(Sep 26,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day –Bases of Vedanta by Swami Sivananda

Bases of Vedanta

Divine Life Society Publication: Bases of Vedanta by Swami Sivananda

Hari Om. Om Sat-Guru-Paramatmane Namah.

The purpose of life is the realization of one’s own essential nature. It is to know that you are the pure ever-free Atman. The Vedanta expounds the great truth that Atman alone is real, the phenomenal world is unreal. You are Atman, but you forget your real Svarupa due to identification with the body. This is called Deha-Adhyasa. This is the greatest obstacle to Self-Knowledge or Atma-Jnana. To get over this delusion of identification with body the Vedantic Seers have made a detailed analysis of the different bodies, gross and subtle, and systematically proved that the Jiva is not the body but is identical with the Paramatman. The study of the three bodies, the five sheaths and the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, helps man to understand that he is different from all these diverse modifications and that he is the unchanging, constant, witness of all these. This helps him to feel that he transcends the three states, the three bodies and the Panchakoshas.

Constant remembrance of this and meditation on this knowledge will lead him to the realization of his Atma-svarupa. Therefore, the study of the Panchakoshas is a valuable aid in the process of disassociating yourself from the bodies and the sheaths. It enables you to rise above body-consciousness, to feel that you are the Atman and thus remain quite unaffected and unattached amidst all distractions and tribulations of life.

The individual experiencer is a consciousness-center enveloped by several layers of matter existing as the factors causing objective awareness in it. The analysis of these layers or bodies is necessary to ascertain the nature of the true Self.

There are three bodies in every individual (Jiva).The physical body or the gross body (Sthula Sarira), the astral body or the subtle body (Sukshma Sarira or Lingadeha) and the causal body or the seed body (Karanasarira) are the three bodies.

The shell of a tamarind corresponds to the physical body. The pulp represents the subtle body. The seed corresponds to the causal body. Ice represents the physical body. H2O represents the subtle body. The Tanmatras or root-elements correspond to the causal body.

The physical body is composed of five elements, viz., earth (Prithivi), water (Apah), fire (Tejas), air (Vayu) and space (Akasa).

Asti (existence), Jayate (birth), Vardhate (growth), Viparinamate (change), Apaksheeyate (decay), Vinashyate (death), are the six modifications or changes of the body.

The body (Deha), action (Karma), love and hate (Raga-dvesha), egoism (Ahamkara), non-discrimination (Aviveka) and ignorance (Ajnana) are the seven links of the chain of Samsara (world-experience). From Ajnana (ignorance), Aviveka is born. Aviveka is non-discrimination between the real and the unreal. From Aviveka is born Ahamkara or egoism; from egoism is born Raga-dvesha (like and dislike); from Raga-dvesha Karma (action) arises; from Karma the body or the Deha is produced. If you want to free yourself from the pain of birth and death, destroy ignorance (Ajnana), the root cause of this Samsara (world-experience), through the attainment of the Knowledge of Brahman or the Absolute. When ignorance is removed, all the other links will be broken by themselves. This physical body of yours is the result of your past actions and is the seat of your enjoyment of pleasure and pain.

The subtle body is composed of nineteen principles (Tattvas), viz., five Jnana Indriyas or organs of knowledge, five Karma Indriyas or organs of action, five Pranas or vital airs, Manas or mind, Buddhi or intellect, Chitta or the subconscious and Ahamkara or the ego. It is a means of enjoying pleasure and pain. Subtle body get dissolved in Videha Mukti or disembodied Liberation.

The beginningless ignorance that is indescribable is called the causal body. It is the cause of the gross and the subtle bodies.

How to transcend the three bodies? Identify yourself with the All-pervading, Eternal Atman. Stand as a witness (Sakshi) of all experiences. Know that the Atman is always like a king - distinct from the body, organs, vital breaths, mind, intellect, ego and Prakriti - the Witness of their attributes.

Excerpts from:

Bases of Vedanta by Swami Sivananda

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(Sep 25,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Light on the Drama Theatre by Swami Krishnananda

Light on the Drama Theatre

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 10- The Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

The story of the Jiva may be said to be rooted in its consciousness of duality. This is its bondage, its movement towards the ‘other-than-itself’, and its freedom consists in its resting in the essence behind all empirical consciousness. Bondage which has been caused by non-discrimination can be removed only by correct discrimination. Hence it is the duty of everyone to correctly understand the true relation between the Jiva and the Paramatman.

The Jiva is, for all practical purposes, the notion of the ‘I’, the principle of individuality. The Jiva’s instrument of action is manas, the mind, or the Antahkarana, and its activity is in the form of its various transformations, both within and without. Inwardly, there is the notion of the ‘I’, and outwardly there is the apprehension of “this-ness” in regard to an object. This idea in regard to an external object, which is a general activity of the mind, is diversely interpreted by the senses in accordance with the special functions which they perform, such as seeing, hearing etc., but there is a third essentiality illumining both the doer and the deed, the witnessing Consciousness within, the Sakshin, as it is called, which instantaneously illumines the doer or knower, the mind and its modifications (Vrittis) and illumines also the various objects outside. This illumination is made not in succession, but simultaneously.  

The Sakshin, or the Witness Consciousness illumines the Chidabhasa, the Vrittis of the Antahkarana, and also the objects, at the same time. We have variegated sense-perceptions which are different from one another, but these are brought together in a single Consciousness, which knows all these varieties at once and illumines all these, like a lamp fixed in a stage or a drama theatre.

The lamp in the stage illumines, equally, the director, the actors, the musicians, as well as the audience, and it shines even if no one exists there. This is its specialty. The Sakshin within, the witnessing Consciousness, illumines the ego, the mind, and the objects, all alike, and it shines even when all these subside, as in the state of deep sleep. It is on account of the shining of the Sakshin, or the Kutastha, that the mind appears to have a light of its own and performs different functions. Here, in the analogy of the theatre, we may compare the ego to the director of the play, the senses to the musicians, and the objects to the witnessing audience. In this enactment, the mind is the actor which dances to the tune of the senses, the musicians. The Sakshin or the Witnessing Consciousness is comparable to the lamp which illumines all things in the stage.

The lamp in the stage illumines all things equally, from all sides, and shines also when there are no things to shine upon. In a similar manner, the Sakshin is a steady existence unmoving and unaffected and illumining everything inside and outside. This idea of an inside and outside arises on account of our judging things from the point of view of the body, and not from the point of view of the Sakshin itself. We say that the objects are outside because they are outside the body, and similarly we say that the ego is within, because it is inside the body. The standard of judgment is the body in all our conceptions, and our statements are involved in this conception of inside and outside.

The mind, which is within, moves without through the avenues of the senses, again and again, and this activity of the mind is falsely attributed to the Sakshin, and then it is said, “I see”, “I do”, and so on. Just as a beam of light proceeding from the Sun and passing through an aperture in a house may appear to be moving when a hand is passed or crossed over it rapidly, though there is no such motion in the light, so the Witnessing Consciousness appears to be actually active and undergoing changes etc., while these activities and changes belong to the intellect and the mind alone, due to their juxtaposition with the Witnessing Consciousness and on account of the transparent nature of the intellect and the mind, as there is a preponderance of Sattva here.

There is a reflection of the Consciousness in the Antahkarana, and the whole Samsara begins and has its roots in this confusion between the Antahkarana and the Atman, whereby the luminous character of the Atman is superimposed on the Antahkarana, whose character is transformation without self-consciousness, and, conversely, also, takes place a transference of the changes of the Antahkarana to the unchanging Atman. Thus, the Sakshin, which is always at the same place without any movement, appears to move and act when it is falsely associated with the psyche.

We cannot even say that the Sakshin is in any place, because it transcends space, time and individuality. We cannot say that it is everywhere, strictly speaking, because of there being no spatial conception in it. The Atman is neither inside, nor outside, nor everywhere. All these are the notions of the Jiva in terms of its spatio-temporal experiences. The Atman is the Witness of even the concepts of space, time and individuality, or objectivity. It is inexplicable by words and unthinkable by the mind, and ununderstandable by the intellect. In one word, it is trans-empirical. There is no way of grasping it by the senses or the mind. It is known only when all attempts of grasping cease.

When there is perfect equilibrium of the mind, a stillness born of Sattva, due to the absence of activity born of Rajas, the Atman shines by itself. Self-knowledge is its own proof and does not stand in need of any external proof. If, however, it is found difficult to completely cease from all psychic activity, then the other alternative would be to recognize the presence of the Atman as the unaffected Consciousness accompanying all cognitions and perceptions, as the light illumining all these, and yet apart from all these. This will lead, gradually, to a meditation on the real ‘I’ within. (Verses 1-26)

Excerpts from:

Light on the Drama Theatre - Chapter 10- The Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

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