[Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** Three Impure Tendencies - The Multifaceted Jivanmukta

[Divya Meedin]

An excerpt from The Multifaceted Jivanmukta, page 610

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Three Impure Tendencies

It is important for one who is seriously striving to attain realization of
Brahman to eliminate not only desire, anger and greed but also, three types
of impure vāsanās or mental tendencies. This triad of vāsanās comprises
loka-vāsanā or mental impression relating to the world, śāstra-vāsanā or
mental tendency pertaining to the scripture and deha-vāsanā or latent
mental imprint concerning the body. These vāsanās prevent the dawn of
direct experience of the Truth. Thus, it is declared in the
Muktikā-upaniṣad, “True knowledge never dawns in a person with loka-vāsanā,
śāstra-vāsanā and deha-vāsanā.”

Vāsanās are the mental seeds owing to which feelings, such as of desire,
crop up quickly without being preceded by any deliberation. A boy who has
had the misfortune of being chased by a bull abruptly feels fear on
encountering another bull at some other time. The vāsanā engendered by the
initial experience is activated by the sight of the second bull and it
agitates the boy’s mind with fright. Countless vāsanās abide in the mind,
implanted and nurtured by the thoughts and experiences of the present and
previous lives. Good vāsanās aid spiritual progress while the bad ones are
antithetical to it. A bad vāsanā can be rendered impotent by assiduously
cultivating a vāsanā of the opposite kind. So a spiritual aspirant should
neutralize the impure vāsanās that plague him by developing appropriate
pure vāsanās.

Loka-vāsanā pertains to a fixation of the form, “I shall always conduct
myself in such a way that people do not censure me and, instead, they
praise me.” This vāsanā is an obstruction to a spiritual aspirant because
it demands what cannot be achieved. There will always be at least some
persons who disapprove of us or of what we have done.

Sītā was the exemplar of chastity. She even underwent an ordeal by fire to
confirm Her purity. Yet, the people of Ayodhyā cast aspersions on Her and
censured Lord Rāma Himself as being swayed by desire in accepting Her at
Lanka. If such be the fate of spotless Divinities like Rāma and Sītā, what
need be said about the fate of others? Hence, it has been stated, “There is
no available means by which one can satisfy all people.  So a man should
ever do what is right for him.” The texts on liberation advise the
spiritual aspirant to treat praise and censure alike; he should rid himself
of loka-vāsanā by realizing the futility of attempting what it entails.

Some points need to be noted with reference to the eradication of
loka-vāsanā. It does not imply that the aspirant nonchalantly dismisses the
views of others. He may certainly utilize the observations of others for
self-improvement; what he gives up is elation and displeasure when
appreciated and depreciated respectively. Conquest of lokavāsanā should be
attempted in the context of other spiritual disciplines. For instance, it
would not be beneficial for a boy who avoids bad company primarily because
he wants to earn a good name at home to blindly check this aspect of
loka-vāsanā without taking other steps. Further, one who tries to maintain
an image of being a rebel, who does not care about what others say, is also
under the grip of loka-vāsanā; conservation of that image is essential to
him.

Śāstra-vāsanā is of three types; obsession with study, preoccupation with
many subjects and marked squeamishness with regard to observances specified
in the scripture. The Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa contains a narrative that can
serve to illustrate the first kind of śāstra-vāsanā. Bharadvāja, the Veda
says, seriously applied himself to the study of the Vedas for three
successive births. In his fourth life too, he wished to strive
unremittingly. Taking pity on him, Indra explained the impossibility of
learning all the Vedas and then taught Bharadvāja about Brahman with
attributes. While Bharadvāja’s study of the Vedas was not wrong, it was his
obsession with mastering all the Vedas that was the problem. To get rid of
this type of ´śāstra-vāsanā, the aspirant should impress upon himself that
it is impossible to know a subject in its totality

Addiction to the study of many subjects is also bad. The story of Durvāsa
encountered  in the Kāvaṣeya-gītā is pertinent. Durvāsa, it is said, once
came to the assembly of Lord Mahādeva to pay his respects. He arrived with
a cart-load of books. Nārada made fun of him by comparing him to an ass
burdened with a great load on its back. Irritated and cured of his
obsession, Durvāsa dumped his books into the sea. Thereafter, Mahādeva
initiated him into the knowledge of the Ātman.

One should realize that the Supreme cannot be known by being preoccupied
with books on a variety of topics. Thus, the Kaṭha-upaniṣad declares, “This
Ātman is not attained through much study, through the power of grasping the
meaning of the texts or through much mere hearing.” Likewise, in the
Chāndogya-upaniṣad, we read that in spite of mastering a wide variety of
subjects, Nārada was not free from grief as he had not realized the Ātman.
To attain that sorrow-eradicating knowledge, he approached Sanatkumāra as a
disciple. It has been said, “What is the point in vainly chewing the filthy
rag of talk about sacred treatises? Wise men should, by all means, seek the
light of consciousness within.”

Sincere practice of scripturally ordained rituals is essential for a person
who has not progressed to the stage wherein he can dispense with rituals.
However, undue fastidiousness with respect to religious observances, which
characterizes the third type of śāstra-vāsanā, is an impediment. In the
Yoga-vāśiṣṭha, we encounter the story of Dāsura which is relevant here.
Dāsura, on account of his intense fastidiousness, was unable to locate a
single spot in the whole world adequately pure for him to perform his
religious rites.

Śrī Vidyāraṇya, who has elaborately dealt with the destruction of vāsanās
in his Jīvanmukti Viveka, points out that śāstra-vāsanā leads to pride of
learning. This is a reason, in addition to the impossibility of
consummating the needs of śāstra-vāsanā, for the śāstra-vāsanā being
labelled as impure.

Finally, we come to deha-vāsanā. This is of three kinds, the worst being
marked by the identification of the Ātman with the body. Such
identification is wrong because this view is opposed by the scripture and
because it is the cause of misery. Unfortunately, it is almost universally
prevalent. Being difficult to uproot, it must be assiduously tackled by
cultivating the right notion that the Ātman is distinct from the body

The second type of deha-vāsanā, is characterized by concern with the
acquisition of bodily grace. Motivated by the vāsanā of this kind, people
strive, for example, to beautify themselves by the use of cosmetics and to
purify themselves by bathing in rivers like the Ganga. Cleanliness, per se,
is laudable and is listed among the eight noble qualities that all should
acquire. In the yoga-śāstra, it is described as an important prelude to the
practice of meditation. What is problematic is the false belief that the
body can really and consistently be made gracious or pure; this leads to
effort to accomplish what is impossible.

Charm and sweet smell, for example, belong to the cosmetic and not to the
body, which is an assemblage of fat, flesh, bones, etc. A pretty attire
does not make the body different. Consumption of pepper to make the voice
melodious is not necessarily effective nor is the effect undecaying. A bath
makes the body externally clean but only for a short while. As for
scriptural means, such as a bath in the Ganga, to attain purity, it must be
noted that there are powerful scriptural passages to the effect that the
body is ever impure.

The third form of deha-vāsanā is related to the second kind; it is
characterized by the persistent effort to rid the body of flaws. Striving
to eradicate disease comes under this head. The problem is that diseases
cannot be always kept at bay nor can all ailments be cured. As for the
body, the scripture is emphatic that it is, by its very nature, the
repository of what is unclean. Thus, in the Maitrī-upaniṣad, we have, “O
Lord, this body is malodorous, insubstantial and a compact mass of skin,
bones, sinews, marrow, flesh, blood, semen, mucus, tears, rheum, urine,
excreta, bile and phlegm. What sense is there in gratifying one’s desires
in that?”

At this juncture, it is necessary to emphasize that the spiritual aspirant
should be clean and ought not to be negligent of health. A sick, dirty body
does not favour the practice of spiritual discipline. The aspirant should,
however, get rid of his longing to appear attractive and give up
preoccupation with health and freedom from bodily defects. It is noteworthy
that in the Yoga-sūtras it is specified that one who is established in
purity develops dispassion towards the body. Even normally, it is one who
bathes regularly who notices the foul odour of dry sweat and the like,
while a person who is habitually filthy is unlikely to do so. Thus, it is
the clean person who is better equipped to recognize the innate impurity of
the body.