Tejomayananda translations & commentaries:
24. Thoughts arising in the mind like desires, etc. are the seen. One should meditate on Consciousness as their witness. This is the meditation with duality associated with the seen.
The extraneous details about the posture, time and place of meditation are not discussed in this text. The main principles of meditation are directly discussed.
In the practice of meditation with duality within and associated with the seen, the meditator meditates on the Self as the witness of the thoughts.
I know myself to be the observer of the thoughts, as though standing on the bank of a river watching its flow. I do not say in words, 'I am the Seer of the thoughts. I am not the thoughts I perceive', I just remain the observer.
25. 'I am unattached, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss self-shining, free from duality', this is the practice of meditation with duality associated with words.
In meditation associated with words, the nature of the Self is contemplated upon directly without any reference to thoughts or any other adjuncts (gross body, senses or mind). The Self, as revealed by the statements according to the Upaniṣad and as understood by the seeker through proper discrimination, is owned as one's own nature.
The absolute Self can have no relation with the unreal individual (jīva), its conditionings or the world projected by it. On knowing this when the words are brought to the mind, the mind abides in the Self.
Similarly, I am, I know I am, and I am the source of all happiness, hence I am Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. I shine and all else shines after me, yet none can or need illumine me since I am self-shining. Other than Existence, nothing exists and there cannot be two infinites, thus I am One without a second, the infinite, non-dual Truth.
Such words are not mantras meant for a verbal or mental repetition. One should not roll the beads saying 'I am unattached, I am unattached'. It is meaningless to say this without understanding its full significance. The words are used only with the aim of establishing ourselves in the Truth they signify.
The words themselves should not become the focus of our attention, but we should lift our mind to the meaning they imply. The words only help our efforts to concentrate the mind. Since words are used as an aid, this is called meditation associated with words. The words may be in any language, not necessarily in Sanskrit.
Meditation associated with the seen and with words are not techniques to be practised sequentially. However, the latter is subtler than the former.
26. But, the non-dual state of meditation is like a flame in a place free from wind on account of complete absorption in the Bliss of Self-realisation, having ignored both the seen and the words.
Tu' indicates the change of topic. The practice of meditation with duality of the meditator and the object of meditation was described. When the thought, 'I am the Seer of thoughts' is maintained, it is meditation associated with the seen. When a continuous flow of thoughts like 'I am unattached, I am Consciousness' is maintained, it is meditation associated with words.
When thoughts end, the perception of the world ceases along with the duality. Time, space and causation are concepts of the mind. When the mind is transcended, so are time, space and causation. Thoughts are made of words, words of sound and sound is born from movement. When thoughts merge, we experience a stillness and silence beyond comprehension. It is compared to a calm, waveless ocean.
That into which the mind merges is samādhi. The effects merge into the cause. The waves into the ocean, gold ornaments into gold. Similarly, the mind merges into the Self. Hence samādhi is the Self.
Practice means effort and effort presupposes duality of the doer and the objective to be attained. Hence nirvikalpa samādhi cannot be a stage of practice. When all efforts end, one glides into it as in sleep. In sleep, too there is no duality and one is always happy.
But sleep is not samādhi. Sleep is a state of inertia, while samādhi is a state of knowledge. Sleep is the absence of sorrows a negative peace; samādhi is the positive experience of Bliss. Sleep is temporary; samādhi is eternal.
Dayananda commentary:
24. Fact is they are dṛśyāḥ, objects, of your consciousness and you are witness to all of them. Contemplation is going to be purely in keeping with realities you know. No imagination, no cakra, etc. We are not interested in any imagination. I do not say there is no cakra meditation but people confuse Vedanta with all that. Clarity is not there. Kāmādyāḥ cittagāḥ dṛśyāḥ sarve. That is the reality.
Without being a śākṣī, you cannot objectify a thought, a condition of the mind. The contemplation is not towards dṛśya, but towards śākṣī. The moment you say this is sākṣyam, this is an object being witnessed, you are already the witness. The thoughts go on changing, each thought is kṣaṇika (momentary) but the sākṣī, the witness, is invariable.
Nikhilananda commentary:
24. Because of the presence of the Atman, the mind and its modifications are seen to be active. Then the process of the meditation is this: Whenever any thought appears in the mind, take it to be an object and be indifferent to it. But think of the eternal and permanent Atman as your real nature. The object, which is an idea, appears and disappears. This sort of concentra-tion is always associated with an ob-ject of thought.
25. While practising this type of con-centration the practitioner thinks, 'I am the Witness, the innermost Self.' The object of his meditation is the nondual Self free from the ideas of desire, etc., which are foreign to the Ātman. There is only a current of self-consciousness. This sort of concentra-tion is called savikalpa as it is not free from ideas altogether. Such ideas as, 'I am unattached,' etc., are present in this samādhi.
26. Through the constant practise of the savikalpa samādhi, the mind becomes free from all distractions that are the result of attachment to sense-objects. There-fore, the student then becomes competent to practise nirvikalpa samādhi in which the mind becomes steady like the unflickering flame of a candle kept in a windless place.
Nirvikalpa samādhi, which is identical with the highest Knowledge, can be attained only as a result of dis-crimination between the real and the unreal. After this discrimination, the student becomes indifferent to every-thing of the relative world.
By the practice of samādhi described above the practitioner realizes his own Self which is of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. But this concentration can also be practised with the help of any object in the external world. By such concentration one can realize the nature of Brahman and creation. Brahman and Self are identical
27. The first kind of samādhi is possible with the help of any external object as it is with the help of an internal object. In that samādhi the name and form are separated from what is Pure Existence (Brahman).
We have seen in śloka 24 that concentration can be practised with the help of an object perceived in-ternally. Similar concentration can be practised with the help of an external object also. Every object, as we have also seen, has three unchangeable aspects, namely: Existence, visibility, and attractiveness. The practitioner should concentrate his mind on Pure Existence, which is the same as Brah-man, and dissociate himself from the changing aspects of name and form.
No comments:
Post a Comment