Hari OM
Application - that is what
'Workings-days' are about!
For as long as it takes to complete
it, we are going to be using today as well as Text-days to fulfil study of the
SadaachaaraH. If you have not been following that text, then use the relevant
label to go back to the beginning. It is, as might be surmised from its title,
about how to go about saadhana, but also explores more of the Sanskrit
philosophy; it is therefore both a 'working' as well as a 'thinking' text.
Now comes a shloka which rounds off direct discussion on 'what is
mind' in preparation for the next level of understanding.
}eyvStupirtyagat!
}an< it:Qit kevlm!,
iÇpuqI
]I[tameit äüinvaR[m&Cdit.37.
Jneyavastu-parityaagaat jnaanam tishthati kevalam,
Triputii kshiinataameti brahma-nirvaanam-Rchcchati ||37||
Knowledge alone remains when the
objects of knowledge are renounced. When the triad ceases, then one reaches the
state of liberation.
What triad is referred to? Knower, knowing, known. If we ever manage
to enter unmani and work towards sahaja samaadhi, we can expect to find
ourselves in a state of Pure Knowledge with no sense of plurality remaining.
In our current state of duality, we see the spiritual as separate
from the physical. In the physical, we have our body and the material world
(sthuula shariira), we have the workings of the body, for example, the pranas
and antaH-karana (suukshma shariira) and then we have that part of us connected
to something 'other' which eludes most of us and many would deny in themselves.
The causative factor of our existence (karana shariira). The whole of our life
in this duality is experienced in triads (triputi). Within the antaH-karana, we
find the knowledge triad we have been discussing these past few weeks. How does
it fit with the shariira model? The knower is part of the jnaanamaya kosha
(intellectual sheath) of the suukshma shariira. The objective world is found in
either of the anamaya (food) or pranamaya (vital airs) koshas - through which
stimulus arrives. The knowledge aspect exists as the illuminated thought
modification in the manamaya (mental) kosha.
For as long as we are in a learning position, it is important to
remember this triad is at work.
We have been seeing that the aim of dedicated saadhakas is to reach
a state of 'no mind', but this verse makes it clear that this does not mean
that we are asleep on the job! Unlike the deep sleep bliss, this state is
filled with the light of Pure Knowledge, an awareness unimaginable to us in our
current state. This offers a kind of freedom far removed to our normal meaning
of it.
True liberation has nothing to do with being able to go about doing
anything we want at any old time, to have no physical ties or behave without
boundaries. Gurudev said, "to be able to
say 'no' to our mind is to be free and truly liberated." We spend
our lives in a state of compulsive thought without the ability to truly direct
our mind. We let our thoughts ramble unfettered by intellectual discipline or
proper focus, considering ourselves to 'be free' when all that is happening is
that we have become a slave to our minds. It is dangerous, for our minds can
take us to dark places, drive us to dangerous spaces, prevent us even from
tying our laces. Our minds are our greatest enemies to ourselves unless we take
control! Becoming the masters of our own minds is the ultimate way to freedom.
