I HAVE DRAWN LESSONS FROM YŌGAVĀSIṢṬHA. Whatever is detailed out in the Upanishads is repeated here, as you must have seen by now. It is not possible for me to see anything other than what is in Upanishads. There is a huge repetition. Every second line in Yōgavāsiṣṭha talks about cetya versus cit. Any chapter, any sloka you see it is:
चेत्योनुसंधान रहितम् चिन्मात्रम्
cētyōnusaṁdhāna rahitam cinmātram.
चेत्यानुपात रहितम् चिन्मात्रम्
cētyānupāta rahitam cinmātram.
Cit which is the knowing power has not objectified itself, or crystalised itself into a thought is cinmātram. This is the entire message of Yōgavāsiṣṭha. You cannot blame me for that! In fact, I should take tremendous credit for the fact that nobody would condense Vedanta as I have done. I take pride in that. Nobody can put it in the form of a pill and show you that Vedanta is a ten minutes study. This was my ten years of research. The simplest truth is always most profound. It is possible to answer any question from a pandit’s point of view with success and efficacy. If you are a serious reader of Yōgavāsiṣṭha, any sloka you read and give a thought to it, you become cit and go to a near Samadhi state. That is where, the text is useful. You have to be totally convinced about this great reversible reaction that a move in the forward direction is duhkha, unhappiness and a move in the reverse way is liberation. Once you are convinced, then this will be useful for manana. You know the three steps in Vedanta – श्रवण, मनन निदिध्यासन - śravaṇa, manana, nididhyāsana.
आत्मा वा अरे द्रष्टव्यः श्रोतव्यः मन्तव्यः निदिध्यासितव्यः
ātmā vā arē draṣṭavyaḥ śrōtavyaḥ mantavyaḥ nididhyāsitavyaḥ
(Bru.Upa.2-4-5)
Atma has to be first understood. That is the phase of discussion with the teacher. This is called śravaṇa.The next is tatwa grahana - the portions of the Vedanta has to be understood. Even after that, the mind falters. Then you have to get the mind back to an ascent – a fall, an ascent – a fall, an ascent to vistaarata or expansive state and again a fall due to conditioning or vaasana, happens. It goes on like that for a long time. You reach a stage when you say that you don’t have to invite a thought at all. Then also you may fall because of your conditioning. The student is so highly evolved by then, that karma itself becomes a problem. He spends more time unburdening himself. As long as chittashuddhi, cleansing of mind, is happening, and as long as it is not a burden for you it is good to be in karma. You are engaged yourself in sātvik (सात्विक् – virtuous) activity called shubha karma or shuddha karma. At one point even this also becomes absurd. As far as me, I had to do manana with Yōgavāsiṣṭha for months and years, till I got established in silence.
Most of the time, we are in the stage of focusing. As a result of this, the jagat, the world, is revealed to us as an outside world and dream state as an inside world. Outside world is cognition or perception of external objects. Inside world is perceived or created in your dream. It is not possible for us to alter the outside world by our volition. This is a world which is independent of my conceiving it. It exists independently. It is not my creation. Whereas, the world inside, is my creation. I can create whatever I want. I am conceiving a world inside whereas I am cognising a world outside. It is important to note this difference.
When we discuss creation, the dream aspect is very important as it gives enormous hints as to how we have come into being. Here is a clue. The importance of svapna parīkṣa (स्वप्न परीक्ष – examination of dream state) is to show that a world can be created by your own ‘I’ which conceived it. What is that ‘I’ which created so many things like a house, a plant or even for that matter a duplicate wife of yours, even though in reality you have already a wife in wakeful state? It is the first wife with a second picture. What stuff created that? This is a question in Vedanta and also in theoretical physics. What is the dream world or a world of imagination made up of? What is the status of this world compared with the world in wakeful phase? How do they differ?
We say, my mind created this inside world. There is nothing like mind. There is ‘me’. There is just nothingness, or there is just a somethingness - Somethingness without any attribute or characteristic or any lakshana whatsoever. It is mere-ness. And that creates a tree, a building, a road, Amount of possibilities are infinite. Nāma, Rūpa, Karma (नाम, रूप कर्म) are the attributes of the world we cognise.
- Nāma, is the śabda (शब्द) the sound version – He is Shastri.
- Rūpa, which is the dr̥śya (दृश्य) or the picture version of the world – Shastri is tall and fair.
- And Karma, is the movement or activity – Shastri walks very briskly.
These three lakshanas completely define jagat. One is able to do all the three things, when one closes his eyes. One can duplicate anything. What is the material out of which all this is created?
अत्र देवः स्व महिमानम् अनुभवति.
atra dēvaḥ sva mahimānam anubhavati.
That power in you clearly shows that you are the creator. The sacred stuff you are, you can create! This is the support for Advaita Vedanta. You are creating this complicated jagat with all its intricacies.
What are we inside? We are cinmātra (चिन्मात्र). Cit can project a universe. Cit which is the predisposition or the pre stuff becomes Cētya, the world of objects, thoughts, etc through the process of Cetyonmukhata. What is it made up of at the ultimate state? We have to infer this by only argument - nēti nēti - नेति नेति - not this, not this etc. Otherwise, how can nothingness produce something? Therefore, by inference you say that, there is some sattā (सत्ता). Sattaa is our svaroopa. When objects, sounds and details are withdrawn, whatever remains is called svaroopa sattaa. Any picture is a collection of points of infinite nature. This is the process by which a picture is created. Cit or Samvit will shrink itself into a point. It localises into a point. Hundreds of such points placed in orderly position, gives you a picture of a river, a house, a tree etc. So this sattaa is the predisposition. This is about creation. But this is a burden. Chandogya Upanishad clarifies that:
नाल्पेसुखमस्ति भूमैव सुखं.
nālpēsukhamasti bhūmaiva sukhaṁ.
(Cha.upa.7-23)
How so ever comfortable you think it is, this alpatwa or becoming small is the burden, So, capturing details in closeness is a burden which is called alpatva sveekaara in shastra. So a stretched state or a spread state is aananda or happiness. What is me? Sometimes I will be in confined state and some other time I will be in a spread state. But, I will be complaining about the confined state. The remedy is simple. Get back to spread state or a state of vistaarata where speed and focusing are replaced by naidhaanya and expansion. That is, from burdened state or sankochata to unburdened state or vistaarata. From localizing to vistaarata by let go - Retrace from Cetya to Cit or from Samvedya to Samvit. Is this not the ultimate state? Is this not the Brahmic state? Why did we not stop at this?
At this point, Vasishta comes to help. The withdrawing is not just taking one step backwards. As discussed earlier Cētyōnmukhata or Vēdanōnmukhata (वेदनोन्मुखत) is the process of Cit shaping into a thought. The pre state of thought formation is Cit or Samvit. In Vedanta this is Jneya and Jnaana. And as per Vedanta our svaroopa is jnaana maatra and the study stops here. But, there are stages and stages of undoing or unlocking of the forces inside. Most of the people stop at samvit. This samvit is only one phase of retracing. Further up in the ladder of nothingness is Sattaa, sattaa saamaanya (सत्ता सामान्य) is the next phase and if you go still further, it is immeasurable state called sattaa saamaanya kōti (सत्ता सामान्य कोटि). This is the subdivision and penetration of Yōgavāsiṣṭha.
Samvedya gets purified into samvit - then to sattaa - then to sattaa-samanya - ultimately to sattaa-saamaanya koti.
The shell can diffuse itself into immeasurable extent. But, how long this expansion needs to take place? It is to be noted here that:
- Samvit state itself is a very comfortable state. The objects are not there. One is just mere consciousness. So much of tension and toil is reduced. But, the samvit states of two persons may be quite different as there are still two locus points. The shell has not become all pervasive.
- Though the next stage Satta is further extension of expansion, merging has not happened. For example, Shastri’s sattaa and Ashok’s satta may be very much expansive but the two have not unified.
- In satta saamaanya, Shaastri merges into Ashoka. Both of them lose their respective locus. Ashok’s experience would be that he is in Shastri’s chitta and vice versa. This is the next layer.
- Satta samanya koti is a terrible increase of this expansion to limitless state grasping the whole universe.
The highest stage of liberation being satta saamaanaya Koti is described as under.
तत्र सत्ता लयम् याति निर्विकारं च तिष्ठति
भूयो नावर्तते दुःखं तत्र लब्धपदः पुनः
tatra sattā layam yāti nirvikāraṁ ca tiṣṭhati
bhūyō nāvartatē duḥkhaṁ tatra labdhapadaḥ punaḥ
(Y.V.5-10-95,96)
(In that plane, existent matter gets dissolved and there is no trace of distinction. The person attaining that state is not born again in the world of sorrow.)
तद्धेतुः सर्वहेतूनाम् तस्य हेतुर्न विद्यते
स सारः सर्व साराणाम् तस्मात् सारो न विद्यते.
taddhētuḥ sarvahētūnām tasya hēturna vidyatē
sa sāraḥ sarva sārāṇām tasmāt sārō na vidyatē
(That state of bare existence is the cause of all causes and that itself has no cause. That is the essence of all existence and there is no essence apart from it.)
That is Brahman’s region of non doing or Eshara’s region of non doing. It is a region of non objectification. It is the existence or distinctness of the highest order. What burden can one have in that state? So happiness does not lie in attention. Often one gets into non-focusing or non-doing mood on a number of occasions during our daytime. See for example, travel to the office, viewing TV, etc, as sources of saadhana by involving as much less as possible in the activity. Vedanta thus. is an experimental science. It does not brow beat you.
दृश्यदर्शनसम्बन्धे सुखसंविदनुत्तमा।
दृश्य संवलिता बन्धस्तन्मुक्ता मुक्तिरुच्यते.
dr̥śyadarśanasambandhē sukhasaṁvidanuttamā
dr̥śya saṁvalitā bandhastanmuktā muktirucyatē.
(Y.V.5-9-43)
(The bliss that manifests at the contact of sense and the object, if associated with the objects is of the nature of bondage and if dissociated with the objects is liberation)
When you establish a contact with the object of enjoyment and the relevant sense organ whatever happy state you get is sacred. If you always depend on the objects for happiness, then it is bandhana. A saadhaka tries to catch hold of the no mind state created due to energy shift mechanism by the sense object and tries to stay as long as possible. And if you manage to stay happy without dependence on sense objects then it is mukti. You will be cinmaatra. You will be in Samvit.
Drushya –for example let us have a laddoo as the sense object here. Darshana is the tongue – sambandhe – when laddoo comes in contact with tongue being the relevant sense organs, you are very happy. That is the experience of joy. Whatever happy state that is got is sacred – sukha samvit annuttamam. But, if you depend on the laddoo, to get to that state and for maintaining that state, every time, then it is bandhana, a problem. What a saadhaka has to do now? Having got that state of samvit (there is no wandering and focusing). he has to observe that and stay there. Laddoo can wait. Then that is mukti or liberation.This is all the difference between mukti and bandhana. Yōgavāsiṣṭha takes a cue from Upanishads and deals in four stanzas. Tai.Upa.S-B-197)
लौकिकोपि आनन्दो ब्रह्मानन्दस्यैव मात्रा.
laukikōpi ānandō brahmānandasyaiva mātrā.
Shankara in his bhaashya declares that the worldly or mundane happiness or ananda is Brahamanda only. Television viewing is Drushya drashana which is what I always do, without giving any importance to what is going on, no involving with it. It is only giving a neutral activity to the eye. If you are watching closely, the television scenes disturb you. If your watching is casual, it becomes a trick to draw your inner forces for expenditure, using shabda and drushya which are both there when you use television. As a result the inside becomes expansive and you are in swaroopa.
- Bhoga carefully employed can put you into swaroopa.
- If rashly employed, it becomes a spoiler. The thirst increases in such a case.
दृश्यदर्शनसंबन्धे यानुभूतिरनामया
तामवष्टभ्य तिष्ठ त्वं सौषुप्तीं भज ते स्थितिम्.
dr̥śyadarśanasaṁbandhē yānubhūtiranāmayā
tāmavaṣṭabhya tiṣṭha tvaṁ sauṣuptīṁ bhaja tē sthitim.
(Y.V.5-9-44)
(Hold on to the pure experience that manifests at the contact of the sense and the object and remain in that sleep-like state.)
sauṣuptīṁ bhaja tē sthitim- This is your nidra equivalent state, where there is no world for you, but wakeful state of course.
tāmavaṣṭabhya tiṣṭha tvaṁ– after getting that state, hold on to that state and do not let it go. Drop the agency and live there. That is your Samvit state or pre focusing state. Therefore sitting before the TV can be a saadhana. Noise is a welcome thing, as expenditure of energy is taking place through the ears. You have both the loukika(mundane) ananda and also brahmananda. One needs to be careful that the dependence on bhogavastu needs to be reduced. It should be well within the bhoga limits permitted by dharma. Shankara goes to a further extent –
अनेन हि प्रसिद्धेन आनन्देन व्यावृत्तविषयबुद्धिगम्य
आनन्दो अनुगन्तुं शक्यते.
anēna hi prasiddhēna ānandēna vyāvr̥tta viṣaya buddhi gamya ānandō anugantuṁ śakyatē.
(Tai.Upa.SB-197)
vyāvr̥tta viṣaya buddhi gamya ānandō anugantuṁ śakyatē Through this familiar aananda, minus the bhoga agent, you feel the experience and hold on to that state. You are softer, you are carefree and then you exist also.
एतस्यैव आनन्दस्य अन्यानि भूतानि मात्रां उपजीवन्ति.
ētasyaiva ānandasya anyāni bhūtāni mātrāmupajīvanti.
(Bru.Upa.4-3-32)
This is from Bruhadaraanyaka Upanishad and Shankara quotes it in support of his argument. By means of this worldly aananda, anybody in this world, the good, the bad – Tom, Dick and Harry – touches that moment of expansive state, his svaroopa. This is to show how Yōgavāsiṣṭha helps us to go deep into that state. There can be layers and layers of expansion or stages of expansion. Scientifically putting, the force of burden on an expanded shell is reduced; force on the unit area of the shell is terribly reduced. As already discussed our shell needs to expand from satta to sattaa saamaanya amd then to sattaa saamaanya koti. In Vedanta also there are levels of retracing from that of Buddhi to Mahat-tatva and to Avyaakruta and finally to Purusha.
What is the difference between Nidra and Samaadhi? For many years this question was haunting me. I asked many Sadhus and pundits about the difference between Nidra and Samaadhi. No one was able to give me a satisfactory answer. I had to get to the correct answer and Shnkara only could come to my rescue.
In Nidra, vyaapaara or activity has not gone. Specific vyaapaara like talking, seeing etc. only has gone. Indriya vyaaparaas are eliminated. But the general vyapara called kriya saamaanya is there. Vyapara has specific dimensions. General vyaapaara is mere movement. That movement appearing in the form of drushya (when the vyapara takes place to the eye) or shabda or ghraana (smell) or rasaa (taste).Specialised vyaapaara merging in general vyaapaara is the shift from the wakeful phase to the nidra phase. Vyapara has not gone. The sthula has become sukshma or subtle. The visible has become invisible. Vidita has become avidita. Kshara has become akshara.
Look at the mantra recognising this. I concluded that we are in the praana maatra swaroopa. Further study showed me evidences from Upanishads and from Shankara bhaashya. Each one of us has to do research at our own level and for verification we should go to Upanishad. Look at how Chandogya Upanishad (4-3-3) puts it.
स यदा स्वपिति . . प्राणो हि एव एनं सर्वान् संवृङ्क्ते
sa yadā svapiti . . prāṇō hi ēva ēnaṁ
sarvān saṁvr̥ṅktē.
sa yadaa swapiti- when man is asleep, what is happening to all the specific activities or visesha vyaapaaras?
Vaak pranam apyeti – the activity of talk has become mere spandana.
Shrotram pranan, Chakshuh pranan - the seeing and hearing activities have become praana swaroopa.
Manah praanam iti – the thinking activity has become mere praanic spandana. All specific acitvity have become general activity or praanic vyaapaara. What a beautiful scientific study!
prāṇō hi ēva ēnaṁ sarvān saṁvr̥ṅktē - This general vyaapaara, meaning prana spandana, has absorbed all the special vyaapaaras into its womb. You are seeing; let us say a table or a book. What are you there? Your चैतन्य, caitanya is vibrating in the form of a table or a book and your consciousness is reporting it. Pre position of this is pure consciousness where there is no action of reporting. But when an action takes place, consciousness degenerates into the form of a table or a book.Where there is no object formation or sound formation, it is pure consciousness or your svarupa.
You now know what your pure consciousness is. Without shaping into a shabda form or a roopa form, you are in your swaroopa at this point of space. If you just do the anusandhaana or contemplate on that, you get a feel of that empty state of yours. That is why sadhakaas are asked to go near a sea, where there are no objects. You sit before the sea and your emptiness is visible to you. The emptiness gets emphasied. It gets predominant, as you are in pure consciousness there. If your culturing is good enough, avoid pictures and sounds at that place. Then you are jnaana swaroopa or aatma swaroopa only.
By what symptoms a person can say he is growing in sadhana?
एतावदेव खलु लिङ्गमलिङ्गमूर्तेः,
संशान्त संसृति चिरभ्रम निवृतस्य,
तज्ञस्य यन्मदन कोप विषाद मोह,
लोभापदां अनुदिनं निपुणं तनुत्वम्.
ētāvadēva khalu liṅgamaliṅgamūrtēḥ
saṁśānta saṁsr̥ti cirabhrama nivr̥tasya
tajñasya yanmadana kōpa viṣāda mōha
lōbhāpadāṁ anudinaṁ nipuṇaṁ tanutvam.
(YV-6-14-6)
This is a permitted question in Vedanta. To this, the answer is - following are the symptoms. Jnaani has no lakshanaas or attributes what so ever. It is very difficult to label a jnani symptomatically. He is just like any other person when one looks at him. But then, in him, madana (sex), kopa (anger), vishaada (depression), Moha (confusion), lobha (greed), etc, aapadaam, these evil forces are thinning out every day. It is not a sudden change. It is a progressive ascent every day. In critical situations and reacting situations, a Jnaani remains utterly calm and balanced. He does not react. That is the growth one has to undergo in saadhana. This is the test, both for you and for others.
Time is not heavy. It is fine. But, gentle pressures may be there. If the pressure increases, adopt the energy expenditure method of shubha karma. Keep doing any saatvik activity like reading Bhagavad Gita or any other neutral activity. Since chitta is not excited in the process, your “self’ is revealed. Your mind slows down and you expand. Aananda increases. All the duhkha versions are getting purified, becoming thin. Thinning process of all the unruly forces is taking place. He is so soft and not aggressive, not harsh. Even in unreasonable circumstances, he does not react. How much one grows depends upon the intensity of application of these markers for that individual. That also depends upon the stock of vaasanaas he has. Too much of sensitivity of a person also can delay the result of getting clarity in thinking itself. The sloka of Bhagavad Geeta reminds us the same. (B.G.5-18)
विद्या विनय संपन्ने ब्राह्मणे गवि हस्तिनि,
शुनि च एव श्वपाकेच पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः.
vidyā vinaya saṁpannē brāhmaṇē gavi hastini
śuni ca ēva śvapākēca paṇḍitāḥ samadarśinaḥ.
A jnani treats on par a Brahmana endowed with knowledge and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste who feeds on dog’s flesh.
Even with mean, cheap annoyance from people, a pandita does not get upset at all. He is equal with everybody. Taking a cue from these, a saadhaka has to identify his shortcomings as and when they arise and try to diffuse the same to the best of his ability. Look at Yōgavāsiṣṭha again:
अनास्थैव हि निर्वाणम् दुःखमास्था परिग्रहः
अनेनैव प्रयत्नेन ब्रह्म सम्पद्यते क्षणात्.
anāsthaiva hi nirvāṇam duḥkhamāsthā parigrahaḥ
anēnaiva prayatnēna brahma sampadyatē kṣaṇāt.
(YV-3-9-39)
(Absence of craving for pleasure is the state of liberation. Craving is fraught with misery. Through this practice, Brahman is realized immediately)
It is the focused state in one, that generates duhka or is responsible for duhkha. When you try to defocus by ‘Let Go’ or by adopting उदासीनभाव – udāsīnabhāva - casual approach, then, there is liberation. Coming to the attention phase is always a burden. Interest in objects amounts to focusing. The otherwise of that by, letting go or by disinterested approach (अनासक्ति - anāsakti), by showing indifference, leads to liberation from suffering. Not having anxiety and not interested in the result, is diffusion.
Surrendering to the Almighty (who so ever be your God you think), also is a method by which you can diffuse. At one stroke, the ego is destroyed. You can use both the tools to get to your goal. God is not doing a favour, but the trick is, you get into a mood of letting go of things.