ADVENTURES IN ADVAITA VEDANTA...

Adventures in Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy and science of spirit. We are one you and I; are you curious why?..


Naaraayana, Naaraayana

Hari OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
The Narada Bhakti Sutra is our guide for a while… the nature of Love (with the capital 'ell') and a full exploration of it. As always, you are encouraged to seek out the full text from Chinmaya Publications (links in side-bar); but for those who prefer e-readers, this version is recommended. Whilst awareness and interest can be raised by these posts on AV-blog, they cannot substitute for a thorough reading and contemplation...and practice!
 
Chapter Five, Section One, continued. Sri Narada has been lifting us with his words in an attempt to describe the indescribable.  Now he tells how a person may be who attains the Highest Element.

Tat! àaPy tdevavlaekyit, tdev Z&[aeit,
Tadev _aa;yit, tdev icNtyit.55.
Tat praapya tadevaavalokayati, tadeva shRnoti,
Tadeva bhaashayati, tadeva chintayati ||55||
Having reached the Supreme Love ('that') the devotee sees (feels, comprehends) that alone, hears that alone, speaks that alone and thinks (contemplates) that alone.

` © Yamini Ali MacLean
Upanishadic teachings all come to a crescendo as they attempt to describe the state of samaadhi. Here our Guru gives a sutra which echoes strongly with the Chhandogya shloka 24 from adhyaaya 7; "There where you see nothing else, where you hear nothing else, nothing else you know or feel, that state is called 'Bhuma' - the All-pervading, Infinite, Eternal, Immutable Brahman…"

What, then, is that which we call Brahman? It is a state of Consciousness with emptiness and the only state of 'experience' is of infinity and we face our own Self,  the nature of Creation. Whenever we have any awareness of otherness, even a sliver of individual identity, we are not yet in That. In coming into the state of samaadhi - that place of silence and suspension, for the once-seeker everything now perceived is understood and accepted as Brahman manifested as Creation. All is Naaraayana, within and without and ever present in the mind of the newly Realised one (tadeva chintayati). When we have cleared our mind of all muck and damage, it becomes alert and contemplative and in this way we can come to comprehend the Higher and the source of all.

The once-seeker is now resting in the Love Divine and can only call praises in devotion to it. Devotion here is no longer for the Lord alone, but the entirety of Creation and all the manifestations of Brahman. The devotee is now lodged in bliss of unity despite diversity. Now, such a person is no longer, father, mother, sister, brother, child or friend, or even seeker. All relationships dissolve into the unity. The state of 'just being' remains with the sadhu.

Naaraayana (Brahman as the Created) is all that is beheld now. Wherever the sadhu looks, he sees only the play of the One Reality. This form of samaadhi is called 'savikalpa', the state where the intellect is capable of apprehending only one reality - according to the conduit the seeker followed, it will be coloured by that; it may be Shivoham, Krishna hai, Naaraayana-mayam-jagat, or even Christ-mayam-jagat; 'all the world is Christ-consciousness'. From this you may surmise that this is even not yet a completion of Truth Realisation. There remains one stage, for at this point there is still the observance of 'other', albeit in the form of That Consciousness, as Naaraayana, Buddha, Yeshu… it is yet still a conditioned samaadhi - without doubt, a noble and exalted state - but it is still within the realm of 'dwaita' - duality. From here Total Unity remains.


A short discourse today; new section next week.