GREAT TO READ - SESSION 7

A.Of the four components that were defined - mind, intellect, ego and memory - each has its field of operation. The mind in the above is the locus of emotional thoughts, classified as nine moods or feelings of expression (nava rasa-s) consisting of love, passion, anger, jealousy, etc. In addition, the mind is also a clearing house for input from the senses and output through the organs of action; it can be thought of as a receiving and dispatching clerk. Furthermore, it is also a 'doubting Thomas', entertaining all the doubts and the associated worries and indecisions. Some people cannot make up their minds easily, because they are dominated by this part of the mind, which is indecisive.

In contrast to the lower mind, the intellect can be considered as the ‘officer in charge’. Being both analytical and synthetic as well as objective, it can hop from the known to the unknown in order to gain knowledge.

the ego involves two aspects - 'I am this' (ahaMkAra) and 'that is mine' (mamakAra) or simply 'I and mine'

. I can reject anything and everything as not 'I' but I cannot reject 'I’- itself, since I have to be there in order to reject anything. This process of sublation or negation is called meditation, where I drop the false I in order to ascertain my real nature.

B.All subject-object (I and this) duality ceases in the deep sleep state, with ‘I’ alone remaining without any inclusions or exclusions, since there is no 'this' and 'that' that I can perceive. Vedanta says that cessation of identification of 'I' with any 'this' is the key to happiness. Therefore, the deep sleep experience points out that there is a possibility of existing as pure ‘I’, as consciousness and existence, without any identification with this or that.

C.When I realize my true nature, these false identifications or notions drop or, more correctly, the reality that I assign to the notions is withdrawn. Then, I will be 'as though' operating as pure self, without any false identification, treating the mind as just a subtle body that I can use to transact with the world, through the 19 gates discussed earlier.

D.All objective knowledge that is gained is stored in the memory, which forms the basis for all recognitions. We can build up our memory bank by gaining knowledge, storing the information and retrieving it whenever it is needed for communication and transactions. New knowledge is built based on the past knowledge stored in the memory. There are two aspects involved: the capacity to store and the capacity to retrieve that knowledge. Retrieval and re-storage keep the knowledge fresh in the memory and those that are retrieved less and less will get buried in the memory and retrieval will also become increasingly difficult.

E.Limitless though I am, I take myself to be limited; notionally, 'I am = this'. This leaves me with three fundamental limitations which can be expressed as a) I am a mortal b) I am unhappy and c) I am ignorant.

When I take myself to be the body, then body problems become my problems. The body, by its nature, undergoes six modifications: existence in the womb (asti) for seven to nine months; birth as a baby (jAyate); growing pains as a child to an adulthood (vardhate); modifications of the body (vipariNamati, i.e. problems of the grownups); slow disintegration with all the health problems in the world (apakshIyate) and ultimately kicking the bucket (vinasyati).

Reference & Courtesy: An introduction to Vedanta - Dr.Sadananda

GREAT TO READ - SESSION 6

A.Death is nothing but the separation of the subtle body from the gross body. The subtle body, consisting of the flow of thoughts constituting mind, intellect, ego and memory, gathers all its faculties – the faculties of senses, etc - and moves to different fields of experiences (lokas). It takes a new gross body by entering into the womb of a mother which we call ‘birth’. Birth and death are therefore the association and disassociation of the subtle body with a gross body. In the gross body, the consciousness reflects as existence – as ‘the body is’. In the subtle body, the consciousness is reflected as a being with notions of ‘I am this’.

B.If the truth cannot be known by any means, since all means are finite, then it must be a self-revealing and self-existing entity.Not only the truth is the pathless land, as Krishnamurthi declared, Vedanta goes one step further to indicate that the self-existent, self-conscious and infinite entity is nothing but your own self, where the seeker and the sought, or the subject and the object, merge into one infinite-existent-conscious entity.

If one examines one's mind carefully we find that our wanting mind is not happy in having what it wanted, since 'the want to have more' always remains, however much one has. Thus it rather wants to want than wants to have. That is the reflection of the conditioned state of mind.

C.The mind wants to be free from wanting and that desire for eternal freedom is intrinsic or inborn with the mind. It cannot but seek that unlimited happiness, though it cannot find it by any seeking. Longing for limitless freedom is inherent in all beings, but expressed more vividly in the human form, where 'conceptual thought' has reached its pinnacle by evolutionary process. Thus there is a fundamental human problem or dichotomy: he cannot but pursue a path to gain absolute inexhaustible happiness or freedom from all limitations, and he can never gain that happiness through any pursuit, since it is a path less land. This is where understanding the mind, its conditioning and how to transcend those conditionings so that the mind is ever free from all conditionings becomes important and this forms the fundamental or essential pursuit of human life.

It is interesting to note that any process of deconditioning the mind itself involves the mind or mental activity. That is, the mind itself conditions the mind, and it is also capable of deconditioning itself. Hence, Vedanta says 'mind is the problem and mind is the solution'.

D.From a Vedantic perspective (philosophical truths discussed in the end part of the Vedas called Upanishads), mind is considered to be subtle matter different from gross physical matter

Science can never prove or disprove the truth about myself, since its field of enquiry is limited to objective analysis or analysis of 'this' and not about the subject, I.

There is also confusion in that mapping of the brain is equated to mapping of the mind - it is like investigation of the hardware to find out about the problems in the software. Experience of pleasures and pains, emotions of love, compassion, fear, anxiety, hatred, etc are not easily quantifiable to determine cause-effect relations since they are subjective.

E.'Mind' is a general term used to designate the thinking aspect involved. In computer terminology it can be thought of as software in contrast to the hardware, namely the brain. In Vedanta, mind is considered as 'flow of thoughts' (vRRitti dhAra) or more correctly the basis on which the thoughts flow, rather than the flow itself. Just as a flow of water is called ‘river’, a flow of thoughts is the ‘mind’. We can have stagnant water but we cannot have stagnant thought, since thought itself involves a movement, although we could have regurgitated thoughts or a whirlpool of thoughts, when we are intensely attached to a particular theme. Mind can only think one thought at a time, but it can jump from one thought to the next like a monkey jumping from one branch to the other, without coming down to the ground. These are interconnected thoughts.

F.Death is defined as the separation of this subtle body from the gross body. The process of death involves mind collecting all its 19 physiological functions and exiting the body. According to Vedanta, death occurs when this subtle body finds the gross body no more conducive for its residence.

G.Parents give birth only to the physical body and not to the subtle body. The subtle body is considered to be made up of subtle matter, which is not perceptible to the sense organs.

Reference & Courtesy: An introduction to Vedanta - Dr.Sadananda

GREAT TO READ - SESSION 5

A.Brahman is that which the eyes cannot see, but that because of which the eyes have the capacity to see; know that alone to be Brahman and not this that you worship. It is that which ears cannot hear, but that because of which ears have the capacity to hear; know that alone to be Brahman and not this that you worship. It is that which you can not speak about but that because of which all speech is possible; know that alone to be Brahman and not this that you worship. It is that which the mind cannot think, but that because of which the mind has the capacity to think; know that alone to be Brahman and not this that you worship.

B.mAyA is that power because of which one appears to be many. Brahma is in charge of creation. For creation, knowledge - the know-how of how to create - is required and therefore he is married to sarasvatI, the goddess of knowledge. viShNu is in charge of maintenance, which is an expensive affair. He is married to the goddess of wealth, lakShmI. Lord Shiva is in charge of dissolution which requires all the missile power and therefore he is married to shakti or pArvatI.

C.If one asks the question: ‘what do I have to do to realize that I am Brahman?’ – What should be the answer? I am Brahman whether I realize it or not, just as the ring is gold, whether it recognizes it or not. What does the ring have to do to become gold? Does it have to sit down and meditate that ‘I am gold; I am gold’ etc? Does it have to do some selfless service or karma yoga, perform some religious activities, take a dip in the Holy Rivers or perform sacrifices, etc? None of them make a ring into gold. It has to simply understand what it is – it is nothing but pure gold and ‘ring’ is only a particular form with that name.

mokSha is freedom from limitations

D.When I say ‘I am’ (aham asmi), the ‘I’ refers to the consciousness aspect and the ‘am’ refers to the existence aspect.The individual or jIva arises as a combination of ‘I am’ plus the localized entity of body, mind and intellect with which I identify myself. sharIra, body, actually means that which slowly disintegrates.

This reflected consciousness (chidAbhAsa), is called jIva or the individual self. Some refer to this as ‘soul’, although what exactly this implies is not known.

E.Pure consciousness is all pervading and eternal. Its reflection through the medium of subtle and gross bodies is the expression of life. Identification with the reflection is the notion of the jIva.

Here, we note that reflection or refraction is not the problem. The VIBGYR pattern is not the problem, the existence of BMI complex is not the problem. Even their crookedness is not the problem. They are part of the nature just as existence of gold in varieties of ornamental forms is its nature. Then where is the problem? The problem arises with the identification of ‘I am this’. That is the problem arises when I take the image of reflection or reflected consciousness as the original I, the all pervading consciousness. Since ‘I am’ is ‘I am’ and ‘this is’ is ‘this is’, the existence of either of these two is not a problem just as gold is gold and ring is ring. When gold feels ‘I am a ring’- that identification with a name and form contributes to suffering or saMsAra.

Reference & Courtesy: An introduction to Vedanta by Dr.Sadananda

GREAT TO READ -SESSION 4

A.Mental images are nothing but thoughts in the mind. If someone says a word ‘cow’, immediately an image of a cow is brought in from the memory, even when there is no cow outside. The name cow and the image cow are now intimately associated with each other, as both are stored in memory.

B.Thought is like a wave in my consciousness – a name for a form. Thoughts arise in my consciousness, are sustained by my consciousness and go back into my consciousness. But consciousness is unaffected by the observed thought.

C.We have an absolute truth which is Brahman and we have relative errors: the one at the collective level (macro level) is called vyAvahArika satyam and the other at individual level called prAtibhAsika satyam. The error of the snake is at the individual level and we can call the snake a ‘subjective objectification’ or ‘I see it, therefore it is’ – I see a snake there and therefore it is a snake. The error at the collective level we can call ‘collective objectification’ or ‘it is, therefore I see it’. Even if I know that there is no real water in the mirage water, I still seem to see it, since the effects that caused the mirage did not disappear with the knowledge. The same analysis applies to the sunrise and sunset since the source of the error is not eliminated with the knowledge that the sun neither rises nor sets.What is recognized is that the plurality is only apparent and apparent plurality is not reality. The person who has gained that knowledge is called a jIvanmukta. By analogy, a scientist, knowing very well that everything is nothing but electrons protons and neutrons, can still enjoy the food while discarding the garbage.

D.Unreal is that which has no locus for existence at any time, for example the son of a barren woman. The unreal can never be experienced. Then what about the world? The world is experienced, therefore it is not unreal. But the world itself (jagat) continuously changes and hence it is not real either. We have to come up with another word which means neither real nor unreal – this is the definition of mithyA. The apparent superimpositions are not real since they are only apparent. But the substantive for the superimpositions is real since it is changeless.

E.Vedanta says creation is nothing but name and form, and the substantive of the world is nothing but Brahman. There is really no world to call as worldly substance. It is Brahman only in a variety of names and forms. Existence is the essential ingredient in all objects when we say ‘there IS an object with these attributes’. That ‘IS-ness’ is the existence part.

F.The senses cannot perceive space directly and the mind infers it, based on the object-object relation.

Einstein’s definition of Time is a gap between two sequential events in space, observed by an observer who does not change with time. Two simultaneous events define space and two sequential events define time.

Hence perception of time depends on the mind too. When there is no mind, or to put it more accurately when there are no thoughts, there is no time either.

G.Vedanta emphasizes that experience is different from knowledge. Knowledge involves understanding of the truth behind the experience.

Reference & Courtesy: An introduction to Vedanta by Dr.Sadananda

GREAT TO READ- SESSION 3

A.We know now that all materials are fundamentally made up of electrons, protons and neutrons. But we still distinguish food from garbage, even though we know that fundamentally they are made of up of the same fundamental units, which are just assembled differently.

B.The observed object depends on the observer, but the observer does not depend on the observed. That is, the consciousness of the observer is unaffected by the observations.

C. (a) Brahman and the world – both are infinite; 
(b) The world consists of objects which are finite and space containing the objects which is infinite; 
(c) Brahman is both the intelligent and the material cause for the universe; 
(d) Brahman is pure consciousness. Therefore consciousness has to be infinite. 
(e) The world is an inert or unconscious entity.

D.Only through its attributes can an object be distinguished from other objects. Without its attributes even the existence of the object cannot be established. The precise definition of an object therefore rests on the precise definition of its distinguishing attributes.Brahman being infinite cannot have attributes, just as space does not have any attributes.Consciousness is not an attribute of Brahman as some philosophers assume.

E.Brahman being infinite, it cannot be defined since whatever can be defined becomes an object, and thus limited by other objects. Object is different from the subject and that which is objectified can only be an inert entity, jadam. We now know that without consciousness, the existence of the world cannot be established. The world has two components – one is the finite objects and the other is the subtler one, space, which is infinite. There is also a third one that is part of the universe which arises with the interaction of Universe with the mind – the time concept. Understanding the Universe therefore involves not only understanding the objects, but also Space and time. Einstein showed that both space and time are relative or essentially related. Movement in space creates time and movement in time creates space. Space and time somehow are interlinked with the mind.

F.Existence of the object is intimately related to the knowledge of the object. I cannot talk about the existence of any object without knowledge of its existence, if not physically at least conceptually.

knowledge and existence of an object go together. They, in fact, are essentially the ‘chit’ and ‘sat’ aspects of Brahman.

G.Knowledge devoid of objects cannot be defined! Knowledge devoid of objects is nothing but the knowledge of the ‘subject’, I, which cannot be defined. Why can ‘I’ not be defined? Because, any definition is objectification, and ‘I am’ is the subject that cannot be objectified. At the most one can define ‘I’ only by means of a negative statement; ‘I’ is NOT that, which is not subject to objectification’.

H.Knowledge can only take places in the intellect. Let us examine closely the mechanics of how this knowledge takes place. Objects have attributes that can be measured by our five senses. Eyes can only see form and colors, nose the smell, tongue the taste, ears the sound and skin the texture (soft or hard etc). These are attributes only and not the substantive, which is the locus for these attributes. None of the senses can grasp the substantive of the object (substantive is the matter that the object is made up of).Perception involves sense input to the mind. The mind gathers the input from the senses, integrates all the input and projects an image in the mind with all the attributes it has gathered (form, color, smell, texture, etc). This is the cognitive process that occurs in the mind. The cognized image is then compared with the previous images stored in the memory by the intellect. If there is match, then the object is recognized (re-cognized).

Reference & Courtesy: An Introduction to Vedanta by Dr.Sadananda

GREAT TO READ- SESSION 2

A.The definition of shravaNa is the consistent systematic learning of Vedanta from a competent live teacher for a prolonged length of a time.

B.Suppose I am sitting in a pitch dark room and I cannot see anything. I am unaware of the existence of any object, since it is pitch dark. If someone calls me from outside and asks me if I am there in that dark room – what should be my answer? I cannot say ‘I do not see anything here; it is pitch dark. Therefore I do not know if I am here or not’. Should I say ‘I believe I am here’? Or should I say, ‘I can hear you, therefore I must be here somewhere’? How do I know, or what is the means of knowledge (pramANa) for me to know, that I am there and I am conscious? Do I have to see myself (perception) to know myself? Do I have to experience myself to know myself? Is it a belief that I am there because the scriptures say that I am there?

No means of knowledge is required to know that I am there or that I am a conscious entity. I am a self-evident and self-conscious entity, which Vedanta calls aprameya. (prameya is a thing to be known, or an object for a ‘pramANa’; aprameya means I am not an object for any pramANa.) In fact all pramANa-s, including Veda pramANa are validated by me since I am there and I am a conscious entity able to validate them. A Self-existent and self-conscious entity need not be known or experienced.

C.Only through renunciation one can attain liberation says Vedanta (tyAgenaike amRRitatvamaanasuH).

It is not physical renunciation of objects as some wrongly assume (although that does helps), but mental attachments to objects (as ‘I am this’ - ahaMkAra and ‘this is mine’ - mamakAra). I can only negate that which I am not; I cannot negate the true self that I am, since I have to be there even to execute negation. Hence what remains, after all negations are accomplished, is the negator, I, who cannot be negated. I cease to be even a negator, when all the negations are accomplished – I just remain as I am.

D.That which appears to be real but is not really real is what is called mithyA and the power that makes it look like real, even though it is not real, is called mAyA.

E.Next, where is the creator now, after creating the Universe? The creator cannot be inside the creation or outside the creation. He cannot be outside the creation since any outside would also have to be created; then that outside would be inside the creation. Hence there is no outside of the creation. He cannot be inside the creation either. In fact anything inside the creation cannot create this entire universe. In addition, if He were inside, He would be limited by the creation. Hence, he can neither be inside nor outside the creation. The only alternative is that He and the creation cannot be separated. Not only is he the material and intelligent cause, it also follows that he is inseparable from the creation. If the creation is infinite, He has to be infinite too.

F.The intelligent cause can only be a conscious entity while the material cause can only be an inert entity. In the case of the Universe both causes rest in one, just as in the creation of a spider’s web, both the intelligent and the material cause are one: the spider. But in the case of spider, the web becomes separate from the spider. In the case of the Universe, Vedanta says that the creator cannot be separated from the creation, since he is all-pervading, omnipresent or antaryAmin, in-dweller of everything.

Reference & Courtesy: An introduction to Vedanta by Dr.Sadananda

GREAT TO READ - SESSION 1

In this post, I cover some Vedantic topics.

A.Shankara defines the following requirements as ‘The four-fold qualifications’ – collectively called the ‘4-Ds’ for Vedantic study. These are:

1. Discrimination between what is eternal and what is ephemeral;

2. Dispassion to reject that which is ephemeral in order to gain that which is eternal;

3. Discipline of the mind to divert it from trivial or ephemeral pursuits in life in order to conserve the energy to pursue that which is eternal, and finally

4. Desire strong enough to motivate one in that pursuit without getting discouraged by any type of obstacles that arise.

B.Every gain involves a loss; every achievement involves a sacrifice of one thing or another. I thought I was going to be happy when I got married, but with marriage I lost the freedom of my bachelorhood.

We wanted wealth for security but now we are worried about the security of the wealth.

C.‘Any dependence on something other than yourself is slavery, while dependence on only yourself is freedom’.

D.‘That which has a beginning has an end or that which is born has to die and that which dies has to be born again’. If my heavenly abode has a beginning then it should end one day, as per the law. This applies even to liberation. If I am going to be free or liberated one day or at some time then it should end too. Hence freedom or mokSha cannot be of the type of gaining something that I do not have. If that freedom is not intrinsic to my nature, and I have to gain it by some process or by some grace, then it is equally likely that I will lose it.

E.Whatever I see, what ever I have, whatever I transact with are all objects. That includes this body that I claim as my body, my mind and my intellect. Whatever is mine is not me, the subject.

F.Vedanta is not an objective science, but about the subject, about ‘oneself’. Hence it cannot be objectified or quantified or described. In principle, words that are finite fail to describe that which is infinite. However, ‘words’ become proper tools in the hands of a competent teacher who can uplift his student’s mind, which has been properly trained in the contemplative thinking, to leap forward beyond the words in the direction indicated by the words. Thus words are only pointers and pointers are different from that which is pointed to.

H.An appropriate teacher will come when one is ready; just as a flower need not go in search of a bee - all it has to do is to bloom itself to its full glory and a bee shall come wherever the flower is’. The way to bloom is through karma yoga and with constant company of the good so that the mind will slowly bloom to recognize the higher values.

I.For any knowledge to takes place we need a means to know, just as to get an academic degree we need to register and complete its requirements at an accredited University. The means of knowledge is called ‘pramANa’. All perceptual knowledge is direct as long as the senses and the mind behind the senses are in operation.

Reference & courtesy: An introduction to Vedanta by Dr.Sadananda