Fwd: Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-17)

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " V. Krishnamurthy " <profvk>

wrote:

 

Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/28026

 

Note: " The (Our) Acharya(l) " always stands for Adi

Shankaracharya.

-------------------

 

16. VAIRAAGYA (DISPASSION)

 

One has to distinguish between nitya (permanent) and anitya

(impermanent), discard what ought not to be and take what

ought to be. In fact the discarding of what ought not to

be is more important. In life itself, between what ought to

be done and what ought not to be done, it may not matter if

you don't do what ought to be done; but by doing what ought

not to be done one invites great trouble. Take the common

cold,, for instance. They say: `You should have rice mixed

in mustard powder, but no icecream.' One may not eat rice

with mustard powder. But by having icecream the cold

intensifies and one ends up in fever. Thus by eating

prohibited food one experiences bad consequences

immediately; on the other hand by eating the prescribed

things do they immediately help? Not necessarily; they may

or may not. Again bathing in the river Cauvery, if you do

it near the shore, it is good both physically and mentally.

Those who don't know swimming should not go into deep

waters; if they do they will be drawn into the vortex of

the flow. A bath in the Cauvery may even be missed; even if

it is not missed, though the mind gets refreshed a little,

one does not observe any great improvement in health or

spiritual merit. But if one goes into deeper waters the

danger of the vortex swallowing you up is great. Thus it

always happens that in this play of mAyA in the world, the

negative forces have usually more power.

 

It therefore follows that once we have made an analysis of

what is good for the spiritual ascent and what is bad,

thereafter we should give first priority to the discarding

of those which are bad.

 

Here, as I have said earlier, the `thereafter' does not

mean there is a strict `one after the other' rule in

sAdhanA. It happens that we have to exercise all the

different steps of the sAdhanA together in a mixed fashion.

At one stage some one of them becomes important or

prominent and we usually talk of it as coming `later' or

`earlier'.

 

When a foetus grows into a baby, does it grow in sequence

such as, first the feet, then the stomach, then the chest

and so on? All of them grow up simultaneously. So also

these sAdhanAs have to be done side by side – not one after

another. At each stage the concentration may be more in

one or the other.

 

Thus we begin with sorting out the good and bad. The very

sorting will teach us something about the task of

discarding the bad and taking the good. And in due course

of time this sorting will become automatic, by sheer

practice over a long period of time! And that is when we

have to start concentrating on the discarding of the

undesirables.

 

And that is the part Number Two in the four parts of

Saadhana-ChatushhTayaM. That is called *VairaagyaM*

(Dispassion). It is also called *virakti* .

 

*rAgaM* and *rakti* both mean desire or liking. The

discarding of desire or liking is *vairaagyaM* or

*virakti*.

 

Sensual pleasures are the greatest obstacles to Spiritual

wisdom.They are pleasures of the senses. When we run after

a pleasure it means there is a desire for experiencing that

pleasure. If we have no such desire, do we run after them?

 

So what it means to discard those obstacles to spiritual

growth is to be rid of all desires – from the little desire

for consumption of a snack to the great one of a desire for

the obtaining of Bharat Ratna Award. This absence of

desires is exactly what VairaagyaM means.

 

Tirumoolar, the Tamil mystic, describes Vairaagya

parAkAshhTA (the apex of Vairaagya) as follows:

 

Cut off your desire; cut off your desire!

Even with God cut off your desire!

As you keep desiring misery follows

Cutting off desires – that is Happiness, Bliss!

 

[Tamil original: Asai arrumingaL, Asai arrumingal !

IsanoDAyinum Asai arrumingal !

AsaippaDappaDa Ayvarum tunbam

Asai viDa viDa AnandamAme ! ]

 

If desires are eradicated totally, moksha is right there!.

Nammazhvar has also sung: *atradu patrenil utradu veeDu*,

which means exactly the same.

 

`tRRishhNA' is thirst. Desire is a thirst. When thirst

arises, the tongue craves for drinking water; so also

desire is the thirst for the enjoyment of sensual

pleasures. Only when it is gone you can get NirvANa – that

was the great discovery of the Buddha, say the Buddhistic

texts.

 

Whatever religion there is among civilized society it does

not fail to give importance to the eradication of desires.

 

Our Acharya also has given great importance to Vairaagya

that eradicates desires. In his work *aparokshhAnubhUti*,

when he refers to the sAdhanA regimen, he calls it (shloka

3) the *vairaagyAdi chatushhTayaM* -- `the four parts

consisting of VairaagyaM etc.', thus mentioning VairaagyaM

as the chief part.

 

How does the Acharya define VairaagyaM, let us see:

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest on my website: Shrimad Bhagavatam and advaita bhakti.

Introduction. Chatushloki Bhagavatam. Vidura and Maitreya. Kapila

Gita.

Dhruva charitam. JaDabharata, Ajamila Stories. Prahlada Charitram.

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/Bhagavatam_Introduction.html

 

and succeeding pages.

 

--- End forwarded message ---