Part 17 - Vedānta Ethics and Vedānta Emancipation

Vedānta says that when a duly qualified man takes to the study of Vedānta and is instructed by the preceptor—“Thou art that (Brahman),” he attains the emancipating knowledge, and the world-appearance becomes for him false and illusory.

The qualifications necessary for the study of Vedānta are

(1) that the person having studied all the Vedas with the proper accessories, such as grammar, lexicon etc. is in full possession of the knowledge of the Vedas,

(2) that either in this life or in another, he must have performed only the obligatory Vedic duties (such as daily prayer, etc. called nitya-karmd) and occasionally obligatory duty (such as the birth ceremony at the birth of a son, called naimittika-karma) and must have avoided all actions for the fulfilment of selfish desires (kāmya-karmas, such as the performance of sacrifices for going to Heaven) and all prohibited actions (e.g. murder, etc. niṣiddha-karma) in such a way that his mind is purged of all good and bad actions (no karma is generated by the nitya and naimittika-karma , and as he has not performed the kāmya and prohibited karmas, he has acquired no new karma).

When he has thus properly purified his mind and is in possession of the four virtues or means of fitting the mind for Vedānta instruction (called sādhana) he can regard himself as properly qualified for the Vedānta instruction.

These virtues are

1. knowledge of what is eternal and what is transient,
2. disinclination to enjoyments of this life and of the heavenly life after death,
3. extreme distaste for all enjoyments, and anxiety for attaining the means of right knowledge,
4. control over the senses by which these are restrained from everything but that which aids the attainment of right knowledge (dama),
   1. having restrained them, the attainment of such power that these senses may not again be tempted towards worldly enjoyments (uparati),
   2. power of bearing extremes of heat, cold, etc.,
   3. employment of mind towards the attainment of right knowledge,
   4. faith in the instructor and Upaniṣads;
5. strong desire to attain salvation.

A man possessing the above qualities should try to understand correctly the true purport of the Upaniṣads (called śravcina), and by arguments in favour of the purport of the Upaniṣads to strengthen his conviction as stated in the Upaniṣads (called manand) and then by nididhyāsana (meditation) which includes all the Yoga processes of concentration, try to realize the truth as one. Vedānta therefore in ethics covers the ground of Yoga; but while for Yoga emancipation proceeds from understanding the difference between puruṣa and prakṛti, with Vedānta salvation comes by the dawn of right knowledge that Brahman alone is the true reality, his own self^[1]. Mīmāṃsā asserts that the Vedas do not declare the knowledge of one Brahman to be the supreme goal, but holds that all persons should act in accordance with the Vedic injunctions for the attainment of good and the removal of evil.

But Vedānta holds that though the purport of the earlier Vedas is as Mīmāṃsā has it, yet this is meant only for ordinary people, whereas for the elect the goal is clearly as the Upaniṣads indicate it, namely the attainment of the highest knowledge. The performance of Vedic duties is intended only for ordinary men, but yet it was believed by many (e.g. Vācaspati Miśra and his followers) that due performance of Vedic duties helped a man to acquire a great keenness for the attainment of right knowledge; others believed (e.g. Prakāśātmā and his followers) that it served to bring about suitable opportunities by securing good preceptors, etc. and to remove many obstacles from the way so that it became easier for a person to attain the desired right knowledge.

In the acquirement of ordinary knowledge the ajñānas removed are only smaller states of ajñāna, whereas when the Brahma-knowledge dawns the ajñāna as a whole is removed. Brahma-knowledge at the stage of its first rise is itself also a state of knowledge, but such is its special strength that when this knowledge once dawns, even the state of knowledge which at first reflects it (and which being a state is itself ajñāna modification) is destroyed by it. The state itself being destroyed, only the pure infinite and unlimited Brahman shines forth in its own true light. Thus it is said that just as fire riding on a piece of wood would burn the whole city and after that would burn the very same wood, so in the last state of mind the Brahma-knowledge would destroy all the illusory w^rorld-appearance and at last destroy even that final state^[2].

The mukti stage is one in w'hich the pure light of Brahman as the identity of pure intelligence, being and complete bliss shines forth in its unique glory, and all the rest vanishes as illusory nothing. As all being of the world-appearance is but limited manifestations of that one being, so all pleasures also are but limited manifestations of that supreme bliss, a taste of which we all can get in deep dreamless sleep. The being of Brahman however is not an abstraction from all existent beings as the sattā (being as class notion) of the naiyāyika, but the concrete, the real, which in its aspect as pure consciousness and pure bliss is always identical with itself. Being (sat) is pure bliss and pure consciousness.

What becomes of the avidyā during mukti (emancipation) is as difficult for one to answer as the question, how the avidyā came forth and stayed during the world-appearance. It is best to remember that the category of the indefinite avidyā is indefinite as regards its origin, manifestation and destruction. Vedānta however believes that even when the true knowledge has once been attained, the body may last for a while, if the individual’s previously ripened karmas demand it. Thus the emancipated person may walk about and behave like an ordinary sage, but yet he is emancipated and can no longer acquire any new karma.

As soon as the fruits due to his ripe karmas are enjoyed and exhausted, the sage loses his body and there will never be any other birth for him, for the dawn of perfect knowledge has burnt up for him all budding karmas of beginningless previous lives, and he is no longer subject to any of the illusions subjective or objective which could make any knowledge, action, or feeling possible for him. Such a man is called jīvanmukta , i.e. emancipated while living. For him all world-appearance has ceased. He is the one light burning alone in himself where everything else has vanished for ever from the stage^[3].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See Vedāntasāra and Advaitabrahmasiddhi.

[2]:

Siddhāntaleśa.

[3]:

See Pañcadaśī.