is the IP or kUTastha and his immutability. On the other

there is the action of the PP or JIva and its mutability in prakRti. Both

these coexist. 'They coexist as two contrary sides, aspects or facets of a

supreme reality which is limited by neither of them'. But the existence of

the PP is a reflected existence in our intellect and is therefore also

called 'chidAbhAsa' (meaning: Shadow or reflection of Consciousness),

whereas the existence of the IP is original existence. There is a mutual

superimposition of attributes. The existence, consciousness and bliss of the

IP is superimposed on the JIva which reflects all this to us as if they are

its own. On the other side, the pain and pleasure that the JIva

appropriates from the BMI are superimposed on the IP and we say 'I am

sorrowful' or 'I am happy'. It is because of this mutual superimposition,

the PP itself, that is the JIva, is said to be a creation of illusion, as is

asserted in verse VIII-52 of Panchadashi: "CidAbhAsa, the reflected

consciousness, partakes of the characteristics of both, the superposing

intellect, such as doership, enjoyership etc. and the superposed Atman,

which is consciousness. So the whole ChidAbhAsa is a creation of illusion."

 

The Ultimate Reality, however, is the Supreme Self (the purushottama),

declared by the Lord to be 'different from the other two'. (15 - 17). This

is the third of the triple personality. That is His supreme nature of

existence. People foolishly think that the visual manifestation is all

there is (9 - 11). They allow the water-space to hide the real pot-space

within and revel in the virtual glory of the water-space. But deep within

us, by clearing our minds of all its 'contents', -- by clearing the pot of

all its water -- we must get to the pot-space, that is the IP. It is the

substratum which makes way for all the actions of the individual Self. The

actions themselves are because of the prakRti -- its three strands -- which

in the analogy is the reflecting capability of the water-mind. BETWEEN THE

IP AND THE SUPREME SELF THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. The former, stripped of the

imagined adjunct of the body, is nothing but the Supreme Self.

 

Question: Does all this simply mean then that we have to identify ourselves

with the IP all the time and keep thinking that we are neither the doer nor

the experiencer? Is it not then a self-mesmerisation and nothing more?

 

Maybe. But it is not so easy. One has to prepare oneself probably for a

long time before one is tuned into that kind of attitude. It is a long

SadhanA that is involved. In fact the whole of the Gita is to prepare Arjuna

for this ideal attitude. Our next post shall dwell on this part of the

practicality of the whole process, as elucidated by the Lord in the Gita.

 

 

(To be Continued)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

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