The Philosophy of the Panchadasi: 6. Swami Krishnananda.

 

Swami Chinmayananda:

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Saturday 01, February 2025, 10:00.

The Philosophy of the Panchadasi: 1-6 

Swami Krishnananda.

Chapter 1: Discrimination of Reality-6.

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Meditation and Spiritual Experience:

Study of Reality in this manner is called Sravana, and pondering over it for a protracted period is called Manana. When the mind is totally free from all doubts and does not stand in need of even the reasoning process and gets fixed firmly on the object of contemplation, and there is only a single Vritti or mental modification, i.e. Vritti of meditation, it is said to be in the state of Nididhyasana. Samadhi is the superconscious divine realisation wherein the so-called distinction between the knower and known is overcome and the consciousness is itself, and shakes not as a flame in windless space. On rising from Samadhi one often retains a memory of it on account of the persisting Sattva-Samskaras (pure impressions), though in that experience no memory or any mental operation is possible on account of the absence of desire. The subsequent memory is the consequence of the intensity of previous practice, as well as of the unseen resources in the form of antecedent merit of contemplation.

In the process of meditation all the Vrittis (modifications) of the mind get subdued. These Vrittis are grouped into two categories: painless and painful. The painless modifications of the mind are Pramana, Viparyaya, Vikalpa, Nidra and Smriti. Pramana is the process of right perception of things with the help of sense-organs, inference, comparison, verbal testimony, etc. Viparyaya is erroneous knowledge born of defects in the perceptive organs or confusion in the mind caused by various factors. Vikalpa is the oscillating condition of the mind as to the true nature of the thing known. Nidra is the negative condition of the Vrittis where the activities of the mind are adjourned for a future time, and all psychological processes are wound up temporarily. Smriti is memory, wherein there is a remembrance of previous experience. These constitute the painless Vrittis of the internal organ.

The painful Vrittis are Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesha and Abhinivesa. Avidya is ignorance on account of which one goes wrong in the assessment of values and deeds, and then comes to grief. Asmita is self-consciousness or egoism by which a person appropriates undeserving attributes to himself. Raga is attachment and Dvesha is aversion for desirable and undesirable things, respectively. Abhinivesa is clinging to one's body due to which there is love of life and fear of death. All these Vrittis are obstructive in their nature, from the point of view of Yoga. In the state of true Yoga there is a single modification of the mind called Ekagrata, and here it perceives only its objective or ideal. In Dhyana or meditation there is a twofold consciousness of the meditator and meditated, while in Samadhi or absorption there is the transformation of all Vrittis into the Brahmakara-Vritti which destroys ignorance, desires and actions, and settles down, extinguishing itself like burnt camphor. In the state of Savikalpa-Samadhi there are Sattvika-Vrittis which cause the waking up of the Yogi into normal life. Even these Vrittis get transcended in Nirvikalpa-Samadhi. It is in this highest Samadhi, in which Consciousness rests in its own nature, that there will be a rain of the highest divine qualities, and a flood of virtue; hence this Samadhi goes by the name Dharmamegha (cloud of righteousness). Here comes the liberation of the soul, all Karmas having been completely abolished. The liberated ones are grouped in a graduated series in accordance with the degree of Sattva still present in them, and are called Brahmavit, Brahmavidvara, Brahmavidvariya, and Brahmavidvarishtha, when they are in the states of Sattvapatti (where there are flashes of Brahman), Asamsakti (wherein one is spontaneously free from all attachments), Padarthabhavana (in which there is only the perception of Brahman alone in everything), and Turiya (where individual consciousness gets permanently transfigured in the experience of Brahman).

The virtue that is showered in Dharmamegha-Samadhi is not the ethical quality to which we are accustomed in this world, but the spontaneous expression of the highest Reality itself. As luminosity is the very nature of the sun and does not stand in need of any effort on the part of the agent for its manifestation, this Samadhi puts an end to the entire network of past impressions embedded in the mind even unconsciously, and removes by root the entire conglomeration of the causes of further experience. On account of the direct realisation of the stupendous inter-relatedness of things, the Yogi knows the highest in his knowledge and does not consider himself as an agent of actions which will bear any particularised fruits or results in the future. This is Aparoksha-Jnana or direct knowledge, on having attained which the perception of Reality becomes as clear as the observation of a fruit on one's palm. This is the maturity of deep meditation practised after the acquisition of Paroksha-Jnana or indirect knowledge in the form of a correct understanding of the meaning of the great Upanishadic sentence, Tat-Tvam-Asi. While indirect knowledge received from a preceptor destroys all palpable sins, direct knowledge burns up the results even of the deeds done prior to such knowledge, and blazes up Brahman-realisation shining like the midday sun thoroughly destroying all darkness. (Mantras 53-64)

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Next

Chapter 2: Discrimination of the Elements

Continued

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