Take the True Inner Pilgrimage

Take the True Inner Pilgrimage
(Vinod Anand)

The Brahmasutra Bhashya of Sankara is an abstruse exposition of his advaitic thought, best summed up in a classic line from the l3hashya: “Brahmn satyamjagat mithya jivo Brahmaivah napara” — Brahmn alone is real, the world is illusory; the individual and the universal soul are one”.

However, it is in the smaller poetic compositions that Sankara puts these abstruse advaitic concepts within easy grasp of the average individual, using everyday references to illustrate the concepts.

The Atmabodha, set in 68 verses, is one such poetic primer of advaita, where Sankara begins by explicitly stating that the Atmabodha will serve as an easy text for those who are desirous of under-standing the notion of liberation and how to equip themselves with the tools of discrimination in the mind.

The second verse gets to the- heart of the matter bluntly. It declares that knowledge alone can be the cause of liberation, just as fire is the direct cause of cooking. This may include the requirement of water; pots and pans, but it is fire that actually makes cooking possible.

Sankara declares that karma or action is powerless to destroy ignorance for “...it is not in conflict with ignorance”. The Self can be known only through knowledge just as light alone can dispel darkness.

Sankara compares jnana abhyasa or the practice of knowledge which purifies by removing ignorance, with the traditional method of purifying muddy water in rural India with kataka-nut powder. Just as the powder sprinkled on the surface of the water forms a film and drags all the impurities to the bottom, leaving pure water on the surface, constant use and practice of knowledge removes the dirt of ignorance. And just as the kataka-nut powder dissolves in the water after doing its work, knowledge, too, disappears after the Self emerges.

He further talks about illusion created by oyster shells scattered along the beach on a moonlit night. We mistake them for silver, only till we recognize them as shells. Similarly, the world of names and forms exists only till Self-knowledge dawns. The phenomenal world exists in the mind of the perceiver alone, and names and forms exist like ornaments. Vishnu, the all-pervading consciousness, is like gold.

Sankara invokes the spirit of the Upanishads by alluding to the well-known definition of Brahmnas that which cannot be defined: “Neti, neti... — ‘Not this, not this...’ The flame of knowledge can only be kindled by constant meditation, which Sankara compares to the act of’ rubbing two pieces of flint or wood to create fire. Meditation is the friction between the metaphorical mind- wood and the ‘Aum’-wood pieces between the movement of the mind and the longing of the soul. (Soul-wood or Aum-wood is what melts arid subsumes aham, ego.)

The story of- Rama is allegorized as Atmarama, who derives satisfaction from the Self alone, having crossed the ocean of delusion to vanquish the mind-beast of ego, ‘just as Rama crossed the ocean to kill Ravana.

In the concluding verses Sankara alludes to the cosmological nature of Brahmn, satchit-ananda or knowledge-existence-bliss: “.All things which can be perceived or heard are Brahmn itself and nothing else...and though atma is reality, it can be perceived only by one who has the eye of wisdom”. Sankara asks us to undertake the true inner pilgrimage to “the shrine of the atma” which will bestow equanimity.