saattvika tyaagam

[Ravi]

There is a profound and beautiful step in shrIvaiShNava rituals called
saattvika tyaagam. Even though we (smaarta-s) do phala tyagam at the
end using the mantra "kaayena vaacha", we do not observe the saattvika
tyaagam. Dont you  think we should adopt this?

In principle, this (saattvika tyaagam) involves three parts. They are


1) Giving up the notion of "I am the doer" or sense of agency, kartrtva
tyaagam. God alone is the doer. Having the notion, I am the doer is
false. Hence we abandon this false notion.

2) When an action is performed it produces effect, the notion that the
action performed by me produced such and such effects is wrong. The
dominion of cause and effect belongs to God and not to us. Giving up
this false notion of my action was responsible for this is called
mamata tyaagam. Again we are abandoning a false notion which deceives
our mind.

3) Third is the phala tyaagam. It is a natural consequence of step 1
and 2, when the action is not ours, its cause and effect is not ours,
how can the results be ours. Only those who suffer from the pang of I
am the doer will suffer/enjoy the fruits of the action. We pray to God
to take away even fruits whatsoever may cling on to us.

This renders the whole karma, saattvika. I want to remember this (even
if do not say any mantra) while doing sandhya etc. Do you think it
conflicts with our sampradaayam, I think it does not. Please do correct
me.

AUM shrImAtre namaH


--
Ravi <miinalochanii at yahoo.com>
miinalochanii paashamochanii shive paahi shive paahi
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/7587/meenakshi/

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>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Thu Oct  7 22:21:57 1999
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Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 22:21:57 -0400
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From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
Subject: Re: saattvika tyaagam
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Ravi wrote:

>>>There is a profound and beautiful step in shrIvaiShNava rituals
called saattvika tyaagam. Even though we (smaarta-s) do phala tyagam
at the end using the mantra "kaayena vaacha", we do not observe the
saattvika tyaagam. Dont you  think we should adopt this?<<<

This wreaks havoc with the advaitic philosophy that Ishvara is only
the phaladAtA. That Ishvara is only phaladAta is brought out clearly
in the trishatI bhAshhyam, when sha.nkara argues against the
mImA.nsaka-s. I forget the verses now.

If one believed that Ishvara was really the doer, then why go through
3 steps or any steps at all for that matter? One would just quietly go
about letting things happen. In any case all this is completely
delusional, sorry but that's my view. As per this process one gives up
the delusion that he is the doer (or claims to) and gets into a bigger
delusion that Ishvara is the doer. That's absurd. I am sure someone or
the other will take offense, but I have to say this since I feel this
practice has no place in advaita.

First of all doership itself is illusory as per advaita. On top of
that doing something and then attributing that to the supreme is quite
ridiculous and would wreak total havoc with advaita.

As per mImA.nsA shAstra Ishvara is never the doer. bhagavAn kumArila
bhaTTa makes things quite clear. One can either do actions and
appropriate the benefits, which are temporary. This leads to a never
ending cycle of births and deaths. Or one should do only the daily and
occasional rituals, which will lead to moksha finally. Advaitins are
completely in agreement except that a) Ishvara is the phaladAta and
not adR^irshhTa (please see Anand's recent explanation on this topic)
and b) the daily and occasional rituals are not the direct means of
moxa, but rather lead to purification of mind which makes one ripe for
GYAna.

In any case, if any practice is not followed by smArta-s, then why
adopt it? The best minds have been working at these things for
thousands of years and they have a big enough task list for people to
do. So, there is no need to look at new things from other traditions
:-).

Rama

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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