Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Part 3

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् िन्करचार्यमद्ममाम्
अस्मद् अचर्य पर्यन्ताम् वन्दे गुरु परम्परम 

The dhyana slokas can be seen to absorb the state of wonder and excitement of pure vedantic teaching. As we move away from these mundane world of existence, we come in contact with the pristine world of bliss, wonder and state of contentment. Words are inadequate to describe it , as it is not anything that can be described .
Continuing the dhyana slokas, we see the next one . It describes the wonder of the class again.

चित्रं वटतरोर्मूले वृद्धाः शिष्या गुरुर्युवा ।
गुरोस्तु मौनं व्याख्यानं शिष्यास्तुच्छिन्नसंशयाः ॥३॥

Its a simple verse much in the same vein of the second one. चित्रं  means wonder . We see a wonder at the root of the banyan tree( वटतरोर्मूले ). The disciples are old while the guru is young( वृद्धाः शिष्या गुरुर्युवा). What is so surprising about this?. Usually in the world we see old teachers in that years of experience and knowledge would be required before they become good teachers, while the process of studying only exists in the young . Therefore we see young students and older teachers. Here we see the reverse. This is significant on many levels . Young students are always anxious to succeed in life and therefore they seek knowledge which would be essential to succeed in life. This type of vidya is called Apara vidya. Only after years of living  in this samsaric world and in old age do they understand the importance of para vidya. Even then they do not know what to do , what to learn, how to learn and to approach whom. Old age could also indicate maturity and dispassion towards all worldly affairs.
So here it is mentioned that the disciples are all old and therefore are seeking the para vidya from the Dakshina moorthy . The fact that guru here is young is significant. It means many things. One youth is taken as optimism, one of youthful energy and exuberance. Second it could also mean eternal truth which never changes its nature . We have also seen it is smiling and so intrinsically happy. So the para vidya is being taught is a state of wonder and excitement. 

The wonder is not over yet. It is also mentioned that even though there is silence from the guru(गुरोस्तु मौनं ) , there are no doubts for the disciples(शिष्यास्तु   च्छिन्नसंशयाः). Why is this a wonder? . Usually we see classes in which the teacher talks loudly and yet disciples would have doubts. Here the guru is silent and yet all doubts are cleared.

As we have remarked earlier in the first dhyana sloka , here silence should not be taken literally. In vedanta we want to learn about the Brahman . However we can see it only in  a few verses described or discussed. So all vedantic teaching uses the concept of indirect implication. One method uses a very poignant method called lakshanartha. Meaning by characteristics. In Kena upanishad it can be seen.
 anyadeva tat viditāt atho avidhāt athiḥ;

It is that which exists and still is not an object of experience. What is that which exists and is still not an object. It should be the subject of experience or the experiencer. Now this cannot be the body or mind as they are objects known to us. So it must be the subject who is becoming aware of them.
Now if you ask anybody of to whom the experience is happening, he would say "to me". Now the questioning stops there. Who is this "me"?. He would point to his body immediately or may point out to the mind . Now isn't it surprising that the "me" is also known to something. There is an awareness of the mind as we see in meditation . There is an awareness of body all the time. So the awareness is seeing the so called "me". So this "me" is obviously not experiencer . Because the awareness is knowing the "me" as an object. Instead of directly defining it , we use its characteristics to imply what it is.
A second approach taken is one of negation.( Neti Neti). In this also we don't directly define Brahman, we use the method of negating what it is not. What remains after negating everything is the negator . The negator cannot be negated because that would require another negator. So who is the negator?. In order to see that , just consider for a moment that the world doesn't exist. Now how do we know that it doesn't exist?. There has to be something other than the world itself to know this. Otherwise nonexistence cannot be known. This is the negator. Since the world is not required for the negator's existence, it can be seen that it is not an object. It is pure knowing without any attributes.
The world may be there or not there , the subject is always there knowing the existence as well as the non existence.
In both methods you can see that the Brahman is not directly defined or discussed. This is the meaning of the word Maunam. Teaching by direct experience but indirect verbalization. So the third wonder is that the teaching itself is a unique one as it is so unconventional.
Moving on to the next dhyana slokas , we see the wonder turn into a prayer .


निधये सर्वविद्यानां भिषजे भवरोगिणाम् ।
गुरवे सर्वलोकानां दक्षिणामूर्तये नमः ॥४॥

( I bow before the supreme guru of all worlds who is a treasure of all knowledge ( para and apara) and is also the remover of all samsaric worries)

ॐ नमः प्रणवार्थाय शुद्धज्ञानैकमूर्तये ।
निर्मलाय प्रशान्ताय दक्षिणामूर्तये नमः ॥५॥

( I bow before the supreme guru who is the embodiment of knowledge and is untainted and serene)

The key phrase of prayer is शुद्धज्ञानैकमूर्तये  ( pure consciousness) . As we can see the consciousness has to be independent of all forms and all limitations and also the treasure(निधये ) of all vidya(सर्वविद्यानां), as it is the medium or background in which everything happens , everything is supported , everything is revealed. The problems of samsara is giving undue importance to the objects of our experience, wealth , security , ego and so on. So this knowledge acts as a medicine to remove all samsaric pursuits ( भिषजे भवरोगिणाम्). Bhava roga means the roga of samsara. भिषजे means doctor .

When we study the upanishads we would be going through the meaning of pranava (ॐ). Here it is mentioned that the pure consciousness encodes the meaning of the pranavam ( प्रणवार्थाय ) and hence is untainted (निर्मलाय ) and serenely calm( प्रशान्ताय ).
Even when you are angry , depressed or frustrated , the pure consciousness remains unaffected. Only thing is you never have looked at it.  The focus is always on the objects that cause problems, not on the awareness that lights it . 

For the purpose of summary let us see all the dhyana slokas 

मौनव्याख्या प्रकटित परब्रह्मतत्त्वं युवानं
वर्षिष्ठांते वसद् ऋषिगणैः आवृतं ब्रह्मनिष्ठैः ।
आचार्येन्द्रं करकलित चिन्मुद्रमानंदमूर्तिं
स्वात्मारामं मुदितवदनं दक्षिणामूर्तिमीडे ॥१॥


वटविटपिसमीपेभूमिभागे निषण्णं
सकलमुनिजनानां ज्ञानदातारमारात् ।
त्रिभुवनगुरुमीशं दक्षिणामूर्तिदेवं
जननमरणदुःखच्छेद दक्षं नमामि ॥२॥


चित्रं वटतरोर्मूले वृद्धाः शिष्या गुरुर्युवा ।
गुरोस्तु मौनं व्याख्यानं शिष्यास्तुच्छिन्नसंशयाः ॥३॥


निधये सर्वविद्यानां भिषजे भवरोगिणाम् ।
गुरवे सर्वलोकानां दक्षिणामूर्तये नमः ॥४॥


ॐ नमः प्रणवार्थाय शुद्धज्ञानैकमूर्तये ।
निर्मलाय प्रशान्ताय दक्षिणामूर्तये नमः ॥५॥

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Part 2

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् िन्करचार्यमद्ममाम्
अस्मद् अचर्य पर्यन्ताम् वन्दे गुरु परम्परम ्

 In the first dhyana sloka we saw how the adi guru is guiding us always towards the eternal truth, while we are immersed in samsara. Unless we remain constantly guided by it , we will always go back to the objects of perception and remain tantalized by them. This is why we need to be anthevasad with the guru.

How many incidents have come and gone?. How many people , relations , emotions, thoughts have come and gone. Have anything remained ?. And yet we remain excited by them , we consider life to be the dream world of objects. The past haunting us , the future frightening us . The guru is telling you , please move away from them all  and remain established in your eternal abode of consciousness. You are not any of those objects , you are that which sees them all. All you need to do is to understand who you are. You and the brahman are one and the same. Your only problem is not understanding this.

In the next dhyana sloka , we get a beautiful picture of a class that is going on.

वटविटपिसमीपे भूमिभागे निषण्णं

सकलमुनिजनानां ज्ञानदातारमारात्‌।

त्रिभुवनगुरुमीशं दक्षिणामूर्तिदेवं

जननमरणदुःखच्छेददक्षं नमामि॥२॥

vaTaviTapisamIpe bhUmibhAge niShaNNaM

sakalamunijanAnAM dnyAnadAtAramArAt .

tribhuvanagurumIshaM dakShiNAmUrtidevaM

jananamaraNaduHkhacchhedadakShaM namAmi ..

(I bow down to that supreme Dakshinamurti, the teacher of the three worlds, the destroyer of the miseries of births and deaths, who, seated on the ground under the banyan tree, grants direct and immediate jyanam to all the muni-s who have assembled near him.)

निषण्णं means seated. Where is the guru seated?. He is seated near(समीपे ). a banyan tree वटविटपि . What is he doing there?. He is transferring the knowledge directly to all मुनिजनानां. Who is a muni?मननात् मुनि one who is capable of doing mananam is a muni. So we can immediately see who is the adi guru . Adi guru is nothing but pure consciousness itself. For any body who does mananam , it is available . The knowledge is immediate and direct. This is the meaning of the word ज्ञानदातारमारात्‌. For many seekers , spiritual life is an achievement like in samsara. I have to go through stages, i have to go through sadana, meditation, yaga, japa , ceremonies and so on. But here the author says , for any body who does contemplation, the knowledge is immediate and direct and it comes from the brahman itself, because you are that. Guru is not a form that you prostrate. Guru is consciousness itself and it is always available. You are not the mind or the intellect, you are that awareness which lights them all .
The communication method is one which disallows objectification of brahman. One of the unique things about the teaching is that the guru should make sure that whatever is taught should not result in the disciple misunderstanding it as an object as all understandings are . So he goes on using indirect methods of saying what you think is not that , what you perceive is not that . But whatever i am speaking about is about YOU the consciousness which is enlivening all. This is why the teaching is direct and immediate. In order to obtain YOU, there is zero distance and zero effort and is the most direct thing.
What is the world as i see it ?. It is nothing but a manifestation of consciousness. This is what is meant by the statement त्रिभुवनगुरुमीशं दक्षिणामूर्तिदेवं. For the uninitiated it is a story of creation. Creation happens when something is born. But a manifestation is not a creation. It is just a modification of something taking a particular form temporarily and then finally dissolving. The world is not created , it just appears in consciousness like in a dream story.

 Since all objects including the body-mind complex are just temporary modification of consciousness, the dhukam associated with them is also only a misunderstanding. So the adiguru through his light would remove them all.It is therefore mentioned that this knowledge removes the sadness associated with birth and death(.जननमरणदुःख ). The word दक्षं means skillful. So this knowledge is skillful to remove the dukham associated with birth and death. It is important to understand that the fear and sadness comes with identification with the body mind system. If you are identified with it , you are born and you die. But when the right knowledge comes of who you are , this identification drops. When identification drops , the birth and death are just events that you see unaffected. . Looking closely birth is the birth of identification and death is removal of identification. What is born is this identification and what is dead is this identification.You have never been born , nor will you die.

As the gita proclaims very loudly

na jayate mriyate va kadacin
nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano
na hanyate hanyamane sarire

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Part 1

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् िन्करचार्यमद्ममाम्
अस्मद् अचर्य पर्यन्ताम् वन्दे गुरु परम्परम ्

Studying vedanta is a  big task. The ultimate is to imbibe the upanishadic teachings. However the un-initiated student would find it difficult to assimilate it. Hence there are many introductory texts which prepare the student for this life long journey. Tatva Bodha ,and Atma Bodha by Shakaracharya are such preliminary texts. VivekaChudamani is slightly more advanced and requires some more dedication. Panchadasi also is a comprehensive treatise on vedanta. The introductory texts which prepare us for the vedantic  journey are often called the prakarana granthas. If you are more interested, you can go further and try to understand the Brahma Sutras by ved vyasa. Gita often works as a substitute for all these studies, but often is vulnerable to misapprehension because of its rich imagery. All other texts don't carry any mythological overtones. For a keen student , it is important to differentiate the truth from a visualization, the story from its essence , the anatma from the atma . So i am of the opinion that Gita study should come last when the student has acquired the vivekam to understand the essence . In studying it last, you get the milk(gita) from the cows(upanishads ) .

Even though Dakshina Moorthy sthothram is not known as a prakarana grantha , Shankaracharya has done a wonderful task of summarizing the essence of vedanta in 10 terse verses. It is surprisingly a sthrothram which means glorification. Glorification of what?. Glorification of Dakshina Moorthy. Usually a glorification is to please a deity . But here the glorification is not for that purpose at all. The meaning i would like to take from Dakshina Moorthy is Dakshin  ( skillful) Amoorthy (  formless) which means a skillful adiguru who teaches non dual truth through his formless presence.  The traditional meaning is Dakshina ( South facing ) Moorthy ( idol or symbol)  which is shiva the god of laya or resolution . Even this meaning should be seen deeply. What does shiva destroy or dissolve?. He destroys ignorance of duality. Your ego is the embodiment of dualistic existence. By destroying the identity associated with it only you can merge in the sublime. Death alone will not destroy your ignorance, just as sleep alone doesn't destruct our ego as here we remain ignorantly blissful. By imparting light of knowledge , your ignorance is what is resolved or dissolved by the Adi guru.So here the meaning of glorification is to glorify that knowledge which dissolves our ignorance.

In many great books , people write commentaries to make the meaning more clear and easier. One of the direct disciples of shankaracharya called sureshvacharya has written a commentary on Dakshina moorthy sthothram. It is often called Manasollasa. Some verses from these are taken as the Dhyana slokas  of Dakshina moorthy sthothram A dhyana sloka is often a prelude to the teaching in a text.
So let us take a look at the first of the six dhyana sloka  which is very famous.

मोनव्याख्याप्रकटितपरब्रह्मतत्त्वं युवानं

वर्षिष्ठान्तेवसदृषिगणैरावृतं ब्रह्मनिष्ठैः।

आचार्येन्द्रं करकलितचिन्मुद्रमानन्दरूपं

स्वात्मारामं मुदितवदनं दक्षिणामूर्तिमीडे॥१॥

mounavyAkhyAprakaTitaparabrahmatattvaM yuvAnaM

varShiShThAntevasadRRiShigaNairAvRRitaM brahmaniShThaiH .

AcAryendraM karakalitacinmudramAnandarUpaM

svAtmArAmaM muditavadanaM dakShiNAmUrtimIDe

(I absorb the formless eternal presence(the ever young guru), who teaches the Knowledge of brahman through silence, who is surrounded by disciples who are themselves RRishi-s and scholars in the veda-s, who is the teacher of teachers(thus consciousness itself), whose hand is held the sign-of-Knowledge(chin-mudra), whose nature is bliss, who ever revels in his own Self, and the one who is with ever smiling face.)

The dhyana sloka is full of compound words . मोनव्याख्याप्रकटितपरब्रह्मतत्त्वं (mouna-vyAkhyA-prakaTita-parabrahma-tattvam) means one who reveals the supreme truth through a discourse of silence.  The vyAkhya means teaching or explanation and prakaTita means revelation or throwing  light on. It is mentioned that it is revealed by a guru who is  युवानं(yuvanam or  youthful). To whom does he reveal ?. To  वर्षिष्ठान्तेवसदृषिगणैरावृतं ( varShiShTh- Antevasad- RRiShigaNai) which means  a bunch of old students who are resident and who themselves are Rishis . In the olden days disciples were resident with the guru's house ( Antevasad). It is also mentioned that they themselves were brahmaniShThaiH ( established in brahma tatvam).So the young guru is surrounded(AvRRitaM) by a old set of disciples. 

 The story behind this is well known. The disciples were the four manasa putras of Brahma who sought the truth through the study of vedas and finally reached the adi guru who is Shiva to learn about the para vidya ( non dual teaching). It is reminiscent of our samsaric life. All through our life we seek many material things and finally when we get old, we seek the truth. Similarly the vedas consists of two parts .The Veda purva is full of rites and ceremonies which we have to perform for our artha kama , dharma pursuits. But all this leaves us unfulfilled , finally when we have exhausted our life we seek truth or vedanta or end of vedas. So that is why the disciples are old. The guru who is eternal is always youthful. He is always near us. 

 
The students are great, the teacher is great and the discourse is unique. It is revealed in supreme silence through a mudra, which we discussed earlier . This mudra is called the ChinMudra and it poetically conveys the message that in order to know truth, you have to become dispassionate about all the appearances. The appearances are the body, the mind , the states of wakefullness, dream and sleep, the objects of experience , the panchakosas and so on. Unless the forefinger moves away from them all(the other three fingers) , it never gets closer to truth which is the thumb. So the Acharya is sitting quietly in this mudra (आचार्येन्द्रं करकलितचिन्मुद्रमानन्दरूपं) . He is not an ordinary guru. He is the guru of all(आचार्येन्द्रं --AcAryendraM). He is not a form. He is the truth itself. Therefore truth is revealed by truth itself. When truth is revealing itself words just distort it. Any word is a limitation. If i say some word, it always conveys a limited meaning. A meaning which is intended by me as something , assimilated by you as something else both of which are further from truth. As the truth is revealed it also becomes the source of bliss( आनन्दरूपं), thereby telling that bliss is not in the outside world which is full of imagery but in the poignant nature of truth.

  But here comes many doubts. How can silence convey anything?. If i am ignorant also i may be silent. How can silence teach me anything.? How do i know if the meaning i got is correct.?.  This is where we should understand the indirect method in vedanta. When we learn the kena upanishad , we would be discussing this further. You cannot learn about brahman directly. You can only learn the other part. You can know what it is not first. Therefore all vedantic teaching is indirect. It tries to point out what brahman is not. Thereby this silent teaching to those who are old seasoned seekers by pointing out the Para brahma tatvam is really not any of the appearances , but the underlying essence of all which is consciousness itself which is formless(amoorthy)  and eternal( Yuvanam) . Any sabda vritti pramanam is only about forms and appearances which is not the truth. So through the power of implication, truth is revealed.

Brahman is existent and is not any of the objects of perception. What do i convey through this ?. It is not an object and yet it is existent. What can be that ?. When we have eliminated all the objects what remains is the subject. The subject which is formless and eternal and never limited in time , space or words. When you negate everything what remains is the negator himself. The negator cannot be non existent as he is negating. He cannot be an object also as he negates all objects. So ergo he must be the subject or experiencer or the formless presence itself. Since all objects come and go , identifying subject with any object is the cause of all misery. When you have abandoned it , you reveal in the ananda that remains of unlimited presence. 

The last line conveys the source of everything. It says स्वात्मारामं meaning that happiness is derived from I or atma himself and not from anything else. Have you noticed the moments when you are happy. You feel that you don't need anything or anybody. Your happiness is deriving from yourself not from the outside . When i say happiness i don't mean the pleasures of our body or sensory happiness , but the spiritual bliss we very rarely experience in moments of contentment. You say internally "I really don't need anything any longer. I accept what is with complete contentment". A wry smile spreads ( मुदितवदनं). It is this glory of knowledge that i prostrate.

ChinMudra

Where does happiness come from?. Does it come from objects, people, relations, realization of dreams, peace of mind or even spiritual endeavor ?. let us try to find it out?. All through life we pursue happiness either directly or indirectly. Any effort or karma is directed towards that only. The samsarin's life is full of artha, kama,dharma pursuit . We are told by experienced old people that all of your pursuit is futile . One day you will discover that these things never will give you any more than what you have currently. Any pursuit of this sort has three basic problems

1) Dukha misritham or mixed with sadness
You have always seen this. Along comes some good news, but there is catch. In order to obtain something you will have to forego something. Along with some success some failure also comes. Along with some good salary comes you will have to separate from your family and so on. All goodness is mixed with hidden sadness. When you get money , health declines and so on.
2) Apoornathvam or lack of completeness
All good results are always not fully satisfactory for us. I get a promotion , but i always wish i got a salary hike also. So my position is better  in society however the financial position stays bad. I get some inherited land , but that cannot be used for constructing a house , unless i invest in it . I get a house, but i have to pay loans and so on.
3) Bandhatvam or lack of freedom
The moment i get used to good things , my freedom also seems to be tied with it. Once i get used to these toys of life i seemed to be addicted to it. I cannot find ways of being free and happy at the same time.

Why can't happiness be free from all these defects ?. Vedanta tells us it is not possible to obtain happiness as you expect from any of these things however hard you try. A failure is guaranteed.
That is the whole idea of spirituality. To turn away from wordly pursuits since it doesn't meet the requirements. The idea of vairagyam or dispassion is the recognition of this imperfection in samsara. Once you understand this, you stop complaining about life situations and turn away from them all.

Now you might ask "since there is no happiness in things should i just live sadly hereafter ?"
The answer is no. Only thing is try to understand the source of happiness. Where does this happiness come from ?. How can we reach for it ?. How can i keep it forever . This should be the pursuit.

Note one important thing. Whatever gives us happiness we try to keep it with ourselves. Whatever we don't like we would let it go. Nothing unusual . Common sense. What is that you never let go whatever be the provocation ?. The short answer is YOU. So the source of happiness is YOU. It is something that you can never let go also !!!. So when you searched for wordly things, you were actually searching for YOU .

When i pursue a career in life or long for money to give me security , how can i say that i was searching for me?. The answer is subtle. The answer is to see what happens when you get something you want. When you get something you want , you come in contact with YOU for the first time. There is a forgetfulness about YOU when you search for things in life , which briefly is over when you get what you want. When the search is over , you touch your infinitude. Your search is over because you are now limitless and not wanting anything at least temporarily.That is why you feel happy on obtaining things in life. However you never looked at why you were happy . You assumed that money or property gave you the happiness.

The body and mind being upadhis hide the real you  as we saw in the last post. This is why you are always seeking outside. Since you are never in touch with yourselves , you are a longing person, a samsari a seeker ..Pursuing your desires is nothing but a seeking of yourself in the outside world which is why you fail.

So what is the solution?. Turn away from all pursuits and embrace the reality that is you. In yoga there is a beautiful mudra. It is called the chin mudra. The thumb signifies the source of happiness a source of infinitude and the forefinger the jiva . In chin mudra, the thumb touches the forefinger. As the forefinger turns away from all the other three fingers it embraces the reality. The three fingers other than the forefinger symbolizes the three states of the body  namely the gross, subtle and the casual or the wake, dream and sleep. Moving away from material pursuits and embracing the source of happiness which is always with you and for which you have to do zero effort is the only simple idea in spiritual life.
   
AcAryendraM kara-kalita-cin-mudram-Ananda-rUpaM

as told in the Dakshina moorthi sthothram . The guru is always at peace without requiring anything or anybody. If people are around him he is peaceful. When they leave also he is the same. There are no requirements as he in his atma swarupa always .

One of the differences in spiritual life is that there are no requirements. By definition you are always the source of happiness and it is not pursuing anything that you get happiness, but in abandoning the pursuit that you come in touch with infinitude. Even spiritual seeking is an aberration.Spiritual knowledge also is insufficient to touch the infinitude as it just creates waves in our mind.  As they say in Zen, it is not in letting go but not in grasping anything that it can be realized.

Upadhis

Because they are not mutually contradictory action can not eliminate ignorance. Only knowledge destroys ignorance just as darkness is dispelled by light. 
                                                                                                Atma Bodha" Sankaracharya 

We have been discussing a lot about Atma and anatma. Atma is the real subject while the anatma is any object other than the subject. We have tried to establish that the ego is not a subject at all or only anatma. It is nothing but an imaginary construct. So we had said there is no doer or experiencer  in reality. It is good to understand why this happens. The real self is hidden by a superposition of anatma.
We can understand this as follows. If something is hidden by something else then there are two effects of this process. The hidden thing is never experienced . Secondly whatever is hiding it becomes or transfers some attributes to the hidden thing. The body-mind hides the atma and thereby making it unknown. Secondly the mind or a vritti in it becomes or assumes the place of the atma or the subject.Whatever hides something else and creates a false sense of the hidden thing is called a upadhi. The body and mind through their sensory perceptions and thought processes create the upadhi on the atma. In short because of this covering effect, the upadhis seems to us like the real self or atma.
How can we understand a upadhi?. There are three things that should happen.
1) The upadhi hides the real thing
2) The upadhi assumes the identity of the real thing by transferring its attributes.
3) The upadhi is always a false superposition.

Let us understand this with an example. If we take a crystal which is white and keep it near a flower which is red, we can see a red hinge on the crystal. Now we can say the flower is an upadhi as it transfers its attributes namely color to the crystal which is colorless. This superposition is false as the crystal is not actually red. If we remove the flower the crystal always remains white. So the white color or purity of the crystal is hidden by the flower. The transfer of color is false as it is only a temporary superposition.
If we sit on a dirty floor , the mud can get into your dress. The dirtiness of the floor has been transferred to your dress. However this transfer is real . As you have to clean your dress to remove the color. So karma is required to remove the dirt. Thus it doesn't satisfy the third aspect of upadhi. So dirt is not an upadhi, while the flower is a upadhi because the color is not actually transferred it is only a visual effect.
So the power of upadhi is to veil the reality and impose upon it a false reality. This is called adhyasa. The illusion created out of adhyasa are called avarana shakti and vikshepa shakti.
In common day parlance we can see this in many levels. The gross body's attributes are superimposed on the subject. Thus i would say "I am fat" or "I am thin". The body's attributes are now superimposed on the pure subject.We now know that the pure subject is neither fat nor thin and it has no attributes at all. The same applies to the statement "I am worried" or " I am happy". The state of the mind is transferred to the subject.
If you look at the dream state and deep sleep state , again the same superposition works. In the dream the dream subject replaces our atman and we feel miserable or happy based on that . On waking we feel that this was a false superposition. Similarly the deep sleep state of bliss is also a false superposition on the atma.
So the upadhis here are body and mind which silently superimpose the attributes and creates the false impression on the subject. The idea of spiritual life is to see this adhyasa and turn away from it just like removing the flower and seeing the purity of the crystal. As we saw in the case of the crystal, the superposition is only an illusion not a real one when compared to the to  the case of the dirt on the dress. The antidote to this false superposition in right knowledge and not any sadhana or effort. Sadhana or karma are all preparation to this knowledge. As Sankaracharya tells us in "Atma Bodha", the only means of liberation is atma jyana and there exists no other solution.

Problem of Identity

Many people when embarking on the spiritual path feel that it is a journey which takes too long and that it is difficult. When life's problems arise, they forget what they have learnt and get immersed in samsara and after some time , feel that they have lost the way. A few common questions that comes to us are "Why is it taking long?". "Why is not happening for me?".  and so on. Let us look at why this is difficult and also what is more important. It is difficult because of the constant sensory overload of our body into the mind and also the deep rooted beliefs which we have cultivated and have been conditioned over time. But what is more important is not how long it takes , but whether we are maintaining our mumukshavtam  or desire for liberation.

There is a beautiful study in a book called "The three Christs of  Ypsilanti". The author introduces three mental patients each one of whom believed that they were Jesus Christ himself. As we can see it is a problem of identity. As he goes on investigating them, he finds why the problem of identity has arisen in them and summarizes some points which are interesting.
1) Not all beliefs are important to us. They range from central to peripheral.
2) The central beliefs are more important to us , and they are primitive and difficult to dislodge.
3) Dislodging the central belief dislodges lot of peripheral beliefs .

The problem of identity is the most central and primitive belief in us. This is why it is so difficult to dislodge and question. It is one of the reasons why the path is long and arduous. In this book he underlines what he means by a primitive belief. A primitive belief is one which we have about ourselves, our position in society, our relations and so on. Unlike other beliefs they dont come under discussions and is never looked at for scrutiny or analysis. All our actions are guided by them. More importantly they lie at the center and guide other beliefs also and form our emotional responses to many situations in life.

The primitive belief is also constantly guided by the sensory inputs .  All through our life we see constancy of objects , constancy or relations and constancy of self. This leads to our primitive belief to be based on solid facts.

He narrates a story about his two daughters. Once he returned from his clinic and found that the two daughters were quarreling a lot. Repeated attempts to quiet them failed. Now he did a trick
he addressed his elder daughter who was called Ruth as Jane and called Jane as Ruth. Suddenly the two kids stopped and asked " Dad are you playing with us?". He said "No". Now they were confused and started questioning him. They forgot about the quarrel. Now you can see how the question of identity works. As soon you are called as someone else, suddenly that becomes a big problem.

Continuously we receive sensations of the body and questioning the identity based on our body would be equivalent to questioning our sensations and perceptions which hardly  results in sanity.
It shatters our sense of integrity as a person. But looking at the mental patients who strongly believe that they are Jesus Christ and the problems they face leads us to see how their erroneous belief can lead to suffering.

We have seen why the problem of identity is difficult to dislodge. Let us now discuss whether the question is important. Even though it is difficult, each seeing that the problems are all coming from the erroneous primitive belief of who we are is more important. The view of who we are not leads to slow dissolution of the identity. It is this constant view that is more important than how long it takes.
Each experience is an opportunity to view .
So patience is a very important trait in spiritual life . We should constantly try to abandon the trammels of the mind and its desires and stay in our true nature.

Permanency of Experiencer

In the post Experiencer we looked at the fallacy of the belief in the experiencer. This can be seen as discriminating the real from the unreal. In order to look at any experience and understand what is real and what is not, we need to closely look at the existence of the experiencer. In this we will try to understand this from the perspective of the mind techniques to make reality out of nothing. The mind is indeed a strange phenomenon. It can make real things unreal by clouding it , and make unreal things real by grabbing our constant attention to it .  The problems of life is loosing ourselves in these erroneous things mind creates for us. We mistake the subject to be an object and we fail to see the real subject since we constantly are misguided by the mind.  In this post we will try to see how an experiencer which does not exist is created by the mind.

Let us look at a very simple experience. Suppose you are looking at a tree far away. What is the understanding here . " I am looking at the tree". The tree seems to be an object  and perceptions fall on my retina and body-mind system processes it and understands it to be a tree. There seems to be a tree experiencer called "me" . Now actually you will admit that , you never looked at this "me" closely . You always have looked at the tree or whatever object you are experiencing . The "me" in this experience is not looked at. Actually what has happened is this. Consciousness has become aware of the thoughts in your mind about the tree. When perceptions fall in your retina , there are processes in your mind about it . We recognize these perceptions to belong to a category of object called tree. These thoughts are all that is there. Consciousness become aware of this thoughts  in your mind. As long this tree looking is going on , thoughts are there and a "tree experiencer" also seem to exist. It is only a concept because of the conscious recognition of the thoughts in your mind.

Now let us turn away from the tree and look at a movie in the tv. Now there are thoughts about the movie that is happening. Now there seems to be a "Movie experiencer". Again the same process is true. Consciousness is becoming aware of the "Movie thoughts " in your mind and because of this awareness of the movie thoughts , we feel that there is a "me" watching the movie. Now question yourself this. Is the "tree experiencer the same as the movie experiencer"?. Most of would say "Yes".
What gives us this feeling?. The mind uses a technique called memory to achieve this. When the tree experience was going on, impressions are stored in our memory. It is these impressions that gives us the continuity of experiencer. Each experience is disjoint. However the mind uses the technique called memory to give a feeling of permanency of "me" who looked at the tree as well as the movie. All there is are memories of the thoughts of the tree. All there are memories of thoughts about the movie. But constantly reminding us of the past experiences , the mind produces a permanency of the experiencer called "me". Here what is real are thoughts and perceptions in consciousness. What is unreal is an imaginary construct called "me" who is the same as another "me" who experienced the movie.

We can understand this from the perspective of the consciousness as follows. There is pure consciousness everywhere. When perceptions related to a tree falls , there is a tree consciousness in the mind. Similarly there is movie consciousness and so on.

Now you almost see why the body is taken as "me". All through your life, you experience sensations of the body. The fleshiness of your body, the images of your body , etc are constantly experienced. These memories of thoughts can be used by the mind to give you a feeling of continuity of the "me" as far as "body consciousness" is concerned. While all that is there is thoughts related to the perceptions of the body, the mind tells you there is a "me" living inside your body.

In deep sleep there is a complete absence of all object consciousness and there seems to be no "me" there. Again memory is used to give you a continuity of the experiencer.
All these would be concepts only to you, until you start looking for the existence of the experiencer.
Another nice way by the mind is to use projections to create a "me".The mind asks us to consider the thoughts related to a future event and consider the "me" implied in it. Understand that there is only thoughts about a future event . There is no "me" sitting inside that set of thoughts. It is these memories and projections that provide a continuity to the experiencer.

Now look at the truth. Even though you can see there is vague concept of a experiencer, can you deny that there is consciousness which is molded into all these different consciousnesses. The tree consciousness, the movie consciousness , the body consciousness all seems to stem from a common formless , attribute -less consciousness which is illumining all these. Even in sleep you come to know about the absence of all objects through the presence of this consciousness only. So while all the object consciousness are all modifications of the source and is temporary, the existence of the source is never absent. When there is no tree , you realize the absence of tree through it only. Even when you are not experiencing the body as in sleep, you experience the bliss through that only.

So in short the mind fools into believing in experiences through the use of memory and projections. It uses these techniques to give permanency to what is not permanent , which are thoughts and perceptions and an imaginary "me". By producing them it clouds the underlying truth of pure consciousness which was the source of it all. In vedanta we call them sankalpa and vikalpa .
If we can constantly discriminate the unreal experiencer from the underlying essence , how can we ever suffer?. What is there to achieve ? What are life's problems?.

Hiranya Nidhi

All of human life can be considered to be seeking our goals. From the outside we feel there are many goals in life. It is a matter of private philosophy on what someone wants. Some people would like wealth and security. Some people enjoy arts. Some people seek spiritual experiences and so on. Are there many goals in life?. Or underneath these goals is there a common factor?. On the superficial level , we see that there are lot of human goals. But all these goals are not actually different goals if we analyze them closely.

Let us take a simple example. Suppose you want a mobile phone. You read about it, and start to analyze the usefulness it provides. You see people using it and so on after some time you get a feeling that getting that would be useful. Now after a few years when the mobile phone has become slow and it is giving problems for you, you want to dispose of the same phone somehow. So it is apparent that it is not the mobile phone itself that is the pursuit. Underneath your endeavor there is a hidden goal that is being sought. What could that be?.

We all know that what we are seeking in objects, people, situations etc is nothing but Aananda or happiness. So seemingly there are many goals . But underneath these goals the only goal is actually happiness. So can we say there are actually not many many goals in life. But the only goal we have is Aananda . In order to get to it , we are seeking these things.

The vedantic system also tells us that there are two sources of Aananda or happiness. One seemingly comes from the outside world and is called Baghya-Aananda or Vishaya-Aananda .The second comes from the inner most being and is called Atma-Aananda.

 The first one is always conditional. Unless you fulfill lot of conditions , it will not be obtained. While the second one is unconditional . It doesn't depend on anything at all. It is ever present , and never based on anything. Vishaya ananda is borrowed happiness as we need to borrow objects while Atmananda is always available. Any independent thing is always freeing, while borrowed objects will always leave us either today or tomorrow. Vishayananda is impermanent.

Another problem with Vishayananda is un-predicability . There are lot of  unpredictable factors which decide the nature of objects in the world. At one time you find your near and dear talking well and in another instance they are angry or depressed. There seems to be no way to predict when i would get a job and so on.

Atmananda on the other hand is unconditional ,  permanent, intrinsic , natural and is coming from myself . This  Parama Purushartha is unfortunately hidden. That is why we never experience it . That is why we seek it in the outside world. It is like a treasure buried underneath. If there is a treasure in the small land that you own, you would still be poor if you don't know that there is a treasure. Just like that , we all seek various Vishaya in life , since we are unaware of this hidden Hiranya Nidhi ( Golden Treasure).

What is the way out?. If you know about the treasure in your land , what would you do ?. You would start digging . You would want to separate the mud , rocks etc until you reach towards it. The mud rock etc are the thoughts , emotions , etc in your mind. They manifest in our minds as attachments,desires,ambitions, dreams etc. Separating the mud and dirt is the process of reaching and involves  Sravana , Manana and Nidhidhyasanam to find the Nidhi.

The first understanding therefore comes from rejecting the Vishayananda and convincing oneself that i don't want anything. This only comes from a higher understanding. Somehow the seeking should stop. Truly convincing that i am what i am seeking and i don't need anything. The distance to me is zero and it is my striving that has taken me away from me. I am truly beyond the body and mind and i require nothing. Liberation is the freeing from the seeking that we have been doing. 

Qualities of Spiritual Life

We have seen many ways in which our sense of identity propels us into samsara. It is a whirlpool of activities, experiences, sorrows , disillusionment , temporary pleasures and so on. One of the fundamental issue we face in this wordly life is that we remain ignorant of the fact that all these problems are arising from a basic misconception and that all experiences are just consequences of this.

The mind is a storm of activity right from the time we wake up. It propels us into this world by telling us that we need to bring fulfillment in life by changing ourselves, changing the environment we live and changing our near and dear. We work towards our goals incessantly by bringing in change. But after bringing in change , we realize that the change also involves losses. Any change will include gain and loss . But our mind usually looks at loss because it has a nice way of enhancing thoughts and emotions. A gain is often easily overlooked. How many of us thank for what we have got?. Anyway the feeling of change in our life is to feel for losses . The short term gains are temporary.

What started these pursuits anyway?. Our concept of our self image or ego. In our mind as we transact there is a self image we have created over a period of years which we take ourselves to be . This self image if you look closely is hardly a constant. In one period of life it was something, in a next phase it is totally different and yet we maintain that it is our identity . Have you ever looked closely into your mind and tried to identify what this self image is made of ?. Is it real?. Or is it just a sequence of thoughts and emotions?.  If so what happens to it ?. You can see that the mind cannot maintain something without effort. A thought or a concept can remain in our mind only when it is constantly thought of . If you don't give attention to a thought , it vanishes in no time. So in order to maintain our identity all the time, the mind should go on producing thoughts and thoughts about it.
This is what our identity is " A concept maintained by our mind through incessant thinking".

This also explains why children are so pure. Neither do they have a self image nor do they have a thought system to maintain it. Their effort is not to maintain or change anything. They perceive the world as it is without the filtering of the self image and assigning, categorizing and holding onto  objects. After years of conditioning we understand that our mind have become more polluted rather than becoming free .

What is the solution?. The solution is to first recognize and accept that it is not in the world the problem exists but in us. It is in our minds and cognition all the problems exist. The world cannot be and need not be changed. What should change is our approach to life in a fundamental way. What should change is to clearly see the root cause of the problem lies in our mistaken identity and work towards understanding who we truly are and to align our efforts accordingly.

Vedanta often speaks about some qualities for  spiritual life. The first quality is Vivekam or Discrimination. This is also called Nithya-Anithya-Vastu-Vivekam. By developing a viewership, we need to constantly see what is permanent and real from what seems to be apparent and transient. Look at thoughts and emotions. Look at objects which come and go. You can see the transient nature . What looks difficult situation now, will become a past incident later. What looks daunting task now becomes a regular routine later. But look at the persistent quality of awareness in which all these objects are seen and disappearing. When they disappear also , awareness remain as awareness of absence of something. So awareness never goes. Is the self image of us constant and permanent? For one we can see it was never there initially . So it is hardly permanent. But our awareness of self image was there all the time. We knew its absence and we knew its presence , we knew its change over time. So we need to see ,the self image  is not real , it is only one of the impermanent objects which changes over time.

The second important quality is  Vairagyam or dispassion. It is a natural consequence of the first quality. When we realize the impermanence of objects, we realize that we can hardly hold onto them. So a sense of dispassion arises naturally . This is the zen like quality of letting go of objects without interest. Seeking something higher, we let go of these simple objects. If money goes, we let it pass. If we loose something dear we let it pass. As the mind trains to let go things and understands that it is not a meek quality, but comes from an understanding of the higher principle, a sense of acceptance develops.

The third quality is a sense of discipline in our life. It entails mastery of our mind and sense organs and concentration and withdrawing . This is where various upasanas can help. Meditating , living meditation, spending time with spiritually inclined people ( satsangs ) etc can help our mind to become withdrawn from the wordly problems into more and more spiritual life . Even thinking too hard on wordly problems is an indulgence . It is not only a waste of time but also takes us away from the real path .

The fourth quality is the desire for freedom. As we go on replacing desires in life, we understand that there is only one way we can achieve this. By having a desire for freedom. Using consciousness of mind itself to replace it with the supreme consciousness. By planting disbelief in the mind about what it says to look beyond the mind and go to its source. This is often called Mumukshuvtam. The one and only desire which is the destroyer of all desires, is this persistent desire to know the truth.

Even though all these seems a difficult task, once we get used to all of them, we can see that life is rather simple in spirituality. Since there is only thing to ponder, we don't waste our time pondering over so many tasks we have to accomplish , so many objects to hold on. Also since it is something that is real and permanent, we are always at ease with it. We watch the objects as they come and go rather than getting immersed in them. 

Experiencer

In every experience in life there seems to be three things. One there seems to be an experiencer, second the experiencing and the third experienced object. Now let us take an example, you are watching a sun set in some beautiful beach side. A cool breeze is blowing , the night time sky is slowly descending . The experienced is clearly the sunset and the beach. The experiencing is the process of perceptions and thoughts that come in . Now who is the experiencer here ?. The immediate answer is "me". Who is me?. If you ask your mind it would try to say it is nothing but the body-mind system. So the experiencer according to the conventional experience is "body-mind " system.


Now look at this fact closely. The fact that I is only the body-mind system is only an idea. It is more like a concept .Isn't it ?. What is a concept ?. A concept is mental construct which may or may not correspond to something .  If you look at the concept of say honesty . You can see that it is a set of ideas ,, opinions and values . All mental constructs. It may be guided by social ethics, your own personal philosophy and so on. But nowhere in the world , can you show a thing called honesty. In some years the concept of honesty might change and it still would exist in mind only. Isn't the concept of I more like a mental construct?. You can definitely see the body , you can experience the mind, but the I seems to be non-existent except as a thought. So when you say "I saw the sunset", do you mean to say " A thought(concept) experienced sunset?". This seems absurd. Yet, it is what it is. This is the meaning of the statement "there really is no experiencer".

Now take another experience. You are angry at someone. There are lot of thoughts created out of the emotion called anger. Now the object causing anger could be anything . The emotions also exist. Process of anger is going on. But where is the experiencer here.? Again a concept or thought ( called I) is the experiencer here. How can a thought(I thought)  be angry?. It is only a thought. In order to understand the absurdity of this  , consider honesty. Can a concept called honesty be angry ?. Or will it become sad if honesty undergoes change with advancement in culture. A concept is only a concept. Just like that how can a concept called I feel anger or sadness?.  It is only a concept.

Lastly consider you are walking down the street. You are perceiving the body walking. Still you would say the I am walking. Experiencer is a thought or concept. The thought feels that it is walking. All this shows that even though the experiences are there and experiencing is going on, the experiencer is hardly an existent entity. It is not something that is permanent. It is a thought called the "I thought" which claims that the experience is its own.

Also notice an important aspect here. The fact that the I is only body-mind  is also known!!!. So it is also an experienced object. Any thought or concept is an object. So the concept of I is also an object. If it is an object, what is the subject?. If the subject is not the body-mind system, then the subject is not part of it but independent of it. So the experiencer is not the body-mind, but it is awareness itself. Awareness is not personal. It is not an awarer. It is awareness. A state of consciousness which is knowing.

For seeing this simple truth that there is no experiencer , but only a background awareness which is illumining all the experiences can be seen in every experience if you look closely enough. Very often we take the experiencer to be granted. We are always lost in the experienced objects and the process of experiencing that the experiencer is never seen or questioned. Every experience is a pointer to finding this out. The idea of spiritual practice is to identify the experiencer and to show clearly what it is . Notice we  said "what it is" not "who it is". Because there is no who.

When we look around , you can see people moving around caressing this sense of imaginary I holding on to it, nurturing it , working for it , trying to make the life better for it. How silly and frivolous. We build houses , move around in cars, go to places, all to satisfy a thought?. ( called I). Now wonder ,this world is such a mad place. No wonder that it  is filled with suffering. If you satisfy a thought will it thank you. Will it ever become content?.

So what is the solution to this problem?. The solution is not to think that the experiencer would vanish  from our mind. The idea is to go on witnessing the experiencer concept in our mind . The process of experiencing the experiencer itself is the solution. Naturally the witnessing of the experiencer shows that the experiencer itself is not the experiencer since there is something observing it. So next time you experience a strong emotion, look closely . Look at the experiencer . Try to find where it lives. Try to find what it is. Go on searching for it. Also have a wonder "who is searching?!!!".

To the ardent student , a doubt may arise. The subject to which all experiences are happening is awareness. How can we learn about it ?. Once we learn it , it becomes an object of knowledge. But the subject can never be an object. So what does atma jyana do ?. Atma jyana is nothing but the understanding that I am what i am seeking. The subject which i am trying to understand is nothing but me. Owning up the real atman as myself  and rejecting the body-mind as anatma is the real purpose of this endeavor. The shift of consciousness from the body-mind complex to the awareness is called transcendence( shifting the I). This is why the only word we can use here is "I AM THAT". All other statements like I KNOW ATMAN etc makes atman into an object which it is not.

True Nature of Self

यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतानि आत्मन्येवानुपश्यति
सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं ततो न विजुगुप्सते ॥

                                                  Isavasya Upanishad

"He who sees everyone and everything in self; and the self in all beings and forms; feels no hatred for anything"

At many instances in our life , we feel miserable , restless and not at ease. At those instants we do not know how to come out of this state . Let us look at this situation closely and see what is going on.

Suppose there is a life situation which makes you really sad and miserable. Thoughts come on an on, emotions erupt and you feel crunched , unable to let go of anything. All these things are happening. So we can see this from a different plane . There are two possibilities in this
One is that you are not knowledgeable about the state of your mind. You do not view your mind so to speak. This happens for example when you sleep . There may be thoughts and emotions but you are not aware of the state of your mind. Does this create a  problem?. No.
The second possibility is that you are knowing your mind . What happens ?. Suddenly these thoughts and emotions create issues. You come and say " I am disturbed and confused on what to do".

Here is the crux of the situation. It is the knowledge of the mind that created the issue. If somehow you were not aware of the things in your mind, you would not have said " I am disturbed". So it is the awareness of something that creates the issue. Now this could be due to two causes. Awareness caused the issue or the mind caused the issue. If awareness caused the issue, then in all wake state you would always feel disturbed. But this does not happen. So you conclude, it is the mind that created the issue.

Now there are many things in life which causes the thoughts in your mind as mentioned above. For example , you come to know the sad demise of your best friend's father then also you might feel disturbed. But at that time you would say " I feel sad for him". This sadness is different. When you see a tall tree what you conclude "The tree is tall" . But when you see yourself in mirror and remark you feel "I am tall". So the same tall thought in your mind is different based on situation. The same sad thought is based on situation. Your friend's father's demise produces a different sadness than your own sadness even though the sad thought could be similar.

When you look closely both a tall tree and your tallness both produce a knowledge about some tallness and so the idea is the same . How can a similar thought produce a different response when the content of the thought is more or less the same. Not only that , we also feel " I am tall " and "I am sad" etc. We feel identified with an object of our knowledge. A more accurate statement would be to say I am a witness of this knowledge. There should be something that needs to be independent of the knowledge to know it. If the something that is knowing itself is tall or sad, then it can never become short or happy later. It has to be independent of the attributes that it knows. Yet we know from our experience that we are knowing so many things of our mind's changes. Isn't our knowledge of these mind changes showing that the knowing principle is independent of our state of mind and is neither sad nor happy?. Yes. This is the liberating thing that we come to know.

No experience is exempted from this simple principle. You are consciousness and you are knowing these changes and stand independent of all. So it is more accurate to say , i am knowing sadness in me, but i stand independent of it. I am knowing happiness in me, but i stand independent of it. All changes are happening , but i am the knowing principle of all..You have known so many things in your life. You have studied many things, worked in many fields . All these things , memories, thoughts, emotions, feelings have gone through you and yet you stand apart without getting affected by them. If you were identified with each and every thing , how do you come out of it ?.

All this may be true. But when sadness comes, a tension comes, why do we feel so bad. What gave the mind the ability to do this. Here is the crucial thing to understand. Consciousness through which you know everything is turned into an object by the mind. It says consciousness is nothing but Body-mind. We now know consciousness or awareness can never be an object as it has to be independent of all objects to know them. But the mind conveniently says awareness is body-mind. Why ?. So that certain thoughts and emotions can feel more powerful and strong. Certain knowledge can feel more important than others. So a sadness pertaining to your body-mind is more important while other sadness is not so. A simple trick has divided your world. Now instead of understanding that the sadness or any thoughts are just happenings in the world, you become engrossed in it . You can spend hours and days thinking about them. So some knowing becomes pain.

A thought occurs and then the mind comes and claims that it is happening to me. If you believe it you are caught in the maze of your own thinking system.

Look at the moon. There is moon as an object and there is also space between us and the moon. So where is awareness? Is awareness in us and not outside?. It cannot be . It has to be there in the space also , since it has to know that there is a distance.It has to be in the moon also since it has to know about the moon. This is strange . Most of us might not be convinced about it. But how are you sure that there is space?. To know something you require awareness. So to know space it has to be there. If awareness is not , then no object can  be. So the idea of separation arises because of attributing awareness to the body mind. In the real picture it has to be limitless and independent.  The moon and your body mind are just objects in this limitless, formless  awareness.

This is one of the reasons why many spiritual teachers want us to inquire into our own true self. When you begin to see the truth about awareness as separate from the objects especially the body-mind also, it becomes impossible for the mind to convince us in dualistic thinking. All happenings are going on independent of us. It is neither belonging to us, nor to anyone. They are all guided by the laws of the universe. Just as thousands of processes are going on inside the body, the thoughts also are happening guided by the laws. If you truly understand that there is a radiance knowing it and standing independent of it , and you are that , how is that you are affected Every experience is a pointer to this knowing principle which all the scriptures call the eternal , self effulgent principle. Every experience is enlightenment.

Samsara

The wheels of samsara rolls us into these life situations. Often we are caught in them so much that , every activity , every experience is clouded, sad and painful. It is often not possible for us to relinquish negativity because of external factors. Before starting the discourse on spirituality , Arjuna and Duryodhana are portrayed as symbols of mortals who suffer from these wheel of samsara. If you look at Duryodhana he is the epitome of evil in terms of adharmic actions and attachment to wealth , fame and security. But why Arjuna?. Before Gita starts , he calls all Dhartharastras as Durbudhe ( evil minds). But on seeing all his relatives, he breaks down. So you can see the wide end of the spectrum. You could be good or bad, you could be dharamic or adharmic, all suffer because of samsara.

The first and foremost problem in life is that of attachment. An attachment is not necessarily due to attachment to people. You could be attached to concepts, blind beliefs, relations, health, wealth and so on. All attachments are collectively called Ragah. A ragah is always one in which we seek some material benefit either directly or indirectly. An expectation is implied in an attachment. When you love your child, there are lot of implied expectations, even though you may never admit it. In any relation also there are lot of implied and direct expectations. When you probe deep in to that you will see what your expectations are. If there is no problem or expectation it is not an attachment and there are no problems at all. In contrast to attachment, love is one of zero expectation and that is why it is a spiritual quality and why it is difficult!. Many love that we experience is only attachment in a guise.

Attachment comes with an expectation and hence implies a giving and taking. We give something now to receive something back later or now. It is this taking that is implied in the hidden expectation. Love on the other hand implies sacrifice and non expectation. It is also unconditional. All attachments comes with conditions. Why do the people to whom i have done so much behave this way? is the common compliant. You can see how many things attachment depends on. No wonder you are thinking and emoting a lot if you have attachments.

You may wonder , why do attachments happen and what is the root cause?. It comes from repeated thinking and weak identity. A weakness in our identity , as a limited being causes repeated thinking about all things close to us and this leads to desire for fulfilling and finally leads to attachment. If we truly need to do things for others. our thoughts and actions should spring from pure love and sacrifice and not from attachments. Do things with a pure heart and forget them instantly is the way.

Attachment leads to non fulfillment most of the time. Conditions change, dependent things move away, things which arise will pass and so on. This leads to the second problem in samsara called Sorrow or Shokah. When results of our actions of attachments dont bear fruit, we are immersed in misery. We fail to see what we may have achieved even because sorrow is an over powering emotion. Most of the times attachment are emotional and hence implies intense emotions in the form of sorrow. Even if  i have achieved or attained something , it would be hardly seen as significant.

Sorrow is a misplaced emotion because by their very nature , every appearance is impermanent and hence will pass and dissolve. All appearances have to go back because it is intrinsically empty. Only foolishness draws sorrow from such transient things. Even though we criticize evil people for their deeds because they inflict pain on others , a sorrowful person is not considered as evil . Actually a sorrowful person is also committing the same error as an evil person as he is inflicting pain on himself. So just as suicide is considered as murder, a sorrowful person is also doing incorrect things.

When sorrow has sufficiently established itself we are lead to the third problem of samsara which is called delusion or Mohah. This is a very dangerous thing to have. Delusion always prompts us to do incorrect actions. When Arjuna was overcome with Ragah and Shokah his intellect got clouded and he wanted to withdraw from the war. The same people whom he called Durbudhe , became his relatives and whatever they did was overlooked. So delusion had its grip on him. We are not discussing whether war was right or wrong in this context. But we can see how things are progressing in Arjuna's mind as a pointer into our own life.

This is one of the reasons why spiritual masters ask us to calm our mind and intellect before taking decisions. All decisions which are taken with the clouding of attachment and sorrow are bound to be incorrect. It would be emotional and adharmic mostly. When we have calmed our mind through spiritual knowledge and contemplation, most of the actions wouldn't be necessary and if karma is required at all , it would be pure also. On the other hand , actions done with a clouded intellect leads to more incorrect situations which again leads to ragah and sokah and the wheel rolls on.