Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 8

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Kanchi

Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 8

(For KMDA – 7 see #44123 )

(This series started with #43779)

 

Tamil

original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural299.htm

 

Note: In these discourses, `the Acharya'

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

 

Even for the fulfillment of the mind

dhArmic karma is not enough

 

The

very first bondage of Man is action.

Next is Thought. Mostly it is to loosen the bondage of action that karma-yoga

is prescribed. Since this yoga is performed with the attitude of non-attachment

to the results of the actions and the very basis of this yoga is that attitude,

to that extent it purifies the mind and the thoughts. But this is only a cleaning process, not a

decorative developmental process. Cleaning the floor by dettol is not enough to

make a room presentable. Some furniture,

some fragrances, a Kolam, and things like that are necessary. In the

same way it is not enough to clean the mind of its dirt. We must fill it up with good and noble

thoughts and make it attractive. To bring about

this kind of face-lift for the mind is not the work of Karma or Action.

 

Ultimately

mind has to vanish in order for Self-Realisation to happen; but this does not

mean that the mind has just to be cleaned and left blank. Just as bad karmas have to be erased by doing

good svadharma-karmas, so also the bad thoughts and vAsanAs that

have accumulated in the mind over several lives, have to be erased and changed

only by good and noble thoughts now. Like in Science: Action and reaction are

equal and opposite. To eradicate the bad

thoughts and vAsanAs by generating good thoughts is not the function of karma-yoga.

If it makes the mind blank by ridding it of its bad karmas, it would be like

forcibly ripening a tender mango; it will only lead to a rottening of the

fruit. A tender mind has to mature only by sweet thought processes and then

only be allowed to wither away.

 

The

Shastras have delineated karma-yoga in the form of an observance

of all svadharma obligations; the purpose is only to kill and nullify

those results accumulated for its own gratification by the mind of the JIva

through the senses. But just the actions implied here would not do anything for

the very fulfillment of the mind which was the one that wanted this

sense-gratification. To correct the bad thoughts of the mind, or in other words

to prevent the mind from thinking bad thoughts the karma of the ShAstras

would not directly help – in fact would not be able to help. Because its nature is like that. Action can only relate to action. What has

been done wilfully in the form of action, can be corrected by actions that

follow the injunctions of the ShAstras.

But how can that action repair the thoughts and the mind which generates

those thoughts?

 

Love, bhakti

 

Just as bad actions are compensated by good

actions, bad thoughts have to be corrected only by good thoughts. This is where

Love appears. Love is the noblest of all good thoughts. We should be able to

show that love to all living beings. And the Lord is the source of all those

living beings. We should be able to

exhibit that Love to that Lord, the paramAtmA. Without showing the love

(bhakti) to the source, if we try to show love only to the beings which

emanate from that source, that will not work right. Therefore Bhakti towards

Ishvara is very necessary. This is the only way for correcting the mind that

binds the JIva by all its bad thoughts.

 

One bondage is by action. This is done by the body

prodded on by the mind which stands in the background. This bondage will be

eradicated by good actions. But there is a direct bondage of the mind by its

own thoughts. This bondage will go only

by bhakti. Bhakti also is a thought process and certainly is

being done only by the mind. But what role the ShAstra-action plays in

the form of an extra binding that loosens the binding of the kArmic

bondage, that same role is played by bhakti in the matter of the bondage

of thoughts. If one keeps on in the bhakti path, when it matures into a

fullness, Bhagavan Himself would think: This person need not have a separate

Mind and keep himself separate as a devotee.

The individual is thus released from his mind and made into one with the

Atma-svaruupa all around.

 

The mind being of nature prone to jumping around in

all directions, it is not an easy task to channelise it into a limited

direction, namely good thoughts alone. That is why all the scriptures give the

first place to the path of Karma.

 

A Good

Thought that forms the background for all ShAstra-karma

 

But that does not mean that all ShAstra-karma

ends once for all with action. Its impact both ways – good and bad – is always

there. For we don't do action just like an inanimate machine, without the

influence of thoughts from the mind. Even though it is the action that is

prominently in the scene, there is always a thought behind the action.

Generally speaking, the actions that we do as per our mind's wanderings are all

because of the desires in us towards worldly pleasures. There are two thoughts here

which together form the backbone of all the obligations enjoined on us by the ShAstras.

One is the thought that we should cleanse ourselves from the dirt accumulated

over the various births through actions prompted by the mind and we should

deserve to do spiritually oriented things like Self-enquiry. The second thought

is inspired by love towards our environment and rest of the world and we want

to ensure a smooth societal conglomeration of actions properly divided amongst

us. These are the two thoughts that intertwine

and form the basis of the objectives of all ShAstra injunctions.

 

(To be continued in KMDA-9)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to the Mahaswamigal.

profvk