Class Notes by Sharmila

Ignorance is when one ignores, ignoring is when one takes for granted — we take for granted our environment, people and reality. For one who is ignorant, they chase a mirage. The more they chase a mirage, the farther they become from where they started , they become more tired, frustrated and dejected. The opposite of one who is ignorant is one who is seeking. The one who is seeking once chased the mirage but stopped taking this for granted, and instead of chasing they are seeking. In seeking they started to come back closer to where they started. The evolution from chasing to seeking is Vichara. Drg Drshya Viveka is a text that encourages us to engage in Vichara — to not take for granted, to not ignore and to not be ignorant. The expression of Vichara is ‘Yaanti’, which means to repair/rehabilitate/return.

When we began this text, we might have felt far away from ourselves and how we will end this text is — physically we will be in the same place but we will know who we are, we will know the Self.

Acharya Shankara is teaching us how to contemplate. The framework that He is using in verses 24 and 25 is — He starts with ‘observe the mind’ (Drshya) , then ‘direct the mind’ (Shabda). Its almost like He is going from the outside in, from the more surface aspect of the mind then to the deeper aspect.

Vivekji shared going from inside out. In verse 25 the message will be to fill the mind (with what we are about to study) , then verse 24 is to hold what we have filled the mind with as we go about living, from a controlled environment to an uncontrolled environment. This is the same pattern used by Bhagavan Krishna in Chapter 2 (Jnana) and Chapter 3 (Karma) of the Bhagavad Gita. Knowledge in action is service. So what are we supposed to do in the controlled environment and what are we supposed to fill the mind with?

Verse 25: If we visualize that we have gotten up at 5am, freshened up and we are reading Drg Drshya Viveka and trying to internalize — what we are reading and internalizing is “AsangaH”.

AsangaH means detached. Asanga means Akshara. Sanga means association, and that we are associated with will go through Kshara (decay,disappearance). Asanga means unassociated, and since its unassociated, it is Akshara (will not change). All the reasons that we have been happy in our life are reasons that have come, so those will be reasons that will go. Our nature never came and will never go — there is no sense of association here because this is who we are!

AsangaH means unattached, which is sometimes defined as dispassionate. The one who is Asanga has a passion for giving, not a passion for getting. This is because it comes from a sense of completeness.

Sat-Chit-Ananda is existence-awareness-joy. Existence is universal, awareness is too but requires marginally more reflection, in terms of Ananda , everyone is looking and living for happiness which is also universal. Another word for universalism is oneness. So there should be a passion for giving because all of us are one — this is a natural way to become selfless ! This is the reason why in Sanatana Dharma we rarely find teachings that share overtly that we should volunteer or donate, because all of this is natural and is our Samskaras.

Prabha means glory or light and Sva means one’s own light, self-effulgent. The reflection point here is — If there was another source of light or awareness, for example an envelope- then that envelope should be able to know itself and also another entity such as a pencil. But our experience is not of that, there is no other source of light! We only know objects because of our thoughts, if we were sleeping then we would not have any thoughts towards an object and would not know it. So it is the thoughts that knows the objects, and there has to be a source of light that knows those thoughts.

VarjitaH means free of and not limited by, Dvaita is duality or separation. The reflection point here is that the nature of Life is not separation or limitation. The word Leela has two meanings. One is — the manifest (infinity) becomes unmanifest (we forget about infinity). This is called Avidya Leela (infinite is forgotten, and its all about pleasure, possession, position). The other Leela is Vidya Leela which makes the unmanifest manifest — like the joy that is our nature. So whenever we think of Dvaita, our reflection point should be Leela.

These words are describing us, the sense of “I”, the Atma (that which is closest). The sense of I is independent , joy, shining ,oneness. The sense of I is not a thought or word. The words are only to establish ourselves in the sense of I. Verse 25 is a prompt when we practice contemplation, about what we should be feeling. Our Bhavana should be — I am infinite. This feeling corrects the Viparita Bhavana that I am the body or the thoughts. We should fill our mind with this verse and when we cannot contemplate more, then we should hold this teaching, this inspiring and real message in our mind, memory, intellect and ego. The prompt should evolve to a habit. The more we fill our mind/ego with AsangaH, Sat-Chit-AnandaH, SvaprabhaH, DvaitaVarjitaH — this will become our Atma Vasana. The Atma Vasana will lead us to the Atma.