Commentary on the text “Tripura Rahasya,” chapter 15
What must be known and what need not be known, and on the nature of the supreme Essence.
The instructions given by the hermitess to Ashtavakra in King Janaka’s palace.
“Would anything have been revealed by you if there were no consciousness? Even in order to say that nothing has been revealed by you (as, for example, in a dream), the light of consciousness is required. Is not your awareness of your non-awareness (in a dream) conditioned by consciousness?”
The First Link of the Fivefold Formula: Reduction to Consciousness
As you know from the fivefold formula, the first link consists in reducing everything to the mind, to consciousness. This link is the cornerstone of further practice. If a person does not understand this, his practice remains conceptual. In other words, here lies the boundary between eternalism and the genuine spiritual practice of the siddhas.
Eternalism builds its religious understanding on adherence to extreme views. By extreme views here, concepts are meant. If we imagine human consciousness as a sphere, then it can be said that eternalism is movement on the surface of the sphere. But when we speak not of concepts, but of the state of awareness, of the aware subject, we leave the surface of the sphere, that is, manas (the conceptual mind), and enter its center, intuitive consciousness beyond concepts.
A person who is at the level of manas (concepts) in his religious practice can be compared to someone licking a jar of honey from the outside. But one who is focused not on concepts, but on the meditative state, who speaks of consciousness as constantly evolving, is like someone who eats honey.
The hermitess tells Ashtavakra that as long as he was a person licking a jar of honey from the outside, all this was borrowed knowledge—not his own, but someone else’s. She draws his attention to awareness and says: “You can find and recognize the subject, the seer, everywhere. Even if you say that you cannot recognize him, this will be a manifestation of the awareness of this subject.”
Even when we do not have lucid dreams, something within us knows that we are not having them. If that something did not know this, we would not be able to state it. This means that there is constantly a certain wakeful conscious part within, even if we do not notice it. Our task is to constantly pay attention to this wakeful part, to notice it. If a person does not notice this part within himself, all his practice is conceptual, superficial, and shallow. This is what we call eternalism.
The Difference Between Manas and Buddhi
When religions attach importance to the conceptual part, this leads to fragmentation, misunderstanding, and even hostility. When attention is paid to intuitive awareness, this leads to harmony, unity, and compassion.
The function of manas (the conceptual mind) is to divide everything; it is characterized by a divisive black-and-white vision and attachment to certain dogmatic positions. The function of buddhi (intuitive consciousness) is to synthesize, to unite, to see everything in wholeness.
Therefore, as soon as we understand this principle, we begin to see the world in its wholeness. And to see the world in its wholeness means to be in harmony with oneself, with others, and with the universe. As long as we remain at the level of manas, we do not have such wholeness. Prabandha (the state of wholeness) comes only when we discover this intuitive consciousness.
It can be said that abiding on the conceptual foundation of life is bhranti, an error resulting from coarsened consciousness. Returning to prabandha (wholeness) is what we are engaged in day after day, for years.
“If you wish to discover its primordial light, then carefully investigate whether this light exists by itself or not. Everyone fails in this investigation, however learned and skillful he may be, for his mind is not turned inward but restlessly wanders, since it is directed outward.”
Here it is said: “Everyone fails in this investigation because his mind wanders.” All living beings (from the realm of hell to the world of humans, asuras, and even some gods of passion) remain in the state of bhranti (error), that is, delusion, because they fail to find this wholeness without special training and spiritual practice.
However, as we rise higher (from the enlightened gods of the world of passion up to the gods of the world of Brahma), the state of error gradually disappears. And instead of bhranti (error) and avidya (ignorance), the state of prabandha, samarasa, sahaja begins to dominate—that is, a state of integral vision, unity, and harmony with the Supreme Source. What is rare and sacred in the human world is the norm of life in the world of the gods. Why is this the norm of life? Because those whom we call gods constantly live in a state of awareness and contemplation.
Turning the Mind Inward
“As long as thoughts arise, turning the mind inward will not be achieved. As long as the mind is not turned inward, the Supreme Essence cannot be realized. Turning inward means the absence of desire. How can the mind be concentrated within if desires have not been abandoned?”
First, we need to penetrate well and deeply within. Penetration within is hindered, firstly, by worldly desires; and secondly, by constantly moving thoughts and the habit of being on the level of thoughts. In the first years of monastic life, we must simply try to free ourselves from dependence on worldly desires in order to become whole, self-sufficient, and at the same time feel good.
When, in mahashanti, we bring thoughts under control and are not disturbed by desires, we penetrate within. Here begins a period of life lasting approximately ten years, when we try to penetrate deeply within in order to understand what is there inside us. Approximately at the stage between the seventh and eighth dhyana, our penetration within is completed, and now we must gain an entirely new understanding of ourselves and of the world.
Having gained this new understanding, we must reintegrate anew, rebuild our vision of the world; we must emerge from the inner state and enter that in which there is no longer either inner or outer; we must unite our inner vision with the outer world. Only when we can do this will it be called the “natural state.”
No other state is called natural: neither distraction due to thoughts and worldly desires, nor absorption in meditation when you are very deeply immersed within—this is not yet natural. Only when we combine inner vision with outer space and a single integral vision arises is true contemplation possible. Everything else is the road we must travel to reach this point.
As we move toward this point, many discoveries will arise. We may think: “So this is what spiritual practice turns out to be! And three years ago I thought completely differently.” In five years we will think: “Yes... Everything I thought before was nonsense; I was completely mistaken. I understood everything I heard in a completely wrong way.” After another ten years we will reach yet another new level. And this will happen many times.
The Principle of Self-Liberation
“Therefore become dispassionate and abide within in the Supreme Essence. Such abiding occurs spontaneously (no effort is required to abide in the Supreme Essence). This is realized after thoughts have been eliminated and inquiry ceases.”
At first, thoughts really do need to be eliminated, but when you are established in self-liberation, there is no need to eliminate thoughts. Moreover, to eliminate them completely is impossible in principle, because thoughts are energy inherent not only in your body but also in the universe. And the property of energy is chit-shakti-parinama—that is, the constant play, movement, and dynamics of the energy of awareness. Trying in ordinary life to be entirely without thoughts, to suppress them completely, is impossible in principle. This can only lead to certain difficulties.
Saraha said: “The mind is like a camel. The more you control it and tie it down, the more it begins to resist. But if you allow it to move naturally, as it wishes, it will calm down by itself.”
In the same way, at the stage of contemplation we do not really try to control the thoughts themselves, allowing them to flow as they wish. We simply step out of the mental stream of concepts and establish ourselves in a subtler intuitive stream. As a result, the mental stream self-liberates, because we take a higher position. This principle is the cornerstone of the entire Dharma. Whoever does not understand this principle understands nothing at all about Laya Yoga, because the whole secret of self-liberation is contained in it.
Of course, we must learn to control thoughts and stop them at will in Mahashanti. Without this, penetration into emptiness is impossible. Nevertheless, when emptiness has been realized to some degree and we have established ourselves in presence, this is not constantly necessary. We adopt a higher point of view, namely the principle of self-liberation.
And at first, the principle of self-liberation in us is built on a small effort, attentiveness, and constant self-control. We only just manage, catching ourselves in time, to make thoughts self-liberate. But when awareness gains strength, it becomes saturated with bhava, spiritual majesty, and then self-liberation is something effortless and simple. In other words, we do not bind ourselves to the mental plane at all, although we can operate with it perfectly well; the state of our soul is on an entirely different level.
Deepening into Atma-vichara
For example, when we practice atma-vichara, at first the state “I am” arises, and at a certain stage you feel that everything is contained in this “I.” When you penetrate deeply into “I am,” you see that the “I” is not the small ego, but the “I” is the Absolute itself. And then “I am” is transformed into “I am Brahman,” “I am God.” When you concentrate in atma-vichara on the “I,” it is implied that you are concentrating on the Supreme.
If you penetrate further into this vision, both the “I” and “I am” disappear; only the Supreme remains, only Brahman, and there is no longer any definite “I” of yours that could declare itself as some separate individuality. And then you no longer have doubts, hopes, or clinging; there is only the Supreme: He is in the morning, in the evening, at night and by day, and you are His manifestation, emanation, hypostasis, which must fully manifest in this body.
Of course, you have individuality, ahamkara, the false ego, buddhi (intuitive intellect), your own manas (surface mind) — all of this pertains to you as a unique and unrepeatable personality. Nevertheless, ahamkara, buddhi, and manas are still secondary derivatives of the Supreme; they reflect your individuality. Yet this individuality is not you in the true sense. You in the true sense are much deeper.
Here the paradoxical unity of your individuality and the Supreme manifests. Sometimes you feel that you are an individuality; sometimes you feel that individuality is not you, and that you are, rather, only a single consciousness; sometimes you feel that you are both individuality and the Supreme at the same time; sometimes you feel that this is incomprehensible, that everything depends on the point of view.
This principle is called achintya-bheda-abheda-tattva, the inconceivable identity of two in one: you and the Supreme, you and individuality; you can manifest in one way or another depending on the circumstances. The moment of transition from the absolute to the relative, where you position yourself as the Absolute or as an individuality, is inconceivable. You are simultaneously both this and that, and neither this nor that, all at once.
The Comprehensible and the Incomprehensible
“Imprint this state within yourself after you come out of it, and then you will know everything and the meaning of all this, which will be both comprehensible and incomprehensible.”
In the relative world, ahamkara, individuality, is not something bad. What is bad is identification with it. A saint such as Jnanadeva even said that the soul is the full right of existence of the Absolute, one of His full-fledged forms. The state of the saint’s individuality also exists; it manifests as the pure form of the purified “I” — shuddha-sattva-svarupa.
This means that upon attaining enlightenment and partaking of the Supreme Source, you do not lose your individual qualities. Moreover, these individual qualities are a powerful stimulus for your development, because it is precisely through them that the Absolute manifests itself, develops, and plays. That is, you do not have some alien individual qualities; you have your own. It is precisely through your own individual qualities that the Absolute will play.
Another matter is that you are now no longer fully identified with them, you do not depend on them, they have ceased to be your limitation; you can develop them, change them as you wish—this is your svacchanda, freedom of will, and your iccha-shakti. An ordinary person is completely limited by his individual qualities, and any changes in them bring him great suffering. But a practitioner can manifest his individual qualities in any way he likes—this will be the play of the Supreme.
Next the hermitess says:
“When you have understood this inner state, imprint it within yourself after you emerge from it.”
That is, when you have come out of the meditation of mahashanti, you try to imprint your experience of shunyata, emptiness.
The hermitess says:
“Then you will know everything and the meaning of all this, which will be at once comprehensible and incomprehensible. With such awareness of the incomprehensible, eternal immortality comes.”
From this moment on, your entire further life will consist in abiding in this presence. Within you there will be an incomprehensible part and a comprehensible one: the comprehensible will concern the relative world and your individuality; the incomprehensible will concern the Atman. All of life will be a play, a development of these two aspects of your personality: the comprehensible and the incomprehensible. Depending on which aspect of your personality develops, your destiny will be formed accordingly.
Two Aspects of the Personality
The incomprehensible aspect is Avyakta-Brahman, the principle of Shiva. The comprehensible aspect is the principle of Shakti, Saguna-Brahman. These two aspects are universal aspects realized in our body and individuality.
Your incomprehensible aspect is your inner mystery; it is you as the Absolute, as God within. Your comprehensible aspect is the manifestation of your qualities, abilities, plays, vision, inclinations, sankalpas, body, prana, intellect—everything relative. And both of these aspects develop in parallel. There should be no imbalance in either.
Conclusion of the Instructions
“Now I have completed my speech. Accept my farewell salutations! Farewell!
But you have not yet understood my words, because you have now heard the truth for the first time. This king, the wisest among men, will be able to help you understand. Therefore ask him about this again, and he will resolve your doubts.”
When she had spoken these words, she was honored with respectful recognition by the king and the entire assembly, and then in the blink of an eye dissolved into the air and disappeared from sight.
“I have just told you, O Parashurama, the method of self-realization.”
Thus ends the fifteenth chapter, dedicated to Ashtavakra, in the “Tripura Rahasya.”
Think about it—is this not a miracle? You are hearing the very same thing that Dattatreya told Parashurama many thousands of years ago. Since Parashurama attained complete liberation by following these instructions, we too follow them.
