Consciousness as Deep Difficulty

A

Upanishad contains an injunction; he does

not reject citta-vrtti-nirodha

itself. This is made clear when he says that in fact, the only way to achieve

a cessation to various mental transformations is through the steady

recollection of Self-knowledge. In other words, it is not as if practising yoga

(separately from studying Vedanta) to achieve citta-vrtti-nirodha will lead to

Self-knowledge and thereby to liberation. Rather, it is Self-knowledge,

obtained through Vedanta, and its recollection that directly leads to what the

yoga school describes as its goal, namely

citta-vrtti-nirodha

. Shankara’s

rejection of this as an injunction is extremely strong because

Self-knowledge

is not an action that can be enjoined

. He explains that Self-knowledge itself

leads to

citta-vrtti-nirodha

. If proper knowledge has already arisen, why is

there any further discussion of steadily recollecting this knowledge and of

citta-vrtti-nirodha

? The answer given is that the tendency to maintain that

knowledge may not be strong even after it arises. The tendency of speech,

mind and body to keep indulging in action may be strong because of the

prior momentum. To counter this, the Sruti teaches the recollection of Self-

knowledge as a

niyama

, accompanied by other means such as renunciation

and dispassion. Shankara makes clear that he views the Upanishad as

teaching a restrictive injunction (

niyama vidhi

), but not a primary injunction

(

apurva

vidhi

). (In

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad bhasya

and

Chandogya

Upanishad bhasya

.) Once known, the knowledge is to be consolidated and

steadily recollected, and this is the only means to

citta-vrtti-nirodha

. It also

counters the momentum of past karma. This discussion incorporates aspects

of both yoga and purva mimamsa. The key message is that

atma-jnana

cannot be enjoined because it is the way out of action. Action leads to

causation and cannot lead out of it. Nor can citta-vrtti-nirodha be enjoined

because it is not by itself the means to liberation. The steady recollection of

atma-jnana

can be taken as being enjoined in an ancillary fashion (niyama

vidhi) in order to check the tendency towards more action generated by the

momentum of

prarabdha karma