H.H.Swami Chinmayananda

It is the one most important insistence of Vedanta that there is a sovereign means by which our misunderstanding and consequent false evaluation of life can be completely crushed, culminating in right understanding. Now we are given a definition in the form of a clear declaration of what exactly that is.

Constant vichara upon the meaning of Truth of Vedanta leads one to true Knowledge. Vichara is a term which has no corresponding word in English. Words like thinking, contemplating, reasoning, analysing and so on, do not fully express the meaning of the technique of vichara. Vichara comprises all these in synthesis, along with certain essential mental and intellectual discipline. With a mind and intellect trained and made steady, a seeker rips open the declarations of Upanishad one by one, and comes to experience the implications and the deeper suggestiveness of each mantra. This process is called vichara.

The nectar in a flower is always secreted in its inner most chambers. Its enchanted lover, the honeybee, which courts it with ardour and adoration, alone can scent the nectar and groping through its dusty exterior reach the honey treasured in the blossom.

Similarly, in the garden of Vedanta are the flowers of the mantras of the Upanishad. The sweetness of each is secreted not in its outer words, fascinating though they be, but lies hidden in the pulsating bosom where its immortal heart throbs with the thrilling ecstasy of love fulfilled and perfection experienced. This divine secret can reach this meaning only through his prepared mind and intellect.

The process by which the acutely intellectual and the divinely sympathetic head and heart of a seeker come to live in their subjective experience, the strangely enchanting voiceless cadence rising from the rishi’s heart, is called vichara.

During moments of meditation when we strive hard to experience the meaning of the mantras of Upanishad we are in the realm of vichara. Through vichara our misunderstandings about ourselves, which are the expressions of our ignorance, are removed, and when ignorance is banished, knowledge shines forth. With this right knowledge, instantaneously, all the delusive sorrows of samsar end. After waking up from our dream, the moment we realize our waking state identity, all the sorrows created in us due to our dream identification and the dream world, end instantaneously. On the rediscovery that our spiritual nature is pure Knowledge, uncontaminated by any trace of ignorance, we come to enjoy our divine heritage of Perfection and Bliss—ever beyond even the penumbra of any misery thereafter.

The power to do vichara is the very fuel which helps the spiritual vehicle to maintain its motion. What constitutes vichara has also been explained. Here we are told of the practices we must follow, strictly and sincerely, so that our capacity to do vichara may be increased and the vichara itself be rendered most efficient.

Sraddha and bhakti encourage and increase dhyana, one’s meditative poise and these three together constitute the entire technique of self development as visualized by the rishis. It is interesting to note how each preceding factor strengthens and nourishes the succeeding factor. Faith increases devotion,and in a man of faith and devotion, meditation is easily accomplished. Here we must clearly understand faith in the same sense as has been described earlier. So also, we must not identify bhakti with the cheap decadent meaning which we, in our ignorance, have given it. It is to be rightly understood as our identification with our concept of our Ideal.

When thus we are truly aided by faith and devotion, we are able to meditate properly, and through meditation we come to realize our true nature. Having experienced our divine glory we shall no more misconceive ourselves to be the limited creatures identifying with our matter vestures.

False identifications are created by the ignorance of our spiritual glory. The body, mind and intellect are all superimpositions upon the glorious Self, and yet, we consider them to be real and permanent. These superimpositions are the real bondages upon us and because of them we feel the limitations of the mortal. He who abides in faith, devotion and meditation in his inner experience comes to recognize his infinite nature of bliss and perfection, and thus gets released from the bondage of matter.

Reproduced from Swami Chinmayananda’s Commentary on Adi Shankaracarya’s ‘Vivekacudamani’