Ananda Wood is a disciple of the Sage Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon (1883 - 1959). He was born in 1947 of mixed parentage (mother Indian national of Parsi descent, father English national of Irish descent). His upbringing and school education took place in Mumbai, India. He obtained his bachelors degree in mathematics and theoretical physics at King's College, Cambridge, UK and his doctorate in anthropology (with specialization in Indian tradition) at the University of Chicago, USA. After his university education, he returned home to India, where he worked for some years as a junior industrial executive. He has now settled down to work from home in the city of Pune, on a long-standing interest in the modern interpretation of Advaita philosophy. He is married, but with no children.

NDM:  Can you please tell me how you became a sadhaka/disciple of Shri Atmananda (Krishna Menon)? Ananda Wood: My mother was a disciple of Shri Atmananda's, and in 1952 she took my sister and me to see him. I was then a five year old boy, troubled by a fear of death. When my mother told him of this, he asked me: "Were you not a small baby, some years ago?" I had of course to answer yes. He asked again: "Where is the baby now?" I answered: "It is gone." He asked if I could bring it back, and I had to agree that this was impossible. As he went on to say, the baby I was once had gone for ever, and it could never come back again. It had thus died away, while I stayed undeniably present and alive, quite unaffected by the natural dying of this now passed babyhood. Shri Atmananda then pointed out that this boy would also die, and I would become a young man. The young man too would die and I would become an old man. All these deaths keep succeeding one after the other, in the natural course of the body's journey through the world. Then why be afraid of the old man's death? Is it not also like the many deaths that will have passed already? And then he said: "Why were you not sorry when the baby in you died? Because you knew that the baby alone dies and that you do not die. Similarly, it is only the old man in you that will die. You know that you will never die. You know your many deaths from your babyhood onwards. Similarly, you are the knower of the death of your old age also.... Now you are deathless, the Eternal. That is God. Do you follow me?" I found this simple explanation deeply comforting, and I think that my sister did as well. Our mother was very much a devoted disciple; and we too came to accept Shri Atmananda as our "karana guru" or in other words our "spiritual teacher". So too did my father, though somewhat later on.[1]

Sri Atmananda

NDM: And for the western readers who may not be familiar with this Sanskrit word "sadhaka". Can you please tell me what this is and what this truly means to be one?  What kind of practice does this take and so on?

Ananda Wood: A "sadhaka" is one who strives towards achievement, in particular towards a spiritual achievement of plain truth beyond all compromise. That achievement cannot take place outwardly. In all our picturing of an external world, there is a taint of compromise. Such picturing is always compromised by the limitations and partialities of our bodily and sensual and mental personalities.

As we perceive and think and feel, we build up pictures that are never quite complete or fully accurate. In all our picturing of world, there's always something left obscure, there's always some remaining ignorance confusing what the picture shows. There's always some contaminating cover-up, which somehow taints our understanding of what's plain and simply true.

In order to achieve plain truth, a sadhaka must keep on striving to reflect all questioning back in. The questioning must turn back down: from different objects shown in space, through changing thoughts which come and go in mind, to underlying consciousness beneath all change and difference.

That consciousness is knowing light, whose shining is completely subjective. It shines alone, uncompromised, completely independent of all different and changing show produced by all our bodily and sensual and mental faculties.

All show of change and difference appears in our world-picturing, produced by bodily and sensual and mental personalities. But no such pictured show appears without the light of consciousness. Through all their change and differences, all pictures show reflecting light that stays subjective underneath.

It's only by reflecting there that truth is found uncompromised: as every person's unmixed self. Accordingly, for everyone, plain truth is found as one's own true identity, which each of us has always been.

Thus, for a sadhaka, all striving to achieve is necessarily paradoxical. What's ultimately sought by striving is no object in the world. Nor can it be any improving transformation of personality, for such improvement also is a worldly objective.

The striving is better directed at a change of perspective: a change of standpoint from where the world is viewed and interpreted and understood. This change is achieved by standing deeper back into one's own personality, closer and closer to the knowing light that is its inmost ground.

But then, how can anyone come all the way back down; so as to stand there unattached and unperturbed, throughout all seeming change and confusion of appearances? In answer to this question, Shri Atmananda was very insistent upon the role of a living guru.

He said that when a sadhaka was ready for plain truth, beyond all worldly compromise, the truth itself would manifest: in the form of a karana guru (a spiritual teacher) who would show the sadhaka how to enquire back from world's confusion to plain truth found free of any compromise.

After that, such a sadhaka would have only to keep on asking back from seeming world to that same truth, until all egotism was removed from the sadhaka's character, thus leading to a steadiness of understanding unperturbed by egotistical distraction.

Shri Atmananda spoke of this as the "direct method", which is particularly suited to the modern world.

NDM:  I understand you do not call yourself a teacher, but can you please tell me about this "direct method".  What this is, how one does this?

AnandaWood: In Shri Atmananda's "direct method", thought is applied reflectively. It is here recognized that our construction of world pictures is in doubt; and it thus needs to be questioned thoroughly, so as to remove all mistaken assumptions.

The questioning must turn back in: from a material world of co-existing objects in structured space, through differing sensations that are meaningfully organized, through a conceptual process of succeeding mental states, to a purely knowing subject that stays always present through all change and difference. 

That subject is no partial and mixed personality, which needs to be developed and improved. It is instead that utterly impartial and clear knowing light which always shines, from deep within all built-up picturing of objects in a changing world.

It's only personality that needs to be developed and improved. And such development has long been used by many sadhakas, in many old traditions, to help prepare their personalities in search of unconditioned truth.

The direct method is for those who are now ready to reflect: beneath all partiality of pictured world to utterly impartial and subjective truth. But, to succeed, the questioning must dig beneath its own assumptions, thus falling back eventually into that one unpictured ground beneath all partial picturing.

NDM:  Would anyone be able to practice this or would one have to have certain qualifications or requirements?

Ananda Wood: As I understand it, the starting requirement is a wish for impartial truth, beyond all partial objectives in the world. It is this wish that drives the practice of reflective enquiry. And Shri Atmananda was quite insistent that a living guru is essential, in almost all cases. A sadhaka's wish for truth brings contact with a living guru: who shows that truth as knowing self, remaining always utterly unchanged, at the inmost background of subjective experience.

From that background rise up feelings, thoughts and actions into show: expressing values, meanings, forms in objects that are seen perceived at the narrow surface of attention. All of the world thus gets to be better understood, progressively, as an outwardly changing expression of its inmost background. That background is subjective self, found shared in common at the depth of everyone's experience.

Repeatedly returning there, from changing appearances, a sadhaka gets better grounded in the changeless background. Motivation rises better from within, less pushed and pulled by hatred and desire. Clear understanding gets more steady, less disturbed by changing circumstance. As feelings, thoughts and actions rise, they show clear understanding more spontaneously and naturally, less driven artificially by interference from outside.

Impartially knowing self is thus detached from partial personality. A sadhaka progresses thus to be a "jnyani" or a "sage": who from outside appears a person in the world, but inwardly has realized that self in truth is utterly impersonal.

NDM:  How would you know if someone were ready to do this direct method? Is there some sort of test a teacher would give?

Ananda Wood: This is a question quite outside my competence. But I would guess that any test would be essentially subjective. It would depend upon the teacher's inner judgement of how sincerely truth is sought for its own sake, beyond all thought of narrow objects to be gained by partial personality.

NDM:  Are there any dangers in someone doing this direct method without the proper guidance of a teacher?  Is a guru necessary to do this?

Ananda Wood: No, I do not see the direct method as dangerous. It aims essentially at knowing truth, unmixed with any falsity. And where that aim is genuine, where unmixed truth is sought for its own sake, it gets spontaneously expressed in the form of a living guru whose guidance steers a sadhaka past danger and protects from harm.

NDM:  How does this direct method differ from atma vichara mentioned by Shri Ramana or Nisargadatta for example. Or what Shankara taught?

Ananda Wood: Shri Atmananda's direct method is essentially the same as Ramana Maharshi's atma vichara. But there was some difference in the mode of teaching, in that Shri Ramana made more use of meditative influence conveyed in the absence of outwardly spoken words. By contrast, Shri Atmananda used less of meditative influence and more of spoken words to ask reflective questions, philosophically.

Shri Atmananda was very much a householder, with an active and distinguished career in the Travancore State police. But his guru was a sannyasi in the tradition of Shri Shankara. And he clearly acknowledged that he followed the Shankara tradition of Advaita Vedanta.

However, Shri Atmananda did not teach Shri Shankara's theory of "maya". He said that this theory was needed at its time, for historical purposes. It was needed to provide an explanation of the world, in accordance with old Hindu scriptures (in particular the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita). That was a historical need of Shri Shankara's times, as he debated with a variety of opponents and founded some monastic institutions that would maintain his Advaita Vedanta tradition, in various parts of India.

But, beyond his debates and his founding of institutions, Shri Shankara was primarily a philosopher who asked reflective questions. This questioning is described in his prakarana works, like Atma Bodha (Self-knowing) and Viveka Chudamani (The Jewel of Discernment). It's in these philosophical works that we find the reflective questioning which Shri Atmananda called the "direct method".

Here is a sample from Viveka Chudamani (stanza 31, freely interpreted from the original Sanskrit):

Among all ways of striving to be free,
it’s love that is the best, one must agree.
To question one’s own truth, to ask what’s there:
that is the love of those who ask with care.

NDM: If Shri Atmananda did not use the theory of maya, then did he not see this relative reality as a false imposition, like in the snake and the stick metaphor, an appearance that is both real, but also unreal?

Ananda wood: Yes, Shri Atmananda most certainly did see the world's relative reality as a false superimposition, brought about by mistaken perception. But, his interest here was only to reflect back in: from all objective picturing, to that subjective consciousness whose very being is to know.

That consciousness is knowing light, whose very being is to shine. Its shining is no outward act, which gets put on or taken off. It always shines, unchangingly: throughout all show of acts put on or taken off by changing body, sense and mind. It is each person's inmost self, found always utterly unchanged, throughout all show of pictured world that is perceived or thought or felt by anyone. 

That self alone is all reality, shown by all world appearances, in anyone's experience. No picturing can ever be completely real. In course of time, what pictures show may be increased by fitting more perceptions in. And thus increasing what is shown, new pictures may be thought more real.

But this increase of picturing must pay a price. It makes the picturing more complex, and the increased complexity is liable to bring confusions and mistakes. Our pictures thus get compromised, by partiality and wrong. They do not show us everything. They partly show and partly hide what's fully real and unmistakably correct.

All show of world is thus part real and unreal. It's a confusion, mixing up what's true and real with what is false and wrong. To realize what's plainly true, investigation must reflect back in, from mixed-up show of object-world to unmixed light of knowing self. It's only by returning there that truth is found uncompromised.

NDM:  In Sri Atmananda's teachings when he refers to the lower witness and the higher witness, is this the same thing as how Nisargadatta would explain consciousness and awareness? Awareness being the Self?

Ananda Wood: I am afraid that I can't recall any distinction of "lower witness" and "higher witness" in Shri Atmananda's teachings. Nor am I familiar with Nisargadatta's explanation of consciousness and awareness.

Shri Atmananda spoke of the "witness" as a silently knowing "I", which carries on through changing acts of perception, thought and feeling. These acts produce appearances which come and go, silently recorded by that knowing witness which stays on present underneath, at the changeless background of experience.

Viewed from the world of changing show, the silently recording witness may seem dark and unconscious, at the changeless background. But coming down back there - beneath all change of surface show - all thought of dark unconsciousness gets utterly dissolved, in consciousness whose unchanged being always shines.

Just that self-shining consciousness is knowing self. It's that which shines in depth of sleep, where all appearances dissolve. It's not aware of any object shown by sense in outside world, nor any thought or feeling shown somehow conceived in any made-up fantasy of dreaming mind.

NDM: If someone wanted to do this direct path of Shri Atmananda, how would one go about this? Is there a place where someone may go and sign up for classes?  For instruction in doing this, like you would do with a yoga class?

Ananda Wood: Shri Atmananda insisted that the direct path could never be institutionalized. It must be transmitted individually, from living teacher to disciple. So, in this context, it can hardly be essential to sign up formally for any classes, or to achieve some formal qualification.

NDM:  In the book Notes on Spiritual Discourses, it is reported that a disciple asked: "Why was secrecy so strictly observed in expounding the Truth in the old shastras?"

 Sri Atmananda: "Evidently, for fear of jeopardizing established religion and society. Religion had no place except in duality and social life. It was the prime moving force of social life in ancient times. But the concept of religion could not stand the strict logic of vedantic Truth.

 "The sages of old, who recognized the great need of religion in phenomenal life, expounded the ultimate Truth under a strict cover of secrecy, thus enabling religion to play its role in lower human society. But religion in the present day world has been dethroned in many ways, and ungodly cults have come into existence in large numbers. Therefore it is high time now to throw off the veil of secrecy, and broadcast the whole Truth in the face of the world which has already advanced much, intellectually."

NGM: Do you believe we are living in a time where his teachings are now ripe to throw off this veil of secrecy?

Ananda Wood: Yes, I do believe that the direct method can now be more openly discussed.

NDM: What are your thoughts on some of the radical teachings of "neo advaita". Such as saying there is no path, no method, stop the seeking, you are already perfect just the way you are. It is all a story. A method only makes the ego stronger and so on? 

Ananda Wood: It strikes me that there may well be some truth in such teachings. Clearly, all paths and methods must start off and proceed for a while quite paradoxically, through confused conceptions which must eventually be transcended by a pathless jump to already perfect truth. And any method may depend upon some compromised story that may strengthen ego more than purifying it.

That's why a living teacher is so essential: to express a living truth with immediate spontaneity, in a way that is suited to each individual disciple.

NDM: Do you think it's ok for someone to make self realization evaluations, or assessments?  Decide on whether they are "half baked", or "fully cooked", "enlightened"  A Jivan mukta. A sage and so on?

Ananda Wood: This is no question that I can answer for anyone else. For me, as an unsteady sadhaka, such evaluation or assessment is only too likely to waste energy and time.

 NDM: In Marianna Caplan's book, "Half way up the mountain, premature claims to enlightenment"  she discusses many of the pit falls , cul de sacs, the places where one can get stuck, the dangers of teaching this if one is not ready. What do you think are the dangers of going out there and giving courses, lectures, DVD presentations, workshops, satsangs on this, if one is not ready or has not learned this from a true guru?

Ananda Wood: Again, I can only answer personally. I have occasionally written and talked about advaita enquiry. But only as a sadhaka who can do no more than share information and compare notes with fellow sadhakas.

 NDM: What are your thoughts on someone who calls themselves a guru, sage, without being tested by some kind of traditional authority?  Or belonging to a traditional lineage?

Ananda Wood: Traditional authority and lineage can of course have their advantages. But they can go wrong as well, especially in a modern world where circumstances have been changing so rapidly. So I would not agree that they are essential.

 NDM. What are your thoughts on charging for advaita teachings?

Ananda Wood: Very problematic. I can't see that Advaita teaching can rightly be conducted as a commercial transaction in the world.

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[1] If it should be wondered how Ananda recalls so much detail about an incident that occurred in 1952 some 58 years ago, when he was only 5 years old, the answer is that the account here given is not all from Ananda's own memory. Much of the account comes from Shri Nitya Tripta's recording made at that time, subsequently published in the book Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda. (The particular note is number 659.)

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 For more info visit http://sites.google.com/site/advaitaenquiry

Knowledge Before Printing and After:  http://sites.google.com/site/advaitaenquiry/KnowledgeBeforePrinting%26After.pdf

Ways to Truth:  http://sites.google.com/site/advaitaenquiry/WaysToTruth.pdf

Interpreting the Upanishads:  http://sites.google.com/site/advaitaenquiry/InterpretingTheUpanishads.pdf

From the Upanishads:  http://sites.google.com/site/advaitaenquiry/FromTheUpanishads.pdf

Knowledge Before Printing and After: The Indian Tradition in Changing Kerala

Ways to Truth: A View of Hindu tradition

Interpreting the Upanishads