A step by step first exposure to advaita - part 2

101. S: I don’t understand the question; I think the question does not arise.
102. G: Yes, you are right. Happiness was not in question then .
103. S: ‘Then’ means?
104. G: Before you started wanting it, you were not unhappy, because there was no want.
105. S: I think you are trying to trip me by quibbling.
106. G: No, I am saying, the moment you wanted something, happiness receded from you.
107. S: But you are putting words in my mouth.
108. G: What words?
109. S: You are making me accept that I was happy before I started wanting something.
110. G: Certainly. Is there any doubt on that?

111. S: But I had other wants.
112. G: Let us go to the situation when you had your first want.
113. S: There is no such situation.
114. G: But you said you were happy sometimes.
115. S: Yes, life is a mixture of happiness and unhappiness.
116. G: Analyse how you were happy when you were happy.
117. S: I did not allow my ‘want’ thoughts to disturb me when I was happy.
118. G: You were happy, and the fact of not ‘wanting’ anything, continued your happiness.
119. S: Well, I think that may be the right way to put it.
120. G: Thus you started from the position of happiness, and a ripple of a ‘want’ disturbed it. 121. S: What are you leading me to?
122. G: It is ‘want’ that disturbs the happiness which is with you.
123. S: So if I am to continue to be happy, I should not ‘want’ anything. Is that what you are driving at?
124. G: You are right on the dot.
125. S: But it is an impossible task not to want anything.
126. G: First accept it in theory.
127. S: In other words, it is ‘want’ or ‘desire’ that makes me unhappy.
128. G: The man who has no wants or desires is perfectly happy.
129. S: What has all this to do with Vedanta which talks about the Self?
130. G: Everything. We have to analyse who is it that wants and makes himself unhappy.

131. S: I guess it is myself.
132. G: I am glad you used the right word – ‘myself’.
133. S: I miss the point.
134. G: The Self has no wants and is always full of happiness or bliss.
135. S: You are asserting it without ascribing any reason.
136. G: Because the definition of the Self according to the scriptures implies that.
137. S: What is the definition?
138. G: The Self is Consciousness. The Self is Bliss.
139. S. This does not make any sense to me.
140. G: That is why we are going through this dialogue.
141. S: If the Self is Bliss, then I should not have any suffering.
142. G: True. You have no suffering.
143. S: Guruji, it is not enough for you to say so. I must be able to say I have no suffering.
144. G: Who feels the suffering?
145. S: I, certainly.
146. G: Not so fast. In order to understand, let us take a simple example of a suffering.
147. S: Alright. Suppose somebody pinches me. I feel the pinch. Don’t I?
148. G: Wait. Somebody pinches you. Strictly speaking, it is the body that is pinched.
149. S: But I feel it, because my mind recognises the pinching of my body.
150. G: So it is your mind that should suffer, not you.

151. S: But my mind is mine.
152. G: That is the point. Your mind is yours, it is not you.
153. S: Are you not just hairsplitting?
154. G: No, the entire Vedanta depends on this. Your mind is not you.
155. S: But when my mind suffers, I suffer with it.
156. G: Vedanta says: Let the mind suffer or experience. Don’t suffer or experience with it.
157. S: It is a tall order.
158. G: Who said it is not? The tall order is to bring your happiness back.
159. S: So Vedanta does not seem to remove my suffering; it allows my suffering to stay.
160. G: Vedanta intends to insulate you from your suffering.

161. S: What does that mean?
162. G: That which suffers is dissociated from you, the Self.
163. S: But in that case I have to be the Self.
164. G: Exactly. “Be your Self” say the scriptures. Then there is no suffering.
165. S: The remedy turns out to be more severe than the disease of suffering.
166. G: All that Vedanta tells you is to change your attitude to all experience.
167. S: When you say ‘experience’ do you mean both suffering and happiness?
168. G: Yes, whether it is happiness or otherwise, it is your attitude that is important.
169. S: Does it mean then, that I should simply be impervious to all experience?
170. G: Yes, that is the Gita teaching. You are not the experiencer.

171. S: According to Vedanta, then who is the experiencer?
172. G: The experiencer is the one who has identified with his body, mind, intellect (BMI).
173. S: Who is that one?
174. G: If there is one such.
175. S: It is not clear to me what you are saying.
176. G: If you don’t identify yourself with your BMI, you are not the experiencer.
177. S: Who is this ‘you’ that is being talked about now?
178. G: That is a good question. We have to start afresh now.
179. S: Where do you want to start?
180. G: From the BMI. The BMI is your outer personality.
181. S: I see where you are going. The inner personality is the Self . Right?
182. G. Yes. But the Gita says there are two such selves (Purushhas).
183. S: What? I thought I was only one person. How can there be two selves for me?
184. G: There is only one Self. But we make the mistake of thinking that our BMI is the Self.
185. S: Earlier we said that the BMI is not the Self.
186. G: That is right. But almost all of us all the time make the mistake.
187. S: Make the mistake of what?
188. G: Of thinking that our BMI is the Self.
189. S: So what?
190. G: And that mistake originates a false self for us. This false self is the other Self.

191. S: In other words, we ourselves create a false self for each of us.
192. G: Yes. That false self, is termed the Perishable Self.
193. S: Then the real Self is the Imperishable Self.
194. G: Thus there are two, the kshhara purushha (perishable self) and the akshhara purushha (imperishable Self).
195. S: So the kshhara purushha is the result of identification with BMI.
196. G: And the akshhara-purushha is the Self, that is Consciousness, Bliss.
197. S: Now tell me who is the experiencer.
198. G: The kshhara purushha is the experiencer. Incidentally the kshhara-purushha is also known by the term jIva.
199. S: In other words, he who has identified with BMI is the experiencer.
200. G: Perfectly. Vedanta says: You are not the experiencer.
201. S: I see the reason now. It is because the real Self has no identification with BMI
202. G: So You, when you are not identified with the BMI, are no more the experiencer.
203. S: Shall we translate all this to the happiness-suffering syndrome?
204. G: Yes. It is the identification with the BMI that brings you an experience either way.
205. S: If there is no such identification?
206. G: There is no experience of happiness or suffering. You are what you are.
207. S: If there is no experience of happiness, then how do you say my Self is Bliss.
208. G: Experience is by the mind; it goes from one state to another.
209. S: In the Self there is no mind to experience. Is that the reason?
210. G:Yes. The Self is Bliss. That is what all scriptures say.

211. S: But what does it mean to say that the Self is Bliss?
212. G: Bliss is our natural state.
213. S: If I go and tell this to an ordinary man, he will not believe it.
214. G: What is the natural characteristic of water?
215. S: Coolness and liquidity.
216. G: If water is hot, you will ask why it is hot. Won’t you?
217. S: Yes, I will. But I don’t see how it is relevant now.
218. G: The very fact that the hotness of water is questioned shows that hotness is not the natural characteristic of water.
219. S: In fact the hotness disappears after a little time. To get the heat back one has to apply external force.
220. G: When a fish is taken out of water it struggles to go back to its natural state of a watery atmosphere.
221. S: All this means that the unnatural state raises questions and implies struggle.
222. G: Good analysis. When you are unhappy every one asks why you are unhappy.
223. S: But when I am happy nobody asks me why I am happy.
224. G: That is because happiness is your natural state.
225. S: But I don’t have the experience of happiness as my natural state.
226. G: The moment you bring in the idea of experience, you are involving a mind.
227. S: What is wrong with bringing in the mind?
228. G: I shall take you to a situation where you are yourself nothing but bliss.
229. S: I am looking forward to it.
230. G: Do you usually sleep well?

231. S: Oh yes, I do. I sleep like a log.
232. G: Were you happy then?
233. S: It is a blissful experience.
234. G: But to register the experience, mind should be there. Was your mind active when you were sleeping?
235. S: Certainly not, unless I was dreaming.
236. G: Were you dreaming?
237. S: We were talking of the situation when I was sleeping like a log.
238. G: Good. So then how do you know you were happy then?
239. S: Well, it is only a memory after the event.
240. G: In order that it may be a memory, it has to be an experience by the mind, to be recalled after the event has passed.
241. S: What are you driving at? I am confused. The mind was not active then.
242. G: That inactive mind, brings back a memory of happiness, when it wakes up.
243. S: That is the riddle.
244. G: Scriptures say: The jIva which was one with the BMI, now goes back to the Self, during the sleep of the BMI.
245. S: But the Self is Bliss.
246. G: So the jIva is one with that reservoir of bliss, during the sleep of the BMI.
247. S: Interesting!
248. G: When the BMI wakes up, the jIva resumes its usual mistake of identification with BMI.
249. S: It sounds like a thriller now!
250. G: And the mind, with which the jIva is one now, borrows that taste of bliss with which the jIva was in contact.

251. S: You mean now the mind talks of happiness as if it were its own experience!