The True State of the Jiva

   Sri Krishnananda of Shivananda Ashrama, Hrishikesh says: “Nothing that comes from outside is of any help in attaining to the knowledge of the Self.’ In fact, thousands of teachers and preachers go on talking and talking without any substance. Many do not know what they are talking about. This can be verified from their life style. If some boast of 50,000 followers, some boast of 400 ashrams all over the world; some say, they have never read a scripture in their life but still talk like “devil quoting the scriptures’. The truth is very simple: “If i suffer from stomach pain, i only should take the medicine”. Unless i learn to sit in a place for just two minutes a day nothing is possible. The first step taken when you take a crash course in Transcendental meditation and ashtanga yoga. It must be remembered, the first four steps of Patanjali yoga sutra such as yama, niyama, pratyahara and Ishvara pranidana can never be followed in this life.

   It seems impossible to attain to Samadhi remaining in worldly life, hearing lectures on philosophy, religion and spirituality. This is the reason why some serious seekers leave everything, and rush to Himalayas and undergo tremendous hardships. We want bed-tea and timely breakfast, lunch and dinner and friends to chat, and at the same time aspire for enlightenment! Lo! There are Msters and Swamis who advice to stay in family, develop vairagya. The result is riding two horses (suti and asuti) at the same time. Contemplation, dharana and Samadhi are very important for attainment of atma-jnyan and emancipation. This needs solitude.

   An attempt is here, to present altogether a different version of our understanding of the universe, and our place in an ever-changing universescape in the light of recent findings in physical and biological sciences, as well as, the ancient scriptures. In fact, even the existing scientific theories are subject to change, but not the findings in Vedanta. What is so special about it? It is intuitional knowledge (shuddha vidhya) derived from a transcendental state, meditative or contemplative mode is samadhi, that needs no proof (pramANa).

     Some people believe in things happening, luck or fate, divine will ruling the jiva’s life and work while others assert that they are their own masters! According to the Gita, things should happen by will of God! The Lord says, it is my lila! Jnyanis say,

   “Oh Lord, not a blade of grass stirs without your will”; na trunamapi chalati te na vinaa |

   The memory chip inscribed within the DNA and RNA and inserted in the jiva runs its course and the personality blooms as and when it should! There is nothing one can do on the face of it. Once the jiva has entered the earth as a particle of stellar dust, a photon, radiating from a distant star, it takes up all that is earthly (pancha mahabhutatmika), or elemental; it depends on food from soil and thereby acquires all the qualities of the earth. The form assumed by the jiva is immaterial.

  Now, the jiva runs its errands as per the divine will. Everything happens as ordained by fate, destiny. But there is what is given to jiva as "free will". This 'free will'- 'sva-icCha' and the subsequent action, karma, accomplished with desire decides its fate. Whatever the jiva does in svecCha does not come under Lord's will since it is subject to individual's whim and fancy; however, a small antar-dhvani, inner voice of consciousness warns the jiva, if it cares to hear!  This is where karma bandhana starts (as seed for rebirths). Some people are cautious in exercising this free will and thereby escape the clutches of maya.

  When things happen on their own, the divine will is operating taking the jiva on its 'right path' (sat-nyasa) to the logical end- mukti. The jiva gets knowledge (para vidya), knowledge of scriptures by grace of Lord, intuitional knowledge and ability to decode the scriptures, practice yoga and even get a 'guru' to take him on the preordained sanyasa!

  The natural state of the jiva is sat chit and ananda. The ‘sat’ only vibrates as ‘chit’ (consciousness) and becomes a vibrant mind, chitta, mind full of thoughts, ideas, images, dreams and aspirations, (chittavrutti); it is the Energy, Chaitanya, chetasa, chaitya and chetana and the Life-force (prana-shakti) of the jiva. The jiva vibrates with prana and gets embodies a prani like the animation of a toy. Purandhara Das said it in a beautiful song that the world is a play of toys; we are all toys tied with invisible threads (sutrada bombe, Kan.) in His hand.

    Thus, the mula- svarupa, true nature of the jiva, is satcidananda. The grip of prakruti, maya, over the jiva is such that the jiva forgets its true nature and suffers dualities. “This is that eternal Ashvattha Tree with its root above and branches below. That root, indeed, is called the Bright; That is Brahman and That alone is the Immortal. In That all worlds are contained and none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That.” [Yajur Veda, Katha Upa. Part Two, Ch. III, 1].

   Whatever there is- the whole universe, vibrates because it has gone forth from Brahman, which exists as its Ground. That Brahman is a great terror, like a poised thunderbolt. Those who know It become immortal. From terror of Brahman, fire burns; from terror of It, the sun shines; from terror of It, Indra and Vayu and Death, the fifth, run. If a man is able to realize Brahman here, before the falling asunder of his body, then he is liberated; if not, he is embodied again in the created worlds. As in a mirror, so in the buddhi; as in a dream, so in the World of the Fathers; as in water, so Brahman is seen in the World of the Gandharvas; as in light and shade, so in the World of Brahma. [Yajur Veda, Katha Upa., Part Two, Ch. III, 1- 5]

   “He, the One and Undifferentiated, who by the manifold application of His powers produces, in the beginning, different objects for a hidden purpose and, in the end, withdraws the universe into Himself, is indeed the self-luminous- May He endow us with clear intellect! That Supreme Self is Agni (Fire); It is Aditya (Sun); It is Vayu (Wind); It is Chandrama (Moon). That 'Self' is the luminous stars; It is Hiranyagarbha; It is water; It is Virat.”