Essence of Advaita -- A Question-Answer Session - Part
3/3
(Excerpted from Yogavaasishta, Chapter VI: Nirvana, Book
- II, Sarga 190)
Sage Vasishta: The misery being experienced in a dream will
vanish when you wake up. Similarly, the
sorrow of the world will go away with Self-realization. This is the only method to get rid of the
worldly unhappiness.
Rama: We do not achieve much by equating the dream
and wakeful worlds. How do the objects
appearing in dreams or the wakeful world lose their form?
Sage Vasishta: When you analyze the pros and cons of the
dream world after you wake up, you will easily see that even the hardest rocks
and mountains in a dream have after all no reality. Likewise if you investigate in depth from a
position of the Knowledge of Truth, you will let go the notion that the worldly
objects are real.
Rama: What does a Jivanmukta who achieved subtle
discretion through such an in depth inquiry see? How does he escape the illusory world?
Sage Vasishta: The world appears as if it was not there at
all to a Jivanmukta in whom the past innate tendencies are annihilated. The world appears like a hut in ruins or like
a castle in the air or like a fading water color painting on the wall.
Rama: What sort of experience does a Jivanmukta
with attenuated impressions get?
Sage Vasishta: He will gradually obtain the higher stages on
the Path of Knowledge. He will later
shed even the remnant impressions and finally achieve Nirvana.
Rama: The innate tendencies are an accretion from
innumerable past births. How do they get
erased in this birth?
Sage Vasishta: When once you realize the truth of what is,
the visible world which has originated in a fantasy will linger like a burnt
out seed. From then on, as the current
sufferage (praarabdha) gets expended,
even the minimal appearance of the world will fade away.
Rama: After a Jivanmukta stops perceiving the
visible objects as gross things, what steps does he have to take so that the
world does not get projected again? How
does he gain permanent peace?
Sage Vasishta: His mind transforms to Self. Hence he does not have to struggle to control
the mind. He will have no desire to
experience things. He doesn’t need to do
any thing anymore.
Rama: Though one knows that the world is as empty
as the thoughts of an infant, desire for experiencing the worldly objects does
not seem to wane. Even a baby cries if
its pet things are broken. That being
the state of the world, how is one to get rid of the temptation?
Sage Vasishta: Once you know for sure that the thing you are
running after is a product of fantasy, you will not regret its loss. Hence you should first make an effort to develop
proper care in discerning unambiguously an imaginary object from the true
thing. With that you will automatically
lose interest in experiencing worldly objects and will eventually attain peace.
Rama: The
illusion is produced by the mind. So we
have to understand the mind if we have to understand the illusion. What should we do to know the mind?
Sage Vasishta: Mind is the
name of Consciousness (chit) when It has
a propensity to be as an object (chetya).
You have to inquire in depth in order to experientially
understand this. Listening to my
instruction is itself an inquiry. The
past impressions will be weakened by the teaching.
Rama: Mind is not exterminated even by rigorous efforts
through Yoga. Past impressions are not
extinguished as long as there is an active mind. In order to achieve eternal Nirvana, mind has
to be annulled. How does this
transformation take place?
Sage Vasishta: The fact of matter is there are no
perceivables. Once this is realized,
what does the mind hang on to? If there
is nothing to grasp, mind itself falls off.
In other words, one has to wipe out the percepts. That means you have to arrive at a state
where no ‘thing’ is seen. This is the
only method to achieve a null-mind.
Rama: How do you deny what is being experienced? How do you brush it away?
Sage Vasishta: Look, what is it that is being
experienced? What is being experienced
by the ignorant is different from what is experienced by the Knowers of Truth. There is no ‘beingness’ in the objects experienced
by the ignoramus. There is no name or
form to what is experienced by the Knowers of Truth. It is ineffable. It is Non-dual.
Rama: What is the quality of the world seen by the
ignorant? Why is it not true? What is the quality of the world visible to
the Knowers of Truth? And why can’t we
express it in words?
Sage Vasishta: The world that appears to the ignorant has a
beginning and an end. It has an
origination and a dissolution (birth and death). The world of the Knowers of Truth does not
have such endpoints. Because the world
has never originated in their view, it has not been there at all! Hence it is inaccessible for words.
Rama: How does something that is not born at all
come into one’s experience?
Sage Vasishta: Just like the dreams!
Rama: The experiencing in dreams or daydreaming is
caused by the impressions acquired from the interactions with things in the
wakeful world.
Sage Vasishta: Do you experience the same object during
dreaming as you do in the wakeful state?
Or is it a different one?
Rama: It is the same thing as in the wakeful state
but in the form of impressions.
Sage Vasishta: Suppose a person had seen his house in a
collapsed condition in his dream. If we
go by what you say, his wakeful state house too should be in a collapsed
condition. But it does not happen like
that.
Rama: That is true.
We cannot hold that both are the same!
The dream house is different from the wakeful state house. Perhaps you intend to say that even the dream
house is another manifestation of the Supreme Brahman. Why then should that Brahman appear in the
form of a different world now?
Sage Vasishta: There is no rule to say that what you have
experienced now in the wakeful state has to appear in the dream state. Things that were experienced as well as
things that were not experienced in the wakeful state may appear in the dreams. Sometimes things that were once experienced
may appear as totally new in dreams.
These strange things happen depending upon the sum total of experiences
of that individual from the beginning of creation till now. Because of those experiences, the Supreme
Brahman appears now as another world. If
one is habituated to the appearance of the Supreme Brahman, he will see That
only even during dreams.
Rama: I surmise from this discussion that the world
comes into being in the same way as the dreams do for one who does not abide as
the Supreme Brahman. But the world possesses
us like a devil. How do we exorcize it?
Sage Vasishta: Inquire into the reason for the appearance of
the dream which is called as wakefulness.
Understand that the effect is not different form the cause. This is the only technique for you to follow.
Rama: I wrongly said a while ago that the wakeful
state objects are the reason for the dream world. The real reason for them is the mind. Hence mind is the cause for the wakeful state
objects.
Sage Vasishta: We have already seen that mind is none other
than Consciousness tending to be the percept.
So world in truth is none other than Consciousness.
Rama: The non- difference between Brahman and the
world is comparable then to the non-difference between a tree and its
branch. Why should we hold that the
world does not have beingness at all?
This is also called as ‘difference in non-difference.’ If all the worlds join together, it becomes
the collective mind. You may say that the
collective mind is equivalent to the Supreme Brahman. The individual worlds and the individual
minds will be its branches.
Sage Vasishta: No, such a proposition does not hold
water. First of all, the world does not
have a cause behind it. You cannot
attribute beingness to it. Hence the
world is not created at all! What
seemingly appears as the world is the immortal, ageless Supreme Brahman. There is no point in conceptualizing parts as
stem, branch etc. within something that was never born.
Rama: Yes, Teacher!
What you say is very true. The
originations and dissolutions, perceiving and experiencing etc. are mere illusions
like the Doctrine of Spurious Correlations based on The Crow and the Palm Fruit
Metaphor.
Sage Vasishta: There are
three Points of View – the Empirical viewpoint, the Logical viewpoint and the
Absolute viewpoint. Each one is stronger
than the other. I presented an exegesis
on the origin of the world from the Logical and Absolute viewpoints. The Logical viewpoint is based on robust
rational principles of inquiry. Expert Logicians
qualified to examining what is perceived through proper means of knowledge (pramANa) value it very highly. The Absolute viewpoint is respected by the
Jivanmuktas who have an immediate direct realization of the Supreme Truth by
following the triumvirate of Listening, Reflection and Contemplative Meditation
(Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyaasa).
Adopting these two viewpoints, I explicated the genesis of
the world right up to the Supreme Brahman where none of these three viewpoints
or the individual entertaining those viewpoints exists. Even void is absent there and It is free of phantasm).
Rama: You have put it very aptly,
Gurudev! The world is an illusion when
viewed from a logical perspective. From
the stance of Self-Knowledge, it is the Beingness of Brahman!
Sage Vasishta: True Indeed!
The Supreme Brahman becomes an individual, conducts an inquiry and
learns that He Himself is Brahman as well as this world!
Rama: And that is the surprise! Prior to the creation and after the dissolution
and later during the state of liberation, the Supreme Brahman shines as
One. No quarters (directions) exist at
any of those times. What lamp can
illuminate That!
Sage Vasishta: Yes, yes!
It is quite a mystery! Vedas also admit as much.
Rama, the illumination of Consciousness you are speaking
about is not like the light of Sun and other stars that you see every day. It is a lamp that illuminates all. It is the Light of the light.
Consciousness is the witness during the dream state. It is
also the objects seen in the dream as well as the act of seeing. All the three are One. This is the common experience familiar to
every person. Even then, he is unable to
accept when we say that the same one Consciousness appears in the form of a
triad – the seer, seen and the act of seeing - during the wakeful state
also. He is surprised when we explain in
detail. Only the ignorant feel this as a
surprise but not the Knowers of Truth.
You wondered how Consciousness would have shone when there
were no quarters (directions) at the beginning of the creation. Whether it is the beginning of creation, or
during dissolution or in liberation, the objects that are illuminated will be
non-existent but not the Illuminator Himself!
That condition is unlike any of the wakeful, dream or deep sleep
states. The lamp of Consciousness that
remains then is called Turiya.
Rama! Achieve that
Turiya! Ascending on the steps of the
Knowledge Path, abide firmly in It and be silent like a statue! Be in Nirvikalpa Samadhi! Ignore the evil minded people who talk
contrary to this.
Rama: Revered Teacher! If one understands the Truth as propounded by
you, there is no illusory world. It was
not there in the past. It is not there
now and it will not be there in the future.
[End of Part 3/3.]
