Vidya and Avidya(contnd)

VIDYA AND AVIDYA(CONTND.)

अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया न्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया।

इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥10॥

Anyad-evahur-vidyaya anya-dahur-avidyaya,
iti susruma dhiranam ye nastad vica-caksire(10)

" One thing,they say,is verily obtained from Vidya,another thing they say from Avidya;thus,we have heard from the wise who explained that to us."(Swami Chinmayananda)

Here,the great Rsi  is trying to elaborate  the idea  of Vidya and Avidya, and give  it a new touch  of orientation and a revolutionary  re-statement,declaring that the popular notion about these two terms is not  all the truth.The results of vidya and avidya are different  from each  other, each of them serving a definite purpose.  Having  stated this,the Rsiimmediately addsthatthisopinionisnotaproductofofhis own intellect,but that this is what he has 'heard from the wise who explained that to us.' This is a very significant  statement,as in Hinduism we accept  some statement  only when  it has  stood  the testoftime and repeated subjective experience   of generation of sages.Hinduism,thus,is not the product of a single Prophet,but is the wisdom-declarations rising from th eexperienced  bosoms of realised Masters, which  have been relived by generations of disciple-class. A  truth that has been tested and found fit  upon  the touch-stoneof life by  repeated generations  alone  is acceptedby  the Aryan-devotees.
According to Swami  Chinmayananda,"Both vidya and avidya,in fact,are bondages.Knowledge is certainly a release from the shackles of ignorance,but the knowledge itself is a painful limitation upon the Absolute. One may get over the confusion of ignorance with knowledge but,in itself,this will find us only chained by  the limitations of knowledge.To transcend both is to reach the state of Absolute Perfection.
After  prefacing  thus,in the following stanza,we get a correct indication of the exact import and mutual relationship that is to be maintained between vidya and avidya.

विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद वेदोभयम सह।

अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययामृतमश्नुते ॥11॥

Vidyam cavidyam ca yastad  vedo-bhayagm saha,
avidyaya  mrtyum tirtva vidyaya-mrtam-asnute(11)
" He,who knows at the same time both Vidya and Avidya,overcomes death by Avidya and obtains immortality by Vidya." (SwamiChinmayananda)

In explaining the great  theory of' 'action and inaction' the Rsis have  given  this pregnant mantra to their Aryan generations. In the firststanza,they  condemned both vidya  and avidya as guiding  us only  to a dark age when one pursues one  to  the exclusion of other.Thereafter, quoting  the  greater  Rsis  of earlier  periods, the Seer is  now  summarising how they  are  to be  pursued  in a happy  sythesis. Synthesis  of material activity(karma)and  spiritual knowledge(Jnana) has often been advocated  by  the modern  teachers of  synthesis. Here, it  is  said  that he,who combines in himself/herself both  vidya and avidya together, would overcome 'death by avidya' and obtain 'Immortality  by vidya'. 
They must be considered  as serially connected: Selfless dedicated work(Avidya) preparesone  for contemplation,and when through contemplation Vidya  is fulfilled in direct apprehension ofthe Self, thereafter the Perfect One undertakes karma as as a  sacred satisfying fulment of his realisation and spiritual  experience.
Modern environment is full  of feverish activity - social, communal, national and international,and  many among us are  the blind  advocates ofactivity. Many are leaders and many others are  the potential ones, as perceived by them.  Despite of  all  these  leaders and  their leading, the world,as such, is gasping  forward from confusion  to despair and  steadily and systematically tottering  from despair to disaster! The  diagnosis and  the cure are contained  in the secret depths of this very pregnant mantra.
Without Vidya, to act in the outer world of avidya is almost impossible,and unprofitable as well. Without knowing  the rhysthm and harmonyofthe entirecosmos which unite togetherthe plurality,toactin the world of multiplicity would add to the existing confusion prevalent  in the world. Leaders and workers are striving to bring about   unity,harmony,peaceand joy in the world, while they themselves have not realised any one of these in themselves! With an ill-adjusted instrument of disharmony and discord,no musician,however great and willing, can strike out even a single note of perfect beauty and mastery!
This Mantra says that  certainly the experienced knowledgeof the Self(Atma-jnana) would give us Eternal  Liberation and Immortal Existence; for,thereby we shall discover that  we are not the body-mind-intellect equipment   to which  belongs the irreparable change called death.Mortality is the tragic fate of the matter; Immortality is the blissful nature of the Spirit.

But having gained Vidya in this very life,we are supposed  to livei n thisworld as a liberated soul, to fulfil his self-realisation in and  around through  his  activities in the world outside.Earlier,wehave  seen in verses ssix  and  seven,that Self-realisation is not only the experience   that one's own  Self is divine,but   this realisation  can be complete only when one  realises that his one'sown Self in the Self-in-all.Unless we include and incorporate in our Self-experience the pluralistic world of imperfection also,the realisation cannot be called complete.  Rooted in  the knowledge of our own Self,the Self-realised sage or Seer becomes the most potent fator in the world to carve out for it a destiny of unquestionable brilliance and success.
No doubt, an individual who has thus worked in the world  in organising humanity and in rehabilitating  his generation in  the greater values of life, eternally comes to live in the memory  ofthe world,carving  out  for themselves to  remain, as it were,eternally on  the surface of the globe. Buddha  and Sankara,for example,as  mortals gave no easy  walk over  to .death .  These  and  greatMasters, having  worked  for the uplift  of  society,have entered  into  the warp ofthe social fabric of  the  generation  to follow  to such an extent, that posterity  could  not willingly let die their  memories  and  contribution. Besides, such  great of  realisation 'overcome death'  that   is  caused   by Ignorance(Avidya).  Death can frighten  only him  who mis -understands  himself  to be  the body,  but  to him, who has  realised that he is  the Atman, death  is only one of the  meaningless  delusory changes  in  his body - zone with  which  he maintained  a sense  of  possessiveness  during his  days  of  ignorance.

The phrase 'And obtains immortality by Vidya' is quite significant. Mortality,afterall, is  the  fate  of matter and not the destiny of the Spirit. Swami Chinmayananda has  very beautifully added,"the potmay  breakand  destroy  the pot-space; butthe 'space'in the potisneitherbroken nor overmade; it isthe all-pervading space,ever-the -same. Similarly,birth  and death,decay anddisease,bondageand liberation,sorrowand joy,  success and failure, etc.,are all experiences available only to the ego- centre,and by  themselves are but  delusion-created appearances.  This  is realised whenthe Pure  Awareness comes to flashout,as it  were, through  the matter-envelopments.  The  ego ends, where'Godhood-experience'starts." 
The mortal,minus his ego,is the Immortal Truth. When the seeker, through  meditation, transcends all his identifications with  his body,mind and intellect-  he comes to  rediscover himself/herself to be  the Pure Atman, and to him, thereafter,there can be no-rebirth nor the chain  of   Karmic effects  to bind him down 
to the wheels of samsara. Naturally,he gains,in the  language of our experience of mortality,the state of Immortality.
(To be contnd.)
Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Vidya and Avidya

VIDYA and AVIDYA

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति ये विद्यामुपासते।


ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ विद्याया रताः ॥9॥

Andham tamah pravisanti ye vidyam-upaste,
 
tatobhuyaiva tetamoyauvidyayagmratah(9)
 
"They  who  worship Avidya(rites) alone enter blindening darkness,and they,who are  engaged in Vidya(meditation)veily fall, as  though,into an even greater darkness."
 
  ' Knowlege versus  Action' has been the eternal problem with every generation of thinkersThere is an eternal lingering   doubt as  to whether  a life of action or  a life of meditation is  the ideal way  of  living. In this stanza,the Rsi has opened up  the problem,by defining this  problem of outward activity vs.inward contemplation are avidya and vidya , which also connote karma(avidya) and  upasana(vidya). Generally  speaking, those who are keeping themselves engaged exclusively in a field of ritualistic activities certainly  find themselves  reaching thicker delusions.

According to  Swami Chinmayananda," Ritualism(karma)can be undertaken only when one is whipped by desire for the fruits thereof.When the yajnas and yagas, the ritualistic portion of the Vedas, are performed with  an  ardent desire for supremacy  or for ampler sensuousness,from the Rsi's standpoint, the individual is spiritually  falling into the'blinding darkness'. Again,those who are following the path of upasana or leading  an introvert life,mediating deeply, seeking nothing but the all-pervading Reality,they seem to fall  as  though into a still greater darkness, because such of the hasty and unprepared mediators may overdo the negation aspect of the technique of meditation and  reach a destination of blind non-existence ! Here, the term'as though a greater darkness' is very significant; it is not really darkness."  However, according to Sri Sankara,vidya means jevata-jnana,leading  to the abode of the devata,and avidya is ritualistic karma, leading to the joys of heaven(pitrloka).Probably,the context here demand that we should take vidya to be 'higher meditation' and avidya to be 'all sadhanas' that  prepare one,by exhausting  one's existing  vasanas, to have  a peaceful mind that can  readily be brought to the seat of meditation.

Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/



(To be  contnd.)

The Atman(Self) Defined

 The ATMAN(SELF) DEFINED


स पर्यगाच्छक्रमकायव्रणम स्नाविर शुद्धमपापविद्धम।

कविर्मनीषी परिभुः स्वयंभूर्याथातत्थ्यतो र्थान व्यदधाच्छाश्वतीभ्यहः समाभ्यः ॥8॥
Sa paryagac-chukram-akayam-avranam
asna-viragm suddham-apapa-viddham,
kavir-manisiparibhuh svayam-bhuh yatha-tathyatab
arthan-vyadadhac-chasv-tibhyah samabhyah(8)

"He,theAtman,isall-pervading, bright,bodiless,scatheless,withoutmuscles,pure,unpiercedby evils,wise,omniscient, transcendentand self-existing.Healoneallottedtheirrespectivefunctions(duties)tothe variouseternalyears(Creators)."

Here is a complete and exhaustive definition,if not a word-painting of the Eternal, atleast as sufficient amount of data to give a sincere student/sadhak an intuitive understanding of the all-comprehensive factor called the Life or Atman. The great commentator Sankara has  frequently used  this stanza and the expression therein in his commentaries to indicate the Self  in us. 
 
That (Self) is all-pervading, radiant, bodiless, soreless, without sinews, pure, untainted by sin, the all-seer, the lord of the mind, transcendent and self-existent. That (Self) did allot in proper order to the eternal Prajapatis known as samvalsara (year) their duties.

The word paryagat means’gone abroad or went around’, which transpires that the Self went to spread itself everywhere, meaning that the Self is all-pervading and extend beyond all limitations. Sukram declares the Self to be bright, being the very light-giving principle in our intelligence. Akayam (bodiless) indicates the Self or pure life as ‘bodiless, having no connection with the matter envelopments, generally constituted of the great five sheaths. It is no more a prisoner in the body, all its identifications have ended forever. The expression ‘scatheless and without muscles’ signifies that it has no physical body at all, and, therefore, no disease can come there. The term ‘suddha’ (pure) indicates that the Atman has no causal body since it is untouched by sin. The Self is immaculate (apapa-viddham). Thus, the Atman is neither the physical nor the subtle nor the causal body, transcending them all is the Self, Eternal and Perfect.. It is positive factor with all the dynamic qualities of Life.

Swami Chinmayananda has declared the nature of the Self in following series of phrases:
The Self is the Seer-  a declaration that the Life-spark in us isthe real vitality behind our senses  with  their perceptions. In fact,if the Life-principleis removed  from the sense organs,they become impotent to register any impression of their objects.  They  function only,when oresided over by the grace of  the Self. None of the activities of perception,feeling or thinking can be  experienced  by usif we  arenot 'charged' by  the Life-principle in  us.
Omniscient-  The Self  is considered  omniscient, All- knowing(manisi). The  Self in us as  the one Consciousness   is  the eternal 'knower' in all bosoms. The Atman is  certainly  transcendent,beyond  the realm of  the  finite. Transcending  the  finite,liesthe domainof thattranscedent  Self.

Self-existing(Svambhu) -  Our intellectcan  function only in three definite fields of activity called,time,space and causality.Cause-hunting is  the  great avocation of the  intellect. However,the causation-hunting-intellect will have   to be checkmated at  some particular  point by a  great   grand supposition only   to stem the  tide of  its own wasteful flow. Thus,philosophically,we  have   to accept that there  was a first cause, which in its never-ending flow  of changes,has brouhgt about the  entire  world  of   existing plurality. But  the Ultimate Cause must,in itself, be uncaused by  any  other cause than  itself. This  is Svayambhu meaning  self-sprung,i.e.self-existing. It isnotborn  out  of 'a something',but It  is self-born, Self being the first  cause,  not  in itself the  effect  of  anycause..

  To  conclude, the stanza,while  referring  to  all  the above  qualities   to Isha,  can  also be considered   to paint  the idea of  the seeker (sadhak) wholly  becoming one  with  the Pure,  Bodiless, Luminous, Incorporeal, Immaculate,Brahman,  the Eternal Reality. The Rsi says  loudly that  it  is this Self or Pure Consciousness that is the power and strength behind the laws of  all natural phenomena, because of the unquestionable authority behaind the Lawgiver and His Law,That authority,might or  power belongs  to  the Supreme Reality, the Self.

vedrakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

A Self-realised Atman-ko mohah kah soka ekatva-manu-pasyatah

A SELF-REALISED ATMAN

यस्मिन्सर्वाणि भूतानि आत्मैवाभूद विजानतः।

तत्र को मोहः कः शोकः एकत्वमनुपश्यतः ॥7॥

Yasmin sarvanibhutaniatmaiva-bhudvijanatah,
tatra ko mohah kah soka ekatva-manu-pasyatah(7)
 
"When, to the knower,all beings have become one in his own Self(Atman),how shall he feel deluded thereafter? What  grief can there be to him  who sees oneness everywhere?"(7)
                                                                                                                    (Swami     Chinmayananda)
In the previous Mantra,the Rsi explained to us the glory  of Self-realisation  in a language of negative assertions. We were only  told that the individual will have no more any repulsion against or hatred for anything  in life. But here, the same idea  hasbeen  explained to us with more emphasis and practical assertions. A man of Self-relisation, who  has understood in his  own vital experience that he is not a  separate individual living as opposed  to others,but in his/her essential nature,he/she  is nothing  but  the harmony or unity,that underlines all seeming  discord or plurality(which  are considered  asa scum upon  the Reality). He, who has thus relised his oneness  with  the entire,can  no longer have the ordinary tossings of the mind arising out of the ordinary  psychological  tensions created  through delusion (moha)orgrief(soka).
According to Swami Chinmayananda, "grief is the  lanaguageofdelusion.The amount of grief in an individual'slifeis  directly  proportional to the amount of delusion in him/her. In his essential nature, he is All-Bliss. Unity or Harmony is Bliss. But in delusion, when he cognizes plurality and  discord, there arises  in him, the experience of grief  This  delusion creates grief,and more the delusion,more the grief.
  To  get away from grief is the goal of life sought by every   living creature, whether man  or animal.Moksha or liberation is  the  transcendence of  the individualbeyond  the frontiers  of  sorrow.  This  Mantra  exhorts  that beyond  the shores  ofsighs  and sobs,lies the land  of realisation whence  the Knower experiences in his own Self, the entire universe to be one, which is nothing but his own Real Nature.
The pot-space can  disard all his sense of limitations,imperfections and sorrows only when it rediscovers itself to be nothing but the  universal space. Each  individual wave will have  its ownsorrows  ofbirth, growth, decayand  death only when  it considers itself separate fromothers'but,on its  realisation that  it  is nothing  but the ocean in its  essential nature, all its sorrows end,an nomore shallit  have  its own delusory ideathat  it  is separatefrom others.  Where there is no delusion,there  is no  grief, as  the grief is the expression of delusion.

Thus, to conclude,   such a man/woman( Saint )of Realisation,experiencing his own Self shining  out through every  name and form,expressing Its  own dynamism through  every  circumstance,happy or sorrowful, is eternally in unison with harmony and rhythm amidst  the discordant noise  of life. To  him are  the greatest potencies,the greatest  joys,and the amplest   successes in life.Even the heaviest  sorrow cannot shake him eveen  a wee-bit.(Cf. Yasmin sthito na duhkhena gurunapi vicalyate(wherein established,he is notshakenevenby  the heaviest  sorrow- Bhagvad  Gita VI-22).
(This research-based  endeavour is based  on  Swami Chinmayananda's Discourses  on   Isha Upanisada)

Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/