Neti method

Neti method. Hm! where should I start? Not that u need to know about it from me and I am well aware that there are people who are experts at this method and who can tell about it in a much better way than I ever can. But then my intention of writing about this topic is not to explain its intricate details but rather to tell its end i.e., the end/goal/result of this neti method which is not negation but inclusion. Before I confuse u, let me go ahead into details.

The "Neti - Neti" method is the "Not I - Not I" method. This is a method of self-analysis where everything which is observed/known/or everything whose change can be perceived by "I" is negated and ruled out as "not I". 'As I observe the body, its changes, and as I say 'my body', the body is not me.' Thus, a conclusion is drawn that I am not the body. Similarly with mind, thoughts, feelings. As I perceive/observe them and as I say "my mind/thought/feeling", they are not me. Thus, a conclusion is drawn that I am not the mind/thoughts/feelings. The aim is to keep negating until there is nothing left to negate and say 'not I'; ultimately even the negater (the one who is negating) is negated out (by whom? the negater negates itself). When such an event happens, what is left? silence. This is calm/bliss/peace/happiness. This is the so called advatiaathanubhavam. All enlightened persons speak with this anubhuthi. This much everyone knows. But what I am trying to tell is that this is not the end of the Neti method. This is not the end of the education.

Most of the forums I went to and most of the dicussions I have witnessed and most of the so called proponents of Neti method (by proponents I do not mean the enlightened gurus for I have found that all of them[however few the number may have been that I have met] have spoken about Neti method in its entirety. By proponents I mean those who do intellectual gimmickery with and who just discuss about it) stop their discourse of Neti method at the end of the above para. That is not the end. The end of any education is inclusion. The end of neti method is inclusion not negation. The end of neti method is when what has been negated is included as self.

The advaitaanubhavam experienced is nothing but what is experienced by everyone in deep sleep/sushupti. I am well aware that in this method "deep sleep is negated out as agyanam (ignorance) where the person when he gets up says 'I do not know anything about it' and hence it is said to be ignorance and the state is negated out as it is said that there is awareness of the ignorance. Hence, an observer is there; implies the deep sleep is not I". There are some things that have to be considered here. One analysis of deep sleep is done in wakeful state not deep sleep. Two the ignorance proposed by me in wakefulstate is the ignorance of self that I am experiencing at that moment but not that of deep sleep. If I were to know the nature of self in wakeful state then my answer for the question "what is deep sleep/what is there in deep sleep" would be "I am" All enlightened persons go to sleep, wake up, dream the only difference is that as they experience the advaitaanubhuvam (in fact they are the anubhuthi/anubhavam itself) in all three states for them three such states do not exist. Their answer for any thing is that "I am"; " I am experiencing myself". Three my emphasis is on what is experienced in deep sleep and not on what is there in deep sleep. I did not ask 'what is deep sleep?'; I asked 'what is it that you experience in deep sleep? or How is deep sleep'. I am talking of the experience/anubhavam. The anubhavam of deep sleep is the advaitaanubhavam that is experienced after negating the negater. Fourth the question of ignorance does not arise in deep sleep. No one asks in deep sleep what is deep sleep. In deep sleep there is no existence of anything to ask such a question. Simply, what is there is there and it is whole (Poornam) and even the question of what is experienced and who is experiencing it and how is deep sleep also does not exist. Experience is deep sleep. Anubhavam. Mounam (silence). By following the various methods of spirutuality (one of them being Neti), the disciple perceives the presence of silence and experiences the anubhavam. When the negater is negated (by the negater) then there is no one to observe. What is there? silence. Anubhavam. Experience. Tatvam. It is Paripoornam. The disciple understands that this anubhavam is present always in wakeful and dream states and deep sleep. That it is the nature of the self. When the disciple experiences this one without the second, the advaitaanubhavam (these are very wrong words to use for it brings out the question "was the disciple ever out of this experience!" I profusely apologize for it. This could be due to lack of complete command over language and at any rate this is the inability or deficiency that will exist when experience is being transcribed. All the experiences of the disciple have always been the advaitaanubhavam only.) then even the identity of disciple, or "I" does not exist. What is there is there. When he speaks with that anubhuthi then he is no more the disciple, he is guru. It has to be noted that in anubhavam there is no guru or sishya. There is no awareness in anubhavam.

Coming back to Neti method. The education continues in these similar lines. The person who experiences this advaitaanubhavam asks, as a result of this advaitaanubhuthi, what are the things that are negated? He asks 'If I am not them then what is it that links me to them? if it is maya, then what is it that links me with this maya?' 'If I am not matter, then what is it that links me to it?' "If I am not matter, why did I run after matter?" and such similar questions arise and are answered that they are nothing but self. That it is "I". That matter is not seperate from intelligence. This is what that has been said in vedas and upanishads by great masters as "chidanu" (chit = intelligence; anu = matter). He realizes his swaroopam as vyaktha-avyaktham. He realizes his swaroopam as chidanu (when we say 'anu' it means matter as well as the akasa that gives avakasa for the matter to exist). And he realizes that his nature/tatvam is Silence. Thus he realizes his poornatvam. He is Poorna sadguru.

This whole concept can be explained using a simple simily: Human body has two arms - right and left. There is a person who always thought that he had only left arm but he had a feeling that he is more than the left arm. so, he starts using the neti method and negated (in this case it would be not using it) out the left arm and suddenly he realized the presence of right arm. He realized that it was present always. Now if he were to say human body has right arm then his education and sentence are not complete. The left arm which has been negated to perceive the right arm should be include and then the answer human body has two arms - right and left becomes whole.

The aim of this writing is to bring clarity. Not that u do not know about it but if u do not and wish to know about it, know its purpose and end first. What I have written is no surprise to many but in the forums I came across every one talked about "what is not I" and in one blog I read "the fun in Neti method is not to worry about what I am but rather to enjoy what I am not"; seeing these I felt like saying these words and unless "I" is known wholly; its swaroopam known; advaitaanubhavam will not be grasped (it will and always is being experienced). If we keep on negating things and forget to negate the negater then we will not grasp the experience; it is like concentrating on the so called ignorance that is present in deep sleep rather than concentraing on the experience (anubhuthi) of the deep sleep but it should be remembered that the former (concentration on ignorance aspect) is great educating tool whose aim is the latter part (experiencing the anubhavam) i.e., the nature of self i.e., the advaitaanubhavam.

The aim is also to tell that the matter-bashing (that is the tendency of intellectuals to negate matter and shun it and the use of the word maya at our convenience and saying everything is illusion etc) is wrong. The purpose of neglecting matter (the vyaktam- the expressed) is to experience the avyaktham (the unexpressed) part of self. The end is the integration of both. Vyakthaavyaktam. Matter is not our enemy. Our lack of understanding of the end and knowledge is.

Thank you for reading.