AW: samadhana and nidhidyasana

[Guest guest]

Sastriji,Pranamsthank you for your yet again very precious thoughts!May I indictate a misunderstanding regarding jana and jnana phala. I absolutely agree with everything you said in the last 3 paragraphs of your post.In no way I meant to say that jnana has to BECOME jnana phala. (nor would Swami Paramarthananda, I am sure) Jnana is jnana is jnana is jnana - eternally. What I said is, jnana can be there without jnana phalam or with. Neither changes jnana, as jnana belongs to paramarthika, whereas the phalam belongs to vyavaharika.You may think that then it is irrelevant to even mention it. But (in regard to your quote of Swami Sureshvar

Archarya) it makes sense to me to consider nidhidyasana as realization as such - because viewed from paramarthika level jnana is there after shravana and manana and that is all thats needed. (from that level)If people since hundreds or thousands of years have found it necessary to introduce a third stage on the path, called nidhidyasana, it may have been exactly for the purpose that Swami Paramarthananda pointed out: to remove lacks in chatushtaya sampatti which prevent jnana phallam. May I quote Swamiji:"Once I have removed the doubts on the intellectual level through mananam and once I have removed the emotional weaknesses through nidhidyasanam, this knowledge is called assimilated knowledge (jnana nishta)."Om ShantiSitaraVon: snsastri <sn.sastriAn: advaitin Gesendet: Mittwoch, den 24. März 2010, 12:29:11 UhrBetreff: Re: samadhana and nidhidyasana

 

 

 

 

Namaste to all.

This is only to put forward some thoughts that occurred to me when I read the various posts on this subject.

 

The requirement that the mind should be fixed on the Self all the time applies to all spiritual aspirants even at the stage of karma yoga as seen from Gita, 8.7, "Therefore, think of Me at all times and fight (do your duty)". Here `Me' stands for the Self.

Again, in sAdhanacatuShTayam, samAdhAna is fixing the buddhi on nirguNa brahman always. If nididhyAsana also says the same thing, there is nothing added by it. In br. up. II. iv. 5 where Yajnavalkya speaks of nididhyAsana, Shri Shankara explains the word as ` nishcayena dhyAtavyam', which means—meditation with determination. Thus this is something over and above the already stated requirement of keeping the mind fixed on the Self. It could only mean intense meditation on the mahAvAkya, which has necessarily to be for a specific period. By this interpretation nididhyAsana would be different from samAdhAna.

 

But there is another view also, which makes nididhyAsana totally different from samAdhAna. This is the view of no less a person than the great SureshvarAchArya. In his vArtika on br. up, 2.4.217 to 2.4.221, he says that nididhyAsana means realization itself. That means that shravaNa and manana together themselves result in realization and there is nothing more to done. The question was raised whether this would not mean that nididhyAsana is only a repetition of the idea `draShTavyah' , the Self is worthy of being seen (or known). The answer is that draShTavyaH indicates what is to be done and nididhyAsitavyaH expresses the final result, and so there is no repetition. This interpretation is not commonly known.

 

As regards the view that jnAna has to become jnAnaphalam, Shri Shankara points out that realization is not a phalam or effect, because it is eternal. He says in br. up. 3.3.1. bhAShya--

 

Because Self-knowledge removes the obstruction in the form of ignorance, liberation is metaphorically said to be the effect of knowledge (jnAnakAryam) . (Liberation is not really an effect or result at all, since it is already existent in the sense that there is really no bondage at all).

 

The upaniShad says- brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati- The knower of brahman becomes brahman. Knowledge of brahman is itself realization. So there is no such thing as jnAna subsequently becoming jnAnaphalam. jnAnam only removes the ignorance. Realization is not an effect of knowledge, but it is knowledge itself.

Best wishes,

S.N.Sastri

 

 

 

 

Sie sind Spam leid? Mail verfügt über einen herausragenden Schutz gegen Massenmails.