Saddarsanam -5

(Verses 21 to 25)

Verse21

Vidheh prayatnasya ca ko'pi vadah tayor-dvayor-mulam-ajanataṃ syat।
Vidheh prayatnasya ca mula-vastu sanjanatam naiva vidhir-na yatnah ॥

The talk of fate and of self-effort shall be for them who do not know the root of these two.  For those who know well the source of fate and effort, there is neither fate nor free will.

The fruits of the actions done in the past come as fate when they mature.  Self-effort, freewill,  is what one does in the present with what one gets. When one removes the conditioning of time, one sees that both are actions only and all actions depend upon the doer of action ahamkara ‘I’.  Ahamkara ‘I’, the experiencer of fate and the wielder of freewill, is truly non-existent. Those who have known the non-existence of the ahamkara ‘I’, the base of fate and freewill, have discarded fate and free will along with their root and base, the ahamkara.  The debate of fate vs, freewill is only for those who are ignorant of ahamkara-mulam, the Athma because once the ahamkara-mulam is discovered ahamkara disappears, and there is no present ‘I’, no karta ‘I’ and no bhoktha ‘I’ and the ones who are wise to Athma, the ahamkara-mulam, also will not become entangled in the dispute about fate and freewill.

Verse 22

Yadisitur-viksanam-iksitaram -avikṣya tan-manasikeksanam syat।
Na drastur-anyah paramo hi tasya viksa svamule praviliya nistha ॥

That vision of the Lord which is without seeing the seer can only be a mental vision. The Supreme is not there other than the seer, indeed.    His vision is the absorption and abidance in one’s own source.

The Lord in His true nature is nameless, formless. attributeless, infinite, all-pervading etc.  So He cannot be seen as the seen is limited by time, space and objects. He is not different from the seer.   Hence the true vision of the Lord is to know Him as One’s Self.   Maharishi himself states in Upadesa-saar 25: “(Isa-darsanam svaatma-roopatah (One sees God as one’s own Self)).  So the one who sees the Self through the enquiry ’Who am I?’, alone is the one who has truly seen God, the source of the individual Self.   Because the real Self which shines forth after the ego self has perished is none other than God.   One seeing God without leaving one’s ego self is only seeing a mental vision (a manasika darsanam or imaginary appearance). The realized Jnani may keep this separate vision for the sake of worship and for singing and revelling in His glory, but that does not negate his true vision of identity and abidance in Self with the knowledge “I am Brahman”.

Verse 23

Atmanam-ikseta param prapasyed - ityagamokteh sulabho na bhavah।
Natmaiva drsyo yadi ka kathese svayaṃ tad-anni-bhavanam tadiksa ॥

The meaning of the sayings of the Vedas, ‘See the Self, see the Supreme’  is not easy.  If the Self itself is not seen, then how can there be talk of the Lord?  Oneself becoming His food is that vision of seeing Him.

Scriptures speak of Self-realization and God-realisation as the goals which are to be attained by a spiritual aspirant.  This is often misinterpreted to mean that one must first realize oneself, the individual soul, and then one must realize God, who is the substratum or underlying support of oneself.  The Self, being one with the seeker cannot be seen as an object either by senses or mind.  We all experience the Self within as ‘I’.  But due to ignorance one mistakes the ego as ‘I’ and misses the realization of Self and God. Here Maharishi advises that the devotee offers oneself i.e. the ego at His altar.  By surrendering the ego at His feet, the devotee loses his identity in Him.  By losing his identity in God, he sees God in him as Self, which is that vision of seeing Him.

Verse 24

Dhiye prakasam paramo vitirya svayam dhiyo'ntah pravibhati guptah।
Dhiyaṃ paravartya dhiyontare'tra samyojanan-nesvara-drstir-anya ॥

The Supreme having distributed light to the intellect, Himself shines hidden inside the intellect.  Having turned the intellect backwards, here within the intellect, by uniting, the vision of the Lord takes place and not by any other method. 

The mind through the senses finds fulfilment in enjoying the world of names and forms and so it prompts body into action.  The mind is a flow of thoughts and thoughts themselves are inert.  The Self, which is of the nature of pure Consciousness, is reflected in the thoughts lending them sentiency.  This sentient mind illuminates objects. If one wants to seek the Self, one must shift the attention of one’s mind from the object to the thought illumining the object, and from the illumined thought to the pure Consciousness that is illumining the mind as though hiding within thought.   So the only means by which one can know God, who is the real Self and who shines within the mind as the pure Consciousness ‘I am’ is to merge the mind in Him, by turning it inwards through the enquiry ‘Who am I?’

Verse 25

Na vakti deho'ham-iti prasuptau na kopi nābhūvam-iti pravakti।
Yatrodite sarvam-udeti tasya dhiyā'hamaḥ śodhaya janmadeśam ॥

The body does not say “I am”.  In deep sleep, no one says, “I was not”.  Upon the rise of that 'I' all arise.  Investigate the birth place of that “I,” with the intellect.

In this verse Maharishi speaks about three distinct things, namely (1) the body, which, being insentient, has no ‘I’ – Consciousness, (2) the Consciousness ‘I’ (the real Self) which exists even in sleep, where the body and all else do not exist, and (3) another ‘I’ (ego ‘I’, (ahamkara)) after whose rising all else rises. Since this rising ‘I’, in whose wake all the transactions, worries, complexes, limitations, in short samsara arises. is clearly distinct from the body and from the real ‘I’ which exists even in sleep, Maharishi instructs one to scrutinize where this ego ‘I’ rises, for when one scrutinizes, it will be found to be nonexistent and one discovers the one Truth, the real Self,

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