VEDANTAM FOR BEGINNERS ( END) - 47. SWAMI SIVANANDA
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Saturday, 08 Jul, 2023. 05:30.
THE MAHA-VAKYAS :
TAT TVAM ASI
That Thou Art :
Post-47.
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NEED TO ASSUME A REFLECTION OF THE SELF :
Certain schools of Buddhism hold that there exists no witness other than the modifications of the intellect, which modifications are, by themselves, both the perceivers and the perceived. Even if we are to accept the need for a Knower to these modifications who will be constant (Knower should be the same in respect to all modifications, as based on the evidence of recognition, on the evidence of the inherent capacity to synthesise all modifications and relate it to one individual) and who will know or witness the presence or otherwise of these modifications, some schools of Vedantins hold that there is no need to assume a reflection of the Self.
Accepting this knower cannot solve the problem, for, when once agency is predicated of it in the act of knowing, it comes under the non-conscious group. Similarly, dispensing with the reflection of the Self, it cannot be argued that these modifications are known by themselves due to their proximity to the eternal Knower, the Self. The Changeless, Actionless Knower-Self is of no utility. If proximity to the eternal Self be the sole factor in mental modifications being known by themselves, then, we should grant mental modifications to all insentient beings since the eternal Knower-Self is all-pervading.
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TO WHOM IS THE TEACHING THOU ART THAT? :
Who is the aspirant to whom the words ‘Thou Art That’ are addressed? Who suffers pain and misery in ignorance and stands in need of the teaching ‘Thou Art That?’ The aspirant cannot be the eternal Witness Itself since It is untouched by ignorance and its effects. The aspirant cannot be either an agent. In that case, he cannot accept the idea, ‘I am Brahman, the Witness.’ As a result, the teaching ‘Thou Art That’ becomes a falsity and that position is not acceptable. The teaching can nevertheless be accepted, provided we grant indiscrimination due to ignorance between ego and the Self to the Sruti when it declares ‘Tat Tvam Asi.’
Should the Sruti discriminate between the ego and the Self, the foregoing defect arises, namely, that an agent to an action cannot be admitted to be the Witness. If it be said, like the Samkhyas, that the word ‘Thou’ finally refers to the Witness, the relation between the ego and the Self, in the absence of a reflection of the Self, should be established so that the word ‘Thou’ can have the implied meaning referring to the Witness.
The relation cannot be one of the Seer and the Seen, for it cannot be admitted in the case of the Witness which is devoid of activity. Neither can it be said that there exists an identity between the ego and the Witness though the latter is devoid of activity; there being no opportunity for the knowledge pertaining to that identity to exist in the absence of the knowledge of the relation that my Self, the Witness exists. The relationship cannot also be known through the scriptures on the following three grounds, viz., (a) The ego cannot know the relation as it is unconscious, (b) similarly in the case of the Witness-Self because It is changeless and actionless, and (c) the non-conscious ego cannot be taught by the Sruti. Granting that there still exists a relation between the ego and the Self, the knowledge of such relation can only be one of ‘mine’ and in no case one of identity.
To accept that the non-conscious intellect appears to be conscious, is to accept that the modifications of the intellect also appear to be so like sparks of red-hot iron. It should be noted that the act of pervading the intellect on the part of the Self-Witness, like fire pervading a mass of iron, is not a change on the part of the Self; the same has been refuted in the example of the mirror and the face. Further, it should be understood that an illustration and its subject can nowhere bear absolute similarity in all respects.
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Conclusion:
The knowledge on the part of the people of the appearance of the mental modifications and the disappearance of the same is possible on reasonable grounds only on account of (a) the existence of the Witness-Consciousness-Self and (b) the Limit (after a certain limit, the Self alone exists when everything else is negated). And on the acceptance of the reflection of the Self, it can be admitted that the intellect may know itself to be Brahman, for words that denote directly the reflection of the Self or the ego and other things which reflect the Self, indirectly imply the eternal Self. It has already been stated that the reflection is not real.
Nowhere in the Scriptures has it been stated that intellect is conscious; in that case, if it be conscious, we should attribute consciousness to the physical body and the senses too. Then the position of Charvakas comes in and that is neither desirable nor acceptable.
If the intellect be insentient, as it is, then in the absence of a reflection, the knowledge ‘I am Brahman’ is not possible. The teaching ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ will become useless as a result, i.e., ‘in the absence of the possibility for the existence of the knowledge ‘I Am Brahman.
Therefore, the teaching ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ is only for those who can discriminate between the Self and the non-Self and who can understand the word ‘thou’ to directly mean the reflection of the Self in the intellect and indirectly to imply the eternal Self.
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