Non-Transformation & Non-Compromise
There are two tendencies in human nature: one to harmonize the ideal with the life, and the other to elevate the life to the ideal. – Swami Vivekananda
I am writing from the SRV Associations’ retreat on Swami Vivekananda, with special emphasis on qualification of the spiritual aspirant for knowledge of nondual Truth. To this end Babaji Bob Kindler, who is leading this retreat, is presenting teachings on the essential points of Sankhya, Yoga, and Vedanta, which when implemented into life and mind, qualify the aspirant for higher Truth. We began with Sankhya, because it is at the foundation of the other systems and provides the analytic tools for comprehending the two pillars of Advaita — non-origination (ajativada) and non-transformation (aparinami).
About non-transformation Babaji explains, “The fundamental fact that Brahman doesn’t transform should become one’s barometer in life — and that fact will make of you a disbeliever, and a nonparticipant in the perplexing play of Maya….Reality never changes: thus, about anything that does change — mind, life, intellect, life/death — one will make a distinction. Thereafter all objective phenomena will show up as unreal.”
What is this “objective phenomena”? Some may say it is the world, meaning everything that we perceive with our physical senses, forgetting, perhaps, to include their own body. Others will add in their body, emotions, thoughts, and other things perceptible to the mind inhabiting this body. But there is far more to phenomena than these. Objective phenomena is anything perceived in the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states of consciousness at individual, collective, and Cosmic levels; in gross, subtle, and causal bodies; and even the formless state of unmanifested Nature, where all earths, heavens, yes, hells too, dissolve into formlessness. When we practice Atma Vichara, “who am I,” we disidentify our “I” ftom every changing modification until all that is left is the changeless, unseen Seer. This requires that we be able to recognize these modifications; i.e., we have to know what we are not before we can know Who we are. This Seer is called by many names throughout the philosophical systems of India, but several that will be used here are Purusha, Brahman, Atman, the Seer, Consciousness, and the Self. Though each of these terms has a particular emphasis, they are roughly equivalent. Maya, Nature, and Prakriti will be used as equivalents as well.
Recognizing the changes of gross phenomena as opposed to an unchanging Principle is relatively simple – creatures undergo birth, life and death; planets and stars have a beginning, middle, and end – thus, these are clearly other than “I,” the Seer. But what about subtle phenomena such as mind, intellect, and ego? There is another issue tied closely to discrimination between the changing and the Unchanging, and this is recognition of Sentient and insentient. In the West, we have been conditioned to think that whatever vibrates with consciousness, agency, and the modes of seeking pleasure and averting pain is sentient. But the many Seers of India have determined via direct experience that it is matter that vibrates, rises and falls, that has beginnings, middles, and endings, not Consciousness. Therefore, matter is not sentient; it merely borrows the light of Consciousness, and we come to see that matter exists in gross, subtle, and causal states, that is, beyond mere atomic structures. Matter/Prakriti transforms while Consciousness/Brahman never does.
The Tattva Samasa Sutras, a text of the Sankhya system, states: “Prasamkhya, introspective discrimination between the Spiritual Self and subtle material energy and its evolutes [Prakriti], eliminates pain and brings about enlightenment. Thus Sankhya insists that all the aspects of the non-Self (Prakriti) be fully enumerated and carefully studied in order to bring about clarification of this essential distinction.”
The ancient system of Sankhya provides us with a set of tools for discriminating between the unchanging Sentient Soul, called Purusha, and Nature, called Prakriti. Nature/Prakriti, is a term that includes all gross, subtle, and causal objects – anything that changes, from a blade of grass composed of the five elements to the Cosmic Mind of pure sattva, and beyond to unmanifested Prakriti, the undifferentiated causal material-energy that all “things” arise from. The Sankhya list of 24 Cosmic Principles (tattvas) is nothing short of ingenious, for everything is included in its scope either specifically or by implication. Later systems of Yoga, Vedanta, certain schools of Tantra, and others all based their philosophy on the cosmological foundation of these tattvas. Sankhya teaches about cause and effect – evolution from subtle to gross – and in doing so leads us out of the trap of assuming that consciousness comes out of matter and that mind is sentient. These two assumptions bind us to the six transformations of birth, growth, disease, old age, decay, and death wherein all suffering takes place. Cause and effect takes place in Nature only. Purusha, the only Sentient principle, the “I” of “Who am I?” is the unaffected Witness of all these changes. As Babaji stated in satsang last night, “All suffering is in Maya [Prakriti]. The best way to transcend suffering is to realize that Brahman does not transform. Advaita is the way.” Purusha’s (Brahman’s) “conscious rays” lend reality and apparent consciousness to the myriad effects evolving out of Prakriti. Please see the chart attached at the bottom of this blog.
We find this essential teaching of the distinction between Spirit and matter and the insistence on the nontransformation of Brahman/Atman/Purusha throughout the Indian scriptures. A beautifully explicit passage is found in the Adhyatma Ramayana, the nondual version of the classic Ramayana that literally soaks nondual Truth in the syrup of devotion (like an Indian sweet). In the following, Sita instructs Hanuman on the liberating Truth about Sri Ram at the Lord’s request:
Sita, who is the Lord’s Power infatuating the whole world with confusion about the true spiritual Self, agreed to do so, and imparted to Hanuman, who was a true spiritual refugee at the Lord’s feet, the Truth about Rama in a convincing way.
Sita said: Know Rama to be the Supreme Brahman — the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, the One without a second. He is Pure Existence devoid of all adjuncts whom the senses cannot perceive as their object. Know Rama as pure Bliss, as devoid of all impurity, as peace, as changeless Substance, as free from the stain of ignorance, as all-pervading Spirit, as devoid of all disvalues, and as self-revealing Consciousness. Know me to be the Primeval Prakriti, the material and instrumental cause of the creation, sustentation and dissolution of the universe. In the mere presence of Rama the supreme Brahman, I, His Prakriti (Power), create the universe unwearied. What I create in His mere presence, the ignorant superimpose on Him. (Now hear about what is thus superimposed). He was born in the city of Ayodhya in the very pure line of the Raghus.
Sita continues Her instruction to Hanuman by listing all the major events of Rama’s life from birth, marriage, and exile, to her abduction by Ravana and his destruction, and finally Ram’s coronation. She then concludes:
All these achievements, though accomplished by me (Prakriti), are superimposed on Rama, who is really changeless in Himself and is the soul of all beings. Rama walks not, He sits not: He sorrows not; He desires not; He abandons not; there is no trace of any activity in Him. Being Pure Bliss itself, there is no movement, no transformation in Him. As He is the substratum of Maya, the changeful Nature of His, He underlies all these transformations of the constituents of Maya, as their substratum; and for those who cannot distinguish the substratum from the changeful constituents of Maya, He seems to get transformed, whereas in fact it is only the constituents of Maya [Prakriti] that undergo transformation.
In the Uddhava Gita, Sri Krishna provides two logical statements for impressing on the aspirant what is unreal (changing/ephemeral) and what is Real (unchanging and unorginated):
That which is neither before nor after is also non-existent in the interim. It is a mere name. I am of the opinion that whatever is caused or brought to light by some other thing must be that and nothing else. 23:21
The threefold modification [gunas], O Uddhava, which has come upon you is an illusion, for it only comes in the middle, and is not at the beginning and end. When birth and such other things befall it, what is that to you? For that which exists at the beginning and end of an unreality, alone persists in the middle. 14:7
I began this blog with a quote by Swami Vivekananda warning of the problem of compromising with Truth, the Ideal. All too often we try to lower the Ideal to our comfort zones. We see this in light-hearted assertions that “All is God,” or “I am God,” while the speaker continues to exhibit all the signs of attachment and slavery to “objective phenomena,” which invariably results in suffering. Seeing all as God is the last word in spiritual experience while embodied according to Sri Ramakrishna, and he manifested Peace, Wisdom, and Bliss. Vivekananda wrote in a letter to a disciple once that “the only proof of one being ‘not matter’ is the ability to leave matter alone.” Until that time one needs to diligently perform the “prasamkhya” described above. This practice will convince one of the birthless, deathless, and non-transforming nature of the Self. Fearlessness and unshakable peace is the inevitable result.
Coming and going
is all pure delusion.
The soul never comes nor goes.
Where is the place
to which it shall go,
when all of space is in the soul?
When shall be the time
of entering or departing,
when all time is in the soul?
– Swami Vivekananda
(from Swami Vivekananda Vijnanagita,
edited by Babaji Bob Kindler)
