Practical Vedanta.

Hare Krishna, Namaskarams

Following are excerpts from the book prabodha SudhA (Nector of Enlightenment) "The essence of practical Vedanta"–transcriptions of lectures by Swami Poornananda Thirtha in 1966 at Bombay. .These are from the second section of the book on Sat Darshan by Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi.

Part 1:-Sat Darshan: Verse 7.

"Without the personality consisting of the five sheaths does the world reveal by itself?
If anybody has seen or experienced the world without the Deha or by the five sheathed personality, let him report to me."

……………..the ego has two aspects: Avarana-veiling of or covering up of the Atman, and vikshepa- projecting as the intellect, mind, body, and the world, thereby creating moha, Delusion, the notion that the world and body are real and that happiness is to be from the world.

In sleep, the vikshepa ceases temporarily and AvaraNa alone is there. The ego remains quiet, withdrawing its hood as a snake does while curling up in its basket. Happiness and Unhappiness are two different vibrations in the antakkaraNam. In deep sleep, since the mind itself is absent, we experience neither dukkha or sukha. This state is of the Anandamaya kosa. The happiness therein is at best a negative one, which is best illustrated by the following example. A man struggling from irritation caused by a particle of dust in one of the eyes feels immensely happy as soon as the particle is removed. It is not positive happiness, as it was caused not by his getting something new, but by the removal of the dust particle that gave him dukkha. Similarly, in sleep too we are happy as we don't feel any dukkha.
BhagwAn RamaNa Maharishi asks: Has anybody ever experienced or cognized the world independent of or except through one's personality consisting of the five sheaths? Does the world reveal by itself? No………….
"Your arguments as to whether the world is real or unreal, whether it is sentient or insentient, whether it is full of happiness or unhappiness, are useless, serving no purpose whatsoever. The state where the world is not seen, where the ego disintegrates completely and where there are no thoughts or vibrations, is most pleasing, fully satisfying and supremely blissful."

The ego, the primary offshoot of the Atman, is nothing but a wave or vibration of pure consciousness. From the ego, emanates the mind and the world. The mind expecting to get unalloyed happiness from the world, is sadly disappointed. It finds that any joy it derives from the world is quickly followed by misery. The ordinary man not recognizing this is in pursuit all his life of the ever –eluding joy from the external world.

But a person, who has had the transcendental bakti experience, knows that real bliss is not outside, but within oneself. It is experienced in that state where the world is not experienced, when mind is free of thoughts and the ego which hankers after outside happiness itself is dead, disintegrated. This is the supreme state dear to all persons alike. Here the mind remains "avikalpa" thoughtless. The term "avikalpa" also means "without doubts". Such a state is one and one alone. Duality can be only in the mental level where alone one can have doubts as to what is real and unreal When you transcend the mental level, there is nothing to see, no seer and no seeing. There is no subject- object relationship. This transcendental state is aptly called Sat-Chit-AnandA, Pure Being, Pure consciousness and Pure Bliss. But even this term is inadequate for describing what is indescribable. Without realizing this transcendental state, is it not utter folly to engage in seemingly learned discussions as to whether the world is real or unreal? Any system of philosophy which does not recognize this supreme spiritual path to truth is utterly useless. It can at best be a confusing intellectual drill.