Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda - Advaita Vision

284 Pages·2010·1.01 MB·English

by  Nitya Tripta

Notes on
Spiritual Discourses
i A a
of Shr tm nanda
(arranged by subject)
N TR
TAKEN BY ITYA IPTA
Proposed third of all editions
(first edition arranged by subject)

Contents
Preface vii
Transliteration scheme viii
Why such open talk? ix
On devotion to a living Guru ix
Absence 1
Absolute and relative 1
Actions 3
Activity and rest 4
Advaita (Non-duality) 7
Aphorisms 10
Apparent ‘I’ (personal ego) 12
Appearance 17
Arguments 18
Art 19
Atma (Self) 21
Attachment and non-attachment 22
Aum (Om) 23
Background 24
Beauty 25
Being 28
Body 29
Bondage and liberation 30
Books 33
Causal ignorance 34
Causality 36
Change and changelessness 38
Child in knowledge 38
Connection 39
Consciousness 39
Consciousness and Peace 43
Creation 44
Death 45
Deep sleep 48
Deep sleep and ignorance 52
Definitions 52
Desire 55
Destruction 57
Devotion (bhakti) 58
Direct and indirect 60
Disciple 61
Dispassion 62
Doer, enjoyer and knower 63
Education 63
Enjoyment 63
iii
Examination 65
Existence 68
Experience 71
Expressions 77
Feeling 77
Flattery 81
Form and seeing 81
Generic 83
God and worship 83
Grace 86
Guru 87
Happiness and Peace 91
Harmony 93
Heart 94
‘I’-ness and ‘this’-ness 95
‘I’-principle 96
Ideas 102
Identification 103
Ignorance 104
Illusion 105
Illustration and analogy 106
Improving the world 107
Individuality 107
Instruments 109
Interval (between mentations) 110
‘It’ 111
Jivan-mukta (one free within
while living in the world) 111
Jnyana path 112
Karma and samskara 112
Karma-yoga 114
Knowledge 115
Knowledge and functioning 116
Knowledge and learning 117
Knowledge and love 117
Knowledge and witnessing 118
Knowledge in identity 119
Knowledge of objects 120
Known and unknown 121
Lakshana (pointer) 123
Language 123
Liberation 125
Life 126
Listening 128
Living and dying 129
Love 130
Mantra 134
Matter and life 135
iv
Meditation 136
Memory 138
Mentation 140
Mind and Truth 140
Mind’s functioning 142
Morality 144
Name and form 145
Negation and negatives 147
Nothingness 148
Object 149
Obstacles and means 154
Opposites 156
Paradoxes 156
Paths to Truth – the direct method
(vicara-marga) 157
Paths to Truth – traditional 159
Paths to Truth – traditional and direct 160
Peace 164
Perception and percept 164
Personal and impersonal 167
Perspective 167
Pleasure and pain 169
Practice 171
Prakriyas (methods of enquiry) 172
Problem 172
Proof 174
Puja (worship) 175
Purity 176
Qualities and the qualified 176
Questions and answers 176
Reality 179
Realization 182
Reason 185
Recognizing Truth 187
Religion 188
Renunciation 189
Sacrifice 191
Sadhana (exercise of discipline) 192
Sage (Jnyanin) 193
Sahaja or natural state 199
Samadhi (absorption) 202
Sat-cit-ananda 206
Sattva, rajas and tamas 208
Science 210
Self-luminosity 211
Shankara, Shri 213
Shastras (traditional texts) 214
Siddhis or powers 215
v
Sleep knowingly 216
Social service 217
Space and time 218
Spiritual name 219
Spiritual progress 220
Spirituality 222
Subject-object relationship 224
Surrender 225
Talking about Truth 226
Theoretical and practical 229
Thing in itself 230
Thought 231
Thoughts and feelings 235
Time 236
Triputi (triad) 237
Truth 238
Understanding 239
Unity and diversity 241
Vidya-vritti – higher reason 242
Visualization and establishment 244
Voluntary and involuntary 250
Waking, dream and sleep 251
Who 256
Witness 257
Work 264
World 265
Yoga 269

Glossary 271
vi
Preface
Shri Atmananda was a householder sage who lived in Kerala State, India, 1883-1959.
His worldly name was Krishna Menon, and he served as a respected police officer
under the Travancore Maharaja’s administration.
The notes in this book were taken in the last nine years of his life, by a close disci-
ple, Nitya Tripta (Balakrishna Pillai). These notes were first published at Trivandrum
in 1963. Subsequently (since about 2004) they have been freely available on the
Internet; and a second paper printed edition has been published in December 2009 by
Non-Duality Press and Stillness Speaks.
The second edition is in three volumes, with the notes arranged by date. To make
the notes more readily accessible, this third edition is now brought out as a single
volume abridgement, with the notes rearranged by subject. The subjects are in alpha-
betical order, as can be seen from the table of contents.
The abridgement has been accomplished mainly by making a selection of 937
notes, from the 1451 notes of the full version. The original note numbers have been
retained, so that the reader will easily be able to see where notes have been left out.
Some relatively minor abridgement has been effected within some of the notes; and a
further abridgement by omitting most of the introductory sections, the appendices and
the index of the second edition.
Some added notes, explanations and translations were given in square brackets.
Wherever square brackets occur, the contents have been added by the second and
third edition editor.
A glossary is added at the end, for readers unfamiliar with Sanskrit philosophical
terms.
For more information about Shri Atmananda and his teachings, an electronic edi-
tion of the complete book is available for free download in Acrobat pdf form at:
http://sites.google.com/site/advaitaenquiry/
Editor of second and third editions, February 2010
vii
Transliteration scheme
For ordinary readers, a simplified transliteration has been used for Sanskrit and Ma-
layalam names and even for the titles of cited texts. But, for detailed quotations, a
more exact transliteration has been used, for the sake of textual accuracy.
For Sanskrit, the exact transliteration is the standard one, using the usual diacritical
marks, except that ‘e’ is written as ‘e’ and ‘o’ as ‘o’. This slight modification is
needed to have a common transliteration scheme which applies to both Sanskrit and
Malayalam.
For the simplified transliteration of Sanskrit characters, there are the following de-
partures from standard academic practice: ‘r’ is written as ‘ri’, ‘v’ as ‘ri’, ‘l’ as ‘li’, ‘k’
as ‘li’, ‘b’ as ‘n’ or ‘ng’, ‘ñ’ as ‘n’ or ‘ny’, ‘z’ as ‘sh’, ‘s’ as ‘sh’.
For Malayalam characters that don’t occur in Sanskrit, the following transliterations
are used:
‘q’ is written as ‘l’. Thus, ‘D¾¢v’ is written as ‘ullil’.
‘r’ is written as ‘f’. Thus, ‘F©¸¡r¤«’ is written as ‘eppofum’.
‘s’ is written as ‘c’. Thus, ‘As¢l¤®® ’ is written as ‘acivy’.
‘×’ is written as ‘gg’. Thus, ‘d×¢’ is written as ‘paggi’.
I apologize to Malayalam speakers for whom some of these usages will be unfamiliar.
But I think that they are needed for the sake of those who do not know Malayalam.
For the ordinary reader, this scheme of transliteration is meant to indicate an ap-
proximate pronunciation, even if the diacritical marks are ignored. However, it may
help to note that unmarked ‘c’, ‘t’ and ‘d’ are soft. In particular, ‘c’ is pronounced like
‘ch’ in ‘chat’; and ‘t’ and ‘d’ are pronounced as in the Italian ‘pasta’ and ‘dolce’. By
contrast, ‘t’ and ‘g’ are pronounced more like the hard ‘t’ in ‘table’, and ‘d’ like the
hard ‘d’ in ‘donkey’. Where ‘h’ occurs after a preceding consonant, it does not indi-
cate a softening of the consonant (as it may in English). Instead, it indicates an aspi-
rated sound that occurs immediately after the consonant.
Second and third edition editor
viii
Why such open talk?
50. WHY SUCH OPEN TALK?
A disciple asked: Why was secrecy so strictly observed in expounding the Truth in the
old shastras [texts]?
Gurunathan: Evidently, for fear of jeopardizing established religion and society.
Religion had no place except in duality and social life. It was the prime moving force
of social life in ancient times. But the concept of religion could not stand the strict
logic of vedantic Truth.
The sages of old, who recognized the great need of religion in phenomenal life,
expounded the ultimate Truth under a strict cover of secrecy, thus enabling religion to
play its role in lower human society. But religion in the present day world has been
dethroned in many ways, and ungodly cults have come into existence in large num-
bers.
Therefore it is high time now to throw off the veil of secrecy, and broadcast the
whole Truth in the face of the world which has already advanced much, intellectually.
On devotion to a living Guru
acaryavan puruso veda
Chandogya Upanishad, 6.14.2
This means: ‘He who is blessed with a Karana-guru alone knows the Truth.’
The following Malayalam verse is the instruction of Shri Atmananda to the few
earnest aspirants of Truth, as to how and when they should direct and express their
sense of deep devotion.
bodham yatorupadhimulam udayam ceyto, bhajikkentatum
pujikkentatum ullaliññatineyam zridezikopadhiyay`,
ellam satguruvam upadhi macayunnerattatallate
kantanyopadhiyil avidham bhramam udiccidat irunnitanam .
Shri Atmananda, Atmaramam, 1.34
‘That particular person through whom one had the proud privilege of being enlight-
ened, that is the only form which one may adore and do puja to, to one’s heart’s
content, as the person of one’s Guru. It is true that all is the Sat-guru, but only when
the name and form disappear and not otherwise. Therefore, the true aspirant should
beware of being deluded into any similar devotional advances towards any other
form, be it of God or of man.’
Nitya Tripta
ix