Mananam

Kaivalya Navanīta Kṛṣṇa The Inspiration This reflection was inspired by a small newspaper report on the Krishna Jayanti celebrations at the Śrī Navanīta Kṛṣṇa temple in Puliyarai, Tamil Nadu. The temple is situated behind the Dakṣiṇāmūrti shrine in the Śivakāmi Ambāl sameta Sadāśiva Svāmi temple complex. The beautiful name Navanīta Kṛṣṇa, inspired the following contemplation..... Kaivalya Navanīta Kṛṣṇa.... Boil the milk of the mind through the sādhanā of Karma Yoga. Add to it a little curd, the upadeśa received through Vedānta śravaṇam. Keep it undisturbed in the quietude of upāsanā, until the whole mind is transformed into curd. Now churn this well set curd through mananam and nididhyāsanam, until there emerges the precious navanītam of Kaivalyam, the firm abidance in Ātma jñānam, Ātma jñāna niṣṭhā. And Kṛṣṇa, the great Navanīta Chora, gladly takes this butter, only to give it to those who truly seek it. The jīvanmuktas, having themselves become, as it were, t...

In Vedānta, Ātma-anātma viveka begins with recognizing the fundamental difference between the svabhāva of the body-mind and the svarūpa of the Ātman. Happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, heat and cold, agitation and tranquility all belong to the svabhāva maṇḍala. They are changing conditions of the body-mind. Consciousness, on the other hand, is the illuminator of all these conditions. Every experience, pleasant or unpleasant, is revealed in its presence, while consciousness itself remains unaffected by the particular content that it illumines. This is straightforward as a teaching. 😀 Yet, depending upon the adhikāritvam of the śrotā, a difficulty arises: “I understand what Vedānta is saying. But I still feel that I am this body-mind. I still experience its pain as my pain.” We often describe this by saying, “I understand it intellectually, but how to make it practical?!.” Without being explicit (perhaps for politeness or due to loyalty to tradition), we are implying...

Introduction During Gita Mananam, we discussed the The Two Birds and the Two Friends. So here is a short contemplative reading oppurtunity for the same.  The Mu ṇḍ aka Upaniṣad gives us the well-known image of two birds on the same tree: dvā supar ṇ ā sayujā sakhāyā samāna ṃ v ṛ kṣa ṃ pariṣasvajāte | tayor anya ḥ pippala ṃ svādv atty anaśnann anyo abhicākaśīti || Two inseparable companions of beautiful plumage perch on the same tree. One eats the sweet fruit, while the other, without eating, merely looks on. The next mantra explains the metaphor: samāne v ṛ kṣe puruṣo nimagno 'nīśayā śocati muhyamāna ḥ | juṣ ṭ a ṃ yadā paśyaty anyam īśam asya mahimānam iti vītaśoka ḥ || On the same tree, the jīva, immersed and helpless, grieves in delusion. But when he sees the other, the Lord, and recognizes His glory, he becomes free from sorrow. A beautiful parallel occurs in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam in the Purañjana Upākhyānam, in Skandha 4, Chapters 25–29. The following ...

In his Yogasudhākara, commenting on Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra 2.27, tasya saptadhā prāntabhūmiḥ prajñā “His culminating wisdom is sevenfold,” Śrī Sadāśiva Brahmendra describes seven nivṛttis that characterize the culmination of discriminative knowledge: Jijñāsā-nivṛtti, Jihāsā-nivṛtti, Prepsā-nivṛtti, Cikīrṣā-nivṛtti, Śoka-nivṛtti, Bhaya-nivṛtti, and Sakala-vikalpa-nivṛtti. The contemplation of these seven nivṛttis can have a profound steadying influence upon the mind of a mumukṣu yearning for Brahmātmanubhava. 1. Jijñāsā-nivṛtti, freedom from the need to know jñātavyam akhilaṃ jñātaṃ mama na kiñcij jñātavyam asti “All that has to be known has been known. There is nothing further for me to know.” This is freedom from the restless inquisitiveness that seeks fulfillment by knowing more and more about the countless things in the world, as though such accumulation of knowledge could complete oneself or in the least a worthwhile endeavour!! -   samprāptē sannihitē kālē nah...

Our sva-svarūpa-caitanyam is the adhiṣṭhānam of all that is known and all that is unknown. In that sense, it pervades both the known and the unknown, while itself transcending this very division. Normally, when we think of consciousness, we think of it in relation to an object. There is something known, and consciousness is understood as that which illumines it. A thought arises, a perception occurs, an emotion is experienced, and we recognize that it is known because of consciousness. But what about that which is presently outside the range of our cognition? What about the unknown, the unperceived, and the unmanifest? Their existence too cannot be apart from the same Chaitanyam which is their adhiṣṭhānam. Chaitanyam is therefore not merely the illuminator of what happens to be known at a particular moment. It is the unbounded reality in which the very distinction between known and unknown arises and is witnessed. This is a profound implication of both sva-prakāśatvam and s...

Which Sāṅkhya? Sri Bhagavān Kapila, Classical Sāṅkhya and Vedānta A simple question led to this reflection: Is Sri Bhagavān Kapila, who teaches Sri Devahūti in the Third Skandha of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, the same Kapila associated with the classical Sāṅkhya system? https://studylearningcircle.blogspot.com/2019/09/kapila-geeta-mananam-nirguna-bhakti-as.html The historical question is difficult to settle merely by assigning names. The doctrinal question is much clearer. The Kapila Gītā of the Bhāgavatam teaches Īśvara, Vāsudeva bhakti, nirguṇa bhakti, Brahma darśanam, the indwelling Ātman, transcendence of the guṇas, and powerful statements of non-difference. The classical Sāṅkhya represented by Sri Īśvarakṛṣṇa’s Sāṅkhya Kārikā presents a different metaphysical structure: many Puruṣas, an uncreated primordial Prakṛti or Pradhāna whose evolution does not require a governing Īśvara, Puruṣa as inactive witness, Prakṛti as the source of manifestation, and kaivalya through Puruṣa Prakṛti vi...