Introduction to Vedanta -Drig Drisya Viveka - Swami Sarvapriyanandaji's lecture in Vedanta society of southern California part 1

By Shantanu -
Swami Sarvapriyanandaji's lectures are available on youtube. These are just the my personal interpretations and transcriptions of his explanation of the text of Drig Drisya Viveka. Actual Copyright of the lecture belongs to Vedanta Society of Southern California.

Drig Drisya Viveka is a Vedantic test written by Vidyaranya Swami in 14th century AD. Its an introductory text on Vedanta.

Three fundamental principles - differences between Drig or Seer and Drisya or Seen

1. There has to be a seer and a seen (subject & object). The seer and the seen are different.
2. The seer sees many but itself is one in relation to what is seen. The seen stands for multiplicity.
3. The seer is relatively unchanging while what is seen changes

The eyes are the seer while external universe is seen with its forms, colours and shapes. Similarly all sense organs are "seers" and external universe is "seen" through them by touch, hearing, smell, taste. The mind is the seer and the eyes and other sense organs are seen because mind knows the condition of the eyes and other organs. The mind is relatively unchanged. The witness consciousness or atman or Self is the seer and mind is the seen, for we know the condition of our mind. The condition of the mind is thus seen because we know that mind is happy or miserable or peaceful, i.e the mental conditions. Mind constantly changes its conditions, mind matures with age. The "I" in relation to mind remains unchanged. The real 'I" is not the mind, it is a witness or sakshi of the mind. In deep sleep we can get detached from mind and then we can get real peace. The real "I" is not peaceful, it is the peace in itself. The witness is not miserable or happy. It experiences happiness or misery through mind. How do get rid of the attachment, viz. clinging to the things of the world, just like the monkey in the story who could not get its hand out of the jar of bananas. This is achievable by letting go, else any attachment will breed misery. The greatest attachment is what the mother feels for the baby and yet when she is fast asleep she forgets the baby. When we realize that we are different from mind we can let go. We are then detached from the mind. The real self or witness cannot be known, it is not an object. Therefore we cannot know our "Self". The knower and the known has to be different. The real self, the witness is knowledge itself. It is needed to let go of the worldliness because it will go in the end with the body any way. It is necessary to let go the slightest clinging to the worldly knowledge, fame, fortune and relationship. The body, mind and the world do not belong to the real us, the pure consciousness, just like when we meet a fellow passenger and have her company for few hours she does not belong to us.

There must be a witness consciousness as separate from body mind because 1) mind is not available during deep sleep. We do not remember anything pertaining to deep sleep but we feel refreshed and we experience it 2) It may be argued that a part of mind is the witness because mind may not always introspect its own actions and thoughts. Sometimes the whole mind is engrossed deeply in some thoughts or actions but yet we are aware of it. Therefore mind is not the witness.

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