About H. H Swami Pranavananda of Gudivada - by Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati

H.H Swami Pranavananda of Gudivada played a very important role in Pujya Swami Dayananda’s  life. He resolved many of the doubts which Pujya Swamiji had, by pointing out that the Vedas are a pramana ,a means for knowledge for knowing the truth of the self. Pujya Swamiji recognized all the implications of this fact, and this was  to have a profound impact on Swamiji. Swamiji realized that self-knowledge is not some profound incommunicable experiences, the domain of some mystics who had some profound insights. Swamiji recognized that self-knowledge is communicable through Vedanta, the ancient tradition of teaching – there was a clear methodology involved and this knowledge could be unfolded with precision and could be understood by those who had the required inner readiness for it.

In May 1969, H. H Swami Pranavanandaji passed away. In the June 1969 issue of Tyagi, Pujya Swamiji honored him writing :-

“ His Holiness Swami Pranavananda of Gudivada attained mahasAmadhi on 15^th May 1969. He was in his seventies.  

At the insistence of Sri Swamiji, I lived with Sri Swami Pranavananda in his ashram for a few months in 1961-62, and from then on I was in contact with him.

In teaching atma vidya, there is a tradition in our country. If that is not known to a teacher, he can never impart the knowledge of the sruti to a seeker. Just as the eyes are a pramana for all perceptions of forms, sruti through a living teacher becomes the pramana for self-knowledge. And therefore the method of teaching is important. If there is no traditional method in teaching this vidya, there is no necessity for a Guru; one can read the books with some prelimnary general qualifications necessary to read and understand.

Very few know the importance of this method, let alone the method. Because of this omission, the entire vidya proves to be meaningless inasmuch as it becomes objective. The teacher through the traditional method of the sruti puts the student in actual experience, as the former teaches, in a peculair way that is tradition, the nature of the Self, the ‘I’. Swami Pranavananda was one such master teacher. His deft handling of the scripture frame pradoxes used to, as even the Zen Master’ Koans, disentangle the student’s reason from its relative concepts and thereby brings in the sudden recognition or Satori.

I discovered in his classes this main aspect of our traditional teaching. When I met him a couple of months ago, he was laid up in bed. But he was clear in his thinking and happy as usual. He knew that there was no cure for the disease he was suffering from. As I took leave of him after a two day stay in the ashram, I requested him to give me a message to the seekers. He dictated immediately in Telugu to one of the inmates of the ashram a few lines, indeed the essence of our scriptures. I translate the same the same hereunder:

‘The disease that has come upon this body is too serious for any cure, it will disappear only at the cost of this body. Therefore the medicines or doctors are not to blame if they fail to be effective. Due to this helplessness, my mind is in no way afflicted. I consider that it is all for the good.

Freedom is the nature of the Self, the ‘I’, and the Self is identical with Brahman which is non-dual. Therefore, the Self as even Brahman is free from all mode of duality, such as sajatiya, vijatiya and svagata.

In the last verse of the Bhagavad-Gita, it is said that brahmi sthiti is the lot of this life and therefore death cannot travel with the prana.

Karma and upasana are pursued by the people only because of their identification with the body, dehatma buddhi. The body which is not the Self, the ‘I’ is taken for the Self and it is because of this reason there is pursuit of Karma and Upasana. Therefore this pursuit cannot be held as moksa.

Suppose a person by name Rama is asleep, if he is called by someone,  ‘Rama’, he wakes up. Similarly with profound words of the sruti if the master reveals to the student the identity of the Self with the Absolute, the student wakes up to discover his identity with Brahman.

Therefore moksa is only through the teaching of the Master and Sruti. It is this that is meant by Sankara in his famous verse ‘brahma satyam jagan mithya jivo brahiva naparah’. Brahman the Absolute is Reality; the world is apparent; jiva  the knower is not different from Brahman, the Absolute. This, and this alone is the message of Adi Sankara. All others take after this teaching. Therefore they have no original content.

‘That Thou Art’ is the profound statement of truth revealed to Svetaketu as we find in the Sama Veda. The ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ mahavakya known as upadesha vakya is the foremost among all other staements in the sruti. All other statements are centered on this alone.

Karma and upasana are performed retaining the ahankara. This enjoyment of fruits of action is only when the ‘I’ is taken for ego. And liberation and bondage also, while they belong to the ego, appear as though they are belonging to the ‘I’.

This lack of discrimination, which is something natural to the intellect that is extrovert, will not easily go unless one listens for a good length of time from the Master, the scriptures, and reflects and contemplates over what he has heard.

Therefore living with the Master, gurukulavasa, is imperative. It is because of this only, sanyasasrama is in vogue. This is the essence of all the Shastras. Keep this always in your heart. The notion that the world is real has got to be dispelled. This is practice, contemplation.’

The Swami dictated all this in his usual clarity of expression. He was clear that there was no death for a sadhu, nor I feel he ever died.”

'Forgiveness and Reconciliation' - Swami Dayananda Saraswati (address at the United Nations Millennium Peace Summit.)

On August 28th through 31st of the year 2000, two thousand of the world's preeminent religious and spiritual leaders representing the many faith traditions, gathered at the United Nations, Geneva for a Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.

On 29^th August 2000 Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, in the capacity of leader of the Hindu delegation, speaks on the given topic of  ‘Forgiveness and Reconciliation’.  The speech is transcribed below with a few minor changes.

‘Respected Chairperson, friends,

 Salutations to all of you. We have listened to a lot of learned people. One thing nobody had mentioned was about the wonderful work done by a team of scholars from Harvard. In this very important document there was a mention that the various religious leaders have to look into their own theologies to find out whether the theologies themselves have caused conflicts.

It is one thing to forgive what has happened. Who am I to forgive for the cultures that got wiped out in Egypt, in Greece, in Africa, in South America? Who am I to forgive whom? I can’t forgive, because I am not in a position to forgive.  Not that I don’t want to forgive. I have no powers to forgive. I need to be forgiven, being a part of humanity that mindlessly destroyed the cultures, live cultures. What was the culture which made all those pyramids? What was the religion that moved the people to create such wondrous monuments of human endeavor human ingenuity, human genius? 

And we have the great legacy of people who have destroyed those live cultures. in Greece we have monuments. If any Egyptian government were to supposing , pull down a pyramid to put up a housing complex, I don’t think United Nations Organisation, the humanity, will allow that to happen. It is no longer the property of Egypt. It is an ancient monument of human genius. And it belongs to all of us.

We have to day live cultures. Let us not make monuments of these. Let us listen to those scholars who had really put their heads into this. One pertinent suggestion was – look into your theology ; see whether you have something which disturbs people, which moves people to disturb, which has destroyed cultures.

I want to have religious freedom. You must have that freedom. Everybody has a right to be free, well you should let me. Otherwise I can’t be free. Or I have to resist you. Here starts violence.We are free. We don’t need to stand on each other’s toes. If you don’t let me be free, and I am constrained to fight you, I cease to be a human being. I become a living being. I become a living organism which has got this natural instinctual urge to survive. All my human values disappear. And therefore I say, look into the theology.

Your practice of freedom of religion definitely is only to live you religion. You cannot destroy any other religion. You have no right. It is violence against other religious sentiments. It is violence against cultures, violence against religions and this violence has been going on for centuries and it continues to go on.

Therefore after ten years, when we meet, this subject should not be there, this subject of  reconciliation and forgiveness. We forgive ourselves. OK. Whom do I have to forgive? We forgive ourselves for our follies, for our mistakes.

But one thing – to err is human, to keep committing the same error, I don’t know what it is. I know that it is not angelic. Thank you very much. Om”

A standing ovations greets the speech. 

Vedanta Being A Means of Knowledge

Pujya Swamiji emphasises again and again that for liberation one should have a clear recognition of the self being Brahman (purna, whole). This recognition constitutes self-knowledge and for self-knowledge you require a means of knowledge – a pramana. And Vedanta is the pramana for self-knowledge.

This is very important to understand because in the spiritual world there is a lot of confusion about what is liberation and what is the means for liberation.

The self cannot be other than whole – why? Because it is what you want to be. In every moment of life, one is seeking to see oneself as whole, as complete, as totally satisfied. This wanting to total satisfaction is natural to us. And because it is natural, it must be our nature. It’s like the natural state of water is to be at room temperature. If your heat it, it wants to come back to room temperature, because that is its natural state. The very seeking for satisfaction shows us that satisfaction is indeed our very self.

 The Catch 22 is that we don’t know that the self is tripta – totally fulfilled. Meaning there is ignorance of the self being whole, complete. The self is taken to be a samsaari – and this is not true.

Pujya Swamiji points out that you can use reasoning to negate what is not true. The self is not the body-mind-sense complex – because the body-mind-sense complex is an object of knowledge for the self – whereas the self is the self-evident, ever-present consciousness. This much one might arrive at by logic.

But that the self is jagat kaaranam brahman  whose svarupaa  is limitless consciousness that is indestructible, changless and ever-present (satyam, jnanam, anantam)– this part only the means of knowledge – the pramana has to tell.

The self is self-evident. ‘I am’. I know that I exist. I do not require a means of knowledge to prove my existence. My existence is self-established. That I am a conscious being is also self—established.

But there is a confusion that this conscious being is subject to the limitations of time, space and object. That confusion is resolved by the words of Vedanta. These words have the capacity to reveal, by first negating the error of what one takes oneself to be and then revealing the truth.

Satyam means asti – ‘is - existence’. For us ‘is’ is understood in terms of time. For us ‘is’ is subject to becoming ‘was’!! That ‘is’ is not subject to time, is the truth of the self. Thus we have to negate in our understanding whatever is subject to time and what remains is the witness consciousness – for this there is a methodology.

Limitations are superimposed on the ‘I’ due to ignorance. Retaining the meaning of ‘is’, because I am … I am existent … so retaining the meaning of ‘is’, the limitations superimposed on ‘I’ are negated. The self being self-evident becomes the very meaning of ‘is’ (satyam), the very meaning of consciousness (jnanam) and the very meaning of limitlessness (anantam). I am the meaning of satyam, jnanam, anantam Brahman.

Satisfaction (ananda) is not an object. The meaning of ananda is the person; satisfaction is the person. That is the truth of you.

Thus Pujya Swamiji, handling words, negating what is to be negated, allows you to be the meaning of the meaning of the Sruti vakya – satyam, jnanam, anantam.  You are purnam. Every word is the negation of a conclusion.

Om Tat Sat

The value of compassion being the foremost qualification for moksha

The value of compassion being the foremost qualification for moksha

Pujya Swamiji, my Guru, Swami Dayananda,  puts a great emphasis on the value for compassion for every seeker. For the seeker it is a value to be deliberately brought into one’s own life with reference towards oneself and others. For a person with nishtha in self-knowledge it is spontaneous.

Why does Pujya Swamiji put such an emphasis on the value of compassion?

When there is no compassion, one is judgemental and non-accommodative, with little understanding or acceptance of people and situations as they are. One holds on to one’s righteousness and ones anger, one becomes bitter, cranky, frustrated – one becomes very constricted. All this constitutes mala -  impurity of heart. With this constriction of heart, how is it is possible to understand that what Vedanta is saying is that ‘I am THE whole’. ‘I am the whole’ means I am everything. But with so much constriction of heart one cannot accept life as it is and so one denies oneself one’s wholeness, and there is no fulfillment.

When there is a value for compassion one takes the effort to  understand that everybody and every situation in life comes from a certain background and so everything really speaking is as it should be – in Order – Ishvara’s Order. Thus there is a readiness to understand, accept and accommodate people and situations even if they are not exactly pleasant! Living with compassion makes for samatvam – an eveness of mind, an expansion of the heart.

What I understood was that in Swamiji’s vision the person is whole. He never dismisses anybody as a criminal. He sees them as a person who has some areas of the psyche given to difficult and even offensive behaviour patterns. He does not hesitate to tell his disciples if something is wrong and it comes to his notice. At the same time, he takes the care to understand with compassion and gives them any number of chances to grow. That is Swamiji. His heart is so vast it is difficult to understand him if one’s heart is constricted. I wanted to understand Swamiji and so I chose to grow. Choosing to grow meant choosing to grow in compassion and giving freedom to people to be what they are.  

Not internalizing was another big lesson I learned. Swamiji in one of his talks said “I am responsible for my actions, my behavior, and my feelings but I am not responsible for the behavior and feelings of others.”  I have found in my life that most people internalize the problems of other people – and blame themselves when the problem is truly not theirs. I learned to be confident about myself and refuse to pick up others judgmental projections about me. Pujya Swamiji in his meditations also will take great care to make us understand how important it is to keep people outside and not in our head! That way we give people the freedom to be what they are and think whatever they want about us!

Om Tat Sat

Brahman indirectly defined as Cause of Creation

Adapted from talks by Pujya Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati (Chennai)

The Upanishads seek to reveal to us the truth of one’s self. Truth of oneself is called as Brahman by the Upanishads. The Upanishads define Brahman in two ways. One is the direct defination, technically called svarupa lakshanam, and the other is an indirect definition called as tathastha lakshanam. We will  look at the indirect defination which is Brahman is the cause of the creation – or jagat kaaranam Brahman.

Brahman is said to be the Cause of the universe. Which means the universe is an effect. Thus Brahman and the universe have a cause-effect relationship (kaarya-kaarana sambandha)  even as gold and golden ornaments have a cause-effect  relationship. Many examples can be given – like wood and wooden furniture, clay and earthenware.

There are many implications or important corollaries which can be derived from this cause-effect relationship.

1.      The first one is the cause is one and the effects are many. Like gold is one and the ornaments are many.

2.      The cause has a continuing existence, whereas the effect has a temporary existence. The gold was there before the ornament came into existence, the gold is present when the ornament is in existence and the gold continues to exist even when after the ornament is melted. Whereas the ornaments, being a product, have beginning and end and so they have only a temporary existence. In the language of Vedanta, the cause is nityam having trikaala avasthanam  - an existence in all the periods of time. And the effect is anityam.

3.      The cause has an independent existence, whereas the effect has a dependent existence. Gold was there even before the ornaments came into existence, and continue even after the ornaments are melted, whereas the ornaments cannot exist independent of gold. In the case of furniture also it is the same – the wooden furniture cannot exist independent of wood. So generalizing, we can say that an effect cannot exist independent of the cause, whereas the cause is independent of the effect. In Vedanta, that which is independently existent is called as satyam. And that which has a dependent existence is called as mithya. Satyam and mithya are technical terms which are to be well understood.  

When we examine a golden bangle, we find that the weight of the bangle is the weight of the gold. The colour of the bangle is the colour of gold. In fact there is no separate substance called bangle. The bangle has no substantial existence of its own. The substance, the vastu, is gold. ‘Bangle’ is only a name for a particular form of gold. Gold alone is the substance. And you can say then that ‘bangle’ is just non-substantial name and form.

Thus we find that the effect has no existence of its own separate from the cause. There is no such thing as the bangle existing apart from its cause.

  

Now applying these corollaries to Brahman we see that :-

1.      Brahman is eternal-nityam and universe is transient-anityam

2.      Brahman is One –ekam and the universe is manifold – anekam

3.      Brahman has independent existence – it is satyam and the universe has a dependent existence – it is mithya.  This means that the tangibility, the substantiality of the universe  belongs to Brahman, the ultimate substance, the essence of the universe.

Scientists talk of intangible energy being the ultimate substance of matter. Vedanta points out that the ultimate substance is not even energy, the ultimate substance is BRAHMAN – the consciousness.

So far it has been said that BRAHMAN, or God, or Self is the cause for the world. In our experience, we find that for any product there are two types of causes required. One is the material cause – the raw material. The other is the designer, the creator, the one who has the vision of what the product should be like and who also has the knowledge and necessary resources to create the product. Thus for furniture you need the raw material, the wood, as well as well as the carpenter. For ornament you need gold and the gold-smith.

In Vedanta, the material cause is called the upaadaana kaarana  and the intelligent cause is called the nimitta kaarana. So what is Brahman – is it the material cause or the intelligent cause?

The Upanishads give a surprising answer – that Brahman is both the material cause as well as the intelligent cause – the abhinna-nimitta-upaadaana kaaranam. The upanishad gives an example to help us assimilate this. It points out that in our experience itself we find that the spider is both the intelligent as well as the material cause of its web! The web is made of material that comes from a small gland in its body! If an ordinary spider can be the abhinna-nimitta-upaadaana kaarana why not Brahman?!!!!

In Mundaka Upanishad, a popular example is given – just as sparks arise from a huge conflagaration which is one fire only – from this thousands of  sparks arise, so too out of one Brahman millions of things and beings arise, are sustained and resolve back. The Mundaka Upanishad then goes on to elaborately and poetically reveal that all that here, the five elements, all mountains, all rivers, all oceans, all forms of food, all grains and vegetations, all forms of loiving beings like numerous flying, walking, slithering beings – all are born of BRAHMAN. The Vedas are also born of Brahman. Thus Brahman is karanam and the universe, the jagat is kaarya.

What is the purpose of discussing the creation – the srshthi?

 The Mundaka Upanishad reveals this in its mantra :-

purusha eva idam vishvam karma tapo brahma paraamrtam.

etad yo veda nihitam guhayaam so’vidyagranthim vikirtti iha saumya.

The world (consisting of) special karma revealed by Veda, religious disciplines and upaasanaa, and Veda, is Brahman alone.  The one who knows this limitless, timeless Brahman present in buddhi, resolves the knot of ignorance here itself, Oh pleasing one!

As we saw earlier the cause alone appear in the form of the varieties of effects – gold alone appears as all the ornaments. The wood alone appears as different items of furniture. The thread alone appears as cloth. One substance appears in many different forms. Forms are many, functions are many, yet there is only one substance that is gold. In fact there is no other substance. Ornament simply cannot exist apart from gold. In fact where is the ornament as a separate substance? There is no ornament – there is only gold.

Upanishad is saying this – that purusha eva idam vishvam – Brahman is the Purusha who alone is this entire universe. The world is nothing but Brahman manifesting itself with different names  for different forms and functions. All that is here is the Purusha. Purusha is another name for the cause Brahman. Knowing this one Truth Brahman, everything else is as well known.

What we have in front of us is the world, which is an effect. What is our goal? To know the cause which is Brahman.

Earlier we saw that the cause is EKAM (one) and it is NITYAM – it has a continuing existence. Gold exists before the birth of the ornament. It exists when the ornament is in existence. And gold continues to exist even after the ornament is melted – thus gold has a continuing existence in the past, present and the future. We also saw that the cause (kaaranam) is independently existent, wheras the effect (kaaryam),  depends on the cause for its existence – thus the kaaranam is the essence, the substance, the truth of the kaaryam. Gold is behind every ornament. Wood is the truth, the satyam of furniture.

Thus the kaaranam is in and thru the kaaryam -  meaning the kaaranam pervades the kaaryam.

Thus Brahman, the cause,  is characterised by being :-

·        ekam -  one

·        nityam – eternal

·        svatantram -  independently existent - satyam

·        sarvagatam -  all-pervading – that which is the content of all the effects

Now in creation we have to look for that which will fulfill all these four conditions – we have to locate it. The Upanishad itself helps us – it asks us that whenever you look at any object how do you recognize the object? You will say for example :-

·        Here is a pillar

·        This is a fan

·        This is a mike

·        Here is a woman

·        There is a man

In all these cognitions what is common?

Let us simplify further. Your cogniton is of the nature that :-

Ø  Pillar is

Ø  Fan is

Ø  Mike is

Ø  Woman is

Ø  Man is

What is common?

‘Is’ is common. So the Upanishad points out that ‘isness’ , otherwise called as existence – in Sanskrit which is sat  or sattaa is the only one which fulfills all these conditions. Because ‘isness’ is everywhere – even between you and any other object the space ‘is’ – even if you use the word ‘nothing’ – then ‘nothing is’.

Thus there is one all-prevading isness – eka satta is there and not only it is ekam,  it is all-pervading – sarvagatam also.

Not only sarvagatam it is also eternal- indestructible. How?

Suppose there is a pot and you say ‘pot is’. Now when you destroy the pot, what happens to the ‘isness’ in the pot? Nothing happens to it – because now ‘pot pieces is’. Even if you powder the pot pieces you will still have the ‘isness’ – now in the form of the clay powder. Existence never dies. It ever is. ‘Isness’ simply cannot be destroyed. The forms get destroyed. The isness ever remains – it is indestructible – it is eternal.

Thus the four conditions of ekam, nityam, svatantram and sarvagatam  are satisfied in ‘isness’ or ‘existence’. The ‘isness’ does not depend on any name or form. If one name and form resolves, existence remains. Existence or the ‘isness’ is independent. Thus according to the Upanishads Brahman or Truth is ‘sat’ – The Chandogya Upanishad says ‘sat eva Soumya idam agre aasiit. ekam eva advitiyam’.

Thus pure existence is the nature of Brahman. Pure existence is the very essence of the universe. Pure existence does not have any form. If it had a form it would be limited, whereas existence is everywhere so itself does not have any form.

Formless, intangible existence is the content of the universe.

Modern science says that energy is the essence of matter. Matter is nothing but energy condensed, which means the essence of the universe is energy according to these scientists. Energy is formless and intangible. If science can say that formless, intangible energy is the essnce of matter, they why can’t Vedanta say that formless, intangible existence is the essence of both matter and energy?

Formless intangible existence is Brahman.

Continuation in the next blog will look at how to ‘experience’ formless existence that is Brahman.

Guided Meditation by Pujya Swami Dayananda (audio)

Guided Meditation 2 (audio) by PUjya Swami Dayananda

Guided Meditation (audio) - by Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Guided Meditation - Pujya Swami Dayananda