Commentary on the Panchadasi: 26. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Tuesday 12, May 2026, 19:00.
BOOKS
UPANISHAD 
Commentary on the Panchadasi: 26. 
Discourse 6
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality
Mantras - 61&62.
SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
Post-26.

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Mantras - 61&62.

Amunā vāsanā jale niśśeṣaṁ pravi lāpite, samūlon mūlite puṇya pāpākhye karma sañcaye (61): 

Vākya maprati baddham sat prāk parokṣā vabhāsite, karā malaka vad bodham aparokṣaṁ prasūyate (62):

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In the earlier stages of knowledge, it is indirect. Now you know something about what has been talked about. You are hearing it, and have made a study of it. This knowledge is indirect knowledge because the knowledge that you are gaining just now is not identical with the object of knowledge. The object is still away from you. That Supreme Brahman is not identical with the knowledge that you have gained merely by hearing or even by studying—even by deep reflection, ratiocination. With all these, you will find you are still not very near the Supreme Reality, because the mind keeps you cut off. The existence of the mind, the operation of the mind with all its vrittis, keeps you away from direct contact with Reality. But the vasanas, or the impressions of the mind, are dissolved in this state of samadhi.

A vasana is a kind of impression created by some action that we perform, and that vasana creates a vritti, or a groove in the mind, like an impression created in a gramophone plate. The vibrations of thought, like the vibrations of sound, create an impression or a groove in a gramophone plate. The vibrations are the vasanas, and the vrittis are the grooves; once the grooves are formed, we can go on playing the record any number of times and hear the same music.

Likewise, once the grooves in the mind are formed by certain impressions created by sense perception, they will become causes of rebirth; and in the next birth also, the same 'gramophone plate' will be playing. That means to say, the old ideas will persist and want expression in the next birth also; and in that next birth, if we continue the same process of creating grooves in the mind, there will be an endless heap of grooves, one over the other. Then there will be no remedy for it. But if we throw this gramophone plate made of wax into boiling water, it melts altogether, and all the grooves also go. Likewise, we throw this mind with all its grooves into the heat of the knowledge of this universal experience. When this happens, samūlon mūlite puṇya pāpākhye karma sañcaye: all the karmas that we have accumulated in the form of good and bad deeds are uprooted.

It is not only because of bad deeds that we get reborn. Even good deeds will take us to rebirth. It is the deed, whether good or bad, that causes birth. It may be that bad deeds cause inconvenience, pain, suffering, sorrow, and so on, and good deeds produce such effects as joy, satisfaction, security, happiness, etc. That is true. Notwithstanding the difference between the products of good deeds and bad deeds, the character of causing rebirth will be there equally in either case. Just because we have done good deeds, it does not mean that we will not be reborn. Only, we will be born as a better person. But that also has to go. It is not enough if rajas and tamas are destroyed; sattva also has to go.

As I mentioned, the screen in front of us, even if it is transparent, has to be lifted. Otherwise, there cannot be identity with the object. So when even the punya and papa karma phala get dissolved by this experience, then this knowledge, which is indirect at present as it is acquired through hearing from a preceptor or a teacher, will become direct knowledge. We will see this whole universe as if it is sitting on the palm of our hand.

Karā malaka vad: 

If we keep a fruit on our palm, we can see it so clearly that it does not require any proof for its existence. Such a kind of clarity of vision of the existence of the Universal will be our blessing and glory when all the karmas, the products of good and bad deeds, are destroyed, and the indirect knowledge that we have gained through study and investigation enters into the very source of our being. Knowledge becomes our existence, and our existence becomes our knowledge. In other words, unfettered becomes our being. Free we are, totally. Consciousness is our nature, and our existence becomes Universal Existence. That is to say, we become Sat-Chit-Ananda, Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

Parokṣaṁ brahma vijñānaṁ śābdaṁ deśika pūrvakam, buddhi pūrva kṛtaṁ pāpaṁ kṛtsnaṁ dahati vahnivat (63): 

Even this little knowledge that we have gained by hearing has a great effect. It purifies the mind. It does not mean that indirect knowledge is useless. Though that knowledge which we have gained through the teacher or the preceptor is indirect, it will be able to destroy all the karmas, or at least in some measure. The harassment caused by the karmas will cease, and the total uprooting will take place afterwards.

Do we not feel happy after hearing a spiritual discourse? We have a good sleep, we have good thoughts, and we wake up with noble thoughts, as if some karmas have been simply driven away. Otherwise, we will worry, scratch our head, think all sorts of things, and take a sleeping pill to go to bed. This will not be necessary after hearing all of this. We will be calm, quiet, happy, composed, and never get angry with anybody. We will be satisfied with all things. That is, even this indirect knowledge has such an effect. It will destroy the worrying habit of the mind and the unnecessary interference of these negative karmas.

But when the knowledge becomes direct, it is a wonderful thing. What will happen? It will destroy the night of ignorance totally. Just as there is no night in the midday sun, there will be no night of this ignorance before us. We will not see the world. This night of ignorance which is causing the perception of an external world, the desire for objects, and the running after them, will dissolve immediately.

Aparokṣātma vijñānaṁ śābdaṁ deśika pūrva kam, saṁsāra kāraṇa jñāna tamasaś caṇḍa bhāskaraḥ (64): 

Aparoksatma vijnana is not indirect knowledge that is attained merely by study, but knowledge that is attained by direct experience—as the experience of the waking condition just now.

Śābdaṁ deśika pūrva kam: 

This knowledge that has fructified into a maturity of direct experience after having been received through the teacher, what does it do? Saṁsāra kāraṇa jñāna tamasaś caṇḍa bhāskaraḥ: It becomes the blazing midday sun to destroy the universal ignorance which has caused this perception of samsara, or Earthly turmoil. This world will vanish just as dreams vanish when we wake.

Itthaṁ tattva vivekaṁ vidhāya vidhi vanmanas samādhāya vigalita saṁsṛt bandhaḥ prāpnoti paraṁ padaṁ naro na cirāt (65):

The First Chapter is now concluding. Having deeply considered the nature of Reality as has been described up to this time by properly hearing it, carefully thinking it deeply, and making it a part of our routine of the day by a disciplined process, we have made this knowledge a part of our thinking process itself. That is to say, when we think anything, we will think only from this point of view—like a businessman thinking only from the point of view of profit and loss, like a shopkeeper thinking only in terms of the weight of gold, like an official thinking only in terms of promotion and salary. There is no other way of thinking. Here we will start thinking only from this point of view. Whether we are working, taking our meals, going for a walk, or taking a bath—whatever we may be doing, we will see it from the point of view of this great knowledge that we have acquired.

We will have a new perception of things; our vision will change. Such a person is called a philosopher. A philosopher is one who views the whole world from the point of view of eternity. That will be our experience after having listened to this wisdom, this knowledge, and having made it a part and parcel of our very outlook of life. Vigalita saṁsṛt bandhaḥ: All the shackles of bondage will fall down. All the chains that were binding us to this Earth will break in one instant.

Prāpnoti paraṁ padaṁ naro na cirāt: 

We may get this experience very early—not after many, many years—provided our eagerness is very intense. Here we have to remember a sutra from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Tīvra saṁvegānām āsannaḥ (Y.S. 1.21): This experience is very near you, provided your ardour for having it is very intense. Ardour means anguish, the impossibility to exist without it, breathlessness because it is not there, crying because you have lost it, as if you are being drowned in water and wanting a little air to be provided to you. It is such an anguish of having separated yourself from God, such an ardour for wanting it. This word samvega that is used in Patanjali's sutra cannot be easily translated into the English language. The best translation is 'ardour'. Intense zealousness and the heart jumping out of your body, as it were, to catch it—that is called ardour.

If this is possible for you, and if you convince yourself that there is no other goal for you except this, when you drown yourself in this feeling and thought, everything will come to you automatically. You need not go and beg for things, like a beggar. Everything will be at your feet. If this conviction is in your mind, quickly will this experience come. Then what happens? Prāpnoti paraṁ padaṁ: You attain the supreme state of eternal beatitude.

The First Chapter of the Panchadasi is hereby concluded.

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Next
Chapter 2: Pancha Mahabhuta Viveka – Discrimination of the Elements
Discourse 7
Mantras 1-18
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