[Advaita-l] Contemplating the Self - The Multifaceted Jivanmukta

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Divya ji
Are these phrases are composed by Sri Chandrashekhara  Bharati Swamiji
himself or part of a pre-existing work?

ātmāmbhodhes-taraṅgo’smy-aham-iti gamane (When
walking, one should think that one is a wave in the ocean that is the
Ātman).’

‘bhāvayann-āsanasthaḥ saṁvit-sūtrānuviddho maṇir-aham-iti vā’smi (When
seated, one should think that one is a gem strung on the string of
consciousness).

indriyārtha-pratītau draṣṭo’smy-ātmāvalokād-iti
(When perceiving sense-objects through the senses, one should think that
one is seen since the Ātman is beheld).

śayana-vidhau magna ānanda-sindhau (When lying
down, one should think that one is immersed in the ocean of bliss)

I remember these being quoted by a renowned scholar of Vedanta Sri
Yellamraju Srinivas a Rao ji.


Om
Raghav








On Mon, 11 Jan, 2021, 3:00 pm Divya Meedin via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> An excerpt from Chapter 6 - The Multifaceted Jivanmukta, page 97 (published
> by Sri Vidyatheertha Foundation)
>
> Chapter 6
> Contemplating the Self
>
> [The following is my rendering into English of a portion of His Holiness’s
> benedictory address delivered in Kannada, at the Sringeri Shankara Math,
> Bengaluru, on September 5, 1987. This discourse was the last of a series of
> six by His Holiness on His Guru. The occasion was a “Smaraṇa-Saptāha (A
> week of Recollection)” organised at the Math in which various speakers
> talked about H.H. Jagadguru Śrī Candraśekhara Bhāratī.]
>
> “When staying in Narasimhavana with my Guru, I used to go every evening to
> behold Śāradāmbā and remain there for up to an hour. “On my return, He once
> asked me, ‘You have crossed the river and come. What thought arose in your
> mind?’
>
> “ ‘What thought?’ I wondered and replied, ‘I perceived various objects.’
>
> “(He:) What was new?
>
> (I:) Nothing. I saw what was in front of me.
>
> (He:) Must you see whatever is in front of your eyes?
>
> (I:) If the eyes be kept closed (to abstain from perceiving objects), it
> would not be possible to walk.
>
> (He:) You must see and yet not see.
>
> (I:) How is that possible?
>
>   “To this, He said, ‘ātmāmbhodhes-taraṅgo’smy-aham-iti gamane (When
> walking, one should think that one is a wave in the ocean that is the
> Ātman).’ This is how we should conduct ourselves. When we get up from a
> seated position and start walking, the feeling should not be, ‘We are
> walking and going somewhere.’ In the big ocean - the Ātman - a wave has
> arisen. That wave is moving forward. This is the supposition. There is no
> difference between the wave and the ocean. Yet, because one walks (and thus
> moves forward like the wave), one should think of oneself as the wave. When
> the occasion to walk arises, one should contemplate, ‘I am a wave in the
> ocean of the bliss, in the ocean of the Ātman.’
>
> “His advice surprised me. He went on, ‘At all times - even when you talk to
> someone - repeat this idea in the mind.’ With practice, one uninterruptedly
> carries on this repetition even while speaking. Experience confirms this.
>
> “What should be the thought when one is seated? He advised,
> ‘bhāvayann-āsanasthaḥ saṁvit-sūtrānuviddho maṇir-aham-iti vā’smi (When
> seated, one should think that one is a gem strung on the string of
> consciousness). A gem has been strung on the thread of knowledge. The gem
> cannot be removed; the thread is made of unbreakable consciousness. I am
> that gem. Contemplation must be done in this manner.’
>
> " (My Guru further said:) ‘indriyārtha-pratītau draṣṭo’smy-ātmāvalokād-iti
> (When perceiving sense-objects through the senses, one should think that
> one is seen since the Ātman is beheld). Whenever some object is seen, the
> reflection should not be, ‘This object is now visible.’ One must think,
> ‘Aha! Objectless consciousness has now become associated with objects. The
> Ātman was manifest earlier but now its manifestation has waxed.’ On
> receiving a blow, we become markedly aware of the body; do we not? We
> normally do have awareness of the body but this awareness increases when we
> are beaten. Similar is the case here. Accordingly, even when perceiving
> some external object, one should cogitate that apprehension of the Ātman
> has occurred.
>
> “(My Guru further said:) ‘śayana-vidhau magna ānanda-sindhau (When lying
> down, one should think that one is immersed in the ocean of bliss). Do not
> just fall asleep. When lying down, contemplate, ‘I am now immersed in an
> ocean of bliss’ and, with this feeling, begin to sleep.’
>
> “Doing so is very good. Whoever wants can test the difference between
> simply lying down and going to sleep and sleeping after voluntarily
> eradicating all thoughts from the mind while lying down, generating a
> feeling of bliss and retaining it for some minutes till sleep overtakes
> one. The great joy that this approach to sleep yields becomes apparent once
> it is experienced for a few days.
>
>   “(My Guru concluded:) ‘antar-niṣṭho mumukṣuḥ sa khalu tanubhṛtāṁ yo
> nayaty-evamāyuḥ. Amongst the embodied, that seeker of liberation who leads
> one’s life contemplating in this fashion is indeed the one who abides
> within, in the Ātman. Therefore, when walking, sitting, perceiving objects
> and even when lying down, this is how we must conduct our life.’ “This is
> the advice My Guru gave me.”
>
>   When His Holiness first told me, in 1980, about His Guru’s aforesaid
> advice, which was centred on the 12th verse of Bhagavatpāda’s Śataślokī, He
> compassionately graced me with the following additional information:
>
> His Holiness: “I was seated in front of my Guru when He gave this
> explanation. No sooner had He completed His instruction about the attitude
> to be maintained when seated than I strove to put this teaching into
> practice. I did not think it appropriate to delay doing so even slightly.
> However, though I promptly generated the thought, ‘I am a gem strung in the
> thread of consciousness,’ the intensity of my contemplation was poor. A
> reason was that I was then primarily concentrating on what my Guru was
> telling me about the attitudes relating to perception and sleep. Further,
> while karma-yoga and japa had become effortless for me at that time, such
> contemplation was new to me. As I walked to my room after my Guru had
> finished, I contemplated, ‘I am a wave in the blissful ocean that is the
> Ātman.’ The intensity of this contemplation was much better.
>
> “While I sincerely strove to practise what my Guru had taught Me, I did
> experience two difficulties. This contemplation clashed now and then with
> my karma-yoga (involving dedicating all actions and their fruits to God).
> My Guru resolved this difficulty by telling me two days later, ‘The time
> has come for you to go beyond the stage of karma-yoga, which you have
> mastered. Now, direct your efforts to contemplating on the Ātman.’ The
> second difficulty I had was that this contemplation partially came in the
> way of my enjoying the presence of Śāradāmbā in the temple, mentally
> worshipping Narasiṁha and the like. This is because I did these while
> seated and now I had been advised to contemplate when seated that I am a
> gem strung in the thread of consciousness. My Guru Himself clarified,
> ‘While the knowledge of the Ātman of a jīvanmukta (one liberated while
> living) remains undisturbed by any thoughts and bodily activity, the case
> of contemplation by a spiritual aspirant is different. Hence, for the
> present, do your mental worship and the like as before and practise
> contemplation on the Ātman at other times.’
>
> “Though I no more had any fundamental problems, my contemplation suffered
> from occasional discontinuities. Such breaks mainly occurred when I was
> speaking and when I got carried away by the beauty of the river and the
> surroundings. One evening when I went to my Guru’s presence, He asked,
> ‘Where are you coming from?’ ‘From Ambā’s temple,’ I replied. ‘What did you
> see on the way?’ He queried. A break had occurred in my contemplation while
> crossing the river Tuṅgā. Understanding the thrust of His question, I said
> that I beheld fish playing in the Tuṅgā. ‘Did you contemplate correctly at
> that time?’ was my Guru’s next query. ‘I was contemplating before and after
> that but, for a few moments, the process became disrupted,’ I admitted. My
> Guru said, ‘Never give room for such breaks.’ I hung my head in shame and
> resolved that I should not be such a useless disciple Thereafter, by my
> Guru’s grace, such discontinuities in contemplation did not occur. In a few
> months, the four forms of contemplation became effortless.”
>
> {The senior Jagadguru advised His Holiness about the fourfold contemplation
> on the Ātman in the year Āngīrasa, which ended on March 27, 1933. The
> contemplation advocated became effortless for His Holiness sometime before
> His birthday on āśvinakṛṣṇa-caturdaśī in the cyclical year Śrīmukha, that
> is, prior to His completing 16 years of age on 18th October, 1933.}
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