“If you feel miserable, then it indicates that your are identifying yourself with the scenery.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Often we are better at rendering advice to other people, than we are at applying the same advice to our own lives. Why is that ? It is because we tend to judge a situation better when we are not emotionally involved in it. A surgeon avoids performing a major surgery on his family members because of the emotions involved. In this article, we will discuss the first verse from ancient Vedantic text, Drig Drishya Viveka, that will help you get rid of anxiety instantly, by logically helping you answer a series of questions, so as to get a clearer picture of who you truly are, which will help you become calmer .
Get rid of anxiety by getting rid of illusion
This verse helps you reveal who you truly are by proceeding from the obvious to the unknown, by moving through three levels of abstractions. If you follow the flow of logic in this verse, you will be able to instantly cure your anxiety and will find your mind to be much calmer ! Doesn’t it sound too easy to be true ? Believe me it is !
The basic premise this verse follows is this : The knower and the known are different or in other words, the seer and the scenery are different.
This verse starts by expounding on what is obvious and from there it subtly proceeds to reveal to us the great truth of our true self.
The verse is as follows :
“rūpam drishyam locanam drik, tad drishyam drik tu mānasam.
drishyā dhī-vrittayah sākshī, drig eva na tu drishyate”
1.1 : “rūpam drishyam locanam drik” : The form (i.e : the world around us) is perceived and the eyes are the perceiver.
Explanation : The eyes perceive all the forms around us. All that the eyes can not see are the eyes itself. Therefore, in order to observe the scenery, the seer should be different from the scenery. In our example, the eyes(seer) are different from the scenery(forms around us) and that’s why eyes can observe the scenery
Thus from this part of the verse we can conclude that :
- Seer and the scene are different : Remember eyes can see everything except themselves.
- The seer is one and the scenes are many : Eyes are a single entity and what they see are many.
- The seer is unchanging and scene keeps changing : Eyes remain same but what they see keeps on changing.
1.2 : “tad drishyam drik tu mānasam.” : Eyes become the scene and the mind becomes the seer.
Explanation : We know what’s going on with our eyes. The mind knows when the eyes are open, when they are closed. In order for the seer to observe the scenery, seer has to be different from the scenery. Therefore, mind is different from eyes. From this it also follows that mind is different from all our sense organs. Mind is the seer and the sense organs are the scenery.
1.3 : “drishyā dhī-vrittayah sākshī.” : Mental activities are observed, witness is the observer.
Explanation : Now this part of the verse takes us to the lowest level of abstractions. It says that since we know what’s going on in our mind, i.e. we know when we are are feeling happy, when we are feeling sad, when we are feeling anxious. Therefore, we can’t be the mind, which is going through all these emotions.
We read in the first part of the verse, that the seer and the scene can’t be the same. If we can feel/see something then we are not the scenery. We are the seer of the scenery. Therefore, it follows that since we are aware of what’s going on inside our mind, we can’t be the mind. We are the seer of the mind, which is the scenery.
1.4 : “drig eva na tu drishyate.” : The observer can not be observed by any other.
Explanation : We are the awareness, which illumines the mind. Since we are the awareness itself, therefore we can not observe the awareness by any means.
Summary of the verse
Therefore, we can conclude that we are not the mind, the sense organs or the scenery which our sense organs perceive. Since our eyes see the various forms in front of it, we can not be any of those forms. Following this logic, we know what our eyes are seeing, so we can’t be the eyes either( or any other sense organs). Similarly, our mind knows what our sense organs feel, therefore we can’t be the sense organs. Going one step further, we know what’s going on in our mind and since we know that the knower and known are different, we can say that we can’t be that mind. We are the awareness that illumines the mind and yet it is not the mind. We are the seer of the ever changing scenery of our body and our mind.
How to use this knowledge to get rid of anxiety
When someone comes to us for advice, the more neutral we are to that situation, the more wholesome our advice for the other person, will be. However, when we get emotionally involved in that situation, we often give poorer advice, which is usually biased.
Often we feel anxious and fearful when we are afraid of being harmed or of losing something. This is because we identify ourselves with our body, our educational qualifications, our job title, our bank balance, our hot girl friend and what not. By following the level of abstractions in the above verse, we get to know that we are not any of these things, What we actually are is just the seer to all these things.
Your bank balance may inflate or deflate, you may pass or fail in that exam, you may or may not get that job. But that’s okay, because none of these things can affect you. Your body, educational qualifications, wealth, relationship status, etc. is just a part of the ever changing scenery, which you as the seer is observing.
Therefore whenever you feel anxious, just take a few deep breaths and remind yourself, “Who am I ?” Remind yourself of this verse, as often as you can. Once you detach yourself from the emotional drama and the scenery, you will find your mind getting calmer and anxiety drifting away.
In fact, learning to disidentify with your mind is the best habit you can develop.(I am amazed why it is so seldom talked about in our culture).
I highly recommend that you read: Why learning to dis identify with your mind, is the best habit that you can develop.
How a sage cured a person’s anxiety
Once in the upper Himalayas, a businessman approached a sage in the hope of finding a cure for his misery.
The swami asked the man, “Do you feel your misery ? Do you experience it?”
The person replied, “Yes indeed, Swami !”
The Swami replied ,”This means you are not the misery itself. You are the knower of the misery in your mind.”
The businessman went away, reflecting on these words of the Swami.
After continuous reflection for a few days, he returned to the Swami, feeling very peaceful
While expressing his gratitude to the Swami, the merchant said ,”O Swami. You were so right. Thanks to you, I feel so peaceful now.”
Swami immediately retorted back, “No son. You are not peaceful. You are the observer of your mind which is peaceful!”
Dear reader, how did you find this article ? Even if you found it terrible, please let me know in the comments below. Your feedback helps us improve. Thanks for reading ! 🙂
Reference(s) :
The above post is partly inspired by the following lecture of Swami Sarvapriyananda, a great monk from the Ramrishna Order, that he delivered at IIT Kanpur.
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