Vishva, taijasa and praajnya - these are not distinct. It is one element alone that is termed in three ways (Maandooyka Kaarikaa 1). It is like saying that one person is called father in front of the son, son in front of his father, and husband in front of his wife. Similarly, the same brahman element is called vishva due to externalized knowledge, taijasa due to internalized knowledge, and praajnya due to the mass of prajnyaa (prajnyaanaghanataa). There is an entity who takes the refuge of thought flows and experiences external objects. That same entity materializes (moorta) his own pulsations to experience dream. That same entity, due to lack of thought flow in deep sleep, remains established as the witness of happiness and absence in deep sleep.
I alone have the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. By the recollection of this statement, by investigating and analyzing this, "I am different from all these places, I am one, I am pure, I am unattached" - in this manner, the oneness, pureness, unattachedness of the self is proven. This is the intent.
Here is the first lesson of tristate discrimination : we are not the body, we are distinct from the body, and the entire vishva is our inherent nature. In other words, we are vishva, not the arrogator individual soul of one body. Second lesson : Our mind is not limited to one body, all the pulsations of the vishva are our own. We are taijasa-hiranyagarbha, we pervade everything. Third lesson : We are not the enjoyer of the happiness of deep sleep in one body. Whatever bliss, rest, samaadhi is present in the macrocosm, is seen by me the praajnya.
If I am the vishva, then from whom should I have attraction-aversion? If I am taijasa-hiranyagarbha then how can there be any difference of opinion? If I am praajnya then where is the insistence of the internal organ's state-specific joys and sorrows?
If we see the self now, it is in waking state. He who sees, hears and touches is the self, and he who is being seen, heard and touched is also the self. In the dream, he who sees is the self and he who is seen is also the self. In deep sleep also, the self is the witness of happiness and absence of appearance, and happiness and absence are also the self. The states keep changing, but the the self remains firm as the witness of the states. This self alone is the tureeya essence. This tureeya essence alone stays in the waking, dream, deep sleep, vishva, taijasa, praajnya, meditator, meditation, meditated, sattva, tajas, tamas, knowledge-means-proof or in other words, in all of the trifectas. It's name is supreme self. It is in all three, and it is not in all three.
The shruti (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad) gives the illustration of a great fish. There is a big fish in a mighty river. Sometimes it stays in the flow of the river, sometimes in one bank, sometimes in the other. The banks are different, the flow is different, but the fish is one and is distinct from all of then. It is distinct from the water and the banks. Therefore it is unattached to the flow or to the banks. Similarly, when one aware alone stays in waking, dream and deep sleep, then it is distinct than the others, it is one in all the three, and is unattached to the three. [Since there is no other reality other than the self, and everything else which is seen is illusory, the self is unattached to the scene].
Upon investigating in this manner, the unattached nature of the self is experienced. There is recollection of the dream and deep sleep in the waking, therefore it is clear that I am distinct from the dream and deep sleep. I leave the waking and go to the dream or deep sleep. Therefore I am distinct from the waking. All three states are recollected by me, therefore I am in those three as their one witness. This is proven by experience.
Through the tristate discrimination, it becomes clear that in all these three states, the one who stays, the seer "I" is one, different from these states, pure knowledge, untouched by situations and is pure or unattached. Activities of injunction and prohibition, their cause which is attraction-aversion, their result joy-sorrow, and the arrogation of their doership-enjoyership, all these stay in the waking, become deformed in dreaming, and do not remain in deep sleep. Therefore, I the tristate witness has not connection or relationship with any of these.
Here is a secret! All three states of waking, dream and deep sleep are imagined in the self. Their superimposition is done to explain the tureeya nature of the self. Is deep sleep proven by experience? "I slept happily" - to whom did this knowledge happen? To whom it had happened, he did not sleep. Otherwise how could he experience it? And if he slept then the experience of sleep is illusory. He who slept did not experience, and he who experienced did not sleep. In reality, by identifying itself with the waking intellect, we superimpose the deep sleep of the intellect upon ourselves. If we separate intellect from experience, then the intellect slept, it cannot have the experience of its sleep. And the experience did not sleep. Therefore deep sleep is not in the form of a recollection, it is imagined and superimposed upon ourselves. The shruti says that the vision of the seer is never interrupted (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.23).
Like deep sleep, even our death is not proven by experience. "I am dead" - this experience or memory cannot happen to anyone. By identifying with the body, "I will die" - this fear-based thought-flow comes to a living person. You see death of another body, and with that, imagine your own death. You did not see yourself die, nor someone else die. You have only seen the death of the body. But does the body really die? It was made of five elements, it continues to be made of five elements. Then what died? Nothing died. Through ignorance of the self alone do we imagine death. The conclusion is this : Deep sleep and death are the release-oriented (agrahana) states of the self. Waking and dream are the other-catch (anyathaa grahana) states of the self. Dream is falsified (baadhita, made illusory) in waking, waking is falsified in dream. Both waking and dream are falsified in deep sleep. Deep sleep is imagined in its inherent nature. Therefore the entire world (prapancha), whether it is visible or invisible, is negated in the self, and the witness is the absolute reality.
States are imagined in the self. This is because only in the waking state are vishva, taijasa and praajnya experienced. In the waking state, the right eye is considered the residence of the vishva. In reality, the eye here symbolizes all the senses. The person in the right eye is the Vaishvaanara (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 4.2.2). When we experience the external world with our eyes, taking the support of sun, moon, fire and other deities or adhidaivas of the senses, then our name becomes vishva. When we perform compulsive thinking without senses, we see images of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Vrindaavan then we become taijasa. We we become quiet, when we do not see what is inside or outside, we enter into samaadhi, then we become praajnya. That which is distinct from vishva, taisaja and praajnya, but is strung in them, it is the I, the tureeya element.
The enjoyed and enjoyer of the waking, dream and deep sleep states seem distinct. In waking, there are gross enjoyments and the enjoyer is vishva. In dream, there are subtle enjoyments and the enjoyer is taijasa. In waking, bliss is enjoyed and the enjoyer is praajnya. But the enjoyment that is divided into gross, subtle and bliss is also one alone. Similarly, the three enjoyers called vishva, taijasa and praajnya area also one alone and it is me. In this manner, the one who knows the oneness of these several enjoyments and enjoyers both, does not get attached even while enjoying, because all enjoyed objects are enjoyments of one enjoyer alone. Fire burns its objects such as sticks etc., but still remains equanimous in its inherent nature. Similarly, the witness also enjoys his enjoyments, but remains equanimous in his inherent nature.
What is the enjoyed (bhogya)? Sound, touch, form, taste and smell, these alone are enjoyed. The senses also contain the same five elements as saattvic tanmaatraas, and the enjoyed are also made of these five elements, the taamasic tanmaatraas. Through the senses, mere knowledge (jnyaana maatra) of its enjoyments is going on. The knowledge of sound is its enjoyment, the knowledge of taste is its enjoyment. Being available (upalabdha) alone is enjoyership.
In reality, senses do not see matter, they see gunaas. Any substance is known only as sound, touch, form, taste and smell. The substance is inferred from these five. Now there are five substances, they have five tanmaatraas, there are five kinds of atoms, all this is inference. Then we can also infer that matter is one, and due to five senses, we attain it in five forms.
There is a difference between the method of elemental analysis in worldly science and that of analyzing the self element. Science accepts vision of machines, but since the senses themselves are defective, vision of machines is also proven defective. Therefore, the senses are more meaningful than machines. The science of the self accepts the immediate senses. The organs of knowledge give us five types of knowledge, therefore five types of elements are accepted. The senses are the means of these elements. The refuge-existence (aashraya sattaa) of taste is called water. That which is created out of merging two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, is not called water. Therefore, the means of the senses reveal gunaas, and in the form of the refuge-existence of the gunaas, matter is revealed.
The sensory knowledge is revealed by the mind alone. The mind alone changes into the form of sensory thought flows and imbibes the objects. The awareness which imbibes objects is called the mind. Knowledge that includes objects is called the internal organ (mind), and knowledge devoid of objects is called awareness.
The nature of awareness is observation (upalabdhi), knowledge. It is self illumined, therefore, illumination is its nature. Observation of waking, dream and deep sleep states is incorporated into its nature. Space, time, object, their establishment, non-establishment, their presence, absence, illuminating everyone, enabling their cognition (prateeti), is the nature of awareness. By enabling their cognition, it does not receive merit or sin, just like fire that does not get merit on burning butter, and does not get sin on burning waste. Sin or merit is received where there is independence to select whether or not to act. The nature of the sun is to illumine, whether there is merit or sin happening in that light. The sun does not receive merit or sin because of that. Similarly, there is purity-impurity in the enjoyed, merit or sin in the enjoyer. But the illuminator, seer, awareness who is illuminating the enjoyer and the enjoyed, is untainted by their attributes or faults.
Merit-sin, pure-impure, accepted-rejected etc. - such distinctions in knowledge is the object of knowledge. It stays in the intellect. Through this alone does life progress. The knowledge of the means and the goal is transactional. Its realm is knowledge of division. But the entire knowledge of division is subservient to the doer. But the reality of existence is not subservient to the doer. The knowledge of the truth is beyond time, is the same everywhere, is non-dual. Since, due to this knowledge of truth, each object is illumined as it really is, merit and sin do not arise.
The notion of doership alone alone is the doer which is tainted by action. The desire to transform an object through will or action is the cause of joy and sorrow. But, that in which doership and enjoyership are negated, that illuminator is never tainted.
What does being tainted mean? When there is a relationship between the "I" and the "this", then tainting happens. "I know", this means tainting has happened. The arrogator of the intellect is called the knower. This knower establishes a relationship with the "I" (witness). "I know" - this tainting happened. Intellect is different in each body, therefore, the knowers too are many. In each body, the knower is an appearance/reflection of awareness (chidaabhaasa). But the I or the witness of all scenes is one alone. He, through his vision alone, illumines the entire world. Then, this object is mine, this action is mine, this body is mine, I am the doer, I am the enjoyer - all this is being tainted. The witness is never tainted (nirlipta).
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