2/28: Drg Drsya Viveka

Drg Drsya Viveka is a Advaita Vedanta scripture written by Shri Vidyaranana. It is a short book of 46 verses where the author urges everyone to develop the discrimination (viveka) to distinguish between the scene(drsya) and the seer, the one who sees the scene (drg). When we learn to separate the seer from the scenery, we recognize that we are the seer who is untouched by all the positive and negative scenarios that we witness in our lives.

An English translation of this scripture is available online. This translation is provided by Swami Nikilananda. It can be found here:

http://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf

Over the next few weeks, we shall go over the 46 shoklas of this scriptures and try to understand each one of them.

I have found two excellent commentaries on this scriptures on YouTube. The first one is by Swami Sarvapriyanada from Swami Vivekananda mission and second one is by Swami Anubhavananda. Enclosed please find the URL for ready reference.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx7O2zDqi6I&list=PLBh-iYJ1Q_hRn-1WgwiBj7CfasK6TOqG5
• Add Swami jee playlist here (TBD)

Shokla 1:

The form is perceived and the eye is its perceiver. It (eye) is percevied and the mind is its perceiver. The mind with its modulations are perceived and the Witness(the Self) is its perceiver. But It(the Witness) is not perceived (by anything else).

Shokla 2:

The forms (object of perception) appears as various on account of such distinction as blue, yellow, gross, subtle, short, long etc. The eye , on the other hand, sees them itself remaining one and the same.

Shokla 3:
Such characteristics of the eye such as blindness,sharpness or dullness,the mind is able to cognize because it is a unity.This also applies to (whatever is perceived by) ear, skin etc

2/27/2017

I have been listening to Swami Anubhavananda jee a lot these days on youtube.  Some important points explained by him are as under:

• The first step in spirituality is to not think of yourself as a body (or not identify yourself with your body). Once we stop identifying ourselves as a body, the outside world stops to bother us. The world mainly constitutes of objects  and relations. We have an inherit desire to accumulate objects and have good relationship. When we reach a point in life where we do not feel the need to accumulate more stuff in our life and when we stop thinking that someone external is responsible for our state of mind, then we are ready to begin our spiritual journey.

• Some tasks needs effort and some task happen themselves. When a task happens by itself, it does not make you tired. However, when you are doing a task, it makes you tired. For example, you do not get tired of breathing;but you do get tired of pranayam. The goal is to move from owning a task to letting the task happen through you.

• The biggest sadhana is to live in the present moment. Every moment observe your mind to ensure it is not thinking about the past or anxious about the future. 

• Also, stop talking to yourself. 

List of books

I have been reading a few spiritual books on Vedanta recently. I thought of creating this blog as a way to save my notes on these books.

The books that I have been reading are as under:

Bhagavad Gita
Astavakra Gita
Vasistha Yoga
Drg Drgesha Viveka
Aparokshanubhooti


In addition to writing notes on the above mentioned books, I also plan on writing  random notes on stuff that I have read besides these five books