#131 What qualifies a student for Vedanta?
This week of July in 2021 we celebrate the birthday of Bhagavan Veda Vyasa. We call it Guru Purnima, the day of the full moon, Purnima which is in honor of the guru.
Much more than any religion in the world, the role of a guru is central to Hinduism or Sanaatana Dharma. Although Hinduism does not have a founder Veda Vyasa ‘s role has been foundational.
Thousands of years ago different mantras had been revealed to different Rishis directly by Bhagavan. Veda Vyasa helped to codify the scattered mantras and compiled the four Vedas – Rk Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Each of the Vedas have 15000 – 20000 mantras for rituals, meditations and self knowledge.
To get a sense of this think about organizing all the documents you have downloaded on your laptop. There is just one of you. Now multiply that by atleast 40,000 times the effort and you will begin to appreciate his monumental contribution.
Bhagavan Veda Vyasa wrote one of our greatest epics, Mahabharata which run into 100,000 verses. He also wrote the 18 Puranas each of which are a few thousand verses. Each Puraana speaks the glories of particular deities. And he wrote the Brahmasutras, which clearly establish the liberating vision of the Vedas – the vision of oneness of all forms. I am breathless just making a mention of his contributions.
To this day we can listen, read and enjoy the Vedas including Vedanta, the Puranas, the Mahabharata and Brahmasutras because this ancient wisdom of life and living has been painstakingly and meticulously transmitted by gurus after gurus.
That’s how we still have an ancient living civilization that was supported by an oral tradition of teaching. There was no hankering of copyright by any of the Rishis or the Gurus who came after, just a spontaneous compassion and generosity born of wisdom by which all gurus have ensured that the glorious teaching tradition continued and will continue.
How did a guru qualify to be a guru? A guru is recognized to be one who is a shrotriya and a brahmanishtha. Shrotriya is the one who has systematically been through the sampradaya of teaching by being a shishya, a committed student and Brahmanishta is the one who is well established in the knowledge of the reality.
How does one train to be a shrotriya? Just like we have teacher training colleges and universities, were there guru training institutions? The answer is No. The only way the guru qualified in being a shrotriya was by being a shishya, sheeksha yogyah iti shishya, a student and a sadhaka, who was worthy of being taught. The Upanishads are replete with instances of the guru testing the student to see if he/she were qualifies and putting the student through rigorous disciplines to prepare the student for the knowledge of Vedanta.
Being a shishya is not easy and not difficult if one has the commitment. It calls for a tremendous amount of maturity. It takes years to become a shishya, forget about being a guru. When Vedanta is taught in gurukulams, there are three types of students.
A student of Vedanta then and even now could be a vidyarthi, antevaasi or shishya. All three have a commitment to know the truth but the level of commitment and preparedness differ.
Vidyarthi is the one desirous of knowing and the term vidyarthi could well apply to other areas of knowledge also.
Vidyarthi of Vedanta these days is the one who wants to know but whose search is a scattered one. He/she/they will watch a lot of videos, read a lot of books and acquire some information and confusion too but the person is well meaning and has a growing commitment.
Antevaasi is the one who lives with the guru, who has the luxury, freedom and commitment to take time off from career, family etc who will live and serve the guru. He/she/they are desirous of learning and the commitment is much higher than the vidyarthi. Like attending a university, the antevaasi can and will attend the classes but just being present does not mean a full participation.
The shishya is the one who is worthy of being taught. He/she/they may live with the guru but what characterizes the person is the person’s level of commitment to the enquiry into reality. The shishya is willing to do whatever it takes to know the truth.
The Kathopanishad is the dialogue of a teaching by Lord Yama, or the Lord of Death with a young boy, Nachiketa. Lord Yama tries to dissuade the young boy from pursuing the knowledge of the reality by saying that even the devatas have struggled to understand and that Nachiketa should give up his request. Instead of being discouraged like a lot of us Nachiketa was actually emboldened by what Lord Yama said. If indeed the devas have found this knowledge difficult then it must be so valuable and I definitely want to know. Nachiketa became the shishya and Lord Yama the guru and we have exquisite teaching of the Atma.
Who decides who is a shishya?
The Shastra lays out very clearly the qualifications of an adhikari, the qualified one.
It has nothing to do with your academic education, your gender, your nationality, but everything to do with your ability to think clearly and bring that into your life. Also referred to as sampattih which is wealth is revealing. Your thinking and its related attitudes are your wealth because you have them at all times in the absence of external wealth and can smoothly navigate through life indeed achieving life ‘s very purpose.
To enquire into the reality which is the means for freedom, those who are qualified are endowed with the four fold qualifications.
They are distinct knowledge between what is not in time and what is ephemeral, absence of longing for the pleasures obtaining in this world in the other world, the six-fold wealth such as sama etc and desire for freedom.
1 Viveka
Viveka is the discriminative, distinguishing, knowledge between the nitya vastu and anitya vastu. Discrimination is not in the negative sense, here it means the sense of right understanding and discernment. Nitya vastu is one limitless Brahman. Everything else is time – bound, anityam. My body-mind, people in my life, relationships, objects are subject to time and they won’t last and hence the happiness I seek from these will not last either. This is a fact and it is not personal. Our longing for the happily ever after in the relationship, our children finally settling down, our dream job and so on are examples of how we seek lasting happiness in things that are temporary. I depend on impermanent things for a permanent sense of happiness. Does that mean one does not seek this at all? Of course not. You seek it but understand what people, situations, relationships and objects can give you and what they cannot give you. The limited cannot make you limitless which is what you already are, waiting to be discovered.
2 Vairagya or Dispassion
Absence of longing for the pleasures obtaining in this world as well as in svarga. Our longing for pleasures come from binding desires that must be fulfilled or else all hell breaks loose. But if you have lived a complete life and analysed the nature of desire you would realise that no one in this world has fulfilled all desires. It is neither possible nor necessary. Also you can be happy without fulfilling your desires because your happiness is no longer held ransom by the fulfillment of desires. You no longer define yourself by your bucket list of how many desires you have fulfilled.
You no longer expect permanent happiness from impermanent situations, people and things. You can truly enjoy all these but take off the pressure of people, situations and things to give you lasting happiness.
Vairagya often translated as detachment can put us on a guilt trip of being detached enough which is not helpful at all.
Vairagya grows both by fulfilling the desire such that you have outgrown it and seeing the limitation of the longing and it dying away. Both ways are helpful and are differently applicable.
With Viveka and Vairagya there is a natural cheerfulness, clear thinking and an absence of fear to look at what always is, not what you wish or will or want.
3 Samadi Shatkasampatti
The six-fold wealth is samah, mastery over mind, damah, mastery over senses, uparamah, doing one’s duty, titksha, patience, sraddha, faith and samadhanam, resolution of mind.
3.1 Shamah – manonigrah
It is mastery of the mind whereby one can truly use it as an instrument, antah karana. This involves understanding the ways of the mind, recognizing the psychological order that is pervaded by Ishvara, and befriending it. As a result one is at peace with one’s life situations, has resolved past issues including hurt and guilt and is fully available for the moksha pursuit. Any technique that is helpful can be used including therapy.
3.2 Damah chakshuradi bahya indriya nigrah
Mastery over the external sense organs as the eye, etc. I have spoken about this in episode 129 in the context of how we use social media or consume information through our senses. Our mastery in the use of our indriyas determine our preoccupations. If I have binge watched Netflix my mind will be full of whodunnit rather than Vedanta
3.3 Uparamah Svadharma anushthanameva
An observance of one’s own duties. When you do what is to be done in your many roles, there is a contentment and a freedom from our binding likes and dislikes. You can get back to yourself, the simple person. You can be relaxed and have the space and leisure to enquire into reality.
3.4 Titiksha shitoshnasukha-dukhadi sahishnutvam
A cheerful endurance of cold, heat, pleasure and pain. Accepting gracefully what cannot be changed and changing what you can is important. You grow in your own accommodation of people and situations that you don’t define yourself by external situations
3.5 Sraddha guru vedanta vakyeshu vishvaasah
Sraddha is trust in the words of the guru and the sentences of Vedanta which are recognized to be a means of knowledge. The guru is a guru only because of Vedanta and has nothing to add of his or her own. The words of Vedanta are to be handled by someone who has been through the sampradaya, the teaching tradition which has a methodology who happens to be the guru.
Vedanta is not a principle, a concept, a system, a speculation or even a philosophy.
You were always free of all limitations and a guru helps you see that.
You have shraddha not for the guru’s sake but for your own sake.
1.3.6 Samadhanam citta-ekagrata
Samadhanam is focusing the mind on one thing.
In a time when we are bombarded with social media to stay focused is not easy. The problem is not that our mind moves. It has to move because only then learning takes place. The capacity to bring back the mind is samaadhaanam. A lot of people complain of lack of focus but ask them to narrate the outline of the latest series on Netflix and look at the meticulous details they go into.
4. Mumukshutvam moksha me bruyaat
The desire, “Let there be freedom for me” is mumukshutvam.
Such a person is clear that underlying all my desires is the desire to be free, complete, in and of myself.
A mumukshu has made a choice of the pursuit of moksha which is not opposed to any other pursuit and is willing and committed to be a shishya, a person worthy of being taught.
Thereafter) people who are endowed with these qualities become qualified persons for Vedanta.
All of us have these qualities in some measure or else we would not be listening to this podcast.
And yet there is scope to cultivate some more. We do it gently and consistently with the commitment of a marathon runner not a sprinter for a few yards.
How much adhikaritvam is enough? Enough to clearly see the reality that all that is here is one, without a second. I am indeed that Brahman, fullness that I seek.
What to do until then? Prepare yourself as you commit to the study of Vedanta systematically with a guru.
Cultivating adhikaritvam may seem like cultivating a lot of qualities but it is all about returning to the simple, loving, conscious person that one loves to be and that one truly is, without any complexity. And so, we drop any kind of complexity that we have acquired in life because of our ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.
We function as one integrated being – simple, conscious loving being.
The parampara continues because people like you, listen, learn, grow and commit.
The parampara is not only what exists in the past and present but the future of the parampara is being shaped by your actions and commitment.
May we see what we are blessed with and honor the tradition by living it.
Best wishes for Guru Purnima.
