Guest guest Posted October 30, 2007 Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 Freinds, I quote here the Extract from swami Chinmayananda's book - 'Talks on Sankara's Vivekchodamani' Intrested ones will get a clear idea of the peerless Shankaracharya's teachings just by going thro' following extract. I personally found the following example given by Swami Chinmayananda, a very apt one and perfectly convincing. --Then what is Avidya? All that we can say about it is that it is a 'great wonder!' It can only be said to be indescribable (Anirvachaneeya). There is wonder when the intellect is not able to comprehend a thing. anything that i see and my intellect can not explain, i say is a 'wonder'. The more i think about this avidya, the more my intellect fails, because this aviday is the very cause for the intellect. The intellect cannot comprehend its own cause because it is the child born out of Maya and a child cannot go back to look for the womb. This Maya when it menifests, becomes the intellect. Therefore, the intellect cannot comprehend the unmanifest which is its own cause. The effect cannot, by itself, comprehend its own cause. Maya is also called a "Delusion", and a delusion can never be explained. There cannot be a biography of the ghost i saw on the post, nor can i grow rich by extracting 'silver' from the mother-of-pearl. This Maya-Shakti, we can only say, is an indescribable, mighty, inscrutable power of the Lord. Strange, for by his own inscrutable power a person deludes himself and says, "Tell me, tell me what is this power? Where is it?" A brahmin boy, one day, went to meet his friends in a students' hostel. That being the festival day of Holi, the boy's friends were preparing 'Thandai'- a cool drink in which a bit of opium is also added. In order to tease him they gave him a strong dose of the opium drink. The boy not being used to it, gupled it down somehow, unable to refuse his friends' offer. As the opium started having effect on him, he thought of going home. He felt that he could not go alone, so he started shouting, "Take me home! Take me home!" Now he was under the full influence of the intoxicant, and he shouted even more loudly, "Take me home! Take me home!" Then one of his friends took pity on him. He led him home and made him lie down on his bed. Not realising where he was, the boy continued shouting, "Take me home!" Hearing his meaningless shouts, his parents rushed to is bedside. They tried to tell him that he was already at home. But the boy would not stop his blabbering. Suspecting some mischief, the father questioned his friend and found out that he was under the intoxicating influence of opium. He then fetched some buter-milk which is an antidote and made him drink it. When he had drunk the butter-milk, the boy, in time, started coming to his senses. But he continued shouting, "Take me home!" After some time, he became fully conscious that he was reclining in his own bed, shouting, "Take me home!" In a flesh he realised how folish he was, that there was no need for him to shout, for he was already home. so he stopped shouting and thereafter, slept peacefully. Similarly, we, at the moment, under the influence of the opium of avidya-'non-apprehension' of reality, consider ourselves to be the body-mind-intellect and are supremely confused by the objects perceived, emotions felt and thoughts entertained. We cry out, "O Lord! O Teacher! Take me home. Give me peace. Make me happy!" Take you where? Give you what? In Reality you are the self, but due to avidya, you live and behave as though you are an ego. Take me to myself. Give me my own self. You are already in Om, which is your home. Your home is really Om. Never were you out of Om, your home. Hurry home! Hari Om! You ask, "Then why am i sufering?" All on account of this opium, the *Avidya*, which is within you. The Guru, the Teacher, will give you the butter-milk of the 'study of the Shastras', 'Spiritual discipline', etc. All these for what? To take you home which is Om, where you already are. Lack of correct thinking produces misconceptions. Think rightly. All misery will end. The text that teaches us to think correctly and discriminate properly is the Vivekchoodamani, the Crest-Jewel-of-Descrimination. ---- Om Tat Sat Utpal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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