Premium Posts ~ SabdapUrvayoga ~ 4

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Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaaya...

 

Greetings.

 

(To pick up the thread from this series, we remember from last time:)

 

>Dear Sri Miles! You have put up with Suri's ignorance all along with >enormous

patience. Please give us an exposition on “SabdapUrvayoga”>Am I right in

understanding that “SabdapUrvayoga” is this yoga of >atmavicArA described

above?

om gurave namah

suri~~~

—So now we continue. The sequence is best read very slowly, pondering (and

testing) deeply as you proceed. I’ve emphasised some of the words; short

phrases in square brackets are my ‘additions’:

 

~~~

Dear Sri Suri,

> Am I right in understanding that “SabdapUrvayoga” is this yoga of> atmavicArA

described above?

It is a shame you cannot just pop in.

Bhartrhari's SabdapUrvayoga is a popular topic of conversation here.

Unfortunately, other than this, I only know of the mundane attempts at analysis

of the subject performed by a few academics. In reality, SabdapUrvayoga is a

living, dynamic method of touching the Source in everyday life.

Here are a few words about SabdapUrvayoga. Thanks for asking:

The key to the elusive SabdapUrvayoga is revealed in Bhartrhari's (the

greatGrammarian’s) statement that ‘tad dvAramapavargasya...’ ~ ‘It (i.e.

Grammar) is the Door to Liberation’, and this Door* —or Gate— is the primary

appearance of the ahamkara (ego-sense) from Sabdatattva or Sabdabrahman. The

Veda (this includes all the scriptures of the Seers, a ‘Seer’ being ‘one who is

liberated’) is the perfect example of externalisation of Sabdabrahman which,

despite the divisions of gross language, and because of the nature of the

intuition of the Great Seers, has retained the ability to act as a true

representative of that One, which always remains unaffected by apparent

fragmentation and therefore a suitable means for attaining Brahman.

The words of the Seers are like conduits [channels] which constantly, and

self-evidently, relay back to The Source.

At a ‘personal’ level, language operates in exactly the same way. The way out is

inevitably the way back.** The path is well trodden, but [it is] neglected, and

taken for granted. In the normal course of the day, words-spoken travel out,

and words-heard travel in. But it is, indeed, possible to travel “in” at all

times. Brahman is eka, One, and does not change, yet through the auspices of

kAlaSakti (Brahman's power of Time) it is conceded that the ‘differentiated’

world emanates. This emanation (or rather ‘apparent emanation’) is produced by

—and produces— the sequence of ‘words’ and ‘thoughts’, and the instantaneous

understanding ‘I am’, which lies self-evidently at the ‘Door’, then becomes

plotted, — the Centre without circumference [appears to] become ‘located’ in

space. Predicates [other things which follow on] then abound....celebrated as

neither more nor less than One, (it) becomes fragmented because of recourse to

(its denotating) potentiality.

Although undifferentiated, it behaves as if differentiated because of

its(denotative) potentials. (Vakyapadiya, 1; 2)

‘I’ points to something, other than itself, and names it....

(Moderator’s note: Working through this slowly, it’s now felt that the mist is

beginning to thin out: because of a supposed separate ‘I’ there now have to be

so many things to keep the Illusion going. If the ‘I’ doesn’t maintain its

supposed relationship with many things, keeping itself busy, it is in ‘danger’

of dissolving. Hence Sri Bhagavan’s insistent and unremitting directive to turn

everything back to “I”, to enquire Who Am I? and trace the ‘I’-sense to its

source!

This series continues...

Footnotes

* Members who are familiar with Sri Bhagavan’s work ‘Self-Enquiry’ (in both

Question-and-Answer and Essay form) could do well to extend their reflective

studies by viewing His diagram of the Inner Chamber, door, mirror, and

‘external’ world ‘projected outwards’ via the medium of the senses. This

subject is currently under investigation in the Study Group called

‘The_Deep_Forty’, where Sri Bhagavan’s own words are examined. As the actual

references of his words are pinpointed, the serious student is able to

determine how a particular translation is arrived at.

What is particularly important about all this —as the shrewd reader will have

intuited by now!— is that all this is pointing directly, and unswervingly at

practical ways in which the individual can, with determination coupled with the

Grace of Ramana, perform — and succeed in!— the Atma Vichara, thus bringing an

end to all perceived ‘otherness’, and to heralds the end of suffering.

** Devotees will doubtless have the immediate recall of the Maha Rishi’s famous

Quip:“Go back the way you came”!

Siva—Siva

 

 

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