Continuing the series on samāpatti, the 43rd sūtra is
स्मृ॒ति॒प॒रि॒शु॒द्धौ स्व॒रू॒पशू॒न्येवा॒र्थमा॒त्रनि॒र्भा॒सा नि॑र्वित॒र्का ॥ १.४३॥
Smṛti pariśuddhau svarūpaśūnye arthamātranirbhāsā nirvitarkā ||
Smṛti pariśuddhau svarūpaśūnye arthamātranirbhāsā nirvitarkā ||
That is, Smṛti pariśuddhau svarūpaśūnye arthamātranirbhāsā nirvitarkā,
Smṛti pariśuddhau svarūpaśūnye arthamātranirbhāsā nirvitarkā. Smṛti is memory. pariśuddho pariśuddhi pariśuddhaḥ That is, thorough cleansing, śuddhaḥ, cleansing, purification. pariśuddhaḥ, thorough cleansing, thorough purification. Svarūpa. rūpa and svarūpa, svarūpa is one's own form, the real own form. Śūnya is empty - Khali. Iva is like - Almost as it is. Like that is iva. Artha is the sense - artha is the sense. Mātra is mere, very little, arthamātra, very little. Nirbhāsa - bhāsa is shining. Nirbhāsa, clearly shining, bright. Nirvitarka - tarka, vitarka, nirvitarka - Without vitarka. What is vitarka? We have seen earlier in the beginning of the samādhipāda when we talked about the vikalpa, vitarka dimensions. So the normal translation of the sutra says smṛti ariśuddhau svarūpaśūnye arthamātranirbhāsā nirvitarkā means when the memory is purified or purified means devoid of qualities. So when the memory is purified, expressing only the meaning of the meditated object is nirvitarka samāpatti. That means on purification of the memory, the mind, the citta shines. Nirbhāsa has the object alone as if devoid of its own nature. Smṛti pariśuddhau means when the citta, citta's smṛti is pariśuddha or citta is free from the smṛtis, it will shine - nirbhāsa like the object. And that is a wonderful meaning it gives. So on the clarification of memory or on the purification of memory, on the cleansing of the memory, pariśuddha smṛti, when the mind loses its essential nature as it were, and the real knowledge of the object alone shines. Means if in front of the citta, rāma is there, rāma alone will be there. Citta loses all its memory - pariśuddha smṛti it is. We should understand what is this pariśuddha memory or smṛti pariśuddhau, How we attain this pariśuddhatā. Pariśuddhatā comes out of removal, exhaustion of saṁskāras. So by thorough purification of memory, all the vitarkas, they disappear. And what is vitarka? We have seen already earlier. So vitarka comes from saṁskāras. And the saṁskāras are stored in karmāśaya. This we have seen in the 17th sūtra. And that is projected. So saṁskāras are stored in karmāśaya, and because of the saṁskāras stored in karmāśaya, vitarkas are projected, vitarkas come. And removal of saṁskāras, exhaustion of saṁskāras, is the purification of actually the karmāśaya. And as the karmāśaya is purified, smṛti gets pariśuddha. See the link there. Smṛti pariśuddhatā comes out of purification of saṁskāras, freeing it from the karmāśaya. This is the link between saṁskāra, karmāśaya and smṛti pariśuddhatā. So memory is purified by pure removal of the saṁskāras. Because memory depends, based, has its foundation on the saṁskāras. Saṁskāras are the impressions, tendencies. In fact if there are no tendencies, if there are no impressions, there are no memory. Everything we remember, because what we remember is an impression. And when we are recalling the memory means, we are recalling the impression which was inside. And if there are no impressions at all, there are no storehouse at all, then there is no memory at all. So it is not that saṁskāras are removed by removing the memory, but memory goes off when saṁskāras are gone. It's a more deeper level. Smṛti pariśuddhatā is more deeper and subtler level. So smṛti which we have seen as a vṛtti, that gets cleansed up. Nivṛtti, vṛtti nirodha, by cleansing the saṁskāras. And where the saṁskāras are stored? karmāśaya, desire for the karmas, action. These are all the interlinking, subtle connections within. So this transition of citta from savitarka samāpatti to nirvitarka samāpatti, it happens automatically. The real sūtra, savitarka samāpatti, from that level, the description which we have seen,
to this level of nirvitarka samāpatti, the citta transforms automatically and it is an effortless automatic process. But it is an effortless automatic process only, only, only after the perfection in the savitarka samāpatti. Savitarka samāpatti means smṛti pariśuddhatā should take place. Otherwise it will be in the same savitarka level. To come to nirvitarka, this has to happen. And it is said as svarūpaśūnyatā, is the object of meditation. The normal state or svarūpa of the subject, as we understand it, in our ordinary experiences, becomes extinct. This is svarūpaśūnyatā. In the third sūtra of the third chapter, describing samādhi, there is a beautiful sūtra, Patañjali uses the word, samādhi is defined as arthamātranirbhāsaṁ svarūpaśūnyamiva samādhi Please see the wordings. Samādhi is defined in the third chapter as arthamātranirbhāsaṁ svarūpaśūnyamiva samādhi. But here, in this particular first chapter, 43rd sūtra, what it says? It says svarūpaśūnyamiva arthamātranirbhāsaṁ nirvitarkaḥ There is a difference. But because of this, many people say that this is nirvitarka samādhi, earlier it was savitarka samādhi, because in the third chapter it was told like that, but words are different, meanings are definitely different. Because samāpatti is a process and not a samādhi, and samādhi is a result of that. Even grammatically, the adjective is different here, and there it was a state of the svarūpaśūnyatā. Here, svarūpaśūnyatā is used as an adjective, and in the third chapter, svarūpaśūnyatā was defined as a state. There is a difference in both. But many people say it is the same, but it is not so as per the Patañjali sūtra itself. Smṛti pariśuddhau svarūpaśūnyamiva arthamātranirbhāsaṁ that is the nirvitarka. So, when the smṛti is completely cleansed, svarūpaśūnyatā arthamātranirbhāsaṁ ,that is the meaning and wonderful sūtra it is. And Swami Vivekananda gave an excellent translation of explanation. He says that, I quote, "There cannot be any wave without this impulse. And when it is not from outside, it is from inside. And when the impulse dies, the wave dies. What remains? The result of the reaction. And that is knowledge. These three are so closely combined in our mind that we cannot separate them. And when the sound comes, the senses vibrate, and the wave rises in reaction. They follow so closely upon one another that there is no discerning one from the other. When this meditation has been practiced for a long time, memory, smṛti, the receptacle of all impressions, becomes purified. And we are able to clearly distinguish them from one another. This is called nirvitarka samāpatti, without any reasoning." This is Swami Vivekananda's words while explaining this particular sūtra. So svarūpaśūnyatā is the subject of meditation. And in the next sūtra, we shall see about another samāpatti in this series.
Oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ. ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः|| To Be Continued.. ---------------------------------------- These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji. Audio Link - https://youtu.be/Q1yqkN0VoD4?si=BCFkryumIGCN7d7x
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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