[Advaita-l] Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa - (KDAS-77)

[V. Krishnamurthy]

Namaste.

For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/advaitin/message/27766
For the previous post, see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/advaitin/message/33571

SECTION 64: MANANA THAT TRANSCENDS  INTELLECT;
NIDHIDHYAASANA THAT TRANSCENDS MENTAL FEELING
Tamil Original:  http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/dk6-137.htm

There are three authorities  -- shruti (the Vedas), yukti (reasoning),
anubhava (experience) - for knowing the Truth.  Of these it is said that
shruti corresponds to shravaNaM, yukti corresponds to mananaM and
anubhava corresponds to nidhidhyAsanaM. The mantras of shruti and all
the matters pertaining to Brahma-vidyA are heard by the disciple through
his ears (shrotra) from the guru. It is quite fitting therefore to
associate shravaNaM with shruti.

The concept of 'yukti' is a little more tough to be understood
correctly.  This 'yukti' (reasoning) is not the rational thinking by
which in the ordinary world we use our intellect to arrive at
conclusions. Nor has this word 'anubhava' (experience)  the common
connotation of experience that happens to us merely at the level of the
mind  in several alternating ways!  What is being said here is a 'yukti'
(reasoning)   that will be done, at the highest sophisticated level,  by
the mind and intellect - which have been flooded by shraddhA and bhakti,
calmed, rested and purified,  after all that sAdhanA --  when they are
converging to the very base of the ego for the purpose of destroying
that ego. Similarly, the 'anubhava' is what such refined and tempered
mind and intellect have known by this 'yukti',  as now experienced at
the deepest layer of the mind right from the very base of the ego.  I
dare not lecture about them now. If it truly happens to a fortunate one
amongst us, he will know it by himself. 

[Note by VK: Usually I don't add any word whose equivalent 
either in language or in sense does not exist in the Tamil original. 
In the above paragraph I have made one exception. 
The word 'sophisticated'  is mine. I am not very clear why I want it
there. But 
after having typed it almost without thinking, I feel that without it, I
am not 
getting the Mahaswamigal's mind!
Scholars should decide whether it should be there or not.]

That neutral state of peace and quiet is said to be sAtvikaM. On the
other hand, if we are vacillating by the force of emotion as we usually
are, that is called rAjasam. The reasoning of our intellect at such a
time is therefore rAjasic, and so,  wrong.  But the third stage sAdhaka
whom we are discussing now, has destroyed his rajasic intellect and made
it satvik.  The reasoning that it carries out will be totally different.
It will not be the reasoning that we do by objecting to the Truth and
the Shastras, circumscribing ourselves by a small boundary called
rationality. Instead it will be concordant with the ShAstraic Truth and
be the reasoning of a wisdom that is superior to 'rationality'. About
this the Acharya has said: 

Mokshaika-saktyA vishhayeshhu rAgaM
nirmUlya sannyasya ca sarva-karma /
sashraddhayA yaH shravaNAdi-nishhTo
rajaH svabhAvaM sa dhunoti buddheH // (Viveka Chudamani 182/184) 

The only involvement should be for Release (from samsAra).  All
attachment to sense objects should have been uprooted. And accordingly
leaving off all karmas, becoming a sannyAsi, whoever with shraddhA is
established in shravana, manana and nidhidhyAsana, he it is that
discards all rajas nature of the intellect. 

Note that the sAdhanA regimen of mumukshutvaM, sannyAsaM and shravaNa
etc. have all been mentioned. And in that state, the reasoning itself
will be unique. 

So also in that stage, the 'anubhava' or experience will also be
unrelated to the senses but related to the antarAtmA. 

[Laughing, the Mahaswamigal says] I am telling you in the manner of a
professor. That kind of reasoning will be 'super-rational' and the
experience 'mystic'!

MananaM, the process of mental repetitions of the upadesha, is for the
purpose of the mind to stay put  instead of giving any scope for
digression or distraction. It is this mananaM that is called 'AvRtti' in
Brahma-sUtra. "The Vedas have repeatedly prescribed repeated
memorisation": -- *asakRd upadeshAt* (IV - 1.1.) How long should one do
this memorisation? The Acharya replies with a sense of humour: If you
are told to husk paddy, you should not be asking 'how long should I husk
it?'.  You have to husk until you see the rice coming out.  So also
until the Atman comes out of the cloud of avidyA, you have to be in that
same thought, same repetition, same dhyAnaM. 



(To be Continued)
PraNAms to all students of advaita.
PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.
profvk