Aparokshanubhuti

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Note Extracts from my reading of Aparokshanubhuti by Adi Sankaracharya:

Such treatises as aim at serving as introductions to a more advanced study of a system of philosophy are generally known as ‘Prakarana Granthas’. Besides giving an outline of the system, each of them emphasizes some one or other of the main features. Aparokṣānubhūti is one such little manual, which, while presenting a brief description of Vedanta, deals specially with that aspect of it which relates to the realization (Anubhuti) of the highest Truth. Such realization, unlike the knowledge of objects through sense-perception or inference, is an immediate and direct perception of one’s own Self, which is here indicated by the word Aparokṣa.

The central theme of the book is the identity of the Jivātman (individual self) and Paramātman (Universal Self).

Only the pure in heart should constantly and with all effort meditate upon the truth herein taught.

It is only at the last stage when the knower and the known merge in the Self-effulgent Ātman, which alone ever is, and besides which nothing else exists, that the culmination is reached. This realization of the non-dual is the consummation of Aparokṣānubhūti.

The four preliminary qualifications (1) (the means to the attainment of knowledge), such as Vairāgya (dispassion) and the like, are acquired by men by propitiating Hari (the Lord), through austerities and the performance of duties pertaining to their social order and stage in life.

Ātman—In this ever-changing world there is one changeless being as witness of these changes. This permanent ever-seeing being is Ātman.

The seen—This comprises everything other than Ātman, such as objects of the senses, the senses, the mind and the Buddhi.

Abandonment of desires—Previous impressions that are lying dormant in the mind as well as the contact of the mind with the external objects give rise to desires. To abandon all desires is to dissociate the mind from these two sets of stimuli.

Turning away completely from all sense-objects is the height of Uparati, (1) and patient endurance of all sorrow or pain is known as Titikshā which is conducive to happiness.

While practising Shama and Dama there is an effort to restrain the mind’s outgoing propensities. But in Uparati the equipoise of the mind becomes spontaneous and there is no further striving to gain it.

Implicit faith in the words of the Vedas and the teachers (who interpret them) is known as Śraddhā, and concentration of the mind on the only object Sat (i.e. Brahman) is regarded as Samādhāna.

When and how shall I, O Lord, be free from the bonds of this world (i.e. births and deaths)—such a burning desire is called Mumukshutā.

Mumukshutā—This is the fourth Sādhanā. With this the student becomes fit to make an enquiry into the highest Truth, i.e. Brahman.

After a person has attained the tranquillity of the mind through Sādhanās, he should strive hard to maintain the same by constantly reflecting on the evanescent nature of this world and withal dwelling on the highest Truth till he becomes one with It.

Knowledge is not brought about by any other means (1) than Vicāra, just as an object is nowhere perceived (seen) without the help of light.

It is ignorance or Avidyā which has withheld the light of Knowledge from us.

It is only when we make an enquiry into the real nature of this Avidyā that it gradually withdraws and at last vanishes; then alone Knowledge shines.

Who am I? (1) How is this (world) created? Who is its creator? Of what material is this (world) made? This is the way of that Vicāra (2) (enquiry).

I am neither the body, (1) a combination of the (five) elements (of matter), nor am I an aggregate of the senses; I am something different from these. This is the way of that Vicāra.

I am neither the body—This body has its origin in insentient matter and as such it is devoid of consciousness. If I be the body, I should be unconscious; but by no means am I so. Therefore I cannot be the body.

The only thing that we are directly aware of is our own thoughts. The world that we see before us is what our thoughts have created for us.

As I am also the One, the Subtle, the Knower, (1) the Witness, the Ever-Existent and the Unchanging, so there is no doubt that I am “That” (2) (i.e. Brahman). Such is this enquiry.

When I say, “I know that I exist,” the “I” of the clause ‘that I exist’ forms a part of the predicate and as such it cannot be the same ‘I’ which is the subject. This predicative ‘I’ is the ego, the object. The subjective ‘I’ is the Supreme Knower.

Ātman is verily one and without parts, whereas the body consists of many parts; and yet the people see (confound) these two as one! What else can be called ignorance but this?

The nature of ignorance is, however, fully revealed when one confounds the subject (i.e. Ātman) with the object (i.e. the body), which have nothing in common between them, being opposed to each other in all respects.

The luminosity of Ātman consists in the manifestation of all objects.

How strange is it that a person ignorantly rests contented with the idea that he is the body, (1) while he knows it as something belonging to him (and therefore apart from him)

I am verily Brahman, (1) being equanimous, quiescent and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. I am not the body (2) which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise.

I ’, the Self or Ātman, is Brahman, as there is not even a single characteristic differentiating the two. In other words, there are no two entities as Ātman and Brahman; it is the same entity Ātman that is sometimes called Brahman.

When a person makes an enquiry into the real nature of this external world he is led to one ultimate reality which he calls Brahman. But an enquiry into the nature of the enquirer himself reveals the fact that there is nothing but the Ātman, the Self, wherefrom the so-called external world has emanated. Thus he realizes that what he so long called Brahman, the substratum of the universe, is but his own Self, it is he himself.

The ‘I’ (Ātman) is without any change—In happiness or misery, in childhood, youth or old age, Ātman, in spite of many changes in the body, remains the same; else how do we recognize a person to be the same man again and again even though his body and mind have undergone a thorough change?

Fear has its root in duality and imperfection and can be overcome by him alone who realizes non-duality and thus attains to perfection.

When duality (1) appears through ignorance, one sees another; but when everything becomes identified with the Ātman, one does not perceive another even in the least.

The Shruti (1) in the form of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka has declared that this Ātman, which is the Self of all, is verily Brahman.

When everything in this world is in a state of flux and is changing every moment, what is it that sees these changes? Vedānta declares that it is Ātman, the conscious principle, that witnesses all these changes, itself ever remaining unchanged and unaffected by the Gunas that work these changes.

The knowledge of Ātman means only the removal of names and forms that are superimposed upon It through ignorance.

When one realizes that Ātman alone is, and nothing else exists, ignorance with all its effects, such as the delusion of the body and the like, ceases to exist for ever.

The body, mind, intelligence and the like have their existence only in ignorance and therefore cannot exist when the latter is entirely destroyed by Knowledge.

This illusory world has Brahman as its substratum which is hidden from one’s view on account of ignorance. But when one realizes this Brahman by removing ignorance, one is no more deluded into seeing the phenomenal world which, like all other illusory things, vanishes completely before the knowledge of the truth.

Those who do not know the highest truth argue that if ignorance with all its effects is destroyed by Knowledge, how does the body of a Jnāni live, and how is it possible for him to behave like ordinary mortals? They, however, fail to see that it is they who, being still in ignorance, see the body of a Jnāni and speak of him as behaving this way or that, whereas the Jnāni himself never sees the body at all, as he is ever established in Ātman. To convince such persons the Shruti brings in Prārabdha as a tentative explanation for the so-called behaviour of a Jnāni.

Now, for the attainment (1) of the aforesaid (knowledge) I shall expound the fifteen steps by the help of which one should practise profound meditation at all times.

The steps, (1) in order, are described as follows: the control of the senses, the control of the mind, renunciation, silence, space, time, posture, the restraining root (Mulabandha), the equipoise of the body, the firmness of vision, the control of the vital forces, the withdrawal of the mind, concentration, self-contemplation, and complete absorption.

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