Sundari: When we get past the rajas of our earlier decades, with the desires and drives that are typically associated with it, we can count ourselves very fortunate if we are satisfied and content with the life we have. So often this is not the case with samsaris. You seem pretty satisfied with your life.
Kate: I take very much to heart your guidance on sama, dama and the ability to keep attention on the Self. I’ve assimilated fairly well the karma yoga attitude (what a fruitful teaching!) and remind myself to discriminate throughout the day, but Self-ignorance is so insidiously banal.
Sundari: Ignorance is banal. Although we call Maya beautiful intelligent ignorance, the gunas work out in such repetitive stupidity in our daily lives and interactions with the world. It’s quite amazing. It makes idiots of us all with great ease! Yet, if we look at the Field we live in, including our bodies, we must admit that Isvara is indeed intelligent in its ability to design and keep the whole show on the road. Maya is indeed a wonder.
Kate: It’s a matter of having value for the Self, isn’t it? I tell myself that I know who I am – God knows you both have made that clear enough. But if I truly knew and truly assimilated who I was, it seems to me that mumukshutva would be stronger.
Sundari: Who tells yourself you know who you are? Are you the one who knows or the one who needs to be reminded you know you are the Self? You can’t be both. The former is non-dual thinking, the latter is dualistic thinking. If Self-knowledge is firm, there is no forgetting, because you are the Self. While the latter is usually where all inquirers start, discrimination is ultimately a matter of having value for yourself AS the Self, satya, not for the Self. Self-knowledge is not something to gain; it just removes ignorance. All objects are then known to be mithya. You can intellectually know you are the Self, but intellectual, or what we call indirect knowledge, is not enough, because there is still a subject-object split.
Duality is still there because, although you know about the Self, knowing what it means to be the Self has not assimilated. Taking a stand in awareness as awareness is compromised if you are taking a stand as the doer. This has a lot to do with qualifications, and all of them are important as they all connect to each other, as I pointed out regarding my email on samadhanam and sama and dama. If mumukshutva is not very strong, all the other qualifications are weaker too. But, if our lives are good and we are basically happy anyway, the drive to end suffering is often not that strong. Suffering is what usually turns the mind inwards and gives rise to a burning desire to be free. But weak mumukshutva can also be due to other factors, such as the grace of Isvara. We cannot force the issue. We can have all the qualifications and the perfect sadhana, but our progress and ultimately moksa is still up to Isvara.
Kate: The only way I know to grow mumukshutva is through keeping the attention on the shastra. So I listen to audio files of Ramji’s teachings while in the car, pepper the week with Arlindo’s satsangs and other classes through Arsha Vidya UK. Each Thursday and Sunday all day (and several other mornings of the week) I go on Ramji’s suggested media fast, i.e. turning off the TV and computer, and putting aside the phone, to be with the shastra and the teachings.
Sundari: That’s excellent, Kate. Your life is a spiritual practice, which is how it should be for a true Vedantin. If you do not have one, set up a place for devotion, an altar of sorts. A daily practise of devotion is very important as an aid to Self-inquiry and mumukshutva, and it blesses the mind with great peace because it generates an attitude of gratitude. Devotion to Isvara goes hand in hand with karma yoga. It is not that Isvara needs our devotion or gratitude, because Isvara is the Self and so are you, but even when Self-knowledge is firm, a practice of devotion and gratitude is a great way for the jiva to live. Before Self-knowledge is firm, it is an important aid to negate the ego/doer.
Kate: So my self-diagnosis is that strengthening mumukshutva is the crucial bit. If you have any advice on how to further enrich and direct or redirect my sadhana, I would truly be grateful.
Sundari: See above. Just keep doing what you are doing. Whenever you use the word “I” press “pause” and ask yourself, who is talking here? Is it the jiva who knows about the Self or the Self? The latter will be qualitatively different. Self-inquiry takes as long as it takes, and it must be methodical as all the stages are important. Before we get to the last stage, nididhyasana, the first two stages, sravanna and manana, must be completed. At this point, the jiva who knows about awareness is often called a Self-realized jiva, but Self-knowledge is not firm. Discrimination takes place, and it is very important that it does, but there is a doer discriminating itself from the Self. This is fine, but ignorance is still present, so re-identification with objects still happens. Or there is still seeking experience, as binding vasanas and doership have not been fully dissolved. What we are after is negating binding vasanas and dropping the discriminator, the one who is negating the doer/objects, dropping the inquirer.
Many inquirers believe that they will only hear the teachings when the mind is totally “pure.” They think they must perfect the jiva before it can assimilate the teachings, a big mistake because an inquirer should learn how to listen with an impure mind. To succeed at anything we need to be good listeners, not necessarily to have a pure mind. While a reasonable purified mind is an important qualification for self-inquiry, we can do Self-inquiry, i.e. work on our stuff, and gain knowledge at the same time because the doer and the knower are both always present. They must be addressed simultaneously. There is a (seeming) link between the doer and the knower because we never stop doing or knowing. But the question is, who do you take yourself to be, and what do you know? Are you the doer or the knower of the doer/inquirer? The more we take ourselves to be awareness, the less inclined we are to do anything, because we know we are whole and complete. There is no need to “improve” the jiva, firstly because the jiva is not real, and secondly, because it is not a problem anymore, assuming binding vasanas have been neutralized. And even if there are still residual mental/emotional patterns in the nididhaysana stage, you know that the vasanas are not-Self, and discriminate them as the Self every time they are triggered.
The jiva who has permanent direct knowledge knows that their true identity is the Self and they know what it means to be the Self while still apparently manifesting as a jiva, or individual. This means that Self-knowledge translates fully into ALL aspects of the person’s life quite naturally because it is knowledge. Discrimination is the default position because everything is known to be not-Self and Self because there is nothing but Self. All paradoxes dissolve into the Self. There is no confusion between satya and mithya possible anymore. The Bhagavad Gita says it is a person with “steady” wisdom. We call it a Self-actualized jiva.
Karma yoga is the key to “getting” there because there is no way to negate the doer nor the pressure of binding vasanas without it. In truth, there is no “there” to get to, because you are already the Self and always were. The steps to “get there” are the qualities of “being there.” Enlightenment is not a journey; that is a dangerous dualistic illusion in the spiritual world because it implies it is an object to gain. Permanent Self-knowledge, moksa, is for the jiva to end the suffering caused by duality, and it entails negating the jiva. But to live as the Self means you understand who and what the jiva is, accept it as belonging to Isvara, love it unconditionally, and you are free of it.
Another important point to remember is that many dedicated inquirers get stuck thinking that their sadhana is all-important. While that is true, Vedanta sadhana is meant for purification, and Vedanta pramana is for Self-knowledge. There is no contradiction, because they have different results. Moksa is freedom from the one who is doing the sadhana, Self-inquiry, not freedom for the inquirer. Many inquirers fixate on action, on “doing Self-inquiry” and trying to “get” all the doctrine perfectly. But Vedanta is discriminating satya from mithya, and moksa obtains when this happens naturally. There is no longer an inquirer, because the seeker has become a finder.
Trust Self-knowledge to do the work of scouring away any remaining ignorance, and stick with the program. You are doing great, as your life experience reveals.
~ Much love, Sundari