Śravaṇa is the first, essential stage of vedānta, jñāna yoga. The other two stages are manana (reflection on the logic of the lessons) and nididhyāsana (contemplation on the truth of myself. through deep internalization in all aspects of my being and life).

To hear purely, my mind must be neutral, subtle, and balanced. The mind is like a (water) mirror that reflects consciousness but obscures it with the mud of ignorance. Ignorance can be seen as mist on a mirror, or ripples in the water. The one who has his or her deep waters, mirror, or surface neat and clean is prepared to understand what is being said, and to reflect the bliss of consciousness pure enough to understand. Then knowledge sweeps away all ideas that I am anything other than pure, original consciousness.

The thought that I am an individual is natural and logical, but unknowing. Because the mind is ignorant, the individual will have to hear that he is not an individual.

Something special happens in the listening phase. If my thinking is ignorant, how can I ever understand self-knowledge with this ignorance? Or reason out of it logically (manana) or contemplate (nididhyāsana). No, śravaṇa is where it ‘happens’. This article is so long because I like to hammer on about it. That is why you need a teacher, and an impeccable means of knowledge. Something that is exceedingly difficult for a human being to accept, and especially for a modern human being. What is difficult? That I accept that I do not know, and cannot figure it out myself, and surrender myself to education, which since man became a full-fledged, cultivated, linguistic being, has been completely stable for millennia, making seekers see their freedom. Of course there are special enlightened individuals who have reincarnated, but they are so rare that we cannot assume that we are that ourselves. We, ordinary mortals, must accept the invitation to look completely out of the box. Whoever can do that, whoever wants to get rid of his old thinking, goes fast. It is not for nothing that it is called a second birth (dvi-ja). The seeker who surrenders is no longer a seeker. He or she is no longer the old one. And she or he wants to get rid of the old one. What an infinite relief! How can I stay the old one, if self-realisation is shifting my identity from something insignificant, to that which makes immeasurable space spacious. My first svabhāva (relative nature) turns out to be apparent. My second, real svabhāva is the svabhāva of existence, which we all share. When I see that, my relative svabhāva may frolic around happily. Look:

There is only one consciousness. Knowledge comes (seemingly) from consciousness and evokes the pure self-knowledge of an apparently knowing unit (the teacher jīva), to another ignorant unit (the student jīva), within the entire īśvara system. Evoking means calling up something that is already hidden in you. This is logical because you are consciousness already, pure knowledge, and everything is that. It must be aroused, called up, revealed, discovered. The knowledge ‘is already in you’ but is apparently covered with ignorance. Śravaṇa is evocation. The covering is apparent, because the light that you are, already shines completely freely on ignorance. Ignorance is a superimposition, something that appears to me, not something that I am. Among other things, the means of knowledge makes you see that.

To see ignorance as haze on the mirror, or ripples in the water. We would like to let go of the mud in the water metaphor here. The one who has his mirror clean enough, or whose surface of the water is still and calm enough, is prepared to understand what has been heard, and to reflect the bliss of consciousness pure enough to understand. Then knowledge wipes away all notions that I would be something other than pure, original consciousness.

There are several challenges in this. What the vedānta (teacher) has to say is a divine position, supported by tradition. Not that the teacher is special, no, it is the knowledge that the teacher transmits, that is divine. To be able to surrender to this really requires quite a bit. Again, listening is difficult. To begin with, I must have no judgments about the intent of the satsang and have trust (śraddhā) in the impeccable authority and knowledge of the teacher.

Furthermore, I must not have a scattered (vikṣepa) or absent-minded mind, so that I am distracted all the time. Listening is the result of hearing. The auditory organ naturally picks up sounds. But to fully focus my attention on what is being said, I need to be able to muster a focus (samādhāna), often for days, because ideally, the teaching addresses the entire panorama of ignorance and therefore needs to be told in full.

I need to be somewhat fit and rested, so as not to become dull or sleepy.

Furthermore, I often struggle with a certain belief system or frame of mind that is ignorant. Then my mind will intentionally or unintentionally adjust aspects of the teaching, so that it suits this belief system or frame of mind (confirmation bias). Some people puzzle aspects of vedānta into the trainings or therapies they give. This is not the intention of advaita vedānta.

Furthermore, the mind can become inspired and start to fantasize or ruminate. This means adding my own ideas, beliefs, or embellishments to what is being said. Then I suddenly wake up from my own autonomous thought patterns. Without the right precision, little will be understood well.

How do I prepare my mind for śravaṇa? With karma and upāsana yoga, sādhanacatuṣṭaya (essential qualifications), a sincere values inventory, and the resulting accommodating lifestyle adjustments. Also, aṣṭāṅga yoga, Buddhist mindfulness or various forms of meditation practice ensure a well-prepared mind. The path to freedom is not a sinecure. But if I work on my personality, happiness, self-esteem, and independence will gradually grow. In modern self-inquirers, understanding the truth and emotional maturation go hand in hand.

Śravaṇa can even happen unexpectedly. This is called hearing of āpātata (unexpected, sudden, superficial) jñāna (knowledge). Such moments have often brought us to vedānta. A person’s mind can be ready that he or she finds himself or herself in a situation, through an encounter with a sage, or a lecture to which he or she is taken, seemingly by chance. Coincidence? Well, all we know is that the truth comes to you. So who cares? Answers to the how and why are of no use and belong to īśvara.

A formal note about the context: Śravaṇa, hearing, is a śruti (scriptures) or śabda (spoken words) pramāṇam (means of knowledge), which brings ajñāna nivṛtti, the removal of errors caused by ignorance. Manana (reflection, logic and Q & A) is then needed to remove doubts. But viparīta bhāvanā (disturbance by deep-rooted patterns) is removed only by nididhyāsana. After I have had my first aha erlebnis (self-realizations) in śravaṇa, I fall back repeatedly into ignorance, basically into binding old fears and desires. In nididhyāsana I put obstacles in the light of self-knowledge and thus assimilate the realization of aham brahmāsmi in all aspects of life (actualization). After actualization there are no more moments when the knowledge is not immediately available (all moments are mithyā, not real), and my experience merges with the fullness, wholeness, and freedom that I already was.

Back to the crucial point of this topic: ‘The realisation of my true self is śravaṇa, even if I memorize knowledge in nididhyāsana, it has the same dynamic as in śravaṇa. We can see available knowledge from memory as grace of īśvara. When the teaching comes again to ignorance, it is always from outside! Śravaṇa simply means ‘from outside the individual mind’. My whole self-concept as a person is individual ignorance. There is no place for knowledge in that. A subtle point. Over and over again, the invitation is to come out of the box of my narrow-minded comfort zone.

Śravaṇa does not create knowledge; it exposes knowledge. Knowledge comes from outside, just as with the seers (ṛṣayaḥ) of ancient India. Knowledge was always present as the consciousness in which the potential was apparently present. It is revealed or exposed to the tiny person who is karmically ready for it. Whoever understands how this works, can start working on his mind. For the one who understands, obstacles, mistakes, misunderstandings, and doubts will be removed, by śravaṇa in the satsang or whatever a modern listener has access to. There are loads of material on you tube nowadays, for example the ‘you-tube Svāmī’ Sarvapriyananda.

But the advice is still: Undergo a complete teaching from a live teacher, ask questions (manana) and interact with him. That student who eagerly exposes himself to the help of the teacher, goes fast!

Again, this important but subtle point: Knowing is not an action. It is present meaning. Listening is also not an action. The one who acts is īśvara through the speaking teacher. The student does nothing but lets the pramāṇa work on the superimposed ignorance. So you are not ignorant at all! That is what they are telling you. Just as being what you are is difficult, and infinitely simple, being silent in satsang is difficult. Listening is opening yourself, while doing nothing. Who would immediately assume that he is an ocean of consciousness, bliss, infinity, and freedom, outside of which there is nothing else?

So self-knowledge is not the result of the action of the listener. It is the discovery of what is apparently already potentially present. Otherwise, reality cannot be non-dual. It happens naturally and effortlessly when the meaning of certain words, which come to the ear, is understood without distortion or addition. This is īśvara’s blessing, this is the blessing of the self.

So self-knowledge occurs only in śravaṇa, not in the other two stages of manana (reflection) and nididhyāsana (contemplation). These are necessary to remove the blockages to let the knowledge work purely. But then one will always have to return to śravaṇa, the removal of ignorance through knowingness by listening.

The fact that ignorance can be removed only from outside, and I therefore need a teacher who will present me knowledge, taught according to a correct, effective method, is called vivaraṇa. This contrasts with bhāmatī, which holds that it is a linear process, completed by the removal of the obstacles (pratibandhas) in nididhyāsana. After many discussions over the centuries between Vivaraṇa and Bhāmatī schools, modern Vedānta teaching logically follows the vivaraṇa position, because you cannot do anything to be the truth that you already were. Only ignorance can be removed by the meaning of the words in śravaṇa.

How could it be otherwise? Since I am the non-dual truth, my ignorance must disappear through the warm, wise words of vedānta, like snow melting before the sun. Then the self-shines as if by itself, as it always did, but of which I was ignorant.

Reflection and contemplation are of course forms of doing. The purely qualified thus only need śravaṇa. Manana and nididhyāsana, are to be re-qualified. This is a very subtle point, but essential.