Vivekachudamani 10 Realization Requires Spiritual Effort - By Swami Tattwamayananda

Title: Realization Requires Spiritual EffortVerses: 64, 65, 66, 67The essence of the 60th, 61st and 62nd verses is: “Books are helpful, but by themselves they do not constitute the supreme goal. Books by themselves will not help us with the highest spiritual realization. Long, eloquent scholarly discussions can only confuse oneself and others. As long as one has not realized the spiritual truth, books are useless. Upon realization of the spiritual truth, books are useless. The world of books is like a big jungle that can only create confusion, if we do not understand that the spiritual truth is beyond books.”Scriptures attempt to describe the truth – they do not constitute the supreme truth. Spiritual truth is beyond ideas and books – it is a matter of inner experience. With this understanding, we should read scriptures.The same idea is emphasized in the 63rd verse with an analogy. If someone is bitten by a cobra, he needs medicine to recover. Similarly, our ignorance can only be cured by a medicine - the realization of Brahman, the real experience of spiritual unity.Ajnanam refers to a lack of awareness of our true nature. It does not refer to intellectual ignorance. It refers to ignorance at an emotional level, because our mind does not permit us to do what we may intellectually understand and want to do.We have to remove the levels of dirt/filth in the mind by feeding it good food and directing it towards healthy channels.Upon enlightenment, our mind develops a corrective mechanism. It becomes impossible for us to do anything that is harmful to others.64th and 65th verses continue the analogy: “A sickness is not cured by uttering the word “medicine”. One actually has to take the medicine. Similarly, just by saying “Brahman”, one does not realize Brahman. Without dissolving the world in Brahman, without realizing the Atman, one cannot get liberation.”In Vedanta, this world is only an appearance as illustrated in the rope snake analogy. When light is brought to the room, what we previously thought was a snake, dissolves into the rope. Similarly, the empirical world should be dissolved into Atman.The 66th verse repeats the same idea with another analogy: “To be a king, one should have a kingdom. One should have conquered enemies and acquired wealth. One does not become a king by just claiming that he is a king. Similarly, without undertaking spiritual practices, one cannot become enlightened.67th verse: “Suppose someone tells you that there is a box of treasure hidden somewhere beneath the earth. The treasure is covered by a huge stone in the pit. To get to the treasure, the following has to happen: (1) You should hear about it from someone (2) You should know the exact location (3) You should go there and dig and remove the stone (4) Then, you can take out the treasure.Similarly, to realize the spiritual truth, we should first listen to spiritual ideas expounded by the great sages. We should practice sravanam, mananam, nididhyasanam – listen to spiritual ideas, contemplate on it and deeply internalize it. By doing so, we remove all the wrong ideas about our true nature – this is like digging to remove the stone. “Chandogya Upanishad has the following illustration: “A sage from Gandhara had gone to another town and is returning to his hometown. Along the way, some robbers ambushed him, blindfolded him,  and tied him to a tree in a forest. To escape, what should he do? He should make a loud noise. Then someone passing through that way can hear him, remove his blindfold, and release him. Such a person can bring him back to the road and show him the way to Gandhara.” In this illustration, the traveler is a normal human being, who thinks the world is meant for sensory enjoyment. The robbers represent his own actions. His bitter experience is due to his bad karmas.The blindfold represents Maya. His desire for worldly enjoyment is the rope that binds him. Body is the forest in which he is lost. The person helping him is his teacher, who knows which road to take to reach Gandhara, his own spiritual home.”