3
(continued from the previous issue)
At the end of the previous section, it was stated that we need to understand in detail the concept of General Dharma for human practice as it is embedded in the three short utterances DA, DA, DA. But before doing so, we should ascertain the intention behind the teachings of Dharma which has a wide conceptual application conveyed by the three short syllables.
That the external world is the manifestation in different forms and names of the same energy is well established by modern science. But the scientists have not been able to understand how the energy manifested in the phenomenal world is related to the prANa, manas, and Atma. Prana, mind, etc. are also modifications of some energy, the result of exercising some Will Power. There cannot be any effect without cause. It can therefore be surmised that the modifications noticed in the external world as well as in the inner being are the outcome of the same energy emanating from the exercise of Will Power. This Will Power is called CHIT or CONSCIOUSNESS. For example, the energy that is latent in the all-pervasive water gets expressed in different ways.
It is seen manifested in the form of waves that take different forms and designs. We also observe the thrust of energy in the water spreading from one place to all other places. Similarly, the CHIT consists of innumerable modifications, like creation, sustenance and dissolution, following a cause-and-effect relationship. In the external world, certain laws keep Nature in a state of balance and orderly functioning. So also, in the internal world, the CHIT modifications conform to the operation of certain laws or conditions. One such law or condition is that a thought or an idea can remain in a very subtle microcosmic form and when required it can expand into a macrocosmic dimension and vice versa.
This concept that an idea can expand or contract is described in a beautifully poetic form by a great Telugu poet Tikkana Somayaji in an invocatory stanza. He says that Lord Hariharanatha assumes a form that is both macrocosmic and microcosmic. The contracted form is that of Shiva and the expanded form is that of Vishnu.
The same concept is expressed by the Upanishadic statement: “aNoranIyAn mahatomahIyAn,” which means “smaller that the smallest and larger than the largest.” It is scientifically verified that the structure of an atom is similar to the structure of the Solar System.
There is also a similarity between the functioning of CHIT and the functioning of Sanskrit language that is used for thinking and giving expression to thoughts. Therefore, it is possible to reach the ultimate CHIT state through the use of vak or sounds. The CHIT state is described as PARA and the state of VAK is described as VAIKHARI.
{The ancient rishis and the grammarians have asserted that Reality is made up of primordial vibrations. The vibrations are the heartbeat of the cosmos. According to them, the reverberations from the cosmic ‘pulsing’ constitute the alphabet of Sanskrit language. First it was the ‘omkara’ which emanated from the Self-originating Brahman. Then all the sounds emanated from the ‘omkara’ that consists of three sounds A,U and M. it is said in SrimadBhagavatam (12.6.43) that the mighty unborn Lord Brahma created from the ‘omkara’ the different sounds of the total collection of vowels, sibilants, semivowels, and consonants as they are known by their short and long measures. According to the ‘Sphota’ theory, ‘dhwani’(sound) and ‘artha’ (meaning) are two aspects of the same reality. It is said that there are four levels of Vak from the grossest to the subtlest. “VAIKHARI is what we conventionally experience externally. Here things are separate and as independent entities they relate to one another.
The audible sound of a manthra when it is verbalized is at the VAIKHARI level. MADHYAMA is the subtle level of cognition where the manthra is in the mind as a thought but not verbalized aloud. The next more subtle level is PASHYANTI, which is in the subconscious mind where these entities are inter-contained and inter-defined and not really separable at all. This is when the manthra disappears, leaving only a very mild presence but without form. PARA is the ultimate reality, where there are no separate entities and only an ocean of possibilities from which the aforementioned levels arise to manifest difference. The manthra is absent but there is silent but heightened awareness.” (RajivMalhotra,2011, P.419.) traslator’s note}
-When we start learning motor driving, we fix our attention on several aspects. In course of time and with regular practice, it becomes a habit. After gaining full confidence, when we drive, though the mind is otherwise preoccupied, driving goes on smoothly, because the practices made earlier and the skills acquired thereof, having gone into a subtle state, pop up and assist in making driving effortless. This is another instance of contraction into a subtle state and expansion of certain practices.
Adi Shankara in his commentary on Prasnopanishad expresses the view that it is due to the benevolence of Goddess Earth that all of us exist in the present manner. Otherwise, we would have been, if light in weight, floating or if heavy, unable to get up and move about. It can be inferred that the earth’s gravitational force is one of the modifications of the Supreme Will Power of CHIT. Though it is possible for one, through the practice of yoga to float.
Thoughts pertaining to Dharma get reduced to subtle forms when they are Beejaksharas. In the subtle state they take on the forms of Devatas.
From the above illustrations, it is possible to infer that thoughts get reduced to short individual sounds which are known as Beejaksharas and they take on a divine aspect. In the context of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the sounds DA,DA,DA heard as thunder from the clouds are the Beejaksharas through which God reminded to the people the importance of Dharma.
Later in the same Upanishad there is the description of the image of a heart. It is to be assumed that the sounds of the Beeejaksharas are also heard from the heartbeats.
(to be continued)
