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Re:Aham Brahmasmi - 10 of 10
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re:Aham Brahmasmi - 10 of 10
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From: sadananda@anvil.nrl.navy.mil (K. Sadananda)
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Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 12:33:23 -0500
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Followup-To: alt.hindu
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From usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil Fri Feb 17 12: 36:06 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Naval Research Lab, Code 6323
I promissed to prove two things: 1. I am ananda 2. Infiniteness alone is
ananda and from these two it follows the aphorism that is being discussed:
Aham Brahmasmi since Brahman is infiniteness.
I am ananda
First, every body wants happiness. Whatever I do and whatever I avoid
doing is because I want to be happy. This statement is absolutely true
whether I am religious or irreligious, believer or non-believer, Krishna
devotee or Siva Devotee, Hindu or Christian.
One day someone gave me a cup of coffee which I never tasted before and I
liked it. I wanted to repeat that experience and so I bought myself lot of
coffee and making it everyday say around 3 p.m.. It came to a stage that
whatever I am doing at that time, a desire to have that hot cup of coffee
arose in my mind and unless I have that hot cup of coffee I feel restless
and only when I sip that hot cup of coffee I feel happy and elated.
Now let us analyze this situation. Obviously I did not come with a coffee
cup from my mother's womb. This is an acquired taste, to be vedantic
specific, or coffee vasana. By indulging willfully, I got to the stage
where I am now a prisoner of my own action. Now, when I feel happy with a
sip of hot coffee, where is that happiness coming from. Is it from the
coffee, even though I attribute that happiness to that coffee? If coffee
can bring happiness, it should bring happiness to everybody. But my friend
hates coffee, and he want hot tea instead, and he thinks that is where
happiness is! In addition, if happiness is in the coffee, more coffee
means more happiness. Even I, who is addicted to coffee, want only one
hot cup and perhaps may squeeze two at the most and not more! After that
it becomes not a source of happiness but a source of misery. If happiness
is not in the coffee, then where did it come from?
If you analyze the mechanics of the process, it becomes very clear that
when my desire is fulfilled I am happy. So happiness arises in the
fulfillment of desires. Essentially the coffee vasana that I have
acquired initiates a desire in my intellect, agitations in my mind and
propels to action at the body level. When that cup of coffee is sipped, my
agitations are gone and I am free from (at least momentarily a calm quite
mind free of agitations) a wanting or wishing mind and that moments of
quiet state of mind which I call the moments of happy state of the mind.
Hence the statements a) happiness is not an object and b)happiness in not
in an object. In the calm and quite state of mind I am happy. That is
happiness is my own true nature. I cannot keep that happy state or quiet
state of mind for long because, I am constantly flooded by the innumerable
desires due to many many accumulated vasanas (these are nothing but the
sanchita, prarabda and agami karmas - since vasanas are subtler impression
left by egocentric actions or karmas). If happiness is from me, then why
I am going after coffee for happiness and my friend going after tea and you
after Krishna or other after Siva etc. In spite of the logic that
happiness is not coming from outside and it is your own true nature, I am
ananda; the mind and intellect because of the pressure of Vasanas
(Prakritijai gunaihi) is not ready to accept it. Therefore it propels me
to action. I thinks that coffee brings happiness, since at the outset it
appears to be true. So all my life I go in search of happiness thinking
happiness is out there. Because of the pressure of my vasanas or in simple
terms likes and dislikes.. For me to recognize that I am that happiness,
the pressure of these vasanas have to be neutralized. And if you analyze
correctly that is exactly what karma yoga, bhakti yoga or gyana yoga does.
That is why Krishna says in Ch. 5:
Shaknotihaiva yasshodum praksareera vimoshanat|
Kamakrododbavam vegam sa yuktahsa sukhee narah||
If one is able to overcome the onslaught or pressure or force (vega
literally means speed) of the Kamakrodhas (ragadweshas - likes and
dislikes) before the body falls, he is indeed a yogi and he is indeed a
happy man.
Hence ananda that I experience is because I am ananda not because ananda
comes from somewhere. Because happiness is my true nature, nobody
complains that they are happy when they are happy. I complain that I am
unhappy because unhappiness does not belong to me! Nobody goes to a
doctor and complains that he has a nose because having a nose is natural.
But if he has a boil on the nose he may run to the doctor since that does
not belong to him. When there is no wanting or wishing mind (which can
happen only when I see that I am an adequate person with no limitations )
then I am in my state of ananda all the time. On logical analysis too that
we find Aham anandasmi. I am ananda. That is in principle what is that
Tat twam asi stands for. I am already sat and chit and now I have proved
that I am ananda. If I am already ananda and I am still in search of
ananda, then there is something wrong with me. This is essentially what
advaita calls delusion due to Avidya, (ignorance of my true nature that I
am sat chit and ananda). Inspite of teaching I am unable to accept that
ananda is not out there but comes from me alone, and unwilling to accept is
due to the vasanas I have accumulated or ignorance I have accumulated by
willful actions. Just like the coffee vasana that I have gathered
unnecessarily.
Interesting corollary is, since every body loves ananda, everybody loves
themselves! Not only I am ananda, I am paramapremaspadam. I do everything
for my self only because I love myself. People looking in the mirror may
say "I hate my self" - They say that only because they love themselves!
What they hate is not themselves but their equipments - their crooked body,
crooked mind or crooked or limited intellect. If those are taken care of
somehow, then they are happy. Because they love themselves so much that
they want a better body, mind and intellect to go by! In Advaita
Makaranda, Sri Lakhmidhara Kavi says
Ahamasmi sada bhami kadachinnahamapriyaha|
Brahmaivahamatah siddam sacchidananda lakshanam||
1. Aham sada asmi - I exist always or I am existence
2. Aham sada bhami - I always shine or I am consciousness since only in the
light of consciousness knowledge takes place.
3. Kadachin aham apriyah - never I dislike myself. That is, I like myself
always - since I like only ananda - this means I am ananda.
The first part essentially says I am sat, chit and ananda.
athaha - therefore, sidddam - it is proved (that); Aham - I am,
Satcchidananda Lakshanam Brahma eva - Brahma alone whose nature is sat,
chit and ananda. This requires a proof that anantameva ananda -
infiniteness alone is ananda - I will come to that.
In Brihadaranyka - the sage Yagynavalkya says to his wife Mitreyi, that
when a husband says he loves his wife, he does not really love his wife,
but he loves himself. Why? He love his wife only because, she brings
happiness to him. If she becomes a pain in the neck, of course you know
what happens. So what he loves is not wife, but his happy state of mind.
Since he is ananda, he loves himself. You love Krishna only because the
love of Krishna brings you happiness. So from the logic what you love is
not really Krishna but your happy state of mind. Or what you love is not
Krishna but yourself. (Do not worry, Krishna is playing the divine music
as all the pervading consciousness and having the rasaleela with your
thoughts as gopies! To see Him only you have to shift your attention from
the gopies to that silence awareness in between the gopies!) Love is the
expression of happiness and Happiness is culmination of love. If I can
reach that state of mind free from egocentric desires or wanting and
wishing mind, that is my true state and that state of ananda is my true
happy state.
Next is anantameva ananda!
Now I have likes and dislikes. I like to have a million dollars. Because
I do not have that right now, and without that I feel I am incomplete and I
feel I will be complete only when I get that one million. The fundamental
problem is that, I feel I am an inadequate person or a limited person. I
have this, but I do not have that. When I see that other guys having those
things but I do not have them, I cannot stand my not having those, since I
feel without those I am not an adequate person, and I go after those. When
I get that million dollars, do you think I am now a complete person - no, I
still feel inadequate because, now I find being a millionaire is nothing,
and there are many billionaires and I want to be one and then only I feel I
have enough. So problem is not million or a billion, but a mind that is
always wanting and wishing mind either for objects, or emotions or thoughts
- that is material things, emotional relationships - including sensuous
enjoyments and finally intellectual pursuits. As long as I feel I am
limited, there is unhappiness and resulting frustration and pursuit to
solve that limitation. Vedanta says you can not reach that state of
fullness or the infinite happiness by fulfilling the desires or by
pursuits. The problem is you are trying to solve a problem that is not
there. Therefore you can never solve the problem until you recognize that
the problem itself is an invalid problem. This is what you call Maya.
Maya does not mean illusion. It is actually a real problem right now.
Just as I am trying to find happiness out there - where it is not. The
problem can only be solved only, when I realize or when the knowledge
dawns on me that I am ananda and therefore I do not have to go in search of
ananda. As long as I feel I am limited, I will feel I am inadequate which
makes me unhappy and my search for happiness continues. My search can only
stop only when I recognize that I am an adequate person. Adequate person
is the happy person. Adequate person is the person who has no limitations.
Since I am ananda, I have to be limitless or full or purnam. Since in the
state of limitlessness there is no more wanting mind and wishing mind.
Hence Limitless alone is ananda, and I am ananda it means - anantameva
ananda, and I am ananta. Brahman means infiniteness. Therefore Aham
Brahmasmi follows. Logic is exact.
But logic is not the end. Logic does not fill my stomach! Let me explain
this. I was sitting alone and someone came in and left in a tray with a
plate full of Laddu before leaving the room. Suddenly the lights went out
and they did not come for an hour. When the lights comeback there was no
luddu on the plate and I am still alone there in the room. Since no one
appeared to have entered the room in the interim, it is logical that I must
have eaten the laddu. I can sit down and apply all the logic and say I
must have eaten the Laddu. Even If I say I didn't, nobody is going to
believe me! This is what the logical conclusion of Aham Brahmasmi.
True experience is different from logic. Even if it is logical, it is true
only when the laddus literally disappeared into my stomach. Eating laddu
is beyond the logic! That is exactly what I mean when I say experience of
Aham Brahmasmi is beyond the logic even though scriptural declaration is
logical.
*******************
Epilog!
Manishji and other ISKAN members - one last piece of advise for whatever it
is worth. Do not think Advaitins are in the wrong path, Vishitadvaitins
are in the wrong path and only Hare Krishna's are in the right path. Paths
are many and they depend on where the individuals likes and dislikes or
samskaras are. Like each river takes its own path to reach its destination
each has to follow his own path. That indeed is the glory of Hinduism.
No one book, No one path. No one prophet.
There are thousands of books on advaita and not only your questions and
many other questions that you have not even thought of have been answered
logically. If you want to criticize your so called mayavada then first
understand what it says before you criticize. I have not given complete
picture of what advaita and the logical foundation on which is based. I
have only given what I understand and the logic that appeals to me. If you
can read that "I am that" book by Nisargadatta Maharaj, it will be an eye
opener. Many of them cannot be settled by logic or arguments. One has to
realize oneself by oneself. That is indeed Krishna's declaration:
Uddaro atmanamatmanam!
Conclusion without experimentation is unscientific.
So experiment yourself and see if the truths expounded are true or not.
Fanaticism does not lead you anywhere other than to a blind alley. If you
have true sraddha on Krishna then see him not only as some being but being
in all beings as sutremanigana iva, supporting all beings.
If I am not responding to any follow up, it only means that the comments
are only subjective and I do not feel that they are worth responding to.
If there are any truly objective comments worth discussing, I will be very
happy to clarify myself and withdraw my comments, if I am wrong. I am also
a sadhak searching for truth.
Hari Om! My humble pranams to all of you.
Sadananda - I am not only ananda, I am sada ananda!
