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He who has the ego sense in him within, acts (mentally), even though he does not act (physically). Surely, the wise one, who is free from the sense of ego, does not act (mentally), even though he acts (physically).
When one performs his duties from his egocentre, it becomes work and in work there can be good and evil, morality and immorality. When a man performs in the outer world with a bosom that has no ego to vitiate, he does not ‘work’ but he merely ‘acts’. In a spontaneous inspired act there is no ego and as such divine acts cannot create any vāsanās, positive or negative, in the personality of the sage; such actions are to be considered as inactions or to distinguish it clearly, we may call them as ‘actionless actions’.
Meditation is the function that an ego can undertake for its awakening. The already awakened can no longer pursue meditation. Having reached the destination how can we continue walking the route by which we reach our destination?
One who is conscious of his body and mind, so long as he is in this ego state of consciousness, will and must practise self-control of the sense organs and concentration of his mind. But the Liberated in life, who is already revelling in his own Self, has his mind flouted, his ego driven out, finds nothing more to be attained!
If Aṣṭāvakra is giving us a direct flight to the realm of Reality in this verse, Yogavāsiṣṭha at one point is kind enough to indicate to us the various stages enroute to this benign destination: ‘First through cultivated discrimination our attachment dies away. Thereafter aversions are removed from us along with their roots (the ego). Thereafter slowly the very effort of meditation calms down, when he reaches that glorious state where True Discrimination (Self) really is!’15
Money is the means for happy living, but there are fools who mistake the means for the end and get exhausted in their worry for and anxiety of collecting money and, in their miserliness, they live but a miserable life!
To try to control the mind from its fascinations is like trying to control the dreamer in his behaviour in the dream; it is like beating with a stick to kill the serpent in the rope. On waking up, the dreamer is completely controlled; on seeing the rope there is no serpent to be killed. On realising the Self, there is no mind to control, nor a world of objects to be denied!
The fool desires to gain peace, ‘as though’ it has to be gained as a reward for his efforts in controlling his mind! The very struggle in controlling the mind feeds the mind and makes it strong. It is like trying to put down fire with petrol, misunderstanding it to be water!
‘One who thus delights in the Self’, to such an enlightened one, mental control is ‘spontaneous and perennial’ inasmuch as he has risen above the mind and in his realisation has understood that the mind itself was an illusion!
Seekers in the beginning should try to turn their attention away from all sense enjoyments, by remembering the Lord and entering the ‘cave’ within, meaning their mind-intellect equipments. Withdrawing the sense attention from the enchanting objects and redirecting the mind to the greater Reality is one of the antidote for the sensuous excitements. No doubt, in their early days, seekers have no other remedy, available for them. Here Aṣṭāvakra is advising the students who have gained sufficient equipoise in themselves. He says the Liberated in life are never frightened of the sense objects nor
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There is an inherent contradiction in this scheme followed as an early sādhanā. Mind is that which projects the sense objects and it is the mind, again, that is running towards the objects. To run into the mind is in fact equivalent to running into the mouth of the sense objects themselves! In short, we cannot avoid the world of plurality and its undivine enchantments by any horizontal movement. Wherever you run, you are still a captive of your mind. Only by lifting ourselves in the vertical movement to the higher plane of Consciousness can we rise above the shackles of the mind.
The thought ‘I am the Self’ or the thought that ‘the infinite Self is neither the doer nor the enjoyer’ is indeed a ‘thought’. But this ‘thought’ has a magic of its own and it annihilates all other thoughts of the ego. It is the ego which arrogates to itself the false attitudes of the doership and the enjoyership. This ‘thought’ when held on for a sufficiently long time within the meditator, it shall not only destroy all other thoughts but also disappear itself into the thoughtless state of direct experience.
a Man of Realisation is contrasted here with the ignorant fool, whose mind is full of passions and desires, and yet, for a show, he suppresses them all and externally exhibits a false attitude of an artificial calmness! This deliberate and unnatural pose may deceive the onlookers, but so far as the individual entity is concerned, he cannot come to revel in the positive experience of the peaceful Self. Pretences cannot lead us to the kingdom of the Self within.
a Man of Realisation may be seen amidst luxurious environments, fascinatingly rich, and surrounded by objects of pleasure. But since his inner equipments are rendered impotent, and since his ego has been transcended, the outer joys of the sense objects cannot add even a wee bit to the infinite Bliss of the sage. The fields of sensuality never disturb him as he has neither the sense of ‘doership’ nor ‘enjoyership’ in him.
Whether his body is amidst sense objects, or in a solitary cave, it is immaterial to the Liberated in life.
Insults and abuses wound but the ego. To the wise one both praises and abuses are sounds in the air expressing two different conditions of the speaker's mind!
Bhagavān Buddha was abused and insulted in the marketplace. Lord Buddha stopped and listened to all the abuses but his serene smile never left his lips. When the market man was tired and stopped making noises, Buddha majestically continued on His way. Now a young disciple, who was with the Master at that time, said, “Lord, give me the permission, I will go and show him. I will give back to him! How dare he abuse my Master?” Then ever smiling Buddha pitifully looked at the ignorant disciple and sweetly replied, “Son, no doubt that man gave us a lot of abuses, but I did not receive them!
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mind, the intellect and the body belong to us. We are their owners, possessors, proprietors (svāmīs). If my buffalo gets dysentery, do I run to the hospital? No doubt, the buffalo belongs to me! Possessor is not the possessed. The joys and afflictions of my body, of my intellect and of my mind cannot be joys and afflictions of me!
He cannot be touched by the laws of duties and responsibilities projected and maintained by the mind in disturbance. No sense of duty can arise without attachments; attachments cannot be unless we permit a sense of reality to the world of plurality. To the awakened, the illusory world of objects and beings are no more and, therefore, he, living as the ‘all-pervading, formless, immutable and untainted’ Self, has no more sense of duty towards anyone.
Although in the previous verse it has been said that the Man of Perfection has no more duties to perform, it does not mean that a perfect Master will remain in life as a log of wood!! He serves the society in his own way, with utter freedom of his own personality. The difference between the activities of a Man of Perfection and an imperfect ego, is in the conditions of their minds.
A sage ever calm and serene within, with his ego sublimated, his mind revelling in the Self, undertakes mighty human programmes of moral rehabilitation of the entire humanity. Mighty programmes are launched and they guide and lead such programmes as though it is an entertaining game and engaging sport, a mighty relaxation, a glorious holiday! In the serenity of their minds they generate a mightier dynamism and thus, their actions become almost superhuman, materially beneficial, morally spectacular, spiritually a blessing!!
Because a cow looks different from the front and from the back, no sane one would say that the same cow is two different animals!! We cannot separate the front part of the cow from its hind part without destroying the cow! The subject and object are two aspects of the one Reality, which the Liberated in life, is continuously experiencing.
According to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the idea is not that the Man of Perfection will not undertake any work, but in all undertakings he has no vanity of ‘doership’. Hence a man of devotion and knowledge is described by the Lord, ‘As one who has renounced completely all undertakings’ (sarva-ārambha parityāgī).
The world around us is a gift of the Lord. Our delicate sense organs are a grace of the Almighty. A Man of Realisation would not dare to insult the Lord of the universe either by destroying the instruments of perception or by rejecting the sense objects. ‘Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and eating’, he shows his gratitude to the Creator of the universe, and honours Him by accepting His invitations to this feast of delusion, in his stupendous fairs of illusion!
He is a free soul, free to live in the world, absolutely uninhibited, without tensions and conflicts, apparently indulging. But the world of sense objects cannot entangle him. He sees the world as great entertainment by a fabulous magician! Even while looking at them, he perceives but the supreme Reality behind. He lives life in a ceaseless mood of breathless wonderments, but never, ever a victim of its hallucinations!
In this great flight across the frontiers of the limited, the meditator is not allowed to smuggle anything through the barriers of Consciousness. Even the noblest aspirations have to be renounced. All mantras and prayers, all devotions and yoga, all meditations and even ‘the anxiety to realise the Truth’ (mumukṣutva), is not allowed to be smuggled into the supreme state of Consciousness.
The entire phenomenal world of plurality is the expression of the ‘macrocosmic intellect’ indicated in the Sāṅkhya philosophy as mahat. According to them prakṛti is the material cause from which evolves the mahat. From mahat in logical steps evolves the sense of ego (ahaṅkāra), mind (mana), the five organs of perception (jñāna indriyas) and the five organs of action (karma indriyas), the five ‘subtle’ elements (tanmātrās), the five ‘gross’ elements (mahābhūtas), by the combinations of which, in different proportions, the world of plurality manifests. When out of gold, the goldsmith beats out a
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Joys and sorrows are the ultimate result of ‘ignorance’. On the ‘non-apprehension of Reality’ we take the ‘mis- apprehensions’ to be real and in this lies the essence of bondage. Says Śaṅkara in the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi: ‘To identify the Self with the not-self is the bondage of man’29 .
The acceptance of this illusory world of plurality and the consequent sorrows and suffering in it, are all true until the student diligently investigates it.
Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad: ‘Sir, what is that knowledge by knowing which all other knowledges become known?’30 The Self is ‘Knowledge of all knowledges’ inasmuch as it is in the light of Consciousness we become aware of all conclusions arrived at by the rational intellect.
75. The moment a man of dull intellect gives up the practices of mental control, he from that very moment begins to entertain desires and fancies.
The vāsanās, expressing in the intellect, are called ‘desires’; desires expressed in the mind are called ‘thoughts’; the mind so agitated soon gets lost in its own fancies and imaginations. Thus, early seekers, should never give up their regular practices of control at their body, mind and intellect levels – regulating the immoral and unethical living at the body level; control of the low emotions and baser passions at the mental level and attempts at settling the thought flow of the intellect through study, reflections and meditations.
Thus, the foolish seeker should understand that the moment he stops his mental control, his desire ridden ego will drive his mind towards the sense objects. The desires in him manifest and his power of imagination brings storms of disturbances into his mind. In short, in the dull seeker the ego is not ended, his desires are only suppressed and not sublimated.
The various yogas pursued by a student can no doubt quieten the mind, calm the intellect and thus generate maximum tranquillity and serenity in the bosom. To misunderstand these passing moods of inner peace and joy for the ultimate Realisation is a tragic mistake. Many do. The sage has warned us.
The tranquil mind rendered temporarily peaceful as a result of spiritual practices, is the ‘pad’ from which the meditation must rocket up into the higher infinite Consciousness.
In short, both the verses suggest, in unequivocal words, that control and suppression may help in the early stages, in relatively quietening the bosom, but they must necessarily fail in completely eliminating the tossings of the mind. Direct Self-realisation alone is the only baptism that can purify the ego and divinise man into the awareness of the supreme Self.
These three qualities are essential for any seeker who dares to walk the spiritual path: (1) patience, (2) discrimination and (3) fearlessness.
So long as we are struggling in the delusory world of happenings – as miserable toys, being played about by the whimsical fancies of the mind – at that time, to keep our balance and swim to the shore we need the help of a piece of wood floating down the river. When once we have reached safely the banks of the river, should we carry that piece of wood on our shoulders, all the way, when we are dragging ourselves home?
Patience, to continue meditations in spite of repeated failures among waves of disturbances; ability to discriminate clearly, between the inert matter vestures around us and the clear spiritual light of Consciousness in our bosom; the daring heroism to face fearlessly the total extinction of our limited ego during our plunge into the infinite state of blissful Self – all these are the unavoidable and necessary equipments to help the seeker on his path.
‘From the whole, when the whole is negated what remains is again the whole.’32
It is not suppression of desires, it is not even sublimation of desires. It is a state wherein the individual, in his own inner experience of immeasurable satisfaction and happiness, is rendered incapable of entertaining any more desires!
It is one, who has not yet slept, who struggles to sleep! The wise one, who has already realised the Self, to him there is no more anxiety to experience (see) the Ᾱtman nor has he any quarrel with the realm of change (saṁsāra), because, from his standpoint there is nothing but the Self everywhere.
all attachments spring from the pleasant memories of the past. You can never get attached to the son who is not yet born, nor with a wife whom you have not yet married. How can one have attachment to wealth that one has not yet earned and saved?
The desire to seek happiness in sense objects, attachment to the dear and near ones and great expectations for the larger joys, to be fulfilled in the future – all these three – have a direct reference to the body consciousness in the individual. The embodied, who is living in identification with his own body, can never escape these three sources of restlessness and sorrow. A Man of Perfection as described here is above these three natural human weaknesses, only because ‘he is without care, even for his own body’.
Expectation of a greater happiness through acquisition and rearrangement of things around us is the cause for all dis-contentment.
He is no more a beggar, begging for his happiness and satisfaction at the hovels of sense objects. His palace of Bliss is built within himself, with the marbles of peace and joy.
From his infinite altitude he can only view and see that universes are all minute stresses in Consciousness. In one of such a universe is an insignificant dot which represents our world of seven continents. Among them one continent is Asia; in it is the subcontinent Bhārata. In Bhārata is a little town or a village, where again in one street is a house and in one corner of its veranda rests a microscopic dust particle called ‘my body’! Now ‘whether it rises to live or drops down to die’, how can it affect me who am the substratum for all the universes?
The heart of human personality is conditioned by three essential but delusory factors – ‘ignorance’ (avidyā), ‘desire’ (kāma) and ‘work’ (karma). The spiritual ‘ignorance’ of our real nature causes us to feel, in ourselves a sense of imperfection and the suggestions that the intellect gives to complete this sense of imperfection are called ‘desires’. The intellectual desires breed agitations in the mind, which express as vigorous ‘activities’ at the body level (karma). All these three – ignorance, desire and work – limit us, curtail our freedom, shackle us to pits of sorrow and pain, all
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‘When all the knots of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal. So far is the instruction (of all Vedānta).’36
The veiling of the intellect (tamas) and the agitations of the mind (rajas) together make us what we are – an egocentric non-entity, capable of only desire, sorrows, sighs and tears!!
