[Advaita-l] Ayudha Rahasya of Narayana

[Venkata sriram P]

Dear Shrinivasji,
 
The nitya anusandhAna prakaraNa for yati says that:
 
“nArAyaNaM sadA dhyAyEt nirAkAraM niranjanaM, 
ahaM brahma vijAnIyAt tEna muchyEta bandhanAt”
 
“Alokya sarvashAtrANi vichArya cha punaH punaH; 
idaM ekaM suniShpanna dhEyO nArAyaNaH sadA”
 
Now, yati dharma says that 
 
“dhyAnaM tu dvividhaM prOktaM saguNaM nirguNaM tathA; 
saguNaM sarvabhEdEna nirguNaM kEvalaM smritaM
 
So, saguNa dhyAna is for the purpose of upAsana 
and if the upAsaka is mature enough, he can perform the
“pravilApana prakriya” through the process of nyAsAs.  
 
Infact, the purpose of anga-nyAsa & kara-nyAsa and 
bhAvana of saguNa mUrti is to achieve the “niShprapancha sthiti”
which is a process of pravilApana.  
 
“nyAsa abhyAsAnniShprapanchaM sa tattvamanubhUyatE” 
which means by the practice of nyAsa, the ultimate existence is experienced.  
And the method of pravilApana prakriya and adhyArOpa paddhati is also similar.
 
“adhyArOpa apavAdAbhyAM niShprapanchaM prapanchayEt” 
 
And pravilApana prakriya is defined as:
 
“kAryavyatirEkENa kAryasya abhAva nishchayaH pravilApanamityE tat” ie.,
 
The firm conclusion that Effect doesn’t have existence distinct from Cause is termed as “pravilApana”.  
 
So, through proper nyAsas and bhAvana of saguNa mUri, 
the upAsaka be it grihastha or sanyasi, attains the mental maturity 
for sravaNa, manana, nidhidhyAsana.  
 
So, depending upon the stages of sanyAsa like kutichaka, bahudaka etc., there are Vidhi & niShEdhAs for yatis which again depends upon their mental maturity.  Satarudriya pArAyaNa, puruSha sukta nyAsa, praNavOpAsana, nArayaNa dhyAna, daNDa & kamaNDala dhAraNa are mandatory in initial stages.   Only one when attains the “paramahaMsa sthiti”, the words make sense like “jnAna daNDaM, jnAna shikhA”, “na bAhya dEvatArchanaM kUryAt”.
 
Afterall, the essence of Advaita is to perceive “nArAyaNa” internally & externally as the shruti declare “antar-bahischa tat sarvaM vyApya nArAyaNasthitaH”.  
 
Just as the severed cucumber gets dropped and severed "without any external effort",  the yati through nArayaNa smaraNa & dhyAna attains Jivanmukta-sthiti and the veil of mAyA automatically drops off.  
 
Regs,
Sriram