Summary:

In this session, we explore the three stages of deep understanding: shravana (listening), mananam (reflection), and nididhyasana (contemplation). These stages lead to different levels of spiritual development, from ajnani to jnani, including the stages of mumukshu, jijnasu, brahma-vid, and brahma-nistha.

The Kena Upanishad verses are examined, discussing the paradoxical nature of knowing Brahman and the importance of repeated listening and contemplation. Common mistakes in understanding Atma are addressed, such as expecting a sudden revelation or falling into subjective idealism.

The session emphasizes that awareness is evident in every cognition and that understanding Atma leads to immortality. It highlights the importance of personal effort in spiritual growth, accepting the duality of experiences, and recognizing Atma's nature as the presence revealing all experiences while remaining free from them. The teaching concludes by affirming that Vedanta's teachings are accessible here and now.

Kena Upanishad, Chapter 2, Verse 1:

In previous 2 sessions, we said to know anything deeply, past superficial surface, you need to have a mind that's naturally curious, whose goal is to deeply ascertain what's being said (shravana). While what's being said, doubts and resistance comes up. You're clearing them up by asking questions, seeing how the teaching relates to you, and helping yourself clear up those doubts. So second stage is mananam. Finally, even after you've removed doubts, your old orientations will still come back and continue producing havoc and even diminishing the value of what you learned. Thereby, you continue exposing your mind to the material to hear it from different standpoints. You continue thinking about it. Stage 3 is called nididhyasana (contemplating / thinking about it).

What do these 3 stages eventually culminate to?

• Ajnani (Not liberated)
  1. Mumukshu: Spiritual seeker. Anything goes. Mostly into action, practices, techniques. Very active and loud. Guru shopping. Mixture of rational ideas and the most outlandish ideas imaginable.  
  2. Jijnasu: One who is in process of knowing Brahman. Recognized that knowledge is the key to liberation. Growing clarity by re-listening. Brahman is still an image in mind.
• Jnani: (Liberated One)
  1. Brahma-vid: Knower of Brahman. Akhanda-akara-vrtti (ignorance removed). 
     • Due to jijnasu stage, person has emotional maturity, devotion, acknowledging helplessness, ethics, prayer, bringing Ishvara into life.
     • However mind still has habits of perceiving/engaging with world.
       • Old orientations don’t go away upon moksha. Still feel small. EG: “I am this much, all else is away from me”.
       • Explanation: In psychology, you may come to understand cause of your pain and release it. But pain associated doesn’t go at same time. Time-lag.
  2. Brahma-nistha: Whose vision is well established in knowledge of Brahman. What you understand and how live, is congruent.
     • You feel different about challenges, world, yourself.
     • Knowledge feels close to you.
     • No agenda, doing what is to be done. No need to show yourself. Appreciating Ishvara in all transactions.
     • Achieved How? Revisiting knowledge over and over. EG: “I practiced ahimsa yesterday; why do it again!”.
• YOUR CHOICE: While alive, can stay at Brahma-vid, or continue to Brahma-nistha. If in jijnasu, and delude yourself you’re Brahma-vid… bubble will pop.
• Example Why Repeated Listening & Contemplation is Crucial:
  • 5 wise people, all have different personalities, because each came with different prarabdha-karma.
  • Suppose you don't want to accept doctrine of Karma. In that case you’re forced to believe all wise people have same disposition of calmness/beard/etc.
  • That means when you encounter a wise person who doesn't match your description, you won't listen.
• NEXT VERSE: Extremely bright student (who truly gets it), replies…

Kena Upanishad, Chapter 2, Verse 2:

न अहम् मन्ये सुवेद इति नो न वेद इति वेद च
यः नः तत् वेद तत् वेद नो न वेद इति वेद च

na aham manye suveda iti
(I do not think, “I know it well!”),
na u na veda iti veda ca
(And I do not think, “I do not know it!”)
yaḥ naḥ tat veda tat veda
(He who understands this, he understands it),
na u na veda iti veda ca
([In other words] He does not think, “He knows it, he does not know it”)

I do not consider, “I know (Brahman) well.” Nor do I not know. I know and I do not know as well. Among us, whoever understands that statement ‘It is not that I do not know. I know and I do not know as well,’ he knows that (Brahman).

• Can’t say “I know Brahman”: If say “I know Brahman”, then I = subject, know = verb, and Brahman = object. Students says, to say “I know Brahman” is to know it as an object.
• Can’t say “I don’t know Brahman”: Because you’ve just been taught. You already are Brahman. Awareness is never away from you.
• Whoever understands above expression: Understands!
• The verse cuts through usual way of thinking of “I either know, or don’t know”. It’s paradoxical. Same as Koan in Buddhism.
• NEXT VERSE: Possible mistakes & their corrections in understanding Atma…

Kena Upanishad, Chapter 2, Verse 4:

प्रतिबोधविदितम् मतम् अमृतत्वम् हि विन्दते
आत्मना विन्दते वीर्यम् विद्यया विन्दते अमृतम्

pratibodha-viditam matam amṛtatvam hi vindate
([When] understood through every state of cognition, [It] is known; [one] indeed finds immortality)
ātmanā vindate vīryam vidyayā vindate amṛtam
(Through the Self, [one] finds strength; through knowledge, [one] finds immortality)

Brahman is known through every cognition. One, indeed, gains immortality (from that cognition). One gains the capacity (to know) by oneself. (Thereafter) one gains immortality by knowledge.

• Suppose person goes on a trip during Shravan, Manana, Nididhyasana. What are potential mistakes me makes?
• MISTAKE 1: EXPECTING ATMA TO SUDDENLY REVEAL ITSELF:
  • Generally when listening to Vedanta, one is expecting atma to appear. However atma cannot reveal itself more then it already does. Way before you knew Vedanta, atma was equally revealed, as when liberated.  If it’s always revealed, why does it elude us? Because focus is on objects.  Atma, is in whose presence, both subject and object are revealed.
  • CORECTION: pratibodha-viditam: Awareness is evident in every cognition. Final Reality is lighting up everyone’s mind for billions of years, and yet you want to produce it in this short lifespan.  Thus don’t wait for some experience to happen.   Awareness has nothing to do with your expectations/desires.
• MISTAKE 2: EXISTENCE OF WORLD DEPENDS ON YOUR MIND, WORLD IS ONLY IN YOUR MIND (SUBJECTIVE IDEALISM):
  • Often people make Atma, a subjective experience, by saying “If I (as mind) doesn’t exist, there’s no world”. Implying world depends on you.
  • QUOTE THAT SHOWS SUBJCTIVE IDEALISM: “If tree falls in forest and nobody hears it. Does it make a sound?”. Just because it wasn’t captured with a mind, doesn’t mean it didn’t fall, nor make a sound. It happened empirically. This is equivalent to saying “Atma is the mind”.
  • CORRECTION: There is one presence in whom bodies-minds come and go. Your mind can go, everyone else can still see/hear because of Atma.
• Amṛtatvam hi vindate: One who knows this, gains immortality. Self-evident presence, survives not only one form (your body-mind), but all forms. Even resolution of universe. When shift identity to self-evident presence, you reclaim your immortal nature. “Shifting identity” means your intellect has come to deeply understand, “This person, including this intellect is manifestation of knowledge-power, which collapses into Awareness, which is know right now as I am.”
• Ātmanā vindate vīryam: How to understand the vision? By own effort. Just like in BG, “You are your biggest enemy/friend”.
  • Involves:
    1. Relative self growth: Using emotions as indicators of your thought process (neither negative/positive, just indicators). Meditation, contemplation, listening. Grace.
    2. Accepting fact of dvanda: If it’s cold, can’t be hot. If you’re sad, can’t be happy.
    3. Understanding atma nature: Atma is presence that reveals cold/hot, sad/happy. In and through every dvandva. Itself is free from all dvandva.
• NEXT VERSE: All that Vedanta speaks of, is here and now, thus it’s possible to “get it”…

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Recorded 12 July, 2024