[Advaita-l] Request for answers

[khaaksaar]

Hari Om, Shri Murthyji and friends, Pranaams!

In our humble opinion, these questions can only be answered,
satisfactorily, from the standpoint of one’s own direct *anubhava*—here and
now—by taking recourse to the Upaniṣad mantras dealing with one’s true
*svarupa*.

Accordingly, to address the central point of these questions, we present
below two such mantras from the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* translated by
Swāmī Mādhavānanda:

3.7.23 …the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. He is never seen, but
is the Witness; He is never heard, but is the Hearer; He is never thought,
but is the Thinker; He is never known, but is the Knower. There is *no
other witness but Him, no other hearer but Him, no other thinker but Him,
no other knower but Him.* He is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self.
Everything else but Him is mortal.

The same message is reiterated in the following mantra:

3.8.11  This immutable, O Gargi, is never seen but is the Witness; It is
never heard, but is the Hearer; It is never thought, but is the Thinker; It
is never known, but is the Knower. There is no other witness but This, no
other hearer but This, no other thinker but This, no other knower but This.

Further corroboration can be sought from the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad*
mantra 3.4.2: You *cannot* see the Witness of the vision, hear the Hearer
of hearing, think the Thinker of thought, know the Knower of knowledge. How
so? Yajñavalkaya says you cannot *see* the Witness because it is the
witnessing principle itself, and so forth.

In this regard, Shankara’s commentary on Kena Upanisad 2.4 is also
worthwhile to explore: *nānyat dvāram ātmano vijñānāya*: There is no other
door to Its awareness. (Gambhirananda’s trans.). This is the uplabhadhi
dvaram उपलभ्धि द्वारं....

The whole thing boils down to *intuiting* who is the knower, who is the
seer, who is the illuminor (*prakashaka*) of these. It is the *chaitanya
vastu*, the Self, the ever-present witnessing consciousness, the substratum
of all empirical dealings.

In *A**̄**gma Prakaran**̣**a* 12th Karika, we find: *turyaṃ tat sarva druk
sadā*: Turīya is ever existent and ever all seeing (Nikhalananda, trans.).
When this truth is known, says GK 1.7(18), duality ceases to exist-- ज्ञाते
द्वैतं न विद्यते

नान्यः पन्था विद्यतेऽयनाय॥ *nānyaḥ panthā vidyate'yanāya*, says the
Svetasvatarupanishad 3.8: There is no other path.

Srigurucharansarojrajaratah,

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 6:05 PM sreenivasa murthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>  Dear Sri Shiva P,I thank you for your posting.
> I may please be pardoned for the delay in acknowledging it.
> With respectful pranams,Sreenivasa Murthy
>
>     On Tuesday, 9 June, 2020, 5:41:00 pm GMT+1, Shiva P via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>  Namaskaram.
>
> To whom do these questions arise? You spoke of "we" and "the senses", "the
> mind", "the states". So it follows there is a relationship between "us", or
> said subjectively, "me" / "you", and our senses, our mind, and our
> transition between the states, that we are aware of.
>
> There is a state of deep sleep ("turiya"), when we aren't aware of the
> aforesaid body and it's senses, or the mind and it's thoughts, or even the
> sense of our self (the "me" we associate with, the "ahamkara").
>
> In that state there are no questions, no associations, and yet there was a
> "you" sans any associations, which is there now too.  That is you ("tat
> tvam asi"), the real you, the "atman", the eternal witness.
>
> The "ahamkara" arises (and so does the entire universe arise), and so do
> these questions we seek answers to too. The questions, the quest, and the
> seeking is all the "ahamkara" (the intermediary between your body-mind, the
> universe and you), looking for it's source, the "atman", the real you, for
> the answer came before the question.
>
> I hope this helps.  I don't consider myself a learned member, and I'm sure
> there will be more erudite answers forthcoming.
>
> Best wishes.
>
> Shiva
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 4:58 AM sreenivasa murthy via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > Dear Friends,
> >
> >  How  are  we aware  of  the  senses  or  of  the  sensations
> > themselves?
> >
> >
> > How  do  we  come  to  know the  mind  or  its  intuitions  themselves?
> >
> >
> > And  how  do  we  come  to  know  the  presence or  absence
> >
> >
> > of  the  mind  itself  together  with  its  various  modifications?
> >
> > How  do  we  ksow  the  appearance  and  disappearance  of the  States?
> >
> > I request the learned  members  of  this  group  to
> >
> > clarify, in  the light of  the vedanta,  the above  doubts  of  mine.The
> > clarifications  are  needed  to  be verified  here  and  now.The  help
> > will be  acknowledged  with  a deep  sense  of gratitude.
> > With respectful namaskars,Sreenivasa Murthy
> >
> >
> >
> >
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