Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 5

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Kanchi

Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 5

(For KMDA – 4 see #43965)

 

Tamil

original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural293.htm

 

Note: In these discourses, `the Acharya'

refers to Adi Shankaracharya. The speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

 

Awareness of

the Self vis-à-vis the world of the mind

 

The bottomline therefore is the existence of a true

`I'. We do not recognize that it is a bundle of Knowledge, a blissful Consciousness.

It is the curtain of mAyA that hides it from the mind and the individual

thinks his experience stops with that of his mind

 

Suppose we wanted to have the feeling of being that

true `I'; suppose we really yearn for it all the time, suppose we do sAdhanA

and Self-enquiry and pray to the Almighty who is responsible for that mAyA-curtain,

to remove it for us, suppose we keep doing this all the time, it is certainly possible

for the mind to melt away. Whatever is our true Nature & Form that Self will

begin to shine. It is unlike the situation of sleep or unconsciousness, unlike

the case where we were not able to feel anything since there was no mind. It is the case when

one can be in the state where one knows His own Self, that is, one has the Blissful experience of the Self

(In Sanskrit: *Ananda-svAnubhUti*).

To know oneself as the Self is itself Bliss. The Self itself is Bliss!

 

Right now whatever we are identifying ourselves

with (i.e. we are thinking of it as ourself) is the mind, but that mind does

not know itself. It can cognize only things other than itself. As a converse of this, when we are our true

Self, we know only the Self, namely our Atman; we then do not cognize any

object other than the Self.

 

Not only that we do not cognize any other; other

than the Self there really is nothing that exists. This will be understood by

Self-enquiry. In that state of cognition of the Self nothing else is known;

this is not like some one closing his eyes and therefore not seeing the world

though the latter exists outside of his eyes. Truly there is nothing other than

the Self. It is from that Self by the

trick of mAyA, the living mind and its field, the universe, all spring

forth as a mental construct (*kalpitam*).

 

Note by Ra.

Ganapathy: This matter will be expatiated further

in the later

lectures of this series.

 

The very fact they are *kalpitam* (imagined)

implies they are not absolutely true. When something shoots up in our

imagination obviously that imagined thing is not we. In other words if we don a

role (say in a play) of somebody else, then that role is certainly not the true

`we'. However, without us, that role of ours could not have come up. To activate that role there has to be a base

on which that role could be posed. The Acharya calls this `adhyAsa'. In

English they call it `super-imposition'. First there is the `adhishhTAnaM'

(substratum). As a superimposition on it

something else is posited on it. Just as without the basic individual (who dons

the role) there cannot be a role posited, so also without the Atman as the

substratum there cannot be a Mind or Universe

which are both magically superposed on it. But the Atman is not in them.

The role played by the individual does not include the true individual. Once he

comes out of his role (by throwing off all the paraphernalia of the role,

including the dress, mannerisms, make-up etc.) the name donned by the role, the

story that was connected with that role, all vanish into thin air – not any

more attaching to the true individual. He is as he was. If the role had

included some part of the individual, then when the role is cast off that part

of him would have also gone and the individual would not be what he was

earlier.

 

In the same manner, even though the JIva and the

Universe which have been imagined on the Atman (that is, which are playing a

role) cannot subsist without the Atman, the Atman is not in them. This is what

the Bhagavan says in Gita 9-4:

 

Mat-sthAni sarva-bhUtAni na ca ahaM

teshh-vavasthitaH.

 

Meaning, All beings are located in Me; but I am not

in them.

 

`I am not in them' means the Atman is not in the JIva

or the Universe. Again what does `Atman is not in the JIva' mean? It means: The

state of individuality of what is truly the Atman but what appears, by the

imagination created by mAyA, as an individual JIva which does not know

the Atman, is not the real state. The very meaning of imagination or mental

construction (*kalpanA*) is that it is not real. Well, what are we – we

who do not know the Atman --, in our thinking, identifying this individual JIva

with? Yes, it is the mind with which we are identifying it. But just now after great search and effort we

seem to have discovered some life-principle higher than the mind; but this

discovery does not stay consistently in our daily goings-on. Our mind is what we think we are – and this

is how our daily life is taking place.

 

What is daily life? Eating, marrying, raising a

family, studying, earning for livelihood, running from place to place,

listening to music, watching movies, reading fiction – these and other

miscellaneous things that we do constitute our daily life. All these things are

generated by our mind. The agent that

drives our senses into action is also the mind. Thus what seems to be the

centre of activity in the life of this individual JIva is the mind. Thoughts

and actions are what make one's life; how can that life pertain to the Atman

which is devoid of all thought and action? Thus, whatever any philosophy might

say, we have to conclude that life, individuality, all pertain only to the

mind. And therefore, when Bhagavan emphatically says "I am not in this JIva or

the Universe" He means the Atman is not in the individual Being and this means

He is not in the mind.

 

(To be continued in KMDA-6)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I am grateful to Profvk for the Mahswami's explanation of Atman..so simple and lucid indeed.tks agains.rajah iyerhttp://www.acupressuresocks.com

http://www.srajahiyer.sulekha.com/--- On Sun, 3/8/09, V. Krishnamurthy <profvk wrote:V. Krishnamurthy <profvk Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 5advaitin Date: Sunday, March 8, 2009, 9:38 PM

 

 

Kanchi

Mahaswamigal' s Discourses on Advaitam KMDA – 5 (For KMDA – 4 see #43965) Tamil

original starts from http://www.kamakoti .org/tamil/ part4kural293. htm Note: In these discourses, `the Acharya'

refers to Adi Shankaracharya. The speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal. Awareness of

the Self vis-à-vis the world of the mind The bottomline therefore is the existence of a true

`I'. We do not recognize that it is a bundle of Knowledge, a blissful Consciousness.

It is the curtain of mAyA that hides it from the mind and the individual

thinks his experience stops with that of his mind Suppose we wanted to have the feeling of being that

true `I'; suppose we really yearn for it all the time, suppose we do sAdhanA

and Self-enquiry and pray to the Almighty who is responsible for that mAyA-curtain,

to remove it for us, suppose we keep doing this all the time, it is certainly possible

for the mind to melt away. Whatever is our true Nature & Form that Self will

begin to shine. It is unlike the situation of sleep or unconsciousness, unlike

the case where we were not able to feel anything since there was no mind. It is the case when

one can be in the state where one knows His own Self, that is, one has the Blissful experience of the Self

(In Sanskrit: *Ananda-svAnubhUti*).

To know oneself as the Self is itself Bliss. The Self itself is Bliss! Right now whatever we are identifying ourselves

with (i.e. we are thinking of it as ourself) is the mind, but that mind does

not know itself. It can cognize only things other than itself. As a converse of this, when we are our true

Self, we know only the Self, namely our Atman; we then do not cognize any

object other than the Self. Not only that we do not cognize any other; other

than the Self there really is nothing that exists. This will be understood by

Self-enquiry. In that state of cognition of the Self nothing else is known;

this is not like some one closing his eyes and therefore not seeing the world

though the latter exists outside of his eyes. Truly there is nothing other than

the Self. It is from that Self by the

trick of mAyA, the living mind and its field, the universe, all spring

forth as a mental construct (*kalpitam*). Note by Ra.

Ganapathy: This matter will be expatiated further in the later

lectures of this series. The very fact they are *kalpitam* (imagined)

implies they are not absolutely true. When something shoots up in our

imagination obviously that imagined thing is not we. In other words if we don a

role (say in a play) of somebody else, then that role is certainly not the true

`we'. However, without us, that role of ours could not have come up. To activate that role there has to be a base

on which that role could be posed. The Acharya calls this `adhyAsa'. In

English they call it `super-imposition' . First there is the `adhishhTAnaM'

(substratum) . As a superimposition on it

something else is posited on it. Just as without the basic individual (who dons

the role) there cannot be a role posited, so also without the Atman as the

substratum there cannot be a Mind or Universe

which are both magically superposed on it. But the Atman is not in them.

The role played by the individual does not include the true individual. Once he

comes out of his role (by throwing off all the paraphernalia of the role,

including the dress, mannerisms, make-up etc.) the name donned by the role, the

story that was connected with that role, all vanish into thin air – not any

more attaching to the true individual. He is as he was. If the role had

included some part of the individual, then when the role is cast off that part

of him would have also gone and the individual would not be what he was

earlier. In the same manner, even though the JIva and the

Universe which have been imagined on the Atman (that is, which are playing a

role) cannot subsist without the Atman, the Atman is not in them. This is what

the Bhagavan says in Gita 9-4: Mat-sthAni sarva-bhUtAni na ca ahaM

teshh-vavasthitaH. Meaning, All beings are located in Me; but I am not

in them. `I am not in them' means the Atman is not in the JIva

or the Universe. Again what does `Atman is not in the JIva' mean? It means: The

state of individuality of what is truly the Atman but what appears, by the

imagination created by mAyA, as an individual JIva which does not know

the Atman, is not the real state. The very meaning of imagination or mental

construction (*kalpanA*) is that it is not real. Well, what are we – we

who do not know the Atman --, in our thinking, identifying this individual JIva

with? Yes, it is the mind with which we are identifying it. But just now after great search and effort we

seem to have discovered some life-principle higher than the mind; but this

discovery does not stay consistently in our daily goings-on. Our mind is what we think we are – and this

is how our daily life is taking place. What is daily life? Eating, marrying, raising a

family, studying, earning for livelihood, running from place to place,

listening to music, watching movies, reading fiction – these and other

miscellaneous things that we do constitute our daily life. All these things are

generated by our mind. The agent that

drives our senses into action is also the mind. Thus what seems to be the

centre of activity in the life of this individual JIva is the mind. Thoughts

and actions are what make one's life; how can that life pertain to the Atman

which is devoid of all thought and action? Thus, whatever any philosophy might

say, we have to conclude that life, individuality, all pertain only to the

mind. And therefore, when Bhagavan emphatically says "I am not in this JIva or

the Universe" He means the Atman is not in the individual Being and this means

He is not in the mind. (To be continued in KMDA-6) PraNAms to all advaitins. PraNAms to Kanchi Mahaswamigal. profvk