Swaadhyaya

Sri Sadgurubhyoh Namah

Swaadhyaya can be understood as 'studying again by oneself what is taught by Guru'. It can also mean 'swa adhyaya' = 'Studing oneself'. In this article I will use second definition, which is 'study of ones self'. Understanding one's self is swadhyaya.

What are the benefits of Swadhyaya ?

One gets the benefit of detachment (vairagya) and also one can see clearly the impermanence of body, mind, and world and also see the permanance of Self thus Swadhyaya leads towards the benefit of Liberation / Jivanmukti.

What are the tools available to oneself ?

'Observation' is the key tool available to everybody.

How to do observation of oneself ?

Observe action, speech and thoughts of yourself as if a third person is doing these above actions. When you talk about yourself, refer to yourself as a third person. This enables certain detachment. Observe your mind and thoughts. Thoughts raise and fall. You have no control over them unless you are an accomplished yogi. Dont be disheartened, Observe your body, what happens inside your body when a certain thought appears in mind. For example, thinking about a lost friend makes one depressed, and subsequently pain is felt by body. Thinking about a loved one, makes one glad, again pleasure is felt by the body.

What is avidya / ignorance ?

Taking impermanent as permanent and permanent as impermanent is avidya.

What is impermanent ?

That which has a beginning and end is known as impermanent. Buddha said, that which has beginning has an end. In Gita , Krishna said, 'Jaatasya hi dhruvo mrutyuhu', meaning, that which takes birth has to die. Now, when we categorise objects into permanent and impermanent, everything in universe appears in flux / motion, constantly changing, thus everything has a beginning and end. So everything we know is impermanent. But we take longevity of life as permanent and grieve when somebody dies and leaves us, as if that is unnatural to die. Nobody believes that they are going to die. Everybody think that they are here for ever. Certainly everybody agree that body will fall one day. Then what makes them think that tomorrow appears, and why do they work / slog. Let us say a doctor tells me that I have deadly disease and will die tomorrow. I dont think I will continue my current lifestyle. I may try to do things differently. That urgency is missing in people. That veil over the eyes that makes impermanent life look permanent is called ignorance. In Mahabharata , Dharmaraja remarks at this stupidity of people who think that death is not for them, and he wonders at this ignorance.

Observation of world, body, mind, action, speech, thoughts will bring out clearly what is known as ignorance.

If everything is impermanent , is there a permanent thing ?

Find out for yourself. who is observing. That is the unchanging thing. The veil that makes the permanent invisible is also part of avidya.

What does observation has to do with permanent and impermanent and avidya?

It is by observation one can know these three.

What are pitfalls in observation ?

It could be mind again which is observing.

How to overcome the above pitfall ?

Just be.

Hari Om

Atmajyoti In Guruseva