When the yogi enters this highest
Nirvikalpa (effort-less) Samadhi, he will at once enter deep sleep. This will
make plain to him after he wakes, that the inner self he sought and found, the
Atman, is reached only when all his ideas are refunded into it, when there is
then all the features of non-duality, one without a second. However the yogi
must later wake up, emerge from Samadhi and there is duality again, for world
of objects confronts him. So now he has to work on the next stage which is to
find consciously in the waking experience the same non-duality that he
unconsciously knew in sleep. This is done by learning that the universe is idea
or object for the formless subject, and then refunding the universe -idea back
into its source, which is consciousness. Only at this final stage dare he say
"Atman [consciousness] is the same as Brahman [ultimate truth]." Now
he is fully aware of it.
All yogic visions, however wonderful
will pass away; they go as they come. They have the value of dreams. They are
not truth which is un-passing and beyond change.
One can’t shut his eye to the universe,
which confronts him as in Samadhi of yoga and see supreme reality. One can know
it only by keeping himself clear and open. Sri,Sankara says:- The
yogi must add discrimination to his quest.
Nirvikalpa Samadhi and deep sleep are
the same from the point of view of nonduality the absence of the known. The
knower was there. How does Samadhi give Gnana? Only by preparing the mind to
see that the world disappears and re-appears and, that non-duality is here and
duality there, to convince the man that in non-duality one won’t disappear as he don't disappear in Samadhi or deep sleep.
Another advantage of Samadhi is one gets the capacity to forget the external
world and to treat it as an idea.
Yoga can never give you the fundamental
thing, that the world is an idea. Only Gnana can give it. Nirvikalpa Samadhi is
unquestionably the same as deep sleep, and all ideas are refunded back there
too. One must learn what ideas are, when all the ideas of the universe-existence
go back into one’s mind through Yoga. Then one learns this. How has he to learn
that entire universe is consciousness or Brahman if he stops at Nirvikalpa Samadhi?
Without perceiving the universe, and having a duality before him, it is
impossible.
Nirvikalpa has no duality, hence it
cannot tell you about the universe. The yogi who emerging from Samadhi and says
he found Gnana there, says it to a second person, hence there is duality again.
If he were a real Gnani, there would be nobody for him to tell that he had
experienced Gnana.
Self-knowledge will interest only few
people; the rest are interested in Religion, yoga other paths and pleasure
hunting.
It is not the body that has to get freedom but it is the self
that is seeking freedom from experiencing the birth, life, death and universe
as reality. Only when self-wakes up from the sleep of ignorance by realizing
its formless nondual true nature the freedom happens. For this it has to drop
the inborn samskara or conditioning of ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ by realizing it not ‘I’ or
‘I AM’.
Thus it is erroneous to think on the body base when the self is
not the body. The self is not the body; therefore the individual life is
nothing to do with the formless self. The experience of birth, life, death and
the universe are part and parcel of the illusion. Thus one need not here enter into any account
of the course that the soul with its ignorance takes after death—along the way
of the fathers, or of the gods, or being debarred from either, according to its
works and knowledge. Nor need one enter into any of the other
psychological-eschatological questions connected with the state of the soul
after the death of the body. The self is
not an individual and self is birthless, deathless, therefore it is erroneous
to base the truth of the individual experience of birth, life, death, god and
universe.
Suffice it to say that the round of samsara remains for all
except those who have attained the higher knowledge. He who has attained to the
knowledge of the identity of the self with consciousness, which involves the
distinction of the self from its ignorance and consequently its freedom from
them, has thereby attained Moksha, or freedom. This is a freedom for which one
has not to wait till after death, but it may be possessed even in this very life.
Advaitin orthodox hold virtue is essential for the attainment of
Moksha or freedom. But when the self is not and individual this question is
hardly a relevant one. It is not quite just to interpret the knowledge which
brings freedom as if it were of the nature of a purely intellectual intuition.
As one goes in deeper self –search one
becomes aware of the fact that: - The Upanishads are self-contradictory.
Different scholars give different conflicting interpretations of them. Final
authority therefore is using our own reason. This does not mean one need to
give up the scriptures, but he should apply his reason to them. Reason is
common to all, whereas orthodoxy belongs to separatist.
The scriptures are for ignorant masses,
who wholly accept the material world as it presents itself. Gnana is for those
who have begun to realize that things are not what they seem.
Scriptural citations may be quoted only
after one has shown the reality and proved the truth, for then he can point out
that the texts teach the same thing. If one quotes them before having
demonstrated truth, then it is scholasticism.
Scriptures are of value only when
dealing with persons who are incapable of understanding truth. They have no
value as authority for those who use reason.
Reason is the common ground for all
humanity, whereas the appeal to scriptural relations reaches only groups. Because
all the religions are based on the false self and the false experience, there are
so many conflicting ideas , many
changes, divisions and subdivisions ,which leads to all sorts of doubts and confusions. When one meets with suffering and
disappointment doubts arises. Doubts are absolutely necessary to make one inquire.
Pursuit of truth is for getting rid of all doubts. The pursuit of truth begins with doubt, that doubts
one’s own self, one’s own beliefs.
Those that want ultimate truth Brahman
will not practice control of mind. (Mandukya p.231).
One who knows the universe as illusion
by making use of reason becomes aware of ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is untruth’.
One who loses touch with the external world and gives himself over to his
thoughts alone takes the illusory world to be reality and remains in ignorance
believing the experience of birth, life and death as reality.
Both sides of experience have to be
inquired into—waking or dream and deep sleep, mind and matter if one to find
truth. Yogi avoids external inquiry, hence cannot find truth. If he thinks he
does not see the world by shutting his eyes and omitting it from his thought,
he is an ignorant and not a Gnani. If there is nothing to be seen, if mere
absence of the universe from cognition gave self-knowledge, then every creature
would attain knowledge of truth because it loses the universe n deep sleep.
It is not possible by mental control
alone, by yoga, to realize ultimate truth, but at best one falls into a sleep.
It is like draining an ocean drop by drop, to try the yogic way. When the yogi
shuts his eyes and does not see the universe because he
takes that universe as real but only his body is unreal. He does not examine
the phenomenal universe and hence cannot realize ultimate truth.
The people who speaks of knowing, seeing, existing,
intuiting a second being--God, betrays thereby, that he is of limited
intelligence; unable to grasp nondual truth.
People who talk of sending spiritual
telepathic waves or energies to help world is only a mind game. People do not want
reason, but blind faith.
The whole universe must be included in
the inquiry. Gnana cannot come if anything is left out. Only when all is known
can all be known to be but ideation. Hence yogis blotting all out in Samadhi
cannot lead to Gnana.
The ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ thought, the ego, belongs to
the duality as does the universe thought. The yogi may get the knowledge that the
formless witness [subject] is separate from three states [object], but he will
never know ultimate truth or Brahman, without inquiring into the universe,
because he is giving up the universe, and hence cannot discover his unity with
the universe or diversity. The Gnani regards everything in the universe as consciousness,
which is ultimate truth or Brahman; the yogi rejects the universe. Thus there
is a fundamental difference.
Yoga is alright so far as it goes but one
has to look at the world, which confronts him. Everyone has to eat and they
have to attend to all these physical necessities of the body. Therefore no yogi
can remain without ideas in Samadhi thro' out the 24 hours. Once out of Samadhi
he is like every other ignorant man, unless he indulges in deeper self-search.
As soon as the yogi comes down from Samadhi
he finds the world that confronts his to be real. If he did not why does he
seek their food again?
People who say the world is unreal are
like the fox in the sour grapes in the fable. The people do not know ‘What mind is?’ ‘What the universe is?’ , and are unable to prove that, hence their glib
statement is worthless, not proceeding from understanding, or realization of Mind 's true nature, following inquiry into
it, but proceeding from some feeling of disappointment.
Without knowing what is mind and what is
the substance of the mind and without inquiry into the universe that confronts
him and its nature i.e. matter, there can be no such thing as Gnana.
The yogi assumes that he has realized ultimate
truth or Brahman. And he claims he realized it through by practicing Samadhi.
A
Gnani can explain what ultimate truth is,
but yogi says his experience of Samadhi
is ultimate state or Brahman. The yogic literature says this mystic experience
is liberation.” People being self-deluded they accept and indulge practicing
Samadhi without verifying their validity of the claim if they are true.
People say that they enjoy mystic
exaltation, trances, meditations and peace by practicing yoga for many years. Then
this state passed away. This proves he had attained a yogic condition, but not
Gnana. It vanished because it was not the highest insight. The Gnani, however
never loses his Gnana. Dislodging a Gnani from his insight is impossibility.
Once he has thoroughly seen the truth he simply can't fall away from it.
Many claim that they are enjoying mystic
exaltation and peace, but whether it passes away soon or endures the whole of
life, it is not Gnana, because it did not come through striving to investigate
the nature of the mind and universe, it came only through meditation on the
self; that is the yogic reward for such meditation but it is only one half. The
Gnani not only gets such inner peace but also truth because he has turned
outwards also and grasped the truth about matter, which is as much
consciousness as his self.
Yogi and mystics immersed into their
selves but they do not understand that that is only one half of the truth and
that this immersing is also a mental
discipline to fit their minds to understand the true nature of the mind or universe ,which confronts them, which
understanding they must next get if they are to become Gnani.
Gita,
Chap.XII Krishna tells Arjuna: - that knowledge of both
matter and mind is the True knowledge.
Everyone has the
inborn conviction or samskara that, he is an individual separate from the world
and world existed prior to him the born in this world afterwards. Until this conviction is there the ignorance
is there. Until ignorance is there one
thinks he is living in this world, and he has to eat and move and work in the
external environment. No one can get away from it. It is one’s life. But one is unaware of the fact that, the
universe in which man experiences his individual life as reality itself is mere
illusion. This illusion is experienced
as reality due to ignorance. Thus one
has to get rid of the ignorance to realize our experience of the birth, life,
death and the world are falsehood. Therefore we ought to know, understand and grasp
on what standpoint the universe is illusion to realize what is real and what is
unreal. The yogi or mystic who refuses
to do so is refusing to face the whole of reality. Visions and Samadhi’s are
illusions from ultimate point of view.
In Sutra
Bashya and Mandukya it is given that Samadhi and sleep are identical. And Brihad Upanishad does not
advocate Samadhi.
It is not possible to stop thought for
more than a half-second whilst in the waking experience. If one succeeds in
controlling thought and then banishes it, one passes into Nirvikalpa Samadhi,
which is identical with deep sleep. The only difference between ordinary deep
sleep and Samadhi therefore is that the ordinary man falls asleep involuntarily
whereas the yogi has the satisfaction of knowing that he has passed into sleep
by his own effort of will in banishing thoughts.
Patanjali warns against sleep as a hindrance
to yoga, he means when it occurs in the early stages of the practice before one
has obtained the power of control and consequently to banish thought. This fact
that Samadhi is deep sleep is kept secret because people would not be tempted
to take up yoga. Then what is the value of it? Why, to sharpen the mind, to
enable it to keep away all extraneous thoughts when one gets out to reason in
the practice of the next higher stage, i.e. Gnana.
Yoga is thus simply a sharpening-stone for the
mind to enable it to take up Gnana. Living without thoughts is Impossible. The
very thoughtless state itself is a thought.
Holding the thoughtless thought and entering the Samadhi is
impossible without the thought of thoughtlessness. How can one enter the
Samadhi without the thought of thoughtlessness?
He does not know the Gnanic truth
if he says thoughtlessness is the perfect stage of self.
When thoughts are stilled, it is not the
Self that is found. It is only mind. Thus Yogic Samadhi is not Gnana and
therefore yogi does not know highest truth. Yoga is good to give peace and
concentration, but only in order to start reasoning, i.e. thinking again to
find truth.
Yogic Samadhi is not the goal but a
means to an end, i.e. Gnana. Samadhi in itself is useless, because the mind is
withdrawn and there is no memory of it until after it is over and one returns
to waking experience. Yogi who attains Samadhi:
it is only sleep.
Yogi who is said to experience
non-duality in his ecstasy must still come back to normal state and see the world
confronts him, after his ecstasy. And then he will find that world separates
from him because he has ignored it and not tried to understand it. Only the
Gnani can say of the external world, "This is Brahman, Mind." and
prove his statement, and that it is none other than the innermost-self.
Many yogis are largely pretenders or
self-deluded. They think they are masters who can lead the whole humanity. They
set themselves up as different from others. Many yogis promise blessings etc.
to those who surrender their wealth or person to them. Many here live
questionable lives with women disciples. They seek influence over others, or wealth, by
thus differentiating themselves. They
market their yogic product in spiritual super market. A Gnani never does this.
If a yogi says "I feel Bliss"
who is having the experience? His 'I' is the ego. Hence that is not the highest
Gnana. If one carefully examines the
experiences of mystics, than he finds that they do differ. It is superficial to
say that yogis and mystics all have the same experience.
In dream one knows that the dream
figures are also mind, not different from it; similarly when one knows that
everything is consciousness, there is no need for yogic control of mind.
Control presupposes second, a duality. Hence yoga is in the sphere of duality
and is unnecessary to one who knows non-duality.
Self-Knowledge requires the mind to be
active in order to examine the world and discriminate. Hence nondual wisdom
means knowing that there are no ideas different from the inner most self, which
is in the form of consciousness, as the dream mountain is not different from
Mind, knowing which they automatically the mind reaches stillness. This is
different from Yogic Samadhi, which is only deep sleep.
The Yogis and Mystics want meditation,
sitting still, etc. only because it gives them pleasure: the satisfaction is
for their own selves only, not others; hence it is something sought by the ego
and cannot get ultimate truth or Brahman in consequence.
The Yogi wants to do something, some action, even that of
sitting still, to control this or concentrate that. This means he is still
attached to his physical body. He wants his physical body to be quiet. He is
still thinking of illusory physical body. He does not know that, the physical
body is part of the mirage. On the contrary, he takes it for a reality.
The world must be seen before one can
know its true nature in Gnana. The yogi, who shuts it out, thereby deprives
himself of the opportunity to achieve Gnana.
The yogi must go to the ashram, some
special place, some cave or other. Whoever must sit in a posture is attached to
the body.
Inquiry must begin with duality, i.e.
with a world to inquire into. It will end with unity. The yogi tries to avoid
this duality by ignoring the universe. Hence he gets a false unity only.
The seekers of truth will inquire and
practice discrimination. The ultimate
truth has to be attained not by intuition but by reason, which is superior to
it. Not even a combination of intellect and intuition will find truth.
Yoga
will only let one know what he imagines. Self-Knowledge is the sum of all
sciences. Scientists think only of the external world, the seekers of truth the
inner self. Both are needed. Answers to prayers are imagination, due to
chance. Religion and Yoga are useful
from utilitarian view points, but from point of view of seeking truth they are useless.
Yoga
belief is a self-mesmeric condition out of which it is extremely difficult to
escape.
Yoga
has its place rather than its value and that its value is for a certain type of
mindset. Yoga will remove restlessness,
receptiveness, but never Truth because it ignores the external world. Yoga cannot remove ignorance. It is only a
step. It removes obstructions.
Yoga can yield only duality because
everything that one can do or practice becomes a vanishing 'known.' It yields
relative truth, i.e. true from a particular viewpoint, not ultimate truth.
Yoga implies duality! Yoga = joining two
things, a something to which the yogi is to be joined. He thinks I want to know
God, I want to attain Union. So he has the ego and cannot attain. Whereas the
first thing in path of truth is to question the ‘I’ until its illusory nature
is perceived and the seeker no longer says "I want to attain ultimate
truth." One has nothing to get for the self, as it has vanished on
inquiry, not even will he say I will work for the sake the humanity.
The ordinary yogi follows yoga, wants to
sit in a place and think "I’ am shutting my eyes, ‘I’ am sitting in a
room, ‘I’ am meditating." This egoistic yoga has nothing to do with Gnana.
[This has been pointed out even in
Mandukya Upanishad - p.229-30]
The yogi is always thinking in terms of
me and mine. He always thinks of what he is to get from his practice; whereas
in pursuit of truth the seeker first
examine and get rid of this ‘I’ by inquiry for he wants truth, not something
for the self. The yogi says "I’
want to gain Samadhi”. A Gnani wants to gain nothing for he knows, ‘I’ is mind.
And mind is in the form of the whole universe. The universe appears as waking or dream and
diapers as deep sleep. The formless
substance and witness of the three states is the consciousness, which is the
inner most self. The inner most self is ultimate truth and ultimate truth is
Brahman.
Suppose one says the self is the energy
than he has to become aware of that energy, which is cause of the universe and its contents without the
forms and names. When one becomes one’s body and his experience of the universe
itself is mere mirage created out of energy than he will become aware of the
fact there is no other energy other than consciousness. The consciousness is
ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is
the innermost self. The inner most self
is Brahman or god.
Yoga and religion are egocentric. Egocentricity
is individuality. Individuality is cause
of duality. Duality is cause ignorance. Ignorance is cue of experiencing
illusion as reality. Yoga basis itself on the ego and does not kill it. The
Gnani alone can conquer the ego which he does by penetrating to the
understanding of its illusory nature.
All ecstasy, exalted feeling is reality
within the illusion. And illusion is something known. Whatever is known is and
objects. The subject is formless substance and witness of the object.
Thus universe is an object. Thus one has
to find the formless subject in order to unfold the mystery of the universe.
Yoga practice is that it temporarily
suppresses ego. What the yogi does not understand is that while he talks of
experiencing bliss in trance, he reveals the presence of an ego which is the
experiencer. Thus his experience of the
bliss and trace is individual whereas the self is not individual it pervades in
everything and everywhere in all the three states. To transcend bliss and to
transcend trance, one must have gone into, through and out of Yoga.
Yoga lulls the ego to sleep but it will
reappear when the practice is ended, the only way to overcome the ego is to
realize ‘What is mind? ‘What is the substance of the mind?’ and ‘What is the
source of the mind?’.
It is not enough to see a mere nothingness.
One has to see consciousness as the universal self, which pervades in
everything and everywhere in all the three states. One is free from ignorance
not when he sees nothing at all, as in Yoga but only when he sees this entire
universe as consciousness, which is the true self. Hence seeker must ask the
question “What is this universe?” in order to realize the ultimate truth or
Brahman.
Sankara says
[page
132-133 of his commentary on Brihadaranyakopanishad]:-
Yoga
is not the means of liberation
Neither Yogic Samadhi or bliss or
worldly pleasure should be allowed to draw one away from evenness; for neither
can give ultimate truth or Brahman. When the one is distracted by either,
either internal or external bliss, it should by effort be drawn back to
steadiness, evenness. This state alone yields the ultimate truth or
Brahman. Intellectually knowing the
truth is only an imagination, whereas realizing the truth knows it as such.
Yogis assume that, thoughtlessness will
give experience of ultimate reality. How can one keep out a portion of consciousness?
It is utterly impossible. It is erroneous to say that such thoughtlessness
experience is possible Moreover even if it were possible, what is it that the
yogi will keep out? They will only be keeping out reality! The universe is none
other than consciousness, as everything is consciousness. The yogi has got the
idea of duality and therefore cannot realize truth.
Even the mind, which is in the form of
universe disappear in deep sleep. Mind is changing and unreal. It passes away
every moment. The consciousness appears as waking or dream [mind] and
disappears as deep sleep [no mind].
Yogic experience of bliss is not wisdom,
for Bliss is something one have to experience, therefore it will have to go as
it came; hence it is only part of the duality. Duality is an object to the
formless subject. Yogis seek bliss through ignorance because he has accepted
the ‘I’ as self.
The yogi who wants to go to mountains or
an ashram to acquire self –knowledge has not risen above thinking of his body,
and will not be able to acquire self-knowledge. For he wants to take his body
from one place to another in the belief this will bring realization of the self.
Yogis make the fundamental mistake of assuming
that these are things meditation or actions which are other than consciousness.
The very idea they concentrate on is itself consciousness and hence needs no
special effort. It is impossible to treat the mind as different from soul,
which is in the form of consciousness. The Awareness i.e. consciousness must be
there prior to all attempts to control the mind: therefore it is a fallacy to
believe that any yogic exercise can create this awareness, this knowledge of
self.
Katha Upanishad [Chap.4 V.12]:- says:- "Atman is meditated upon as the size of
thumb in heart" i.e. for yogis who cannot concentrate without concrete
picture, such an idea is useful. Some
sages declared Atman was in the heart, later with Patanjali in the lotus in the
head.
If in the head it showed ignorance of
relation between mind and brain. When self, which is consciousness is
immeasurable than how one can localize mind. The consciousness is not limited to head or
heart because it pervades the whole universe. All these statements must not be believed but verified
because deeper self-search revels the fact that, the self is formless,
therefore question heart, brain, mind does not arise.
When Yogi comes out of Nirvikalpa Samadhi
than immediately duality confronts him again. His peace goes, for it depended
on the non-duality of Samadhi-sleep. Hence no yogi attains true peace, but
imagines it.
When one sees second thing and though
seeing it know it to be consciousness, then he get Gnana. On the other hand,
Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the non-seeing of the second thing; hence cannot yield Gnana,
for the yogi does not see and does not know what the univrse is.
If one grasps and understands and
assimilates non-duality then it is impossible to have any doubt. And doubt is
the essence of error, mistake and delusion. Those who are not established in non-duality
have to guess, or imagine, i.e. doubt.
Yogi says everything is Brahman, but
cannot prove it. The Gnani says the same thing; even this universe is Brahman,
but he can prove it.
If one feels ecstatic or exalted peace
in the presence of yogi or mystic is not the truth it is mere feeling. People,
who are disturbed, agitated, troubled, unhappy finds tranquility at Ashrams,
because there was restlessness, probably over business, family or finance etc.
But that is because they do not know truth and they mistake this peace for
Brahman or ultimate truth. It merely indicates the state of mind possessed on
arrival at Ashram; they had a mental disease and the ashram cured it for the
time. There is no permanent cure however without Gnana, and Yoga does not yield
Gnana.
If one is imaginative or poetic,
mysticism and religion is suitable for him, but not path of wisdom. In
religion there is element of imagination. Ordinary peoples have limited view
and they like their religion because it gives them some sort of satisfaction and please their taste. Wisdom discards religion and yoga because they
are based on the false self and false experience.
Emancipation can occur without yoga.
What can be done by yoga can be done by Gnana. Yoga alone leads to Samadhi, but
Gnana also liberates one from experiencing the illusory experience of birth,
life, death and the world as reality. .
If it is said that one gets Gnana in
yogic Samadhi in which there is no duality, it is no better than deep sleep. If
it be said that there is a direct cognition in profound contemplation in which
there is no difference between the perceiver and the perceived and in which no
duality can occur; then why not admit the same in deep slumber. If it be objected that there is no
knowledge of the nature of self [soul or Atman] in deep sleep, then one admit
that self- knowledge only is true
knowledge and not the absence of duality.
That consciousness remains as the sole
real factor, means that there should be self – realization that is, Consciousness
as the sole entity and not a not a mere absence of the cognition of the universe;
otherwise there would be no such thing as emancipation in this life.
Those people, who talk of experiencing
the supreme reality, do not know that the word experience implies something
else, a second to be experienced, i.e. duality, i.e. non-reality, and those who
talk of "direct knowledge" of reality again do not perceive that
knowledge implies a second thing to be known; i.e. duality exists. i.e. no reality
here!
To know the supreme reality means to
know the complete negating of all that is not this reality. Hence one does not
make an object of it.
The notion of attaining Nirvikalpa
Samadhi, complete blankness, non-seeing the universe is for those who are still
in fancy stages in their pursuit of truth. The universe must be seen but known
for what it is, mental.
Many yogis teach that Brahman is in the
top chakra of the skull; that therefore we have to ascend there. This is mere
imaginary theory based on the false self or ego. Nirvikalpa Samadhi helps one
to renounce attachments, it is a corrective medicine to remove this disease;
hence it is for seekers only who are still on the disciplinary or infancy level.
For peace of mind does not necessarily indicate truth; one can get it by taking
opium or ganja.
Yogic Samadhi cannot get one Gnana. Yoga
is useful in preparatory stages. Realization thro’ yoga is merely bait to
seekers to adopt his preliminary state, but it is not literally true. Yoga
cannot give Gnana. Those with weak minds tire soon and cannot keep up the
concentrated inquiry into truth, the three states etc. without which one cannot
grasp nonduality and their real meaning.
Some texts in some of the Upanishads
which assert that the soul returns to Brahman in Samadhi are another form, a
different standpoint. When one sees all the three states, that is one
standpoint, but when he is in waking experience and takes his stand on that,
the view is lower and different. If opponent says world is real from waking experience,
then a different argument is given him from one who can understand Mandukya and
see it as idea. Mandukya Upanishads alone gives the ultimate truth basis. The
other Upanishads treat from a lower standpoint to help beginners.
One who is in Samadhi will not know that
this universe is consciousness; therefore yoga is not the means to self-
knowledge. In Samadhi the yogi knows nothing, sees no universe; so if there be
nothing whatever, how can yogi know that the universe which is something is consciousness?
If the universe is not seen in Samadhi than why are word Atman and Brahman are
used?
By shutting his eyes in Samadhi yogi do
not know the universe, which confronts him. Hence the universe can't be known
as Brahman through yoga alone. One is in a non-dual condition in sleep or Samadhi,
One without a second, true, but he did not know it at the time. You say only in
the waking experience afterwards. Hence there must be inquiry so that you find
non-duality whilst you are awake, so that you can see nonduality at the time
not afterwards. Hence too the need of inquiring into the universe and knowing
it as Brahman whilst one is awake, and not during sleep or Samadhi.
When can one say there is no error in his
knowledge? When one sees all the three states as consciousness, which the true
self; then there will be no doubt. Hence one must see the beings and objects,
if he is to see them as consciousness, the true self. But sleep and Samadhi
does not show them to him. Hence their knowledge is not perfect, not free from
error and doubt.
The completion of the course of Yoga,
whether Raja or Dhyana leads as Patanjali rightly says in sloka 1 to stopping
of all ideation. When this is attained, only one thing can then occur--the yogi
will enter a condition like sleep. "Like," because he will have done
it by set effort and voluntarily, whereas ordinary man falls into sleep
involuntarily and when Patanjali lists sleep as one of the five hindrances, he
means that while a practitioner is still struggling and has not yet attained
his goal of concentration, naturally to fall asleep prematurely is a sign of
failure.
The ignorant emerging from deep sleep
does not regard his body and his experience of the world as consciousness,
which is the true self but he thinks he is an individual separate from the
world. Hence he feels duality as reality, similarly, with the yogi. The one,
who does not see duality, can have no Gnana. A Gnani sees, and says all this is
illusion made out of consciousness, which is the true self. Hence there is
unity in diversity, whereas, the yogi who enters Samadhi or sleep has none to
start with.
Gnanic Samadhi is Sahaja Samadhi that is
natural state of the self. In natural states in which self is in full
wakefulness, and then one asks what is meant by this universe, the universe is
seen in this Sahaja Samadhi. Whereas Yogic or Nirvikalpa Samadhi, is just like
swoon or deep sleep, where one is unaware of anything, not even the universe.
[See page 640,641 and
verse 132,133 of Tattireya upanishad and panchadeshi regarding this].
