Structure of our Body, Mind and Intellect, the five sheaths and three type of bodies—physical, subtle and causal according to Vedanta – Hemant Dandekar
Ego and Identity from psychological perspective – Dr. Vedavyas Biliyar
Atma – Jnanaswaroopam in Upanishads – Dr. Mohan Reddy
Discovery of self through negation – ‘Nirvanashatkam’ – Dr. Sankaran Mahadevan
Relationship between the Self and the Supreme – N R Srinivasan
Role of Upasana/Bhakti in Self-Unfoldment – Dr. Panchanan Satpathy
Ultimate spiritual practice for Self-Purification – ‘ Updeshasara’ –Dr. Venkat Mani
I have pleasure in reproducing below my prepared lecture for the seminar. Dr. Vedavyas based his lecture on Western Philosophy while Dr. Hemant based his lecture on Vedanta which gave rise to modern Hindu Philosophy. Mostly Hindu philosophy is based on Vedanta. Now you come across Western Philosophy that is influenced by Eastern Philosophies like, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sufi, Ober Khayam, Confucius, Sanat Kumara Western Tradition etc. I have therefore added two such thoughts mainly reflecting Vedanta as Appendices since some questions at the seminar came up for discussion though they were not the main subject matter of the seminar.
Teachings of Ramanuja on the Self and the Supreme and their Relevance to worship and Universal Oneness
Based on Upanishads’ Maxims Sankara concluded “Brahma(n) sathyam” “Jagan mithyam” - - Sankara concluded the Self in us is Supreme Being (Paramaatman) and the Supreme is the only Truth and the whole world is unreal or Maayaa. Brahman referred as SATHYAM consists of three syllables, sath+thi+yam=Sathyam. Sat is the immortal; thi is the mortal; and yam means “by that both these are regulated” thereby meaning Supreme Brahman. Maayaa is Mithyam, opposite of Sathyam. World is Maayaa to those who have attained a desire-less (Gunateetha) state in this world with Sadhana or spiritual training and are on their onward journey only to integrate with Supreme.
Sanakara during his All India tour preaching Advaiata Philosophy went to Kasi Temple. Sanakara confessed before Viswanatha that it was a serious lapse on his part to think that the one and the same Self is imminent in all beings and there is no difference between the so called Self and the Supreme but yet he was standing before Him and praying. He even realized that it was a sin. Towards the end he realized the difference between the Self and the Supreme as expressed in his Aatma Bodha and his last composition Bhaja Govindam where he strongly recommended to all to meditate on Vishnu, the sustenance aspect of the Supreme.
Ramanuja picked up the missing link from here and came out with his Tripartite Model of Chit (soul or Atman or Self), Achit (the Non-soul or Matter) and Iswara (Narayana or Parabrahman or The Supreme). He felt Avidya (Ignorance)or Maayaa cannot act on the Supreme directly, for it is Intelligence. Nor Maayaa can operate on Self for this is the outcome of action of Avidya and cannot, therefore, be acted upon in anticipation. Brahmasutra says the Supreme is different from the Self in two distinct qualities. The Supreme is not touched by Karma while even the first ever Self was bound with Karma. Heaven or Earth is not the permanent abode of Self. The liberated Self attains glory similar to the Supreme except in the matter of activity relating to the creation and others of the world … and the liberated Self is not concerned with that aspect.
Ramanuja’s philosophy is based on Upanishads Gita and Brahnmsutra. Upanishads say the Supreme and the Self are the two birds sitting on the same tree, that is body. The Self is caught in the wheel of the Supreme, Brahmachakra going round and round. Self is Truth and The Supreme is Truth of Truths. Self is Bliss and the supreme is indescribable Plentitude called Bhuma. Supreme is Self of all Selfs as inner controller. The Self appearing as an individual in the world is the minute eternal particle of the Supreme. The Self is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth-Consciousness and Bliss). The Supreme is Sathyam Jnaanaam Amalam Aanandam Anantam (Brahman, Intelligence, Pure free from the impurity of a Maayaa, Bliss and Plentitude). The Supreme is Substantive Consciousness and the Self is Attributive Consciousness.
Summing up Ramanuja propagated Vishishtaadvaita (Qualified Monism) Philosophy, that God (Paramaatman) is only One (Devo Ekah), but soul (Self or Atman) and Maayaa (Illusion) are the two eternal affiliates of Absolute and Supreme God. Maayaa is lifeless power having the three
Ramanuja was of the strong view that the purport of the Vedas and Vedanta is the attainment of liberation through devotion, worship and meditation. Ramanuja advised his organization of disciples to release and propagate the three great secret Mantras;
Mantra 1 calls for meditation on Narayana which is Ashatkashri. Mantra 2 calls for seeking the divine grace. Mantra 3 says: Set aside all meritorious and religious rituals, and just surrender completely to Me alone with firm faith and loving devotion. I shall help you to get liberated from all sins and the bonds of Karma. Do not grieve. Very fact Bhagawan advises Arjuna to surrender to him abandoning all religious pursuits, makes clear the Supreme is different from Self whom Arjuna represents. This also implies leaving all religions and six traditions propagated by Sankara-Siva, Vishnu, Devi, Ganapati, Kumara and Surya traditions.
“Mamekm” in the mantra refers to The only Supreme which is often quoted as “Tadekam “ That One and “Devo Ekah” God is One in Vedas. The three letters in GOD in English also refers to G for Generation, O for operation and D for dissolution.
It may not be out of context to mention here following the Vedic dictum Eko Devah Esosteric SanatKumara World Tradition prayed to Sanat Kumara as the son of Universal God sent with 140000 followers from planet Venus to save the Earth, which reference still remains in the Book of Revelations of the Holy Bible except the name Sanatkumara is replaced by a Lamb that followed Mother Mary. This Santkumara is Skanda says Chhandogya Upanishad who is Balaji worshiped as Vishnu today. I am not sure whether Ramanuja was aware of that ancient tradition or concerned with that!
“ Mokshayikshami” means I shall help you in getting rid of all desires. Moksha in Sanskrit consists of two words Moha meaning desire and Kshaya meaning to get rid of. Thus the divine assurance did not guarantee liberation or Mukti or emancipation from Karma. Once we are free from desires getting rid of sins becomes an easy and sure task by submission to the Supreme.
Ramanuja following his teachings organized worship in all Vishnu temples introducing Archa form of worship. In temple worship the devotee first meditates on his inner Self encased in his body. But during Kumbabhisheka the following prayer is uttered: “Oh Lord of the Worlds! You are unborn and pure. I invoke You in this Moorti. Make Yourself visible to me in my concentration even as the fire in Arni wood comes out by friction. It is made clear here that the Supreme is even the inner-controller of the Self. Otherwise why these types of two different prayers? Viraja Homa mantras in our worship are directed to Atma, Antaratma and Parmatma. Sivopasasana mantra is directed to Atma, Parama, Atmalinga and Parmalinga. It is thus clear that all our Prayers are directed to the Self and the Supreme.
Many religiously involved Hindu Americans still practice mechanically sectarian forms of worship guided by sectarian trained professional priests and are caught in what may be called Hindu Confusionism. They are also influenced by inter-caste, inter racial marriages and influence from the major religions of the land. They need to have a fresh look at Spirituality to-day, come out of the walled religions and traditions and realize that The Self with its Inner Controller (Antaryamin) that is Supreme Self is within every one of us. They should feel we are eternally and inseparably One with God and feel we should wake from the nightmare of helplessness to the Awareness of our Oneness with the Source. This is the message of Ramanuja, whose 1000 years (Sahasraabdi) is celebrated this year.
From “Psychosynthesis” by Robert Assagioli (page 118-119)
APPENDIX II
Nondual Roots of Indian Thought and Religion
Source: Science and Non-duality
Non-dualism was developed earliest, and was most thoroughly explored, in India. Yet the first Indian scriptures, the Vedas (roughly 1000 BCE) are completely dualistic in their outlook. These Ur-texts of human spirituality consist mainly of poems of praise to nature deities, magical spells, and ritual invocations. After the Vedas, however, we find several important texts that contain what can be clearly understood as a nondual perspective: the Upanishads. There are only twelve main Upanishads, some very short, and yet in these texts we find the fundamental basis of Indian thought and religion. Here we find the first mention of such core concepts as karma, samsara, atman, moksha, and Brahman.
Why is the Atma in our body?
Where is this Atma in our body?
Atma is in our body and too minute for us to be seen. It is the smallest known entity. Hence it is said to Anu Swaroopam (meaning having a form that is very minute). We can only realize the presence of Atma in our body.
"It is never born. It never dies...It never ceases to be"
(Says Krishna in Bhagawat GIta 2-20)
"The self casts off its worn-out bodies and enters into others that are new."(Says Krishna in Bhagavat GIta 2-22)
When does Atma change? Does it change when it is inside the body? Does it change when it moves from one body to another?
Atma never changes. It remains the same. That is why Atma is said to be Nirvikaram (meaning no change).
Atma is indestructible. It cannot be ever destructed (broken, cut, burnt etc.)
"Weapons cannot break it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it and wind cannot dry it (Krishna in Bhagavat GIta 2-24)
Why should Atma do service to Paramatma (Araadhana) ?
We have Achit (non-sentient) as our body. Our body is at will of Atma and is for the use of Atma only. Similarly, Atma is body for Paramatma. Hence, Atma should also be at the will and disposal of Paramatma.
The knowledge of Atma is spread to every part of the body including the hand/leg. When a person loses his hand/leg, the detatched hand/leg is no longer a part of the body and hence not associated with the Atma of the person and hence, no longer feels the presence of Atma.
All Atma have the same knowledge. The Karma that the individual Atma has, hides this knowledge of Atma. Just like how a cloud hides the sun partially or totally depending on its density, based on karmas the knowledge of Atma gets hidden partially/totally thus making one person more intelligent than the others.APPENDIX V
in Tamil. Even this benedictory verse has been translated by Bhagavan
in Telugu and Malayalam
Through innumerable births; And in the end remembers and becomes
The Self, know this is only like; Awaking from a dream wherein; One has wandered over all the world.
Eṇṇil piṛavi eḍut tiṛudi – tannai
Uṇarndu tānā-dal ulagasañ charak
Kanavin vizhit-talē kāṇga – anavara-dam
Is like the drunken man’s enquiring; “Who am I?” and “Where am I?”
Yān-irukkum stānam edu-venakkēt – pānukku
Yānevan evviḍam yānuḷan enḍṛa-madu
Pāna-nai yīḍu pagar-satcid – ānanda
Tannuḷ irup-padāt tānunnum – anna-van
Chitti-rattin uḷḷuḷada chitti-ratk kādāra
Vastira menḍṛeṇ-ṇuvān pōlvān – vastu-vām
Tannai viḍut tanu-vēdu – tannai
Tanu-venbān ajñāni tānā-gak koḷvān
Appō-dav vasttuvai yādi-Guru – ceppādu
Ceppit teri-yumā ceidanarē levar
Ceppit teri-vippar ceppu-gena – ippōdav
Dēhānma bāvañ cidai-vittān – ēkānma
Jñāna sorūpa-mā naṇṇuṅ Guru-Ramaṇan
Tān-navinḍṛa ippāviṛtan.
Nahamkara prana vargaa na budhi,
Darapathya kshethra vithadhi dhoora,
Sakshi nithya prathyagathma shivoham--1
Neither am I pride, soul nor intellect, But I am Shiva, who is eternal,
Who is completely unattached.
Who is far, far and far away
From wife, son, lands and assets,
And is the witness for everything.
Swathma jnanad athmano jeeva bhava,
Aapthokthya hi branthinase sa rajjur,
Jjevo naham desikokthya shivoham---2
for due to absence of Jnana.
I ascribe life into lifeless thing.
And when the realized one points it out,
I wake up from this illusion,
and understand that it is a rope and not a snake.
Similarly I am not the soul but Shiva,
Which I only understand by the teaching of the great teacher.
Sathya jnanananda roope vimohat,
Nidhramohat swapnavath thanna sathyam,
Shuddha poorno nithya eka Shivoham--3
I see this world in the eternal life,
which has the form of truth and joy,
Similar to the dream which I see due to veil of sleep,
For I am the pure complete, perennial and single Shiva.
Adarsandhar bhasamanasya thulyam,
Mayyadwaithe bhathi thasmad shivoham
Similar to everything getting reflected in a mirror,
All the world is within me,
So I am that Shiva which is without two.
Dehasyoktha prakrutha sarva dharma,
Karthruthwadhi schinmaya syasthi naham,
Karasyaiva hyathmano may Shivoham--5
For birth, growth and death are for the body,
The nature of taking up a work is,
The reflections of pride and not,
For my soul which is eternal,
And so I am the unattached Shiva.
Naham prana kshuth pipase kutho may,
Naham chitham sokamohou kutho may,
Naham kartha bandha mokshou kutho may--6
I am not the soul, whence came hunger and thirst to me,
I am not the mind, whence came passion and sorrow to me,
I am not the doer, whence came attachment and detachment to me?
INTRODUCING ASHTAVAKRA AND ASTAVAKRA GITA FOR SELF-REALIZATION
The Ashtavakra Gita is an instruction for achieving the self-realization. It is the most direct path to self-realization and you can achieve it in three steps: (1) hear / read it again and again; (2) reflect and understand it (clarify and dispel all doubts); (3) meditate / assimilate / realize and make it a fact in your life.
The text is an instruction for achieving the self-realization and Oneness. The Ashtavakra Gita is a short treatise ascribed to the great sage Ashtavakra. It was composed before the common-era, most likely between 500-400BC. Though some claim it was written later, either in the eighth century by a follower of Shankara, or as late as the fourteenth century during a resurgence of Shankara's teaching. It is written as a dialogue between King Janaka, the father of Sita, and his guru, Ashtavakra. The Ashtavakra Gita elucidates the meaning of the Supreme Reality, Brahman, the self and Atman (Self, soul) and Maya ("an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem").
Very little is definitely known about Ashtavakra. His name literally means "eight bends", indicating the eight physical handicaps he was born with. The moral here is that even the ugliest form is filled with God's radiance. The body is nothing, the Self is everything. The Ashtavakra Gita is an ancient spiritual document of great purity and power. The goal of every word in the Ashtavakra Gita is to trigger Self-realization.
What is Self-realization? "Self-realization is the knowing – in body, mind, and soul – that we are one with the omnipresence of God; that we do not have to pray that it come to us, that we are not merely near it at all times, but that God's omnipresence is our omnipresence; that we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing." — Paramahansa Yogananda
The Ashtavakra Gita talks to us directly, to our hearts. One thing it tells you: You are the Pure Existence (~ Tat Tvam Asi ~ ). You’re God. It’s as good as meditation.
You see a face of God in this text. My nature is light, Nothing but light. When the world arises I alone am shining. (2.8). It speaks to reality inside you. It’s not for thinking about because it’s beyond mind. Be a Witness (Atman): We always try to improve ourselves by adding or subtracting something from ourselves. "I need to be more spiritual through prayer, meditation, good deeds, being selfless, and kind." Or "I'll get rid of things that I think are bad for me: restlessness..."
Ashtavakra tells you that you are already pure and perfect. You don’t need to add anything to that. And you don’t need to give up anything. Don’t misunderstand that... you still need to improve your life through meditation etc. The universe is you. The universe arises from you. Detachment but the entire universe is arising in you, you’re not a part of that. You can’t experience anything outside your own consciousness. What you experience (see) is you yourself.
Self-realization is yoga or "oneness" with truth — the direct perception or experience of truth by the all-knowing intuitive faculty of the soul.
The heart of Ashtavakra's advice is not to give up our practice, but to abandon our strenuous indolence. Striving is the root of sorrow, he says. But who understands this? Ashtavakra Gita is a unique treatise on the Non-dualistic (Advaita) philosophy which guarantees to transport a seeker instantaneously by a direct path from time to eternity, from the relative to the Absolute and from bondage to liberation (Mukti / Moksha). There is no pre-requisite, no rituals, no control of breath (Pranayama) or thoughts, no Japa or chanting of sacred syllables and not even any meditation or contemplation. It is all an effortless quantum flight to the ultimate goal (Moksha).
Set your body aside. Sit in your own awareness. You will at once be happy-- Forever still, Forever free. (1.4)
This is a text which cannot be understood through intellectual brilliance or by mere scholarship. It can only be understood through the heart, by an intuitive spiritual experience. Out of the total 298 stanzas almost each one of them is an independent Bliss-capsule, self-sufficient and capable of taking one to the ultimate destination by itself. "...All we have to do is improve our knowing."
Ashtavakra does not lay down any pre-condition or prior qualification. There is neither any cultivation of particular qualities nor any renunciation of existing conditioning. It is just Being and no Becoming.
“My child, You may read or discuss scripture As much as you like. But until you forget everything, You will never live in your heart.” (16.1)
According to Ashtavakra, one could get instant liberation and bliss if only one were to separate oneself from the body and remain effortlessly resting in pure Consciousness. "...All we have to do is improve our knowing."
“One second, you are here on what you consider as the terra firma of the phenomenal world and the next you find yourself in a summit of timelessness and bliss, where both the world and yourself are dissolved into nothingness. When ‘I’ ceased to exist, there was liberation and so long as ‘I’ existed, there was only bondage”.
The world only arises from ignorance. You alone are real. There is no one, not even God, Separate from yourself. (15.16)
You are pure awareness. The world is an illusion, nothing more. When you understand this fully, Desire falls away. You find peace. For indeed! There is nothing. (15.17)
You are not your body. Your body is not you. You are not the doer. You are not the enjoyer. You are pure awareness, the witness of all things. You are without expectation, Free. Wherever you go, Be happy! (15.4)
How do I abide in Pure Consciousness?
You already abide in Pure Consciousness – the problem is that you get mix up with the mind that thinks 'I have to abide as Pure Consciousness'. Abiding in Pure Consciousness is... noting... that in every experience of life... bad or good, it is the same Pure Consciousness that shines through all of them. All experiences are experienced in that One Light. We think we need time because masters meditated years to achieve Samadhi. How long it takes a wave to 'realize' it is water? It happens instantly! How long it would take you to realize you're God? It happens instantly!
Himalayan master: "You, the Pure Consciousness, know yourself to be Pure Consciousness. Don’t think yourself to be the Pure Consciousness. It’s the mind thinking "I want to be the Pure Consciousness" but the mind never could be the Pure Consciousness. The Pure Consciousness is you, all the time and you cannot be anything else."
We are all one Self. The Self is pure awareness. This Self, this flawless awareness is God. There is only God. Everything else is an illusion: the little self, the world, the universe. All these things arise with the thought 'I', that is, with the idea of separate identity. The little 'I' invents the material world, which in our ignorance we strive hard to sustain. Forgetting our original oneness, bound tightly in our imaginary separateness, we spend our lives mastered by a specious sense (false sense) of purpose and value. Endlessly constrained by our habit of individuation, the creature of preference and desire, we continually set one thing against another, until the mischief and misery of choice consume us. ...
Be happy. Love yourself. Don't judge others. Forgive. Always be simple. Don't make distinctions. Give up the habit of choice. Let the mind dissolve. Give up preferring and desiring. Desire only your own awareness. Give up identifying with the body and the senses. Give up your attachment to meditation and service. Give up your attachment to detachment. Give up giving up! Reject nothing, accept nothing. Be still. But above all, be happy. In the end, you will find yourself just by knowing how things are. ...
The aim is realization of the Truth and not a rational defense of the same. The Self alone is real and all not-Self is appearance. The false identification of the Self with the not-Self is the cause of bondage. Bondage is thus due to ignorance of the real nature of the Self and freedom is attained as soon as the ignorance disappears on the dawn of self-realization. The disappearance of ignorance automatically entails the disappearance of the not-self, which is its product. The existence of another is the cause of all our worry and unhappiness. When the Self is realized as the only reality, difference and distinction vanish like the mist before the sun and freedom is attained. In point of fact freedom is the very essence of the Self and loss of freedom is only a case of forgetting.
To the question of Janaka as to how can freedom be achieved, the answer given by Ashtavakra is simple: “If you wish to be free, Know you are the Self, The witness of all these, The heart of awareness. (1.3). Alternative translation: “Know the Self as Pure consciousness, the unaffected witness of the phenomenal world, and you will be free” (1.3).
In reality the Self is always free and freedom is not attained, but simply realized and discovered. The impediment to self-realization and freedom is our pre-occupation with the objective world, which inevitably leads to conflict of interests and consequently to feud, jealousy, revenge and moral depravity. ... The inward diversion of the mind will enable the aspirant to realize his independence and detachment from the network of relations, which constitute the phenomenal world. So long as the mind sees another self, there is bondage. Freedom consists in seeing nothing but the Self in everything. The Self is the Brahman, the undivided and undifferentiated Consciousness-Existence-Bliss [Sat-Chit-Ananda] and is not to be confounded with the ego. The ego is consciousness limited and distorted by the mind as light is distorted by the prism. As soon as a person effects his liberation from the snares of the ego, he becomes Supreme Bliss, to which there is no limit. "...All we have to do is improve our knowing."
[Quotes above are from Thomas Byrom, Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Sarvapriyananda, and Swami Shantananda Puri.]
THE PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE & PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
THE PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE
Find who you really are.
... Ishwar Puri
I have been asked to speak on the purpose of life. It’s a very common question. People have been asking this question for centuries. Why are we here? Why are we human beings? Why do we just get born, struggle in life, feed ourselves, feed others, and ultimately die? What’s it for? It does not seem to be a very obvious reason. Why, just like other animals, the other birds, other living creatures, do we just come into life and grow up, struggle, die? There must be something more than that just to be a human being. There is a very big difference between an animal, a bird, or a tree, which are all living things and a human being. The human being thinks and thinks in such a way that it comes across dilemmas; it comes across choices to make between different options available to it. That is because human beings have that extra sense... a sense of discrimination, a sense of making choices, which we ordinarily call free will.
Free will means the human being has will to decide what to do. Other forms of life do not have that will. Other forms of life live with their instinct built into their DNA molecule and they do not depart from it. Their reaction to everything in life is based upon a preprogramed response system built into them and they respond accordingly. Other forms of life – trees, animals, birds – have no choice. That’s a very big distinction between a human being and all other forms of life. Only human beings alone in the whole series of species of life, has this unique advantage, or disadvantage, of having a free will. What is the advantage of having a free will? The advantage is if you don’t like where you are, you can decide to go away. That’s a big advantage. Other forms of life do not have that advantage. They cannot say, “I think I don’t like it. I want to go.” Nobody else can say that except a human being. That’s a big advantage.
What is the disadvantage? A disadvantage is you get caught up in saying, “Should I do this or that? Which is better? Which is worse? Which is good? Which is bad?”
You get into a whole moral system and the morality system catches you up and makes you feel guilty if you have done something which you, yourself, consider wrong or bad. And what happens because of this? You get into a trap of deciding good and bad. And when you have to decide between good and bad, you feel guilty that you’ve done something bad and must pay for it. And if you have done something good, you expect a reward, that you’ll get some prize for it. The result is you set up yourself, because of this faculty of freewill, a system of cause and effect; a system where you automatically expect to be punished for wrongs and expect rewards for good, which is what we in the East call the ‘Law of Karma’. The Law of Karma is very simple. It means if you think you have done something wrong, you must be punished. If you think you have done something good, you must be rewarded. And since we are living in a timeframe, we are living in a past, present, and future, we put these punishments and rewards ahead of us, thereby tying ourselves to a timeline where either we wait for a punishment or reward and never get out from here. We have tied ourselves into this great cycle of birth, rebirth because we cannot cover up all our rewards and all our punishments in one lifetime. So we extend it to more lifetimes. Ultimately, we extend it to a point where we can never get out from here. That’s our state.
Now that was a very bad use of freewill. But we couldn’t help it. It’s part of the function of our mind to do this. We have a mind, all of us have a mind, which is performing a very important function, a very useful function called thinking. Thinking is very good because by thinking you can get to know so much. You can analyze. You can understand, comprehend, and make sense of things. But then it is also bad. Because by thinking too much, you create two other things. One is called doubt that you’re not sure. Second is fear. When you are doubtful, you are also afraid. So, such a wonderful thing that is given to us like the mind, which is a thinking machine... We are not using this machine for the best purpose. The best purpose was to think what to do with it. And think how to get out of the cycle of birth and rebirth. But we are using the same machine to create doubt and fear. So, we’re leading a life of uncertainty, not knowing what is going to happen. And then, we are also afraid what will happen next. As it is, we cannot see the future.
The future is a very strange thing because we can predict this will happen. Sometimes it will, sometimes it doesn’t. Some things that we predict will happen are not of such consequence because we have taken them for granted. For example, we can predict tomorrow morning the sun will rise. We have seen it rising every day. And it will rise again. It doesn’t make any impact on us because we are used to seeing the sunrise. Similarly, we know that after one hour, one hour will pass. We have some things going on in the so-called future which we can predict accurately and we don’t care for them. But then there are other things where we are afraid. Will this happen or not happen? Will I lose something? Will I be getting harm in some way? And we can’t predict those.
And that is where we multiply our fear many times. If you were afraid of one thing, it would be one fear. But if you are afraid of twenty fears, and none of them are going to happen, you have multiplied your fear twenty times. Because we do not know what the future is, we have multiplied our fear several times. Actually, if you are afraid what can happen, make a list of it on a piece of paper. Say, “I’m afraid these things might happen.” You will see not even one out of twenty will happen. So you have been afraid of twenty things, whereas only one happened. So that is why the lack of knowledge of the future and using a mind to doubt and fear creates a very horrible life for us. We were supposed to be here for a very wonderful life. If you ask my opinion, we did not come into human life to suffer. We came into human life to have a grand time and like a carnival, like a show which we should enjoy and go back home. Why did we come in the first place? We didn’t come here to create misery for ourselves.
We came here to enjoy life. We came to see how a different kind of experience can be enjoyed by us. What is the different kind of experience? We tried many experiences. Think of the self as an experienced, a conscious being who wants conscious experience, creates experience outside itself. How does it operate? The consciousness becomes conscious of something and that becomes its experience. The first experience consciousness had, if we make a theoretical model...
The first experience consciousness would have would be it is not alone. Because, in truth, it is alone. There is only one consciousness. There is only one to start with. So, the first problem with consciousness is: I don’t want to be alone. Well, that’s simple. Think there are many. And as soon as consciousness thinks there are many, they become many. It becomes an experience of the many. So the one, within itself experiences many. That’s a good start! And we say, “That is a good place to be in where we are one and many at the same time.” And we don’t need time for that. We are just having a good time because we are one and many at the same time. Our loneliness, our aloneness has disappeared. That’s the place we call our true home. That’s the place where we are supposed to be living in, going out for a vacation, going out for an adventure and coming back. That is what we call the true home.
Now we have, then, decided to have more experiences; more experiences of a different kind. That means we now take one of the many and put our attention and consciousness into the one amongst the many. So now we have become one soul amongst millions of souls, unlimited souls.
Now we can feel that we are separate and together at the same time. It’s a good start, to have an experience not only of a crowd, but that you are one in the crowd, and the crowd is also there. And you can switch between one and the many anytime you like. It’s a great powerful consciousness to do that. But then we want more adventure. So we put around ourselves a machine, which we build by consciousness. And we build a machine which can perform various functions. The machine is called the human mind. We surround ourselves with the human mind and begin to think. It’s a wonderful experience that consciousness now puts itself into a state of being in which it can think and can reason; can make sense of things; can enjoy thinking; can then create by thinking whatever else it needs. It does not now have to create anything more out of itself. It can now channel its creation on more experiences through the mind.
And we use the human mind, which is a wonderful machine. We churn it around and create more advantages and more adventures out of it. The best advantage we create is that instead of having an experience of direct perception, we generate new perceptions. We generate a divided perception. We separate seeing from hearing; touching from smelling. We separate these sense perceptions and put on another cloak on ourselves called the cloak of perceptions and individuate our perceptions into five separate perceptions and multiply our joy of experiencing around us.
Great job done so far! We don’t stop there. We say, “Let us now solidify this and see how it would look like if it was a solid three dimensional, four dimensional object that we become and we can then experience everything. So we put a human body around us. We put a material body around us. That’s what we are right now. That’s what we are all sitting here. We are the same consciousness, the same soul, the same totality of souls, the same single one creating the many.
And then the many, wearing masks of a mind, through the mind creating levels of experiences through sense perceptions and putting the sense perceptions in a physical body and thinking “This is me.” Great job! And then we forget how we did it.
That’s very good, because if we did not forget, it would look unreal. If we remember this whole process that I am mentioning to you, this would not be a real life. And what kind of adventure would it be... it was just a shadow adventure? We don’t like shadow adventures. We like real adventure. So we made ourselves “real”; that the real self is this body; that the body containing the way in which mind can think through a brain and the body which can have feelings through the heart; the body which functions through the flesh can have all the experiences. The body does not have all the experiences. We think it does. For example, we think we have eyes; therefore, we can see. But how do we see in dreams? These eyes are not working there. How do we see in imagination? We can imagine anything that comes in front of us. These eyes are not being used.
Therefore, seeing is not the same thing as seeing with eyes. But we associate it, that we are only seeing because we have eyes. We can only hear because we have ears. We can only touch because we have hands. We are transferring something that belongs elsewhere inside us to something that is outside. That means we are transferring a self-inside which has sense perceptions into a body which experiences those sense perceptions in a material/physical world.
So we have really pushed ourselves out from where we belong. We belong inside and we have come outside. And we have created this outside from inside. We created the whole thing through a process of consciousness. That consciousness has the ability to be conscious of anything. And that is why we are able to create all this universe around ourselves and then become a small piece of it here.
It’s a gift given to us because we are human beings. It gives us the direction and a purpose of life. It tells us, “Here is a series of lives, a sequence of lives you can have, so many forms of life. The only one in which you can seek and find is the human being. And, therefore, the purpose of human being is to discover who you really are. And, if necessary, if you want, go back to your original state, your true home, whenever you like.” It’s a great purpose. The purpose of leaving all other forms of life and coming to this is to be able to find your own self and your true home. And this is possible because only in this body with the sense of free will, can we go right inside us and discover who we are. The purpose of life is to go back to our true home – our true home, from where the one and the many, originated; where we discover that ‘the one and the many’ are the same; where we live ‘one and many’ at the same time, which is our true home; where true consciousness belongs. After which, we just occupied ourselves with different adventures, with games like putting on a mind and putting on senses, and putting on a body, and having these adventures. We should be able to go back whenever we like.
One question comes: If we were so happy enjoying one and many in our true home, what made us take this strange decision to come back into a trap like this? How could we not think of it in advance that this is a big trap? We could make it real and be caught up here forever with our own moral codes, karma, good and bad, and all that. Why are we caught up in this thing? Why did we make such a big mistake, a blunder? The answer is: We made no blunder. We made an arrangement to be able to go back when we want. But since we were enjoying every level of creation, every level of conscious experience as a reality... We didn’t want to have a shadow experience. We wanted real experience. Therefore we created these levels of reality, not levels of only illusions. We used the process of illusion through consciousness to make reality. This is also reality. Right now we have no other reality except where we are sitting here. This is our reality. We made other realities. When we pull our attention within this reality, behind this body, we find this body was only unreal. But till then, this is our only reality. So when we overcome this and find that we have to go to a higher reality, then we discover that we had made an arrangement to be able to go back home. And what is that arrangement?
The arrangement was that in this illusion of a physical world, we’ll create a being, create a person, a friend like ourselves who will say he has contact with the true home at all times and can tell us how to do it. Who is such a person? We call him a “perfect living master”. Why do we call him perfect living master? Because his perfection is in knowing at all times all these levels of the reality we have created. Whereas, we are tied down to only one level of reality. When we are in this physical body, the physical world is our only reality. When we go to sleep and have a dream, the dream world is our only reality. Till we wake up, we don’t know it’s a dream. When we awaken to a higher reality of the sensory system, of the astral plane, we find that is the only reality. We go to a higher level and discover our mind was the only thing creating all this. That becomes our only reality. When we discover our soul, the individuated self, we think that’s the only reality. It’s only when we become one and the many in our true home, we discover all of this was created right from there. Therefore, a human being who comes into our life as a friend and says that he has this knowledge of all these levels and can help us have the same knowledge, is our own arrangement we have made. It’s our arrangement to wake up and go back home when we liked. Nobody else made it for us. There is nobody. There was only one. And therefore, the one, before having all these series of experiences, made arrangement to be able to go back by producing in the created realities outside a being, like ourselves, a being no different than us. Because if the being is different from us, we cannot be friends and we cannot co-travel together anywhere.
Supposing I were to say, “This is an enlightened tree outside and I want to go and get instructions from the tree how to go back home.” Tree can do nothing for me. It’s not my form. I can’t communicate. I can make up my mind what the tree is saying. My mind will be speaking in me, saying, the tree is saying this. I’m still caught up in my mind. People are there worshipping trees today thinking that the trees contain more than we contain. Supposing I say, “I want to feel a bird to teach me ”And the bird is chirping and I say, “The bird is teaching me.” Who is actually teaching me? My own mind. I don’t understand the bird language. So, no form of life can teach us except a friend in the same form as ourselves. Therefore, when we say, “Perfect living master,” we’re talking of a human being like ourselves. So much like ourselves that he should not even be extraordinary.
He should be just like us. If he’s just like us, we can be friends. Supposing he’s not just like us. He’s really a magical person. Supposing he’s somebody totally different. Supposing he’s a human being in a physical body who can fly. Imagine such a master were to come flying into this room and we all look up and look at that person flying. What would be our reaction? First we would think, “There must be some strings somewhere. Let’s see how he’s performing this magical act.” If there are no strings, we’ll either get frightened, some weak-minded people may even freeze or may even faint to see this event. And everybody will be astonished. You may even worship that person. You may even be amazed. But nobody will love that person. Nobody will be a friend with that person.
Supposing, by chance, he falls down, all of us will run to help him. And he can be our friend. We need somebody totally like ourselves in order to be a friend with whom we can hold hands and walk back home. And that is why the arrangement we made ourselves to go back to our true home was exactly this – that when we are fed up of this show, when we are fed up of the adventure that we ourselves created, and we say, “We’ve had enough of it,” when we want to really go home, such a person should appear in our life and become a friend and we should hold hands and go back together. We made that arrangement.
We were not that stupid in our totality. We were very wise and very intelligent when we made this decision and made this arrangement. So what actually happens in life is that when our inner feeling, our seeking inside, which is only possible because of that free will, makes us ready to go, which means we are fed up here... If we’re not fed up, (we would) stay long, more. Enjoy the show more or suffer the show more, whichever way you like to create it, because we have been using this adventure of coming into this world, coming into several layers of worlds, several layers of consciousness, we have created this in order to have new experiences. No other purpose. The only purpose for creating these series of experiences was to have a variety of experiences... how far can consciousness go? How far can it experience things? We went as far as we could. And, therefore, by following this system of putting your attention back here, you are able to discover that all these were adventures that we created and that in the adventures we also created an arrangement to go back to our true home. Arrangement was to meet a friend who will be like us but have the knowledge, awareness, consciousness of all the levels of creation that we have done.
And he becomes a friend and because he knows the entire way to go back home, he will hold our hand and take us back home. Therefore that’s the significance: the purpose of life is to be able to take advantage of that arrangement we made ourselves. The purpose of life is to get this opportunity to go back home. And the arrangement to go back home is: Be ready, seek in your heart, and a perfect living master, a human being like ourselves will automatically come into our life through coincidences, circumstances and say, “I’m here. Are you ready? We’ll go home.” We hold the hand and we walk together back home.
--Speech transcribed and abridged by Mahesh S Rao.
[Ishwar C Puriji was born and brought up in Punjab, India (before partition). He served the Government of India as Chief Secretary of Punjab during his professional stint. In 1960s, he attended Harvard University prior to retiring from service with the Government of India. He continues to serve as a consultant, board chairman, and senior advisor to a number of corporations worldwide.
Despite having such rich education and professional experience, Ishwar ji’s life changing event happened in 1936 – when he was 9 years old and was initiated by Great Master Hazur Maharaj Baba Sawan Singh ji into the practice of ‘Surat Shabd Yoga’ form of meditation. Since, then he was curious to learn all types of yogic practices and other forms of meditation. However, in the course of time, he realized that ‘Surat Shabd Yoga’ is the perfect form of meditation for self- realization, which eventually leads to god-realization]
The pursuit of happiness: An Advaita Vedanta perspective
Mr Chandrasekaran Veeraiah
SEGi University, Kota Damansara, Malaysia
chandrasekaran@segi.edu.my
Abstract
Key Words: Non-dualism, being, consciousness, unalloyed happiness, Supreme Self, individual soul, bliss, scriptures, experiential, revelation.
Introduction
For centuries, scholars and researchers, have endeavored to seek answers to the question of meaning or meaninglessness of human existence. What is that man seeks in life? James (2008) sums up that man’s “desire for happiness is the driving force behind all the countless efforts that we are always making” (p.65). Man’s pursuit, whether through mind, speech or body is driven by his “fundamental desire” to be happy (James, 2008).
This, then, leads to a fundamental question of whether happiness is intrinsic
or one that is accrued from the outside. Walters (1988) suggests: “Man always wants more, not less, happiness than he has already. He errs, however, when he thinks he can increase his happiness by adding to his possessions rather than expanding his awareness. Any effort to increase his happiness without at the same time expanding his sensitivity to the world around him, and his sense of identity with it, will be self-defeating. Whenever a person acts selfishly, he deadens the capacity to perceive his essential unity with all life. He becomes, as a result, petty and mean. The expansion of happiness necessarily entails the expansion of awareness, not the expansion of property. For happiness is not a thing, and cannot be found in mere things. It is a quality of consciousness: something that one is aware with, rather than of. Reason therefore suggests, and inner experience confirms that happiness is an intrinsic quality of human nature. We enjoy things only to the extent that we satisfy the thought in our own minds that things are enjoyable. In fact, it is never things themselves that we enjoy at all, but only a deeper reality within our own being.” (p. 154).
Walter (1988) sums up that “the clearest proof that things are not enjoyable in themselves may be seen in the fact that different people can have such very different ideas as to what gives them happiness” (p. 154)
Although “happiness as a state of mind may be universal, but its meaning is
complex and ambiguous” (Lu, Gilmour and Fang Kao, 2001:p.477). Happiness is discerned as a trait than a transient emotional state (Veenhoven, 1994). The complexity and ambiguity entailed in understanding the concept of happiness have resulted in differing perspectives between Western and Eastern thinkers. The Westerners’ thought sought to understand man’s drive for happiness by analyzing the external factors, while the orientalists, especially Indian thinkers, gave prominence to the inner being (or ontological stance) when understanding happiness. Walters (1988) asserts that “India’s researchers into human motivation following the thread of desire to its source, found that man’s deepest motivation is essentially to avoid suffering, and to attain happiness…Beneath every sensory desire to avoid pain, and to experience pleasure; and beneath every deeper, heart’s desire is the longing to escape sorrow, and to attain permanent happiness or joy” (p.151).
Walter (1988) maintains that:
“The desire to attain happiness is actually symptomatic of the desire for self-discovery, for self-fulfillment. By the same token, the desire to avoid suffering is essentially a desire to eschew ‘non-happiness’ as foreign to our nature. We suffer only when something withholds from us that degree of happiness which we feel rightfully ours.” (p. 155).
Rama (2014) indicates that man’s interiority lends meaning to external world.
He asserts that the “outside world can be mastered only when the inner potentials are systematically explored and organized…for all things happen within before expressed externally” (p.3). Parthasarathy (2004) concludes that the root cause of human suffering is that “people do not look within” (p.14). According to Parthasarathy (2004), eternal peace and happiness comes from the abode of man’s real Self. On happiness, he says: “Every human being tirelessly seeks it in the world through action, emotion and knowledge. The search for bliss goes on. None has ever found it. Only the rare one who has directed his search inward has reached that State of supreme bliss. He finds it through realization of the Self. People believe that outer conquests can bring about inner peace and bliss. It is a false believe arising out of spiritual ignorance.
India has passed that state of spiritual infancy long, long ago. The desire to attain happiness is actually symptomatic of the desire for self-discovery, for self-fulfillment. By the same token, the desire to avoid suffering is essentially a desire to eschew ‘non-happiness’ as foreign to our nature. We suffer only when something withholds from us that degree of happiness which we feel rightfully ours.” (Parthasarathy, 2004: p.25).
This then leads to polemics of whether happiness can be pursued or is it an intrinsic quality. In this context, this conceptual paper seeks to analyze the pursuit of happiness in the perspective of age-old Advaita Vedanta or non-dualism, the Indian school of thought or better known in Sanskrit as ‘darshana’. The foregoing analysis is based on the Advaita Vedanta canonical texts – the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavadgita.
Advaita Vedanta and Bliss (Bliss)
According to Siddheswarananda (2000), “The Hindus consider the Vedas to be their authoritative Scripture” (p.1). “The Vedas, from the root word vid (meaning to see, know), the Vedanta (the end, conclusion of the Vedas) and the Upanishads form the Scriptures” (Siddheswarananda, 2000:p.3). Swami Rama (2004) asserts that the Vedas were the source of all streams of Indian philosophy and psychology, and the Upanishads are the later part of the Vedas. Advaita Vedanta is a theory of non-dualism based on the Upanishads, which is the concluding portions of the Veda (Murthy, 1959). According to Murthy, “the Veda, derived from the root “vid” (to know), means that which makes us know, and the name by which the sacred scriptures of the Hindus have been known down the centuries (1959: p.xvii).
The Dictionary of Advaita Vedanta (2003) states that “The term ‘Advaita’ negatively implies the negation of dualism and positively asserts the reality of non-difference” (p.23). The Sanskrit word Advaita is a combination of two “syllables” - A (meaning not), and Dvaita (two) – which can be summarized to mean as ‘not two’ or ‘non-dual’. According to Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2000), Advaita essentially means the “non-dual nature of existence” (p.5). It is categorically “non-dual view of reality derived from the Upanishads and elaborated into a system of philosophy (Kaji, 2001: p.225). Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) is not an intellectual postulate but a living experience to its proponents. The non-dualistic perspective, propagated by Sri Sankara, an ascetic who is said to have lived in Kerala, India from 688A.D. to 722
A.D, holds that the Atman or the embodied individual self is non-other than the disembodied unmanifest Brahman or Supreme self. Murthy (1959) explains that “the cardinal tenets of the school which uphold this theory are:
“1. The Real (Brahman) is one and is of the nature of consciousness and bliss, 2. Due to its maya (illusory nature) the Real appears as the world of plurality,
3. There is absolutely no difference between Brahman and the individual soul (jiva)” (p.3).
Vedanta (from Veda or revealed texts and antha or the end portion) is defined as “The end of Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads” (A Dictionary of Advaita Vedanta, 2003: p.235) or also as “the concluding essence of ancient revealed scriptures – the Vedhas” (Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2000: p. 172).
Those who propagated and practiced Advaita Vedanta suggests that the school
of philosophy is not to be treated as merely an intellectual postulate but given an experiential importance. Advaita Vedanta exponent, Sri Sankara, is said to have exemplified the idealism of the school of non-dualism via his substantial treatises and literary works during his short span of 32 years.
Advaita Vedanta propounds that Brahman (Supreme Self), is of the nature of
Sat-Chit-Ananda (Sat is Pure Being, Chit is Pure Intelligence/Consciousness and Ananda – Pure Bliss) and Atman, which is ontologically same as Brahman, also is non-different in nature. In its ultimate analysis the non-dualistic perspective of Advaita Vedanta ontologically propounds that the individual self or Atman is the Supreme self or Brahman embodied in human frame and that Atman is non-other than Brahman. Siddheswarananda (2000) points out that “the conclusion that Atman equals Brahman is valid only from the ontological point of view, and we do not have the right to formulate this as long as we ourselves are living in one of the three states of manifestations – waking, dream and deep sleep” (p. 27).
The Vedic revelation that Brahman is the efficient and material cause of creation and that Brahman is Sat-Chit-Ananda and non-dual in nature was later systematized as a school of thought which came to be identified as Advaita Vedanta. In the words of Griffiths (1983):
“The Ultimate is experienced in the depth of the soul, in the substance, or Centre of its consciousness, as its own Ground or Source, as its very being or Self (Atman). This experience of God is summed up in the word saccidananda. God or Ultimate Reality is experienced as absolute being (sat), known in pure consciousness (cit), communicating absolute bliss (ananda). This was the experience of the seers of the Upanishads as it has been of innumerable India ever since. It is an experience of self-transcendence, which gives an intuitive insight in Reality” (p. 27).
As a school of thought propagated by Sankara, Advaita Vedanta propounds the consummate existential experience of non-duality that Vedanta (the end portion of the Vedas) expressed in succinct sutras (aphorisms).
Naming Shankara as “the doctor of advaita Vedanta”, Griffiths (1983), quoting Taittitiya Upanishad, summarizes the non-dualistic school of thought in the following lines
“The knower of Brahman enjoys all desires, all delights procurable by delightful objects without exception. Does enjoy all desirable things alternately as we do? No, he enjoys all desirable things simultaneously, as amassed together in a single moment, through single moment, through a single perception, which is eternal…which is non-different from the essence of Brahman, which we have described as truth, knowledge, infinity (satyam, jnanam, anantam)” (p.92).
The knowledge of the Self propounded by Advaita Vedanta “is not a theory which would be a product of the rational mind, but an experience” (Griffiths, 1983 p.91). He says:
“The mind, turning back on itself, knows itself intuitively. It is an experience in which being and knowing are one – that is why it is called saccidananda, because being (sat) is experienced in a pure act of knowing (cit) in the bliss (ananda) of oneness, of non-duality. The knower, the known and the act of
knowing are all one (Griffiths, 1983: p. 91).
In short, Advaita Vedanta is categorically a “non-dual view of reality derived
from the Upanishads and elaborated into a system of philosophy (Kaji, 2001:
p.225). It is evident in the foregoing discussion that the concept of happiness is not evidently stressed in Advaita Vedanta, instead the term Ananda or what is closely translated as Bliss taken to mean unalloyed joy, is given focus. Analysing Advaita Vedanta of Shankara, Shah-Kazemi (2009) explains lucidates that “Ananda refers to That which is not susceptible to suffering or deprivation, on the one hand; and on the other, it designates transcendent Bliss or Bliss as such, as opposed to such and such experience of bliss; to Bliss which cannot not be, as opposed to blissful experience this contingent on worldly circumstances” (p.5). According to German philosopher Deussan (1999), “in the Upanishads bliss appears not as an attribute or a state of Brahman, but as his peculiar essence…Brahman is not Anandin, possessing bliss, but Ananda, bliss itself (Deussan, 1999:p. 141).
This conceptual paper would proceed with the analysis of happiness in the context of Bliss as advocated by Advaita Vedanta. It will focus on the concept of happiness or bliss as seen by the Indian sages in the Upanishads (the end portion or the consummation of the Vedas), Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavadgita.
Ancient scholars of the Indian philosophical schools of thought name the three
– Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavadgita – as Prasthana Traya. Defining Prasthana Traya, The Dictionary of Advaita Vedanta (2003) states that, “the term prasthana means basis” and “traya is three” (p.158). The basis of Vedanta philosophy is of three types – Sruti, Smrti and Nyaya. Sruthi Prasthana means the Vedas and Upanishads, Smrti Prasthana means the Bhagavadgita and Nyaya \Prasthana means Brahma Sutras.
While “Vedanta is the end or gist of the Vedas” (Sivananda, 1999: p.3) which
deals with the knowledge portion, Brahma Sutras, otherwise known as Vedanta Sutras, is a codified compendium of the systematic study of the Upanishads (Sivananda, 1999). The Brahma Sutras, which are concise aphorisms, are the codification of the principal texts of the Vedas (Siddheswarananda, 2000) and are cardinal to the central theme of non-duality that Advaita Vedanta proposes.
According to Sivananda (1999), Sutras gave the essence of the arguments on a topic condensing maximum of thoughts into these aphorisms in as few words as possible. “Great intellectual people only, can compose Sutras. They are clues or aids to memory. They cannot be understood without a lucid commentary. The commentary also is in need of further elaborate explanation” (Sivananda, 1999: p4). These commentaries were written by later founders of different schools of Vedantic thoughts.
The third of the triadic limb of the Prasthana Thraya, the Bhagavadgita, which
literally means the Lord’s song, is an Indian spiritual text with 18 chapters. It is quintessentially a teaching on non-duality of Vedanta by Lord Krishna (said to be one of the 10 incarnations in the Hindu pantheon) to his devotee and disciple Arjuna. The teaching is said to have taken place at Kurukshetra (battlefield) in Mahabharata epic of the Hindus.
It is in the foregoing context that this conceptual paper will study the salient aspects of the Prasthana Thraya and trace the view of Advaita Vedanta on happiness or what it identifies as Bliss. The Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavadgita “clarify the truth that you are the very embodiment of bliss (ananda)” (Baba, 2008: p. 5).
Upanishads and Happiness/Bliss
For ages the Upanishads were “regarded as the fountain-head of Indian philosophy” (Sharma, 2000:p.30). Quoting Bloomfield, Sharma points out Bloomfield “did not uncover any form of Hindu thought, including heterodox Buddhism, which was not rooted in the Upanishads” (2000:p.30). Concurring with the late Indian philosopher and president of India Dr S. Radhakrishnan, Sharma points out that the later systems of philosophy accommodated their doctrines to the views of the Upanishads.
According to Sharma (2000), “the word ‘Upanishad’ is derived from the root
‘sad’ which means (i) to sit down, (ii) to destroy and (iii) to loosen” (p.17). Sharma (2000) explains: “The word therefore means the sitting down of the disciple near his teacher in a devoted manner to receive instruction about the highest Reality and it is used by the Upanishads in this sense rahasya, meaning secret or guhya vidya or secret knowledge. The teaching, being the highest, was imparted at private sittings only to qualified discliples” (p.17).
Shankara, the propagator of Advaita Vedanta “built a scheme of dialectics having the identity of Atman (or individual self) with Brahman (the supreme self) as its pinnacle, the system known as Advaita” (Siddheswarananda, 2000:p.28).
Shankara proposed that the “base on which rests the positive substratum of individuality (jiva) is the Atman” (Siddheswarananda, 2000:p.29). Explaining Shankara’s viewpoint of Advaita Vedanta, Siddheswarananda (2000) explains: “No attribute can be assigned to this Atman, for in doing so, the Atman would have to become an object of our comprehension. This is important placing Reality in front of us as a specimen to be analyzed. Brahman is the basis of all that exists in the universe; what applies to Brahman applies also to the Atman. It would be possible to know Brahman only if we ourselves were in the position of Brahman. At that time, declare the Upanishads, the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself.” (p. 29).
In his “Methods of Knowledge According to Advaita Vedanta”, Siddheswarananda (2000) suggests that “the Upanishads indicate this substratum by the formula Sat (Infinite Existence), Cit (Infinite Consciousness or Knowledge) Ananda (Infinite Bliss)” (p. 30).
According to Parthasarathi (2000), there are more than a hundred Upanishads available today (p.11). Of these, researchers claim that, Sankara wrote commentaries on 10 – Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitiriya,
Taittiriya, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka (Victor, 2008:p.45).
Happiness is the state of the mind while Bliss is the quality of the Being. According to Krishnananda (1972), “Bliss is not an attribute but the very essence of Self...The Self is Brahman, and Self-Bliss is Brahman-Bliss” (p.92). Being happy is a perception. “In experiencing happiness, which is a state of the mind, a person is aware of himself as its experiencer, as is evident from such expressions as ‘I feel happy,’ ‘I am happy’. But he ascribes to himself the mental state, although he is distinct from it as its experiencer
(Satprakasananda, 1974: p.41).
Satprakasananda asserts that: “But like the vision of light obscured by mist a man’s self-awareness is ordinarily hazy and faulty due to ignorance. Though knower of body, the organs, and the mind, he gets identified with the known, and realizes himself as a physical or a psychophysical being subject to growth and decay, hunger and thirst, weakness and strength, pain and pleasure. This means he is aware of the empirical self, the ego, but not the changeless luminous self ever distinct from the psychophysical adjunct as its witness” (p. 41)
According to Satprakasananda (1974), Upanishadic texts “convey the definite knowledge of the witness-self beyond the ego (p.41). What the Upanishads suggest here is that man is endowed with the “changeless luminous self” and his disciplined recovery will be his remedial effort to discover his Atman which when realized provides the panacea to all his inner and outer ills of perception, thus leading him to Bliss. In such a state, Upanishads suggests than man graduates himself to perfection.
Krishananda (1972) in his ‘Realization of the Absolute’ goes on to suggest this when he says “Absolute being is the highest perfection. Perfection is Bliss” (p.81). Explaining the Upanishadic concept of Bliss as enumerated by Advaita Vedanta exponent Shankara, Krishnananda (1972), quoting Verse VII. 23, 24 of the Chandogya Upanishad, asserts that “The great Infinite alone is Bliss, there is no bliss in the small finite” (p. 81). He goes on to add that “the world appears to be real, intelligent and blissful, because it projects itself on the background of something which is essentially Reality-Intelligence-Bliss” 1972:p.81). Quoting Taitriya Upanishad (Chapter II. 7) that “That, verily is the essence. Only on getting this essence, does one becomes blissful. Else who would breathe and who would live – if there is no bliss in existence (space). Truly, this essence is the source of bliss”, Krishnananda (1972) goes to explain Advaita Vedanta’s concept of Bliss. The Mundaka Upanishad instead calls Reality as the “Blissful Immortal” (Krishnananda, 1972). In this context Advaita Vedanta exhorts one to have a clear understanding of reality and realize that the inherent quality of the Atman or the embodied self is Brahman which is Infinite Being, Infinite Consciousness and Infinite Bliss. It is in this essence Upanishads stressed that Brahman is not “blissful” but Bliss, not “conscious” but “Consciousness”, not existent but “Existence” (Krishnananda, 1972). Bliss that is often talked about and alluded to in the Upanishads is the not limiting happiness that is often the absence or the opposite of unhappiness. Loke (2005) points out that “This bliss, it should be pointed out that, is not the object-related happiness one derives from the fulfillment of a need or a desire” (p.2). In the Taittiriya Upanishad “this has been described as bliss par excellence which is many hundredfold more than the happiness one derives from any worldly act”. (Loke, 2005:p.2). It is in this context that the idea of Bliss is implicitly referred in the four Mahavakyas or great sayings importantly upheld in Advaita Vedanta. Shankara places much importance in the Mahavakyas when explaining the concept of Sat-Chit-Ananda or Infinite Being-Infinite Consciousness-Infinite Bliss.
The four Mahavakyas:
1. Pragnanam Brahma - ‘Consciousness (manifested as an individual) is Brahman’ as stated in Aitreya Upanishad (Verse 3.1.3) of the Rig Veda;
2. Tat tvam asi - ‘Thou Art That’ (Verse 6.8.7) - as stated in the Chandogya Upanishad of the Sama Veda;
3. Ayam Atma Brahma - ‘This Atman (individual self) is Brahman’ (second mantra) as stated in the Mandukya Upanishad of the Atharvaveda; and
4. Aham Brahma Asmi - ‘I am Brahman,’ (Verse 1.4.10) - as stated in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad of Yajur Veda go to show non-dual quality of Brahman and Atman
(Loke, 2005; Murthy, 1959; Parthasarathy, 2004).
The Mahavakyas - Pragnanam Brahma, Tat Tvam Asi, Ayam Atma Brahma and Aham Brahmasmi - are reported to succinctly insist repeatedly the identity of Brahman or the Supreme Self and Atman or the Individual Self and ultimately assert non-duality of existence. It claims that the consummative realization of non-duality asserts man’s inherent quality of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Knowledge-Consciousness-Bliss).
Brahma Sutras, Bhagavadgita and Bliss
Brahma Sutras, otherwise called the Vedanta Sutras is an aphoristic summary of the doctrines of Upanishads, attributed to sage Sri Vyasa. It gives the essence of the arguments propounded by the Upanishads. According to Sivananda (1999):
“The entire object of the Brahma Sutras is to remove this erroneous identification of the Soul with the body which is the root cause of your sufferings and miseries, which is the product of Avidya (ignorance) and help you in the attainment of the final emancipation through knowledge of Brahman.”
It claims “to be an enquiry regarding Brahman…explains Brahman as the sole reality” (Victor, 2008:p. 77). It consists of four chapters (adhyaya), 16 pada or sections, 223 adhikaranas or topics and 555 sutras or aphorisms (Sivananda, 1999). According Sivananda (1999), “the first chapter (Samanvayadhyaya) unifies Brahman, the second (Avirodhadhyaya) refutes other philosophies, the third (Sadhanadhyaya) deals with practice to attain Brahman and the fourth treats fruits of Self-realisation” (p.9).
Sankara, the systematiser of the school of Advaita Vedanta with “core teaching being the identity of Atman with Nirguna Brahman (brahman without qualities, brahman as the distinctionless, sole reality” (Davis, 2010: p. 27), wrote his commentary on the Brahma Sutras called Brahmasutrabhasya (the term bhasya means commentary). Placing importance of non-dualism, Sankara outlines his key “concepts of adhyasa (superimposition) and avidya (ignorance) and their relationship to brahman…” in his Brahma Sutra commentary (Davis, 2010: p. 28).
According to Davis, (2010), “the ordinary experience of the self as the subject in a world of objects is a misidentification of the true self for it a indicates a subject-object duality, which by definition, cannot be synonymous with brahman” (p.20). Davis (2010:p.29) suggests that “when Advaitins define brahman in the positive, as undifferentiated, pure consciousness or Being-Consciousness-Bliss (sat-chit-ananda) they are following Sankara’s essential description of brahman in not taking sat-chit-ananda ‘to be three different descriptions or three properties predicated of brahman, but rather as the unitary essence of the undifferentiated absolute’,” (as quoted from Bilimoria, 1989:p. 166). The 12th aphorism of the Brahma Sutra in Chapter 1, Section 1, establishes that “Self-consisting of Bliss is the highest Brahman” (Sivananda, 1999: p. 38). Victor (2008) suggests that the “knower of Brahman-knowledge is untouched by happiness and sorrow (p.91). He says:
“The knower of Brahman attains liberation (moksa). Moksa is a state of bodilessness, which is eternal…Moksa is not to be attained from outside, for
it is the intrinsic nature of one’s self. Moksa does not need any action for its manifestation like after cleaning a mirror the object reflects brightly and clearly” (p. 92).
Bhagavadgita
Bhagavadgita or the ‘Song of God) is one of the canonical texts of Vedanta. Being one of the chapters of the Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’, it contains 700 slokas or verses divided in 18 chapters (Victor, 2008). This contains the teachings of Krishna (a divine incarnation in the Hindu pantheon) in the form of dialogue with his dear friend and disciple Arjuna, reportedly to have taken place in a battlefield. According to the epic, the five Pandava brothers, are up against his 100 cousin brothers, the Kauravas, in the battle. Arjuna, who is the second of five Pandava brothers, falls into confusion when encountering his opponents, who are his relatives. In a nutshell, Bhagavadgita “begins as two great armies confront one another at the start of the battle, and the teachings continue for eighteen days in the midst of the battlefield” (Rama, 2004:p. 9).
The teachings of Krishna start when Arjuna, driven by compassion for his cousin brothers, uncles, teachers and others waiting for the battle on the other side, fumbles, wanting to withdraw from the battle. Krishna dispels Arjuna’s confusion by preaching about the intricacies of life instilling the teaching of Advaita Vedanta that Atman is of the nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda and that only body perishes but the Atman is indestructible.
Rama (2004) suggests that “Bhagavadgita contains in condensed form all the philosophical and psychological wisdom of the Upanishads” (p.4). He concludes that: “According to Bhagavagita, Atman (the real Self or center of consciousness) is never changing, everlasting, eternal, and infinite, whereas the body is constantly changing and prone to decay…The aim of Bhagavadgita is to teach the aspirant how to establish equanimity both in the internal life and his activities in the external world; to help him develop tranquility within,
and to explain the art and science of doing actions skillfully and selflessly…The teachings of the Bhagavadgita help one to understand the distinction between the real Self and the mere self. The mere self is subject to change and destruction; the real Self is not” (p.2).
Rama (2004) comments that Shankara “views the Bhagavadgita as an expression of Advaita philosophy, and he uses Bhagavadgita to support his assertion that there is only one Reality without a second. In his analysis of Shankara’s commentary on Bhagavadgita, Rama says: “His (Shankara’s) commentary emphasizes the identity of the Self with Brahman as the only Reality. In his view the phenomenal world is illusory, and taking it to be real creates bondage and suffering. Though selfless actions help to purify the mind, ultimately one goes beyond action and renounces all involvement in the mundane world” (p.7)
Victor (2008) sums that Sankara’s viewpoints on Bhagavadgita in the following:
1. Self-knowledge alone leads to liberation, the Highest Bliss.
2. Actions (karmas) should not be associated with knowledge.
3. There is no liberation through actions.
4. The path of knowledge and the path of action are meant for the wise and
The ignorant respectively.
5. Action are based upon ignorance (avidya).
6. The Self is different from the body and is not connected with its actions, and their connected results” (p.73).
Conclusion:
Advaita Vedanta suggests that Being (Brahman) is non-dual (Advaita). It is existential. It is experiential and non-relational. There is no difference between Self (Atman) and Being (Brahman). It is Supreme knowledge (Sat), Supreme
Consciousness (Chit) and Supreme bliss (Ananda). Advaita Vedanta propounds that it is nescience (avidya) that enshrouds the individual self to assume that existence is dual, that is there is a creator and creation, that there is the experiencer and the experienced. It reinstates the Vedic theory that the substratum, Brahman, is not identifiable and that it is not located in space-time-causation continuum. The non-dual school of thought suggests that it is the delusive force or energy (Maya) that veils the non-dual nature of Brahman.
Advaita Vedanta emphasizes that the actions or activities undertaken by the
Embodied Self is nothing but an innate urge to express its expanse and freedom and unfold its nature as Supreme Knowledge, Supreme Consciousness and Supreme Bliss. It believes that Bliss is not capable of being pursuit or sought, as man, as an Embodied Self, is by nature blissful. It conclusively asserts that Self (Atman) is enlightened and blissful by nature. It reiterates the concluding findings of the Vedas (scriptures) highlighting the non-dual nature of Brahman or Atman. Advaita Vedanta suggests that creation is the ultimate expression of Brahman which is inherently blissful, endowed with supreme knowledge and consciousness. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad affirms in its sutra or aphorism, “Poornamadam Poornamidam, Poornaat Poornamaduchyathe, Poornasya Poornamaadaaya Poornameva avasishyathe” which means “from fullness (Brahman), fullness (creation) came and despite its expression, fullness (Brahman) still remains full. Thus, creation is taken as a sportive expression of Supreme Knowledge, Supreme Consciousness and Supreme Bliss.
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Chakraborty, Nirod Baran. 2003. A Dictionary of Advaita Vedanta. The
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WHAT DO YOUR MEAN WHEN YOU REFER TO YOURSELF?
"What do you mean when you refer to yourself, when you note who you are, what you are doing, or how others look at you? Who is the subject that is doing the referring and what is the object referred to as yourself?
When you refer to yourself, you are generally referring to your body, your mind or your social identity, which reflect external factors, not your inner reality.
The question then arises then as to what is the non-referential Self, which is who you really are in your own nature, not compared to anything else? The referred self is something outside of your inner being, mainly how you appear and function in the external world. It is largely constructed by other people, not by your own inner vision.
MOVING
BEYOND THE REFERRED SELF
Who are you if your remove all external
references to yourself, such as in terms of name, age, face, occupation, social
status, place of residence, or the other typical external factors we use to
identify and define people?
The truth is that you are yourself. Your sense of self-being is given and the foundation of everything else you know. If your awareness was not there, could you know anything at all
You don’t know yourself according to name, form or action. Your sense of Self is inherent and the basis of all other determinations of the mind.
You cannot identify yourself relative to the external world or other people. Your own identity is intrinsic in your own consciousness. Your identity as defined by others in the external world is a transient appearance, not who you really are.
RECLAIMING
YOUR TRUE SELF
We need to reclaim our true inner Self-awareness from the maize of external appearances that we are involved with, and which are now so easily magnified by our new technology. No one else can do that for us.
The best means of knowing yourself is through mediation and Self-inquiry as in Vedanta. The best place to view your true Self is in nature where your inner being is mirrored in the Earth, Atmosphere and Sky, boundless space, light and peace.
Feel free to be yourself and to discover your true Self in all that you see. You do not need to conform to any proposed outer identity. You only need to rest in your Inner Being that is one with all existence. To discover that you only need to turn your identity within, beyond all external differences."--By David Frawley
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