Sri Sankaracharya, the greatest exponent of the Advaita Philosophy, has in five short verses given the essence of spiritual practice for the benefit of those seekers who are treading the path. This fifth verse is more or less a description of a Liberated Sage, a Jivanmukta who passes on to the state of Videhamukti finally.
ORIGINAL Verse ——-
Ekante sukham-asyatam,
Paratare chetah samadhiyatam,
Purnatma susamikshyatam,
Jagadidam tad-badhitam drsyatam I
Prakkarma pravilapyatam,
Chitibalannapyuttaraih slishyatam,
Prarabdham tviha bhujyatam,
Atha parabrahmatmana sthiyatam
a) Ekante sukham-asyatam – Let him rest comfortably in seclusion.
The monk aiming at the one, non-dual Atman-Brahman is to avoid all company and remain alone. That stage in which he was asked to resort to the company of the wise, is now transcended and in the present stage, the Sannyasin who is now a sage is counselled to keep aloof and remain in complete seclusion, so that he can keep his mind fixed on the import of the Mahavakyas. Seclusion usually means absence of another person nearby. Life in caves and forest Asrams is generally considered as secluded life. There is however a higher meaning which is applicable to the sage in meditation. To him seclusion is to keep his consciousness free of all duality. In other words, when his consciousness is fixed in the one, non-dual Atman, he is said to be in seclusion. This has to be practised by the seeker, and physical seclusion will, to some extent, be helpful to attain this higher seclusion.
b) Paratare chetah samadhiyatam-Let his mind completely merge in the Supreme Atman in Samadhi.
When the instruction in the just preceding section (V-a) is practised uninterruptedly for a long period, i.e., when the mind remains fixed in the consciousness of the Atman sufficiently long, the state of Samadhi or merging of the mind in the Atmic consciousness results. The Triputi, i.e., the triad of meditator, meditation and the object of meditation-all the three merge into the one Atmic consciousness. The subject-object difference no longer exists. The object becomes one with the Subject. The ˜Subject alone remains and therefore It loses its subjectivity also. The Sadhaka is no more a Sadhaka. He is a Siddha,a Jivanmukta or a liberated sage.
c) Purnatma susamikshyatam-Let him now experience in full the Infinite Atman.
The sage has now the direct experience of the Atman which is Purna i.e. Infinite. When it is said that the Jivanmukta sage experiences the Infinite Atman, it means that he himself has become the Atman, for the Infinite alone can experience the Infinite. As long as one is finite, one can never experience the Infinite. The Upanishads declare that the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman Itself. This is further explained in the statement: He realises that all along he had been the Atman itself and that all bondage and miseries were only mere appearances due to false Ajnana (ignorance).
d) Jagadidam tad-badhitam drsyatam-Let him witness the disappearance of this universe in the Atman-Brahman.
With the direct realisation of the import of the Maha Vakyas which is Atman-Brahman identity, the sage finds himself remaining as the one, non-dual, unmoded Consciousness, the whole phenomenon merging, as it were, in the Noumenon. To him, there is nothing other than Brahman, the Self of this universe. The universe, distinct from Brahman, is naught. In the Mahavakya Tat Tvam Asi, that which is represented by the term “Tvam”, viz., the Atman, has become one with that which is signified by the term “Tat”, viz., Brahman. There is no ˜Tvam different from ˜Tat and no ˜Tat separate from ˜Tvam. All differences have merged into the non-dual Reality. Similar is the case with the other Mahavakya Aham Brahmasmi. The ˜Aham becomes one with ˜Brahman. In Prajnanam Brahma, ˜Prajnanam dissolves in ˜Brahman. In Ayam Atma Brahma, ˜Ayam-Atma becomes one with ˜Brahman. Thus the sage of realisation experiences the highest absolute Reality, the non-dual Atman-Brahman-Consciousness.
e) Prakkarma pravilapyatam- Let him destroy the Sanchita Karmas.
When the sage has merged himself in the birthless, deathless, eternal, non-dual Atman, all his Sanchita Karmas, i.e., those Karmas accumulated in hundreds of crores of past lives, are burnt to ashes. Like roasted seeds which have lost the capacity of germination, the past Samskaras and Vasanas of this sage which are burnt in the fire of Samyag-Jnana, Brahman-Knowledge can no more create any new body for him.
f) Chitibalannapyuttaraih slishyatam-With the strength of the Consciousness of the Atman let him stop further accumulation of Agami Karmas.
A Jivanmukta (liberated sage) does not have the ego as it has merged in the Atman. He is unattached and homogeneous like the vast sky. Hence, there is no feeling of doership and enjoyership in him. In the absence of these two feelings, the fruits of the Karmas done by his body hereafter cannot attach themselves to him and become the cause of either merits or demerits. A Jivanmukta, the scriptures state, is absolutely free and is not bound even by scriptural injunctions. He moves about freely in all the worlds. He neither accepts anything nor rejects anything, His mind is now one with the Atman. He does not entertain any desire for objects nor does he hate them. He is neither afraid of anyone nor is anyone afraid of him. Through this Supreme Brahman-Knowledge all his present Karmas are dried up and they do not therefore cause further rebirth even as a fried seed does not germinate.
g) Prarabdham tviha bhujyatam-Let him exhaust his Prarabdha Karmas through actual experience of their results here.
When the Sanchita and Agami Karmas are destroyed, what remain are his Prarabdha Karmas,those Karmas which have brought about the present body to the sage. This body will continue as long as the fruits of those Karmas remain and it falls when they are completely spent up through experience. Therefore, the Jivanmukta is said to experience the Prarabdha Karmas. But, this is an answer to the question of the ignorant who see the body of the Jivanmukta also moving and acting like others. They ask: “If the effects of ignorance are destroyed with their root by samyag-Jnana (Brahman-Knowledge), then how does the body live?” It is to convince such ignorant people who entertain doubt of this kind, that the scriptures posit Prarabdha in the Self-realised sage,”says the Acharya in his book, “Vivekachudamani”. The fact is that with the dawn of Brahman-Knowledge and the direct realisation of the Atman-Brahman, all the three kinds of Karmas, viz., Sanchita, Agami and Prarabdha are completely annihilated. There is only the non-dual Brahman, the pure, infinite Awareness without beginning or end, immediate and transcendent. There is absolutely no duality whatsoever in It.
h) Atha parabrahmatmana sthiyatam-Thereafter, let him firmly rest in the Supreme Transcendental Brahman-Atman.
The sage finally rests in his own Satchidananda Svarupa in the non-dual Brahman itself. He is now a Videhamukta,a liberated one without a body. Though in others view, he appears to possess a body, to him there is no body, no world, nothing except Brahman. If he sees the world, he sees it as Brahman, and not as anything different from It. The state of a Jivanmukta itself defies description. Then what to say about the state of a Videhamukta! He is the infinite Brahman itself. As Brahman is beyond speech and thought, his state is also indescribable by human language, unthinkable by the human mind and ununderstandable by the human intellect, in the usual sense of these terms. But It is known and understood through direct experience, It being nearer than one’s own body. We are actually experiencing It every day, nay every moment, but we are not conscious of It because of ignorance and of the resultant innumerable desires in the mind. We are IT alone. IT alone is.
This closing verse describes, in the traditional manner, the Phala or the fruit that accrues to one who studies these verses. It says that he who studies these five verses and reflects over their imports daily in his mind which is purified and made steady, freeing it from all kinds of distractions, and who practises the Sadhana as laid down in these verses, will be speedily saved from the burning heat of the great blazing forest fire of this cycle of transmigration, through the grace of the Atman.
Thus, starting from the study of scriptures, which is the first rung in the spiritual ladder, the Sadhaka is instructed to ascend gradually step by step till he finds himself firmly fixed in the Supreme Brahman. Instead of ascending from the lower to the immediate next higher rung of a ladder, if a man leaves off one or more steps and tries to jump to the higher rungs, he would naturally fall and break his legs. Even so, attempt to short-circuit the prescribed process is the cause of failure of many an aspirant in the spiritual path. Performance of one’s duties without desire for fruits, worship of God through them, renunciation of desires, expiation of sins, reflection over the defects in sense-pleasures, a firm resolve to attain Liberation and leaving one’s own home, are the next seven steps in the first stage. In the next stage, company of the wise, surrender to God, cultivation of Shatsampat, complete renunciation of Karmas, approaching the preceptor, service at his feet, prayer for initiation and getting initiated into the Mahavakyas are prescribed for the Sadhaka. Then comes the third stage, where he is instructed to reflect over the import of the Mahavakyas, to completely depend on the Upanishads, to avoid all arguments against the spirit of the scriptures, to follow the line of arguments prescribed in them, to maintain continuously the thought “I am Brahman”, to renounce pride and the idea of “I am the body”, and to avoid all unnecessary argumentation and dialectical discussions with the learned and the wise. The fourth verse, in describing the next stage, exhorts the monk to consider hunger as a disease, to treat it with the medicine of food received through begging, to renounce desire for delicious dishes, to remain satisfied with what he gets through his Prarabdha Karmas, to lead his life enduring the pairs of opposites like heat and cold, to avoid all unnecessary talks, to maintain an indifferent attitude to worldly matters and to avoid hatred as well as feeling of compassion towards others. The last and the fifth stage is where the Sadhaka resorts to complete seclusion and fixes his mind in Samadhi on the Supreme Atman. He now directly experiences the Infinite Atman-Brahman and does not see the world different from It. He is freed from all the three kinds of Karmas and finally rests in the Atman-Brahman, the one stupendous, supreme, non-dual Reality. All questions about the “I”; “world” and “God” dissolve once for all.
