[Advaita-l] Nidhidhyaasana - 3

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Nidhidhyaasana-3

The abidance in this knowledge takes
place slowly but steadily as one withdraws his mind from indulgence of
sense-objects or beings, where he had attachments.Instead the mind and
intellect turn towards his real nature as the all-pervading Brahman, expressing
in the verities of names and forms, yet unaffected by these superficial
expressions as they are not really real but only apparently real.  As a word of caution to the seekers, who have
done their shravana and manana, but not yet firmly abiding in the knowledge
gained, the strict discipline isadvised and one must be vigilant in not
indulging in vishayaanuchitta or contemplation on the sense objects or beings,
since any fall from the high will also be catastrophic. Hence Kathopanishad
warns the seeker that wise say that the path is like a razor-edge path; any
slip will be dangerous. kshurasyadhaaraanishitaaduratyayaa,durgampathanaatkavayovadanti. 
 
Hence Shankara says a jnaani once
understood the nature of reality via shravana and manana, must give up all
attachments to the BMI since he has learned that he is not in them but they are
in Him. They are by themselves inert and insentient and they appear to be
sentient only due to his blessings. 
satatavimalabhodha ananda
ruupamsvemetya
tyajajaDamalaruupaupaadhimetamsuduure|
athapunarapinaivasmaryataamvaanstavastu
smaraNavishayabhuutamkalpatekutsanaaya||
415
The one who has understood that his
nature is eternal, pure, consciousness, and limitless or happiness, rejects the
insentient limited and defective BMI or the upAdhi as not-I. Once discarded let
him not think again that as I am this or identify himself with the BMI as I am
this. Such re-identification is like trying to swallow again one’s own
vomiting. No intelligent man would like to do that. The self-knowledge requires
the supreme discriminative intellect that differentiates in the mixture of
aatma-anaatma that are ever present together as one, claiming oneself to be
aatma and thereby rejecting the anaatma as not the self.  This claiming the ownership that I am pure
existence-consciousness-limitless has to takes place by intellectual
discrimination or viveka only. This understanding also includes the aatma the
self that I am is complete and full by itself, while the not-self or anaatma is
only apparent names and forms with no substantiality of their own. Thus during
nidhidhyaasana we move from jiiva-jagat-Iswara triad to aatma-anaatma vichaara involving
apparent duality. Thus understanding of a-dvaita involves non-duality in spite
of apparent duality.  Swami
Paramarthanandaji calls this as moving from triangular format to binary format. 
 
Depending on the extent of abidance
in this knowledge gained by nidhidhyaasana, some have classified the jnaanis.
It is not classification based on jnaanam but classification based on the
abidance in the jnaanam. The different degrees of abidance arise due to the extent
of the remnant vaasanaas or likes and dislikes that one has. One such
classification is a) vidvaan, b) brahmavit and c) brahmavitvariShTa. The
BrahmavitvariShTa will never fall victim for anaatma, implying is all his likes
and dislikes or raaga-dweShaas are neutralized by constant abidance in the
knowledge that I am pure sat-chit-ananda swaruupa and not this BMI. He is
variShTa or nishTa or jnaana niShTa or aatma niShTa and SthitaPrajnaa that
Krishna discusses in the second Chapter. 
vishayaavinivartanteniraahaarasyadehinaH|
rasavarjamrasopyasyaparamdRiShTvaanivartate|| 
By withdrawing the mind from the
sense object one can control the mind to some extent. However to fully abide in
the knowledge one has to turn the mind and abide in the knowledge so that
lingering likes and dislikes get fully neutralized. 
 
By withdrawing the mind from sense
objects and constantly reveling on the pure sat-chit-ananda swaruupa aatma that
self that I am, the abidance in the truth occurs even at sub-conscious mind
level. Hence Krishna says this has to be achieved by constant practice –
abhyaasa and by giving up the emotional attachments to the BMI – vairaagya. For
such jnaananishTa, Shankara says in Vivekachudamani:
samuulametamparidahyavahnousadaatmanibrahmaNinirvikalpe|
tataHsvayam nitya vishuddabodha,
anandaastmanaatiShTatividvariShTaH|| - 416
The jnaana variShTa is called
vidvariShTa, essentially a jiivan mukta, as he abides in the knowledge of that
Brahman which is of the nature of pure existence self, without divisions of any
kind (nirvikalpa), and which is changeless, of the form of pure-consciousness
limitless by rejecting to the roots any identification with the gross body, as
though it is burn down equipment which has no further use. Krishna says in the
fire of knowledge all the karmas get burndown –
jnaanaagniHsarvakarmaaNibhasmasaatkurutetathaa – Karma here refers to also all
the lingering vaasanaas that were preventing the jnaani from jnaana niShTa. Here
burning down implies the rejection of reality assumed for the anaatma to the
roots and by recognizing it as mityaa. Bondage is a notion due to the reality
assumed for the world of things and beings including the BMI. A jnaani will
firmly abide in this knowledge that aatma alone is real, and further it is the
substantive for the entire jagat. The world is then seen as the superposition on
aatma or mere appearance just as rings and bangles,etc on gold. Gold can
declare that all ornaments are in Me but nay in reality no ornament is in Me. I
was, I am and I shall be pure gold without any attributes of the ornaments.
They are all only for name-sake but in reality they are all mithyaa or appears
to be real but not really real. Their trials and tribulations do not belong to
me, the gold. Hence Krishna says –mastaanisarvabhuutani – all beings are in Me;
but yet – nacamastaanibhuutani – there are really no beings in Me. That is the
jnaanam of a jnaana nishTa, one who firmly abides in the knowledge, while still
using in the transactional reality the BMI needed for transactions. Hence a
jnaana nishTa will be the one who while abiding in the knowledge that I am in
all and all in I am – sarvabhuutastamaatmaanamsarvabhuutanicaaatmani – yet does
not spare to punish the wicked while uplifting the noble at transactional level. -----------------------------------------