Then what should we do? Should we memorize each line of the Vedas? Should we learn how to give flowery sermons? Should we propitiate deities mentioned in the Vedas? Spend our entire life studying the scriptures and in performing social service? Spend all our time in devotion to our beloved deity (Ishta devataa)? What should we do such that the imbibing of the unreal drops, the delusion of the intellect ends, mumukshaa arises and ultimately, we attain liberation?
Shree Shankaraachaarya Bhagavaan says the following. No matter what you do and until when you do it, you will not be liberated for a hundred eons unless you realize the identity of the self and brahman (Vivekachoodamani 6). Even the Upanishads assert : "Without knowledge, liberation is not possible". "Knowing that, one can cross over death. There is no other way" (Shvetashvataashvara 3.8).
The question is this. What do you want to gain and what to you want to lose? In reality, you want to gain immortal existence, knowledge of the truth and the spontaneous independent knowledge-filled supreme bliss, and permanently lose association with inertness, death, sorrow and slavery. Inferiority, subservience, slavery, decay - we want to lose all of these. In other words, we want liberation, "moksha". If the desire for such liberation arises within us, it can only be fulfilled through knowing the identity of the self and brahman. Whatever is to be done by us, is to be done for this knowledge of identity (ekatva bodha).
Even if a person becomes advanced scholar of the scriptures, the desire for wealth and sense pleasure neither gets satiated, nor gets diminished.
Scholarship inflates one's ego. Now, scholarship can become a means of income or of oration, but not of liberation. Similarly, performance of Vedic rituals or propitiation of Vedic deities can give earthly and heavenly results, but it cannot create the attachment to happiness and cessation of subserviencem it cannot sever the illusion of disconnectedness (paricchinnataa). Therefore, rituals or worship cannot be the cause of liberation.
Samaadhi and meditation on a deity can ward off mental instability and evil, and that too for a while. but the sense of being a jeeva (doership-enjoyership, birth-death and disconnectedness) will not be removed. Therefore, even these cannot be the cause of liberation.
Action-oriented people say : "Do these rituals and you will either go to heaven or get a better birth". This fantasy is not liberation.
Worship-oriented people say : "Worship your chosen deity here and how. You will be absorbed in happiness in this life, and you will gain supreme bliss after reaching your deity's realm after death". But this is not liberation.
Yogis urge us to go into samaadhi, which will lead to establishment in kaivalya (the identity of pure witnessing awareness). This will end all sorrows and in their opinion, this is liberation. But, in this situation, the world and its pleasures, which are different than the witness, do not end. So then, neither does the notion of enjoyership end, nor does the notion of disconnectedness. Then how will subservience and ignorance end?
In the knowledge of the essence, liberation is nothing but our own true self. We are deprived of it only due to delusion. It is not created through action, nor through worship, nor through devotion. You cannot be established in it through yoga either. It is our own identity, as it is. It was always there, it is still there, and it will be there. Only due to a defect in the intellect has it been hidden as it were, has it been veiled as it were, has it been covered as it were. In the knowledge of the essence, efforts made to pierce this veil (avarana bhanga) are desired. Only this will result in the accomplishment of liberation.
Only through delusion does bondage exist, and only through knowledge and sensible understanding can we get liberation, this is the principle of Vedanta. In devotion, gaining a combination of sensible understanding (samajdaaree) and devotion, we get liberation by the grace of Ishvara. Even action-oriented people do not accept that liberation is obtained only through sensible understanding. They accept liberation through a combination of sensible understanding and performance of ordained rituals. Yogis accept liberation in a special state (sthiti-vishesha) through a combination of sensible understanding and practice of yoga. Even the very definition of sensible understanding differs in all these traditions. Then, even the identity of liberation differs. Shining, detached, pure, established on the "siddha shilaa", this is liberation as defined by the Jains. Annihilation of the mind (antahakarana) is considered as liberation by the followers of the Buddha. Non-attachment of the purusha is considered as liberation by the Saankhyaas. The Poorva Mimaansakaas define liberation as the disappearance of the relationship with the (paarthasaarathi) world. Some others define liberation as something received by the grace of an avataara or prophet. The self, which is perceived through the removal of ignorance, is defined as liberation in Vedanta.
Many religions are based on faith, the paths of action and yoga are based on effort, the path of devotion is based on grace, and Vedanta is based on contemplation.
It is a simple matter. If you do not strive for liberation, even after obtaining a human birth and having the power of intellect, then you are inflicting cruelty upon yourself, injustice upon yourself. The primary job of anyone who has an intellect is to put in efforts for liberation! How should one prepare for it? The preparation is this: Renounce the longing for happiness from external objects!
Renunciation (sanyaasa) does not mean dying one's clothes or roaming around in jungles. The casting off of all likings, desires and longing in the mind is called renunciation. Even in this, the casting off of the notion of happiness in the target these desires is called renunciation.
If you are trapped in the notion of deriving happiness from external objects, of eating them, of staying in them, then you will stuck for life. Neither will the types and designs of objects end, nor will the demand for them! And when there is no happiness in them to begin with, how will you ever get to real happiness by desiring fake happiness? You are negating the inner supreme divine happiness, and seeking it in external objects! What a convoluted situation! That which decays and perishes, how can you ever derive happiness from that? You have never tried to taste the happiness of the divine Ganga that flows inside you, but you have gone outside to buy fine liqour! You desire to be happy but you already have, within you, that which is happy by identity, why don't you wish to be happy by it? So then, at least you should begin with this notion : You desire happiness from external objects - renounce that desire.
After this, take the refuge of a saint. He will show you the path to liberation. Only he can become your teacher. A teacher is one who can reveal the supreme self. You ask him - "where is Ishvara?". He will point a finger to his chest and say "he is here". You ask him - "who is Ishvara?". He will point his finger to you and say "you are Ishvara".
That is why a guru is also called a "deshika". Deshinee is a finger. One who gives knowledge through it is called a deshika. "What, when, where is liberation?" On asking this, he will, with a gesture of his finger, say that "liberation is now, here, your own identity".
How is that teacher? He should be a great saint. One who is filled with existence (sat) is a saint (sant), not one who imposes greatness upon himself through external objects. He who becomes one with the great brahman is great himself. One whose vision is undivided, one who sees brahman everywhere, he is a saint.
You should go to a teacher, take refuge in him, learn from him, make him great and make yourself small. Whatever he teaches, respectfully entrust yourself in that teaching.
No one else can create any other means of knowledge for you. Renunciation is your own duty, and existence-awareness-bliss-ful brahman is your own identity. No one else can do all this for you. The desire for "Shakti paat" is a dream of lazy people who do not want to do anything by themselves.
A saadhu once told me - "now let's worship the lord". He performed shakti paat on me and instantly, the name of the lord came into my speech. Then it stopped. When I complained about this, he said - "Will I always have to speak from your mouth?"
Means, worship, renunciation - all this has to be done by oneself. Lazy, indolent people cannot pursue this path. Study of Vedanta is one thing, hearing (shravana) is another.
The doubt: "Whether Jiva is different from or identical with Brahman is treated in Vedanta or not" is Pramanagata Samshaya, i.e., doubt relating to the shrutis. "Is the difference between the individual soul and brahman true? Or is the identity between them true?" - Such sort of doubt is Prameyagata Samshaya. The perverted determination that the difference between the individual soul and brahman is true and the body and the world are true is Vipareetabhavana. Removal of all of these three through nidhidhyaasana (meditation) has to be done on one's own.
You are drowning in the ocean of this world (samsaara), only you can pull yourself out. You are a form made of five elements. This form is run by vital forces or praanas. Imposing the notion of me and mine on all of this is nothing but drowning in the ocean of this world.
Uplift yourself by yourself. The word "udhhaar" means: if some one has fallen down, bring him up, and don't let him fall down again. Now, the self is ever pure aware and free, how will it fall and rise again? Then, one who has identified himself with the fallen mind, he is the fallen one (patitaatmaa), and one who has identified himself with the uplifted mind, he is the uplifted one (utthithaatmaa). Therefore, uplift yourself by yourself. It means this: Endow yourself with the knowledge of the pure identity of the self, you who have identified yourself with the body under delusion, situate yourself in your true identity. Don't let yourself sink, don't get scattered, don't get uprooted.
You have scattered your own knowledge - a little in the lab, a little in books, and a little in your personal guru! You have scattered your own life - a little in the bank, a little in the business, a little in your life. Stop this scattering.
How to stop this scattering? For this, you need to bring a firm resolution in your life - I will only accept what is true in my life. And that which does not have any absolute difference within it, only that is true. This means that our entire life should be a continuous stream towards the experience of the absolute truth taught by the teacher.
This resolution will have a spontaneous result - unattached living. One who is moving his life towards a goal will not get stuck anywhere. This tendency to get stuck is an indication of attachment. When one imagines happiness in something, and one thinks of oneself as a enjoyer, then that person cannot help but get attached. The illusion of reality and pleasure, plus the illusion of enjoyership in the consumer of the objects, combine to give birth to attachment. But one who is constantly moving sees time, space and objects as ever changing. Then how, when, where, why and to what will be get stuck?
There are four kinds of attachments: attachment to action, result, doership and nondoership. The insistence that happiness is obtained through a certain action is called attachment to action. Listen, let the happiness enter, why do you care through which door it enters? Welcome your husband, whether he comes through this door or that, comes in an expensive car or a rented taxi. Attachment to action binds us to action.
The inspiration for action lies in the middle of the doer and the action. The result of action lies between the action and enjoyer. If the inspiration is a search for happiness, then the enjoyer will not remain stable in the result of action. When the result is in line with the inspiration, then attraction (raaga) arises, and when the result is not in line with the inspiration, then revulsion (dvesha) arises. This is attachment to the result. One who is inspired by a sense of duty, or to please the lord, or to make the best use of the situation, he will experience happiness at all times, and will not have attachment to the result.
Doing one action after another, this insistence is called attachment to doership. And not doing any action, because of the notion that the self is the non-doer, is called attachment to nondoership.
There will be sense objects, there will be actions, but there should not be attachment. Then you will not get stuck in the middle anywhere, and will reach your destination.
In this manner (1) resolution towards the truth and (2) the art of non-attachment - these two essential criteria are necessary for any mumukshu. But four other criteria are required for the accomplishment of liberation : (3) discrimination (4) courage (5) renunciation and (6) study of the self.
The ability to discriminate between the real and the unreal is called "pandaa". One who has this ability is called a "pandit". This ability is required in a mumukshu. Otherwise, it is possible that sometimes, he will treat the unreal as real. Parroting the scriptures or teaching or oratory is not scholarship. The shruti says that this self is not obtained through discourses, intellect or hearing.
The ability to withstand happiness and sorrow is called "dhairya" or courage. If one cannot withstand happiness, then his heart fails or he goes into a tizzy. He starts to demand things incessantly - I want this girlfriend, I want this object - this type of demand increases. I will do this, I will do that - this results in uncontrolled actions. Similarly, when one cannot bear sorrow then one cries while thumping his chest, goes crazy, becomes a dacoit, or also gets a heart attack. "One who is balanced in happiness and sorrow, only he is called a dheera and is fit to know the self" (Gita 2.15). If you lose your stability whenever you get something, or cry whenever you lose something, then how will you contemplate upon the self?
Ascertaining the conclusion of the Vedantic scriptures from the mouth of a teacher is called hearing (shravana). Reinforcing that meaning with similar thoughts, and rejecting opposite thoughts, is called contemplation (manana). The unbroken stream of thought that comes from hearing and contemplation, like the flow of oil, is called meditation (nidhidhyaasana). In meditation, opposite thoughts are negated and conducive thoughts flow. This hearing, contemplation and meditation is called study of the self, aatmaabhyaasa.
Abhyaasa, study means repetition. What do you constantly repeat in life? House, business, money, friends, enemies, don't you repeat all these, which are not the self? This study of the not-self which has entered into our life has to be refuted with study of the self. "I am the ever pure aware free brahman, I am unattached, I am the witness" and so on, in this manner. Only through such study does the power of knowledge arise, which will remove delusion. Just by imagining that we are the witness and by not performing study, it will not be removed.
Question: You talk of renouncing all actions, but don't the scriptures encourage action? Hasn't the lord given us sense organs and organs of action?
Answer: Agreed, the scriptures encourage action, but you should also understand the intention. And if you say that the lord has given you legs, do you walk all the time? Don't you rest? Listen, if the lord has given you legs, he has also given you sleep! So the lord has given you sense organs, that is fine, but he also given the ability to determine when to act and when not to act. The intent determines action and non action.
The scriptures encourage action, but there is an intention, and that is purification of the mind.
Our mind is made impure by sinful actions, by satisfying selfish desires, by actions committed under the influence of ego or misunderstanding. It begins to lean towards the unreal and the inert, and sees happiness in sorrow, sees liberation in bondage, immortality in wanton behaviour. It has become body-centered, ego-centered through delusion. It has found its goal in insignificant things and ideologies. In short, it has become filled with the dirt of action and the agitation of desire (vaasanaa). Therefore, the method of gaining liberation emphasizes scripture-sanctioned actions to rid the mind of these impurities. This enables it to start leaning towards knowledge.
Before aiming a gun, it needs to be cleaned. Similarly, the mind, intellect, memory and ego - collectively known as the antahakarana - is an instrument that has to be completely aimed towards liberation, but first it needs cleansing and purification.
Scriptural actions free a person from evil, selfish desire and ego. But after the mind has been purified, those actions have to given up eventually, which will destroy attachment to action and doership.
Wanton actions inflate the ego, and actions performed under the guidance of a teacher and the scriptures reduce the ego, and open their channel for inspiration.
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