ATMA BODHA 5

 

ATMA BODHA 5

AGYANA KALUSHAM JIVAM GYANA—BHYASAT HI NIRMALAM

KRITVA GYANAM SWAYAM NASYET JALAM KATAKA—RENUVAT

“Constant practice of KNOWLEDGE purifies the SELF (JIVATMA) and then disappears itself-----as the powder of the KATAKA  NUT  settles down after it has cleared muddy water.

In   Vedantic  parlance the soul  in every person is called Jivatma or the Individual soul.  It is just a spark of the eternal Absolute Brahman of which the whole range of the Upanishads extol in wonderful language. God is the largest magnet and man the iron or base metal .Why does God not attract man?  It is because the iron is embedded in many impurities and the Jivatma is engulfed  in  dense maya  or illusion. When the persistent maya is wiped away from the Jivatma by prayer and repentance, it is soon  attracted by  the Lord to Himself! Sankara says that the Jiva is full of “ Kalusha” ---dirt. What is this stain or dirt? This is Ignorance or ajnana. In other words the Jiva does not realize its own true nature!  It is because of Avidya or ignorance. The Jiva identifies itself with the body or sareera which has 24 tatwas. The body has manas, intellect, Ego or ahankara. It has the five Jnanedriyas and five karmendriyas and a mind also. Spiritual ignorance creates agitations of the intellect and blabbering of the mind!

There are   two aspects of  Maya  viz  Vidya Maya and Avidya Maya. The former is a positive force and leads man on the way to Self Realization and the vision of God.  The other Avidya Maya  is a negative force and leads man astray. The qualities of the former Vidya Maya are knowledge, devotion, dispassion, and compassion for all creatures. It is Vidya Maya alone that can lead man to realize God!! The ego suffers the limitations of matter and this can be compared to our own reflections in the mirror.  We look distorted or otherwise depending on the concave or convex reflecting surfaces. How can this ugliness of our reflections end?  The only way is to destroy the reflecting surface or straighten it. In short the mind – intellect has to become steady and clean. The mind is, after all, a bundle or strands of thoughts.  When the mind has ended, ego or ahankara returns to its original nature, SELF!

How does the mind become “ Nirmala?” All the thought currents of the mind are ultimately sublimated  by  meditation---Gyana-Abhyasa—practice of Gnana or Knowledge. Meditation consists of weaning away our identification with false mundane envelopments as well as asserting our spiritual divine nature. The ego center “I am the matter” can be replaced by another thought current  “ I am the Self”.  But even this experience is conditional and finite. Thus this cannot be Absolute.

Gyana-Bhyasat has its limitation too!  Meditation and practice, after sublimating the mind, ceases itself! All our attempts to sleep end when we begin sleeping.  As usual, Sankara gives a simile to illustrate this point. The simile given here is of the cleaning- nut, the powder used in ancient India for cleaning muddy water. When the well or river water was muddy during the rainy season, people used to put the Kathaka dust on the surface of  the water  in their buckets. The powder grows slightly slimy forming  a  continuous film. As it is denser, it settles down carrying along with it all the minute suspended particles of dust held in the water. In this process not only the dirt goes down but the agent, Kathaka-dust  also  settles down.  Water is left clean in the bucket and we can decant and use it. In our own days, we use a little Alum which acts similarly.