Tuesday, January 21, 2020

AVG 7.3

Chapter 7 (The Seekers sense of Awareness) Verse 3
मय्यनंतमहाम्भोधौ विश्वं नाम विकल्पना ।
अतिशान्तो निराकार एतदेवाहमास्थितः ॥ ७-३॥

PURPORT:
In me, as in an unlimited ocean,
the world is conceived within the imagination
as arrangements of name-and-form.
I prevail in tranquility and do not identify with
form nor appellation. In this alone do I abide.

TRANSLITERATION:
मयि अनन्तमहाम्भोधौ विश्वम् नाम विकल्पना ।
mayi anantamahāmbhodhau viśvam nāma vikalpanā ।
अतिशान्तः निराकारः एतत् एव  अहम् आस्थितः ॥ ७-३॥
atiśāntaḥ nirākāraḥ etat eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 7-3॥

MEANING:
mayi (मयि) = in me
anantamahāmbhodhau (अनन्तमहाम्भोधौ) = in the grand ocean that has no limits
viśvam (विश्वम्) = world
nāma (नाम) = name/called (name as in 'name-and-form')
vikalpanā (विकल्पना) = imagination/creativity/fabrication।
atiśāntaḥ (अतिशान्तः) = a heightened state of tranquility
nirākāraḥ (निराकारः) = incorporeal/shapeless/formless
etat (एतत्) = this
eva (एव) = alone
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abiding in/dwelling in ॥ 7-3॥

COMMENT:
Janaka mentions the phenomenal world is ultimately reified imagination - a construct of our minds conditioned and sculpted by culture, name-and-form, doctrine, and education. Reification happens gradually over the course of the maturation of the mind where an abstract belief or hypothetical construct or even a functioning process is construed as if it were a concrete, physical entity. The sense of reification heightens over time as an idea or a construct that is created by our name-and-form based existence is gradually taken to be a 'real thing'.
On careful analysis, it is seen that all abstract beliefs, hypothetical constructs, and functioning processes lack permanence of any kind and even the sub-processes themselves lack any fixed inherent identity. Extending the conceptual idea of reification, processes like our animate bodies (or even inanimate entities like combustion engines) would not be called thus unless a fully functional ensemble became emergent from the individual constituted parts that formed the whole; the individual parts themselves further dependent upon moieties of other functionally appropriate and dependent fractions. A combustion engine would not be called so unless it has the potential and design to take in fuel and oxygen and put out the products of combustion delivering energy. A living, animate being would not be called so unless the being has the potential to achieve sustenance, respire and convert the energies contained within the chemical bonds organically assimilated into a continuance of existence and vitality. In this sense, it is seen that all of animate or inanimate entities are in a state of dependence and impermanence; and, to posit any form of essence or permanence to such animate or inanimate entities (or essence to the processes, beliefs or constructs that every such entity is dependent upon) is an exercise in futility. 
An additional thought that springs to mind on reading these lines is the implication that the mind is secondary to awareness and silence, but, often mistaken to be the primary driver and the conductor of the symphony. In that sense, the true conductor is the symphony of silence and clear awareness that was present before the mind was born and then sculpted using the implements of culture and knowledge. Once the seeker awakens to the fact that their awareness takes the form of a boundless stretch of ocean, stateless and formless in complete tranquility with their original selves as they were born, a form of clarity and happiness descends upon that seeker.

NOTE:
"People, cars, houses, etc. are put together. A car is metal, plastic, rubber, etc. - a construction in material and given a name suitable to its function. Same with a house. People too are constructions of food and information obtained through senses - given a name due to functionality. Thinking this way people are abstractions of the 5 elements as are cars and houses. All exist as names and forms/namarupa. All exist in our mind as data received through senses and stored in the brain (food alone as well). These names and forms are infused through ignorance with consciousness - the process called superimposition and voila, the empirical transaction takes the characteristic of real from consciousness and Consciousness appears variegated into the world. As there really is only a rope, so there is really only consciousness." --- Michael Chandra Cohen

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AVG 15.6

Chapter 15 (A Celebration of the Seekers Native Self): Verse 6 सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि । विज्ञाय निरहंकारो निर्ममस्त्वं सुख...