On Freedom and Society

On Freedom and Society

                “Man is a social animal and we live in a society. Each one of us is dependent on the other directly or indirectly. For example, the milk man brings the milk to our door step every day, the news paper boy throws the paper in our balcony every morning, the washer man washes our cloths, our cloths are manufactured in factories by the factory employees so on and so forth.” This was what my class second teacher told our class while teaching something about profession of people. I distinctly remember of having felt a deep pain and anger over the idea of my being dependent on so many other people and not being free. It was in that moment that I decided I will study Mathematics for the rest of my life as that was the only subject in which ideas and concepts are built in air and one has to not think of society and various un-freedoms. A man can be truly free only in the realm of Mathematics. Mathematics gives the freedom I valued. My love continues to this date. But I have realised no one can live in vacuum and existence as a man implies there will be certain givens like – inter depended-ness, relatedness, emotional bondages etc. By being ascetic one can practice sacrifice and meditation. One can try to connect to God and be content with the self but that is a though way of living and not all men turn to monkhood. Is freedom, in its true sense, meant for monks only?

                Living in a society why should a man value the value system of the society even if he disagrees with many? For example why should a man not go out naked on street? Why should a woman behave in a certain dignified way only? Why should there be conformity and not chaos? One answer can be chaos leads to destruction and man wants to avoid destruction and look forward for peaceful re-creation or creation of a new world around him. Man feels happy to be alive and develops a love for nature. He learns from the conformity in nature. He sees how plants, flowers, honey bees, butterflies, birds, trees, rivers, clouds etc are dependent on each other and value each others’ existence. They nourish each other and do not burn the earth for petty issues.  I believe my decision to conform is not so much rooted in the fear of persecution by some hard-headed members of the society but is rather in the respect for natural order that I see around me. For, I know that if I find something deeply moving and outrageous in the social fabric, I rise in revolt and opposition. History is full of personalities who rose against oppression, racial discrimination, gender issues, human rights violations etc. against very strong powers. I would like to add another aspect to this by presenting Jermey Betham’s on the reason behind such co-operation between men: He believed that the human beings by nature were hedonists. Each of their actions was motivated by a desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Every human action has a cause and a motive. “Take away all pleasure and all pain and you have no desire and without desire there is no action.” Which probably is in contradiction with the teachings from Bhagwad Geeta that directs men to act without the thought of the fruit.

                 We have judicial system which is loaded with work. People have a sense of being wronged or not being wronged and therefore they seek justice. Because they think there is something like justice. Some way of living which is just. “In this little world, in which children have their existence, nothing is so finely felt and perceived as injustice”, says Pip in “The Great Expectation” by Charles Dickens. Man has a sense of justice and injustice and around such (and similar such) senses social fabric is woven.

                It is widely expected today, that men should be able to enjoy the freedoms they value and they have reason to value (as I might want to have the Taj Mahal but I don’t have a reason to value such a freedom in a country of 1.2 billion people. I can ofcourse have a piece of land and build a house but ownership of the Taj may not be the freedom which I can value). I might want to hoard all the food grain stocks available in the market for export so that I can build a Taj Mahal for myself, but again that would mean everyone will go hungry and therefore here again I have no reason to value such a want or whim. But I certainly can want a freedom of speech, of choosing profession, religion, faith, travelling, political freedoms etc. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights 1948 identified certain Rights which a Human Being should be able to enjoy. Jeremy Bentham found the idea of human rights as non sense. He felt that rights were children of law. Some scholars believe rights are parents of law and laws are made under the light of the rights men should enjoy. I think there is a duality here. In some cases rights can be parents of law for example Right To Information or Right To Education are essentially rights that have now translated into law and find their place in statue books. Also, some countries have laws against abortion. Such laws override the Right To Life. Which shows right can be child of law.

               

                What is the role of State? What is the aim of political setup?

                Kant believed that the aim of Politics not making the subjects happy, but is to provide them with enough freedoms so that they can work forward for their own happiness. It’s to provide an enabling environment where peaceful pursuit of happiness is possible. He was opposed to benevolent despotism. Jeremy Bentham advocated utilitarian ideas. He believed the purpose of a State should be to ensure greatest good for greatest numbers. Amartya Sen critics such a view and says that focus should be on means as well as ends. Greatest good can be achieved through several means. But while achieving such ends the State should ensure that people have freedoms to chose from. “Development”, to Sen, “is fundamentally a aimed at empowerment.” There is a complementarity between freedom and development. If freedom is enhanced the State would develop, if development is done then freedoms (that men can enjoy) will get enhanced. The purpose of State should be in only making the people empowered and let them work for their own set goals. Public debates and reasoning should be given great importance to weed out conflicts and seek solutions in conflicting situations. The society might not be made totally just (no body knows what that is) but it certainly can be made less unjust. And it is the State to take care of such transformation from unjust to less unjust.

               

(...conclusion to be written later)            

Enigma

As the bluish haze started dimming into the pitch darkness of the moonless night in the shivering winter of the town, a baby was heard crying. The city of a hundred and fifty thousand houses with of concrete walls, slept. Gardens slept, flowers slept and the old gardener too. The gates of the ancient churches of the city were closed, and temples and mosques too.

The night passed, and the gates of the churches opened for morning-prayer, and that of the temples and mosques too. People came for morning walk in the garden, and flowers lifted their heads to smell the rising sun. The old gardener kept himself busy humming an old tune and sweeping the pavements. The concrete walls claimed their true colours and were no longer the same. 

A five year old kid came walking to me and asked while I was sitting still and gazing the surface of the lake. “Did you hear someone cry last night oh passerby? I heard and heard till the morning sun and now its gone”, holding my hand he asked. I looked into his eyes and a tear rolled down my bearded cheek. I showed him a pen. He looked and it and said, “Where is the poem?” Since then we both have been here at the sides of this lake, watching.

The day passed and the sun kissed the horizon once again. The gates of churches started closing and that of the temples and mosques too. People went back to their houses and the as so did the old gardener. The kid stood up and said, “The sun has set now, I cannot see it beyond the horizons any more”. I stood up to see for myself and he was right, the sun wasn’t there.

The kid then walked into the lake and I just followed him. There we met an old man playing a long flute with three hands and writing a song with his forth hand. He stopped for a while and took out a small flute from his bag. He gave that flute to the kid and asked him to play. The kid blew and blew into the reed till he got frustrated and threw it away. The old man smiled and continued to play. The kid then asked the old man, about the baby crying the other night and the old man nodded while he played. 

We walked a little longer and we were at a village of hens and pigeons. They were living in mud houses amidst beautiful flowers and green grasses. The kid rushed to a big white hen and told her about the old man we met. The hen convened a meeting in the village hall. All the birds and insects came, and the kid cried while he asked about the baby crying the last night. 

An old pigeon shook its head and made us sit on its back. It then flew to the highest skies and made us see the world and the sun together. As we looked down we saw our town and the sleeping old gardener with his broom. We looked around and we heard no sound, there was no baby no cry no wind. 

We then came down to take rest on a mountain peak. The snow beneath our feet was hard, it was cold and we were hungry. The pigeon flew in search of food and after an hour it came back with a piece of cloud. We took two bites and threw the rest. 

.................and the baby cried.

Science and Mysticism: Are they compatible?

(One of the four topics for essay from UPSC paper 2012)

Sharaabiyon ko akeedat hai tumse, jo tu pilade to paani sharaab ho jaaye

Jisko tu muhabbat se dekhe saaki wo sharaabi ho jaaye...

Sams, had a question which no scholar of his time could answer. Finally he was asked to meet Rumi as only he could answer such a question. It is said that when Sams asked his question Rumi fell down of the ground, some say the book Rumi was holding is his hand caught fire when Sams asked: “How great is my glory, we do not know You as we should?”

Rumi, one of the greatest Sufi poets the world has read, spent a long time in conversation with his friend Sams. When he lost Sams, Rumi went from place to place to search for his friend. Then one day he said:

Why should I seek? I am the same as he.

His essence speaks through me.

I have been looking for myself.

The union became complete. Rumi merged with Sams – fana – is the apt word.

Such is the world of mystic saint, where reality fuses into imagination and imagination becomes reality.

Coming to our times, "Philosophy is dead” claimed Stephen Hawkins in his book The Grand Design. The same author left me deeply confused when I came across another book by the same author whose title was Leopold Kronecker’s famous quote: God Created The Integers. He certainly would have not named a book with such a title if he does not believes in God (or some form of his own God, as we all have our own Gods), then he believes in religion and thus philosophy too. For to me there can be no religion without philosophy.

Though such contemplation, rather confusion over what Stephen Hawkins truly believes to be true, might not appear directly related to the topic of the present article but I found it important to enter the realm of Science through the eyes of one of the greatest scientists of our time, and enter the world mysticism through the eyes of Rumi.

Philosophy is a word derived from a Greek work, philos, which means love of wisdom. Wikipedia defines it as:

“Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language”.

Religion on the other hand is defined as:

“Religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to the supernatural, and to spirituality.”

Mysticism:

“Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centres on practices intended to nurture those experiences. Mysticism may be dualistic, maintaining a distinction between the self and the divine, or may be non-dualistic”.

Science:

“Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. In an older and closely related meaning, "science" also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied. A practitioner of science is known as a scientist.”

At the very start I would like mention, that maintain that scientists are not atheists by rule. Ramanujam, who was a Mathematician, claimed to derive divine insights from the Goddess Namagiri.

Abraham Lincoln  once said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” In History we get several such examples. The French Revolution which gave the went on to give ideas of the upcoming democracies. The politics of tomorrow was defined in the precepts of philosophical schools of yesterday. Gandhi ji said, ‘Those who say religion has to do nothing with politics, do not understand religion’. Connecting the two thoughts, I find, philosophy closely related to politics and religion closely concerned with politics. The inter-marriage of the three is but inevitable. Politics cannot live in vacuum and religion cannot be untouched of philosophy. Religion and philosophy try to answer the eternal questions of mankind about life and its meaning. While politics affects his life as a social animal in all possible ways. A man once born cannot escape the three, such is the trap in which a thinking mind finds itself.

Science, as we know it today, is not as old as religion or philosophy. Surely there were scientists, chemists, biologists in antiquity, but talking about modern Sciences we can say that the power centres were more in the clutches of religious power centres rather than influenced by scientific ideas. Church had a strong hold in the western countries even in the eighteenth century. It was the twentieth century which saw rapid advances in sciences and the two world wars brought tremendous new innovations. Engines were made, flights became common, communication became easier, space explorations began in post second world war period and continue to this day. Our curiosities have taken us to distant lands of Mars as well. We live in a fast world, where ideas fly from one corner of the world to another in no time. A Ghangam style of dance in East Asia becomes common in west overnight. A rock song of west becomes the anthem for the east the moment it gets uploaded on youtube or other such portals. In such an age, it is not very popular to see people sitting in contemplation over philosophic questions of the past.

Religion is strong force even today. Religion has kept itself abreast with the changing world and defined or redefined its precepts in the light of the present situations. People follow many religions. In fact not many religions have died since ancient times. States are run by religions sentiments in many part of the world. Communal strifes are common.

One may say that though, a lot has changed but there is no point writing epitaphs of philosophy or of religion. Both are very much alive.

Compatibility of the two (Science and Mysticism) brings to fore the problem comparing the inputs and outputs of the two. Science starts with questioning physical or natural phenomenon and then skids into the realm of logical reasoning, laboratory experiments, observation, hypothesis, proving and disproving to finally emerge to light with better understanding of the initial problem. Sometimes the searches are accidental as Madam Curie discovered radioactivity. Sometimes it is anxious waiting in the dark as Albert Einstein said one discovering the relationship between energy and mass: The years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their intense alternations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light—only those who have experienced it can understand it. In Budhdhism such a state can be said to be in some be equivalent to attaining Budhdhahood or enlightenment. Looking for something hidden by nature from human perception and being more real than reality, is in some way the aspiration of any seeker of God. The process might be different but the final emergence to light which brings greater understand of life can be said to be common to both the endeavors.

The desire to know God:

"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details." - Albert Einstein.

“A naked man jumps in a river, hornets swarming above him. The water is the zikr, remembering. There is no reality but God. There is only God.

The hornets are his sexual remembering, this woman, that woman. Or if a woman, this man, that. The head comes up. They sting.

Breathe water. Become river head to foot. Hornets leave you alone then. Even if you’re far from the river, they pay no attention.

No one looks for stars when the sun’s out. A person blended into God does not disappear. He, or she, is just completely soaked in God’s qualities. Do you need a quote from the Qur’an?

All shall be brought into our Presence.

Join those travellers. The lamps we burn go out, some quickly. Some last till day break. Some are dim, some intense, all fed with fuel.

If a light goes out in one house, that doesn’t affect the next house. This is the story of the animal soul, not the divine soul. The sun shines on every house. When it goes down, all houses get dark.

Light is the image of your teacher. Your enemies love the dark. A spider weaves a web over a light, out of himself, or herself, makes a veil.

Don’t try to control a wild horse by grabbing its leg. Take hold the neck. Use a bridle. Be sensible. Then ride! There is a need for self-denial.

Don’t be contemptuous of old obediences. They help.” – Rumi   (Poem – Zikr)

A mystic a more undisciplined in his flights of imagination. Rumi once wondered:

Who makes these changes?

I shoot an arrow right.

It lands left.

I ride after a deer and find myself

Chased by a hog.

I plot to get what I want

And end up in prison.

I dig pits to trap others

And fall in.

I should be suspicious

Of what I want.

But the fanatic desire to annihilate with the one and be the one who is immanent and yet hidden is something which is same in both scientists and mystics.

As far as compatibility is concerned they don’t seem to complement each other neither do they come in conflict with each other. Science goes on evolving with time. Old theories become obsolete, new ones come up. New understanding takes place of old believes. And the process of knowing more and more through experiments and observations goes on. The maddening distance from the One, pains and eludes the wit of many thinkers. Some commit or attempt to suicide too.

A natural disaster leaves both, the scientist and a mystic perplexed and ask how can the creator take so many lives of innocents. Is there no creator. Voltaire said, if there is no creator, we need to create one. Dostoevsky maintained that is there is no God, then everything is permitted. The chaos, that shall unleash, in absence of the idea of a creator, horrifies one and all. The compatibility or non compatibility of the two rests of the one final question: Do the two seek the same? This is the point where I must admit to the readers that I find the question absurd, not worth answering.

Pale sunlight

Pale the wall

Love moves away

The light changes

I need more grace that I thought. - Rumi

कैसे अब हम भूलें तुम्हें मुश्किल है

कैसे अब हम भूलें तुम्हें मुश्किल है ...

क्या करें बच्चों सा ये अपना दिल है ...

बाद तुम्हारे सूनी लगेंगी सब राहें 

जहाँ अकेले हो जाएँ कैसी मंजिल है .. 

वादा है अब न बोलेंगे दिल की बातें 

यार मेरा देखो तो कितना संघ्दिल है ...

ग़ज़लें भी सब आप की हैं और नग्मे भी 

आप न होंगे तो जीवन का क्या हासिल है

डूब ही जातें आप की आँखों में लेकिन 

सोचते हैं के नाचीज कहाँ इस काबिल है ..

शायर शायर कह के लोग बुलाते हैं
कितनी फीकी देखो तो ये महफ़िल है...

दरिया से तो हो आये हम बच कर के
जान का दुश्मन बन बैठा ये साहिल है ...

I am and I just am

Let me write to you O’ Lord my silence

I haven’t heard a word inside my head for a long time now

I think I have forgotten my own voice

And even if I do, I lend no thought on how it was

For I am sure, I don’t like it anymore

O’ Lord what a fool I was to utter those words with such haste

How foolish was when I outpoured a zillion poems

And still could never know, that it wasn’t me writing

I intend to write to you O’ Lord my silence

I breathe and that’s how I know I am

I am silent and that’s how I know you are

All the scriptures, religions, thinkers and saints have fumed away you see

I know no past no future no pain no joy

I am and I just am

Silence O’ Lord is my continuous prayer and a smile – an instant reward

I smile and thus I know I am

And thus I know you are

I wish to write to you O’ Lord my silence - The golden truth

But alas! I know no words, no art and have no skill

I know no audience I know no identity

I just am

And you are

Here my Lord, I present to you my silent soul like a fresh rose petal in your feet

I present you what I am

I wish to write my silence O’ Lord

Enigma

As the bluish haze started dimming into the pitch darkness of the moonless night in the shivering winter of the town, a baby was heard crying. The city of a hundred and fifty thousand houses with of concrete walls, slept. Gardens slept, flowers slept and the old gardener too. The gates of the ancient churches of the city were closed, and temples and mosques too.

The night passed, and the gates of the churches opened for morning-prayer, and that of the temples and mosques too. People came for morning walk in the garden, and flowers lifted their heads to smell the rising sun. The old gardener kept himself busy humming an old tune and sweeping the pavements. The concrete walls claimed their true colours and were no longer the same. 

A five year old kid came walking to me and asked while I was sitting still and gazing the surface of the lake. “Did you hear someone cry last night oh passerby? I heard and heard till the morning sun and now its gone”, holding my hand he asked. I looked into his eyes and a tear rolled down my bearded cheek. I showed him a pen. He looked and it and said, “Where is the poem?” Since then we both have been here at the sides of this lake, watching.

The day passed and the sun kissed the horizon once again. The gates of churches started closing and that of the temples and mosques too. People went back to their houses and the as so did the old gardener. The kid stood up and said, “The sun has set now, I cannot see it beyond the horizons any more”. I stood up to see for myself and he was right, the sun wasn’t there.

The kid then walked into the lake and I just followed him. There we met an old man playing a long flute with three hands and writing a song with his forth hand. He stopped for a while and took out a small flute from his bag. He gave that flute to the kid and asked him to play. The kid blew and blew into the reed till he got frustrated and threw it away. The old man smiled and continued to play. The kid then asked the old man, about the baby crying the other night and the old man nodded while he played. 

We walked a little longer and we were at a village of hens and pigeons. They were living in mud houses amidst beautiful flowers and green grasses. The kid rushed to a big white hen and told her about the old man we met. The hen convened a meeting in the village hall. All the birds and insects came, and the kid cried while he asked about the baby crying the last night. 

An old pigeon shook its head and made us sit on its back. It then flew to the highest skies and made us see the world and the sun together. As we looked down we saw our town and the sleeping old gardener with his broom. We looked around and we heard no sound, there was no baby no cry no wind. 

We then came down to take rest on a mountain peak. The snow beneath our feet was hard, it was cold and we were hungry. The pigeon flew in search of food and after an hour it came back with a piece of cloud. We took two bites and threw the rest. 

.................and the baby cried.

Brahma

Note: Self is used interchangeably for soul.

Q.            Am I the body?

001.       The body is just a degradable and dynamic entity on the universe. Just like a stone of today that can be mud tomorrow, the body will lose its form.

Q.            How to understand the meaning of life then?

002.       To understand the meaning of life, come out of the mirage where the body is the self and fellow beings are relatives or strangers according to how they look or speak or identify themselves.

Q.            How should I see my body?

003.       See the body as complete stranger and forget it as piece of straw kept nearby.

Q.            What do I do without my body?

004.       Come towards the self and stay with it in silence.

Q.            What is the nature of self?

005.       No logic, no word, no expression can describe the self. It is everything and yet everything is not even a pinch of it. Leave such thoughts as thoughts are faculty of mind and the mind is a part of the body. Leave the body. Leave the mind. Leave the thoughts. Smile. Forget everything.

Q.            Should I wait for the thoughts to die out?

006.       Do not try to destroy the thoughts. You cannot. Forget the body and stop identifying yourself with it. The thoughts will die out and the face will smile in silence.

Q.            What if past haunts me?

007.       Forget the past, as the past is associated with the body only. The self is not bound with time.

Q.            Will I see God in such silence? How does He look like?

008.       Do not expect unnatural or extra ordinary or divine visions. Do not expect anything. Just forget the body and know from within that the body is not you. The body is just holding you.

Q.            Why do I need to be held?

009.       The body holds you because you are always joyous and want to go around the universe experiencing every bit of it. You want to play in the play ground of your father. There is no other reason. There is no afterlife or previous life for the self, as you were never born and never dead. You chose for yourself what and where you want to be in the universe.

Q.            What Should I do in this life?

010.       Enjoy.

Q.            How?

011.       Be with the self and glide through this plain of life always knowing that the body is just holding you. It is not you.

Q.            Is the purpose of life to know the self and seek salvation?

012.       The self is already absolved of all papa-punya as the self was never involved in any karma.  There is nothing like salvation. There is no purpose of life other than the desire of the self to come to the life plain through a body. The self is always content and joyous.

Q.            Why then there is misery?

013.       Because very few men know the self. Men give names to their kids and the kids grow up with an identity which they find impossible to lose even for a moment and see the self in true sense. They become slave of their identity and a slave many a times ends up as a miserably tiered poor person.

Q.            So life is to be lived with joy and jest?

014.       Yes. Laugh, smile, play, work with a detachment for the karma falam, don’t get involved in anything and yet be there. Become a father and yet know that neither the son nor you yourself are the body.

Q.            What kind of living will that be! I am scared and dismayed!

015.       Come back to your body then. Switch the identity. Become a father and a son the way the body says things are. But keep trying to return to the self. This is the spiritual exercise you must keep practicing till you achieve the wisdom that opens the gates of all knowledge and truth.

Q.            And what is that?

016.       It is the understanding that there are few things that are beyond the faculties of the mind to perceive but by steadfast faith and love one can connect to the divine which lies within and without.

Q.            How do you know you are not wrong? What if you are wrong?

017.       What is right can very much be wrong. What is wrong can very much be right. The importance of right and wrong ceases when we transcend the mind. Beyond the confines of the mind, there is only bliss and light.

Q.            If the mind is so bad, why the self enters the body that cannot function without the mind?

018.       The mind is not bad or good. The mind is a slave, who will make food for you if you ask it. But the same slave can kill you and consume you if you become its slave. Enslave your mind do not lose yourself to it. Use it for survival, for seeking excellence in the life plain, seek direction from the self. Create something. Savour it. Destroy it. Remake. And still know that you are not the creator, destroyer or the maker of anything.

Q.            Its all enigmatic utterance of a mystic. Its no knowledge. It does not answer anything. What should I do?

019.       Wait with me. Let the truth unravel itself. It will have to.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati Teachings of Vedanta

(Ram V. Sir's explanation)

vAsudhEvEndhra yogIndhram nathvA gnApradham gurum |
mumukshUNAm hithArThAya thathvaboDhaH aBiDhIyathE || TB-1||

वासुदेवेन्द्र योगीन्द्रं नत्वा ज्ञानप्रदं गुरुम् |
मुमुक्षूणां हितार्ताय तत्वबोधः अभीधीयते || TB-1 ||

this simply invokes the grace of the guru.. even the word "guru" is defined as "gu" representing the darkness or ignorance of our budhDhi and "ru" representing its removal. While many gurus are there, very few are capable of removing the many ignorances we have, ONLY a guru well-versed in SAsthram, committed to understanding and unfolding brmhan can remove our ignorance regarding ourselves.. a person who is desirous of the removal of self-ignorance is really a mumukshu because he (here not the gender, but th quality of pumsthvam is referred to as he) has discerned that dharma and artha and kama have only limited results and thus he goes for the kill..! knowing which the samsaram ends.. for assuring that type of mumukshu the salvation, this thathva boDhah is taught.. 

thathvam means the true nature of jIvaH, jagath, and ISvaraH.. boDhaH means the teaching.. 

Here the author invokes the grace of his guru vAsudhEvEndhra.. who is capable of giving the Sishya the gnAnam (knowledge about oneself). Having saluted his guru, the author starts unfolding the granTham called thathvaboDha: which is intended for the ultimate goodness of those who desire moksham or liberation or end to samsAram..

This itself is a mahA prathignA or a great promise by the author, because this one line alone is enough to settle the uncertaities in our head about pramANa asamBAvanA or the doubts one may have as to the very validity of this text..! Now the seeker must have SradhDhA and go further into the text and analyze.. We will do just that..

The next line talks about sADhana cathustayam.. The four fold qualifications necessary to make a person qualified to pursue the teaching. It is important to note that NO one person has all of these it total measure except god..!!

The beauty of TB is its ability to convey to us the essence of vEdhAntham in the question and answer format.. almost all of our teachings or that way (except perhaps in our modern schools, where the teacher gets upset if the student asks a question..!!).. in vEdhAntham THERE IS NO NAME DROPPING.. Our svarupam is the topic here.. so better get it pakkA in our budhDhi.. any vEdhAntha teacher who leaves a mystery in a questioner's mind SHOULD BE DROPPED AS A GURU INSTANTLY..! Even the word "guru" has a significant meaning.. "gu" means the darkness(in our mind about our true nature) and "ru" means its removal..! That person alone deserves to be our guru..

So the guru opens TB with words that are more powerful than nuclear explosion..

sADhana cathushtaya sampanna aDhikAriNAm mumukshUNAm moksha sADhana Butham thathva viveka prakAram vakshyAmaH |TB-2|
साधन चतुष्तटय सम्पन्न अधिकारिणां मुमुक्षूणां मोक्ष साधन भूतं तत्वविवेकप्रकारं वक्ष्यामः|TB-2|

"we are going to talk about the methodolgy of unfolding our true nature, for those aDhikArIs who are endowed with the four-fold qualifications which will result in moksham for such mokshAm seekers..!"

Now every word and syllable in this beautiful text is explained to the student who is totally ignorant about ANYTHING, but the guru is TOTALLY capable of explaining..!! I asked SDS upon completion of this text IF TB is a complete text. SDS simply smiled and said "yes, WITHOUT ANY DOUBT, it is a complete text"I also see that this SDS community is saturated with serious seekers who have become very dear to me..!! So I am proceedinG to elaborate on the entire TB all the way to the last statement from the guru of TB. Just one observation here on my part. I found out upon listening to SD that the very first few verses of any vEdhAnthic text was quite capable of delivering the total message and the rest were a mere unfoldment of that message.. It is just like saying "I love you" and then spending a life time proving it..! May this succeed

|TB-3 &4|

साधन चतुष्तटयं किम्| (TB-3)
नित्यानित्य वस्तु विवेकः | इहामुत्र फलभोग विरागः | शमादि षट्क सम्पत्तिः | मुमुक्षुत्वम चेति | ( TB-4 )

Finally comes the answer to student's question..!! The question on sAdhana cathushtayam.. that started this whole ball rolling..! I have numbered this as TB-3..

sADhyathE anEna ithi sADhanam.. that which helps you accomplish something is sAdhanam.. It simply means a "A MEANS OF DOING OR ACCOMPLISHING ANY GOAL". Like fire is a primary sADhanam for cooking.. car is a primary sADhanam for travel.. whreas gasolene is the priamry sADhanm for the engine to run.. 

It is important to remember here that any one sADhanam will have several sADhanms that it requires..! That is why the whole blessed thing is ULTIMATELY dismissed as "mithyA" the most misunderstood and misapplied word in the world of spiritual seekers.. LIKE US..! 

I am also going to be warning this community where a potential for us to commit an error exists.. so that we can always easily revisit that topic when that error is FORGOTTEN..!! It happens all the time to all of us.. that is really the beauty of studying vEdhAntha SAsthram.. cathushtayam simply means "four" kim here means "what are they?" so in essence the student asks the guru "hey guro! you mentioned in your opening dialog this word.. i do not know its meaning what are they?.." The student's job is really extremely simple when he asks the question.. BUT EXTREMELY DIFFICULT WHEN THE ANSWER HAS TO BE REMEMBERED, RETAINED,REFLECTED UPON, AND RECITED WHEN NEEDED..!!!

Actually we will see as the text goes along, the Sishya is absolutely ignorant of the teaching of vEdhAntham, yet has an ApAthatha gnAnam.. a vague understanding of vEdhAnthic terminology, at least he has heard of them.. BUT WITH ZERO UNDERSTANDING..!! he pays a lot of attention though..!

All these will be explained as we read on.. The guru's answer is marked by me as |TB-4|.. That comes next..

( TB-4 )

नित्यानित्य वस्तु विवेकः | इहामुत्र फलभोग विरागः | शमादि षट्क सम्पत्तिः | मुमुक्षुत्वम चेति | ( TB-4 )

The first one is नित्यानित्य वस्तु विवेकः | This really means one must have a discriminative understanding of what is "eternal" and what is "non-eternal or temporary"

The second one is इहामुत्र फलभोग विरागः | "iha" means here on planet earth (for us humans).. "amuthra" means "elsewhere" that one aspires to go to for "fun" time..! PalaBogam means an "itching" we all have for enjoying what we rightfully determine "I did this.. so I shall enjoy this result".. now comes the sADhanam..!!! virAga: is a vairAgyam or a dispassion or a determination that I AM NO LONGER INTERESTED IN THIS LIMITED RESULT.. In other words, as Americans describe it "chicken-shit" results..!! We still do not know at this point why we should develop this vairagyam.. that explanation comes later.. Remeber this is guru Sishya samvAdham.. the stuedent will not allow the treacher to rest in peace UNTIL he has every one of his quesions answered.. (here his means her also.. we are talking about the quality of both males and females who have this metal fortitude to stick with this study to gain the ULTIMATE goal.. or purushATham..)

The third one is शमादि षट्क सम्पत्तिः | this actually has six subsets..! It literally means the qualities such as Sama, etc..! this will be explained later also almost pretty soon..

The fourth one is मुमुक्षुत्वम चेति | mumukshuthvam means a desire to gain moksham.. I can not but help explaining the beauty of samskrtham here.. these words are known in English as "desiderative" which is unique to samskrtham. It simply means "the desire to become or do what the primary verb of action is intended for.. " here samskrtham describes it in one clean simple word..! 

This actually propels the student to ask simple one word or two-word questions and the teacher usually spends a life time explaining it.. THAT IS WHY HE IS A GURU, THE REMOVER OF THE DARKNESS OF OUR MINDS AND WE ARE ARE HERE TO "BUG" HIM FOR ANSWERS..!!

TB-5,6, AND 7

नित्यानित्य वस्तु विवेकः कः |नित्यं वस्तु एकं ब्र्म्ह तद्व्यतिरिक्तं सर्वं अनित्यमेव | अयं एव निथ्य अनित्य वस्तु विवेकः | TB-5 |

Here the student is NOT afraid of asking the guru any question he has because here the ending of the samsAram is being taught by the guru. Then the guru also appreciates the humulity on the part of this student and teaches him the essence of all of our scriptures in the very opening declaration of TB. The student asks what is this vivEkam or discriminative knoledge. The teacher declares that there is ONLY one such discriminative knowledge. That knowledge is that the singly non-dual brmhan is that eternal vasthu. OTHER THAN THAT EVERYTHING IS PERISHABLE.. Then the student continues with his questions. (please understnad that this is not meant for an ordinary student but who has come to a guru for ending samsAram)

विरागः कः| इहस्वर्गादिषु इच्छा राहित्यं |TB-6|

When the student asks what is dispassion, the guru says,"any gain you strive for on planet earth as well as attainment of heaven should NOT be the passion of your life, if you want to end samsAram. So the 'absence os such a desire to accomplish the non-eternal goals" is virAga: or the dispassion necessary to obtain this knowledge.

शमादि षट्क सम्पत्तिः का| शम दम उपरम तितिक्षा श्रद्धा समाधानं चेति |TB-7|

Previously you may remember that the guru simply said the "six-fold gunAs, such as Sama, etc".. So here he "lists" thos 6-fold gunAs and elaborates what those six are in the following as well awaiting the student to ask a question. This also highlights how vEdhantic teachers are. The very statment they make must be relevant, yet the student must be capable of asking the proper question, and then the guru also must be capable of expalining.

(This is also the main reason why I chose to be a vEthantic teaching assistant and NOT A GURU. This also allows me to enjoy the human qualities and fraities like every one of the rest of us.!)

So now it is the student's tunn to ask "शमः कः | मनोनिग्रहः |"

(cont)

TB-8,9,10 and 11

शमः कः | मनोनिग्रहः |TB-8|

For this the teahcher simply defines it as "mind control". this is easier said that done.. even krshNa says in BG that mind control is as difficult as catching hold of air.. but it can be done by practce and determination.. We will leave it at this simple definition for now. japam, DhyAnam etc help us here..

Then the sttudent asks..
दमः कः | च्क्षुरादि बाह्येन्द्रिय निग्रहः |TB-9|

What is dhama:? tTo this Q the guru says,"the ability to CONTROL one's sense organs such as eyes.." By the such as the guru means the five organs of knowledge (skin, ears, eyes, tongue, and nose), and the five organs of action (mouth, hands, feet, organs of evacuation, and organs of procreation). (Charity, Bajans,etc)

Then the sttudent asks..
उपरमः कः | स्वधर्ममनुष्ठानमेव |TB-9|

For this the teacher says to follow one's Dharma, without worrying about our losses as well as other's gains. One simply does what needs to be done whether it is to my liking or not.. This is a very significant quality in a student.(this is peaceful co-existence)

The next Q by the student was..

तितिक्षा का | शीतोष्ण सुख़दुखादि सहिष्णुत्वं |TB-10|

What is thithikshA? Here the guru says,"it is the fortitude one has in bearing the dual opposites that happen in our lives. These could be any number but he simply gives only a sample.. which covers almost the entire spectrum.. He points out that we must bear both hot and cold weather, be somewhat neutral when pleasure and pain occur in our lives, etc..

(HERE COMES WHAT I PERSONALLY THINK IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT QUALITY IN KALI YUGAM.)
श्रद्धा कीदृशी | गुरु वेदान्त वाक्यादिसषु विष्वाशः श्रद्धा |TB-11|
What is SradhDhA is the question.. To that the guru replies." the unshakeable faith in the words of the teacher and our scriptures.. Here I can go on for any length of time explaining.. But please read my topic on pramANam, which deals with what is a means of knowledge and why our scriptures must be revered by us.

No self-proclaimed gurus here , but one who KNOWS

TB-12,13,AND 14

Then the student wants to know the sixth guNa of the six-fold qualities..
समाधानं किमं | चित्तैकाग्रता |TB-12|
So he asks what is samADhAnam? The guru says.."the one-pointedness of the mind". this is elaborated by SD as the ability of the student to stay focussed on WANTING TO END THE SAMSARAM.. he has no other goal.. nothing else is attractive.. he is done with power, passion, postion, money, titles, education, worldly pleasures and pain, etc.. [b/]without this one-pointedness, many a student just wander around in the forest of words.. they fail to understand what is important in life and what is not.. and more often than not, end up pursuing what is temporary and evanascent as opposed to what is permanent and real..

Then the Million dollar Q by the student..
मुमुक्षुत्वम किं | मोक्षो मे भूयादिदीच्छा | TB-13|
WHAT IS mumukshuthvam? many of us wander in the forest of samsAram without understnading what his term even means.. TB very clearly defines it as A DESIRE ON THE PART OF THE STUDENT THAT "LET MOKSHA HAPPEN TO ME." At this point he has heard the term moksham or liberation but has gone about it a million different ways.. but to ask a proper guru that question and tell him that "I WANT MIOKSHAM" actually will bring tears to the eyes of the guru. A STUDENT CAN NOT GIVE A GURU A BETTER GURU DAKSHINA THAN ASKING THIS QUESTION. PLEASE MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THIS ONE

Then the guru concludes the answers to student's question with the following brief statement..

ऍतत् साधन चतुष्टयम् | ततः तत्वविवेकस्य अधिकारिणः भवन्ति |TB-14|

He simply says that once a person has these 4-fold qualifications (1. understanding of what is eternal and non-eternal; 2. dispassion 3a. mind control/3b. organ control/3c. following what has to be done/3d. tolerance/3e. unshake-able faith/3f. one-pointedness in our pursuit; and finally 4. A DESIRE FOR LIBERATION..

Then and THEN ALONE, one becomes eligible for understanding the upanishadic teaching.

NONE of us has all of this in full measure, right? !!!

एतत् साधन चतुष्टयम् | ततः तत्वविवेकस्य अधिकारिणः भवन्ति |TB-14|

Having described the four-fold qualifications (actually a total of 9, if you split the SamAdhi shatkam into it constituent six qualities),the guru says ततः = thasmAth kAraNAth.. because of the presence of the four-fold qualfications in people, भवन्ति, they become, तत्वविवेकस्य अधिकारिणः qualified to gain this thathva vivEkam, the descriminative knowledge,which means to understand what is said in vEdhAtham about jiva, jagath, and ISvara:|

Actually this is not as easy as it sounds.. the very fact that we are born as humans itself is a miracle.. and to have a desire to gain thathva vivEkam is another miracle.. that you even have a PC to browse is another miracle.. that you are viewing this site rather than many more attractive sites (wink..!) itself is MIRACLE OF ALL MIRACLES..!

Even to go thru this write up, one must have certain family and friendly environment guiding you this way.. our own pUrva janma puNyam helps us.. god's grace of course.. without which even if you understand English you may STILL GET THE WRONG MEANING.. 

When mahABAratha fight was over, pAndavAs gained the thrown.. krshNa himself has taught arjuna, A PRIVILEGE MOST OF US DO NOT HAVE..(!!), yet he forgets what bagavAn told him and asks krshNa,"hey krshNa.. in the middle fo the noise of the battle, you said some very important words and made me fight the battle and win.. but it has been so long since that war and I have forgotten most of it.. Please teach me again..!"

And you know what? krshNa starts what is popularly known as uththara gIthA to re-teach arjuna. ! If this can happen to arjuna, what to talk of simpletons like myself..? that is why this type of SravaNam and mananam is required..

Of course what is the question form the student? You rpobably guessed it by now..!!

he asks the guru (for the continuation of the dialog) तत्वविवेकः कः? guru:आत्मा सत्यं तत् अन्यत् सर्वं मिथ्या इति |TB-15|

This will be explained in the next post shortly.!!!

TB-15

Student: तत्वविवेकः कः? guru:आत्मा सत्यं तत् अन्यत् सर्वं मिथ्या इति |TB-15|

Here the student asks the teacher," what is this thatva vivEkam?" 

You may recall that the teacher in the opening lines first said I am goint to teach thathva vivEka which going to liberate mumukshUs..! now he gracefully introduces the termthatva vivEkam again.. so the student zeroes in on the next term he does not understand which is thatva vivEkam..

To that guru very CLEVERLY ANSWERS,"MY DEAR CHILD..! AthmA.. alone is sathyam. other than that everything else is mithyA..!!"

First when he talked about sADhana cathushtayam, he said "nithyam vasthu Ekam brmha, thath vyathiriktham sarvam anithyam Eva" and now he says about AthmA..!!

Here itself, a student, if he is a uththama aDhikAri understands that AthmA (himself) is the ONLY sathyam like the eternal brmhan.. and that everything else is perishable so unlike AthmA, this everything else is mithyA..!

THIS IS ACTUALLY THE END OF TEACHING.. !

But the guru is very kind and goes on further until this student is analyzed by the SAsthram to the finest degree that he is capable of assimilating..

Once this analysis is done, the jiva has NO doubt whatsoever about himself, the jagath, and god..!

These are the ONLY three things in creation that matters.. this is also the beauty of TB as a complete text.. UNLIKE the one-topic prakaraNa granthAs, and we have countless of such granthAs. 

Here to terms are introduced.. one is sathyam and the other is mithyA..

This sathyam mithyA confusion alone is responsible for bondage, also known as the coil of birth and death, also known as samsAram, or as mIrA sings "Bava sAgar".

TB and the guru dry up this ocean of samsAram.. how? We shall see..!!

|TB-16| Athma lakshaNam..

आत्मा तर्हि कः | Now that the student hears a new term, all that he has to dos is to ask,"what is this AthmA?" His guru now has to answer, not to brush him aside, but to drive him to a location from where he can not BUT see (understand) what AthmA is..! Of course, that comes after several posts in Orkut..!

Now the guru answers..
स्थूल सूक्ष्म कारण शरीरात् वतिरिक्तः पञच कोशातीतः सन् अवस्थात्रय साक्षी सच्चिदानन्दस्वरूपः यः तिष्टति सः आत्मा |TB-16|

AthmA is that which is "DIFFERENT FROM", STANDS APART FROM" sThUla SarIram(gross or physical body), sUkshma SarIram (subtle body), kAraNa SarIram (causal body); that which transcends the five layers of our awareness (mistakenly represented by EVERY ONE except Sankara as five sheaths..!!); that which is the witness of three states of everybody's existence; that which is the very essence of sath, chith, and Anadham (another mistake uniformly committed by EVERY ONE except Sankara AS EXISTENCE, KNOWLEDGE, BLISS!!); 

Now count the numbe of new terms introduced by the guru..! The student wanted to know about "AthmA".. the guru counted 3 bodies, 5 koSAs, 3 states of our existence, and also 3 terms sath, chith, Anandham.. for a total of 14 terms..

Now you are probably guessing that the teacher has uttered a mouthful and so he will have the floor to himself.. ! In fact for quite some time to come, the guru will be definign onerm after the other.. why?

Becasue physical body has parts tht needs to be defined..!
The suble body.. same thing..!
The causal body? even though the student may not ask it.. the guru HAS to explain it..

Then the five koSAs.. what are they? why is it necessary to define them?

then what ARE the three states?

The student having heard from the guru the essential nature of AthmA or sath, chith, Anandha.. what are they?

Looks like we are in for a treat here.. IF AND IF ONLY WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO HANG IN thathvaboDha: AS A DEDICATED STUDENT.. 

SHALL I GO FURTHER???

You tell me..!!!

hari: om..

Mani

TB-17 Physical Body

स्थूल शरिरम् किम्| Now just like VrushAli, the student asks the teacher what is this physical body?
The guru replies.. (not an easy topic)..
पञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहा भूतैः कृतं सत् कर्म जातं सुख दुखादि भोग आयतनं जायते अस्ति वर्धते विपरिणमते अपक्षीयते विनश्यतीति षद्विकारवत् यत् अस्ति तत् स्थूल शरीरम्|TB-17|

Why is this not easy? Because the whole thing is mushrooming like a nuclear explosion..! The definition of any one term ends up introducing dozens of new terms.. and each one have to be explained as well for a complete understanding of TB..

First he says पञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहा भूतैः कृतं.. this physical body is made up of the five gross elements, which themseveves are produced by a process called pancIkaraNam..(this will be explained later for sure..!)

सत् कर्म जातं.. it is also born due to our own puNya karma.. ( I see a lot of question marks rise on the heads of the readers.. but that also has to wait.. it comes later..)

सुख दुखादि भोग आयतनं.. it is the only means by which humans are able to UNDERGO the physicall processes of pain and pleasure.. in other words a physical place to which pain is inflicted or pleasure is allowed to happen.. (how we react to pain and pleasure comes later..)

जायते.. born in time अस्ति..stays in time वर्धते.. grows up in time.. विपरिणमते.. metamorphasises in time अपक्षीयते. grow weaker in time.. विनश्यतीति.. perishes in time षद्विकारवत् यत् अस्ति.. .. that which undergoes the above-mentioned the six-fold modifications (no living being is an exception to this including a gnAni..) 

तत् स्थूल शरीरम्| That is physical body.. 

Now summing it up.. teh five gross elements are space, air, fire, water, and earth.. these are formed from the five subtle elements which are also named the same.. the physical body of any one of us is from the grossi-fied elements only.. also Sankara says in vivEka cUdAmaNI "janthUnAm narajanma dhurlaBam" rare indeed is when one is born as a human.. so it is born of good karma becasue in our karmic baggage every one of us has enough papa karma.

TB-17 Physical Body (contd..)

With this pApa wanting to manifest, it takes eons and eons before we get a chance to be born as a human WITH FREE WILL.. moksham is possible ONLY for a human being.. even gods may be born again.. we do not know.. but for sure, a human CAN escape the cycle of birth and death.. So this human physical body is definitely due to our sath karma alone..

Why do we have to have aphysical body? Our karmic baggage nneds to be exhausted.. pApam will give us dhuKam and puNyam will give us suKam.. that is why no one if fully good or fully bad.. vyAsa says that human society is a fabric woven from white and black thresd..! how neat? then for each one os to exhaust this pain and pleasure a house needs to be constructed.. OUR PHUSICAL BODY is that house..!

then the 6 vikArAs.. born, exists, grows, metamophasises (capable producing another human body), grows old, and perishes..! Tell me who is exempt from this?? NOBODY..! those who have left us so far OUTNUMBER the curren 6 billion population on this tiny earth..! Our scriptures talk about 84 lakhs of life forms of which human bodyis one of them..!! and there are several trillion stars in the universe each capable of supporting a planet liek earth and thus life forms..! and this has been going on for countless years..!! Thus jIvAs are conuntless in number, having countless karmas, being just LUCKY TO BE BORN AS A HUMAN..!

Now you can appreciate the beauty of our human physical body, instead of complaining about it.. I certainly am glad to be a human.. and CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO BE A CRAB IN MY NEXT BIRTH..!

Let us proceed later with sUksma SarIram.. this is getting to be more fun now..!

hari: om

affly,

mani

TB-18 sUkshma SarIram..

सूक्ष्म शरीरं किम्?|.. Again the student asks.. what is sUkshma SarIram.. or the subtle body..?? Here the explanation by the guru will go for quite some time.. simply because many new terms will be introduced. this is usually referred to as the soul.. this sould is assumed to be differnt than the body.. MANY MANY mistakes are uniformly committed by one and all all because of a TIGHT definition of these terms.. Here the real tightness of teaching as well the alertness on the part of the student IS a must..! This will not however scare any mumukshu away..!! That is for sure.. (I will also make it as precise as possible, expanding only where necessary..!!)

The guru starts with a mouthful of terms.. as usual.. If he can not confuse the casula reader, HE is not FIT to be a guru..!!!
अपञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहाभीतैः कृतम सत्कर्मजातं सुख दुख भोग आदि साधनं प्ञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि पञ्च कर्मेन्द्रियाणि पञ्च प्राणादयः मनश्च बुद्धिः च एक एवं सप् दशा कलाभिः सह यत् तिष्ठति तत् सूक्ष्म शरीरं|TB-18|

तत् सूक्ष्म शरीरं|TB-18|.. this alone is sUkshma SarIram.. or subtle body.. then he goes on to dissect that term like a surgen dissecting a frog in the first year medical school..! The only difference is that we are alive prior to his explanation and we begin to understand that we NEVER die.!

अपञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहाभीतैः कृतम.. previously guru spoke about the gross elements produced due to the five-fold pancIkaraNam activity. Here he refers to the respective five subtle elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth also known as thanmAthrAs in our SAsthram.. So the subtle elements are responsible for the cration of the subtle body (like the gross elements were responsible for the gross body.)

सत्कर्मजातं.. this goes without saying.. if EVEN the gross body is due to our good karmas, what to talk of the subtle body that permeates the entire physical body? It has to be definitely the result of god's grace that make us enjoy the proper subtlebody (by the way THIS IS THE agnAni jiva:. goes from lokam to lokam as a traveller assming many bodies

TB-18 sUkshma SarIram..(Cont'd)

सुख दुख भोग आदि साधनं..PLEASE TAKE A VERY GOOD NOE OF THIS MOST SIGNIFICANT ASPECT OF THE SUBTLE BODY..!! this is what makes each one of decide "I LIKE THIS.. I DON'T LIKE THIS.. THIS MAKES ME HAPPY.. THIS MAKES ME SAD.. and it has the most amazing miraculous power of having the ability to make us so unified (IN TOTAL ERROR OF COURSE) WITH THE PHYSICAL BODY OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.. in other words makes us an agnAni..!!!.. WITHOUT this subtle body, we are ready to take the gross body to the cremation ground or burial ground..!

Now guru explains the components or constituents of the subtle body further..

प्ञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि.. Each human (and many animals as well) is endowed with the five organs of knowledge.. (5)

पञ्च कर्मेन्द्रियाणि.. the five organs of action..(5)

पञ्च प्राणादयः.. the five vital airs insode our body..(5)

मनश्च.. mind (1) 

बुद्धिः च. intellect(1)

सप् दशा कलाभिः.. when we add all these together we get 17 kalAs or glories..

सह.. with these 17 glories.. एक एवं.. AS IF IT IS ONE ENTITY.. यत् तिष्ठति.. WHICH EXISTS.. तत्.. (THAT IS REALLY) सूक्ष्म शरीरं.. the subtle body..

At this point the guru does not elaborate on what are the organs of knowledge, action, vital airs, what is mind, what is intellect etc.. All these are defined slowly but surely one oafter the other in the explanatiosn that follow.. 

That is why I said in the very beginning TB is a vEdhAnthic lexicon.. it is like defining the commands of a computer language.. once these are defined and understood, a sADhaka who is ready for gnAnam will understand at the operational level of each one of these definitions inside himself (or herself).. AGAIN, HERE THE GENDER IS NOT IMPORTANT.. THIS IS WHY I SIMPLY LOVE THATHVA BODHA:.. it the BEST vEdhAnthic formula for mumukshUs.!

Now guru has to explain one term at a time about what he has uttered so far..

He first starts obviously with the five organs of knowledge..

I think we are eager to move on with the rest of these terms..(TBC)..!

TB-19, 20 sUkshma SarIra Explanation

श्रोत्रं त्वग् चक्षुः रसना घ्राणमिति पञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि |TB-19|

First the guru starts unfolding what does he mean by sUkshma SarIram or suble body.. Among the various religions and peoples of the world, "soul" is the most commonly ABUSED word.. why and how so? many think that soul is a separate entity other thatn the body, thta it survives death, that it retains its original association with each and every one of, ends up in ETERNAL HEAVEN OR HELL (if you are a non-hindu), IN VAIKUNTAM OR KAILASAM, IF YOU ARE A HINDU, go-lok-brindAban if you are a hare krishna, and so on and so forth.. So let us examine this clean model given to us by our scriptures..!

पञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि.. the five organs of knowledge are.. श्रोत्रं (ears) त्वग् (skin) चक्षुः (eyes)रसना (taste buds) घ्राणमिति (and nose)..

After simply naming them, the guru tells the student what are their functions.. 

श्रोत्रस्य विषयः शब्द ग्रहणम् | त्वचो विषयः स्पर्शग्रहणम्| चक्षुषः विषयः रूपग्रहणम्| रसनाया विषयः रसग्रहनम्|
घ्राणस्य विषयः घन्धग्रहणम्|TB-20| Let us take them one at a time..

श्रोत्रस्य विषयः शब्द ग्रहणम् | The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called ears is sense of sound.. FROM THE OUTSIDE..
त्वचो विषयः स्पर्शग्रहणम्| The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called skin is the sense of touch.. FROM THE OUTSIDE..
चक्षुषः विषयः रूपग्रहणम्|The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called eyes is the form (including the color) of an object.. FROM THE OUTSIDE..
रसनाया विषयः रसग्रहनम्| The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called taste buds is the taste.. (there are basically six types of tastes we recognize) FROM THE OUTSIDE..
घ्राणस्य विषयः घन्धग्रहणम्| The object to be known by the organ of knolwedge called nose is the smell available to us from the outside.. FROM THE OUTSIDE..

FROM THE OUTSIDE.. IS VERY IMPORTATN HERE.. this is how BagavAn has designed he human body's organs of knowledge.. we can only understand what is FROM THE OUTSIDE..!! let us proceed furhter..!

TB-19, 20, 21 sUkshma SarIra Explanation (cont'd)

Why is this definiton of the organs f knowledge important? 

These are known as prathyaksha pramANams.. we cognize the entire outside world only through these firve.. and these are known as mUla prmAnNams. or MAIN information gatherers..!

There is an employer of these pramANams.. which is you and me and him and she and it..! 

It is impossible for any prmANam to analyze itself and nderstand what it is.. ! Eyes though they are capable of seeing, THEY CAN NOT AND WILL NOT SEE THEMSELVES.!

That is why we need another prmAnam to understand the truth about ourselves.. this will be explained later in TB..

At this point the guru also introduces the various devine principles behind these organs of knowledge, whose grace is required for these to function properly..! Why so? Just imagine if yu are blind and deaf, and also has lost the sense of touch, THERE IS NO WAY FOR YOU UNDERSANDvEdhAntham..!

So a prayerful attitude towards these divine principles always help us stay to gether in tact and employ them productively and learn what one needs to learn..

These dhEvathAs are .

श्रोत्रस्य दिग् देवता|त्वचो वायुः|चक्षुषः सूर्यः|रसनाया वरुणः|घ्रानस्य अश्व्नौ इति ज्ञानेन्द्रिय देवताः| TB-21|

श्रोत्रस्य दिग् देवता| The deity for ears is dhig or the Quarters of the world.
त्वचो वायुः| The deity for the skin is VAyu..
चक्षुषः सूर्यः|The deity for the eyes is the Sun..
रसनाया वरुणः| The deity for the taste buds is varuNa..
घ्रानस्य अश्व्नौ इति ज्ञानेन्द्रिय देवताः| The deity for the nose are the two aSvini brothers..

That is why you may go to an astroleger for an eye problem.. He will tell you go to a sUrya temple for 48 days and pray to the Sun god..! Or if you have skin troubles Vayu may be appeased.

Instead of challenging these statements it is good to just to read them and move on.. All these explanations are given for those who demand and explanation from the scriptures.. and our scriptures have no problem giving htem a solution.. JUST REMEMBE SATHYAM AND MITHYA EXPLAINED EARLIER!!

TB-22,23,24 sUkshma SarIra Explanation (cont'd)

sUkshma SarIram explanation by the guru contiues.. Now the guru expalins the 5 organs of action.. NO PHYSICAL ACTION CAN BE PERFORMED WITHOUT one or a combination of THESE AND THEY ALL ARE PART OF OUR PHYSICAL BODY.. then one question we may have is why are they classified under subtle body.. the reason is quite simple.. remember the phsical body is a mere place of enjoyment of pleasure and pain, but IT IS THE SUBTLE BODY that is makes us the doer or enjoyer.. THESE ORGANS OF ACTION IS NOTHING IF THE SUBTLE BODY IS NOT BEHIND THEM.. that is why the tastiest roti and subzi is totally ignored if the mind is employing the eyes in reading the cricket score or stock prices..!

वाग्.. the organ of speech.. पाणि.. our hands.. पाद.. our feet पायु.. our organs of evacuation.. उपस्थानि.. our genitals.. इति पञ्च कर्म इन्द्रियाणि.. these are the five organs of action.. |TB-22|

Now the guru explains the presiding deities for the organs of action.. vEdhA actually has rituals through which these gods can be worshipped if they are malfunctioning..(Though thta is not the real intent of TB..)!!!

वाचः दॅवता वह्निः| Fire is the dhEvathA for speech..! very appropriately also!! we can actually fry someone with our words..! it is good to be careful when speaking..!
हस्तयोः इन्द्रः|.. for the hands the deity is indhra:.. want to have strong and healthy arms? you know whom to pray to now..
पादयोः विष्णुः|.. Lord vishNu is the dhEvathA for the feet..
पायॉः मृत्युः| Lord yamA presides over our organs of evacuation..
उपस्थस्य प्रजापतिः| The presiding dhEvathA for the genitals is brmhAji the creator..
इति कर्म इन्द्रिय दॅवताः.. these are teh dhEvathAs for the organs of action..|TB-23|

Now the guru also expalins the functions of each of these organs of action.. Now the students of TB can appreciate how the human body does what it is supposed to be doing.. Sometimes it looks obvious, but quite a few times it is obviously misunderstood or mis-explained.. Thus a cleare understanding helps us later assimilate the mahAvakyam.!!

TB-22,23,24 sUkshma SarIra Explanation (cont'd)

वाच: विषय: भाषणम्|.. Talking is the function for the organ of speech..
पाण्योः विषय वस्तुग्रहणम्|.. arms are used for grabbing an object.. 
पादयोः विषयः गमनम्|.. walking is perfomed with the help of feet. 
पायोः विषयः मलत्यागः| the organs of evacuation performs all of the necessary functions for throwing out the waste products from the body.. One can appreciate how well our human body is put together intelligently by reflection on any of these.. 
उपस्थस्य विषय आनन्द इति.. the genitals are primary used for procreation purposes.. here no disctinctionis made betwenn whose genitals are superior, that of a male or a female.. SAsthram simply explains these as a medical doctor would approach a human body.. |TB-24|

We get to knw the world with our organs of knowledge.. we cn pray to the presiding deities of the organs of knowledge if we have an ailment.. We act with our organts of action.. we can pray tot he deities if they malfunction.. It gives us a lot of reflective reasoning to ponder upon things that we take for granted..

There is also a wonderful order as TB expalins us HUMANS..! BUT PLEASE REMEMBER AT ALL TIMES THAT THIS IS ONLY A MODEL GIVEN BY OUR SCRIPTURES..

This explanation is also NOT sathyam and OURS is the only SAsthram n the universe that declares it as mithyA.. so if tomorrow a scientist comes up with a better model to explain our human body, our scriptures have NO objectio to it.. !

Why so? As none of this is sathyam.. a mithyA model is adequate for explaining the mithyA jIva, the mithyA Isvara: and the mithyA jagath.. BUT IT IS A VERY POWERFUL MODEL THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE.. in fact I personally believe a finer model to describe us is yet to come..! 

With this appreciation of our sThUla and sUkshma SarIram, we can explore a few more aspects of our sUkshma SarIram..

We have to work on the five vital airs.. what is mind.. what is budhDhi..a few more ways of looking at our existence . BUT NOT JUST LIVING, BUT UNDERSTNADING OUR EXISTNECE FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES..(to be cont'd)

TB - 25 kAraNa SarIra explanation..

कारण शरीरं किम्?अनिर्वाच्य अनादि अविद्या रूपं शरीर द्वयस्य कारण मात्रं सत्स्वरूप अज्ञानं निर्विकल्पकरूपं यत् अस्ति तत कारणशरीरम्|

कारण शरीरं किम्?.. So far, the guru has defined the gross body and subtle body. What is left is kAraNa SarIram or the causal body.. And the student properly asks about the causal body.. now the guru defines the causal body.. Please pay close attention to what the guru says.. this statement is what distinguishes our scriptures from the rest of the bunches..!! AND IT IS ENTIRELY BASED ON SRTHI..

अनिर्वाच्य .. that which is indefinable

अनादि .. that which is beginning less.. GURU NEVER SAYS "ENDLESS".!! this means that kAraNa body can be ended.. as the scriptures show later with proper guru and gnAnam..

अविद्या रूपं .. that which is the very essence of ignorance..(or avidhyA, or mAyA, or, mithyA.. these terms will be used exactly as needed in the proper context by our scriptures)

शरीर द्वयस्य कारण मात्रं .. that which alone causes the two bodies, gross and subtle, to come into being..

सत्स्वरूप अज्ञानं .. that whose essential nature is to hide the knowledge of the truth about oneself..

निर्विकल्पकरूपं .. that which stays in an undifferentiated form (this is actually what makes all of identical in the avyaktha or the nmanifest satage)

यत् अस्ति .. that which exists in the manner defined above,

तत कारणशरीरम् . that is causal body.

Thus the causal body is what creates the samsAram experienced by all of us.. it creates the gross body as palace where pleasure and pain can be experience, ti creates teh subtle body which is able to cognize the world around us and make us judge "this is good for me, I like it and thus it is enjoyable.." or equally creates an aversion in us regarding the opposite..

So if we stop to think about what has been said so far, all of us the way we know ourselves to be have been defined so perfectly.. I AM A DOER.. I AM AN ENJOYER.. I AM A KNOWER.. I AM A MORTAL.. AND I AM LIMITED.. WELCOME, SAMSARIS

TB-26 Three states of existence..

अवस्था त्रयं किम्? जाग्रत् स्वप्न सुषुप्ति अवस्ता:|TB-26|

After introducing the three bodies possessed by all living beings, now the guru starts unfolding the three states of existence..

You may recall that the guru intitally said that AthmA is different than the three bodies.. it is also beyond the three states of existence..

So the student continues to ask his guru to explain the three states of existence..

The guru simply replies in one line..

जाग्रत् .. The state of being a waker..

स्वप्न .. the state of being a dreamer..

सुषुप्ति अवस्ता: and the state of being a deep-sleeper..

If we thing about it for a moment, THERE IS NO OTHER STATE IN WHICH WE EXIST..

once is a while we may be either sleep walking or waking up from a dream.. where one or two states very closely co-exist prior to diffentiation.

But even they will be enclosed only with in the three distinct states described above..

Now the student will ask the guru to explain the individual states furhter..

TB-27 Three states of existence..

जाग्रदवस्था का?|

श्रोत्रादि ज्ञानेन्द्रियै: श्ब्दादि विषयश्च ज्ञायते यत् सा जाग्रदवस्था|TB-27|

Here the student asks "What is the waking state?"

To that comes a nice reply from the guru..

श्रोत्रादि.. by organs such as ears .. 

ज्ञानेन्द्रियै: which are known as organs of knowledge (this automatically means that the organs of skin, eyes, mouth, and nose are implied..)

श्ब्दादि ..sounds etc.

विषयश्च and such objects 

ज्ञायते are known

यत् in which state

सा that is

जाग्रदवस्था| the waking state..

It is very important to note that the guru talks only about gnAa indhriyAs.. because when we sleep, they are NOT functional. Also the organs of action are functional always.. even if we sleep. Whereas, when we are awake alone, the sounds falling in our ears is recognized by us.. 

But we often encounter a state while we are deep in thought and walking on the beach, a friend honks his horn at us.. more often than not we may not even notice it..!

Are we awake? are we dreaming? or or we asleep?

We will analyze this in the next two sections... for now we all can AGREE that if I am awake, I hear the sound.. I am able to enjoy the food... or bAdAm cake made by Mani Sir.. !!

Then we hug each other feel the warmth of one another.. or able to recognize good scents as well as bad scents.. enjoy the scenery.. and come to conclusions about them.. Read the postings in Orkut, analyze and arrive at conclusions (more often wrong than right.. but the accuracy is of no use here..!!)

In other words, all our day to day vyavahArAs take place while we are awake..

This state alone is known as jAgrath avasThA..

I will move on to svapna avasthA later..

hari: om.

TB-28 Three states of existence.. Waking AthmA

स्थूल शरीर अभिमानि आत्मा विश्व: इति उच्च्यते |TB-28|

आत्मा That aspect of the "person"
अभिमानि attached to 
स्थूल the gross physical
शरीर body..
उच्च्यते is "named"
इति as
विश्व: viSva:

Ok.. here we go.. we are all viSva at this very moment, be it day or night..! unfortunately.. this is where most of us stop..!! The materialists are convinced that THERE IS NOTHING outside of the body.. so we can rightfully name them as viSvaA:..

We may wonder why?

Remember the five gnAnendhryAs? ears, skin, eyes, taste, and smell? four of these are located only on our head.. 

But the 5th one is ALL OVER our body.. both inside and ourside..

Yes.. that is the sense of touch..

Becasue of this we can physically feel the presence of a person, a friend, a spoue, or a lover, or an object. Whether we enjoy this or not will be explained later..

Becasue of this we can also sense our pain inside as well.. that is wh when the doctor can not see what is inside our knee cap, we can tell him the exact spot where teh pain is..

We can use this organ to veryfy the hotness and coldness of an object..

We can also feel the smoothness or roughness of an object..

We can also determine the comort of discomfort caused by that object..

Here the objects are both insentient and sentient..

Whether I like ti or not comes from a different explanation that is about to follow.

This identification of the sense of touch can be total.. in that case it is called dhehA Athma budhDhi. in other words, dehe Athma budhDhi and Athmani deha budhDhi..that i am this body and this much alone is me.. and I am also NOTHING MORE THAN this body ..! THIS IS THE LOT OF THE PURE MATERIALISTS..!!

But TB does not just stop here.. even look at the word "uccyathe" 

it means.."is called" TB would NEVER say "KNOWN AS"..!

To the materialists, the physical body is KNOWN as viSva:..

But, To us in this community..? is it viSva: only ?? Llet us move on to TB-29..!!!

TB-29 Dream State..

स्वप्ना अवस्था का इति चेत् जाग्रत् अवस्थायाम य्त् दृष्टं यत् शृतं तत् जनित वासनया निद्रा समये यत् प्रपञ्चं प्रतीयते सा स्वप्न अवस्था |TB-29|

svapna avasThA kA ithi cheth jAgrah avasThAyAm yath dhRtham yath SRshtam thath janitha vAsanayA nindhrA samaye yath prapancham prathyathe sA svapna avasThA..

First thank you all for your sustained interest in TB.. This will stay even after we are gone in Orkut itself as good guide for serious mumukshus..!!

I just realized that i have been making this one mistake so far..! I have assumed that every one in this community can read samsRtham alphabet.. ! I am totally wrong..! and I apologize for the same.. From now onwards i will give the transliterated version along with the samskRtham version BUT explain only using the transliterated version..! Please check my very first posting..(the rule that I have vilolated myself..!)

First a qustion is asked by the student..!

ithi cheth: Suppose you want to know
kA : what is..
svapna : Dream 
avasThA : State..(then the answer is..)

nindhrA : During our sleep
samaye : time
yath : what 
prapancham : universe (of sentient and intert objects)
prathyathe : are woven (by our own gnAnam coming from)
yath SRtham : what is heard and
yath dhRshtam : and what is visually seen
jAgrah : while we remain in the waking 
avasThAyAm : state (previously explained by me)
thath : those waking experience
janitha : generated
vAsanayA : impressions alone enable us to weave "a universe created by ME"
sA : that alone is 
svapna : dream
avasThA : state..!!

Phew..!! It was so much easier to say this in samskRtham and i had a hell of a time in rearranging it in a language that does fot really do justice to samskRtham..!

Still I think, the rearrange,ment was not bad..! In other words, we see hear feel smell and taste in our waking state.. we also perform actions with our organs of action.. all of these are previously explained so far in TB.. 

This waking experience creates in us countless impressions.. !!

TB-29 Dream State..

स्वप्ना अवस्था का इति चेत् जाग्रत् अवस्थायाम य्त् दृष्टं यत् शृतं तत् जनित वासनया निद्रा समये यत् प्रपञ्चं प्रतीयते सा स्वप्न अवस्था |TB-29|

svapna avasThA kA ithi cheth jAgrah avasThAyAm yath dhRtham yath SRshtam thath janitha vAsanayA nindhrA samaye yath prapancham prathyathe sA svapna avasThA..

First thank you all for your sustained interest in TB.. This will stay even after we are gone in Orkut itself as good guide for serious mumukshus..!!

I just realized that i have been making this one mistake so far..! I have assumed that every one in this community can read samsRtham alphabet.. ! I am totally wrong..! and I apologize for the same.. From now onwards i will give the transliterated version along with the samskRtham version BUT explain only using the transliterated version..! Please check my very first posting..(the rule that I have vilolated myself..!)

First a qustion is asked by the student..!

ithi cheth: Suppose you want to know
kA : what is..
svapna : Dream 
avasThA : State..(then the answer is..)

nindhrA : During our sleep
samaye : time
yath : what 
prapancham : universe (of sentient and intert objects)
prathyathe : are woven (by our own gnAnam coming from)
yath SRtham : what is heard and
yath dhRshtam : and what is visually seen
jAgrah : while we remain in the waking 
avasThAyAm : state (previously explained by me)
thath : those waking experience
janitha : generated
vAsanayA : impressions alone enable us to weave "a universe created by ME"
sA : that alone is 
svapna : dream
avasThA : state..!!

Phew..!! It was so much easier to say this in samskRtham and i had a hell of a time in rearranging it in a language that does fot really do justice to samskRtham..!

Still I think, the rearrange,ment was not bad..! In other words, we see hear feel smell and taste in our waking state.. we also perform actions with our organs of action.. all of these are previously explained so far in TB.. 

This waking experience creates in us countless impressions.. !!

TB-29 Dream State Continued..

I am going to dwell a little longer than usual in this dream state. This is a VERY important concept in understanding the entire vedhAntham. 

VedhAntham is all about orders of reality.. There is an ABSOLUTE order of reality known as pAramArthikam. From that view point there is NOTHING other than vasthu or brmhan or caithanam or AthmA.. this is the niviSEsha advaitham.. UNIVERSE IS NOT EVEN CREATED.!

Then there is a RELATIVE order of reality known as vyAvahArikam. From this view point the same brmahan becomes saguNam. and then the jada or insentient objects as well as the various jIvas or living beings as well as the varous gods, the cosmos, etc.. NOW DVAITHAM IS PERFECT..

The third order of reality is that of purely NON-EXISTENT refelcted reality or the mental projection by you and me.! When one is awake from prAthiBAsikam, we enter vyAvahArikam . Similarly when one is awake from vyAvahAricam, pAramArthikam is awaiting us.! Now do not ask is there another reality beter than pAramArthikam..!! the answer is NO.. why so? BECASUE SCRIPTURES SAY SO..!

So this dream state is really glorified by our sciptures as an example to explain how brmhan can create the entire UNIVERSE out of itself..! If it were NOT true then adhvaitha hAni or negation becomes a possibility.. 

When we gain prathyksha knowledge and act in this world, those memories help up create both sentient and insentient objects in our dream.. Now if we ask ourselves wher did we get the material to create the mountian and peoples and air crafts etc in our dream, THE ANSWER HAS TO BE OUR OWN GNANAM or knowledge of those objects.. this gnAnam alone appears as both sentient and insentient objects in our dream.

So if we are able to create all objects purely from our knowledge, is it impossible to assume that this jagath is a dream of Isvara:? I am merely posing this view not to prove or disprove creation, but merely for all of us to do some internal reflection..

Then we at least start asking ourselves.. "can I awaken even more"?

TB- 30 Dream State..Conclusion..

सूक्ष्म शरीर अभिमानि आत्मा तैजस: इति उच्च्यते ||TB-30||

One thing I must warnt he readers here.. the numbering is NOT part oft he original text.. I am assigning those numbers for two reasons.. it becomes a convenient indes for us.. second.. I add them as I need to pause and amplify on certain TB statements & explanantions taught to me by SDs.having said that..


आत्मा Athma : that aspect of the person, the jiva:
अभिमानि aBimani : attached to..
सूक्ष्म sUkshma : subtle
शरीरSarira : body
इति उच्च्यते ithi uccyathE : is called
तैजस: thaijasa: : thaijasa EVER EFFLUGENT..!

I am going to dwell on this topic in detail for one simple reason.. THIS IS THE CORE CONCEPT WHEN UNDERSTOOD THAT MAKES ADVAITHAM A WALK-OVER..!

We have talked about the physical body as sThUla Sariram.. and subtle bodyas sUkshma SarIram..

usually our existence as Mani or you or any one living or dead is referenced only with respect to these two bodies only.. beyond that we do not see.. hence the possibility of a state wherein all questioning ends has ended when we exist in these two bodies alones.. these two are primarily responsible for the two thieves that haunt us.

The firsr one is "I" and the second one is "My or Mine".. As the discussion goes on TB we can easily come back and reflect ourselves on these two culprits.

The next question asked by all of us is "if world is mithyA, how come I do not see it? I see the movie Sarfarosh.. or the objects around me and the living and the dead around me.. ALL SEPARATE FROM ME ONLY.. ALL I SEE IS DUALITY either in variations in myslef or variations in things and beings other than myself.. so how can all these differences have come yet from one source.. and more importantly.. how come advaithin says they are all one and the same.

This is where upanishaths kindly point our that if in your dream state you can see a variety of things and YET it all arises from one gnAnam inside you, in the same way BagavAn can create all this varigated universe out of the one gnAnam of "brmhan"

TB-31/32 Causal Body

सुषुप्ति अवस्था का? अहं किमपि न जानामि सुखेन मया निद्रा औभूयते इति सुषुप्ति अवस्था |TB-31|
sushupthi avasThA kA? aham kim api na jAnAmi suKena mayA nidhrA anuBuyathe ithi sushupthi avasthA |TB-31|
कारण शरीर अभिमानि आत्मा प्राज्ञ: इति उच्च्यते |TB-32|
kAraNa SarIra aBimAni AhmA prAgna: ithi uccyathe|TB-32|

Student :
sushupthi : Deep sleep avasThA : state is kA? : What? 

guru's Answer: aham : I na jAnAmi : Do no know kim api : anything at all mayA : By me nidhrA : Deep sleep anuBuyathe : experienced suKena : with total pleasure ithi : Thus it is (known as) sushupthi : Deep Sleep avasthA : State..

Now perhaps the most interesting part of the jiva is explained..! We exist in the waking state.. This is accepted by all. and we do exist in the dream state.. as we are able to recall in some cases even the color of the sun rise (!!!!) we experienced in dream state..!

When it comes to deep sleep, all bets are OFF..! We only recall the fact that "OH, my god.. I had such a peaceful sleep..!" Why so? that island called "deep sleep" must be the most desired by one and all.. As a living proof, have my guarding dog scout, who is cuddled up like a baby in his small bed.. and if I wake up upon hearing a noicse, I have to pour water on his head to wake him up!

Deep sleep is the natural equalizer for ALL living beings..! Br U declares "a king is a king in waking state and a beggar is a beggar in the waking state.. a blind man is a blind man in waking sate. however, in deep sleep a king is no longer a king.. a beggar is no longer a beggar and a BLIND MAN IS NO LONGER A BLIND MAN..!

If we think about the depth of this statement, it leaves us speechless in wonder..!

All differences exist in waking only.. but none in deep sleep.. as per scriptures all living beings find their ONE-NESS with Isvara: in deep sleep.. so there is no difference in a gnAni's deep sleep and an agnAni's deep sleep.. but a gnAni wakes up as a gnAni and an agnAni only as an agnAni

TB-31/32 Causal Body (conclusion)

TB-31/32 Causal Body (conclusion)
कारण शरीर अभिमानि आत्मा प्राज्ञ: इति उच्च्यते |TB-32|
kAraNa SarIra aBimAni AthmA prAgna: ithi uccyathe|TB-32|

guru continues..

AthmA : that aspect of the jIva 
aBimAni : who is attached to
kAraNa SarIra : the causal body
ithi uccyathe : is called
prAgna: = prAgna: .. prAena agna: "more or less an ignorant person"..

This is a very significant statement by the guru to the student.. Though the guru does not explain it in detail, I am going to provide some extra explanantion here based on whatever I have learnt from SDS in many of his lectures..

First of all, the very first doubt in the reader's mind.."why is he called more or less ignorant..?" The answer is that when we sleep we are awake when we hit the sake.. then close our eyes.. toss around.. then may be we dream.. then we eter the deep sleep.. and perhaps dream again and wake up.. THIS POST DEEP SLEEP DREAMS ALONE ARE RECOLLECTED BY US.. Whereas, our deep sleep after dream will wipe out our memory of the dream.. 

Then what is defined as a deep sleep? When we get up and then declare that we slept well.. and we also we add "I did not know what happened while i slept so well"

The fact that we declare our ignorance of the events during our deep sleep state is the proof that we are ignorant.. BUT THAT ISGNORANCE IS only MORE OR LESS.. becasue if we were totally ignorant we will not be able even to recall that we slept well.. so something has been very closely awake EVEN when we were in deep sleep and reports to us that "hey, you.. you really slept good" then we report this to the world around us..! So this awareness makes us "more or less" ignorant.

THIS CAUSAL BODY TIES THE SUBTLE BODY OF EVERY JIVA TO SAMSARAM.. AND DOES NOT PERISH EVEN DURING THE PRALAYAM OR TOTAL DISSOLUTION OF THE ENTIRE CREATION..

This is a very important fact in our SASthram because the subtle body + the causal body while enter the mahA nidhra during pralayam, the kARmic bag is kept associated to this jIva

TB-31/32 Causal Body (conclusion)

Now I mentioned the 8.4 million "yonis" or life forms are there as per SRthi.

Then there are countless jIvas in creation.

Each jiva possesses a causal body as well as a suble body.

then in a human body karmA is performed.. due to avidhyA doership is assumed and enjoyership is attached to the jiva..

The bag gets bigger as the jiva is accumulating more and more karma Palams.

Depending on which karma palams heve to be exhausted, god picks an appropriate life form for each jiva.. causal body keeps us ignorant and subtle body performs the tasks with the help of one of the 8.4 million life forms. 

Here SRthi tells that we can falisfy this karmic bag in ONE life form.. that of a human..! All other life forms only exhaust the puNYam or pApam accrued to each jiva's karmic account..

Why so? BECAUSE WE HUMANS ALONE HAVE FREE WILL AND IN HUMAN JANMA ONLY OUR SELF-CONSIOUSNESS IS TOTAL.. !!

This free will ALONE makes us perform karmA and makes us bind to the karmic bag..! SO WHAT WE DO.. CAN ALSO BE UNDONE BY US BY USING THE VERY SAME FREE WILL..!

How beautiful and simple and logical the whole appraoch is for ending samsAram..!

As long I have karthrthvam (doership) , Bokthrthvam (enjoyership) can not be avoided. so the cycle is "beginningless" Ignorance, that makes us feel that we are limited

Once I feel limited kAma (DESIRE) takes root. then ahamkAram (ego) kicks in.. 

kAma + ego makes me do things, alter my surroundings, choose and discard. as per my likes and dislikes. some Dharmic and some aDharmic.. now karma kicks in..

Once ego-centric karma is performed, karthRthvam is in full swing..! Once karma is perfomed with karthRthvam, it generates puNyam and pApam to be attached to the jIva. This necessitates ENJOYERSHIP (or BokthRthvam) on the part of the ignorant jiva. Now the karmic bag begins to bulge.!

As the karma palam of one single human janma can no be exhausted in one birth, more births are necesitated.! You see, AvidhyA causes havoc!

An executive summary of TB thus far..!

The guru starts the teaching with a maha prathignA (great promise) that he is going to tell the "proper" candidate what is the means of liveration..!

Then he expalins the four-fold qualifications (actually totalling nine..!) and then sets the stage for the student to ask more and more and more questions..

And then he explains each and every question just by defining the term and NOT explaining in any great detail what it all means.. (which I have been doing with the grace of SDS..)

From the four-fold qualifications he moves on to explain the physical body.. with its six-fold modifications..

Then he moves on to explain the subtle body.. and its 17 sub-components..

Then he explains the causal body..

He also explains the three avasThAs namely waking, dream and deep sleep..

Along with that, the three bodies associated with the 3 states are also explained..

JUST REMEMBER.. THIS IS THE MITHYA EXPLANATION FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO HAVE A POSSIBLE ANSWER TO THEIR "mithyA" QUESTIONS.. 

Thus all of these answers are "REASONABLE" They need not be perfect.. SAsthra does not really worry about the exactness of these answers.. We have questions and we expect the scripturs to answer.. So the scriptures give an answer with the full agreement that we can challenge those and prove the SRThi to be wrong..!

Then if we come up with a better model to expalin vyAvahArikam, SRthi says "Live long, my child.. you have my full blessings..!"

You see, the SRthi reveals that we are not separate from brmhan and everything else is only to help us assimilate that fact.. We have Qs on vyAvahArkam.. it iwll be glad to give us a resonable answer..

The SRthi uses multiple teaching methodologies to help us understand the essence.. so far the three-body explanantion is given to understand mithA and three state explanation to show that all of these are ever-changing, so that when we are exposed to the teaching, we have NO choice but to see with clarity..

Now we will proceed to the five koSAs! That is about it so far.!

The five koSAs.. TB-33 and TB-34

पञ्च कोशा: के? अन्नमय प्राणमय मनोमय विग्ज्ञानमय आनन्दमयश्चेथि |TB-33|

panca koSA: kE? annamaya prANa maya manomaya vignAna maya Anandha maya: ca ithi |TB-33|

here the student who has a good memory (unlike most of us) remembers the original definiton given "panca koSa athItha: san"..! So After having explained the 3 body teaching methodolgy, and 3 state prakriyA, the guru moves onto the 5 koSa prakriya. A doubt here may arise in one's mind as to why the 5 koSAs after the 3 bodies? The answer is quite simple.. different people commit different grades of different mistakes either at the bodies level and/or states level and/or koSAs level..!

So when the stuedent asks "waht aret he 5 koSAs?" the guru says "theses are food-koSa, air-koSA, mind-koSA, ego-koSA, and happiness-koSA.." I am purposefully not using hte MOST COMMON TRANSLATION OF koSA as SHEATH..!

Why are they called koSAs? koSavath AcCAdhaniyathvAth" as it hides the true nature of humans just like a sheath covers a sword..! The most important word here is "JUST LIKE" which is often mistaken by mpst teachers as JUST EXACTLY AS..! So SDS is even very careful in preventing us from going on a spiritual trip to remove the 5 koSAs.. Another mistake usually committed is the translation of anadha as Bliss with a capital "B"..! Thus we make sure that no ower case bliss is acceptable to me but ONLY the upper case B....liss..!!

Once we accept the sheath definition EVEN by error, we will immediately think that I HAVE TO TRANSCEND THE food sheath to air sheath.. from air sheath to mind sheath.. from mind sheath to ego sheath.. then from ego sheath to Bliss sheath.

I am translating anadha maya koSA as happiness sheath.. though I am not happy with it (). that is far better than Bliss Sheath.

This sheath definiton makes us feel like "brmhan" who is in Alaska during winter months.. brmhan is first wearing a cotton tee shirt inside; 2nd, a flannel shirt; 3rd, a wool sweater; 4th, a wind breaker; and 5th, a woolen long jacket..!

get it?!!

The five koSas.. TB-33 and TB-34

अन्नमय: क:? अन्नरसेन एव भूत्वा अन्नरसेन एव वृद्धिं प्राप्य अन्नरूप पृथिव्यां यत् विलीयते तत् अन्नमयकोश: स्थूल शरीरम् |TB-34| 

annamaya: ka:? anna rasEna Eva BUthvA anna rasEna Eva vRdhDhim prApya anna rUpa pRtivyAm yath vilIyathE thath anna maya koSa: sThUla SarIram |TB-34|

As errors are committed by us uniformly on several fronts.. (the 3 bodies, the 3 avasthAs, the five koSas.. ) the scriptures and the guru are compassionate enough to provide us with some acceptable explanations.. and more often than not it passes.. if it does not, we can always rely on karma theory to the rescue..!

So the student now is asking the guru what he means by the food sheath.. "annamaya: ka:? I mean koSa.. !!

The guru's answer is directly based on thaithrIya panishath Anandha valli and the very first manthram.. I am saying this mere to show that it is SO IMPORTANT to accept SRthi as an absolute pramANam and not keep on questioning its answers..! It will get us nowhere except to NOWHERE LAND..!

BUthvA: BORN anna rasEna Eva JUST BY THE ESSENCE OF FOOD vRdhDhim: GROWTH prApya: BEING OBTAINED anna rasEna Eva JUST BY THE ESSENCE OF FOOD yath: THAT WHICH vilIyathE: PERISHES INTO pRtivyAm: THE EARTH anna rUpa: WHICH ITSELF IS IN THE VERY FORM OF FOOD thath: THAT IS CALLED anna maya koSa: FOOD KOSHA sThUla: (IT IS SIMPLY) THE GROSS SarIram: BODY

If we look at the careful choice of words in decribing the annamaya kOSa, we begin to appreciate the non-negatability of this description.

"maya" itself is a samskRtham suffix that has two meanings.. one is "modification" and the other is "predominance".. As the second meaning is meaningless, and the body itself is a modification of the food we eat, anna maya koSa really means "that aspect of the jIva whose "external" hardware is made up by the food we eat that gets continuously modified to make us look the way we are 

Of course the natural Q ought to be "what about the software?" and the "firmware?"

TB and the guru both are ready!

The five koSAs.. TB-35

प्राणमय: क:? prANamaya: ka:?

The student asks "What is prANa maya koSa:?" and the guru replies as follows:

प्राणाद्या: पञ्चवायव: वागादीन्द्रियपञ्चकं प्राणमय कोश:|TB-35|
prANAdhyA: pancavAyava: vAgAdhIndhriya pancakam prANamaya koSa: |TB-35|

prANamaya koSa: - The vital air layer is that which combines the following..

prANAdhyA: - prANan etc pancavAyava: - that represents the five vital airs in our body which combines and moves 

pancakam - the five karmendhriyAs (organs of action), such as vAgAdhIndhriya - Speech, etc..

A careful observation will show that the organs of knowledge are EXCLUDED from this prANamaya koSAm.. as it is to be explained as a part of the subsequent koSAs..

The five organs of action have been explained already (speech, hands, feet, organs of evacuation, and organ of procreation).. The five vital airs are prANan, apAnan, udhAnan, vyAnan, and samAnan..

prANan is responsible for keeping us alive.. This is the primal air we breath in. apAnan is that clasification of the primal air which takes care of what is thrown out of our body.. 

udhAnan is that clasification of the primal air which leaves our our body when the body is not capable of sustaining the sUkshma SarIram..

vyAnan is that clasification of the primal air which is responsible for the circulatory system of the body..

samAnan is that clasification of the primal air which is responsible for the digestive system of the body..

Thus the SAsthram divides the prAnamaya koSa as the physical functioning of the human body with the help of five classes of the air we breath in..

And this is not an exact modern science as we know today, but it is an amazing representation of the human boldily functions that requires oxygen at various levels, all the way from the volumetric inhalation to the dissolved oxygen carried to each cell of the body via the red blood cells..

That is exactly the reason why this TB explanation is reasonable, yet we don't check this model against modern science..!!

The five koSAs.. TB-36

मनोमय कोश: कह? manomayakoSa: ka:?

What is the mind koSam? is the the Q by the student.. The teacher then replies:

मनश्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियपन्चकं मिलित्वा यो भवति स: मनोमय कोश: |TB-36|
manaSca gnAnEndhriya pancakam milithvA yo Bavathi sa: manomaya koSa: |TB-36|

manaSca = mind and gnAnEndhriya pancakam = the five organs of knowledge milithvA = mix together yo Bavathi = and forms (a koSam) sa: = that koSam is (known as) manomaya = mind koSa: = koSam.

I am very carefully avoiding the use of the word "sheath" here, because the word koSam can drive us into a frenzied activity of "SHEATH REMOVAL". Then along comes a modern guru who quotes this thatithrIya SRthi.. and sounds almost acceptable, and charges the wealthy among us hefty sums of money where these sheaths can be removed one after the other systematically and then assures us the experience of the "inexplicable" AthmA bliss.. shining inside these five sheaths like a shining star.. You see.. our indian scriptures is a GOLD MINE for those who want to mint money in teaching (cheating?) us how to experience AthmA!

In TB, the SAsthram is very deliberate.. in the prANamaya kOSam it explained ONLY the prANic activities and the five vital airs associated with the the karmEndhriyAs activity, even while asleep.!

HERE THE GURU TAKES US IFROM THE MOST GROSS KOSAM (PHYSICAL BODY) to the next subtler kOSam (prANamaya) to the next subtler koSam called manomayam.. As the subtlty increases, gross-ness decreases.. and the permeation (vyApakathvam) increases. 

That is how it is.!

So the organs of knowledge (which are subtler than the organs of action) "Party" together with the mind.. and forms an universe called manomaya koSam.

Actions can be seen.. but thoughts can NOT be seen.. hence the higher level of subtlety.

What does the mind itself do with the information provided by the organs of knowledge? TB is not that quick in giving the answer.. as it is to be unfolded after how mind itself if formed and what are the qualities of mind.. that comes later.!

The vignanamaya koSa: - TB-36

विज्ञानमय: क:? What is vignAnamaya koSam?

बुद्धि: च = (Our) intellect and ज्ञानेन्द्रिय पञ्चकं = five organs of knowledge मिलित्वा = mix together and यो भवति = (thus) which is produced स: = that (is known as) विज्ञानमय कोश: = Intellect koSam.

Here the guru goes to explain further subdivisions of our internal organs known as "antha:karaNam" with which the jIva happily interacts with the entire universe around us..

The primary orgnas of knowledge will always be ears, skin, eyes, nose, and tongue with which we experience the universe and gather "data" for investigation..

This data set is really sounds, feel, forms/colors, smells, and tastes RESPECTIVELY as explained earlier..

These organs of knowledge do not tell us if these experience universe if good, bad, or indifferent.. THAT IS THE JOB OF THE JIVA..!

Then by ISvara's order, all these organs of knowledge ARE outwardly..

So there is no way they will report the truth about ourselves.. This is quite important because, we always think that we can pick up any book, read about ourselves, and know precisely who and what we are (AS EVIDENCED BY COUNTLESS COMMUNITIES IN THIS ORKUT MEDIUM..!!)

There are actually four internal organs as defined by the scriptures.. Only two are EXPLICITELY mentioned in the five-koSa analysis.. The other tow come much later.. That is the beauty of TB as well as the difficulty in defining complex entities like humans, god, creation, gnAnam, karma, mukthi, etc..

So at his point the guru says we operate at the manomaya level identifying ourselves with the mind koSam. We also operate at the vignAna maya koSam level identifying ourselves with the intellect we all possess.

So the readers at this point must merely be satisfied with the fact that a human being was explained at the three states of existence namely waking, dream, and deep sleep. Now the same human being can be explained also fromt he view point of the five koSa level that we all operate from..

More explanations to follow .!

A brief interlude..!

In SarIra thrya prakriyA (three body model) the physical body was well explained.. So it is easy to get into annamaya koSAm explanation.. 

but when it comes to the other 4 koSa, TB has not explained it yet. So I also have not explained it so far fully. Those of you who catch this point, are making me immensely happy (The dream of a Tutor..!)..

So I ma planning to revisit this topic later.. sort of tying the various ends together. That is why TB is to be remembered from the first aksharam or letter to the last conluding aksharam..!

It willb e a ggggg..rrrr...eeee...aaaa..ttttt help to you if you can memorize the whole text..

TB is a complete text.. and many of our Qs can be answered by TB itself..

What it can not, we have to go to other prakaraNa grnathAs, gIthA, upanishaths, and brmha sUthra BAshyam (if needed..!!)

affly,

M

Anandha maya koSam.. TB - 37

आनन्दमय: क:? Anandha maya: ka:? What is the Anandha maya koSam.. 

This is really a critical question.. I may dwell a bit longer on this.. This is ALWAYS defined in most ranslations I have seen as "Bliss", with an upper case" B.. so as to differentiate from "bliss", wiht a lower case" b.. 

The key difference here most authors and explainers STRESS is that 'Bliss" is the eternal AthmAnandha Bliss (as this is carefully hidden in the Anandhamaya sheath..!) as opposed to ordinary dosai bliss.. ice cream bliss, movie bliss.. experiential bliss which is really the sAmsAric or worldly bliss..

Perhaps the worst description that flows around is this wonderful "Bliss" to be experienced.. and experiential "bliss".. So we need to EXPERIENCE this AthmA Bliss? Who would not? hmm? But just wait.!

एवमेव EvamEva = In this manner कारणशरीरभूत kAraNa SarIra BUtha = that which is responsible for the formation of causal body.. अविद्यास्थ avidhyAsTha = that find is basis is ignorance मलिनसत्व malina sathva = having very little sathva guNam सहिथं सत् sahitham sath = having प्रियादि वृत्ति priyAdhi vRththi = very desirable feelings, etc.. यत् अस्ति तत् yath asthi thath = that which remainls (as explained here) आनन्दमय कोश: Anandha maya koSa = Anandha maya koSam..|TB-37|

A lot has been said here about Anandha maya koSam.. First and foremost is that it is from which the kAraNa SarIram is born. Understanding this correctly sets us in the path of avidhyA removal.. not knowing this properly keeps us bound to "bliss", believe itor not..! Causal body survives even the mahApralayam.. or the ultimate dissolution at the end of the kalpam.. where even brmhAji the SRshti karthA of the creation himself is dissolved in to brmhan.. that causal body ties each of of the agnAni jiva's sUskhma SarIram and allows it to enter another sthUla SarIram upon the next cycle of creation, and then several bodies to work out the puNya pApam from his own SK.!

(to be cont'd)

Anandha maya koSam.. TB - 37 (cont'd)

Next of course is the dependence on avidhyA.. When guru says Anandha maya koSam is established in avidhyA.. it helps us focus on the fact that "this Anandha I derive from this worldly experiences is really ginding e.." and that is really waht the scriptures have been saying all along.. Accept avidhyA as normal.. we are samsAri for ever.. Then how to remove this avidhyA? we have two clearly defined routes to safety.. 

This means that we need to go to a guru who knows how to handle the scriptures as a pramANam or means of knowledge and thus remove our avidhyA and make us UNDERSTAND the true essence of Anandha maya koSam..

Now the guru moves on to the malina sathvam aspect of Anandha maya koSam.. Why only a little bit of sathvam? and why not a lot more..? sathvam is explained by scriptures to be synonimous with knowledge, seeking knowledge, and appraoching a guru with an attitude of servitude.. helping fellow being out of their suffering.. follow Dharmam NATURALLY. AND SO ON AND SO FORTH.. now we can see why this sathva guNam is malinam or NOT SO MUCH in its abundance in Anandha maya koSAm.. Though each jiva has this Anadha may koSa experience , if the understanding that "I am that" is missing, then the sathvam will be present to some extent only.. So when we are awake and experienceing Anadha we will take tht mithyA experience to be the "truthful" experience only.

now why the priyAdhi vRththi..? None of us can deny that IN SPITE OF all the miseries in the world, there is something or other in our life that makes us peaceful.. or laugh at a joke.. or smile at someone.. or recall a previous pleasurable experience (even if it ends up in a "lover's quarrel..) and so on and so forth.

This experience is called the vaishIyika suKam or a pleasure based on the external objexts.. but even this is a pleasure because IT MAKE ME HAPPY.. it is the experience of Athma suKam only but manifests itself in our search for pleasure in external objects. It is like a dog chewing on a bone tasting its own blood!

TB-38 Why the five koSas are NOT AthmA..

एतत् कोश पञ्च्कम् | Ethath koSa pancakam |

मदीयं madhIyam [my] शरीरं SarIram [body] मदीया: madhIyA: [my] प्राणा: prANA: [five vital airs] मदीयं madhIyam [my] मनश्च manaSca [mind] मदिया madhIyA [my] बुद्धि: budhDhi: [intellect] मदीयं madhIyam my ज्ञानं gnAnam [knowledge] इति ithi [in this manner] स्वेनैव svEnaiava [how by oneself] ज्ञायते gnayathE [it is known] तत् thath [that] यथा yathA [just as] मदीयत्वेन madhIyathvEna [by the feeling of ownership] ज्ञातं gnAtham [it is known] कटक kataka [my katakam] कुन्डल kuNdala [my kundalam] गृहादिकं gRhAdhikam [my house] स्वस्मात् svasmAth [from me] भिन्नं Binnam [they are all different] तथा thaThA [in that very same manner] पञ्चकोशादिकं pancakoSAdhikam [these five koSAs] स्वस्मात् svasmAth [from myself] भिन्नं Binnam [different] मदीयत्वेन madhIyathvEna ["this is mine"] ज्ञातं gnAtham [known in that manner. period.] न na [They are NOT] आत्मा AthmA [my AthmA] भवति Bavathi [at ANYTIME..!!] |TB-39|

Okay, this is a mouthful to say.. or a handful to write.. and no matter how I tried to split the words, they were not yielding satisfactory ENGLISH sentences.. WHEREAS as samskRtham words they all made beautiful sense..

So I decided to keep the original order and I will try to justice to the orignal thaThparyam (essence) of what the guru has succinctly said..

Initially we described gorss body.. that which is most evident to us.. that should be understood as anAthmA or not the caithanyam.. Same is true for the subtle body and causal body.. We are able to observe at least two of the three bodies and causal body is TOTALLY NON-OBSERVABLE DIRECTLY, but accepted as declared by SRthi..

Then the guru went into the explanations of the waking state.. dream state and deep sleep state.. We witness the two states and deep sleep is inferred by us upon waking and as SDS puts it, it is directly "heard" by others nearby..

Following that description, our guru told the Sishya about the five koSas "we" all possess.

The bold red word is vital

TB-38 Why the five koSas are NOT AthmA..(Cont'd)

I concluded the last post by saying that "we" all possess" are very important wrods. Let us analyze this a bit more..

We start by saying that I am short, or tall, or dark, or fair, or blind, or deaf.. etc.. In reality we are truly saying MY body height is not much.. or above average.. or skin color is dark.. or skin color is fair, or eyes do not see.. or ears do not hear.. etc.. etc.. Our language orientation is such that the "MY" is absent from our budhDhi most of the times.. except on occasion.. when a doctor asks "where does it hurt" we reply "MY" stomoch hurts..! Similary when we say "I breath smoothly.. thanks to MY prANAyAmam practice, we really are saying.. "MY lungs inhale and exhale the air smoothly"

Also when we say that " I am quiet, happy, I am sad, etc.." we clearly are operating at the mind level, and are really saying "MY" mind is still, is happy, is sad" etc. Same goes when we declare that "I decided to go to USA" or "I decided to accept the job in Infosys".. we are also really saying "MY" budhDhi decided to go to USA or accept the job in Infosys.. Then we clearly say ithout even batting an eye lid,"I know what needs to be done" we are really exhibiting "MY" knowledge.

Soo here the guru makes us think a little bit.. if I use the word "I" all the time and in every instance it really means "MY" followed by some verbs and nouns, THEN THIS POSSESSIVE PRONOUN CAN BE FORMED ONLY AFTER THE OWNER BEING THE "I"

In that case, everything we think, speak, act, and act upon.. all of them are known to the "karthA" In the same manner, the five annamaya koSa is "seen" by me with MY eyes.. the prANa maya koSa is "seen" by MY sense organ called "skin".MY mind koSa is also seen by ME through what is called MY "SAkshi prathyaksham" or witness peception.

Same witness perception see MY vignAna maya koSAm also. Ahh. finally the Anandha maya koSam.. simply exquisite.. it could be as simple as eating yogurt rice or..my lover says YES! madhIyathvEna gnAtham

TB-38 Why the five koSas are NOT AthmA..(Cont'd)

Now having proved that this INTIMATELY known five koSas are suddenly compared by the guru to a whole bunch of unexpected objects.. ALL INERT..!

First I know that I have "MY" ear rings and ankle rings.. (yes.. any one of us who has seen old Indian movies where the rAjA and his men wore all kinds of jewelry..)

And certainly I am the proud owner of a house.. sometimes, a one room flat in mumbai.. or a 19 room mansion on the banks of a Swiss lake in Geneva.. I proudly tell my friends.."this is MY house..!" (please notice the upper case my.. bold and red and so proud..!!)

So now the teacher asks one simple Q to the student.. "hey, you see your panca koSa and say this is MY body etc.. then you also say that this is MY possesion.. so if YOU are the owner of these INERT objects, YOU are ALSO the owner of these 5 koSas.. can you not see.. ? the owner of an object is DIFFERENT always from the objects OWNED..! 

"In the same manner (as the OWENER is different from the OWNED), AthmA is ALSO different than the five koSAs you mistake yourself to be.."

This is how the guru teaches..

Mistakes are made at teh avasThA thrayam level.. or the SarIrathryam level.. or the panca koSa level.. 

So teh guru takes all the pains in the world to explain to the SishyA as questions arise in the student's mind.

Once I asked SDS anonymously what is the defintion of a guru.. And I though I had asked him an excellent question for which he will give a one-hour lecture and still admire the alertness of the student who had asked such a brillliant Q.

He read the question out aloud in the mike.. and answered the shortest possible answer that can ever be given in couple of seconds.!

He read the Q aloud:"Who is a guru?"

His answer was: ONE WHO MAKES YOU SEE!

What else needs to be said about a guru? (of course, if TB were to be given in the Q&A format, nobody including me would understand a single word)

Now we will move onto EVEN more interesting aspects!

TB-39 Athma lakshaNam..|TB-39|

आत्मा तर्हि क:? AthmA tharhi ka:? |TB-39|

Finally.. after all these strenous inroductions to.. 
four-fold ualifactions.. a mumukshu.. gross body definitions.. subtle body definitions.. causal body definitions.. the waking state.. the dream state.. the deep sleep state..

Then food koSA.. vital air koSa.. mind koSa.. intellect koSa.. "happiness" koSa..

Then the introduction of the OWNER.. "aham" or I.. Then the introduction of the OWNED or "MY" and "MINE".

At last the casting aside of all aof the above as the "owned" states or owned objects..

Thus the student is correctly confused.. and asks this million dollar question.. What then is this AthmA?"

Here it is important ot know why the guru (and the SAstrhra as unfolded by him) has waited this far before answering this question..

I also want to stress the importance of why a clarity here will go a long way.. Most people either define AthmA as existence knowledge bliss.. and this puts us on a trip.. there are several Orkut communities dedicated to analyzing this without any basic understanding of the importance of SAsthram. Or.. The reader gets bored with study and goes on his merry way accepting that "it is good to be a materialist.. and not worry about AthmA, after all when I am gone, who knows I even came?" 

Then there are any number of paliative paths available.. starting from "pleasure" yoga..to rAja yoga.. or worship through any number of ways I think is right.. or why worship at all? or the whole thing is a humbug.

or.. I see misery & this is what I have to do to set it right. Or a "serious mumukshu" hangs in there and wants to go further This is what kRshNa says in BG very effectively.

manushyANAm sahasrEshu (among thousands of people)
kaSchith yathati sidhDhayE (very few try for "knowing" me)
yathathAm api sidhDhAnAm (among those few who even try to remove avidhyA)
kaScith (some "lucky"guy") vEththi mAm (gets to understand me) 
thathvatha: (in the "correct" way I should be undertsood)

Athma lakshaNam..in |TB-40|

And so the uththama aDhikAri (which every one reading this TB explanation is) is told in very precise words the lakshaNam of AthmA by the guru..
सत् चित् आनन्द स्वरूप: sath chith Anandha svarUpa: |TB-40|

Here a small diversion into how our ancestors have taken the pains to distinguish TWO types of adjectives..

The word "adjective" means one that distinguishes.. then the Q is distinguishes what from what?

When we say he is a smart boy or a handsome fellow.. we are really describing a human being as compared to another human being..

When a washerman compliments hRthik roShan as a handsome fellow he is definitely NOT comparing him with his donkey.. (UNLESS he is madly fond of his donkey.!)

Similarly when we say a horse is looking regal, we do not compare it whith a hyena..or even a donkey..

Our SAsthrakAras have defined this type of adjective description as "viSEshaNAni" Now I will write the SDS definition of a viSEshaNa adjective..

sva jAthIyEBya: anyEBya: vishyEBya: vyAvarThakAni viSEshaNAni.. now this is how SDS explains it..

"vyAvarThakAni" means that (attribute) which distinguishes.. BUT the Q is what from what..?

"sva jAthIyEBya:" means belonging to the same order of spieces.. be it inanimate or animate.. thus a chair is compared only with a chair.. or the wood it is made of can be compared to the wood of the support beam. but the chair itself can not be compared to the support beam..

"anyEBya: vishyEBya:" means other objects or life forms belonging to the same type. So rearranged.. the viSEshaNa type of objective is use for comparing objects or life forms belonging to the same class.. and thus distinguishing one from the other.

WE DO IT 24 7 WHEN WE SAY THAT THE COFFEE FROM MAVALLI TIFFIN ROOM IS BETTER THAN THE COFFEE FROM CHENNAI SARAVANA BAVAN.. or when we say Elizabeth Taylor's eyes are the most beautiful, etc.. We do not even think that we are using viSEshaNa adjectives.

But this is all we MOSTLY know.. is there any other type? Of course!

Let us move on..!

Athma lakshaNam in TB-40 (cont'd)

Having described adjectives, I will now move on to a very unique adjective that is used in scriptures.. this is known as lakshaNam..

sarvEBya: anyEBya: vishyEBya: vyAvarThakAni lakshaNAni.. 

now this is how SDS explains it.. as based on scriptures and Sankara BAshyam..

The most of the common place adjectives compare the objects belonging to the same species.. or you can compare a person to a lion if he is stong powerful and courageous.. these type of adjectives are called "gauNa" words.. 

then we move on to the next type of adjectives called the "lakshaNam"..

Again the definition of lakshaNa adjective is:

(lakshaNAni..) These are the group of words (vyAvarThakAni) that describe and distinguish an object from (sarvEBya:) ALLanyEBya: OTHER.. vishyEBya: OBJECTS BELONGING TO ANY CLASS.!! 

So the lakshaNa words no longer worry if I am compared to a donkey or a monkey is compared to a tree, etc, etc..

It simply defines an object in a way that there can be no further doubts in our minds..

SDS's classic example of such lakshAna padham is the definition of space.. There is not a second space to compare it with.. There is nothing else like space.. and within space there are NO differences (though room space, pot space etc can be seen, it is the same space which is within and without..!)

So how will we be able to define space? is it blue? wrong.. is it polluted? wrong? is it big? wrong? is it small? wrong.. is it cold? wrong? is it hot? wrong..!

You see all the known words we know can not "define" space.. this is the key difference between "adjectives" or viSEshaNam words and "definition" or lakshaNam words.

The spece is defined in samskRtham as "avakASa pradhAthR".. the straight forward meaning is "space is defined as the one which accommodates"

Now let us try to shake this definition.. 

WE CAN NOT.. WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO.. So the indescribable AthmA is defined.. and NEVER described by SRthi. MEGA MEGA POINT..!

Athma lakshaNam in TB-40 (cont'd)

(Explained on Sep 13 in TB Q&A Forum)

Almost many words will have even opposite as well as multiple meanings.. examples: 

I say "bring me water".. straight forward.. this is known as prime meaning of muKya vRththi.

Then I say "I went to school with veng. He was a lion".. you neither have a mane, nor walk on fource, nor pounced on animals.. you were an idli sambar guy.. here I am perhaps referring to the fearless guNam of the lion exhibited by you in facing touch situations.. This is known as gauNa vRththi

Now to more complicated vRththis known as 5 types of lakaNa vRththi, namely jagath lakshaNam, ajagath lakshaNam, and jagath ajagath lakshaNam

We are leaving the house with your assistant.. You say "door".. the assistance understands you and he knows that you want him to lock the door. Then both of you return.. and you again say ["door" and your assisant knows to open the door.. here door meant both open and close.. This is known as jallakshaNam, in which the said word is replaced entirely with another.. BTW, Most comedians and philosophers use this effectively 

Now a classic pancaparakriyA example. we are all standing at the race course.. your friend says "look.. white runs.." you understand EVEN WITHOUT LOOKING UP that the white horse running.. he said white and you understood as white horse.. here he said "white" and you bring in your budhdhi anohter word "horse" to understand the statement correctly. this is known as ajahallakshaNam.. (also used by comedians..!!)

eg. jagath ajagath lakshaNam is used for understanding brmhan (referred to as AthmA, caithanyam, vasthu, ISvara;, saguNa brmhan, nirguNa brmhan, saguNa caithanyam, nirguNa caithanyam, etc..) In fact Sankara does not even distinguish why and how he freely uses these words in brmha sUthra BAShyam. he expects us to understand. but ALAS..!! WE need a sampradhAyavidh guru for that.!

Anyway, simply put, it means the root meaning is kept and the limitations are negated by a qualifying word.. This is a very elaborate topic in itself.!

Athma lakshaNam in TB-40 (ends!) & TB-41 Begins

So we have muKya vRththi (straight forward meaning); gauNa vRththi (when we deliberately use an adjective to IMPLY something different); and the 3 types of lakshaNa vrThthi, namely jahalllakshaNam (a word is replaced with a different word), ajahalllakshaNam (the spoken or written word is retianed and an additional word is brought in to complete the menaing), jahadhAjahlllakshaNam (where the root meaning is kept and the limitation is given up).

Upanishaths explain the NON-EXPLAINABLE brmhan (or the Athma or the jIva, or the caithanyam..) by using the jahadhAjahlllakshaNam.

This is where the sath chith Anadham is explained properly by the guru and (hopefully) correctly understood by the Student.

सत् sath किम् kim? काल kAla त्रयेऽपि thrayE api तिष्टति thishtathi इति ithi सत् sath |TB-41|

So the student after being backed into a corner, finally revealed the DEFINITION of AthmA by thr guru.. Whatever he thought himslef to be.. the guru said.."No dice..!"

He naturally asks (burning with aniticpation and curiosity) what then is this AthmA..

The guru replies sath chith Anadha svarUpa: and now the student asks one queation at a time for each part of the definition.

First of course is: sath kim? In other words "hey guro! what is this sath you are mentioning?" (Remeber the common parlance translation of sath is Existence and by using the upper case E the author thinks that he has distinguished "e"xistence from "E"xistence.!)

Here our guru gives the upanishadhic definition of sath.

He says " ithi sath = that which is truly existent thishtathi = (is the one) which stands (unchanged) thrayE api = in all the three periods of kAla = time (which is past, present, and future).

Restated, sath is that which stood unchanged in the past. stands unchanged in the present.. and will stand the future onslaughts of time as well.

As this point, we humans have seen nothing but changes in our lives.. since birth till now.. we see new ones coming and older ones are going

Athma lakshaNam in TB-41 (cont'd)

At this point we should be very clear about the SAsthric definition of sath and sathyam..

Then we all can clearly see why they are not different from one another..

SDS once defined sathyam as follows in his brmha sUthra BAshyam class..

"yath rUpENa yath niSchitahm thath rUpam na vayaBicarathi thath Eva sathyam"

"yath = THAT WHICH IS niSchitahm = ASCERTAINED yath = IN WHICHEVER rUpENa = FORM thath = (WHEN) THAT rUpam = FORM na = DOES NOT vayaBicarathi = UNDERGO ANY CHANGE thath = THAT Eva = ALONE (IS) sathyam = (THE ONLY) TRUTH

This is also the unfortunate requirement of expressing our scripture in English.. where a lot of words easily understood in samskRtham needs to be explicitely spelled..

So restated, our concept of sathyam or truth is "that whihc as is".. but we never bring in the time-bounded nature of anything in our common definition of truth..

Thus even science varies with time.. objects vary with time.. our body undergoes change constantly (remember jayathE asthi varDhathE vipariNamthE apakshIyathe vinaSyathi ithi shadvikAravath??? )

Our own mind.. absolutely needless to point out out its vascillations.. I love this person.. then I hate that person.. I could not live without so may things that I have happily given up now.. I am sure at moment this is what I want to do.. a few minutes later I am not sure.. 

Our own gnAnEndhriyAs or karmEndhriyAs undergo change all the time..

Even the insentient objects are constatnly undergoing change.. the mountain seems to be pretty fixed, but wind water and other forces of nature are constantly changing its structure..

As the magnificent Ganga river flowws down the himAlaya mountains, it brings down silt and rocks and tress.. changing itself and changing the environment it is in..

So everything we know we understand we interact with both sentient and insentient is constantly changing.. THUS IT IS MITHYA and NOT SATHYAM.

So is there any thing in creation which is NOT changing? 

(to be continued )

Athma lakshaNam in TB-41 & TB-42

So we can see what is said in TB-41 about sath is "one that does not change is the three periods of time alone is sath"

The SAsthra also defines sathyam as one that stays constant ALWAYS..

So combining the above two SDS makes a brilliant statement about sathyam itself..

"thrikAla abADhitham sathyam" one that can never be negated in all the 3 periods of time is sathyam..

Now we will remember this for later reference.. 

चित् किम्? ज्ञानस्वरूप: |TB-42|

So the student asks further the second definition of AthmA..

किम् kim = WHAT IS.. चित् chith = AWARENESS? 

And the guru replies..

ज्ञानस्वरूप: THE VERY ESSENCE OF KNOWLEDGE ITSELF|TB-42|

This statement comes from the guru right after defining AthmA to be that which is invariant with respect to time.. thus he has eliminated any WRONG notion we all might develop or refuse to give-up by elimination the time-related LIMITATIONS regarding AthmA.

Now he is revealing further that AthmA has one more lakshaNam which is the very essence of knowledge.

All our knowledge is TIME BOUND.. in any one given filed, the NEW knowledge literally shatters the OLD ways of approaching any subject under study.. This is clearly evident from the earth-centric model of the universe developed a few centuries ago all the way to the "Uncertainty Principle" at the moment !

This clearly indicates that what is changing has to be recognized ONLY when we have something which is NON-CHANGING. This is not uncommon to us.. we all synchronize our watches to observe if someone or some event is ahead of schedule, on time, or late..! Every single process change is observed with a voltage level which is at 24 volts DC or 12 VDC or some such unchanging background.. If there is NO reference, it will be impossible for us to recognize change.

So deliberately and suddenly the SAsthra releases us from our misunderstanding of AthmA . by saying that it is simply awareness UNSULLIED AND INCOMPARABLE.. and thus eliminates our IMAGINED knowledge-based limitations.!

Athma lakshaNam in TB-43 (cont'd)

Now comes the third and final definition of Athma lakshaNam.. (I do not even like to use the word description or adjective here! let us use the word lakshaNam and viSEshaNam as we have defined earlier.

Our guru gave three words describing AthmA.

sath and chith have been explained earlier.. now we move on to the 3rd lakshaNam.

The student asks "आनन्द: किम्? Anadha: kim?" What is this Anadha you have mentioned..? Our guru says "सुख्स्वरूप: suKa svarUpa: "the very essence of suKam |TB-43|

A modern guru HOWEVER will have given any number of answers below..

"It is the bliss you feel, when your mind is under total control.. follow my method and you are guaranteed success and eternal Anandham"

"it is the oneness you experience when mind is destroyed.. that is brmha nirvANa Anandham.."

"It is the bliss you experience when you reach nirvikalpa samADhi." Of course you will be taught from yamam to niyamam.. followed by instructions on and practice of Asanam, prANAyamam, prathyahAram, dhAraNam, Dhyanam, and then savikalpa samADhi and finally nirvikalpa samADhi Anandham.. as outlined in SRthi"

"It is the bliss you feel when you follow this yogic path.. sound yoga, music yoga, dance yoga, breathing yoga, light yoga, etc, etc.. This results in incomparable Anandham as outlined in CAndhogya upanishath"

"surrender to the God or Goddess (!) and he/she will take care of you and give you that indescribable bliss"

"How can I even say it in words? You must come to my side and see brmhan from where I am.. Then you will also experience the same Anandham I am experiencing at this very moment"

"Awaken the hidden powers within yourself, and taste the Anandham nectar yourself"

The list can go on and on.. AcAryAs.. swAmis.. self-proclaimed gurus.. mehtods.. misapplied SASthrams.. indescribable numbers of each and each having a following!

So the guru gives the simplest yet most elegant definition of all.. when he says "suKam" it may put all of us on a trip BUT svarUpam?

Atma lakshaNam - A quick recap

In the last few posts, the Atma lakshaNam has been defined by the guru as sat, chit, and Anandam.. 

sat has been defined as existence, but the type that defies time. And thus it becomes the foundation support of any existence we know of..

The other two have been define by using the word svarUpam as the descriptor..

chit is the very essence of gnAnam which means it is caitanyam.. At this point the guru does not add words like.... supreme consciousness.. ultra consciousness.. pure consciousness.. etc..

IT IS NOT..! it is just chaitanyam and chaitanyam only..

Similarly, Anandam has been defined as suKa svarUpam.. the essence of all that is enjoyable.. Once the word essence is used.. it stands for the absence of limitation..

What causes us unhappiness.. our limitations only..

The limitations are space-imposed.. I am small compared to the vastness of the cosmos.. and I am occupying this tiny miserable body full of pains and aches.. and I would like to be at least as rich as my nieghbor, but I am not..

Or, objectwise limitation.. When I look at myself as compared to another man or woman, and decide that I wish I could be them..! they are more handsome or beautiful.. or better-liked.. or healthier..!

Time is the last limitation I have.. with every second the clock ticking, I am one moment closer to the final moment.. I have been doing prANAyAmam.. yoga.. swallowing vitamins.. eat a healthy diet.. mmhmmm.. nothing seems to work.. Once upon a time I used to fall at the feet of elders.. now whereever I go, such elder population seems to have decreased and slowly more and more people are falling at my feet.. While I do enjoy the prostrations, in the back of the mind I know that my time is limited..

Here Srti has defined AtmA as sat chit Ananda svarUpa:.. 

At the moment I know that I, Ram Mani or you, or she or he is limited..

and AtmA is limitless existence, limitless caitanyam, with no limitation whatsoever..

At least, I have undetstood AtmA via its defintions as per Srti.

TB-44 jIva bRmha aikyam (oneness) |TB-44|

एवं सच्चिदानदस्वरूपं स्वात्मानं विजानीयात् |TB-44|

evam sath chit Ananda svarUpam svAtmAnam vijAnIyAt |TB-44|

evam = In this manner
vijAnIyAt = may you know 
svAtmAnam = yourself to be
sath = the timeless existence
chit = limitless awareness
Ananda = and essentially without space time and object limataions
svarUpam = to be you THE jIva's essential nature as well..!

There are three types of adhikArIs .. uttama madhyama manda adhikArIs..

The mandama (least prepared) and madhyama (no-so-bad prepared) and uttama (totally ready) listeners.. hear this statement..

The totally prepared student can actually walk away at this point.. because whatever I write will be only a repetition of whatever they may have heard or known in either this birth or prior births.. Every word will suddenly make sense to this unique fellow as soon as he hears that he and ISvara: are one and the same..!

The other two groups of students will have to perform karma with a karma yoga attitude to gain purityof mind.. and then depending on their impetus and PK, they will also remove self-ignornace (and thus gain self-kanolwdge) and simulataneously cut off their kArmic ties..

Such a person will be described later in greater detail in TB itself.

Now the guru drops this 'atomic bomb" into the buddhi of the student so that this mahAvAkyam catalyst starts working inside him.. 

As it is, we know that the student who has approached our guru is certainly better than madhyama adhikAri.. he has been patient to ask questions from the very first moment when the guru told him that he was going to unfold the "tatva vivEkam". Almost like the group we have here in this SDS community..!

This one statement is the essence of all vedAnta.. Every one of the upanishat talks about this identity between jIva and bRmhan only. Sometimes this is also called as jIva ISvara aikyam..Why so? This will also become evident as we go on further in TB.

I am offering all this information only to create the akAnkShA(expectation) in YOU

Creation as per Srti TB-45

अथ चतुर्विम्शति तत्व उत्पत्ति प्रकारम व्क्ष्याम:|
atha chaturvimshati tatva utpatti prakAram vkShyAma:|

ब्रह्माश्रया सत्व रजस् तमो गुणात्मिका मया अस्ति|TB-45|
brahmAshrayA satva rajas.h tamo guNAtmikA mayA asti|TB-45|

atha = Now chaturvimshati = the 24-fold tatva utpatti = manifestation/creation prakAram = metholdoloty vkShyAma: = we (the royal "we" ) will tell you, the student..

This is a very significant assertion on the part of guru in explaining the creation of the universe.. Every holy book explains creation one way or the other.. AS Srti calls the entire creation mithyA, it also gives an explanation for the creation THOUGH THE SRTI INTENT is to make you swallow whatever it says..

Why so?

The world NEVER has an independent existence of its own.. it draws its entire creation sustenance and dissoution from brmha caitanyam.. so for the mithyA creation Srti also gives a mithyA model.. THOUGH it has some semblence of logical flow to it, Srti declares.. "you find something better, may you live long.. My purspose is to negate your misconceptions about creation, and help you focus on the INQUIRER..!"

BY THE WAY, THIS IS NEVER DONE ANYWHERE ELSE IN ANY OTHER MAJOR FAITHS..

VEDA GIVES AN EXPLANTION AND ALLOWS US TO CHALLENGE AND NEGATE IT.. What could be more logical than that?

And Srti here varies a little bit between the various branches.. for example taitrIya upaniShat will explain a five element model.. chandogya upanishat will explain a 3 element model.. Greeks have the four out of five element that Srti has.. so Srti being the oldest work in the world, you even begin to wonder if Greeks came to India to study atronomy and vedas from hindu scholars. These filve element model explained in Srti envelops the entire creation.. from the insentient to the sentient.

and the whole process is neatly divided into 24 sections. These steps expalain how the space air fire water and earth exist in pure elemental and well as gross element forms. mAyA makes her grand entry NOW!

Creation as explained in TB-45 onwards..!

ब्रह्माश्रया सत्व रजस् तमो गुणात्मिका मया अस्ति|TB-45|
brahmAshrayA satva rajas.h tamo guNAtmikA mayA asti|TB-45|

mayA asti = mAyA IS.. brahmAshrayA = that mAyA is dependent on bramhan ... guNAtmikA = her qualites are... satva = satvam .... rajas = rajas... and tamas = tamas.

Here the guru actually drops a nuclear bomb called mAyA.. it will not be explained afterwards.. nor was it introduced before ever..

When I was studying TB, I asked SDS "swamij, everything makes sense in TB, but I guess we need to accept mAyA as swallow it as such.." He smiled at me and said.."no no Mani, it is Srti based only.." There were a lot of people and I just accepted him as he said it.. remember one must rust the guru?

This question was stored in my Q box in the brain..then later, when I met SP, I asked him the same Q and told him what SDS told me.. he said "mAyA has been clearly defined in svEtAsvaropanishat 4-10"

What a great AcArya he is.. SDS always called him the teacher of teachers.. and now I knew why.. to pull a reference like that without "googling and convince me that Srti is an absolute pramANam and we just have to accpet her prAmANyam without questioning.. that takes incredible patience towards students like myself..!

Sv U 4-10 says "mAyAm tu prakRtim viddhi mAinam tu mahEshvaram" 

May you understand mAyA to be the material cause of the entire creation.. and may yu understand the mahA Ishvara: as the mAyin or the one who controls mAyA.. thus he becomes tne "efficient" cause or the intelligent cause of this entire creation.

So one need not assume that mAyA needs to be ASSUMED..! If mAyA is mentioned in one place, THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE MUMUKSHU who acceps vEda as a pramANam.

The entire TB is ONLY for that person who accepts Srti as a means of knowledge.

NOT BEING ABLE TO USE SRTI AS PRAMANAM ALONE DROVE SDS CRAZY WHEN HE WAS STUDYING VEDANTA.

And it drove me too when I was going after the usual "POPULAR" mahAtmAs for avidyA removal..! May none of you make any of MY error!

Creation as explained in TB-46 (TB-45 onwards.!)

ब्रह्माश्रया सत्व रजस् तमो गुणात्मिका माया अस्ति|TB-45|

तत: आकाश: संभूत: | आकाशात् वायु: | वायो: अग्नि: | अग्ने: आप: | अद्भ्य: पृथिवी |TB-46|

This is straight from the taitrIya upanishat, anada vallI.. I am giving these references to show the readers that every single word in TB is backed by upanishat as pramANam. So these are not the "wild" imaginations and hypotheses of vEdic RShIs..!

But typically, the entire ChAndogya, bRhadAraNyaka, aitarEya, and taitrIya form the basis on which TB itself is written. This way we need not question the authenticity of the sources.

in TB-45 the guru just explained the fact that mAyA exists as a "dependent" reality drawing its entire existence from bramhan. But bramhan IS, whether mAyA IS or NOT..

So bramhan is the ultimate cause, the "uncaused" cause as eper shruti.

तत: tata: = From that mAyA (blesssed by bramhan) आकाश: AkAsha: Space संभूत: sambhUta: = was created.. | आकाशात् AkAshAt = Then from Space वायु: vAyu: = Air was created.. | वायो: vAyo: = Then from Air अग्नि: agni: = Fire was created.. | अग्ने: agnE: = Then from the Fire आप: Apa: = Waters were created (Waters is always plural in sanskrit) | अद्भ्य: adbhya: = Then from the Waters पृथिवी pRthivI = Earth was created..

So we can see a methodical creation of the infrastructure for the sustenance of the jIvas! These five elements are called pancha tanmAtrAs.. Or the subtle elements.. 

The subtle elements are responsible for the creation of the sUkshma sharIram expalined in the ver beginning of TB.

Does any one remember them? Perhaps not clearly But one among us has to remember that order.. so here is a very quick synopsis of what was told by the guru earlier.. The 5 organs of knowledge (ear, skin, eyes, tongue and nose) for enjoying sounds, touch, forms (including color), taste, and smell. The 5 organs of actions (mouth, hands, feet, organ of evacuation, phallus&yoni) for speaking, grabbing, walking, waste removal, and procreation. 5 vital airs & mind, intellect, ego, memory (19 total)!

Creation as explained in TB-47 (TB-45 onwards.!)

एतेषां पञ्चतत्वानां मध्ये आकाशस्य सात्विक अंशात् श्रोत्र इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | वायो: सात्विक अंशात् वाक् इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | अग्ने: सात्विक अंशात् चक्षु: इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | जलस्य सात्विक अंशात् रसन इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | पृथिव्या: सात्विक अंशात् घ्रान इन्द्रियं संभूतम् |TB-47|

एतेषां मध्ये EtEShAm madhyE = among these पञ्चतत्वानां pancha tatvAnAm = five pure material elements आकाशस्य सात्विक अंशात् AkAshasya Satvika amshAt = by the satvam guNa aspect of space श्रोत्र इन्द्रियं shrora indriyam = hearing power संभूतम् sambhUtam = manifests in the physical organ called ears | वायो: सात्विक अंशात् vAyo: sAtvika amshAt = by the satva guNa aspect of pure element air वाक् इन्द्रियं vAk indriyam = speech power संभूतम् sambhUtam = manifests in the physical organ called mouth | अग्ने: सात्विक अंशात् agnE: sAtvika amshAt = by the satva guNa aspect of pure element fire चक्षु: इन्द्रियं chakShu: indriyam = power of sight संभूतम् sambhUtam = manifests in the physical organ called eyes | जलस्य सात्विक अंशात् jjalasya sAtvika amshAt = by the satva guNa aspect of waters रसन इन्द्रियं rasana indriyam = power of taste buds located in the tongue संभूतम् sambhUtam = manifests in the physical organ called tongue | पृथिव्या: सात्विक अंशात् pRthivyA: sAtvika amshAt = by the satva guNa aspect of the pure element known as earths घ्रान इन्द्रियं ghrANa indriyam = the power of the smell संभूतम् sambhUtam = manifests in the physical organ called nose.

Now we begin to get an appreciation of how the guru using shruti as the pramANam unfolds how the various organs power itself starts appearing.. Thus when we speak we simply are able to appreciate the dEvatA shakti that makes us produce the sound through the mouth.

Thus every organ of knowledge is appreciated by each one of us by worshipping the deity that gives that organ the power gather knowledge. Skin, Ears, Eyes, Tongue, and Nose are mere physical organs. ONLY when blessed by the dEvatAs, they function.

Creation as explained in TB-48/49(TB-45 onwards!)

एतेषां पञ्च तत्वानां समष्टि सात्विक अंशात् मन: बुद्धि: अहंकार: चित्त अत:करणानि संभूतानि |TB-48|

एतेषां पञ्च तत्वानां etEsShAm = From these five pure elements' समष्टि samaShti = collective सात्विक अंशात् sAtvika amshAt = satva guNam combination मन: mana: = Mind बुद्धि: buddhi: = Intellects अहंकार: ahamkAra: = Ego चित्त chittam = Memory अत:करणानि anta: karaNAni = Internal sense organs संभूतानि sambhUtAni = are born..

Intially the guru expalined how the "infrastructure" was created in a specific order in terms or the formation of the pure elements one coming from the previous one (space --> earths).. As all of them came from mAyA with the three guNas, all the five elements also have the three guNas to varying degrees.. 

Also we can see that the sublest pure element is SPACE, and the grossest pure element is EARTH. Similarly if you can see how the each of the components of the organs of knowledge of the sUkShma sharIram.. starting from sense of touch (ALL OVER THE PHYSICAL BODY INSIDE AND OUT) to the sense of smell which comes from the grossest pure element Earth. All these organs of knowledge are born from the satva guNam of each element.. whereas when ALL the satva guNas are COMBINED, naturally the subtlest of all faculties, the discriminative organs are all born..! These are namely, Mind, Intellect, Ego, and Memory.

संकल्प विकल्पात्कं मन: | निश्चयात्मिका बुद्धि: | अहं कर्ता अहंकार: | चिनतन कर्तृ चित्तम् |TB-49|

संकल्प विकल्पात्कं मन: sankalpa vikalpAtmakam mana: = Vascillation is the nature of the MInd | निश्चयात्मिका बुद्धि: nishchayAtikA buddhi: = Resolution is the nature of Intellect | अहं कर्ता अहंकार: aham kartA ahamkAra: = Ego gives us the feeling that "I AM THE DOER" | चिनतन कर्तृ चित्तम् chintana kartR chittam = The ability to recollect is the nature of Memory. At this point we must examine how the shruti has been precise in defining each faculty. MIND! Suppose we lock the door. we take a few steps...and think "Did I lock the door?" we come back and check.. again & again.!

Creation as explained in TB-50

मनस: देवता चन्द्रमा | अहन्कारस्य रुद्र: | बुद्धे: ब्रम्हा | चित्तस्य वासुदेव: |TB-50|

मनस: देवता चन्द्रमा manasa: devatA chandramA = The deity for the mind is moon (not the physical moon we see) अहन्कारस्य रुद्र: ahankArasya rudra: = rudra is the devatA for the ego.. बुद्धे: ब्रम्हा uddhe: bramhA = bramhAji, the creator of the universe is the devatA for the intellect. चित्तस्य वासुदेव: chittasya vAsudeva: = vAsudeva is the deity for memory. Well, our shAstram talks about the responsibility of many many deities. That is why they all have a job to do.. and THEY CAN NOT forget to do their jobs ever.. in fact, they are fearful and respectful of paramAtmA and they run to their tasks as ordained by bhagavAn.. Thus when we have a problem with our mind.. we perform a ritual to get well.. this is not the inert moon planet we see with our ordinary eye, but the "unseen" and "NEVER see-able" dEvatA shakti that is named as "chandramA". This power known as chandramA is a tiny aspect of bhagavAn to manage the minds of every single body that has a mind. So when we offer our prayers with shraddhA to the chandramA devatA, the mind gets better.. BY ADDING A LITTLE BIT OF PUNYAM FROM OUR OWN SK BAG (if possible).. bhagavAn's grace that flows our way due to our shraddhA..and the puNyam that is created by performing the ritual with shraddhA.. and such factors..Then if the mind is still not getting better, then we do not blame chandramA devatA but accept the fact that our own PK and or SK does not allow the necessary results.

bramhA is prayed to for gaining a sharp intellect. Similarly, every one of us is blessed with an ego.. Ego is the most significant component of our psyche.. Even shankara retained his ego to write the commentaries on our scriptures, geetA and bramha sUtram. He retained his ego to travel from himAchalam to Cape Comerin to re-establish sanAtana dharmam.. Thus we pray to rudra to keep our ego under check.. We pray to vishNu for better memory.. A peaceful coexistence with creation and its forces!

Creation of jeeva as per tatva bodha: |TB-51|

एतेषां पञ्चतत्वानां मध्ये आकाशस्य राजस अंशात् वाग् इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | वायो: राजस अंशात् पाणि इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | अग्ने: राजस अंशात् पाद इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | जलस्य राजस अंशात् उपस्थ इन्द्रियं संभूतम् | पृथिव्या: राजस अंशात् गुद इन्द्रियं संभूतम् |TB-51|

एतेषां पञ्चतत्वानां मध्ये (etEShAm pancha tatvAnAm madhyE) = among these five pure elements आकाशस्य राजस अंशात् AkAShasya rAjasa amsAt = from the rajas guNa of the space वाग् इन्द्रियं vAg indriyam = the organ of speech संभूतम् sambhutam = is born..| वायो: राजस अंशात् vAyo: rAjasa amshAt = from the rajas guNa of air पाणि इन्द्रियं संभूतम् pANi indriyam sambhutam the organ of hands is born| अग्ने: राजस अंशात् agnE: rAjasa amshAt = from the rajas guna of fire पाद इन्द्रियं संभूतम् pAda indriyam sambhUtam = the organ of feet are born | जलस्य राजस अंशात् jalasya rAjasa amshAt = from the rajas guNa of the waters उपस्थ इन्द्रियं संभूतम् upastha indriyam sambhUtam = the organ of procreation is born | पृथिव्या: राजस अंशात् pRthivyA: rAjasa amshAt = from the rajas guNa of the earth गुद इन्द्रियं संभूतम् guda indriyam sanbhUtm = organ of evacuation is born.

By the guru further explanation is offered tot he student. He is still unfolding the development of the jeeva.. First he explained how all the five organs of knowledge were created from the satva guna of the five pure element. That is why satvic nature is always associated with skills, intelligence, logic, teaching, etc.. None of these would be functional without the jeeva's ability to gather data from the outside world. 

Now he is dealing with the five organs of action.. These are speech, hands, feet, genitals, and organs of excretion. These are born from the rajas guna of the five pure elements.

Even in our day to day work, we talk, we grab things, we walk around, we evacuate the body waste products, and we procreate furthering the propagation of our species. This is true of the animal world also. The difference is that they are programmed

Creation of jeeva as per tatva bodha:|TB-52|

वाच: देवता वह्नि: हस्तयो: इन्द्र: पादयो: विष्णु: उपस्थस्य प्रजापति: पायो: मृत्यु:|TB-52|

Now the guru gives the presiding deity for each one of the organs of action..

वाच: देवता वह्नि: vAcha: dEvatA vahni: = Agni dEvatA is the shakti behind our organ of speech. If a person is a great orator, you can almost be certain that in his speech organ, agni has blessed his in abundance.. It is also common expression to say that "when a guy speaks with passion on a topic, sparks were flying out of his mouth.."

हस्तयो: इन्द्र: hastayo: indra: The deity giving our hands the grabbing power is none other than indra.. Even scriptures talk about indra as "vajra hastha". This awareness on our part makes us humble not become proud that "I LIFTED that 500 pound weight MYSELF..!"

पादयो: विष्णु: pAdayo: vishNu: For the feet to be able to walk, we need the blessing of the presiding deity viShNu. Who remembers when we learnt to walk? No one.. yet that is one of the most wonderful miracles I ever have witnessed.. and am witnessing all the time.. Somehow in our growing years, we just started balancing ourselves.. This means that we have the blessings of lord viShNu..

उपस्थस्य प्रजापति: upasthasya prajApati: Correctly bramhAji is the presiding deity of our organs of procreation. That is why in vedic culture, we do not have xex, it is the nurturing of another jeeva through the womb of the woman so that another sould may be givent he opportunity to gain liberation.. Remember, liberation is possible only when a jeeva is blessed witha human physical body. This is a very elaborate vedic ritual, where we invoke the blessings of many devatAs to bless the united couple with a child.. then the physical sexual act itself becomes a yagnya.. and nothing happens unless prajApati apporves.. (all excpet charam janmam, which I will explain later)

पायो: मृत्यु: pAyo: mRtyu: Lord yama is the presiding deity for the organs of evacuation.. This disposal is as important as life giving nutrients. And hence the appreciation..

Creation of jeeva as expalined in TB-53

एतेषां पञ्चतत्वानां सम्ष्टिराजशाम्शात् पञ्चप्राणा: सम्भूता: |TB-53|

एतेषां etEShAm = By these पञ्चतत्वानां panchatatvAnAm = five subtle elements सम्ष्टिराजशाम्शात् samaShTi rAjasa amshAt = combined "rajas" nature all combine and out of that total combination पञ्चप्राणा: pancha prANA: = the five componets of vital airs सम्भूता: sambhUtA: = are born.

This is also a very significant development in the shAstra.. So far the the 5 organs of knwledge were created.. the four internal organs of knowledge were also created.. then the five organs of action were born.. now the motivation force for these organs so far created has also to be created..

These are the five vital airs prAna (breathing component), apAna (the air component responsible for the evacuation..) vyAna (the air that is responsible for the transfer of oxygen to the various cells of the body), samAna (the air which is responsible for the digestive actions), and udAna (the air that really exits the life force from the body)..

These five components play a very important role in making sure that all of the organs created thus far are functional..

In fact, upanishats mention a very nice story..

This is a discussion among the various organs of the body as to who is the most superior..

So the organs are ordered to leave the body for some time and see how the body functions.. As each and every one of the organs of action leave for some time and then come back, the body continues to funcion with reducedfunctionality but the bod functions alright..

The same is the case with every organs of knowledge also.. The body is not able to fuction as efficiently as possible, yet it functions alright..

Then as the prANa is about to leave, all the organs run to prANa and surrender declaring that prANa is the most wonderful shakti that the living body has..

I have mentioned that rajas is responsible for activity of the body and its healthy functions.. This concept can be appreciated better if we know how it came into being as per shruti

Creation of jeeva as explained in TB-54

एतेषां पञ्चतत्वानां समष्टि तामसांशात् पञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहाभूतानि संभूतानि |TB-54|

एतेषां EtEShAm = Belonging to these 

पञ्चतत्वानां pancha tatvAnAm = the five subtle elements space, air, fire, waters and earth.

समष्टि तामसांशात् samaShTi tAmashAmshAt = by their combined "tamas" guNas..

पञ्चीकृत pancheekRta = the biforcated

पञ्चमहाभूतानि panchamahAbhUtAni = five gross elements space, air, fire, waters, and earth

संभूतानि sambhUtAni = were born..

Here we can see the development of this model.. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL OF THIS EXPLANATIONS BELONG TO THE MITHYA OR VYAAVAHARIK OR TRANSACTIONAL ORDER OF REALITY. 

So SDS is very clear in articulating this point.. shruti is NEVER scientific.. it gives a mithyA explanation for the mithyA jagat.. for those who demand a some explanation by the shurti.. shruti's focus is on avidyA removal and not challenge today's scientific community.. AFTER ALL NOTHING IS OUTSIDE CAITANYAM ANYWAY 

So the gur first explains the kAraNa shareram .. You may vaguely recall "anAdi.. avidyA roopam.. shareera dvayasya kAraNa mAtram.. sat svaroopa agnAnam.." etc etc.. 

Every jeeva "OWNS" a unique kAraNa or causal body.

Then the guru explained the suUhshma shareeram or subtle body.. the nineteen cmponents.. the five organs of knowledge.. the five organs of perception.. the five prAnAs.. and the four anta:karaNams.. and the respective deities that bless them..etc etc.. so far..

Now if you remember the definition of gross body, a place of transaction for the experiences of sukham and dukham.. (as per one's PK.. here karmA model also has to be remembered verbatim.. )

Now guru explains the creation of gross elements which are perceivable by every one of us..

These gross elements are the ones which provide us with the infrastructure to survive in this creation.. Guru now explains the pancheekaraNam process.. All of this is based on shrui.. so for those of us who accept shruti as a pramANam this should be easy to assimilate.

Creation of jeeva as explained in TB-55

पञ्चीकरणं कथं इति चेत | एतेषां पञ्चमहाभूतानां तामस अम्श स्वरूपं एक एकं एकं भूतं द्विधा विभज्य एकं एकं अर्धं पृथक् तूष्णीं व्यवस्थाप्य अपरं अपरं अर्धं चतुर्धा विभज्य स्वार्धं अन्येषु अर्धेषु स्वभाग च्तुष्तय सम्योजनं कार्यम् | तदा पञ्चीकरणं भवति | TB-55|

Here comes a very simple yet significant verse that talks about the creation of the jeeva's gross physical body..

An important step in this formation of the physical body is the process called "quintuplication" or "pancheekaraNam" which is the five invisible subtle elements now combine to form the five gross elements we see.. namely space, air, fire, waters, and earth.

पञ्चीकरणं pancheekaraNam = Quintuplation.. कथं इति चेत् katham iti chEt = if you were to ask "how does it take place?" this is how it takes place.

एतेषां EtEShAm = of these.. पञ्चमहाभूतानां panchamahAbhUtAnAm = five subtle elements तामस अम्श स्वरूपं tAmasa amsha svarUpam = the tamas aspect of each one of them एकं एकं भूतं Ekam Eakam = each one of those tamas aspect.. द्विधा विभज्य dvidhA vibhajya = dividing itself by two.. एकं एकं अर्धं Ekam Ekam ardham = the first half of every one of these tamas aspects.. पृथक् तूष्णीं व्यवस्थाप्य pRthak tUShNeem vyavasthApya = quietly occupying one portion.. अपरं अपरं अर्धं apram aparam ardham = the second half of each one of their tamas aspects चतुर्धा विभज्य chturdhA vibhajya = dividing itself by four.. स्वार्धं svARdham = each one of these 1/8 portion of each element.. अन्येषु अर्धेषु anyEShu ardhEShu = into the origianl first half of each element स्वभाग च्तुष्तय सम्योजनं svabhAga chatuShtaya samyojanam = eompletes the process of combining .. कार्यम् kAryam = thus the action is complete..| तदा tadA = then.. पञ्चीकरणं pandhee karaNam = quintuplation.. भवति bhavati = happens and the five gross elements are formed.. 

This sounds like a mouthful of words.. but it is not as difficult as we think..

The process will be explained in the next post that follows.. as it deserves a little bit of detailed explanation..

Creation of jeeva as explained in TB-55

Now.. let us take the first subtle element.. AkAsham or space..

Let us divide this by two.. so we have two equal parts of AkAsaham space1 (first half of subtle space) , and space2 (the second half of space).

So using the same process, we get air1 (half of air) and air2, fire1 and fire2, water1 and water2 and earth1 and earth2.

Now let us keep the FIRST HALVES.. space1, air1, fire1, water1, and earth1 as the first group.

And let us keep the SECOND HALVES.. space2, air2, fire2, water2, and earth2 as the second group.

Now let us take the second group of the subtle element halves.. and divide each one by 4.

So we get 1/2 of space divided by four becomes four such 1/8th parts of original space.. Similarly we get 4 such 1/8 parts of original air.. 4 such 1/8th parts original fire.. 4 such 1/8 parts of original water.. and 4 such 1/8 parts of original earth.. Clear so far..? the next step is really easy... just a simple math.. bear with me..!!

Now the GROSS space is ready to be formed? How?

From group 1, we take HALF OF SUBTLE SPACE1 + 1/8 AIR +1/8 FIRE + 1/8 WATER + 1/8 EARTH = 1 FULL GROSS SPACE WE CAN COGNIZE..

From group 1, we take HALF OF SUBTLE AIR + 1/8 SPACE +1/8 FIRE + 1/8 WATER + 1/8 EARTH = 1 FULL GROSS AIR WE CAN COGNIZE..

From group 1, we take HALF OF SUBTLE FIRE + 1/8 SPACE +1/8 AIR + 1/8 WATER + 1/8 EARTH = 1 FULL GROSS FIRE WE CAN COGNIZE..

From group 1, we take HALF OF SUBTLE WATER + 1/8 SPACE +1/8 AIR + 1/8 FIRE + 1/8 EARTH = 1 FULL GROSS WATER WE CAN COGNIZE..

From group 1, we take HALF OF SUBTLE EARTH + 1/8 SPACE +1/8 AIR + 1/8 FIRE + 1/8 WATER = 1 FULL EARTH WE CAN COGNIZE..

So bramhan + mAyA created the five subtle elements.. Their satvam aspect responsible for five organs of knowledge, five organs of action, five vital airs, mind, intellect, ego, and memory. This IS our suble body or sUkShma shareeram.!

Then the grossification produces FIVR gross elements we see.. ALL FULL OF SATVAM RAJAS AND TAMAS TO VARYING DEGREES.. NEXT?

Creation of jeeva as explained in TB-56

एतेभ्य: पञ्शीकृत पञ्चमहाभूतेभ्य: स्थूल शरीरं भवति | एवं पिण्ड ब्र्म्ह्माण्डयो: ऐक्यम सम्भूतम् |TB-56|

EtEbhya: pancheekRta pancha mahAbhUtEbhya: sthUla shaeram bhavati | Evam piNDa bramhANDayo: aikyam sambhUtam |TB-56|

EtEbhya: = From these pancheekRta = quituplicated pancha = five mahAbhUtEbhya: = gross elements sthUla = gross shaeram = physical body bhavati = is born..

Evam = in this manner piNDa = between the physical body bramha aNDayo: = unmanifest form of the creation ( bramhAji, the creator, the hiraNya garbha ) aikyam = oneness sambhUtam = is obtained.

This is not an ordinary conclusion on the part of shruti expalining that inthe VOR, there is oneness..

First the three guNAtmika mAyA.. and from them the infrastructure.. the five subtle elements.. then from the subtle elements, and their satvam and rajas.. the subtle body with all of the elements of gnyAnEndriyA and karmEndriyA.. and the five vital airs.. and the antaL karaNam were all created..

Then from the quitupliated subtle elements, the grossification took place.. and from the grossified elements the gross physical body is born.

AvidyA has already been explained as inexplicable..! This is our causal body.

Now the jeeva is complete. A causal body, a subtle body, and a gross body.

He is ready to travel now.. from loka to loka. or one plane of experiences to another plane of experiences. He has become as the shruti says "iha loka (this world) para loka (other worlds) gAmi (traveller).

Once the travel begins, it DOE NOT END.. one human birth is enough to accrue so many fruitsof karma that it is IMPOSSIBLE to exhaust them all in that one borth itself.. then the second human janma.. and the third.. SK baggage builds up.. then bhagavAn to give us PK and a proper physsical body to exhaust them.

it is not a bad idea here to visit the karma model perriodically and stay abreat of karma model to gain inner leisure.. Now you can see why this is endless? 

And tatvabodha now enters mahavAkya analysis!

maha vAkya vichAram begins..! TB-57

स्थूल शरीर अभिमानि जीव नामकं ब्रम्ह प्रतीम्बं भवति | स एव जीव: प्रकृत्या स्वस्मात् ईश्वरं भिन्नत्वेन जानाति |TB-57|

sthUla shareera abhimAni jeeva nAmakam bramha pratiimbam bhavati | sa eva jeeva: prakRtyA svasmAt eeshvaram bhinnatvena jAnAti |TB-56|

Okay.. now the guru is ready to introduce the beloved disciple into the very brief yet powerful mahA vakya vichAram.. which is really.. the ONENESS BETWEEN US THE MISERABLE HUMANS AND GOD THE ALMIGHTY..! here alone lies all the confusion n our buddhi..

I know I am limited by time space and objects.. my knowledge is limited.. and my power is limited..

god has NONE of the above limitations.. 

Here tatva bodha does not do elaborate analysis as what shankara has done in his bhAShyams on upanishas, geetA and bramha sUtram.. yet enough is said for the uttama adhikAri to appreciate the one-ness.. and if the student is NOT interested in teaching, but merely appreciate the fact that he or she is liberated at this very moment, then the teaching is really over..

If the student now wants to teach others what he or she ahs learnt, better start studying samskRtam..!

sthUla shareera abhimAni = this person who has TOTAL identidication with the body mind sense complex.. jeeva nAmakam = He is referred to by the name "jeeva" bramha pratiimbam bhavati = is merely a reflection of the bramhan.

sa eva jeeva: = THAT VERY SAME JEEVA prakRtyA = BY HIS VERY NATURE AND QUITE NAUALLY bhinnatvena jAnAti = (AND WITH CERTAINTY) SEES DIFFERENTLY eeshvaram = THE GOD svasmAt = FROM HIMSELF (AT ALL TIMES)

Now we can see why when someone asks us "Who are you?", the first response would be Ram Mani.. a father.. a tennis player. a dancer.. an uncle.. a tall guy.. a funny guy.. etc etc etc.

Then should I say. "I AM GOD?" 

That would be just as dumb as these other statements.!

I remember a guy who thought he was god, TOTALLY DELUDED, stood in front of a train and was shredded to pieces in San Francisco.!

So let us be very very careful in this mahAvAkya vichAram !

maha vAkya vichAram continues..! TB-58

अविद्योपाधिः सन् आत्मा जीव इत्युच्यते | मायोपाधिः सन् आत्मा ईश्वर इत्युच्यते |TB-58|

Now that the jeeva has been introduced as the AtmA which is conditioned by an adjunct called avidyA.. the guru intorduces god as to the truth of the very same AtmA and already by using the common term AtmA for both, the mahA vAkya vichAram by the guru is charging ahead..

Okay.. what is this mAyA upAdhi? It was already explained earlier as a very wonderful and inexplicable force of bramhan.. depending entirely on brramhan for its existence.. and being incapable of operating without the permission from bramhan,, yet with out that power, bramhan itself is as good as useless.. she has 3 fold powers.. satvam.. rajas and tamas.. which is experienced by all of us who accpet or reject shruti..

There is a wonderful thread on mAyA in this community itself.. please revisit.. if mAyA is not understood as to WHY SHE CAN NOT BE UNDERSTOOD, WE ARE ALL IN FOR A RIDE INTO DARKNESS WITH DESTINATION UNKNOWN, THE VEHICLE UNKNOWN, AND THE OPERATOR UNKNOWN.. ALL THE WHILE SO CONVINCED THAT WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING..! 

Ok.. now the shastram simpley says AtmA with this wonderful mAyA upaadhi is god.

Now we all wonder who god is.

Is god she? is god he? Is god it? if god is all why do we not feel that I AM GOD?

My arthritis still kills me in the morning when I get up.. When "god" I drive my "god" car into the "god" car driven by the other "god" driver, we both end up in a serious physical and financial damage..! Why?

That is why it is important to go with tatvabodha gradually and gracefully.

There should be no rush.. it is like frying the gulab jamun balls of milk solids very very slowly in deep hot oil.. in slow flame.. so that the gulab jamun does not burn BUT coks well.. TB is a complete text.. In fact, I learnt TB in 1998.. and 11 years later when I look at a word or a sentence it dances with new meaning and expression.

Now god is defined futher in the next few set of teachings from the guru.. BE PATIENT.!

maha vAkya vichAram continues..! TB-59|

एवं उपाधिभेदात् जीवेश्वरभेददृष्टिः यावत्पर्यन्तं तिष्ठतिbvतावत्पर्यन्तं जन्ममरणादिरूपसंसारो न निवर्तते |
तस्मात्कारणान्न जीवेश्वरयोर्भेदबिद्धिः स्वीकार्या |TB-59|

Evam = in this manner upAdhibhEdAt = due to the difference in the two types of adjuncts (avidyA and mAyA..) bhEda dRShTi: = a difference.. THE DUALITY outlook.. thiShTati = stays frim in our buddhi yAvat paryantam tAvat paryantam = as long as it is present... janana maraNAdi rupa samsAra: = the sorrow of bing born and dying again and again na nivartatE = NEVER ENDS.!

tasmAt kAraNAt = DUE TO THIS CONTINUATION OF SAMSARAM ALONE.. na sveekAryA = MAY YOU NOT ENTERTAIN.. bhEda buddhi: = THE COGNITION THAT I AM DIFFERENT THAN GOD.

Slowly the guru has introduced the concept that we the jeevas are NOT different than god.. The question will still huant us.. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE? HOW I CAN I BE GOD?

Now it is time to think about the earlier definitions given about bhagavan.

dhanam asya asti iti dhanavAn.. a person has wealth so he is called dhanavAn
buddhi asya asti iti buddhimAn.. a person has buddhi so he is called uddhimAn
veeryam asya asti iti veeryavAn. a person has valor, so he is called veeryavAn
So bhaga: asya asti iti bhagavAn.. this person has bhaga: so he is called bhagavAn

Now we just have to know what bhaga:.. that is all.. shruti defines bhaga: as six qualities. These are: shree: or overlordship; aishvaryam or wealth; gnyAnam or knowledge; vairAgyam or detachment;byashas or fame; veeryam or valor.

Imagine a person who has all of these in limitless measure.. The POWER to create, sutain and withdraw the universe. OWNER of the entire wealth found in creation; LIMITLESS knowledge with zero blemishes; LIMITLESS vairAgyam or dispassion comes only when there is NOTHING more needed; So is LIMITLESS fame & valor!

We have all of the six in teensy weensy measure; a few bucks in a piggy bank; we can kill an insect; we know a few things; we throw a banana peel; a few think we are great; we are BRAVE TO chase a kid. see?

maha vAkya vichAram continues..! TB-60|

तस्मात्कारणान्न जीवेश्वरयोर्भेदबिद्धिः स्वीकार्या |TB-60|

tasmAt kAraNAt na jeeva eeshvarayo: bhEda buddhi: sveekAryA |TB-60|

tasmAt kAraNAt = due that reason.. na sveekAryA = may you not accept.. bhEda buddhi: = an attitude or a conviction of "difference" jeeva eeshvarayo: = between jeeva and eeshvara..

The guru starts.."due to this reason alone"..what reason? the reason given eaalier.. 

Jeeva has an adjunct.. avidyA or ignorance.. this is the starting capital with which we came into this world.. and we continue to transact business in this world.. all the while being convinced that how "smart" we are.. are we really that smart?

Then god has an adjunct also.. mAyA.. mAyA has three guNas satvam, rajas, and tamas... with the purest of the purestof all guNas.. satvam... god becomes all knowing.. no taint of ignorance whatosever.

but still.. an adjunct is an adjunct.. so god is god and I am me.. that sounds almost right.. but our guru makes that statement and says "due this difference in upadhi alone, we have a god and we have a jeeva.

BUT LET THIS DIFFERENCE NOT BECOME A STUMBLING BLOCK IN OUR BUDDHI WHEN IT NEEDS TO ASSIMILATE THE ONENESS BETWEEN JEEVA AND GOD..

I know what I am.. and I know what god is.. at least my religion.. my daddy and my family or my friends have told me what god is.

I have already formed an opinion.. and when I am almost convinced that god is god and I am me, guru warns me lovingly.. that "hey you.. you have two different adjuncts.. so may you understand that both of you are one and the same"

Now I am convinced (at least within myself ) that this guru is NO good and does NOT know what he is talking about.

A whole series of questions pop in m head.. and I am ready to show my guru how little he knows.. I also know how to phrase the question so that he will be floored wiht the astuteness of my question.

But the guru is still smiling 

Friends, this is where a serious study of vEdAnta begins fueled by a desire to understand it all

maha vAkya vichAram continues..! TB-61|

ननु साहंकारस्य किंचिज्ज्ञस्य जीवस्य निरहंकारस्य सर्वज्ञस्य ईश्वरस्य तत्त्वमसीति महावाक्यात् कथमभेदबुद्धिः स्यादुभयोः विरुद्धधर्माक्रान्तत्वात् |इति चेन्न |TB-61|

nanu sAhankArasya kinchi gnyasya jeevasya nirahankArasya sarva gnysya eeshvarasya tat tvam asi iti mahAvAkyAt katham abhEda buddhi: syAt ubhayo: viruddha dharma AkrAntatvAt iti chEt na |TB-61|

This is a bit long sentence.. but not difficult to understand. I will approach it in a way that makes sense for sure. The shiShya now generates a clean doubt.

That has been haunting humanity since creation!

nanu = Suppose 
iti chEt = If you were to think of
abhEda buddhi:= the cognition that both are non-separate from each other
katham syAt = how is it ever possible to appear in our minds?

ubhayo: = I KNOW FOR SUTE THAT between god and the human being
viruddha = the opposing
dharma = qualities 
AkrAntatvAt = are inpossible to be reconciled.

I have heard the following also..

tat tvam asi = YOU ARE THAT
iti mahAvAkyAt = It is a wonderful advice from upanishat that is supposed to teach me the non-difference between myself and god.. (so what?)

Who am I? I know this very well indeed..

sAhankArasya = I am always driven by my little ego
kinchit gnyasya = whatever I know is so little compared to whatever I don't know.
jeevasya = I am a miserable little jeeva

Who is god? I know this also very well. Please do not think that I do not know the difference.

nirahankArasya = god has NO ego whatsoever.
sarva gnysya = god is all knowing.. he even knows samskRtam.. for crying out loud.
eeshvarasya = he is the eeshvara.. he has 6 fold qualities TOTALLY(over lordship, wealth, knowledge, dispassion, fame, ad valor) 

na = no way jose..! You may be a great guru sir..! but this is a tall order for me to swallow. So far you have been making sense. Now I am beginning to doubt your sanity.!

(Actually that is how most people think these days.. but not our SDS community members.. we HAVE great respect for our gurus.

mahA vAkya vichAram TB-62

स्थूलसूक्ष्मशरीराभिमानी त्वंपदवाच्यार्थः | उपाधिविनिर्मुक्तं समाधिदशासंपन्नं शुद्धं चैतन्यं त्वंपदलक्ष्यार्थः |TB=62|

sthUla sUkshma shareera abhimAnI tvam pada vAchyArtha: | upAdhi vinirmuktam samAdhi dashA sampannam shuddham chaitanyam tvam pada lakshyArtha: |TB-62|

Okay.. here guru now unfolds some of the major errors committed by all of us UNIFORMLY..! Let us go over them carefully..!

vAchyArtha: = There is a direct meaning.. for what? For the word called..

tvam pada.. = YOU.. what is that direct meaning..

sthUla shareera abhimAni = You who have identified TOTALLY yourself with this gross body.. this perishable physical body that is changing every moment.. You call yourself tall, short, fair, dark, dumb, blind, mute.. etc..

or another mistake you commit is that you have become 

sUkshma sharIra abhimAni = so identified with your own subtle body.. so that which make you happy, makes you sad.. make you depressed, makes y

ou elated.. that makes you crave for pleasurable situations.. that makes you detest and avoid unpleasant situations.. (ignoring right and wrong of course.. )

Do you know who you really are?

lakshyArtha: = the implied meaning of the word YOU is really somehting different..

vinirmuktam = You are totally void of certain features.. what are they?

upAdhi = Your own body mind sense complex.. that has given you due to avidyaa the feeling that "I am this much.. and this much alone is mine"..

sampannam = do you know really what you are endowed with? your true self is?

samAdhi dashA = Your true nature is that state where all the subjec-object divisons have disappeared.. that wonderful state of non-difference..

shuddha chaitanyam = the conciousness in its unsullied or unqualified form.. the very essence of awareness.. that is your tru nature, my dear child..

So the guru tells first the direct meaning where the ERROR of the body mind sense identification is total and then removes the error by telling the student that he is consciousness personified!

mahA vAkya vichAram TB-63

एवं सर्वज्ञत्वादिविशिष्ट ईश्वरः तत्पदवाच्यार्थः | उपाधिशून्यं शुद्धचैतन्यं तत्पदलक्ष्यार्थः |TB-63|

evam savagnyatva Adi vishiShTa Ishvara: tat pada vAchyArtha: | upAdhi shUnaym shuddha chaitanyam tat pada lakshya artha: |TB-63|

Okay, herre comes the definiton of god.. as per vEdAntam.!

evam = In the same manner of explaining jeeva the human being.

god also has some straightforward meaning.. COMMONLY ACCEPTED BY ALL VEDANTINS IN VOR.. PLEASE DO NOT EVER FORGET THIS..! What are they?

Ishvara: = the guy who has limitless overlordship, known as god, also by many worshipful names

savagnyatvAdi vishiShTa = he is qualified with LIMITLESS "All Knowingness" with ZERO ignorance.

vAchyArtha: = that is the direct meaning 

tat pada = of the word "tat" in the mahAvAkya tat tvam asi.. 

upAdhi shUnaym = when such upAdhis or adjucts called All Knowing, All Powerful, All Willing, All Famous, All Courageous, All Dispassion, All Wealthy, etc.. are removed from the word "tat".. 

Something also remains as non-removalbe. (check the kena thread please, if you donot mind, 1st khANDam, mantra 4 and 5.). This is..

shuddha = unsullied 

chaitanyam = consciousness 

lakshya artha: = which then becomes the upanishat implied meaning 

tat pada = of the word 'tat" in the chAdogya upanishat maha vAkya "tat tvam asi"

Here we have taken an equation.

5 + 4 (tvam) = 10 - 1 (tat)

I am using 5 and 4 to reprresent jeeva? why? 5 looks like a small part.. limited knowledge, may be? 4 could be some other upAdhi we may have, may be a beautiful body? add them up.. we arrive at 9

Then 10 represents the fullness int his equation.. and all vidbhUtis of bhagavAn is just a tiny 1 compared to ours.. so remove all that superimposed greatness from bhagavAn.. we reach the number 9.

The numbers and mathematical operands (upadhis) on both sides are different.. but there is an exact identity.

5 + 4 (Thou).. = (art).. 10-1 (That).. perfect, right? NOT.!

There is still an IMPORTANT FACT!

mahA vAkya vichAram TB-64

एवं च जीवेश्वरयो चैतन्यरूपेणाऽभेदे बाधकाभावः |TB-64|

Evam cha jeeva Ishvarayo: chaitanya rUpENa abhEdE bAdhaka abhAva:

Now samkRtam gets a bit tough and this is where a basic understanding of the language is a must for communication..!

Evam cha = In this manner..

jeeva Ishvarayo: = between the jeeva and Ishvara

chaitanya rUpENa = (oneness exists) in the form of consciousness..

abhEdE = NO DIFFERRENCE EXISTS BETWEEN THE TWO..

bAdhaka =(this oneness based on consciousness when understood clearly), ALL THE OBSTACLES (to appreciate bramhan in one's buddhi or intellect)

abhAva: = diasppear.. 

If you can see the all the words supplied in brackets by me, which is NOT said in the statement explicitely.. but only IMPLICITELY.. and that is really the beauty as well as hed ache of samskRtam..!

Here the guru has explained in great detail the confusion of the disciple, how he came to the guru seeking knowledge (implied, of course) and then the guru starts from the conclusion at the very beginning.. LIKE BIG BANG.! 

There are only two entities in creation.. one is the satya vastu AtmA.. the rest is the anitya vastu, mithyA vastu anAtmA..!

But what we encounter 24 7 is anAtmA only.. that too in MOR.. and within this only we have to recognize the satya vastu AtmA.

So the guru systematically unfolds the three bodies.. gross, subtle and causal.. then the various states of our existence.. waking, dream, and sleep. then another view at ourselves from the view point of five koshas.. then how the sRShTi came about by bramhan using the mAyA shakti.. and then the five subtle elements.. and five gross elements.. and what part of jeeva was created from what aspect of which element..!

So guru does not leave anything to our imagination.. and every one of his word is NOT his personal logic and imagination but based on vedas and upanishats.. so the guru uses veda alone as the 6th means of knowledge.. THAT IS SO IMPORTANT.

and finally HE shows JEEVA as ISHVARA.. BY IDENTIFYING WHY & WHY NOT

mahA vAkya vichAram TB-65

एवं च वेदान्तवाक्यैः सद्गुरूपदेशेन च सर्वेष्वपि भूतेषु येषां
ब्रह्मबुद्धिरुत्पन्ना ते जीवन्मुक्ताः इत्यर्थः |TB-65|

Evam cha vEdAnta vAkyai: sadguru upahEshEna cha sarvEShu api bhUtEShu yEShAm bramha buddhi utpannA tE jIvanmuktA: iti artha: [TB-65|

Evam cha = in this mannet. vEdAnta vAkyai: = by mahA vAkyas such as "tat tvam asi" and sadguru upahEshEna cha = by the teaching of any good guru also sarvEShu api = in the entire creation bhUtEShu = of sentient and insentient objects yEShAm = for whom bramha buddhi = an awareness that "hmm.. all this is verily bramhan" utpannA = arises tE = such people iti artha: = are to be understood as jIvanmuktA: = jIvan muktAs.. or gnyAnis who are liberated while being alive..

You see, now our guru does not even waste a minute with the shiShya.. he has shown the creation of the jeeva.. universe, and god.. and has identified that they are all non-separate from bramhan, teh uncaused cause of ALL effects..!

He dvelves inot expalining who is that liberated guy..

In the opening statement guru made a mahApratignyA.. that he is unfolding tatvabodha for the sake of a uttama adhikAri who si desirous of liberation.

Now he explains what happens to the guy who understands "I am bramhan".. At this point the rest of tatvabodha is really considered the phalam of studying this moksha shAstram..

It has been shown so far the the jeeva piNDam is not separate from bramha aNDam.. so everythign here is bramhan.. and ANY student who understands this and gets an appreciation in his buddhi that there is NOTHING other than bramhan, he is liberated at that instant.. he never says.."swamiji, I know I am brmahan, but..| Get the drift?

Such a person already has the four fold qualification.. he has shradhA in the teaching of upanishats and guru.. his Qs have been so far systematicall answered.

This awareness is called akhaNDa AkAra vRtti, a cognition that I am everythign and everything is myself.. and actually, if imbibed perfectly, this ALSO vanishes

The definition of jIvan mukta TB-66

ननु जीवन्मुक्तः कः ? यथा देहोऽहं पुरुषोऽहं ब्राह्मणोऽहं शूद्रोऽहमस्मीति दृढनिश्चयस्तथा नाहं ब्राह्मणः न शूद्रः न पुरुषः किन्तु असंगः सच्चिदानन्द स्वरूपः प्रकाशरूपः सर्वान्तर्यामी चिदाकाशरूपोऽस्मीति दृढनिश्चय
रूपोऽपरोक्षज्ञानवान् जीवन्मुक्तः |TB-66|

nanu jIvan mukta: ka:? yathA dEha: aham puruSha: aham brAmhaNa: aham shUdra: aham iti dRDha nishchaya: tathA na aham brAmhaNa: na shUdra: na puruSha: kintu asanga: sat chit Anada svarUpa: sarva antaryAmi chit AkAsha rUpa: asmi iti dRDha nishchaya rUpa: aparoKsha gnyAnavAn jIvan mukata: |TB-66|

nanu = All right then.. jIvan mukta: ka:? = who is a jIvan mukta? 

yathA = just as dEha: aham = I am this body.. puruSha: aham = I am this male.. brAmhaNa: aham = I am a brAhmin.. shUdra: aham = I am a shUdra iti = and in this manner .. dRDha nishchaya: = I have 100% conviction..(of an agnyAni) 

tathA = in the same manner.. na aham brAmhaNa: = I AM NOT a brahmin.. na shUdra: = I AM NOT a shUdra.. na puruSha: = I AM NOT a male.. kintu = BUT IN REALITY.. asanga: = I AM UNATTACHED.. sat chit Anada svarUpa: = I AM SAT CHIT ANANDA (explained earlier ) sarva antaryAmi = I AM THE INDWELLER OF THE ENTIRE CREATION.. chit AkAsha rUpa: = I AM THE VERY ESSENCE OF ALL AWARENESS.. asmi = THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I AM.. iti = IN THIS MANNER.. dRDha nishchaya rUpa: = A PERSO WHO HAS 100% SURE UNDERSTANDING.. aparoKsha gnyAnavAn = A PERRSON WHO NO LONGER NEEDS ANY MEANS OF KNOWLEDGE TO TELL HIM WHO HE IS.. jIvan mukata: = THAT PERSON IS THE GNYANI AND HE IS jIvan mukata, LIBERATED IN THIS BIRTH ITSELF AND SPENDS THE REST OF HIS LIFE AS A GNYANI, NEVER EVER THINKING ABOUT OR DOUBTIN HIS UNDERSTANDING.

This is the crus of the entire vEdAnta shravaNam.. Whateverr I thought I was, were all erroneous.. and they were due to avidyA, a superimposition on AtmA.

With avidyA removal, I understand that all these roles are mere roles.. I was an actor and thought that actor was the real person.. Now I act, but leave that role on the stage and "come home" as I AM

jIvan mukta is finally here.. :)

Now you can see more or less what has happened to the jeeva..

somewhere in the past, we were born as humans.. then free will takes full manifestation and makes us do htings.. why so? because, I am under the influence of avidyA.. then the feeling that "I am this body and this is mine.. both people and things"

I and I OWN..

I want to own more.. more of good stufff.. I want to get rid of.. morebad stuff..

I am almost guided by right and wrong in the beginning.. then slowly but surely.. I want to be more and more happy.. less and less and sad.. now this drives me to look for slightly less right ways of getting what I want.. or getting rid of what I do not want..

Now more more karma.. SK bag grows bigger and bigger mixed with puNyam and pApam..

As I am under the spell of avidyA, I do not even blink twice about getting what I want..

AvidyA makes me want.. this want makes me do.. this doing give me sukham and dukka phalam.. which can not be exhausted in any one given human birth.. so in order to enjoy this karma phalam.. an occasional deva janma.. to exhaust puNya phalams.. many many animal and lower forms to exhaust pApa phalams.. then as the puNyam and pApam are almost even, a mixed puNya pApa janma.. yes human birth with free will.. of course we abuse it as usual.. and perform more pApam and puNyam.. JUSTIFYING IT ALL ALONG.. We even say "this is how I am.. It was just my PK.."

all this is due to sukham we want.. the sukha ichchA.. thus we go after vishyAs... viShya ichChA.. then this becomes Atma ichChA.. then it becomes gnyAna ichChA.. and finally shravaNa ichChA.. then mananam and nididhyAsanam.. and eventually we take off as jeevanmukta..

It is like going to a movie.. a very long movie. that lasts through several kalpams.. and then finally THE END..!

Now this person understands that he was NEVER a doer and that doership was due to Atma avidyA.. now that it is gone, so does the enjoyership.. now PK karma alone is left for this gnyAni, the jIvanmukta, liberated while alive

The Grand Finale for a jIvan mukata :) TB-67

ब्रह्मैवाहमस्मीत्यपरोक्षज्ञानेन निखिलकर्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्तः स्यात् |TB-67|

bramha Eva aham asmi iti aparoksha gnyAnEna nikhila karma bandha vinirmukta: syAt |TB-67|

iti aham asmi Eva bramha gnyAnEna aparoksha syAt vinirmukta: nikhila bandha karma 

That is the trouble with a language like English which has a very orderly structure which is its beauty as well as its limitation simultaneously.. I just rearranged the easy sanskrit sentence in a way that will flow smoothly (in english.. ). Now to the meaning.

iti = In this manner

aham asmi = I am

Eva = ONLY that

bramha = bramhan 

gnyAnEna = BY THAT KNOWLEDGE 

aparoksha = WHICH IS DIRECTLY APPRECIATED 

syAt = This jIvanmukta 

vinirmukta: = TOTALLY FREED 

nikhila = FROM ENTIRE 

bandha = BONDAGE OF 

karma = KARMA WHICH HAS BEEN ACCUMULATED OVER COUNTLESS PRIOR BIRTHS AND CURRENT BIRTH ALSO..

This is a tall order.. claimed by shruti.. it did not take a person one or two births to gain a sizable SK bag.. countless prior births of working and doing and gathering karma phalams? so a jIvan mukta becomes totally free by the directly appreciated and understood fact that I am not this or this is not Mine?

Here the key word is "aparoksha gnyAnam"

shruti introduces bramhan to me.. and I an interested in knowing that bramhan.. It makes me feel good that at least shruti calls me brmhan though not my wife nor children.

So now from the various desires I have had, the desire to know bramhan has risen in me.. Now I know that THERE IS SOMETHING CALLED BRAMHAN.. this is the first step.

Previously I have always said "I am XYZ" and these are "Mine".. from that station, I have moved towards shruti and a guru and have come to know that there is bramhan and shruti says "I am that bramhan"

See why it is still not owned up by me.. this is called paroksha gnyAnam or indirect knowledge.. Here the vEdAntic journey seriously begins.. the 4 fold qualifications appear in me.. So finally I move from "asti" to "asmi" bramhan!

jIvan mikta's end of karma bondage..!

कर्माणि कतिविधानि सन्तीति चेत् आगामिसञ्चितप्रारब्धभेदेन त्रिविधानि सन्ति |TB-68|

karmANi kati vidhAni santi iti chEt AgAmi sanchita prArabdha bhEdEna trividhAni santi |TB-68|

iti chEt = If you were to ask

kati vidhAni = how many types of 

karmANi = karmAs 

santi = are there, (then)

trividhAni = three types of karmAs 

santi = are there 

bhEdEna = diferentiated as 

AgAmi = AgAmi karma (AK)

sanchita = sanchita karma (SK) and

prArabdha = prArabdha karma (PK)

So here the guru merely introduces the three names karma, that is "owned up to" by countless number of jeevas.. in several cycles of creation.. occupying one of the 8.4 million forms of life.. and going from janma to janma..!

And already I have explained the karma model, in great detail, what these three types of karmAs are..

Just to recap, in any given birth where the jeeva takes a human body (male and female..) the free will is at the full control of the jeeva.. and the jeeva is fully self conscious.. and I am convinced that "I am mani.. I am ram.. I am tehreem.. I am raj.. I am vrushali..etc"

So whatever karma we perform is done by this kartA.. and hence all the fruits of karma is added to this jeevas account.. All this is known as AgAmi karma (AK) or free will based karma.. 

Then comes the left over karma to be exhausted on many future births in many different life forms.. this stored karma is sanchita karma or SK

Then what bubbles up at the time of death, is the next set of karma that are ready to be fructified wiht the next new life form is called prArabdha karma.. or PK..

Also you may want to read "The agnyAni jeeva's travel plans" link in this SDS community..

It is good to brush up on those two links..

That is apparently applicable to both agnyAnis and mumulshus and sanyAsins, householders, bachelors, babhelorettes.. you name it..

However in tatvabodha, gur talks about the karmA of the jeevan mukta gnyAni..

So lett us wait and see what guru says about the gnyAnis karma..

karma explanation by guru TB-69

आगामि कर्म किम्?|

ज्ञानोत्पत्त्यनन्तरं ज्ञानिदेहकृतं पुण्यपापरूपं कर्म
यदस्ति तदागामीत्यभिधीयते |TB-69|

AgAmi karma kim? = what is AgAmi karma (AK)?

here the student asks the next logical question to the guru.. he wants to know the AgnAmi karma.. As already a jeevan mukta has been defined (and as all ofus are jeevan muktAs by studying TB.. ), the giru straight asway explains the karma baggage fromt he view point of a gnyAni..)

(Please check the extensive write-up in this community.. there I have gone to a great extent in explaining the karma differences as applicable to all.. )

gnyAna utpatti anantaram = after gaining gnyAnam

gnyAni dEha kRtam = All actions done by the BODY of hte gnyAni

yat asti = those karmas which are

puNya pApa rUpam = appearing to be in the form of puNyam and pApam

tat = such karmas

abhidhIyatE = is called 

AgAmi = AgAmi karma 

Here it is important to know that gnyAni will certainly appear to be doing all karma just like any agnyAni.. so he will appear to use his free will, and he will appear to make decisions, and he will appear to choose actions.. and he will appeart o suffer the consequences as well (both pleasures and pains..)

This leads us to mistake the gnyAni as "ONE OF US" 

But no one would be able to decipher a gnyAni.. only he knows and he is not going to tell the world that he is a gnyAni.. It is for each and every one of us to figure it out..

However, an agnyAni has inextricably ties himself to the 3 strands of karma.. also explained in SDS community..

A gnyAni however has falsified kArmic bondage..! still he will appear to be performing karma.. so we also react to his behavior.. right? should we? should we not? 

The answer is coming soon.. but let us define the 3 kArmic strands.. all from the view point of a gnyAni.. You see, the gnyAni was ALSO an agnyAni until he gained gnyAnam.. so he has chosen to guide those who are in the same boat as he was once upon a time..

Let us move on.!

karma explanation by guru TB-70

सञ्चितं कर्म किम् ?

sanchitam karma kim? 

The student now asks the gur about the stored karma.. and the guru rplies:

अनन्तकोटि anatan koTi = countless crores 

जन्मनां janmanAm = of births (are to be taken by each jeeva)

बीजभूतं सत् bIja bhUtam sat = being the seed for those births

यत्कर्मजातं ya karma jAtam = that which has been born out of ALL AgAmi karma

पूर्वार्जितं pUrva Arjitam = that which has already been posted to the account of the jeeva in his prior births

तिष्ठति tiShThati = that which stays glued to that specific jeevA's account

तत् tat = all of that unfructified puNya and pApa karma

सञ्चितं ज्ञेयम् sanchitam gnyEyam = may it be known as sanchitam karma (SK)

This is not an ordinary declaration by the shruti.. we have been doing karma since birth.. as animals and higher life forms we merely exhaust pApam and puNyam dollars..! As humans we transact business with the entire creation and gather more pApam and puNyam dollars.

Not all of these dollars can be spent in one janma.. so we have more to spend that what we gather (unlike modern economy )

These puNyam can be equated to the credit account we have and pApam can be equated to the debit account we have.. 

When the credit is tooooo mcuh, a devA or dEvatA body is given.. when we are in the total red, an animal for mis given.. then somehow these tend to be more or less equal.. then KABOOM.. one manushya janma or human birth.

A possibility is given to sever the kArmic account totally and falsify the doership and enjoyership..

But alas.. we only are desirous of aquiring more puNyam and papam.

Though a few of us wake up and wonder what this birth and death are all about.

for these few people alone bhagavAn has given each one of us the ability to produce a child. 

There will be NO animal teaching us value system and upanishat and thus mukti.. except perhaps in pancha tantra stories..!

These few serious mumukshus have to go to a guru and upanishat and remove self ignorance.. no other way!

prArabdha karma explanation by guru TB-71

प्रारब्धं कर्म किमिति चेत् | इदं शरीरमुत्पाद्य इह लोके एवं सुखदुःखादिप्रदं यत्कर्म तत्प्रारब्धं भोगेन नष्टं भवति
प्रारब्धकर्मणां भोगादेव क्षय इति |TB-71|
_____

प्रारब्धं कर्म = prArabdham karma किमिति चेत् kim iti chEt = if you were to ask what it is.. (I will tell you now..)
|
इदं idam = This 
शरीरमुत्पाद्य = sharIram utpAdya = body has been born (due to that set of karma) 
इह iha = in this
लोके lokE = world itslef
एवं Evam = In this manner 
सुखदुःखादिप्रदं sukha dukha Adi pradam = which has started giving experiences of pleasure and pain
यत्कर्म yat karma = that subset of karma 
तत्प्रारब्धं tat prArabdham = that is known ad prArabdham karma (PK)
भोगेन bhogEna = by enjoyment 
नष्टं naShTam = the destruction 
भवति bhavati = (of PK) happens..
प्रारब्धकर्मणां prArabdha karmaNAm = for PK
भोगादेव bhogAdEva = by experiencing them alone
क्षय इति kshya iti = the zeroing or negation of PK takes place|

Here the guru has explained how AK generates new karma phalams to be added to the jeeva's account. some results are "seen" or dRShTa phalam and some are "unseen" or adRShTal phalam..

That any karma has unseen phalam also is the main reason why many do not even believe in the karmic model.

Then the left over karma phalam is ready to bloat the SK bag.. and as these fruits have been gathered in countless janmas, they are also available for us to assume any one of the 8.4 million life forms available to us.

Of course, at birth, we are all given a starting capital to exhaust.. this is PK.. 

The kArmic model can NEVER be proved.. nor anything that has been written so far.. that is why we accept shruti as the means of knowledge in revealing such information..

WHERE OUR COMMON SENSE AND LOGIC HAVE NO ACCESS.. VEDA IS APPLICABLE AS A MEANS OF KNOWLEDGE ONLY IN THAT AREA OF INVESTIGATION..

While nobody is twisting anybody's arm in accepting veda, veda also in not really interested in our acceptance of shruti. Thus shruti is is one of the most unique scriptures available to us.!

Destruction of sanchita karma & AgAmi karma TB-72

सञ्चितं कर्म ब्रह्मैवाहमिति निश्चयात्मकज्ञानेन नश्यति |
आगामि कर्म अपि ज्ञानेन नश्यति किंच आगामि कर्मणां
नलिनीदलगतजलवत् ज्ञानिनां सम्बन्धो नास्ति |TB-72|

सञ्चितं कर्म sanchitam karma = the stored karma of many prior births

नश्यति nashyati = gets destroyed 

निश्चयात्मकज्ञानेन nishchayAtmaka gnyAnena = by the very gain of the firm and unshakeable understanding that

ब्रह्मैवाहमिति bramha eva aham = "I am none other than bramhan" 

आगामि कर्म अपि AgAmi karma api = even the FREE WILL based AgAmi karma 

ज्ञानेन नश्यति gnyAnena nashyati = gets destroyed by the very gain of the firm and unshakeable understanding that "I am none other than bramhan"

किंच kim cha = more over

ज्ञानिनां gnyAninAm = for the wise men who know that "I am bramhan" 

आगामि कर्मणां सम्बन्धो AgAmi karmaNAm sambandha: = the connection to the AgAmi karma 

नास्ति na asti = DOES NOT EXIST..

नलिनीदलगतजलवत् nalinee dala gata jalavat = exactly like the water droplet that is INCAPABLE OF WETTING THE LOTUS LEAF, NO MATTER HOW WET WE THINK IT IS..!

Why so? 

This is very very important for us to grasp..

here is a wise man.. he has understood that he is bramhan.. avidyA is gone.. and gone for ever.. it is like dakda beeham.. a roasted seed.. it is good for cooking.. not for planting..! In fact this is THE dagda bheeja nyAyam used frequently in our tarka shAstram.!

the wise man has falsified all kartRtvam and thus he has NO bhoktRtvam.!

The SK disappears.. like awakening from a dream..! the AK does not touchhim anymore as his FREE WILL IS REALLY ABSENT.. BUT ONLY APPEARS TO BE PRESENT TO THE UNWISE 

And PK is already given by bhagavAn during the starting point of the current janma.. THAT HAS TO BE EXHAUSTED.. like the arrow released from a bow.. it will run its course and then drop off.! when the wiseman dies...! Just store this fact for now.. this will be amplified later.

yet teaching Atma vidyA gains the highest puNyam.. yet gnyAni has zero use for it.! hmm. nice to be a wiseman!

Destruction of PK, SK, and AK TB-71 & 72

We need to dwell a little bit longer on the karmas of a wise man.. as well as the karmas of the unwise..!

Once ramaNa maharishi was found to be cuttign vegetables at 4 AM to get the cooking going for the day..

A resident disciple who happened to go to the kitchen area saw ramaNa and was amused or confused.. either way it is okay..

ramaNa was one sage who drove the students into the direction of Self Inquiry.. WHO AM I? and he helped everybody focus of Atma gnyAnam.. he taught them sarvam bramha mayam..!

This student asked ramaNa.. "If everything is bramhan, why are you cutting vegetables at 4 AM?"

ramana did not ridicule him or got angry with him.. he replied..

"The fact that I AM CUTTING THE VEGETABLE is visible ONLY to others.."

He did not call himself a wise man, but indicated that a wiseman has no kartRtvam..

So he would still cut vegetables as the act of cutting is owned up by an agnyAni.. whereas "as if" owned by a gnyAni.

That is the kartRtva abhAvam mentioned earlier.

A wiseman knows that he thought he was a kartA due to avidyA or self ignorance.. this self ignorance caused him various desires and dislikes .. these desires and dislikes made him perform various karmas to gain pleasure and avaoid pain.. Soem were dharmic and some were adharmic.. some were done with full awareness that it was adharmic also.. some without such awareness.. each resulted in different degrees of puNyam and pApam.. this baggage made him exhaust all of the karma phalams only partially.. so SK bag started bloating up.. janma after janma.. NOW WITH THE SELF IGNORANCE GONE, HE IS NOT THE OLD AGNAYANI BUT REGAINED HIS GNYANA NISHTA.. his gnyAnam is steady and unshakeable now.

Yet he performs karma like everyone else and such karmas are MISTAKEN by others and they conclude that a gnyAni is NO DIFFERRENT THAN ANY OTHER PERSON.!

Upon the rise of self knowledge, SK ties are gone, and AK does not touch him any more.. PK is spinning like a top.. When it lose its momentum his body falls

What happens to the wiseman's apparent AK?

किंच ये ज्ञानिनं स्तुवन्ति भजन्ति अर्चयन्ति तान्प्रति 
ज्ञानिकृतं आगामि पुण्यं गच्छति |TB-73|

किंच kim cha = more over
ये ye = those
ज्ञानिनं gnyAninam स्तुवन्ति sthunvanti = who praise a wise man
भजन्ति bhajanti = who do serrvice to a wiseman..
अर्चयन्ति archayanti = those who worship a wise man
तान्प्रति tan prati = towards such people
ज्ञानिकृतं आगामि पुण्यं gnyAni kRtam AgAmi puNyam = the 'apparent" Agaami good karma's puNya phalam 
गच्छति gachChati = goes

This indeed is to understood carefully.. 

shAstra declares that a gnyAni has no doership and thus he has no enjoyership..

yet we see even shankara going all over India esatablising advaitam as the parama satyam and essence of all shruti..

The amount of work shankara had done is so mind boggling that this entire kalpam.. People are still getting a glimpse of the depth of his knowledge and message..! and nothing gets greater puNyam than teaching and sharing Atma vidyA with mumukshus..

So what happens to all the puNyam of this AgAmi karma by the wiseman?

Here upanishat is very very clear..

gnyAni has ZERO puNyam to his account which already has been falsified by removal of self ignorance.. yet he seems to be doing a lot of karma.. performing social service as well.. 

Here comes the reconciliation by shruti..

All these puNyams though can not shackle the wiseman, there are many who do praise him, serve him, and give him happiness.. It is apparent from the view point of gnyAni but very real from the view point of the agnyAni.

Thus the well wishers and suporters of gnyAni do perform AK, al puNyam only and gain a lot of puNyam by such acts..

Again, the wiseman has no use for any karma, yet he perfroms karma..

The unwise have many uses for karma and they need all the puNyam in the world to either stay in pursuit of gnyAnam or gain chitta shuddhi or get into vedAntam.. 

All these "good" people do get the puNyam by worshipping the wiseman and serving him.. why so? BECAUSE, the wiseman is non-separate from Ishvara

What happens to the wiseman's apparent AK?

ये ज्ञानिनं निन्दन्ति द्विषन्ति दुःखप्रदानं कुर्वन्ति तान्प्रति
ज्ञानिकृतं सर्वमागामि क्रियमाणं यदवाच्यं कर्म
पापात्मकं तद्गच्छति |TB-74|

Now this section is going to haunt many.. I know becasueit haunted me when I was studying and struggling to understand vedantam.

Everything was smooth sailing until about this stage of our TB boat ride.. river was calm.. a few ripples here and there.. nothing major.. but now the boat seems to be accelerating and totally out of control.. It is as if we are reacing the edge of niagara Falls. 

Not really.. let me explain to the best of my ability.. I have no confusion, but the readers might get some. If they do not have any confusion now, this write-up will surely create the confusion.!

We know waht happened to his 'apparent" AgAmi puNyam.. similarly there must be AgAmi pApam also.. why so? IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY HUMAN BEING NOT TO PERFORM ANY KARMA.

kRShNa says in geetA.. "na hi kashchit khsanam api jAtu tiShThai akramkERt.." even a mosquito can not stop itself from performing any karma..

As a minimum, the wiseman will avoid pApam naturally and perfoem only puNyam naturally.. but what if he walks over a live branch of a tree..? or walks over the pavement and kills a few bugs..? or due to his OWN PK baggage ends up performing highly adhArmic karma? we just do not know.. So it is quite possible that he appears to accrue some pApam as well.. Now what happens to that?

ये ज्ञानिनं निन्दन्ति = thos who talk ill of a wiseman

द्विषन्ति = hate that wiseman

दुःखप्रदानं कुर्वन्ति = choose to hut him delibertely out of their own hatred towards that wiseman

तान्प्रति = towards such people

सर्वमागामि क्रियमाणं ज्ञानिकृतं = EVERY SINGLE AGAMI KARMA PHALAM BY THAT WISEMAN

यदवाच्यं कर्म = EVEN THE UNTHINKABLE OR UNMENTIONABLE KARMA PHALAM

पापात्मकं = WHICH IS NOTHING BUT PAPAM

तद्गच्छति = goes 

Seems quite unfair.. is it not? Afterall, I did observe this gnyAni.. I had thought of many pApam, he does it & gets away?

What happens to the wiseman now? :) |TB-75|

तथा चात्मवित्संसारं तीर्त्वा ब्रह्मानन्दमिहैव प्राप्नोति |TB-75|

तथा tathA = In this manner

चात्मवित्संसारं तीर्त्वा Atmavit samsAram tIrtvA = the knower of AtmA crosses the ocean of samsAra 

प्राप्नोति prApnoti = gains

ब्रह्मानन्दमिहैव bramha Anandam iha eva = here and itself bramha Anandam

This statement alone has created any number of "profitable business vedAntic centers" all around the globe..

Now many start a pseudo-vedAntic institution and start preaching and teaching indian scriptures to the unsuspecting masses.. and charges so much money for so much reading material, class room experience, ArmA work shops.. etc.. it is really amazing how the simple and lofty upanishadic message can get distorted in the hands of profit oriented sick minds..!

So please stay clear off such promises and read on wiht shraddhA..

Here is a wiseman.. He most likely was born as unwise as any one of us.. lead a normal life.. and something triggered his search for "Who Am I?".. and has landed in the spiritual forest.. there he escapes all modern vedAntins and ends up in the lap of a guru like SDS who has started an institution names as ArSha vidyA gurukulam.. 

This unwiseman then hears from the guru "aham bramha asmi".. that upadesha suddenly rings a loud bell inside his mind.. then by systematic study (IF NECESSARY) removes all the doubts that can hamper ownership of that mahAvAkyam.. The veDAntic study has been completed as needes AS HE MAY HAVE BEEN READY ALL ALONG BASED ON HIS KARMA OF PRIOR BIRTHS.

Now as time goes on he ages, his back hurts, his business fails, loved ones die of cancer unexpectedly.. health fails.. people cheat him.. trust crubles.. the list is endless. Allof these are vipareeta bhAvanA or experiences that most likely hamper the progress of many a mumukshu or seekers.. so nididhyAsanam or reflections on what has been learnt continues AS LONG AS IT IS NEEDED.. NOW THE ATMA GNYANAM IS FIRM. NOW ALONE he has owned up to it. His gain IS infinite.. 

(to be cont'd)

What is this bramha Anandam of a gnyAni?

It is important to get some erroneous notions about this "bramhan bliss" as most commonly translated by many AchAryas and gurus..

AS I have said many a time, there is ice cream bliss, chocolte bliss, spouse-bliss, chidren-bliss, friends-bliss, svarga-bliss.

All these "bliss" belongs to VOR only.. so as they begin, after enjoyment they go away.

So what is this bramha Anandam gained by the gnyAni..? It can NEVER be a vaisheeyika sukham or Objec-based enjoyment, be it sentient object or an insentient object that is being enjoyed..

Both of these vyAvahAric objects change and as they change the sukha anubhavam or the pleasure experienced by their enjoyment also increases or decreases..

Here taitreeya upanishat gives a beautiful Ananda calculation..

Imagine a young man, good-natured, exemplary conduct, incredibly strong and healthy, extremely handsome, and the owner of all of the wealth found on earth, under the earth, and the ocean.. ahh.. what a bliss he must have.. just unimaginable, right?

Now if that Anandam of this young man is "ONE human Anandam", multiply that by 100, and that is the manushya gandhava Anandam.. times 100 is deva gandharva Anandam, times 100 is the Anandam of manes, times 100 is the Anandam of a temporary svarga loka resident, times 100 is the svarga loka servant Anandam, times 100 is the deva Anandam, times 100 is indra Anandam, times 100 is bRhaspati, the deva guru Anandam, time 100 is bramhAji's Anandam, times 100 is brmahan's Ananda,,

Get it? When even one unit of manushya Anandam is beyond our imagination, what to talk of manushya gandahrva Ananda etc?

But every one of those units pales in comparison to the Anandam of the one simple property-less beggar-like, loin clothed gnyAni, sitting or sleeping under a tree, WITHOUT A CARE IN THE WORLD.. YET BY HIS VERY PRESENCE THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS BLESSED.. HE DOES NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING, YET LIKE THE JOY OF SUN RISE, people find joy in his very association.

That is bramha Anandam or svarUpa Anandam, or Atma Anandam!

Continuing the moksha journey..

That bramha Anandam, which is NOT an experiential Anandam, sustains every single pleasurable experiences we have on planet earth.. be it the happiness enjoyed by a dog eating a biscuit or humans enjoying a candle light dinner or the svarga residents enjoying the dance by rambA and Urvasi and menakA..

These sAmsArika sukha anubhavas are called viShya sukham..and are classified as a trace of bramha Anandam..

Okay.. the bramha Anandam is not an experiential sukham.. it is not expressible in words.. it is just the shAnta bhAvam that resides in our buddhi..

We apparently lose it when we go to sleep.. just like a gnyAni also..

But agnyAnis wake up as a agnyAni.. fully awake only to the mithyA universe and MISTAKING IT AS SATYMA..

A gnyAni wakes up to the same universe and due to his sarvAtma bhAva.. he claims in his buddhi of course.."aham manu: abhavam.. I am the manu who was there before me.. aham Aditya; I am the very sun that sustains the creation.. I am everything.. "

This is RShi vAmdeva declaring it in shruti after bramha gnyAnam..

I am dwelling on this bramha Anandam portion a little bit longer than I had intended simply because, as I study more and more vedAntic texts, its magnificience keeps growing steadily in my own mind..!

As this is EXACTLY the trouble spot for all yogis, upAsakAs, bhaktAs and afflicted ones, and jignyAsus, the mistaken notion that bramha Anandam is an experience.. like viShaya anubhavam. That is why I very strongly urge the SDS community members to go through swamiji's recap of kenopanishat by vrushali.. with a few comments here and there by me.

There I was not adding anything new to what SDS taught me and I am simply incapable of doing it.. yet, the confusion I had and the clarifications that SDS provided alone have been added by me..

In a few more posts TB will be over.. and this TB train is reaching its destination.. all of the familiar land marks can be seen.. The moksha destination is NOT far away.. 

Let us all travel with the gnyAni.!

tatvabodha phala shruti TB-76

तरति शोकमात्मवित् इति श्रुतेः |TB-76|

तरति tarati = He crosses

शोकमात्मवित् shokam Atmavit = sorrow.. who? The wiseman, of course.. 

इति श्रुतेः iti shrute: = because shruti declares it so..

This is the concluding declaration on the part of the guru.. 

You may recall how the guru He starts in his very first opening statement to the student that he will teach for the well being of the mumukshu who is endowed with the four-fold qualifications.. the very essence of what tatva vivekam the student has to know for gaining moksham or liberation..

Then every syllable of this wonderful text has been steeped in the essence of upanishats..

Not one word is a stray statement..

The reference texts are prashna upanishat, chAndogya upanishat, bRhadAraNyaka upanishat, jAbAla upnishat, taitreeya upanishat, kena upanishat, kaivalya upanishat, shvetAsvatara upanishat.. 

I must mention here that almost all statements can be traced to bhagavadgeetA as well.. but as for as those of us who accept veda as a means of knowledge.. it is really the words of paramEshvara in the form of vyAsa and kRShNa.. We have no problem with geetA whatsoever even some may discard it as smRti or a man-made work of advice to arjuna..

With this 100% back-up from vedas and upanisats, the guru simply asserts the student and THUS ALL OF US HERE IN SDS COMMUNITY, that the upanishat decalres that the gnyAni crosses sorrow..

What sorrow?.. we may ask.. 

SDS also tells us "WHAT SORROW?" 

Shruti does not even accept a creation from the view point of POR.. what to talk fo this assumed jeevatvam on our part..!

That assumed sorrow is samsAra shokam.. or the repeated births and deaths for us..

That samsAra cycle ends only by gnyAnam.. 

moksham by gnyAnam only.. moksham is idential to gnyAnam.. 

All of efforts are only for removal of avidyA..

We are liberated when we were thinking "I am this body".. AS WELL AS AFTER removal of self ignorance.. "I sport this body"

THAT SHOKAM IS CROSSED

Continuing tatva bodha phala shruti..

तनुं त्यजतु वा काश्यां श्वपचस्य गृहेऽथ वा ज्ञानसंप्राप्तिसमये मुक्ताऽसौ विगताशयः इति स्मृतेश्च |TB-77|

मुक्ताऽसौ विगताशयः mukta asau vigatAshaya: = our wiseman, who has shed his self ignorance.. has NO ABODE any more.. actually all abodes have left him... 

ज्ञानसंप्राप्तिसमये gnyAna samprApti samaye = At the very INSTANT of gaining (FIRM) gnyAnam (same as getting rid of self ignorance)

त्यजतु tyajatu = (IT DOES NOT MATTER) If the wiseman casts off तनुं tanum = his body 

वा काश्यां vAkAshyAm = in kAshi or the holy place Banares

गृहेऽथ वा gRhE atha vA = or let that place be the house of 

श्वपचस्य shva pachasya = a person (chanDAla who eats dog meat) 

इति स्मृतेश्च iti smRte: cha = so is the declatation by smRti also..

Here SDS jokingly remarked.." I do not know exactly which smRti it is.." then he added.."If we do not know something we gurus simply say it is from either bRhadAraNyaka upanishat or it is from mahAbhAratam" and laughed his heart off..

Then he added amidst laughter..

"These two granthas are so big most of us can never verify or refute that statement.. that is how gurus get away with it.." 

Having said that I want to exactly write this very last official post directly from a tatvabodha book SDS gave me when he guided me in my vedAntic study..

Every single post I have written so far are from many many lectures of the ArSha vidyA papamparA nurtured by SDS.. Swami paramArthAnanda has been and incredible help assuring the correctness of many of my expressions here.

Once I started writing I never thought about the next thought that had to be distilled in these posts.. I let SDS flow though me..

After I write SDS explanation of this very last statement verbatim from that book, I would be summing the entire TB with the most of the gems from the knowledge SDS has imparted to me..

So at this point let me conclude my write up temporarily and give you all a taste of SDS writings.. I seek his blessings in all humility that I can muster..

SDS explanation of the last statement, TB-77

This is so, also because of smRti statement.. "Let him castoff the body at kAshi or at the house of a dog eater." This one (wiseman), who has no particular place, is liberated even at the time of gaining knolwedge.

The jIvanmukta does not come back. He has no need to take birth in another body, in any other form, because he has no karma to exhaust. He is free from the cycle of repeated births and deaths. He can leave his body whenever he likes. It can be the most sacred place or in the most detestable.

shruti says, and smRti also, "It does not affect him where he dies."

The 3-fold karmas are only in the name of jIva. The jIva, who is under the spell of mAyA (ignorance) becomes jIvanmukta when he realizes (his mistake) and 'becomes "bramhan (his svarUpam).

He is released from all bondage and with them go fear and sorrow. When the CAUSE goes the EFFECT goes. The jIva was bound to these karmas. The effects of prArabdha will still continue so he must live through this life and exhaust the prArabdha.

There is a lot of difference between jIva and jIvanmukta. For the jIvanmukta the problem of incompleteness is solved. He knows he is free from all limitations. The wiseman is awakened to his limitless self. That is the real result. He can not come back.

If bondage is real, it would be a lasting thing and there would be no release from it. Bondage is mithyA. The struggle proves it is not essential to my nature. The CAUSE is born of IGNORANCE. The EFFECT can only be removed by KNOWLEDGE. Bound by karma, the jIva will keep coming back. There is NO other way of release except by knowledge. THERE ARE MANY METHODS TO STEADY THE MIND (YOGA SHASTRA) BUT ONLY ONE WAY FOR RELEASE.

Unless you operate a Means of Knowledge (a pramANam), knowledge is not there (pramA gnyAnam). vedAnta is the teaching for gaining knowledge. When knowedge is gained, ignorance goes and can not come back.

Ignorance has no beginning, it can go, but can NOT come back.

(My endless namaskArams to SDS.. )

Conclusion

इति तत्त्वबोधप्रकरणं समाप्तम् |

इति iti = Thus

तत्त्वबोध tatvabodha 

प्रकरणं prakaraNam = independent work

समाप्तम् samAptam = is ended

sadAshiva samArambhAm shankarAchArya madhyamAm |

asmat AchArya paryantAm vande guru paramparAm ||

I prostrate unto that perennial flow of tradition, from teacher to teacher, which is well started with a Lord shankara in the beginning, teacher shankara in the middle, and my own teacher in the end, (AND IS NOT THE END OF THIS TRADITION, that will flow through me..)

hari: om | shrI gurubhyo nama: | hari: om |

om tat sat |

om shAntish..shAntish.. shAnti: ||