[Advaita-l] adhyAsa ~ rAga or bandha ?

[Sujal Upadhyay]

Pranams Shri Karthik ji,

In vedAntA, everything is related to mind. Mind is given high importance,
others being buddhi, followed by ahamkAra. Chitta is retention of
iSvarAnurAga (ISvara-anurAga - staying attracted towards ISvara or being
rooted in Heart or Self like chAtaka bird always pointing it's beak towards
sky waiting for raindrops so as to quench it's thirst).

rAga and dveSa do not imply samsAra to be mithyA or explain adhyAsa or
adhyAropa-apavAda or infact teach mind to be anAtmA. IMHO, adhyAsa is a
step further then rAga and dveSa

To come to a conclusion,
rAga and dveSa are generally explained with aim to control mind and
generate vivekayukta-vairAgya. This increases sattva guNa which is capable
of tyAga. It helps make one sAdhana-sampanna, a sAttvika sAdhaka.
adhyAsa is explained later on to sAtvika sAdhaka, an advanced seeker, who
already has cultivated good amount of sAdhana-chaTusTaya qualities who has
sattva guNa at it's peak and is dominant guNa --> this indicates one is
ready for mental renunciation.

LakshyArtha of rAga and dveSa is mind control and detachment. It is to make
mind capable to do japa or nididhyAsana.
LakshyArtha of adhyAsa is to experience nirvikapla samAdhi.

rAga or dveSa is completely removed only when one attains moksha, like jaDa
bharata though a GYAnI got attracted towards a deer.
adhyAsa helps one sustain detachment from rAga and dveSa thereby granting
moksha or jivan mukti.

Just my 2 CC

--

Some notes for seekers -

rAga and dveSa are qualities of mind, which keeps one bound to samsAra.
These are natural tendencies of mind.

adhyAsa is the phenomenon which when digested in heart will increase
vivekayukta vairAgya. It also helps sAdhaka to rise above mind. When one
knows that even this jagat is nothing but mithyA i.e. not the complete
reality as it keeps changing, and when this thought becomes powerful will
remove the false notion of 'I' being anAtmA (mano budyamkAra chittAni nAham
...)

So with this knowledge, consciousness i.e. aham 'I' detaches itself from
mind, thoughts, emotional attachment (rAga-dvesha), et al. It no more gets
involved or gets itself dragged into the scene or thoughts or worry or
incident or tries to find a solution or keeps longing for object or person
whom you have rAga or tries to run away / push away that which causes
dveSa.

Consciousness rises above mind by being a sAkshi (witness). Mind cannot
stay without being attached to any object. So when mind is so conditioned
that it no more longs for samsAra, it turns itself towards the source of
it's power which is Atman (here ISvarAnurAga plays the role, else mind
keeps turning towards samsAra as it is not capable to turn itself towards
ISvara or Atman or Source).

Identifying rAga and dveSa will also help one stay detached, but the
problem is one may try to deal individually with each object or person
which causes rAga and dveSa and finally neutralize it's impact on our mind.
Again, when mind gets subtle or buddhi gets sharp (result is the same), it
has divine experiences. One may get overwhelmed such experiences and likes
to experience them again. This is also rAga - but difficult to be
self-recognised due to it's spiritual natural). Again, when there is no
rAga or dveSa, still mind can exist, it can still retain or cage
consciousness in body or itself thereby limiting it. You cant just detach
yourself from your body.

In this situation, mithyAtva and adhyAsa practically help you to rise above
mind (mano budhyamkAra ... is an intellectual path, buddhi merges in Atman)
Buddhi can control mind - a decision to rise above everything that is
experienced and turning towards it's source. (Turning towards source happen
naturally, ISvarAnurAga has to be in chitta). Just like a salt doll trying
to find depth of ocean, as soon as it steps into ocean, it beings o melt.
Finally, it does not exist individually to tell the depth of ocean, it is
now ocean itself.

mithyAtva and adhyAsa are also helpful when one enters into viGYAnamaya
koSa (causal body), here, the desires and thoughts do not have a shape,
they are raw energy, like menakA is energy of lust or sensuality and it
begins to take shape of the last image of person who has registered an
impact in your mind. But before it can take shape, this energy which is
instable and is actually a vAsanA, can be uprooted or fainted.


OM

Sujal


On Tue, Dec 4, 2018 at 3:54 PM H S Chandramouli via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Thanks.
>
> Regards
>
> On Tue, Dec 4, 2018 at 12:06 PM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
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