Drg Drsya Viveka: Dividing Seer And Seen

The Dṛg-Dṛśya-Viveka contains 46 verses performing an inquiry into the distinction between the "seer" (Dṛg) and the "seen" (Dṛśya), an overview of samadhi, centering on savikalpa and nirvikalpa, and the identity of Self and the Absolute.

Transcript

Krikrishya viveka.

Discrimination of the seer and the seen.

The form is perceived and the eye is its perceiver.

The eye is perceived and the mind is its perceiver.

The mind with its modifications is perceived and the witness,

The self,

Is verily the perceiver.

But it,

The witness,

Is not perceived by any other.

The forms,

Objects of perception,

Appear as various on account of such distinctions as blue,

Yellow,

Gross,

Subtle,

Short,

Long,

Etc.

The eye,

On the other hand,

Sees them,

Itself remaining one and the same.

Such characteristics of the eye as blindness,

Sharpness,

Or dullness,

The mind is able to cognize because it is a unity.

This also applies to whatever is perceived through the ear,

Skin,

Etc.

Consciousness illumines such other mental states as desire,

Determination,

Doubt,

Belief and non-belief,

Constancy and its opposite,

Modesty,

Understanding,

Fear and others,

Because consciousness is a unity.

This consciousness does neither arise nor set.

It does not increase nor does it suffer decay.

Being self-luminous,

It illumines everything else without any other aid.

Buddhi,

The intellect,

Appears to possess luminosity on account of the reflection of consciousness in it.

This intelligence is of two kinds.

One is designated egoity.

The other is mind.

In the opinion of the wise,

The identity of the reflection of consciousness and of ego is like the identity of the fire and the heated iron ball.

The body,

Having been identified with the ego,

Which has already identified itself with the reflection of consciousness,

Passes for a conscious entity.

The identification of ego with the reflection of consciousness,

The body and the witness,

Are of three kinds,

Namely natural,

Due to past karma,

And due to ignorance,

Respectively.

The mutual identification of the ego and the reflection of consciousness,

Which is natural,

Does not cease so long as they are taken to be real.

The other two identifications disappear after the wearing out of the result of karma and the attainment of the knowledge of the highest reality,

Respectively.

In the state of deep sleep,

When the thought of ego disappears,

The body also becomes unconscious.

The state in which there is a half-manifestation of the ego is called the dream state,

And the full manifestation of the ego is the state of waking.

The inner organ of the mind,

Which is itself but a modification,

Identifying itself with the reflection of consciousness,

Imagines various ideas in the dream.

And the same inner organ,

Identifying itself with the body,

Imagines objects external to itself in the waking state with respect to the sense organs.

The subtle body,

Which is the material cause of the mind and egoism,

Is one,

And of the nature of insentiency.

It moves in the three states,

And is born,

And it dies.

The two powers,

Undoubtedly,

Are predicated of maya,

Those of projecting and veiling.

The projecting power creates everything from the subtle body to the gross universe.

The manifesting of all names and forms in the entity,

Which is existence,

Consciousness,

Bliss,

And which is the same as Brahman,

Like the foam in the ocean,

Is known as creation.

The other power of maya conceals the distinction between the perceiver and the perceived objects,

Which are cognized within the body,

As well as the distinction between Brahman and the phenomenal universe,

Which is perceived outside one's own body.

This power is the cause of the phenomenal universe.

The subtle body,

Which exists in close proximity to the witness,

Identifying itself with the gross body,

Becomes the embodied empirical self on account of its being affected by the reflection of consciousness.

The character of an embodied self appears through false superimposition in the suction the witness also.

With the disappearance of the veiling power,

The distinction between the seer and the object becomes clear,

And with it,

The jiva character of the witness disappears.

Similarly,

Brahman,

Through the influence of the power that conceals the distinction between it and the phenomenal universe,

Appears as endowed with the attributes of change.

In this case also,

The distinction between Brahman and the phenomenal universe becomes clear with the disappearance of the veiling power.

Therefore change is perceived in the phenomenal universe,

But never in Brahman.

The attributes of existence,

Consciousness,

And bliss are equally present in the akasha,

Ether,

Air,

Fire,

Water,

And earth,

As well as in gods,

Animals,

And people.

Names and forms make one differ from the other.

Having become indifferent to name and form,

And being devoted to sat-citta-ananda,

One should always practice concentration either within the heart or outside.

Two kinds of samadhi to be practiced in the heart,

Within oneself,

Are known as savikalpa and nirvikalpa.

Savikalpa samadhi is again divided into two classes,

According to its association with a cognizable object,

Or a sound as an object.

Desire,

Etc.

,

Centered in the mind,

Are to be treated as cognizable objects.

Meditate on consciousness as their witness.

This is what is called savikalpa samadhi,

Associated with cognizable objects.

I am existence,

Consciousness,

Bliss,

Unattached,

Self-luminous,

And free from duality.

This is known as the other kind of savikalpa samadhi,

Associated with sound object.

But the nirvikalpa samadhi is that in which the mind becomes steady,

Like the unflickering flame of a light,

Kept in a place free from wind,

And in which both the student becomes indifferent to objects and sounds,

On account of the complete absorption and the bliss of the realization of the self.

The first kind of samadhi is possible with the help of any external object,

As it is with the help of an internal object.

In that samadhi,

The name and form are separated from what is pure existence,

Or brahman.

The entity which is always of the same nature and unlimited by time and space,

And which is characterized by existence,

Consciousness,

Bliss,

Is verily brahman.

Such uninterrupted reflection is called intermediate absorption,

That is the savikalpa samadhi associated with sound object.

The insensibility of the mind to external objects,

As before,

On account of the experience of bliss,

Is designated as the third kind of samadhi,

Nirvikalpaka.

The practitioner should uninterruptedly spend their time in these six kinds of samadhi.

With the disappearance of the attachment to the body,

And with the realization of the supreme self,

To whatever object the mind is directed,

One experiences samadhi.

By beholding him who is high and low,

The fetters of the heart are broken,

All doubts are resolved,

And all karmas,

Activities,

And their effects wear away.

There are three conceptions of jiva,

Namely that as limited by prana,

As that presented in the mind,

And the third one consciousness as imagined in the dream,

To have assumed the forms of people and surroundings.

Limitation is illusory,

But that which appears to be limited is real.

The jiva-hood of the self is due to the superimposition of the illusory attributes,

But it really has the nature of brahman.

Such Vedic statements as tatvamasi declare the identity of partless brahman with the jiva-hood appears as such from the standpoint of the theory of limitation,

But it does not agree with the other two views of the jiva.

It is because the fallacious presentation of consciousness located in the buddhi performs various actions and enjoys the results,

Therefore it is called jiva,

And all this consisting of the elements and their products,

Which are of the nature of the objects of enjoyment,

Is called jagat,

The universe.

These two,

Dating from time without beginning,

Have only empirical existence and exist till one attains liberation,

Therefore both are called empirical.

Sleep,

Said to be associated with consciousness wrongly presented in the mind and of the nature of concealment and projection,

At first covers the empirical individual self and the cognized universe,

But then imagines them in dream afresh.

These two objects,

Namely the perceiving self and the perceived world,

Are illusory on account of their having existed only during the period of dream experience.

And it's because no one after waking up from dream sees those objects when one dreams again.

The illusory jiva thinks the illusory world is real,

But the empirical jiva thinks that the world is unreal.

The empirical jiva sees this empirical world as real,

But the real jiva knows it to be unreal.

But the paramartika jiva knows its identity with Brahman,

Alone to be real.

They do not see the other,

And if they do,

They know it to be illusory.

With the disappearance of the foam in the wave,

Its characteristics such as fluidity merge in the wave.

Again with the disappearance of the wave in the water,

These characteristics merge as before in the water.

With the disappearance of the pratibhasika jiva in the vyavaharika jiva,

Existence,

Consciousness and bliss,

Which are its characteristics,

Merge in the vyavaharika jiva.

When that also disappears in sakshin,

These characteristics finally merge in the witness consciousness.