Buddhi, Gnanam and Aham

April 18, 2008

Respected members,

Kindly clarify how Buddhi, Gnanam and Aham are inter related.

When translated to english, I presume Buddhi is Intellect, Gnanam is Knowledge

and Aham is I-ness or Pride.

Awareness of their relationship between themselves will help in evolving

further in spiritual growth.

Bala Sharanam,

Lalitha.

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April 21, 2008

Respected lalitha,

There is a bit lack of clarity in your question. But what i presume is you

were enquiring about the Antahkarana Chatushtaya ie., 4-fold internal organs.

They are Manas (Mind), Buddhi (Intellect), Chitta (Conscience) and Ahamkara

(Ego).

The bunch of tendencies within you is Mind. The Discriminatory power that

makes the decision and comes to conclusion is Buddhi. Conscience (Chitta) is

the background or the seat on which Mind and Intellect operate. All the latent

impressions and memories in the seed form is Chitta. Affirmation of one’s

Individuality is Ahamkara (Ego). This Ahamkara is not to be confused with Pride

or Arrogance.

There are 4 stages of Individual. They are 1) Jagrat (Waking state) 2) Swapna

(Dream State) 3) Sushupti (Deep Sleep) 4) Turiya (Transcendental State). These

Antahkara Chatushtaya, in the seed form, are in Sushupti Avastha. This seed is

dissolved in Turiya Avastha.

The Cognizance which is reflected in Intellect is due to the presence of

Chit-Kala or Jnana-Kala in the Hridaya Guha / Heart Cave. Please refer the 4th

sloka of Dakshinamurthy Stotra “Nana chidra ghatodara sthitam……….”. Now, one

can name this Chit-Kala as Dakshinamurthy, Devi, Vishnu, Murugan, Ganapati and

blah, blah….

All our Sadhana or Spiritual Pursuit is to abide in this Hridaya Guha and BE

ONE with CHIT-KALA. This is SRI-VIDYA / SHODASI-VIDYA. The purpose of

SHODASHI Upasana is to abide in this HRIDAYA GUHA. This Vidya is the A-sparsha

Yoga (Not touched by the senses and beyond the Mind and Intellect). Hence, the

Jagatguru Dakshinamurthy initiates the SHODASI through MOUNA DIKSHA to his

disciples. This initiation of SHODASHI is through Complete Silence (MOUNA).

“Tat Tvam Asi” maha-vakya through SHODASI Diksha is imparted by DAKSHINAMURTHY.

The sloka regarding the Dakshinamurthy “Mouna Vyakhya Prakatita Brahmatattvam

Yuvanam…….” Implies that the SHODASI Vidya is imparted to the disciples Sanaka,

Sanandana, Sanatkumara and Sanatsujaatiya through the GREAT SILENCE. Both

Dakshinamurthy and these 4 sages reflect on ‘AHAM’ swarupa (for derivation of

this AHAM please refer the Siva Sutras of my earlier mail) in the Hridaya Guha

and Abide in THAT. And hence, the Guru for Shodasi

Mantra is Dakshinamurthy. He is the first and foremost among the Guru Mandala

of Samayachara.

With regards,

sriram

Lalitha Ramani <varamala wrote:

Respected members,

Kindly clarify how Buddhi, Gnanam and Aham are inter related.

When translated to english, I presume Buddhi is Intellect, Gnanam is Knowledge

and Aham is I-ness or Pride.

Awareness of their relationship between themselves will help in evolving further

in spiritual growth.

Bala Sharanam,

Lalitha.

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

April 21, 2008

Shriman Sriram,

Thanks for the reply to my post. Sorry that I didnot phrase my question

clearly. But still the information you shared is valuable to me.

The doubt I had was-->

Every bhakta is gifted with buddhi (Intellect) to learn and thus gain

knowledge i.e Gnanam. (Conversely ...every bhakta has the inherent gnanam to

understand his purpose in this srishti and thus be enlightned. It is only a

matter of how and when he realises this gnanam within).

Now during this process of enlightenment, will Aham(as an asura) come in the

way of the bhakta's path and thus try to sway him away? If so, how shld the

bhakta realise this is happening and keep himself unswayed?

The Aham here could indicate that

* the bhakta begins to think that he knows more than others OR

* what he construes as a fact (with his knwoledge gained so far) is what is

" truly " the fact

* " I " factor will precede every other thought..like I know, I say so, I am,

I do so, I will etc

I hope that my doubt is now clearly stated. Here is some information which I

have understood and that I would like to share. Kindly correct me in this :-

It is not easy to exactly 'word' the thought we have in our mind. That is also

a gift and a blessing fm HER.

Every thought that can ever take a shape, is already pre-existant. For the

bhakta, the thought is sensed as Para shakti. When it is realised/understood it

is Pashyanti shakti and this happens in our Intellect. The realised thought

takes an audible form as Madhyama shakti and when it uttered out by the bhakta

it is the Vak shakti instigating it. Thus it is only with HER blessings that,

one can speak out with clarity, exactly what one intended to.

Bala sharanam,

Lalitha.

venkata sriram <sriram_sapthasathi wrote:

Respected lalitha,

There is a bit lack of clarity in your question. But what i presume is you were

enquiring about the Antahkarana Chatushtaya ie., 4-fold internal organs. They

are Manas (Mind), Buddhi (Intellect), Chitta (Conscience) and Ahamkara (Ego).

The bunch of tendencies within you is Mind. The Discriminatory power that makes

the decision and comes to conclusion is Buddhi. Conscience (Chitta) is the

background or the seat on which Mind and Intellect operate. All the latent

impressions and memories in the seed form is Chitta. Affirmation of one’s

Individuality is Ahamkara (Ego). This Ahamkara is not to be confused with Pride

or Arrogance.

April 23, 2008

Respected lalitha,

As regards the Nada avasthas ie., para, pashyanti, madhyama and vaikhari you

have understood it by the grace of mother.

As regards the pride of bhakta, this sort of attitude is generally seen among

half-baked sadhakas. The definition of " bhakta " itself says that he had

completely surrendered himself to the god. There is no individual ego of

himself. Please refer narada bhakti sutras. The prapatti of vishishta advaita

is this. But yes, for him " I-am " exists but this should not be confused with

pride. This is sattvika ahamkara.

When this " I-am " of the bhakta dissolves it is called para-bhakti. This

para-bhakti and Jnana of Advaita both are same.

During the initial stages, the sadhaka should read the lives of

bhagavatottamas like Prahlad, dhruva, hanuman, ambarisha etc. He should read

narada bhakti sutras. When the pride comes in the way, one should compare

oneself with Hanuman. Hanuman, being a great grammarian, studied 3 vedas, a

scholar in Music, still he considered himself to be the servant of Rama. So, a

sadhaka comparing with the greatness of Hanuman should ponder over the issues

like are greater than Hanuman. If we think like this probably, the ego would be

dissolved. Srimad Ramayana and Srimad Bhagavatam is an excellent treatise of

bhakti.

Hope i am clear.

With regards,

sriram

Lalitha Ramani <varamala wrote:

Shriman Sriram,

Thanks for the reply to my post. Sorry that I didnot phrase my question clearly.

But still the information you shared is valuable to me.

The doubt I had was-->

Every bhakta is gifted with buddhi (Intellect) to learn and thus gain knowledge

i.e Gnanam. (Conversely ...every bhakta has the inherent gnanam to understand

his purpose in this srishti and thus be enlightned. It is only a matter of how

and when he realises this gnanam within).

Now during this process of enlightenment, will Aham(as an asura) come in the way

of the bhakta's path and thus try to sway him away? If so, how shld the bhakta

realise this is happening and keep himself unswayed?

The Aham here could indicate that

* the bhakta begins to think that he knows more than others OR

* what he construes as a fact (with his knwoledge gained so far) is what is

" truly " the fact

* " I " factor will precede every other thought..like I know, I say so, I am, I do

so, I will etc

I hope that my doubt is now clearly stated. Here is some information which I

have understood and that I would like to share. Kindly correct me in this :-

It is not easy to exactly 'word' the thought we have in our mind. That is also a

gift and a blessing fm HER.