[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


Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

Latest addition to my website is the 4-page article on Krishnavatara, the Miraculous. Go to
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