[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Re: Meditation on the Nirguna Brahman results in Parama Ananda

[Krishna Kashyap]

Namaste Sudhanshu Ji,
help me understand what was stated in your emails" Denial" of "everything
that is non-self" itself comes within the purview of non-self. This denial
is also supposed to stop in nididhyAsana. All efforts cease in nididhyAsana"

so nidhidhyasana is not someone does something. it is the cessation of all
thoughts. is that right? self-efforts do not attain this state. However,
only if someone denies all thoughts whatever these thoughts may be (since
all thoughts are anatma in nature), then nidhidhyasana state comes as a
result which is a thought-less state.

is this thoughtless state attained due to some or no blessing? if it is no
blessing how does it occur as soon as someone can deny all thoughts? I
still don't understand what it means to deny all thoughts! is it like neti
neti, where all thoughts are assigned a tag "atman is not this one" atman
is not this one" to every thought that may arise naturally due to prior
vasanas? if so, does it mean that the mind moves away from all thoughts and
naturally this state of "nidhidhyasana" occurs by itself somehow.

please explain.
thanks.


*Krishna Kashyap*




On Wed, Nov 13, 2024 at 5:42 PM Sudhanshu Shekhar <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Namaste.
>
> //Nirguna Brahman cannot be an object of meditation anywhere in
> shankarabhashya. Hence it is not an upasya vastu or even dhyeya vastu. An
> attributeless Brahman cannot be meditated upon.//
>
> If the object of meditation is not an anAtma-vastu, then that can be
> referred as meditation of nirguNa Brahman. So, it is not that the
> attributeless-Brahman is made an object of meditation. However, the fact
> that the object of meditation is not a saguNa-vastu can be said to be
> equivalent of "meditation on nirguNa-Brahman".
>
> That is what is referred to as AtmAkAra-vritti. केचित्तु पण्डितंमन्याः
> ‘निराकारत्वात् आत्मवस्तु न उपैति बुद्धिः । अतः दुःसाध्या सम्यग्ज्ञाननिष्ठा’
> इत्याहुः। सत्यम् ; एवं गुरुसम्प्रदायरहितानाम् अश्रुतवेदान्तानाम्
> अत्यन्तबहिर्विषयासक्तबुद्धीनां सम्यक्प्रमाणेषु अकृतश्रमाणाम् । .........
> तस्मात् बाह्याकारभेदबुद्धिनिवृत्तिरेव आत्मस्वरूपावलम्बनकारणम् । - GItA
> bhAshya 18.50.
>
> Thus, "buddhi not having anAtma-vastu as the object" is equivalent to
> "nirguNa Brahman as the object of meditation". So, the effort in meditation
> is not to have nirguNa Brahman as the object, but to merely renounce
> thoughts (as they are always anAtma-vastu-vishayaka).
>
> //One can say lower capability people can meditate only on Saguna Brahman
> but higher capability folks can. In that case, it does not become upasana.
> It becomes a denial of all that is not self.  In Bhagavatham these aspects
> are not explained in the original verses. They vaguely state meditation on
> nirguna-brahman.//
>
> "Denial" of "everything that is non-self" itself comes within the purview
> of non-self. This denial is also supposed to stop in nididhyAsana. All
> efforts cease in nididhyAsana.
>
> Regards.
> Sudhanshu Shekhar.
>