1 Pujya Swamiji’s Guru Pūrnima Address 2013 This is Guru's day. Like mother's day, father's day, in our tradition this is the Vyāsa purṇimā, Vyāsa’s birthday. Vyāsa is our link to Bhagavān. We have to start somewhere. Beyond Vyāsa, there was Parāsara, his own father, then Śakti, then we trace the link to Bhagavān, to the source. Thanks to Vyāsa we have something concrete to talk about Narāyaṇa, Śakti and Parāsara. He connects us to all of them. Just as you need an uninterrupted connection for a flow of energy, you also need an uninterrupted conduit through which knowledge flows; the conduit for knowledge is mind-to- mind connection. Any discipline of knowledge is explored and gained knowledge. The exploration doesn’t stop and, sometimes, what is already thought of as true is given up in the light of additional knowledge. Like Newtonian laws were considered absolute once upon a time until the advent of Einstein. One sees there is always reshuffling and reorganizing in the paradigms of research and it is for this reason, these disciplines of knowledge cannot be really handed over. It is like the recommendation that a person drink two to three litres of water a day. If you have a kidney problem, however, it is the wrong thing to do. You must live on minimum water because there is no means of clearing it. Therefore, what is really handed over is only what you know, not knowledge itself. There is a lot of difference. When only what you know is handed over it means that ignorance and confusion can Inside this Issue Pujya Swamiji’s Guru Pūrṇima Address Swaminiji’s Closing Remarks at the Annual Priests’ Conference Gurukulam News One Month Vedānta Certificate Course Valedictory Ceremony and Guru Pūrṇima AVG CD Design & Publishing, Atlanta Week-long Vedanta Camp: Atlanta Muṇḍakopaniṣad Prātaḥ Smarānam Stotra Pañcadaśī AVG Anaikatti Update: Brahma Sūtras Reflections Student Reflections of the One Month Vedānta Camp Swaminiji’s Whirlwind Tour of Michigan One Year Anniversary at Dakṣiṇāmūrti Shrine Eugene Ayurveda Dr Hari Visits Oregon Regular Features Satsang with Swaminiji Swaminiji’s Travel/Teaching Schedule स"#ता Sūktā Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam Summer 2013
Transcript
1
Pujya Swamiji’s Guru Pūrnima Address 2013
This is Guru's day. Like mother's day, father's day, in our tradition this is the Vyāsa purṇimā, Vyāsa’s birthday. Vyāsa is our link to Bhagavān. We have to start somewhere. Beyond Vyāsa, there was Parāsara, his own father, then Śakti, then we trace the link to Bhagavān, to the source. Thanks to Vyāsa we have something concrete to talk about Narāyaṇa, Śakti and Parāsara. He connects us to all of them. Just as you need an uninterrupted connection for a flow of energy, you also need an uninterrupted conduit through which knowledge flows; the conduit for knowledge is mind-to-mind connection. Any discipline of knowledge is explored and gained knowledge. The exploration doesn’t stop and, sometimes, what is already thought of as true is given up in the light of additional knowledge. Like Newtonian laws were considered absolute once upon a time until the advent of Einstein. One sees there is always reshuffling and reorganizing in the paradigms of research and it is for this reason, these disciplines of knowledge cannot be really handed over. It is like the recommendation that a person drink two to three litres of water a day. If you have a kidney problem, however, it is the wrong thing to do. You must live on minimum water because there is no means of clearing it. Therefore, what is really handed over is only what you know, not knowledge itself. There is a lot of difference. When only what you know is handed over it means that ignorance and confusion can
Inside this IssuePujya Swamiji’s Guru Pūrṇima AddressSwaminiji’s Closing Remarks at the Annual Priests’ Conference
Gurukulam NewsOne Month Vedānta Certificate Course Valedictory Ceremony and Guru PūrṇimaAVG CD Design & Publishing, AtlantaWeek-long Vedanta Camp: Atlanta $ Muṇḍakopaniṣad$ Prātaḥ Smarānam Stotra$ PañcadaśīAVG Anaikatti Update: Brahma Sūtras
ReflectionsStudent Reflections of the One Month Vedānta CampSwaminiji’s Whirlwind Tour of MichiganOne Year Anniversary at Dakṣiṇāmūrti Shrine EugeneAyurveda Dr Hari Visits Oregon
Regular FeaturesSatsang with SwaminijiSwaminiji’s Travel/Teaching Schedule
स"#ताSūktā
Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam
Summer 2013
2
also sometimes be handed over. The only knowledge that can be handed over is knowledge that is not fraught with ignorance and that can only be possible if you are talking of the whole. If there are parts, even if one part is known another part will not be known. If it is knowledge of the whole, that knowledge will be total, complete, pūrṇa - being no parts, there is no possibility of knowing one part and not another. Pūrṇa bramha. Nowhere else in humanity do you have a tradition like this, where one hears that
there is whole, pūrṇa. That's why we have a teaching tradition. Pūrṇa cannot be independent from you; pūrṇa minus you is apūrṇa, not whole. Therefore, the tradition implies one-hundred percent communication. It is a tradition of teaching, not a belief system. It is kept alive because its content is fulfilling and much sought after. Knowingly or unknowingly everybody is seeking that wholeness, pūrṇatvam. Why? The human situation is one of being self-conscious and shy. If you ask a cow, "come", it will look up and come. It will not smooth its hair and then come - it will simply come. You ask a human being to come, and it will smooth its hair, check the mirror, and then come. The fear of being judged is always there. I am not acceptable to myself and therefore I require to be accepted by people. That is the human aspiration. It is
because of this self-conscious nature, and the desire to be acceptable, that the human being seems be designed to strive for pūrṇatvam; no human-being will rest content without gaining that pūrṇatvam , there is no way. What the human being wants, what the human being praises, is what India, this tradition, has to give to humanity. It is not that you come to know just because you are in India, however. Likewise, just because you are in Europe it doesn't mean that you won't come to know about it. To come to know that this knowledge exists, and to get the connection between the knowledge and my own aspiration to be pūrṇa, has to come from outside, from the guru. That is why everyday we should celebrate Vyāsa because Vyāsa is our link.He is not the author of the knowledge. He collected and edited the four Vedas, which includes the upaniṣads containing the message that one is pūrṇa, one is complete. He then highlighted this vision in his own words and works, such as the Bhagavad Gītā. Through his Brahma Sūtras he analysed the whole methodology of handing this knowledge over. Others who came after him, like Guadapāda, Ādi Shaṅkara all contributed to this foolproof methodology. It is necessary for the communication to be foolproof because there can be entropy in communication. You can mean one thing and the listener gets another thing. Before e-mail and mobile phones, urgent messages were sent by cable. Cables in those days were done on a teleprinter and the message was then cut and pasted. Pat sent her father one such cable message that read, SEND ME $500 CARE OF AMERICAN EXPRESS NICE LETTER FOLLOWS. When Pat’s father received the cable he didn’t know which American Express was he supposed to send the money to. American Express is all over the world. In fact, Pat had specified the American Express office - the city of Nice - Pat wasn’t telling her father that a ‘nice letter follows’. Entropy. Therefore, you have to make communication foolproof. Only then there is no blockage and the flow is complete. The teaching is you are the whole. Whole is brahman, bhagavān, parameśvara. Therefore, we don't look upon the guru who is teaching as different from what he is teaching. He is teaching you are the whole. He is not saying, I am not the whole, but you are the whole, that teaching is nonsense! He is teaching you are the whole, therefore, he is the whole. It
3
is the content of the teaching that makes the link as a guru, just a link for this knowledge to flow. Guru, the word, is also used to indicate an institution. Therefore, the word guru is retained for all the links in the teaching; Vyāsa is guru, and Vyāsa 's son is guru, Gaudapāda is guru, Ādi Shaṅkara is guru. So, on this day one worships the whole institution of guru. A guru is also an individual, a person, who has got back pain and headache and all that, therefore, we need to know what we are doing. For that there must be the sampradāya.I began my studies when a cousin I used to live with in Chennai told me that he was attending some lectures given by one Swami Chinmayananda. What is Muṇḍakopaniṣad? I asked him. I didn't even know the word upaniṣad. I knew Gītā , I had read a few verses in my school days when I had taken Sanskrit - one lesson was on Gītā. When I went to listen to Swamiji, to Muṇḍakopaniṣad, the verses sounded familiar to me, very familiar. That's it, I never thought of anything else afterwards. I know a little bit of journalism and I tried to help Swamiji editing books, preparing manuscripts and everything. I did a lot of seva. You can't imagine how much seva I did, I had some kind of an energy and dedication and inspiration. That seva does something, guru seva it’s uncanny, it never fails. When certain conflicts in the subject matter led me to Swami Pranavananda, he opened my eyes with reference to Vedānta being a pramāṇa, means of knowledge. It's a part of the whole process. Understanding Vedānta is a pramāṇa, hit me like a bolt. Everything got reshuffled in my head. Then, there is a lot of scholarship involved and for that I went to Rishikesh to Swami Taranandaji. The whole teaching is what it is all about. It is a pramāṇa. It is not a system, it is not a philosophy, it is a vision, a vision that is handed over,
that's all. You are a conduit, you are not a person. It's all grace. If I look at a verse and I see that it doesn't fit well in the whole scheme, and I
have a class, I just come to the class. I don't think how I am going to explain this. I know the grace is going to work -
one hundred percent. I will just come to class and then it comes, it is really true. Therefore you are not there.
That is what grace is about, you are not there. You are not an individual, you are an institution, you are a conduit. You can understand how I look upon the sampradāya, the traditional way of handing down the knowledge. I talk about it, not just teach. I talk about the sampradāya, about the whole methodology. It is sampradāya that delivers the goods; śāstra is a pramāṇa, and sampradāya makes it reach you. This is the day
of sampradāya and we connect ourselves to all the gurus.
If all that is here is one whole pūrṇa, which is pūrṇam vastu, otherwise called bhagavān,
parameśvara, then there is no gap between the created jagat and the creator, parameśvara. Pūrṇa -the whole
includes the jagat. Bhagavān cannot be just a maker living on the top floor like the builder of a block of flats who lives in the
penthouse, the house on top of all the flats he built below. If god created the world and is sitting somewhere, should it be inside space or outside space? If god has an address with an email identity it must be either inside the space or outside the space. What is outside space? All outside has to be inside space, there is no outside space. It does not make sense to say that god is sitting outside space. If god has an address, it has to be inside space. If he's sitting inside space someplace, you may call it heaven or whatever, then I will ask who created space? Inside space who created space? You would have to say that space is absolute, but that's not true. Space is also a part of the creation - time, space, jagat - the creation. Therefore, god cannot be outside space, nor inside space. There's only one alternative possible which is, space is god. Time is god. All the elements
4
are non-separate from god. Every blade of grass is non-separate from Īśvara. Nothing is outside of Īśvara, including bacteria and virus. All these are put together, implying some kind of intelligent sṛṣṭi, creation. This is what we call all knowledge. Īśvara that has the knowledge of all. Now, if all knowledge is Īśvara one thing we should know is that there is no new knowledge. What we are learning is only scraping off ignorance. Like an American lottery ticket. There is ink covering four pictures. If the four hidden pictures match, you have won. So, you don’t know if you have won when you buy the ticket. Let’s say that you need four pictures of flowers. If you get all the four flowers immediately you can win $500. You buy the ticket and scrape the ink off of the first one. Invariably it is a flower. Then you scrape off the second one, it is flower. Then you scrape off the next one, sometimes that is a flower also. But the last one will be a cat, or something else. Now you have the knowledge that you have lost. So in order to know what is here you have to scrape ignorance off. What is here is bhagavān. Whether you want to know one plus one is two, or E is equal to MC2 - the equation between energy and matter - or, if you want to know all that is here is pūrṇam brahma, and therefore I am not separate from it, cannot be separate from it, you have to scrape off ignorance. Even if you discover a fact, that fact is already existing. Therefore, every knowledge is from bhagavān, something generally believed but not understood. Even gaining knowledge about your own psychological issues is only scraping off ignorance. Therefore, guru is a scraper and on this day we pay our homage to this guru paraṁpara.
On July 21, 2013, we had dual reasons to celebrate. First it was the conclusion of the one month Vedānta course in which 126 students from 12 countries around the world, 62 of whom received certificates, participated. It was also the auspicious holy-day, Guru pūrṇima. The ceremonies began with abhiṣeka, the ritual bathing of the Lord Dakṣināmūrty. Each devotee had a turn bathing him with cream, juice, chandan water, turmeric water, and rosewater while Swaminiji chanted. He seemed to grow brighter with each round of bathing. Then, as he was being dressed, Swaminiji delivered a brief Vedānta class on the meaning of guru pūrṇima with her usual wit and humor. Most of what follows is an excerpt of her teaching. Of course, any misinterpretations or inaccuracies are my own. Guru pūrṇima literally means the full moon in honor of teachers. Just as there is a Mother's day and a Father's day in the U.S., in India, there is a day to honor not just one's guru but the whole lineage of teachers. It is also called Vyāsa pūrṇima since it is either the day that Lord Vyāsa attained mahāsamādhi or his birthday. Vyāsa is important because he was the first link to the tradition. The tradition is traced in two ways: either from Viṣṇu or from Śiva although they are essentially equivalent. The tradition says that all this knowledge about the self came from Bhagavān, the original teacher. “Who is the first teacher?” Swaminiji asked. Bhagavān only! Just as the first mother and first father can be traced to Bhagavān, so too can all knowledge be traced to that one source. Therefore, on Guru pūrṇima, Bhagavān is invoked as the first teacher.
One Month Vedanta Certificate Course Valedictory Function and Guru Pūrnima Celebration
by Shin Shin Tang
5
There are three common forms, or iṣṭa-devatas, for invoking Bhagavān. In one form, the Lord who appeared as a teacher is known as Nārāyaṇa, or Viṣṇu. Another form is through Lord Śiva. Finally, some who are Devi bhaktas prefer the hayagrīvā, which are 15 sacred syllables that are worshipped in the form of certain pūjas. It is not that one way is higher than the others; the teaching is exactly the same in each. Swaminiji further elaborated that there are two celestial gurus, Jupiter, and Venus. One's placement of Jupiter in one's horoscope can determine whether or not one has a predilection to pursue the knowledge. But even if Jupiter is not placed auspiciously, there is an alternative, Venus. Venus, or Śukrāchārya, is wrongly seen merely as an indicator of wealth, but actually it only indicates whether or not one will pursue self-knowledge. Even though Śukrāchārya was the teacher of the asūras and rakṣasas, demons, it is not the fault of Śukrāchārya that they were “baddies” since all gurus teach the same message and the same knowledge. Guru means the remover of self-ignorance. The syllable gu means ignorance; ru stands for the remover of ignorance. Even though we say “dance guru”, “music guru”, and “cooking guru”, really speaking, the word guru refers to the one who removes self-ignorance. Thus, Śukrāchārya, also taught about self-knowledge, but the asūras were not prepared for or even wanting to be prepared. The lack of preparation is for two reasons. According to the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, in one case the person is full of śraddha but has blocks, fears, and resistance, and the preparation takes time. Nonetheless, she or he is exerting effort. In the other case, the person does not exert any effort at all. This is how the asūras learning from Śukrāchārya were. Therefore, the asūras did not imbibe the knowledge.
Swaminiji summarized that we were talking about Śukrāchārya because if the placement of Jupiter in the natal chart is disturbed, one should look for the placement of Venus. Swaminiji kindly assured us that both will not be disrupted at the same time! One can ask the blessing of Śukrāchārya for enough wealth to pursue the knowledge, but ultimately to bless one with the knowledge itself. Self-knowledge is gained through the teacher alone, and the whole lineage is revered today. It is not about just one person because Hinduism does not have a founder. That's why it has a foundation! It is not based on any one individual. It is a surrender to the lineage that has kept this knowledge so beautifully and accessible. The teachings are based on the I that upholds the whole universe. Not the I that is mistaken for the body, mind, and senses. Therefore, this I alone is understood as the ultimate. The tradition that teaches this I is a tradition of paradox in which oneness is communicated through a division, guru-śiṣya (teacher-student), albeit an artificial division. Through that paradox, that which is uncommunicable, which is the truth of you alone, that luminous, self-shining you is communicated. On this day, with great humility and great love for the tradition, we revere the tradition for its potential to make the person sane. We also revere all the teachers, named and unnamed to bless everyone in the universe with these teachings. May they encounter these teachings in these lives and may they be nourished by these teachings. On this day, we also honor Swaminiji and her guru, Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswatiji. Swaminiji reminded us that what is important is not to be a sampradāya-kṛt, or one who starts a new lineage. Ādi Śaṅkara’s Muṇḍakopaniṣad bhāṣya says that the one who does not come from a sound lineage, a
6
lineage that does not distort the words of the Veda, should be discarded as a nonentity. Today, we humbly bow our heads to the sampradāya and to all our teachers. After this beautiful class, we chanted the 108 names of Pujya Dayananda Saraswatiji composed by Swaminiji herself. After this we performed pāduka pūja to sandals that Pujya Swamiji had worn in the United States. The ceremony ended with the students, both online and in Eugene, expressing their gratitude for the course, for Swaminiji, and the grace of the knowledge she is teaching us. We shared much laughter and felt close to our brothers and sisters around the world who had attended the course with us. May we all continue to have the grace to sit at her lotus feet and learn and may we be worthy students. Hari Om!
Gaining this knowledge is a process because even though in Vedānta, the means of self-knowledge is present, that knowledge is often subject to vagueness, doubt or error. This is because of lack of adhikāritvam -insufficient preparation of the student, to gain the knowledge. While the knowledge itself requires no ‘doing’, appropriate efforts have to be made to prepare the instrument of knowledge, the mind. Prior to finding the teacher it is seldom seen, even in śāstra, that a student has the maturity required to fully understand the teaching. How does one prepare the mind? Śāstra herself tells the mumukṣu what is required for the one desirous of gaining knowledge. Clearly, then, preparedness for the knowledge is not ordinary. Therefore, during śravaṇa one is also gaining knowledge of what it really takes to own up that one is no less than brahman - it is not a small undertaking. As you already are brahman, there is nothing really to be done - but to know that requires a lot of preparation. To see what it takes, one can look to one’s guru, to one’s teacher, and see how she or he is. The importance of the guru’s role is highlighted in Pujya Swamiji’s article on Guru pūrṇima in this edition. You will also see how this is recognized by students when you read the student reflections of the one-month Vedānta course conducted by Swaminiji recently. Guru and the knowledge are, as Swaminiji often says, a package deal.Preparedness also requires reducing, with the goal of resolving, one’s rāga-dveṣas. There are many ways to do this. One can simply give up a much desired food item for a period of time, make a decision to not put-off a routine chore around which one procrastinates, and also do guru seva. In guru seva one comes to recognize that the only one who benefits from the seva is the student him or herself. Knowing that everything is in order, the guru is not attached whether a student does or does not do seva, much less to the results of seva that is done. All is is order for the guru, whose only desire is for the well-being of the student. We invite our readers to submit questions regarding the teaching. The answers will be published in the satsang portion of the newsletter. At your discretion your name can be included with the question or not. We hope this will facilitate a greater sense of community and provide an opportunity for Swaminiji to ensure that doubts are being addressed. Please submit your questions to: [email protected]
Editorial
7
During her last visit to Atlanta Swaminiji asked us to set up a CD design and publishing center in Atlanta for all of her talks. The first project was to make 150 CDs of Muṇḍakopaniṣad talks held in Atlanta in June. With Swaminiji's guidance we designed the CD cover, insert and label. We ordered the stationery from Amazon and acquired access to a laser color printer. Using a CD duplicator machine, we created 150 CDs. 50 CDs will go to India for the gurukulam bookstores in Coimbatore and Rishikesh, 50 CDs will go to Eugene and Saylorsburg. The remaining 50 CDs are to sell during retreats. We will also set up an online store for CD sales through AVG’s website using an e-commerce module. We will work under the guidance and direction of Swamini to publish CDs and distribute/sell as needed.
Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam CD Design and Publishing Centre, Atlanta
by Shobha and Parsu
Often people are wary of meditation because they feel they cannot find the time to incorporate one more thing into their already crowded daily routine. Yet, without some time for introspection, one can get easily stressed and destabilized, thereby losing the sense of clarity and focus in one’s life. This CD, containing seven guided meditations, is especially designed for busy people. Each session is around 10-12 minutes long and will assist practitioners at all levels to feel refreshed and energized even when they do not have a lot of time to meditate. This MP3 CD was released by Pujya Swamiji in 2007, and is being reprinted by popular demand.
Available Soon
8
This 2 CD set contains 16 meditations on a variety of topics. Starting w i t h t h e posture to be a s s u m e d , comprehensive guidance is g i v e n throughout to a i d t h e m e d i t a t o r discover the self that is naturally free of strife and sorrow. The m e d i t a t i o n sessions also demons t ra te how one can
overcome chronic feelings of alienation from the whole by establishing a strong connection with Īśvara through nāma-japa, the repetition of a mantra.
If you would like to order copies of any or all of the CDs please contact Shobha Parasuram at
In Muṇḍakopaniṣad there is a parable of the two birds sitting on the same branch of a tree, one of which feeds on berries while the other looks on quietly. The two birds represent the finite self and the infinite being. These talks illustrate that one is not just an assemblage of the body, mind, and the senses. Everything in this universe, starting with one’s own body, is an o b j e c t o f observation, distinct from oneself, who identifies as “I” the subject. Although one is somewhat
aware of this, it is very easy to get entangled in what one is not, and end up mistaking oneself to be as good as the body or the mind, as good as one’s possessions or profession. Whenever one identifies with the finite, one is subject to fear and sorrow. The parable of the two birds is used in a unique method to delineate the witness, the one who is aware of all thoughts and actions, and is free of afflictions. This inner witness is revealed as none other than Īśvara, God. The study of these verses imparts a clarity and courage, and strengthens one’s integration with the sākṣī, the witness. Consequently, one is able to play one’s roles effectively in life cheerfully and without stress.
I really admire the way you explain each word and make us clearly understand. I have learned a lot through Chapter 12, about śraddha
and bhakti. Also some good values from Upaniṣad which bring us closer to the self. Shanthi Chandra
An understanding that moved me deeply during class is the effortlessness of the way knowledge takes place when the knower's mind is prepared. It was heartening to know that before Hinduism became patriarchal, girls along with boys were eligible for upanāyanam and
gurukula education. Medha Shilpa
It is the guru alone who rids you of the notion of being a small, insecure jīva, to owning up to the limitless brahman, which is your essential svarūpa. The message of the upaniṣads is not mysterious at all, it only requires preparedness on part of the student, and expertise on part of the teacher. Prashant Parikh
I feel like whatever I came searching for in this lifetime, the search is really over—something I "knew" since I "found" Vedānta but the course has provided me with a more defined sense of it.
Fernanda Beccaglia
This has been an intense and sometimes confusing month of many different concepts in a new (for me) language which has culminated in a single lovely message. I have an awakening
awareness of brahman and it is making possible a new view of who I am and how I interact in the world in a more loving
manner. Judy Conti
What is ātmān? Ātmān is that which is self evident What is ajñāni? An ajñāni is one who is unaware of the truth of oneself as the ever present ātmān What is Īśvara? Īśvara is both the material as well as the efficient cause of all that is here Who is the guru, and is the guru necessary? The guru is the one who, by śabda-pramāṇa, removes the ignorance
of the jīva¯. Shibu Shivaramakrishnan
The lyrical beauty and the sublimity of Kaivalya Upaniṣad, and the ease and eloquence with which the message has been conveyed inspire the seeker to seek more and more.
Subbalakshmi Vekitadri
My internal sun despite shining effulgently could never sift through my mind/manas' that was clouded by ignorance and deep rooted desires. I was like lost despite knowing so much. I found solace when I entered the śravaṇa Ballroom of Swamini Svatmavidyananda
Anand Iyer
I have gained knowledge that will lead me to my true self. My sādhana will continue so as not to forget.
Hemang Trivedi
You have helped me crystallize my perceptions and provided focus to my pursuit. Naresh Desai
Nothing else that I learnt ever told me “I am ignorant” and still made me yearn for it more and more. “There is no separation between Īśvara and me”. This was said during the first Śvetesvatara Upaniṣad class and that has been echoing all along in my mind
Nanda Harish Parasuraman
I learned (1) what is infallible is Īśvara alone– this has made me minimise my expectations from everyone. (2) That if I can place Īśvara in my intellect or rather as my intellect, I can invoke the grace of Īśvara through my prayers to help me make the right decisions. (3) The chariot example you gave from the Kaṭhopaniṣad – our body to the chariot, Kṛṣṇa to our intellect, the reins he holds to our mind, the five horses to our five senses which run behind sense objects, and that if our intellect is not strong enough, it cannot rein in our mind which runs helter-skelter behind the sense organs, which are in turn in the control of the sense objects. Malathy
11
Even while listening to serious subjects like Vedānta (rather seriously), I often get some silly questions in my mind, somewhat connected to the topic. E. g., Samsāra is equated to the danger---infested turbulent ocean, not only in Vedānta but also in bhajans etc. but haven’t heard what the shore is like. My silly question here is, if and when one crosses the ocean and reaches the end (mokṣa?) what does he/she reach imagery-wise? Jagadeesha Achary
Sat, the truth of what is, one, non-dual, cit, ānanda. It is my own svarūpa which is not known to me until avidyā vanishes in the wake of knowledge Aruna Sharma
The manner in which the classes proceed with so much clarity and simple explanations is such that I
can go on and on listening. Also my contemplation and reflection has gone deeper as the clarity is profound. Bina Nangia
For the last one month these classes were sort of motivation for me . I looked forward to that 8pm CST session. I want to continue this class if not for the entire week, at least once or twice a week. Shalini Mishra
May I imbibe a karma-yoga attitude in my day to day life and prepare myself to own up to the mahāvākya, "Tat Tvam Asi " Smita Agarwala
Listening to the teachings on a daily basis was very good for me, and helped me to keep the goal of understanding the truth of myself
as my highest priority. It was harder to fall back into my habitual orientations, when I was either in a class or getting ready to go to class
almost all of the time! Kate Herse
Through śravana the teachings are creating a deep sense of peace that is unrelated to anything that is happening in my life. Sita Kramer
The analysis of the different modes of the mind in the Fifteenth chapter of the Pañcadaśī gave me a greater understanding
of the nature of the unconscious Vera Vandendries
Understanding the words of the teacher intellectually is very different than assimilating the knowledge in one’s life. As the doer, who claims to be the owner of all types of knowledge, was falsified by all the prakriyās in the teaching tradition, I became more aware of my rather unnoticed “addiction” to the status of doership and to that of the experiencer. Harinder Khalsa
You have helped me crystallize my perceptions and provided focus to my pursuit.
Naresh Desai
Swamini’s talks ripened the understanding that this world is only a camping ground and therefore mortal possessions and earthly glories need to be used wisely and well. No one can really glory in captivity and therefore clinging to the transient, is simply fluttering around helplessly, even if it be a gilded cage. Vasanthi S Tank
Sanskrit classes were the most interesting and I have developed a keen interest to further
continue learning the language which I’m sure will help me understand the other topics
better. Sankar Krishnan
Vedanta helped me to understand how I am nameless, placeless and traceless. Being brahman you are not your name, your race, your religion, your nationality. You are everything and everywhere. You are like a mirror that has no specific identity; therefore, it can reflect everything on its surface, and everything can see itself through it. Nafiseh Mostofi
12
There is a lot to write, think and assimilate about the month long course that flew by so fast. To describe it as amazing , beautiful, thought provoking, astounding and so on would all be an understatement. The Pañcadaśī, which happens to be my favorite text since I first got exposed to it, is like a ready reference book that I carry close to my heart and tap on from time to time . What the author had to say about acquiring the knowledge of the self as non-
separate from Īśvara, and how he also dealt with it, with great compassion and replete with details, is simply astounding. But I cannot express in mere English, how Swaminiji dissected and, analyzed the marvelous work into words of clarity, interspersed with great stories, anecdotes wit and puns to exemplify mundane experiences, to make a point. It was truly enthralling four weeks so that all one wants is to imbibe it all now. Sri Vidyaranya’s opening verses of the 15th Chapter of Pañcadaśī states, with great compassion to the seeker, that even simple joys derived from finite objects can be the doorway to the understanding of the ānanda derived from the infinite. It was a great start to whet ones appetite to know more. Of course he then gently steers us through the three states of mind in great detail and how they affect our minds and our actions and keeps us in saṁsāra. The ghora and mūḍha vṛttis are completely inimical to the individual and helps to take him deeper into the saṁsāra. So the importance of developing a śānta vṛtti was
expounded , and that the state of mind in this mode is most conducive to arriving at the truth of oneself. A word of caution not to equate the śānta vṛtti as the knowledge itself. Since hearing this I have taken great delight in watching my mind and trying to bring it to the śānta mode to modify my speech, actions and interactions in my daily life. What a great gift! Then one can call upon the six pack, śama, dama, uparati, titikṣā, śraddhā, and samādhāna, so that one can achieve viveka and vairāgya. This facilitates the understanding of the truth of oneself. He also expounds the four ways of meditation/ contemplation to help firmly establish the knowledge in the seeker . My own meditation /contemplation has undergone refinement with the new awareness that came from the teachings. Once again I humbly express my gratitude and reverence to Swaminiji, for gently pushing me to take the course, and all that I have received. You have indeed been my ‘Savior’ on many occasions. Hari Om
Our month-long intensive Vedanta course with Swaminiji ended July 20, 2013. On this day, the reading in my small book, “Spiritual Diary, An Inspirational Thought for Each Day” said this: “If I were to give you the gift that I would like best of all to offer you, it would be the right attitude toward God and Guru; toward life; toward your work; toward the others of your group. But the best gifts cannot be purchased and given. The gifts and graces of the soul must be acquired by patient, daily practice. All will surely be yours in time, for if you do not obtain
One Month Vedanta Camp Reflections: Pañcadaśīby Leela Krishnamurthy
One Month Vedanta Camp Reflectionsby RamaGiri Rondeaux
13
them in the position to which God has called you, where, in all the world, are they to be found?” –Sri Gyanamata (SRF). These words likely resonate for all who listened to Swaminiji giving us that gift which is beyond price. The gift found in the right attitude of glad acceptance of the grace in prārabdha karma which brings one to the teaching. A teaching that, with daily nididhyāsana, reveals where Īśvara and guru are to be found, acirat, soon.The next day at the valedictory celebration, students were asked for reflections. Asked if anyone would like to say anything, I remained silent because I did not want to speak. Had I spoken then, I’d likely have talked about two questions asked on the class registration form: “Why are you taking this course?”, and “What do you expect to get out of this course?” To the first question I wrote ‘when ācārya teaches, the student should listen’. To the second question, my answer was that ‘I expected the opportunity to silently sit in śravana’. Swaminiji taught seven days a week. I, skipping Sanskrit, sat and listened six days, and while I attended every other class, my samādāna, resolve, was weak.Driving back to Swaminiji’s kutir after the celebrations and satsaṅg, I was asked by Swaminiji which text I had most liked. I answered Pañcadaśī Chapter 15. Swaminiji has long encouraged us to understand ananta, and cautioned about the confusions around ānanda. It was nice to hear the teaching of our joyous nature, our svarūpānanda. “Write about it”, Swamini said. “Oh, I guess I ought to have answered Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 12, as it is the shortest text,” I replied. “Write about everything”, Swaminiji said.What is a student’s reflection? A mālā of thoughts strung on the paraṁpara of the teaching; thoughts about God, guru and self. When reflecting upon this knowledge, the knower and knowing, can the student avoid shining light on the self? The true self, the light of all lights, the subject of the teachings is vaguely known as brahman. However, the upādhi, the jīva, the student, cannot be ignored. Only by shining the light upon the student’s body-mind-sense complex -- upon the story of me, can the student come to know success in the preparations for the knowledge. In every land and time, people are born, live and die in an imagined world, a shared agreement about nature and truth; a model of reality.
Sometimes one is exposed to a new model that can both fully explain the world as it has been understood, and also totally shake one’s understanding to the core. Vedānta, for me, is this model. It is not new, but as ancient as all creation. What is the key that unlocks this new “point of view”? It is śabda pramāna, the devotion of showing up consistently to sit in the sound of guruji’s words, whether online or in the same room. Even to watch and listen to a recording of guruji can bring amazement as the student sees in the teaching past given, the relevance now to the student’s present concerns. These moments wherein it seems to the śiṣya that the ācārya intimately knows śiṣya’s heart can be disconcerting, until the realization that the non-separate teacher is presenting the non-separate teaching to the non-separate student. Suddenly the rule of time no longer applies; the veil of māyā begins to thin out like the morning fog. Think about anything as you will: slice, dice, study, investigate, classify, measure or simply go mad. Mind and matter, theology and science, it is all but one as seen from different points of view. Remember the blind men and the tree trunks, water hoses, fans, and elephant tails that are taken for whisks. Many confusions and dilemmas fall
14
away in the knowledge of Kaivalya, only-ness. The view is the non-dual
all-ness that we seemingly experience as the duality of “I” and “that” (not-I); aham and idam. The point of view is the view, but the view is not the point of view. Hearing of the identity of my self and the ground of all being was only the beginning. Surely there was something more; I sought to “know” it. As the center of the limitless universe, surely I should know myself as not only ananta, but
also ānanda, for there isn’t any otherness to limit joyousness. Where, in all the world, is joy to be
found if not in the very center of Kaivalya? And if ānanda is to be
known as the nature of my being, it is not an experience. If ānanda is
my true nature, then no experience can lack ānanda. Ānanda is, so to speak, the unity of knower, knowing and known. So I see the śāstras say.I am remembering the first words I heard Swaminiji speak, in Eugene at an ongoing 11th of the month interfaith service in Eugene. She spoke of seva. She spoke of the ‘you’ we mysteriously see as ‘not me’. During the Vedānta camp, in Kaivalyopaniṣad class, Swaminiji told us of tvam pada vichāra, the inquiry into ‘you’. But I thought that ‘I’ was the object of this inquiry. If I am now to inquire into the nature of you to understand the nature of me, if “tat tvam asi” means the nature of thee, then apparently some upādhi unwinding is to be done. In my notes, the words following tvam pada vicāra are “Īśvara siddhi”, establishing Īśvara.One’s intentionality toward life and work, when combined with right attitude, can unveil the obstacles in life and balance the śiṣya’s lack of
qualifications. Swaminiji has told us that it is important to maintain an altar of surrender and to keep Īśvara as the view. In Eugene, students of Vedānta, are are blessed with the opportunity to perform daily abhiṣeka for B h a g a v ā n D a k ṣ i n ā m ū r t i . Presently I am one of the sevaks taking advantage of this blessing. Swaminiji certainly had suggested I be a sevak and if she asked, I declined, procrastinated, avoided and delayed. When from a gurubahin I learned recently how few śiṣyas here maintain the Lord, I knew my right attitude “toward the others of your group” required a yes to surrendering at the altar, even though I think I have no qualifications. “If I were to give (I) the gift that I would like best of all to offer (I), it would be the right attitude (samādānam) toward God and Guru (Īśvara śṛṣṭi); toward life (jīva śṛṣṭi); toward (one’s) work (svakarma); toward the others of the group (samatva and seva). But the best gifts cannot be purchased and given (mokṣa jnāna). The gifts and graces (adhikāritvam) of the soul (jīva) must be acquired by patient, daily practice (śravana, manana, nididhyāsana, pūja and japa). All will surely be yours in time (acira), for if (I) do not obtain them in the position to which God has called (manuṣa śarīra), where, in all the world, are they to be found?
15
Swaminiji Svatmavidyananda gave a series of talks on Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad in Atlanta in the month of June. Swaminiji used the imagery from Muṇḍaka of two birds sitting on a tree to describe the general condition of duality within a jīva and how the jīva can heal this duality within. Swaminiji, like the Upaniṣad, is full of love and compassion. By her vivid teaching, Swaminiji lifted us from wherever we were to another level of understanding of ourselves.Many questions arise around oneself, such as, what is it that makes one act? Why is that one cannot stop acting? Who guides the actions? Is there a guide at all? What is this feeling of ‘disconnect’ between what I call ‘myself’ and this guide? What is this confusion one feels within oneself, especially so when one is adharmic in one’s actions? How to heal this duality? The jīva, through self-ignorance, identifies itself as a separate and finite entity thus suffering. The self-ignorance is removed only by the knowledge found in the Upaniṣads . That knowledge, Swaminiji explained, would heal the duality within and allow one to lead a stress-free and cheerful life.Upaniṣad is a body of self-knowledge that dispels ignorance, uprooting it totally and unifying one with the truth of oneself, with the recognition that all that is here is one whole. Being whole, there is nothing to save
one from and there is no crisis one can be in. The Upaniṣad is in the form of a dialogue, samvāda, between the teacher and the student. The teaching cannot happen without questions and answers because doubts must be resolved. When one has any doubts, the knowledge is not assimilated and one cannot abide, have niṣṭa, in this knowledge.The human being is full of desires which are the cause of all actions. There is nothing wrong in having desires and in fact, the first portion of the Vedas show a way to fulfill these desires through actions, karmas, that are in keeping with dharma. Karma, yield two kinds of results. One is an immediate result, drṣṭa phala, the seen results of any action and, second is adrṣṭa phala, that which is not seen right away, but that will instead manifest gradually over time. When one begins to get bored of desires, one starts questioning the purpose of one’s own actions. One sees that pursuing the time bound pursuits leads only to further pursuits, and so one starts to seek for that which is timeless. In Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, the student, Śaunaka, having very well understood that the jīva ends up in failure by hunting for the infinite in finite places, approaches the sage Angiras. Śaunaka asks the sage, ‘What is that one thing knowing which everything becomes known?’ Sage Angiras tells Śaunaka, ‘You are the Whole. That which you are, the subject, is not available as an object for sight, is not the object of hearing. Anything you observe is not you! Anything you observe is an object that is finite. You cannot observe you because the observer is you!’ It is important to understand that whatever I, the ātman, observes is anātma, not I. Ātman is not an object of observation, does not belong to any category, lineage, or place, and is free of parts. At the same time, ātman is the source of everything, the whole universe.Using beautiful imagery the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (3.1.1) describes two birds in a tree. One bird keeps hopping from branch to branch sampling many berries of different tastes, looking for a sweet berry. The other bird is just looking and observing and not doing anything. It simply lights up the effort of the hopping bird.The berry tasting bird tastes both sweet and non-sweet berries while searching for a sweet berry. This is similar to human beings facing desirable and undesirable results, puṇya and pāpa, while trying to fulfill
Talks on Mundaka Upanisad: Vedānta Week, Atlantaby Usha Venkateswaran
16
desires. Only when one is blessed by the knowledge one can localize the difficulties, and then actions do not affect one in the same way. As a cognitive being, the human being seems to experience duality. This gives rise to the sense of there being two entities, one that is śānta and the other that is aśānta, abiding in the same personality. Being śānta, one is totally at peace with oneself, with the world, and with Īśvara. This experience is had by everyone in sleep. Aśānta is the one that is always disturbed, always looking to satisfy desires, always bogged down by disappointments. The observer bird that is simply looking on is similar to śānta while the berry seeking bird is aśānta. This aśānta, makes the human being run around looking to fulfill its desires, like the berry seeking bird even in non-berry season! If śānta is experienced in the waking state it is because one’s desire is fulfilled, and it is momentary.
The śānta bird is free while the self-ignorant aśānta bird feels trapped behind the bars of samsāra and struggles. Self-ignorance leads to desire, kāma, which leads one to karma, and karma phala, which again lead to kāma and the repeated cycle of doing. Doing is not what is wrong, rather taking oneself to be the doer is the mistake. When one takes oneself to be the doer, like the berry-tasting bird, one will experience puṇya and pāpa. When one understands that one is an instrument in the doing, one is freed from puṇya and pāpa. Vedānta questions the motivation of action. Due to ignorance one struggles by one’s actions to bring a sense of completion, not realizing that the fullness is within and not outside. When one realizes that there is a problem with one’s vision and that what one needs is removal of self-ignorance, then a direction to the quest of removing the self-ignorance is
17
seen. The removal of ignorance happens only by knowledge, only by the study of Vedānta. As this knowledge requires a complete shift in one’s cognition one requires śraddhā, in the upaniṣads. Śraddhā is suspending one’s belief that there is separation between oneself and Īśvara, until one understands the message of the upaniṣads .Upaniṣads says that one is not separate from Īśvara, even though one feels a sense of separation. This belief is based on a severe body identification, tādātmyam and is of three kinds:(i) Natural identification, sahajam tādātmyam: This is because one is the managing trustee of the body. The human body has a human mind where one feels the presence of all the senses and the actions of sense organs and therefore feels identified with the body. This identification is set up by Īśvara and it is not something that can be removed. This type of identification with the body exists even for a jñāni.(ii) Identification born of action, karmajam tādātmyam: Each body is just right for the particular jīva to exhaust its karma in this particular life. This cannot be changed.(iii) Identification born of delusion, bhrāntijam tādātmyam: This is a jīva sriṣṭi. This can be removed and has to be removed to know the non-separation with Īśvara. This message of the upaniṣads is to be understood. When upaniṣad says ‘tat tvam asi’, tvam being jīva, tat being Īśvara, it seems at the outset that there is no similarity at all between jīva and Īśvara in the equation. But, there are similarities underneath the apparent differences. The differences are dismissed as apparent and identity is discovered in spite of the differences. When everything that changes is removed from the jīva side, only awareness or consciousness, the truth of the jīva, remains. The truth of the jīva is brahman. From the Īśvara side, the Īśvaratvam,
Īśvara status, is removed since Īśvara does not have the status of creator always. Once the Īśvara status is gone, universe and laws, etc., are also gone. What is left is brahman. Jīva’s ignorance makes it think that it is in trouble. Anīśa, the one who says one is not Īśa, Īśvara, alone is in trouble. As long as one firmly identifies with anīśa, one has to keep doing everything possible in order to physically, ritualistically, karmikally obliterate the perceived differences between oneself and Īśvara. Anīśa has to surrender to Īśa through prayers, devotion, and worship until one gets to know the non-separation between Īśa and anīśa. One’s prayer should be, help me to know myself as non-separate from you. Let me see you in everything including myself. Thus the so-called duality is used to obliterate the duality. Study of Vedānta helps one to slowly change
from being anīśa to Īśa. When one is Īśa, one is more compassionate, tolerant, accommodative, and lets people to be the way they are, has less desire to control, and feels more joy and security and allows everything to just be. When the person understands there is no separation between oneself and the maker of the universe, between oneself and the universe, and between oneself and the total, then there is no grief. The person is fulfilled, joyous, complete, and free. Īśa means more sattva and more śraddhā. The same person under the power of delusion, anīśa, is covered with rajas and tamas, and becomes impatient, irritable, annoyed, angry and fearful. Anīśa brings about sorrow and grief. Therefore, one has to pray for more of Īśa and less of anīśa. Knowledge helps to replace anīśa with Īśa. When the limited prayerfully surrenders to the limitless, what is left is limitless. The glory of limitless becomes one’s own glory. One feels one with the world and peaceful. The slippage from Īśa to anīśa appears suddenly when everything is fine. That is when to stop and quietly recognize it. One need not go into the guilt state, which is only due to non-understanding but be alert and
18
eradicate it. Anīśa cannot be the doer and has to understand this and give up the anīśatva and recognize that the real doer is Īśvara alone. When one takes away the doership from Īśvara, the separation from Īśvara feels real. This feeling of separation alone causes problems of commissions and omissions, of doing, and jīva enjoys, neither being the doer, nor the experiencer of the results of doing. As a result one starts questioning one’s actions. This is the lament of anīśa. This is the lament of samsāra. One must learn self-forgiveness and surrender at an altar that has the power to alter one! It helps one to let go of one’s pains and sorrows and
transform from anīśa to Īśa. Anīśa is nothing but misidentified and misplaced sense of ‘I’ ness. Anīśa has to be taught that it is not the doer. Whenever one thinks of oneself as the doer, kartā, or as the experiencer, bhoktā, one experiences the slippage from Īśa to anīśa.When the doer is falsified and recognized as Īśvara then all the pāpa and puṇya karmas disappear. Anīśa may be ready to let go of pāpa but wants to hang onto puṇya out of ignorance. This Anīśa is what one has to get out of. What has to be given up really is only one’s smallness and the sense of ownership of all that is finite in order to discover oneself as infinite. One has to elevate the thinking from the individual person hanging onto small threads and possessions to thinking ‘big’. One who gives up the doership and sees oneself as Īśa, is free of desire, anger, ego, delusion, greed, and jealousy. One can discover this oneness that is already there only through knowledge. The dharma road is the one that takes one to mokṣa. One has to travel the dharma road till it is internalized as the truth of oneself. Only then one becomes ready for knowledge. In terms of action as preparation, dharma is the first puruṣārtha gaining which one becomes qualified to go
for mokṣa. The one whose likes and dislikes, rāga-dveśa, are tempered down, the one who is always with the mind and intellect, one whose ego is not out of bounds, gains the truth of oneself as all-pervading ātma, the ultimate goal. Success is not in fulfilling one’s desires. Success is in being with Īśa always, not anīśa. When one has Īśa with oneself, there is no mountain one cannot climb, no job that is too hard, no challenge one cannot overcome. When one follows the guidance of Īśvara there is abundance and success.One has to stop looking at the world with a highly subjective angle of the inner child, the one who is stunted. One has to see that everything is in place to grow up. One should take care to not suppress or disown the inner child but take control of it. One has to parent the inner child oneself. In fact, the difficulties faced in resolving all the hurts and pains alone make one come to gain the knowledge. One must place the inner child in the lap of Bhagavān with a prayer, let there be more of Īśa and less of me in me. When there is more of Īśvara, there is more compassion, more self-forgiveness, less perfectionism, more accommodation and less guilt and hurt. So one grows out of subjective vision of the inner child and sees the world for what it is. One sees the universe and all the beings for what they are. One sees Īśvara for what Īśvara is.
19
Bhagavān’s grace and guru’s blessings helped us all to host the first Vedānta week in Atlanta successfully. We had weekday morning sessions on Ādi Shaṅkara’s Prātaḥ Smarānam Stotra and weekday evening sessions on Swami Vidyaranya’s Pañchadaśī Chapter 7 titled Tṛpti dīpaḥ. Both sessions were well attended. The week ended with a Retreat at the North America Shirdi Sai Temple. Prātaḥ Smarānam Stotra is probably one of the shortest texts written - three verses and phala śruti. Swaminiji assured us that these are not ordinary but earth-shattering verses that revolutionize the way one thinks about three things – jīva, individual; jagat, the world around us; and Īśvara, the one who created this jagat. The mind is rife with varied conclusions and confusions about these three things. The jīva is equated to a sad fellow, who is confused on whether the
‘I’ is sad or happy, complete or incomplete, wanting or non-wanting. The jagat seems to be okay one day when things seem to go right, but not okay on other days. Īśvara seems to be at the centre of religious wars that are taking place as various religions defend their understanding of Īśvara. The confusions have to be removed, something that is not possible without questioning the conclusions.
yatsvapna-jāgara-suṣuptmavaiti nityaṁtadbrahma-niṣkalamahaṁ na ca bhūtasaṅghaḥ 1
Prātaḥ smarānam means morning prayer. Generally our mornings are filled with a litany of thoughts where the daily time table becomes our stotra – I have to cook, clean namaḥ, I have to go to work namaḥ, why is this not happening namaḥ, why is the world treating me like this namaḥ. Morning is actually a time of re-awakening. Sleep is a time when the ahaṅkāra is resolved into Īśvara, although one is not aware of it! So after sleep there is a newness to the I or ahaṅkāra which is unencumbered by the
residues of guilt and hurt of yesterday. Therefore, morning becomes a time of new possibilities, new ways to relate to people from a place of joy and forgiveness. Morning is also important because it is a sandhi, juncture, between two periods of time when the sun is about to come. Chanting this stotra can serve to interrupt the usual state of affairs. The first line invites one to contemplate upon the very awareness of one’s own presence, ātman. Smarāmi here means contemplation – not remember as it is usually translated. One doesn’t have to remember oneself, one never forgets one exists, in spite of the identity confusion!Swaminiji suggested that if it is difficult to be aware of that presence, which is very subtle, we could think of this body as a temple and that I am living in this temple. This makes a little space between the body and I. Similarly we can make space between the mind and I by being aware of the thoughts ‘I am’ and stopping there without appending adjectives for the body-mind-sense complex. Hṛdi here refers does not refer to a physical place but that awareness of the self that is lighting up all thoughts. The mind, thoughts, are more often than not calculating, what will I get out of this, is anything happening, am I calmer – but here Ādi Shaṅkara is referring to I, the witness, saṁspuradātman tattvam, that is free of the body-mind-sense complex,.The ātma-tattva never goes to sleep it is saṁspura – ever shining ātman. Therefore, this prayer by the devotee to wake-up Bhagavān is actually for the devotee’s sake. ‘As though’ waking up Bhagavān in this way allows the devotee to forge a necessary relationship with Bhagavān, a relationship that
resolves when, through the teaching, one comes to know that there is no difference between oneself and Īśvara. The truth of oneself is none other than ātman, which is unaffected by all projections of persona and personality. Then the verse gives a description of ātman – sat-cit-sukham. Sat is the only thing that exists. The is-ness of the flower, or any other object, does not belong to the flower but to ātman. Least one think this existence is insentient, the word cit, sentience, is added. Where there is sentience it is borrowed from ātman alone. The ‘I’ or ātman lends its sentience to many bodies, many minds. Just as one sun appears like 20 when its reflection is seen shining in twenty pots of water. This sentience never comes to end and is therefore called the parama sukha – it is limitless happiness. Being the source of all experiential sukha, happiness, this sukha cannot come from an object, as does experiential sukha which appears to rise upon contact between I and an object of desire. Parama sukha is the very nature of the self.The verse continues, paramahaṁsa gatim. One who destroys ignorance, ajñānam, of the parama, the ultimate truth of oneself, is called haṁsa. A jñāni, being free of saṁsara, is called paramahaṁsa. Therefore, paramahaṁsa gatim refers to the one who has the goal of being free from saṁsara.Then the verse talks of ātman as that which uphold the three states of
21
jāgara -waking; suṣupta-sleep; and svapna-dream. Although not a state, ātman is referred to here as the fourth, turīya. It is this turīya that upholds the three states, while remaining untouched by any of them.The final line the verse reveals the essential identity of Brahman and I saying, tad brahma niṣkalam aham – that divisionless brahman is the ‘I’. By pointing out that brahma is niṣkalam, all that is put together, including the body, etc., it is understood that the misidentified I is not meant here.
tam deva-devam ajam acyutam āhuragryam 2The second verse starts by saying, I worship in the morning that which is not objectified by words or the mind. The mind and words are best friends because, borrowing ātman’s consciousness, they together illumine all the names and forms. The whole jagat is nāma rūpa - names and forms. However, they can only illumine the world of objects. They cannot illumine ātman for two reasons: one - it need not illumine ātman, which is self-illumining, and in fact is what is illumining them. Second, ātman does not fall within the purview of the four things that words illumine; jāti – species, nouns; vacana - adjectives; kriyā - action; and, saṁbandha – relationships. The nouns, adjectives, verbs and relationships are now standing in the unemployment queue, how can they say anything about this ātman? The mind is hanging its head in shame, unable to describe the ātman, meaning it cannot be described by the mind that is seeking to make it into an object. The subject that never becomes the object is not fit for the world of words or thoughts. Then, in an apparent contradiction, the next line says, yam neti neti vacanaih – by words alone it is understood. When the verse says ‘by words alone it is understood’, it means words that are used in two special ways. The first kind, neti, neti, or not this not this, are deployed by the guru and śruti as words that negate the deep-seated presumptions about ātman. It is like defining water by negating wave-form and ocean-form from water. The second kind of words reveal what ātman is. The words, satyam,
jñānam anantam, are used not as attributes of brahman but as a definition. Satyam means existence, that which ‘is’. Jñānam means the abstract word knowledge, not the transitive verb ‘to know’. Anantam is limitless. The Vedas have declared, the verse says, that through these words we are to understand brahman. Where does this understanding take place? In the mind. Even though the mind was in the unemployment line just now, it is brought back with strict instructions that it is going to work only in a clerical capacity and not going to upstage brahman and try to become its supervisor. The knowledge happens in the mind but not by the mind. The mind is not an agent but a receptacle where knowledge takes place. Now
the words that are standing in queue are trained. They thought they were in charge – the CEO of the Ātmajnana Inc! First they are divested of their jobs that they had mistakenly taken on, then given the dress of clerks and are now humble sevaks. They have said they are going to help bring in this knowledge by being transformed into the words of the guru/teaching. When the words are brought in properly and the mind is told you are just a place where the knowledge is illumined you are not concocting this knowledge, the mind becomes free of rāga-dveṣas, and capable of reflecting this knowledge. Next, the verse explains what happens when the knowledge is illumined in the mind. All the devatās are disrobed of their names and forms. Even worshipping the devatās we see the truth of what we are worshipping - that which is non-separate from the truth of myself, the offering being one’s own ego. prātarnamāmi tamasaḥ paramarkarvaṇaṁ
rajjvāṁ bhujaṅgama iva pratibhāsitaṁ vai 3The third verse starts with prātar-namāmi tamasaḥ paramarkavarṇam- I worship in the morning the sun of suns that even lights up ignorance. It is not just worship, but a surrender of the head full of notions. The ignorance is a subjective experience. Not knowing is one thing, but taking myself to be what I am not is completely my own doing. In the morning when I am
22
fresh, still awakening to my own ignorance, the words ‘I am’ are still not qualified by the inevitable that is to come, ‘I am sad, no good’ etc. Just the ‘I am’ shines in the mind. This is the time to contemplate on the fact that I happen to be the only reality. That I is akhyam pūrṇa, known as whole. Pūrṇa is what I want. I cognitively transcend the pañca kośas with the understanding that in and through the body-mind-sense complex, that pūrṇa I alone shines; that I which is not afflicted by any of these things. The body-mind-sense complex inherits pūrṇatva from ātman. While the body etc., is nothing but ātman, the ātman is not just the body, mind or senses. The body is mithya, dependent on satyam, ātman, for its existence. Ātman is not, therefore, particular but is that which lends its presence to everything. That is why it is called pūrṇa, it doesn’t require any prop or positive reinforcement. Sanātanapadam is the non-shifting goal. Our goals are always shifting because there is always a higher goal – goals are endless and there is never
a feeling of satisfaction. Anything that is shifting is not real. It is important to affirm first thing in the morning that I am headed towards that non-shifting goal, that which does not require any effort, that which is the truth of me. I just have to know that while pursuing other goals in my relative life, I am really seeking the ātman. The absolute is that which upholds all forms without being a single form, yasmin aśeṣa mūrtau idam jagat aśeṣam. What is that I? It is this formless I, onto which the entire universe is projected. Jagat is non-separate from ‘I’ but I am not touched by whatever is happening in the jagat. Just as a snake is projected on a rope, it exists only in the form of a
projection of my own fear. Seeing silver on a seashell is nothing more than a projection of my own desire. What remains when the truth is known is real. The projections of fear and desire onto ātman are known as saṃsāra. The verses end with a phala śruti which says that the one who reads this triad of sacred verses every morning, which is an ornament for all the three worlds, will attain mokṣa. As Swaminiji pointed out, it is not just the mere chanting, but being connected to the chanting. Nothing happens, even after daily repetition, if there is no emotion, bhakti, śraddha and attention to the chanting.
The study of Pañcadaśī Chapter Seven was begun during Swaminiji’s Vedānta week in Atlanta. This Chapter, consisting of 297 verses, is Swami Vidyaranya’s exhaustive expansion of the meaning of one verse taken from Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. That verse states:
If one knows very well oneself as the ātman, desiring what or for the sake of pleasing who, will the person continue to be afflicted?
The word ‘if’, cet, suggests that the knowledge that I currently have of myself, is not what is being talked about. Of that fact that I exist there is no doubt; no one can deny that she or he exists when asked! The problem is, however, that the self-existent-I is only partially known. Even though spontaneously one answers, yes, when asked if I am, one is referring to the presence of the body-mind-sense-complex, not the truth of oneself, puruṣa, brahman. In order to know this self-existent I as none other than puruṣa, the sixth pramāṇa, means of knowledge, has to be used. The other pramānas, direct perception, both one step and multiple step inference, comparison and absence, will not work. They can only be used to know objects, and I is not an object, it is the very truth of the subject, I. Only this sixth pramāṇa, sabda pramāṇa, which is the words of the śruti as unfolded by the guru, can reveal the truth of oneself, and only then when the teacher is qualified. The gain of the knowledge is not so much a gain since you already are what you seek to gain. It is more the loss of ignorance, of all the notions that distort the truth of oneself as pūrṇa, ānanta. If I had been able to gain this knowledge on my own, I would have gained it. However, as with any pramāna, my will has no part to play. The words must be unfolded in keeping with the meaning of the śāstra and not subject to distortion born of conscious or unconscious beliefs that have their basis
in avidyā. This is why one has to go to a teacher; only through the teacher who has heard the words unfolded by her or his teacher, who her or himself heard from a teacher, in an unbroken traditional lineage, sampradāya, can the pramāṇa operate.
In this chapter there is a thorough inquiry into the meaning of the sruti. By this inquiry, mokṣa for the one who is free will be made clear.
Śabda pramāṇa is in the form of samyak vicāra, thorough inquiry. This is necessary because one must come to understand the meaning of the śāstra, without any vagueness, without any doubt. As we can guess by the length of this chapter, Swami Vidyaranya takes no short cuts and gives the student no room to misunderstand the purport of the words of the śāstra in his inquiry. One might be tempted to ask, is it worth my time to study all 296 verses? Perhaps guessing such a question might arise, Swami Vidyaranya in this same verse points out this knowledge will give rise to mokṣa, the ultimate puruṣārtha, human goal, for every mumukṣu.
We have heard in the śruti that māyā makes brahman appear as Īśvara and jīva. Īśvara and jīva each project the rest of the jagat.
The third verse introduces the first topic which Swami Vidyaranya takes up for vicāra - that is māyā. It is māyā, an imaginary power of Brahman, that gives Brahman a new title, Īśvara, the cause of the entire jagat. Brahman also comes to be known as jīva, by the avidyā aspect of the same māyā śakti. The resolution of jīva and Īśvara into one, undivided consciousness, is the sole tātparya, purpose, of the teaching of the upaniṣads. The fourth verse, which Swaminiji will unfold upon her return to Atlanta, explains the nature of this sṛṣṭi, creation - the projection of Īśvara being the jagat, and the projection of the jīva being the experience of saṁsāra.
Leadership in the Hindu TraditionThere is a verse in the Bhagavad Gītā that says:yadyad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ, tattadevetaro janaḥ |sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute, lokastadanuvartate || 3.21Whatever a prominent person does, that alone other people do.Whatever trend that person sets as proper, the world of people also follows.The word “śreṣṭha” means an important person, a person that everyone looks up to, such as a king, a president, or a religious leader. One often becomes a śreṣṭha by occupying a position that is
considered to be respectable and prominent, however, merely occupying a position of a śreṣṭha does not ensure that the person is a śreṣṭha. One has to grow into filling the portfolio connected to the position, for which emotional maturity is needed. Really speaking, a true leader does not become a leader by choice. A person often finds him or herself being seen as a śreṣṭha, because others look up to the person as awe-inspiring or worthy of emulation. In the Hindu tradition, we have a two-tier leadership. First, there are the priests, known as purohitas who are religious people, who handle rituals and liturgical sacrifices. They are married people, and live in the communities they serve.The word “purohita” means the one who is placed at the forefront. They are considered to be śreṣṭha because they are very knowledgeable and
Dharma, Discipline, and Devotion:Priesthood and the Hindu Tradition:
Closing Remarks Delivered at the Inaugural Session of the Second Annual Hindu Priests’ Conference
by Swamini Svātmanvidyananda
24
their life is committed to worship and devotion. Next, there are the swamis, monastics or renunciants, who take the concept of leadership a step further by renouncing all ties to the world and not needing to lean on anything or anyone except bhagavān. Together, the sannyāsin and the purohita represent the two crucial aspects of the Hindu tradition respectively, namely the vision of oneness (known as brahmavidyā), and a committed way of life (karmayoga) conducive to assimilating this vision as the truth of oneself. The priests are experts in matters of ācāra, the conduct and the practices in the tradition, while the swamis embody vicāra, self-enquiry, which is necessary for mokṣa, freedom from fear and sorrow. Together, these two tiers of leadership work in tandem to inspire and guide people.
One Who Follows Dharma is a LeaderThis two tier leadership underscores a fact that is often overlooked in our tradition --that the means are as important as the ends to be achieved. Therefore, we are not allowed to compromise the means for the sake of the ends. The manner in which one goes about fulfilling various ambitions is in itself a highly sophisticated pursuit known as dharma. The means in themselves become an end to be accomplished. Dharma is the universal matrix of norms that governs human conduct. It is based on universal expectations of not wanting to be hurt, killed, cheated, defrauded, or deceived. That is why dharma is the first puruṣārtha, something that is sought after by all individuals. Everyone wants dharma, either directly or indirectly. You can ask anyone in the world if they wish to be hurt or stolen from, and
the answer, universally, is “no.” Even those who constantly trespass over the rights and privileges of others somehow still expect everyone else to be considerate towards them. There was a news item that I came across recently. A man broke into a house in a rich neighborhood and stole a huge plasma television. Since it was very heavy, he dragged the television set and hid it in some bushes the backyard. Then, he phoned a friend to come and help him to load the television into the car. The man then went out to the road to wait for the friend. When the friend arrived, both of them went back into the bushes to retrieve the television. To their horror, it was already gone! Someone else made off with it. The original thieves were so distraught that they impulsively dialed 911 to report the “stolen” television. When the police arrived at the scene, they immediately noticed the broken locks on the door of the house, and swiftly arrested the men.This is the power of dharma, a need that is so fundamental that it cannot be overlooked even by those who habitually violate it. Dharma is therefore something to be accomplished because the tendency to conform to dharma is always under attack from unmanaged desires, rāga and dveṣa. Some people think that having desire in itself is a problem, but this is not correct. Desire does not trouble anyone so long as one does not come under its spell. The problem, however, is that there is a fine line between managing one’s desires, and being managed by them. One can easily cross this line without even sensing it. Bhagavān Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gītā that he abides in the form of desire, however, only those desires that do not violate dharma have the presence of bhagavān. Desires in the heart must not be given the power to override the means for the sake of gaining the end. Therefore, there is need to let go of those desires that are not in keeping with sāmānya dharma, the universal values of ahiṁsā, non injury, and truth.Because everyone looks up to a leader, the śreṣṭha cannot cut corners or trample over the rights and privileges of others. Sometimes we underestimate the power of our actions and
25
forget that the very position we occupy demands both accountability and a high level of transparency. The Chandogya Upaniṣad that says that discipline, charity, uprightness, non-injury, and the speaking of truth constitute the real dakṣiṇā, spiritual wealth, of the person.yattapo dānamārjavamahiṁsā satyavacanamiti tā asya dakṣiṇāḥ 3.17.4Dharma is its own reward. Although it produces puṇya in the long run, it has dṛṣṭa- phala, the immediate result of assuring a life free of strife. Unlike certain theologies that posit dharma as a mandate of God, we say that dharma is the very manifestation of bhagavān. Wherever there is dharma, there is bhagavān. The more one is committed to dharma, the more is the presence of bhagavān in one’s life. The more the presence of bhagavān in one’s life, the more secure one feels. In the beginning, one has to follow dharma deliberately, but gradually, by mastering the right methods of pursuing one’s goals, one grows into a person who is incapable of flouting dharma. That is when one becomes a śreṣṭha, an example to be emulated.
Discipline is Dharma in ActionDharma is not a static entity. Since it is based on the dharmin, on being enacted by people gifted with free will, it requires constant interpretation and reinterpretation according to place, time, and intentionality. There is, for example, a big difference in the intentions of a knife-wielding attacker, and a scalpel-wielding doctor, performing a surgery. Technically, both cause harm, but in the case of the surgeon, it is with the intention to preserve, rather than destroy, life. This is the dynamic facet of dharma, known as viśeṣa dharma. Viśeṣa dharma requires the cultivation of alertness in one’s life, and the readiness to face new challenges without compromising sāmānya dharma. For example, circumstances such as immigration to Western countries, living and serving in a land distant
from own’s own, can create special challenges in conforming to dharma.
A remarkable feature of ancient Indian culture was the total lack of competition. It was a society that was almost entirely devoted to the ultimate pursuit of discovering oneself as wholly contented and limitless. Therefore, the social infrastructure was one of zero competition, and supported this goal by ensuring that each person would have a ready- made livelihood, and the consequent leisure to discover themselves. As a result of this legacy, even today, every priest is a son of a priest and marries the daughter of a priest. Coming from this kind of a spiritual culture of non-competition, we are ill-equipped to survive in the modern atmosphere of the mad race to get ahead at all costs. Pressure to assimilate, pressure to get ahead in society, pressure to become someone famous, the pressure to amass great amounts of wealth create skewed priorities that inevitably lead to inner conflict and depression. By drawing upon the timeless tenets of the Vedas , we have to forge a new covenant that will empower us, and equip us to face the challenges without succumbing to such pressures. Recognizing the needs of the time, and rising to meet them with cheerfulness and integrity is the essence of leadership.Sāmānya and viśeṣa dharma are the general and specific manifestations of dharma at the macrocosmic level. Svadharma, the commitment to one’s duty, signifies the way in which dharma is to be enacted at the microcosmic level of one’s daily existence. This is perhaps the crucial aspect of being a śreṣṭha --setting an example to others in the day- to-day. Generally, the people are not as inspired by lofty ideas or heavy-duty philosophical discourses as they are by simply seeing how one lives in the every day. Even Arjuna, after receiving the knowledge that the self is free of all afflictions and is limitlessly whole, was curious to know about the manner in which the person who abides this knowledge leads his or her daily life. He asks Bhagavān Krishna:
26
sthitaḥ prajñasya kā bhāṣā? Sthitadhīḥ kim prabhāṣeta? kimāsīta? vrajeta kim?How is the person of firm wisdom? How does such a person speak, sit, or walk?
Walking one’s talk is svadharma. Following svadharma is not easy, as it demands great self-discipline and perseverance in the performance of prescribed duties. The grass always appears greener elsewhere and, purely based on the feeling that one is missing out on something big, one is often tempted to stray into unfamiliar pastures. Knowing this, the śāstra has prescribed a comprehensive curriculum of duties for each person to follow based on their their occupation and, āśrama, station in life. Ideally, each person plays their part in the cosmic flow, thereby ensuring the relative security and well-being of all. Certain things have to be done daily; certain others things have to be done occasionally, but actions which go against sāmānya dharma must never be done at all. Following this timetable protects one from trap of rāga-dveṣa, while also ensuring steady progress towards self-knowledge that frees one from saṁsāra --a life of endless striving and disenchantment.In keeping with the view that everything is sacred because it is pervaded by Īśvara, the Hindu tradition does not make an iota of a difference between the so-called sacred and secular duties. All actions --not merely those duties confined to ritual and worship-- are considered sacred. The contemporary culture in the United States and other western countries is drastically different from this ancient view. I have repeatedly heard people describing their day mindlessly, and it is no wonder alienation from oneself and disconnection from the whole appear to be common cultural ailments. When I ask people in this country about their day, the typical answers given contain a litany of violent metaphors. For example, they “throw off the covers” in the morning, and “jump into the shower.“ After this, they “grab a bite to eat,” even as they “hit the road.” At the office, they “crunch some data,” before “beating the traffic” on the way back. Once home, no one cooks. They just “nuke something from the fridge,” and then, finally, “crash” at the end of the day! In this scheme of things, there is no leisure to just enjoy one’s being, or to revel in the creative inspiration behind one’s actions. By contrast, in our tradition, starting with waking up in the morning, everything for the Hindu is a sacred act. All actions, even mundane ones, such as bathing, dressing, or eating are
acts of prayer performed for the sake of the indweller, the bhagavān that abides in all. In this area, the purohita by his very being serves as an invaluable role model. By simply leading his life in accordance to the teaching of the śāstra, he can offer a powerful alternative to the disconnected and stressful life to which one can succumb while living in the USA and other western countries.
Svadharma is Discovering the Devotee WithinIn stark contrast to the contemporary capitalist culture, where fulfilling one’s desires is considered to be the hallmark of success in one’s life, the Bhagavad Gītā redefines success as the prayerful performance of every action, and the joyful acceptance of the result thereof. Although we do possess one of the most sophisticated bodies of liturgical worship and prayers, for the sake of our own self-growth, we are encouraged to look upon all our actions as worship of Īśvara:
yataḥ pravrttirbhūtānāṁ yena sarvamidaṁ tatam |svakarmaṇā tamabhyarcya siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ || 18.46 worshipping with one’s own actions, the source of all beings, by whom everything is pervaded, the human being accomplishes
success.Each action that is performed is viewed as arcanā, a flower placed reverentially at the feet of the Lord. Just as all the items used in worship are
27
purified by the sprinkling of mantra-water, so too all our actions have to be sanctified by infusing them with a joyous and mindful attitude. Just as we cannot offer yesterday’s leftovers in today’s worship, or skip certain steps of the worship because we happen to be in a hurry, so too, when action itself is worship, there is no room for procrastination or carelessness in its performance. Committing to a life of worshipful action insulates one from the inner enemies of rāga and dveṣa. The performance of svadharma with a spirit of devotion and surrender transforms one into a devotee, into a prayerful person. There is a vast difference between person who prays and a prayerful person. For the former, prayer is one among many discrete acts; for the latter, devotion and prayerfulness are attitudes which permeate all actions.Like viśeṣa dharma, the performance of svadharma can also vary depending upon the situations in which one finds oneself. One is neither born with an instruction booklet of what one has to do, nor does one have the freedom to always do only what one likes. Therefore, accomplishing svadharma means that one eventually grows into liking all that one has to do. The portfolio of the purohitas in India is very different than those living in North America. Here, it would appear, that one has more duties --one is not just a performer of rituals, but is the very pillar of the community, to whom many look up to for guidance and inspiration. The purohitas find that a lot more than just worship is expected of them. They are suddenly, among other things, counselors, guides, interpreters of rituals, teachers of Hinduism, speakers, interfaith ministers, and inspirers of youth. Faced with this situation, one has the choice to either feel victimized and burdened by the demands of the time, or to embrace the God-given opportunity to grow and do one’s best. The latter course of action alone benefits not only the entire community of people, where the purohita resides, but also blesses the purohita by allowing him to evolve spiritually. It is a win-win situation that facilitates one’s growth into a śreṣṭha. To grow into a person committed to
dharma requires help from many sources. If language and social interaction skills are required for the performance of svadharma, one has to acquire them. Further, to overcome internal obstacles, such as alienation or discouragement, one has to take recourse to gatherings such as this, where we can come together and help one another in a spirit of sharing and networking.The primary aspect of the purohita’s svadharma is to model being a devotee. Who is a devotee? The witness who plays many roles in life
effortlessly, the core person, the essential person, is the devotee. The individual who is mindful of his or her connection to the whole, to Īśvara, is the devotee. Worship is an act that highlights this connection, where the helpless individual (jīva) invokes the total (Īśvara) in a spirit of surrender. When the limited surrenders at the altar that is limitless, the limited resolves, and all that remains is the limitless Īśvara. The awareness of one’s essential identity as the devotee keeps one’s connection to
the whole at the forefront, thereby erasing alienation and insecurity. If one is mindful of the primary connection to Īśvara as a devotee, then the performance of other roles becomes easy. The devotee is the one who performs the role of son or daughter, spouse, friend, father or mother. All roles “roll” into the devotee, and the devotee further resolves into the object of devotion, which is none other than Īśvara, the subject, the truth of oneself.Discovering the devotee within oneself is indeed the master key to spiritual growth, to truly being a śreṣṭha. For most people this takes a lot of work, as the complex interlays of various roles tend to obfuscate the core identity of the devotee within. In this regard, I find that the purohitas are extremely blessed, because here alone lies a total identity between what one does and what one is. One’s job is one’s very being, and one is in the covetable
28
position to reflect the devotee that one seeks to invoke within oneself. If I were asked to spell out the primary role of the priests, I would say that it is to invoke the devotee in oneself and also model it for others. Only when the devotee is present in the priest, as the priest, can there be worship. The essence of priesthood is devotion, and the priest is essentially a devotee. It is extremely important to
not lose sight of this basic person, the devotee. The temple attendee is a devotee, the temple executive is also a devotee, and the priest, of course, is a devotee. All are devoted to Īśvara. The focus of every temple is to help one develop and live this life of devotion, and to provide a conducive refuge for each person to invoke the devotee within himself or herself.Through the lived practice of dharma, discipline and devotion, one learns to not be affected by the challenges that one faces in life. This is Hinduism in 3- D! This is how one grows to be a śreṣṭha. When one occupies a prominent position, there is no other option than to grow to fill the post with grace and integrity. The sacrifice that it takes to do this is not in vain, as it helps one to become an emotionally stable and contented person, secure in the knowledge of one’s connection to the whole. When we gather our resources, and come together in a spirit of sharing, even the most difficult tasks can be mastered with ease. Therefore I am very confident that the Hindu priests of North America gathered here for the second time will accomplish great things together. I am happy to see that the numbers have more than doubled since the last meet. I wish this gathering every success. I congratulate the organizers and the volunteers for their dedicated effort in putting this conference together, and pray that the discussions generated here will go a long way in the sustenance and dissemination of sanātana dharma in North America. Thank you. Om tat sat.
From Pujya Swamiji’s kuṭir to the lecture hall the path is strung with dozens of tender coconut leaves, each traditionally cut and folded. The temple entrance is an arch of palm leaves, mālās and more tender coconut leaves. Rangolis decorate the paths and walkways and even the golf cart used to transport Pujya Swamiji around the ashram is dressed up
in banana leaves and mālās.A bower of mālās is hung in sweeping loops across the path leading to the lecture hall, at the entrance of which banana palms stand like sentinels, their fruit and flowers weighing down the branches in a natural namaskār. Inside the lecture hall the scent of jasmine purifies the air from the mālās strung like the spokes of a bicycle wheel - the hub, of course, being where Pujya Swamiji is seated to take class. The scent soothes the the mind and helps prepare one for the momentous
step that is to be taken by the current batch of residential three-year students. Today the study of the Brahma Sūtras will begin - the concluding text of the three-year residential course at the ashram. Why such an elaborate celebration before starting Brahma Sūtras? So many upaniṣads have already been studied, none of which began with such celebration. What makes this special? Is there something
extraordinarily special about the Brahma Sūtras that makes it more important than the upaniṣads? Or is it that it is the final major text of the course? It is neither. Even if it is said that the studying Brahma Sūtras assists in the assimilation of the knowledge that has been unfolded in the upaniṣads studied up till this point, it does not capture why such celebration marks the beginning of the study here in Anaikatti. Tarhi, what then?To study even one upaniṣad, Pujya Swamiji says, takes a lot of pūrva puṇya. All the requirements such
as human birth, having a desire to know, finding a qualified teacher, indicate that the one studying has great wealth in terms of puṇya. What to say then of the opportunity to study as many upaniṣads as the residential students have during the last three years or so, and that too, sitting at the feet of Pujya Swamiji? One can only imagine the abundance of puṇya it must take to be blessed in this way. However, having the grace to bring one to the teacher and the study is not the end. If one is to be blessed by the knowledge itself, then śraddhā is also required. What is śraddhā? Not faith, much less belief, śraddhā is the understanding that śāstra is a pramāṇa, a means for knowledge, indeed, the only pramāṇa for what one is seeking - freedom from a life of becoming.How does one gain śraddhā? Unlike the internal pramāṇas, eyes, ears, etc., śāstra pramāṇa being external is not going to have the same spontaneous support that our eyes, for instance, enjoy. Instead, the attitude towards śāstra as a pramāṇa will evolve. One’s recognizing śāstra’s status as a pramāṇa will increase concomitantly with understanding and clarity gained from listening and inquiring into śāstra as taught by the teacher. The more that understanding and clarity grow, the more śāstra gains validity for the one studying. This change in attitude towards śāstra pramāṇa reflects an increase in śraddhā. Doubts
with regards to śāstra’s status of being a pramāṇa decrease and one stands behind śāstra pramāṇa as one stands behind other pramāṇas, such as eyes, etc.In this way, every upaniṣad that is studied, or more accurately, every Vedānta class, that is attended, has the potential to increase śraddhā in the pramāṇa. The more śraddhā there is, the more reverence there is for the pramāṇa. Thus, the celebration marking the beginning of the study of Brahma Sūtras is an expression of reverence. Thus it was that the resident ācārya, Swami Sakshatkrtanandaji, provided the support necessary to arrange for the special events of the day and the decorating, which continued late into the night prior.By 7:30 in the morning, a special altar had been set up for the students’ Brahma Sūtras books in front of Lord Dakṣiṇāmūrthi. After a short pūja the students walked around the ashram road, each carrying his or her Brahma Sūtras book on the head, chanting Medha Suktam, anuvākas from Taittirīya Upaniṣad and Śrī Rudram. The priest, Sitaram, led the procession, followed by the swamis, swaminis and students. Once the
30
perambulation was complete, the students lined the pathway to the lecture hall, placing handfuls of flowers at the feet of Pujya Swamiji as he entered the lecture hall. After Pujya Swamiji had taken his seat, and before the class began, pada pūja was performed for Pujya Swamiji by Swami Shankarananda. Brahma Sūtras consists of four chapters with each chapter having four sections. Analysis of the vision of Vedānta is covered in the first four sūtras, and it is these sūtras that will be studied over the upcoming months. The vision of Vedānta, Veda śāstra, and karma are thoroughly analyzed through mīmāṁsa, inquiry. How it is all connected to mokṣa,
how the bondage that one takes to be real is purely adhyāsa, superimposition, how this can be resolved by knowledge, how that knowledge is gained and what is that knowledge, are all addressed. As Pujya Swamiji pointed out, all that has been studied by the students thus far will be analyzed and assimilated. In the process of assimilation one learns how to deal with topics, and how to discuss the topics that are covered so that no stone is left unturned.So it was that the study of Brahma Sūtras was begun at Anaikatti on 13 June, 2013.
Article courtesy of Arsha Vidya Newsletter, June 2013
One of the finest weekend’s in Michigan was in the company of Swamini Svatmanvidyanandiji. She raptured the crowd with her exposition of Hinduism, and unraveled the hidden subtleties and nuances in daily living including rituals, saṁskāras, direction and goals of life. Her diction was erudite, her explanations were focused, and interspersed with both humor and puns. The audience was spellbound for two hours at the residence of Savitri and Srini Raman. This was followed by question and answer session, bhajans and prasāda. Without much rest, Swaminiji next graced the house of Doctors Urmilla and Prem Khilanani, where the topic was Ratha Kalpana from Kaṭhopaniṣad. We had often seen the pictures of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna in the chariot, but the anatomic and physiologic dissection of the ratha into various components was appreciated. The ātman is the lord of the chariot, intellect the charioteer, mind the reins, senses the horses, and roads are the sense objects. The consequences of right intellect, controlled mind and senses were contrasted with unrestrained mind, devoid of right understanding. Clearly two paths were thus revealed. The common one traveled was that of preya, and the road less traveled being the śreya. There was further discussion on sādhana catuṣṭayam as a preparation for self knowledge. This was followed, once again, by question and answer and prasāda.The next day, a Sunday, Swaminiji had the opportunity to visit the newly constructed Bharatiya Temple in Troy, and marvel at the whole panorama of deities. She also participated in the prasāda. That same evening was the graduation ceremony of Pūrṇa Vidyā students. Some of them had spent 12 years and had graduated. There were songs and colorful Indian dances which were appreciated by 300 to 400 people. Swaminiji distributed the graduation certificates to all those that completed their 12 years. Among them were Kaviraj and Varchas. This was followed by dinner.
Swaminiji’s Whirlwind Tour of Michiganby Prem V. Khilanani
31
On August 9, 2013 we celebrated the first anniversary of aṣṭabhanda and punaḥ pratiṣṭhā at the Lord Medha Dakṣiṇāmūrti Shrine in Eugene, Oregon. It was a simple, yet powerful time of worship done in the early hours of morning. It is always beautiful to watch how the Lord orchestrates everything so seamlessly. Once the intention is firm and the willpower is dedicated for his worship everything flows without effort. This year passed building up steadiness of daily abhiṣeka-pūja in the morning and pūja in the evening as well as regular monthly pradośa worship. The Lord's blessing is increasing continuously even if it may not always be so obvious.On a personal level I can see the effects of pūja clearly in my life. Any type of pūja we do has certain steps to be followed carefully including a prayer at the end to cover for any unintended errors that may come up in the course of it. This is a model for me to follow in my daily life, living it as a pūja such as I do for the Lord, wherein all action is dedicated only to him. The precision in the pūja creates a certain sense of security and alertness which allows one to relax into it with confidence. The existence of a forgiveness prayer at the end helps one let go of nervousness about making mistakes. This is a baby step to see the infallibility of Īśvara’s order and being able to accept whatever comes with peace in the heart. We pray that the worship at Lord Medha Dakṣiṇāmūrti Shrine remain strong and steady. May the Lord continue to bless us with growing clarity and compassion in our lives under the guidance of our teacher Sri Swamini Svatmavidyanandaji.
During the first week of August, Oregon was graced with the visit of Dr. P.N. Hari, an Ayurvedic physician from Coimbatore, India. His presence in both Eugene and Portland consisted of talks in the evenings and days filled with consultations. Dr. Hari has practiced Ayurveda for the past 20+ years and is a wealth of information. He possesses both the skills and the depth of understanding that his rigorous training entails. This includes formal education at the Ayurvedic College of Coimbatore as well as mentorship and extensive study of ancient Vedic texts. Throughout his time in Oregon, Dr. Hari’s main messages was how each of us can take responsibility for our own health, how to live and eat with the intention of purifying both body and mind. The first five days of his Oregon visit were spent in Eugene, where Dr. Hari met with 13 different people all with a wide range of physical, mental and emotional complaints. His ability to listen, engage with accurate questions and provide the nurturing support people needed, was both readily apparent and inspiring. In addition, he gave a series of talks on the topic of Ayurveda, covering the basic philosophy of this ancient form of medicine, lifestyle choices, and treatment of chronic complaints including asthma and diabetes. Dr. Hari’s overall definition of the health is “the absolute harmony of body, mind, spirit, sense organs, social set-up, emotions and intellect.” This broad scope of wellness was beautifully laid out over the series of talks especially concerning food and diet. He was very specific not only about what to eat- giving food recommendations to each of his patients as part of their healing regimen- but also when to eat. This involved sticking to a schedule so the body is ready and prepared to receive the food, going to bed early and getting up early, with the last meal eaten preferably no later than 8 pm, and perhaps most importantly- paying attention to your food while you eat. This is the holy recognition of food as nectar and process of eating as a prayer. Over the weekend in Portland, Dr. Hari had a packed schedule, with an outpouring of interest in consults from the community. He saw patients back-to-back at a certified Ayurvedic clinic, Ahara Rasa, where he was able to prescribe herbal formulas directly from the well-stocked apothecary. He
One Year Anniversary Lord Daksinamurthi Shrineby Harinder Kaur Khalsa
Vedanta and Ayurveda in Oregonby Amber Howard
32
also gave two evening talks in which he focused on lifestyle, food, the elements in Ayurveda and how they comprise our body. The earth element is our muscles and structure; fire is the spark of life and facilitates digestion; water is the connection and creates cohesion; space is the room to manifest; and prāṇa is the breath, the life force, that which makes our eyes shine and our heart beat. Dr. Hari’s overall treatment protocol varied with each patient, a combination of yoga, diet and eating times, and prāṇayāma. The triangle of Ayurvedic healing consists of dietary control, medicines - specifically herbs, yoga and exercise.One of the most amazing and auspicious aspects of Dr. Hari’s visit was that it coincided with the month-long Vedānta course taught by Swamini Svatmavidyananda Saraswatiji that included teachings from Bhagavad Gītā, the upaniṣads, and Sanskrit. To be witness to the unfolding of these teachings, is to be filled with spiritual nourishment, an understanding of who we really are. Alongside Ayurveda, the science of life, it was clear how intertwined and complimentary Ayurveda is with Vedānta, both in terms of vision and understanding of health. Dr. Hari would agree, wellness is the one who abides with self-knowledge.
When Swamini Svatmavidyananadaji, said, "Come to Eugene”, my instant reply was, “Sure!” So it was, that some months later, Ms. Amber appeared at the Eugene Airport to greet me. She dedicated her service for my local transportation in both Eugene and Portland continuously for the following seven days. The series of lectures and consultations were coordinated by Swaminiji, Ms. Amber and Ms. Harinder Khalsa.During my time there, Swaminiji and her students and disciples gathered daily at the Lord Dakṣiṇāmūrthi shrine that is attached Ms. Harinder's home, and performed offerings. The atmosphere was enriched the with enchanting mantras. It was so nice to see all the students and disciples chanting the ślokas beautifully along with Swaminiji. Then Swaminiji took me back 35 years, to my life with guru in Sanskrit. As a little boy I would sit on the floor with crossed legs, studying Sanskrit. Here, Swaminiji was part way through conducting a one-month Vedānta camp, which included daily Sanskrit classes. Swaminiji’s teaching was completely in keeping with the perfect classical style that I remember - simple, with lots of humour. For both Vedānta and Sanskrit classes local students gathered in the shrine, while students in other parts of the U.S. as well as students from at least 12 other countries, including India, attended via the live-stream class room. All of this added to the enjoyment of listening to the nectar from Gītā and the upaniṣads.Staying with Ms. Kate & her husband, having meals provided by the devotees, and hiking with Sri. Arun made my time in Eugene colourful. Indeed, like gemstones that shine well when polished, the students and disciples of Swaminiji reflect the ‘polishing’ done by Vedic studies! My time in Portland was equally enjoyable, especially the stay with Sri. Tinny Sreenivasan. The only problem of the whole trip was that I missed to pick up my heart from Eugene and Portland while returning to Coimbatore! Perhaps it is not a problem, it just means that I will need to go back to pick it up soon.
A Visit to Oregonby Dr. P.N. Hari
33
Washington, DC Sept 23 - 30 - All times are EST Talks on Viṣṇu Sahasranāma Weekdays 7:00-8:30 pm Weekends 9:00 am-12:00 noonContact: VS Raghavan [email protected]
Eugene: Sept 14 & October 5 Vedānta Ḍiṇḍima - All times are PST 9:30 am to 12 noon Please note: This class is available for viewing only through following portal:
These classes are simultaneously streamed via live stream and adobe connect. The links are reproduced below. Click on either of the links to access the classroom:
Sūktā Editorial BoardJulie Carpenter, Harinder Kaur Khalsa and Mayaskari Rothbart.
What is the difference between the ego and the self? Does the ego need to be eliminated in order to gain mokṣa?The word ego comes from the Greek word meaning "I." The word used in Sanskrit is ahaṅkāra, the "I notion." The notion of oneself as the seer, thinker, doer etc., is what is known as the ego. That the self is the doer, seer, thinker, mother or father is a fact. It does not pose a problem. The self is everything, but when one mistakenly identifies oneself with the various roles that one plays in life, one finds oneself affected by the problems of the roles. The problems of the role cannot affect the self, for the self is the very role it inhabits, but the role is not the self. Often in the beginning of one's spiritual journey, the ahaṅkāra comes in the way of this crucial distinction. As long as one is embodied, it is not possible to eliminate the ahaṅkāra, nor need one eliminate the ahaṅkāra to get freedom from becoming, from saṁsāra. It needs to be lightened by consistent exposure to Vedānta, and by the practice of meditation, both of which gives one the inner space to discover that the invariable person who inhabits all roles, is oneself, the witness of everything, the one who sustains everything, while remaining unaffected by any association or identification including the body-mind-sense complex.
Satsang with Swaminiji
Atlanta, GA, Aug 31- Sept 7 - All times are EST Labor Day Weekend Retreat: What is Ānanda? Sat Aug 31, 3:30-4:30 pm and 5:00-6:15 pm Sun Sept 1, 9:00-10 am, 11:30 am-12:30 pm and 5:00-6:00 pm Mon Sept 2, 8:30-9:30 am, 10:00-11:15 am and 11:30 am-12:30 pm Weeklong VedāntaTalks: Kaupina Pancakam Sept 3-6, 7:00-8:30 pm and Sept 7, 4:00-6:00 pm Contact: Sri Ramakrishnan 770-232-0552
