Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 70

THE QUALIFIED PUPIL
tential "rites" above described are for the mind's purification, the "meditations" are intended to bring it to a state of "singlepointedness." &
According to the traditional belief, the fulfillment of these prescribed rites and devotions will bring the devotee after death to either the "heaven of the ancestors" (pitṛ-loka) or the higher "sphere of truth" (satya-loka). But such pleasurable results are not regarded by the adept of Vedanta as important or even desirable; they are the mere by-products of the discipline, stopping-stations along the way, in which he is no longer interested. They are still within the worlds of birth, and represent no more than a continuance of the round of being (saṁsāra), though indeed an extremely blissful episode of the round, enduring, it is said, for innumerable millenniums. Rather than the beatitudes of heaven, what the Vedantist desires is to see through and past the illusory character of all existence what soever, no less that of the higher spheres than that of the gross terrestrial plane. He has sacrificed completely all thought of the enjoyment of the fruits of his good deeds; any rewards that may be accruing to him as a result of his perfect devotion he surrenders to the personal divinity that he serves. For he knows that it is not himself who acts, but the Spiritual Person dwelling omnipresent within himself and all things, and to whom he, as worshiper, is devoted utterly-the God who is the Self (atman) within his heart.
The necessary means for the transcending of illusion which the student must be competent to bring to bear are, first of all, "discrimination between the permanent and things transient"
of the normal human mind. The various iștadevatās, images and personi. fications, consequently, are only preliminary helps, guides, or accommodations, which serve to prepare the spirit of the worshiper for its final, formtranscending realization.
8 Vedantasära 6-13.
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