The Tradition of Advaita Teaches

The tradition of Advaita teaches  .... it does not preach. It teaches you the truth of who you are, using a sophisticated and simple methodology of teaching.

I am ....not whatever I perceive, or can perceive at anytime.

That means I am not the world around me(obvious).

I am not the roles I play in interaction with the world. Not sanyasi, not disciple, not daughter, not teacher, not friend, not sister, not employer, not citizen of the country or the world.

I am not the  body-mind, nor the energy that pervades the body-mind. I not the perceptions, the sensations, the activities that take place in the body-mind or via the body-mind.

I am not the doer, nor am I the experiencer. I am not the waker, the dreamer, or the one in deep-sleep.

After negating all of whatever I take as myself, I am simply left with I AM.

This ‘I am’ is self-evident, self-revealing conscious Being, free of all form, free of all attributes – a non-person!! We can’t negate it!!

The ‘I am’ is the Conscious (cit)Being (sat) in whose changeless (that which can never be destroyed or modified)  limitless (ananda) ever-presence (timeless), the body-mind, all processes of the body-mind, all perceptions, thoughts, feelings, memories, ignorance and the Universe is revealed, enlivened.... blessed, without whose presence  and being nothing whatsoever exists. Indeed all this is just an appearance that comes to go in the consciousness that I am .... ever non-seperate from me.... ever an appearance of my Self alone

Am I able to confirm this for myself or am I loyal to my identity as a person?

If I am not able to confirm this truth for myself, as even Arjuna was not able to, on hearing Lord Krishna in Chapter 2 of the Gita – then Vedanta points out that one is not ready yet to confirm – and so one must first prepare oneself.

What is the preparation?

Firstly understanding that the cause of all this  (whatever can be objectified, whatever can be perceived, which includes world, and this body-mind complex) is one changeless consciousness alone who through its own glorious shakti manifests  as all this. You can call this Consciousness in its status as cause of all this, as the Lord, Ishvara. This whole universe which includes this body-mind is non-seperate from the Lord. The Lord is the one who is present in the Universe as the Order – the law of cause and effect that governs everything that is here.... you may call it the Divine Order, the Maha Order... which renders everything here as what it is. The Lord is therefore also called the one who ordains the result of all our actions. This understanding of the Lord is vital for relating to Lord and settling one’s emotional accounts and growing into relative contentment and peace.

Therefore when one is identified with the body-mind as ‘I’,, then I relate to this Consciousness, this Lord, who verily shines in one’s heart as ‘I’ through worshipful surrender. One’s awareness of the Lord as being present through warp and woof of the Universe is the surrender – in that understanding there is awareness of one’s every thought, feeling, sensation, action being imbued with the presence of the Lord.  One’s attitude is one of reverence and surrender. One understands the Lord to be the nitya sakshi,  the one who is ever the changeless impartial witness to one’s every action, sensation, thought, feeling, memory. One understands that one cannot be away from the Lord even if one wants to. One may relate to the Lord then as Father /Mother / Husband/Wife etc – ever one’s Divine Companion in whose benign ever-presence and Order one’s life activities takes place. Increasingly relating to the Lord thus, one begins to see the body-mind as an instrument to be used for contribution to the world in whatever capacity one can, as an offering of gratitude to the Lord because of whom the contribution is possible. Also one is able to accept the ups and downs of life, the pleasant and the unpleasant, the sorrow and the joy, as coming from the Divine Order and so it is what it is meant to be – and one’s dependence of the world to be as one wants it to be reduces. The likes and dislikes are neutralised and one finds oneself relatively content and peaceful.

Self-knowledge takes places effortlessly for the person who relates to the Omniscient, Omnipresent Lord as a devotee who has neutralised his or her sense of individuality to great extent through relating to the Lord as the cause of this universe.

My Guru Pujya Swami Dayanandaji always said, you can’t bypass emotional maturity and gain self-knowledge. Traditional Vedanta understands the problem of loyalty to one’s identity and with great compassion prescribes a life of relating to the Lord to lighten one’s sense of individuality. When one is ready and one is exposed to good teaching, knowledge (recognition of one’s truth) takes place.

Om Tat Sat

You cannot bypass emotional maturity and gain self-knowledge that stays and blesses

One can say my desire to be free is stronger than my attachment to my personal identity, so show me I am free.

Is the desire to be free  enough of a qualification to gain self-knowledge that stays and blesses?

No ... the desire to be free must be there along with a certain degree of emotional maturity. You simply can’t bypass emotional maturity and gain self-knowledge. Without the requisite emotional maturity you may at the most gain insight into the nature of the self, but that insight will not develop into a lasting knowledge that does away with one’s belief in one’s identity as an individual separate from everything – that insight will not stay to bless with freedom.

Emotional maturity has its own timing. It does not come one day too soon!! You can't hurry it. You can't be brutal as a teacher, and try to force a person into seeing their freedom.  Emotional maturity comes with living one’s life with a certain understanding and attitudes born of that vision.

A study of  traditional Vedanta can equip you with that vision. To say that you don’t need to study is not true. Study of traditional Vedanta under a master who has discovered freedom, who is competent and responsible  in teaching can confer on you the freedom you seek – first you gain  the understanding that fructifies into certain attitudes that you begin to live your life with – and that brings in its wake maturity and with maturity you are ready for self discovery – a discovery that will fulfil every aspiration you ever had.

Om Tat Sat

How attached are we to our identity as an individual?

A student comes to me and says “I am hurt... I was hurt in childhood, I am hurting now, I have to heal”.

It is important to be able to discriminate and see if ‘I’ can get hurt, and if “I” ever needs healing.

To be able to discriminate let’s ask the question “Do you see that there is hurt? Is the hurt an object of your knowledge”.

“Yes”

“Then it must be different from you. After all whatever you experience, what you know is indeed distinct from you ... being an object of your knowledge – and you are the subject, the one who knows it, watches it, observes it”.

What is hurt? It is a feeling ... a mind modification, a thought modification which you can observe. Why does it occur? Is it important to know or is it important to understand what is this “I”, does it ever get hurt? We can use many different ways of understanding hurt, maybe karma, maybe psychology.... but should we really expend our energy in understanding the processes behind hurt or could we first try to understand the nature of “I” ... is it really subject to hurt and guilt?

Because you identify with the hurt as yourself  and put it in the same locus as your ‘I’, you confuse yourself by saying “I am hurt” .... or even “I am guilty” for that matter.

If you can discover that what shines here as “I” is self-existent, independent, self-revealing  consciousness, in whose mere presence the mind and its processes are illumined, in whose presence the body is enlivened, and from whom the body-and mind do not enjoy an independent existence, you will find you have been free all along

How strong is your desire to be free? Is your desire strong enough to break through your attachment to your identity as an individual?

Yes it is?

Then study Vedanta – the knowledge of the free self.

Om Tat Sat

SWAMI TARANANDA BY SHRI UDAY ACHARYA

Most Precious Seva For Pujya Swamiji

The Self Is Not An Experience To Be Gained – Satsang with Pujya Shri Swami Dayananda

Question:  Is there not another experience?

Swamiji: It is not an experience to be gained; you have enough experience of yourself. I am saying you are never away from yourself; you are not something to be gained as a new experience. You are already there, seeing me, hearing me. You never go out of the experience of yourself. You are there experiencing yourself in every experience. You are never outside yourself. You never get lost. Everything else, any object, may get lost, but you, the subject, never gets lost. Therefore, there is no question of lack of experience. In fact, you are the essence of every experience. I analyse your experiences about yourself and point out that this is what you are. Therefore there is no question about gaining an experience of atma, I, because atma is the invariable in all experiences. It is not that I must experience myself; it is that I recognize myself in all experiences. I see what I am – in seeing, hearing, walking, talking, thinking, doubting. In all of them what is there is only myself. There is only One and that One is I. To see that One is recognition. There is no experience. Experience is only with reference to an object other than yourself.

Questioner: Perhaps I was confusing the issue because I was not clear.

Swamiji:  We are confused and therefore we use wrong words. Weuse wrong words and therefore we are confused. When we use right words there is no problem. If I use the word ‘experience’ for knowing myself, I will be confused. Let us stop using that word; knowing myself is a question of self recognition. So what you are asking is, “Is there such a thing as clear knowledge?”. Yes. In fact knowledge must be clear. Knowledge is not gradual, but clarity is gradual. Clarity is gradual because I keep creating doubts.

In preparing the mind for self recognition there are things that can be done to have a quiet mind. That quiet mind is experiential. So you may say that experientially you first obtain a quiet mind. That is useful, because without a quiet mind, the teaching does not work.

Question: So breathing exercises ....

Swamiji: Everything like that is experiential.

Questioner:  But they are useful?

Swamiji:  Everything including asana, pranayama, pratyahara is useful. It all depends upon what you want. They are useful to gain a quiet mind. But if you think these practices are going to solve the problem of knowing yourself, that is not true.

Om Tat Sat

Vedanta is not intellectual- Satsang with Pujya Shri Swami Dayananda

Question: I am somewhat amazed that Vedanta is not intellectual ...

Swamiji: How can it be? You are seeing me now. Tell me, are you ‘theorizing ‘ about me or “practising “ me when you are seeing me? I am not an object of any theory or practice. You open your eyes and if I am here, you see me. Similarly, when I say that you are the subject, that you are Brahman and I am able to help you to see the fact of what you are when I negate what you are not, my words are like your eyes. So is it theory or practice? It is neither theory or practice.

Question: Are you saying that it is showing me what I am? Now I already have the experience of what I am.

Swamiji:  You do not know the dimension of yourself. You are dimensionless. You do not know that. That means you do not know the truth of yourself. You know that you exist, that you are a conscious being, but it is all put together in this concept of “I”. I have to strip what you are not from the concept of “I” and make you see the content of “I” being Brahman.

Unlike other means of knowledge where you can figure out by yourself what is to be known through perception, inference and so forth. Vedanta is a means of knowledge which requires a teacher to wield the words properly.

Question: And that is why the Guru is praised?

Swamiji:  Yes. The Guru and the teaching are the means of knowledge. If you fix up your misconceptions, have studentship and listen, it works very well. Then there is teaching. And once you know, that knowledge is not going to change; you will not be shaken.

Om Tat Sat