Saddarsanam – 8

(Verses 36 to 40)

Verse 36

Hrt-prapya-sad-dhama nija-svarupe svabhava-siddhe'nupalabhya nistham।
Maya-vilasah sad-asat-sarupa - virupa-nanaika-mukha-pravadaḥ ॥

Not having attained the abidance in one’s true nature, in the self-evident abode of Truth by reaching one’s heart, talks of  “real or unreal, with form or without form, many or one;” are all play of Maya.

The seeker having gained the knowledge from the guru should engage his time and effort in abiding in the knowledge.  Abidance in the knowledge is turning one’s attention to the mind, entertaining the thought “I am the Consciousness”, freeing ‘I am’ from all other attributes.  He should refrain from unproductive arguments, scholastic pursuits of the scriptures or erudite expositions of the Truth.  This may lead him away from the main purpose - abidance in Self.  Getting side-tracked into academic discussions on Self as to whether it is ‘real or unreal’, ‘with or without form’, many or one’ is a waste of energy and time, he should realize and concentrate on Self-abidance only without any distraction.  He should ignore all distractions as play of Maya and immerse himself in tasting the nectar of Self-abidance.

Verse 37

Siddhasya vittih sata eva siddhih svapnopamanah khalu siddhayo'nyah।
Svapnah prabuddhasya katham nu satyah sati sthitah kim punar-eti Mayam ॥

The Knowledge of the established Truth itself is an accomplishment. Comparable to a dream, indeed, are other accomplishments.   How can the dream of one who is awakened be true? Does one who abides in Truth again enter Maya?

All the miraculous powers belonging to anathma, the mithya-world, have nothing to do with Self-knowledge. No doubt siddhis are mentioned in sastras, but they have nothing to do with spirituality.  All these siddhis come under karma phalam or upasana phalam and so they fall within Maya or samsara.  There is also the danger of one getting distracted by these powers in one’s spiritual pursuit.  So Maharishi says that conventional siddhis must be ignored with the understanding that Self-knowledge is the greatest siddhi.  Siddhis may come to a man of realization as a result of his spiritual practices.  He uses them not for fame or for power over others but only for the benefit of others or to boost the faith of the devotees.   For the spiritually awakened man even so-called waking state, is truly nothing but a dream occurring in the long sleep of Self-forgetfulness.   As one who had got out of the clutches of Maya, he will treat incidental powers of siddhis as just dream incidents and he will not allow himself to be lured back into the hold of Maya by these siddhis.

Verse 38 

So'ham-vicaro vapur-athma-bhave sahayyakari para-marganasya।
Svatmaikya-siddhau sa punar-nirartho yatha naratva-pramitir-narasya ॥

The “He am I” inquiry, when in the “body is the Self” state, is helpful to the search for the Supreme.  Just as the correct notion of man-ness (manhood) of a man is purposeless similarly after the accomplishment of the oneness of one’s Self that (He am I) contemplation is without purpose..

In the case of Self-enquiry, the inquirer and the sought are separated through misunderstanding and not by time and space.  The thought ‘Supreme am I’ helps to clear the misunderstanding that one is the body-mind complex and should be practiced so long as the ‘I’ notion in body-mind complex remains.   This sadhana should be continued until ‘I am Brahman’ becomes a fact for one.  Once the seeker has discovered the Jivathma-Paramatmathma Ikyam, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ enquiry is redundant for him. Maharishi gives here the example of a man who has forgotten his manhood and tries to establish himself in the knowledge through chanting ‘I am a man’. Having ascertained his manhood he need not continue the chanting.  So one established in his Brahmatvam is above the Self-inquiry.

Verse 39

Dvaitam vicare paramartha-bodhe tvadvaitam-ityesa na sadhu-vadah।
Gavesanat-prag-dasame vinaste pascac-ca labdhe dasamatvam-ekam ॥

“Duality in inquiry, but in the Knowledge of the Supreme Truth, Nonduality,” is not the right doctrine.  The tenth man’s tenth-ness is one and the same,  prior to the search when the tenth man was lost  and later when he is found.

According to some schools of thought, duality is true during the time of ignorance and non-duality becomes true only after the attainment of Self-knowledge.   Maharishi  says that even this is not true, because non-duality (advaita) is always the truth and duality (dvaita) is always unreal.   That is, the one non-dual Self alone exists and is Real even when in the ignorant outlook of the individual it seems to appear as this unreal world of duality and diversity.    In order to emphasise that duality is unreal even during the time of its seeming existence, Maharishi cites the parable of the ‘lost’ tenth man.  Ten men crossed a river on foot, and on reaching the other side they wished to make sure that all had crossed safely. So all of them began to count the number of persons on the shore, but since each one forgot to count himself when doing the counting, they all counted only nine. Believing that one of their companions must have drowned, they all began to weep, until a passing wayfarer who understood the situation asked each one to count himself as well while counting, whereupon they realized that they were always ten men, both during the time of their seeming loss and after their ‘finding’ the missing man.  Similarly, when we attain Self-knowledge we will realize that non-duality (advaita) is always the sole truth, both during the time of our seeming ignorance (when nonduality appears to be lost and duality appears to prevail) and after our ‘attaining’ Self, the non-dual Reality.  It is to be noted here that, though non-duality is the truth even during the time of seeming ignorance, this does not mean that no spiritual practice (sadhana) is necessary.   So long as the tenth man appears to be lost, it is necessary for each one of the ten to enquire and find out ‘Who is lost?’,  for then only will the truth be realized that the so called ‘lost’ tenth man is only oneself, who has in fact never been lost.   Similarly, so long as the experience of non-duality appears to be lost, it is necessary for us to enquire and find out ‘Who am I, who has lost the experience of non-duality?’, for then only will the truth be realized that the seeming individual ‘I’ who does not experience non-duality is merely an unreal appearance, and that the real ‘I’ has in fact never lost the experience of non-duality.

Verse 40

Karomi karmeti naro vijanan badhyo bhavet-karma-phalaṃ ca bhoktum।

Vicara-dhuta hrdi kartrta cet karma-trayaṃ nasyati saiva muktih ॥

A man considering “I do karma ” becomes bound to enjoy the fruit of karma.  If, by inquiry in the heart, doership is removed the triple karma perishes. That alone is Liberation.

Actions by themselves do not bind.  It is the sense of doership that we assume in the action that binds. Every action is bound to give results.  The doer then becomes the enjoyer of the fruits of action.  Having enjoyed or suffered the results, one forms vasanas which induce desires that prompt actions and so on. This chain of doership-enjoyership-doership--- is bondage.  The inert body and mind function in the prescence of the Self which illumines actions.  Neither the body nor the Self have notion of doership or enjoyership. It is the ego that rises through the inexplicable combination of two that assumes these notions upon itself.  At the time of ignorance  one takes the Self to be the ego.  When ego is real; karthrtvam, bhoktrtvam, karma, karma phalam, sukham, dukham, samsara all become real.  Therefore ego must be made unreal by claiming Consciousness as one’s Self.  Then both the sense of doership (kartrtva) and the sense of experiencership (bhoktrtva) will necessarily cease to exist along with the karmas.   So falsification of ego through  Athma Jnanam is liberation.

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