Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam (Study)
by Sadhu Gyanananddas | 2021 | 123,778 words
This page relates ‘Antardrishti (Introspection)’ of the study on the Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam in Light of Swaminarayan Vachanamrut (Vacanamrita). His 18th-century teachings belong to Vedanta philosophy and were compiled as the Vacanamrita, revolving around the five ontological entities of Jiva, Ishvara, Maya, Aksharabrahman, and Parabrahman. Roughly 200 years later, Bhadreshdas composed a commentary (Bhasya) correlating the principles of Vachanamrut.
12.7. Antardṛṣṭi (Introspection)
A devotee has to examine his progress in the Satsang fellowship. Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thinking and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context, it may refer to the examination of one's ātman. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and self-discovery and is contrasted with external observation. Introspection generally provides privileged access to one's own mental states, not mediated by other sources of knowledge, so that individual experience of the mind is unique.
One should think in the introspection process as Mahant Svāmi explains,
“With a composed mind, one should introspect every day: “What have I come to accomplish in this world and what am I doing?”[1]
Svāminārāyaṇa provides another definition too: antardṛṣṭi (inner-vision/) consists in keeping the eyes fixed on the incarnate Parabrahman perceptibly present before the seeker. Focusing of the mind on the form of Parabrahman visible inside the heart or out there in front is called antardṛṣṭi.[2]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Satsangadiksha 145
[2]:
Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/49,