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Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-15)

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Namaste.

 

For a Table of Contents see the Introduction, in

advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/27959

 

 

SEC.15. NITYA-ANITYA-VASTU-VIVEKAM (Continued)

(Discrimination between the permanent and the ephemeral)

 

What I have just said is for the majority of us who are the

average. Those who have done the Atma-SadhanA exclusively

and attained a certain maturity must have probably released

themselves from the fascination for coffee, cricket, etc..

But even they would have some small weaknesses connected

with the satisfaction of the senses. Such things may even

be good for us at our level and might help us go up the

spiritual ladder but these might not be necessary for them.

So they should carefully search for these and release

themselves of these things also. Atman-Realisation is the

only thing to be looked for; in the absence of it one

should feel like a fish out of water. It is with that kind

of anguish one should stay out of , say, even social

service which may prove to be right for the average karma

yogi, even pilgrimages, and even the upAsanA method of

bhakti. Remember I told you about lying on the lap of

AmbaaL – even that! All these are impermanent; he should

have the discretion to be able to avoid all this and resort

only to those that can take him deep into the Atman.

“Atman is the only thing desired; everything else is anAtma

and all of them should be discarded” -- this should be the

fervent conviction.

 

nityAnitya-vastu-vivekaM is also known as AtmAnAtma-vastu

vivechanaM. ‘vivechanaM’ and ‘vivekaM’ are the same. It

means the capability to sort out what is good and what is

bad. The only discretion that advaita shAstra recommends is

this capability to sort out what is AtmA and what is

anAtmA. The work “Viveka-chUDAmaNi” is also called

“AtmAnAtma-viveka-chUDAmaNi”. As soon as the

mangalAcharaNaM shloka – that is, the verse of benediction

in the beginning of a work – is over, the text begins with

the topic of sAdhanA path. There he talks about the

performance of routine as per vaidika dharma, then

scholarship in the vedas -- these two being common to all

paths – and then he mentions just one thing, namely

“AtmAnAtma-vivechanaM” which is the route for the JnAna

pathfinder and then goes to talk about svAnubhUti

(Personal experience) and Mukti (moksha). Later in the

book the Acharya defines, at the highest level, the concept

of ‘viveka’ (discrimination) that decides between the

permanent and the impermanent.

 

*brahma satyaM jagan-mithyety-evaM rUpo vinishcayaH /

so’yaM nityAnitya-vastu-vivekaH samudAhRRitaH //*

 

It means: Brahman is the only Reality. The Universe is

mithyA, that is, it may appear real but will become

unreal; such a firm conviction is what has been well

declared as nitya-anitya-vastu vivekaM.” Who has made the

declaration? The Vedas. The authority to declare such

Truths is that of the Vedas only. The Acharya follows that

tradition and so even if he does not say “in the Vedas” he

knows people will understand it that way.

 

The Upanishads constitute the ‘anta’, the finishing portion

of the Vedas. Therefore we find this matter in abundance

there. Is not the very purpose of the Upanishads to take

us jIvas who are stuck in this worldly impermanence out

to the Permanent One ? Starting from the small boy

Nachiketas all the way up to Indra himself several have

been known to have understood the impermanent as

impermanent and comprehended the Principle of Nitya – such

stories have come down to us in Kathopanishad,

Chandogyopanishad, etc. The Lord of Death himself offered

several rare gifts to child Nachiketas, but the latter

turned all of them down, saying “All these are ephemeral;

one day or other won’t they all come back to you?”. And,

he insisted on having the tattva-upadesha from the God of

death himself and finally got it! Among all the

impermanent things, there is only one thing that is ever

permanent – said Yama-dharma-raja *nityo’nityAnAM*.

“Whoever finds it, to him there will be eternal peace; not

for anybody else”. All that we call wealth is anitya;

nothing that belongs to anitya will ever lead to the

nitya-vastu, that is the Atman. In the Chandogya story,

Virochana the King of Asuras , as well as Indra the King

of the Gods, both of them pursue the question : “What is

the Atman?”. The asura comes to the conclusion that the

body is the Atman. It is ‘Asura-Vedanta’! On the other

hand, Indra does an analysis of experiences in the waking

state, dream state and the sleeping state, discards them

one by one as unreal and finally comes to the Reality that

is the Atman. This kind of discarding is nothing but

‘nityA-nitya-vastu vivechanam’ – the discrimination between

anitya and nitya. In the Taittiriya Upanishad Brighu

Maharishi begins from the anna-maya kosha, and goes through

all the koshas, first thinking that it is Brahman and then

after enquiry discarding it and finally comes to the right

conclusion that Brahman is what remains as the substratum

of even the Ananda-maya-kosha. Another way of looking at

it is to say that by proper discrimination he discarded the

five koshas as impermanent and finally got to know that

the Atman is the only Permanent entity.

 

*neti neti* -- “Brahman is not this, is not that; it is

nothing that can be circumscribed by anything; it is not

related to another; it is not limited to anything; it is

not that which suffers; it is not that which is destroyed”

so says the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad. Whatever has been

said here not to be Brahman, they are all matters for the

mundane world. In other words, what is circumscribed, what

is related, what is limited, what is destroyed, all these

are material entities. So the “neti, neti” analysis means

to pick out the impermanent entitites of the world, discard

them as such, and hold on to the Permanent entity, Atman.

“anyat ArtaM” – “all others are having an end” . In other

words, except the Atman, everything else without exception

meet their end. This idea coming again and again in

BrihadAranyaka Upanishad mantras is to distinguish the

Nitya-vastu (Permanent One) from the anityas (the

impermanents).

 

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest on my website: A conversation on the Concept of God in Hinduism.

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/ConceptofGOD.html

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