AVG 1.13

Chapter 1 (Guidance on self-realization): Verse 13
कूटस्थं बोधमद्वैतमात्मानं परिभावय ।
आभासोऽहं भ्रमं मुक्त्वा भावं बाह्यमथान्तरम् ॥ १-१३॥

PURPORT:

Having given up the thought that
the internal is situated sovereign from
the external, realize yourself in awareness
devoid of dichotomies and within stillness.
Understand ‘I’ as a perplexity of illusion.

TRANSLITERATION:
कूटस्थम् बोधम् अद्वैतम् आत्मानम् परिभावय ।
kūṭastham bodham advaitam ātmānam paribhāvaya ।
आभासः अहम् भ्रमम् मुक्त्वा भावम् बाह्यम् अथ अन्तरम् ॥ १-१३॥
ābhāsaḥ aham bhramam muktvā bhāvam bāhyam atha antaram ॥ 1-13॥

MEANING:
kūṭastham (कूटस्थम्) = changeless/stilling
bodham (बोधम्) = awareness
advaitam (अद्वैतम्) = non-duality/destitute of dichotomy
ātmānam (आत्मानम्) = your self/one’s substantive individualization
paribhāvaya (परिभावय) = conceive/to envisage via realization/recognize as ।
ābhāsaḥ (आभासः) = phantasm of the imagination/having the mere appearance of a thing/a shadow
aham (अहम्) = I
bhramam (भ्रमम्) = hallucination/unsteadiness of perception/perplexity of illusion
muktvā (मुक्त्वा) = having been freed/having given up
bhāvam (भावम्) = understanding/thought
bāhyam (बाह्यम्) = situated without/outside/external
atha (अथ) = thereupon/after this
antaram (अन्तरम्) = interior/within ॥ 1-13॥

COMMENTS:
These lines get the heart of the concept of non-duality (advaitam (अद्वैतम्)). The world and the reality around us described by our languages in terms of words, concepts, names, nouns and similar thought-constructions are in reality designations developed by us and commonly agreed upon by our collective selves and thus formalized. Binary imputations like right and wrong, up and down, left and right, virtue and vice, ‘I’ and the ‘Other’ and other similar dualisms are our creations that stem from the fact that the ego would like to see everything in terms of the basic dualism of the Ego being ‘front-and-center’ and Everything-Other-Than-the-Ego being ‘the-rest-of-it-all’. While we all agree that the labels, concepts and designations themselves serve a useful purpose in so far as to reaching a common understanding of an entity to which we give a name and see a form, the mental equanimity and balance that results from understanding these names and forms for what they are - conceptual designations of conventional reality - allow for a better resonance within oneself.

A metaphor that I keep going back to is one from astrophysics I had learned in order to help drive this point home. For lack of a better working theory and until there comes along a better story, our current working model for the origin of the universe has been with reference to the Big Bang. While the Big Bang has been unimaginatively named (there was no real bang nor explosion of any sort – it is said), the idea itself is worthwhile - the fact that all of manifest reality was once a singularity* - a point of limitless* density where time nor space did not have a standing. All of you, me, the tables, the chairs, the horseshoe crabs, the stars, the galaxies were imbued into this primeval singularity. Billions of years ago, perturbations within this singularity must have changed something that caused the singularity to become unstable, expand outwards, onwards and 'forwards' creating with it time, space and all of matter as we know it. Atoms formed as the temperatures cooled, atoms led to elemental substantiality, elements coalesced into molecules and matter clustered into bigger and bigger agglomerations. Complexity increased as these agglomerations interacted and eventually led to you, me, the horseshoe crabs et. al. The expansion is still ongoing - every second. We are all part of this expansion and by extension, we are all part of the Big Bang. Ok, let me rephrase that last statement - we are not JUST part of the so-called Big Bang, we ARE the Big Bang - riding outward and onward, ever effulgent.

Understanding non-duality is just this - the fact that you and I are just That. You and I and everything else in this manifest reality is the primordial energy riding that original expansion that continues ever forward. A deeper appreciation for this concept helps one to see the picture for what it really is - a picture painted by conventions and agreements forged out of language, culture and shared values but at its core, a picture that points to a singular unity amongst all sentient creatures and matter.

As Ashtavakra points out, understanding that the ‘I’ or the Ego as a perplexity of such an illusion that tends to create binaries of the form we talked about is the first step towards a more natural stillness within ourselves.

*In conclusion, I want to say that even words like 'limitless' and 'singularity' used above are (at the end of the day) only concepts and designations developed, institutionalized and scientifically commodified by us. They are cultural concepts and designations used to describe reality as may be imagined conventionally. Of course, if one asks what might be the ultimate nature of reality, then we are forced to go back to the truth that there is no meaning nor essence within that question nor within what is culturally referred to as 'ultimate nature of reality'. Given that the nature of reality is our conceptual imputation of the arising of phenomena that is dependent upon the web of interactional networks of causes and conditions, where all wholes are dependent upon moieties and moieties on the wholes they help make up, there is little meaning in asking about ultimate natures of anything. In addition the causes and conditions themselves are dependent upon a further complex strata of underlying causes and conditions recursively (the phrase ‘it is turtles all the way down’ – somehow comes to mind here) down to the end. At the end, one finds an absolute emptiness there – devoid of any substantial essence nor form nor structure nor name nor being – free from any conceptual imputations, clarifications or definitions. The most interesting aspect to that last sentence is that the word 'emptiness' itself is a dependent designation and is bereft of any substance in and of itself.

"I'm not saying that the world will change. You will just acquire a different perception of this world in which you live. Everything will become quite neutral and you will stop fighting, you will stop trying to make things happen." - Robert Adams