LIMITLESS JOY – Pujya Swami Dayananda

ATYANTASUKHA (Absolute Joy) IS NOT EXPERIENTIAL

Atyanta-sukha (unlimited happiness) is a sukha that is not comparable to the degrees of sukha that you gather. This is where people make mistakes and talk about eternal bliss, etc. This sukha is not eternal bliss; it is one's nature, svarupa.

To refer to svarupa-sukha as bliss means that it is experiential. Then, comes the question, what is eternal bliss and how can I get it? If it is something that you gain and that only lasts for a period of time, how can you call it eternal bliss? If it is something experiential, there is no jnaana, no knowledge, there. Then what is this atyantasukha? The verse itself defines it as brahmasamsparshaatyanta-sukha, a sukha that is born out of recognising Brahman, contacting Brahman.

Whenever you touch something pleasant, the sukha you get is called sparshasukha. Does this mean that by contacting Brahman, by hugging Brahman, you will gain atyanta-sukha?

No. Brahman is not an object available for hugging. Brahman is a word used by the shastrafor revealing oneself as the whole. Because of the knowledge that aatmaa is Brahman, there is sukha, called brahma-samsparsha-sukha, a sukha born of the contact of Brahman meaning the recognition of the self as Brahman. This sukha belongs to Brahman; it is the very nature of Brahman, in fact. Therefore, it is called svarupasukha.

Svarupasukha is not a sukha that is experiential. It is the sukha that is recognised as the nature, svarupa, of every form of sukha. In any form of sukha that you get, the sukha is because of svarupasukha, the wholeness that is the nature of Brahman. Born out of the knowledge that the self is Brahman, the meditator is said to gain this svarupasukha.

BLISS ALWAYS COMES TO AN END

In his commentary to this verse, Shankara says that atyantasukha is that which does not come to an end. If this sukha were bliss, it would come to an end because any experience has a limit. Therefore, bliss is a finite sukha, not atyantasukha that transcends all limits — the limits of time or degrees. Such limits do not exist for the sukha that is one's very nature because svarupasukha can never be experiential sukha.

For sukha to be experiential, there must be a particular condition of the mind and that condition will always change because it is within time. Since it is within time, experiential sukha is non-eternal. But, in every sukha, there is a svarupa, a truth, and that truth is the nature of aatmaa, which is free from any form of limitation. This limitlessness, wholeness, implied by the non-separation of the knower from all that is known, the firm understanding that, 'sarvam
aham
asmi,' (All this is myself) is the svarupasukha, referred to in these two verses as uttama-sukha and atyanta-sukha. And, being the very nature of the self, it cannot come to an end. As long as aatmaa is there, sukha is there, and aatmaa, being beyond time, is eternal.

NO EFFORT IS REQUIRED TO GAIN SVARUPASUKHA

And how is this sukha gained? We always ask this question because, generally, the more one does in the world, the more one gains. The more you work on something, the greater the result. This being a rule very well known to us, how much should one do to gain infinite sukha? Infinite karma? No. The logic that we have for finite situations in this finite world does not work here. In fact, if action were infinite, you could not even blink because blinking, like any action, is finite. Therefore, if you had to do infinite actions, you would do no actions at all!

In fact, no action is involved in gaining atyantasukha, as Krishna indicates here by the word sukhena, meaning 'easily,' without tears, without sweat, because this sukha is yourself. The self is Brahman and atyantasukha is born out of the recognition of this fact. (Gita Home Study)
Om Tat Sat

The Difference Between Recognition and Experience

'Absolute Freedom' from all that one does not want in your life, the insecurity, the inadequacy, the mortality, the ignorance and its brood of egoity, selfishness, sadness, hurt, fear, guilt, loneliness, greed, anger, jealousy, etc.…is about recognition of the invariable truth of oneself. The word invariable should be well-understood. When I say the 'invariable' truth, this is a truth about oneself that never changes, as contrasted against facts about one's personality that vary under different conditions, at different times and in different places and situations. For example one assumes different roles, in relation to different people in one's life – sometimes mother, sometimes daughter, sometimes wife or sister, disciple… etc. Or one assumes roles depends on what activity is being undertaken such as 'eater', 'walker', 'cook', 'listener', 'talker','doer', 'enjoyer','knower'. All these vary and so they are variable truths, changing or relative truths about oneself. These relative truths are very much a matter of experience for us.

They are a matter of experience for us, only because of the ever-presence of the invariable truth about ourself, which is direct, immediate and unchanging, of the nature of self-existing, self-revealing consciousness that inexorably shines as 'I', 'I', 'I' in every experience that I know, illumining and enlivening all that is changing, all that exists within the space-time matrix. One does not need a new experience of this 'I' … because it is very much present in every experience. All that one has to do is recognize :-

1. it's existing presence and
   
2. recognize it's CHANGLESSNESS ,INDEPENDENCE from all that is changing, nature of FULLNESS meaning being free of all limitations imposed by the knower-known / subject-object relationship and
   
3. know that all that is changing and illumined in its presence, is indeed non-separate from it even as wave is non-separate from water.
   

My Guruji, Pujya Swami Dayananda points out that what shines as 'I' is always free of knower-known-knowing relationship even when it is present. This is what is to be KNOWN and recognized. You don't need a new experience in which there is an absence of this knower-known-knowing relationship. Ever since birth, in deep sleep we already have such an experience in which there is absence of knower-known-knowing relationship – yet we have continued to remain ignorant of our true nature absolute freedom.

Ashtanga yoga talks about the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi which is a state of absorption in which there is no second thing. Pujya Swamiji says in Gita Home Study, "The knower, known, and the instrument of knowledge — all three of them — coalesce into one experience lasting for a length of time. Although it does not take away the samsara, it is definitely the last word in samsara.

Nirvikalpasamaadhi is the opposite of deep sleep. In deep sleep there is nirvikalpa alright, meaning that the knowerknown-knowledge division is not there. But, in nirvikalpasamadhi the mind is awake, unlike in deep sleep where the mind is sleeping. In both cases, there is ignorance, the difference being that when the mind is asleep there is no thought, whereas in nirvikalpasamaadhi, the mind is awake, meaning there is thought. Therefore, the greatest thing you can have in life is nirvikalpa-sam¡dhi, which is why it is the greatest hooker also. It baits people because it is the last thing that you can think of accomplishing in samsaara, in your life here in this world.

EXPERIENCE ALWAYS HAS AN END

But nirvikalpasamaadhi has an end; it is something you come out of. All that is needed is for someone to drop something in front of you or to start a vacuumcleaner in the next house. As soon as you become aware of the sound, you are not only out of nirvikalpasamaadhi. Nirvikalpasamaadhi is something that does not last forever; you will come out of it in time. And, once you are out of it, it becomes a past experience that you then talk to others about — 'Swamiji, yesterday I had the most wonderful thing happen to me!' Even the language used to describe the experience is different! But as soon as the thoughts come, or someone begins hammering, or a child begins to cry, or a bug creeps up your leg, real or imagined, it is gone; you have come out of nirvikalpasamaadhi.

There are those who will tell you that once you experience nirvikalpasam¡dhi and you come out of that experience, the world will be different. They also say that you experience the aatmaa in nirvikalpasamaadhi. How can this be? All that happened was that the knowerknown-knowledge difference coalesced. All differences disappeared — a desirable experience, no doubt. It is recognised by the intellect, and is also beyond sense perception. But how has this experience changed the state of your vision? In fact, you may become very sad. Before you knew aatmaa, you were only sad if you lost some money, some power, some hair, or a relationship. Now, having known the aatmaa, you have a new item which can be lost and be a cause for sadness — yourself. Previously, you lost certain things but retained yourself, but now you have experienced a much greater loss — the loss of yourself…….. And even if it lasts for some time, there is sadness because it ends. All that can be said is that I was eternal for half an hour! For that period of time, the division between the knower, known, and knowledge that is usually there went away; time itself went away. For half an hour you were free from time, which means you were timeless, eternal. And, after half an hour, you become what? Non-eternal. Even if you have samaadhi for two days, you become non-eternal. In this way, it is no different than being in a coma for two days and then coming out of it. While in the coma, there was no division whatsoever and the person also did not know what was happening. Therefore, the length of time that one is in nirvikalpasamaadhi has no meaning.

DISCIPLINE IMPLIES A CERTAIN MASTERY OF THE MIND

As a discipline, however, nirvikalpasamaadhi is great because, when you gather such an experience, it indicates that you have a certain mastery. Otherwise, you would not have been able to have the experience of nirvikalpasamaadhi. Because a certain mastery is involved, nirvikalpasamaadhi is considered to be the height of experience that one can gain; it is like a prize, the end for those who want to gain experience. To say that it indicates a certain saattvikavrtti on one's part is fine, but to say that after you come out of nirvikalpasamaadhi, you will see the world entirely differently is not correct because how you see the world depends purely on your vision of reality. Having experienced nirvikalpasamaadhi, you have to interpret that experience. And to interpret the experience, you must have a pramaaaa, a means of knowledge.

Again, then, we come back to a means of knowledge because you do not interpret an experience in any other way than by what you know. All interpretations depend entirely upon your knowledge, which is dependent on the pramaana available to you. And all the pramaanas that one has, perception, inference, etc., operate by maintaining a duality — duality of the doer, the object of doing, the act of doing itself, the instrument of doing, etc. All these are collectively called as kaarakas. Retaining the duality alone, one's pramaanas, the various means of knowledge, operate.

Perception and inference do not swallow the kaarakas. Only the Agama, the teaching, swallows them. It says that you are not the knower, pramaataa; you are the very essence of the knower, the knowledge, and the object of knowledge, all three of them being one and the same. In this way, the Agama resolves the division.

Om Tat Sat

Contemplation on One’s Truth

Om Namo Narayanaya

Be quiet. Be silent… in the mind …. Let there be a stillness in the mind ….. and use that stillness in the mind to recognize that one's truth is more fundamental than even the knower, ever free of the knower-known-knowing phenomena. Self-revealing, self-illumining, invariable awareness, that is ever-free of the division of subject and object, that is indeed changeless, formless and all-pervading, that is what you are.

As a knower only, you can never be fullness – because there is always the division of the knower and known, the subject and the object. Recognize the invariable truth of the knower. So one has to recognize that there is a truth about oneself that always is, that is independent of the status of knower, of subject, of this role or that role. 'Knower' or pramata is only the status you give to yourself when identified with the body-mind-sense complex. Any role you play is a status you assume for yourself when identified with the body-mind-complex. You are indeed an independent ever-full Presence, an ever-present Being, self-revealing and self-existing light (of awareness), distinct from the body-mind-complex, who illumines and enlivens the body-mind-sense complex, and indeed all that is perceived and perceivable through it. Indeed you are the very basis, the one and only truth, the very adhishtanam of all that can be experienced in this loka or other lokas.

Om Harih Om Tat Sat

 

The difference between Self-knowledge and Knowledge of anything else – Pujya Swami Dayananda

The thought, by which one recognizes an object, and the object of the thought are identical. That is, in order to recognise the object, the thought must necessarily have the object in itself. If I have to recognise a pot, the thought or vrtti must assume the very form of the pot. Therefore, the thought is called 'pot-thought'. By the pot-thought alone, one recognizes the object pot.

For the recognition of atma - the self, also, there must be a vritti - a thought. This vritti is created by the Shastra and it destroys selfignorance. And this vrtti is brought back by the contemplator in nidhidhyasana. In the recognition of the nature (svarupa) of the self, the vritti assumes the very svarupa of the self, without objectifying it. This is not similar to knowing an object such as the pot. In the recognition of the svarupa of the self there is only one operation involved; whereas in the objectification of a pot, there are two operations.

One operation is the vrtti assuming the form of the pot and the second operation is the recognition of that vrtti, thereby recognising the pot. One is the objectification of the object (by the thought) and the other is the recognition of the thought. The objectifying thought is recognised by another thought, which is the the seer. I become the seer, the knower of the pot. Therefore, this I-thought, assuming the status of the knower, recognises an object through a thought, the pot-thought and says, 'This is a pot.'

Any piece of knowledge — where there is this peculiar connection, between the self, the knower, you, and the object that is objectified by that knower — takes place by these two operations. That is, the object is objectified by the thought and you cognise the thought. This is why you can say, 'This is a pot.' But, you cannot say, 'This is aatma (self)' Who is there to say it? I am the one who has to say it and, if it were to be so, then, the self, would become an object of the self who is objectifying it. Therefore, it would become non-self (anaatma) not aatma, just like any other object of your knowledge.

SEEING AATMAA IS DIFFERENT THAN SEEING AN OBJECT

The difference is that in the number of operations involved. Seeing aatmaa (self) implies only one operation; there is no second operation at all as there is when one sees an object. Only the first operation is there, the vritti that objectifies aatmaa, that assumes the very form of aatmaa. If I say aatmaa is pure consciousness, kevala-caitanya, shuddha-caitanya, and the recognition of this fact takes place, that recognition implies that the the vritti assumes the very form of consciousness and there is no other object involved. That particular form destroys the ignorance with reference to the nature of the self and then disappears. This, then, is the only operation that takes place, meaning that there is no second operation in the form of the recognition, 'This is the self' as there is in the cognition of other objects.

The one operation that does take place is only with reference to one's confusion about oneself, the selfignorance that was there; that ignorance is destroyed by the vritti. This is what happens in selfknowledge, in knowing the self. ( From Gita Home Study Chp. 6 Verse 21)

Om Tat Sat

 
 
 

THE MEANING OF SHAANTI – Pujya Swami Dayananda

Shaanti usually means peace. Does this mean that after doing meditation, all you will get out of it is the same peace that can be gained from a tranquilliser or a shot of something? No, this shaanti is not that kind of peace; it is matsamstha and nirvanaparama. In his commentary, Shankara defined shaanti as uparati, uparati meaning resolution or sarvakarmasannyasa, wherein doership and enjoyership are renounced as discussed at length previously. Nirvana means moksha. Therefore, this is a shaanti that has its basis in moksha. It is moksha-shaanti itself.

And what is this moksha-shaanti ? There are three types of shaanti. One shaanti is where there is no thinking whatsoever, which can be induced so that the frequency of thinking is cut down. Another shaanti is when you enjoy a shaanti along with a certain capacity to manage an active mind. This is important because you need the mind in order to think.

The first shaanti, which is freedom from thinking, can only be temporary and requires a lot of inducements. This shaanti is that which is there between two thoughts or between two spells of agitation. Whereas the second shaanti is there when there is a certain distance between yourself and the mind, whatever be the situation. And because of this you are able to manage your affairs with a certain amount of composure.

And the third shaanti is moksha, wherein the mind becomes a privilege. Whatever the mind is, it is me, but I am not the mind. This knowledge is the freedom, total freedom. You do not control the mind. You do not take the mind somewhere. Rather, wherever the mind goes, the person always has this knowledge. Then, the person is truly a devotee because, wherever the mind is, there the Lord is for this person.

KNOWLEDGE BASED DEVOTION

To express this knowledgebased devotion, there are many stories. One such story is about a great devotee of Lord Shiva. One day he came and found a sadhu sleeping with his feet placed on a linga. For anyone to do such a thing, let alone a sadhu, is a desecration. Therefore, the devotee shouted angrily at the sadhu, 'Wake up! How can you dare to put your feet on the linga!' To this, the sadhu replied, 'I am very old. I am tired and sleepy. I have no strength to move my feet. Therefore, please put my feet wherever you want. I cannot lift them.' Then the devotee picked up the sadhu's feet and moved them away from the linga. But to his surprise, another linga appeared under the sadhu's feet. Confused, he moved the sadhu's feet again. But wherever he placed them, yet another linga appeared in that very place! Then he understood that there is no place where the Lord is not. In other words, there is no place to put one's feet that is not the Lord.

Similarly, wherever the mind goes, it remains in the Lord's presence. There is no question of getting the mind out of or into anything here. To make this point, a seeker in the Brhadaranyakopanishad said, 'It is as though the mind has gone away and, therefore, I am as though meditating.' For the 'as though' gone away mind, 'as though' meditation is good enough. And, when the 'as though' becomes clear to you, then the mind does not go away and therefore, does not require any meditation. This is the shaanti called nirvana-parama shaanti, moksha, the shaanti that is one's svarupa, in which there is no coming and going, no degrees or variations, and for which no comparison to anything is possible.

THE SHAANTI THAT IS ONESELF

Because this shaanti is identical with oneself, Krishna describes it as mat-samstha, meaning matadhiina, that which always obtains in the paramatma because paramatma does not move at anytime; it is kutastha, immutable; it does not get involved with anything, and does not stand opposed to anything either. If there is opposition, there is some rub or resistance, which is ashaanti. Shaanti is identical with paramatma in that it is not opposed to thought, it is not opposed to the world, it is not opposed to knowledge, it is not opposed to ignorance, it is not opposed to anything. At the same time, it lends itself to everything. Thus, the meditator gains this shaanti, this freedom or liberation — matadhiinaam shaantim adhigacchati.

Om Tat Sat

MEDITATION ON PARAMESHVARA -Pujya Swami Dayananda

The nature of time is nothing but the trick of the maayaavi, another name for the great magician, Ishvara, who is the agent, of srshti, sthiti, and laya. If you absorb your mind in this Parameshvara, it is called sagunabrahmadhyaana. To do this, you meditate on the virtues of Parameshvara. Thus, for you, Parameshvara is one who is all compassion, all mercy, all aananda. Or, Parameshvara is the one who is the creator, sustainer, and resolver of everything — srshti-sthiti-laya karta. In this way, any one virtue can be taken in its absolute sense and meditated upon. Or, the meditation can be in the form of a simple prayer — 'Unto that Lord, my salutations – parameshvaraaya namah.'

The word 'mat' in the compound, matcitta can also mean Parameshvara, the cause of everything — param brahma. And that Brahman is satyajnana-anantabrahma, aatma. Here, the one whose mind is contemplating upon the svarupa of the aatma, pure consciousness, is called matcitta. With reference to this caitanyaatma there are other revealing words also, words that reveal the svarupa of atma upon which you contemplate. With the help of these words, you contemplate upon the meaning and this contemplation is called meditation.

MEDITATION IS NOT A TECHNIQUE

The person being discussed in this verse (Bhagavd-Gita. 6.14) is also called matpara, another word that describes the person in terms of the object of meditation. The person who meditates in order to lower his or her blood pressure may be a blood-pressure-para but he or she is definitely not matpara. People meditate for many reasons — for one hundred percent spiritual success or one hundred percent material success. This only proves that nothing is sacred. This also proves that meditation is not properly understood.

Meditation is not a technique; meditation is life. Therefore, Krishna refers to the meditator as matpara, one for whom the Lord, Parameshvara, is everything. The mind of such a person will stay with the object of meditation because there is nothing other than Parameshvara, paramatma, to be gained. And this is everything. The one for whom what is to be accomplished is that paramatma alone is called matpara, Krishna says.

Shankara adds here that such a person is very careful in terms of the objects that he or she desires. For example, the person does not think of a particular woman or man as the ultimate end, para; instead, this person has another para in that his or her mind is committed to Ishvara, the Lord, as the ultimate end. The svarupa of Ishvara, the paramatma, as the ONLY end, para is called parama-pada and the person who has this as the only pursuit is called matpara.

 (Gita Home Study Chapter 6.14)

Om Tat Sat

The Only Security – Pujya Swami Dayananda

The only security there is, is to know oneself as the truth of everything — without which nothing exists. When this vision is clear, the person is secure and, because he or she is secure, the person requires no security whatsoever.

I AM SECURE

Everything is subject to change; it is always in a flux. The self alone remains changeless and that self is me. I am the only one who is secure; everything else is always changing. My mind is always changing; my thoughts are always changing; and the objects of thought are always changing. Whatever changes is timebound; it has a beginning and an end. The only thing that remains untouched and comes out unscathed in all of this is 'I,' the self.

If the knowledge of this 'I' is clear, if you have this vision of yourself as secure, then you are a free person. You are a jnana-vijnaana-trptaatma. You are one who requires nothing to be free; you simply look out and see the world as it is. The world that you see is a simple world because you do not project all your nonsense onto it. The world remains as it is and you are a secure, free person. And why does this freedom seem so difficult to gain? Perhaps because it is all so simple, too simple; in fact, it is yourself. …(Gita Home Study Chapter 6 Verse 8)
Om Tat Sat