Darsana Mala
Darsana Mala
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DARSANA MALA
A SHORT COMMENTARY
by Nataraja Guru
This file contains Nataraja Guru’s translation of the verses of the Darsana Mala, together with a commentary compiled from two sets of notes taken at his dictation. These are to be found in SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES/ SLP5 and SLC8. The material from these files has been rearranged under chapter and verse, with little or no editing, although we have eliminated duplications and provided linking and clarifications.
We strongly suggest that the serious student study the source files, as well as original unedited texts which we will make available on request.
We apologise for the poor quality of the structural diagrams, which are to be replaced as soon as possible.
SOURCES:
THIS TEXT IS A COMPILATION OF 2 FILES OF NOTES:
DM NOTES 1: notes taken by C. de Bruler from 26/12/70, in Varkala, Kerala, South India ( SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES/SLC8). They are extracted from file SLC8.
DM NOTES 2: notes taken by P.Misson from the Guru’s lectures at Varkala, Originally extracted from file SLP5 (SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES/SLP5 - SLP5 - p.48 to p.69 and p.73 to 80)
INTRODUCTION
A philosophical system in the West means logic, not experience.
In the West, science and religion have separated.
Religion has different connotations in East and West.
In the East, the emphasis is on an experience: a vision.
Indian Philosophy depends on the experience of a Yogi .
This experience is called a vision, or "Darsana".
Is a Darsana a system of philosophy?
A Darsana is a conceptual and perceptual vision of the Absolute
Philosophy is logical - Philosophy is distinct from experience.
Indian Philosophy has a different kind of logic for each of the Darsanas, which are closed systems, graded in a certain order.
In the Bhagavad Gita there are eighteen chapters, each with contradictions.
Each is a system of its own, with a logic of its own.
This is not like the West, where every philosophy excludes all others.
There are traditionally 6 Darsanas, or schools of Indian Philosophy:
1. Nyaya - founded by Gautama, 2. Vaisesika -founded by Kanada, 3. Samkhya - founded by Kapila, 4. Yoga - founded by Patanjali, 5. Purva Mimamsa - founded by Jaimini, 6. Uttara Mimamsa - founded by Badarayana
This is not unique to Indian Philosophy.
We may read in the Western context:
"The world is in me and I am not in the world, I am not in them, they are in me”
or: " The ocean is not in the wave, but the wave is in the ocean".
These are apparent contradictions or paradoxes.
The many possible systems of thought that may seem to contradict each other are brought together by the Guru in this work and united by a common thread of value. Narayana Guru adopts a different logic for each vision – he grades them by going progressively from the known to the unknown, starting with the vision of a “real” world created by a “real” god, which is the way most people see the universe.
In the first chapter, he starts in the Upanishadic tradition with "Adhyaropa" as the first Darsana.
Adhyaropa means “supposition”, as in: “let us suppose this world is real”.
The second vision is Apavada: “non-supposition”
“let us suppose, as some philosophers do, that the world is not real”.
Thus, the first question is :"whence this world?".
Narayana Guru respects this question and replies with the first Darsana, in which he first accepts this world as a given datum.
Why is there reference to a "Lord"? Because a “real” universe with a creator is how most people have seen reality.
This commonly accepted view must be respected.
Because of a misunderstanding of this methodology, Vedanta has been charged with:
Solipsism - quoting itself in support of itself; the argument of self-evidence of the self.
Syncretism - that it is an aggregate of miscellaneous opinions, composed of all sorts of heterogeneous things assembled together.
Eclecticism, Escapism , Idealism , Nihilism, Pantheism, Empiricism, Mysticism, Phenomenology, Yogism, Negativity etc.
CHAPTER 1
ADHYAROPA DARSANA
(EMPIRICISM)
(“Adhi”-towards,“-aropa” -supposition)
In Western Philosophy, Adhyaropa Darsana, as in the first chapter of the Darsana Mala, is called Empiricism.
It postulates the world given to the senses, the empirical world, as real.
It starts with the ontological and depends on sense-data.
Let us suppose, in this first chapter, that sense-data are real.
In Idealism such as Plato's, sense-data are seen as not real, similarly with Hegel, Kant and Schopenhauer.
Vedanta cannot be Idealist because it depends on sense-data.
In Idealism, too much importance is given to the mind.
If too much importance is given to sense-data, we get Empiricism.
This is included within the complete scheme of Vedanta:
"All is Maya" is NOT a basic principle of Vedanta.
One must put Sat, Chit and Ananda (Existence, Subsistence and Value) in their proper places.
In this chapter we take the sense-data as true to begin with; we progress from the known to the unknown.
We see the physical world before us: if we treat it as real, what are the implications, according to Vedanta?
The second Darsana will say : " Do not put reality out there –
outside you - it is inside, in the mind."
Darsanas 1-5 give primacy to externalization.
Darsanas 6-10 give primacy to internalisation.
In this first Darsana, verses 1-10 give a constant neutral epistemological status, before a fuller view of the Absolute in later chapters.
What is shown here is vertical creation
CHAPTER 1 – ADHYAROPA DARSANA
VISION BY SUPPOSITION
VERSE 1
In the beginning, there was
Non-existence indeed!
Dream-wise then again, by mere willing
Everything existent created He, the Lord supreme.
How does he reconcile " O Lord Supreme" and
"Everything was nothingness"?
Vedanta says that everything was nothingness in the beginning.
The Absolute is a paradox - look at it one way and it exists;
in another way it does not exist.
Put something and nothing as two axis, vertical and horizontal.
Here, in this Darsana, the Absolute both exists vertically and also not exists horizontally.
In the last verse, the horizontal exists and the vertical not.
In this Darsana " The Supreme Lord" or " God" creates the universe - here, as James Jeans says: “God is a mathematician”, creating a mathematical world.
The “Lord Supreme” is the Absolute
The “Lord Supreme” will be changed to Maya, etc. in later chapters.
"Dreamwise" and "willing" mark this as Vedanta.
He created only dreamwise from nothing by his mere willing.
" Dreamwise" means this is a is a conceptual creation.
A cup in a dream occupies no space.
“The Lord” depends on nothing outside himself.
"Again by mere willing" - God was lonely and said “let me be many” and created the world - it could not have been otherwise.
" The world is will and presentiment" : Nataraja Guru
VERSE 2
In the beginning, in the form of incipient memory factors,
All this remained. Then the Lord,
By his own power of false presentiment, like a magician,
Created all this world of change.
This vision is not "grosso modo" now, there is a slight tuning.
From a mathematical God, we go to incipient memory factors (in the memory of God). Memory is just beginning to function, it is incipient.
"Incipient memory factor" is the translation of "vasana" in Sanskrit.
" Then the Lord, by his own power of false presentiment"
This is the dark side of nescience, and what is seen through it is false.
If you see a ghost in a post, this is the nescience principle,
this is the negative side of God, negative illusions
- realities are positive.
.
.
God is telling lies - this is the negative side of the total situation
God is like a magician, he can represent things that are not there
- this is the “eidetic presentiment” of the mind.
You see a rope and take it for a snake: this is the nescience principle
- this is the eidetic sense, as in the Rorschach test.
The negative side - nescience, creates the positive side, this world.
" Remained" – it is potential and amorphous, not kinetic.
In this Darsana, the Lord stands alone like a magician, there is nothing in the universe other than God.
He has a certain power of specification or qualification called Maya.
This world is false.
The act of creation takes place in and through himself.
Negative nescience creates positive illusions: “realities”, so called.
VERSE 3
This world before creation was
Latent within Himself,
Thereafter, like a sprout from seed,
From Himself, by His power, by itself it was created.
This is a vertical creation, from, in, through, by and for God.
The Absolute cannot be an outside cause for God.
The Lord is not subject to any process of becoming: only the potent power within the Lord is capable of creating this world.
God externalises and internalises himself.
He has his own neutral epistemological status.
VERSE 4
The power, however, as of two kinds
Is to be known, as the bright and the dark;
There is no co-existence between these two,
As with light and darkness.
Light and Dark: Negative Absolute and Positive Absolute,
These have reciprocity between them.
They are independent and antinomian principles excluding each other.
Here the distinction between positive and negative, the basic structural features, is made by Narayana Guru: this is the first basic distinction in the Absolute.
The power is of two kinds -
Taijasi: belonging to light, or heliotropic.
Tamasi : belonging to darkness, or geotropic.
There is no coexistence between them.
The arrow of pure becoming goes both forward and backward.
Measured or measurable time is thus ruled out.
VERSE 5
In the beginning, this world,
Which was in the form of mind stuff, like a picture
Achieved with all this picturesque variety,
Like an artist, the Lord.
The world has only a mental status before creation
This is a neutral analogy: creation is like a picture in the mind –creation and cause are here brought close: the cause in the mind and the effect on canvas.
Mind-stuff is vertical.
Here, the world is only an artistic expression of the mind of the Lord.
In this Darsana the Absolute is presented in various terms: as Lord, artist, magician, Yogi
.
This refers to Sai Baba allegedly magically creating objects and presenting them to his disciples.
VERSE 6
Potentially, what even as Nature remained
Like the psychic powers of Yoga-
Like a Yogi did He, the Lord of the world, work out
His varied psychic powers thereafter.
This verse deals with cosmology.
Why does he compare the Lord to a Yogi? When a Yogi materialises something, what he puts on the table is positive and overt:
the power in him is inert and negative:
We must view the positive and negative aspects as a whole.
Psychic powers are incipient memory factors.
.
This analogy is “for those who are willing to believe”:
it is an example for clarification - if you do not like it,
use your own example or ask for another.
Prakrti is nature.
Purusha is the mind with expanding and contracting tendencies
Sankalpa implies willing
Vasanas are incipient memory factors.
Sakti : potent specifying power
Manas : mind
The Lord remains a constant, neutral between cause and effect.
In Verse 10 we see the Ultimate and Totality.
VERSE 7
When Self-knowledge shrinks,
Then prevails nescience fearful;
Ghost-like, taking name and form,
In most terrible fashion looms here.
This verse deals with psychology
Ghost-like nescience prevails.
A child is caught between the opposites of dark and bright, this is because the link between intelligible and non-intelligible is not strong.
The world becomes real as the eidetic sense becomes more pronounced.
Creation is terrible without self-knowledge.
Correct knowledge about the self makes suffering disappear.
The subject matter of this work is Atma-Vidya, or final release.
The creation of the Lord includes suffering aspects.
VERSE 8
Terrible and empty of content
Like a city infernal,
Even as such a marvel
Did the Lord make the whole universe
The problem of evil is met here. (cf. Voltaire in his “Candide” on Leibniz and the Lisbon earthquake.)
He calls it a wonder: the paradox, when pronounced, becomes a "Misterium Tremendum": there is a paradox is at the core of the Absolute.
Narayana Guru resolves the paradox by accepting this terrible world.
There is a terrible and tragic side to life, do not say it does not exist.
Narayana Guru recognises it.
Include the tragedy in your life.
The Lord is able to create with no basis in reality because he is all-powerful.
It is wonderful because empty of content and yet still a "marvel".
VERSE 9
If from a sun in graded succesion
This world came, such was not the case at all.
Presented as if out of slumber,
At one stroke, all came to be.
At one stroke, all came to be
– this is an important doctrine of Vedanta, which will not accept cosmic evolution theory, because it is mechanistic.
A slow, gradual process of becoming is not accepted by Vedanta: all came to be at one stroke.
Vedanta favours the Big Bang Theory as opposed to the steady state theory.
Insert the vertical axis, he will not concede the horizontal axis in this verse: he wants a flash of lightning and the vertical axis.
At one stroke from the Self, as in waking from sleep, it came by the willing Self out of the Self.
When you wake from deep sleep, the world appears.
The One Self thought: " Let me be many".
The Lord's power is so great that the universe appeared at one stroke.
Bring the four aspects together - it is the same Absolute.
VERSE 10
He from whom, like a fig tree as from seed
Came out this world manifested -
He is Brahma, He is Siva and Vishnu,
He is the Ultimate, everything is He indeed.
Whatever you say, this world came to be and there must be a cause for it.
Trace it backward and find the negative source of everything, as clay is the source of the pot.
The clay is the ultimate material cause, empirically viewed
.
The manifested is horizontal.
Abolish the three Gods of Creation, Preservation and Destruction into the Absolute as the material cause of the universe.
The Lord is both instrumental and material cause.
The initial supposed position is taken in this Darsana: it will be neutralised in the next Darsana to present the attributeless Absolute.
The concrete universe is proper to this chapter.
The seed and a tree belong to a concrete, yet universal biological order
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CHAPTER 2:
APAVADA DARSANA -VISION BY NON-SUPPOSITION
(METHODOLOGY) (negatively winding)
This chapter will neutralise the previous one:
this is reduction after the previous chapter's construction.
The first chapter is slightly teleological, this is removed here.
Apavada Darsana is Negativist
Apavada means literally: “arguments that reduce”.
VERSE 1
This world, which is both subtle and gross,
And which has come to be from living consciousness,
If existent, then everything is existent;
If non-existent, then it exists as consciousness.
You cannot abolish your mind, even if the world is unreal.
The duality between existence and non-existence is abolished in consciousness.
We descend backwards into the mind.
VERSE 2
Other than the cause, the effect cannot be,
Therefore, all this is non-existent.
Of what is non-existent, how can there be an origin?
And of something unoriginated, how can there be re-absorption?
Here cancellation is used to arrive at the Absolute.
We are sinking into the source: the World is reduced,
the source of the effect is the cause.
For smoke the cause is fire.
The carved statue of a lion is the effect
and the ontological basis or cause is the stone.
.
The stone statue of a lion = cancellation of cause and effect.
Satkaranavada, a definition of Vedanta, means to delve into the cause;
do not get lost in the many.
VERSE 3
To that which origin and dissolution is not,
That is none other than the ultimate Absolute.
That there is origin and re-absorption,
By Maya`s confusion in the Self is supposed.
If cause and effect cancel , i.e. have the same status –
then you have the Absolute.
There is an interdependence between cause and effect.
How could the effect have being, and the cause non-being?
This is a “phenomenological epoché” ; bracketing –
any notion must be enclosed in brackets: turn the brackets.
The secret of dialectics is that one side of the bracket is open,
the other closed.
VERSE 4
Because of non-difference from cause,
The effect, how could it have being?
How could there be, for the same reason,
For the cause also, any non-being?
VERSE 5
Being an effect, and thus non-existent,
An existent cause there is; the world is thus not indeed.
On the other hand, it is the Absolute alone that is existent,
That dull minds mistake as non-existing.
VERSE 6
If one alone has reality,
Another in it how could there be?
If existence is posited in existence, tautology,
And if non-existence is so asserted, contradiction comes.
Avoid contradiction and tautology and you get the Absolute.
VERSE 7
Dividing all parts one by one,
Everything then is seen there
As mind stuff alone, and as no other,
As thus banishing Maya, relativity, far away.
Quantitativeness is abolished in the mind by division ad infinitum
- it becomes qualitative.
VERSE 8
Thus, it is pure mind-stuff alone that shines,
There is nothing, therefore, beyond pure mind-stuff at all.
What does not shine is not real either,
And what is not real does not shine indeed.
“Mind-stuff” implies “Neutral Monism”, cf. B.Russell.
“Pure”: he is describing here a “thinking substance”.
VERSE 9
High Value, bliss, alone exists and shines
Therefore nothing else at all,
Thus, everything is of the stuff of the High Value,
And besides this High Value, nothing else exists.
The Absolute in Vedanta is described as Sat-cit-ananda
( Existence - subsistence - bliss).
CHAPTER 3
ASATYA DARSANA - VISION OF NON-EXISTENCE (PHENOMENOLOGY)
This chapter centres around the mind.
A philosophy that puts the mind at the centre as a phenomenon is called phenomenology.
The first chapter dealt with construction and the creator is seen from ten perspectives: biological, cosmological, theological, psychological, etc.: cause and effect.
The second chapter is a reversal, there is a negative perspective,
by reduction, we arrive at an irreducible minimum: sat, chit, ananda. (Existence-subsistence -bliss)
In the third chapter now the negative approach is continued and we have a further reduction from the ontological source of the universe, and from “sat - chit – ananda” to arrive at a negative source: Maya.
,
A first degree descent is made, and unreality is dealt with here.
Is the world unreal? Many philosophers say yes.
There is a principle of falsehood, Avidya, on the negative side.
In this Darsana we have a first-degree negativity - Asatya; when we press it one degree further we will get Maya - more intense and more general.
We are dealing here with what Western thought calls Eidetic Presentiments.
See Buber, Jaspers, Sartre etc. on the falsehood of experience.
Kant writes of the Noumenal, or Absolute, and the Phenomenal, or the domain of cosmology.
This is a new Darsana, corresponding to Husserl.
Falsehood, or false presentiment, is here defined by Narayana Guru.
You think you see something, but there is no basis or foundation for it
- this is an eidetic phenomenon.
Existence belongs to the phenomenological order - thus it is only appearance.
All appearance is negative.
The negative method, which Vedanta uses, means that negating falsehood arrives at existence.
Spinoza : “Omnis determinatio negatio” - all determination is a negation.
.
Sat-chit-ananda in Chapter Two is at the neutral O point, from there downwards there is:
a first degree of negation in Asatya Darsana (chapter 3)
a second degree of negation in Maya Darsana (chapter 4)
a third degree of negation in Bhana Darsana (chapter 5)
Asatya is unreality.
Mayavada thinks the world is unreal.
Vedanta is Mayavada.
In Ramanuja, there is no Mayavada.
Asatya Darsana is an invention of Narayana Guru - the world is false, not as an optical illusion but as an eidetic presentiment.
Asatya Darsana takes a phenomenological approach, as in Hume and Kant.
The snake and rope analogy, where a rope is seen as a snake through fear, or the Rorschach test are examples of Eidetic presentiments.
Existence in this Darsana is phenomenological - an appearance.
For further study of Phenomenology, see Husserl, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre.
Phenomenology starts from the mind and views the rest as phenomena.
There is a delicate inversion in the first verse:
The numerator : in the expansive sky, the blue is seen.
Invert that sky - turn it upside down and put it inside yourself:
in the expansive Self this universe is seen.
The blue and the universe are both seen to be qualitative,
with a one-to-one correspondence between them.
A child has a presentiment of life in its doll.
Is the mirror-image real, or the object real?
Neither is real: Asatyam.
When the mind (negative) functions, you get the will (positive).
By examining falsehood you arrive at the Absolute or Brahman:
the mirror (horizontal) and the doll falsehood (vertical),
when seen together reveal a circle in the centre,
which is the Absolute, phenomenologically understood.
Extract the negative root, your brain will burst into Indra's magic,
as if through a tube.
Darkness is the cause of the blue, of the world, of Indra's magic, etc.
Then you get Absolute Falsehood.
There is a one-to-one correspondence between these counterparts.
We cannot see the mind.
The quantitative sky has qualitative blueness.
VERSE 1
All this world is of mind-stuff,
The mind, however, is not anywhere.
Therefore, like the blue and so on in the sky,
The world is seen in the Self.
The world originates in the mind, but there is no mind to be seen.
The world is seen in the Self.
In the negative side of ourselves there is something corresponding to the blue in the sky.
There is an example and a definition in each verse.
Blue is a phenomenological effect. It is false.
The blue of the sky is the type of effect we are concerned with in this chapter.
The Self is the reality, the mind is false;
it is compared to the blue in the sky.
The mind is seen in the Self - it is false.
Asatya is the blue.
In the subjective Self we have a presentiment of the world.
As we see the qualitative blue in the quantitative sky,
so there is a colour solid, which is qualitative
- the world seen in a nuclear form,
The world is seen in the Self, which is quantitative, like an ocean.
Inside the Self is a phenomenon corresponding to the blue of the sky: the colour is illusory.
The mind inside the self is equally illusory.
VERSE 2
By nescience, which is no other than the mind,
All this world is a presentiment of the will.
This nescience by knowledge gets reabsorped,
Then the whole world becomes a mere configuration.
Mind and Nescience mean the same thing.
The mind ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE is the cause of errors,
of eidetic presentiments.
It projects the world we see on the positive side.
.
Make the mind more negative and it becomes nescience.
When it goes to the positive side we get a presentiment of the will which gives us our view of the world.
The mind on the negative side becomes the will on the positive side.
If nescience is abolished, then the will is a mere configuration:
i.e. it is not so real and frightening,
a milder form of reality, like a drawing.
This is when we push the mind back up to the O Point
at the centre of the structure.
The mind matches it with its own variety of presentiment.
Mind and nescience are the same thing and are negative.
The world is a presentiment of the will.
The mind is nescience.
The mind operates to create a presentiment of the will on the positive side.
This by knowledge gets reabsorbed, then the whole world is a mere configuration.
VERSE 3
Here, what a coward finds through darkness
To be like a looming ghost,
The same is seen to be by the wise
Like a dream-world of a waking state.
The coward sees a ghost and begins to scream: this is caused by ignorance.
The more knowledge there is on the denominator side, the less reality there is on the numerator.
The source is the mind, the effect is what you see on the numerator.
Cancel them out.
.
VERSE 4
This visible world results from a willing presentiment.
Where willing is present alone
Is this visible world seen, not anywhere else,
As a snake, too, when alone a rope is found.
This is the method of agreement and difference:
there are five electric switches, and you want to find the right one:
put them all on, put them all off: the result is certitude.
The world and the will are necessarily related.
The relationship could be expressed as:
"no will, no world; no world no will ":
(cf. “ no mind - no matter - no matter - never mind”: Eddington.)
thus, it is a necessary, not a contingent, relationship.
VERSE 5
Between the will and the mind,
There is no difference at all,
That which is mind and called nescience and darkness,
Like the magic of Indra, is a marvel.
The will is positive; mind, or nescience, or darkness is negative.
Magic, like that of Indra (King of the Gods) is on the positive side;
the mind is on the negative side as the cause.
They are interchangeable terms.
VERSE 6
Like a mirage, to a wise man,
The world looms in the Self,
Just as to an infant, by confusion,
A reflected image might real seem too.
A mirage is only a reflection:
it has a false status compared to real water,
just as a reflected image is false.
VERSE 7
This Self, like milk that turns,
Does not attain to another form.
Therefore, the whole universe, as if created
By Indra's magic,exists as an eidetic presentiment.
Vedanta does not accept evolution. Matter is a presentiment.
You think that there is evolution –
there is only an eidetic presentiment, created by Indra's magic.
This is the difference between Darwin and Bergson.
This is the Big Bang theory: someone switched the universe on.
Phenomenology - Husserl, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre.
Phenomenology starts from the mind and views the rest as phenomena.
Vedanta does not accept evolution.
Evolution is the product of evolution.
See Bergson for creative evolution and emergent evolution which contradict Darwin.
Evolution presupposes a horizontal world.
Error can be thinking a mirror-reflection is real.
Mistaking a doll for a child is a more excusable error.
See: O. Lacombe, "L'Absolu selon le Vedanta".
The world originates in the mind - but where is the mind?
The mind cannot be seen.
The Atman or Self is Absolute consciousness.
Absolute mind is false - it is intangible.
VERSE 8
Maya itself is the prime material cause
Of the world, by that which is no other
Than the Maya-maker, the Self, is all this
Created, as various magical effects.
The terms have to have a bi-polarity arranged and graded.
VERSE 9
To the mature mind, this universe
Looms like a sky-forest in the Self -
Even as an unreal puppet-form
To a child would seem contrariwise.
A child will say that the doll is hungry.
A mature man sees the world as an eidetic presentiment.
Falsehood has a plus and a minus side: the plus side is tolerable to the mature man.
VERSE 10
One alone is real, not a second,
What is unreal, indeed, seems as being real.
The Siva Lingam is stone itself,
Not a second made by the mason.
The extreme limit of negativity is Asatyam (the unreal).
Satyam (the real) is the positive pole of the same structure.
The negative pole is the Absolute Unreal
To continue the analogy of the stone statue of a lion: it is a stone in this chapter, in another chapter it can be a lion - teleologically.
Here it is a stone which is real.
The Phenomenological Epoché is what is under reference here:
see Husserl, Heidegger, Jaspers and Buber.
Always use synonyms: arrange the terms negatively,
and find the synonyms on the plus side.
There are different kinds of errors:
Thinking that the reflection is real is more foolish than thinking the doll is alive.
The first is horizontal, the second is vertical; more deep and peculiarly human.
The grades of error of appearance and falsehood have been given here in preparation for the next chapter, Maya Darsana.
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CHAPTER 4
MAYA DARSANAM - VISION BY NEGATION
"That which deceives you into error, generically, is Maya"
For Hegel, Maya is "Negativität".
It is like a heavy railway engine shunting in the engine yards.
See also Schopenhauer, Kant, Fichte etc.
Study the negative side of the Absolute
Negativity is that which is not positive,
It leads to what is not the Absolute.
Negativity is a vague idea to be understood through examples.
"Omnis determinatio negatio" (Spinoza)
So, Maya is the name for the Negative Absolute.
In Verse 1, Narayana Guru itemises all the possible kinds of negative error, seven in number:
1st - Vidya - Science, the error of knowledge, wrong judgement, logic etc
2nd - Avidya - too much importance given to the immanent, nescience, ignorance.
3rd - Para - Tamas - Darkness
4th - Apara
5th - Tamas
6th - Pradhana - The seed contains the oak-tree, space is abolished
7th - Prakrti - a centripetal force of becoming, it expands horizontally.
Note the neutral position of the fifth verse.
So, we have classified all possible illusions: we can do no more than that.
Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Schuermacher, Hegel were all influenced by the Upanisads.
Schlegel was a Sanskrit scholar.
Their philosophy bears a great resemblance to Vedanta.
Vedanta is NOT idealism, because it gives a place to sense percepts.
The prime potent power - Pradhana, is inside Maya.
Verticalize the horizontal tree into a seed.
.
VERSE 1
What is not real, that is Negation,
Which by itself, as by science-nescience,
Transcendence-immanence, darkness and prime potency
Of nature, in many forms, looms.
Maya is what is not real.
It is the category of all possible error.
It is what really does not exist but seems to in practical life.
Chapter 3, Phenomenology, was translucent error,
what we have here is a more opaque error.
Chapter 5 is even darker, though two-sided.
VERSE 2
Just as for the origin of the pot the clay itself is
In its non-being, so too before the origin of the world,
as other than the world,
What had no being as the Absolute itself,
Such is Maya, the negative principle of indeterminate possibility.
Maya = Non-Existent = the Absolute
The world's prior non-existence is like the pot and the clay.
The principle of indeterminate possibility.
It also covers Manas and Sankalpa in Verse 3.
VERSE 3
"The non-Self is unreal, the Self is real."
Thus what looms is vidya, knowledge,
As the reality of the snake appearance
Superimposed on the rope-reality is understood
Vidya - the bright intelligent side of Maya, is faulty knowledge -
the other is the dark, ignorant side.
Here we have double negation in order to double assert the Absolute.
VERSE 4
"The Self is unreal, the non-Self is real."
Thus what looms is avidya, nescience indeed,
As the erroneous cognition
As between rope and snake.
Avidya is what is contrary to science.
VERSE 5
The senses, the mind, intelligence and the five
Vital tendencies, what creates -
That is the transcendent, indeed, even they being
The subtle limbs of the reasoning self
A neutral verse.
This verse deals with Para, the transcendent,
and the Cidatma, or reasoning self.
The Cidatma is pure reason and the self.
The Jiva is the vital principle, experiencing pleasure and pain.
VERSE 6
Adopting as its own these limbs, the reasoning Self,
By its own negative base of errror,
Imagines itself as if happy or suffering,
In truth, there is nothing else at all
The mind imagines suffering and pain - thus it is transcendent
- Para - not gross, but subtle.
Apara: the gross.
The negative, ontological, fully existential Absolute has a nuclear
pattern of reality as a universal concrete: the colour solid.
.
VERSE 7
The objective data of the senses, which is the world,
What emanates forth - that indeed,
In the context of the Self, is the immanent,
The basis of all gross presentiments of the will.
VERSE 8
As the ignorance about the mother-of-pearl
Is the basis of the silver-presentiment,
So too what in the Self is the basis of the world,
That is known a darkness
The cause of the supposition of the world in the self is Tamas.
Darkness is the cause of the silver in the mother-of-pearl,
as also of the blue in the sky.
VERSE 9
Because of being that aspect of Maya which is a marvel,
By containing all this universe like a tree in a seed,
Or by virtue of its importance above others,
This here is known as the prime potent power.
Pradhana is the ontological source of Maya.
It includes the world as a seed at the Alpha Point.
Space is abolished.
VERSE 10
By its own nature, because in a marvellous way
It diversifies the three nature modalities,
This aspect of Maya consisting of the three
Modalities is well known as Nature .
Prakrti, nature, spreads out the three nature modalities.
Nature is the basis of what is seen in the world..
Narayana Guru wants to underline that Nature should not be left out.
The Sanskrit prefix "Pra" - means "more so".
"-krit" means "overt activity", hence " Prakrti"
"-dhana" means "to contain or hold together", hence "pradhana"
CHAPTER 5 – BHANA DARSANA
(NORMALISATION) CONSCIOUSNESS
This Darsana is like the Mandukya Upanisad; it is pure structuralism.
Bhana is overt consciousness, it is overt, teleological and objective.
Bhanasreya is the basis of consciousness; it is perceptual, ontological,
subjective and basic.
.
Bhana has four types of consciousness.
Bhanasreya has four types of consciousness.
.
Both sides have four parts:
both of these four have generic and specific aspects,
thus there are eight types of consciousness.
There is a one-to-one correspondence between the divisions of the numerator and the denominator.
Finally we get sixteen subdivisions: four generic and four specific on both sides.
Consciousness is both inside and outside.
There is a rapid alternation between the subject and the object; a kind of pulsation or propagation; you can hear the bees' wings buzzing.
It is a figure-eight and it is nothing.
.
Both Bhana and Bhanasreya have four parts = eight types of consciousness
This structure is a conic section.
Submit consciousness to abstraction and generalisation and you get the Absolute.
VERSE 1
Present equally within and without,
In constant bee-agitation,
Consciousness is of two kinds -
The generic and the specific.
VERSE 2
As the concrete, the subtle, the causal and the Absolute
Basic consciousness is of four kinds,
So these names even of basic consciousness
Are also applicable to consciousness.
VERSE 3
Lo, here, "I am the body,this is the pot,"
Depending on the concrete,
What looms in consciousness,
That is known as the concrete.
VERSE 4
Here, what is the consciousness of the body
And the pot, that is the specific,
Likewise too what is the consciousness of "I" or "this"
Is known as the generic
"I" is generic, "body" is specific.
"This" is generic "pot" is specific.
.
VERSE 5
The senses, mind, intellect, interest items
And the five vital tendencies,
By what are made conscious - that is known as the subtle.
Because of dependence on the subtle.
VERSE 6
"I am ignorant: such a consciousness
Is said to be the causal.
Here, that aspect which stands for "I" is the generic,
And the specific what stands for "am ignorant"
VERSE 7
"I am the Absolute." Thus what consciousness attains
Is praised as the consciousness of the Absolute.
Here, the element "I" is the generic,
And "Absolute" is its specific attribute.
VERSE 8
Where consciousness exists, there the
Object of consciousness exists, where
Consciousness exists not, its object neither.
Thus, both by agreement and difference, certitude comes.
VERSE 9
As with the eye which cannot see itself,
So the Self does not see itself,
Therefore indeed, the Self is not the object of consciousness.
That which the Self sees is the object of consciousness
You cannot know the Self, but you can feel the Self.
VERSE 10
What is the object of consciousness, that is conditioned,
What is unconditioned, that is not the object of consciousness.
What is conditioned is non-existent,
But what is unconditioned, itself THE EXISTENT IS THAT.
This is a Mahavakya, or basic axiom of Vedanta: neutral and normal;
evidence of the perfect symmetry of this work.
.
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CHAPTER 6
KARMA DARSANA
ACTION (INSTRUMENTALISM)
Karma is here action verticalized.
The instrumentalism of Dewey - see Bergson.
Karma corrected is Dharma.
The corrective to wrong action is Dharma.
Pragmatism means positive action.
The personality is seen as an instrument.
This chapter is:
FUNCTIONALIST
INSTRUMENTALIST
OPERATIONIST
PRAGMATIST
Kutastha - the Self established on a rock, alone.
A false soul standing on a rock is compared to Karma.
Karma is verticalized action, pure action, instrumentalism;
not ritualism, fate, etc.
Here, it refers to the plus side.
Corrected Karma is called Dharma, or right action.
This is like the instrumentalism of John Dewey: he says:
"We are all instruments of action" :
this is functionalism or operationalism.
They do not want to talk about a soul or God
- thus they talk of instruments.
Man is acting: the motive force is the Self, which is seeking.
The Self on the negative side is an instrument of action
on the positive side.
See Dewey, Bergson.
Bergson starts from the ontological.
The motive force is the Self.
The non-Self is the functional side.
The function of the non-Self is to produce the Self.
VERSE 1
It is indeed the Self, though Self-luminous
And detached, that through negativity
Does action bearing many forms,
Like the dream-agent in sleep.
The gap between ends and means is indeterminism (Maya).
Through Maya there is interaction between the Self and the non-Self.
The Absolute Self is actionless vertically - horizontally it has actions.
It is the Self, through Maya, that performs all Karma (Action).
The cause is the Self and the effect is the non-Self.
The principle of indeterminism intervenes
between the Self and the non-Self, causing them to interact.
The Atma, or Absolute Self is actionless and vertical.
The horizontal version of the Self has many actions.
The denominator Self is the cause of action.
VERSE 2
"I think, I speak, I grasp, I hear."
In forms such as these are actions accomplished
By the supreme Self, which is also
The Self of pure reason and the senses.
Most elementary actions are itemised here.
These are delicate and pure forms of action.
Passivity is evidenced here. It is the Paramatma or Cittendriyatma, the denominator Self, by which action is performed.
VERSE 3
Prior to action, it is the Self that exists
There is nothing else at all
Through the Self, by its own negative principle
By itself, are accomplished all actions
.
Anterior to action is the Self alone.
Maya has a negative and horizontal influence here which keeps things swinging.
VERSE 4
From the Self, not different from itself
There exists a certain undefinable specificatory power
By that power, all actions
Are falsely attributed to the actionless Self.
The paradox of action and the actor.
Eliminate duality - there is really no action at all:
just as there is no water in a mirage.
So there is no action when the situation is verticalized.
VERSE 5
The Self is always detached indeed.
One performs action as if attached due to ignorance.
The wise man, saying "I do nothing,"
Is not interested in action.
When eating, you should say, "I do nothing", and thus banish relativity.
VERSE 6
The one Self alone as fire it burns,
As wind it blows,
As water it rains,
As earth it supports and as a river it flows.
Is a fire burning action? Individually, yes.
But it is really only the positive side of the Absolute,
cancel it against the negative side.
There is no action, action is relative to the whole.
All is absorbed in the whole.
VERSE 7
The one Self alone, remaining actionless,
Moves as upward and downward vital tendencies
Within the nervous centres, indeed,
It beats, murmurs and pulsates.
Inside the body you hear murmurs, etc.
Again cancel out the paradox.
Inside the body there are different palpitations and flows –
there is no action when viewed absolutely.
The one who hears is the supreme Self.
The stress is now on the plus side, the garland is ascending.
VERSE 8
Here in this visible world, as what exists,
Grows, transforms, decreases and attains its end -
As subject to six forms of becoming -
That is no other than the actionless Self.
Existence, birth, growth, change, death, etc.
are all biological and horizontal.
Verticalize them and they are abolished.
VERSE 9
By means of the inner organs and the senses
Actions become Self-accomplished.
However, the wise man knows,
"I am the unattached, inner well-founded one"
It is the Self that causes action, but you should say: "I do nothing".
The Omega Point Self is the result of the alpha point Self:
cancel both into the Absolute Self.
The Omega Point is the result of action.
The Alpha Point is the cause of action.
These cancel out into the Absolute.
VERSE 10
Because of being an object of experience,
Even the "I" is a conditioning factor,
Superimposed like the mother-of-pearl gleam.
Above everything else, today and tomorrow one alone is.
By being objective reality, even the Self; because you see it as the non-Self, is a kind of conditioning: even as a reflected glory it comes under the eternal.
In this Darsana we have changed from descending to ascending dialectics, we arrive at an Omega Point like the mother-of-pearl: we get a God who is conditioned.
Action and actor cancel in the Absolute.
CHAPTER 7
JNANA DARSANA
AWARENESS OR REASON
Now we come to reason which is seen here as a function of the Self.
Previously it was seen as action;
in this vision it is white hot as opposed to red hot.
Red Hot = Action
White hot = Reason
When the frequencies are very high, we get reason.
Kant writes of Pure Reason and Practical Reason.
Both are activities of consciousness.
VERSE 1
Awareness is one and unconditioned indeed,
There is also the conditioned.
Awareness without egoism etc.,
That is the unconditioned.
The two kinds of reasoning are presented:
pure, or unconditioned - and practical, or conditioned.
VERSE 2
That which is accompanied by egoism as if inside,
And which again as qualified by this-ness is
Accompanied by conscious activity,
Such awareness is to be understood as conditioned.
Conditioned reasoning is presented here:
Conditioned reason is: "I think that I am thinking."
Unconditioned reason is when there is no thought of thinking at all.
VERSE 3
That by which are experienced all things
Of the non-Self, such as egoism, etc.,
And even by which immortality is enjoyed,
As the Witness, is Self-awareness.
"I am conscious of my ego, and can distinguish the two aspects of the Self.
When a man says that, he has Self-Awareness.
Knowing the difference between the true Self and the false Self
is Self-awareness,(Atma Jnana).
VERSE 4
As innumerable effects of egoism,etc.,
What as pertaining to the non-Self
Attains to awareness, that is said to be
Awareness of the non-Self.
Awareness of the non-Self is dealt with here:
this means being lost in Pluralism and a plurality of interests.
“What profiteth it a man if he gaineth the whole world and loseth his own soul”
This is the converse of the previous verse.
To be lost in pluralism is Anatma Jnana.
VERSE 5
Knowing things as they really are,
As when one attains to the truth of the rope,
What makes for such is true awareness,
Wrong awareness is what is otherwise.
Knowing after proper scrutiny is called true knowledge:
other knowledge is false knowledge.
Both are awareness of a conditioned order.
VERSE 6
By the very presence of which everything looms
In consciousness by itself,
That awareness is indicated as empirical awareness,
And also as non-transcendental awareness.
Pratyaksha is empirical awareness, as given to the senses.
By its presence it declares its proof, it requires no logic.
A lamp is proved by its very existence,
this is ontological knowledge.
VERSE 7
That function of awareness by which
The means to an end is appraised,
And which arises out of associative innate disposition,
That is inferential awareness.
Inferential Awareness is when you see smoke and infer that fire is there: this is called Anumiti.
This is called Inferential knowledge - as when fire is inferred from smoke.
VERSE 8
On going near to an object to be ascertained,
What - in the form of "this is the animal known by such marks"-
Is the functional basis for certitude,
That is said to be analogical awareness.
Analogical Awareness, or Upamiti, is the subject here.
If you read the description of an Okapi
- it has stripes like a zebra and it looks like a giraffe
- when you see one, you recognise it from the description by analogy, this is Upamiti.
In the same way, you have not had the experience of Brahman, but you have heard of it and work towards it.
This is all-important for Brahma-Vidya.
VERSE 9
That awareness of "I" and "mine"
And that other as "this" or "that"-
The former as vital awareness, and the latter
As sense awareness, is declared.
Do not mix these up:
Jiva Jnanam: vital awareness.
Indriya Jnanam: sense awareness.
See Bergson in his “Durée et Simultanéité”, where he discusses time and space.
"Horizontally viewed, one second can become one thousand years, vertically viewed one thousand years can become one second." Henri Bergson.
VERSE 10
Designated as AUM, THAT EXISTS,
Attained to unity of Absolute and Self,
Devoid of willing and other functions -
That is said to be the ultimate awareness.
You get certain knowledge, Parajnanam, from the Mantra "Aum Tat Sat". (Aum, that exists).
This is only for contemplatives.
This is called ultimate awareness.
A Parajnani is aware of something beyond, on the plus side.
A Jnani understands subjectively.
Appraise the transcendental from the immanent, as a witness.
This is the strict Vedantic position.
Experience truth like a gooseberry in your hand.
Every chapter is about the Absolute.
Chapter 6 is not overt action, but somewhat contemplative.
Chapter 7 : reason is action, but more so, much more so.
It is action at a higher frequency.
Narayana Guru distinguishes only four kinds:
he applies Occam's Razor.
NOTE ON CHAPTERS 8, 9 AND 10
There is no real difference between Bhakti and Yoga.
Yoga is more advanced.
When a good fat housecat rolls in the sunlight, it is a yogi: this is natural Yoga.
Bhakti - there is no textbook.
In fact there are only two Yogas –
action and wisdom, Karma and Jnana
and even this distinction should also be abolished.
(see Bhagavad Gita)
The two meet in Vedanta.
Bhakti is frequent in North India.
It is essentially dualist.
" I am a mad dog lying on the roadside" Narayana Guru.
1) Bhakti is meditation on the Self - not unilateral external devotion.
2) Atma is replaced by Brahman.(The Self is replaced by the Absolute)
Brahman = Atma = Ananda. (The Absolute, the Self and Bliss are one).
CHAPTER 8
BHAKTI DARSANA - CONTEMPLATION
The remaining chapters are going downhill and are not so difficult
Bhakti and Yoga can be treated together:
there is no real difference between them, more one of degree.
Bhakti is a kind of natural Yoga, a dog can have it;
Yoga is more advanced.
The two Yogas, Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga, are to be treated as one - the two names meet in Advaita.
See the Bhagavad Gita.
Bhakti : there is no acceptable text for this Darsana.
It is more demonstrative and appeals to the public mind:
Bhaktas do not abolish paradox, but want to remain caught in it.
The "Gita Govindam" is a textbook for Bengali Bhaktas.
What is the legitimate way of treating Bhakti?
We can put the Absolute, the object of devotion, at the omega, 0 or alpha points.
No excesses.
"I am very humble, but I have a master who is very proud":
This is the proper cancellation, no unilateral Bhakti is permitted.
Sankara recommends Bhakti as the most superior way to liberation:
but contemplate the Self within yourself.
VERSE 1
Meditation on the Self is contemplation,
Because the Self consists of bliss,
A knower of the Self meditates by the Self,
Upon the Self, for ever.
Bhakti is meditation on your own personality, or Self, under the aegis of the Absolute.
The soul is the dearest thing within man.
"The kingdom of God is within you".
The Self is the dearest of values.
Seek within.
VERSE 2
The Absolute is meditated upon
Because it consists of bliss.
Constant meditation on the Absolute
Is thus known as contemplation.
Here there is a change from Atman to Brahman. It is full of bliss.
Ananda (bliss) is the value-content of the Absolute.
All truth has a value-content.
VERSE 3
It is even bliss that all do meditate,
No one at all meditates suffering.
That which is meditation of bliss,
As contemplation it is thought.
VERSE 4
It is the Self alone that contemplates the Absolute;
The knower of the Self meditates on the Self, and not on any other.
That which is meditation on the Self
Is said to be contemplation.
Bhakti is defined by the Atman because one worships one's own Self.
VERSE 5
Bliss, the Self and the Absolute
Are said to be the names of this alone.
In whom there is such sure awareness,
He as a contemplative is well known.
Ananda - Brahman - Atman: (Bliss, the Self and the Absolute); these all mean the same.
VERSE 6
"I am Bliss, I am the Absolute, I am the Self."
In whom, in such forms,
There is always creative imagination,
As a contemplative he is well known.
Describes the state of the Bhakta.
One in this state will be well-known as a contemplative.
VERSE 7
The wife does not merely adore the husband,
Nor the husband merely adore the wife,
It is Self-bliss alone that they adore,
As lodged within every sensuous object.
Wife and husband are included here, as with Yajnyavalkya and Maitreyi (an Upanishadic Guru and his wife).
Both are put together into a circle which is dear to them:
"for the sake of the Self, we love each other".
There is no unilateral love or statements of love.
VERSE 8
For the wise man who sees
Thus at any place whatever,
There is nothing at all other than Self-bliss.
Such contemplation verily is the highest.
Bhakti is when you feel the joy of the soul everywhere.
This is Saundarya as a value.
Atma Sukham or Self-Bliss.
VERSE 9
Towards the Father of the World, to one`s
Spiritual teacher, father, mother,
Towards the Founders of Truth,and
Towards those who walk in the same path;
VERSE 10
Towards those who put down evil,
And those who do good to all -
What sympathy there is, is devotion here,
While what here belongs to the Self Supreme is the ultimate.
This is a review of all kinds of Bhakti: the Father in Heaven,
Spiritual Teacher, etc.
There is a graded order: the father "there";
those who walk the path of truth "here".
CHAPTER 9
YOGA DARSANA - MEDITATION
One Mudra (gesture) is here given by Narayana Guru as a positive discipline.
The Asanas (positions) are thus left out by him.
Patanjali only mentions one Asana as required: sit straight.
The object is to forget your posture completely.
The Yogi should have one Asana at which he is so well practised that he can sit still and forget his body.
He should be able to sit for three hours.
Pranayama (Breath control) : the essence is found in the Gita:
"Forget to know whether you are breathing in or out" - it is cancelled out.
Narayana Guru here presents his revised version of Yoga, as properly understood in Vedanta.
Wilful austerities are for Sudras only: there are respectable Sastras and texts.
VERSE 1
That which always unites the mind
With the reasoning Self, and also gets united with it,
And which is in the form of restraint,
That is praised as Yoga.
Yoga joins the mind with the reasoning Self, and gets united with it.
The second part is Narayana Guru's addition,
horizontal and vertical are joining.
Restraining is Horizontal.
Joining is vertical.
VERSE 2
Where the seer, the sight and the seen
Are not present, there the heart
Should be joined, as long as incipient
memory-factors are present:
The object of meditation is to abolish and verticalize the three:
seer, sight and seen.
VERSE 3
All this consisting of name-form, knowing
As verily the Absolute, the mind ever merges
In the Absolute, what constitutes such,
As Yoga is ascertained.
Abolish all multiplicity of name and form
- give them conceptual form.
When all plurality is abolished in the vertical, you get Yoga.
VERSE 4
The unbroken functioning of reason
Which in the Self, like a streak of oil,
Finds incessant joy - such as Yoga
Is by Yogis recognized.
Yogis have a principle of continuity
- the streak is not to be broken.
VERSE 5
To which or which order interest the mind goes,
From that or that other into the Self,
Ever restraining it, it should be joined,
In such Yoga here let it be united.
Pull the mind back if it goes to another subject or association.
Bring it back from horizontal tangential side-tracks.
VERSE 6
Uprooting those incipient memory-factors of willing,
The source of all human disasters, he who
Together with their varied willed objects
Restrains in the form of Self, saying:
VERSE 7
"What is seen has no existence as such,
"Thus what is seen is the seer's Self"-
He among knowers of Yoga
Is the most superior.
The expert understands the outgoing will as having to be merged into the vertical will.
Pluck outside interests and burn them in your consciousness.
VERSE 8
When the mind-bee drinking
Of the nectar-sweetness of Self-bliss
Is drawn into union with Yoga breeze
And does not flutter, Yoga takes place.
The bee does not move when it enjoys the best honey:
that is the state of Yoga - forget yourself.
VERSE 9
When meditation with gaze fixed between the eye-brows
And the tongue-tip touching beyond the uvula takes place
Then happens that space-freedom attitude
Of drowsiness and fatigue - dispelling capacity.
Kechari Mudra (“placing the tongue-tip…”): " move in the sky"
- this is a top secret of the Yogis.
Levitation takes place in psycho-physical space, which is vectorial or qualitative.
VERSE 10
As of wisdom or action, Yoga in this world
Is of two kinds; and within these summarily
The whole of the further elaboration of Yoga
Is comprised conclusively.
Jnana and Karma.
CHAPTER 10
NIRVANA DARSANA – ABSORPTION
Here, we are in the eschatological context.
This is the last jewel in the garland.
We must end where we began:
coming in (Chapter I) is reciprocal to going out (Chapter X).
Going out of this world is like a lamp going out without oil,
or a dewdrop sinking into the sea, as with the Buddhists.
Here, we take a more scientific approach.
This is the final form of spirituality, the final trick.
Thus, this Darsana touches the same ground as Chapter I.
A dying man; not physiologically, but the spiritual man.
The implications of death are seen contemplatively.
Eschatology is the contemplative term of life.
One who attains Nirvana: how does he act?
Narayana Guru enumerates the kinds of Nirvana,
but with peculiarities .
VERSE 1
Emancipation is of two kinds -
What is pure and what is impure.
What is without incipient memory-factors that is pure,
Likewise, what is qualified by incipient memory-factors is impure.
"Pure" is not conditioned.
"Impure" is conditioned by instincts.
VERSE 2
As pure and extra-pure, thus
Are two kinds, likewise,
The impure also as impure-pure
And impure-impure is spoken of.
VERSE 3
The extra-pure is again of three kinds -
One is the elect, one is the more elect,
One is the most elect - while the pure
Exists in the simple knower of the Absolute.
VERSE 4
The impure - pure is without passion and inertia,
The other is with passion and inertia.
The former as in one who desires liberation,
While the latter as in one who desire psychic powers is to be known.
Pure-impure desires liberation,
impure-impure desires Siddhis or psychic powers.
Finally "my" devotee will never be destroyed, as the Bhagavad Gita states - so you feed every swami,
even if he is a bad swami –
God will cancel him, not you.
You must credit him with his intentions.
VERSE 5
Established in the Absolute, a knower of the Absolute,
By the fire of wisdom having burnt everything up,
Aiming at the good of the world,
Performs action according to what is considered as right.
VERSE 6
He who renouncing all action,
Always established in the Absolute,
Continues the course of the bodily life,
In the world - he is the elect knower of the Absolute.
The normal Brahmavid (Brahman-knower, or knower of the Absolute.) does action according to what is right: this is the first rung.
He is wandering because he still has vitality left.
VERSE 7
He who being informed by another is able to know,
But he himself does not know-
He is the more elect, who always
Enjoys absorption in the Absolute.
The superior knower of Brahman is the Brahmavidvarah.
There is no social service here, he is beyond that: a superior man.
Social work is only permitted to the beginner.
VERSE 8
He who by himself does not know anything,
And even when made to know, knows not -
Such a one, always void of activity,
The most elect, is the Absolute alone in itself.
Here, he does not even eat unless told to or reminded.
"Here is food - eat it": “ I do not know this food
- eat it yourself or take it away”.
VERSE 9
Of this world there is certainly nothing to be accepted or rejected,
As for the Self, it is Self-luminous.
Having understood thus, one should withdraw from all functionings,
Thereafter, function does not repeat itself.
Reject or accept nothing.
Be neutral - that is Nirvana.
Balanced between yes and no.
The only interest is in the Self.
VERSE 10
The one Absolute alone is without a second,
Nothing else there is, no doubt herein.
Having thus understood, the well-instructed one
From duality should withdraw, he does not return again.
Avoid any duality - withdraw.
He does not return again.
To gain freedom from duality in the final term
I am as ready to die as to live.
Complete neutrality.
The final conclusion of the whole work is here.
SOURCES:
THIS TEXT IS A COMPILATION OF 2 FILES OF NOTES:
DMNOTES1 notes taken by C. de Bruler from
26/12/70, in Varkala, Kerala, South India ( SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES/SLC8). They are extracted from file SLC8
DMNOTES2 notes taken by P.Misson from the Guru’s lectures at Varkala, Originally extracted from file SLP5 (SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES/SLP5 - SLP5 - p.48 to p.69 and p.73 to 80)