PART – 1
Let us contemplate on Sadhana, or Spiritual Practices.
Vedanta, as I have told you, is a teaching of Self Knowledge. The teaching of Vedanta is ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, meaning ‘That You Are’ – ‘You are that’. What is ‘That’? That is Brahman, and ‘You’ is Jiva, and Jiva is Brahman – or Jiva and the Supreme Consciousness are one. Now, people misunderstand this teaching. They think that you have to become That – you have to become Brahman. No, you don’t have to become Brahman, you are already Brahman. You have to recognize that. So, that is the method of Vedanta.
PART – 2
Vedanta is ‘veda’ and ‘antha’ – ‘veda’ means knowledge, ‘antha’ means end; end of knowledge is called Vedanta. So, what is the end of knowledge? You have knowledge of yourself. I am not speaking about science, technology, or mathematics. You say, ‘I am body’, ‘I am mind’, ‘I am so and so’. Actually, this is a erroneous knowledge, wrong knowledge. Whatever you think you are is a wrong knowledge about yourself. That wrong knowledge, when it is corrected, is said to be the end of wrong knowledge.
Then what about right knowledge? Nothing has to be done to know right knowledge. Right knowledge shines by itself. When the clouds move, you don’t need to hold a torch to see the Sun. You don’t need some other knowledge to know the Sun. When the wrong knowledge moves, then
The Self is Pure Awareness. The Pure Awareness shines. Now, people misunderstand ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, thinking that I have to do something. Doing something is for becoming. But, you are Being. ‘No, I have to do karma, I have to do Bhakti, I have to do Kriya, I have to do Pranayama, I have to do breathing practice,I have to do something’. Doing is always related to becoming. Vedanta is pointing to Being. You are the Being, and that Being is Brahman, that Being is Pure Consciousness.
PART -3
Your mind is always focused on the object. It is focused on something outside, which makes you think that ‘I want to become something’. For Being, mind should not focus on anything, it should rest. The mind has to become deeply silent. Mind can become deeply silent, when you close your eyes. Mind is not going outwards, do some breathing practices, mind becomes silent and inwards, the outer part of the mind. When the outer part of the mind is silent, there is less disturbance in the Chitta, or the subconscious impressions. Let us say it settles down, all of it settle down. Then there can be doubts in the intellect, subtle doubts, about Self. So, you have to hold on to a reality that ‘I am Brahman’. It is not that ‘I have to become Brahman’, but ‘I am Pure Consciousness’, and remove all other thoughts, with this thought.
PART – 4
So, when you remove all other thoughts with this thought (‘I am Pure Consciousness’), in the light of the Vedantic teaching, in the light of authentic scriptures, authentic teaching, the intellect also becomes silent. The mind, intellect and Chitta become silent. The ego is actually nothing but a product of the wrong understanding about yourself. You are thinking that ‘I am the mind, body and intellect.’ But, what are you? “Naanu naanembudu naanalla, ee deha mana buddhi naanalla, sacchidanandatma Shiva naanu naane. Shivoham, Shivoham, Shivoham” – “I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect, but I am the Pure Consciousness, Witness of the body, mind and intellect, I am Pure Awareness, which is of the nature of Shiva, Auspiciousness.” This is the right understanding.
PART – 5
You have to hold on to this right understanding (I am Pure Awareness) whenever the thoughts come. Or, when some thoughts come, you can understand that these thoughts are nothing but the waves in consciousness, they appear and disappear – they are Mithya, they are not real. Atma alone, Awareness alone, is Satya. With these two understandings if you do meditation, then that meditation is not an object-oriented meditation, that is why it is called ‘Nidhidhyasa’. ‘Nidhi’ means wealth. ‘Dhyasa’ means awareness. It is not meditation – become aware of the wealth within you, which is Atma; don’t do anything.
PART – 6
So, Vedanta is pointing out to you that you don’t have to become anything to realize God; you are already That, you have to recognize it. There is an example given. There are ten people who cross a river. Then, there was a flood in the river. When one person started counting them, there were only nine people. And he started crying, thinking that one person is missing. Then, somebody pointed out, ‘No, you are there, you forgot to count yourself.’ Then he realized that he is the tenth person. Now, the realization happened within him. Like that, the intuition happens withing you, that I am Brahman, I am Pure Consciousness. There is no gain. It is only recognition. For recognition to happen, everything has to be silent. So, stop becoming anything. Through body you do something to become something; through mind you do something to become something; through intellect you do something to become something.
PART – 6
The definition of Nidhidhyasa – Nidhidhyasa is a process of doing nothing, which means stopping physical work; being nothing which means not superimposing your identity on the Atma. This is the ego, and the intellect. The Atma is not anything which you think of. It is Pure Awareness. Doing nothing, being nothing, seeking nothing. ‘Oh! No, no, no. During meditation I am seeking enlightenment.’ The seeking is the ego. When you recognize that You are what you are seeking, then there is no seeking. The seeking to become enlightened is actually a subtle desire, because still you are thinking that you are separate from Brahman, separate from Consciousness. You still have that doubt, you get it clarified through your Guru or Vedantic teaching. That doubt, you get clarified. Because, seeking is ‘I want to become something.’ That also has to go.
PART – 7
Now, there is seeking for experience. I want to experience joy, I want to experience happiness; at least, I want to see something, light or something coming in front of me. That is also seeking. Anything coming in front of you, or in your mind’s domain, is related to perception, called ‘Pratyaksha’, or mental domain, ‘Paroksha’ or indirect knowledge. So, even if the God comes in front of you, it will come because of the cultural conditioning – because of the religion or some problem, God will come in front of you. But, this is mental. So, God or Divinity is not mind or intellect, it is beyond that. That you can attain, only when there is stillness, silence.
PART – 8
When the mind is silent, when the body is silent, intellect is silent, that what is there? That is Pure Awareness, Consciousness. That is Supreme Reality, that is what you are. Everything else can be a preparation for that, whether it is Karma Yoga, Kriya Yoga, or Bhakti Yoga. But, Jnana removes the ignorance, and when the ignorance is removed, and intellect becomes silent – and it is not superimposing anything on the self – then the Self shines in its own glory. Self doesn’t require any other light to show Itself. It is Awareness Itself. When the clouds move, the Sun shines. The clouds in the mind move, then Self shines. There is nothing else required. Nidhidhyasa is – sit is Atmasthithi, be yourself. Do nothing, be nothing, seek nothing. Become aware of Awareness. It is like waking state – mind is fully active, aware, but you are in a deep sleep state, because there are no thoughts. In sleep also there are no thoughts, but mind has gone to dormant. There are no thoughts, mind is purely silent. This state is the state of your own being, your own self. It is called ‘Turiya’