ThithikshAsthApinI - Part6

The purport of profound acceptance in the analysis of the distinction between dEhAtma with reference to GitA bAshya of Adi Shankara Ch2:V14.
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‘Tat vijinyāsatva 1’ is that enquiry that presupposes the Thithiksa according to our prakarana, as it is supported by the Brhadāranyaka Upanishad ‘ātma vā are drashtavyah srotavyah mantavyah nidhidhyasitavyah’ one must learn the true nature of Brahman by three fold praxis vide hearing, contemplating and applying. Thithiksa being that aspect of knowledge directly capable of giving Moksa, it must too be followed by these three fold praxis in our daily pathologies. Thithiksa’s nature must be learnt from the Upanishads, it must be personally contemplated daily and the same must be applied in our daily life. Forbearance gives the vairāgya – the ascetic mood for renunciation of the world that is nothing but Moksa 2. It is synchronous by nature. Sporting the evidence from the Shruthi passage that envisages the concept of Thithiksa in a very lucid manner, Yājnyavalkya in Brhadāranyaka Upanishad says ‘He who knows Brahman is not affected by Sukha or dukkha wherein the knower becomes Brahman’. One who is ardent in enduring Thithiksa is a Taponishta. Kanwa recension of Brhadāranyaka Upanishad mentions Thithiksa, where the Shruthi intends to mark the seminal significance of the same in a soteriological sense. It says one who has thithiksa engrained with other sampatti’s wealth (sama dama uparati – shraddha & samādhānam mentioned in the Madhyandina recension), sees the Self. Thus drastavyah is made sensible here. How can ātman be seen? It is with the vision that a thithiksu has with which he sees ātman. See ātman as what? Sankarācārya enlists the following incidental modes by which a taponishta (thihiksu) sees the ātman. Ācārya says ātman is seen as that which neither increases nor decreases, seen with no activity (na karta), seen by permeating the three stages of experiences jāgrat, svapna and sushupthi – waking dream and deep sleep (aboktha). A visistādvaitin who thinks that there is real existence for unanimated objects which he calls acit, may ask how can that Self be seen limited by the body which is acit? To this Sankarācārya answers, that even the tip of hair is pervaded by ātman, as it is that Brahman which is substratum for all. Such a continuous cognition gains the perseverance of pervading Self. We must remember the fact that such perseverance is not attained simply reading the Shruthi’s without forbearance ( Thithiksa), for it is said that moksa is accomplished by shravana of Tattvamasi mahāvākya only when Thithiksa is practically applied therein. Thithiksa for the fact is the primordial constituent of what is called the continued meditation or Prasankhyāna to Vēdāntins. Mimāmsakas consider Prasankhyāna as continuous meditation, which they regard it as karma. Vēdāntins especially Surēsvarācārya, uses the same anvaya vyatirēka logic to prove that Prasankhyāna is mutually existent with the meditation on Mahāvākya, as the only means to Moksa. The final purport and the essence of all Shruthi’s may be claimed from the Mundaka Upanishad vākyam that imperatively pronounces that an aspirant of Brahman Mumuksu, must first be a Thithiksu-taponishta who renounces all the empirical transactions, forbearing it, rushes to a Brahma Vit – guru to experience the Imperishable Brahman – Aksara. This alone is Brahma Vidya that absorbs a thithiksu into Brahman itself to become Brahman himself. Brahma vit Brahmaiva bhavati. Thus being Brahman is thus the end of all and the beginning of all. Sankarācārya too culminates the nature of Thithiksa to say that ‘this is the Highest end of man that yields him the highest good’ parisamāpita Brahma vidyā sa: (this alone is the real end of all knowledge – Brahma Vidya ētā (thithiksa – supplied on the strength of Adhyāhāra prayoga) nistaishā parā gathih (this alone is the sole abode) ētannishrēyasam (this alone yields all shrēyas)

iti Srimad paramahamsa parivrājakācāryasya Sri Sankarabagavatpujyapāda sishyasya Dēvanātha Sharmānām krtau Thithiksāsthāpinīm samāptham.

Nārāyana Smrthi

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1) Taitiriya Upanishad

2) Sa: samnyāsē sānga: - Sankara Bāsyam