Hari OM
'Text-days' are for delving into the
words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.
We are now studying Aatmabodha. As
always, with each week, you are encouraged to review the previous teachings and
spend some time in contemplation of the meanings as the affect your life.
Please do consider purchasing the text. Remember, also, to recite the mangala charana before each study and
review the lessons before each new one.
The
text now moves on to give an example again of how it is that avidya is
converted to vidya.
tÅv-Svêpanu_avad-%TpÚ<
}anmÃsa,
Ah<
mmeit ca}n< baxte idGæmaidvt!.46.
Tattva-svaruupaanubhavaad-utpannam
jnaanamangjasaa,
Aham
mameti chaajnaanam baadhate digbhramaadivat ||46||
Just as right information removes the wrong notion
about the directions, so too, the knowledge that is gained as a result of the
experience of Truth, destroys the ignorance that is characterised by the
notions of "I"ness and "my"ness.
The
Self-knowledge that is born out of the experience of the Reality, immediately
and instantaneously destroys ignorance - here called by the more specific term
'ajnaanam'. It refers to the specific knowledge of erroneously created by the
idea that we are the ego. This wrong perception of a limited, coloured and
distorted life is brought about by that ego, which demands that "I"
am this and that is "mine".
The
example given as comparison as to how we can clear up our understanding is that
of being given directions. We have all experienced being 'lost', is it not so?
There is a tendency in some, to continue suffering the confusion of the streets
of a new place, or to loose our sense of direction rather than stop and ask for
help from someone with more local knowledge. The ego won't let us! If we but
stop for a moment and ask for that help, however, we often find that we have
actually been where we wanted to be all the time, just one corner to go is all.
There
is an example given of a traveller heading for a village in the Indian
countryside. His friends had said to him that to travel at night was not such a
good idea, as he did not have even a bullock cart. He was walking and it was
some considerable distance. "Not at all, I have travelled that road before
and know it well!" he declared and
off he set. It was winter though, and also a dark moon. All the markers
he though he would remember did not appear to him. At one point he could feel
the ground changing beneath his feet, but still he trudged on. Before long, he
felt something grab at his clothes. He jumped. Surely there would not be snakes
about in the night? Knowing he had not been bitted, he tried to continue. Soon
he was being scratched all over. He stopped in despair. Whenever he tried to
move, something caught at him. There was no sound of animals, though, so he
decided just to stand and wait for dawn. He knew it could only be an hour or
two away. Sure enough, within two hours, the sun rose. As he had suspected, he
had landed himself in a thicket of thorn bushes… and when he looked over to his
right he could see people moving on the road he had supposed he was travelling!
Every
day we work in the dark of ignorance of the Truth of Self and complain of the
pricks and thorns of life. We think only in terms of our poor little individual
selves, for the Light has not Dawned. What is more, it is not that the Truth has to
arrive… it is that we are walking with it at all times, but our ego is creating
a veil of darkness resulting in mis-steps.
The
directions are ever there, whether we know them or not. So long as we are
confused, we take the East to be West and so on. A right understanding gives us
the true directions. So too, when Self is known, we are able to fix our
relationship in the world on more stable and sure footings and with a more
balanced vision. No longer will the pricks and thorns cause us to stumble.
