Nididhyasanam

8/11/2019 Nididhyasanam

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Nididhyasana: Walking the Walk

Vedanta is a means of knowledge. A means to what end? Liberation

(moksha). But heres a curious fact: most every text of Vedanta begins by stating

boldly that we do not, indeed cannot, acquire liberation because we are alreadyfree. So why do we need a means of knowledge to an end already achieved?

Because the knowledge Vedanta gives is unlike any other knowledge: it is

not an acquisition, as is the case with scientific knowledge, in which we amass

facts about objects; it is rather a loss, the removal of false identities, until we

uncover our true face. By negating what we are not, we come to see ourselves as

we are, always were and always will be: free (moksha).

We may have rare or even frequent glimpses of our true nature, but ourvision then becomes obscured. We revert to seeing ourselves in the usual way, as

creatures bound by endless needs, perpetually unfulfilled, and always longing to

escape our limitations. We appear to lose our freedom. We then seek a means for

regaining it. Enter Vedanta.

To become established in this freedom we occasionally glimpse, Vedanta

offers this simple advice: keep focused on it. Let the mind return again and again

to the realization that we are by nature already free, and our false identities will fall

away. We will then come to stand in our true nature (swarupa avasthanam).

Realizing our true nature is the whole rationale for Vedanta, but there is a

particular practice that aims at making this realization rock solid: Nididhyasana.

Nididhyasasa is the last of the three phases of Vedantic practice (sadhana). If the

first two phases can be described as talking the talk, nididhyasana can be described

as walking the walk. Through it, we come to live and breathe the truth of Vedanta.

The first phase of Vedanta is listening (sravana). This is no ordinary

listening, in which we are usually framing personal responses while hearing whatis being said. This listening requires us to put away, for the time being, all of our

personal notions and open up completely to the teaching, taking it in without

editorial comment, so to speak. It is only by listening in this unprejudiced way,

under the guidance of a competent teacher, that we can come to understand the

logic of Vedanta.


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Once we have understood the logic of Vedanta, we may argue with it. Then,

we can contend with its claims and examine every doubt that arises. Indeed, we are

required to do so, for Vedanta is not a system of blind belief, but of reasoned truth.

The teacher and the texts are there to help us achieve clarity and conviction. This

phase of examining and resolving our doubts is called Manana.

But even when our doubts are resolved and we are firmly convinced we are

indeed free by nature, our previous conditioning keeps hijacking our awareness

and forcing it to go to that place where we feel bound and incomplete. This is

because the limited self (jiva) is the product of previous actions (karma).

Now it is precisely for this limited self (jiva) that Vedanta exists. The free

and complete being, the Self, has no need of a means of knowledge. It is only the

Self misidentified as jiva, seemingly bound by its actions, that requires a way tobecome free, that is, to realize that freedom is already its very nature.

In all discussions of Vedanta, it is important to avoid what might be called

level-confusion. Vedanta is a means of knowledge that relies on words (sabda).

Words are dualistic. As soon as we give something or someone a name, we

separate it from ourselves and from every other perceived and imagined object.

This is duality.

It is the jiva that dwells in duality, the world of names and forms. Vedantaaddresses the jiva through words that work on the relative plane and help lift it out

of duality. Ramana Maharshi famously described the process as using one thorn to

remove another. Eventually, both thorns are thrown away. So Vedanta uses words

to point to the wordless truth that is beyond name and form: the Self.

These words are the great sayings (mahavakya) of Vedanta, and the

explanations of these sayings by qualified teachers. Through contemplating great

sayings, such as Tat Twam AsiThou Art Thatthe jiva realizes that it is the

Self. Then, like the snake in the rope, the jiva disappears. In fact, it never reallyappeared in the first place. Meanwhile, as long as the illusion of the jiva lasts, it

must be dealt with, just as one must deal with the fear caused by the illusion of the

snake in the rope.


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The jiva thinks it is a separate self in the world of actions (karma). It

acquires a body and a mind suited to the merit (punyam) or demerit (papam) of its

past actions. Karma is of three kinds: sanchita is the great storehouse of all the

merits and demerits acquired through actions in countless lives; agami is acquired

from what we do in this life; prarabdha is that portion of sanchita karma that hasdrawn us into this incarnation and determines all its characteristics of mind and

body as well as the sort of experiences the jiva will have.

The jiva, caught in the web of karma, continues to act to free itself. Not until

it comes to Vedanta will it realize that freedom comes not from action, but from

knowledge. For if we are already free, we can do nothing to gain freedom. And if

freedom is our very nature, we can do nothing to lose freedom. Action will only

further entangle the jiva in the world of karma.

The knowledge of Vedanta declares at the outset that the jiva is illusory.

This makes this whole process of freeing the jiva (moksha) a game of make-

believe. But so long as we believe ourselves to be a jiva, the game is on.

The aim of nididhyasana is to end the game. It does this by bringing the

mind to dwell upon the great sayings of Vedanta until they sink into our bones.

The listening phase of Vedanta (sravana) is crucial, for it is the door to the

truth. The second phase of raising and clearing doubts about the truth (manana) is aprerequisite to the third phase: nididhyasana, assimilation of the truth. Without

nididhyasana, our knowledge will remain superficial and our glimpses of freedom

will come and go.

To resort to a rather mundane but apt analogy: sravana is the foot in the

door, manana is the sales pitch, and nididhyasana is the closer. When the jiva

signs on the dotted line, it vanishes like the phantom it always was.

And when the jiva vanishes, karma dissolvesall of it in all of its three

varieties. With no separate entity to receive the merits and demerits of past actions,

karma has nothing to attach itself to. The individual body may continue to exist for

a time, but it is no longer misidentified as the locus of awareness, i.e. the Self, but

rather as an object in awareness. This realization is described as the state of

jivanmuktithe freedom of the jiva, and it is the aim of Vedanta.


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Yet, the jiva can never be free, for it is by definition bound to the notion that

it is a separate being that needs to complete itself through actions. It is not simply

bound to this notion: it is this notion.

Nididhyasana is the assimilation of the fact that there is no jiva, only theSelf, and the Self is ever-free. Now, Vedanta is not an acquisition of knowledge, as

mentioned earlier, but rather a loss of wrong knowledge. It is largely a series of

negations, the final negation being the apparent reality of the jiva itself. It follows,

then, that if freedom (moksha) is for the jiva, and there is no jiva, there is no

moksha. Nididhyasana is complete when the idea of moksha itself is negated.

If there is no moksha, then it makes little sense to describe different types of

moksha, such as freedom of the embodied individual (jivanmukti) and freedom of

the disembodied (deceased) individual (videhamukti). The level-confusion referredto earlier arises when no clear distinction is made between the relative standpoint

of the individual and that of the Self, which cannot be said to have a standpoint, for

there is nothing outside the Self for it to look at. There is no second thing (advaita).

The aim of nididhyasana is the assimilation of advaita. This assimilation is

accomplished when the Self is no longer just an idea or a conviction one refers to

from time to time, but an abiding, all-encompassing reality.

The practice of nididhyasana can take several forms. The most common isprobably the repetition, in various ways, of the truth that we are the Self and not

the jiva. We will have already settled our doubts about the truth through the

process of manana. Now we proceed to make the truth our own.

We read and reread the texts of Vedanta; we listen again and again to the

words of our teacher, either in person or through recordings; we contemplate the

meanings of those teachings for extended periods of time until that contemplation

becomes constant. Formal meditation can also be used, not as a practice to achieve

a pleasurable state, but as a way to arrive at the clarity of mind that enables us toabsorb the teachings.

When nididhyasana succeeds, moksha is negated. When we realize that

freedom is our very nature, we no longer need to pursue it. And if we stop chasing

moksha, what happens to the qualifications required for this pursuit?


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Students of Vedanta know that there are four qualifications considered

prerequisites for moksha: discrimination (viveka), dispassion (vairagya), the six

virtues or treasures (shatka sampattihi), and an intense desire for liberation

(mumukshutva).

These qualifications are considered indispensable for the study of Vedanta,

whose aim is liberation. Yet, through nididhyasana we become established in the

knowledge that liberation is ours by nature. There can be no conditions for gaining

ones nature. Its simply there, and there it will remain, no matter what. Heat is the

nature of fire. Fire does not have to do anything to acquire heat, nor can it lose

heat. Similarly, we need do nothing to be free. We are freedom itself.

So what of the four qualifications stressed in the texts of Vedanta?

Nididhyasana simply negates them as it negates moksha. If we are already free,qualifications for freedom can have no relevance.

Yet, once nididhyasana has negated the four qualifications, it reinstates

them, not as conditions for liberation, but as a form of gratitude and service.

First, there is gratitude to the Lord, not as an extra-cosmic creator, which is a

mere idea, but to the whole field of existence (Iswara) that has brought us to the

knowledge of our true nature. By continuing to practice discrimination, etc, we

honor the wisdom (jnana) that has delivered us from the delusions of the jiva.

Second, there is gratitude to the teacher (guru dakshina), whose compassion

has helped us to know our true nature. We continue to practice the virtues the

teacher has taught us as an expression of love and loyalty.

Third, we maintain the practices as a means of proclaiming the truth of

Vedanta. We become a kind of living advertisement for Vedanta, which is the only

means of knowledge that can lead the jiva to know the freedom of its nature.

Fourth, we maintain the practices as a form of service to the world (lokaseva), where jivas are bound and longing for freedom. The Self, even when

misidentified with the jiva and other objects, recognizes its true nature when it sees

it in a liberated being. The best thing we can do to help the world is to simply live

in it as the Self and exemplify the way to realize the Self.


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But once we know our true nature, we no longer long for liberation, which is

the fourth qualification (mumukshutva). This is then replaced with the ever-present

sense of freedom (nitya muktatvam).

So we maintain the four qualifications as an affirmation to others thatnididhyasana works. And discrimination, etc. no longer require effort; they become

natural as breathing. We dont have to strive to discriminate or be dispassionate. It

is simply what we do because it is who we are. We always stand in our true nature

(svarupa avasthanam).

And when we stand in our true nature, we will have assimilated the truths

that:

-I am eternal and all-pervading awareness.

-I am the only source of permanent peace, security and happiness.

-My presence gives life to this body and allows it to experience the world.

-I am never affected by anything that happens to the body or the world.

-The burden and struggles of life (samsara) dissolve when I remember my

true nature.

So nididhyasana delivers us from what we never were, and restores us towhat we have ever been. The seeming tragedy of the jiva becomes the wonderful

comedy of the Self.

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Nididhyasanam