Advaita from scratch: Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 2

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Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 2

(For KMDA – 1, see Message #43779)

 

Tamil original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural284.htm

 

Note: In these discourses, `the Acharya' refers to Adi Shankaracharya. The speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

 

Duality gives rise to Fear

 

 

Before this, Krishna had told Arjuna: "Every one even though endowed with jnAna, behaves only according to his nature". Jiva has arisen only in the context of PrakRti, that is, one's Nature. When that is so, how can he vanquish or subdue the force of PrakRti? That is why the concept of svadharma has been ordained in the form of a categorisation of varnas. "Each individual has to go along with his Nature and strive to raise it gradually and smoothly step by step, by means of the duties and norms of behaviour prescribed for that varna. In this process what happens to be one man's svadharma may appear to be better than, nobler than, some one else's svadharma. Even then, if one leaves one's own svadharma and adopts another's just because it appears to be better, his own PrakRti would not cooperate for the proper fulfilment of the `other' dharma. As a result the other profession as well as the other way of lifestyle would get distorted in addition to the loss to society of the fruits of what would have been done in one's own profession. The end result will only be chaos. Therefore", says He as if nailing it into the brains of Arjuna, "it is better to follow one's own svadharma even though it may not be so attractive, rather than attempting to practise another's dharma".

 

What is fear? `What will happen to me? Is something unpleasant going to happen to me?' – this peaceless tossing of the mind is what is known as Fear. So long as we do not rest our mind in the firm thought that `Nothing can affect me; nothing will happen to me', this fear will continue to grip us. To keep the JIva in that kind of steady state is what is called the state of Mokshha. So long as there is something foreign to us, the thought "What will it do to me? What unpleasant thing will emanate from it that will rip off the possibility of my remaining in a happy peaceful state?" will continue to hold us. This is nothing but Fear.

 

`I am one; and there is another thing outside of me, in fact there are many such things foreign to me' – this differential thought is what is called `Duality' (dvaitam). dvi means `two'. The very word `two' has arisen from that. This fact will be more clearly obvious, if, instead of focussing on the pronunciation, we focus on the spellings `dvi' and `two'.

 

When there is duality, there is certainly scope for the `one' to have a fear from `the other'. When duality disappears and we realise that there is nothing other than us, when we firmly station ourselves in the one Atman that is not different from us, then and then only will Fear disappear from us. To become non-dual like this, is Advaitam.

 

`What the Vedas call mokshha is just that non-dual state' is what our Acharya concludes by writing commentaries on Brahma-sutra, Upanishads and the Gita. Advaitam is the State of Release (Mokshha). That is the state of No Fear.

 

Advaitam is the only Fearless state.

 

This is so stated in the Upanishads. The Taittiriyopanishad says (Anandavalli, Mantra 7): `The One Reality, whatever it may be called, -- The Ultimate, Atman or Brahman, all are the same -- when one differentiates something as foreign to it, right then there sprouts fear in him'. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad also, (Ch.1, 4th Brahmana, Mantra 2) `What can I be afraid of, when there is nothing foreign from me?' says Prajapati and then concludes: `Only when there is something else, that second one will create fear in us'.

 

This means that once we reach advaitam then there should be no fear. But the Upanishads do not stop with allowing us to draw this conclusion as an inference. They teach us directly that advaitam is the only fearless state. Taittiriya Upanishad, in the same Anandavalli, a few mantras earlier, speaks of the advaita state of Brahma-Ananda that is unobtainable to the mind and speech, and then praises it emphatically by saying that he who reaches that state will never have to fear. First, the Upanishad uses the word `kadAcana' (giving the sense of `never, in terms of time') and then at the end uses the word `kutashcana' (giving the sense of `nowhere, in terms of space). Thus it takes care of the two fundamental principles (Time and Space) of modern science.

 

In the same manner, in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in the last few mantras of the section on ShArIraka BrAhmaNa (4th division of the fourth chapter), we have, a peroration on the Atman that is Brahman, that it is ajaram (undecaying), amaraM (immortal), and amRtaM (undying) and also abhayaM (fearless) . And then it finally concludes: He who knows it as such certainly becomes the fearless Brahman.

 

Fearlessness – MokshhaM; Fear – samsAraM

 

Since the state of mokshha is a fearless one, we can infer what state is indicated by Fear. Fearfulness and Fearlessness are opposites of each other. So the locus of Fear should be the opposite of the state of mokshha. Mokshha means the released state. The opposite of this is the state of bondage. The Sanskrit for this is `bandhaM'. `Bandha' and `Mokshha' constitute a dual pair. The worldly life `samsAra' is the bonded state. We often refer to the `samsAra-bandhaM'. So Fear relates only to this samsAra. This life has come. At least after this life is gone along with the end of this body, one should not have to live with another body, another life. In other words, one should reach the status of mokshha, thus avoiding the further entanglement in the samsAra-bandha. The fear is about the possibility of a `punar-api jananaM' (Birth again & again). This is the great fear. What I am referring to as `great fear' is being referred to as `mahad-bhayaM' by the Lord.

 

In discussing Karma Yoga, he prescribes nishkAma-karma yoga, that is, one should do the duties prescribed by the Shastras without desiring the fruits thereof, and in doing so, says: Even if you start observing this nishkAma-karma-yoga a little, that will save you from `mahad-bhayaM' (= great danger or fear). --svalpam-apyasya dharmasya trAyate mahato bhayAt (II-40).

 

Only the actions or karmas done with selfish desires, called kAmya-karmas, bind the jIva to the samsAra. NishkAma-karma (Desireless Action) will help you unknot this bondage. So the mahad-bhayaM that Krishna refers to is nothing but `samsAra-bhayaM' says the Acharya.

 

The fear of Naraka (Hell)

 

Release from bondage is mokshhaM. To continue in bondage means revolving in this samsAra by taking another birth. So the fear is about this possibility of a binding in another body after the death of this body. And there is another accessory fear also. That is about the likelihood of an after-life suffering in Naraka. If the baggage of karma is of the ordinary kind that will end up in just another life on this earth. That itself is certainly a fearful outcome in the form of bondage in samsAra. On the other hand if instead of ordinary wrong-doings we have acquired great sins (called mahA-pApa), then, before taking another body on this earth, we have to have an after-life in the world of Naraka where one suffers untold tortures. These tortures cannot be borne by a human body and so one is given a body called `yAtanA-sharIra' which is what suffers the experiences of the tortures.

 

[Note by VK: We are told that the yAtanA- body

remembers the actions in the human life

for which these tortures are the reactions!]

 

Thus the opposite of mokshha is continuance of this samsAra (transmigration), but a stronger opposite is the world of Naraka. That is why whenever in the shAstras there is reference to `dangerous' or `unbearable' consequences, our Acharya in his commentaries takes them to mean the passage through Naraka.

 

(To be continued in KMDA-3)

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

profvk