Nididhyasana: Walking the Walk

Vedanta is a means of knowledge. A means to what end? Liberation

(moksha). But heres a curious fact: most every text of Vedanta begins by stating
boldly that we do not, indeed cannot, acquire liberation because we are already
free. So why do we need a means of knowledge to an end already achieved?
Because the knowledge Vedanta gives is unlike any other knowledge: it is
not an acquisition, as is the case with scientific knowledge, in which we amass
facts about objects; it is rather a loss, the removal of false identities, until we
uncover our true face. By negating what we are not, we come to see ourselves as
we are, always were and always will be: free (moksha).
We may have rare or even frequent glimpses of our true nature, but our
vision then becomes obscured. We revert to seeing ourselves in the usual way, as
creatures bound by endless needs, perpetually unfulfilled, and always longing to
escape our limitations. We appear to lose our freedom. We then seek a means for
regaining it. Enter Vedanta.
To become established in this freedom we occasionally glimpse, Vedanta
offers this simple advice: keep focused on it. Let the mind return again and again
to the realization that we are by nature already free, and our false identities will fall
away. We will then come to stand in our true nature (swarupa avasthanam).
Realizing our true nature is the whole rationale for Vedanta, but there is a
particular practice that aims at making this realization rock solid: Nididhyasana.
Nididhyasasa is the last of the three phases of Vedantic practice (sadhana). If the
first two phases can be described as talking the talk, nididhyasana can be described
as walking the walk. Through it, we come to live and breathe the truth of Vedanta.
The first phase of Vedanta is listening (sravana). This is no ordinary
listening, in which we are usually framing personal responses while hearing what
is being said. This listening requires us to put away, for the time being, all of our
personal notions and open up completely to the teaching, taking it in without
editorial comment, so to speak. It is only by listening in this unprejudiced way,
under the guidance of a competent teacher, that we can come to understand the
logic of Vedanta.
Once we have understood the logic of Vedanta, we may argue with it. Then,
we can contend with its claims and examine every doubt that arises. Indeed, we are
required to do so, for Vedanta is not a system of blind belief, but of reasoned truth.
The teacher and the texts are there to help us achieve clarity and conviction. This
phase of examining and resolving our doubts is called Manana.
But even when our doubts are resolved and we are firmly convinced we are
indeed free by nature, our previous conditioning keeps hijacking our awareness
and forcing it to go to that place where we feel bound and incomplete. This is
because the limited self (jiva) is the product of previous actions (karma).
Now it is precisely for this limited self (jiva) that Vedanta exists. The free
and complete being, the Self, has no need of a means of knowledge. It is only the
Self misidentified as jiva, seemingly bound by its actions, that requires a way to
become free, that is, to realize that freedom is already its very nature.
In all discussions of Vedanta, it is important to avoid what might be called
level-confusion. Vedanta is a means of knowledge that relies on words (sabda).
Words are dualistic. As soon as we give something or someone a name, we
separate it from ourselves and from every other perceived and imagined object.
This is duality.
It is the jiva that dwells in duality, the world of names and forms. Vedanta
addresses the jiva through words that work on the relative plane and help lift it out
of duality. Ramana Maharshi famously described the process as using one thorn to
remove another. Eventually, both thorns are thrown away. So Vedanta uses words
to point to the wordless truth that is beyond name and form: the Self.
These words are the great sayings (mahavakya) of Vedanta, and the
explanations of these sayings by qualified teachers. Through contemplating great
sayings, such as Tat Twam Asi Thou Art That the jiva realizes that it is the
Self. Then, like the snake in the rope, the jiva disappears. In fact, it never really
appeared in the first place. Meanwhile, as long as the illusion of the jiva lasts, it
must be dealt with, just as one must deal with the fear caused by the illusion of the
snake in the rope.
The jiva thinks it is a separate self in the world of actions (karma). It
acquires a body and a mind suited to the merit (punyam) or demerit (papam) of its
past actions. Karma is of three kinds: sanchita is the great storehouse of all the
merits and demerits acquired through actions in countless lives; agami is acquired
from what we do in this life; prarabdha is that portion of sanchita karma that has
drawn us into this incarnation and determines all its characteristics of mind and
body as well as the sort of experiences the jiva will have.
The jiva, caught in the web of karma, continues to act to free itself. Not until
it comes to Vedanta will it realize that freedom comes not from action, but from
knowledge. For if we are already free, we can do nothing to gain freedom. And if
freedom is our very nature, we can do nothing to lose freedom. Action will only
further entangle the jiva in the world of karma.
The knowledge of Vedanta declares at the outset that the jiva is illusory.
This makes this whole process of freeing the jiva (moksha) a game of make-
believe. But so long as we believe ourselves to be a jiva, the game is on.
The aim of nididhyasana is to end the game. It does this by bringing the
mind to dwell upon the great sayings of Vedanta until they sink into our bones.
The listening phase of Vedanta (sravana) is crucial, for it is the door to the
truth. The second phase of raising and clearing doubts about the truth (manana) is a
prerequisite to the third phase: nididhyasana, assimilation of the truth. Without
nididhyasana, our knowledge will remain superficial and our glimpses of freedom
will come and go.
To resort to a rather mundane but apt analogy: sravana is the foot in the
door, manana is the sales pitch, and nididhyasana is the closer. When the jiva
signs on the dotted line, it vanishes like the phantom it always was.
And when the jiva vanishes, karma dissolves all of it in all of its three
varieties. With no separate entity to receive the merits and demerits of past actions,
karma has nothing to attach itself to. The individual body may continue to exist for
a time, but it is no longer misidentified as the locus of awareness, i.e. the Self, but
rather as an object in awareness. This realization is described as the state of
jivanmukti the freedom of the jiva, and it is the aim of Vedanta.
Yet, the jiva can never be free, for it is by definition bound to the notion that
it is a separate being that needs to complete itself through actions. It is not simply
bound to this notion: it is this notion.
Nididhyasana is the assimilation of the fact that there is no jiva, only the
Self, and the Self is ever-free. Now, Vedanta is not an acquisition of knowledge, as
mentioned earlier, but rather a loss of wrong knowledge. It is largely a series of
negations, the final negation being the apparent reality of the jiva itself. It follows,
then, that if freedom (moksha) is for the jiva, and there is no jiva, there is no
moksha. Nididhyasana is complete when the idea of moksha itself is negated.
If there is no moksha, then it makes little sense to describe different types of
moksha, such as freedom of the embodied individual (jivanmukti) and freedom of
the disembodied (deceased) individual (videhamukti). The level-confusion referred
to earlier arises when no clear distinction is made between the relative standpoint
of the individual and that of the Self, which cannot be said to have a standpoint, for
there is nothing outside the Self for it to look at. There is no second thing (advaita).
The aim of nididhyasana is the assimilation of advaita. This assimilation is
accomplished when the Self is no longer just an idea or a conviction one refers to
from time to time, but an abiding, all-encompassing reality.
The practice of nididhyasana can take several forms. The most common is
probably the repetition, in various ways, of the truth that we are the Self and not
the jiva. We will have already settled our doubts about the truth through the
process of manana. Now we proceed to make the truth our own.
We read and reread the texts of Vedanta; we listen again and again to the
words of our teacher, either in person or through recordings; we contemplate the
meanings of those teachings for extended periods of time until that contemplation
becomes constant. Formal meditation can also be used, not as a practice to achieve
a pleasurable state, but as a way to arrive at the clarity of mind that enables us to
absorb the teachings.
When nididhyasana succeeds, moksha is negated. When we realize that
freedom is our very nature, we no longer need to pursue it. And if we stop chasing
moksha, what happens to the qualifications required for this pursuit?
Students of Vedanta know that there are four qualifications considered
prerequisites for moksha: discrimination (viveka), dispassion (vairagya), the six
virtues or treasures (shatka sampattihi), and an intense desire for liberation
(mumukshutva).
These qualifications are considered indispensable for the study of Vedanta,
whose aim is liberation. Yet, through nididhyasana we become established in the
knowledge that liberation is ours by nature. There can be no conditions for gaining
ones nature. Its simply there, and there it will remain, no matter what. Heat is the
nature of fire. Fire does not have to do anything to acquire heat, nor can it lose
heat. Similarly, we need do nothing to be free. We are freedom itself.
So what of the four qualifications stressed in the texts of Vedanta?
Nididhyasana simply negates them as it negates moksha. If we are already free,
qualifications for freedom can have no relevance.
Yet, once nididhyasana has negated the four qualifications, it reinstates
them, not as conditions for liberation, but as a form of gratitude and service.
First, there is gratitude to the Lord, not as an extra-cosmic creator, which is a
mere idea, but to the whole field of existence (Iswara) that has brought us to the
knowledge of our true nature. By continuing to practice discrimination, etc, we
honor the wisdom (jnana) that has delivered us from the delusions of the jiva.
Second, there is gratitude to the teacher (guru dakshina), whose compassion
has helped us to know our true nature. We continue to practice the virtues the
teacher has taught us as an expression of love and loyalty.
Third, we maintain the practices as a means of proclaiming the truth of
Vedanta. We become a kind of living advertisement for Vedanta, which is the only
means of knowledge that can lead the jiva to know the freedom of its nature.
Fourth, we maintain the practices as a form of service to the world (loka
seva), where jivas are bound and longing for freedom. The Self, even when
misidentified with the jiva and other objects, recognizes its true nature when it sees
it in a liberated being. The best thing we can do to help the world is to simply live
in it as the Self and exemplify the way to realize the Self.
But once we know our true nature, we no longer long for liberation, which is
the fourth qualification (mumukshutva). This is then replaced with the ever-present
sense of freedom (nitya muktatvam).
So we maintain the four qualifications as an affirmation to others that
nididhyasana works. And discrimination, etc. no longer require effort; they become
natural as breathing. We dont have to strive to discriminate or be dispassionate. It
is simply what we do because it is who we are. We always stand in our true nature
(svarupa avasthanam).
And when we stand in our true nature, we will have assimilated the truths
that:
-I am eternal and all-pervading awareness.
-I am the only source of permanent peace, security and happiness.
-My presence gives life to this body and allows it to experience the world.
-I am never affected by anything that happens to the body or the world.
-The burden and struggles of life (samsara) dissolve when I remember my
true nature.
So nididhyasana delivers us from what we never were, and restores us to
what we have ever been. The seeming tragedy of the jiva becomes the wonderful
comedy of the Self.