#306 Why study Vedanta if one seeks enlightenment?
Back in the day, when I was studying Vedanta in the gurukulam, a friend shared a story of how she landed in the ashram
I told my father – I am going to India for 3 years to study.
Father – What are you going to study in India when Indians come to the US to study?
‘What are you going to study?
Dad, Vedanta or Self-knowledge.
Father – Why do you have to go to India to study self-knowledge? You, the self is very much here. I will give you all the knowledge you need.
Reading all these philosophical books and the youtube videos you have been watching of all these orange clad crazy people, your mind is messed up.
You don’t need to go anywhere. Just stop reading all this.
Father (looks at mother) – It is all your fault. You gave him too much freedom and see what has happened.
Mother – If only you were there at home and not so consumed by work he would have not buried his head in books
And their fight continued.
My friend said – And I am here in India!
This brings us to an important question. What is the connection between a book and what you want i.e. self-realisation or enlightenment?
This and more is covered in an important topic – Anubhanda chatushtayam, which also means the four fold connection in Vedanta.
Aligned with the Upanishads any Vedanta text has anubandha chatushtyam, four fold connections between four factors related to Vedanta –
1.Phalam, the purpose or result of learning the subject matter.
2.Vishaya, subject matter
3.Adhikari, the qualified one for learning this specific knowledge and
4.Sambandha – the connection between what is being learnt and the result.
We understand each of them.
Phalam, Purpose – There should be a purpose, a result for what one does in life. If you say I just want to sit quietly and do not want to do anything, that by itself is a purpose. There is no purposelessness.
What is it that you want to accomplish by looking into this book, Vedanta? Is it the Sanskrit language or do you want to learn another discipline of knowledge like Physics or Maths?
Do you want to enhance your CV? Can you mention Vedanta as an additional qualification?
Of course knowledge is involved, but what is that knowledge and what do you want to get out of Vedanta?
The phalam, results offered by Vedanta is Moksa, freedom. The next question is Freedom from what? For freedom from loneliness, you can seek friendship or a partner, For freedom from boredom, you can seek novelty or a vacation,
Moksha is freedom from a sense of bondage.
But most of us live in countries that are free. What bondage are we talking about?
We feel bound by our limitations. We are limited by time. We want the body, our pleasant relationships to last forever. These are time bound. We want to be able to fulfill our duties at work and in the family simultaneously but we cannot be in many places at the same time. We want to know a lot but there is no time to keep updated with everything.
Most importantly, the bondage is felt by the pervasive theme of – I am not enough. We are always wanting something or the other and life can always be better. All our attempts at resolving our limitations have not worked.
Even in a limited way it can be better and after being better one still feels limited – That is our predicament.
If I am really limited, intrinsically limited there is no solution called moksa. If there is such a thing as moksa I must already be muktah: I should already be free. Either I am free totally, a fact I don’t know or I am bound for good.
Most people say that we should do what we can within the human limitations. In the limited time we have, we try to exist happily, healthily and cheerfully. This is largely existentialism. I am subject to limitations which are considered intrinsic to me and hence there is no solution to the human problem – this is the premise of Existentialism and a lot of spirituality techniques.
On the other hand, the vision of the sruti is that you are free from all limitations. It is not that you are small and limited and will be free one fine day.
You are the only limitless reality and there is no smallness about you. You are the only reality. That is big. You might say, I wish I could be that.
The phalam or the result of studying Vedanta is the discovery that all that is here is you, there is no second reality to rival or limit you. This may be too much to absorb without sufficient preparation. It is not a passing statement of the Veda. It is a statement that unfolds a pratignya (an opening statement)
Atmavit shokam tarati, the knower of the Atma crosses sorrow.
Brahmavit param apnoti, the knower of Brahman attains the highest.
These are big opening statements made by the Veda and unfolded later.
The result one deeply desires is moksa, happiness at all times and in all places. Moksa is also freedom from what one does not want.
Being self-conscious and not wanting myself to be as I am I want to be free.
I want to be free from being small. This is not a desire I can give up or reconcile with. Even if I try to suppress it, it keeps coming up. This is because the limitless is as though trapped in a limited form and is wanting to break free.
Still, most people will not say ‘ I want to become the whole,’
Suppose Bhagavan comes before you and asks you ‘What do you want?’ You will speak about your topmost desire ‘Can you get me a house.’ You could have asked Bhagavan for anything and still you short change yourself.
That work, wealth, family, relationships add value but they do not reveal my true nature must be clear to us. We are searching for total fulfillment in that which does not give total fulfillment. And, hence maybe the direction of the search needs to change.
Work, wealth, family, relationships can all be enjoyed for what they are. Our sages clearly saw that there is another pursuit of discovering one’s true nature called moksha.
This vyavasaayatmika buddhi or purushaartha nischaya, the absolute clarity of my real purpose in life as moksha is not a simple thing.
If I am already a mukta purusa a free person, all that I want to be, then I need to know. Know myself.
Moksa is in the form of knowledge. This is the phalam, the result that the Upanishad teaches.
Vishaya, Subject matter
The connection between the knowledge available in the book and the purpose, Moksha is called sadhana-sadhya sambandha. The Upanishad tells us that we are already mukta, free.
All we need to do is understand and assimilate this knowledge to gain moksha, freedom from all limitations. Our attempt now is to gain knowledge of the self as revealed by the Upanishad. So Moksha is now kept in suspense.
There is nothing to be done for moksha. All that is necessary is to know that I am already free. Therefore, the desire to be free, mumuksha is converted into jijnasa, a desire for knowledge. Moktum iccha, mumuksha, is jnaatum iccha, jijnasa. This is a huge conversion.
The desire that ‘I want to be free’ is converted into a desire to ‘ I need to know that I am free.’ Once jijnasa, desire to know is there, one has to work towards getting the knowledge. There is still a long way to go. At least one knows what one has to do for moksha.
This knowledge is offered by the Upanishads as its subject matter, which is what I want to know, that the self is already free. This is the only reality.
This knowledge is very unique and unlike any other knowledge. If one is learning biology, one will learn many concepts related to anatomy, processes of the human body etc.
But, the knowledge of Vedanta is not learning a bunch of concepts. It involves unlearning or negating the concepts that we have made about who we are as people, our identities and what we experience as reality.
Sure there are new Sanskrit words and certain frameworks that are used like in any other discipline but they are all in service of something greater – You.
The knowledge of Vedanta is the light with which we shine the light on our entire lives and enquire into what is the unchanging reality about us, given that our experiences and our own bodies are changing all the time.
Thus, Upanishads establish that the nature of the self is freedom, wholeness. It is what everyone is seeking. This is the vishaya, subject of the Upanishad which is a matter of great importance to every human being.
Thus, to have the phalam, one has to know the Vishaya, subject matter that one is free and whole.
Who is qualified for this knowledge?
Adhikari, the qualified person.
The third aspect of the anubandha chatushtaya identifies the Adhikari, the person who will gain from the study of the book.
Through all of one’s life experiences, we are able to experience all that the world has to offer – sights, sounds, fragrances, tastes, touches.
On enquiry into these experiences we are able to see through their limitations, as also of the various seeming purusharthas – Dharma, Artha and Kama, the ends that everyone is seeking.
We are able to see that –
No experience lasts forever. All experiences come and go,
The experience that caused you happiness can also cause you sorrow. Plus the same experience that gave you happiness does not make you as happy anymore as explained in the sense of diminishing marginal utility.
c.Every gain is accompanied by a loss. E.g.There is gain of wealth but loss of time used to gain that wealth
Just a simple enquiry into one’s life experiences ‘parikshya lokaan’ allows us to have ‘nirvedam aayaat’, an objectivity that none of these activities and experiences fulfills our fundamental requirement of freedom and fullness. The Mundaka Upanishad says, through this analysis, one should be able to establish that there is no connection between what the person basically wants and what he has been doing, not even a flimsy connection. The person is able to see that all the finite karma in the world cannot give the infinite that one is seeking.
This is the making of the Adhikari. The Shastra defines the Adhikari, the person eligible to gain the knowledge offered by the Upanishad. Adhikāritvam, the preparation for brahmajñānam requires the cultivation and dispositions of the mind, centred on the person (sādhana catuṣṭaya) and is as follows –
Mumukṣutvaṁ (desire for mokṣa) – The person should have a desire for freedom.
Viveka (discriminative enquiry into the eternal and transient)- The person must be able to examine and understand that there is something more than what the world seems to offer and the valuelessness of the small pursuits in the world. This requires clear thinking between what is timeless and what is temporal (nityanityavastu-viveka)
Vairāgya (freedom from longing) – As one matures in life, one outgrows a lot of desires having fulfilled them or after discovering their limitations and hence not having value for them.
Śamādi- ṣaṭkasampatti (śama, dama, uparati, titikṣā, samādhānam, śraddhā– Psychological resolution, Mastery of the sense organs, practice of svadharma, fortitude, equanimity, trust in the scripture)
These qualifications are called sadhana chatushtayam, covered in episode 131.
The very Upanisad that reveals the knowledge also reveals who is qualified for it. Clearly one’s biological age, gender, culture, educational degrees, positions are not the criteria.
In academic set ups, to qualify for a Ph D in philosophy with a specialisation in Vedanta, an educational qualification of a Masters or an M.Phil is required. The assumption is that the person is suitably qualified. However, in traditional learning with a guru, the above qualities are very important and are strengthened along the journey of learning.
Most adults have some degree of the above qualities. But the one who has a desire for moksha is prepared to do what it takes and hence cultivate the above qualities in good enough measure such that the truth is clear.
Is there an adhikaritvam barometer? Qualities being finite cannot be in absolute measure and hence we focus on strengthening these qualities to a good enough measure such that the vision of the Upanishad become clearer.
However, If the above person is not an Adhikari, there is nobody to receive the vision of one being free and whole. It is like a shampoo salesman repeatedly knocking at the door of a person who is totally bald. The salesman can eloquently talk about the new shampoo that has come, but nothing goes inside the person. It is like that when I have no self-image at all and feel I am a nobody, I have to build it up by doing something, accomplishing something, until I feel I am a somebody. Unless I feel I am a somebody, I will not be ready to hear that I am Purna the whole. Hence, the Adhikari, the person eligible to receive this knowledge is very important.
Sambandha, connection, We have established that the phalam, result of the study is moksha for which the vishaya, the subject matter of the Shastra, is the self. The connection between the book and the subject matter should be understood as the pratipadaka pratipadya sambandha. The book reveals and the subject matter, the self is revealed. If this connection is not understood, then one cannot seek to know the book.
People sometimes ask, ‘ If you want self-realisation, why read a book or go to a guru? They say that you have to go beyond words, beyond mind. These statements are misleading.
The fact is, everything is in the Veda. Your will which gives you the freedom of choice of interpreting, analysing, editing etc has no role to play. In shravanam, listening to Vedanta from a guru, your will has no role whatsoever, except to keep you sitting.
So, the connection between the book and the knowledge, the subject matter, pratipadaka-pratipadya (revealer-revealed) sambhandha, connection has to be clearly understood.
Again, the connection between the subject matter, self-knowledge, and the result to be achieved, Moksha has to be clearly seen. The connection is described as sadhana-sadhya sambandha. One is the means, the other is the end. Self-knowledge is the means and Moksha is the end. Initially, we say knowledge is a sadhana, the means and Moksha is the Sadhya the end. In fact, the means itself is the end, because Moksha is in the form of knowledge that I am free, free from all limitations.
People look for moksha, not knowledge. People say, ‘I am not interested in moksha. I just want to get rid of my insecurity.’ Only in the exposure to the shaastra does one discover that freedom from insecurity is moksha.
Insecurity means you hold on to some crutches. They only confirm your insecurity. They keep us going. Everyone wants moksha, even if they do not know it. There is no question about it. We have to ask only a couple of questions about why they are doing what they are doing, and we will end up in Moksha.
Moksha is the purushartha, the ultimate goal of human life. It may not be immediate but it surely is the ultimate goal discovered sooner or later.
The connection between jnanam, the knowledge available in the Upanishad, and the goal, moksha is sadhana-sadhya sambandha.
The connection between the book and knowledge is pratipadaka-pratipadya. One reveals the other. This then is Anubandha chatushtaya, the four fold connection between the seeker, the book and the result, which gives purpose to one’s life and completes it.
