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VEDANTA
"Where is instruction; where is the sacred textbook based on revelation; where is the pupil, where the teacher; 218 where is the highest goal of man-for me who am without distinguishing characteristics 210 and full of bliss?" 220
Swāmī Brahmānanda, in his Spiritual Teachings, 221 succinctly summarizes the stages of the Advaita Vedānta path to the realization of Brahman. The beginning is pūjā (both external and mental worship): the candidate devotes himself to his “chosen and beloved divinity” (ista-devatā) both in thought and with flowers, incense, and pādya (water for washing the feet). Then follows mcditation and mental japa (repetition of the holy name without moving the lips). “In meditation," he writes, "you should think of the forın of your istam as effulgent. Imagine that cverything is shining through its luster. Think of this effulgence as non-material and possessed with intelligence. This kind of meditation will later on develop into meditation on the formless and infinite aspect of God. In the beginning the aspirant has to take the help of imagination; later on, when he develops his spiritual sense, he will feel the presence of the Divine. Next, when he gets the highest spiritual vision, he will come face to face with Truth. He is then transported into a different realm altogether, of which this world of matter appears to be a mere shadow, and as such something unreal. The mind is then lost in savikalpa samadhi (superconscious vision with thought). Next comes nirvikalpa samādhi (superconscious vision without thought). There is then the realization of that which
218 Sisya-guru: the most obvious pair-of-opposites (dvandva) in the course of the process of enlightenment.
219 Nir-upādhi, beyond upādhi, "attribute, condition, limitation, peculiarity," beyond time, space, causality, masking forms, etc.
220 Astávakra Samhitā 20. 1, 9, 13.
221 Spiritual Teachings of Swami Brahmananda, translated from Conversations and Letters in Bengali, Mylapore, Madras, 1932, pp. 11-12.
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