1 8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 TheSiva Sutras define it as: “Even during the three different states of consciousness in waking, dreaming and profound sleep, the rapturous experience of the I-consciousness (sambhava) of the fourth state (turiya) abides.” (Vasugupta 2007, I:7, 36). There may be some doubt regarding whether a jñāni has or does not have karma attached to him. Bykarma one may take all the processes and states that cause the absolute Being to manifest in the world of maya and be tied into it. Ramana Maharshi in his Spiritual Instructions declared the following (Maharshi, chap. III, verses 9–10): Is it possible to overcome, even while the body exists, the karma (prarabdha) which is said to last till the end of the body? Yes. If the agent (doer) upon whom the karma depends, namely the ego (ahamkāra), which has come into existence between the body and the Self, merges in its source and loses its form, will the karma which depends upon it alone survive? Therefore, when there is no ‘I’ there is no karma. As the Self is existence and consciousness, what is the reason for describing it as different from the existent and the non-existent, the sentient and the insentient? Although the Self is real, as it comprises everything, it does not give room for questions involving duality about its reality or unreality. Therefore, it is said to be different from the real and the unreal. Similarly, even though it is consciousness, since there is nothing for it to know or to make itself known to, it is said to be different from the sentient and the insentient. The absolute Being is described in different schools differently, but the essence is the same. Thus e.g. in theVijnana Bhairava (Unknown 2002, verses 8B–9A, 14) it is declared: Whatever is known as the composite form of Bhairava (absolute Being), that oh Goddess, is deceptive like magic, because it has no essence. This state of Bhairava is free from the limitations of space, time and form. It is not particularized by a specific place or designation. In reality it is inexpressible, because it cannot be described. The definitions of the state of liberation (mukti), which is the consequence of achievingĀtma-jñāna, the “non-dual state of being” that depends on the notion that the ahamkāra is “dissolved” or made to “die”. This is assumed to be necessary as the ahamkāra contains all information on the personality and the various types of the individual karma. The notion of putting ahamkāra to death is a recurring idea, but it is impossible to do by any effort or will. It will happen when the jīva (individual) melts into Being as it is described by Kannutaiya Vallalar (2013). Up and until that time, the ahamkāra is the holder of the direction of our life path. There is a vast literature on the philosophical models of the created universe like there are many ways of describing the path of a yogi towards liberation. The number of practices is almost innumerable. It seems to be necessary for any yoga practitioners interested in yoga (and in greater depth that just in āsanas) to go step by step and to know better his tools of existence in this world. Ancient Hatha Yoga gurus like Gheranda, Gorakhnath, Swatmarama and others defined tens of practices to reach samādhi, just like Patanjali. A more radical approach from the point of view of sādhanā strategy is represented e.g. by Ramana Maharshi (1966, 1–2) in his Nan Yar: If I am not anyone of these (dhātu, senses, prānā, mind, avidyā), then who am I? After ascertaining the non-identity with the above entities, by the process of not this, not this, that Consciousness, which remains – that is the I. This is a part of the ātma-vichāra, a “searching” for the “I” in its absolute state. As it is evident form the texts above, a search is impossible, as the absolute Being cannot be perceived, as it is only through its projections that we can perceive, using the software of the mind, what we conceive as the “objective” world. In theSadVidyā (Maharshi, 1998, verses 6–7, 2) it is said: “The world is nothing more than an embodiment of the objects perceived by the five sense organs. Since, through these five sense-organs, a single mind perceives the world, the world is nothing but the mind. Apart from the mind, is there a world? Although the world and the knowledge thereof rise and set together, it is by knowledge alone that the world is made apparent. That Perfection, wherein the world and knowledge thereof rise and set, and which shines without rising and setting, is alone the Reality.” If we sum all this up, the model with which we work here is that there is the absolute Being, then the ahamkāra, the mindbody system which appears to exist in this world that is perceived by the senses through the mind. The mind is aware only a fragment of all the available information (Fig. 1). All this is made perceptible by the individualized consciousness becoming aware of it in the chittakasha, the “working space of mind”.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=