Thursday, November 16, 2017

Nidhidhyasana- Baby Steps


Now comes a very important topic of this teaching – namely bringing it into my life, in my understanding of myself. My understanding of who I am, has to match with what we have studied. So before we get into the topic of samadhi, let us understand the few first steps.

The very first step is sharangati – so  the mind is free from seeking security and pleasure in anitya jagat and more or less free from fear, anxiety, hurt, guilt, anger, sadness and mental restlessness. This kind of mind-set is required for this study to become fruitful in one’s life.

The simple prayer I sent out today, is a prayer that is based on sharangati. It will bring about sharantagati. What was the prayer?

Om Harih Sharan

Om Vishwa-chaitanyaya namah

 O Lord, my profound thanks, a thousand, thousand times unto You who are all-powerful,all-knowing, who are here, there and everywhere.

 Whatsoever I am, whosoever I am, I am Your and Yours alone. You are my support, my Guide, my Protector.

 Your Divine Light  is always with me. Bless me, at all times, with unswerving devotion towards You, who are the Truth.

 Om Harih Sharanam

Om Vishwa-Chaitanyaya Namah

 Now assuming we have sharanagati we go ahead  in understanding the truth about ourselves.

Ask yourself, do I understand myself as self-evident consciousness. If I do not, then we must start there itself. Who am I? I am consciousness that is self-revealing. And everything else is an object of my consciousness. Is this clear to me? Do I understand myself as svaprakash chaitanyam?

If it is not clear to you totally – then ask yourself, who do I think I am? Many different ideas will come up. Your roles in life will certainly come up. So now examine them – are they not objects of your awareness, objects of your consciousness – because you know them. You are the knower of your roles, distinct from them. Can you see this clearly? If not, spend time understanding this fact.

As knower of the roles you assume, you are a conscious being. And nobody needs to tell you that you are conscious. You are self-evident consciousness, in whose presence the roles which involve identification with the instruments of body and mind, are known.  So do you understand that the body and mind are instruments of experience, rather than you. You are the conscious being who USES the mind and body, by identifying with them, to have different experiences. This consciousness that you are is a continuous constant presence – it is present in every experience of waking, dream and deep-sleep, witnessing as it were every experience.

This fact must become very very clear.

How to become clear about this? By spending dedicated time to see these facts again and again. When you are doing anything, just pause and step back, and ask yourself right now who am I? Am I what I objectify or am I the one who objectifies, using the mind as an instrument to objectify?

As the one who objectifies, am I not consciousness? For me to be consciousness, do I need anything else – do I really need a thought to be consciousness? Or is it that thought is revealed in my conscious  presence?

Just do this again and again – until you totally assimilate that you are self-revealing consciousness and everything else is an object of your consciousness. Body and mind are naturally included in objects of consciousness. And you are consciousness that is a continuous constant presence in every experience.

You go to the next step only after understanding the previous one. This assimilation you have to do. The teaching can only take you this far. The assimilation is to be done by each of us.

The next step is to understand very intimately that consciousness is the changeless, independent illuminator of every experience  and is not displaced by any experience. Use the example of light to understand this – is light displaced by whatever it illuminates? In the presence of light all objects are revealed. Whatever is seen does not in any way change the light does it? Light is formless, it pervades the objects illumined and yet it is never stained by them.

Similarly in the presence of the light of self-revealing consciousness that you are, every thought, feeling, decision, doubt, sensation, activity, body is revealed – they are all known, drshya and they have no power to change consciousness in any way. Again in terms of reality, they are mithya, so they cannot change consciousness. Like wave does not change water, or ornament does not change gold. Consciousness is not an object to be changed by another object. Consciousness that you are is SATYA- whereas drshya is mithya.

Again understand intimately that consciousness is the changeless principle because of which it is possible to know change. To know change, we need a changeless reference or substratum and consciousness that you are is that changeless substratum. The changeless nature of consciousness must be assimilated very thoroughly.

Spend time to assimilate the differences between consciousness-you and objects of consciousness. Consciousness is never an object. Drshya is ever an object. Consciousness is always present, always the same. Drshya is changing all the time. Consciousness is the independent reality, whereas drshya is dependent on many factors, and eventually dependent on consciousness. Drshya is jadam, not self-revealing. Whereas consciousness is self-revealing. Drshya is limited, consciousness is not.….. and so on and so forth.

So thus we need to spend dedicated time to assimilate what we have studied, so that we can own up the knowledge. That spending dedicated time is called as nidhidhyasana.



Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Upadesha Saram - Ramana Maharshi

1.कर्तुराज्ञया प्राप्यते फलम्। कर्म किं परं कर्म तज्जडम्।
The result of an action is obtained by the laws of the Lord. How can action, which is inert, be limitless?
2
कृतिमहोदधौ पतनकाराणम्। फलमशाश्वतं गतिनिरोधकम्।
Action is the cause for (one) to fall in the vast ocean of further action. The result of an action is limited and (hence) is an obstruction to (knowledge which is the direct means of) liberation.
3
ईश्वरार्पितं नेच्छया कृतम्। चित्तशोधकं मुक्तिसाधकम्।
Action done not out of desire and dedicated to the Lord, purifies the mind (and thereby) becomes the indirect means for liberation.
4
कायवाङ्मनःकार्यमुत्तमम्। पूजनं जपश्चिन्तनं क्रमात्।
The physical, oral and mental actions viz., ritualistic worship, chanting, meditation (on Him), are all most beneficial in that order.
5
जगत इशधीयुक्तसेवनम्। अष्टमूर्तिभृद्देवपूजनम्।
Serving the world with an attitude that it is the Lord, is the worship of the Lord of eight forms (five elements ie space, air, fire, water, earth; the Sun, the Moon and the conscious being)
6
उत्तमस्तवादुच्चमन्दतः। चित्तजं जपध्यानमुत्तमम्।
Compared to the loud singing of His praise, repeating His namealoud, (repeating) in a murmuror meditation in the form of mental (silent) chanting is better (in that order).
7
आज्यधारया स्त्रोतसा समम्। सरलचिन्तनं विरलतः परम्।
Unbroken thinking (of Him) like even the (unbroken) flow of ghee or the (effortless) flow of water (in a river) is better than interrupted meditation.
8
भेदभावनात् सोऽहमित्यसौ। भवनाभिदा पावनीमता।
Instead of meditating with an attitude of duality, (I am different from the Lord), the nondual vision ‘He I am’ is purifying – this is the view (of Sruti).
9
भवशून्यसद्भावसुस्थितिः। भावनाबालाद्भक्तिरुत्तमा।
The best devotion is abidance in one’s own Self, free from duality (of seer and seen) (brought about) by the strength of (repeated) contemplation (of He am I).
10
हृत्स्थले मनःस्वस्थता क्रिया। भक्तियोगबोधाश्च निश्चितम्।
Abiding of the mind in the heart (the core of myself) is action, devotion, yoga and knowledge. This is the confirmed view (of Sruti).

11 वायुरोधनाल्लीयते मनः। जालपक्षिवद्रोधसाधनम्।
Like a net for a bird, breath-control is a means for controlling the mind; by control of breathing, the mind is absorbed (but not resolved totally).
12
चित्तवायवश्चित्क्रियायुताः। शाखयोर्द्वयी शक्तिमूलका।
The mind and the prana are endowed with the ability to know and act, respectively. These two are like the two branches stemming from one power (Maya).
13
लयविनाशने उभयरोधने। लयगतं पुनर्भवति नो मृतम्।
There are two forms of control of the mind; laya, absorption and vinasha, destruction. The mind that has attained absorption is born again, but definitely not the mind that is dead.
14
प्राणबन्धनाल्लीनमानसम्। एकचिन्तनान्नाशमेत्यदः।
The mind that has gained absorption by control of breathing is destroyed once and for all by contemplating on the one non-dual Self.
15
नष्टमानसोत्कृष्टयोगिनः। कृत्यमस्ति किं स्वस्थितिं यतः।
For that exalted Yogi, whose mind is lost (totally resolved), and who has attined his own nature, is there anything to be done? (There does not remain anything to be done for him).
16
दृश्यवारितं चित्तमात्मनः। चित्वदर्शनं तत्वदर्शनम्।
One’s mind withdrawn from perceptions is the appreciation of Awareness (one’s real nature) which is appreciation of Truth.
17
मानसं तु किं मार्गणे कृते। नैव मानसं मार्ग आर्जवात्।
When an enquiry is undertaken as to the nature of the mind, it is found that indeed there is no mind, since there is directness in the enquiry.
18
वृत्तयस्त्वहं वृत्तिमाश्रिताः। वृत्तयो मनो विद्ध्यहं मनः।
Mind is thought-forms and the thought forms are but dependent upon the I-thought, ego. So know the mind to be the ego.(So enquiry into the mind is the same as enquiry into the I-thought).
19
अहमयं कृतो भवति चिन्वतः। अयि पतत्यहं निजविचारणम्।
Oh seeker! For the one, who enquires thus, “Where from does this ‘I’ arise?”, the I-notion drops. This is self-enquiry.
20
अहमिनाशभाज्यहमहन्तया। स्फुरति हृत्स्वयं परमपूर्णसत्।
When the ego (I-notion) is destroyed, the limitless, full, existence that is the Self, shines by Itself as I, I.... (‘I’ is self-shining).

21
इदमहम्पदाऽभिख्यमन्वहम्। अहमि लीनकेऽप्यलयसत्तया।
Even when the ego is resolved daily (in sleep) there remains the ‘I’ in the form of destruction-free Existence; this awareness ‘I’ is the implied meaning of the word ‘I’(the content of the ego).
22
विग्रहेन्द्रियप्राणधीतमः। नाहमेकसत्तज्जडं ह्यसत्।
I am not the body, sense organs, physiological functions, the mind or the ignorance. They are inert and hence unreal. I am the One, non-dual Existence.
23
सत्त्वभासिका चित्क्ववेतरा। सत्तया हि चिच्चितया ह्यहम्।
Where is another awareness to illumine the existence (I)? Awareness is in the form of existence (I) and I (existence) is in the form of Awareness. (The two are not different)
24
ईशजीवयोर्वेषधीभिदा। सत्स्वभावतो वस्तु केवलम्।
Due to the reality given to the costume (upadhi), there is the notion of division between the Lord and the jiva. But from the standpoint of the essential nature which is sat, the Truth is only one.
25
वेषहानतः स्वात्मदर्शनम्। ईशदर्शनं स्वात्मरूपतः।
By removal of these costumes) by proper enquiry) there is the appreciation of one’s own Self (free from all limitations), and that is the vision of the Lord as one’s own essential nature.
26
आत्मसंस्थितिः स्वात्मदर्शनम्। आत्मनिर्द्वयादात्मनिष्ठता।
The vision of one’s own Self is the well-abiding (of the mind) in the Self. Because of the non-duality of the Self, there is natural effortless abidance in the Self.
27
ज्ञानवर्जिताऽज्ञानहीनचित्। ज्ञानमस्ति किं ज्ञातुमन्तरम्।
Awareness is knowledge which is free from knowledge (of objects) and ignorance (of oneself and objects). Is there anything else to know?
28
किं स्वरूपमित्यात्मदर्शने। अव्ययाऽभवाऽऽपूर्णचित्सुखम्।
(With the enquiry) ‘What is the essential nature (of myself)?’,when  there is knowledge of the Self, there is Awareness (Self) that is happiness, ever full, (being) unborn and never waning.
29
बन्धमुक्त्यतीतं परं सुखम्। विन्दतीह जीवस्तु दैविकः।
The limitless happiness (that is the Self) is beyond bondage and liberation. The individual with divine qualities indeed attains it here and now (as a result of teaching).

30
अहमपेतकं निजविभानकम्। महदिदं तपो रमणवागियम्।
The destruction of the ahankara (as a result of enquiry), leading to the shining of the Self (knowledge of the Self) is indeed the greatest tapas, penance. These are the words of Ramana.
Om Tat Sat



Thursday, November 2, 2017