Aum

MOkshasaadhanam (Means of Liberation) – 11

by Krishna Sastri

AVIDHYA

The shortest explanation for the word ‘avidhya’ is not ignorance but ‘knowing something as different from what it is’! The famous example is that in the twilight a person apprehends a rope as a snake. This chapter on ‘avidhya’ would therefore be dealing the aspects of it.

Bhagavan Ramana has clearly given out as is wont of him in simplicity, the means to overcome ‘avidya’. He was clear that it can only be removed by the Grace of the Guru. And such a Guru does not occur by accident but a by the Grace of Easwara. Easwara’s Grace is not fortuitous but earned by ‘sat karma’. The greatest of all ‘sat karmas’ is the ‘nishkaama karma’. And such ‘nishkaama karma’ is not just merely performed but dedicated to the Lord. Bhagavan Ramana says: “Easwaraarpitham nEchyayaakritham chittha sOdhakam, mukthi saadhakam”. So the steps are as follows:

a) When you perform any karma with an expectation of the results for you, of course you get the reward as no effort goes in vain. However those rewards have to be enjoyed in some loka, be it bhuloka, bhuvarloka or swarga loka. We already know that such sukha-dhukkam and loka baagyam are nothing but samsaara saagaram.

b) Therefore, one should perform karma without expecting the result. It may be asked: "Why not give up the karma?" Of course that is a good question. A person who has not got the conviction that he is different from the body continues to be an agent driven by the samskaaras of his vaasanas so he will be performing karmas unconsciously like a top released from the thread. That is why he is being told, as he performs karma anyways, unable to stop on his own, that he has options, either to perform desiring for the results or perform without coveting the fruit.

c) All karmas result in fruits and accrue to the performer unless he makes a conscious thyaagam. Bhagavan Ramana says that among the sacrifices, the greatest one is that which is made to Easwara!

d) This alone generates the Grace of Easwara as otherwise he merely dispenses with the fruit of karma according to its value and proportion in the way one would enjoy or suffer in the worlds. But the Grace of Easwara is not the same as the fruits of labour one enjoys in the world. The Grace of Easwara is to show you the means to overcome the repeated immersion into the ocean of samsaara. That ‘means of knowledge’ or ‘Mokshasaadhanam’ is none but the GURU.

e) Thus the Guru is earned by you by your ‘sat karma’ dedicated to the Lord and the result is “chittha sOdhakam, Mukthi saadhakam”.

(contd.)