Prose-section 7
In plain words
Readiness for Self-enquiry requires discernment, the ability to recognise what matters, and the qualities taught in scripture. Four disciplines describe this readiness: discrimination between the abiding reality and what passes; freedom from craving for rewards in this life or another; six qualities that steady the mind; and the desire for liberation. Discrimination settles upon Brahman as reality and understands the world as dependent appearance. Dispassion grows through recognising the impermanence and suffering involved in every condition of enjoyment, from bodily pleasure to the highest heavenly state. The six qualities give this understanding practical strength: quietude turns the mind to its aim; restraint recalls the senses; withdrawal sustains attention and relinquishes distracting activity; forbearance meets suffering with courage; trust receives scripture and the teacher’s instruction as true; and collectedness holds the mind steadily in Brahman. Following every movement of the mind is no substitute for this steadiness. The desire for liberation seeks to end identification with ego and body through Self-knowledge. It can mature even from a modest beginning. Dispassion, disciplined attention and the teacher’s grace nourish it. When this desire is intense, the other disciplines become fruitful quickly. Without that inward earnestness, their outward appearance can resemble the water of a mirage.
Word for word
One who is discerning, able to grasp the essential and discard the inessential, and possesses all the qualifications stated in scripture is qualified for Self-enquiry. Why? Fitness to enquire into Brahman belongs to the qualified person who possesses the disciplines, is discriminating and dispassionate, has the virtues beginning with quietude and restraint, and intensely longs for liberation. The great ones have taught four disciplines: discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal; dispassion towards enjoyment of the fruits obtainable here and hereafter; the sixfold wealth beginning with quietude; and longing for liberation. With these the qualified seeker attains establishment in Brahman; without them it is not accomplished. Of these, the conviction “Brahman alone is real; the world is mithya” is discrimination between the eternal and non-eternal. Dispassion towards enjoyment here and hereafter is the dispassion that arises towards impermanent objects of enjoyment, from the body up to Brahma’s condition, through directly seeing and hearing from scripture their defects of impermanence and suffering. The sixfold wealth comprises the following. Quietude is keeping the mind upon its aim after becoming dispassionate towards objects by repeatedly considering their defects. Restraint is turning back the organs of knowledge and action that run towards objects and keeping each in its own seat. Withdrawal is keeping the mind steady upon its aim, without allowing earlier tendencies to return it to thoughts of external objects, and relinquishing other activities. Forbearance is courageously enduring whatever sufferings arise, without resisting them or lamenting and weeping over them. Trust, a means to immediate knowledge of Brahman, is the conviction that Vedanta scripture and the teacher’s words are true. Collectedness is making every effort to keep the naturally restless mind steady in pure Brahman alone. Letting the mind go wherever it wishes is not samadhi. These six together are called the sixfold wealth beginning with quietude. Longing for liberation is the desire to remove, through knowledge of one’s own Self, the bondage extending from ego to body that has arisen through beginningless ignorance. Even when this longing is weak or middling, it gradually grows, matures and bears fruit in time through dispassion, quietude and the other disciplines, and the teacher’s grace. Where longing for liberation joined with dispassion is intense, quietude and the other disciplines bear fruit soon. Where it is weak, those disciplines remain merely an appearance, like water in a desert.